Student-focused assessment criteria: thinking through best practice

Using results from a survey and focus groups with staff and students, I evaluate best practice for student-focused assessment criteria, including the value of specific assessment criteria, where and when students engage with criteria, the use of exemplars, how assessment criteria connect to feedback and the importance of bringing students more actively into the assessment process. I argue that we need to accept that many students are assessment motivated, and rather than work against this reality (which is rarely successful), we should instead consider how assessment can address student concerns of clarity and fairness while being more tied into learning.     

基于“十二五”规划视角的浦东新区旅游业发展研究——现状、问题及构想

“十二五”旅游业发展规划是将我国旅游业培育成国民经济战略性支柱产业与人民群众更加满意的现代服务业的关键性规划。本文基于“十二五”规划的视角,运用产业经济学理论,通过深入调查,对上海建设世界一流旅游目的地城市的重要区域——浦东新区的旅游业发展进行研究,其主要内容包括：（1）浦东新区旅游业发展的现状研究;（2）浦东新区旅游业发展评估及问题研究;（3）浦东新区旅游业“十二五”及至2020年的发展构想。本研究对其他类似区域制定旅游业发展的“十二五”规划具有一定的参考意义。     

中国十大城市群综合发展水平的多层次因素分析及非均衡差异研究

中国十大城市群正在成为中国经济、科技、文化最发达的地区,成为了中国国民经济的十大支撑点,因此,研究中国十大城市群综合发展水平具有理论和实践上的重大意义。通过构建城市群综合发展水平评估指标体系,采用多层次因素分析与分类相结合的综合评估方法,对中国十大城市群综合发展水平进行了科学评估及比较,十大城市群综合发展水平呈现出四大集团的非均衡区域差异分布。同时分别提出了缩短领先型集团、挑战型集团、追赶型集团、后进型集团城市群综合发展水平非均衡差异的对策与建议。     

Paper 3: Impact of the Indoor Climate on the Performance of Building Materials Contaminated with Salt Mixtures

Abstract

Archaeological sites are essentially submitted to decay phenomena inherent on their history as well as the environment to which they are exposed after excavation. The history of such archaeological sites is particularly related to their long-term underground conservation conditions during which they were subject to salt migration into the architectural remains.

It is well known that soluble salts present in building materials can cause damage, mainly by producing stresses in the substrate. A lot of research has been done in the past concerning the behaviour of salts in built constructions. However, most studies include single salts, of which the deliquescence points are well documented, while in situ one mostly finds complex salt mixtures, which makes the conservation strategy much more intricate.

The environmental conditions to minimize damage of salt-laden porous building materials can be modelled using a computer program ECOS capable of predicting the crystallization behaviour of salt mixtures. To use the model data of quantitative salt analyses are required as input. The program is then able to predict from a thermodynamic point of view which minerals will exist in the solid state under specified climatic conditions.

This paper deals with the results of a systematic investigation of the salt contamination of the building materials of the Coudenberg site and a prediction of the behaviour of the salt mixture related to the actual climate, as part of the environmental assessment.     

Earth Sciences Comparative Matrix: A Comparative Method for Geoheritage Assessment

Geological heritage is insufficiently recognised in Australia; it should be considered in its own right, not as an addendum to other heritage values. The lack of a suitable robust and repeatable methodology has seriously constrained the assessment of geological sites suitable for the National Heritage List (NHL). A desktop assessment of Australian desert landscapes required intrinsic natural values of a diverse group of sites, spread over a vast area, to be assessed against NHL criteria. The Earth Sciences Comparative Matrix (ESCoM) was developed for this study. In the ESCoM, sites are grouped in process themes. Each is assessed against NHL criteria then compared with other similar places, according to degree of unusualness, integrity, and authenticity. A site scoring well across multiple themes has increased heritage significance. The overall values of a site are quantified, leading to a qualitative judgement on whether it achieves the threshold of outstanding heritage value. Examples of assessment using this method are given. In this methodology, significance determination is based on rigorous comparisons of specific values. It is semi‐quantitative, repeatable, and robust. It differs from other geoheritage assessment methods in its combination of process‐based groupings (facilitating the separation of site type from heritage criteria), matrix structure (minimising complexities of scale or diversity), and use of numerical rankings as an aid in decision‐making. While the study for which ESCoM was developed was focused on landforms, it can be used for other types of geoheritage (e.g. fossils, tectonic processes), with modification of matrix theme headings.     

