Sensationalists United? Football hooliganism and the English press

In the course of researching the Heysel tragedy and its coverage by the media, I pored over dozens of valuable dissections of football hooliganism by renowned sociologists, almost all of whom charged journalists with both exaggerating and exacerbating the problem. Interviews with the accused, unaccountably, were conspicuous by their absence. These scholarly explorations were also accompanied, in my reading, by a widespread tendency to diminish the havoc wrought by criminal and profoundly antisocial behaviour. Many contributory factors were commonly cited, such as ‘frustrated maleness’, high unemployment, Margaret Thatcher’s declaration that ‘there is no such thing as society’ and the excesses of a small, entirely unrepresentative minority. The prime scapegoats, instead, have been the media – especially the space-starved, time-pressed daily newspapers, as ever, the most inviting of open goals. Their alleged crimes were wilful, irresponsible hyperbole; in short, sensationalism. Written by a sports journalist and journalism lecturer, this paper addresses whether such stereotyping is justified.     

Philosophy for Democracy

Philosophy for Democracy is a research project that aims to examine whether and how Philosophy with Children contributes to the development of democratic skills and attitudes. In the Netherlands, as in almost all Western countries, Philosophy with Children is linked with the movement for citizenship education. This article reports the research on the practice of Philosophy with Children. Sixteen philosophical inquiries by children in the classroom were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The analyses show that children develop relevant reasoning skills and advanced dialogical skills. The study shows that embedding Philosophy with Children in a democratic practice is necessary for contributing to a critical-democratic citizenship development. The study also shows that Dutch children often give their opinion, but are not often involved in inquiring their own opinions. From a pedagogical point of view, we think that in Dutch culture and in Dutch schools it would be important to stress more a dialogical – community-based – inquiring attitude.     

The Growth of Knowledge and the Discursive Gap

This article raises the question of the character of Bernstein's theory. It draws upon a set of key concepts elaborated in some of his later papers, although we suggest that it is possible to discern the origins of these ideas in much earlier work. In the first section, Bernstein's diagnosis of the sociology of education as a horizontal knowledge structure with a weak grammar is discussed and an apparent paradox identified: if the sociology of education has this form, how can we account for Bernstein's own theory? The remainder of the paper uses the case of Bernstein's own work as a way of exploring the conditions for knowledge growth in sociology as a vertical knowledge structure with a strong grammar.     

Early employment outcomes of home and foreign educated graduates – the Malaysian Experience

This paper compares early employment outcomes(in terms of income levels and jobsatisfaction) of Malaysian graduates educatedlocally with those educated abroad(specifically in US and UK).Factors likely to be related to these outcomeswere identified by a comprehensive literaturestudy. A regression model was developedcontaining the factors identified above. Questionnaire responses from over 400 recentMalaysian graduates were incorporated into themodel.Model results show a significant relationshipbetween income levels and gender, duration ofemployment, self-esteem, ownership, academicmajor and English proficiency. Surprisingly,location of study was not statisticallysignificant. Furthermore, location of studywas not significantly related to jobsatisfaction either. However job-fit index,self esteem, income and satisfaction with theUniversity were found to bear significantrelationships with job satisfaction. The policyimplication of these findings were explored.     

Digital Learning Material for Model Building in Molecular Biology

Building models to describe processes forms an essential part of molecular biology research. However, in molecular biology curricula little attention is generally being paid to the development of this skill. In order to provide students the opportunity to improve their model building skills, we decided to develop a number of digital cases about developmental biology. In these cases the students are guided to build a model according to a method that is based on expert analysis and historical data; they first build a simplified model based on the wild-type only and then they extend this model step by step based on experimental results. After each extension, the biological implications of the extension are evaluated. The first case was evaluated three times during a regular course at Wageningen University, The Netherlands and once at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. The analysis of audiotapes revealed that students did indeed engage in the reasoning processes, which are typical for model building. Furthermore, exam results seem to suggest that working with the case indeed facilitates model building in analogical situations and the students judged working with the case positively.     

Flexible authoring and delivery of online courses using IMS Learning Design

Since the publication of the IMS Learning Design (IMS LD) specification in 2003, many initiatives have been undertaken to build authoring tools that are simple enough to be used by non-technical instructors and teachers. IMS LD's technical complexity is believed to be a major burden for the adoption of the specification. We have developed a new approach for course authoring and delivery that hides most of the complexities and is powerful enough to create highly flexible online courses. Key aspects in this approach are (1) integration of IMS LD authoring and delivery tools in order to enable teachers to adapt courses in runtime and (2) the use of templates to standardize aspects of the LD. This article reports on the research and development of this approach, as well as a first implementation by the Open University of the Netherlands as part of an integrated e-learning system.     

High‐Risk Drinking in College Athletes and Nonathletes Across the Academic Year

This study compared heavy drinking and alcohol‐related consequences between freshman student‐athletes (n = 137) and nonathletes (n = 318). Differences in high‐risk drinking between the fall and spring terms were also examined. Results indicated that student‐athletes reported heavier drinking and higher levels of alcohol‐related consequences than did nonathletes. In addition, student‐athletes reported the highest levels of drinking and alcohol‐related consequences in the spring term. Implications for college counseling prevention programming are discussed.     

Pedagogical Bricoleurs and Bricolage Researchers: The case of Religious Education

This article reconceptualises school teachers and pupils respectively as ‘pedagogical bricoleurs’ and ‘bricolage researchers’ who utilise a multiplicity of theories, concepts, methodologies and pedagogies in teaching and/or researching. This reconceptualisation is based on a coalescence of generic curricular and pedagogical principles promoting dialogic, critical and enquiry-based learning. Innovative proposals for reconceptualising the aims, contents and methods of multi-faith Religious Education in English state-maintained schools without a religious affiliation are described, so as to provide an instance of and occasion for the implications of these theories and concepts of learning. With the aim of initiating pupils into the communities of academic enquiry concerned with theology and religious studies, the ‘RE-searchers approach’ to multi-faith Religious Education in primary schools (5–11 year olds) is cited as a highly innovative means of converting these curricular and pedagogical principles and proposals into practical classroom procedures. These procedures are characterised by multi-, inter- and supra-disciplinarity; notions of eclecticism, emergence, flexibility and plurality; and theoretical and conceptual complexity, contestation and context-dependence.