The e-government research domain: A triple helix network analysis of collaboration at the regional,country, and institutional levels

This study introduces a hybrid approach (i.e., a social network analysis technique and triple helix indicators) to study certain aspects of the e-government (EG) domain that would otherwise remain hidden when using conventional analytic tools. Particularly, we provide network analysis of the EG research domain by focusing on the network collaboration between regions, nations and institutions. We collected and analyzed 1091 scholarly papers which were classified as being about “e-government” by the Web of Science database. The results indicate that hybrid method can be used to understand certain network-level structures and patterns in the EG domain which are beyond the scope of the predominantly-used systematic literature review (SLR) method. Particularly, the hybrid method is useful in understanding collaboration patterns between countries, institutions and regions in the EG domain, identifying key players by studying their network properties (i.e., degree centralities); and in understanding the pattern of relations among universities, industries, and government. The implications of these results in terms of research and practice, and study limitations are discussed.     

Pedagogical Transformations of Science Content Knowledge in Korean Elementary Classrooms

While a solid understanding of science content knowledge is important in developing expertise in science teaching, it is not necessarily a sufficient condition to teach science effectively in elementary schools. Teachers need to have the ability to transform their knowledge into forms learnable by students. Based on this perspective, the current study explored how science content knowledge was pedagogically transformed in Korean elementary classrooms. Data sources included video-recorded science lessons of five elementary teachers in a metropolitan city of Korea. The analysis of the data revealed that the Korean teachers often engaged in transforming science content knowledge by means of different semiotic modes, including language, pictures, materials, actions, and their complex combinations. Further, their representations of scientific knowledge were in diverse forms, such as personifications, analogies, quiz questions, pictorial models, diagrams, animations, real-life examples, hand demonstrations, videos, flash tools, and songs-and-dances. Future research involving a wider range of participants, such as students, content specialists, and teachers with weak and strong content understanding, was suggested to confirm the findings of this study and find more various ways of pedagogical transformation of science subject matter knowledge.     

Traveling with MI education in a turbulent sea: stories of South Korea

The purpose of this paper is to explore ways in which multiple intelligences (MI) theory has been disseminated in search of its meaning, effectiveness and possibilities over the last decade in Korea. There have been a great number of Korean practitioners who have properly applied an ideal of MI theory in their local context. Western readers will be informed of how actively these educators participate in the grass‐roots reform process. A traditional or teacher‐based image of Oriental education culture may have to be redefined, at least in the current Korean educational context. In doing so, the authors reviewed related literature and research articles written by Korean scholars and practitioners as well as conducting in‐depth and focus‐group interviews nationwide to represent voices of Korean MI educators at school level. There has been substantive evidence that most students guided by MI instruction demonstrated better achievement in several subject areas; students typically labeled low achievers in traditional classrooms became better self‐regulated learners, showing higher self‐esteem. Finally, the Korean research community experienced the emergence of a new collaborative research culture in which MI educators are fully acknowledged as curriculum designers and researchers able to gain insight into culturally appropriate classroom practices. The authors end this paper reflecting on a future hope that the Korean research community will continue, both critically and collaboratively, to examine MI theory to make it more applicable in establishing culturally relevant pedagogical insights.     

Analytical framework for evaluating digital diplomacy using network analysis and topic modeling: Comparing South Korea and Japan

This study introduces a data-driven approach for assessing the practices and effectiveness of digital diplomacy, using the cases of South Korea and Japan. The study compared the networking power of public diplomacy organizations based on social media use, engagement with the public, interaction patterns among the public, and public perceptions and attitudes toward organizations. This was accomplished through a three-step method employing social network analysis and topic modeling. The network analysis found that the Korean public diplomacy organization generated a larger, more loosely connected, and decentralized comment network than the Japanese organization, which presented a “small-world” connectivity pattern with highly interconnected actors. The findings also suggest that, compared to the Japanese organization, the Korean organization was successful in not only enhancing its soft power through social media but also building international networks among the foreign public.     

How user comments affect news processing and reality perception: Activation and refutation of regional prejudice

An experiment (N?=?177) examined how user-generated comments on a crime news article, which attribute the reported crime to the local residents’ predispositions, affect individuals’ processing of the news and their reality perception. Participants who viewed the regionalism-invoking comments estimated the crime rates of the featured region to be higher than those exposed to regionalism-irrelevant or regionalism-counterbalancing comments, and such effects were more pronounced for those with a stronger regional self-identity. Moreover, those who read regionalism-related comments, either regionalism-invoking or regionalism-counterbalancing, (a) recalled better the locations featured in the focal and the subsequent, yet unrelated, news articles and (b) attributed greater responsibility to news media coverage for the persistence of regionalism, as compared to those who viewed regionalism-irrelevant comments.     

