This paper reports the results of a meta‐analysis in which the dynamic model of educational effectiveness is used as a framework to search for school factors associated with student achievement. The methods and results of a synthesis of 67 studies are presented. Findings reveal that effective schools are able to develop policies and take actions in order to improve their teaching practice and learning environment. Factors excluded from the dynamic model were found to be only weakly associated with outcomes. Implications for research on school effectiveness and for improvement of practice are drawn. It is illustrated that this approach of conducting meta‐analysis helps us interpret the findings by providing support to the validity of the dynamic model and suggestions for its further development.
The presence of land fragmentation implies that the existing land tenure structure is defective. It is a major problem in many regions because it restricts agricultural development and reduces the opportunities for sustainable rural development. Whilst policies to counter land fragmentation require reliable measurement indices, current fragmentation indices have significant weaknesses which prevent adequate representation of the land fragmentation problem. In particular, they ignore critical spatial variables such as the shape of parcels as well as non-spatial variables such as ownership type and the existence or absence of road access for each land parcel. Furthermore, there is no flexibility for users to select the variables that they think appropriate for inclusion in the fragmentation index, and no variable weighting mechanism is available. The need for a new methodology for measuring land fragmentation is therefore apparent so the aim of this paper is to introduce a new 'global land fragmentation index' that combines a multi-attribute decision-making method with a geographic information system. When applied to a case study area in Cyprus, the new index outperforms the existing indices in terms of reliability as it is comprehensive, flexible, problem specific and knowledge-based. The methodology can be easily applied to assess the quality of any existing system for which evaluation criteria can be defined with values ranging from the worst to best conditions.
The perspective of European National Mapping Agencies (NMA) on the role of citizen sensing in map production was explored. The NMAs varied greatly in their engagement with the community generating volunteered geographic information (VGI) and in their future plans. From an assessment of NMA standard practices, it was evident that much VGI was acquired with a positional accuracy that, while less than that typically acquired by NMAs, actually exceeded the requirements of the nominal data capture scale used by most NMAs. Opportunities for VGI use in map revision and updating were evident, especially for agencies that use a continuous rather than cyclical updating policy. Some NMAs had also developed systems to engage with citizen sensors and examples are discussed. Only rarely was VGI used to collect data on features beyond the standard set used by the NMAs. The potential role of citizen sensing and so its current scale of use by NMAs is limited by a series of concerns, notably relating to issues of data quality, the nature and motivation of the contributors, legal issues, the sustainability of data source, and employment fears of NMA staff. Possible priorities for future research and development are identified to help ensure that the potential of VGI in mapping is realized.
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