劫后再续书缘?

正记得刚来到复旦大学的时候,学校附近的人文书店星罗棋布,我常与友人流连其中,随意拾起一本闲书来读,便打发了一下午的时光。不过两三年间,如今学校附近的实体书店日渐没落,路过时看到的不再是新书广告,常常是清仓转业的告示。看得出来,多个高校周围的人文书店正在面临经营的寒冬。如何走过寒冬,重临春日?这实在是值得思索的问题。     

Organisational Change and the Institutionalisation of University Patenting Activity in Italy

As universities are increasingly called by their national governments for a more entrepreneurial management of public research results, they started to develop internal structures and policies to take a proactive role in the commercialisation of university research. For the first time, this paper presents a detailed chronicle of how country-level reforms on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) were translated into organisation-level mechanisms to regulate university-patenting activity. The analysis is based on the complete list of patent policies issued between 1993 and 2009 by the population of Italian universities. Our evidence suggests that universities first dealt with legislative changes on IPRs by enacting isomorphic behaviours, then by creating a community of practices, and finally by leveraging on such community to influence government reforms on IP-related matters. We discuss our results in the light of institutional theory and public policy.     

Confidence and Expectations About Caring for Older People With Dementia: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Student Nurses

Older people who are living with dementia often need healthcare, including hospital admissions, due to additional health conditions. Caring for older people who are living with dementia is, therefore, a core nursing role. This study investigated student nurses’ expectations of, and confidence about, caring for older people with dementia and the effect of students’ age, precourse experience, and their academic year. The design was a cross-sectional survey using questionnaires to collect data. The participants (n = 328), based at one university in England, had all had at least one practice learning placement. Most student nurses (n = 202; 62%) had precourse contact with older people with dementia and had cared for them during the course (n = 291; 89%). The student's academic year significantly affected confidence about caring for older people with dementia (p = .006), but still only 52% (n = 26) of third-year students felt “generally confident.” Precourse contact with older people with dementia had a significant impact on expectations (p = .001) and confidence in caring for people with dementia (p = .002). Students who were >25 years were significantly more likely to have had precourse contact with older people with dementia (p = < .001). Nurse educators should ensure that students entering nurse education appreciate that caring for older people who are living with dementia will be a core part of their role. They must proactively prepare nursing students to care for people with dementia, recognizing that some students have no previous contact, which may affect their confidence and experiences.     

FROM COVERT PROCESSES TO OVERT OUTCOMES OF REFUTATION TEXT READING: THE INTERPLAY OF SCIENCE TEXT STRUCTURE AND WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY THROUGH EYE FIXATIONS

This study extends current research on the refutation text effect by investigating it in learners with different levels of working memory capacity. The purpose is to outline the link between online processes (revealed by eye fixation indices) and off-line outcomes in these learners. In science education, unlike a standard text, a refutation text acknowledges readers’ alternative conceptions about a topic, refutes them, and presents scientific conceptions as viable alternatives. Lower and higher memory span university students with alternative conceptions about the topic read either a refutation or a non-refutation text about tides. Off-line measures of learning revealed that both groups of refutation text readers attained higher knowledge gains. During the reading process, refutation text readers fixated for longer on the refutation segments while reading the parts presenting the scientific information (look-froms). Non-refutation text readers looked back to the informational parts for longer. Look-froms (positively) and reading time (negatively) predicted learning from refutation text, indicating that the quality, not quantity, of reading was related to it. In contrast, learning from non-refutation text was predicted only by working memory capacity. The refutation effect is discussed and educational implications are drawn.     

Policy into practice in Hong Kong pre-primary kindergartens: the impact of a reform agenda viewing early childhood as the foundation for lifelong learning

In this paper we outline the provision of pre-primary education in the Hong Kong SAR and discuss how the educational reform initiatives of 2000 (Learning to Learn) and global imperatives provided the impetus to reshape a new educational approach to early childhood education. We use the example of a half-day pre-primary (kindergarten) programme to illustrate the ways in which policy and guidelines are enacted and how they appear to reflect all the attributes of the reform movement that have adopted contemporary ideas from the international educational arena. We highlight the interpretations and enactments of these new educational imperatives in a system that has a long history of different cultural pedagogical traditions that often do not resonate with western pedagogical approaches.     

Pedagogical features of interactive apps for effective learning of foundational skills

Interactive apps are commonly used to support the acquisition of foundational skills. Yet little is known about how pedagogical features of such apps affect learning outcomes, attainment and motivation—particularly when deployed in lower-income contexts, where educational gains are most needed. In this study, we analyse which app features are most effective in supporting the acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy skills. We compare five apps developed for the Global Learning XPRIZE and deployed to 2041 out-of-school children in 172 remote Tanzanian villages. A total of 41 non-expert participants each provided 165 comparative judgements of the five apps from the competition, across 15 pedagogical features. Analysis and modelling of these 6765 comparisons indicate that the apps created by the joint winners of the XPRIZE, who produced the greatest learning outcomes over the 15-month field trial, shared six pedagogical features—autonomous learning, motor skills, task structure, engagement, language demand and personalisation. Results demonstrate that this combination of features is effective at supporting learning of foundational skills and has a positive impact on educational outcomes. To maximise learning potential in environments with both limited resources and deployment opportunities, developers should focus attention on this combination of features, especially for out-of-school children in low- and middle-income countries.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Interactive apps are becoming common to support foundational learning for children both in and out of school settings.
• The Global Learning XPRIZE competition demonstrates that learning apps can facilitate learning improvements in out-of-school children living in sub-Saharan Africa.
• To understand which app features are most important in supporting learning in these contexts, we need to establish which pedagogical features were shared by the winning apps.

What this paper adds

• Effective learning of foundational skills can be achieved with a range of pedagogical features.
• To maximise learning, apps should focus on combining elements of autonomous learning, motor skills, task structure, engagement, language demand and personalisation.
• Free Play is not a key pedagogical feature to facilitate learning within this context.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• When developing learning apps with primary-aged, out-of-school children in low-income contexts, app developers should try to incorporate the six key features associated with improving learning outcomes.
• Governments, school leaders and parents should use these findings to inform their decisions when choosing an appropriate learning app for children.

     

The achievement gap: The impact of between-class attainment grouping on pupil attainment and educational equity over time

Despite extensive research on attainment grouping, the impact of attainment grouping on pupil attainment remains poorly understood and contested. This paper presents evidence from a study conducted with 2944 12–13 year olds, from 76 schools in England, who were allocated to between-class attainment groups (‘setting’) in English and mathematics over the first 2 years of secondary schooling. After controlling for prior attainment, pupils in the top set performed significantly better than pupils in the middle and bottom sets in both English and mathematics. The findings indicate a widening gap in attainment, especially in the case of English. Findings, especially in the case of mathematics, provide more evidence of a relative benefit for pupils placed in top sets than a relative detriment for those in bottom sets.