Learning about Global Issues: Why most educators only make things worse

Over the last 25 years many educators have stressed the need for students to learn about global issues and have often taken this to be a relatively unproblematic area of pedagogy. An important Canadian study on the impact of teaching about such issues, however, suggests that the learning process may be much more complex than was previously assumed. This article reports on a pilot research project in the UK which monitored student responses to learning about global futures and found much more going on beneath the surface than meets the eye. It would seem that strong cognitive, affective and existential responses need to be recognised and acknowledged as part of any journey towards personal and political change.     

University spin-out companies and venture capital

The creation of university spin-out companies that create wealth is a major policy objective of governments and universities. Finance is a catalyst of this wealth creation yet access to venture capital is a major impediment faced by these companies. In this article we adopt a finance pecking order perspective to examine the problems faced by those university spin-out companies seeking to access venture capital. We triangulate evidence from spin-out companies, university technology transfer offices and venture capital firms in the UK and Continental Europe to identify the problems and to suggest policy developments for these parties as well as government. We compare perceptions of high-tech venture capital firms that invest in spin-outs with those that do not, and also consider VCs’ views on spin-outs versus other high-tech firms. Our evidence identifies a mismatch between the demand and supply side of the market. In line with the pecking order theory, venture capitalists prefer to invest after the seed stage. However, in contrast to the pecking order theory, TTOs see venture capital as more important than internal funds early on. We develop policy implications for universities, technology transfer offices, academic entrepreneurs, venture capital firms and government and suggest areas for further research.     

校园中的流浪者[五]

Hunting, in which the young man was an apt scholar, was now the order of the day. Tiburcio was an artist in woodcraft as well as in his knowledge of the habits of animals and birds. On chilly or disagreeable days they would take out the pack of dogs and beat the thickets for the javeline. It was exciting sport to bring to bay a drove of these animals. To shoot from horseback lent a charm, yet made aim uncertain, nor was it advisable to get too close range. Many a young dog made a fatal mistake in getting too near this little animal, and the doctoring of crippled dogs became a daily duty. All surplus game was sent to the ranchito below, where it was always appreciated.     

Teaching and guilt: Exploring the feelings of teaching

The paper argues that in research on teachers' mental states, studies of teacher feeeling as compared to teacher thinking have been relatively neglected. It analyzes the nature and importance of guilt as one such feeling which connects the self of the teacher to the system in which the teacher works. Two kinds of guilt are discussed: persecutory and depressive. In relation to two studies of elementary teachers' working lives and of teachers' perceptions of employee assistance programs, four guilt traps of teaching are then identified. These are the commitment to care, the open-endedness of teaching, accountability and intensification, and the persona of perfectionism. Solutions to the guilt traps of teaching involve easing the accountability and intensification demends of teaching; building communities of collegues who can set their own professional standards and limits at school level and thereby reduce the open-endedness of teaching; and reducing the dependence on personal care and nurturance as the prime motive of elementary teaching.     

The effects of verbal reinforcement and contingency management in increasing and stabilizing responses in reading behaviours: A report

Verbal reinforcement and contingency management Was used to increase the response rate correct in a class group of twenty‐nine boys in year 7 of schooling. The response rate increased by six times over a period of thirty school days, on data using daily measurements. On the Gap achievement test, the mean reading age prior to the study was 8.0 years. After the thirty day period of instruction it was 10.0 years.     

A Teacher's Response to ‘Reflection‐in‐action’

A teacher‐researcher questions whether Schon's Reflective Practitioner is an appropriate text for ensuring change in teaching practices. It is argued that teachers’ perspectives prompt a particular interpretation of ‘reflection‐in‐action’ that justifies individualistic, immediate and limited change strategies. Schon's rhetorical appeals can be interpreted as offering tacit approval for the existing craft culture; for the inhibiting effects of this craft culture to be effectively challenged, individual teachers need the supportive insights which collaboration can provide.