分享印象——关于Metavante与Fidelity的整合

Julie：本期我们再来谈一个行业的整合——Meta Vante与Fidelity的整合。这是一次价值44亿美元的行业整合。我常常搞不清楚像这样的整合是该叫合并还是收购。这可能要专门进行讨论,如果我们只评论合并和收购而不做其他评论,我们就可能深陷其中而不能自拔。难道你不希望我们多谈论一些新的突破性技术,甚至是绿色环保的命题？     

在路上：奥西数码印刷新航向会议

Andy：虽然任何来到美国佛罗里达州博卡拉顿的理由都是充分的,但我们尤其被奥西这次举办的数码印刷新航向会议所吸引,因为会议的主要参与者都是期待着进入数码印刷业,或想在数码印刷上取得更大进展的商业印刷商。     

赜墨和胶印孰优孰劣？

过去人们在说“在不久的将来,现在用大胶印机印刷的活件以后会在喷墨数码印刷机上印刷”的时候,你会笑话他们,因为你认为这事儿永远不可能。不过,今天你可能已经不会再笑话别人了,因为喷墨技术在过去几年里的进步之快,远出乎业内很多人士的预期。     

‘… do that and I'll raise your grade’. Innovative module design and recursive feedback

In an attempt to ensure students had a positive experience in their first semester, and to encourage future effective use of tutors’ feedback comments, a post-1992 university used a module in the school of education to develop an innovative feedback process. The process involved four stages: a first submission of written work, written feedback on that work, viva on student understanding of feedback, and final submission of written work. Between the viva and final submission, students could choose to improve their work for a specified number of grade points. The innovation was met favourably by students, and overall grades were improved against the previous iteration of the module. The project showed promise for adaptation in other forms for use across the University, though some ideological issues around assessment remain unresolved. The matter of the innovation and institutional quality standards is discussed in detail.     

Identifying threshold concepts in the careers of educational developers

The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify threshold concepts in the careers of educational developers. Twenty-one common threshold concepts emerged, with one threshold concept common among all participants: Facilitating a change process. The remaining 20 threshold concepts were captured in the following three categories: (1) Ways of knowing and being that facilitate change in individuals and in groups; (2) Ways of knowing and being that facilitate systemic change and (3) Core ways of knowing and being. Study results may provide guidance for the design of initial and ongoing formation programmes in educational development.     

Challenging control: inclusive teachers’ and teaching assistants’ discourse on students with challenging behaviour

Describing students with disabilities as presenting ‘challenging behaviour’ is common in US schools. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the discourse utilised by teachers in order to understand their beliefs and practices surrounding young students considered to present challenging behaviour. This study examines teachers’ language in four ways: which discourses they draw from, the consequences of engaging in the discourse on practice, what maintains the use of such discourse and finally the possibilities for change. The critical discourse analysis unpacked that teachers begin labelling the students as challenging, not the behaviour. Consequences of this thinking emerged as teachers excluded the students, or what they consider ‘the problems’ from the classroom. Exclusion was found to be the ‘necessary’ response when control is prioritised in the classroom. In sum, the discourse of control is available for shaping how teachers understand and support students. Developing a relationship with students empowers teachers to see past the labels, the control discourse, and truly support students in inclusive classrooms. Finally, implications for practice are shared to improve the experience of inclusive education for both student and teacher.     

Introduction−justifying a cross-cultural comparative approach to school leadership and management

England's Education Action Zones are a flagship New Labour policy geared towards raising standards and reducing social exclusion in areas of educational under-performance. This introduction outlines key features of the policy, considers its broader significance in relation to new models of educational governance and pulls out some of the key issues that arise from the contributions to this special feature.     

Girls Helping Girls: Assessing the Influence of College Student Mentors in an Afterschool Engineering Program

Current data suggest fewer females than males continue to be interested in engineering and that this gender gap is first evidenced during middle school years. One might expect that female engineering role models would encourage adolescent girls to pursue future careers in engineering and thereby increase the girls’ interests in and attitudes towards science and mathematics. This study sought to correlate middle school girls’ overall confidence in science and mathematics with a year-long, afterschool mentoring program led by female engineering students from a local university. The results demonstrated that there was a significant correlation between the quality of the mentoring relationship and the girls’ confidence in mathematics. The relationship between female role models and young girls’ attitudes toward science and mathematics is discussed.     

Teacher Appraisal,Professional Development and School Improvement: a case study

The paper argues that in respect of the day‐to‐day work activities required in being a headteacher, and in the work relationships involved in running schools, the occupational culture of headship has changed fundamentally. Using the accounts of 20 headteachers, interviewed in respect of their career histories in 1990 and followed up by means of a postal questionnaire in 1992, the paper illustrates the changes experienced and identified by this group of heads. It is argued that a new headteacher is required; that aspects of educational leadership have diminished dramatically in the work culture of headship.     

The other exit: The definitive statement on management theory and practice in our time

As part of an investigation into the progress of the appraisal of primary school headteachers in three LEAs in the Midlands, the three LEA appraisal coordinators concerned were interviewed in advance of a sample of the headteachers. From the three semi-structured interviews it was possible to detect interesting differences, as well as similarities, in the procedures adopted in the LEAs. In one case the advisers were unable to meet the statutory obligation for there to be an LEA officer involved in each appraisal and reporting back to the LEA appeared to be very patchy. This stemmed from resource constraints which were also seen as a looming problem by the other coordinators. In all three cases the coordinators had tried to ensure that the implementation of headteacher appraisal was as non-threatening as possible. This had led in some cases to a level of reciprocity of appraisal together with a degree of choice which might be seen as a more comfortable set of arrangements than many managers outside education or, for that matter, class teachers might encounter. The outcomes were, however, seen as very positive staff development for the heads concerned. (This is being confirmed by the overwhelming majority of the heads themselves in the interviews with them which have taken place subsequently.) Although appraisal reports on heads are available by law to the chairpersons of governing bodies, there was evidence that such feedback as there was tended to be perfunctory in many cases. There is evidence that this is not through carelessness. Appraisal of headteachers may not be following the lines of accountability originally favoured by the government. This may account for some evidence of government disenchantment with the appraisal process in education as it currently operates.