An examination of the relationship between social self-efficacy and personal growth initiative in international context

The cross-cultural transitioning experience of international students has been viewed as a high-impact practice for student learning. International students experience both challenges and growth opportunities when they encounter new peoples and environments. However, limited research exists on the student factors that predict benefits, growth or resilience for international students through their cross-cultural transitioning experience. This study investigated social self-efficacy as a predictor of personal growth initiative amongst international students, above and beyond demographic and linguistic factors. In addition, the factorial structure of Personal Growth Initiative Scale-II was examined. Our results indicated that the perceived ability to successfully negotiate social situations and produce positive social interactions predict greater personal growth initiative and its dimensions regardless of students’ language proficiency. Moreover, results from the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) provided further support for the first-order four-factor structure of the PGIS-II. Results have implications for improving international student integration, because efforts to support students’ social self-efficacy are linked to their personal growth initiative.     

‘The old days of amateurism are over’: the Samaranch revolution and the return of Olympic tennis

Tennis featured in every Olympics from 1896 to 1924, after which disagreements between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) on matters pertaining to organisational control and the amateur eligibility of players led to tennis being removed from the Olympic Games as a full-medal event until the 1988 Seoul Olympics. This paper traces the steps of the sport’s reinstatement, from when efforts commenced in the 1950s, setting this development in the contexts of: broader political movements, shifting IOC leadership, burgeoning commercialisation of Olympic sport, the concomitant push for professionalisation and the declining influence of amateur ideals within both the Olympic movement and international tennis. Under the leadership of the amateur stalwart Avery Brundage, the IOC stymied attempts to facilitate tennis’s re-entry, challenging both the ILTF on failing to deal with widespread ‘sham-amateur’ practices and the avaricious promoters luring amateur players toward the professional ranks. Brundage and the IOC also strongly condemned the move to ‘open’ tennis and an acceptance of full-blown professionalism. Only a change in leadership, firstly with Lord Killanin and then the progressive reformer Juan Antonio Samaranch, did the IOC recognise the value of tennis within the Olympic movement, which by then had itself become increasingly money-oriented.     

Minority Cultures and Social Media: Magnifying Garifuna

This paper looks at social media use by the Garifuna people. It explores how they are using social media to create a supraterritorial cyberscape. Despite the claim that global media is marginalising minority cultures and causing global homogenisation, this research found that newer forms of social media are in fact creating virtual cultural cyberscapes that are extending minority cultures. The Garifuna cultural response to social media can be demonstrative of the positive impact of social media minority perspectives. The larger implication, though, is that traditional geographical models of cultural space are becoming obsolete. In this research, a total of 60 Garifuna in locations all across the United States and Honduras were selected for participation. Their access to and use of media were examined.     

武术国际传播绩效评估框架体系建构的相关研究

本文根据武术国际传播科学化、规范化的要求,探讨了评估机制引入的必要性及意义．同时,以评估学理论为基础,以传播学中涉及的主要因素为轮廓,以涉及武术普及、推广的相关因素为主体,建构了武术国际传播绩效评估框架体系。     

国际体育仲裁与国际商事仲裁比较

从仲裁事项、仲裁庭管辖权、仲裁程序法律适用、仲裁裁决承认与执行的角度比较体育仲裁与商事仲裁,以分析体育仲裁的特点,提出可以借鉴中国国际经济贸易仲裁委员会管理域名争议的做法,暂由其管理体育争议.     

国际体育仲裁中一事不再理原则的适用

运用国际法及案例研究的方法,分析 一事不再理原则如何在国际体育仲裁中得到适用。在国际体育仲裁中,仲裁规则并没有对裁决效力如何及于利害关系第三方做出规定,使得利害关系第三方另行提起仲裁的问题十分突出。由于体育争端的类型特征及仲裁管辖权取得与行使的特殊性,运用传统的＂一事不再理＂原则的适用标准对后续仲裁是否构成＂一事＂进行判别,有失偏颇。仲裁庭可以在告知第三方程序、仲裁原因及事实理由审查、衡量裁决结果的影响度等方面进行规则的制定与完善,以期＂一事不再理＂原则在国际体育仲裁中得到调适。     

Students’ Ideas about How and Why Chemical Reactions Happen: Mapping the conceptual landscape

Research in science education has revealed that many students struggle to understand chemical reactions. Improving teaching and learning about chemical processes demands that we develop a clearer understanding of student reasoning in this area and of how this reasoning evolves with training in the domain. Thus, we have carried out a qualitative study to explore students reasoning about chemical causality and mechanism. Study participants included individuals at different educational levels, from college to graduate school. We identified diverse conceptual modes expressed by students when engaged in the analysis of different types of reactions. Main findings indicate that student reasoning about chemical reactions is influenced by the nature of the process. More advanced students tended to express conceptual modes that were more normative and had more explanatory power, but major conceptual difficulties persisted in their reasoning. The results of our study are relevant to educators interested in conceptual development, learning progressions, and assessment.     

Two views from the summit

This article reviews the objectives and results of the First Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. It includes an analysis of the discourse conducted to this point at the Summit, and of the possible outcomes.     

To the ends of the earth: Acquisitions work in the Library of Congress overseas offices

The Library of Congress maintains six overseas offices for acquisitions and preservation purposes. The offices are located in Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, and Pakistan and collectively acquire, catalog, microfilm and deliver hundreds of thousands of documents per year to the Library of Congress and over one hundred Cooperative Acquisitions Program participants. The article focuses on the acquisitions, cataloging, automation, and preservation roles of the offices, in addition to the Cooperative Acquisitions Program. A brief profile of each office is given at the end of the article.