Databases on Human Rights Education

International Review of Education -     

“We thought it might encourage participation.” Using lottery incentives to improve LibQUAL+™ response rates among students

Libraries deploying the LibQUAL+? survey can offer a lottery incentive and many do so in the hope of increasing response rates. Other libraries may be prohibited from offering one because of Institutional Review Board restrictions, as is the case at Oregon State University. We wanted to discover why libraries offer lottery incentives, what kinds of incentives, and if they believe these incentives have a positive impact on their response rates. The responding libraries hold a general belief that lottery incentives are effective, but base this on feeling rather than research. We examine what the literature says about lottery incentives and student populations.     

Teacher counternarratives: transgressing and ‘restorying’ disability in education

This inquiry aims to explore the disconnect between the disability studies in education (DSE) perspectives on inclusive schooling held by a group of dually certified inclusive educators and the everyday, lived experiences of these same teachers who find themselves teaching students with labelled disabilities within the confines of the special education bureaucracy. Through a collaborative inquiry circle (with a teacher educator who is a faculty member in a dual-certification programme informed by a DSE perspective and seven teachers who are graduates of this teacher education programme), this study aims to: (1) articulate the dominant narratives or storylines about disability in education that may ‘discipline’ teachers' practice within the special education bureaucracy; (2) illustrate some of the ways in which teachers do resist and transgress the discursive structures of schooling in ways that enable them to ‘restory’ disability in education; and (3) explore the implications of this work for preparing teachers to be dually certified, inclusive educators of all children in public schools.     

Professional Competence of Prospective Teachers in Business and Economics Education: Evaluation of a Competence Model Using Structural Equation Modeling

Teacher competence is crucial for quality of teaching and learner achievement. Competency models and competence measurement are prevalent in domains such as the natural sciences and lacking in others. We conducted our research in the field of business and economics education by focusing on the accounting domain because it is key to a deep understanding of the economic context and the development of economics competence. To teach well, teachers require professional knowledge, which is mainly composed of content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and pedagogical knowledge (PK). Our competence model comprises the cognitive component of professional knowledge and the noncognitive components of beliefs, self-efficacy, and self-regulation. To measure competence in competence of prospective teachers, we employed novel instruments to test for professional knowledge and beliefs as well as established ones to test for self-regulation and self-efficacy. The sample consists of 1,152 students at 24 German universities. The structure of the competence model was tested. Results suggest that professional competence in accounting has at least four distinct dimensions (CK, PCK, beliefs, and self-regulation aspects).     

Assessing the Effectiveness of the Cognitive Interview for Children with Severe Intellectual Disabilities

We examined whether the cognitive interview (CI) procedure increased event recall in children with severe intellectual disabilities (ID) compared with children with no ID. Forty-six children with and without ID watched a videotaped event; they were aged between eight and 11 years. The next day they were individually interviewed using the CI or a structured interview (SI). Interviews consisted of free recall and specific questions, some of which contained leading or misleading information. The leading and misleading questions determined children’s susceptibility to information presented after the event. Overall, children without ID reported more correct information than children with ID. For all children, the CI led to more correct recall than the SI without increases in incorrect details or confabulations. Although the CI did not decrease children’s susceptibility to the misleading questions compared with the SI, children without ID disagreed with more of the misleading suggestions than children with ID. These results suggest that the CI may indeed be a valuable tool to elicit information from very vulnerable witnesses.     

Effiziente Vertr?glichkeitsprüfung und automatische Migration von Workflow-Instanzen bei der Evolution von Workflow-Schemata

Zusammenfassung.   Sollen Workflow-Management-Systeme (WfMS) in umfassender Weise für die rechnerbasierte Verwaltung und Steuerung von Gesch?ftsprozessen einsetzbar sein, müssen die von ihnen verwalteten Workflow-Schemata und -Instanzen bei Bedarf rasch anpassbar sein. Dabei müssen die auf Basis eines (alten) Workflow-Schemas erzeugten Instanzen auch nach dessen ?nderung ungest?rt weiterlaufen k?nnen, etwa durch Bereitstellung geeigneter Versionskonzepte. Sehr viel schwieriger wird es, wenn die angewandten Schema?nderungen – wo gewünscht und m?glich – auch auf die bereits (vielleicht in gro?er Zahl) laufenden Workflow-Instanzen übertragen werden sollen. Dies bei Bedarf zu k?nnen – und zwar ohne Inkonsistenzen oder Fehler zu verursachen – ist aber ungemein wichtig, wenn ein WfMS breit und flexibel einsetzbar sein soll. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Ansatz zur effizienten Prüfung der Vertr?glichkeit von Workflow-Instanzen mit einem ge?nderten Workflow-Schema vorgestellt. Durch Einbeziehung aller Beschreibungskonstrukte (z.B. auch Schleifen und Datenflüsse) und damit zusammenh?ngender Fragestellungen wird darüber hinaus zum ersten Mal die Grundlage für ein umfassendes ?nderungsmanagement geschaffen. Au?erdem wird aufgezeigt, wie der Benutzer bei der Migration vertr?glicher Instanzen auf das neue Schema konkret unterstützt werden kann. ID="*" Diese Arbeit wurde im Rahmen des Projekts „?nderungsmanagement in adaptiven Workflow-Management-Systemen” der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) erstellt.     

