Developing social skills in autistic children through ‘Relaxed Performances’

Families living with autism often feel unable to attend social and cultural events, largely due to the fear of their child attracting negative or even aggressive reactions from others. The ‘joint attention’ that is part of the theatre experience, however, may be a powerful factor in the development of social and communication skills for such children. ‘Relaxed performances’ offer an opportunity for them to access and engage with theatre by making special arrangements designed to reduce tensions associated with visits to public places. Aspects of the production such as the use of lighting and sound effects which may trigger adverse reactions are also adjusted. This paper reports on how one local theatre drew on the findings of a national project to mount a ‘relaxed performance’ of their annual pantomime. It discusses the theatre's preparations and presents evidence of the impact the event had on local children with autism and their families. The success of both the national project and this local one marks a new beginning for improved access to the theatre for an audience that has hitherto felt largely excluded.     

黄冈红色旅游品牌研究

黄冈红色旅游资源丰富,在全国“红色旅游”中占有重要地位,但目前黄冈在“红色旅游”品牌开发方面还存在一些问题,本文结合黄冈的实际,针对这些问题提出了“红色旅游”品牌开发的具体对策。     

司法危机下涉诉信访若干问题再检视

自涉诉信访命题被提出来之后受到高度重视。涉诉信访区别于一般的行政信访和涉法信访,有着自身特点,其产生有高度的复杂性和深刻的社会原因。涉诉信访的产生和高发是实用功能主义司法的需要,另一方面却在某种程度上对司法权产生了某种侵蚀,消耗司法权威。涉诉信访在传统司法程序外构建一套化解与终结程序是无奈之举,目前来说有一定的合理性,但需要妥善处理行政权与司法权的关系,在保证法院独立性下涉诉信访如何终结需要研究。     

The importance of the advisor’s relational and professional competence and formal power in meetings with farmers

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to explore how advisors’ relational and professional competence influences inter-subjectivity and farmers’ perceptions of farm visits in a setting where advisors have formal power.Methodology: Advisors from the dairy company Tine, which is owned by farmers in collaboration, visit farmers at least once a year. The aim of the visit is to assist farmers in managing the farm and to control the production conditions in the cowshed. In a case study, we attended 10 such mandatory advisor visits and interviewed both farmers and advisors.Findings: Together with advisor style, our findings show that the power relation leaves room for advisors to define their roles widely, ranging from inspector to coach. Advisors have different perceptions of what their jobs are and when they have done a good job. These differences determine the degree of inter-subjectivity and how satisfied farmers are with visits. Furthermore, advisors’ relational and professional competencies are crucial for achieving high inter-subjectivity and satisfied farmers.Theoretical implications: This paper contributes to the theory by identifying factors that influence farmers’ perceptions of advisor visits, as well as by showing the importance of the advisor’s relational and professional competence in a setting where they have formal power.Practical implications: Partly as an outcome of this study, Tine has started a process to separate the control function from farm visits. Tine has also decided to let farmers choose advisors themselves. Originality/value: The power relation in our study differs from most consultant–client interactions in the literature.     

A conceptual framework for developing an activity-based approach to career counselling

The present paper develops a conceptual framework for an activity-based approach to career counselling. The main objective of this approach is to combine clients' practical activity, such as visits to educational institutions, work practices etc., with their psychological processes leading to occupational choice. Some basic ideas that are relevant to developing an activity-based approach to counselling in postmodern work life and some recent changes in work life itself and in the individuals' relation to work are discussed. These include plasticity, which emphasizes the individuals' capability and activeness in shaping both their working environment and themselves; the nonnormative nature of the developmental tasks that postmodern work life sets for the individual; the openness and nonlinear nature of the counselling process and the implications of this on the role of the counsellor; and the usefulness of conceptualizing the counselling process as a metaphorical reality. Also, some preliminary findings from a research project aimed at developing a counselling process model which is congruent with activity-based approach are presented. The implications of these findings on the framework are also discussed.     

