The challenge of change: Using activity theory to understand a cultural innovation

This article explains how an inservice teacher education organisation in New Zealand embarked on a cultural innovation to challenge and build bicultural pedagogies, policies and practices. To understand the process and the impact of a three-year cultural innovation both intended and unintended changes need to be explored. Using a framework of second generation cultural historical activity theory, the article examines the individual and institutional changes, exposing both tensions and learning. Key successful factors included establishing a clearly recognized purpose, widening individual and group involvement, and creating flexibility to build a strong platform to support the innovation. However, tensions were created when externally imposed factors such as changes in government policy and re-prioritization of funding were introduced. The external tensions challenged the internal organisational structures and stability, which in turn affected the cultural innovation and destabilised the change process.     

Seeing Beyond Sameness: Using The Giver to Challenge Colorblind Ideology

The secondary worlds created in fantasy encourage the reader to compare and contrast the real world with the imaginary. In this way, fantasy as a genre can be transformative. In this article, the dystopia created in The Giver (1993) by Lois Lowry is examined as a metaphor for racism. After exploring the young adult novel as mystical fantasy in the context of reader response theory, the author evaluates the monochromatic world of The Giver as a portrayal of the consequences of a colorblind stance. Pedagogical considerations and implications for practice are also discussed. Susan G. Lea received her M.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania, where she is currently a doctoral candidate. She also serves as Chair, Board of Trustees, The Agnes Irwin School, an independent girls day school in Rosemont, PA. Her areas of research include how aesthetic response and co-constructed meaning are enhanced through well-known visual art presented in intertextual sets of picturebook art parody, local public mural art parody, and original artwork. Zelnick, “The battle for color-blind public policy.” Lowry, The Giver.     

学习理论的发展与学习创新

自古以来,关于知识的来源及其获取的方法,一直存在着经验论与唯理论之争,这些争论后来成为20世纪学习理论两大流派——行为主义和认知主义的哲学基础。建构主义是学习理论从行为主义发展到认知主义以后的进一步发展,它为当今时代学习创新提供了许多有益的启示:在学习目标上,变知识传输为知识建构;在学习方式上,倡导自主、探究、合作学习和情境学习;与此相适应,在教学上,也要从知识传授向全面促进学生的学习转变。     

用化学学科难题的魅力激励学生创新

本文试图从化学学科中尚待解决的难题出发，探讨利用化学学科难题，引发学生学习兴趣，激活学生创新精神，“点燃”学生创新思维的可行性。提出了开展学科难题教学渗透“三点”意识，实施探索性教学教学的教学策略。     

Using discriminant analysis to predict faculty rank

Past attempts to predict the salary of faculty have been flawed by the use of rank, a potential source of bias, but removing rank from the equation seriously reduces prediction. This research studies the degree of bias in rank. Discriminant analysis produced a solution that correctly predicted rank 69% of the time for the 1083 faculty members used in the study. Among teaching and research faculty, there was a significant relationship between the direction of prediction error and gender. For women, the number of times they were predicted to have a rank higher than their actual rank exceeded the opposite condition by 2 1/2 times; for men, there was a slight tendency for the opposite. Methods were suggested for using the information administratively to correct problems. Further, recommendations are made to use the results to study salary-bias problems.     

Seeing the Forest through the Trees Using Network Analysis: Exploring Student Responses to Conceptual Physics Questions

Journal of Science Education and Technology - This study explored how scientific ideas interacted in college students’ scientific explanations using text analysis techniques and network...     

Using game theory to predict supply chain cooperation

The motivation for this research was to understand under what conditions supply chain cooperation might be feasible and under what circumstances it is not. Whereas previous research focuses on dyads in a supply chain, our research seeks to examine a possible factor that can explain why truly cooperative supply chains involving more than two firms are a rarity among independent firms. This research extends the use of game theory to demonstrate the potential impact of a multiple‐tier supply chain agreement.     

Case study of an innovation requiring teachers to change roles

An exploratory study which focused on teachers responses to the demand for role change brought about by the implementation of a new course is reported. Two procedures used to gather data were participant observation and open-ended interviews. Role theory, symbolic interaction, and schools as organizations were used as the frameworks for data analysis in this discursive qualitative study. The data reported describe the teachers' perceptions of factors influencing their willingness to change behaviors in order to comply with the role demands of the innovation. Hypotheses grounded in the data were generated and tied together into a theory which is illustrated by a structural model. The model shows interrelationships of factors influencing the teachers to change roles at the time of initiation of the new course through the ultimate incorporation of the innovation.     

