读《楚辞与简帛文献》小记

黄灵庚《楚辞与简帛文献》一书,编排相当有系统,以楚辞为主体;而且又辅以核心问题为本的铺叙方式,紧扣住20世纪的论争和新说,逐一分析。灵庚教授处理有争议的问题,能以广阔的学术胸襟、涵养和三十多年的沉淀及楚地简帛文献的帮助,以更高的眼光来思考问题,对他人不同的看法予以理解和同情。     

On making public policy with publicly available data: The case of U.S. communications policymaking

A fundamental principle of public policymaking should be that public policy must be made with publicly available data. This article develops this position and applies it to an assessment of the current state of communications policymaking, a policy area in which controversies surrounding the transparency of policy research and the accessibility of policy-relevant data have been both common and extremely contentious in recent years. This article provides a detailed assessment of the challenges confronting greater transparency and accessibility of communications policy-relevant data, as well as a detailed set of proposals for improving the current situation, in an effort to build towards an environment in which public policy is made with publicly available data.     

Does Gender Matter? an Exploratory Study of Perspectives Across Genders, Age and Education

Using a convenience sample and survey research methods, the authors seek to better understand how perspectives on gender are shaped by individuals’ age, level of education and gender. Study participants responded in writing to scenarios and survey questions, revealing their personal views on gender as an identity category and as a marker in the social hierarchy. Analysis indicated that there were differences between male and female views on these dimensions of gender, and that age and educational levels were also influential. While younger respondents from both genders demonstrated flexibility in their definitions of gender and expressed strong support for gender equality, they were noticeably lacking in their knowledge of the historical context of gender relations and did not show the skills required to realise their ideals of gender equality, especially when compared to older respondents of both genders with higher levels of educational attainment.     

A randomised efficacy study of Web‐based synthetic and analytic programmes among disadvantaged urban Kindergarten children

This study explores whether two computer‐based literacy interventions – a ‘synthetic phonics’ and an ‘analytic phonics’ approach produce qualitatively distinct effects on the early phonological abilities and reading skills of disadvantaged urban Kindergarten (Reception) children. Participants (n=53) were assigned by random allocation to one of the two interventions. Each intervention was generally delivered three times per week for 13 weeks as part of a reading centre approach in Kindergarten classrooms with small groups of children. In the synthetic programme children showed, as predicted, significant (p<.05) improvement in CV and VC word blending and the articulation of final consonants. The children in the analytic phonics programme showed, as predicted, significant (p<.05) improvements in articulating shared rimes in words. These results suggest that synthetic and analytic programmes have qualitatively different effects on children's phonological development. These phonological differences are not however immediately reflected in any qualitative differences in the way children undertook word reading or nonword decoding.     

Implications of task structure on self‐regulated learning and achievement

School tasks interact with student motivation, cognition, and instruction to influence learning and achievement. Heeding calls for additional research linking motivational and cognitive factors in learning and instruction on specific tasks within authentic classroom settings we quantitatively and qualitatively track 90 tenth‐grade science students’ motivation, reported use of learning strategies, achievement, calibration, and task perceptions as they engage in a well‐structured task (WST) and an ill‐structured task (IST). Students achieved higher grades on, and reported more ease and value for, the WST whereas they utilised critical thinking and peer learning strategies more on the IST. Lower academic achievers calibrated their achievement less accurately on each task and experienced lower grades, interest, ease, and management capability on the IST. Conversely, higher academic achieving students reported more self‐efficacy and effort regulation and lower anxiety and elaboration on the IST. Motivation – notably less intrinsic goal orientation in low academic achievers and higher task value and self‐efficacy – predicted performance on the IST. The structure of tasks may provide prompts that illicit unique self‐regulated learning responses in students.     

Education students and their teachers: comparing views on participative assessment practices

Beliefs about the validity and merit of self‐, peer‐ and group‐assessment practices are presented from 213 pre‐service primary teachers and 30 staff who teach them. Both groups were surveyed using comparable items. A subset of seven staff participated in semi‐structured interviews. Staff were far more supportive of peer‐ and self‐assessment practices than their students with both groups indicating modest support for group assignments. While pedagogical factors best represent the staff support for engaging students in assessment of their own and their peers’ work, several staff in interviews revealed that their high level of support for peer‐assessment was closely linked to a time‐saving factor. Peer‐assessment was more often used than self‐assessment while both practices were reported to have increased over the past two to three years. These findings are consistent with the reported increase in participative assessment practices in higher education generally. An important implication of this research is that in order to optimise the use of participative assessment, staff need to better prepare their students by modelling and communicating their reasons for adopting such practices.     

The rational adolescent: Discipline policies, lawsuits, and skill acquisition

The paper estimates the response of student truancy and long-run labor market outcomes to discipline policies in middle and secondary school. Simultaneous determination of student behaviors and school policies motivates an instrumental variables strategy. Because judicial climate influences administrators’ fear of discipline-related lawsuits, measures of judicial–legal climate at the state-level court are used as instruments for local discipline policies. Results indicate that the state-level judicial–legal climate does appear to influence administrators’ discipline policies; that students appear to be truant less often when discipline is stricter; and that school and long-run labor participation outcomes appear higher for students from schools with stricter discipline policies.     

Exploring the validity of a teachers’ self-efficacy scale in five countries

The purpose of this article was twofold. The first purpose was to test the validity of the Teachers’ Sense of Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) in five settings—Canada, Cyprus, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. The second purpose was, by extension, to establish the importance of the teacher self-efficacy construct across diverse teaching conditions. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to better understand the measurement invariance of the scale across countries, after which the relationship between the TSES, its three factors, and job satisfaction was explored. The TSES showed convincing evidence of reliability and measurement invariance across the five countries, and the relationship between the TSES and job satisfaction was similar across settings. The study provides general evidence that teachers’ self-efficacy is a valid construct across culturally diverse settings and specific evidence that teachers’ self-efficacy showed a similar relationship with teachers’ job satisfaction in five contrasting settings.     

Coping and buoyancy in the workplace: Understanding their effects on teachers' work-related well-being and engagement

Given the high levels of attrition in the teaching profession there is a need for research to better understand factors that lead to greater teacher well-being and engagement. The present study explores the roles of coping and buoyancy in predicting teacher well-being and engagement. In particular, a process model is hypothesized in which the use of ‘direct’ coping strategies (mastery orientation and planning) predict high levels of buoyancy, well-being, and engagement, while ‘palliative’ coping strategies (self-handicapping and failure avoidance) predict low buoyancy, well-being, and engagement. Amongst a sample of 515 teachers from 18 schools, results generally supported this model with particularly strong direct effects for buoyancy and strong direct and indirect effects for mastery orientation. Failure avoidance, self-handicapping, and planning also produced significant direct and/or indirect effects via buoyancy on teacher well-being and engagement. Implications for school executives and future research are discussed.