Reflection on the teaching-learning process in the initial training of teachers. Characterization of the issues on which pre-service mathematics teachers reflect

Our aim was to highlight the issues of the reflections of pre-service mathematics teachers in their learning portfolio about the teaching-learning process taking place in a university teacher-training classroom. Category systems were designed which, together with the analysis system used, could provide a method helpful to teacher educators, teachers and to future research. The pre-service teachers showed difficulty in considering themselves as ‘authentic’ mathematics teachers. The study revealed that the preparation of a portfolio can help pre-service teachers learn more about themselves and provide educators insight into how to help pre-service mathematics teachers engage in the teaching-learning process.     

Implementing a case‐based e‐learning environment in a lecture‐oriented anaesthesiology class: Do learning styles matter in complex problem solving over time?*

This study explores how students' learning styles influence their learning while solving complex problems when a case‐based e‐learning environment is implemented in a conventional lecture‐oriented classroom. Seventy students from an anaesthesiology class at a dental school participated in this study over a 3‐week period. Five learning‐outcome tests and two course‐satisfaction surveys were implemented during the case‐based instruction using a blended approach (online and face‐to‐face). The results of one‐way ANOVAs with repeated measures revealed that the four learning styles (active–reflective, sensing–intuitive, visual–verbal, sequential–global) did not influence students' learning experience and learning outcomes during the implementation of case‐based e‐learning. However, the pattern of the students' performance graph and further analysis with a liberal approach implied that the active–reflective learning style may influence learning outcomes slightly at an earlier time during the case‐based learning implementation; however, as time passed, this learning style no longer influenced their learning at all. Thus, learning styles may not be considered important or may be considered only during the early stages of instructional implementation in order to facilitate the students' transition to the new case‐based learning environment. It is more efficient to encourage students to adapt to different learning environments than to design adaptive systems in order to embrace diverse learning styles.     

STUDENT RIGHTS, CLARENCE THOMAS, AND THE REVOLUTIONARY VISION OF EDUCATION

A bstract .  In his concurring opinion to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Morse v. Frederick , Justice Clarence Thomas argues that the Tinker decision, which granted students constitutional rights in public schools, should be overturned on originalist grounds. In this essay, Bryan Warnick, Bradley Rowe, and Sang Hyun Kim make the case that Thomas's originalist analysis is inconclusive. Instead of looking at court decisions relating to public education starting in the middle of the nineteenth century to establish original meaning, as Thomas does, they argue that a better strategy involves an analysis of educational ideas circulating closer to the time of constitutional ratification. Using this strategy, the authors show that many prominent educational writers (a) believed that it was important for students to learn to act independently and to value their constitutional rights, and (b) believed that students learn best by imitating civic examples. These two ideas work together in early American educational thought to imply that schools should exemplify the sort of respect for self-governance and individual rights that is present in the larger constitutional order. Thus, Warnick, Rowe, and Kim argue that there are originalist reasons for supporting student rights that Thomas ignores. In the end, this analysis not only highlights the limitations of originalist interpretative strategies, it also reminds us, more broadly, of a way to reconcile liberty and order in civic education.     

Factors influencing intention to use e-government services among citizens in Malaysia

This study is an exploratory study on the e-government in Malaysia. With the liberalization and globalization, Internet has been used as a medium of transaction in almost all aspects of human living. This study investigates the factors that influencing the intention to use e-government service among Malaysians. This study integrates constructs from the models of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) which been moderated by culture factor and Trust model with five dimensions. The study was conducted by surveying a broad diversity of citizens in Malaysia community. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 195 respondents but only 150 of the respondents with complete answers participating in the study. The result of the analysis showed that trust, perceived usefulness, perceived relative advantage and perceived image, respectively, has a direct positive significant relationship towards intention to use e-government service and perceived complexity has a significant negative relationship towards intention to use e-government service. While perceived strength of online privacy and perceived strength of non-repudiation have a positive impact on a citizen's trust to use e-government service. However, the uncertainty avoidance (moderating factor) used in the study has no significant effect on the relationship between the innovation factors (complexity, relative advantage and image) and intention to use e-government service. Finally in comparing the explanatory power of the entire intention based model (TAM, DOI and Trust) with the studied model, it has been found that the DOI model has a better explanatory power.     

