Travelling home(s): contemporary Korean art after the postcolonial

Contemporary discussions of globalisation (in general) and postcolonialism (more specifically) have largely remained wed to critiques of the West, including around its outsized role in the proliferation of neoliberal economic logics. As Chen argues in Asia as Method, these discussions have precluded other kinds of discussions about globalisation and its ‘theories’ – those that are generated between Asian countries and peoples (recognising that ‘Asia’ itself is a construction). In this essay, we look towards a different kind of conversation about the postcolonialism, one that does not take the West as its primary interlocutor. We will look closely at two South Korean contemporary artists – Do Ho Suh (1962–) and Kimsooja (1957–) – and see how they work through contemporary, material concerns around ‘home’ and ‘place’. In particular, these artists point us towards ‘movement’ as a trope for displacing extant concerns with fixed identity and as a kind of ontological state of being in the world.     

The effects of parental teaching on compliance behavior of children

In this study, we examined how effectively parents learn and apply the techniques of reinforcement, effective praise, instructive praise, direct teaching, and corrective teaching with noncompliant children in their homes. Four children considered at risk for antisocial behavior problems participated with their parents in the project. The parents received training from a parent coach in techniques that they then implemented to teach their child to be compliant. A multiple baseline‐probe design was used to evaluate the procedures. Throughout the study, the parents' implementation of the techniques and the children's responses were observed. The results showed an increase in the parents' application of these skills and an increase in the children's overall compliance in the home. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 337–350, 2004.     

HSCL LibQUAL+ 2004: from numbers and graphs to practical application

The University of Florida Health Science Center Libraries created a task force representing various departments to review data from its 2004 LibQUAL+ survey. This review compared results from the 2002 and 2004 LibQUAL+ surveys, and the data from the Association of Academic Health Science Libraries 2004 cohort. The task force analyzed the key components of the LibQUAL+ survey: Affect of Service, Information Control, Library as Place, and user comments. At the conclusion of this review, the task force made recommendations and suggestions along departmental lines to meet the patrons' needs and expectations. In addition to following the task force recommendations, the Libraries independently implemented several new services and hired additional personnel after the completion of the 2004 survey. Combined, these changes should improve overall library service and increase customer satisfaction. Looking towards the 2006 LibQUAL+ survey, the task force will be convened in advance and will guide the entire process.     

On archival pluralism: what religious pluralism (and its critics) can teach us about archives

Recent work has stressed the importance of pluralism in archival education, practice, and research. By examining the promises and perils of pluralism as it has been constructed in another field—religion—this article analyzes, expands, and delineates the notion of archival pluralism in a way that helps form the conceptual foundation for further work on pluralistic approaches to archival education, theory and practice. More specifically, it argues that archival pluralism can learn from four basic principles of religious pluralism—energetic engagement, understanding, strengthened commitment, and dialog—while at the same time avoiding four major perils: claims of universality, inattention to power, silencing dissent, and collapsing of difference. First, this article presents a brief discourse analysis tracing the emergence and development of archival pluralism in the literature to date. Next, turning to how pluralism has been constructed in another field, this article gives a brief overview of conceptions of religious pluralism using the work of two of its most prominent American scholars as guideposts and then addresses the strengths and weaknesses of this conceptualization of pluralism in the religious sphere. Next, this article proposes how religious pluralism’s main principles and pitfalls can be adapted and applied in the realm of memory keeping in order to strengthen the conceptual framework for archival pluralism. It concludes by suggesting aspects of a research agenda for future work in archival pluralism.     

Effect of U-Pace Instruction on Academic Success,Learning, and Perceptions in Younger and Older Undergraduates

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to determine the efficacy of U-Pace instruction for older undergraduates, ages 25 and older, and younger undergraduates, ages 18 to 24. Additionally, change in learner perceptions across the semester, an outcome not reported in the literature on U-Pace instruction, was investigated. In both younger and older undergraduates U-Pace instruction produced greater learning, greater academic success, and sustained or improved students’ perceptions of themselves as learners compared with Face-to-Face instruction. The findings provide strong support for the efficacy of U-Pace instruction in younger and older students and highlight a possible mechanism underlying U-Pace instruction’s effects on learning and academic success.     

Alphabet knowledge in preschool: A Rasch model analysis

In this study, we used Rasch model analyses to examine (1) the unidimensionality of the alphabet knowledge construct and (2) the relative difficulty of different alphabet knowledge tasks (uppercase letter recognition, names, and sounds, and lowercase letter names) within a sample of preschoolers (n = 335). Rasch analysis showed that the four components of alphabet knowledge did work together as a unidimensional construct, indicating all alphabet tasks administered were measuring the same underlying skill. With regard to difficulty of tasks, letter recognition was easier than letter naming, which in turn was easier than letter sounds, and uppercase letter names were easier than lowercase letter names. Most notably, most of the alphabet tasks overlapped, and the Rasch models for the single tasks were no more reliable than the combined measure. This suggests that these alphabetic tasks do not measure distinct skills but are instead indicators of a single ability. Consequently, we support the conceptualization of alphabet knowledge as a unitary construct, and suggest that those assessing and teaching alphabet knowledge in preschool use tests and methods that combine the various alphabetic tasks rather than separating them. These combined assessments will be more likely to capture the range of abilities within a preschool sample and avoid the floor and ceiling effects that have so often complicated early literacy research.     

Shifting relations with the more-than-human: six threshold concepts for transformative sustainability learning

Using the iterative process of action research, we identify six portals of understanding, called threshold concepts, which can be used as curricular guideposts to disrupt the socially constituted separation, and hierarchy, between humans and the more-than-human. The threshold concepts identified in this study provide focal points for a curriculum in transformative sustainability learning which (1) acknowledges non-human agency; and (2) recognizes that the capacity to work with multiple ways of knowing is required to effectively engage in the process of sustainability knowledge creation. These concepts are: there are different ways of knowing; we can communicate with non-human nature and non-human nature can communicate with us; knowing is relational; transrational intuition and embodied knowing are valuable and valid ways of knowing; worldview is the lens through which we view reality; and the power of dominant beliefs (represented in discourse) supports and/or undermines particular ways of knowing and being as in/valid.     

Open Learning,Electronic Communications and Beginning Teachers

The largest post graduate initial teacher education course in the UK was introduced by the Open University in February 1994. The course is innovative in a number of ways: it is the first large scale distance taught pre‐service course in the UK; all students are loaned a computer for the duration of the course; and computer conferencing is used extensively for communication between students, part‐time tutors and the course team. In this paper the use of the computer conferencing element is described and evaluated, and ways in which electronic communications can be developed for this to be a truly effective medium for supporting the development of beginning teachers’ competence and confidence are discussed.