数独世界冠军专栏

正三届数独世界冠军托马斯·辛德(Thomas Snyder)为《大学生》读者们专门设计数独题。辛德曾三次获得数独世界冠军,五次夺得美国数独冠军,他的专业是化学,本科毕业于加州理工学院,在哈佛大学取得博士学位,现是斯坦福大学生物工程学助理研究员。     

Measure Twice,Cut Once: The Temporality of Communication Design

The familiar folk saying, “Measure twice, cut once,” with origins in carpentry design certainly indicates that the issue of measurement is central to good design work. The equally important—if implicit—wisdom to which it points is that it takes more time, or a careful pace of action, to do so properly. To develop our central arguments about the temporality of communication design, we first describe how the consideration of varying time scales offers great utility in the communication design enterprise and elaborate on the designable features of temporality for human interaction. Next, we draw on Ballard's typology of work-based activity cycles to offer some temporally based design principles for the design of work. We then apply these insights to various work activities that unfold at various time scales and illustrate how concern with temporality (rather than only time) may lead to a redesign of communication. In the conclusion, we attend to an underlying issue implicated throughout the preceding discussion: the pace at which the designer proceeds.     

A causal analysis relating previous achievement,attitudes, discourse,and intervention to achievement in biology and chemistry

This study described the relationship of 38 variates to achievement in high school biology and chemistry classes. Forty-four teachers prepared audio tape recordings of discussions throughout a nine-month period. Equal-sized groups received treatment consisting of wait time feedback and/or supportive intervention, a form of peer coaching. Other variables were initial measures, which included the variates of class size and previous science grade, pre- and posttest scores on student attitudes and perceptions, and prediscourse and discourse analyses, which included the variates of wait times, actions, and response durations. While previous research has shown that wait time feedback and supportive intervention are effective means of changing teacher behavior, the results of the present study revealed that previous student achievement and the attitudes of students accounted for 70% of the variation in the final examination scores (New York State Regents) on the basis of only the first three weeks of data collection on the variables assessed. Generally, little emphasis on higher-level thinking, wait time, or problem solving was found at the beginning of the school year, and only minimal changes resulted from the application of the treatment variables. Pressures for content coverage and preparation for externally imposed statewide examinations that emphasize memory-level learning augured against the changes that the independent variables were designed to produce.