How responsive is E-Government? Evidence from Australia and New Zealand

Governments around the world are increasingly moving toward online service delivery in what is commonly called e-government. There are high hopes for e-government, particularly that the associated technologies provide the scope to make government services more responsive. This article reports on a 2006 study of one aspect of e-government responsiveness, namely, the basic capacity to answer a simple question posted by email. To this end, federal and state agencies in Australia, and central and local government agencies in New Zealand were emailed (n = 273). Data related to locating contact email addresses and subsequent responses was collected. The key finding was that the Australian agencies consistently did not perform as well as their New Zealand counterparts, bringing into question one component of their higher ranking in international e-government studies and also their potential to deliver on the Australian government policy that e-government means more responsive government.     

American Indians and the United States patent and trademark office: The Native American Tribal Insignia database

The tribal insignia of American Indians offer a distinctive view into the history of these people. Recently, as the result of federal legislation, some of these materials have been brought together, for tribes that are either federally or State recognized entities, as part of the database collection maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This article focuses on the history and use of such images; the policy response by the USPTO to the charge by the Trademark Law Treaty Implementation Act (1998) to examine the USPTO's specific responsibility to protect such official insignia; and the Office's resulting digital product.     

An institutional analysis of an e-government system for anti-corruption: The case of OPEN

E-government is increasingly being used to improve transparency in the government sector and to combat corruption. Using institutional theory as an analytical perspective, this study documents and evaluates the development of an anti-corruption system called OPEN (Online Procedures ENhancement for civil application) in the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Incorporating three distinctive (yet interrelated) dimensions of institutionalization (regulatory/coercive, cognitive/mimetic, and normative), and four anti-corruption strategies embedded in the system, this study investigates how an e-government system for anti-corruption in a local government has evolved and become a prototype of a national system to be used for the same purpose. The findings show that in implementing OPEN, a system for anti-corruption, the regulatory dimension was most effective, and (as in many IS implementations) strong leadership was crucial to its success.     

Assessing the impact of e-procurement on the structure of the buying centre

The purpose of this research is to analyse empirically how the use of Internet at the various stages of e-procurement impacts the organisational structure of the buying centre in terms of size and composition for a capital good. In this high-risk situation organisational buyers typically undertake extensive, deliberate choice processes involving numerous sequential phases. Interdepartmental coordination is required to specify, amongst others, the most suitable type of equipment in terms of capability, maintainability or costs. Information and communication technologies have changed the way we interact and communicate at different levels, amongst individuals within a single organisation as well as amongst different organisations (for example, with suppliers). A survey was performed using a questionnaire sent to a sample of industrial firms from different sectors. Results show that the size and composition of the buying centre varies at the different stages of the e-procurement process and that the use of Internet leads to an increase in the number of functional areas that intervene in the buying centre. The aims and implications for managers and researchers are discussed.     

Electronic government: Rethinking channel management strategies

This article explores how an alternative multichannel management strategy can improve the way governments and citizens interact. Improvement is necessary because, based on empirical data from various sources, the conclusion can be drawn that there is a gap between the communication channels governments prefer and those that citizens prefer. Governments may be too much guided by rational arguments like the cost efficiency of channels while citizens may choose channels depending on, e.g., task characteristics, personal characteristics or situational factors. In order to close the existing gap and to increase understanding about how different channel types may be positioned in multichannel management, this article proposes an alternative multichannel management strategy that takes both the citizen’s and the government’s perspective into account. This strategy is based on differences in channel types and channel modes via which governments and citizens interact.