Religious education in Greece: a new curriculum,an old issue

Religious Education (RE) in Greece is a compulsory school subject according the 2011 new framework for compulsory education, entitled ‘New School’. This article focuses on two statutory documents for RE, ‘The Curriculum for RE’ and the ‘The Teacher’s Guide for RE’, and the pilot scheme of the new curriculum running in school years, 2011–2014, in 188 schools (primary and secondary education). Findings of the research demonstrate that, though the revision seems inevitable, the pedagogical and theological dimension of the RE curriculum is radical as it is based on contemporary theories and methodologies of the construction of the curriculum and RE approaches. However, the article indicates constructivist and critical approaches to RE that influenced the change to an actual non-confessional compulsory subject and also highlighted the tension between an overall constructivist approach to learning and the traditional orthodox content of much of the curriculum. The author opens a discussion on problematic aspects that need to be taken in to consideration when revising the curriculum.     

Persuasion online or on paper: a new take on an old issue

Few, if any, studies have examined the persuasion process as it unfolds in the computer environments that are so popular in today’s educational settings. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which students’ knowledge and beliefs and their reactions to the features of the articles would be differentially influenced as a result of reading traditional persuasive texts vs. online computerized persuasive texts. The results revealed that text presentations were effective at significantly modifying both, students’ knowledge and beliefs. However, students in the computerized text condition found the texts significantly more difficult to understand, less interesting, and the authors less credible. Implications for research and practice are forwarded.     

Conscious Reflection and Implicit Learning in Teacher Preparation. Part I: Recent light on an old issue

In spite of critiques by philosophers from Ryle through to Dreyfus, the assumption that acquisition and exercise of intelligent capability requires conscious contemplation has remained powerful in teacher education, apparently sustained by recent emphases on teacher thinking, cognitive-constructivist influences and Schon's promotion of reflection in professional learning. In this first of two linked papers I draw attention to recent empirical work and connectionist modelling within psychology as adding strong support and further articulation to these traditional critiques by way of evidencing a powerful role of implicit learning in the acquisition of capability. This in turn prompts a re-examination of the procedural-declarative/knowing how-knowing that distinction and a consideration of some of the many ways in which implicit and explicit processing may be involved in the deployment of human capability. A second paper to appear in the December issue of this journal will consider implications of this work for the initial preparation of teachers.     

谈跨文化交际中的礼貌问题

礼貌具有文化差异性。这种差异性常会构成跨文化交际中的障碍。本文分析了中、西方礼貌文化的差异,并指出礼貌原则的相对性和复杂性,并在此基础上讨论了外语教学中应如何培养学生的跨文化交际能力。     

Child abuse as an international issue

This paper provides a background and suggests a strategy for an international approach to policy development concerning child abuse. First, child abuse is defined in a way that makes it applicable across cultures and national boundaries as that portion of harm to children that results from human action that is proscribed, proximate and preventable. A number of other dimensions, such as the degree of social sanction or social censure, are outlined that also affect the likelihood that given harm will be regarded as child abuse. Cross-cultural research also reveals that certain categories of children--such as those in poor health, females, unwanted children and those born under difficult circumstances or with disvalued traits or under conditions of rapid socioeconomic change--are more vulnerable to maltreatment in many countries. The paper argues for a two-pronged international strategy that first urges individual countries to make a priority of the particular types of abuse that are in most urgent need of attention in their society as well as participating at the same time in a concerted international focus on three widely occurring forms of child abuse: parental child battering, selective neglect, and sexual abuse.     

Introduction To The Theme of This issue: Competencies in Audio-Visual Education

The theme for this issue was originally envisioned by the planners as the general topic of professional education; it has developed down to the more specific area of competencies in audiovisual education. Education and training programs for specialists in the educational media profession world-wide vary a great deal. Some countries are unable to provide more than on-the-job training for educators who have been selected or who desire to work in this speciality; while some very sophisticated programs exist such as at the Centre Audio-Visuel at St Cloud in Paris, the Centre for Educational Technology in the United Kingdom, or some of the institutions in the United States.     

