Myths about instrumental discourse: A response to Robert R. Johnson

Abstract of the original article

Robert R. Johnson's “Complicating Technology: Interdesciplinary Method, the Burden of Comprehension, and the Ethical Space of the Technical Communicator,” published in the Winter 1998 issue of TCQ, points out that there is much for technical communicators to learn from the burgeoning field of technology studies. Technical communicators, however, have an obligation to exercise patience as they enter this arena of study. Using interdisciplinary theory, this article argues that technical communication must assume the “burden of comprehension”: the responsibility of understanding the ideologies, contexts, values, and histories of those disciplines from which we borrow before we begin using their methods and research findings. Three disciplines of technology study—history, sociology, and philosophy—are examined to investigate how these disciplines approach technology. The article concludes with speculation on how technical communicators, by virtue of their entrance into this interdisciplinary arena, might refashion both their practical roles and the scope of their ethical responsibilities.     

Results of a Survey, of ATTW Members, 2003

This article presents the results of an April 2003 electronic survey of ATTW members. Results and interpretations are categorized as follows: a professional profile of respondents; member observations about ATTW and its activities (member participation, appraisal of benefits, and preferred topics for TCQ); and current issues and views of the field's future.     

Secondary students' development as teachers over the course of a PGCE year

Research has suggested that students pass through different concerns or stages in their development as teachers. Although some authors have suggested that concerns or stages are sequential, other research does not support sequential concerns or stages of development. The major purpose of this study was to look at the concerns of students at different times during a one-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course, particularly to identify any changes in concerns about school experience as they developed as teachers and whether the development of concernswas sequential. A second purpose was to look atwhether the Teacher Concerns Questionnaire (TCQ) is a useful instrument for measuring students' concerns. One cohort of students on a secondary PGCE course in Englandwas administered the TCQ on three occasions during the academic year 1996/97. Results showed that these students were moderately concerned about school experience at the three administrations of the questionnaire. Self and impact concerns were the highest causes of concern and task concerns the lowest causes of concern at all three administrations of the questionnaire. Results also showed that there was a significant difference in the amount of total concern between the first and second and first and third administrations of the questionnaire, but not between the second and third administrations. There were significant differences between scores on nine of the items on the TCQ. However, there were no significant differences between students learning to teach different subjects. The three categories of concern identified for the TCQ: self, task and impact concerns, were only partly supported by the results of this study. The results did not support work which has suggested that the development of concerns is sequential. The results are discussed in relation to the ongoing development of teachers and identifying concerns of individual students.     

Toward a Feminist Historiography of Technical Communication

The essays published in this special issue of TCQ are contextualited within historiographical traditions of inquiry in the western history of science and technology.     

Integrating Intercultural Online Learning Experiences into the Computer Classroom

Technical communicators of the new millennium will need to develop certain skills to succeed in international online interactions (IOls), and computer classrooms with online access can help students to develop these skills through direct interaction with materials and individuals from other cultures. This article presents exercises instructors can use to help students develop these particular skills.     

A Never‐Ending Painting: The Generosity of Time Spent Making and Learning with Others through Artistic Research

This article examines the role of spending time with others in and through artistic research and practice. I draw from my doctoral work which took me on a cross‐Canada journey visiting 125 artists in their studios. Following the studio visits, I made a series of paintings of artists’ studios, however a year later these same paintings were cut up and rearranged to create collaborative studio assemblages on the walls of the Tate Exchange Gallery in Liverpool. Drawing on the metaphor of a never‐ending‐painting to examine never‐ending pedagogies, this article examines the evolution of this project through three iterations of the studio paintings. With each iteration, I explore different ways of knowing others through making thus proposing the performative and relational qualities of artistic research. The first iteration allowed me to spend time with artists even in their absence, as I engaged with our conversations through painting their studios, thus blurring the lines between solitary and social art practices. The second iteration allowed me to give up my art to others through asking them to create collages with fragments of my studio paintings. And the third iteration allowed my work to merge with other arts‐based researchers. Through this process, I propose that making art allows for multiple conversations to emerge through spending time getting to know others through art making.     

高职生的新特点对教师自身素质的新要求

本通过对高职院校学生新特点的分析，从教师自身的角度出发，提出由中专学校升格为高职学院后。教师应如何提高自身素质．以适应高等职业教育发展的需要。     

关于AutoCAD在高职教学中的应用

本文从AutoCAD软件与传统制图方式的比较等方面进行对比阐述,强调了利用计算机辅助设计提高制图效率的趋势。且如何根据高职的办学特征,突出其CAD教学的专业性和实践性强的特点,通过多年的教学与探索,结合多样的启发教学方式论述了CAD在高等职业技术学院教学中的应用。     

网络环境下的高职图书馆纸质期刊文献的管理

阐述了纸质期刊文献在高职图书馆中的重要性,以广西职业技术学院为例,通过分析高职图书馆纸质文献期刊管理工作的现状,指出加强高职图书馆纸质期刊文献的管理,提高纸质报刊利用率的措施。     

Historical Trauma,the Persistence of Memory and the Pedagogical Problems of Forgiveness,Justice and Peace

In this article I use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the contextual foundation from which to discuss issues concerning the unfortunate perpetuation of historical trauma through escalations in fear, miscommunication, resentment, and anger. I examine the concept of forgiveness in similar vein regarding its ability to redirect memory toward reparative action and the affirmation of human rights. Through this experience, traumatic memories may be temporalized, and healing can slowly take root as a process of personal and political reconciliation. Although I do not address the specific curricular content of such a project in this article, I describe conceptually what form therapeutic and reparative pedagogies might take.     

