Preface: Historical research on archives and knowledge cultures: an interdisciplinary wave

Introduces the collection of articles collected in the special issue "Knowledge Cultures.”     

Mirroring governance: archives,inventories and political knowledge in early modern Switzerland and Europe

The comparative study of archival inventories in early modern Switzerland reveals that three major regimes of inventorying logic emerged from the late fifteenth to the early eighteenth century. Early inventories constructed as lists gave way first to ideal-topographical inventories that relied on a double mapping of conceptual spaces against archival space and inventory pages, succeeded eventually by taxonomic inventories oriented around an active state apparatus and its needs. Synchronic and diachronic comparisons that focus on major reorganizations have proven effective in illustrating the scope and effectiveness of each of the successive regimes. A similar approach applied to major inventory projects across early modern Europe may identify further systems for making accumulating documents accessible to rulers, and may also allow us to trace genealogies of inventory practice regimes as they appeared in different regions, at different scales, and in diverse political contexts.

Response strength and temporal control in fixed-interval schedules

Pigeons responded in a two-component peak procedure in which the components differed in terms of reinforcement magnitude (Experiment 1), immediacy (Experiment 2), or probability (Experiment 3). The prediction of behavioral momentum theory that responding in the relatively richer component should be more resistant to change was tested by (1) presenting response-independent food in the intervals between components according to a variable-time (VT) schedule, (2) prefeeding, and (3) extinction. In all the experiments, peak location in baseline occurred earlier, relative to the schedule value in the richer component. Peak response rate was more resistant to change in the richer component during the VT and prefeeding tests, and change in peak rate was more sensitive to differential reinforcement than change in overall response rate. Changes in measures of performance on peak trials during the disruptor tests were partially consistent with predictions of the behavioral theory of timing. The results suggest that peak response rate provides a more sensitive index of resistance to change for fixed-interval schedules than does overall response rate and that reinforcement strengthens both peak responding and temporal control.     

Unpacking the data: an analysis of the use of Danielson’s (2007) <Emphasis Type="Italic">Framework for Professional Practice</Emphasis> in a teaching residency program

This mixed methods study examines one teacher preparation program’s use of Danielson’s 2007 Framework for Professional Practice, with an emphasis on how different stakeholders in the traditional student teaching triad rated student teachers, called residents, and justified their ratings. Data sources include biannual self-assessments of each resident as well as assessments by the residents’ cooperating teachers and university supervisors based on the Framework, including both a numerical score for each of the 22 indicators and a written justification for the highest and lowest scores in each of the four domains. Findings show significant differences in terms of how stakeholders are rating residents’ teaching practice. The variation in scores and rationales raises questions about the reliability and validity of the results of the Framework for use as a tool to evaluate student teachers. Implications for practice include the need to consider multiple and potentially conflicting roles, such as that of providing feedback while also evaluating student teachers. In addition, we consider the costs and benefits of more extensive training around the Framework within teacher preparation, if a lack of expertise with the rubric was the cause for the variation. Finally, we consider implications for student teachers around the different messages they may be receiving about what it means to learn to teach.     

The Internet and Online Political Communities in Singapore

The emergence and the widespread adoption of the Internet have brought about many dramatic changes on different levels. Due to its inherent characteristics, the Internet has become an engine of political mobilization and participation, and has led to the proliferation of online communities. Few studies examine how political groups use the Internet to build communities and forge alliances in cyberspace, and this study attempts to bridge this gap. Registered political parties and political expression groups in Singapore were selected for this study. Through hyperlink analysis, the study shows that reciprocity and similarity, two main characteristics observed in online communities, were found in the groupings formed by these political groups. Interestingly, most of the online affiliations that exist among these groups reflect those offline.