基于 Web日志的用户信息行为研究

以鞍山师范学院图书馆网站为样本,利用Awstats软件从Web日志文件中提取访问量、点击量、浏览页面量、访问时间和访问来源等指标的数据,采用SPSS软件对数据进行描述性和推断性分析,并进行深入挖掘。根据相关分析结果对鞍山师范学院图书馆用户信息行为相关问题进行分析,并提出了相应解决对策。     

高职艺术设计类兼职教师队伍管理的思考与实践

我国高等教育改革的不断深化促进了高职教育规模的日益发展,造成短时间内教师短缺的现象,而解决这个暂时性问题的最佳途径是向社会聘任兼职教师。目前高职院校在兼职教师队伍管理上取得不少成功的经验,同时也存在诸多问题。本文通过实地调研,收集充分材料,在归纳总结的基础上找出高职艺术设计类兼职教师实践中存在的问题,探寻成因,提出具有针对性的建议及切实可行的操作办法。     

绍兴市越城区社区体育资源配置现状与对策研究

通过对绍兴市越城区社区体育资源的实地访问和对社区居民的问卷调查,从辩证唯物论角度深入剖析城区社区体育场地设施资源、项目资源以及人力资源的配置现状,发现在社区体育资源配置方面存在场地硬件设施建设不完善、不合理,项目资源分布不均匀,过于集中以及社区体育专门人才严重缺乏,等级低等问题,提出了一些在社区体育资源方面的配置对策与建议。     

Is It Always Worth the Trip? The contribution of museum and gallery educational programmes to classroom art education

Drawing on observations of classroom art practice and visits to one museum and two galleries and on interviews with teachers and museum and gallery educators, this article examines the interactive relationship between school art education and museum and gallery visits. It studies: the ways primary teachers use such visits for art teaching purposes; and the reasons for the existing limitations in incorporating museum or gallery visits into school art education despite the wide acknowledgement of their educational value. The findings suggest the presence of two models of educational programmes which appear to influence differently the ‘three‐part unit’ of preliminary work, visit to the institution and follow‐up activities in the classroom.     

Changing contexts: Teacher professional development and ICT pedagogy

This paper examines data from a series of visits to secondary schools in England which have been identified as doing innovative work with ICT. The paper argues that stable definitions of innovation are difficult in this context and require an understanding of both the technological contexts of innovation and the concept of a school as a dynamic learning community. Data is presented in the form of vignettes to demonstrate how the school visits formed a kind of “performance” in relation to the schools’ own claims about innovations and the enquiries of the research team. Discussion of the data focuses on three key themes which emerge: the changing roles of teachers; new technologies/new pedagogies and the public face of the school. The paper concludes with the observation that innovation is necessarily complex but pupil agency and creativity should always play a vital part.     

Perceptions of the Value of Quality Assessment in Scottish Higher Education

The 1992–93 session in Scottish universities saw the introduction of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council's (SHEFC) statutory requirement to introduce quality assessments of teaching and learning. This paper looks at some of the issues that have arisen from the experience of staff at Napier University in terms of being assessed. It focuses on the issues that have arisen from the first and second round of visits to institutions. The key questions and problems associated with the process are considered in the context of the following headings: (1) defining quality; (2) the role of the lead assessor; (3) the framework for the visit; (4) the role of the student; (5) the quality of the reports; (6) the cost benefit analysis. SHEFC's stated aims for assessment are evaluated in the light of the above.     

Why Compulsory Science Education Should <Emphasis Type="Italic">Not</Emphasis> Include Philosophy of Science

Like many readers of this journal, I have long been an advocate of having science students introduced to philosophy of science. In particular, influenced by the Philosophy for Children movement founded by Matthew Lipman, I have advocated such an introduction as early as possible and have championed early secondary school as an appropriate place. Further, mainstream science curricula in a number of countries have, for some time now, supported such introductions (albeit of a more limited sort) under the banner of introducing students to the “Nature of Science”. In this paper, I explore a case against such introductions, partly in role as “Devil’s Advocate” and partly exploring genuine qualms that have come to disturb me. Generally speaking, my judgement is that no justification is available in terms of benefit to the individual or to society of sufficient weight to outweigh the loss of freedom of choice involved in such forced learning. One possible exception is a minimalist and intellectually passive “Nature of Science” introduction to some uncontroversial philosophical views about science. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Seventh International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science and Science Teaching, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg and subsequently published in its proceedings (see my 2003). I am grateful to those who engaged in discussion of the paper upon its presentation. I am also grateful to the advice of this journal’s anonymous referees.     

