Best Practice in Middle-School Science

Using socio-ecological theory, this study explores best practice (educational practices correlated with higher student performance) in middle-school science. Seven schools with consistently higher student performance were compared with three demographically similar, average-performing schools. Best practice included instructional approaches (relevance and engagement, inquiry, differentiated instruction, collaborative work, moderate amounts of homework, and integration of language literacy and science) and administrative practices (nurturing a climate of opportunity to succeed in science, offering professional development based on data and dialogue, engaging teachers in standards-based curriculum revision and alignment, and recruiting the right fit of teacher). It is argued that best practice entails multiple levels of teaching and administrative praxis that together form a school-wide socio-ecological system conducive to higher performance.     

On the Benefits of Seeking (and Avoiding) Help in Online Problem-Solving Environments

Seeking the right level of help at the right time can support learning. However, in the context of online problem-solving environments, it is still not entirely clear which help-seeking strategies are desired. We use fine-grained data from 38 high school students who worked with the Geometry Cognitive Tutor for 2 months to better understand the associations between specific help-seeking patterns and learning. We evaluate how students’ help-seeking behaviors on each step in a tutored problem are associated with their success on subsequent steps that require the same skills. Analyzing learning at the skill level allows us to compare different help-seeking patterns within a single student, controlling for between-student variations. Overall, asking for help on challenging steps is associated with productive learning, and overusing help is associated with poorer learning. However, contrary to many help-seeking theories, avoiding help (and failing repeatedly) is associated with better learning than seeking help on steps for which students have low prior knowledge. These results suggest that novice learners may benefit from engaging in solution attempts before they can make sense of given assistance. Methodological benefits for using local measures of learning are discussed, and comparisons are drawn to other forms of productive failure in problem solving.     

Internet-based resources citation by undergraduate students

Abstract

The first and unique training centre in Library and Information Science (LIS) in Benin has been training students since 1982. Ten years after the introduction of Internet in the country, students may have been aware of the importance and the richness of its resources. To what extent do students use Internet-based resources? How do citations to Internet-based resources vary in students’ works over years? This study covers especially LIS students’ dissertations. The results show that the percentage of Internet-based resources cited in dissertations was very low until 2001. Even if the trend line shows an increase starting from 2002, Internet-based resources are very rare in the dissertations (less than 10%). A few students give references to the maximum of Internet-based resources.     

Information policy: Content and challenges for an effective knowledge society

Information policy is the set of strategies and actions defined at a geographical or institutional level in order to satisfy information needs expressed by people and assure development goals. With the development of information and communication technologies (ICT), new stakeholders appear, including both information producers and consumers, raising problems relative to authenticity, reliability, and evaluation of information, and also the problem of full and effective use of information technology. As information policy aims at providing access to timely information, it should attempt also to make people fluent with technology. Toward achieving this objective some challenges are faced which are related to access to technology, computer literacy, ability to read and write, and early childhood development.     

Structure of the social network of Beninese library and information professionals

This paper aims the Benin Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals’ access to individuals on the social network through the study of the structure and use of the network. Subscribers to the library association’s listserv participated in a web-based survey to identify the colleagues they could easily reach. The analysis uses social network techniques and Pajek, a social network analysis software, and focuses on centralities, prestige and sub-groups to identify the key actors required for effective information sharing within the network.

The density of this is very low and suggests that intermediaries are important for the connectedness of subscribers (also referred to as actors); network centralisation is moderate and explains that some actors are central for communication among the subscribers. About 60% of the subscribers fall within one of two groups. In the first group, six subscribers are central to the network, because they are moderators of the listserv, members of the association board, or well-connected to other well-connected actors. The others fall within the isolates or had few connections.     

Journal acceptance rates: A cross-disciplinary analysis of variability and relationships with journal measures

There are many indicators of journal quality and prestige. Although acceptance rates are discussed anecdotally, there has been little systematic exploration of the relationship between acceptance rates and other journal measures. This study examines the variability of acceptance rates for a set of 5094 journals in five disciplines and the relationship between acceptance rates and JCR measures for 1301 journals. The results show statistically significant differences in acceptance rates by discipline, country affiliation of the editor, and number of reviewers per article. Negative correlations are found between acceptance rates and citation-based indicators. Positive correlations are found with journal age. These relationships are most pronounced in the most selective journals and vary by discipline. Open access journals were found to have statistically significantly higher acceptance rates than non-open access journals. Implications in light of changes in the scholarly communication system are discussed.     

LASTING BENEFITS OF COOPERATIVE EDITING FOR REMEDIAL FRESHMAN COMPOSITION STUDENTS: A FOLLOW-UP STUDY

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether cooperative editing had lasting benefits for remedial freshman composition students. Conducted 3 semesters after the original study, the follow-up study indicated that students who had been taught the application of standard written grammar through cooperative editing exercises in the initial remedial composition course made a significantly higher mean grade (p<.05) in first-semester freshman composition than students who had been taught in the remedial course using the lecture/discussion/textbook exercise method. Additionally, the experimental students had a higher retention rate (82%) in first-semester freshman composition than the control students (63%).     

A profound mutation: The advent of professional rugby in France

Amateur before 1995, professional thereafter, French rugby has changed considerably. However, to focus the entire analysis on the most manifest transformations can lead to certain pitfalls of which the main effect consists in only understanding rugby through the notion of change, built for the circumstances into a veritable rhetoric capable of explaining by itself all that goes on and is played out. It is not a case of stating that nothing has changed but rather to show that the rhetoric of change in effect says little about French professional rugby, from a sociological point of view. In the case in point, this rhetoric masks on the one hand what has not or has hardly changed, notably the relationships between players and directors; on the other hand what has effectively changed but which is hardly talked about, in particular the players' working conditions and the possible regulation regarding employers and club directors.     

Kemp-Vincent Rally Test of Tennis Skill

Abstract

The Kemp-Vincent Rally Test of tennis skill was constructed to overcome the criticisms of available tennis skills tests. The major criticisms have been that current tests do not measure skills under game conditions, require the use of special equipment or line markings, and the time involved in their administration is prohibitive. In the Kemp-Vincent Rally Test the students rally as in a game situation, a relatively short time period is involved, and no special equipment or court markings are needed. The validity of the Kemp-Vincent Rally Test was found to be .84 for beginners and .93 for intermediate players when correlated with round robin tournament rankings. When validated against the Iowa revision of the Dyer test, the validity coefficient was .80. Test-retest reliability coefficients were .86 for beginners and .90 for intermediate players.     

Motor Performance of Girls from Twelve Through Eighteen Years of Age

Abstract

Three hundred girls in Georgia ranging from 12 through 18 years of age and enrolled in physical education from the seventh grade through the freshman year in college were given eight motor performance test items to measure running, jumping, throwing, speed, and agility. The study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that girls do not improve in motor performance after the age of 13.5 years, and also to investigate whether significant differences existed in motor skills according to age-grade level. Analysis of variance was used to test the significance of variation on each of the eight test items for the seven age-grade groups. Significance of differences in means for each test for each age-grade group was also calculated. Since ninth-grade girls, with a mean age of 14.4 years, scored highest on two items, tenth-grade girls scored highest on four items, and college girls scored highest on two tests, the hypothesis that girls generally do not evidence improvement in motor skills after the age of 13.5 was rejected.