A multicultural study of biometric privacy concerns in a fire ground accountability crisis response system

Biometric technology is rapidly gaining popularity as an access control mechanism in the workplace. In some instances, systems relying on biometric technology for access control have not been well received by employees. One potential reason for resistance may be perceived privacy issues associated with organizational collection and use of biometric data. This research draws on previous organizational information handling and procedural fairness literature to frame and examine these underlying privacy issues. Perceived accountability, perceived vulnerability, and distrust were distilled from the previous literature as the primary dimensions of employee privacy concerns related to biometric technology. This study assesses the effects of these privacy concerns, how they vary based on the cultural influences of Anglos and Hispanics.Fire ground accountability is a critical management objective in the firefighting domain. In multi-unit or multi-agency crisis response scenarios, the on-scene incident commander tracks and accounts for each first responder. This research designed and deployed a new fire ground accountability system that tracked firefighters through finger pattern-based biometric logins to their assigned positions on the firefighting apparatus. An instrument measuring level of privacy concern on three underlying dimensions and demographic data was developed, validated and administered in a quasi-experimental field study. A pre-test–post-test survey methodology was employed to detect potential differences in privacy concerns as familiarity with the system increased. The study shows that Anglo and Hispanic subjects frame privacy issues differently associated with use of biometric technology in a fire ground accountability system. Finally, the study showed that some privacy concerns such as distrust and perceived vulnerability can be alleviated through system use with changes in post-use privacy concerns moderated by ethnic affiliation.     

Patterns of contingent teaching in teacher-student interaction

The present study aimed at investigating the process of scaffolding in a naturalistic setting with focus on a key aspect of scaffolding, namely contingency. Three Social Studies teachers in innovative prevocational schools were observed and interviewed. A coding scheme for the measurement of scaffolding was developed which revealed different patterns of contingent and non-contingent teaching amongst the teachers. In general these teachers of innovative schools showed little contingent teaching. Not adapting the support to students' current understanding and barely diagnosing the students' understanding appeared to be characteristic of this scarcity of non-contingent teaching.     

Classroom and technology-supported help seeking: The need for converging research paradigms

Contributions to this special section represent advances in understanding help seeking as a self-regulated learning strategy that occurs in classrooms, during computer-mediated communications, and when using intelligent systems that provide help to improve learners’ help-seeking skills and knowledge acquisition. Collectively, the research and development contributes information relevant for all phases of the help-seeking process. My comments focus on: (a) features of technology-supported help seeking that have implications for motivation, (b) the need for increased attention to the instructional context in which technology-supported help seeking occurs, (c) a necessary convergence of classroom and technology-supported help-seeking research paradigms, and (d) reconsideration of help seeking as a social-interactive strategy.     

我国高校学生工作与学生发展的关联性——实证研究发现了什么

从学生参与度的视角,综合分析北京大学教育学院近年来大学生发展方面的实证研究和数据,总结我国高校学生工作与学生发展的关联性,可以发现高校学生工作与学生发展之间存在着错综复杂的影响关系。这种关系具有系统性、整体性和生态互动性、多层次、多路径、适度性等特征,并且具有条件性和结构性的差异。因此,我国高等教育界要反思二元培养体制;重新认识高校学生工作的角色定位,构建以学生学习为中心的高校学生工作系统;重视学生参与度的理论视角在高校学生工作评估中的应用;关注学生基层组织的多元化发展趋势。     

辛亥前后的学堂、学生与现代国家观念普及

现代国家观念是中国走向现代进程中影响至深至大的观念之一。辛亥前后全新的学堂建制与报刊舆论等相结合,为现代国家观念的普及提供了强有力的平台。学生在普及进程中既产生了对清末名士的景仰崇拜,也发展出另一种夷夏之辨,更影响了此群体中的思想竞逐。由此学生们的生活世界、知识世界乃至感觉世界在辛亥前后都发生了重要而深刻的变化。     

在书本文字中考古

古人的文字记载,虽为传说,或与神话相间杂,其中原有一定的可靠部分。但长期以来或被误解,或遭曲解,或因古今文字变化识解困难等,既有考古学的成果可用,文字记载便被置于不闻不问的境地,这是一项极大的损失。古人文字记载中可信的史实,如人与地的名号及各部族间的关系等,都是地下考古所不能解决者,予以考定,与地下发现者同样值得重视。     

谈师范生师德养成教育的关键

师德是师范生未来从事教师工作必须遵循的职业道德,将教师职业道德培养提前到师范生学习期间进行,对于帮助师范生较好较快地向教师角色转化会起到事半功倍的效果。师范生的师德养成教育应以教师职业理想和教师职业荣誉教育为重点和出发点。职业理想培养使师范生的专业学习有明确的目标,是师范生献身教育事业的精神支柱和力量源泉,是培养其他师德要素的内在动力;教师职业荣誉感是师范生对于教师职业认同的基础,是师范生幸福感的源泉,是师范生自觉履行师德规范的内在保障。     

Videobased lesson analysis: Effective science PD for teacher and student learning

The Science Teachers Learning from Lesson Analysis (STeLLA) project is a videobased analysis‐of‐practice PD program aimed at improving teacher and student learning at the upper elementary level. The PD program developed and utilized two “lenses,” a Science Content Storyline Lens and a Student Thinking Lens, to help teachers analyze science teaching and learning and to improve teaching practices in this year‐long program. Participants included 48 teachers (n = 32 experimental, n = 16 control) and 1,490 students. The STeLLA program significantly improved teachers' science content knowledge and their ability to analyze science teaching. Notably, the STeLLA teachers further increased their classroom use of science teaching strategies associated with both lenses while their students increased their science content knowledge. Multi‐level HLM analyses linked higher average gains in student learning with teachers' science content knowledge, teachers' pedagogical content knowledge about student thinking, and teaching practices aimed at improving the coherence of the science content storyline. This paper highlights the importance of the science content storyline in the STeLLA program and discusses its potential significance in science teaching and professional development more broadly. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., J Res Sci Teach 48: 117–148, 2011     

Supporting minority students through a reflexive approach to empowerment

Referring to the experiences of three Muslim refugee girls recently settled in Australia, this paper examines issues of schooling and empowerment. The paper draws on teacher and student interview data from a study that investigated inclusive approaches to addressing issues of cultural diversity in a secondary state high school in Queensland. The paper foregrounds the girls’ highly positive views of their experiences at the school; views that reflect the girls’ access to spaces of empowerment but belie the complexity and tensions involved in how empowerment was understood and approached by educators at the school. Theorising empowerment through poststructural understandings of agency, the paper examines conditions and ways of understanding that make possible spaces of empowerment for the girls. In particular, the paper argues for a reflexive approach to empowerment that is informed by an understanding of the framing discourses shaping minority student identity and a critical reflection on educator and school positionality.     

Parents' involvement in adolescents' schooling: a multidimensional conceptualisation and mediational model

This study examined the impact of parental involvement on adolescents' academic achievement in Korean families. The major strengths of the current research are the study of multiple dimensions of parental involvement, the longitudinal design and the consideration of mediating variables. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the direct and indirect effects of parental involvement on students' academic achievement using data from a nationally representative sample of middle school students from the Korea Youth Panel Survey. Results indicated: (1) parental involvement dimensions positively influenced achievement through its effects on student self‐concept and locus of control; and (2) parents' increased participation in involvement practices (monitoring, educational expectation and affection) increases students' self‐concept and locus of control.