Predictors of Obligatory Exercise Among Undergraduates: Differential Implications for Counseling College Men and Women

This study examined predictors of obligatory exercise in college undergraduates (N= 172). Regression models indicated that internalization of Western attitudes toward appearance predicted exercise fixation and commitment in women, whereas perceived pressure from dating partners predicted exercise commitment in men. Findings suggest that men may respond more to peer pressure, whereas women may be more susceptible to internalized sociocultural pressure. Implications for differential assessment and treatment of college men and women are discussed.     

Revaluing the enlightenment: reason and imagination

In higher education teaching, enhancing learner autonomy has become a key concern for curriculum planners and classroom teachers. The significant body of research about learner autonomy in language learning over the last 20 years (e.g. Holec 1981, 1988; Riley 1985; Dickinson 1987, 1992; Wenden & Rubin 1987; Little, 1991; Dam, 1995; Benson & Voller, 1997) has indicated an on-going search for more understanding of how learner autonomy can be implemented in different contexts. This paper is based on a research study which was conducted in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong. The study explores learners' attitudes and expectations of language learning, teacher and learner roles, their learning preferences and perceptions of learner autonomy. The paper reports the results and discusses their implication on the development of a learner-centred approach in higher education.     

Supervised Teaching Practice as a Partnership Process: Novice and experienced student-teachers' perceptions

The article examines the views trainee teachers on a Postgraduate Diploma in Education Course have about their Supervised Teaching Practice (STP). Data obtained through quantitative and qualitative methods revealed that in general the trainees held a positive view of the STP. A closer examination indicated some differences between novice and experienced trainees in their perception of the role of the STP and its impact on their teaching and learning. Experienced trainees tended to evaluate the STP from a pedagogical perspective, perceiving it as a valuable mechanism for facilitating their teaching. But novice trainees tended to be more concerned with the contextual and technical aspects of the STP being less ready to contemplate its impact on their teaching. Results suggested that trainees' years of teaching experience is an important factor to be considered when conducting the STP. Implications are drawn about the role of the supervisor in helping novice trainees overcome their concerns associated with the early stages of professional development; clarifying the role of the supervisor; the need for involving a school mentor in the STP, and strengthening the existing school-university partnership in teacher education.     

Teacher union legitimacy: Shifting the moral center for member engagement

This mixed-method case study explored teacher union members’ beliefs about the teacher union and their reasons for being active or inactive in the union. Findings suggest that teacher unions have gained pragmatic and cognitive legitimacy (Chaison and Bigelow in Unions and legitimacy. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2002), but that participants’ perceptions of the union’s moral legitimacy (Chaison and Bigelow in Unions and legitimacy. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2002) influenced their beliefs about the union. Specifically, participants’ beliefs about the union’s role in job protection, especially the protection of ineffective teachers, and social-professional supports (or lack of) strongly influenced their decisions to be active or inactive in the teacher union. These findings have implications for how effectively teacher unions are able to engage current members and sustain member engagement in the future.     

从语境顺应看《老友记》不真诚许诺言语行为

许诺是语用学研究中言语行为研究的话题之一。从许诺的言语者是否真心这一角度出发,许诺可分为真诚许诺和不真诚许诺。就目前来看,对于不真诚许诺言语行为的研究显得相对不足。Verschueren等提出的顺应论是从话语出发者和话语解释者的角度对言语进行分析,而并非对言语行为本身进行分析的理论框架。从Verschueren等提出的顺应论中语境顺应的角度出发,分析《老友记》中朋友和恋人之间不真诚许诺的行为,得出以下结论：说话者做出不真诚许诺是对语境的顺应,它具有同许诺一样的言外之力,保证了交际的顺利进行。     

Ethical Attitudes and Perceived Practice: A Comparative Study of Journalists in China,Hong Kong and Taiwan

This is a comparative survey study of journalists’ attitudes and perceptions concerning various types of conflicts of interest in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Journalists in all three regions are found to be receptive to freebies in the form of small gifts, meals and trips. However, they almost unanimously agree that monetary benefits from news sources are unacceptable. Compared with freebies, moonlighting seems to be a less serious problem in the three regions. Most journalists think that their colleagues do not commonly practice moonlighting. The journalists strongly agree that they should not solicit advertising on behalf of their employer or work for public relations firms or the government as a second job. With regard to self-censorship, journalists in the three regions unanimously agreed that softening negative coverage of key advertisers was unethical. However, there was considerable disagreement about softening negative coverage of government. The results also show that there is in general a discrepancy between the journalists’ value orientations and perceived reality, especially in Mainland China and Taiwan.     

New media and new politics with old cemeteries and disused railways: advocacy goes digital in Singapore

This article seeks to demonstrate the significance of new media in reconfiguring and expanding the politics of conservation in the rapidly urbanizing postcolonial city state of Singapore. The critical role of new media is examined, in providing new access and connectivity to the efforts of non-governmental organizations, particularly heritage groups in the republic in advocating for the conservation of lands around the former Malayan Railway line and Bukit Brown Cemetery in Singapore. In two case studies, activists and enthusiasts of all ages are seen to quickly build up and share an organic knowledge and memory base in cyberspace, through postings on Facebook and sharing of digital photographs and videos, recorded with digital cameras and smartphones. These actions are significant as collectively staking cultural ownerships of heritage sites about to be lost. As new media are promptly adopted as tools for social mobilization with the ability to circulate events, news and debates through Google+ to Twitter, new publics, new community leaders and new alliances begin to emerge in a scene once dominated by traditional and formal organizations. Like any other medium, new media possess affordances of its own and impact the meanings that are conserved and interpreted through heritage. With Singaporeans ranked in the world as the most frequent users of new media portals like Facebook, the authors explore the cultivation of a new form of citizenry via new media in pushing for the politics of memory, nature and heritage in the highly modernized cityscape.     

The Unbundling of Legal Services and its Implications for Law Librarianship

This article examines the role of law libraries with respect to free Web-based legal information sites and the lack of access to low-cost legal advice. The legal profession's reaction to these sites and suggestions on how to address professional and ethical concerns are discussed.     

Antitrust and horizontal mergers in the cable industry

This study explores the large horizontal mergers in the cable industry that have catapulted some large multiple system operators toward substantial market power in the exhibition stage of the industry without much response from antitrust authorities. It reviews the mergers and analyzes the antitrust implications for the industry.     

Partnerships between the old and the new: Examining the strategic alliances between broadcast television networks and internet firms in the context of convergence

Abstract

This study applied a resource‐based view (RBV) strategy framework to analyze the major broadcast television networks’ alliances with Internet firms in the United States from 1998 to 2001 in the context of the convergence between the Internet and television. The findings show that the television networks primarily contributed property‐based resources, while the Internet firms largely contributed knowledge‐based resources to the alliances. The findings also indicate that the broadcast networks’ alliance structural preferences were influenced by the resources they contributed to and what they desired to access through the alliances. The networks used their property‐based resources as a basis to form Internet alliances, and in return they obtained access to Internet firms’ knowledge‐based resources that are essential in creating an Internet presence for the broadcasters.