Knowledge from Testimony: Benefits and Dangers

Testimony is an important source of knowledge in many contexts, including that of education, but the notion of the teacher as testifier is not often discussed. Since much that is believed by individuals has come to them not from direct experience but by accepting the accounts of others, the trustworthiness of their interlocutors' testimonies, whether these be spoken, textual or electronic in form, is an important factor in determining whether or not they acquire true, justified beliefs. Testimonial trustworthiness is a combination of competence and sincerity, both of which tend to be high when a teacher testifies in her area of expertise. But in the world beyond the classroom there are situations in which the competence or sincerity of the testifier is low, so it is important that the learner acquires an epistemically‐virtuous, well‐attuned disposition towards testimony.     

On Reading Dante: The Swinging Bridge

Abstract

Mindfulness meditation involves focusing one's attention on the present moment in a non-judgmental way. Several recently published investigations have demonstrated that a brief session of mindfulness meditation, practiced before a higher-education course lecture, can improve performance on a quiz over lecture content given immediately following the lecture. It is less clear how mindfulness meditation, practiced before multiple course lectures, impacts performance on quizzes over time as well as on a cumulative exam over all lecture contents. The present experiment compared a mindfulness meditation group to an active control group; each practiced 6 min of mindfulness or relaxation prior to seven course lectures. Following each lecture, a quiz was given over lecture contents to measure short-term academic achievement. A cumulative exam was later given over all lecture content to measure long-term academic achievement. In contrast to prior published investigations, there were no effects of mindfulness meditation on academic achievement. Given these promising yet inconsistent effects, future work should explore the moderators (i.e., individual differences; duration, frequency, and style of meditation practice) of mindfulness meditation's salutary benefits.     

疼痛的回响——悲剧理论视阈下《红楼梦》的美学意蕴

《红楼梦》是中国古典文学史的一部旷世之作。在悲剧理论观照下,小说的悲剧从情感、社会、文化至人之存在的痛苦,上升到形而上的生命本体层面。审美痛感的普遍性、永恒性,赋予小说深厚的美学意蕴。     

One in Three? Teachers' Attempts to Identify Low Self-Esteem Children

The maintenance of healthy self-esteem remains a central concern in pastoral care. It is almost taken for granted that we can identify low self-esteem in children based on the knowledge built up through day-to-day interactions. But self-esteem is essentially a personal perception, and one may ask, to what extent can another make reliable judgements about such a phenomenon? This study looked at the match between teachers' judgements of their pupils' self-esteem and the children's own self-reports. The teachers concerned were committed to self-esteem enhancement as an important goal of their teaching, but the findings indicate that when trying to identify low self-esteem children in their classes, they were frequently unsuccessful. These findings are discussed, and implications considered.     

Ralph Lane's 1586 Discourse on the First Colony: The Renaissance Commercial Report as Apologia

In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh received from Queen Elizabeth a patent to colonize any region of North America not possessed by a Christian prince. In 1585 he sent a fleet of seven ships to plant a colony under the governorship of Ralph Lane on Roanoke Island near what is now the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The colony lasted less than a year and then returned to England, where Lane produced a commercial report explaining the failure. Using research from speech communication on the rhetoric of apologia, this essay analyzes Lane's attempts to answer four criticisms of his governorship: that he mistreated the Indians, that he failed to explore the region to find commodities valuable to Raleigh and his investors, that he was an incompetent military commander, and that he deserted the colony. The essay also evaluates Lane's recommendations that future colonies be established further north on the Chesapeake Bay.