134,338 research outputs found
Literacy assessment practices: Moving from standardised to ecologically valid assessments in secondary schools
SSLI test protocol data revealed the dominance of 'central' literacy measures and 'local' subject-specific measures aligned to institutional requirements, curriculum and national examination content. These measures initiate secondary students into a pervasive culture of assessment that generally fails to support further learning; a culture antagonistic towards the use of assessment that reflect how expert teachers address subject-specific literacies. In a culture of content-focussed, high stakes assessment, the use of ecologically valid formative assessment that reveal what students can do with what they know, and that empower teachers to test like they teach, is marginalised. Consistent with Neisser's claim that some experimental measures may not reflect reality, the pedagogy and assessment protocols of many secondary schools fail to reflect the use of literacy and thinking tools, and so fail to reflect best evidence about teaching. Changes in school culture, teachers' pedagogical knowledge and the use of ecologically valid assessments are associated with shifts from transmission to co-construction approaches. Consistent with the work of David Corson the use of ecologically valid assessment that reflect the use of literacy and thinking tools is an inclusive, future-focussed literacy event, but the use of 'central' curriculum and institutional-linked measures is exclusive
Cross-concordances: terminology mapping and its effectiveness for information retrieval
The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research funded a major
terminology mapping initiative, which found its conclusion in 2007. The task of
this terminology mapping initiative was to organize, create and manage
'cross-concordances' between controlled vocabularies (thesauri, classification
systems, subject heading lists) centred around the social sciences but quickly
extending to other subject areas. 64 crosswalks with more than 500,000
relations were established. In the final phase of the project, a major
evaluation effort to test and measure the effectiveness of the vocabulary
mappings in an information system environment was conducted. The paper reports
on the cross-concordance work and evaluation results.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 11 tables, IFLA conference 200
Terminology server for improved resource discovery: analysis of model and functions
This paper considers the potential to improve distributed information retrieval via a terminologies server. The restriction upon effective resource discovery caused by the use of disparate terminologies across services and collections is outlined, before considering a DDC spine based approach involving inter-scheme mapping as a possible solution. The developing HILT model is discussed alongside other existing models and alternative approaches to solving the terminologies problem. Results from the current HILT pilot are presented to illustrate functionality and suggestions are made for further research and development
Science Models as Value-Added Services for Scholarly Information Systems
The paper introduces scholarly Information Retrieval (IR) as a further
dimension that should be considered in the science modeling debate. The IR use
case is seen as a validation model of the adequacy of science models in
representing and predicting structure and dynamics in science. Particular
conceptualizations of scholarly activity and structures in science are used as
value-added search services to improve retrieval quality: a co-word model
depicting the cognitive structure of a field (used for query expansion), the
Bradford law of information concentration, and a model of co-authorship
networks (both used for re-ranking search results). An evaluation of the
retrieval quality when science model driven services are used turned out that
the models proposed actually provide beneficial effects to retrieval quality.
From an IR perspective, the models studied are therefore verified as expressive
conceptualizations of central phenomena in science. Thus, it could be shown
that the IR perspective can significantly contribute to a better understanding
of scholarly structures and activities.Comment: 26 pages, to appear in Scientometric
Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) in the Semantic Web: A Multi-Dimensional Review
Since the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) specification and its
SKOS eXtension for Labels (SKOS-XL) became formal W3C recommendations in 2009 a
significant number of conventional knowledge organization systems (KOS)
(including thesauri, classification schemes, name authorities, and lists of
codes and terms, produced before the arrival of the ontology-wave) have made
their journeys to join the Semantic Web mainstream. This paper uses "LOD KOS"
as an umbrella term to refer to all of the value vocabularies and lightweight
ontologies within the Semantic Web framework. The paper provides an overview of
what the LOD KOS movement has brought to various communities and users. These
are not limited to the colonies of the value vocabulary constructors and
providers, nor the catalogers and indexers who have a long history of applying
the vocabularies to their products. The LOD dataset producers and LOD service
providers, the information architects and interface designers, and researchers
in sciences and humanities, are also direct beneficiaries of LOD KOS. The paper
examines a set of the collected cases (experimental or in real applications)
and aims to find the usages of LOD KOS in order to share the practices and
ideas among communities and users. Through the viewpoints of a number of
different user groups, the functions of LOD KOS are examined from multiple
dimensions. This paper focuses on the LOD dataset producers, vocabulary
producers, and researchers (as end-users of KOS).Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures, accepted paper in International Journal on
Digital Librarie
Nodes and Arcs: Concept Map, Semiotics, and Knowledge Organization.
Purpose – The purpose of the research reported here is to improve comprehension of the socially-negotiated identity of concepts in the domain of knowledge organization. Because knowledge organization as a domain has as its focus the order of concepts, both from a theoretical perspective and from an applied perspective, it is important to understand how the domain itself understands the meaning of a concept.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides an empirical demonstration of how the domain itself understands the meaning of a concept. The paper employs content analysis to demonstrate the ways in which concepts are portrayed in KO concept maps as signs, and they are subjected to evaluative semiotic analysis as a way to understand their meaning. The frame was the entire population of formal proceedings in knowledge organization – all proceedings of the
International Society for Knowledge Organization’s international conferences (1990-2010) and those of the annual classification workshops of the Special Interest Group for Classification Research of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (SIG/CR).
Findings – A total of 344 concept maps were analyzed. There was no discernible chronological pattern. Most concept maps were created by authors who were professors from the USA, Germany, France, or Canada. Roughly half were judged to contain semiotic content. Peirceian semiotics predominated, and tended to convey greater granularity and complexity in conceptual terminology.
Nodes could be identified as anchors of conceptual clusters in the domain; the arcs were identifiable as verbal relationship indicators. Saussurian concept maps were more applied than theoretical; Peirceian concept maps had more theoretical content.
Originality/value – The paper demonstrates important empirical evidence about the coherence of the domain of knowledge organization. Core values are conveyed across time through the concept maps in this population of conference paper
Thesauri on the Web: current developments and trends
This article provides an overview of recent developments relating to the application of thesauri in information organisation and retrieval on the World Wide Web. It describes some recent thesaurus projects undertaken to facilitate resource description and discovery and access to wide-ranging information resources on the Internet. Types of thesauri available on the Web, thesauri integrated in databases and information retrieval systems, and multiple-thesaurus systems for cross-database searching are also discussed. Collective efforts and events in addressing the standardisation and novel applications of thesauri are briefly reviewed
Analysis of equivalence mapping for terminology services
This paper assesses the range of equivalence or mapping types required to facilitate interoperability in the context of a distributed terminology server. A detailed set of mapping types were examined, with a view to determining their validity for characterizing relationships between mappings from selected terminologies (AAT, LCSH, MeSH, and UNESCO) to the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) scheme. It was hypothesized that the detailed set of 19 match types proposed by Chaplan in 1995 is unnecessary in this context and that they could be reduced to a less detailed conceptually-based set. Results from an extensive mapping exercise support the main hypothesis and a generic suite of match types are proposed, although doubt remains over the current adequacy of the developing Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) Core Mapping Vocabulary Specification (MVS) for inter-terminology mapping
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