What History Can Teach Us About Science: Theory and Experiment, Data and Evidence

Scientists often use more than the results of experiment to arrive at a result; they use anticipation and analogy to arrive at the results that fit their theories, and sometimes they correct results in the light of analogy. They also need to be clear about the difference between accuracy and precision. They do all this using not only theories, but also apparatus, and the interplay between apparatus and the development of concepts and theories is often crucial. Historians of chemistry (notably including the recent work of Usselman, Rocke, and Holmes) furnish us with plenty of examples of such interplay, and of the selection of data in the light of theory. Lavoisier, Dalton, and Liebig can each teach us a good deal about the way that good scientists arrive at reproducible results.     

The influence of leadership behavior and organizational commitment on organizational readiness for change in a higher learning institution

Many factors contribute to the effectiveness in implementing organizational change. However, many change effort fail due to several factors such as lack of commitment, style of leadership, and emotional distress of the employees who have to implement the change. This study was intended to determine the influence of leadership behavior and organizational commitment on organizational readiness for change in a higher learning institution. It was based on a conceptual framework that combined part of an adapted model from organizational development and change theory. A total of 169 academic staff from the main and branch campuses UiTM throughout Malaysia were selected based on stage and cluster sampling to participate in this study. The result shows that there is a significant relationship between organizational commitment and leadership behavior on organizational readiness for change. The findings also revealed that 36.5% of the variance in readiness for change is explained by organizational commitment and transactional leadership behavior. In determining the role of the organization commitment as a moderating variable, the result of the study indicates significant moderating effect of affective commitment on the relationship between transformational leadership behavior and organizational readiness for change. This study implied that building organizational commitment as well as developing transformational and transactional leadership behavior could contribute to formulation of organizational readiness for change and subsequently lead to the success of a change program.     

Concepts in Change

In this article we focus on the concept of concept in conceptual change. We argue that (1) theories of higher learning must often employ two different notions of concept that should not be conflated: psychological and scientific concepts. The usages for these two notions are partly distinct and thus straightforward identification between them is unwarranted. Hence, the strong analogy between scientific theory change and individual learning should be approached with caution. In addition, we argue that (2) research in psychology and cognitive science provides a promising theoretical basis for developing explanatory mechanistic models of conceptual change. Moreover, we argue that (3) arguments against deeper integration between the fields of psychology and conceptual change are not convincing, and that recent theoretical developments in the cognitive sciences might prove indispensable in filling in the details in mechanisms of conceptual change.     

Self-efficacy and behavioral intention: A mediational analysis of the effects of commitment on career counseling

This article examines two questions of research. Can we make educational and vocational information sessions effective by applying commitment theory (Kiesler, 1971) to this particular aspect of career counseling? Does commitment as part of an initial low-cost behavior (taking part in an information session) have a direct effect or is the effect a mediate one? Data gathered during an experiment involving six sixth-year secondary school classes would appear to suggest that there is a mediate process. To be more precise, the accepted impact of commitment upon the effectiveness of information sessions (postsession information and orientation is more actively sought) would seem to be linked to its mediation by perceived self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997/2003) in orientation. On the other hand, it is not mediated by the behavioral intention (Fishbein, 1980) to take such steps, this being an intention upon which commitment has no effect. The discussion links these results to some of Kiesler's initial questions (commitment as a process of internal self-attribution), and also places them within the framework (proper to counseling) of factors common to all intervention theories and techniques designed to explain the effectiveness of said interventions.     

Interaction of efficacy,commitment, and expectations in the formation of faculty attitudes toward collective bargaining

A model of the formation of faculty attitudes toward collective bargaining is developed which reflects recent developments in theory and research in organizational behavior. The model is an alternative to those grounded in need-satisfaction theories and takes into account interaction effects among variables. Hypotheses are formulated which explore how faculty members develop: (1) beliefs about, and effective responses toward, their work environment; and (2) propensities to wish to change that environment by implementating collective bargaining. Empirical data are analyzed to assess the main effects of, and interactions among, organizational commitment, perceived personal efficacy, and expectations with respect to the impact of bargaining.An earlier draft of this article was presented before the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Chicago, March 1978.     

