What is play fighting and what is it good for?

Play fighting is a common form of play reported among species of mammals, birds, and some other taxa. The competition present in play fighting revolves around gaining some advantage, such as biting a partner without being bitten. The behavior simulated during play fighting need not be restricted to that present in adult serious fighting, but can involve competitive interactions derived from amicable behavior, such as sex and social grooming, or from nonsocial competition, such as predation. What unifies play fighting, irrespective of the functional behavior being simulated, is that it involves some degree of reciprocity, or turn taking, that requires that the competition be attenuated by cooperation. However, there are several different ways in which cooperation can be inserted into playful interactions, and these vary in use across different species. The moderation of competition with cooperation forces animals to monitor their own actions and those of their partners, and this common feature appears to be one vehicle through which the experience of play fighting in the juvenile period can train animals for greater psychological resilience. The monitoring and contextual adjustment of actions influences the development of executive functions of the brain, which, in turn, leads to the development of more adaptable adults.     

The Protagonist as a Learner,and the Author as a Teacher in Jack Lasenby’s Novel, <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Lake</Emphasis>

The young adult novels of multi award-winning New Zealand writer, Jack Lasenby, are strongly influenced by his careers as a primary school teacher and deer-culler, and love of story. In his first novel, The Lake, Lasenby depicts Ruth, the protagonist, as a learner who seeks knowledge in much the same way that he, the author-teacher, crafts his work. Incorporating features of John Dewey’s Progressive Education system into the novel, Lasenby emphasises the interrelatedness of diverse characters, and of society, nature, and myth, the notion of a wholeness comprising integrated parts, and the possibility of a truth gained through experiential learning and the imagination. Alienated, oppressed, and lonely, Ruth has experienced parental neglect and abuse, and escapes from the social world to a recognisable fictional wilderness based on the New Zealand landscape of Lasenby’s deer-culling days. At the same time she sees in society and the landscape images that represent herself and her dysfunctional family, and comes painfully to terms with these. Lasenby’s allusions to Maori and Biblical myth add to the multiple perspectives that Ruth (and the implied reader) must resolve in order to arrive at some truth.     

Toward integration of reading and service learning through an interdisciplinary program

This study examined the effect of an interdisciplinary program of reading and service learning on the cognitive and affective development of university students in Hong Kong. As Nussbaum (1997) stated, literature plays a vital role in educating citizens of the world through its narrative imagination and its power of promoting understanding and empathy toward the life of others. Halstead and Pike (2006) also emphasized that art can foster reflection upon action and bring about change in behavior as a result of perspective change. In this study, 24 freshmen read literary works under the theme of children??s welfare and explored issues related to the welfare of children worldwide. Their reflections on these materials were expressed in writing and in a presentation. In the following semester, the students participated in voluntary services within and outside Hong Kong. All students completed a questionnaire on their humanistic concerns and sense of global citizenship at the beginning and the end of the project. Results showed that students were conscious of their changes after joining the program and stated their growth in values and knowledge. The pre?Cpost-t-test analysis suggested that students had made significant improvement in the following areas: (1) their attitude toward serving others, especially in their personal and social values; (2) their engagement in reading literary and nonfiction works which reflect social and moral issues of the world; (3) their attention to world affairs; (4) their concern for the underprivileged; and (5) awareness of their potential in helping the poor.     

Exploring the validity of a teachers’ self-efficacy scale in five countries

The purpose of this article was twofold. The first purpose was to test the validity of the Teachers’ Sense of Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) in five settings—Canada, Cyprus, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. The second purpose was, by extension, to establish the importance of the teacher self-efficacy construct across diverse teaching conditions. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to better understand the measurement invariance of the scale across countries, after which the relationship between the TSES, its three factors, and job satisfaction was explored. The TSES showed convincing evidence of reliability and measurement invariance across the five countries, and the relationship between the TSES and job satisfaction was similar across settings. The study provides general evidence that teachers’ self-efficacy is a valid construct across culturally diverse settings and specific evidence that teachers’ self-efficacy showed a similar relationship with teachers’ job satisfaction in five contrasting settings.     

