Influence of a Non-formal Environmental Education Programme on Junior High-School Students’ Environmental Literacy

One of the solutions implemented by schools for conducting value-based environmental education (EE) is outsourcing: allocating external environmental organizations that develop and conduct EE programmes. This study addressed such a programme—the Green Council Programme (GCP)—developed and implemented in schools by the Israeli Society for Protection of Nature. A pre-test/post-test design was used to investigate the influence of participation in the GCP on components of junior high-school students' environmental literacy. Conceptualizations of ‘environment’, environmental attitudes and sense of ability to act on environmental issues were studied employing quantitative and qualitative tools. Contribution of the programme to the cognitive domain, in developing a systemic understanding of the environment, was limited. On the other hand, participating in this programme heightened students' sensitivity to human–environment interrelationships and developed a more ecological worldview. After the programme, students demonstrated greater perception of humans as part of the environment, an increased sensitivity to human impact on the environment and their value for non-human nature moved from an anthropocentric to a more ecocentric orientation. While students' internal locus-of-control increased, when environmental protection entailed personal economic trade-offs, their support was limited and remained unchanged. The article concludes with recommendations, based on the findings, regarding supplementing the school (science) curriculum with external EE enrichment programmes.     

Media–government relations in education

Government and the media are intimately connected in many ways though each distrusts the other. This paper, based on the author’s experience in government, describes the ways that governments try to deal with the media and discusses three of the main complaints about media coverage—its tendency to simplify, to assign blame, and to be primarily focused on the short term. It concludes with some suggestions for possible improvements.     

Critical friendship as a contribution to master’s‐level work in an international programme of study

This article reports on an action research project in which the value of critical friendship for students doing research and writing their dissertations within an international master’s course has been explored. This course is run jointly by Roehampton University (London, UK), Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) together with Fontys OSO (Tilburg, the Netherlands). It describes the process and the results of working with the concept of critical friendship in this master’s course since its start in 2005. Data were collected by means of various qualitative instruments and data sources: evaluation forms after tutorial sessions, reflective logs and focus interviews. The results show that the process of engaging with the research they did was enhanced and supported by the development of critical friendship groups. A number of recommendations have been formulated, such as the importance of discussing the concept of critical friend and its philosophy with the participants and of defining roles and tasks as clearly as possible.     

社会网络与信任

帕特南的社会资本理论强调横向网络在信任构建中的作用.根据2009年社会网络与职业经历问卷调查(JSNET2009)的数据,分析了作为横向网络的社团参与因子及纵向网络的网顶对于不同类型信任的影响.分析表明,横向网络能够更好地增进制度信任和特殊信任,但并不一定加强社团成员的普遍信任,而纵向网络能够增进普遍信任,但对制度信任和特殊信任的影响不显著.     

马克思主义生态思想对建设生态文明的启示

生态文明是人类文明的新发展,是全面小康社会的重要标志,同时也是马克思主义生态思想的重要内容。马克思、恩格斯对人、自然与社会三者的关系进行了深入研究,形成了以人与自然关系为核心的生态思想,为我们今天全面贯彻和落实科学发展观,建设社会主义生态文明提供了重要启示。     

未来象牙塔的坚守与超越

一、大学逐渐开放超越自身的发展历程 大学作为一种人类历史进程中出现的特殊文化组织,对人类文明进程的缩短居功至伟.大学是在发展过程中逐渐拉近与社会主体普通人群之间距离的,从真理的精神圣坛走下来,融入到了世俗的喧扰,从少数精英的"文化沙龙"逐渐变成了大众的"知识驿站".     

医巫闾山满族民间剪纸文化观研究

医巫闾山民间剪纸作为国家级的非物质文化遗产,值得深入探索。本文从吉祥文化观、生存与繁衍文化观、图腾与萨满文化观三个方面来分析这一文化形态。也正是在这些价值观念的土壤中,才产生出了这一国家级非物质文化遗产。不论是从保护和发展这一文化遗产的角度,还是从繁荣整个民间艺术文化的角度,对其文化观的追根溯源都是很有必要的。