Theorising teacher professionalism as an enacted discourse of power

In this article I elaborate a theoretical framework for examining teacher professionalism as an enacted discourse of power. Central to this framework is an understanding of professionalism as a process that relates to the ways teachers attempt to influence the quality and character of their work. For subject teaching associations this process connects to issues of power such as teacher participation in educational policy‐making, and the advocacy of subject interests. In this article I theorise professionalism as enacted by subject teaching associations, arguing that the enacted form is shaped by changing structural, cultural and agential variables. Finally, I explore the interactive relationship between structure, culture and agency in the work of subject teaching associations, and present a working model through which enacted professionalism may be analysed and interpreted.     

The Enterprise Campus at Midlands Technical College

The Commission established the Midlands Technical College (MTC) Enterprise Campus through special legislation. The Enterprise Campus provides for partnerships with private developers using private resources to create a unique business environment. Participants learn about the legislative process, the need for public/private partnerships, and what these things do for the college and its community.     

以"三位一体"人才培养模式培育特色商务人才

文章介绍了湖北职业技术学院商务英语专业在人才培养过程中进行教育教学改革，优化人才培养模式和人才培养方案所取得的成效，指出学校教育融入行业、企业、社会是高职院校商务英语专业培养受用人单位和社会欢迎的高素质技能型涉外商务人才的有效途径。     

Technical Instruction Committees in South Wales,United Kingdom, 1889–1903 (Part 1)

ABSTRACT

This is Part 1 of a two‐part article on the establishment and activities of the Technical Instruction Committees established in Glamorgan County, Cardiff and Swansea in 1889/91. Local Technical Instruction Committees were given responsibility for given geographical areas, and were the first radical attempt to organise and finance a systematic programme of technical education. Each Committee inherited a haphazard system of evening classes sponsored initially by individual mechanics’ institutes and later by the Department of Science and Art. This system, such as it was, exhibited little pattern, varying in extent from place to place. Provision was dependent on local initiatives and utilised a variety of local buildings. Part 1 of this article describes the wider context of the establishment and activities of the Technical Instruction Committees before concentrating on the activities specifically of the Committee in Glamorgan County. Part 2 of this article (to appear in Volume 45, Number 2, 1993) will deal with the activities of the Technical Instruction Committees in Cardiff and Swansea before providing a concluding overview of the two parts.     

Serpents and Sheep: The Harriman Expedition,Alaska, and the Metaphoric Reconstruction of American Wilderness

This article examines one mechanism for the radical change in public perception of wilderness. The published papers of the Harriman Expedition, a scientific expedition at the end of the nineteenth century, are used to illustrate a process that I call "metaphoric reconstruction." I argue that conceptual metaphors are one of the tools through which texts and rhetorical contexts can be mutually transformative.     

试论有效应对技术性贸易壁垒的对策

随着经济全球化和国际贸易的不断发展,技术性贸易壁垒日益成为发达国家制约发展中国家对外贸易的重要手段。通过对这种新型的非关税壁垒之分析,揭示我国出口企业受技术性贸易壁垒影响的原因,并在此基础上提出应对之策。     

济南工程职业技术学院校园网动态新闻系统的设计与实现

随着信息技术的飞速发展,校园网站在职业院校中,对内提高教学办公效率、增加师生互动,对外宣传、提高学院知名度等方面起到越来越重要的作用。本文以济南工程职业技术学院为例,介绍了基于B/S模式的校园网新闻发布系统的设计与实现。经过几个月的试运行,网站基本满足了学院的需求。     

Reconstructing Context: Negotiating the Tension Between Exogenous and Endogenous Educational Design

In this article, I argue that when design and intervention are central to the research process, context as a construct is problematized. How we define context can facilitate or impede our ability to construct rich and veridical accounts of learning. A design stance may predispose us to less profitable notions of context. I present the advantages of design-based research for understanding how to enact novel forms of learning and for understanding the means through which this learning occurs. I discuss the characteristics of a design focus that threaten the efficacy of the research and illustrate this with a case example. I conclude with implications for challenging, but more amenable, ways of conceptualizing context.     

高职生心理健康教育模式的探索与实践

以成都航空职业技术学院为例，提出高职生心理健康教育模式：明确定位，将学生心理健康教育纳入学校整体学生教育和管理工作中；加强领导，层层落实，建立心理健康教育工作的组织保障；实施心理健康教育目标管理；构建心理健康教育教学体系；心理测查与科研相结合，提升心理健康教育的科学性、针对性、实效性；建立危机干预体系。