The formalization of the university: rules, roots, and routes

This article examines changes in the formal organization of two universities and two schools within these universities, the University of Oslo and Stanford University. We focus on role differentiation, rule formation, and resource seeking structures and describe organizational developments along these dimensions. We find that both these universities travel similar routes involving greater role differentiation, rule formation, and resource seeking activities. Both universities more explicitly function as organizational actors influenced by a global environment that favors the more socially embedded and the more managed university. However, we also find persistent differences in how these universities respond to the global environment, differences that reflect the different historical roots of different universities. A tradition of professorial self-governance at the University of Oslo, for example, fosters greater resistance to the managed university ideal. The latter emerges earlier and develops to a greater degree at Stanford University. We conclude that university routes are influenced both by common (now globalized) rules of the game and by their different organizational roots. We use ideas from the neo-institutional and path dependency perspectives to make sense of both growing commonalities and persistent differences.     

Evaluating leadership development in an academic program

An evaluation of the Royal Military College of Canada's Aboriginal Leadership Opportunity Year leadership practicum was conducted in 2009. This novel approach used several human performance technology (HPT) models to frame the evaluation and identify the dimensions and subdimensions of merit. This article explains the theoretical framework of the evaluation, how and why different HPT models complemented the evaluation process, the challenges faced in executing the evaluation, and the teams' findings on using this approach.     

Project-based learning for middle school students monitoring standby power: replication of impact on stem knowledge and dispositions

Educational technology research and development - Middle school students participating in energy-monitoring activities guided by their teachers during 2009–2011 gained...     

Correlates of Bystander Readiness to Help Among a Diverse College Student Population: An Intersectional Perspective

This study seeks to understand which socio-demographic variables explain bystander readiness to help (BRH) among a diverse (via race/ethnicity) sample of college students. This study uses an intersectional approach by investigating how gender intersects with variables, specific to a college student population (e.g., class level, college of major, sexual harassment on campus), to influence readiness to help. The results are from a survey about campus climate experiences, which includes a stratified random sample of college students from a large Southwestern university in the United States, with 964 respondents. We conducted bivariate crosstabulations, comparisons of means, and multiple regressions. The multiple regression analyses illustrate that for women, the single most robust relationship with BRH is experiences with sexual harassment. For men, the strongest correlate is being a student within the college of liberal and fine arts. The practical and research implications of these findings are discussed.

     

To Think or Not To Think: The apparent paradox of expert skill in music performance

Abstract

Expert skill in music performance involves an apparent paradox. On stage, expert musicians are required accurately to retrieve information that has been encoded over hours of practice. Yet they must also remain open to the demands of the ever-changing situational contingencies with which they are faced during performance. To further explore this apparent paradox and the way in which it is negotiated by expert musicians, this article profiles theories presented by Roger Chaffin, Hubert Dreyfus and Tony and Helga Noice. For Chaffin, expert skill in music performance relies solely upon overarching mental representations, while, for Dreyfus, such representations are needed only by novices, while experts rely on a more embodied form of coping. Between Chaffin and Dreyfus sit the Noices, who argue that both overarching cognitive structures and embodied processes underlie expert skill. We then present the Applying Intelligence to the Reflexes (AIR) approach—a differently nuanced model of expert skill aligned with the integrative spirit of the Noices’ research. The AIR approach suggests that musicians negotiate the apparent paradox of expert skill via a mindedness that allows flexibility of attention during music performance. We offer data from recent doctoral research conducted by the first author of this article to demonstrate at a practical level the usefulness of the AIR approach when attempting to understand the complexities of expert skill in music performance.     

Group interactions in science practical work

This study explored the interactions of a highly motivated group of students doing traditional practical work in science. Interest focussed on the social construction of understanding and how this could be described. Despite considerable collaboration in constructing an understanding of the task the students rarely focussed on the concepts the practical work was intended to illustrate. Collaboration was described in terms of social behaviours and discourse moves which supported the use of cognitive strategies. Specializations: science practical work, collaborative group work, role of language. Specializations: science teacher education, conceptual change, learning environments, science reasoning.     

Activity profile and physical demands of football referees and assistant referees in international games

Abstract

Time-motion analyses and physiological measurements were performed to investigate the physiological demands of football referees (n = 15) and assistant referees (n = 15) in international games and to examine whether high-intensity running (HIR) correlates to the referees' ability to keep up with play. Total distance covered (10.27 ± 0.90 vs. 6.76 ± 0.83 km) and HIR (1.92 ± 0.58 vs. 0.97 ± 0.22 km) was higher (P < 0.05) for referees than assistant referees, while sprinting distance was not different. Referees covered 0.89 ± 0.37 km by backwards running and assistant referees covered 1.54 ± 0.66 km by sideways running. Mean heart rate was higher (P < 0.05) for referees than assistant referees (150 ± 3 vs. 123 ± 3 b.p.m.), whereas blood lactate was not different. Backwards/sideways running decreased (P < 0.05) from the first to the last 15-min period for referees (49%) and assistant referees (42%), whereas HIR was unaltered. HIR was inversely correlated with the five highest distances from infringements in both halves (r = ?0.60 and ?0.58, P < 0.05). In conclusion, international match officials carry out an important amount of HIR throughout games, while low-intensity and unorthodox running activities are reduced during games. Referees performing the most high-intensity work are better to keep up with play. The match activities differ significantly between referees and assistant referees, which should be considered in training and testing procedures.     

喧嚣之后,网络公开课何去何从?

人们首次听说"网络公开课"(Massive Open Online Courses)的名字是在本世纪初。从2001年起,耶鲁、剑桥、麻省理工学院等一批世界顶尖高校纷纷将自己的课程公布到网上。如此"慷慨"的知识共享不光让世界各地的学生近距离地领略到国外名校教授的人文内涵与学术魅力,更是掀起了教育史上继远程函授之后的又一次革命。本文从商业中的"颠覆性创新"角度出发,另类解读网络公开课的现状与未来。