On the relationships between bibliographic characteristics of scientific documents and citation and Mendeley readership counts: A large-scale analysis of Web of Science publications

In this paper we present a first large-scale analysis of the relationship between Mendeley readership and citation counts with particular documents’ bibliographic characteristics. A data set of 1.3 million publications from different fields published in journals covered by the Web of Science (WoS) has been analyzed. This work reveals that document types that are often excluded from citation analysis due to their lower citation values, like editorial materials, letters, news items, or meeting abstracts, are strongly covered and saved in Mendeley, suggesting that Mendeley readership can reliably inform the analysis of these document types. Findings show that collaborative papers are frequently saved in Mendeley, which is similar to what is observed for citations. The relationship between readership and the length of titles and number of pages, however, is weaker than for the same relationship observed for citations. The analysis of different disciplines also points to different patterns in the relationship between several document characteristics, readership, and citation counts. Overall, results highlight that although disciplinary differences exist, readership counts are related to similar bibliographic characteristics as those related to citation counts, reinforcing the idea that Mendeley readership and citations capture a similar concept of impact, although they cannot be considered as equivalent indicators.     

Exploring the Effects of Rater Linking Designs and Rater Fit on Achievement Estimates Within the Context of Music Performance Assessments

When good model-data fit is observed, the Many-Facet Rasch (MFR) model acts as a linking and equating model that can be used to estimate student achievement, item difficulties, and rater severity on the same linear continuum. Given sufficient connectivity among the facets, the MFR model provides estimates of student achievement that are equated to control for differences in rater severity. Although several different linking designs are used in practice to establish connectivity, the implications of design differences have not been fully explored. Research is also limited related to the impact of model-data fit on the quality of MFR model-based adjustments for rater severity. This study explores the effects of linking designs and model-data fit for raters on the interpretation of student achievement estimates within the context of performance assessments in music. Results indicate that performances cannot be effectively adjusted for rater effects when inadequate linking or model-data fit is present.     

Exploring the Influence of Judge Proficiency on Standard‐Setting Judgments

Setting performance standards is a judgmental process involving human opinions and values as well as technical and empirical considerations. Although all cut score decisions are by nature somewhat arbitrary, they should not be capricious. Judges selected for standard‐setting panels should have the proper qualifications to make the judgments asked of them; however, even qualified judges vary in expertise and in some cases, such as highly specialized areas or when members of the public are involved, it may be difficult to ensure that each member of a standard‐setting panel has the requisite expertise to make qualified judgments. Given the subjective nature of these types of judgments, and that a large part of the validity argument for an exam lies in the robustness of its passing standard, an examination of the influence of judge proficiency on the judgments is warranted. This study explores the use of the many‐facet Rasch model as a method for adjusting modified Angoff standard‐setting ratings based on judges’ proficiency levels. The results suggest differences in the severity and quality of standard‐setting judgments across levels of judge proficiency, such that judges who answered easy items incorrectly tended to perceive them as easier, but those who answered correctly tended to provide ratings within normal stochastic limits.     

Examining Differential Rater Functioning Using a Between‐Subgroup Outfit Approach

When practitioners use modern measurement models to evaluate rating quality, they commonly examine rater fit statistics that summarize how well each rater's ratings fit the expectations of the measurement model. Essentially, this approach involves examining the unexpected ratings that each misfitting rater assigned (i.e., carrying out analyses of standardized residuals). One can create plots of the standardized residuals, isolating those that resulted from raters’ ratings of particular subgroups. Practitioners can then examine the plots to identify raters who did not maintain a uniform level of severity when they assessed various subgroups (i.e., exhibited evidence of differential rater functioning). In this study, we analyzed simulated and real data to explore the utility of this between‐subgroup fit approach. We used standardized between‐subgroup outfit statistics to identify misfitting raters and the corresponding plots of their standardized residuals to determine whether there were any identifiable patterns in each rater's misfitting ratings related to subgroups.