高校大学生MOOC持续使用行为研究——基于ECM-ISC和承诺信任理论

新型冠状病毒疫情为MOOC平台带来的机遇,但也面临如何继续留住用户的挑战。厘清高校大学生用户MOOC持续使用行为的影响因素,对MOOC平台优化服务、提升用户体验具有重要意义。本文基于ECM-ISC模型,结合考虑交互关系的承诺信任理论模型,对高校大学生MOOC持续学习行为的因素及各因素之间的关系进行了实证分析。研究结果表明:内在动机是学习者满意度的主要影响因素;信任是用户持续使用MOOC平台的重要影响因素;引入信任和承诺后的用户持续使用行为模型具有更强的解释力;信任与承诺在满意度对用户持续使用的正向影响中起到部分中介和链式中介作用。     

Chemistry and the Pendulum – What Have They to do With Each Other?

Physicists have known for some time that pendulum motion is a useful analogy for other physical processes. Chemists have played with the idea from time to time but the strength of the analogy between pendulum motion and chemical processes has only received prominent published recognition since about 1980, although there are details of the analogy that still remain to be explored. This paper suggests that thinking of the pendulum as a type of energy converter can help students understand the energy conversions involved in molecular collisions associated with a chemical reaction. In particular, the relationship between kinetic and potential energy becomes vital in understanding the process of bond breaking, bond making, and enthalpy change in a chemical reaction. As a result, the principles behind transition state theory become somewhat easier to grasp. However, the use of the pendulum as an analogy for a reaction approaching chemical equilibrium can lead to misconceptions. The paper also discusses the nature of catalytic feedback, periodicity and non-periodicity in oscillating chemical reactions and the extent to which the action of a pendulum might elucidate these phenomena. Identifying the limitations as well as the strengths of an analogy is an important consideration when an analogy is applied to a teaching and learning situation. While one is tempted to think that pendulum action is probably more pertinent to the study of physics, there are important applications in the field of chemistry.     

Towards a Psychological Model of Teacher–Parent Communication in Hong Kong Primary Schools

Teacher attitudes and practices are considered as essential in fostering parental involvement in school education. In Hong Kong, amongst possible types of home–school links, teacher–parent communication about children's learning has been agreed to be the primary concern of both schools and parents. This paper reports a test of a psychological model of teacher–parent communication in Hong Kong primary schools. The model has taken into account the theory of planned behavior, self-efficacy theory, expectancy theory and theories of family–school relations. Scales for measuring the criterion and predictor variables have been developed. Variables that associated with teacher communication intention and practices were identified and path analyses linking the variables in a conceptual model were conducted. Results show that teacher commitment and teacher efficacy in working with parents have significant predictive power for teacher intention. Teacher intention, together with teacher commitment, has predictive power for teacher's time spent in communicating with parents. Relationships between individual teacher beliefs and the criterion variables are also described and discussed.     

口腔修复学实验教学初探

口腔修复学技能操作很强，本在实验教学上进行了一些探讨：改进教学程序，采用了先临床实习，再实验示教，然后上理论课，做实验，模拟临床操作等方法。实践证明这些方法激发了学生的学习兴趣，有利于实验教学水平的提高，缩短了理论，实验室操作与临床实践的距离，为临床实习打下了良好的基础。     

承诺行动在教学优化中的应用

考虑到利益相关性,可采用博弈模型描述教学问题,潜在的教学结果则对应于给定模型的均衡。博弈均衡可通过承诺行动予以改变,换言之,承诺行动可用以优化教学,师生积极向上的态度对于改进教学非常重要。     

物理学中类比推理辨析

类比推理并不严密，物理学中应类比推理时，其理论模型必须接受实验检验从而弥补了类比法之不足，我们以类比推理去探索物理学家在构建物理学理论时所表现出的创造性思维是十分恰当的。     

刘熙载"日喻说"及其现代阐释

刘熙载作为一位正统的儒家知识分子,在晚清对我国古代文论做了最后的总结,他提出的日喻说具有丰富的理论内涵,他重视并实践了整体性的思维方式,突出了对人的重视,在某种程度上体现出不同于传统文论的特点从而具有了现代意义.     

