An Investigation of Rater Cognition in the Assessment of Projects

In the United Kingdom, the majority of national assessments involve human raters. The processes by which raters determine the scores to award are central to the assessment process and affect the extent to which valid inferences can be made from assessment outcomes. Thus, understanding rater cognition has become a growing area of research in the United Kingdom. This study investigated rater cognition in the context of the assessment of school‐based project work for high‐stakes purposes. Thirteen teachers across three subjects were asked to “think aloud” whilst scoring example projects. Teachers also completed an internal standardization exercise. Nine professional raters across the same three subjects standardized a set of project scores whilst thinking aloud. The behaviors and features attended to were coded. The data provided insights into aspects of rater cognition such as reading strategies, emotional and social influences, evaluations of features of student work (which aligned with scoring criteria), and how overall judgments are reached. The findings can be related to existing theories of judgment. Based on the evidence collected, the cognition of teacher raters did not appear to be substantially different from that of professional raters.     

Quasi-static mechanical behaviour of soils used for natural turf sports surfaces and stud force prediction

The quasi-static testing of soils used in natural turf pitches yields key parameters in soil modelling, including elastic moduli, Poisson’s ratio and Mohr–Coulomb parameters for shearing resistance and cohesion in soil. The bulk strength of a Sand soil used in the construction of elite sports surfaces was found to increase initially and then decrease with increasing water content due to apparent cohesion effects. For a Clay Loam soil, more common in recreational facilities, shear strength decreased with water content. Reducing density resulted in a reduction of shear strength and elastic moduli in both soils due to reduced packing of particles reducing particle–particle contact surface area. The effect of roots on the shear strength of a Sand soil was not significant but reduced elastic moduli significantly. Horizontal forces measured during running and turning in a biomechanics laboratory were in good agreement with forces predicted using a simple quasi-static soil model for coarse-grained (Sand) soils although this was not the case with the Clay Loam soil.     

汉史之诗：《史记》、《汉书》叙事中的诗歌含义

本文讨论《史记》、《汉书》里一种极具特色的现象,即叙事当中天衣无缝地包含着许多历史人物的即兴诗歌表演.作为中国早期历史编纂学的一种修辞方法,诗歌经常作为重要时刻的标志出现,而且与情感、道德的强烈诉求以及对事实、真实性的强烈认定相关,反映汉代诗学的基本思维对历史编纂学的影响.这一点适用于身体或情感绝灭刹那时主人公即兴吟唱的抒情诗歌,也适用于预言政治灾难或者哀叹民生多艰的匿名小调.     

Catalog Users “In the Wild”: The Potential of an Ethnographic Approach to Studies of Library Catalogs and Their Users

An increasing number of library user studies are employing ethnographic techniques as an alternative to more traditional qualitative methods such as surveys. Such techniques, however, are only beginning to see significant application to catalog user studies. Beginning with a discussion of the applied ethnographic method and its current usage within the field of Library and Information Science research, this article will assess methods that have traditionally been applied to studies of catalog users and present the case for the potential of an ethnographic approach for future catalog evaluation and design.