The Transition-Reform Dilemma: Kosovo – Emerging Democracy and Resistance Factors at its Faculty of Education

Kosovo emerged from a period of conflict with Serbia only after an extensive NATO bombing campaign against Serbia. While the final political status seems settled with its declaration of independence in 2008, much remains to be determined. Preceding the declaration of independence and following it, Kosovo is an emerging democracy which is actively developing its own distinct institutions. In support of teacher development in Kosovo is the Kosovo Educator Development Program (KEDP) which was to act as the lead agency for teacher training in the region. The KEDP was an $8 million development initiative funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). As the lead agency for teacher training promoted a major reform of preservice teacher training, and in particular the establishment of a new Faculty of Education for the University of Prishtina (UP). By the end of 2004, the consensus was that the new Faculty of Education seemed to be a success but that it was still in a very fragile state. Fragile indeed – the reform process has been seriously challenged as the initial and reformed-minded Dean was replaced in controversial (allegedly illegal) decanal elections which installed a more conservative and anti-reformist Dean and Pro-Deans. Each side has strong views, but what are they? What are the issues of the antagonists and protagonists in this dispute? To answer these questions the authors will discuss the changing context of Kosovo teacher education, and using a reflective narrative as a methodology will frame the perspectives key sources and their views of the reform challenges facing to new Faculty of Education. This is followed by a discussion seeking a greater understanding of these conflicting perspectives.     

Methods of Selection and Acquisition of European French Monographs in an Academic Law Library

This article examines methods of selection and acquisition for European (as opposed to Canadian) French-language print monographs for a research-level law library collection in North America based on the study of the practices and techniques locally developed in the Nahum Gelber Law Library, McGill University. These techniques represent a combination of non–approval plan–based methods: blanket order, standing orders, online slip service in WorldCat, use of other libraries’ acquisition lists, and firm orders. The methods described in this article are not exclusive to the selection in the subject area of law and could be applied in other academic disciplines.     

Curating the Library Exhibit “Russian Revolution: Actors and Witnesses” at Harvard University: A Collaborative Experience

ABSTRACT

Tasked with organizing and promoting an exhibit of Russian Revolution-related materials from Harvard University’s vast library holdings in a relatively small space, the curators faced both advantages and challenges. This article describes the curatorial choices and logistical solutions reached via a collaboration between staff at several units across the university: Houghton, Widener, and Fung Libraries, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the Weissman Preservation Center.     

The Razumikhin approach on general decay stability for neutral stochastic functional differential equations

The topic of the paper is both the pth moment and almost sure stability on a general decay rate for neutral stochastic functional differential equations, by applying the Razumikhin approach. This concept is extended to neutral stochastic differential delay equations. The results obtained in the paper are more general and they may be specialized on the exponential, polynomial or logarithmic stability. Moreover, some neutral stochastic functional differential equations which are not pth moment or almost surely exponentially stable, could be stable with respect to a certain lower decay rate. In that sense, some nontrivial examples are presented to justify and illustrate the usefulness of the theory. More precisely, one can say anything about both the pth moment and almost sure exponential stability, although the solutions are pth moment and almost surely polynomially or logarithmically stable.     

Impact of Personality on Choice of Instructional Delivery and Students’ Performance

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to investigate how college students’ personality characteristics relate to their choice of instructional delivery (online or face-to-face) and whether this choice mediates the relationship between personality and academic performance. One hundred eighty-eight undergraduate students were given a choice between taking the same general education course online or face-to-face. Students completed the Big Five Inventory (BFI) upon the conclusion of this course. Using a Bayesian regression course modeling framework, we found that Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were related to the choice of instructional delivery. Students scoring higher on Conscientiousness and lower on Agreeableness tended to choose the online environment. Conscientiousness also was a direct predictor of academic achievement regardless of the course environment. These results suggest that in order to find the best fit between student and the learning environment, it is important to identify personality characteristics indicative of success in online and traditional face-to-face courses to help students to become more efficient learners and assist faculty in designing quality courses to meet students’ needs.     

