Challenging neo-liberalism,building democracy: creating the Citizen School in Porto Alegre,Brazil

In this article, we situate the processes of educational policy and reform into their larger socio-political context. We describe the ways in which a set of policies has had what seem to be extensive and long lasting effects because the policies are coherently linked to larger dynamics of social transformation and to a coherent strategy that aims to change the mechanisms of the state and the rules of participation in the formation of state policies. We describe and analyse the policies of the ‘Popular Administration’ in Porto Alegre, Brazil. We specifically focus on the ‘Citizen School’ and on proposals that are explicitly designed to radically change both the municipal schools and the relationship between communities, the state and education. This set of policies and the accompanying processes of implementation are constitutive parts of a clear and explicit project aimed at constructing not only a better school for the excluded, but also a larger project of radical democracy. The reforms being built in Porto Alegre are still in formation, but we argue that they have crucial implications for how we might think about the politics of education policy and its dialectical role in social transformation.     

Blended university teaching using virtual learning environments: conceptions and approaches

This paper reports findings from a phenomenographic investigation into blended university teaching using virtual learning environments (VLEs). Interviews with 25 Computer Science teachers in Greek universities illuminated a spectrum of teachers’ conceptions and approaches from ‘teacher-focused and content-oriented’, through ‘student-focused and content-oriented’, to ‘student-focused and process-oriented’. Using VLEs was described as a means of supporting: A—information transfer; B—application and clarification of concepts; C—exchange and development of ideas, and resource exploration and sharing; D—collaborative knowledge-creation, and development of process awareness and skills. The study suggests that pedagogical beliefs and circumstances underpinning face-to-face teaching are more influential in shaping approaches to blended VLE use than VLE system features. The authors propose that the findings could be used to inform educational enhancement initiatives and that there is a need for further discipline-focused research on blended teaching.     

To learn and to construct knowledge in the context of work with adult education: a Portuguese case study

Work contexts are frequently referred to as spaces of learning and production of individual and/or collective knowledge. In such contexts specific dynamics are developed which cause the processes of learning and of knowledge production to have particularities. This paper aims at accounting for some dynamics that are associated with those processes, based on the main results of an ethnographic study on the adult educator team of a Portuguese local development association. The research identified ways of working/action rules based on the learning and knowledge production processes in the association. Mutual help, the reformulation and collectivization of practice, reflection in and about the action, and the negotiation of meaning about the practice are some of the mechanisms identified. The study also highlights how those dynamics of knowledge and learning and ways of doing may contribute to a practice which is closer to the needs of the adults to whom this team offers its education and training services.     

SOME USES OF PUPPETRY IN JEWISH EDUCATION 44

For the first time in the history of the American Jewish community, delegates from all corners of the country and from all groupings in Jewish life gathered at a national conference on January 13–14, 1951 to discuss not fundraising and philanthropy, not emergencies and responsibilities overseas, not even the frequently raised spector of anti-Semitism, but Jewish education.     

Effectiveness of vibration damping with bicycle suspension systems

Bicycle suspensions aim to improve riding performance and rider comfort through reduced impact and vibration transmission to frame and rider. This study compared vibration damping of five mountain bike suspension systems and a rigid fork on gravel and in trail conditions by quantifying accelerations at the axle and frame. Spectral analyses of the acceleration signals revealed two distinct frequency regions from 0 to about 100 Hz and from about 300 to 400 Hz. The various suspension systems were all effective in attenuating vibration over the low frequency region. Vibration amplitudes at the frame were considerably less than at the axle for the suspension conditions (30–60% reduction) while only minor attenuation was observed with the rigid fork (10–15%). In the high frequency region between 300–400 Hz, the signal was strongly attenuated at the frame for all conditions, including the rigid fork. Trail conditions elicited greater amplitude low frequency vibrations than did gravel conditions. While all suspension systems were somewhat effective in reducing vibration of the frame, air-oil forks had significantly better vibration attenuation than did elastomer or linkage systems.     

Evolving Privatization in Eastern and Central European Higher Education

With the fall of communism in 1989, Eastern and Central Europe would quickly become part of an already strong global tide of privatization in higher education. Nowhere else did private higher education rise so suddenly or strongly from virtual nonexistence to a major regional presence. A fresh database allows us to analyze the extent and dimensions of that presence, including various national and subregional quantitative dimensions. Yet the private sector is strongly challenged on several fronts, including paradoxically by the public sector’s own partial privatization, sometimes closely linked to the private-sector growth. Nonetheless, private higher education has continued to grow thus far into the new century, with shifting national and subregional patterns. Higher education privatization remains a noteworthy reality in Eastern and Central Europe but it is an evolving reality.     

A Monte Carlo Study of a Method for Detecting a Change in the Slope of a Single Subject’s Responses

The primary purpose of the present paper is to call attention to Hawkins’ (4) procedure for testing a sequence of observations for a shift in location. Such a procedure could have applicability for assessing change within a single subject. Monte Carlo results are provided which suggest that Hawkins’ procedure is robust with respect to moderate violations of its underlying assumptions of homogeneity of variance and normality. A hypothetical example is also discussed for illustrative purposes.