Invention and innovation in the chemical industry: Demand-pull or discovery-push?

This paper describes a study of the determinants of the rate, direction and scale of inventive and innovative activity in the chemical industry over the period 1830–1980. Statistical data are interpreted in the light of case study material in three major sectors: dyestuffs, plastics and pharmaceuticals. Theories of technical change and economic growth, particularly those of Schmookler and Schmpeter, are examined in relation to this material on the chemical industry. The findings suggest that the importance of “demand pull” and “discovery push” factors, and the validity of Schmookler's and Schumpeter's theories, vary over an industry's life cycle.     

Rankings or leagues or rankings on leagues? - Ranking in fair reference groups

Tertiary Education and Management - There are several well-known rankings of universities and higher education systems. Numerous recent studies question whether it is possible to compare...     

Engineering design skills coverage in K-12 engineering program curriculum materials in the USA

ABSTRACT

The current K-12 Science Education framework and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in the United States emphasise the integration of engineering design in science instruction to promote scientific literacy and engineering design skills among students. As such, many engineering education programmes have developed curriculum materials that are being used in K-12 settings. However, little is known about the nature and extent to which engineering design skills outlined in NGSS are addressed in these K-12 engineering education programme curriculum materials. We analysed nine K-12 engineering education programmes for the nature and extent of engineering design skills coverage. Results show that developing possible solutions and actual designing of prototypes were the highly covered engineering design skills; specification of clear goals, criteria, and constraints received medium coverage; defining and identifying an engineering problem; optimising the design solution; and demonstrating how a prototype works, and making iterations to improve designs were lowly covered. These trends were similar across grade levels and across discipline-specific curriculum materials. These results have implications on engineering design-integrated science teaching and learning in K-12 settings.     

Applying self-organised learning to develop critical thinkers for learning organisations: a conversational action research project

The information explosion characteristic of a knowledge-based economy is fuelled by rapid technological changes. As technology continues to permeate our lives, there will be fresh demands upon the conduct of learning and teaching to ensure that learners are equipped with new economy skills and dispositions for creating significant and relevant meaning out of the large chunks of transmitted data. In the spirit of building learning organisations, this paper proposes that a two-pronged strategy of promoting self-organised learning (SoL) amongst educators and students be adopted. As an enabling framework based on social constructivism, the model of SoL, originally developed by Harri-Augstein & Thomas, is described and applied to an educational setting. For educators engaged in action research, SoL is suited as an approach for managing and reflecting upon change. The use of two such thinking tools, the Personal Learning Contract and the Purpose-Strategy-Outcome-Review (PSOR) reflective learning scaffolds are considered. For students who are now expected to learn independently in situations requiring problem-solving skills, much akin to real life contexts, this article also considers the application of Learning Plans as a conversational tool for personal project management. The authors conclude that SoL promotes skilful critical thinking through a systems thinking process of continuous reflective learning. It is proposed that these are essential qualities for citizens working in a technological age. Case study samples of the thinking tools used in this action research project are included as appendices and evaluated in this article.     

Concept Acquisition within the Context of an AS Media Studies Course

This article explores the means by which students' concept formation can be promoted and outlines findings from an action research project undertaken with a class of 17‐year‐old AS Media Studies students as a submission for the British Film Institute's MA Certificate in Media Education in 2001. It argues that academic concepts can neither be allowed to develop spontaneously nor be directly taught, but that indirect methods of teacher intervention can be found. It also examines the relationship between thought and language and argues that, while contact with academic discourse can be alienating, its features include a fluency which the handling of complex and abstract ideas requires, particularly in the written mode. The writer suggests that, while this discourse cannot be explicitly taught or learned, modelling techniques may offer a useful approach.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENT CONSTRUCTED LECTURE FEEDBACK QUESTIONNAIRES

This paper describes the development of nine student constructed lecture feedback questionnaires. The aim of the questionnaires is to help lecturers initially pin‐point general weaknesses and strengths in their lecturing, and then further analyse these by using questionnaires which break down these general characteristics into the specific behaviours associated with them. Lecturer use of the questionnaires, which has been favourable, is described.