Guidelines for the Reform of Education 1

Romanian Minister of National Education since December 1997, the author, a distinguished professor of philosophy assumed his post with a mandate and the determination to bring about a massive reform of Romanian education at all levels in order to bring it into line with state‐of‐the‐art western European practice. What follows is a comprehensive report on the elaboration of the reform plan and its unfolding as of the summer of 1998.

     

Informatics as a new subject in secondary schools in the USSR

Conclusion We are on the verge of the virtually unlimited development and spread of electronic computing equipment. The computer is becoming man's intellectual instrument and partner in nearly all spheres of human life and activity. The need to update the information model of the world in the form of programs and the constantly growing complexity of the environment require, and at the same time permit, a considerable rise in society's intellectual level.The laws of information processing, the methods of transition from knowledge to action and the ability to develop and analyse programs and foresee the results of their execution should feature prominently in this advance of the human intellect. The computer will be more than a mere instrument in the educational process; it will lead to the formation of a new intellectual background and a new operational environment for children's development at school and at home. This will hasten their intellectual maturity and make them more active and better prepared for professional activities and for the emergence in the worker of the twenty-first century of a new way of thinking.The goal of introducing computers into education and the approaches to this goal that are taking shape today have no precedents in history. They must be pursued with due regard to the nature, the realities and the cultural and social traditions of the society concerned.Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and head of the Experimental Informatics Laboratory of the Computing Centre of the Academy's Siberian Division. Member of the United States Computing Machinery Association; Member emeritus of the British Computer Society. He represents the Soviet Union in various bodies of the International Federation for Information Processing and has been chairman and member of the organizing committees of major international congresses. Editorin-chief ofMikroprocessornye sredstva i sistemy (Microprocessor facilities and systems). Author of more than 300 publications.     

The effect of drug habituation before and after taste aversion learning in rats

In Experiment I, rats received eight habituation injections of either lithium chloride (LiCl) or sodium chloride (NaCl), then two aversion training trials in which access to saccharin solution was followed by LiCl injections, and finally eight extinction trials with saccharin but no injections. The rats habituated to LiCl showed less aversion to saccharin during training and extinction. In Experiment II, rats received two aversion training trials, then eight habituation trials to either LiCl or NaCl, then eight extinction trials, four more aversion training trials, and eight more extinction trials. The rats habituated to LiCl did not differ during the first extinction period from those habituated to NaCl, but showed less aversion to saccharin during the second training and extinction periods. Consequently, habituation to LiCl reduces the learning of an aversion to saccharin but does not reduce the performance of a previously learned aversion.     

The Experience of Skill Development in First-year Undergraduates: a comparison of three courses

This paper reports on the first year of a qualitative longitudinal study to examine the development of skills on undergraduate courses — specifically Manufacturing Management degrees. Over the last 10 years there has been considerable debate about skill development within higher education (HE). However, little research has been conducted in order to understand how skill development is experienced by students within the context of different teaching strategies. This article begins by looking at current research into personal skills and highlights problems with these studies. It goes on to interpret the results from three case studies currently under way. From this analysis two main types of account of skill development are described: tacit and negotiated development within joint activity, and rational individualistic development. The paper goes on to argue that while factors such as skill-based modules, learning contracts and assessment facilitate skill development they also promote an individualistic discourse which 'hides' much of the socially negotiated nature of development. Suggestions are then made as to how skill development can be facilitated within courses taking this dilemma into account.     

Peace Process Pedagogy: lessons from the no-vote victory in the Colombian peace referendum

ABSTRACT

Is there a need for a new field within Peace Education that looks at the complex dynamics of transitional societies in the post-truth era? What formal and informal pedagogical strategies might be best suited for transforming ‘emotional anti-peace mindsets’? Drawing on practical examples from the complex political contingencies in Colombia, this article positions the concept of Peace Process Pedagogy within discussions in Critical Peace Education and Critical Contemplative Pedagogy. It encourages critical pedagogues to develop strategies to dismantle misinformation about peace policies, to engage in open conversations about emotions, and to work with embodied action.     

The effect of nonnutritive satiation on the learning of a flavor preference by rats

On each day of training in Experiment 1, hungry rats were given one flavored saccharin solution followed by a differently flavored saccharin solution. The rats drank more of the first flavor during training, but preferred the second flavor in a subsequent choice test. In Experiment 2, the two flavored saccharin solutions were provided on alternate days, with one flavor being preceded by nothing and the other flavor by plain saccharin. The rats drank more of the flavor preceded by nothing during training, but preferred the other flavor in a subsequent choice test. These results suggest that a state of nonnutritive satiation can reinforce a flavor preference.     

Biomedical innovation at the laboratory, clinical and commercial interface: A new method for mapping research projects, publications and patents in the field of microarrays

Using the example of microarrays, one of the constitutive technologies of post-genomic biomedicine, this paper introduces a method for analyzing publications, patents and research grants as proxies for “triple-helix interfaces” between university, industry and government activities. Our method creates bridges that allow one to move seamlessly between publication, patent and research project databases that use different fields and formats, and contain different information. These links do not require pre-defined categories in order to search for correspondences between sub-topics or research areas in the three databases. Finally, our results are not restricted to quantitative information but, rather, allow one to carry out qualitative investigations of the content of research activities. Our approach draws on a combination of text-mining and network analysis/mapping software packages.     

POGIL in the Calculus Classroom

In this paper, we will describe the experience of the authors in using process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) in calculus at four institutions across the USA. We will briefly examine how POGIL compares to and fits in with other kinds of inquiry-based learning approaches. In particular, we will first discuss the unique structure of a POGIL activity, which includes a model and a learning cycle of specific types of questions. We then turn to a discussion of the particular characteristics of a classroom implementation of a POGIL activity, including facilitation strategies an instructor might use, the importance of specified student roles in groups, and different ways of reporting out. Finally, we provide some preliminary data on student pass rates in non-POGIL and POGIL calculus classrooms in the participating institutions. Throughout the paper, we use examples from student dialogues as groups were working through POGIL activities developed for Calculus I by the authors.     

Young Children's Self‐Concepts Include Representations of Abstract Traits and the Global Self

There is debate about the abstractness of young children's self‐concepts—specifically, whether they include representations of (a) general traits and abilities and (b) the global self. Four studies (N = 176 children aged 4–7) suggested these representations are indeed part of early self‐concepts. Studies 1 and 2 reexamined prior evidence that young children cannot represent traits and abilities. The results suggested that children's seemingly immature judgments in previous studies were due to peculiarities of the task context not the inadequacy of children's self‐concepts. Similarly, Studies 3 and 4 revealed that, contrary to claims of immaturity in reasoning about the global self, young children update their global self‐evaluations in flexible, context‐sensitive ways. This evidence suggests continuity in the structure of self‐concepts across childhood.