Genre Groups in Knowledge Organization

The article is an introduction to the development of Andersen's concept of textual tools used in knowledge organization (KO) in light of the theory of genres and activity systems. In particular, the question is based on the concepts of genre connectivity and genre group, in addition to previously established concepts such as genre hierarchy, set, system, and repertoire. Five genre groups used in KO are described. The analysis of groups, systems, and selected genres used in KO is provided, based on the method proposed by Yates and Orlikowski. The aim is to show the genre system as a part of the activity system, and thus as a framework for KO.     

For the Good of the Species: Gary Francione and the Omnipresence of Eugenics in Animal Rights Rhetoric

By bringing critical animal studies into conversation with communication, this article completes 3 tasks: First, it complicates the communication discipline’s understanding of the animal rights movement by presenting its oft-ignored tensions and conflicting paradigms; second, it reveals how eugenical rhetoric has been foundational both in defending human/animal exploitation and in developing prototypical animal advocacy practices; third, using a critical public address–inspired approach, it deconstructs vegan abolitionist Gary Francione’s purportedly ultraradical rhetoric, revealing its problematic eugenical underpinnings. This revelation not only complicates Francione’s radical status but also questions the ethical legitimacies of a conventional, Western rights-based paradigm of animal rights.     

De-privatization in higher education: a conceptual approach

This paper seeks to conceptualize the processes of de-privatization in higher education. Trends of de-privatization (and contraction in enrolments) are highly interesting because they go against global trends of privatization (and educational expansion). De-privatization means a decreasing role for the private component in the changing public–private dynamics. The paper studies its two dimensions (funding and provision) and distinguishes between seven potential empirical organizational/geographical levels of analysis. Empirically, the paper draws from data from Central Europe. The traditional dichotomous pairing of the public and the private is shown to still be useful in specific empirical contexts, despite it becoming blurred globally. Major approaches to privatization in higher education over the last two decades are rethought and redirected toward de-privatization. An empirically informed notion of de-privatization is being developed and its usefulness is briefly tested.     

Teachers' understanding and the use of the learning cycle

This study examined the relationships that exist between high school science teachers' understanding of the Piagetian developmental model of intelligence, its inherent teaching procedure—the learning cycle—and classroom teaching practices. The teachers observed in this study had expressed dissatisfaction with the teaching methods they used, and, subsequently, attended a National Science Foundation sponsored in-service program designed to examine laboratory-centered science curricula and the educational and scientific theories upon which the curricula were based. The teachers who exhibited a sound understanding of the Piagetian model of intelligence and the learning cycle were more likely to effectively implement learning cycle curricula. They were able to successfully integrate their students' laboratory experiences with class discussions to construct science concepts. The teachers who exhibited misunderstandings of the Piagetian developmental model of intelligence and the learning cycle also engaged their students in laboratory activities, but these activities were weakly related to learning cycles. For example, the data gathered by their students were typically not used in class discussions to construct science concepts. Therefore, these teachers apparently did not discern the necessity of using the data and experiences from laboratory activities as the impetus for science concept attainment. Additional results comparing degrees of understanding, teaching behaviors and questioning strategies are discussed.     

Cute,creepy and sublime unnamed childhood monstrosities

ABSTRACT

Strangers, Gods, and monsters are all names for the experience of alterity and otherness within and amongst us. We need monsters in our lives. In this paper we use philosophy as a method to explore language, developmental and cultural instabilities, and terrifying (and discursive) monstrosity located within children's literature and childhood contexts. Philosophy as a method serves as an engagement, an ethical relationship with monstrous thoughts, and as an opening to the philosophical thinking of everyday practices of childhood play (i.e., through objects, practices, language, text, and images). Alongside and through cute, creepy and sublime notions of monsters in children's literature children become monsters–monsters become children. We draw from Derrida's notions of hospitality and hostility and Deleuze and Guattari's deterritorialization of minor literature as well as from literature on monsters, monstrosities, and ugliness. We argue that different representations of childhood monstrosity can help educators and other adults to see the ‘productive’ in childhood otherness, to consider the always present ‘childhood undecidable’ (simultaneous presence of cute and creepy) and the generative in infinitely unknown and unrecognizable childhood objects and discourses.     

Relationships among informal learning environments,teaching procedures and scientific reasoning ability

Informal learning experiences have risen to the forefront of science education as being beneficial to students' learning. However, it is not clear in what ways such experiences may be beneficial to students; nor how informal learning experiences may interface with classroom science instruction. This study aims to acquire a better understanding of these issues by investigating one aspect of science learning, scientific reasoning ability, with respect to the students' informal learning experiences and classroom science instruction. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate possible differences in students' scientific reasoning abilities relative to their informal learning environments (impoverished, enriched), classroom teaching experiences (non-inquiry, inquiry) and the interaction of these variables. The results of two-way ANOVAs indicated that informal learning environments and classroom science teaching procedures showed significant main effects on students' scientific reasoning abilities. Students with enriched informal learning environments had significantly higher scientific reasoning abilities compared to those with impoverished informal learning environments. Likewise, students in inquirybased science classrooms showed higher scientific reasoning abilities compared to those in non-inquiry science classrooms. There were no significant interaction effects. These results indicate the need for increased emphases on both informal learning opportunities and inquiry-based instruction in science.     

Aggregating different paper quality measures with a generalized h-index

The process of assessing individual authors should rely upon a proper aggregation of reliable and valid papers’ quality metrics. Citations are merely one possible way to measure appreciation of publications. In this study we propose some new, SJR- and SNIP-based indicators, which not only take into account the broadly conceived popularity of a paper (manifested by the number of citations), but also other factors like its potential, or the quality of papers that cite a given publication. We explore the relation and correlation between different metrics and study how they affect the values of a real-valued generalized h-index calculated for 11 prominent scientometricians. We note that the h-index is a very unstable impact function, highly sensitive for applying input elements’ scaling. Our analysis is not only of theoretical significance: data scaling is often performed to normalize citations across disciplines. Uncontrolled application of this operation may lead to unfair and biased (toward some groups) decisions. This puts the validity of authors assessment and ranking using the h-index into question. Obviously, a good impact function to be used in practice should not be as much sensitive to changing input data as the analyzed one.     

Hirsch-type approach to the 2nd generation citations

Scientific papers are usually assessed by a number of direct citations. The number of citations received by direct citations (2nd generation citations) has been considered as an alternative criterion of evaluation. Such an approach overrates the papers, which received citation(s) in one or in a few very highly cited papers. Hirsch-type approach to the 2nd generation citations suggested by Schubert was used to combine the impact and quantity of 1st generation citations into one number.     

Decent work in Poland: a preliminary study. Suggestions for educational and counselling practice

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - Work and its meanings have often been and still are objects of scholarly research. In the context of global crises, increasing...