李白诗歌的概念整合视角研究

Fauconnier等人提出的概念整合理论作为普遍的认知机制不仅可用于解释概念隐喻、事件整合、概念延伸和假设类推等语言现象,而且为语篇分析和意义构建提供有效的、创新的、不可或缺的认知工具。本文以该理论为依据解读李白的诗歌,试图检验该理论在中国古典诗词语篇分析中的理论价值和应用价值。     

Resubsumption: A Possible Mechanism for Conceptual Change and Belief Revision

Successful learning sometimes requires that the learner abandons or rejects one or more prior concepts, beliefs, or intuitive theories. Such nonmonotonic changes are widely believed to have a low probability of occurring spontaneously and to be difficult to promote with instruction. A theory of nonmonotonic cognitive change should explain both why such changes are difficult and why they are possible. The purpose of this article is to develop the idea that nonmonotonic change happens when the learner resubsumes a domain of experience under a conceptual system originally developed for some other domain. The resubsumption theory is built on three main cognitive processes: In the course of routine knowledge formation, people grow informal theories for different domains of experience in parallel, maintaining local but not global coherence. The trigger for conceptual change is bisociation, the realization that an informal theory developed to make sense of one domain also applies to some other domain, giving the learner two alternative ways of thinking about the latter. The conflict between the two alternative ways of thinking is settled through competitive evaluation of their cognitive utility. The pedagogical implications of the resubsumption theory differ from those of prior theories but are as yet untested.     

Disaggregating the Creationist Challenge to Liberal Neutrality

In the US and elsewhere, creationist groups have challenged the mandatory science curriculum because it introduces the theory of evolution as the true story of biodiversity. This paper disaggregates this challenge in two distinctive levels. On the substantive level, creationists claim that Darwinian evolution is not value-neutral, as most scientists portray it, but it works as a philosophically-loaded theory that amounts to naturalism, which is a comprehensive doctrine that undermines traditional theism. Creationists then contend that its exclusive teaching violates the liberal promise of religious neutrality. To restore metaphysical fairness, they propose to include non-naturalistic theories into the official curriculum as a way of balance. On the epistemic level, creationists criticise liberal institutions—from courts of justice to educational boards and executive officials—that demarcate science in a way in which supernatural hypotheses can never compete for the best factual explanation. Under the guise of a purely methodological naturalism, they argue, liberals are opting for a cognitive filter that is biased against the belief that God intervenes in cosmic history. To restore epistemological fairness, they propose that theories that suggest supernatural agency should be rehabilitated and eventually included in the science curriculum. In these two distinct levels, the creationist claim is advanced as a logical implication of political liberalism's purported commitment to religious impartiality.     

浅谈研究生实践教学与理论教学

先生立于三尺讲台之上,直面十数若干学生,是古往今来较为规范的授课方式,基于此观念,在研究生教学中纯理论的授课方式在讲师和学生之间形成了一种默契的许可,在他们看来,所谓的授课无非是按规定把应该讲的专业内容讲出来,达到的效果似乎不做太多追求,为了探寻一种更为有效的授课观念和方式,开启一种新式的授课理念,提高研究生的授课质量,本文将把授课的种种理论类比于销售的些许的原理,对研究生的理论教学与实践教学进行探索性分析.     

教育理论建设中的类比问题

"类比"就是以相似性为基础,建立事物之间的关联。类比这种思维和推论方式在教育理论建设中具有重要的作用。传统的教育理论在运用类比进行论述时,一般会选择直观清晰的对象作为源域,而当下的教育理论建设中则存在相反的情况。源域和目标域之间相似性的发现可以采用不同的进路,它们各自影响着教育理论的展开。运用类比进行理论建设,本质上不是要制造实在的知识,而是要促进意义理解、进行有效的对话、扩展经验的范围。     

Structuration theory,habitus and complexity theory: elective affinities or old wine in new bottles?

This paper examines similarities and differences between structuration theory, habitus and complexity theory, as theories of social change. The paper suggests that structuration theory and habitus can theorize change, but that complexity theory offers a more complete theory of change because it focuses on social production rather than reproduction. Although there are elective affinities between structuration theory, habitus and complexity theory, nevertheless there are important differences between them. Complexity theory, being at heart a theory of change and development, differentiation and open systems, is more than merely a reformulation of structuration theory and habitus, and offers a more complete theory of social change than these two. Implications and agendas are drawn for the sociology of education from a complexity perspective.     

自我同一性理论与测量研究述评

目前有关同一性测量的研究,根据其理论依据的不同可以分为两种取向：一是以玛西亚理论为基础,在探索与承诺两维度下的不断延伸与补充;一是以新的同一性理论如认同风格理论、认同资源理论、认同过程理论等为依据的测量。虽然,其理论点与测量重点不同,但他们的相互配合和补充更能解释青少年同一性形成过程中的不同方面的问题。