The influence of education on violent conflict and peace: Inequality, opportunity and the management of diversity

This article examines the ways in which education and educational policy impact upon the likelihood and dynamics of violent conflict. It argues that education is rarely directly implicated in the incidence of violent conflict but identifies three main mechanisms through which education can indirectly accentuate or mitigate the risk of conflict: through the creation and maintenance of socio-economic divisions, including horizontal inequalities between ethnic groups; through processes of political inclusion and exclusion; and through accommodation of cultural diversity. It further suggests that designing conflict-sensitive education systems is particularly problematic because the implications of these three principal mechanisms often pull in different directions.     

QuickSmart: a basic academic skills intervention for middle school students with learning difficulties

QuickSmart is a basic academic skills intervention designed for persistently low-achieving students in the middle years of schooling that aims to improve the automaticity of basic skills to improve higher-order processes, such as problem solving and comprehension, as measured on standardized tests. The QuickSmart instructional program consists of three structured, teacher- or teacher aide-directed, 30-minute, small-group lessons each week for approximately 26 weeks. In this study, 42 middle school students experiencing learning difficulties (LD) completed the QuickSmart reading program, and a further 42 students with LD took part in the QuickSmart mathematics program. To investigate the effects of the intervention, comparisons were made between the reading and mathematics progress of the intervention group and a group of 10 high-achieving and 10 average-achieving peers. The results indicated that although the standardized reading comprehension and mathematics scores of QuickSmart students remained below those of comparison students, they improved significantly from pretest to posttest. In contrast, the standardized scores of comparison students were not significantly different from pretest to posttest. On measures of response speed and accuracy gathered using the Cognitive Aptitude Assessment System (CAAS), QuickSmart students were able to narrow the gap between their performance and that of their high- and average-achieving peers. Implications are drawn regarding the importance of interventions that emphasize the automaticity of basic academic skills for students with learning difficulties.     

Anton Ehrenzweig,the Artist Teacher and a Psychoanalytic Approach to School Art Education

In the 1960s Anton Ehrenzweig devised an experimental course for school art teachers based on his deep knowledge of British psychoanalytic theory, especially Melanie Klein’s ideas of projection and introjection. Ehrenzweig’s early advocacy for the idea of an artist teacher, which formed a key element of his Art Teachers Certificate course at Goldsmiths, could be seen as ahead of its time, anticipating some of the ideas and practices of the past couple of decades. However, his claim that good teachers use their pupils as a medium for the teacher’s own creativity raises ethical questions that still resonate today. In this article, I will draw out some comparisons between Ehrenzweig’s theories of creativity and art education, and recent writing on the artist teacher. I will consider ways in which Ehrenzweig’s development of Kleinian psychoanalytic theory can both complement and challenge current thinking about the merging and differentiation of artist, teacher and student identities.     

大学如何进行全球化思考与本土化行动?

大学进行全球化思考与本土化行动应有四个方面:一是开放办学.互联网时代,接受高等教育不应再受到时间或地点的限制.高校如何在所服务的周边社区以外发挥影响力,远程化教育将极有可能改变全世界高等教育传播的前景.二是高校的领导力.历史上的高校就已经在社会发展中发挥了重要作用.在当今学习型社会的年代,高校在确定教育战略重点时应把当前国家和地区所面临的许多紧迫问题优先考虑进去,继续发挥引领社会发展的作用.三是服务社会.很多高校已经有了为所在区域提供服务的牢固传统.但在全球化社会环境中,高校可以通过跨区域服务,如人道主义援助、制度发展、技术援助和政府咨询来加强这些传统,我们一定要鼓励并支持师生来从事这些活动.四是大学应在培养多元文化理解中发挥作用.作为启蒙与教育的中心,大学应通过为人类与文化的多样性问题提供广阔的视野,在促进多元文化理解方面作出应有的贡献.     

A small-scale concept-based laboratory component: the best of both worlds

In this article, we describe an exploratory study of a small-scale, concept-driven, voluntary laboratory component of Introductory Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We wished to investigate whether students' attitudes toward biology and their understanding of basic biological principles would improve through concept-based learning in a laboratory environment. With these goals in mind, and using our Biology Concept Framework as a guide, we designed laboratory exercises to connect topics from the lecture portion of the course and highlight key concepts. We also strove to make abstract concepts tangible, encourage learning in nonlecture format, expose the students to scientific method in action, and convey the excitement of performing experiments. Our initial small-scale assessments indicate participation in the laboratory component, which featured both hands-on and minds-on components, improved student learning and retention of basic biological concepts. Further investigation will focus on improving the balance between the minds-on concept-based learning and the hands-on experimental component of the laboratory.     

