Sustainability and distance learning: a diverse European experience?     

Simon Bell  Chris Douce  Sandra Caeiro  Antonio Teixeira  Rosa Martín-Aranda  Daniel Otto 《Open Learning》2017,32(2):95-102

Higher Education (HE) is experiencing disruption from technologies, demographics, the globalising world and longer life expectancy. Historically Higher Education has had a legacy of being seen as the requirement for an educated ‘elite’, there has been a policy ambition set in various countries (including the UK) for it to become the expectation for much wider segments of the population as a whole. As students become ‘everyone’ and learning becomes ‘all the time’ Distance Teaching and Research Institutions have a tremendous opportunity but there are also many disruptions and barriers to overcome. Higher Education institutions have an important role within Education for Sustainable Development and sustainable lifestyles; one of the important goals and targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals for 2030. Higher Education can contribute to sustainability in many ways – social, technical and environmental; globally and locally. In particular distance-learning universities due to the flexibility in the learning process, use of technologies, and inter-disciplinary approach to teaching and learning, constitute key factors in education for sustainable development. But what will this contribution look like? In this paper, the responses from senior leaders in four major European distance-learning universities are presented, compared and discussed. The tentative conclusions draw out some strategic imperatives for sustainable higher education in the twenty first century.  相似文献   

Jingoism,Public Opinion,And The New Imperialism     

Simon J. Potter 《Media History》2014,20(1):34-50

This essay analyses late-Victorian understandings of the relationship between the press, imperial diplomacy, and popular enthusiasm for empire, and examines how newspapers explained their own role in the imperial rivalries of the 1890s. During imperial disputes between Britain and France (particularly the Fashoda crisis) and between Britain and the USA (the Venezuela boundary dispute) contemporaries claimed that self-interested ‘jingo’ elements of the political elite had sought to foment conflict by manipulating ‘public opinion’, but had been defeated by statesmen (who had used the press for legitimate diplomatic purposes) and by ‘the people’ (who were averse to war). This contrasted with contemporary comments about the role played by the press in provoking wars between the USA and Spain and between Britain and the Transvaal: both the press and the people seemed to succumb to an irrational popular ‘jingoism’, and to sweep statesmen along in their wake. However, this essay argues that these contemporary verdicts about the role of newspapers in focusing popular imperialism have been too easily accepted by historians. During the imperial rivalries of the 1890s the press played an important role as a medium of transnational communication, but did not push statesmen into expansionism.  相似文献   

‘Cast your net widely’: three steps to expanding and refining your problem before action learning application     

Simon R. Reese 《Action Learning: Research and Practice》2015,12(2):208-214

This paper reflects upon a three-step process to expand the problem definition in the early stages of an action learning project. The process created a community-powered problem-solving approach within the action learning context. The simple three steps expanded upon in the paper create independence, dependence, and inter-dependence to aid the interaction of an action learning team as they uncovered the problem. The author recounts how his action learning project created steps of independence that captured divergent thoughts from throughout the organization; dependence that merged thoughts across the diverse group; and inter-dependence that built system thinking focused on horizontal impact across the organization. Readers can replicate the steps in future action learning projects to define the root cause problems before chasing the symptoms toward solutions. Project leaders who do not caste their nets widely during the problem definition stage may find their team solving the easy-to-catch symptoms.  相似文献   

The role of spatial ability in mixed reality learning with the HoloLens     

Simon Ho  Pu Liu  Daniela J. Palombo  Todd C. Handy  Claudia Krebs 《Anatomical sciences education》2022,15(6):1074-1085

