Appointment and Induction of a New Staff Member in an Institution of Initial Teacher Education (Case Study in Austria)

The following case study on the appointment and induction of a new staff member in a State College of Teacher Education (Taedagogische Akademie,) in Austria is structured in four parts. The first part will describe main conditions for an appointment in a centralised school system, in which most elements of an appointment are regulated by law. Some information will be given about the institution where the data for the case study have been collected. The following two parts will present the views of a senior academic/head of a department of an institution of teacher education and that of a newly appointed teacher educator, who will work within teacher education for 75% of the time as a teacher in a training/experimental school (Uebungsschule) and 25% as a teacher educator in subject methodology. Some conclusions will be presented within a final part.     

Discriminative stimuli that follow the absence of reinforcement are preferred by pigeons over those that follow reinforcement

Clement, Feltus, Kaiser, and Zentall (2000) found that when pigeons have to work to obtain a discriminative stimulus that is followed by reinforcement, they prefer a discriminative stimulus that requires greater effort over one that requires less effort. The authors suggested that such a preference results from the greater change in hedonic value that occurs between the more aversive event and the onset of the stimulus that signals reinforcement, a contrast effect. It was hypothesized that any stimulus that follows a relatively more aversive event would be preferred over a stimulus that follows a relatively less aversive event. In the present experiment, the authors tested the counterintuitive prediction of that theory, that pigeons should prefer a discriminative stimulus that follows the absence of reinforcement over a discriminative stimulus that follows reinforcement. Results supported the theory.     

International knowledge transfer in religious education: universal validity or regional practices? Backgrounds,considerations and open questions concerning a new debate

ABSTRACT

This article refers to the new European discussion on international knowledge transfer in religious education. Readers are introduced to the background of the recent manifesto ‘International Knowledge Transfer in Religious Education: A Manifesto for Discussion’ which was the outcome of a first international consultation of researchers in the field of religious education in October 2018. In a first step, the demand for international knowledge transfer in religious education is described. Furthermore, the question of the validity of knowledge in religious education is taken up and discussed in the sense of the presuppositions of international transfer and cooperation. Special attention is given to the relationship between universal and contextual elements or dimensions of knowledge in religious education and their epistemological implications which the authors consider a general and fruitful challenge for the discipline, in international as well as in national contexts. In conclusion, the authors set forth a number of perspectives for future research concerning international knowledge transfer in religious education.     

德国实施“博洛尼亚进程”的进展及其存在的争议

"博洛尼亚进程"从根本上改变了德国的高等教育体系。当前的德国高等教育以三级学位体系为基础。在"博洛尼亚进程"实施的过去10年中,德国高等教育课程逐渐现代化,也更加以学生学习为中心。在整个课程学习过程中,学分的获得主要依据学习现状及取得的成绩。"博洛尼亚进程"的目标在于促进国际流动,系统的质量保障始终贯穿整个进程之中。本文介绍了德国进程改革的一些关键因素,并通过"博洛尼亚进程"的拥护者与批评者的各自立场,分析了由进程改革而引发的争论。