The Role of the Study Group in the Funds of Knowledge Approach

This article explores the role of the study group in the funds of knowledge approach as implemented in a public school located in Catalonia, Spain. In particular, we describe the funds of knowledge uncovered during home visits to the families of 5 students selected by the teachers and the process by which the teachers developed educational activities using some of these funds of knowledge. We argue that the study group can be seen as a community of practice and as a mediational structure between students’ households and the school—a process referred to here as an “intercontextual mediation.”     

青年研究学科化的范式困境及其范式革命

青年研究的学科化,首要解决的硬核是研究范式的形成。作为一门综合学科,青年研究自身的特质问题给学科范式的形成造成了困难:1.多学科的理论分析尚未能形成论题共域;2.不同的方法论研究进路都未能提供学科说明的整体图景;3.学术共同体在青年研究的核心问题上未能达成共识。青年的生发机理是青年研究范式的轴心和根本,基于青年的生发机理,我们应沿着两条基本思路:一是青年是什么?,二是青年学是什么?,并通过增强学科意识,确立分支学科,重申历史意识,构建多元对话共域,注重经验研究向理论研究的提升,比较研究与强化原创性理论等路径进行青年研究的范式革命。     

Computer Information and Human Knowledge

Summary

Modem ideas in social work are subsumed under the term “new thinking.” Controversies in its concepts directly reflect controversies in attitudes toward computer application. Fundamental to modern problems with technology is the persisting dispute between two philosophical traditions. On one side there is the formal and technically oriented thinking; on the other the reflexive, dialectical and hermeneutical approach. The reappearance of the conflict in actual discussions is described considering data storage, formal methodology and the social impact of computer use.     

The Role of Rhythm and Pitch in the Evaluation of Human Laughter

Human laughter vocalizations are composed of highly variable sounds. We investigated the evaluation of laughter sounds and concentrated especially on the role of two acoustic features of laughter series: specific rhythms and changes in the fundamental frequency. Experimentally modified laughter series were evaluated using listener self-report data. Participants evaluated laughter series with differences in duration (Experiment 1), or in duration and frequencies (Experiment 2) of successive elements. Serial patterns with varying parameters received good ratings that were close to those received for natural laughter. By contrast, series with a stereotyped patterning received poor ratings. In addition, we found that self-report data strongly correlated to participants' direct behavioral reactions while listening to a specific stimulus. We suggest a three-part model to describe mechanisms underlying the evaluation of laughter.     

An Ecological Approach to Understanding Youth Violence: The Mediating Role of Substance Use

The authors tested an ecological model that posits mediating variables (substance use and mental health) in the association between ecological factors (family closeness, school closeness, and peer closeness) and youth violence in a sample of 4,783 adolescents. Models including substance use present significantly less total effect between ecological factors and youth violence than do models without substance use. Additional probing of significant mediation effect using the Sobel test was performed and suggested that substance use did function as a mediator in the hypothesized path. Considerations of adolescent violence should recognize the possible role of ecological factors and how their influence may vary by substance use.     

An Ecological Approach to Understanding Youth Violence: The Mediating Role of Substance Use

The authors tested an ecological model that posits mediating variables (substance use and mental health) in the association between ecological factors (family closeness, school closeness, and peer closeness) and youth violence in a sample of 4,783 adolescents. Model including substance use present significantly less total effect between ecological factors and youth violence than do models without substance use. Additional probing of significant mediation effect using the Sobel test was performed and suggested that substance use did function as a mediator in the hypothesized path. Considerations of adolescent violence should recognize the possible role of ecological factors and how their influence may vary by substance use.     

知识经济与青年人力资源的开发

知识经济作为一种建立在知识和信息的生产。分配和使用之上的经济从本质上讲是以人力资源为依托的,是一种人才经济。因为在知识经济时代,知识资源将取代土地、资本、原材料等而成为主要的生产要素,这一变化意味着非为知识的拥有者和创造者,人和由其形成的人力资源将成为现代经济持续发展的关键因素,成为超出物质资源之上的第一资源。 一、知识经济与青年人力资源开发的新时代 所谓人力资源是指一个国家、一个地区总人口中有劳动生产能力的所有劳动者,它包括质量和数量两个指标。青年是人力资源中最有潜力和活力的资源。在一般情况下,…     

The University's Role in Promoting Human Rights Through Nurturing Human Diversities

Summary

This qualitative study explored those components that contribute to an atmosphere which promotes and nurtures human diversities at a new expansion campus of a public university. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a snowball sample of faculty, staff, and administrators who were identified by other participants as having had a positive impact on the creation and maintenance of such an atmosphere. Using grounded theory, a preliminary data analysis indicated a mixed picture of the institution's success at this endeavor. Although many individual and collaborative efforts are already in place, they are not coordinated in any campus-wide manner. Intentional and shared responsibility across the university community was identified as the core component of turning diversity rhetoric into action. Administrative sanction, visibility, and support (modeling) were identified as critical to facilitating the kind of ongoing communication and systematic planning necessary for this intentional effort to succeed.     

The Gender Structure of the Nursing Hierarchy: The Role of Human Capital

This study investigated the factors contributing to the over‐representation of men in senior positions in nursing. A questionnaire was distributed to a stratified random sample of 1536 registered nurses in New South Wales, Australia. The data were analysed using multiple logistic regression and showed that women's greater likelihood of taking breaks from full‐time employment was the major variable contributing to the gender segmentation of the nursing workforce. This has implications for those working towards ‘family friendly’ workplaces.     

