Theory and Practice ‐‐Two Fundamental Categories in the Philosophy of Teacher Education

Taking the Swedish teacher education as its point of departure, two related problems are discussed in the article. 1) Practice is often understood as completely immersed in itself. Consequently there arises the problem if and how it can get out of this enclosedness and get some perspective on itself. Three ways are proposed of introducing distance into practice and, thereby, of establishing knowledge about practice: self‐reflection, dialogue, and scientific research. 2) Sometimes theory and practice are regarded as absolutely different and incompatible. According to this kind of dualism it is not possible to integrate any kind of theoretical knowledge into teachers professional actions. By showing how distance can be eliminated from theory and transformed into practical skill, it is argued that this dualism is not maintainable.     

德国国家科技图书馆科学内容ＤＯＩ注册中心研究进展

本文介绍了科学数据注册的背景及“原始科学数据出版与引用”项目概况,研究了科学数据唯一标识符定义和结构,分析了德国科技图书馆中科学数据的注册过程及所需要的基础设施,论述了科学数据的可引用性,并给出了3种其他科学内容注册的实例,总结了该中心科学数据DOI注册的现状和下一步发展的方向。     

Presuppositions and relation of cognitive functions in a schoolreadiness curriculum

The schoolreadiness curriculum by Dumont and Kok (1973) is a Dutch adaptation of the curriculum by Connor and Talbot (1966). It contains presuppositions about the teachers’ diagnostic skills and about the sequence of 5 different levels of functions and behaviours. The latter two were tested for 13 cognitive functions, e.g. Visual Perception, Number Concept, etc. The presuppositions about the teachers’ diagnostic skills could not be denied. They judged the cognitive levels of pupils who were, according to an objective measuring device for schoolreadiness, classified as «not» and «questionably» schoolready to be significantly lower than pupils who were classified as «schoolready». The presupposition about the sequence of levels received little support. Three out of 13 functions revealed this sequence. The relation between the functions was explored. Substantial correlations between all functions in two samples of subjects suggested a general memory or attention factor. Correlations within and between groups of functions suggested two specific factors, a quantitative-relational and a spatial orientation factor.     

Collaboration, integration and change in children's services: critical issues and key ingredients

BACKGROUND: Government and state policy, irrespective of jurisdiction, increasingly require and indeed specify the nature of collaboration with regard to the delivery of child welfare services for maltreated children. The rationale for collaboration appears obvious in as much as it is aimed at promoting multidisciplinary practice in order to meet the needs of the vulnerable child. However, collaboration, whilst a useful and motivating concept, is in reality far from straightforward and contains complexities and ambiguities. AIM: The aim of this paper is to explore these complexities and ambiguities to provide an overview of key developmental frameworks relevant to the creation and maintenance of strategic high-level multiagency partnerships. COMMENTARY: The authors begin by exploring the characteristic features of different levels of multiagency collaboration that is communication, co-operation, co-ordination, coalition, and integration. As the emphasis in a variety of jurisdictions in the Western world is on the highest levels of collaboration namely coalition and service integration this is the focus of the paper. The authors synthesize the main literature in the field to consider the critical elements for effective collaborative endeavors at this level including predisposing factors, mandate, leadership, machinery, process, and outcomes. The paper concludes by recognizing that the drive towards integrated services is occurring in a climate of continuing change. The need to identify the impact of such an environment when managing multiagency partnerships is explored using five steps to change.     

GLOBE in the Czech Republic: a program evaluation

The article presents results of the evaluation of the GLOBE program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) in the Czech Republic. The evaluation explores the implementation of the program in schools and its impact on research skills. Four hundred and sixty six pupils, aged 13, from 28 different schools participated in the evaluation. The evaluation revealed problems with the implementation of the program in schools. The majority of pupils usually collect data and work with worksheets in the program. The other activities, such as the analysis and comparison of collected data or planning GLOBE activities, are done only occasionally or never. Although one of the main goals of the program is to develop pupils' research skills, the program had no measurable effect on this outcome. According to these results, changes in the way the program is implemented are needed. Recommendations for further program development and evaluation are discussed.     

Participatory planning for project sustainability of environmental education projects: a case study of the Secondary Teacher Training Environmental Education Project (St2eep) in Zimbabwe

Within the first year of the Secondary Teacher Training Environmental Education Project (St²eep) in Zimbabwe, project stakeholders, including lecturers, college administrators, local project coordinators, and donor representatives, expressed concern about the non‐sustainability of the project due to its over‐reliance on its international donor. In response to this challenge, a process of critical self‐reflection through self‐assessment workshops was started to give an opportunity for key project stakeholders to explore the challenge of project sustainability. Applying the principles of expansive learning theory to St²eep’s reflection processes, this paper shows how the contradictions that emerge from the interaction between different project stakeholders can be powerful sources for learning. This has resulted in new forms of activity to address the challenge of project sustainability in St²eep. The insights of this paper may be useful for other donor‐funded environmental education projects that are confronted with the challenge of project sustainability.     

Fighting segregation in special needs education in the Netherlands: the effects of different funding models

ABSTRACT

In the past few decades, the number of students attending segregated special schools in the Netherlands has risen considerably. In 1975, 2.2% of all students between 4 and 11 years old attended a special school, and this percentage almost doubled to 4.3% over the next 20 years. In order to stop further growth, two new education policies came into force in 1995 and 2003: Together to School Again and the so-called Backpack. These policies differed in the way that special needs funding was allocated. Together to School Again was based on lump sum funding to schools, while Backpack was linked to the individual and based on individual needs. Neither of these policy initiatives has been particularly successful in reducing the number of students with special needs in segregated settings. In theory, lump sum funding seemed a promising option, but the combination of two different ways of funding special needs education proved to be problematic. The Dutch experience illustrates the difficulties of effecting fundamental structural changes in this field.     

Innovation in project-based firms: The context dependency of success factors

Innovation management literature typically concerns functionally organized firms. In this paper we investigate innovation management in a different type of firm, the project-based firm. Project-based firms, such as engineering and construction companies, consultancies and system integrators, are service firms that solely execute projects for clients. We focus on new service development projects in these firms. Based on an in-depth study of six projects in four different firms, we develop hypotheses on differences between success factors for development projects in project-based firms and in functionally organized firms. Some of the success factors for functionally organized firms, as described in the literature, appear to be more important in project-based firms, others seem redundant. Our findings suggest that the specific structure and capabilities of project-based firms provide an explanation for these differences.     

Building tribal communities in the collaborative economy: an innovation framework

In recent years, there has been a groundswell of initiatives aimed at providing platforms to share resources among people. Collaborative consumption provides a model for a ‘sharing economy’ where the dominant logic of consumers is resource access rather than ownership. This study examines the nature and development of a variety of collaborative consumption businesses; in particular, we explore how start-up entrepreneurs see the problems of creating a tribal community among customers and users. Interviews were carried out with founders and co-founders of collaborative consumption ventures during 2014–15. The results suggest that these organisations face many common issues. We develop and apply a framework to understand some of these. We find that collaborative consumption entrepreneurs strive to build a tribal community by matching, in an innovative way, supply and demand. This is typically done by co-creating shared commonality, developing scalable electronic platforms, and building trust into platforms using social media to develop proxy social capital. Consequently, by using existing ecosystems of social media, tribal communities can be formed and scaled much more quickly than via traditional marketing approaches.