Do children spend too much time in schools? Evidence from a longer school year in Indonesia

I examine the effects of a longer school year in Indonesia on grade repetition, educational attainment, employability, and earnings. I exploit an arbitrary rule that assigned students to a longer school year in Indonesia in 1978–1979, which fits a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. I find the longer school year decreases the probability of grade repetition and increases educational attainment; it also increases the probability of working in formal sectors and wages later in life. These results suggest the length of school years in Indonesia is not too long.     

English in Education: the first fifty years

On the fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of English in Education, this article reviews the journal's contribution to research and practice in the teaching of English. A thematic analysis based on close study of a sample of volumes is arranged chronologically (to show the development of ideas and practices) and thematically in terms of language mode (speaking; writing; reading, including new technologies). The article argues that the journal archive can shed light on the educational past in ways that can effectively inform the educational present and help to set agenda for the future.     

Exploring an intervention’s impact on everyday school activities

The focus of this paper is on a group of pupils with reading and writing difficulties who have been participating in an intervention study using assistive technology. That intervention study contained supervised training sessions with reading and writing tasks using an iPad with special supportive applications. The current study is a qualitative investigation of whether there has been any transfer from the intervention, to the pupils’ everyday school activities. Interviews with pupils and their teachers and observations during classroom lectures have been used to collect data. The results show that the pupils were positive to the assistive technology (the applications on the iPads), they found the apps easy to learn how to use and they appreciated the benefits they could give. Even so, only a few of the pupils had found use for and continued to use the tools after the intervention period finished. Possible reasons are that when the novelty wore off, students reverted to their usual study habits and that older students with many teachers and different classrooms were less able to adapt to using the apps. To improve transfer, it is suggested to introduce assistive technology earlier to students, in the younger grades, before study habits have been formed and to inform teachers about the use of AT in the classroom, including what is available and how it can benefit students.     

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.     

信息技术与新型教学模式的构建

随着信息技术的进步,结合传统教学、实践教学和实验教学模式进行的新型教学模式出现,各种媒体被先后运用到了教学中,使教学变得灵活多样,丰富了课堂教学方式,提高了教学质量。以计算机为中心的互联网、多媒体技术的崛起,给现代教育注入了新的生命,在教育体制、教育方针、教育模式等各方面带来巨大的变革。从理论与现实的角度对信息技术在教学模式中所起的重大作用做出梳理,并指明新型教学模式实现的途径。     

Exploring Developmental Appropriateness of Multitouch Tables in Prekindergarten: A Video Analysis

This study explored how developmentally appropriate practices influenced the affordances of a multitouch surface in an early childhood classroom. Children, ages 4 to 5 years old, were videotaped while engaged in a storymaking application on a multitouch table. As a result of the study, we found that some challenges with the functionality undermined children's autonomous control. The researchers observed numerous instances of issues with control of the medium, including height of the table, sensitivity to multiple types of touch, and limited instructions and prompts. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

The effect of television viewing on ethnic prejudice against immigrants: A study in the Italian context

Television viewers construct many different meanings from the programs they watch. Here, we investigated whether ethnic prejudice is differentially influenced by the genre of television programs in their portrayal of ethnic minorities. We also wanted to determine whether a higher educational level reduces ethnic prejudice and television use. A self-reported questionnaire was administered to 401 Italian adults. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the relationships between ethnic prejudice and television program contents and educational level. Viewing Reality and Variety Shows was positively related to ethnic prejudice, News and Public Affairs was negatively related, and Films and TV series had no apparent influence on prejudice. Educational level was negatively related to both ethnic prejudice and watching Reality and Variety Shows, and positively related to viewing News and Public Affairs and Films and TV series programs.     

A Process for Reviewing and Evaluating Generated Test Items

Testing organization needs large numbers of high‐quality items due to the proliferation of alternative test administration methods and modern test designs. But the current demand for items far exceeds the supply. Test items, as they are currently written, evoke a process that is both time‐consuming and expensive because each item is written, edited, and reviewed by a subject‐matter expert. One promising approach that may address this challenge is with automatic item generation. Automatic item generation combines cognitive and psychometric modeling practices to guide the production of items that are generated with the aid of computer technology. The purpose of this study is to describe and illustrate a process that can be used to review and evaluate the quality of the generated item by focusing on the content and logic specified within the item generation procedure. We illustrate our process using an item development example from mathematics drawn from the Common Core State Standards and from surgical education drawn from the health sciences domain.     

科学技术支撑酒店安全的作用机制与保障体系研究

信息资讯技术的飞跃式发展对现代酒店安全管理提出了巨大的挑战,特别是酒店安全问题越来越受到旅游者的重视,由于显性和隐性的安全隐患来源渠道广泛,使得酒店安全控制与管理变得更为复杂和困难,同时也对酒店安全管理的科技支撑提出越来越高的要求。鉴于此,我们应从酒店安全管理实践的角度出发,对酒店安全管理和科学技术支撑的内在共生性进行分析,构建科学技术支撑酒店安全的作用机制模型,并进一步完善科学技术支撑酒店安全的保障体系,以期能够为酒店安全管理和控制提供一定的借鉴意义,从而促进酒店业的健康、稳定和持续发展。