Pity and Justice in Rousseau's Emile: Developing a Concern for the Common Good

Scholarly accounts of the training of pity in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile focus on how Emile's tutor activates the psychological mechanisms necessary for the feeling of pity in book 4 of the text. This account is inadequate, for it fails to show how Emile acquires the evaluative ability to make the judgment about who deserves pity as well as the willingness to adjudicate his own and others' interests. In this article, Wing Sze Leung argues that books 1 through 3 lay the foundation by developing in Emile the attitudes and dispositions that guide him in his judgment-making about which kind of life he should pursue. Books 4 and 5 then develop Emile's ability to make interpersonal judgments of pity through habituated practice. By gradually cultivating Emile's sensitivity to the potential conflict between his self-interests and others' well-being, as well as the resolution to refrain from infringing on others' interests and to pursue the common good, Rousseau's long-term educational project molds Emile's disposition to act as justice demands. The article concludes with a brief response to some criticisms about Rousseau's educational project.     

Student learning performance in online collaborative learning

Education and Information Technologies - Online collaborative learning (OCL) has received significant attention, but the ultimate goal of adopting OCL is neglected, especially in higher education...     

标准参照评估的行动实践 ——以香港中文大学通识教育基础课程为案例

香港特别行政区高校从2015年开始，学生学业评估陆续由常模参照评估转为标准参照评估。本文以香港中文大学通识教育基础课程实施标准参照评估的行动为案例，分析了这项新的学业评估方式在实施中所遇到的问题，讨论了解决方法并提出实施模型。该模型包含评分量表的设计与开发、量表使用、教师意见反馈与量表修改，以及评分之后的集体讨论这一套实施流程。文章最后指出，要保证标准参照评估的有效实施，需建立教师实践共同体。实践共同体的行动包括：教师共同开发评估标准，通过集体讨论对评估标准的含义和使用达成共识，共同审视评估结果，根据评估结果进一步修改和完善评估标准。     

Making learning visible in initial teacher education: a pedagogical characterisation scheme

This paper reports the development of a scheme of characterising pedagogical practices in initial teacher education classes. The scheme is intended to provide baseline data on classroom pedagogical practices in Singapore’s sole provider of initial teacher education (ITE). This study is original in that the research team has found no reports of independent research to characterise, through video analysis of classroom practices, the pedagogical practices experienced during ITE. By characterising the pedagogical practices of a purposive sample of ITE lessons run at the National Institute of Education Singapore, this study contributes an initial scheme to produce detailed and layered representations of pedagogical practices through video recordings, which opens a new approach to research on teacher education. The implications with regard to teacher education policy and practice will be discussed.     

Using a video annotation tool to enhance student-teachers’ reflective practices and communication competence in consultation practices through a collaborative learning community

This study investigated how peer comments made using a video annotation tool (VAT) through an online learning community improved student-teachers’ level of reflective thinking and communication competence throughout the simulated (i.e., role-play) context of consultation practice. Eighty student-teachers from two classes of the course “Comprehensive School Guidance” participated in this study, and all recorded two videos for their tripartite practice on parent consultation for self-evaluation and peer comment. Forty student-teachers were in the comparison class and provided general comments to their peers on the learning platform, while those in the experimental class used the VAT on the learning platform to provide specific comments to their peers. Two post-practice online questionnaires and reflective journal entries, which aimed to measure communication competence and reflective thinking ability, were administered to the student-teachers after the first and second consultation practice. The reflective journal entries were segmented into units of analysis that were scored using a 4-level model of reflective thinking (from 1 to 4), with a higher score indicating demonstration of a higher level of reflective thinking for that particular segment. Both the number of reflective notes made and the average level of reflective thinking in student-teachers’ journal entries were indicators of reflective thinking ability. Two mixed ANOVAs were conducted to examine whether student-teachers in the experimental (VAT) class improved their reflective thinking ability and communication competence more significantly than those in the comparison (non-VAT) class. The results showed that student-teachers in both the VAT and non-VAT classes had statistically higher scores for communication competence and reflective thinking in the second role-play practice. Student-teachers with the support of VAT, in comparison to those without, significantly improved their average reflective thinking ability. Focus group interviews were also conducted to investigate how VAT could support student-teachers’ learning process and to learn their perceptions of the strengths and limitations of the VAT. The results indicated that the VAT could enhance student-teachers’ learning by reducing communication barriers created by the tendency to avoid direct observations of peers’ weaknesses, enhancing reflection-in-action during practice, and contextualizing written comments by referring to specific video segments. However, student-teachers felt that the VAT should also allow users to draw on the video screens.

     

Bond graph models of structured parameter uncertainties

Taking into account uncertainties in model parameter values is a crucial point for studying robustness in modeling and in control. This paper proposes to construct in a systematic and graphical procedure two forms of the linear state equation usually found in the literature for dealing with the robustness problem in the case of structured uncertainties on parameters. It is shown how to model uncertainties in a bond graph approach, in the case of additive or multiplicative parametric variations.     

Effect of sport education on students’ perceived physical literacy,motivation, and physical activity levels in university required physical education: a cluster-randomized trial

Higher Education - Originating from the field of physical education, physical literacy is an individual disposition that accentuates the importance of lifelong physical activity. Sport education is...     

Nationalistic education as the focus for civics and citizenship education : The case of Hong Kong

Civic education has been assigned the mission of preparing critical thinking, responsible, participating, multidimensional citizens and is also used to serve the function of instilling a sense of national identity, loyalty to the nation state and patriotism In 1996, before the return of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, the Hong Kong Education Department published theGuidelines in Civic Education for School (1996), which includes education for democracy, human rights education, global education and nationalistic education This survey adopted an amalgamate framework of five types of nationalistic education to study the understanding of nationalistic education of civic educators in secondary schools in Hong Kong The initial findings showed that the civic educators were basically strongly eclectic in terms of education for cosmopolitan, civic, and cultural nationalism and moderately eclectic in terms of anti colonial nationalism but rejected education for totalitarian nationalism This eclectic understanding can be said to be heading towards a more liberal, rational, open and inclusive type of nationalistic education, which is compatible with a cosmopolitan and pluralistic society such as Hong Kong