Beyond topicality: A two stage view of relevance and the retrieval process     

Bert Boyce 《Information processing & management》1982,18(3):105-109

Topicality is an operationally necessary but insufficient condition for requestor judged relevance. Documents are independent of one another as to any judgement of their topicality but not independent as to any judgement of their relevance which is a function of their informativeness to a requestor. Recall depends solely upon topicality but precision depends upon informativeness as well.A retrieval system which aspires to the retrieval of relevant documents should have a second stage which will order the topical set in a manner so as to provide maximum informativeness to the requestor. Should a system be concerned only with topicality then a two stage system which generates a high recall set and discards imprecise documents by measuring their distance from a seed document can be iterated to provide topicality feedback without user input.  相似文献   

Understanding outcome-based education changes in teacher education: evaluation of a new instrument with preliminary findings     

Christopher Deneen  Gavin T.L. Brown  Trevor G. Bond  Ronnie Shroff 《Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education》2013,41(4):441-456

Outcome-based education (OBE) is a current initiative in Hong Kong universities, with widespread backing by governments and standards bodies. However, study of students’ perceptions of OBE and validation of understanding these perceptions are lacking. This paper reports on the validation of an OBE-specific instrument and resulting preliminary findings. Instrument responses (n = 89) were analysed using Rasch and exploratory/confirmatory factor analyses. Both approaches identified two dimensions (i.e. evaluation and comparison). Challenges and modifications to the instrument items and their relationships to constructs are discussed. Preliminary findings suggest students did not perceive significant differences between OBE and traditionally organised courses. Lack of explicit discussion of OBE with the students may have denied students the ability to make fully informed evaluations of OBE innovations. Implications for instrument validation and evaluation of initiatives in an OBE context are discussed as is the broader issue of transparency in teacher education curriculum design and implementation.  相似文献   

Factors influencing early adolescents’ mathematics achievement: High-quality teaching rather than relationships     

Sandra Winheller  John A. Hattie  Gavin T. L. Brown 《Learning Environments Research》2013,16(1):49-69

This study used data from the Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning project, which involved data on the academic performance of more than 90,000 New Zealand students in six subjects (i.e. reading, writing and mathematics in two languages). Two sub-samples of this dataset were included for detailed re-analysis to test the general applicability of the Australian model of Quality of School Life (Ainley et al. 1986) in the New Zealand context. The first sample comprised 336 year 8 students from elementary schools and the second sample consisted of 272 year 10 students from high schools. Furthermore, two structural equation models were developed and tested, expressing relationships between students’ quality of school life perceptions, students’ attitudes to mathematics, and their effects on mathematics achievement. The quality of school life questionnaires scales [Ainley and Bourke, in Res Pap Educ 7(2):107–128, 1992] were used as indicators of students’ perceptions regarding learning, teachers and peer relationships. The model proposed that perceived quality of school life would affect students’ attitudes of liking and confidence in mathematics, which would in turn affect their academic performance. After controlling for other variables in the model, students’ perception about their self-efficacy to learn mathematics was more directly related to outcomes than to perceptions of teacher quality or peer involvement. Data analyses revealed no apparent relationships of these factors to mathematics achievement. Moreover, results for both samples led to the conclusion that the perceived quality of learning is connected with ‘confidence in’ and ‘liking mathematics’, which in turn predict students’ mathematics achievement.  相似文献   

Tongan secondary students’ conceptions of schooling in New Zealand relative to their academic achievement     

Mo’ale ‘Otunuku  Gavin T. L. Brown  Airini 《Asia Pacific Education Review》2013,14(3):345-357

This study examines the relationship between Tongan students’ attitudes and beliefs towards their school experiences and their academic achievement on the high-stakes National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) assessments in English and mathematics. Data were obtained from using previously published self-reported inventories on a sample of Tongan senior students in New Zealand secondary schools. Confirmatory factor analysis of students’ conceptions found good fit measurement models for each domain (teaching, learning, and assessment). Structural equation modelling was used to identify the effect of the various beliefs upon students’ total score in each subject and upon internal and externally assessed performance. It was noted that different beliefs became statistically significant predictors of performance, depending on the subject and type of assessment. Nonetheless, all three constructs played some role in at least one subject. A small-to-moderate proportion of variance in NCEA performance could be attributed to student beliefs, suggesting that efforts to help students adopt adaptive beliefs will have beneficial consequences for those students.  相似文献   