‘Inclusion’ in Martin Buber’s dialogue pedagogy

In this study, we review the possibility and limitations of the dialogue pedagogy to make suggestions for extensions and modernizations of it, highlighting the concept of inclusion, which is a keystone of dialogue pedagogy, and focusing on the different pedagogical understanding and reception of it in the past few decades. It emerges that dialogue pedagogy can be of different character and significance depending on different positions toward the possibility of inclusion. Adhering to Buber??s position shown in his Heidelberg speech in 1925, we review what kind of logic and system Buber suggested with regard to the concept of inclusion and investigate the possibility of a theoretical extension for the contemporary context of education and pedagogy.     

Challenges and management frameworks of residential schools for students with severe emotional and behavioural difficulties in Hong Kong

This study by Stella Suk‐Ching Chong, an assistant professor, and Ka‐wai Leung, a teaching fellow, both at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, focuses on the perspectives of hostel staff from six residential schools for students with severe emotional and behavioural difficulties. Individual or focus group interviews were conducted to explore the range of challenges perceived by staff and the strategies they employed to address the needs of the students. The software N‐Vivo was used to analyse both qualitative and quantitative data. This study finds that staff met a multiplicity of challenges, of which 67.9% were management‐related rather than student‐related (32.1%). In relation to effective strategies for staff, co‐ordinated and concerted efforts are frequently used between different stakeholders, such as intra‐hostel‐staff‐student collaboration (84%), inter‐hostel‐community collaboration (8.6%), inter‐hostel‐home collaboration (5.1%), and finally inter‐hostel‐school collaboration (2.2). In summing up the findings of various approaches deemed favourable by different residential staff, a residential school management framework is conceptualised and presented in this article. Implications and future research directions are also highlighted.     

Leptotrichia hongkongensis sp. nov., a novel Leptotrichia species with the oral cavity as its natural reservoir

A straight, non-sporulating, Gram-variable bacillus (HKU24T) was recovered from the blood culture of a patient with metastatic breast carcinoma. After repeated subculturing in BACTEC Plus Anaerobic/F blood culture broth, HKU24T grew on brucella agar as non-hemolytic, pinpoint colonies after 96 h of incubation at 37 °C in an anaerobic environment and aerobic environment with 5% CO2. Growth was enhanced with a streak of Staphylococcus aureus. HKU24T was non-motile and catalase-negative, but positive for alkaline phosphatase, β-glucosidase, and α-glucosidase. It hydrolyzed phenylphosphonate and reduced resazurin. 16S rRNA, groEL, gyrB, recA, and rpoB sequencing showed that HKU24T occupies a distinct phylogenetic position among the Leptotrichia species, being most closely related to Leptotrichia trevisanii. Using HKU24T groEL, gyrB, recA, and rpoB gene-specific primers, fragments of these genes were amplified from one of 20 oral specimens. Based on phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, we propose a new species, Leptotrichia hongkongensis sp. nov., to describe this bacterium.     

Discourse politics toward neo-liberal globalization

Abstract

The big irony of the Aceh conflict is that the Acehnese grassroots have never been regarded as its rightful stakeholder. More interestingly, the alienation of the people from the process of conflict resolution coincides with the current process of democratization of the Indonesian state following the collapse of Soeharto's authoritarian regime in mid 1998. This paper argues that the resolving of this conflict by the Indonesian government and GAM (Free Aceh Movement) has appeared as if it were the exclusionary business of the political elite of both sides. At the same time the escalation of military violence continues to victimize the civilians both in terms of human lives and socio-economic deprivation. It is now time to seek more participation of the Acehnese civil society groups in the peaceful resolution of this conflict, as these groups constitute one of the conflict's legitimate stakeholders. Otherwise, the prolongation of the conflict would only serve the vested interests of the Indonesian political and military elite.     

An NCME Instructional Module on Latent DIF Analysis Using Mixture Item Response Models

The purpose of this ITEMS module is to provide an introduction to differential item functioning (DIF) analysis using mixture item response models. The mixture item response models for DIF analysis involve comparing item profiles across latent groups, instead of manifest groups. First, an overview of DIF analysis based on latent groups, called latent DIF analysis, is provided and its applications in the literature are surveyed. Then, the methodological issues pertaining to latent DIF analysis are described, including mixture item response models, parameter estimation, and latent DIF detection methods. Finally, recommended steps for latent DIF analysis are illustrated using empirical data.