Between efficiency and politics rhetoric and ethics in technical writing

This article looks at the commentary's role in scientific disputation by analyzing the rhetoric in two scientific papers. First, it considers each author's explanation as to why disagreement exists among scientists. Second, it investigates one author's accusation that "cultural norms" have foreclosed research avenues in evolutionary studies. Third, it examines each author's appeal to values. These values cohere with their explanations as to why disagreements exist and their particular recommendations for administrating the Endangered Species Act.     

A guide for the perplexed: Scientific educational research, methodolatry, and the gold versus platinum standards

The paper opens by characterizing recent discourse about empirical educational research as the “new Babel”-critics, using different theoretical vocabularies and making different deep assumptions about the nature of social life, are failing to communicate with each other. After locating some of the critical positions on a left-right continuum, the main discussion focusses upon the end of this continuum where there are located the recent attempts to restore rigor to educational research by using the so-called “gold standard” of randomized field trials. It is argued that positions at this end of the continuum misrepresent the nature of science, and some examples are briefly mentioned in order to covey the point that it is fruitful to view scientists as making convincing cases, cases that appeal to a wide variety of evidence. This assessment of scientific cases is called the “platinum standard”.     

Social-Emotional Competence as Support for School Readiness: What Is It and How Do We Assess It?

The overall issue of assessment during early childhood, and its relation to school readiness and other decisions, is currently widely debated. Expanding early childhood education and child care enrollments, better scientific knowledge about early childhood development, and decisions about public spending, necessitate careful consideration of which assessment tools to use, as well as why and when to use them. More specifically, the disconnection between the importance of social and emotional domains of development, and their status within educational programming and assessment, has long been lamented. The last several years have, however, witnessed a blossoming of attention to these areas during early childhood, as crucial for both concurrent and later well-being and mental health, as well as learning and academic success. Teachers view children's “readiness to learn” and “teachability” as marked by positive emotional expressiveness, enthusiasm, and ability to regulate emotions and behaviors. Based on these assertions, I suggest a battery of preschool social-emotional outcome measures, tapping several constructs central to emotional and social competence theory, specifically emotional expression, emotion regulation, emotion knowledge, social problem solving, and positive and negative social behavior.     

Moral Education in Early Childhood: The Limits of Constructivism

Broadly speaking there are two polar views on moral education - traditionalism and progressivism. Traditionalists tend to believe that moral values are eternal and universal. They prioritize such “hard” virtues as discipline, courage, restraint, and obedience, and believe in directive behavioral instruction with meaningful consequences for rule-following and rule-breaking. Progressives, the dominant voice in early childhood education, believe that moral values are variable, dependent on social context. They prioritize such “soft” virtues as unselfishness, caring, generosity, and tolerance, and believe virtues are acquired in a “sociomoral environment” of nurturing adults who stress cooperative interchanges and minimal authority. While most programs, despite their “tilt”, acknowledge the need for a balance, they do not specify criteria for making the pedagogical decisions. Without such explicit criteria, a “strong” version of constructivism may demand more of children than they can deliver given their developmental limitations. Two criteria are suggested for determining when traditional methods may usefully supplement constructivist ones: First, one must decide if the matter at stake is a bottom-line non-negotiable value such that a child's dissension is unacceptable. Second, one must determine if the preschooler, given her cognitive egocentricity, moral realism, and “romancing of reality” can make a rational (decentered) choice. There follows a more detailed discussion of blended approaches (traditional and constructivist) within the overall goal of helping children build a moral identity.     

谈生物教学中学生科学素质的培养

科学素质是学生化素质的重要组成部分，重视对学生科学素质的培养是素质教育的一项基本要求，本从教材内容，实验，课外活动等几个方面论述了如何在生物教学中培养学生的科学素质。     

人类克隆的伦理学争论

在过去的几年中，克隆尤其是克隆人类的伦理学问题受到广泛的关注与争论，支持者和反对者各执其词，本文概述了克隆的定义，回顾了克隆的历史，试图将克隆人类的正面和负面影响展现给读者，使人们对克隆人类的道德与否做出自己的判断，向时，将作者自己的观点做了表述。     

反抗与挣扎的痛苦灵魂--论鲁迅小说中的启蒙知识分子形象

通过剖析鲁迅小说中启蒙知识分子(包括作者自己)形象,揭示了"五四"前后初具启蒙意识的知识者从反抗、挣扎到沉沦以致死亡的悲惨命运;同时结合鲁迅精神发展所经历的悖论情境,力图把握附着在主人公身上的作者的心路历程;挖掘出鲁迅反抗绝望终至虚妄的痛苦的深层原因;分析该类小说的意义.     

