No harmless child labor: The effect of child labor on academic achievement in francophone Western and Central Africa

This study empirically examines the effect of child labor on academic achievement in 10 francophone Western and Central African countries. The data were taken from the Programme d’Analyse des Systèmes Educatifs de la CONFEMEN and comprised characteristics of 25,288 grade six students across 1803 schools. Two-stage least squares analysis highlights that child labor undermines academic achievement regardless of subject, gender, and age. It lowers reading and mathematics scores for both genders and for children under 12 and over 13 years. Child labor therefore hinders human capital accumulation in African countries, and it takes place at the cost of future prosperity.     

A multi-criteria approach for the group assessment of an academic course: A case study

The present paper aims at proposing a structured methodology to evaluate the results of an academic training course addressed to postgraduate students. The evaluation process intends to identify the efficacy of an education course by means of a comparison between the general objectives and the results expected by the students. Since the evaluated aspects by the students, detected by means of questionnaires, are both quantitative and qualitative, the proposed methodology is based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). In order to facilitate the evaluation process, answers have been modelled by means of linguistic variables. In particular, different evaluation scales have been used and each one is characterized by different levels associated to different fuzzy numbers.     

Adolescents’ autonomous functioning and implicit theories of ability as predictors of their school achievement and week-to-week study regulation and well-being

Research on students’ motivation has mainly focused on interpersonal differences rather than on the ongoing, intrapersonal dynamics that forge students’ everyday life. In this five-month longitudinal (diary) study, we recruited a sample of 179 high school students from Greece (35.8% males; M_age = 16.27; SD = 1.02) to investigate through multilevel analyses the ongoing dynamics of students’ motivation. We did so by examining the relation between autonomous functioning and aspects of study regulation (namely, study efforts and procrastination) and well-being (namely, subjective vitality and depressive feelings). After controlling for perceived competence, we found week-to-week autonomous functioning to relate positively to study efforts and subjective vitality and negatively to procrastination and depressive feelings. Interestingly, implicit theories of ability - the degree to which one believes that ability is fixed or amenable - were found to moderate the week-to-week relations of autonomous functioning to study efforts and homework procrastination. In particular, autonomous functioning co-varied positively to study efforts and negatively to homework procrastination only among students who believed that ability is malleable. Also, beliefs that ability is fixed predicted poorer grades, lower mean levels of study efforts, and higher homework procrastination. The results underscore the necessity of taking a more dynamic view when studying motivational phenomena and the importance of jointly considering the implicit theory framework and self-determination theory.     

Critically reflexive dialogue and praxis: Academic/practitioner reflections throughout a formative evaluation of Circles® USA

Reflections about the use of critically reflexive praxis by academic/practitioners are offered based on a case study of a formative evaluation of Circles^® USA, a nonprofit organization coordinating initiatives across the U.S. working to move families out of poverty. Critically reflexive praxis is theorized as featuring several themes including acknowledging different levels of context, critical dialogue with collaborators, engaging cultural difference and intersectionalities, problematizing power relations and relationships among researchers and collaborators, and occurring throughout the research project. Examples of critical dialogic reflexivity and navigating common tensions that emerge throughout such community engagement projects are detailed during three phases: planning and design; fieldwork and interviews; and outcomes, applications, and implications.     

健康素养对用户健康信息在线搜索行为的影响分析

[目的/意义] 结合网络健康信息搜索情境,从健康知识素养和健康信息检索素养两个视角出发,对用户健康信息搜索行为的过程变量和结果变量进行影响分析,探究健康素养对用户健康信息检索行为的影响机理。[方法/过程] 采用情境模拟实验和问卷调查相结合的方法,选取在校大学生为实验对象,利用SPSS多变量方差分析和独立样本T检验归纳出用户健康信息检索过程呈现的规律特点,并探究用户健康素养及搜索经验与网络健康信息搜索行为过程变量和结果变量的影响关系。[结果/结论] 结果表明,用户的健康知识素养和健康信息检索素养对搜索过程变量分别有较大影响,对搜索结果变量有交互影响。     

数字环境下城乡青年健康信息搜寻行为研究

[目的/意义] 从信息行为视角阐释城乡青年在健康信息领域的表征与原由,为相关管理部门制定政策与措施、医疗与网站等健康服务教育机构提升健康信息服务提供参考。[方法/过程] 采用半结构化访谈收集24位20-29岁河南省城乡青年的健康信息搜寻行为数据,考察数字环境下城乡青年健康信息需求动机、信息搜寻行为特点及异同,借助Nvivo对数据进行整理、编码和内容分析。从网络获取方式、手机与电脑使用体验差异、健康信息需求类别、搜寻途径、检索方式及平台选择等方面对城乡青年健康信息搜寻行为的共性与差异予以分析。[结果/结论] 与农村青年相比,城市青年健康信息需求范围更广泛、检索策略与平台选择多样化。论文提出城乡青年间“数字鸿沟”的存在可能引发“健康信息鸿沟”的风险,根源在于收入水平、受教育程度、信息技术使用能力等因素直接影响数字环境下网络接入、使用及信息化水平。     

试论职业资格考试对教育供求的调节

职业资格证书制度属于国家考试制度,学历证书制度属于国家教育 制度,二者对教育供求的调节产生了不同影响。在学历社会向资格社会转轨过程 中,要实现职业资格考试对教育供求的有效调节,就必须研究职业资格考试与教 育供求调节的关系,改革国家教育培训制度,更好地适应劳动力市场的需要,这是 优化人力资源配置、加强人力资源能力建设的重要课题。     

Floating collection in an academic library: An audacious experiment that succeeded

Can a floating collection thrive in a large multicampus academic research library? Floating collections have been successful in public libraries for some time, but it is uncommon for academic libraries and unheard of for a large academic library system. This article will discuss the investigation into the feasibility of a floating collection at Penn State University Libraries, its implementation, and continuation for a period covering 2009 through 2015. Attaining the floating collection, limited to monographs in the general stacks of campus libraries, proved to be easier to implement than imagined and resulted in unintended benefits as well as some surprises.