金无足赤,大器晚成

当每一年稍纵即逝的时候,我们常常纠结我们理应做过什么,或者我们期望自己做过什么。这些可以是任何一件小事儿,从上课不迟到,保持卧室整洁乃至花多点时间去练习一门乐器,都是可能的。但当我们年少时,我们中的大多数都     

Speech in the undergraduate public relations curriculum

This essay analyzes the divergent public response in democratic cultures to power symbols who manipulate either a self‐disparaging (ironie) public persona or a self‐aggrandizing (hypocritical) one. This divergence is explored in light of well‐known democratic assumptions about power‐holders, and it is illustrated in the contrasting presidential images of Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy. It is concluded that the critic may require an extended vocabulary to evaluate the actions of power‐holders over and above those used to evaluate the actions of private individuals.     

No time to think: policy,pedagogy and professional learning

In this study, we seek to illuminate the effects of the global policy convergence in education through a close study of its enactment within an Australian Teacher Education course. Building on an examination of the changing priorities of a cohort of pre-service teachers over a short space of time, we argue that the enactment of New Public Management approaches to the governance of teaching in Australia is having adverse effects on the professional learning of new teachers, defeating the policy goals. Previous studies have investigated the affective impact of current global policy formations on teachers. Building on that work, this study considers the impacts that the teacher policy emphasis on ‘performance’ has had on professional learning processes, which are understood with reference to Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory. The study is undertaken using an interpretative phenomenographic approach and informed by the related methods of discursive psychology, which positions discourse as a discursive practice to achieve specific goals in specific contexts.     

The power of positional competition and market mechanism: a case study of recent parental choice development in China

This article draws on data collected during a pilot study conducted in two west London schools exploring young people’s understandings of success. It considers ways in which ‘discourses of success’, as part of New Labour’s project of re‐inventing schooling, may shape young people’s subjectivity. The article examines articulations between New Labour policy and aspects of social difference and how these structure new identifications with success. In particular, the article explores how class, gender and ethnicity shape discourses of success and how they are implicated in their distribution. In conclusion, the article indicates how current education policy (particularly in relation to educational success) articulates the ‘public’ domain with dimensions of the ‘private’ self and suggests that understanding this is vital in the pursuit of social justice.     

Prospective gymnasium teachers' conceptions of chemistry learning and teaching

The aim of the study was to investigate prospective gymnasium teachers' conceptions of chemistry learning and teaching. Data were collected through individual interviews with nine prospective teachers at one German university. Phenomenography served as the methodological framework for the study. The findings revealed that chemistry learning is conceptualized as gaining knowledge, problem-solving and constructing personal understandings; and that chemistry teaching is conceptualized as transferring knowledge, problem-posing and interacting with pupils. The majority of the prospective teachers' conceptions of learning chemistry were considered reproductive rather than constructive and their conceptions of chemistry teaching were viewed as facilitating reproductive learning. Comparisons of the dominant conceptions of learning chemistry and teaching chemistry held by each prospective teacher revealed mixed support for the assumption that if one holds a reproductive (or constructive) conception of teaching, then (s)he will also hold a reproductive (or constructive) conception of learning. Support for the assumption was found in the reproductive-oriented relationship between conceptions of learning chemistry as gaining knowledge and of teaching chemistry as transferring knowledge, but not found in the relationships between learning chemistry as problem-solving and teaching chemistry as problem-posing and between learning chemistry as gaining knowledge and interacting with pupils.     

Supporting the supporters: the learning and supervision needs of unqualified support staff in a supported housing scheme for people with mental health problems

The investigation reported here started out as an exploratory study of the nature of ‘support’ in a supported housing development for people with mental health problems. It was intended that this would suggest appropriate changes in staff practices. This report describes how ideas around a number of themes identified were gradually developed and refined to provide a focus for investigation. The eventual focus centred on my apparently pivotal role in supporting ‘unqualified’ support staff. An inter-relationship between how residents experience ‘being supported’ and the learning needs of support staff is identified, teased out and described. Action research methods were found to be a useful means of generating areas of learning that appeared to be most relevant in this particular work context. The discoveries and insights that developed helped inform the tentative application of some initial action steps aimed at meeting these learning needs and guiding the activities of support staff.     

Empowering the supporters: enhancing the role of unqualified support workers in a housing scheme for people with mental health problems

The research reported in this study is a practitioner action research study that is primarily concerned with the activities of unqualified support workers in an accommodation scheme for people who have experienced enduring mental health problems. A central focus became the relationship between the support workers and professional staff within the wider mental health service. Parallel with a ‘practice gap’ identified in their relationship with professional staff was a ‘supervision gap’ in terms of their relationship with myself as their manager. One means of exploring this relationship was the use of ‘critical scenarios’. A series of ‘connections’ or practice support linkages were put in place that aimed to bridge this gap and at the same time enhance the role of the support workers.