Graduate Studies in the UK: Some Impressions and Suggestions

Many western countries are paying increasing attention to the organization and administration of graduate studies. Such attention has developed from primary concerns about completion times, completion percentages, programme quality, and student quality, as well as secondary concerns about supervisors, funding, coursework, inter-organizational co-operation, and policies and practices of both universities and research councils. Using information about British graduate programmes as a basis, the article presents policy issues related to research councils, funding councils, and control, followed by discussion of the themes of the nature of programmes, supervision and evaluation, completion time, quality, and innovation. The final sections address several concerns and offer some suggestions.     

Measuring Cultural Dimensions of Classroom Interactions

We trace the development and analyze the generalizability of the Classroom Assessment of Sociocultural Interactions (CASI), an observation system designed to measure cultural dimensions of classroom interactions. We establish CASI measurement properties by analyzing panoramic videos of 4th and 5th grade classrooms from the Measures of Effective Teaching project, and argue for its significance in terms of achievement opportunity for minoritized students and needed evidence regarding equitable teaching. We frame ten dimensions of sociocultural interactions within three domains: Life Applications (i.e., connections with what students know and do outside of school); Self in Group (i.e., interdependence to motivate learning and foster social identities); and Agency (i.e., how freedom and choice are managed).

We demonstrate how measurement error is associated with raters, lessons, and lesson segments, and discuss implications for CASI refinement, as well as appropriate instrument uses to enrich learning opportunities for minoritized students across a variety of classroom settings.     

Nullis in Verba: Advancing Research through Transparency and Openness

Nullis in verba was chosen as the motto of the Royal Society, as it embodied the culture of transparency and collaboration that were the hallmarks of the Royal Society and of the scientific method it promoted. Communication, using the tools of the day, was essential to this community of scientists as they created and shared new knowledge. Almost three hundred years later, libraries continue to advance principles relating to the importance of collaboration and transparency. This two-part article series, published jointly in International Information and Library Review and Technical Services Quarterly explores notions of transparency and collaboration in research and how these ideas are impacting the world of librarianship – from information creation, organization and access perspectives.     

Aiming for autonomy: formative peer assessment in a final-year undergraduate course

This article takes a dual focus on the theme of student formative peer assessment. On the one hand it offers a thorough literature review in this field, while on the other it unpacks a case study of curriculum design where peer assessment has been adopted. The practical example draws on recent changes made to a third- and final-year undergraduate research dissertation course in a UK architectural school. Although peer assessment worked quite well in this small setting, similar findings might be uncovered when scaled up to larger cohorts, as well as other disciplines and year groups. The research findings are certainly relevant for other contexts. Qualitative research from a focus group with six students on the course informs the empirical body of the paper. Through engaging with students’ reflections, as well as the relevant literature, and reflexively looking at the curriculum changes, this paper discusses some of the benefits and drawbacks that can arise from peer assessment in this context. Peer assessment is not without its challenges and hiccups, but, despite these, the benefit to autonomous critical thinking cannot be understated. And arguably peer assessment is especially germane for final-year undergraduates as they embark on employment or more advanced studies.     

Understanding storage environmental stability during power outages: A key issue in sub-tropical climates

Efficient air-conditioning systems facilitate climate control in modern museums, libraries, and archives. The climate in Hong Kong is typically hot and humid, so the survival of collections is highly dependent on 24-hour air-conditioning systems to maintain the desired environment in repositories of archives and books, or artefact stores. The continuous operation of such systems in turn relies on a number of factors, such as uninterrupted electricity supply, an active maintenance programme, daily monitoring of their performance and quick response to irregularities as well as backup or alternative systems to support the air-conditioning load in case they are down for servicing. From the risk management point of view, unlike the latter four factors, electricity supply is an external factor that cannot be guaranteed. Fluctuation in the power level that results in stoppage of air-conditioning equipment is not uncommon even in well-developed countries. Long power outages could be catastrophic as they might lead to irreversible damage to collection items as a result of fast, large, changes in temperature and relative humidity (RH) towards the external environment if the air-tightness or hygrothermal stability of the storage are not good enough. Understanding storage environmental stability, especially during electrical power disruptions, is an essential part of the preservation measures and disaster preparedness necessary to protect valuable collections in cultural heritage institutions in the region.