The use of mixed reality in science education has been increasing and as such it has become more important to understand how information is learned in these virtual environments. Spatial ability is important in many learning contexts, but especially in neuroanatomy education where learning the locations and spatial relationships between brain regions is paramount. It is currently unclear what role spatial ability plays in mixed reality learning environments, and whether it is different compared to traditional physical environments. To test this, a learning experiment was conducted where students learned neuroanatomy using both mixed reality and a physical plastic model of a brain (N = 27). Spatial ability was assessed and analyzed to determine its effect on performance across the two learning modalities. The results showed that spatial ability facilitated learning in mixed reality (β = 0.21, P = 0.003), but not when using a plastic model (β = 0.08, P = 0.318). A non-significant difference was observed between the modalities in terms of knowledge test performance (d = 0.39, P = 0.052); however, mixed reality was more engaging (d = 0.59, P = 0.005) and learners were more confident in the information they learned compared to using a physical model (d = 0.56, P = 0.007). Overall, these findings suggest that spatial ability is more relevant in virtual learning environments, where the ability to manipulate and interact with an object is diminished or abstracted through a virtual user interface.  相似文献   

‘Build me a male role model!’ A critical exploration of the perceived qualities/characteristics of men in the early years (0–8) in England     

Simon Brownhill 《Gender and education》2014,26(3):246-261

Young boys' ‘underachievement’ and their disaffection with learning continue to dominate education agendas [Francis, B. 2006. “Stop That Sex Drive.” Times Educational Supplement 30; Peeters, J. 2007. “Including Men in Early Childhood Education: Insights from the European Experience.” NZ Research in Early Childhood Education, 10. Accessed February 4, 2013. http://stop4-7.be/files/janpeeters10.pdf; Lloyd, T. 2009. Boys’ Underachievement: What Schools Think and Do. A University of Ulster Research Project Funded by the Department of Education and Northern Ireland Office. November. Accessed January 10, 2014. http://www.socsci.ulster.ac.uk/sociology/research/y%20publications/Boys%20underachievement.pdf; Lloyd, T. 2011. Boys’ Underachievement in Schools: Literature Review. Boys Development Project. Belfast: Centre for Young Men's Studies, Ulster University. Accessed February 4, 2013. http://www.boysdevelopmentproject.org.uk/downloads/reports/Boys%20and%20underachievement%20literature%20review%20edited%20in%20pdf.pdf]. In recent years, there has been an eruption of government policy making and public discourse in England [Moran, L. 2011. Quarter of All Primary Schools Have No Male Teachers Despite More Men Entering Profession. Daily Mail, September 2. Accessed February 4, 2013. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2032970/Quarter-primary-schools-NO-male-teachers-despite-men-entering-profession.html#ixzz2JwpQjSL8; DfE (Department for Education). 2012b. Poor White Boys ‘Lagging Behind Classmates at Age Five’. The Telegraph, November 21. Accessed January 10, 2014. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9693409/Poor-white-boys-lagging-behind-classmates-at-age-five.html; PARITY. 2013. Is Action Overdue on Boys’ Academic Underachievement? Briefing Paper, March. Accessed January 10, 2014. http://www.parity-uk.org/Briefing/BoysEducPaperRev1b.pdf] calling for more men to transform young lives by working in the 0–8 sector and acting as male role models in an attempt to narrow the ‘attainment gap’. This paper critically explores the perceived qualities/characteristics of men who seemingly serve as ‘male role models’ by reporting on select doctoral research findings which sought to investigate the ambiguities of the male role model from the perspective of men who work in the 0–8 sector. Research participants were asked to identify the qualities/characteristics that they felt ‘male role models’ should exhibit for young boys in the early years (0–8). The qualities/characteristics identified were categorised by research participants as being ‘masculine’ (e.g. diplomatic), ‘feminine’ (e.g. caring) or ‘natural’ (meaning authentic). Whilst research evidence suggests that male role models will present a diverse range of personal and professional qualities/characteristics, it is argued that these are likely to be shaped by not only the needs and circumstances of the children that the ‘male role model’ comes into contact with, but also the expectations of others, e.g. parents/carers and staff. This paper argues that there is a real tension between those qualities/characteristics of the male role model that are created as a result of their personality/individual beliefs and those which are anticipated or enforced by others.  相似文献   

