Social media use in the career development of graduate students: the mediating role of internship effectiveness and the moderating role of Zhongyong

This paper proves that social media use can contribute in important ways to employability outcomes. Specifically, results from a survey of 196 recent graduate students in China indicate that social media use is positively related to employability skills. Internship effectiveness serve as a mediating mechanism through which social media use affects employability skills. Zhongyong has a moderating effect on the social media use-internship effectiveness relationship. In addition to the direct moderating effect, Zhongyong is found to moderate the indirect relationship between social media use and employability skills. We discuss implications of these results for research and practice.     

关于将礼仪教育列入文明社区建设的几个问题

在机关、企业、学校的礼仪教育中忽视了一个重要环节，就是文明社区建设中的礼仪教育和规范。社区成员的言行规范直接反映着该社区乃至该城市的文明程度高低。走向世界的中国人应有哪些涵养，应掌握哪些礼仪规范，应引起各级组织和各界人士的高度重视。礼仪与文明都属于文化现象，这是构成社会主义精神文明的基本要素，它可以从社会的角度陶冶社会成员的心灵，规范社区居民的行为，培养高尚的审美情趣。用礼仪教育来营造良好的社会秩序和社会风气，用礼仪文化促进文明社区的发展，是提升文明社区形象的一大举措。     

Localized Representation of Formative Assessment in China: A Regional Study from a Sociocultural Perspective

Formative assessment originated and developed in a Western context. With its function of learning improvement being evidenced in research, formative assessment has been adopted in assessment initiatives in multiple contexts including that of China. Research, however, reveals that formative assessment as implemented in Chinese contexts is by no means equivalent to what is understood and implemented in the West; rather, in many cases, it is decontextualised and recontextualised, or culturally appropriated. This paper presents findings of a study which examined the culturally appropriated representation of formative assessment within eight universities in a mid-western province of China. Senior administrators in each university were interviewed face-to-face and individually to fulfill three purposes: (1) To clarify understandings of formative assessment in the area of college English education; (2) To explore the existing gap between formative assessment principles and their representation in College English Curriculum Requirements (CECR), and the gap between formative assessment initiatives at the national level and local contexts; and (3) To distill implications for policy-borrowing and effective implementation in the Chinese context.     

Moving beyond the anthropos and reclaiming the geo in intercultural communication: The transculturation of the martial art practice of Aikido

This ethnographic study examines the practice of Aikido, a martial art style originating from Japan, by a community of non-Japanese practitioners in the southwestern region of the United States. This paper recounts the second nature-making of the art's skillful responsiveness as a thing to be explained from the ground, rather than leaving its cultural dynamics and their appropriative relations unchallenged as a relatively homogenous process of globalization and increased contact. In the case of Shining Energy (a pseudonym), the “taking” of another's cultural elements and “making” it a fully habituated and naturalized way of moving and being (second nature) are predicated on geo-making, the production of ontologizing resources (first nature) that enable culturally sanctioned modes of somatic engagements with the world. The process of appropriating Aikido entails an inversion between the figure and ground that foregrounds the geo-making of the ground/field for activity itself.     

‘Social Skills’: Following a Travelling Concept from American Academic Discourse to Contemporary Danish Welfare Institutions

The article traces the origin and development of the concept of social skills in first and foremost American academic discourse. As soon as the concept of social skills was coined, the concern for people lacking such skills started and has been on the increase ever since (now sharing public attention with related concepts such as self-control, emotional intelligence and empathy). After the analysis of the academic history of the concept follows an examination of the implementation of a range of assessment instruments and training programmes related to social skills (and lack hereof) in contemporary Danish welfare institutions (more specifically, day nurseries and schools, employment and penal services). The analysis forwarded in the article thus demonstrates how an intellectual idea may develop and travel - and on its journey connect to pre-existing cultural logics and societal concerns. The idea of social skills has through its development been made uncontroversial – everybody wants to be skilful. The concept does, however, convey an individualistic view on social life and imposes a reflexivity over own performance on the participants. Further, its normative character contributes to a problematization of those who are perceived to lack these skills.     

Breaking up is hard to do: the resilience of the rock group as an organizational form for creating music

Though there is a long tradition of band members quitting the group or taking a hiatus, the rock group as an organization to produce music continues to be both popular and economically viable. The research question addressed in this paper is whether or not it is a good idea to quit or take a hiatus from the group. We begin with a discussion of the framework for understanding why groups are formed and why they may be difficult to keep together. We then discuss differences between groups in the decade of the 1960s versus today. We argue that there is something unique about the output of the group even with the changes in the structure of contracts, compensation, and consumer focus on the artist that explain the resilience of the rock band as an organizational form within which to create music. We compare the charting success of bands that have members leave the group with the charting success of the members who left the group. We identified the groups in five representative years: 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995, and 2005. We then analyzed the entire Billboard Hot 100 charting careers of those groups and the artists who quit those groups. Our main finding is that when charting success is divided equally among members, going solo pays off—there is a clear economic rationale because solo acts have greater average charting success than the original bands they started in. The other ensuing side projects: duos, collaborations, and other groups are not as lucrative as the original bands. These findings are valid for members of charting groups from each of the 5 years examined. Despite the difficulties in keeping a rock band together, there are fewer band breakups today and remaining with the group generally results in a longer and more productive charting career. Thus, the rock group remains an important organization for producing contemporary music. However, there remains a compelling incentive to go solo. Superstars may benefit from solo projects, but for the average, non-superstar group member, in many circumstances it is better for the band to stay together if the income is divided equally.