The fields of gender and educational leadership have been enriched recently by analyses of national case studies from non-western contexts. By contextualising women’s career development, these studies highlight the importance of including experiences other than those generated from Anglo-American-Australian contexts, thus broadening our knowledge base for more nuanced theorisation in the field. This paper contributes a close examination of the career histories of eight female primary school principals in Hong Kong. Our analyses identify a range of facilitators, including the expansion of promotion opportunities, strong values placed on education and training, professional encouragement and support and help in relieving family responsibilities. Valuable these factors may be, but we argue that they are incidental, informal, familial and individual, and incur the costs of burn-out and guilt. The discussion not only underlines the significance of case study and cultural and contextual specificities, it also provides a nuanced understanding of Chinese patriarchy. 相似文献
Abstract Two experiments were designed to further examine the levels of processing analysis of Bloom's taxonomy of the cognitive domain proposed by Kunen, Cohen & Solman (1981). In the first experiment six groups of secondary school students processed 20 principles at the levels of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation respectively. The percentages of correctly recalled principle names, were adjusted for the fact that increasingly fewer students successfully completed the taxonomic orienting questions as their level increased from knowledge to evaluation. After adjustment these measures of incidental memory demonstrated a dichotomy of performance, with students who successfully synthesised or evaluated the material being superior. Also recorded in this experiment were measures of working memory and field dependence/independence. These scores proved to be better predictors of student performance on the taxonomic orienting tasks at the higher levels of the taxonomy, and they correctly ordered the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. It was suggested that they provided some independent support for Bloom's contention that the complexity of the cognitive operations required to complete the taxonomic tasks increases with their level. The second experiment manipulated the six taxonomic orienting tasks in a repeated measures design, which required all students to process principles at each of the six levels in order from knowledge to evaluation. While there were minor differences in performance between the Year 7 and the Year 11 students who participated in this study, the adjusted incidental memory data again revealed a performance dichotomy with synthesis and evaluation forming the superior category. That the students demonstrated superior performance after synthesising and evaluating material, was interpreted as support for the continued practice of teaching them to operate at the higher taxonomic levels. This support was qualified, however, by noting that the benefits were confined to those who successfully completed the higher tasks.相似文献
One key driver of change in higher education is the challenge to do more, with less resource – and to do it better. The dilemma, or paradox, perhaps, of achieving efficiency whilst sustaining or enhancing effectiveness is affecting most institutions. Recognition of it is not the problem, but addressing it is. How it may be addressed will vary with the macro and the micro environments which appertain for institutions and with perceptions and interpretations of its nature and meaning. Is the pursuit of solution(s) likely to be successful, though elusive, or is it illusory and so futile? Should the ethical response be to admit bluntly that quality has suffered? In a competitive environment would such an admission by any one institution be just naïve in the extreme? The paper outlines one faculty's approaches to this hazardous and contentious issue and the main organisational, political, logistical and educational considerations and changes. It is a development of an earlier paper (Livingstone, 1996). The legend of the Grail, the drinking vessel used by Jesus at the Last Supper, tells that if the quest is conducted by those who are truly worthy, then the prize is immense; all the world will be healed. On the other hand, Lewis Carroll warns that, even after valiant efforts have located a Snark, the consequences may be dire:
I engage with the Snark – every night after dark –
In a dreamy, delirious fight.
But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day,
If your Snark be a Boojum! For then
You will softly and suddenly vanish away,
And never be met with again! (The Hunting of the Snark, 1876)
The results from five experiments are considered in relation to two of Spence's (1937, 1938) proposals concerning discrimination learning. In Experiments 1 and 2, we investigated whether his ideas about the interaction between excitatory and inhibitory generalization gradients can be used to understand how animals solve a complex patterning discrimination. The results supported a development of his proposals as put forward by Pearce (1994), provided a modification was made to Pearce's rulefor determining the shape ofthe generalization gradient. In Experiments 3, 4, and 5, we examined whether animals would pay more attention to stimuli that are relevant, rather than irrelevant, to the solution of a discrimination. The results supported this proposal for stimuli comprising visual patterns, but not for those comprising plain colors. The results also indicated that change of attention was a consequence of preliminary receptor-exposure acts, as envisaged by Spence, and not of more central changes in attention. 相似文献