Fertile is fine: the US relaxes the rules controlling gene therapy     

Boyce N 《New scientist (1971)》1999,161(2178):22

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Teachers' conceptions of assessment: implications for policy and professional development     

Gavin T. L. Brown 《Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice》2004,11(3):301-318

Teachers' conceptions of assessment can be understood in terms of their agreement or disagreement with four purposes to which assessment may be put, specifically, (a) improvement of teaching and learning, (b) school accountability, (c) student accountability, or (d) treating assessment as irrelevant. A 50‐item Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment (COA‐III) questionnaire was completed by New Zealand primary school teachers and managers (n=525). The COA‐III, based on the four main purpose‐defined conceptions of assessment, was analysed with structural equation modelling and showed a close fit of the data to a hierarchical, multi‐dimensional model (χ²=3217.68; df=1162; RMSEA=.058; TLI=.967). On average, participants agreed with the improvement conceptions and the school accountability conception, while rejecting the view that assessment was irrelevant. However, respondents disagreed that assessment was for student accountability. Improvement, school, and student accountability conceptions were positively correlated. The irrelevance conception was inversely related to the improvement conception and not related to the system accountability conception. Surprisingly, no statistically significant differences were found in mean scale scores for each conception regardless of teacher (age, gender, role, assessment training, or assessment practices) or school (size, location, or socio‐economic status) variables. Implications for the use of the COA‐III for policy implementation and teacher professional development are discussed.  相似文献   

Maternal intrusiveness, maternal warmth, and mother-toddler relationship outcomes: variations across low-income ethnic and acculturation groups   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Ispa JM  Fine MA  Halgunseth LC  Harper S  Robinson J  Boyce L  Brooks-Gunn J  Brady-Smith C 《Child development》2004,75(6):1613-1631

The present study investigated the extent to which maternal intrusiveness and warmth during play, observed in 579 European American, 412 African American, and 110 more and 131 less acculturated Mexican American low-income families when children were approximately 15 months old, predicted 3 dimensions of the mother-toddler relationship 10 months later. Intrusiveness predicted increases in later child negativity in all 4 groups. Among African Americans only, this association was moderated by maternal warmth. Intrusiveness predicted negative change in child engagement with mothers only in European American families. Finally, near-significant trends suggested that intrusiveness predicted later decreased dyadic mutuality in European American and more acculturated Mexican American families, but not in African American or less acculturated Mexican American families.  相似文献   

The Crisis in Doctoral Education: A sociological diagnosis   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Gavin Kendall 《高等教育研究与发展》2002,21(2):131-141

Sociological thinkers help us understand the crisis in doctoral training. Weber shows us that the crisis is the result of a clash of rationalities. Foucault shows us the highly-developed rationality of policymakers/administrators, which emerged in "disciplinary societies". I discuss the new doctoral training that reshapes subjectivity and retunes the relationship between self and education in the name of social progress. Borrowing from Rose, I stress two themes that are crucial for modern doctoral training: expertise and audit. Latour shows how this rationalisation of doctoral education occurred when it did. It had to await a series of translations--beliefs, knowledges, practices, documents, technologies and so forth, which originally arose in another language (business), and had to be packaged up in simplified forms.  相似文献   

Chinese secondary school students’ conceptions of assessment and achievement emotions: endorsed purposes lead to positive and negative feelings     

Junjun Chen  Gavin T. L. Brown 《Asia Pacific Journal of Education》2018,38(1):91-109

Student perceptions of the purposes of assessment have been shown to be significant predictors of self-regulated learning. Their relationship to achievement emotions is less well understood. This paper reports a survey study of Chinese middle and high school students (N = 1,393) self-reported conceptions of the purpose of assessment and their achievement emotions using inventories with previously developed Chinese versions. While pre-existing models were not replicated, exploratory techniques developed well-fitting measurement models for each inventory and a structural equation model showed that significant variance in achievement emotions was elicited by certain beliefs about assessment. Positive emotions of pride and enjoyment depended primarily on conceptions that assessment (1) contributed to student moral and skill development, (2) was accurate, and (3) was not for evaluating schools or teachers. Negative emotions of anger and shame depended primarily on conceptions that assessment was (1) for evaluating schools and teachers and (2) not for improving teaching and learning. Thus, student emotional responses to assessment in China logically depend on beliefs that assessment reliably relates to developing their own learning, skills, and moral character.  相似文献   

Action research: Boundaries, tensions, and directions     

Gavin Melles 《The Australian Educational Researcher》1998,25(2):113-123

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