Civic Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Alternative Paths to the Development of Political Knowledge and Democratic Values

Despite the proliferation of civic education programs in the emerging democracies of Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe, there have been few recent evaluations of the effectiveness of civics instruction in achieving changes in democratic orientations among student populations. We present findings from a study conducted in 1998 that examined the impact of democratic civic education among South African high school students. Using a battery of items to gauge democratic orientations, including measures of political knowledge, civic duty, tolerance, institutional trust, civic skills, and approval of legal forms of political participation, we find that civic education had the largest effects on political knowledge, with the magnitude of the effect being approximately twice as large as the recent Niemi and Junn (1998 ) finding for the United States. Exposure to civic education per se had weaker effects on democratic values and skills; for these orientations, what matters are specific factors related to the quality of instruction and the use of active pedagogical methods employed by civics instructors. Further, we find that civic education changed the structure of students' orientations: a "democratic values" dimension coalesces more strongly, and in greater distinction, from a "political competence" dimension among students exposed to civic education than among those with no such training. We discuss the implications of the findings for our theoretical understanding of the role of civic education in fostering democratic attitudes, norms, and values, as well as the practical implications of the results for the implementation and funding of civic education programs in developing democracies in the future.     

Experience-grounded semantics: a theory for intelligent systems

An experience-grounded semantics is introduced for an intelligent reasoning system, which is adaptive, and works with insufficient knowledge and resources. According to this semantics, truth and meaning are defined with respect to the experience of the system – the truth value of a statement indicates the amount of available evidence, and the meaning of a term indicates its experienced relations with other terms. The major difference between experience-grounded semantics and model-theoretic semantics is that the former does not assume the sufficiency of knowledge and resources. This approach provides new ideas to the solution of some important problems in cognitive science.     

Why do residents accept a demanding rule?: Fairness and social benefit as determinants of approval of a recycling system1,2

Abstract: This study examined why people accepted a demanding rule in a recycling system that was newly introduced in Nagoya City. We focused on two social psychological topics: social dilemmas and fairness. While the new system succeeded in reducing waste, it imposed a burden on citizens without providing incentives and sanctions. In a research survey, 1442 responses from a sample of 3000 (48% response rate) were obtained using a stratified sampling method. The results showed that the new recycling system was approved despite the demands placed on citizens, with a preference for more strict rules such as penalties and surveillance for noncompliance. The main determinants of approval of the new recycling system were social benefit and procedural fairness, whereas the main determinant of preference for strict rules was outcome fairness. We argue that (a) social benefit should be emphasized to facilitate cooperative behavior in a social dilemma situation and (b) the government should ensure sufficient discussion with citizens and acknowledgment of their opinions.     

ISLAM AND SCIENCE: CONTRADICTION OR CONCORDANCE

Abstract. Many question whether Islam and science can be compatible. In the first six hundred years of Islam, Muslims addressed all fields of knowledge available to them with unprecedented zeal and contributed immensely to the knowledge that became the precursor of the Renaissance in Europe. The Tatar invasion in the thirteenth century and the total destruction of Baghdad, the Muslim capital of knowledge and science, followed by the crusades, the ensuing hostility between East and West, and Western colonialism of Muslim countries led to a distrust of all knowledge emanating from the West. Such distrust closed the doors to ijtihad, a dynamic method in Islamic jurisprudence for addressing change, new demands, and new acquired knowledge, even though the Qur'an challenges Muslims to think, contemplate, understand, comprehend, and examine everything around them—tasks that bring humankind closer to God as they find methods to apply God's laws of justice and equity to the benefit of all humankind. Islam is the religion of yusr (ease) and not ‘usr (hardship). The creation of the world was for human benefit and use. Innovation for such beneficial use and application is a must.     

Evald Il’enkov and World Philosophy

To ascertain the context of Il’enkov’s philosophy, the author delves into the history of philosophy since the Sophists and Plato. For Il’enkov, philosophy is not an abstract science “about everything,” but a study of ideas – forms which are identical for thinking and being. These objective and universal forms of thought are explained as products and schemes of human activity creating the world of culture and reified in its “smart” things.     

他人知识状态觉知对幼儿名词学习的影响

本研究采用两个实验考察了他人知识状态觉知对不同语言能力幼儿名词习得的影响。参加实验的被试是来自上海市三所幼儿园的89名3～4岁幼儿。实验一发现,高语言能力幼儿在确定和不确定两种实验条件下的名词习得有显著差异,确定条件下的得分高于不确定条件。一般语言能力幼儿未表现出上述区别;实验二进一步发现高语言能力幼儿能忽视表面的语气线索所表达的迟疑,影响他们词语学习的是对他人知识状态的深层觉知。     

儿童类别学习中知识效应的年龄差异

采用特征主题的类别学习实验范式,考察了儿童类别学习中知识效应的年龄差异。63名小学4年级学生(年龄范围9～10岁)、65名小学6年级学生(年龄范围11～12岁)和77名初中2年级学生(年龄范围13～14岁)参加了本实验。结果表明:当类别特征能够在已有知识的基础上形成主题时,3个年龄组儿童类别学习的轮次和错误数均显著下降,而且主题突出时,这种趋势更加明显;在统一主题条件下,小学4年级、小学6年级和初中2年级3个年龄组儿童类别学习的轮次和错误数依次减少;而在无主题和突出主题条件下,3个年龄组儿童类别学习的成绩无显著差异。     

学习者生成图解对说明文阅读理解和应用的效果

在112名大学生被试阅读难度不同的两种材料并解答相关的理解题和应用题时,按照阅读时是否要求生成图解与答题时是否允许生成图解两个条件将他们平均分为四个小组,探讨阅读画图与答题画图对被试理解和应用不同难度材料的影响。结果表明,阅读时学习者生成的图解可显著促进对难度较高材料的理解;答题时学习者生成的图解可显著促进对难度较低材料的应用;阅读时是否画图与答题时是否画图对理解和应用所学习材料没有显著交互作用。     

医学高校《文献信息检索》课的教学改革--培养大学生的信息能力和创新能力

阐述了在当今知识经济时代背景下,在网络化、电子化环境中,社会对人才的信息能力和创新能力的需求,提出了<文献信息检索>课为适应时代的要求,培养具有较高信息能力和创新能力的现代大学生的改革和创新的设想.     

知识表征的新观点--知觉符号理论

在认知科学中一个经典的争论是知识在人的头脑中是如何表征的。其中占主流的理论一直是命题符号理论,而最近Barsalou又提出了一种新的观点——知觉符号理论。本文对这一新理论做了介绍,阐述了它的主要特征,比较了它与命题符号理论的差异,并提供了现今对这一理论的实验证实。希望借此能启发国内的研究者也来关注和研究这一理论。