Gen/Ethics? Organizational Ethics and Student and Instructor Conflicts in Workplace Training

This article takes a critical-analytical perspective on the concept of generational ethics at a corporate university site. Specifically, the article seeks to answer whether or not student-employees between the ages 21-35, commonly referred to as “generation x”, hold different ethical stances than their instructors and older employees in the organization. Surveys were distributed to 68 students and 8 instructors at the facility to determine the extent to which students differed on six work-related values. Results indicate that students in the 21-35 age cohort did not exhibit popular expectations for “generation x.” However, differences were found in the ways each generation reported work-related values. The study concludes that younger students conflicted with older students and instructors on issues involving organizational values. It is concluded that the younger students had not yet been fully socialized into the dominant organizational values of this company.     

Analogy in Scientific Argumentation

Analogical reasoning has long been an important tool in the production of scientific knowledge, yet many scientists remain hesitant to fully endorse (or even admit) its use. As the teachers of scientific and technical writers, we have an opportunity and responsibility to teach them to use analogy without their writing becoming “overly inductive,” as Aristotle warned. To that end, I here offer an analysis of an example of the effective use of analogy in Rodney Brooks's “Intelligence Without Representation.” In this article, Brooks provides a model for incorporating these tools into an argument by building four of them into an enthymeme that clearly organizes his argument. This combination of inductive and deductive reasoning helped the article become a very influential piece of scholarship in artificial intelligence research, and it can help our students learn to use analogy in their own writing.

Every one who effects persuasion through proof does in fact use either enthymemes or examples: there is no other way. (Aristotle, 1984b, p. 26)     

思想政治课改革迈出了实质性的一大步──学习“思想政治课课程标准”

本文通过对思想政治课课程标准产生的背景、主要特点和基本作用的具体分析,指出思想政治课率先试行课程标准是客观形势发展的需要,是它本身深化课程和教学改革的必然选择。作者认为这次改革抓住了学科建设的关键环节,使思想政治课改革朝着科学化、规范化、现代化方向,沿着素质教育的轨道,迈出了实质性的一大步。     

论民办高校教师科研素质的提高

民办高等教育是我国高等教育的新生力量,但民办高校教师科研素质较低,制约了民办高校的发展。导致民办高校教师科研素质不高的原因,主要有学校重视不够、科研投入不足、教师科研意识欠缺等。民办高校应针对这些问题,逐一解决,以便促进自身可持续发展。     

Children's Transition Into Full-Time Schooling: Black/White Comparisons

The transition from “home child” to “school child” is an important social milestone and encompasses a life period that has not received as much attention as it may deserve. Poor black children, who are those with the most social interaction disabilities, seem particularly vulnerable in the early part of this transition. A further complication is that “summer learning” helps mainly well-off children, and blacks in the population-at-large are less likely to be well off than whites. Although schools do seem to be making up for the dearth of academic socialization resources in many young children's households, and in this sense are most beneficial for those who need them most, more work is needed on why schools are not filling the bill as well for the neediest blacks as they are for the neediest whites.     

The triangel (socio-therapeutical institute)

We have given a brief outline of the work which is being done at the Triangel. We do not pretend to present a report based on a scientific justification. The aid we give seems to be better described as “the arm around the shoulder of someone in distress” than by the use of precise scientific terms. The common, natural reaction to a disturbed person is a spontaneous gesture of help. We should not try to classify him, or to adopt an attitude of cool scientific interest. The natural, instinctive approach seems to us the most obviously supportive and in this respect the Triangel would seem to serve as a model for all assistance agencies.     

