Quality criteria for conceptual technology integration models in education: bridging research and practice

Educational technology research and development - In order to effectively use technology in education, appropriate conceptual understandings are needed to guide the integration process. Today,...     

A mathematical formulation of keyword compression for thesauri

In this paper we demonstrate a new method for concentrating the set of key-words of a thesaurus. This method is based on a mathematical study that we have carried out into the distribution of characters in a defined natural language.We have built a function f of concentration which generates only a few synonyms. In applying this function to the set of key-words of a thesaurus, we reduce each key-word to four characters without synonymity. (For three characters we have a rate of synonymity of approx. 1/1000th.)A new structure of binary files allows the thesaurus to be contained in a table of less than 700 bytes.     

The influence of student aid on within-year persistence by traditional college-age students in four-year colleges

This paper uses the 1987 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study to compare five alternative approaches for assessing the influence of student aid on within-year persistence by traditional college-age students enrolled in four-year colleges. Three conclusions were drawn from the research. First, models that included tuition charges better predicted within-year persistence than models that did not include this independent variable. Second, the use of multiple approaches for measuring the influence of student aid provided more insight into the ways student aid policies influence persistence than any single approach. Third, tuition charges had a consistent negative influence on persistence.     

The (im)materiality of literacy: the significance of subjectivity to new literacies research

This article deconstructs the online and offline experience to show its complexities and idiosyncratic nature. It proposes a theoretical framework designed to conceptualise aspects of meaning-making across on- and offline contexts. In arguing for the ‘(im)materiality’ of literacy, it makes four propositions which highlight the complex and diverse relationships between the immaterial and material associated with meaning-making. Complementing existing sociocultural perspectives on literacy, the article draws attention to the significance of relationships between space, mediation, materiality and embodiment to literacy practices. This in turn emphasises the importance of the subjective in understanding how different locations, experiences and so forth inflect literacy practice. The article concludes by drawing on the Deleuzian concept of the ‘baroque’ to suggest that this focus on articulations between the material and immaterial helps us to see literacy as multiply and flexibly situated.     

Do null phonemic masking effects reflect strategic control of phonology?

Verstaen, Humphreys, Olson and D'Ydewalle [(1995) Journal of Memory and Language, 34, 335–356] reported null phonemic masking effectswith homophone targets under conditionsdiscouraging reliance on phonology. Theyattributed these null effects to the absence ofreliance on phonology, concluding that relianceon phonology may be strategically controlled. Two studies using Verstaen et al.'s methodoccasionally replicate these null phonemicmasking effects, but challenge theirinterpretation. The emergence of null phonemicmasking effects was unrelated to the strategymanipulation. Conversely, evidence forphonology emerged in homophone errorsregardless of the strategy manipulation anddespite null phonemic masking effects. Ourfindings reflect an inherent instability in theperception of homophones. We demonstrate thatthis instability is directly due to reliance onphonology, rather than to its control.     

Pretend play by African American children in head start

Play behaviors of African American 4-year-olds from impoverished families were observed naturalistically. Children's free play was videotaped in Head Start classrooms over several weeks in the playhouse, block corner, and outside play yard. Play was categorized into cognitive play types—functional, constructive, and pretend play. Children most frequently engaged in functional play. Contrary to Smilansky's findings, impoverished children also engaged in pretend play. This play type was high in quality (object use, number of participants, and subtypes of pretense exhibited) but low in quantity (number and duration of play episodes) compared to other types of play. These findings are discussed in the context of theories of pretend play.     

公民教育的进展研究：发达国家的探索

21世纪初，无论是在国家层面还是在国际范围，人们都开始对公民教育产生新的兴趣。越来越多具有多元文化的民主国家对作为民主公民教育基础的人权教育的国际共识、全球化进程所带来的统一性与多样性之间关系的冲突特征、许多民主的民族一国家对公民（特别是年轻人）的政治参与水平以及对种族主义倾向的反民主运动的忧虑等，都被看作是引进和加强公民教育的原因。一个由国际学者组成的研究小组，通过考察、研究为我们确认了多元文化的民主体系中公民教育在教学方面的一些重要原则、概念以及公民教育对学校课程的促进。发达国家在实践方面的经验显示，成功的公民教育要求一个清晰的政策框架和专业的教师培训等。     

What Kind of Learning Does Self‐assessment Drive? Developing a ‘nose’ for quality: comments on Klenowski (1995)

Klenowski (1995) identifies three aspects of ‘self‐assessment’. The present commentary examines these from the point of view of the development of learning‐to‐learn or ‘learning acumen’, which, it is proposed, comprises resilience, resourcefulness, reflectivity and responsibility. The minimal sense of self‐evaluation, in which students merely learn to monitor their performance in terms of externally specified criteria, may raise attainment without improving learning acumen, and may even damage it. What constitutes ‘good work’ is, in many domains, not reducible to the application of predetermined criteria. Self‐evaluation is essentially an intuitive process. Learning to see self‐evaluation as ‘marking one's own work’ by applying a checklist of criteria prevents the development of this intuitive ability.     

Anything goes: Or,how the accommodation of Europe's universities to European integration integrates an inspiring number of contradictions

Abstract

This article analyses the implications for the integration of higher education in Europe as presented by the Bologna process. It examines the evidence presented in official documents which claim a wide‐spread consensus for this initiative. The article analyses the particular ideological commitment built into the Bologna process in the light of its four objectives Mobility, Employ ability, Competitiveness and Attractiveness. It questions whether that consensus, largely taken for granted at the higher levels of political discussion, is fully reflected in ‘le pays reel’ ‐ at the chalk face. It argues that the main test of the Bologna ‘principles’ will come when talk gives way to implementation, both at the level of first degrees and in the area of research training.