Mathematics motivation and engagement: an independent evaluation of a complex model with Australian rural high school students

Most traditional models of academic motivation focus on a small number of specific factors. However, the Student Motivation and Engagement Scale (MES) (Martin, 2007b Martin, A.J. 2007b. The motivation and engagement scale, Sydney, , Australia: Lifelong Achievement Group.  [Google Scholar]) includes a fairly comprehensive range of perspectives on general student motivation. The current study set out (a) to provide an independent test of the proposed 11-factor structure of the MES for boys and girls when (b) applied to high school mathematics in Australia (N = 1014; Years 7 to 11). It also examined (c) the covariation of different facets of motivation and engagement with gender, year level, and scholastic achievement. The hypothesised 11-factor model fit reasonably well across gender, and there was clear evidence of specificity to maths compared to English achievement. Some gender and grade effects were observed as well. The study provides support for the value of the Martin model and its instrument. It also extends our knowledge of student motivation to mathematics in Australian rural high schools.     

Get Your Head in the Clouds

No abstract available for this article.     

The e-Book Apocalypse: A Survivor's Guide

As an outgrowth of its course in online literature searching, the University of Washington School of Librarianship has recently added a course on numeric databases to its professional degree program. It emphasizes the relationship of these files to bibliographic databases and their application to general library service, rather than concepts of data management or statistical techniques, although attention was also given to these topics. Hands-on experience in searching socioeconomic databases provides students without research experience with an awareness of the character and capability of these resources. The course serves both as an introduction to a career specialization in data management as well as an examination of the role of numeric databases in library reference services. Given the increasing importance of statistical analysis in the social sciences, academic concern for training in the use of numeric databases is of a particular concern to the behavioral or social science librarian.     

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

No abstract available for this article.     

A Conceptual View of Web-Based E-Learning Systems

Starting from a general framework for web-based e-learning systems that is based on an abstraction layer model, this paper presents a conceptual modelling approach, which captures the modelling of learners, the modelling of courses, the personalisation of courses, and the management of data in e-learning systems. Courses are modelled by outline graphs, which are further refined by some form of process algebra. The linguistic analysis of word fields referring to an application domain helps to set up these course outlines. Learners are modelled by classifying value combinations for their characteristic properties. Each learner type gives rise to intentions as well as rights and obligations in using a learning system. Intentions can be formalised as postconditions, while rights and obligations lead to deontic constraints. The intentions can be used for the personalisation of the learning system to a learner type. Finally, the management of data in an e-learning system is approached on two different levels dealing with the content of individual learning units and the integrated content of the whole system, respectively. This leads to supporting databases and views defined on them.     

Firm-provided Training in Europe and the Limits of National Skills Strategies

This article addresses cross-country and cross-period differences in average levels of training activity from an institutional perspective. Firm-provided training in Europe between 1999 and 2010 is scrutinized in order to explore whether diverse institutional arrangements that can be linked to welfare state regimes can yield discernible cross-country patterns. An emphasis is placed on the limits of national skills strategies that are not well embedded in wider institutional environments. This is grounded in a view that policy efforts to influence training activity, involves nothing less than ‘reforming’ societies. Insights of this research should contribute both to a critical reflection of the EU's targets in the field of lifelong learning as well as supporting policy learning between member states.     

Emancipation in cross-cultural IS research: The fine line between relativism and dictatorship of the intellectual

Critical research is becoming increasingly accepted as a valid approach to research in information systems. It is deemed to be particularly suitable for situations where researchers want to address conspicuous injustice, such as in areas of development or the digital divide. Critical research in information systems (CRIS), I will argue, is a possible approach to some of the ethical problems arising in the context of information and communication technology (ICT). It can be sensitive to the question of culture and therefore suitable for researching cross-cultural ethical questions in ICT. It is often unclear, however, what exactly critical research stands for and to what extent critical approaches are applicable across cultural boundaries. This paper will address these problems by proposing a definition of critical research as focused on changing the status quo and aiming for emancipation. It will then look at the question whether different cultures are compatible and comparable and what the role of culture in research on information systems is. The paper will then return to the question whether the critical intention to emancipate and empower humans is an expression of cultural imperialism or whether there are valid ways of promoting emancipation across cultural divides.