Adult reflection in a graduate-level online distance education course

This study examined adult learners’ ability to engage in critical reflection concerning their own learning in a graduate-level online instructional technology course. The online course was facilitated through asynchronous discussions, and the course topic was about the design and delivery of distance education. The data for this study consisted of four critical reflection papers about students’ perception of their learning. The Periodic Reflection Tool, based on activity systems analysis, was introduced to participants as a guide for engaging in in-depth reflection about their learning process and completing their course assignment. After course completion and during data analysis, we applied instrumental learning and communicative learning theories to evaluate how participants used the tool to reflect on their personal learning in the course. At the conclusion of an analysis of their reflection statements, it was found that purposeful reflections guided by the Periodic Reflection Tool could help guide adult learners to reflect on many aspects of their learning and we suggest that the tool could be used to examine adults’ transition from traditional to online settings.     

Critical Legal Studies and argumentation theory

Critical Legal Studies poses a direct and expressed challenge to the basic tenets of American legal education and scholarship. Critical Legal Studies postulates that law is not a scientific exercise involving the application of objective principles, but rather a creative process involving the selection of conflicting rules which has the effect of reinforcing the existing political order. In an effort to explain the contribution of Critical Legal Studies to argumentation theory, this essay briefly discusses the role of legal reasoning in the American legal system, describes and critiques Legal Positivism, lays the intellectual foundation for Critical Legal Studies, and considers the implications that this conception of jurisprudence has for argumentation theory.     

Danto’s Dialectic

Arthur C. Danto’s Analytical Philosophy of History has a Kantian ambition: to state the conditions that make historical knowledge possible and to show “the unhappy destiny” that attends attempts to extend modes of representation beyond these conditions. Even though Danto’s book fails to achieve this ambition, it succeeds in making a number of important—if neglected—suggestions in the course of its attempt. One concerns the significance of the progressive tense for our thinking about human agency. Another concerns the way agency can impact negatively on the possibility of foreknowledge.

Children's developing notions of (im)partiality

This research examines the development of children's understanding that people's judgments may be skewed by relationships, and that situational factors may make it difficult to be impartial. One hundred and seventy-one adults and children between kindergarten and eighth grade heard stories about judges in contests with objective or subjective criteria for winning. In Experiment 1, by fourth grade, children rated a judge with no personal connection (the "neutral judge") as being more likely to be objective than a judge with a personal connection (the "connected judge"). Younger children showed the opposite pattern. Experiment 2 replicated this finding for judges, and also found that children across development have similar ideas regarding the characteristics for being a good judge. Not until eighth grade, however, did children indicate that a connected judge was more problematic in subjective situations than in objective ones.     

Derrida on teaching: The economy of erasure

This article explores Derrida's claim that teaching is a deconstructive process. In order to explore this claim, the Derridean concept of "erasure" is explored. Using the concept of erasure, this article examines two important aspects of teaching: the name that teachers establish for themselves, and, teaching against social power from a Derridean (erasure-oriented) perspective. Ultimately, the paper confirms Derrida's claim that teaching is indeed a deconstructive practice.

The pragmatic circle

Classical Gricean pragmatics is usually conceived as dealing with far-side pragmatics, aimed at computing implicatures. It involves reasoning about why what was said, was said. Near-side pragmatics, on the other hand, is pragmatics in the service of determining, together with the semantical properties of the words used, what was said. But this raises the specter of ‘the pragmatic circle.’ If Gricean pragmatics seeks explanations for why someone said what they did, how can there be Gricean pragmatics on the near-side? Gricean reasoning seems to require what is said to get started. But then if Gricean reasoning is needed to get to what is said, we have a circle.     

跨情境下集群行为的动因机制

群体性事件是当下我国典型的集群行为。本研究通过实验室情景设计的方法, 考察了跨情境下群体相对剥夺如何通过群体认同作用于集群行为, 及群体愤怒和群体效能对集群行为的影响。结果表明：1) 同一触发情境下, 群体认同调节群体相对剥夺－集群行为(意向)之间的关系。一般群体认同凸显的个体在高群体相对剥夺水平下有更强烈的集群行为参与(意向)。这源自群体认同对群体相对剥夺不同水平下群体效能与集群行为意向之间的二次调节。对于特定群体认同凸显的个体, 无论群体相对剥夺水平的高低, 都有较高的集群行为参与(意向)。这当中, 群体愤怒起到了部分中介的作用。2) 不同触发情境下, 群体认同对群体相对剥夺与集群行为意向的调节作用出现差异。该调节作用仅出现在利益无关情境中。此外, 群体愤怒与群体效能对集群行为意向的影响在不同情境下有区别：在利益无关情境中, 群体愤怒的影响显著大于群体效能; 在利益相关情境中, 群体效能与群体愤怒的影响无显著差异。本研究扩展了集群行为的双路径模型, 并为政府预防和化解群体性事件提供思路。     

时间分层加工研究述评

为了探讨数秒内不同层级时间加工的特性,研究者分别从“时间信息加工”和“信息加工的计时特性”角度开展了一系列研究。Münsterberg (1889)、Michon(1985) 、Lewis 和 Miall(2003) 及Vierodt(1868)从前一角度,分别指出1/3秒、1/2秒、1秒及3秒可能是数秒以内时距加工机制的分界点,分界点以下与以上的加工机制存在差异。P?ppel(1997, 2009)则从后一角度指出限制信息加工过程的两类时间窗,一类时间窗是以20-60毫秒振荡周期运行的高频系统,属于初级整合单元;另一类时间窗主要是处理2-3秒以内事件系列的低频系统,属于高级整合单元。前一类时间窗可以为信息加工整合基本的心理事件,后一类时间窗则是把2-3秒内的心理事件整合为基本知觉单元。基于以往研究的剖析,我们认为1/3秒、1/2秒及1秒等分界点的真伪性尚需进一步验证,并进一步假设40毫秒以内时间不能觉察为时距;40毫秒至3秒之间,随着长度增加,自动化加工减弱,控制性加工增强;3秒以上主要为控制性加工,涉及记忆过程。     

The Diagnostic Power of the Stages of Critical Discussion in the Analysis and Evaluation of Problem-Solving Discussions

In this article, the pragma-dialectical model of a critical discussion is demonstrated to provide a useful instrument for discovering causes of an unsatisfactory development of problem-solving discussions. First a sketch is given of the development of a problem-solving discussion which, in the opinion of the participants themselves, developed in an unsatisfactory fashion. Then it is argued that this development can be traced back to flaws in the execution of the stages of a critical discussion.     

《加利福尼亚批判性思维倾向问卷》中文版的初步修订

《加利福尼亚批判性思维倾向问卷》(CCTDI)是测评批判性人格特质的有效工具之一.论文对CCTDI作了中文版的修订.修订工作包括翻译、试测、修订、重测等.试测和重测对象为大专1至3年级和本科1至4年级的学生.试测对象为173人,重测对象为382人.对CCTDI作的统计分析表明,该问卷的中文修订版有较好的信度和效度,适合于团体测验之用.