Staff involvement in the design of a key skills curriculum model: a case-study

This case-study follows a school as it struggles to prepare for the changes brought about by Curriculum 2000 and the new key skills qualification. It describes the curriculum debate within the senior management team as it balanced the conflicting needs of subject popularity and necessity. It relates how inherent structural flaws were uncovered in the proposed curriculum strategy, how this very failure was used as an opportunity to initiate staff involvement in the design of curriculum structures and how success was subsequently fashioned from the process. It is a story of failure, consideration, reflection and improvement, and offers some insight into the lessons learned by management and teaching staff as they reflect on the process of change and their own participation in it.     

Teaching and Research: Identity Representations Among Teacher-Education Faculty Members,Decades After an Institutional Change

Recent emphasis on research productivity in teacher-education institutions has intensified the inherent tension in faculty members’ roles as both educators and researchers. We adopt the framework of social representations theory to explore identity perceptions among teacher-educators whose organization required them to take on the identity of “researcher.” The study relies on qualitative content analysis of data from eight focus groups (n?=?100) comprising faculty members at an Israeli teachers’ training college that transitioned into an academic research institution. We observe that, in the wake of the organizational change, participants abandoned the traditional hegemonic representation of the centrality of pedagogy and accepted new representations combining teaching and research. Yet few participants identified with the new representation on a personal level, and pedagogy continued to constitute the essence of their work.     

Power Lines: The Rhetoric of Maps as Social Change in the Post–Cold War Landscape

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of state socialism in Eastern and Central Europe, cartographers were faced with choices on how the new post–Cold War political landscape would be mapped. One such group called the Pluto Project had been producing atlases since 1981 with a progressive point of view about the nature of state power in the Cold War. This essay examines two of the Pluto Project's atlases as they function to identify a radical cartographic style that animates the social control of space by subverting traditional cartographic forms and defying scientific expectations and standards.     

Positive Perspectives on the Profession: Reframing through Appreciative Inquiry

Change theories and Organization Development strategies have long followed the problem-solving approach of looking at organizations, identifying the weaknesses and introducing interventions to “stop doing the wrong things.” In its simplest form, this approach has been successful in a variety of situations and has a popular following. Consultants or internal reviewers look for the problems, identify the cause of the problem, and introduce the intervention (new rule) to eliminate the opportunity for the repetition of the “problem.” Problem-solving is a popular perspective through which change is initiated in politics, academia, and in social media. Eliminate the “bad” and pay attention to what we have been doing wrong to improve. This article first reviews the problems posed in past Hanna lectures to some major themes: (a) the need to address societal concerns, (b) the need to reduce sub-disciplinary fragmentation, (c) the problems inherent on university campuses as a result of politics and the economy, (d) the need to re-examine the over-reliance on the scientific research paradigm at the cost of phenomenological understandings, and (e) the framing of problems to be solved by professionals in our field. The introduction of Appreciative Inquiry and is then provided as an alternative approach to examine current contextual setting with the primary emphasis away from “What problems are you having?” and toward “What is working around here?”. This alternative suggests that in all organizations there is some positive force that is moving the organization forward, and the identification of that force (what works) can lay the ground work for doing more of “what works.” Finally, three examples of Appreciative Inquiry opportunities in action from our discipline are offered for consideration.     

Changes in BSc Business Administration and Psychology students’ learning styles over one,two and three years of study

Knowledge on general or discipline-specific changes in the learning styles of university students can be utilised in the design and execution of courses, but little is known of such changes. The study examined the changes in the learning styles of three year groups of BSc Business Administration and Psychology students from admittance to one, two and three years later for the three year groups respectively. Learning styles were measured using the Danish Self-Assessment Learning Styles Inventory, which is an adaptation of Sternberg's MSG Thinking Styles Inventory within the theory of mental self-government. The Hierarchic and Oligarchic learning styles decreased significantly for all three year groups. The Judicial learning style increased significantly for the year groups who had studied for two and three years. The Global learning style increased significantly for the year group who had studied for one year. The findings are discussed in relation to comparable research.     

Career Academies: Effective Structures to Promote College and Career Readiness

Career academies promote smaller learning communities within high schools, creating personalized learning environments while promoting students’ readiness for college and careers. After describing the career academy structure, we present four research-based aspects that can assist school leaders and teachers in developing and implementing academies. We include practical examples from the Metro Nashville Public Schools, noting how educators have collaborated with civic agencies, businesses, and postsecondary partners to increase the graduation rate and improve student learning outcomes. Career academies can be effective in preparing students for college and careers, while also providing economic benefits to the community.     

The challenges of scaling-up and sustaining professional development school partnerships

This article addresses the challenges PDS partnerships face as they go to scale. Based on Coburn's (2005) notions of scale, the article uses organizational theory to analyze data from a ten-year qualitative meta-synthesis of PDS partnership research. Based upon the analysis, the article offers four recommendations: PDS partnerships should sustain strong trajectories of research regarding their work; Stakeholders in PDS partnerships need to ensure that faculty and staff have adequate support to thrive; PDS partnerships need to be based upon enabling bureaucratic structures; and PDS partners need to create opportunities to engage with each other in positive, normative spaces.     

19世纪后半叶北京地区人的季节性换装对气候变化的适应

本文根据《翁同日记》中关于1868年～1898年季节性换装的记录和北京的器测温度记录,采用相关分析和回归分析方法,探讨了季节性换装的迟早与气候变化的关系。结果表明：①从1868年～1898年年内冷暖变化和季节性换装的平均状况来看,作者的衣冠质地随着温度的季节性变化而改变,但是任意一类衣冠对应的上半年的温度条件均比下半年偏高3℃～5℃,而且春季的换装速率比秋季慢;其中,后者是人对北京地区春季升温速率较秋季降温速率慢的气候特征做出的适应性响应;②从年际波动和变化趋势来看,上半年的变冷（暖）对应于季节性换装日期的推迟（提前）,下半年与之相反;1868年～1898年,上半年的季节性换装日期趋于推迟,下半年趋于提前,这是人对北京地区春季和秋季均呈变冷趋势的适应性响应。但是,人类季节性换装对不同时节冷暖变化响应的敏感性存在明显差异,对初春、暮春、秋初、秋末的响应较为敏感,特别是对秋末的响应最为敏感。     

综自变电站RS-485通信防雷技术应用

在采用双绞线作传输线构成RS-485总线网络中,常因雷电瞬变干扰而损坏器件,根据黄山地区雷暴日多的特点,结合公司变电站综合自动化系统RS-485数据通信防雷薄弱的现状,利用最新的数据通信防雷技术提出对变电站综合自动化系统数据通信实行整体的安全防护。     

试论《墨子》和《周易》的节俭思想

《墨子》和《周易》都是我国古代重要的文献典籍,包含有十分丰厚的思想内容。《墨子》有“俭节则昌,淫佚则亡”之论。《周易》蕴涵了丰富的节俭思想,如有“俭德辟难”的训导,还专设了一个《节》卦,很重视节俭。《周易.节》是墨家节俭、节用、节财思想的最早源头,这一点,无论从卦辞,还是爻辞上都可得到说明。中国古代节俭思想中的许多内容,都可以在《墨子》和《周易》中找到蛛丝马迹,尤其是尚节、尚用、兴利等,在《墨子》、《周易》中皆可见其端绪。