TELEVISION AND HISTORY TEACHING IN SCHOOLS

A principal teacher of History in an Aberdeenshire school describes the way in which he is using the YTV School Series, ‘How we Used to Live’ to support the teaching of history for less able pupils. This account is based on a talk originally given at Aberdeen College of Education.     

Playing and resisting: rethinking young people's reading cultures

In this paper I will argue that while young adult readers may often be represented through ‘othering’ discourses that see them as ‘passive’, ‘uncritical’ consumers of ‘low‐brow’, ‘throw‐away’ texts, the realities of their reading lives are in fact more subtle, complex and dynamic. The paper explores the discourses about reading, identity and gender that emerged through discussions with groups of young adults, aged between 16 and 19, about their reading habits and practices. These discussions took place as part of a PhD research study of reading and reader identity in the context of further education in the Black Country in the West Midlands. Through these discussions the young adults offered insights into their reading cultures and the ‘functionality’ of their reading practices that contest the kinds of ‘distinction[s]’ that tend to situate them as the defining other to more ‘worthy’ or ‘valuable’ reading cultures and practices. While I will resist the urge to claim that this paper represents the cultures of young adult readers in any real or totalising sense I challenge the kinds of dominant, reductive representations that serve to fix and demonise this group and begin to draw a space within which playfulness and resistance are alternatively offered as ways of being for these readers.     

Third-year College Retention and Transfer: Effects of Academic Performance, Motivation, and Social Connectedness

We studied the effects of academic performance, motivation, and social connectedness on third-year retention, transfer, and dropout behavior. To accommodate the three outcome categories and nesting of data within institutions, we fit a hierarchical multinomial logistic regression path model with first-year academic performance as a mediating effect. Our sample included 6,872 students representing 23 four-year universities and colleges. This work expands the current state of persistence research by (1) considering the effects of motivation and social connectedness on college persistence beyond the first year of college, (2) testing whether the effects of motivation and social connectedness on third-year retention and transfer are direct, indirect, or both, and (3) testing whether the effects of academic performance, motivation, and social connectedness are different for retention and transfer. We found that academic performance has large effects on likelihood of retention and transfer; academic self-discipline, pre-college academic performance, and pre-college educational development have indirect effects on retention and transfer; and college commitment and social connectedness have direct effects on retention. Academic self-discipline led to greater first-year academic performance, which suppressed its effect on retention and transfer. Practical and theoretical implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2nd Annual National Symposium on Student Retention, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 2006.     

Strategic interactions: Games of the Ju|’hoan

Three strategic games played by the Ju|’hoan—a board, a card, and a gesture game—complicate the rhetorics that suggest an evolutionary or psychological significance of play. They are mostly played by adults, although every individual adult does not necessarily engage in each game. The Ju|’hoan card and board game practices were transmitted through contact across large parts of Botswana and Namibia, while the gesture game n!àì has been known in other San communities. It suggests that the significance of strategic games is more likely found in its potential for social interaction (i.e., allowing to overcome cultural divides) than in evolution and psychology. Within the anthropological literature, strategy games were thought to be absent in egalitarian societies, such as that of the Ju|’hoan. Here, the roles of power, competition, and winning were thought to be disruptive and unwanted. A closer examination of the details behind the Ju|’hoan games shows that not only were strategy games adopted and adapted from neighboring societies but that the game of n!àì was developed by the Ju|’hoan into a competitive one. The evolutionary or psychological significance of play is informed by studies on individual play, children’s play, and games with informal rules. When considering strategic games throughout history, it is their role of facilitator rather than the playing practice itself that makes games relevant across languages, cultural divides, and sociopolitical boundaries.     

