Do Children Have Rights or Do Their Rights Have to be Realised? The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as a Frame of Reference for Pedagogical Action

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is presented and understood as the primary reference point regarding questions of children's rights. However, the UNCRC is not a neutral instrument deployed to meet the rights of children: it embodies a specific perception of the child, childhood and citizenship. The interpretation of the UNCRC from the point of view of children's legal status emphasises the autonomy of children; the focus is on the rights that children possess. Conversely, the social-political interpretation of the UNCRC addresses the question of how the rights of children can be realised. It is suggested that distinguishing between these interpretations is essential with regard to questions of pedagogy and education.     

L'Expression Libre pour L'Acquisition des Langues

We all learn language. This does not mean, however, that we have a clear‐cut picture of how the language learning process takes place, nor what it looks like. Over the centuries implicitly or explicitly we have used theories of language learning and consequently theories of teaching them. One such theory which has its roots in the past is the basis of the free oral expression approach. In this approach, the learner and his acquisition process are the centre of the teacher's interventions. Logically such an approach entails consequences for the training and education of language teachers.     

Competency Counselor Training for Paraprofessionals

The increasing use of paraprofessionals in the counseling profession acknowledges the many contributions such individuals provide in direct client service and in assistance to professional counselors. To educate competent paraprofessional counselors, however, their training programs must be adapted to their particular needs and circumstances. This article describes a current program that was designed specifically to prepare paraprofessional counselors.     

School Counselors' Perceptions of Training Needs in Multicultural Counseling

Ratings by practicing school counselors' of their needs for training in multicultural counseling indicated that additional training is most needed to promote students' academic achievement and to enhance counselors' cross-cultural communication and racism awareness. Curricular implications are discussed.     

Leadership and Strategic Management: keys to institutional priorities and planning*

Allocating and managing resources have always been important cornerstones of institutional leadership. Institutional resources include financial, physical and human components. Even in the best of times, it is a challenge to do this effectively. In times of diminished and shrinking resources, distributing these precious commodities across the institutions in the most equitable and productive manner is fraught with complications. As higher education funding streams expand and present more options, they also create new challenges. Leaders today must be well-versed in the emerging realms of philanthropy and entrepreneurialism. Beyond monetary resources, leaders and senior managers must monitor and understand the external environment in order to make discerning decisions about the viability of further infrastructure investments because of changing student demographics or the complexities of personnel within the dynamic culture of social organisations. This article will stress the need for leadership and an institutional planning process as essential prerequisites to effective resource allocations. Portugal will also be discussed as a case study.     

The Development and Psychometric Evaluation of a Multidimensional Measurement Instrument of Professional Expertise

The aim of the present study was to determine the nature of the knowledge and skills related to professional expertise, and to develop means by which such expertise may be individually measured. An instrument was developed consisting of five different scales (with contents ranging from 12 to 19 items each), each reflecting one of five dimensions: knowledge, meta-cognitive knowledge, skills, social recognition, growth and flexibility. Participants were two different, but relevant, groups of raters: individual employees (N = 558) and their immediate supervisors (N = 454). The item-sets for both groups are nominally identical, except that the wording was adapted when necessary to suit one group or the other. The reliabilities of the developed scales were high with Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.83 to 0.94, for both the self-ratings and the supervisor ratings. All five scales are homogeneous and distinctive as corroborated by Multitrait-Multimethod and LISREL analyses. Background and construction of the instrument are discussed at length and the instrument is appended in two versions: the original Dutch questionnaire and an English version.     

Information Acquisition,Storage and Retrieval in Technology Transfer

Information flow in the technology transfer process is analyzed. Some information sources to be used in the promotion of this process are outlined, including person to person contact as well as more formal sources, such as online databases and CD-ROM. Reference will be made to the results to date of some programmes in progress, intended to improve technological knowledge transfer to industry and business in Portugal.     

Queueing Theory

RESUME

The aim of this paper is to stress the need for a better training in stochastic methodology for European engineers. The emphasis is on applied probability. In Section 2, a brief introduction to the main features of queueing theory is given, as well as some examples of applications of queues to manufacturing and service industries. Sections 3 and 4 present some recommendations for further action and some final comments concerning stochastic education for engineers.

L'objectif de cet article est mettre en relief la grande necessityé d'une meilheure formation stocastique dans les cours pour les ingénieurs europeens. L'accent est mis sur le domaine des probability's appliquees. Dans la Section 2 une brieve introduction aux caracteristiques plus importantes de la teorie des queues d'attente estfaite; aussi quelques examples des applications de cette téorie-là aux industries des manufactures et des services. Dans les Sections 3 et 4 on présente quelques recommendations et commentaires finals relatives a I'éducation dans la mathématique stocastique pour les ingénieurs.     

Defining Strategic and Excellence Bases for the Development of Portuguese Higher Education

A self‐assessment model was developed for the Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs) which was based on an empirical study aiming at better understanding their strategic and quality management and innovation practices and tools and on the study of several quality assessment models developed both for HEIs and business organisations. From the results obtained it was possible to conclude that the model can be successfully applied to HEIs as a self‐assessment tool to support their continuous quality improvement efforts.