《大学》德育思想及其启示

《大学》乃中国古代典籍名篇之一,原《礼记》中的一篇,其蕴含着丰富的德育思想。理学创始人二程称《大学》为＂孔氏之遗书,而初学入德之门也＂。至近代,孙中山先生赞赏《大学》中的格物、致知、诚意、正心、修身、齐家、治国、平天下的修养目标和修养方法,认为这些都是＂应该保存＂的中国的＂独有宝贝＂。可见,继承和创新《大学》之德育思想,对于今天进一步加强和改进德育,提高德育效益无疑具有重要的现实意义。     

浅谈社会调查研究方法课程中定量研究的学习策略

定量研究是社会调查研究方法课程中的主体部分,通过介绍社会调查研究方法课程中量化研究的基本概念和一般程序的基础上,指出社会调查研究方法在日常授课过程中要贯彻＂用中学＂的理念,将理论讲授、方法传授和动手实践这三者之间结合起来,善于用团队讨论策略、小组实践策略和定量研究论文写作策略来引导学生,从而可以有效培养学生的量化思维能力和研究水平。     

组织派系中的“小世界”对知识扩散的影响研究评述

企业及学校中的"团队"建设和"团队"教学无不体现着小世界模型对于组织派系内创新知识的传播和培训效果的迁移的指导作用.本文介绍了小世界社会网络模型的基本特征和理论来源,以及它在实际工作和教学学习中的运用,并在最后提出了该模型进一步发展的趋势.     

基于企业学习策略的集群持续创新机制及实证研究

由于集群网络的复杂性,集群创新机制的研究目前较为缺乏,有限的研究也往往假设集群企业具有同质性.本文提出,集群企业依据其在集群网络中的位置采用不同的学习策略,领导型企业更加侧重于探索式学习,跟随型企业更加侧重于利用式学习,两者的分工和异质性互动构成了集群持续创新的内在机理.本文在个体和企业层次双重学习研究的基础上,结合集群特有的组织条件,提出集群双重学习的机制,据此将集群企业进行分类,并建立集群中企业学习的理论模型,接着选取国内某地化工产业集群的236家企业作为样本,运用结构方程模型对集群中企业进行分类检验和比较研究.研究结果表明,集群中不同类型企业的学习策略存在差异,集群网络的作用是产生这一差异的可能原因;集群中不同类型企业的学习策略具有互补性,有利于企业间互动和集群的持续创新.     

Attachment and leader's development via experiences

Apart from biographies and memoirs of outstanding leaders, studies on the development of leaders in everyday life from childhood to maturity are rare. We propose a developmental model of leaders in which certain variables formed in early childhood are the basic components for leadership development in later life. These are a low level of trait anxiety [Spielberger, C.D. (1972). Conceptual and methodological issues in anxiety research. In C.D. Spielberger (Ed.), Anxiety: Current trends in theory and research. New York: Academic Press, vol. 1] and openness to experiences [Costa, P.T. Jr., & McCrae, R.R. (1992a). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources]. We argue that secure attachment style [Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. New York: Basic Books] explains the formation and influence of these basic components, which in turn affect the leader's development through experience in leadership roles. Questionnaires were administered to 286 subjects. The data obtained were analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM).The findings show that trait anxiety and openness to experience affect leaders' development via experiences. Alternative models in which formative variables may affect the magnitude and intensity of leadership experiences are discussed.     

An improved approximation algorithm for uncapacitated facility location problem with penalties

In this paper, we consider an interesting variant of the classical facility location problem called uncapacitated facility location problem with penalties (UFLWP for short) in which each client is either assigned to an opened facility or rejected by paying a penalty. The UFLWP problem has been effectively used to model the facility location problem with outliers. Three constant approximation algorithms have been obtained (Charikar et al. in Proceedings of the Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, pp. 642–651, 2001; Jain et al. in J. ACM 50(6):795–824, 2003; Xu and Xu in Inf. Process. Lett. 94(3):119–123, 2005), and the best known performance ratio is 2. The only known hardness result is a 1.463-inapproximability result inherited from the uncapacitated facility location problem (Guha and Khuller in J. Algorithms 31(1):228–248, 1999). In this paper, We present a 1.8526-approximation algorithm for the UFLWP problem. Our algorithm significantly reduces the gap between known performance ratio and the inapproximability result. Our algorithm first enhances the primal-dual method for the UFLWP problem (Charikar et al. in Proceedings of the Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, pp. 642–651, 2001) so that outliers can be recognized more efficiently, and then applies a local search heuristic (Charikar and Guha in Proceedings of the 39th IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, pp. 378–388, 1999) to further reduce the cost for serving those non-rejected clients. Our algorithm is simple and can be easily implemented. The research of this work was supported in part by NSF through CAREER award CCF-0546509 and grant IIS-0713489. A preliminary version of this paper appeared in the Proceedings of the 11th Annual International Computing and Combinatorics Conference (COCOON’05).     