Moving average procedures as an additional tool for real-time analytical quality control: challenges and opportunities of implementation in small-volume medical laboratories

IntroductionMoving average (MA) is one possible way to use patient results for analytical quality control in medical laboratories. The aims of this study were to: (1) implement previously optimized MA procedures for 10 clinical chemistry analytes into the laboratory information system (LIS); (2) monitor their performance as a real-time quality control tool, and (3) define an algorithm for MA alarm management in a small-volume laboratory to suit the specific laboratory.Materials and methodsMoving average alarms were monitored and analysed over a period of 6 months on all patient results (total of 73,059) obtained for 10 clinical chemistry parameters. The optimal MA procedures were selected previously using an already described technique called the bias detection simulation method, considering the ability of bias detection the size of total allowable error as the key parameter for optimization.ResultsDuring 6 months, 17 MA alarms were registered, which is 0.023% of the total number of generated MA values. In 65% of cases, their cause was of pre-analytical origin, in 12% of analytical origin, and in 23% the cause was not found. The highest alarm rate was determined on sodium (0.10%), and the lowest on calcium and chloride.ConclusionsThis paper showed that even in a small-volume laboratory, previously optimized MA procedures could be successfully implemented in the LIS and used for continuous quality control. Review of patient results, re-analysis of samples from the stable period, analysis of internal quality control samples and assessment of the analyser malfunctions and maintenance log have been proposed for the algorithm for managing MA alarms.     

Development of Processing Stress Diacritics in Reading Greek

In Greek orthography, stress position is marked with a diacritic. We investigated the developmental course of processing the stress diacritic in Grades 2 to 4. Ninety children read 108 pseudowords presented without or with a diacritic either in the same or in a different position relative to the source word. Half of the pseudowords resembled the words they were derived from. Results showed that lexical sources of stress assignment were active in Grade 2 and remained stronger than the diacritic through Grade 4. The effect of the diacritic increased more rapidly and approached the lexical effect with increasing grade. In a second experiment, 90 children read 54 words and 54 pseudowords. The pattern of results for words was similar to that for nonwords suggesting that findings regarding stress assignment using nonwords may generalize to word reading. Decoding of the diacritic does not appear to be the preferred option for developing readers.     

CAT model with personalized algorithm for evaluation of estimated student knowledge

This article presents the original model of the computer adaptive testing and grade formation, based on scientifically recognized theories. The base of the model is a personalized algorithm for selection of questions depending on the accuracy of the answer to the previous question. The test is divided into three basic levels of difficulty, and the student automatically goes from one level to another according to the current level of the knowledge that he shows. Such examination creates an image to the student that the test was set up just for his level of knowledge. On the basis of responses, by applying Bayes’ theorem and the Maximum a posteriori approach, the evaluation grade is formed. In fact, based on empirical probability values, which correlate with obtaining of a certain final grade and the accuracy of answers to each question individually, model creates a score that corresponds to the current level of student’s knowledge. After each test answer, the empirical probability value is updated. That further contributes to the statistical stability of the evaluation model. Testing stops when the student answers the minimum number of questions, determined by a teacher, or, when evaluations show a clear convergence towards a single value. The research method and some results of the testing of the hypotheses as well as authors’ conclusions about CAT as a tool for evaluation of students are presented at the end of the article.     

Three strategies for interdisciplinary teaching: contextualizing,conceptualizing, and problem‐centring

This paper distinguishes among contextualizing, conceptualizing, and problem‐centring as three basic approaches to interdisciplinary curriculum. This typology is based on the type of inquiry that takes place in the classroom. For example, if the guiding epistemology in the interdisciplinary work is that of the humanities, the mode of connecting disciplinary material is likely to be contextualizing, or embedding the facts and ideas in the cultural, historical, or ideological fabric. If the scientific method guides and sets the standard for integration, conceptualizing work typically takes place. Finally, if the spirit and mode of inquiry is that of the applied sciences or creative product‐development, the integrative process will take the form of problem‐based investigation of urgent or tangible issues. Using empirical data from exemplary university, pre‐university, and professional programmes in the US, I describe three integrative strategies and comment on their strengths. This basic typology provides alternative approaches to interdisciplinary material based on the purpose of the class inquiry. In the hands of a good instructor, several interdisciplinary strategies could be used together for mutual benefit.