An Approach to Integrating Technology in Human Service Situations

It is argued that some aspects of human-centreed organisations are different from commercial operations which have been the focus for most effort in the introduction of new technology. They need an alternative approach. The one suggested draws upon complementarity in which a system is based upon the strengths of both humans and computers. The system thus consists of both the computers and the humans that use it and an example drawn from the treatment of aphasia sufferers is given.     

IT and Knowledge Development in Human Services

ABSTRACT

The role of computers in knowledge developments is explored from two perspectives: the computer as a tool to enhance knowledge development and the computer as a major influence or paradigm affecting the nature and structure of knowledge development. As a tool_s the computer is without precedence, continually transforming to meet current and future knowledge needs. Examples of this are provided. As a paradigm, the computer will support the positivistic development of knowledge, emphasizing structure, taxonomies and operational definitions. Computers, however, also offer the potential to develop knowledge through other, more exploratory, creative and intuitive ways. In summary, computers will respond to meet the challenge of pluralism in knowledge development and our many ways of knowing.     

A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach to Studying the Role of Overconfidence in Problem Gambling

Research on the neural correlates of decision making in gambling tasks may be informative for understanding problem gambling. The present study explored confidence and overconfidence using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure brain activity during a judgment task. Nineteen undergraduates who self-identified as frequent gamblers (average age 19.7 years; 5 females, 14 males) participated in this study. Participants first completed the DIGS (Winters, Specker & Stinchfield, 2002), a measure of gambling pathology. They then engaged in a behavioral task of confidence assessment, wherein they answered two-alternative trivia questions and estimated the probability that each answer was correct. In a subsequent MEG task, they viewed the questions and a target answer, and indicated with a button press whether the target matched the correct answer. Confidence was directly related to activity in the right prefrontal cortex. Matching and mismatching targets were associated with activity in the medial occipital cortex and left supramarginal gyrus, respectively. An interaction of pathology and match/mismatch was observed in the right inferior occipital-temporal junction region, showing more activity following a mismatch in non-problem gamblers, but not in problem gamblers. Implications of the results for understanding of top–down modulation and attentional systems are discussed in relation to gambling behavior.     

Knowledge,Attitudes, and Informational Behaviors of College Students in Regard to the Human Papillomavirus

Abstract

Objective: To assess students’ human papillomavirus (HPV) knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Participants/ Methods: Students (N = 1,282) at a large, public university in the Northeast United States completed a questionnaire during February 2008 assessing HPV knowledge, prevalence, transmission, cervical cancer risk and stigma; sexual behavior, vaccination status, as well as past and preferred sources of information about HPV and sexual health. Results: A majority of respondents know of HPV. However, understanding was insufficient in several important areas. Overwhelmingly, respondents heard about HPV via television commercials yet preferred to obtain sexual health information from physicians. Hearing about HPV on a TV commercial was associated with increased knowledge. More knowledge of HPV was associated with less stigma. Men exhibit a higher level of stigma and less knowledge than women. Conclusions: Publicly funded health campaigns aimed at increasing knowledge about HPV are overdue and necessary. This is especially true for efforts targeting young adults about this extremely common sexually transmitted infection (STI).     

The Varieties of Religious Significance: An Idiographic Approach to Study Religion's Role in Adolescent Development

We present a rationale and method for taking an idiographic approach to study the role religion plays in adolescent development. We theorize that adolescents harness qualitatively different aspects of religion to address idiosyncratic developmental needs. Therefore, analyzing religion's role in adolescent development necessitates a case‐by‐case holistic analysis. We introduce a systematic method using narratives to identify the personal ways that individuals attribute meaning in general and regarding religion in particular. We present three detailed case studies from a sample of 20 religious Israeli Jewish Orthodox emerging‐adult women who provided retrospective narrative accounts of their general and religious development through adolescence. Systematic analysis reveals that religion was significant to these women in diverse and personal ways, addressing markedly different adolescent developmental needs.     

A Human Rights Approach to Stopping Homophobic Bullying in Schools

SAMMARY

This article examines the development of Winnipeg School Division's groundbreaking program to oppose homophobic bullying by making that struggle synonymous with the defense of human rights. The analysis draws on interviews with key players in the development of the program, committee minutes, newspaper accounts, workshop evaluations and court rulings. The Division's approach involves a range of actions, the mainstay of which is compulsory workshops for all employees, and is supported by various initiatives undertaken by stakeholders outside the Division. The article assesses the strategic merits of the Division's human rights approach to stopping homophobic bullying and argues that curriculum development is still required to achieve the full potential of that approach.     

A Human Nature Approach to Image and Ethics in International Public Relations

This article addresses the role of the concept of image in the ethics of international public relations. It argues that the right to construct mental images is fundamental to the human experience and that ethical international public relations can enhance this right. The article identifies two diametrically opposed approaches to image in public relations. The first view uses instrumental or "i images" in an attempt to manage publics by managing the organization's communication with them. This instrumental approach is essentially one-way and monological, which is inviting for many practitioners and clients. I images are usually unethical, however, because they reduce the public's chance to use symbols and images rationally and to make informed choices. The second approach uses "h images" for the humanitarian view of images. With this approach, practitioners and their clients use two-way dialogical communication and accept the ethical responsibility to enhance, not degrade, the humanity of all parties involved in public relationships. Dialogical communicators assume that their publics have as varied and valid interpretations of the world as do their clients. They assume that the goal of public relations is not reducing publics to the service of clients but joining with publics in the process of interpreting the world together. The h image approach is especially important in international public relations, which can be understood as the attempt of one culturally bound community to deal with the interpretations of another. Based on the humanitarian approach, the article proposes five tests that international public relations practice should pass to be ethical.