Educating Evolutionary Co-Leadership to Embody a Radically New Development Paradigm

The purpose here is to explore why and how to develop an emerging form of integral leadership—called evolutionary co-leadership—that is responsibly dedicated to the co-evolution of life and humanity on Planet Earth. After offering some fresh distinctions about leadership, this article calls for a shift to a radically new development paradigm, and identifies key qualities and practices of evolutionary co-leadership. It then shares some views on the multiplying effects of an integral approach to co-leadership development—in the context of transforming education—and concludes with some avenues to disseminate this emerging leadership form, mainly to deal constructively with what Barbara Marx Hubbard (2001) calls the current “birthing pains” of a new civilization.     

Hidden Treasures in Theological Education: The Writing Tutor,the Spiritual Director,and Practices of Academic and Spiritual Mentoring

Mentoring is an important but often overlooked resource in theological education and students' academic and spiritual formation. This essay profiles the mentoring practices and postures of the writing tutor and the spiritual director as exemplars of academic and spiritual mentoring. An extended probe of this analogy affirms the integration of academic and spiritual formation as a core value in theological education; identifies mentoring in theological education as a hidden treasure fostering this integration and warranting attention as a theological practice; and re‐envisions the theological practice of mentoring under the traditional rubric of the “care of souls,” embracing the relational, educational, formational, spiritual, and rhetorical dimensions of this practice.     

Indigenous Healing Practices in Malawi

One of the most important areas of African culture in which the significant presence of traditional beliefs can be seen is through sickness and healing. In many traditional cultures, illness is thought to be caused by psychological conflicts or disturbed social relations that create a disequilibrium expressed in the form of physical or mental problems. In Malawi, traditional healing has been practised for centuries even before colonialisation. It is said that about 80 per cent of the population utilise traditional healers and medicine for their health needs. This paper sets out several of the issues and controversies that surround traditional healing and medicine in Malawi. An overview of the traditional Malawian theory of illness, the diversity of healing practices for somatic and psychosocial disorders, the socio-cultural context of healing and cultural interpretations of disease and intervention are provided. The problem of efficacy and scientific validation of traditional medicine is discussed.     

Infant perception of static two-dimensional transparency information

The present habituation – dishabituation study focused on infants' perception of static two-dimensional transparency displays. Infants 4 and 8 months of age were habituated to a transparency display. In this stimulus, each corner of a semi-transparent square surface covered a quadrant of a circle. During the posthabituation period, the infants were presented with the semi-transparent square overlay from the habituation display and a (non-transparent) square area cut out of the habituation stimulus. The 8-month-olds looked significantly longer at the non-transparent surface, meaning that they apparently recognized the other test pattern as the semi-transparent filter they had also seen during the habituation trials, and that they regarded the non-transparent test target as being novel. In contrast, the younger participants did not exhibit a novelty preference during the posthabituation trials. Control conditions tested the impact of spontaneous stimulus preferences on the results. The findings are discussed within the framework of infant pictorial depth perception. They provide further evidence for the hypothesis that infants' sensitivity to pictorial depth cues emerges between 4 – 5 and 7 – 8 months of life.     

How To Engage With Experimental Practices? Moderate Versus Radical Constructivism

A central question in constructivist studies of science is how the analyst should deal with the material objects handled by scientific practitioners in laboratories. Representatives of ‘radical constructivism’ such as Knorr-Cetina and Latour have gone furthest in exploring the role of these ‘non-humans’ but have also maneuvered themselves in untenable positions due to a fatal conflation of different meanings of the term ‘construction’. The epistemological and ontological commitments of ‘moderate constructivism’ especially of the Strong Program defended by Barnes and Bloor, are more suitable for dealing with the task at hand. While radical constructivists treat the domains of nature and human society as largely coterminous, an alternative ontology stresses that natural reality is never fully absorbed into the world of culture but only interacts with the latter at localizable interfaces such as practices and artifacts. This perspective promises a more relaxed relationship with current forms of scientific realism. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The International Test Commission Guidelines on the Security of Tests,Examinations, and Other Assessments

The amount and severity of security threats have increased considerably over the past two decades, calling into question the validity of assessments administered around the world. These threats have increased for a number of reasons, including the popular use of computerized and online technologies for test administration and the use of almost undetectable technologies for capturing test content and illegally sharing it instantly across borders and cultures. No assessment program, large or small, is immune to this potential damage. The International Test Commission has recognized the critical need for every organization with an important assessment program to be aware of these and be prepared to counter them. It was for this purpose that these guidelines were developed. Knowing the threats and the guidelines will lead to effective measures to protect the program and its assets, maintaining the value of the tests and assessments to the international community. The guidelines listed in this article provide recommendations on planning for better security, maintaining security during the development of tests and while they are administered, and responding well when a security breach occurs. Following these guidelines will create a significant protective barrier between those who willingly commit test fraud and the valuable assets a program has spent time and money to build.     

EPIPHANY PHILOSOPHERS: AFTERWORD

Being a theist makes a difference, but not so much to what propositions we assent to, nor to an expanded ontology of spiritual entities. Rather, it is concerned with what commitments we enter into, and involves a participatory engagement with a broader reality then we might have supposed was possible. Embodied practices are a crucial part of the contemplative path, which draws on the wisdom of the body. This leads on to a “labor of culture.” Our present culture is not obviously as secular as supposed to be, but what has now become sacred is a strong sense of the individual ego, around which many ethical and political commitments are built, and which sits uneasily with our widely accepted mechanistic view of life. The crucial challenge to artificial intelligence is whether it can find ways of enhancing the mutual recognition that is crucial to the ethical life.     

Professional beliefs related to the practice of pediatric medicine and school psychology

This article proposes that pediatric medicine and school psychology are complementary fields. Five professional beliefs are reviewed: (a) the importance of classification, (b) a preference for evidence-based interventions, (c) an endorsement of advocacy in public policy, (d) the importance of working with the whole child including his/her parents, and (e) an assertion of team leadership. Each belief is discussed as a core value of pediatric medicine and considered for points of connection with school psychology. Some of these beliefs are widely shared by school psychologists, others are rejected because of historical and situational factors, and all warrant consideration in light of school psychology's continuing evolution.     

Les objets connectés et applications de santé : étude exploratoire des perceptions,usages (ou non) et contextes d’usage

In a contemporary context of major health challenges, the market of digital technologies has increasingly developed in past years. This article aims to explore main profiles of use in relation to connected objects and health apps, as well as attitudes related to uses, non-uses and contexts of use. Therefore, our objective is to contribute to the scientific debate by proposing an empirical study in psychology that focusses on the perspectives of consumers and non-consumers of these technologies in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. To do this, a survey was conducted among participants of a large public health exhibition (n = 760). According to our results, the majority of respondents declare not having a connected object/health app and a third of non-users does not intend to acquire such technologies. Also, there is a trend among younger generations to have a connected object/health app. Concerning the contexts of use, such technologies are employed to self-track physical activity and eating practices. The degree of satisfaction of such use is rather high. Given these results, our analyses point out a divide within our sample, between individuals who seem resistant and declare not willing to have this kind of technology and those who use it in the long run. These results cast new light upon concrete uses and contexts of use among consumers and non-consumers of connected objects/health apps beyond techno-scientific promises that prevail today in our societies.