Introduction to the themed Paedagogica Historica issue “Anarchism,Texts and Children”     

Bruno Vanobbergen  Frank Simon 《Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education》2014,50(4):411-413

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Home Economics Teachers' Intentions and Engagement in Teaching Sustainable Development     

Irja Haapala  Simon Biggs  Riitta Cederberg  Anna-Liisa Kosonen 《Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research》2014,58(1):41-54

Home Economics (HE) teachers can have a central role in teaching sustainable development (SD) to young adolescents through everyday household management and the promotion of personally and globally sustainable well-being. How well the teachers cope with this task is not well known. The objective of this study was to survey Finnish HE teachers' perceptions of their current practice, coping, and future intentions in terms of teaching SD. Enablers and inhibitors to carrying out this task were further investigated. Findings from this survey suggest that HE teachers have adopted sustainability at a personal level, but often lack the resources and incentives to teach it. Ways to promote cross-curricular projects and wider integration of SD into HE are discussed.  相似文献   

Experimental identification of social learning in wild animals     

Simon M. Reader  Dora Biro 《Learning & behavior》2010,38(3):265-283

Field experiments can provide compelling demonstrations of social learning in wild populations. Social learning has been experimentally demonstrated in at least 23 field experiments, in 20 species, covering a range of contexts, such as foraging preferences and techniques, habitat choice, and predator avoidance. We review experimental approaches taken in the field and with wild animals brought into captivity and note how these approaches can be extended. Relocating individuals, introducing trained individual demonstrators or novel behaviors into a population, or providing demonstrator-manipulated artifacts can establish whether and how a particular act can be socially transmitted in the wild and can help elucidate the benefits of social learning. The type, strength, and consistency of presented social information can be varied, and the provision of conditions favoring the performance of an act can both establish individual discovery rates and help determine whether social information is needed for acquisition. By blocking particular avenues of social transmission or removing key individuals, routes of transmission in wild populations can be investigated. Manipulation of conditions proposed to favor social learning can test mathematical models of the evolution of social learning. We illustrate how field experiments are a viable, vital, and informative approach to the study of social learning.  相似文献   

Experimental exploration of five-qubit quantum error-correcting code with superconducting qubits     

Ming Gong  Xiao Yuan  Shiyu Wang  Yulin Wu  Youwei Zhao  Chen Zha  Shaowei Li  Zhen Zhang  Qi Zhao  Yunchao Liu  Futian Liang  Jin Lin  Yu Xu  Hui Beng  Hao Rong  He Lu  Simon C.Benjamin  Cheng-Zhi Peng  Xiongfeng Ma  Yu-Ao Chen  Xiaobo Zhu  Jian-Wei Pan 《国家科学评论(英文版)》2022,(1):95-101

Quantum error correction is an essential ingredient for universal quantum computing.Despite tremendous experimental efforts in the study of quantum error correc...  相似文献   

National/Global Synergy in the Development of Higher Education and Science in China since 1978     

Simon MARGINSON 《Frontiers of Education in China》2018,13(4):486-512

The paper reviews the rapid development of higher education and science in China in the last forty years. It discusses the conditions and strategies of that development, including the ways that it embodies a distinctive Chinese approach to higher education. In particular, the paper reflects on the policies whereby China coordinated with globalization in higher education and science after 1978, in building national capacity and global influence. Scale, nation-state policy goals and accelerated investment on their own are necessary but not sufficient (otherwise Saudi Arabia’s research universities would be stronger than they are). The effective national/global synergy developed by China, made possible by the international openness and part-devolution to science communities that was implemented in the Deng Xiaoping era, has been crucial in the rapid rise of China’s universities and science. This national/global synergy—and its potentials, tensions and limits—in turn has determined the nature of the achievement and will shape its future evolution.  相似文献