Power and control in education 1944–2004

Abstract

This article examines the prospects for education over the next decade in the context of an analysis of the last fifty years of conflict and consensus over education policy. It begins with a look into the future and then turns back to 1944 to study the distribution of power under the Butler settlement. It then examines the pressures which broke up the Butler settlement and created the conditions for the market revolution of 1988 to 1994. It argues that in 1994 the education system stands at a turning point where a number of significant choices have to be made. If good policy choices are made in the next two to three years it argues, then the education system has the potential to achieve very high levels of success within the next decade.     

The Process of Information Sharing in Small Groups: Application of a Local Model

Members of small groups do not always mention available information, and this leads to inferior decision making. A local model of participation was applied to information sharing discussions to evaluate the extent to which task-relevant judgments are related to comments that contain unique (i.e., data that only one member knows) and shared (i.e., known to all members) information. In addition, the model was applied to only “incorrect” groups, ones that did not choose the optimal solution. Findings revealed that the local model applied to incorrect groups in the sense that shared information figured prominently in the development and maintenance of judgments. Unique comments, however, played a limited role in the process. Other findings showed that shared contributions were not associated within groups, indicating somewhat skewed rates of participation. Discussion focuses on the distribution of variance related to judgments.     

Research contribution to vowel theory

Though remarkably unsuccessful in unmasking Communist conspirators, Joe McCarthy left a powerful legacy as a great demagogue and witchhunter, a legacy that continues to haunt political discourse today. This essay seeks to explain the power of McCarthy's rhetoric and its apparent resistance to exorcism by historical fact through the literary genre of fantasy. McCarthy, in this view, could not be discredited or argued against because he took no positions. He presented his audience with a sustained moment of hesitation and wonder in which every claim on credulity was offset by a denial of its legitimacy. In the process of creating this fantastic world, a certain ethos was created, an ethos that ultimately overshadowed and conquered its creator.     

关于提升中国古代文学教学质量的反思

本文从高校中国古代文学教学的现状说起,分析了如何提高师生对于中国古代文学的理解力,增加他们的兴趣,从而提升中国古代文学的教学质量。笔者认为,一要强调古为今用,把中国古代文学的教学与现代社会相联系,做到真切感人;二要进行教学改革,切实解决教学现状中的一些具体问题,做到温情感人;三要充分利用现代科学技术,真正使多媒体教学有声有色,做到生动感人。     

宋敏求交游圈考

宋敏求是宋代著名的文学家、史学家及藏书家,一生交友广泛,交游的对象大都是当时的宦学名流或文苑俊才。这些交游无疑会对他自身的仕进、对宋代的政治、文学等都有重要的影响。     

南渡宝岛话名辩——两岸逻辑交流

古今中外架桥梁,是寻求古今中外学理的一致性和规律的贯通性。通过铺路架桥,融会贯通,把古今中外重构为协调一致的整体,是可预期的理想。以赴台讲学为例证,概述近年从事两岸逻辑文化交流的进程、成果和影响,为振兴中华,实现中华民族复兴,充当助手与推手。     

对行政过程中的权力腐败与监督的再思考

在行政过程中出现的权力腐败与监督需要从制度上加以预防和制裁,以达到最佳的反腐效果。这不仅要对腐败的概念、特征进行深入分析,而且要认识到腐败的危害与规制的必要性。在对我国现行监督制度认真分析的基础上,通过树立公务人员的责任意识、建立相应的激励制度、完善信息政务公开制度等措施来完善我国的腐败规制,真正做到权力有监督,监督不放松,腐败有规制。     

羽毛球运动在我省全民健身活动中的价值研究

对福建省8个市县开展羽毛球运动情况进行社会调查,采取访谈法收集资料,用统计和演绎方法加以分析研究。进一步阐述羽毛球运动在全民健身活动中的社会价值,为全面贯彻《全民健身计划纲要》提供参考依据。     

TradeSmith: An Exercise to Demonstrate the Illusion of Control in Decision Making

Resource allocation decisions are a fundamental class of problems common throughout a business and therefore are found throughout business school curricula. Entrepreneurs must allocate capital, financiers must allocation cash, and production managers must create the best mix of multiple‐use resources. Within this context, a business school's curriculum, instructional materials, and learning processes must consider the implications of individual decision making. Our traditional instructional content and delivery methods may effectively teach how to set up a decision “problem” and how to obtain an optimal answer. Yet, we may not be teaching a key underlying factor: that entrepreneurs, managers, and future leaders appear to have implicit cognitive biases, which discount information and skew individual decision making. The results of this study demonstrate that a phenomenon known as the “illusion of control” presents a fundamental challenge to the efficacy of formalized educational programs on decision making. TradeSmith was designed as a problem‐based learning exercise to elicit for the illusion of control in a basic, resource allocation, decision environment. The subjects in this study demonstrate a decision‐making pattern consistent with the “illusion of control” phenomenon. Finally, by revealing individuals' implicit design‐making paradigms, TradeSmith helps them experience key issues for managerial decision making.     

Culture,technology and local networks: towards a sociology of ‘making’ in education

This article is about ‘making’ in education. Often associated with software programming (as in ‘digital making’), making can also involve creating or modifying physical technological artefacts. In this paper, making is examined as a phenomenon that occurs at the intersection of culture, the economy, technology and education. The focus is not on the effects on cognitive gains or motivations, but on locating making in a social, historical and economic context. Making is also described as a form of ‘material connotation’, where connotation refers to the process through which the technical structure of artefacts is altered by culture and society. In the second part of the paper, the theoretical discussion is complemented by a case study in which making is described as a networked phenomenon where technology companies, consultants, volunteers, schools, and students were all implicated in turning a nebulous set of practices and discourses into an educational reality.