梅洛-庞蒂:知觉艺术

通过对梅洛庞蒂知觉理论的阐述，概括出其哲学理论：身体通过感觉　的综合活动来理解世界并以意义来表达世界；人的大部分活动是前反思的，其美学观点集中　于“美是由最小的知觉所阐发的体现行为”。其哲学的核心命题就是具象的首要性，同时，　文章还指出梅洛庞蒂理论的缺陷。本文是《批判美学与后现代主义》中的一章。     

Training the adult educator as professional

The growing importance of adult training and education is a worldwide phenomenon. As an accompaniment to the growing range of programmes and courses in adult continuing education, there has developed a cadre of professional adult educators who exist to provide them. Using examples both from Anglophone Africa and from the UK, this paper traces the development of adult education as an idea and the emergence of the adult educator as professional. Training institutions (mainly in universities) have developed from direct course provision though there is now no necessary connection between their past and present functions. Nevertheless, it is these same institutions which have begun to give coherence to the curricula of professional training. Finally, the paper considers some of the training issues which have arisen and which still need to be addressed by the training institutions if professional training is to continue to meet changing professional needs.

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Zusammenfassung Die zunehmende Bedeutung der Bildung und Ausbildung von Erwachsenen ist ein weltweites Phänomen. Als Begleiterscheinung zum wachsenden Angebot von Programmen und Kursen in der Erwachsenenfortbildung hat sich eine Gruppe von professionellen Lehrern für Erwachsene herausgebildet, die diese Kurse leiten. Mit Beispielen sowohl aus dem englischsprachigen Afrika als auch aus Großbritannien wird in dem Artikel der Entwicklung der Erwachsenenbildung als Idee und dem Aufkommen von berufsmäßigen Lehrern für Erwachsene nachgegangen. Ausbildungsstätten (vorwiegend an Universitäten) haben sich aus der unmittelbaren Bereitstellung von Kursen entwickelt, obwohl es heutzutage nicht notwendigerweise eine Verbindung zwischen beiden gibt. Dennoch sind es genau diese Institutionen, die damit begonnen haben, den Curricula für die Ausbildung professioneller Lehrer von Erwachsenen einen logischen Zusammenhang zu geben. Zum Schluß werden einige sich ergebende Fragen zur Ausbildung aufgegriffen, die an die Ausbildungsstätten weitergegeben werden müssen, wenn die Berufsausbildung weiterhin den sich ändernden beruflichen Erfordernissen gerecht werden soll.

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Résumé L'importance croissante de la formation et de l'éducation des adultes est un phénomène mondial. Parallèlement au nombre de programmes et de cours d'éducation continue des adultes qui ne cesse d'augmenter, un corps d'éducateurs des adultes spécialisés a été développé pour conduire ces cours. En tirant ses exemples de l'Afrique anglophone et du Royaume Uni, cet article retrace le développement de l'éducation des adultes en tant que concept et l'émergence de l'éducateur d'adultes en tant qu'enseignant spécialisé. Les institutions de formation (au sein des universités principalement) sont directement nées des cours qui étaient offerts, même s'il n'y a plus aujourd'hui de relation nécessaire entre leurs fonctions passées et présentes. Néanmoins, ce sont ces institutions qui ont commencé à rendre cohérents les curricula de l'enseignement professionnel. Enfin, le présent article examine quelques questions de formation qui ont été soulevées et qui doivent encore être soumises aux institutions de formation, si l'enseignement professionnel ne doit pas cesser de répondre aux besoins changeants qui se font sentir dans le domaine du travail.

     

Teaching emotion understanding

The main goal of this research was to assess whether it is possible to help children develop their general understanding of emotions. Thirty-six nine-year-old children divided in two groups were examined using a pre-test/train/post-test design. The emotion understanding of the two groups was measured in the pre- and post-test phases using the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). The experimental group received a teaching program about emotions during the training phase: School Matters In Lifeskills Education (SMILE). The control group received no special teaching about emotion during this phase. Results showed that the level of emotion understanding in the experimental group improved significantly between the pre- and post-test whereas no such change occurred in the control group. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

The Academic Rational Beliefs Scale: Development,Validation, and Implications for College Counselors

This study reports on a new instrument, the Academic Rational Beliefs Scale, designed to measure college students' academic beliefs along a rational‐irrational continuum. The new instrument is potentially useful when working with students experiencing academic difficulties. Information about test construction, reliability, validity, and generalizability are presented and implications, benefits, and cautions associated with use of the instrument as a college counseling tool are discussed.     

The Relations of Parental Characteristics and Practices to Children''s Vicarious Emotional Responding

We examined the relation of parental empathy-related characteristics and emotion-related child-rearing practices to third and sixth graders' vicarious emotional responding. Children's heart rate, skin conductance, facial, and self-reported reactions to a sympathy-inducing film were assessed, as were their dispositional sympathy, empathy, and self-monitoring. Parental sympathy was positively related to low levels of personal distress in same-sex children and, for both parents, with sons' dispositional sympathy or empathy. Parental emphasis on problem-focused coping strategies when their sons were anxious was positively correlated with indexes of sons' situational and dispositional sympathy. Same-sex parental restrictiveness in regard to the control of inappropriate, hurtful emotional displays was associated with sons' and daughters' dispositional and situational sympathy, whereas maternal restrictiveness in regard to emotions that are unlikely to hurt others was correlated with nonverbal indexes of personal distress and self reports of low distress. Parental emphasis on control of the child's own negative emotion was associated with children's self-monitoring.     

