Knowledge sharing in a multi-cultural setting: a case study

Organizational culture has been shown to influence the success of knowledge management practices. Hofstede's theory specifies that organizational culture is not independent of national culture. A case study of an international subsidiary was conducted to explore the extent to which knowledge sharing is dependent on national culture. Results indicate that language differences can create knowledge blocks, and cross-cultural differences can explain the direction of knowledge flows.     

Community Networks: Rules of Behavior and Social Structure

This article investigates the intertwining relationships between the Gemeinschaft and the Gesellschaft dimension of a community network (CN)—that is, of a virtual community whose members' common interest is a locality, in our case the city of Milan, Italy. The article looks through the experience of the last 7 years of life on RCM—the Milan Community Network—to reflect on the role that the sharing of rules of behavior has on the evolution of social structure in a virtual community. It identifies three phases of development—the design phase, the first growth phase, and the most recent phase—and presents the social structure set up to guarantee governance of the CN. The conclusions show that the third phase is not an actual stable state, as the continuous evolution of the societal and technological context requires continuous redesign of the CN itself in order to meet the renewed demands of a new context.     

Getting children to do more academic work: Foot-in-the-Door versus Door-in-the-Face

In this study we explored whether compliance-without-pressure techniques, known to encourage adults to behave more altruistically, can be used to encourage children to do more academic work. Using three different approaches - Foot-in-the-Door, Door-in-the-Face, and Single-Request - we asked 60 6- to 8-year-old Hong Kong Chinese children to complete a 20-item arithmetic worksheet. The Door-in-the-Face technique was the most effective, eliciting the highest percentage of children who agreed to do the target task, requiring the least adult input to sustain engagement in the task, and producing the greatest amount of accurate work.     

Feminising and masculinising primary teaching: a critical examination of the interpretive frameworks of male primary school principals in Hong Kong

Over the past two decades, the feminisation of primary school teaching has been identified by the media and government officials in Western countries as an important contributing factor to boys' academic problems. This panic, which has been criticised by feminists as a backlash and a form of recuperative politics, has promoted the development of research into gender and education, particularly studies related to the gendered culture of primary schools and on the masculinities of male teachers. However, male primary principals remain relatively under-researched in the literature, despite the importance of their structural position and increasing concern over the masculinisation of school leadership. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion by critically analysing the interpretive frameworks of 12 male primary school principals. The findings reveal not only the complex, contradictory and at times culturally specific gendered discourses that some male principals employ, but also their feminising and masculinising effects on the school workplace and leadership.     

图书馆阅读推广活动的反思与重构

文章对嘉年华式读者活动的现象作出反思,指出重视阅读推广活动以及调整活动效果评价依据的现实意义,并阐述其重构的若干要素,讨论开展阅读推广活动需要具备的一些重要条件。     

数字时代的长文

目前,篇幅较长的文章面临着严峻的挑战.怎样才能够持续吸引网络读者的注意力?因为网络读者更可能喜欢快速点击而不是一页一页地阅读.内容维护者的新群体说,正是移动设备和应用程序增强了长文的吸引力,并再次创造出能坐下来认真阅读的读者.     

Integrated carbon fiber electrodes within hollow polymer microneedles for transdermal electrochemical sensing

In this study, carbon fiber electrodes were incorporated within a hollow microneedle array, which was fabricated using a digital micromirror device-based stereolithography instrument. Cell proliferation on the acrylate-based polymer used in microneedle fabrication was examined with human dermal fibroblasts and neonatal human epidermal keratinocytes. Studies involving full-thickness cadaveric porcine skin and trypan blue dye demonstrated that the hollow microneedles remained intact after puncturing the outermost layer of cadaveric porcine skin. The carbon fibers underwent chemical modification in order to enable detection of hydrogen peroxide and ascorbic acid; electrochemical measurements were demonstrated using integrated electrode-hollow microneedle devices.     

Student learning performance in online collaborative learning

Education and Information Technologies - Online collaborative learning (OCL) has received significant attention, but the ultimate goal of adopting OCL is neglected, especially in higher education...     

How teachers experience assessment tension and its effect on formative assessment practices

Formative assessment (FA) has been a popular discourse in education, but its potential benefit is fundamentally dependent on teachers’ willingness to make changes to their classroom practices. These changes bring about much assessment tension (AT). This paper argues that how well teachers experience and manage AT determines the efficacy of their FA practices. Past studies have warned that AT experienced by teachers is complex and problematic. Therefore, it would be useful to investigate the variation of AT experienced by teachers, and how well they are dealing with these tensions. This phenomenographic research examines the use of FA in the context of different ways that AT is experienced. Findings on teachers’ conceptions of AT are presented, and each is then discussed for insights into teachers’ meanings and practices of assessment. In particular, instances of how AT hindered or helped FA are identified to highlight more productive ways of understanding and using assessment to support students’ learning. Implications of the research findings for the Singapore Teaching Practice (STP) will be discussed.