Experiential learning in doctoral training programmes: fostering personal epistemology through collaboration

There has been increasing recognition for the need to reform doctoral training practices to foster students’ personal epistemology. This study describes the design and evaluation of a learning experience designed to help students understand the scholarly publication process. Firstly, this study discusses the design of the learning experience, describing the collaborative process of writing an interdisciplinary publication using both online and face-to-face learning. Secondly, this study evaluates the effectiveness of the learning experience by examining students’ reflections. We show that participation in the learning experience helped students to develop their academic writing proficiency, collaboration and teamwork, intercultural competence, and ability to engage in reflective practice. Importantly, we show that each student also created more individualised knowledge, gaining insight into how they and others think. This study, therefore, demonstrates that personal epistemology can be fostered through collaboration in a doctoral writing group context.     

修辞话语建构双重运作:陌生化和熟知化

修辞话语建构是两个认知系统中的双重运作 ,即 :通过修辞认知 ,“变熟悉为陌生” ;通过概念认知 ,“变陌生为熟悉”。前者进入修辞配价关系 ,以审美自由敞开话语主体的感觉系统 ;后者进入语法配价关系 ,以有限的认知模式解读无限丰富的世界。二者不能采取相反的运作路向。     

Education and Development: Era of Hope and Disillusionment

It seems almost superfluous to have to highlight formal education as a social and moral institution (historically that has been its main role) but for the fact that after the Second World War greater consciousness on the part of rich industrialized countries spawns fresh concepts and notions that education is an economic enterprise. The human capital concept popularized by the Chicago School of economics as reflected in the works of Schultz and the seminal work of Denison catapulted education into the forefront as an engine of economic development for the so-called Third World countries. Heavy physical capital investment, with the exception of Japan and Germany, which is thought to be a sufficient stimulus for economic development in classical economic theory fails to deliver the goods. The frantic search for an efficacious solution to Third World Poverty unearths the forgotten dimension of educated and trained manpower as the missing variable in the economic development equation. Education becomes the new faith for Third Worlds in their attempts to banish poverty and join the rich industrial clubs. Needless to say, the new faith which holds sway for more than a decade ends in disillusionment (reflected in the Belagio Conference of 1974) for trained manpower is a necessary but not sufficient condition for national development. The complementarity and substitutability of physical and human capital have been overlooked. But whilst the human capital formation theory holds sway, formal education becomes predominently an economic enterprise and correspondingly its function as a social and moral enterprise is reduced in importance.     

Measures of Teachers' Workload

The measurement of teachers' workload has till now been subjective. Teachers feel that they have a great responsibility to their pupils and to society and their workload heavy, while non-teachers may have different views. This debate occurs even amongst teachers teaching different subjects and levels in a school as well as amongst teachers in different schools. A comparison of teachers' workload in different countries is also particularly difficult because of different class sizes, curriculum time, etc. It is therefore essential to provide a quantitative and objective measure for evaluating teachers' workload. This measure can then be used as a reference by school principals when allocating extra duties to teachers. It is also useful to education authorities when deploying teachers to various schools in centralized education systems.     

Introduction to this Special Issue

In 2001, for the first time in the history of the International Association for Counselling, International Conference was held in a developing Asian country–India, with the theme Families in Transition–Counselling in Transition–Meeting the Challenges Ahead. This special issue contains some of the presentations made by Indian participants during this conference which best reflect the challenges and diversities of counseling efforts with families in India. The first article was specially written for this issue in order to give an international relationship of this journal an in depth contextual understanding of Indian families in transition and the challenges they pose to the contemporary Indian counselor. Two articles are reflected to counseling families affected by socio-politial and economic changes. Five authors have written on counseling related to physical and mental disability/addiction and last two articles are reflected to authors experiences as family counselors.     

习近平青年工作思想对高校辅导员专业化的指导价值

党的十八大以来,习近平总书记围绕青年和青年工作的重大理论和实践问题,进行了全面系统的战略谋划和决策部署,为做好新时代青年工作提供了价值导向、理论指引和方法路径。高校辅导员应遵循高校思想政治工作革新,把握贯彻习近平青年工作思想,顺应青年工作的"事""时""势",从增强职业认同、理顺职业角色、提升职业素养、提高职业能力和提高思政工作亲和力等方面,提升高校思想政治工作育人成效。     

Kinetics study on biomass pyrolysis for fuel gas production

Kinetic knowledge is of great importance in achieving good control of the pyrolysis and gasification process and optimising system design. An overall kinetic pyrolysis scheme is therefore addressed here. The kinetic modelling incorporates the following basic steps: the degradation of the virgin biomass materials into primary products (tar, gas and semi-char), the decomposition of primary tar into secondary products and the continuous interaction between primary gas and char. The last step is disregarded completely by models in the literature. Analysis and comparison of predicted results from different kinetic schemes and experimental data on our fixed bed pyrolyser yielded very positive evidence to support our kinetic scheme. Project (No. 2001CB409600) Supported by the National Key Basic Research Program (973) of China     

反思五个方面 落实“三个代表”—在学校落实“三个代表”的一点想法

党中央提出,用两年左右的时间在乡镇一级开展"三个代表"的学习教育活动,如果学校--最基层的教育实体能借此东风,自觉认真地进行反思,解决好多年来沉积下来的种种问题,将是一个难得的机会.学校如何落实"三个代表"的重要思想,笔者认为,领导带头,进行如下五个方面的反思,是极为重要的.