Re-evaluating the Monitoring of the Shardlow Log Boat

Following the discovery of a Bronze Age log boat in Shardlow Quarry, Derbyshire in 2003, a scheme was devised to preserve this boat in situ. This included a monitoring programme to ensure that reducing conditions were maintained. This solution was agreed by the mineral planning authority Derbyshire County Council, with input and advice from English Heritage.

Monitoring lasted ten years, during which time gravel deposits surrounding the boat were extracted. The boat was protected from dewatering during this time by a clay cut-off, installed around the area containing the boat before extraction begun. After extraction the adjacent areas were backfilled with on-site soils and inert waste.

Data indicate that a reducing environment has been largely sustained during this period. Following careful and considered discussion, the monitoring programme ceased as there was unlikely to be further impacts to site hydrology, making additional data collection redundant.     

Engagement and Management: Developing a Monitoring System for Open-air Rock Art in the UK and Ireland

ABSTRACT

Neolithic and Early Bronze Age rock carvings in the United Kingdom and Ireland represent an internationally unique rock art tradition as it is, to the best of our knowledge, the only wholly abstract global rock art tradition. This heritage resource is, however, under threat from an array of factors, such as increasing population densities and agricultural intensity. In this paper, we report on the Condition Assessment Risk Evaluation (CARE) project that had as one of its primary objectives the co-production of a user-friendly, non-invasive condition assessment risk evaluation Toolkit for gathering and organising information essential for the long-term conservation of open-air rock art. We describe the public involvement CARE process through co-experience participatory focus groups, which evaluated the Toolkit, concluding that we can have confidence in the results obtained from the public. Furthermore, the variables that form part of the Toolkit and related management recommendations are presented.     

A Framework for Assessing the Vulnerability of Archaeological Sites to Climate Change: Theory,Development, and Application

Abstract

The predicted impacts of climate change on cultural heritage are likely to be dynamic and complex. Understanding the potential risks at site level is vital to ensure that appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures are put in place. There is, however, a dearth of tools and methodologies suitable for use by heritage managers. In this paper the potential of vulnerability analysis for site-based assessment is explored. A six-step vulnerability framework, adapted for cultural heritage, is illustrated utilizing material from two case-study sites (Brú na Bóinne and Skellig Michael). The implementation of each step in the proposed framework is demonstrated to aid those wishing to apply the method in practice. The ‘values based’ approach taken is suitable for a wide range of cultural heritage including landscapes, monuments, and buried archaeology. The six-step framework and the utilization of indicators provide a method that allows comparison between sites and yet is sufficiently flexible to account for localized concerns. The framework will aid decision makers with planning and prioritization.     

Identifying heritage values in local communities

Preservation of cultural heritage is often carried out by voluntary workers in local communities, especially when the objects are not of major national interest, not listed, and not preserved by heritage authorities. The motivation for local preservation, and for spending time and money on objects belonging to the community, is not primarily to preserve cultural heritage objects for the future, but to establish and maintain common social institutions in the local society, institutions of vital importance to the local identity. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the local understanding of heritage relates to its official understanding in a Norwegian context. The paper will also examine to what degree the Norwegian heritage authorities have managed to implement the emphasis on local participation and the social dimensions of heritage, given strong articulation in later international conventions. Criteria for value assessment, as defined by national heritage authorities, do not seem to play a vital role in the local heritage field. The central authorities’ focus on professionalism, qualified management, and predefined criteria appears to meet limited resonance in local communities.     

Assessing stories before sites: identifying the tangible from the intangible

Despite a growing recognition that intangible heritage forms an important part of the significance of heritage sites, and that intangible values are intertwined with material resources and spaces, many procedures for the identification and management of heritage sites remain unchanged and fail to integrate these two sets of values. The conservation of heritage sites continues to be dominated by a process that first identifies a material site and then identifies the associated values that comprise its significance. This paper suggests that rather than identifying the physical expression of heritage as the initial point of heritage assessment, the stories (or intangible values) of a region or national history can form the primary mechanism for identifying physical heritage sites. Using the example of Australian government policies of Aboriginal segregation and assimilation, we suggest how national stories – or intangible values – might be used to identify representative sites.