Globalisation,mergers and ‘inadvertent multi-campus universities’: reflections from Wales

Multi-site universities face the challenge of integrating campuses that may have different profiles and orientations arising from place-specific attachments. Multi-campus universities created via mergers seeking to ensure long-term financial sustainability, and increasing their attractiveness to students, create a tension in campuses’ purposes. We explore how mergers in Wales created ‘inadvertent’ multi-campus universities whilst attempting to increase their overall competitiveness. We highlight three tensions that mergers created for contributing to local places, firstly a tendency for internal concentration, investing for growth in metropolitan not peripheral campuses; secondly, to looking beyond traditional local campuses and creating external campuses (in this case in London); and thirdly, to specialise campuses on the basis of attracting external students not local needs. This creates a substantial challenge for managing multi-campus universities if they are to continue to be able to support the prosperity of more remote regions in an increasingly knowledge-based economy.     

A study of the effectiveness of the primary education improvement program (science) in selected schools of Northern Nigeria

The Primary Education Improvement Program (Science) developed in Nigeria from 1970–1980 adopted a “process approach” to the teaching of science for children in Classes One and Two of primary school. In that insufficient formative data were available a study was organized to evaluate the attainment of the program's major objectives in terms of the children's ability to practice process skills. The study also attempted to measure children's interest, active participation and understanding of the lessons, as well as the availability of materials and ease of preparing and teaching the lessons for the teachers. Data were collected by means of teacher opinionnaires and a children's test to measure the attainment of process skills. The teachers who completed the opinionnaires rated the program as successful in terms of all the measured criteria. Children in the experimental and control groups were tested and their performances were compared. The results indicated that there were some significant differences in total test scores in favor of the experimental group after one year of primary school but none after two years. The program, though highly rated by teachers, did not produce the intended changes in children's behavior.     

Combining the best of two worlds: a conceptual proposal for evidence-informed school improvement

Abstract

Background: Data-based decision-making (DBDM) and research-informed teaching practice (RITP) are key to teacher and school improvement. Currently, however, DBDM and RITP represent two distinct approaches to developing evidence-informed practice (EIP) and do not correspond to the all-encompassing notion of EIP envisaged by many academics and commentators.

Purpose: DBDM and RITP are usually employed independently of each other. Each is associated with its own theoretical perspectives and research base, and each has its own pitfalls and strengths. Yet the approaches employed appear to be complementary, suggesting that there might be value in combining DBDM and RITP into one overarching process for achieving EIP. This paper presents the conceptual analysis and arguments for this proposal.

Sources of evidence: Drawing from literature and previous research in the fields of DBDM, RITP and EIP, we describe both DBDM and RITP, before comparing and contrasting the integral aspects of each.

Main argument: Our analysis leads us to suggest that not only is there overlap between these two approaches, but the strengths of each appear to mirror and compensate for the weaknesses of the other. As such, we argue that it is important that decisions in education are based on a combination of personal judgement, research evidence and local school data. This is because such a combination is likely to lead to equitable, effective and efficient decisions that are informed by values and preferences, grounded in context and steeped in practices that have been shown to be effective elsewhere.

Conclusions: We suggest that an effective strategy for EIP might be to achieve ‘the best of two worlds’ by integrating DBDM and RITP. In line with evidence-informed practices in medicine and management, this means EIP in education can finally be engaged in as a holistic approach to educational decision-making that critically appraises different forms of evidence before key improvement decisions are made. Our proposed approach, Evidence informed School and Teacher Improvement, is thus designed with the aim of enhancing the quality of educational provision by employing these evidence types as part of a systematic cycle of inquiry, focused on continuously improving the quality of learning in schools.     

Evaluation of a technology unit in a girls' primary school

Rapid advances in technology are changing the structure of the workforce. There are elite highly-paid hi-tech occupations and low status poorly-paid jobs. Women are unfortunately more likely to be found in the latter category. To allow them to qualify and compete for the higher-status positions, girls need to participate in the physical sciences and in technology studies. However, they are rarely attracted to them in secondary school, possibly because they are already alienated from them by the time they leave primary school. This paper reports some of the outcomes of a curriculum unit taught in two primary school classes in an independent school for girls. The unit was cross-curricular, involving technology, science and other fields of knowledge; it made extensive use of LEGO Technic materials. The evaluation of the unit, based on observations, a teacher journal and pupil questionnaires, focussed upon the issue of whether it assisted the girls to feel happier about working with unfamiliar technology and feel more capable of doing so. Implications for teaching technology are also discussed. M.Ed. St student, Monash University.Specializations: primary school science and technology for girls. Dr. Paul Gardner, Reader in Education, Monash University, 3168.Specializations: science and technology education, technology teacher education, educational evaluation, measurement of attitudes and interests.