Does correction for guessing reduce students’ performance on multiple‐choice examinations? Yes? No? Sometimes?

Multiple‐choice (MC) examinations are becoming increasingly popular in higher education because they can be used effectively to assess breadth of knowledge in large cohorts of students. This present research investigated psychology students’ performance on, and experiences of, MC examinations with and without correction for guessing. In Study 1, data were collected from two cohorts of students across three psychology MC examinations. The results revealed that students scored higher, and left fewer questions unanswered, when there was no correction for guessing. Furthermore, when the correction for guessing was removed from the theory MC examination, students who were told there was no correction for guessing did better than those told there was a correction. In addition, there was limited evidence of gender differences, with female students performing significantly better on one MC examination than males. In Study 2, a further set of first‐year psychology students reported their experiences of correction for guessing on open‐book and closed‐book MC examinations. Students reported feeling less anxious and more confident on the open‐book MC examination. The findings of both of these studies have implications for instructors deciding whether or not correction for guessing is appropriate, and for the advice to be given to students preparing for MC examinations.     

敦煌写本《籯金字书》研究

S.4195v<籯金字书>,前后残缺,存有<帝王篇第一>71个字、<诸君篇第二>50个字、<诸王篇第三>37个字、<公主篇第四>38个字,四篇共196个字.通过逐字勘比研究,其内容与S.5604阴庭诫改编<籯金>有很多差异,而与P.3907李若立编撰的<籯金>内容相同,应当是根据李若立<籯金>编撰的,是唐代敦煌教授学生学习李若立<籯金>所使用的字书.     

Online instructional anatomy videos: Student usage,self‐efficacy,and performance in upper limb regional anatomy assessment

Allied health professionals concur that a sound knowledge of practical gross anatomy is vital for the clinician, however, human anatomy courses in allied health programs have been identified as high‐risk for attrition and failure. While anatomists and clinicians agree that learning anatomy via human cadaveric instruction is the preferred method, students vary in their reaction to the cadaveric learning experience and have differing levels of anatomy self‐efficacy. This study investigated whether student self‐efficacy had an effect on student usage of supplemental instructional videos and whether the use of videos had an impact on student self‐efficacy and/or learning. Anatomy self‐efficacy differed based on gender and prior performance. Student usage of the videos varied widely and students with lower self‐efficacy were more inclined to use the resources. The provision of the videos did not improve overall cohort performance as compared to a historical cohort, however, those students that accessed all video sets experienced a greater normalized learning gain compared to students that used none or one of the four sets of videos. Student reports and usage patterns indicate that the videos were primarily used for practical class preparation and revision. Potentially, the videos represent a passive mode of teaching whereas active learning has been demonstrated to result in greater learning gains. Adapting the videos into interactive tutorials which will provide opportunity for feedback and the development of students' self‐evaluation may be more appropriate. Anat Sci Educ 11: 461–470. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Making Sense of Disaster Through Rhetorical Homologies: Extending Walter Benjamin’s Unique/Copy Binary to Post-Katrina Tours

Over a decade after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, publics continue to come to terms with the tragedy. Isabelle Cossart, owner of “Tours by Isabelle” and survivor of the hurricane, began offering disaster tours of the affected areas after taking note of people’s desire to see the damage and contemplate its effects. Public accounts of Cossart’s business suggest that people make sense of disasters symbolically via tourism. Cossart’s post-Katrina disaster tours belong to a wider form concerning disastrous events springing from anxiety over how to respond, followed by agency-driven strategies for coping. This discursive dichotomy of disaster/agency is grounded in a homologous discourse of uniqueness versus copy in Walter Benjamin’s essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Through publicly available information on “Tours by Isabelle,” this article compares subcategories of disaster, Cossart’s tours, and works of art, and explores how people make sense of disaster symbolically.     

Pathways to co-impact: action research and community organising

This article introduces the concept of ‘co-impact’ to characterise the complex and dynamic process of social and economic change generated by participatory action research (PAR). It argues that dominant models of research impact tend to see it as a linear process, based on a donor-recipient model, occurring at the end of a project following the take-up and use of findings. PAR challenges this approach, as impact is embedded in cycles of the action research process; the distinction between researchers, research informants and research users is blurred; and micro process-based impacts, including changes in the thinking and practices of co-researchers, are as significant as findings-based changes in policy and practice. A conceptual framework is developed, based on a three-fold distinction between ‘participatory’, ‘collaborative’ and ‘collective’ impact. This is applied to a case study action research project, Debt on Teesside, working with low-income households in North-east England. The project is analysed in terms of participatory impact (e.g. developing skills of participating households, mentor-researchers, and university staff); collaborative impact (e.g. findings-based changes in thinking, policies and practices of advice, community finance and housing agencies, and local authorities resulting from collaborative research); and ‘collective impact’, adapted from the field of social interventions, which involves organisations collectively targeting specific actions based on research (e.g. changing policy and practices of lenders and government relating to high-cost loans).     

Theoretically Speaking: An Examination of Four Theories and How They Support Writing in the Classroom

Writing is complex, and the more researchers understand the cognitive processes and engagement for writing, the more complex the relationships between cognition and producing writing appear. Writing theory is constantly shifting from a focus on mechanics and form to a focus on creativity and sociability. This literature review analyzes four leading theories for writing instruction: the cognitive processes theory, the sociocultural theory, social cognitive theory, and ecological theory. To demonstrate how these theories develop into practice, strategies supporting each theory and classroom examples are provided.     

恩施土家族堂戏的现状调查及非遗建档保护思路

堂戏作为恩施土家族族群中广泛流传的一种地方戏剧,具有鲜明的民族特色。近年来,随着非物质文化遗产保护工作的深入推进,其保护与开发利用状况备受关注。文章对土家族堂戏及其生存保护现状进行了较为全面的调查与分析,发现了其在传承与发展过程中存在的问题,并系统阐述了对土家族堂戏开展非遗建档的保护思路。     

Contract cheating and assessment design: exploring the relationship

This paper reports on findings from a large Australian research project that explored the relationship between contract cheating and assessment design. Using survey responses from 14,086 students and 1147 educators at eight universities, a multivariate analysis examined the influence of a range of factors on the likelihood that different assessment types would prompt considerations of contract cheating in students. Perceptions of likelihood were highest among students who speak a language other than English at home. Perceptions of likelihood were also higher among students who reported there to be lots of opportunities to cheat, and amongst students who were dissatisfied with the teaching and learning environment. Perceptions of likelihood for certain assessment types were also higher in commerce and engineering than in any other discipline. Overall, four assessment types were perceived by students to be the least likely to be outsourced, however these are also the least likely to be set by educators. The analysis indicates that educators are more likely to use these assessment tasks when they report positively on organisational support for teaching and learning.     

一元模式让位于多元体验:文学与技术的博弈

从口头创作、手稿创作、印刷术之下的文学创作,再到现在的电子文本创作,每一次技术条件的变革,不仅使我们生存的外部环境发生变化,而且深深地影响着我们的精神家园。从最初的原生口语文化而诞生的文学作品,到现在电子技术之下次生口语文化形成的新型文学形式,不断更新的技术也在不断更新着我们精神的世界图景;从口语到书面再到电子文学的变迁,是从语音到视觉再到试听多元立体化的变迁。传统文学、文化符号与现代技术手段相互作用、影响,改变着人们的思维习惯,甚至是生活方式。