JISC's Academic Database Assessment Tool as a Collection Development and Management Tool for Bibliographic Databases

The Academic Database Assessment Tool (ADAT) from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) enables users to compile and compare journal title lists from many different suppliers. The makers claim that this tool can help identify overlap of coverage among comparable databases and platforms. This article provides an overview of the tool's major features, including limitations, and how it can be used in academic libraries to make informed collection development and management decisions regarding electronic databases.     

Comparative Usage of Science E-book and Print Collections at Texas A&M University Libraries

This study compares usage figures between equivalent e-books and print books owned by the Texas A&M University Libraries in the physical sciences and technology. For NetLibrary, the top 10 science e-books were used over six times more than the print books, and the top 10 chemistry e-books were used over three times more than their print counterparts. For ebrary, the top 17 science e-books were used at least 17 times more than the same print books. In Safari, the top 10 computer science e-books were used 207 times more than their print counterparts. Usage statistics such as these can help librarians make informed e-book purchase decisions, especially in times of retrenchment.     

Testing the fairness of citation indicators for comparison across scientific domains: The case of fractional citation counts

Citation numbers are extensively used for assessing the quality of scientific research. The use of raw citation counts is generally misleading, especially when applied to cross-disciplinary comparisons, since the average number of citations received is strongly dependent on the scientific discipline of reference of the paper. Measuring and eliminating biases in citation patterns is crucial for a fair use of citation numbers. Several numerical indicators have been introduced with this aim, but so far a specific statistical test for estimating the fairness of these numerical indicators has not been developed. Here we present a statistical method aimed at estimating the effectiveness of numerical indicators in the suppression of citation biases. The method is simple to implement and can be easily generalized to various scenarios. As a practical example we test, in a controlled case, the fairness of fractional citation count, which has been recently proposed as a tool for cross-discipline comparison. We show that this indicator is not able to remove biases in citation patterns and performs much worse than the rescaling of citation counts with average values.     

Student Decision-Making about a Globally Familiar Socioscientific Issue: The value of sharing and comparing views with international counterparts

This paper focuses on the views of 16–17-year-old science students from England, Germany, Hong Kong and Sweden on whale hunting, and their perceptions of the views of their international counterparts. The students were all provided with the same decision-making task, discussed the issue in small groups and then presented their views on video, which were shared with their counterparts. The findings show that the decision-making task served to deepen and modify students' views across all nationalities, and the students generally valued and learned from the sharing of views with students of the same age from around the world. However, an important discovery was that the German students' opinions often ran counter to those from the other 3 locations, and the paper cautions against making broad-sweeping generalisations about students' views on socioscientific issues.     

跨语言学习心理测评——来自中英文阅读动机和阅读水平的证据

在跨语言学习测评研究中,目前尚未有学者探究同一群体的中国学生的中英文学习心理是如何相互影响,并最终影响语言能力。为弥补这一研究空白,本研究调查了中国北京267名初中生中英文阅读动机,并同时测试他们的和中英文阅读能力。在八个维度的阅读动机中,对中文作为母语和英文作为外语的阅读动机进行量化对比,中文阅读动机在自我效能感、好奇心、投入度、消遣娱乐性、社会伙伴态度五个维度上的表现高于英文阅读动机;而在学业成绩、工具性、社会家庭态度三个维度上,两者没有差异。同时,相关分析表明工具性与英文阅读水平密切相关;消遣娱乐性与中文阅读水平密切相关。此外,多元线性回归分析显示,不同维度的阅读动机分别解释中英文阅读水平的差异。这些研究结果验证了阅读动机的跨语言性迁移特征,不同的阅读动机对中英文阅读水平起着不同作用。文章最后对中英文阅读教学提出了指导意见。     

Different statistical measures create different perceptions of the digital divide

Simultaneous two-dimensional comparisons of time series data—vertically (static difference) and horizontally (Sicherl-time-distance)—for numerous ITU and Eurostat datasets show that estimates of the magnitude of digital divide can differ substantially between conventional static measures and Sicherl-time-distance, a dynamic measure of disparity. Comparing digital divide indicators with other indicators of social inequality (life expectancy, infant mortality), the analysis shows that high ICT growth rate improved well-being in developing countries and reduced some world inequalities. This methodology enables researchers, policy makers, and business managers how to draw new insights from existing data, including monitoring the attainment of targets.     

Dimensional comparisons in students' perceptions of the learning environment

This study aims to add empirical evidence to the generalized internal/external frames of reference (GI/E) model, according to which students' social and dimensional achievement comparisons might not only be related to students' self-concepts but also to perceptions of the learning environment. In a sample of N = 4926 German students, math and language achievements were measured along with two facets of students' perceptions of the learning environment, i.e., perceived instructional quality of math and language classes and perceived relations to math and language teachers. In the GI/E path model, achievement and perceptions of the learning environment were positively related within matching domains but negatively related or unrelated across non-matching domains. This pattern of relations indicates that social and dimensional achievement comparisons contribute to the formation of students' perceptions of the learning environment but the pattern of relations was stronger for math than for language achievement. Students' perceptions of instructional quality were more strongly related to achievement than perceptions of student–teacher relations. The findings were generalizable across same-aged elementary and secondary school students. The results are discussed regarding their implications for the proposed GI/E model and their importance for future research.     

Getting the fish out of the water: Considering benefits and problems of doing research on teacher education at an international level

Structure and content of teacher education depend on a deeper rationale, which is a result of cultural boundaries. At the same time teaching is a cultural practice that differs across countries. Like the water in the fish's tank, such cultural givens are too often invisible as we debate research designs. In this article, we focus in particular on the understanding of three main components of teacher education: mathematics, mathematics pedagogy and general pedagogy, and on juxtaposing two extreme models: Germany and the US. It turns out that benefits and problems of international comparisons are closely related to each other.