Sample, Random and Variation: The Vocabulary of Statistical Literacy

This paper considers the development of school students’ ability to define three terms that are fundamental to statistical literacy: sample, random, and variation. A total of 738 students in grades 3, 5, 7, and 9 were asked in a survey to define and give an example for the word “sample.” Of these, 379 students in grades 7 and 9 were also asked about the words “random” and “variation.” Responses were used to describe developmental levels overall and to document differences across grades on the understanding of these terms. Changes in performance were also monitored after lessons on chance and data, emphasizing variation for 335 students. After 2 years, 132 of these students and a further 209 students who were surveyed originally but did not take part in specialized lessons, were surveyed again. The difference after 2 years between the performance of students who experienced the specialized lessons and those who did not was considered, revealing no differences in performance longitudinally. For students in grades 7 and 9, the association of performance on the three terms was explored. Implications for mathematics and literacy educators are discussed.     

Assessment of Students’ Understanding of Variation

Several tasks used in research studies are presented with assessment rubrics and examples of the development of student understanding. The tasks focus on students’ appreciation of variation in several contexts and illustrate the need to discuss variation in the classroom and to ask students specifically about it during assessment.     

Relationships amongst cultural dimensions,educational expenditure and class size of different nations

Many studies have concentrated on investigating educational expenditure and pupil–teacher ratio to see how these two factors can influence the quality of education. This study chooses to examine these two educational factors from a different perspective. If educational expenditure and pupil–teacher ratio really have a significant impact on the quality of education as many studies have claimed, it is important to step back and understand why some regions choose to have high/low educational expenditure and high/low pupil–teacher ratios. This study found that culture has an important impact on these two educational factors. Hofstede's cultural dimensions, namely Power Distance and Individualism, were applied and results showed that these two cultural dimensions, when applied to 43 regions around the world, demonstrated a significant impact on educational expenditure and pupil–teacher ratio.     

Development and Evaluation of Turkish Language Versions of three Positive Psychology Assessments

This study reports the development and evaluation of a Turkish-language version of three positive psychology assessments for use in clinical, education and research settings with Turkish-speaking individuals. A multistage translation of the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS; Smith et al. in International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15, 194–200, 2008), the General Mattering Scale (GMS; Marcus 1991) and the Short Grit Scale (GS; Duckworth & Quinn in Journal of Personality Assessment, 91, 166–174. doi:10.1080/00223890802634290, 2009) is detailed, as well as the procedure used to evaluate the internal structure of the translated assessments. The results yielded from data of 268 participants indicated factor structures ranging from acceptable to robust model fit for the BRS, GMS, and GS. Implications for counseling practice and future research are discussed.     

动物也友善?

人类有一套道德准则,(美国)科罗拉多大学的动物行为专家马克·贝可夫说。如果我不按某种方式办事,你就不会跟我玩了。有些动物也有同样的准则。     

秦始皇兵马俑博物馆室内含硫颗粒物的SEM-EDX研究

本文对秦始皇兵马俑博物馆室内采集的长短期降尘、大气悬浮颗粒物和彩绘漆层进行了SEM-EDX研究，在大气悬浮颗粒、短期和长期降尘中，含硫颗粒的粒径分别为0.9～22.8μm、1.0～29.0μm和1.2～37.7μm，多为石膏与粘土或石英以内部混合的状态存在。降尘中的附着型絮状硫酸钙多于大气悬浮颗粒物中，显示降尘和大气中的二氧化硫发生了累进的化学反应。彩绘漆层表面的坑和裂隙附近观察到原位生长的硫酸钙晶体，显示漆层材料或降尘颗粒物与大气二氧化硫之间的酸化学反应，可能是彩绘漆层表面受侵蚀形成微小坑和裂隙的原因之一。     

Closing the Feedback Loop: Ensuring Effective Action from Student Feedback

Feedback from students can informimprovement in higher education institutionsand be part of the students' role in universitymanagement. To be effective it is important to`close the loop': from student views, throughidentifying issues and delegatingresponsibility for action, to informingstudents of the action resulting from theirexpressed views. The focus of this paper is theStudent Satisfaction Approach, aninstitution-wide survey used internationally.The paper explores the different waysuniversities feed back information to studentsfollowing institution-wide surveys, includingthe different presentation styles and the typesof issues that are presented to students,drawing on international examples.     

From the Adam Smith Institute to the Zapatistas: An Internet Gateway to all development knowledge

This article critically examines a major World Bank Internet initiative, the Development Gateway. It describes the importance of the World Bank as the Knowledge Bank and the threats posed by the Internet to its near monopoly of development thinking. The Bank's Gateway plan attempts to bring together views of all stakeholders on a large number of topics at both global and country level. The article argues that this effort is naive, impossible and dangerous. The initiative, which will marginalise dissident and minority views, reveals biases and misunderstandings in the World Bank's overall approach to knowledge for development.