Attitude items and low ability students: the need for a cautious approach to interpretation

The results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2001) were published in 2003. In addition to data about the reading achievements of 10‐year‐olds in 35 countries, PIRLS 2001 also collected questionnaire information from children, their teachers, headteachers and parents. The results showed not just how well students can perform in various reading tasks, but also the relationship between reading abilities and other characteristics, including the characteristics of their homes and schools, the students' attitudes to reading, reading enjoyment, self‐confidence, engagement and perceptions of their reading abilities. Surprisingly enough, children in England were reported as having poor attitudes to reading, compared to children in many other countries, despite high achievement on the reading tests. This paper raises some concerns about the interpretation of results from the study, suggesting a more complex picture than that presented in the summary index published in 2003. Our secondary analysis of the attitude and achievement data from PIRLS shows that pupils with low ability levels have misunderstood the questions which tested their attitudes towards reading. The authors point out that caution is needed when making cross‐country comparisons to avoid naïve approaches to interpretation.     

Making Space for Consuming Practices

This empirically driven paper is about workplace learning with specific focus on the ‘work’ of consuming practices. By consuming we refer to the eating, and the drinking, and (at times) to the smoking that workers, in most organisations, do on a daily basis. Indeed, it is the quotidian nature of consuming, coupled with its absence from workplace learning research that make them noteworthy practices to explore. In using the term practice we draw on the recent tranche of practice based theorisations: notably Schatzki (1996, Organization Studies, 26(3), 465-484, 2005, Organization Studies, 27(12), 1863-1873, 2006) and Gherardi (Human Relations, 54(1), 131-139, 2001, 2006, Learning Organization, 16(5), 352-359, 2009). The paper frames consuming practices as ‘dispersed’ (general) practices and, illustrated through empirical data from multiple projects, we progressively outline how these contribute to the learning of ‘integrative’ (specialized work) practices. Our overall aim is to (re)position consuming practices from prosaic, to having much relevance for research on workplace learning.     

How to Save the World and Other Lessons from Children’s Environmental Literature

This article argues that most contemporary children’s environmental picture books and easy readers published in the United States focus overwhelmingly on individual environmentalist acts and lifestyle changes, overlook the connections between environmental degradation and systemic social problems such as class disparities, and ultimately over-simplify environmental crisis. They typically encourage children to adopt environmentalist behaviors such as recycling that can be performed by individuals or families in the home, school, and local community, but do little to encourage civic engagement that would call into attention the intertwined ideological, economic, and political factors preventing profound environmental change. The analysis then examines several books that notably do inform readers about the larger political and economic issues and place a strong emphasis on environmental justice, a type of environmentalism deeply concerned with issues of race, class, gender, and economic inequality. Such texts are more likely to encourage an environmentalism that combines lifestyle and consumer choices with political activism. We need more books like this, as children’s texts that resign environmental action almost completely to individual choices and behaviors and disassociate environmental crises from their larger constitutive contexts do little to prepare young people for the socio-environmental challenges we face now and in the future.     

机会发现理论对推荐系统的改进

文章分析推荐系统的现状和存在问题,引入关注动态变化、发现隐性关联和弱信号的机会发现理论,依次从收集用户信息、掌握用户兴趣变化和匹配资源方面,探讨机会发现理论对推荐系统的改进。通过改进兴趣模型、建立自适应推荐模块、提供集成推荐等措施,提升推荐系统效率。     

P2P技术在图书馆联盟云服务中的应用研究

P2P技术的数据流量在当代因特网传输中具有重要地位,我们提出基于云服务的P2P资源离线下载模式,由应用服务器负责P2P下载,用户通过下载中心把完成下载的资源传输到本地。在P2P下载期间,用户不必运行P2P客户端程序,也不必开启本地计算机。这一模式能减少重复下载热点资源对Intranet公共出口带宽的堵塞,减少漫长等待稀缺资源的过程困扰下载用户,避免热点资源的网络流量突增导致其他程序性能受到影响,解决了传输瓶颈,提高联盟用户下载资源的速度,节省了成本。     

普通外籍人士对图书馆利用与需求状况调研分析

为了了解和掌握普通外籍人士对图书馆的利用及需求情况,项目组运用调查问卷法及SPSS对其进行了调查和统计分析,结果表明,他们阅读的主要目的是为了获取与就业、教育、社会福利和中国文化相关的信息。但语言和文化的差异在很大程度上影响了他们对中文图书资料的阅读。所以图书馆多元文化建设应照顾不同层次、不同背景读者群的具体需求,在地点设置、馆藏布局、资料采购、服务项目上不断调整和完善,为他们提供更好的有针对性的服务。     

信息媒体数字视频图书馆——开创多媒体数字图书馆先河

信息媒体数字视频图书馆（TheINFORMEDIADigitalVideoLibrary,简称IDVL）项目是美国数字图书馆创始计划（DigitalLibrariesInitiative,简~,DLI）最初的六个项目之一,由卡内基·梅隆大学于1994年创建。该项目一直在深入地开发数字视频及其相关技术和工具,致力于建立一个庞大的在线数字视频图书馆,为用户提供多媒体信息服务。文章对该数字图书馆的项目概况、资源组织、技术特征和服务特点等进行了综合介绍和评价。     

Watching MOOCs together: investigating co-located MOOC study groups

Research suggests that massive open online course (MOOC) students prefer to study in groups, and that social facilitation within the study groups may render the learning of difficult concepts a pleasing experience. We report on a longitudinal study that investigates how co-located study groups watch and study MOOC videos together. The study was conducted with on-campus flipped classroom students. Our subjects reported an overall high satisfaction with the study group style. The research reveals that students like to stay synchronized in the group while watching MOOC videos. However, they have to find a balance between synchronization, video interaction, and the amount of conversation. Watching MOOCs on a shared display addresses the need of synchronicity, and the distribution of control can increase the video interactivities.     

Suburban American Punks and the Musical Rhetoric of Green Day's “Jesus of Suburbia”

This essay examines Green Day's “Jesus of Suburbia” as an artifact and reflection of suburban American punk culture. It looks at how music, lyrics, and the ethos of the performer interact to create a message that fostered identification between speaker and audience by using Sellnow and Sellnow's Langer-based illusion of life perspective. In this case it was found that music can be seen as an effective tool for expressing the suburban punk experience due to its ability to convey both linguistic and emotional content.