A new approach to an old problem

Applying theories of cognition and affect that predict emotional responses to a stimulus on the basis of prior affect toward specific cues included in that stimulus, a study was conducted assessing individuals' fear and enjoyment reactions to horror films. Prior fear of specific cues included in each film was a significant predictor of overall fear reactions, after controlling for prior exposure to the film, fear of specific cues not included in the film, and manifest anxiety. Prior liking of specific cues included in each film did not emerge as a significant predictor of overall enjoyment. The contributions of gender and of level of forewarning about the film's content were also assessed.     

Hospice program integration: an issue for policymakers

As the number of hospice programs in the United States expands, policymakers face a variety of issues concerning the care of the terminally ill. Do hospice programs offer a truly unique approach in caring for the dying? Are hospice services cost effective? Should hospice programs become integrated into the mainstream of medical care service delivery? Based on data from hospice programs in an industrialized Midwestern state, this paper explores the strategies employed by hospice programs to become integrated, the conflicts that have arisen among providers of hospice care, and the impact of hospice program integration on patient care. Results show that as hospice programs become more integrated, they have lost some of the idealism on which they were founded, have altered organizational structures, and have changed certain patient services. However, there is no evidence to suggest that integration of hospice programs into the medical mainstream has decreased the quality of patient care or patient satisfaction for hospice services.     

评福克纳《纪念爱米丽的一朵玫瑰花》

随着北方资本主义工商业势和价值观念的入侵，南方传统的价值观念面临着崩溃，南方的命运如何？南方人何去何从？失去精神支柱的南方是一片精神的荒原，在《纪念爱米丽的一朵玫瑰花》里，福克纳在揭露南方传统价值观念的罪恶和腐朽的同时，更着力寻找爱米丽这一悲剧英雄身上的所体现出来的人类的真挚而美好的品质，从而揭示了人类的前途和命运，他认为人是不配的，人类只有保留这些古老的品德，既有忍耐力，有牺牲精神，有同情心，怜悯心和荣誉感，才能重构美好的精神家园。     

January issue of performance improvement an excellent read!

The editor welcomes letters from all readers wishing to comment on articles in this issue of Performance Improvement (PI). Early responses have the best chance of being published. Please be concise and include your title and organizational affiliation. PI reserves the right to select, solicit, and edit letters. Send letters to: PI Editor, 1300 I. Street, NW, Suite 1250, Washington, DC 20005: fax: 202‐408‐7972: or email: pershin@indiana.edu .     

立创业之志

就业是民生之本,以培训促进就业,以创业促进就业,是当今我国社会的发展趋势.随着国家制定的一系列再就业优惠政策的逐步落实,创业已成为广大择业者的重要选择.自谋职业、自主创业,不仅可以为国分忧、为社会献力,而且也有利于体现自身价值,实现个人理想.特别是当前,国家的政策环境、经济环境都非常有利于创业,可以说,现在正是创业的好时候,有志创业者,路就在脚下.本期第47页刊登了"怎样选择创业项目"及创业计划书介绍.为满足读者的创业需求,本刊从2005年1月开辟"创业培训"栏目,供读者参考借鉴.     

构建开放式地理教学

构建开放式地理教学有利于引导学生学习对生活和终身发展有用的地理,有利于发展学生批判性思维,培养创新精神。构建开放式地理教学,教师要努力开放教学思路和教学形式;设法引导学生思维开放,但需把握好开放的度;要充分开放渠道,不断丰富和利用地理课程资源。     

Reactivation of an old memory during sleep and wakefulness

In a series of four experiments, the effects of the reactivation of an old memory in different states of vigilance were investigated. Rats were trained to run in a six-unit spatial discrimination maze for food reward with low-level electrical stimulation delivered to the ear when they entered blind alleys. Twenty-five days after training, electrotactile stimulation was given to animals as a reactivating treatment just before a retention test. When the cuing treatment was given during wakefulness, retention performance was improved. When it was given in slow-wave sleep, it had no effect. When it was given in paradoxical sleep, performance was poorer. The use of control groups permitted an assessment of the specificity of the cuing effect in each case: Pretest presentation of the same stimulus did not modify performance when it had no cue value. Together, these results show that the effect of the reactivation of an old memory depends upon the vigilance state in which reactivation takes place. They suggest that reorganization of an old memory could be accomplished during paradoxical sleep.