Peer assessment in thesis oral presentation

Peer assessment has been studied in various situations and actively pursued as a means by which students are given more control over their learning and assessment achievement. This study investigated the reliability of staff and student assessments in two oral presentations with limited feedback for a school-based thesis course in engineering where the different disciplines ran their own assessment. Staff scores were generally found to be more reliable than student scores, but it was not consistent. The engineering disciplines displayed widely varying differences between the staff and student scores. A large variation in reliability was found for the different disciplines making it difficult to reconcile to a standard school-based overall grading scheme for the course when the reliability of marking was low. The results also showed that the average scores for oral presentations are generally much higher than for written examinations, based on the grade point average. Future research will need to investigate how best to develop a consistent assessment framework for oral presentations and moderation of scores for consistency, particularly for large classes where assessment are done by different groups of staff and students and collated into a single set of marks for the class.     

论1924年中苏外交关系的建立

2 0世纪 2 0年代上半期 ,中苏外交关系的建立 ,是一种必然的趋势。这是十月革命后俄国社会性质改变和北京政府迫于国内社会舆论压力的结果。但随着时间的推移和俄国国内情况的好转以及西方列强的干扰 ,又使其好事多磨 ,成为一个长期和非常曲折的发展过程 ;并使中国失去了解决外蒙问题、完全收回中东铁路等与苏俄交涉的有利时机     

Possible factors influencing Asian students' degree of participation in peer-facilitated online discussion forums: a case study

This study investigated possible factors that might influence the degree of student participation in asynchronous online discussion forums. Degree of participation refers to the number of messages posted by the students. Data were collected from 41 forums, students' reflection logs, and students' interviews. Of these 41 forums, the top third forums (n = 14) in terms of the highest frequency of participant postings were identified. Fourteen less frequent forums were randomly chosen from the remaining forums. We also assessed the quality of the discussions found in both the more frequent and less frequent groups by examining the levels of knowledge construction exhibited in the online postings. We found that that the quality of contributions in the more frequent group was greater than those found in the less frequent group in terms of higher knowledge construction levels. Quantitative analyses showed that the duration of the discussion could not account for the difference between the two groups. Instead, the more and less frequent forums differed in terms of group size, as well as the frequency of two habits of mind displayed by the student facilitators: (a) is aware of own thinking, and (b) is accurate and seeks accuracy. Qualitative analyses of the reflection logs and interviews suggested several other important factors that could also influence students' decision to participate: (a) familiarity with the facilitator, (b) mutual obligation to help each other, (c) knowledge about the topic, and (d) availability of time. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Chemistry Is in the News: assessing intra‐group peer review

Interdisciplinarity is rapidly becoming a norm within both the professional and academic worlds, and the ability to collaborate is becoming an essential skill for all graduates. Chemistry Is in the News (CIITN) is a curriculum that aims to teach students this skill by engaging student collaborative groups in a project that ties real world events and topics to the content taught in the classroom. While the collaborative activity has been successful in many ways, the challenge of maintaining individual accountability within the collaborative activity has persisted. The need to balance the tension between promoting collaboration and maintaining individual performance standards drove the development of an intra‐group peer review system. In developing this peer review system, four goals guide the design: the desire to promote collaboration, to produce a differentiated score among group members reflecting the contribution each person made, to improve student perception of fairness and accuracy in the assessment process of CIITN and to avoid artificially inflating students’ grades. The system was assessed in the winter semester of 2004 in a large lecture course at a major Midwestern university via student questionnaires and the CIITN scores. Evidence is provided to suggest that the intra‐group peer review system has met its core goals.     

Accreditation system for technical education programmes in India: A critical review

This paper gives an overview of the Indian technical education system with regard to both its quantitative and qualitative scenario and upholds the value of accreditation in quality improvement and quality assurance of educational programmes. The paper presents a comparison of accreditation systems being followed in some important countries, including India, that are signatories or provisional members of Washington Accord. It also looks into the reasons of the sparse level of accreditation work completed by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) since its inception. While mentioning strengths of the NBA accreditation system, the paper points out some shortcomings in the policy, self-assessment questionnaire, criteria, weightage assigned to criteria and rating scheme followed by NBA. Some important recommendations have also been made to render the accreditation system more effective and acceptable to various stakeholders of the technical education sector in India.     

浅析对社会结构理论的认识

社会结构是众多社会学家们研究关注的中心,但结构的概念仍只是被含糊地理论化,结构分析也百家争鸣。早期社会学家们在社会结构层面上对社会关系的解析,个人与社会,自由与秩序,行动与结构等二元关系始终成为他们研究的基本出发点,也是论战的焦点。在“后帕森斯”时代,社会学家们希望社会结构的概念能够脱离二元对立的困境和尴尬,最终走向综合。进入后结构主义时代后,后结构主义者认为二元对立已经消失,社会结构应走向彻底的“解构”。     

清末民初保定师范学校育人理念探析

保定师范学校,百年辉煌,深厚的历史积淀孕育了独特的育人理念,培育出大量人才,尤其是清末民初时期,可谓英才辈出,其严治校、重全面、重全程、重德育等方面的育人理念,对当今师范教育具有可资借鉴的价值。当今师范教育应严把入口关,选拔优秀学生,对学生从严管理,强化德育,重视对学生全面和全过程的培养。     

关联理论在语篇教学的应用

英语的语篇教学侧重培养学生对语篇的分析理解能力和逻辑思维能力。该文从关联理论的视角,论述了语篇学习中如何通过语境寻找最佳关联,推断话语含义,从而领会作品的深层意义。文章从四个方面展开探究：通过确定词义之间的关系寻找关联;借助认知语境寻找关联;通过话语的间接性寻找关联;从低调陈述寻找关联。     

高等师范院校学生体育态度变 化的实证研究

以Bonnie L．Parkhouse的职业体育劳资关系为基本模型，以我国的中超联赛为例，对我国职业体育中的劳资关系结构和要素进行分析。指出在我国职业体育中劳资关系存在的问题，并提出了相应的应对策略，即清晰界定劳资双方和第三方；建立与国际接轨的球员工会；规范和完善体育经纪人制度。     

民营化背景下行政法的发展变化与革新

现代行政国家为摆脱“政府失灵”的危机,纷纷进行政府改革,推行民营化战略。民营化运动导致公共行政领域发生了前所未有的新变化,这些变化使得行政法在实践中从基本理念、法律性质、法律关系和基本制度等发生了一系列变化。