Experiential learning in doctoral training programmes: fostering personal epistemology through collaboration

There has been increasing recognition for the need to reform doctoral training practices to foster students’ personal epistemology. This study describes the design and evaluation of a learning experience designed to help students understand the scholarly publication process. Firstly, this study discusses the design of the learning experience, describing the collaborative process of writing an interdisciplinary publication using both online and face-to-face learning. Secondly, this study evaluates the effectiveness of the learning experience by examining students’ reflections. We show that participation in the learning experience helped students to develop their academic writing proficiency, collaboration and teamwork, intercultural competence, and ability to engage in reflective practice. Importantly, we show that each student also created more individualised knowledge, gaining insight into how they and others think. This study, therefore, demonstrates that personal epistemology can be fostered through collaboration in a doctoral writing group context.     

Code Theory and its Positioning: a case study in misrecognition

This paper is a response to Harker & May 1987 which rejects as inaccurate and misleading their ‘exposition’ of the theory, the analysis of the place of rules in the theory, the analysis of what is taken to be its structuralist base, and shows how forms of the practical sense may be realised in, and described by, the theory.     

Public Education and Muslim Voluntary Organisations in Britain

Since the beginning of their settlement in Britain, Muslims have had to face the challenges of adapting to a new social, cultural and economic environment, and also that of responding to the opportunities provided by the new environment. A particularly sticking challenge facing the Muslim community in Britain is in the field of education. Over the last four decades, a group of Muslim voluntary organizations has emerged which is characterised by its keen interest in the public education system of this country. Muslim voluntary organizations have been playing a key role in the educational debate pertaining to the nature of religious education, and the scope of moral and spiritual development in the school curriculum. In addition, these organizations have been active, through a process of consultation and collaboration, in providing educational services to state schools, local education authorities and government departments. This paper examines the development of such voluntary organizations and attempts to discern their role and impact on the public education system in Britain.     

Hollywood: Films in General

Basil Wright's The Long View (New York: Knopf, 1974—$15.00)

Paul Sylbert's Final Cut: The Making and Breaking of Film (New York: Seabury Press, 1974—$7.95)

Gerson Kanin's Hollywood: Stars and Starlets, Tycoons and Flesh-Peddlers, Moviemakers and Moneymakers, Frauds and Geniuses, Hopefuls and Has-Beens, Great Lovers and Sex Symbols (New York: Viking Press, 1974—$8.95)

John Milton Hagen's Holly-Would! (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1974—$7.95)

David Madden's Remembering James Agee (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1974—$8.95)

Richard Lawton's A world of Movies: 70 Years of Film Art (New York: Delacorte Press, 1974—$19.95)

Bob Willoughby and Richard Schickel's The Platinum Years (New York: Random House, 1974—$25.00)

Stephen H. Scheuer's The Movie Book (New York: Playboy Press with distribution by Simon and Schuster, 1974— $17.95)

Cecil Munsey's Disneyana: Walt Disney Collectibles (New York: Hawthorne, 1974—$19.95)

George Barris and Jack Scagnetti's Cars of the Stars (Jonathan David, Publisher, Middle Village, N.Y. 11379, 1974—$16.95)     

Maturity-associated variation in sport-specific skills of youth soccer players aged 13-15 years

The aim of this study was to estimate the contribution of experience, body size and maturity status to variation in sport-specific skills of adolescent soccer players. The participants were 69 players aged 13.2-15.1 years from three clubs that competed in the highest division for their age group. Height and body mass were measured and stage of pubic hair development was assessed at clinical examination. Years of experience in football was obtained at interview. Six football skill tests were administered: ball control with the body, ball control with the head, dribbling with a pass, dribbling speed, shooting accuracy and passing accuracy. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to estimate the relative contributions of age, stage of sexual maturity, height, body mass and years of formal training in soccer to the six skill tests. Age, experience, body size and stage of puberty contributed significantly but in different combinations to the variance in four of the six skill tests: dribbling with a pass (21%; age, stage of maturity), ball control with the head (14%; stage of maturity, height, body height x body mass interaction), ball control with the body (13%; stage of maturity, years of training) and shooting accuracy (8%; stage of maturity, height; borderline significance, P = 0.06). There were no significant predictors for the tests of dribbling speed and passing accuracy. In conclusion, age, experience, body size and stage of puberty contributed relatively little to variation in performance in four of the six soccer-specific skill tests in adolescent footballers aged 13-15 years.     

Dialogue Across Cultural and Ethnic Differences

In a liberal, democratic, culturally plural society, it is to be expected that people will differ in their views of the good life and that they will proceed differently in cognitive, evaluative, moral and political matters. Such a society requires a sensibly managed social system where constructive interaction between culturally different groups of individuals can be accommodated. Dialogue as 'communicative relations' is suggested here as a means of containing inter-cultural conflict. Dialogue is seen as more than informal conversation, chat or amiable rambling. It involves two or more interlocutors, guided by the spirit of discovery, exploration and interrogation. It is developmental with a range of characteristics and outcomes. Its success requires 'communicative virtues' involving dispositions, emotion and cognition which should be fostered under particular conditions described here. Attention is given to factors influencing successes and failures, to the strengths and weaknesses, difficulties and challenges of dialogue across cultures. It is recognised that dialogue across cultural differences is never a smooth journey down the path toward agreement or understanding.