A Conversation with Leslie Weir

Leslie Weir talks about her career in librarianship, librarianship in general, and the development and governance of consortia, portals, digital initiatives, and open access in Canada. She discusses, among other things, CARL, Scholars Portal, OCUL-IR, CRKN, and Canadiana.org. in light of access to electronic resources.     

Children's conceptions of the earth,sun and moon

Understanding of the Earth/Sun/Moon system represents a major cultural nexus in the history of ideas as well as being an important conceptual area in junior science teaching. The situation is one in which the objects in question can be observed but do not lend themselves to hands‐on experience in the case of the Sun and Moon or to obvious meaningful experience of the system in the case of the Earth.

Children from 9 to 12 years of age were questioned using a clinical interview technique and stimulus materials, about the shape, size and motion of the Earth, Sun and Moon. A number of alternative views appear to be held. The use of a similar procedure with a group of children would seem to offer a powerful teaching methodology in which both teacher and students gain from the dialectic learning situation that is developed by this technique ‐ apart from providing insights concerning children's understanding.     

Evaluating Secondary Students’ Scientific Reasoning in Genetics Using a Two‐Tier Diagnostic Instrument

While genetics has remained as one key topic in school science, it continues to be conceptually and linguistically difficult for students with the concomitant debates as to what should be taught in the age of biotechnology. This article documents the development and implementation of a two‐tier multiple‐choice instrument for diagnosing grades 10 and 12 students’ understanding of genetics in terms of reasoning. The pretest and posttest forms of the diagnostic instrument were used alongside other methods in evaluating students’ understanding of genetics in a case‐based qualitative study on teaching and learning with multiple representations in three Western Australian secondary schools. Previous studies have shown that a two‐tier diagnostic instrument is useful in probing students’ understanding or misunderstanding of scientific concepts and ideas. The diagnostic instrument in this study was designed and then progressively refined, improved, and implemented to evaluate student understanding of genetics in three case schools. The final version of the instrument had Cronbach’s alpha reliability of 0.75 and 0.64, respectively, for its pretest and the posttest forms when it was administered to a group of grade 12 students (n = 17). This two‐tier diagnostic instrument complemented other qualitative data collection methods in this research in generating a more holistic picture of student conceptual learning of genetics in terms of scientific reasoning. Implications of the findings of this study using the diagnostic instrument are discussed.     

Classification of learning outcomes: evidence from the computer games literature

Following up on an earlier issue of The Curriculum Journal (Vol. 16, No. 1), this article focuses on learning outcomes in the context of video games. Learning outcomes are viewed from two theoretical frameworks: Kirkpatrick's levels of evaluation and the CRESST model of learning. These are used to analyse the outcomes claimed in journal articles that report empirical work, indicating the usefulness of the frameworks, and the necessity to consider the role of affective learning. The article ends with some comments on the relationship of instructional design to effective games and learning outcomes.     

《教育世界》与清末图书馆建设

《教育世界》是我国最早的教育专业杂志,发起人为罗振玉。他通过《教育世界》,将西方的教育制度、教育思想、教育方法和图书馆学思想系统地向国内传播;在立足国情、放眼世界的基础上,作为杂志发起人的罗振玉向清政府提出了建设京师图书馆的宏伟构想,并得到了清政府的积极响应和大力推行,《教育世界》对推动我国公共图书馆的建设有“开基”之功;《教育世界》将近代西方图书馆新异的办馆体制、运行模式介绍到国内,有力地促进了清末图书馆运动的发展,对我国近代图书馆建设有积极意义。     

面向科研机构的知识服务支撑体系建设研究

现代科研环境正朝着数字化、网络化、虚拟化发展,科研人员的信息需求也呈现了专深化、知识化、综合性、前瞻性的特点。图书馆的价值和对科研创新的贡献正面临危机。如何应对科研环境的变化和支撑创新的压力,实现服务的转型,成为图书馆必须面对的问题。文章以中国农科院图书馆为例,提出了新形势下图书馆应加强包括机制、人才、基础设施和技术平台的知识服务支撑体系建设,并对其要素组成、构建方法和发展趋势进行了探讨。     

基于大数据、云服务的科技情报工作思考

本文简要回顾情报学的历史,从科学研究的4个范式引入,描述了情报工作与大数据、云服务的关联。在简要总结大数据、云计算、云服务特征及发展趋势后,归纳总结了情报工作面临的挑战与机遇,结合WorldCat、CALIS、NSTL案例,给出了情报工作在发展方向上的思考。     

中铝企业知识管理体系构建与实施

文章通过研究中铝广西分公司实施知识管理战略,探讨企业知识管理体系中知识库构建、知识组织、平台设计、组织架构、制度和文化建设方面的构建与实施。     

The Swiss “Tina Fey Effect”: The Content of Late-Night Political Humor and the Negative Effects of Political Parody on the Evaluation of Politicians

This article investigates the content and effects of political humor on late-night television. Besides conducting a systematic content analysis of a Swiss late-night show, this article examines the effects of late-night political parody on competence evaluations of politicians. An experiment manipulated the televised parody of a politician and measured political knowledge. Results show that exposure to a televised political parody decreased competence ratings of politicians only for individuals high in political knowledge. The reason is that viewers must already have an understanding of current political affairs to “get the joke”—that is, the implicit message transported by the parody. The implications of such a negative “Tina Fey Effect” are discussed.     

Investigating Relations Between Facebook Use and Social Capital Among College Undergraduates

This article examines relations between Facebook® (FB) use and social capital among 530 undergraduate students. The results demonstrated that using FB habitually was associated with gains in online bridging and offline network capital. This study also examined 2 motivations for using FB: the motivation to socialize with others and the motivation to improve one's status. Results showed that using FB for sociability reasons was associated with increased online bridging and bonding. Using FB more for status than for sociability was not associated with decreased online bridging and bonding. Finally, the results provided evidence of the sociability motivation mediating the relationship between FB habit and online bridging and bonding. Theoretical implications are discussed.