Transitioning from a foundation studies program to university: a study of mainland Chinese students

ABSTRACT

Foundations studies programs (FSPs), sometimes termed pathways programs, seek to prepare international students for an undergraduate education. While enrolments in these programs continue to grow in Australia, there has correspondingly been little research exploring how FSP students experience their transition into university life and study. In seeking to fill a gap within the literature, this study investigated this issue by focusing on international students from mainland China. 23 FSP alumni were interviewed and asked to describe their expectations and experiences of secondary schooling in China, and their subsequent FSP and university studies in Australia. The analysis revealed that the most salient feature of participants’ transition into their Australian undergraduate courses was their emphasis on interpersonal relationships and social interactions. In particular, interviewees emphasised the importance of social exchanges with local peers and teaching staff, and their general disappointment or frustration with these interactions. While this study echoes previous investigations relating to international students’ (lack of positive) intercultural interactions within HE settings, it more importantly challenges the notion that FSPs can be assumed to adequately prepare international students for the nature of these relationships at university. Recommendations regarding FSP practices and policies are posed at the end of this article.     

No Need to be Discrete: A Method for Continuous Time Mediation Analysis

Mediation is one concept that has shaped numerous theories. The list of problems associated with mediation models, however, has been growing. Mediation models based on cross-sectional data can produce unexpected estimates, so much so that making longitudinal or causal inferences is inadvisable. Even longitudinal mediation models have faults, as parameter estimates produced by these models are specific to the lag between observations, leading to much debate over appropriate lag selection. Using continuous time models (CTMs) rather than commonly employed discrete time models, one can estimate lag-independent parameters. We demonstrate methodology that allows for continuous time mediation analyses, with attention to concepts such as indirect and direct effects, partial mediation, the effect of lag, and the lags at which relations become maximal. A simulation compares common longitudinal mediation methods with CTMs. Reanalysis of a published covariance matrix demonstrates that CTMs can be fit to data used in longitudinal mediation studies.     

让数学知识真正"活"起来

小学数学教学活动已不局限于单纯的操作层面的狭窄范畴．它是一个师生、生生交往互动与共同发展的过程，是学生经历自主探索，合作交流、体验的过程。     

Consulting records management oracles—a Delphi in practice

This article critically analyses the views of a group of international experts on ISO 15489, the international records management standard, during the final phase of a project assessing its impact in the UK. It provides an overview of the entire research project and then focusses on the use of a modified Delphi study in gathering the views of experts. The Delphi technique is a research method not commonly used in records management and archival science research; relevant background to the technique is provided though the purpose of the article is not to provide a comprehensive review of it as a research method. A modified electronic version of the technique was used which was qualitative rather than quantitative and not focussed on the more usual consensus building. The article concludes that a Delphi study is a practical technique for conducting research which seeks to gather views from geographically dispersed participants in a timely, time-effective and convenient manner for all those involved. The use of a modified Delphi study proved to be extremely valuable in facilitating discussions of complex emergent issues about the role, value and nature of standards for records management, in particular ISO 15489, and about the future of ISO 15489, at a higher level of abstraction. The article makes a contribution in two areas: first in terms of the views of a group of leading international records management experts on the first international standard in records management; and second, in terms of the use of a research method which has previously been little used in the records management discipline.

试评《中国评论》中两篇关于客家源流的文章

哀德尔(E.J.Eitel)的《客家历史纲要》(An Outline History of the Hakkas)与弼顿查理斯(Ch.Piton.)的《客家起源与历史》(The Origin and History of Hakkas)是晚清时期两篇关于客家历史与源流的文章。哀德尔根据传说与族谱资料认为客家人起源于公元前3世纪华北地区,并作为一个特殊的群体不断的南迁。弼顿查理斯(Ch.PITON)则对前者的观点与材料使用等方面提出质疑,认为客家人与其他中国人没有什么不同,族谱记载的内容非常值得怀疑。后来的客家研究受到哀德尔影响较大,而对于弼顿查理斯的质疑却长期没有得到应有重视。     