用Turbo C实现网络上文件的互斥访问

网络的出现是数据的共享成为可能,但在应用系统中,往往又要求多个用户对数据互斥访问.应用Turbo C中的库函数,提出一种简单易行的互斥访问方法.     

To be or not to be ‘a disabled student’ in higher education: the case of a postgraduate ‘non‐declaring’ (disabled) student

This paper draws on data from a research project that was funded by the UK's Higher Education Academy. The project focused on the experiences of disabled students in one English higher education institution, and a key feature of the project was to attempt to access the perspectives of ‘non‐declaring’ disabled students. This paper draws on the experiences of one of the ‘non‐declaring’ respondents, Anna, a postgraduate student. In the UK, some students declare their disabled status on entry to a higher education institution, some do so once at the institution and some never let the institution know of their impairment. It is the perspectives of this latter group that are particularly difficult to access. Anna's experiences as a postgraduate student provide some insight into what may affect decisions about declaration of impairment. Drawing on a social‐relational understanding of disability, factors that influenced her decision not to ‘declare’ and the consequent effect on her experience of higher education are explored.     

The Business Café Project: viewing to browsing?

This paper describes and discusses critically a unique experiment in using a combination of broadcast television and an interactive Web site to reach people interested in business and management. The Open University's Business School, in collaboration with the BBC mounted the project, called The Business Café . The paper outlines the contents of the nine broadcasts and the site, which changed weekly. Developing the broadcasts and maintaining the site required complex procedures and teamwork. The broadcasts attracted an audience of 300,000 UK viewers and the Web site recorded over 60,000 visits during the series. The stakeholders and others who offered much constructive criticism, identified more project outcomes during an evaluation. Useful lessons emerged, in particular about cross-team working and about learning from asynchronous networks like the Web. Web site: http://www.open.ac.uk/businesscafe     

大学英语教师在评估改革中身份转变的叙事探究

本文采用叙事探究方法,研究大学英语教师在评估改革中的身份转变及其影响因素。本文在一名大学英语教师评估实践故事的基础上,分析该教师在评估改革中的“实际身份”与“目标身份”,及其身份转变过程。研究发现,教师身份是个经历“变”与“不变”的复杂过程。本文指出,教师身份是在社会和历史两大维度的交织影响下,在专业自我和个人自我两大力量的冲突、协商与调和中,构建和发展起来的。     

Power and representation: A postcolonial reading of global partnerships and teacher development through North—South study visits

This paper critically analyses the neo‐liberal discourse informing global education policy and practice. We use postcolonial theory to deconstruct the contexts for global educational partnerships, highlighting how issues of power and representation are central to their development and the learning that takes place within them. Teacher development through North—South study visits is one way of challenging teachers’ worldviews, but these are not always effective. We argue that study visit courses, where learning is facilitated by differently knowledgeable others, have the potential to be more effective, but only if the courses are underpinned by postcolonial theory and informed by socio‐cultural pedagogy.     

克林顿、布什政府对华政策的比较分析

克林顿和布什执政期间的对华政策具有许多相似之处,如双方均表现出两面性和摇摆性、始终处于矛盾的统一体中,但同时又重视和发展同中国的经济贸易往来,高层互访不断.差异性也很大,一个是理想主义、自由主义为重,一个以现实主义为重,对中国的战略定位表现为“伙伴关系“和“战略竞争对手“、“模糊战略“和“清晰战略“.分析冷战后两届政府对华政策的异同,对于中国制定应对政策具有重要的现实和理论意义.