Teaching Social Work in an Online Environment

This article discusses the current debate surrounding online instruction (also known as distance) versus in-class social work instruction and reviews the relevant literature associated with those instructional models. The discussion specifically focuses on key issues, including the definition and growth of online education and the Blackboard revolution, and it addresses concerns about the effectiveness of teaching online compared to in-class social work instruction in areas related to students’ learning outcomes and satisfaction. Literature references also suggest that factors such as demographics may be related to outcome differences between distance and traditional students, while others found no significant differences between both student populations and their learning outcomes in particular courses such as research methods courses. Even today, however, the comparisons between online and traditional courses are unsettled, and many questions remain about the appropriateness or usefulness of these models. Therefore, the debate will continue to lead to even larger disagreements between researchers and educators on both sides. The concern about the effectiveness of teaching in an online environment is still the main concern of educational models in general and of social work education in particular. Even deeper concerns are found among educators and scholars about the ethical issues surrounding the entire online education debate.     

Preparing for ICT enhanced practice learning opportunities in 2010—a speculative view

This paper presents a speculative view of the roles that a practice teacher, student and university may undertake during a practice learning opportunity in the year 2010, based upon predicted advances in information and communication technology (ICT). The article explores the likelihood of such a scenario becoming a reality by examining very briefly current developments in the area of wireless mobile devices and infrastructure. The paper presents an argument drawing on the author’s own experiences that passive acceptance or ignorance through apprehension of ICT developments should not prevent the examination and planning of how this medium may be utilised in the arena of social work in the future. This paper acts as a scenario‐planning device, presenting for discussion some of the issues that may need to be explored if ICT is to become positively integrated into the field of social work education.     

Evaluation of a Distance Learning,Post Graduate Advanced Award in Social Work Programme for Child and Family Social Work Supervisors and Mentors

This paper discusses open and distance learning and supervision in child and family social work, and presents the results of an evaluation by students of a distance learning, post graduate certificate programme for first‐line managers and supervisors in child and family social work. The programme also leads to an Advanced Award in Social Work. Eighteen students returned a postal questionnaire designed to gain their experiences of studying on the programme and their views about its different elements and its outcomes for themselves, their work, their organisations and service users. Most respondents thought that there were more advantages than disadvantages to studying by distance learning and to studying part‐time while working full‐time, but that self‐discipline is required and that workload constraints and difficulties in taking study time away from work impinged on their studies. More than half rated as good or very good the support provided by their mentors. Reported outcomes of studying on the programme included increased self‐confidence, enhanced supervisory practice, greater involvement of service users in service provision, and increased attention to gaining service user feedback. Key messages regarding the organisation of distance learning programmes are outlined, and pedagogical issues in post qualifying social work education are discussed, including the role of the mentor and the training needs of experienced staff or those working in specialised roles.     

‘Placements Online’: Student Experiences of a Website to Support Learning in Practice Settings

Social work practice and education in many parts of the world are implementing an elearning agenda. This article considers the experiences of students using a website developed to support learning in agency settings to discover if and how it can be used to create a ‘bridge’ between the learning environments of the university and practice. The website contains a range of features, including downloadable practice assessment documents, links to university based teaching units, electronic personal notification of placement allocation, and an asynchronous discussion forum.

The action research project which informs this article employed focus groups of students to ascertain their expectations and experiences of the website, in particular the asynchronous discussion forum facility, prior to and on completion of the 80 day placement, combined with analysis of the actual usage patterns and content.

Three quarters of the cohort participated in the discussion forum and findings suggest that students used and valued the discussion forum for its ability to enable the student to student and tutor to student relationships underpinning collaborative learning to be maintained during the placement, and to enable resource sharing and networking.