论《孟子》对文本之《诗》王道政教意义的赋予

孟子对孔门诗教意义的生发,历来为人们所称道。然而人们却往往忽略了诗学发展进程中的一个重要背景,那就是孔子至孟子时,《诗》正经历着由与乐舞结合走向分离的过程。把这一背景纳入考量范围就会发现,在《诗》学巨变过程中,孟子在《诗》的政教意义的最终赋予上具有其他诸子难以企及的贡献。孔子之时,诗乐舞尚未分离,《诗》教即是乐教,换而言之,孔子并没有赋予《诗》之文本以独立的政治教化意义;而《诗》三百脱离乐舞之后、其独立教化意义的赋予则多赖孟子之力。而这正是孟子于《诗》教发展的最大贡献,汉人解《诗》无不脱离乐舞而单从《诗》之文本入手,从这一角度上来讲,汉代诗学的经学化进程正是赖此而开;汉代乃至后世的《诗》的经学化阐释路径,也主要是由孟子导夫先路的。     

Facilitating en/counters with special education’s cloak of benevolence in professional learning to eliminate racial disproportionality in special education

Despite the U.S. government’s funding and provision of technical assistance as a prevailing approach to remedy special education racial disproportionality, and considerable research on the explanations, causes, and frameworks for addressing the phenomenon, there is little documentation of research or technical assistance efforts for actually doing so. As a white, non-disabled professor and executive director of a federally funded Equity Assistance Center, I theorize and offer for critique ways I have facilitated (mostly white, non-disabled) educators’ en/counters with culturally historically embedded systemic and individual practices contributing to the construction of special education as a cloak of benevolence for white supremacy and ableism. Drawing from a theory of expansive learning, I illustrate how purposeful introduction of artifacts into the activity system of a technical assistance relationship brings educators in contact with contradictions between their expressed goals of eliminating disproportionality and their pathologization of children’s differences at the intersection of race and disability.     

翻译模因论的发展、存在的问题及研究展望

所有探讨＂翻译与模因＂话题的理论、概念和观点都被统称为（广义）翻译模因论。文章概述了翻译模因论的国内外发展状况,廓清了翻译学和模因论之间的关系,分析了国外翻译模因论研究的局限,着重探讨了国内翻译模因论研究中的创新不足和理论陷阱问题,并在此基础上展望了翻译模因论未来研究的重点、难点和重要突破口。     

Shedding the content: semantics of teaching burdened by didactic formalisms

The paper argues that what is left behind in the current era of accountability is the educational content. The authors present shedding the content as the great challenge of teaching and learning in today’s schools. They turn to the tradition of Bildung and outline the theoretical background for the content-focused approach to (research on) teaching and learning. Their approach is based on analyses of authentic (real-life) teaching and learning situations. The paper highlights how didactic case studies can be used to generalize the findings across individual cases. Within the multiple case studies, 44 didactic case studies were reanalysed to identify didactic formalisms, i.e. problems in the semantic and logical structure of educational content, which corrupt the quality of instruction. Two specific types of didactic formalism are described in detail; stolen cognition and concealed cognition. Stolen cognition prevents cognitive activation of students when the teacher over-reduces the space allowed for the students’ cognitive work with the content, concealed cognition are instances of purposeless cognitive activation of students due to their being disconnected from the content.     

Irreplaceable ISSN: From 2007 to the Future

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard 3297 governs the assignment of International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSNs) for continuing resources worldwide. It is subject to systematic review every five years and, in 2017, an ISO Working Group was set up to review the standard. This working group took the decision to survey the views of stakeholders including publishers, libraries, and others. This article reports on the global survey that was undertaken, describing the questions and answers about which the committee sought opinions. It also sought details on the respondents to provide context. The replies are summarised in chart form with conclusions and an appraisal of the key issues, which suggest that whilst respondents are supportive of expanding the ways in which the ISSN is deployed, they are less convinced of the need for more ISSNs for any given title. They are split on the need for the structure of the ISSN to be revised but there is strong support for the notion of a “Family ISSN” that would describe resources that are linked through, for example, title changes or geography or language. The article notes the next steps to be taken.