Darwin’s Other Bulldog: Charles Kingsley and the Popularisation of Evolution in Victorian England

The nineteenth-century Anglican Priest Charles Kingsley (1819?C1875) was a significant populariser of Darwin??s theory of evolution by natural selection. Kingsley was successful in this regard because he developed such diverse connections throughout his career. In the 1840s he associated with Chartists and radical journalists; in the 1850s and 1860s he moved freely in scientific circles and was elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1856 and Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1863. In 1859 he was appointed Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen. In 1860 the Prince Consort was willing and able to secure Kingsley appointment as the Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University and he subsequently became tutor to the Prince of Wales. Thereafter he was frequently invited into high Victorian Society. A friend of ??Darwin??s Bulldog?? Thomas Huxley, of the eminent geologist Charles Lyell and a correspondent of Darwin, at every turn he sought to promote Darwin??s ideas as theologically orthodox, a life-long campaign in which he was eminently successful.     

Investigating the effectiveness of a POE-based teaching activity on students’ understanding of condensation

This article reports on the development of a Predict–Observe–Explain, POE-based teaching strategy to facilitate conceptual change and its effectiveness on student understanding of condensation. The sample consisted of 52 first-year students in primary science education department. Students’ ideas were elicited using a test consisting of five probe questions and semi-structured interviews. A teaching activity composed of three Predict–Discuss–Explain–Observe–Discuss–Explain (PDEODE) tasks was employed, based on students’ preconceptions identified with the test. Conceptual change in students’ understanding of condensation was evaluated via a pre-, post-, and delayed post-test approach and students’ interviews. Test scores were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings suggested that the strategy helps students to achieve better conceptual understanding for the concept of condensation and enables students to retain these new conceptions in their long-term memory.     

The leadership crisis – can Action Learning Questions provide any answers?

This article provides a reflective account of the author's experience over the past 12 years of introducing a structured approach to accredited action learning to corporate organisations. The generic Action Learning Question method is outlined and specific examples of programmes in the financial services/banking and education sector are described. Included is an example of how Action Learning Facilitators have been developed. It is proposed that this approach has a place in supporting leadership development in a period of great uncertainty and change.     

Problem-solving analysis: A piagetian study

Fifty-nine second-year medical students were asked to solve 12 Piagetian formal operational tasks. The purpose was to describe the formal logical characteristics of this medical student sample (59 of a total 65 possible) in terms of their abilities to solve problems in four formal logical schemata-combinatorial logic, probabilistic reasoning, propositional logic, and proportional reasoning. These tasks were presented as videotape demonstrations or in written form, depending on whether or not equipment manipulation was required, and were scored using conventional, prespecified scoring criteria. The results of this study show approximately 96% of the sample function at the transitional (Piaget's 3A level) stage of formal operations on all tasks and approximately 4% function at the full formal (Piaget's 3B level) stage of formal operations on all tasks. This sample demonstrates formal level thinking to a much greater degree than other samples reported in the literature to date and suggests these students are adequately prepared and developed to meet the challenge of their training (i.e., medical problem solving).     

E-disclosure laws and electronic campaign finance reform: Lessons from the diffusion of e-government policies in the States

This study presents a first look at the diffusion of electronic campaign finance laws, or e-disclosure policies, across the 50 states. Fifty state data and multivariate regression analysis test the influence of state professional networks and interest groups on the extent of e-disclosure implementation across the states. Findings demonstrate that certian types of interest groups are influential in expanding or retarding the growth of e-disclosure policies when controlling for other factors. Findings also demonstrate that greater levels of legislative professionalism, education, and state resources support greater levels of implementation of e-disclosure policies. Greater levels of state infrastructure capacity for e-government are also significant predictor of more extensive e-disclosure implementation. Findings have implications for emerging research at the intersection of technology and democracy.     

Seniors’ organizations in China’s new rural reconstruction: experiments in Hubei and Henan

This article tracks the shifting cultural meanings that the East/West distinction has produced in the history of nationalism in colonial and post-colonial India. It does so by focusing on the word “civilization” and the role it played in promoting a rich sense of inter-cultural dialogue in the writings of nationalist leaders such as Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, and Jawaharlal Nehru. The article documents how the word figures with much reduced significance in contemporary cultural debates about globalization in India and concludes by asking if the rise of China and India to global prominence holds the potential today to initiate a conversation across cultures similar to the one that accompanied the rise of the West in the age of modern imperial rule.