Case study: the Health SmartLibrary experiences in web personalization and customization at the Galter Health Sciences Library,Northwestern University

Question:

How can the user''s access to health information, especially full-text articles, be improved? The solution is building and evaluating the Health SmartLibrary (HSL).

Setting:

The setting is the Galter Health Sciences Library, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University.

Method:

The HSL was built on web-based personalization and customization tools: My E-Resources, Stay Current, Quick Search, and File Cabinet. Personalization and customization data were tracked to show user activity with these value-added, online services.

Main Results:

Registration data indicated that users were receptive to personalized resource selection and that the automated application of specialty-based, personalized HSLs was more frequently adopted than manual customization by users. Those who did customize customized My E-Resources and Stay Current more often than Quick Search and File Cabinet. Most of those who customized did so only once.

Conclusion:

Users did not always take advantage of the services designed to aid their library research experiences. When personalization is available at registration, users readily accepted it. Customization tools were used less frequently; however, more research is needed to determine why this was the case.     

Quantification of the specific membrane capacitance of single cells using a microfluidic device and impedance spectroscopy measurement

The specific membrane capacitance (SMC) is an electrical parameter that correlates with both the electrical activity and morphology of the plasma membrane, which are physiological markers for cellular phenotype and health. We have developed a microfluidic device that enables impedance spectroscopy measurements of the SMC of single biological cells. Impedance spectra induced by single cells aspirated into the device are captured over a moderate frequency range (5 kHz–1 MHz). Maximum impedance sensitivity is achieved using a tapered microfluidic channel, which effectively routes electric fields across the cell membranes. The SMC is extracted by curve-fitting impedance spectra to an equivalent circuit model. From our measurement, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells are found to exhibit larger SMC values in hypertonic solutions as compared with those in isotonic solutions. In addition, AML cell phenotypes (AML2 and NB4) exhibiting varying metastatic potential yield distinct SMC values (AML2: 16.9 ± 1.9 mF/m² (n = 23); NB4: 22.5 ± 4.7 mF/m² (n = 23)). Three-dimensional finite element simulations of the microfluidic device confirm the feasibility of this approach.     

Electronic detection of dielectrophoretic forces exerted on particles flowing over interdigitated electrodes

Dielectric particles flowing through a microfluidic channel over a set of coplanar electrodes can be simultaneously capacitively detected and dielectrophoretically (DEP) actuated when the high (1.45 GHz) and low (100 kHz–20 MHz) frequency electromagnetic fields are concurrently applied through the same set of electrodes. Assuming a simple model in which the only forces acting upon the particles are apparent gravity, hydrodynamic lift, DEP force, and fluid drag, actuated particle trajectories can be obtained as numerical solutions of the equations of motion. Numerically calculated changes of particle elevations resulting from the actuation simulated in this way agree with the corresponding elevation changes estimated from the electronic signatures generated by the experimentally actuated particles. This verifies the model and confirms the correlation between the DEP force and the electronic signature profile. It follows that the electronic signatures can be used to quantify the actuation that the dielectric particle experiences as it traverses the electrode region. Using this principle, particles with different dielectric properties can be effectively identified based exclusively on their signature profile. This approach was used to differentiate viable from non-viable yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).     

Are assessment environments gendered? An analysis of the learning responses of male and female students to different assessment environments

There is considerable variation between male and female Bachelor degree performance at Oxford and Cambridge (Oxbridge) where male students attain more First and Third Class degrees and female students attain more Second Class degrees. Various hypotheses have been put forward to explain this phenomenon including the possibility that the distinctive Oxbridge assessment environment, very different from those at both pre‐ and post‐92 universities, might account for the difference. Data from the Assessment Experience Questionnaire (AEQ; Oxbridge, pre‐ and post‐92 universities, one science, one humanities and one applied social science subject from each) were analysed to determine gendered perceptions of the assessment environment. Significant gender differences were found on five AEQ scales (Quantity of effort, Coverage of syllabus, Quantity and quality of feedback, Use of feedback and Appropriate assessment) but there was no significant interaction between gender and university. Consequently, there were few clues in students' responses to confirm that the Oxbridge assessment environment explains gendered differences in degree performance.