Third World Communication

COMMUNICATING IN POPULAR NICARAGUA edited by Armand Mattelart (International General, PO Box 350, New York 10013—$ 8.95, paper)

PHILIPPINE CARTOONS: POLITICAL CARICATURE OF THE AMERICAN ERA, 1900–1941 by Alfred McCoy and Alfredo Roces (Quezon City: Vera-Reyes, 1985, 370 pp.)

A HISTORY OF THE KOMIKS OF THE PHILIPPINES AND OTHER COUNTRIES (Quezon City: Islas Filipinas Publishing Co., 1985, 305 pp)

RURAL EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING: A PHILIPPINE EXPERIENCE by Felix Librero (Laguna: University of Philippines—Los Banos, 1985 155 pp.)

THE MANIPULATED PRESS: A HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE JOURNALISM SINCE 1945 by Rosalinda Pineda-Ofreneo (Manila: Cacho Hermanos, 1984, 256 pp.)

PHILIPPINE MASS MEDIA: A BOOK OF READINGS edited by Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr. (Manila: Communication Foundation of the Philippines, 1986, 280 pp.)

THE PHILIPPINE PRESS: UNDER SIEGE by the National Press Club (Manila, Press Club, 1984, 1985, two vols)

MANUAL ON MEDIA EDUCATION by Vicente S. Froilan (Manila: Communication Foundation for Asia, 1985, 88 pp.)

MEDIA AND THE CHINESE PUBLIC: A SURVEY OF THE BEIJING MEDIA AUDIENCE, special issue of Chinese Sociology and Anthropology (Spring-Summer 1986, 200 pp.)

VIDEO PIRACY AND THE LAW by B.V. Gopal (New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications, 1986, 160 pp.)

ASIAN PR by Vincent Lowe (Singapore: Times Books International, 1986, 208 pp.)

PUBLIC RELATIONS: THE MALAYSIAN EXPERIENCE (Kuala Lumpur: Institute of Public Relations Malaysia, 1986, 260 pp)

SELLING DREAMS: HOW ADVERTISING MISLEADS US by the Consumers' Association of Penang (Pengan, CAP, 1986, 149 pp.)

ABUSE OF WOMEN IN THE MEDIA by the Consumer's Association of Penang (Penang: CAP, 1982, 85 pp)     

Case Method in the Teaching of Food Safety

One of the fundamental aims of education is the integration of theory and practice. The case method is a teaching strategy in which students must apply their knowledge to solve real‐life situations. They have to analyze the case described and propose the best possible solution. Although the case may be written, the use of new information and communication technologies can develop the case plan in ways that would achieve greater realism and widen the possibilities for discussion. This paper describes our experience in implementing the case method to teach food safety in the Chair of Hygiene. At first this methodology was used to improve the teaching of good practices in food preparation, later practical work was implemented where small groups of students designed and carried out the microbiological analysis of suspected food. This practical work was presented online as a multimedia activity; students were given face‐to‐face and on‐line tutoring. Evaluation was based both on students’ performance and on a survey they had to answer. More than 92% of students regarded the methodology used for the understanding of the unit as sound. Professors collaboration on providing guidance and multimedia presentation were also positively assessed. The bringing together of face‐to‐face and virtual tasks and small‐group discussion of cases under professors guidance contributed to making good use of the positive aspects of this methodology in order to improve the understanding of problems which do not always have a single answer.     

Proposal for national targets in the framework of the European reduction goal for early school leaving

According to the European Commission’s “Europe 2020” strategy, the early school leaving (ESL) rate in European Union (EU) Member States must be reduced to a maximum of 10 per cent by 2020. This paper proposes a nonlinear distribution method based on dynamic targets for reducing the percentage of early school leavers. The aim of this method is to provide policymakers with alternatives in terms of transferring the EU-wide headline target to individual national targets. Weighting was based on four indicators: ESL rate, unemployment rate, expenditure on education as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP), and expenditure on schools per student. As a result, nine possible scenarios for ESL reduction have been constructed for each of the EU Member States in three groups: the whole EU up to June 2013 (EU27), EU Member States which joined before 30 April 2004 (EU15) and EU Member States which joined after 30 April 2004 (EU12). This method allows the European policy to be translated into specific national targets that would converge in the aggregate goal.     

mtDNA analysis of the human remains buried in the sarcophagus of Federico II

The sarcophagus containing the remains of Federico II, located in the Cathedral of Palermo (Sicily, Italy), was opened on 1998 to perform a multidisciplinary survey [1]. Next to the remains of Federico II and in close contact with them were laying two other skeletons belonging, according to historical records, to Pietro II di Aragona and to an anonymous person (“The Third Individual”), probably a woman. The bones appeared severely deteriorated. Chemical analysis performed on bone samples excluded that the bodies underwent some kind of embalming process. The analysis of mtDNA from bone samples taken from the three skeletons was successful in only one of the two labs involved. The HVR1-mtDNA sequence (region: from nt 16,035 to nt 16,395), obtained from the bone samples of Federico II and “The Third Individual” appear identical but bear double peaks at the same nucleotide positions, suggesting mixing (i.e. contamination) of different mtDNA types. The HVR1 sequence obtained from the bone sample of Pietro II di Aragona does not present double peaks and differ from the Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS) at six nucleotide positions. Cloning experiment of the Federico II amplicon demonstrated that the mixed mtDNA types are only two: one identical to CRS, the other identical to the sequence of Pietro II di Aragona. A reconstruction of these data are proposed in the Discussion. Due to the problematic context in which this study was carried out (mixed and deteriorated biological material, failure to replicate results in two different labs), our results and reconstruction can only be offered on a tentative basis. It is hoped that the data presented in this study will reveal useful, for future comparison, if further molecular genetics research will be carried out on the royal dynasties that ruled Sicily in the early centuries of the past millennium.     

