The state of American higher education: A conversation with David Riesman

Wilfred M. McClay is an associate professor of history at Tulane University, is at work on an intellectual biography of Professor Riesman.     

The technological origins of radical inventions

This paper aims to trace down the origins of radical inventions. In spite of many theoretical discussions on the effect of radical inventions, the specific nature of radical inventions has received much less attention in the theoretical and empirical literature. We try to fill that void by an empirical investigation into the specific origins of radical inventions. We explore this issue by a close examination of 157 individual patents, which are selected from a pool of more than 300,000 patents. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that radical inventions are based less on existing knowledge, we find that they are to a higher degree based on existing knowledge than non-radical inventions. A further result that follows from our analysis is that radical inventions are induced by the recombination over more knowledge domains. The combination of knowledge from domains that might usually not be connected seems to deliver more radical inventions.     

Collective bargaining goals of university faculty

This paper examines the collective bargaining goals of 1,800 faculty members at eight Canadian universities. A particular focus of the study was the relationship between bargaining goals and traditional academic governance. The results of the analysis showed that faculty distinguish firmly between academic and nonacademic issues and deliberately choose to restrict the scope of bargaining to a relatively narrow range of issues involving money, job security, and grievance procedures. A major factor influencing this restricted bargaining scope was the confidence with and perceived influence of the traditional system of academic governance. The way in which the governance system functions helps determine whether academic and policy issues reach the bargaining table, suggesting that strong governance structures are not threatened by the advent of collective bargaining.     

The Act that never was: the Conservative Education Bill of 1868

In nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe, the age of the governess coincided with the age of nationalism. This paper explores the connection between them in the specific context of intercultural education by foreign governesses. It argues that nationalism, with its focus on the identification and projection of a distinct national character, led to the stereotyping of European countries and, by extension, the stereotyping of foreign governesses. It further contends that the clichéd images of the English Miss, German Fräulein and French Mademoiselle, which were international, powerful and largely negative, had, on the whole, a detrimental effect on governesses and their working relationships with employers and pupils. It concludes that stereotyping along national lines adversely affected both visitor and host by promoting formulaic and prejudicial attitudes one to the other.     

Collective Consuming: Consumers as Subcontractors in Electronic Markets

In this essay, contrary to popular belief, it is argued on the basis of transaction cost economics that consumers will become dependent subcontractors in electronic markets. Consumers invest time and effort building up a relationship with a producer, (r)e-tailer, or intermediary—an investment that is idiosyncratic. The intermediary only needs to invest in generic assets that enable him or her to automate the process of collecting and processing customer information needed to differentiate products and discriminate prices. As subcontractors, consumers face high switching costs and are thus dependent on intermediaries. Virtual communities of consumers that organize countervailing power will not mitigate this tendency.     

成功的艺术

成功无秘密可言。成功是做你知道该去做的事,而不是做你知道不该做的事。成功并不局限于你生活的某一部分。它包含在你人际关系的各个方面:作为父母,妻子或丈夫,平民百姓,街坊邻居,工人,以及所有其他身份。(意即成功是蕴含于各种身份之中,成功是完美地扮演好各种身份。) 成功并不限制于你品格的某一方面,而是与你各部分潜能良好开发相关:体力,智力,精神,气魄。     

The impact of the medium of instruction: The case of teaching and learning of computer programming

Despite the seemingly good prospects in the Information Technology (IT) industry, the expected number of students who are interested in the relevant subjects has been limited. While numerous studies have explored the influence of various variables on programming course participation and performance at a personal level, there have been few studies conducted at a policy level. This study examined the impact of the medium of instruction (MOI) on student learning of computer programming in Hong Kong. It also examined the effects of gender and prior academic ability on programming performance. No gender differences in programming performance were found in the sample after prior academic ability was controlled. Prior academic ability affected performance differentially. Chinese-medium instructed students tended to outperform their English-medium instructed counterparts and middle and low-ability students in English-medium schools were notably at-risk. In view of these results, we argue that the MOI issue is further complicated by student ability. This provides a new understanding of the impact of the MOI on student learning. At a policy level, the results offer empirical evidence for policy-makers to rethink the current MOI policy. At a school level, we propose some metacognitive and cognitive strategies to address the needs of those at-risk learners. Finally, we intend to raise a series of questions that warrant further discussion and investigation.