Education for the future: The emerging paradigm of thrivable education

A new education paradigm is emerging to address the need to educate a planetary citizenry under conditions relevant to the living context of our planet. Key to this new paradigm is the emphasis on lifelong learning and empathy-oriented education—both critical ingredients to the transformative role of education for individual and collective thrivability. This article explores the parameters of this role and the indicators that point to its emerging presence in a variety of education contexts, both formal and informal as well as virtual and face-to-face.     

教学设计中的成绩表现和心流体验:基于认知负荷视角

教学设计是为优化教学效果而形成的教学实施方案。为提高学习表现,认知负荷理论认为在组织教学设计时需考虑内、外认知负荷两大因素,但少有研究关注学生在学习过程中的体验。本研究通过单词复合性操纵内在负荷,通过呈现方式操纵外在负荷,探究两类负荷对心流体验及表现的影响。结果发现,内在负荷对心流及表现均有影响,外在负荷仅在低水平组表现出对心流及表现的影响,另外内外负荷在低水平组的表现上存在交互作用。结果表明,教学设计中的内在负荷是影响心流及表现的稳定因素,外在负荷不仅受知识水平影响,其对表现的有效性还受内在负荷的调节。     

Transactions in doing design-based research for designing curriculum: a self-study

Design-based research (DBR) is an emerging methodology in teacher education research that researchers claim has strong potential in systematically designing and using instructional strategies and tools to develop, enact, and sustain effective learning environments. Studies have been conducted employing this methodology, but very little research has been made on the process of engaging in DBR for designing curriculum. Through a self-study, I found that using DBR as a model for creating curriculum draws from personal meaning-making, where I tapped on my own education, background, and experiences in literacy instruction to create curriculum. The other dimensions to the DBR process were more intangible and thus harder to negotiate. These included the political aspects, where decision-making was needed regarding course components. Keeping positive relationships with stakeholders was another challenging dimension in order to achieve a collectively meaningful curriculum. Finally, dispositions on literacy instruction also implied tension on the process since dispositions are not necessarily aligned with some DBR principles.     

Graphic design in the printed translations of Franz Rosenzweig

One of Franz Rosenzweig's most significant ventures for Jewish renewal was the translation into German, which he initiated, of the Bible, prayerbook and religious poems. The aim of this essay is to explore the graphic design of the page that Rosenzweig selected for the printed edition of his translations. I will argue that the graphic design of the Siddur page is not just an aesthetic aspect of the translation but should be recognized as an educational and dialogic concern. Rosenzweig's preoccupation with page design is not limited to the Siddur, as the reader of The Star of Redemption will also notice his distinctive influence on the visual aspects of the text. It is expressed in the way he forms the six-pointed Star of David, the triangles which make up the star, and the way in which they appear in the book and are positioned on the page. And if the graphic depiction of the triangles is not enough, one only needs to visually experience what is described by Rosenzweig at the end of the book: the image of the star reveals the face of man.     

Teaching in contexts: Designing a competency‐based religious studies program

Over the last decade, the discipline of religious studies has promoted religious literacy as both an invaluable contribution to curriculum and an indispensable social good. While much has been written on the importance of the study of religion for the development of religious literacy, little attention has been given to the identification of the disciplinary skills and content knowledge (or what we refer to as religious studies competencies) a student develops through extended study of religion. In this essay, we present an example of how to integrate a religious studies competency‐based model into program design and implementation. We argue that the transition to a competency‐based religious studies program has two potential benefits. First, competency program design provides an opportunity to redesign and update religious studies programs in a more responsible manner that aligns with our students, institution, discipline, and profession. Second, competency program design facilitates the conditions where we can better avoid duplicating the much criticized world religions paradigm.     

Job crafting for lean engagement: The interplay of day and job-level characteristics

The quality of working life under the production system known as lean manufacturing (LM) is a heavily debated topic. Little is known about the engagement level of employees under this system. Our study is concerned with how employees in this context craft their jobs to enhance their own engagement, and we specifically consider how daily skill utilization triggers this process. Using a cross-level perspective, we further consider whether job-level characteristics relevant to the lean context, namely task interdependence and boundary control, restrict or facilitate the effects of daily skill utilization. A daily diary study was conducted over 4 working days with 64 employees in a large company utilizing LM. The results of multilevel structural equation modelling demonstrated that on a given day, skill utilization was associated with seeking resources, and this relationship was stronger when employees had high boundary control and low task interdependence in their general job roles. Results further demonstrated that employees experienced higher work engagement on days when they sought resources and challenges. Our findings illustrate the motivational potential of job crafting under LM and how crafting activities can be facilitated by the design of jobs and allocation of daily tasks.     

Hard times and European youth. The effect of economic insecurity on human values,social attitudes and well‐being

While economic downturns have adverse effects on young people's life chances, empirical studies examining whether and to what extent human values, social attitudes and well‐being indicators respond to sudden economic shocks are scarce. To assess the claim that human values are less affected by economic shocks than social attitudes and well‐being, two distinct yet related studies based on the European Social Survey (ESS) are conducted. The first employs a fixed effects pseudo‐panel analysis of the 2008–2014 ESS‐waves to detect whether changes over time in the socio‐demographic group's unemployment risk and national youth unemployment affect individual dispositions to varying degrees. The second study captures micro‐ and cross‐national effects in the 2010 ESS cross‐section. Unique for this set‐up is that we can test whether the findings hold for over‐time changes in youth unemployment within countries (pseudo‐panel), as well as for cross‐country differences in youth unemployment (multilevel). Both studies indicate that political trust, satisfaction with the economy and subjective well‐being are lowered by economic risk and hardship, while social trust and self‐rated health are less affected by changes in youth unemployment. Secondly, human values are immune to economic risk, underscoring that values transcend specific situations and are therefore resistant against sudden economic shocks.     

Preterm birth enhances the contribution of mothers’ mind-mindedness to infants’ expressive language development: A longitudinal investigation

Maternal mind-mindedness has been shown to be a powerful predictor of many developmental outcomes and to buffer the impact of psychosocial risk conditions, but no study has investigated whether this parental feature might support child development in the presence of biological risk, such as preterm birth. The present study addresses this gap, by investigating whether early maternal mind-mindedness contributes to the growth of a child’s linguistic abilities in the following two years of life, and if the contribution of this maternal feature might be stronger in the presence of preterm birth. Forty mother–child dyads (twenty with a preterm infant) were followed longitudinally, with maternal mind-mindedness assessed at 14 months of age and child’s expressive linguistic abilities at 24 and 36 months through observational measures. Multilevel models showed that linguistic abilities increased from 24 to 36 months of age, but that this increase was stronger in full-term infants. Maternal mind-mindedness also contributed to this growth, playing a stronger role in preterm infants than in full-term infants. Altogether, these findings contribute more deeply to the understanding of language development in preterm infants and of the joint contribution made by biological risk and environmental factors; from a practical standpoint, they suggest the importance of addressing mother’s mind-mindedness in order to support child’s language development.