中学英语课中的素质教育

作者针对以往英语课上"填鸭式"教学方法,就十余年来的教学经验做了一些总结.主要是如何根据学生各个阶段的年龄、心理特点,设计出与之相符的教学方法,激发他们的学习积极性,培养他们的学习主动性,发掘他们的创造性.以多种形式活跃课堂,丰富课堂,优化教学环节,从而达到提高学生素质的目的.     

The Use and Misuse of Standardized Testing: A Whiteheadian Point of View

First an overview is given about the actual national and international situation concerning standardized testing. Then two major reasons are presented why accountability systems based on standardized testing have become so widespread: (a) the missing validity and reliability of teachers’ assessment of students’ achievement, and (b) the important role standardized testing plays for out-put management in educational systems.On the basis of these considerations Alfred North Whitehead’s critical remarks on external standardized testing are presented. Whitehead’s main point is that external standardized testing limits the freedom of teachers to adapt to the complex, situation specific circumstances in order to obtain a maximum of the creative learning process for students who are conceived as specialists. Instead external testings lead to “teaching to the test.” As a consequence, the attitude of creative, adventurous exploration is undermined and substituted by simple pattern recognition, narrow visions, and even boredom. Finally, the question is raised whether there is any possibility of developing a measurement tool which on the one side meets scientific test criteria, and on the other side is still flexible enough to do justice to needs of individual schools – which according to Whitehead are the essential educational unit – and not vice versa, as it is the case at present with external standardized testing. That such a flexible approach to evaluation is possible is demonstrated by the presentation of the basic ideas of the MSS (Module Approach to Self-Evaluation of School Development Projects) which has been developed and examined in ten schools by the author and his collaborators.     

在古代诗歌教学中培养学生的科学精神

诗歌是语言的艺术，其本身又蕴涵着深厚的科学精神。诗歌的求善求美求真与科学的精神价值对人的塑造具有异曲同工之妙。研究诗歌的题材、内容，分析作者创作态度和诗歌艺术特色，体会诗人理性的怀疑和宽容的激励精神，感悟诗人求真创新的科学品格，对培养和建构学生为真理献身的科学品质，不容或缺。     

浅析初中数学解题错误

从小学到初中，数学知识本身对学生的抽象思维要求提高了，学生在学习数学知识的过程中。难免会出现种种错误。因此，教师必须正视学生解题错误，找出解题错误的原因，找到减少学生做题错误的方法，使学生的学习顺利进行。     

试论对幼儿园教材的价值审视

随着幼儿园因本课程改革的不断深入，教材作为课程的体现物也日益重要。而目前，我国没有幼儿园教材编写的审定委员会，幼儿园教材的编写、发行随意性很大；也没有一个可供幼儿园一线教师选择或编写幼儿园教材的依据或评价指标。因此对幼儿园教材进行评价是很有必要的。评价教材的切入点即价值审视很重要，离不开现实社会特定的文化背景下的文化继承、社会政治经济发展对人的要求、教育理念与课程观和人的身心发展规律。     

建安文人文学活动与诗赋价值观的凸现

建安时期，诗赋等文学作品在其文人立言价值观中的地位、价值得到了空前的提高与凸现。促成这一变化的主要动因之一就是文人的文学活动。其表现为：文人创作日益生活化、普遍化，并成为文人生活的重要组成部分；文人进行了有意的文学品评活动；文人在文学活动中表现出非凡的文学才能．其通常被时人、后人以文学家的身份来对待、看待；文人的文学活动的文学性较以前大为增强。     

Education and the Religious Thinker

This paper is concerned with the process of religious thinking as a linguistic form of investigating the world of values, which stands in contrast to theology and religious studies. It hinges around Wittgenstein’s comment, “I am not a religious man but I cannot help but see every question from a religious point of view.” It argues that scientific modes of thought are now so dominant that values education of all types are distorted as science itself was once distorted in an age when theological language held sway. The result today is the worrying growth of what is usually termed fundamentalism or literalism. The paper introduces the thinking on this issue from the curriculum theories of the Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard, which have been ignored for nearly two centuries, before examining the work of a modern scholar, Christopher Arthur. Finally Whitehead’s insights arising from his later works are brought into play to conclude the argument.