The visible and invisible crises in Israeli higher education in the 90s

This study focuses on the Israeli experience of developing higher education as part of the expansion of a nation-building economic project. Educational development and the current crises are examined in the context of a particular history and a unique socioeconomic, political, and cultural experience. Nevertheless, the purpose of this research is to allow the drawing of meaningful inferences, so that researchers into other national cases might profit from the insight into the sources, both visible and less visible, for the break in equilibrium (Bourdieu's term) in the Israeli academy. At stake is the most characteristic feature of the old Israeli academic model, namely the conflation of the missions of teaching and research. To discover the present state of the research-teaching nexus, we examined faculty perceptions as reflected in a recent (1993) survey. This survey was part of the first Carnegie International Survey of the Academic Profession, and its international scope allowed us to undertake some comparative analyses. The Israeli case-study, as well as the analysis of the International survey, shows that devotion to research and meeting teaching obligations, collaboration on research with others, obtaining funds for research, and scholarly publication have strong disciplinary relevance in the day-to-day shaping of academic life in all post-industrialized countries, Israel among them.     

Liberal Attachments: Cultivating Civic Identifications

In the immediate aftermath of the November 2016 election, Mark Lilla argued in the New York Times that in order to win, the Democratic party would need to replace identity politics with a unifying vision of citizenship. In this essay, Derek Gottlieb and Amy Shuffelton explore Lilla's use of the two major terms — identity and citizenship — revealing them to be equally susceptible to expansion, extension, and antipolitical corruption. Using the work of Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, Iris Marion Young, and Rita Felski, Gottlieb and Shuffelton amend the dichotomy that Lilla draws, showing that the project of fostering a national imaginary capable of unifying publics across differences will require a process of what Felski calls “identification.” The authors conclude by noting and describing civics courses as the ideal settings for the cultivation of a willingness and ability to identify across differences.     

Development of the Stretch Reflex in the Newborn: Reciprocal Excitation and Reflex Irradiation

The stretch reflex is a spinal cord pathway between a muscle's stretch receptors and its own motor units. This reflex is thought to play an important role in normal motor function, because it is unique as a monosynaptic pathway, and because its hyperactivity is a hallmark of many motor disorders. We previously reported a difference in the stretch reflexes in healthy newborn infants and nonambulatory individuals with cerebral palsy (CP): these reflexes are characterized by responses from the stretched muscle and from the reciprocal or antagonist muscle. We proposed the existence of a functional spinal cord pathway that connects both agonist and antagonist muscles at a single joint. We hypothesized that this "reciprocal excitation" is a functional pathway of all newborn infants, which during the normal course of development of motor skills in infants is eliminated. If the CNS is damaged at birth, as in CP, the pathway of reciprocal excitation endures and is reinforced. In the current study of newborns, we recorded stretch reflex responses from all major muscle groups of the lower limb. This "irradiation of reflexes" is a normal phenomenon of the newborn CNS. This pathway becomes suppressed during normal maturation and control of coordinated limb movements.     

High on emotion! perceived value: influencing decision-making processes at international student recruitment trade shows

Transnational education students are an increasingly important source of income for higher education institutes. Student recruitment trade shows as a marketing communication tool are being used by the majority of higher education institutes and despite multi-million-dollar investments, little is known about the impact they have on the decision-making processes of transnational education students and the student recruitment efforts of the exhibiting higher education institutes. This research project discusses how international student recruitment trade shows can positively influence the perceived value students obtain from visiting these trade shows. The findings of this qualitative study show the positive effect higher levels of social emotions have on students’ perceptions of international study options from pre-purchase to post-consumption and on the effectiveness of student recruitment trade shows.     

Encouraging ecological behaviors among students by using the ecological footprint as an educational tool: a quasi-experimental design in a public high school in the city of Haifa

The aim of the current study is to explore whether the ecological footprint is an appropriate tool for encouraging ecological behaviors in students. In the quasi-experimental research that we conducted, four classes from one of the public high schools in the city of Haifa (N?=?130) participated in an environmental education (EE) program (intervention program) based on the theoretical and practical aspects of the ecological footprint and the action competence approach in EE. Two classes (N?=?70) constituted a control group. Ecological worldview (EW), perceived behavioral control (PBC), behavioral intentions (BI), personal norms (PN), pro-environmental behavior (PEB), and self-reported behaviors were measured by means of questionnaires completed by the students in their classes before and after the intervention program. The results show statistically significant differences between the experimental and the control groups in the variables PBC, PN, and BI. However, no statistically significant differences were revealed in EW and PEB. The results indicate that incorporating the ecological footprint as an educational tool in high school might yield some predictors of PEB.     

Between Veritas and Communitas: Epistemic Switching in the Reading of Academic and Sacred History

We compared how 8 religious believers (historians and clergy) and 8 skeptics (historians and scientists) read a series of documents on 2 topics: the Biblical Exodus and the origins of the first (American) Thanksgiving. Readings by religiously committed historians differed from those of their non-religious peers. Navigating between the competing commitments of their faith communities on the one hand and an academic guild on the other, religious historians engaged in epistemic switching, varying epistemological criteria to align with the allegiances triggered by the document under review. To explain these findings, we propose that historical understanding be conceived not as a unitary construct but as a form of coordination between multiple axes: a vertical axis of increasing intellectual sophistication as defined by the discipline; and a horizontal axis of identification and commitment, along which individuals move between a variety of allegiances and affiliations as they engage the epistemological criteria of sacred history. Implications for future research in the learning sciences are discussed.     

The Myth of Universal Sensitive Responsiveness: Comment on Mesman et al. (2017)

This article considers claims of Mesman et al. (2017) that sensitive responsiveness as defined by Ainsworth, while not uniformly expressed across cultural contexts, is universal. Evidence presented demonstrates that none of the components of sensitive responsiveness (i.e., which partner takes the lead, whose point of view is primary, and the turn‐taking structure of interactions) or warmth are universal. Mesman and colleagues’ proposal that sensitive responsiveness is “providing for infant needs” is critiqued. Constructs concerning caregiver quality must be embedded within a nexus of cultural logic, including caregiving practices, based on ecologically valid childrearing values and beliefs. Sensitive responsiveness, as defined by Mesman and attachment theorists, is not universal. Attachment theory and cultural or cross‐cultural psychology are not built on common ground.     

中国竞技乒乓球后备人才多维度可持续发展培养模式的探索与研究

中国竞技乒乓球后备人才的可持续发展是中国竞技乒乓球运动保持长盛不衰的根本保证。建国以来“举国体制”的培养方式造就了大量的世界冠军,使中国的乒乓球事业蓬勃发展,但随着中国改革开放的深入和对人才需求的不断变化,原有的培养模式已不能满足竞技乒乓球运动可持续发展的需要。“发展、协调、持续”是和谐发展的三个维度,本文旨在分析多维度和谐发展对于乒乓球后备人才培养的重要性,探索和研究构建中国竞技乒乓球后备人才可持续发展培养模式的可行性及其重要意义。