肝片吸虫感染对山羊机体无机盐含量的影响

选择 9只 6 - 10月龄的健康雄性白山羊 ,经粪便检查和DotBLISA检测 ,确认无肝片吸虫感染 ,随机分成感染组 (n =5 )和对照组 (n =4 ) ,试验组每只一次口服接种 15 0个肝片吸虫囊蚴。每周定时从颈静脉采集感染前 0周和感染后 14周血液一次 ,分离血清 ,测定血清中的钾、钙、钠、镁、磷、氯等无机盐的含量 ,旨在研究感染肝片吸虫对山羊机体无机盐含量的影响。结果表明感染后山羊血清中的钾、钠、钙、镁、磷、氯的含量均成波动变化 ,说明肝片吸虫感染后机体无机盐含量发生了不同程度的变化 ,这与虫体感染后机体的代谢发生改变有关。     

“Orientation” in Spanish universities

In the present period of change, the Spanish systems of secondary and higher education, too, are confronted with new challenges. People have realized that factors within and outside universities demand the development of effective helping services for students, particularly on the level of orientation. Two different models are described, one that relies on tutors, mainly; the other one employs orientation professionals. The article also describes the skills and the training experiences that are necessary for professionals in orientation services.Facultat de Psicologia i Pedagogia, Universitat Roman Llull     

Collaborative design decision-making as social process

ABSTRACT

Collaborative design is recognised as being shaped by complex social, cognitive, material, and technical processes. In the case of design decision-making, however, the social dimension has yet to be fully understood as the product of the whole team dynamic rather than as simply the sum of the individual (cognitive) contributions. This paper examines the interactional work teams of first-time design students do that produces decisions in undergraduate engineering design projects. Close analysis of decision-making episodes, recorded in design meetings in a yearlong ethnographic study, reveals the joint social and situated work teams do to produce decisions. Students were found to do decision-making via three overlapping phases that were invariant across the database: (i) Design options emerge, (ii) teams orient to design options, and (iii) design decisions come off. This paper exemplifies these phases of decision-making as inherently – and not just incidentally – social, and illustrates how decisions are produced in novice design teams via these phases in multifarious ways. We argue for an explicit retrospective focus on the processes and consequences of team decisions following projects as an avenue for fostering the development of design judgment that engineering graduates will take into their professional practice.     

Reflection and professional identity in teachers’ future-oriented discourse

Educational researchers have recently suggested that Schön's influential model of the ‘reflective practitioner’ lacks a prospective, or future, dimension. In this study, we examine instances of future-oriented talk produced by novice English as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers during mentoring meetings in one North American university setting. Context-specific functions of future-oriented discourse (e.g., planning, prediction) are investigated in relation to reflective thinking and teacher identity. We illustrate how teacher mentoring meetings represent discursive spaces in which novice teachers have an opportunity to verbalize plans, predict outcomes, consider possibilities, and reflect on their evolving pedagogical practices. We argue that teacher mentors should become aware of these important functions, and encourage prospective reflection in novice teachers.     

Curriculum integration in arts education: connecting multiple art forms through the idea of ‘space’

Arts integration research has focused on documenting how the teaching of specific art forms can be integrated with ‘core’ academic subject matters (e.g. science, mathematics and literacy). However, the question of how the teaching of multiple art forms themselves can be integrated in schools remains to be explored by educational researchers. This paper draws on data collected at a secondary school in Singapore. The case study analyses how three art teachers, using the idea of ‘space’ as organizing theme, implemented a module of instruction that connected concepts and processes from a variety of art forms (including dance, music, drama and visual arts). We present evidence from curriculum materials, lesson plans, student–teacher classroom interactions and students’ productions. Students were able to reflect upon the importance of space within the arts, analyse the points of convergence and divergence among several art forms, experiment with space and create their own interdisciplinary performances. Our ultimate aim is to provide insights that might inspire art teachers in designing instructional units focused on ‘big ideas’. We suggest that allowing more curricular freedom and providing teachers with adequate structures for interdisciplinary collaboration are key to achieving meaningful levels of integration.     

El profesor como práctico reflexivo en una cultura de colaboración

The aim was the reconstruction of a school curriculum in reflective teaching situations within a co‐operative culture. Two working assumptions were considered: (a) teacher development was based on teacher thinking and (b) school organisation followed a co‐operative culture paradigm. The process features were: (a) university team consisted of external advisers; (b) school curriculum and classroom instruction were reviewed by school teachers; (c) case study as a research approach; (d) ethnographic techniques to collect data; (e) data analysis by a computer program; (f) teachers’ reflective cycle to reconstruct practice; and (g) teachers’ portfolios: narrative vignettes, etc. Findings showed: (a) a collaborative process school‐university; (b) teachers’ thinking and attitudinal change; (c) mobilisation of teachers’ talents and values to work together: (i) teacher dyads to reflect on teaching; (ii) advisers’ writing narrative vignettes; (Hi) collegial coaching; and (iv) curriculum materials designed by teachers. Two conclusions can be accepted: (a) teachers’ pedagogical practical knowledge showed diversity of their implicit theories to design action; and (b) teachers’ grounded theory confirmed that the educational action was based on a co‐operative and reflective culture.