论我国边疆理论的言说困境与创制逻辑

在当前的国际边疆话语体系中,不管是领土、主权、边界等硬边疆概念,还是利益边疆、战略边疆、文化边疆等软边疆理论都是西方国家创制并占据国际边疆话语体系主导权的边疆理论。随着中国的崛起与国家利益的外溢,中国迫切需要用传统与新生的边疆理论来阐释中国的和平崛起,解读并维护国家利益。然而,具有浓厚帝国思维和霸权色彩的软边疆理论,却使中国的边疆话语言说陷入了一种两难的悖论：不承认西方边疆理论话语,则中国无法与国际主流边疆话语进行对接与勾连;承认西方两极对抗下产生的软边疆话语体系,又无法解读中国的包容和合与和平崛起。中国特色、中国风格、中国气派的边疆理论建构,需要我们对既有的西式边疆话语体系进行正本清源式的梳理与凤凰涅槃式的重铸。     

中国汽车工业如何培育自主知识产权

“没有自主品牌，我们造再多的车，也是别人的附庸，顶多就是一个汽车大国，而非强国；有了自主的品牌，虽然目前弱小，但经过多年不懈的努力，我们一定会成为汽车强国。”一个汽车界前辈的话发自肺腑。     

Dangerous mindsets: How beliefs about intelligence predict motivational change

The present study examined how beliefs about intelligence, as mediated by ability-validation goals, predicted whether students lost or maintained levels of intrinsic motivation over the course of a single academic year. 978 third- through eighth-grade students were surveyed in the fall about their theories concerning the malleability of intelligence, need to validate their academic ability through schoolwork, and intrinsic motivation. At the end of the school year, they were surveyed again about their intrinsic motivation and subsequently characterized as either decliners (those who lost intrinsic motivation over the year) or maintainers (those who maintained or gained intrinsic motivation over the year). As predicted, decliners were more likely to endorse an entity theory of intelligence than maintainers and this relationship was fully mediated by the adoption of ability-validation goals. Implications for intervention efforts and future research are discussed.     

In practice: Keep the change: Using reflection to frame the transformative qualities of learning

A Week of Reflection brings learning outcomes to the center stage of teaching and learning at Saint Louis University.     

Using actor-network theory to understand the process of information systems curriculum innovation

In this article I will note that Information Systems is a socio-technical discipline that is subject to rapid change and argue that changes in Information Systems curriculum can best be thought of as innovations and considered through the lens of innovation theory. In a socio-technical area like this where the contributions of both human actors (including academics, students and employers) and non-human actors (such as computers, programming languages and university infrastructure) must be taken into account, this article proposes the use of actor-network theory as a means of understanding more of the innovation process. The adoption of the programming language Visual Basic by an Australian university in the 1990s is used as an example of how actor-network theory can identify and explain some of the important issues in curriculum change.     

探析管理会计的变革与创新

随着经济体制的不断变革与发展,各个行业之间的竞争也在不断扩大,那么企业如何才能在愈演愈烈的竞争中脱颖而出呢,最为重要的方法就要从企业的内部环境以及外部条件入手,对企业的运营管理过程进行研究和探讨,企业在进行内部运营的过程中,最多使用的方法就是作业成本法或是全面的预算法,用这些方法对企业的财务状况进行计算,在此基础上对财务进行一定程度的监管。     

Using FEM to predict tree motion in a wind field

In this paper we propose a finite element （FE） simulation method to predict tree motion in a wind field, Two FE tree models were investigated： One model was generated based on a realistic nature-looking geometric tree model, and the other was a symmetric model to investigate the influence of asymmetric material properties on tree motion. The vortex-induced vibration （VIV） theory is introduced to estimate the fluctuating wind force being exerted on tree stems and the fluid-structure interaction （FSI） analysis is also included in the simulation. The results indicate that asymmetric material properties result in the crosswind displacement of the investigated node and the main swaying direction deviation. The simulation reveals that under wind loading, a tree with leaves has much larger swaying amplitude along the wind direction and longer swaying period than a tree without leaves. However, the crosswind swaying amplitude is mainly due to branch interaction. The numerical simulation proved that the interaction of tree branches can prevent dangerous swaying motion developing.     

数字文化产业时代高校文创产业发展路径

高校文创产业是以高校校园文化为内涵、产品为载体的新兴产业,是融合多学科资源、以高校校园文化为要素,综合运用多类型媒介平台推广而形成的一种文化现象与设计行为,是提升高校文化软实力的重要支撑。针对当今我国高校文创产业存在产品形式制式化、文化内涵缺乏、运营机制不健全等问题,提出一种饱含校园文化内涵与外延且兼具主题性和实用性的文创产品研发策略,以及创建“互联网+”线上线下多维度高校文创产业运营机制,助力高校文创产业可持续发展,推动其产品走出校园,走向社会,成为高校校园文化传播的有效移动载体。     

运用信息技术与课程整合，培养学生的创新能力

我校围绕以信息技术为平台,以培养创新型学生为核心目标,进行了积极有益的探索。开发配套网络教学请源,探索网络教学新模式,提高课堂教学实效,培养学生获取信息、分析加工信息的能力,促进学生创造思维的发展,让学生学会学习,学会做事,学会合作,促进全面素质的提高。