汇流博物馆之所见

位于法国里昂罗恩河畔的汇流博物馆将所有学科都汇集在一起,正如爱米尔吉美说,"有学者喜欢与世隔绝,远离一切。他们选择自我,信赖自我,他们退回到自我的空间然后拉上身后的门帘。而我则喜欢在门帘上戳个洞,因为我想看到外面的一切并且希望每个人都能看到"。2014年正式竣工的博物馆之所以取名为"汇流",是为了体现各个知识领域之间的交汇和融合,同时也为了构建一个分享和开放的空间。博物馆     

“型”与“道”--柏拉图与老子形而上存在论思想比较

柏拉图在西方哲学历史上扮演了非常重要的角色,他的形而上学体系—理念论塑造了西方文化意识形态。而中国的老子则以他的道思想深刻影响了中国人的思维方式。探讨二者的形而上学体系的异同在全球化的今天具有重要的意义。     

Site selection in school district research: a measure of effectiveness using hierarchical longitudinal growth models of performance

School districts in the USA are an active area of study in education research as findings have shown that some districts find success in certain contexts while others struggle. However, the research domain has had few actionable methods for site selection for in-depth qualitative studies. This study analyses all districts in the state of Ohio (n = 610) from 2005–2006 through 2012–2013 using a two-level hierarchical linear growth model to identify districts that significantly outperform or underperform background and demographic variables in the Ohio Performance Index (PI) Score, factors outside the influence of the district administration. The aim of the study is to provide a framework for selecting comparison and contrast sites for district effectiveness research (DER). Additionally, the model captures school-level variance within districts controlling for average district performance. Fifteen outperforming districts are named as potential sites for in-depth qualitative studies of district effects in comparison to similar districts at the norm.     

Knowledge exchange in clusters: The contingent role of regional inventive concentration

Geographic clusters confer advantages to collocated firms, in particular access to local know-how. This article argues that the access to local know-how is contingent on the extent to which inventive activity is concentrated in the cluster. We draw on sociological theories of generalized exchange to argue that contrasting logics of exchange emerge in geographic clusters that have opposing effects on the extent to which firms benefit from collaborating with local organizations and source local knowledge. A longitudinal data set of 1903 firms engaged in nanotechnology research is used to examine the relationship between firm co-authorships on scientific articles with firms and public research organizations (PROs) and firm inventive performance. Results indicate that when cluster-level firm inventive concentration is high, collaborations with local firms are associated with lower inventive performance. We also find that firms source less local knowledge for their own inventions when firm inventive concentration is high. In contrast, concentrated inventive activity among PROs increases the positive relationship between collaborations with local PROs and firm inventive performance. Results also show firms source more knowledge from local PROs when local PRO inventive concentration is high. The findings suggest that inventive concentration both helps and hinders spill-over of cutting-edge knowledge.     

Heritage education in informal contexts. Motivation and self-concept / Educación patrimonial en contextos informales. Motivación y autoconcepto

The objective of this study is to analyse differences in motivation and social self-concept in students participating in three different programmes of heritage education in informal contexts. A total of 667 secondary school students from the mining and industrial area of Bizkaia participated in the study. The results show differences in motivation between experimental and control groups before and after their participation in the inter-generational programme. Differences were also found in social self-concept after participation in the inter-generational programme and a follow-up class, after participation in the Dolores Ibarruri programme and after visiting the Mining Museum. With regard to gender, no differences are found in motivation either before or after participation, although differences are found in favour of females in social self-concept.     

Converting between estimates of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity derived from raw accelerations measured at the wrist and from ActiGraph counts measured at the hip: the Rosetta Stone

The ability to compare published group-level estimates of objectively measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) across studies continues to increase in difficulty. The objective of this study was to develop conversion equations and demonstrate their utility to compare estimates of MVPA derived from the wrist and hip. Three studies of youth (N = 232, 9-12yrs, 50% boys) concurrently wore a hip-worn ActiGraph and a wrist-worn GENEActiv for 7-days. ActiGraph hip count data were reduced using four established cutpoints. Wrist accelerations were reduced using the Hildebrand MVPA 200 mg threshold. Conversion equations were developed on a randomly selected subsample of 132 youth. Equations were cross-validated and absolute error, absolute percent error, and modified Bland-Altman plots were evaluated for conversion accuracy. Across equations R²_adj was 0.51–0.56 with individual-level absolute error in minutes ranging from 7 (wrist-to-hip Puyau) to 14.5 minutes (wrist-to-hip Freedson 3MET) and absolute percent differences ranging from 13.9%-24.5%. Group-level cross-validation to convert hip-to-wrist MVPA resulted in average absolute percent errors ranging from 3.1%-4.9%. Conversion of wrist-to-hip MVPA resulted in average absolute percent errors ranging from 3.0%-10.0%. We recommend the use of these equations to compare published estimates of MVPA between the wear-site cut-point combinations presented.