Assessing the special education professional development needs of northern Malawian schoolteachers

This research examines special needs education professional development needs among both general and special education schoolteachers in northern Malawi. A semi‐structured questionnaire with open and close‐ended questions was used for the research. Quantitative and thematic analyses were conducted to determine the extent to which teachers believe that students with disabilities should be educated together with students without disabilities, the importance of professional development for teaching students with disabilities, prioritised professional development needs regarding special education knowledge, and self‐identified needs for successful special education classrooms. Results indicate that teachers are generally in favour of inclusive practices and identify a high need for special education professional development. Participants identified training and resources to teach students with visual impairments or auditory impairments as a high priority. Participants noted a need for improved infrastructure, more educational materials, and recognition by the government for work in special education.     

What Lies between the Religious and the Secular?: Education beyond the Human

The current age is characterised by many as secular, and a source of such a characterisation can be found in the Nietzschean claim that thoughts about there being some ultimate reality have to be jettisoned, and human existence and the world need to be embraced as they are. That claim is renewed by some secular thinkers who insist that education has to be reconceived in ways congenial to the new age. It is argued that central to their logic is the dichotomy between the religious and the secular or the otherworldly and the earthly, and that this dichotomy is simplistic as well as problematic. As an alternative to the ‘two worlds’ view, the ‘two aspects’ view is suggested, with an interpretation of reality that the noumenon––the non‐human––has to be taken in the negative sense. Against secularising the domain of education, it is indicated that there still remains a place for education to occupy between the two poles of religiousness and secularity.     

Higher Education as a Platform for Cross‐Cultural Transition: the Case of the First Educated Bedouin Women in Israel

This article examines two groups of Bedouin women who studied in different cultural spaces. The first group, due to a lack of high schools in the Negev (during the 1970s), were obliged to leave the village to study and reside in boarding schools in the central and northern regions of Israel. These women returned to their society of origin after the completion of their academic studies. The second group went to Jewish universities in a town near their homes (Beersheba), attending daily and returning home each night to patriarchal control. The article examines the experience of these pioneers in higher education as a form of cultural transition and internal immigration, with an emphasis on the unique characteristics of each of the two groups. Going out to gain higher education is seen in Bedouin society as a form of immigration, and the first educated women therefore became a type of immigrant.     

基于用户兴趣度量的知识发现服务精准推荐

[目的/意义]针对当前知识发现服务中存在的个性化程度不高和推荐效果不佳等问题，提出一种基于用户兴趣度量和内容分析的推荐算法。[方法/过程]文章通过特征词分布、LDA主题分布、引文结构网络三个维度构建学术资源模型，并通过对用户行为的度量，计算用户对其浏览学术资源的兴趣度，结合学术资源模型构建用户兴趣模型。将用户兴趣模型与学术资源模型匹配，计算其相似度，得到用户对每条学术资源的兴趣值，最后将兴趣值最高的TOP-N学术资源推荐给用户。[结果/结论]通过实验检验算法的有效性和推荐准确率，结果显示，本文从实时动态度量兴趣的角度，提出的推荐算法能较好地预测用户兴趣，推荐效果显著，为实现发现服务精准推荐提供思路。     

Preparing the Next Generation of Educational Measurement Specialists: A Call for Programs With an Integrated Scope and Sequence

The field of educational measurement has evolved considerably since the first doctoral programs were established. In response, programs have typically tacked on courses that address newly developed theories, methods, tools, and techniques. As our review of current programs evidences, this approach produces artificial distinctions among topics and techniques that are in fact a tightly coupled whole. This position paper advocates a redesign of the scope and sequence for doctoral programs focused on the preparation of the next generations of educational measurement specialists; a redesign that reflects the full life‐cycle of instrument development and use.     

‘Nowhere that fits’: the dilemmas of school choice for parents of children with Statements of special educational needs (SEN) in England

Giving parents a choice with regard to their children's education has been central to the political discourse of school reform at least since the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA). With regard to children with a Statement of special educational needs (SSEN), a plethora of policies and laws have given parents the right not only to choose a school, but also to appeal to decisions in the best interest of their children. Yet, despite the discourse of school choice, the implementation and practice of such reforms is neither assured nor simple. Participants in this study indicated that they have little choice of suitable provision and are having to compromise either the academic or the social aspects of their child's schooling. This article argues that for many parents whose children have a Statement of SEN, the choice of a school is often a dilemma, as ‘nowhere seems to fit’.