Faculty Liaisons: an embedded approach for enriching teaching and learning in higher education

This paper explores the experiences of a group of academic developers who support educational development work as Faculty Liaisons at a large, research-intensive university. These academic developers inhabit complex ‘third spaces’, providing support through an embedded partnership relationship that requires lateral movement across functional and organizational boundaries to create new professional spaces, knowledge, and relationships. The authors utilize narrative inquiry and auto-ethnographic approaches to present an interpretive qualitative analysis of their experiences supporting Faculty and University projects across complex and evolving organizational boundaries. From this analysis, they highlight key roles and responsibilities associated with their blended context and identify challenges that academic developers who occupy third spaces within academic organizations face as they negotiate competing interests, identities, and requirements associated with the diverse range of their projects and the blended experience of working in scholarly and administrative, central- and Faculty-based roles. The lessons they have learned from these experiences will be of particular interest to academic developers who are experiencing the flux of change within higher education settings that are impacting teaching and learning practices both for faculty in the classroom and for those across the institution who support them.     

Community-based rehabilitation programmes

Conclusion Few CBR programmes have developed beyond small-scale projects to large-scale innovations. Few governments have made any significant commitment to and investment in the development of national CBR services. Most CBR programmes are regarded as ‘additional programmes’. Moreover, the attempts that have been made to work within existing infrastructures have often meant the programmes become little more than a minor facet of existing service provision, to which no particular priority is given. However, despite these limitations, CBR has demonstrated, through several successful examples, what can be achieved. For relatively little money, CBR can create better opportunities for disabled children and engenders in parents a sense that they can play a significant role in the development process. Communities have become more aware of disabled persons in their midst and, at times, have played a major role in planning ways of meeting their needs. CBR offers a new approach to rehabilitation, policy makers, professionals, planners, community leaders and to the disabled persons themselves. Progress has been slow and uneven over the first decade of CBR. It is significant, however, that some of the most creative examples of parental-professional collaboration have come from some of the poorest nations. It may be time for the developed world to look towards the developing countries to find innovative approaches to meet the needs of disabled persons. It is quite clear that traditional approaches can do no more than scratch the surface. A radical reappraisal of our respective roles in the rehabilitation and education of disabled persons is required. CBR offers this new approach. If, however, the vision and courage to tread new paths are lacking, then the danger is that more conferences will be held, more declarations will be written, more slogans devised, and still 98% of the disabled population will remain totally unaware of the international concern being voiced on their behalf. Ph.D. An educational psychologist, O'Toole has been working in Guyana for the past sixteen years. He introduced the first training programme in special education at the University of Guyana, and has been the Director of the Guyana community-based rehabilitation programme. He has written widely on the issue of community-based rehabilitation and has co-edited a book with R. McConkey entitledInnovations in developing countries in disability. He has carried out consultancies for the World Health Organization and a number of non-governmental organizations.     

Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Comparison of Two IRTree Models to Investigate the Impact of Full Versus Endpoint-Only Response Option Labeling

In this study, we examined the results and interpretations produced from two different IRTree models—one using paths consisting of only dichotomous decisions, and one using paths consisting of both dichotomous and polytomous decisions. We used data from two versions of an impulsivity measure. In the first version, all the response options had labels; in the second version, only the endpoints were labeled. Based on past research, we hypothesized that the endpoints would be selected more frequently in the endpoint-only labeled condition, and the midpoint response option would be selected more frequently in the fully labeled condition. Results from the two models (dichotomous and polytomous) were similar and indicated that our hypotheses were partially supported—specifically, there was no consistent pattern in terms of which condition saw a higher frequency of midpoint response selection. However, our hypotheses regarding extreme responding in the endpoint-only labeling condition were supported.     

Development of Automated Scoring Algorithms for Complex Performance Assessments: A Comparison of Two Approaches

Performance assessments are typically scored by having experts rate individual performances. The cost associated with using expert raters may represent a serious limitation in many large-scale testing programs. The use of raters may also introduce an additional source of error into the assessment. These limitations have motivated development of automated scoring systems for performance assessments. Preliminary research has shown these systems to have application across a variety of tasks ranging from simple mathematics to architectural problem solving. This study extends research on automated scoring by comparing alternative automated systems for scoring a computer simulation test of physicians'patient management skills; one system uses regression-derived weights for components of the performance, the other uses complex rules to map performances into score levels. The procedures are evaluated by comparing the resulting scores to expert ratings of the same performances.     

高校学术道德委员会对教师的教育功能初探

近几年来,有部分高校成立了学术道德委员会,专司校内学术道德问题的调查与处理。本文就学术道德委员会对教师的教育功能进行了探讨,认为学术道德委员会可以在宣传与普及学术规范、引领正派的学术风气、对教师进行警示教育、帮扶教师重视学术研究质量、对违规教师进行批评教育等方面发挥其教育功能。     

试论职教改革视域下加强高职学生制度自信教育的重要意义

目前,我国正处于深化职业教育改革的关键时期,国家为促进职业教育发展出台了《国家职业教育改革实施方案》并对职业教育发展提出了新要求,同时高职学生的生源成分、思想政治状况、国际国内局势以及国家对高职人才的要求也都出现了新变化。加强高职学生制度自信教育具有为实现中华民族伟大复兴汇聚力量,促进职业教育改革发展,引导高职学生成长成才的深远意义,文章从宏观、中观和微观三个层面对加强高职学生制度自信的重要性进行了简要论述。     

区域工业综合竞争力评价——基于江西省11市的实证分析

在参考了国内部分学者研究成果的基础上,以江西省11个地级市为例,构建区域工业竞争力的综合评价体系,运用因子分析法、SPSS19.0软件,就11个地级市在2011年的相关数据进行处理,从规模产出、工业资本实力、潜在工业规模、企业效益、科技创新力、涉外竞争力、环保与生态资源竞争力等7个方面进行综合评价.结果显示,11个地级市呈现四大集团非均衡区域差异分布.据此,各区域必须相应采取不同战略措施,以提高地区工业竞争力.     

基于CVM耕地资源利用的外部性评估——以河南省内黄县为例

本文在河南省内黄县进行问卷调查的基础上,首先对各社会经济特征变量做了Pearson相关性检验,然后以LnWTP为因变量进行多元线性回归,最后采用意愿评估法(CVM)对耕地资源利用的外部性进行估算,并分析了其影响因素。研究结果表明:①城镇居民家庭年收入、受教育程度与支付意愿值呈显著正相关;②农村居民年龄和承包耕地面积与支付意愿值呈显著负相关;性别、受教育程度、家庭年收入和年农业收入呈显著正相关;③经估算,河南省内黄县耕地资源利用的外部性单位值为11649.45元/hm2(776.63元/亩)。因此,应在估算耕地资源总价值、确定征地价格和土地承包经营权流转价格和耕地资源保护决策中应充分考虑耕地资源的外部性。     

虚拟产业群与我国农业产业化模式新探索

本文在对现有的农业产业化模式分析的基础上,结合我国农业信息化和虚拟经济的新发展,借鉴欧盟EU’S ALFA资助研究的COSME（中小企业协作网络系统项目）的虚拟商务框架模型,提出了以IT技术为基础的新农商会作为交易平台的虚拟产业群模式,遵循“动态＋柔性”的原则,通过农业产业化的组织创新。实现我国农业产业化的后发优势。