Variations in intra-oral stimulation and nutritive sucking.

Sucking records were made from 24 infants, aged 3-4 days, fed small amounts of their usual formula from nipples of different sizes (5/16-, 8/16-, and 11/16-inch diam). Polygraphic and observer measures showed that the large nipple elicited fewer sucks and a slower sucking rate; 5 infants seen on 2 successive days showed a more marked nipple preference on the second day. The results show that intra-oral stimuli control sucking for a nutriment in much the same way as they have already been shown to control nonnutritive sucking.     

The provision of higher education in regional areas: an integrative review of the literature

There is a great deal of literature surrounding the needs of regional Australia. This integrative review of the literature focuses on the experience of nursing academics teaching on a satellite campus, many of which are located in regional Australia. Four themes were identified: (1) challenges specific to regional satellite campuses, (2) student characteristics, (3) student experiences and (4) the academics’ experiences. These themes identified not only significant benefits but also considerable challenges to the provision of higher education on regional university campuses. The experience of nursing academics and indeed their students is remarkably different from the experience of their metropolitan counterparts, and therefore the local context needs to be considered in regional education provision. Australian regional nursing academics need to be multi-skilled to address the workload and social inequity in support service provision.     

University governance reforms: potential problems of more autonomy?

University governance reforms are very much a reflection of the broader New Public Management reforms that are focusing on increasing efficiency in public organizations. The article deals with how university reform ideas of a generic nature, emphasizing that universities should be treated and reformed like any other public organizations, are important and reflected in specific reform measures. The special empirical focus is on that universities through reforms are changing their formal affiliation to superior ministries in a more autonomous direction, implicating more autonomy in financial, management and decision-making matters. One the other hand, universities are also through reforms more exposed to more report, scrutiny and control systems, financial incentive systems, pressure to get resources from other sources than the government, cut-back management, etc. So a main question in the analysis is whether universities, as traditionally having quite a lot of real autonomy, through the reforms in fact are getting less autonomy, not more, like the reforms entrepreneurs often are promising. The analysis is based on a transformational approach from organization theory, representing a combination of structural, cultural and environmental factors of explanation for reforms processes and their effects. Empirically the article is based on the author’s own empirical studies of university reform and reviews of comparative studies.     

喧嚣之后,网络公开课何去何从?

人们首次听说"网络公开课"(Massive Open Online Courses)的名字是在本世纪初。从2001年起,耶鲁、剑桥、麻省理工学院等一批世界顶尖高校纷纷将自己的课程公布到网上。如此"慷慨"的知识共享不光让世界各地的学生近距离地领略到国外名校教授的人文内涵与学术魅力,更是掀起了教育史上继远程函授之后的又一次革命。本文从商业中的"颠覆性创新"角度出发,另类解读网络公开课的现状与未来。     

Bereaved Parents’ Online Grief Communities: De-Tabooing Practices or Relation-Building Grief-Ghettos?

This article presents results from case studies of online grief communities for bereaved parents in Denmark and Sweden, analyzing how development of practices and norms for grieving and mourning online are related to the conditions for participation in the online forums, and to dominant ideas of grief in society as such. Rooted in contemporary research on grief and mourning, we discuss practices of tabooization, de-tabooization, or even re-tabooization in the different online forums and how norms and traditions are performed, challenged, and negotiated in the various formats.     

The Development of Professional Learning Communities and Their Teacher Leaders: An Activity Systems Analysis

Professional learning communities can be effective vehicles for teacher learning and instructional improvement, partly because they help change professional culture. However, little is known about how these changes occur. We used activity systems analysis to investigate the development of professional learning communities and their teacher leaders (N = 9) based on interviews and observations over 2 years. Activity systems analysis enables researchers to understand change within complex qualitative data sets by finding systemic relations within the activity, specifying contradictions in the system, and explicating outcomes. The resulting activity system illuminates the transformation of a mostly private, autonomous, and egalitarian culture to one of nascent collaboration, reflection, and shared values, as well as teacher leaders’ development of agency.