Independent School Leadership: Heads,Boards, and Strategic Thinking

This study seeks to identify and assess factors that contribute to effective independent school governance at the board of trustees level. A review of extant literature reveals two major challenges: (a) definitions and standards of board effectiveness are inconsistent, and (b) there is very little empirical evidence to support existing definitions and notions of effective governance. Study authors have developed a “strategic effectiveness” metric to encompass factors associated with perceptions of board effectiveness and an “institutional performance” metric that includes factors that are critical to the sustainability of independent schools. Survey respondents include 806 heads of school and board chairs. School leaders at six independent schools in the Northeast, Midwest, and the South were interviewed to gather empirical data regarding strategic board governance and institutional performance. This study identifies two areas that impact school leaders’ ability to think and act strategically: (a) intentional acculturation of trustees over extended periods of time (“onboarding”) and (b) strategic identification and cultivation of potential trustees. Both of these factors impact strategic effectiveness and contribute positively to institutional performance.     

Promoting Reflection in Tertiary Teaching through Collaboration

Recent years have seen the emergence of international concern about the quality of teaching and learning in universities, and consequently also interest in the investigation of models of staff development for improving teaching and learning at university level. This study monitored the reflective deliberations of a tertiary chemistry lecturer engaged in peer collaboration with other university lecturers for the purpose of improving teaching and learning in his classroom. The research method was based on an adaptation of the clinical supervision model. The lecturer's practice was found to be influenced strongly by his images of and beliefs about his lecturing role. Reflection occurred on a number of themes, both within and across different reflective cycles, and was facilitated by collaboration with his peers and by video replay feedback. Further, personal observation of and reflection on his classroom experience were found to precede changes in the images and beliefs influencing his classroom behaviour.     

Abandoned-baby laws

In this column, the author examines the current status of abandoned-baby laws in the United States and how it can impact the work of childbirth educators.     

Quality early education—quality food and nutrition pracices? Some initial results from a pilot research project into food and nutrition practices in early years settings in Kent,UK

This paper draws upon work conducted as part of a research project into food and nutrition in the early years, and looks very specifically at the way in which practitioners in the field are both aware of current debates around such issues and how they put good policy into their practice. In drawing out such debates with practitioners, it also offers a useful insight into the way in which research, policy and practice either come together within the sector or actually operate within different ambits. The findings show that there is a lack of knowledge amongst early years practitioners on food and nutrition issues, and that this can lead to less than effective practice in some instances.     

The amazingly patient tutor: students' interactions with an online carbohydrate chemistry course

Many multimedia chemistry courses fail to reach their full educational potential as they do not engage the learner in a meaningful task or give appropriate feedback. Though molecular modelling is a recognised technique widely used in chemistry to enable students to grasp difficult concepts, tutorials often do not afford students either the time or scope to learn by experimenting with molecular structures. In this paper we describe the educational development of a web based organic chemistry tutorial which aims to enable students to learn chemical concepts through the manipulation of structural formulae and the provision of appropriate feedback. An online chemical structure modelling tool was developed to enable molecules to be drawn online and to provide feedback. The aim of this study is to address key issues relevant to the development of educational resources of this nature. It will be of particular interest to teachers and lecturers working within Science and Engineering, audio–visual staff and educational developers.     

Collaborative design decision-making as social process

ABSTRACT

Collaborative design is recognised as being shaped by complex social, cognitive, material, and technical processes. In the case of design decision-making, however, the social dimension has yet to be fully understood as the product of the whole team dynamic rather than as simply the sum of the individual (cognitive) contributions. This paper examines the interactional work teams of first-time design students do that produces decisions in undergraduate engineering design projects. Close analysis of decision-making episodes, recorded in design meetings in a yearlong ethnographic study, reveals the joint social and situated work teams do to produce decisions. Students were found to do decision-making via three overlapping phases that were invariant across the database: (i) Design options emerge, (ii) teams orient to design options, and (iii) design decisions come off. This paper exemplifies these phases of decision-making as inherently – and not just incidentally – social, and illustrates how decisions are produced in novice design teams via these phases in multifarious ways. We argue for an explicit retrospective focus on the processes and consequences of team decisions following projects as an avenue for fostering the development of design judgment that engineering graduates will take into their professional practice.     

哥伦比亚大学:4+4扩展地址空间

我们在使用内核2．4．18的Linux操作系统下实现了4＋4。4＋4的源代码从公开渠道获得。在进行4＋4实现的过程中，一个核心目标就是对内核和应用程序的最小改动。因此，我们没有对内核本身进行任何改动，所有的4＋4功能都是通过内核模块以及相应的用户空间守护进程来实现的，这样，可以从一个运行的内核中自由地载入或卸载这些模块。由于我们的最小改动的实现，网络牺牲了一部分性能。