Communication Research and General Media

William B. Fairley and Frederick Mosteller, eds. Statistics and Public Policy (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1977— price not given)

Julian L. Simon's Basic. Research Methods in Social Sciences: The Art of Empirical Investigation (New York: Random House, 1978—$14.95)

Delbert C. Miller's Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement (New York: McKay, 1978—$14.95, with a paperback edition available)

James Monaco, ed. Media Culture and Celebrity: The Media as Image Makers (New York: Delta Books (Dell), 1978—$4.95 each, paper)     

Test-Based Learning: Inconsistent Effects Between Higher- and Lower-Level Test Questions

Providing test questions after an initial study phase is a common instructional technique. In theory, questions that require higher-level (deep) processing should be more beneficial than those that require lower-level (shallow) processing. However, empirical evidence on the matter is inconsistent. To shed light on two potential reasons for these inconsistencies, we conducted an experiment (N = 81) to analyze the role of (a) the share of information to which test questions direct learners and (b) the learning activities performed in the initial study phase with respect to the effects between higher- and lower-level test questions. We found that both the share of focused information and the initial learning activities moderated the effects between higher- and lower-level test questions.     

技术支持的"非正规学习"研究新进展

对大部分人来说,当我们讨论学习时,我们会不可避免地将其与正规的教育系统联系起来。但任何关于ICTs在儿童学习中角色的研究都使我们认识到,在校外情景中,儿童非常容易沉浸于ICTs相关的活动中,这就迫使我们必须用更广阔的视角来审视包括学校、家庭、休闲、图书馆、博物馆等在内的"教育生态学"。本综述首先对"非正规学习"进行了界定,指发生在学校环境之外,数字技术支持或与数字技术交互的非正规学习;接着讨论了本研究所依据的学习的核心理论以及在ICTs支持的关于学习的研究中不断产生的新的学习理论;勾勒出儿童在校外获取和使用数字技术的情景;然后基于已有的关于技术支持的非正规学习的案例,总结提炼出技术支持的非正规学习的关键特征;最后对这些研究的理论和政策含义进行了深入的研究和剖析。     

English in Education: the first fifty years

On the fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of English in Education, this article reviews the journal's contribution to research and practice in the teaching of English. A thematic analysis based on close study of a sample of volumes is arranged chronologically (to show the development of ideas and practices) and thematically in terms of language mode (speaking; writing; reading, including new technologies). The article argues that the journal archive can shed light on the educational past in ways that can effectively inform the educational present and help to set agenda for the future.     

Non-centralized control for flow-based distribution networks: A game-theoretical insight

This paper solves a data-driven control problem for a flow-based distribution network with two objectives: a resource allocation and a fair distribution of costs. These objectives represent both cooperation and competition directions. It is proposed a solution that combines either a centralized or distributed cooperative game approach using the Shapley value to determine a proper partitioning of the system and a fair communication cost distribution. On the other hand, a decentralized non-cooperative game approach computing the Nash equilibrium is used to achieve the control objective of the resource allocation under a non-complete information topology. Furthermore, an invariant-set property is presented and the closed-loop system stability is analyzed for the non-cooperative game approach. Another contribution regarding the cooperative game approach is an alternative way to compute the Shapley value for the proposed specific characteristic function. Unlike the classical cooperative-games approach, which has a limited application due to the combinatorial explosion issues, the alternative method allows calculating the Shapley value in polynomial time and hence can be applied to large-scale problems.     

Self-confidence and performance goal orientation interactively predict performance in a reasoning test with accuracy feedback

This study takes an individual differences' perspective on performance feedback effects in psychometric testing. A total of 105 students in a mainstream secondary school in North East England undertook a cognitive ability test on two occasions. In one condition, students received item-specific accuracy feedback while in the other (standard condition) no feedback was provided. While accuracy feedback had, on average, no effect on test performance, differential effects were observed. Performance goal orientation and self-confidence moderated feedback effects on performance. The provision of accuracy feedback seemed to have performance optimising effects upon test takers with high performance goal orientation in combination with low self-confidence. The implications of these findings in relation to the validity of findings from psychological testing are discussed.