The experience of strangeness in education: Camus,Jean-Baptiste Clamence and the little ease

When The Myth of Sisyphus describes those who live in the ‘rarefied air of the absurd’ (p. 86), Camus uses the word fidelity. This signals a recognition of both defeat and the demand for struggle. This suggests a humility. Education can be said to have this characteristic; it is constantly in service to the new and yet understands these come with limits. And these limits are overcome as education develops the mind to see differently and change the world we live in. This type of education has fidelity to the absurd because of its cognisance of both aspiration and failure: it is aware of its useful potential to help make sense of the world, and yet it understands this requires disjuncture from what has come before. It promises the Sisyphean climb and return. Education does this consciously and deliberately. Education, in some ways, is therefore absurd. Or at least, from time to time it finds itself in the rarefied air. If this is the case then how should practitioners interpret or care for the absurd experience and what exactly might this look like in educational contexts. This article chooses The Fall for the purpose of better understanding the experience of absurd anxiety in the context of education. It uses, as an original device, the imagery of the ‘little ease’ to explore this feeling and the forces underpinning it.     

基于斯密特触发器的简易数字相位计设计

基于斯密特触发器精确波形变换特性实现对两路输入信号的波形转换与校正,利用STC5410单片机计算输出,设计一款简易数字相位计,完成对两路信号相位差的测量,具有测量精度高,成本低,外围电路简单等优点.     

Inter-disciplinarity in sport sciences: The neuroscience example*

Abstract

Sport science is a relatively recent domain of research born from the interactions of different disciplines related to sport. According to the European College of sport science (http://sport-science.org): “scientific excellence in sport science is based on disciplinary competence embedded in the understanding that its essence lies in its multi- and interdisciplinary character”. In this respect, the scientific domain of neuroscience has been developed within such a framework. Influenced by the apparent homogeneity of this scientific domain, the present paper reviews three important research topics in sport from a neuroscientific perspective. These topics concern the relationship between mind and motor action, the effects of cognition on motor performance, and the study of certain mental states (such as the “flow” effect, see below) and motor control issues to understand, for example, the neural substrates of the vertical squat jump. Based on the few extensive examples shown in this review, we argue that by adopting an interdisciplinary paradigm, sport science can emulate neuroscience in becoming a mono-discipline.     

City of London School and Communities that Care: Researching Pupil Experience to Inform Policy and Practice in the Independent Sector

This article is an account of the decision by an independent school to participate in its local Healthy Schools Scheme. One of the factors that influenced this decision was the value the school gained from a pupil survey. The same survey was used to track the impact of the school's Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum and pastoral work on pupils' experience of the school, and academic achievement. In particular, the authors explore the role of survey analysis and consultancy advice in interpreting survey results and developing school practice. The survey contributed to pupil participation in school development. The use of an external consultant as critical friend was perceived as an aid to school reflection and self-review.     

From Communities of Interest to Communities Of Practice: The Role and Impact of Professional Development in Nuclear Security Education

In recent years, nuclear security has gained prominence on the international security agenda. Driven by post 9/11 anxieties and the politicization of fears regarding nuclear terrorism, concerns in this area have spawned a wealth of initiatives, which seek to counter this threat. Principal among these have been efforts to promote nuclear security education and infuse teaching and learning in this sphere with a more holistic understanding of the subject, its relevance and its implications. Against this background, this article sets out the findings of empirical research into the impact of nuclear security ‘train-the-trainer’ professional development courses on the practice of an emerging cadre of nuclear security educators. In particular, the paper explores the value of this model as a means of establishing sustainable communities of practice in the context of nuclear security education.     

An Evaluation of a Children's Safety Training Programme

This paper reports an experimental evaluation of a children's safety training programme,Kidscape, which aims to increase primary school children's ability to deal with four types of potentially unsafe situation: being bullied, being approached by a stranger, being subject to inappropriate intimacy from a known adult and to pressure from such adults to keep such intimacy secret. Assessments of children's safety awareness were carried out in three schools which used the programme, and in three matched control schools which did not, with children at two age levels, 6 years and 10 years. These assessments of children's awareness were made on three occasions: before, immediately after and 2‐3 months after the training programme for the experimental sample (60 children) and on corresponding occasions for the control sample (60 children). The results revealed a significant improvement in the safety awareness of the experimental (trained) group after training and also a significant difference between the groups, in favour of the trained group. However, an improved performance of the control (untrained) group suggests that factors other than the Kidscape programme itself may influence these differences. Age differences in children's wariness of the four safety situations are also discussed.