The New Empire of Capital: The Pedagogy of the Streets

In every generation, some event serves to remind us that the exercise of power is always in part a function of control over geography.     

Student & tutor consensus: a partnership in assessment for learning

The mistakes made when attempting tasks often prove to be some of the most invaluable learning experiences. Despite this, outcome and results driven assessment formats largely penalise student performance errors or reward students who succeed by chance. The consequences of this paradigm are visible effects on student relationships with assessment. The student–tutor consensus approach to assessment was introduced to capture student learning achieved ‘from’ assessment to complement the measurement of performance outcomes. This approach parallels student and tutor judgement in a grade negotiation, affording the student an opportunity to share with their assessor what they have learned from the assessment activity. This student self-awareness was then considered alongside the conventional outcome-based score awarded by the tutor to generate a final grade for the assessed activity. Our study evaluated the perceptions of 90 undergraduate students enrolled in the bachelor of paramedic studies, who participated in this novel assessment approach as part of a final-year capstone topic. The results comprehensively indicated value for all aspects of the assessment approach, as well as a recognition that the skills will be useful in their future professional roles.     

Robust estimator design with an emphasis balance between performance and robustness

From a number of ML estimators (typically unbiased) of practical interest which include the variance for a Gaussian distribution, the standard deviation for a Laplace distribution, the variance for a Rayleigh distribution and a “spread parameter” for a Cauchy distribution, we design robust estimators according to an emphasis balance between normalized performance and normalized robustness. We measure performance with inverted MSE and robustness with a differential geometric approach.     

Clarifying mastery-avoidance goals in high school: Distinguishing between intrapersonal and task-based standards of competence

The definition, measurement, prevalence, and relations of mastery-avoidance goals with engagement outcomes are still under debate. Study 1 (n = 256) aimed to investigate these issues among junior high and high school students in two domains. Findings indicated that students distinguished between the three commonly assessed achievement goals and mastery-avoidance goals. Moreover, students distinguished between the two standards conceived to underlie mastery-avoidance goals—task-mastery and intrapersonal competence. However, the task-mastery items failed to show reliability. Study 2 (n = 118) aimed to replicate the results of Study 1 as well as to investigate the associations of mastery-avoidance goals with self-regulation strategies and affect in school. Intrapersonal mastery-avoidance goals were positively related to adaptive strategies and negatively with maladaptive strategies. Moreover, when combined with mastery-approach goals, intrapersonal mastery-avoidance goals enhanced students’ reports of adaptive affect in school. The implications of these findings to theory, method, and future directions are discussed.     

姜黄素类铂（Ⅱ）配合物的合成及其光学性质

以乙醇为溶剂,用自制的姜黄素衍生物（L1~L2）和碘亚铂酸钾为原料,合成得到了两种姜黄素类铂（Ⅱ）配合物（A和B）,通过IR1、HNMR、MS和元素分析对目标化合物进行了结构表征。并对它们的紫外可见电子光谱、单、双光子荧光光谱和双光子吸收截面进行了初步地研究。     

Harnessing technology to improve formative assessment of student conceptions in STEM: forging a national network

Concept inventories, consisting of multiple-choice questions designed around common student misconceptions, are designed to reveal student thinking. However, students often have complex, heterogeneous ideas about scientific concepts. Constructed-response assessments, in which students must create their own answer, may better reveal students' thinking, but are time- and resource-intensive to evaluate. This report describes the initial meeting of a National Science Foundation-funded cross-institutional collaboration of interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education researchers interested in exploring the use of automated text analysis to evaluate constructed-response assessments. Participants at the meeting shared existing work on lexical analysis and concept inventories, participated in technology demonstrations and workshops, and discussed research goals. We are seeking interested collaborators to join our research community.     

Intergenerational learning practices—Digital leaders in schools

This paper explores the management and outcomes of a specific model of intergenerational learning, concerned with student digital leader support in a number of secondary schools in England. A local educational partnership set up a student digital leader project late in 2011, which aimed to develop a range of skills and outcomes for both the digital leaders themselves and for a potentially wider variety of personnel within the schools. Five schools were involved in the project. The student digital leaders shared their digital technology expertise with others with less developed skills, including teachers and managers in these schools. The study reported in this paper explored ways that the digital leader initiative was implemented, identifying and analysing outcomes and issues arising. Evidence from informants and from the analysis of benefits arising indicates that the student digital leader initiative led to a variety of positive outcomes. A key finding and conclusion is that this form of initiative has involved some students who tend not to be involved in other leadership or school-wide activities. The initiative enables these students to contribute to the community, rather than just receiving from it; students become active contributors to, as well as receivers from, the educational system.