Assessing scientific and technological enquiry skills at age 11 using the e-scape system

This article reports on the outcomes from the e-scape Primary Scientific and Technological Understanding Assessment Project (2009–2010), which aimed to support primary teachers in developing valid portfolio-based tasks to assess pupils’ scientific and technological enquiry skills at age 11. This was part of the wider ‘e-scape’ project (2003-present), which has developed an innovative controlled alternative to design & technology and science public assessment at age 16. Teachers from eight primary schools were trained in the use of an online task-authoring tool to develop and trial assessment activities based on current classroom work. To compile their e-portfolios of assessment evidence, pupils used netbook devices, which afford multi-modal responses (text, drawing, photo, audio, video, spreadsheet) whilst leaving space on pupils’ tables for practical investigations. Once the pupil e-portfolios had been uploaded to the secure e-scape website, teachers assessed them using a ‘comparative judgement’ approach to produce a rank order with a high reliability coefficient. Participant teachers recognised the strength of the e-scape approach in terms of facilitating and managing pupils’ responses to assessment tasks in the classroom, which they successfully adapted to suit primary pedagogy. In particular, the benefits of scaffolding complex assessment tasks through the step-wise e-scape process in the authoring tool represented for some of the teachers a pedagogically significant development in terms of their planning.     

Export–led growth and structural change: evidence from Malaysia

Many studies have tried to establish the causal link between export expansion and economic growth. This contribution is to recognize that structural changes will change the sources of growth and this will affect the export-growth relationship. A country case study approach is used focusing on Malaysia, a country with one of the world's highest sustained growth rates and a long history of commodity trade. We use VAR analysis of Malaysian quarterly trade and GDP growth from 1965 to 1996. Trade data are disaggregated into primary and manufactures exports and causality tests are applied to the entire period as well as two subperiods #150 the 1965 #1501980 period when policy emphasis was on import substitution and the 1981#1501996 period when policies favoured export-led growth. Statistical tests confirm export-led growth for the full period and for the period to 1980 but tests on the 1981#1501996 period show growth causing exports. Primary exports had a stronger direct impact on economic growth than manufactures. The weakening support for export-led growth after Malaysia shifted to an export-oriented development strategy is associated with structural changes associated with industrialization. Interaction among trade and growth variables becomes more complex with a broadening export base and more diverse sources of growth.     

Corporate social responsibility,stock prices,and tax policy

We model a market in which some investors get utility from owning shares of firms that engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). In equilibrium, investors' CSR considerations influence portfolio choices, stock prices, and CSR spending. We study tax policy designed to maximize total giving (individual and corporate) net of government tax breaks and find that its effectiveness is non‐monotonic in the proportion of altruistic investors: with few or many altruistic investors, it has little impact on giving, but, at intermediate levels, effective tax policy intuitively relates the corporate tax rebate rate on giving and the cap on allowable tax savings.     

改革30年后，中国经济徘徊在十字路口

【英国路透社12月9日】也许在数月前，可能还没有人认为，对于中国而言，即将成为过去的2008年，值得铭记的或许并不是北京8月的奥运盛会或是5月的四川震灾，而是中国经济发展模式的转变。     

Managing Visitor Impacts at Visitor Attractions: An International Assessment

This paper presents the findings of a study designed to extend and develop a previous study conducted by the authors on the management of visitor impacts at visitor attractions in Scotland. This follow-up study sets out to discover the extent to which attractions in other countries experience similar impacts, with comparable management challenges to those already identified in the Scottish visitor attraction sector. In order to provide a direct comparison to the Scottish study, a replication of the research methodology employed in that study was considered necessary. A self-completion survey was thus mailed to managers of paid-admission attractions in Canada, Australia and New Zealand: three ‘leading-edge’ destinations selected for comparison. Findings suggest that although many impacts are perceived to be similar across the four countries, a number of important differences are evident. Given that the reasons for such differences vary, the paper concludes that the development of a generic strategy for the management of visitor impacts internationally remains something for the future. In the meantime, the sector should rely on the identification and adoption of best practice on a case-by-case basis. The sector’s diversity and fragmentation suggest that qualitative research holds the key to identifying appropriate techniques for managing visitor impacts.     

The information flow and market efficiency between the U.S. and Chinese aluminum and copper futures markets

This study examines the information flow and market efficiency between the metallurgical futures markets of the United States and China over a ten‐year span from 1999 to 2009. There were structural breaks in the aluminum and copper futures price series for the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) between 2006 and 2008. The New York and Shanghai markets are cointegrated, indicating an equilibrium relationship between the two markets. Trading strategies are implemented to explore the error‐correction process. The overall results show that U.S. and Shanghai futures prices are closely related and both markets are comparably efficient on a daily basis. The U.S. market does not appear to be more efficient than the Chinese market in incorporating information into prices. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark     

《瓦格纳五讲》前言

1正如我很久之前说的那样,瓦格纳的歌剧是我生命的一部分。这是我母亲在音乐方面最大的爱好,我在屋子里听着古老的黑胶78转唱片,在唱片的电流中,听着来自西格弗里德1的森林细语,或者魁梧女人的骑马远行,抑或伊索尔德2死亡的交响乐。自1952年夏以来,我的父亲,作为图卢兹的"市长",被邀请参加由威     

Rejoinder

We thank discussants Christine O’Keefe, Natalie Shlomo, Josep Domingo‐Ferrer, and George Duncan for their thoughtful commentary. Their insightful points are precisely the kind of “serious conversation” that we called for in the paper.     

Volatility and trading activity following changes in the size of futures contracts

This paper has two purposes. First, we examine the relationship between daily price volatility and trading activity one year before and after a change in contract size by examining the results of contract splits in the Australian share price index futures and the U.K. FTSE-100 futures contracts and a reverse contract split in the Australian Bank Bill Acceptance futures contract. Second, we evaluate the effect of the change in contract size on the use of the particular futures market. We find that after a contract size change, the change in total trading frequency has the power to explain the change in daily price volatility. Specifically, after a contract split, trading frequency increased, resulting in increased daily price volatility, and vice versa after a reverse contract split. Most of the average trade size variable has an immaterial impact on price volatility. However, decomposing the total trading frequency into four trade size classes, we find that the trading frequency for small and large trade size categories are highly significant in explaining changes in daily price volatility after the contract splits. Finally, we find the change in contract size for each futures market was successful because within three years following the change, the adjusted trading volume and open interest surpassed the levels prior to the change and have continued to increase thereafter.