Enhancing postgraduate supervision through a process of conversational inquiry

This paper outlines and begins to evaluate a process to build a critical and reflective community of postgraduate supervisors who can develop their supervision practice through reflective conversations, with the sharing of best practice and reference to research-based evidence. In 2009, the initiative of the Postgraduate Supervisors’ Conversations was set up through the collaboration of the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Postgraduate) and the Teaching Development Unit at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. We designed this initiative to complement the compulsory workshops for postgraduate supervisors that are intended to provide foundation skills. We aimed to create a professional development opportunity that could enhance supervisors’ capacity to manage the ongoing interpersonal and academic complexity of the supervision process as well as its dynamic character. This paper outlines the rationale for the Postgraduate Supervisors’ Conversations, describes its implementation and discusses the implications of an initial evaluative focus group discussion with attendees

THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS’ USE OF JAVANESE LANGUAGE

This paper concerns the use of Javanese language by English department students of Diponegoro University, Semarang, Indonesia. The students selected as the subjects of research are those of the second (2 nd ) and fourth (4 th ) semesters whose both parents are Javanese. In total, there were sixty-two (62) students participating in the research. The students were given questionnaires and discourse completion tasks to fill in; the questionnaires were used to elicit data regarding the students’ choice of codes in the family or home domain, and the discourse completion tasks (DCT-s) were used as a means to double check their answers in the questionnaires. The highest statistics of Javanese usage in the family domain is between the respondents and their older siblings because within this context they can use ngoko, the style of Javanese they master the most, whereas in interactions other than that with their siblings, the students must use krama, madya or ngoko alus styles, depending upon the participants’ ages, social status and distance. Most of the students, as is shown in the DCT-s, are at best in the ngoko style

Double-transverse spin asymmetries at NLO

We report on a next-to-leading order QCD calculation of the cross section and the spin asymmetry for isolated large-p_T prompt photon production in collisions of transversely polarized protons. Corresponding measurements may be used at RHIC to determine the transversity parton distributions of the proton.Comment: 3 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure as eps file. Invited talk presented by W. Vogelsang at the "Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics (CIPANP 2003)", New York City, May 19-24, 200

Physics reach of rare b-decays

I discuss the theoretical and empirical status of $b \to s \gamma$, $b \to s \ell^+ \ell^-$ decays, as well as their future prospects. I emphasize those observables in rare $b$-decays which can potentially establish new physics and distinguish between extensions of the Standard Model. I briefly review current models of electroweak symmetry breaking, all of which can carry interesting flavor characteristics accessible with $b$-physics experiments.Comment: Invited talk at the 5th International Conference on Hyperons, Charm and Beauty Hadrons (BEACH 2002), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 25-29, 2002. To be published in the proceedings; 7 pages, 5 figures, uses espcrc2.st

Work for Image and Work for Pay

Standard economic models with complete information predict a positive, monotonic relationship between pay and performance. This prediction does not always hold in experimental tests: offering a small payment may result in lower performance than not offering any payment. We test experimentally two main explanations that have been put forward for this result: the "incomplete contract" hypothesis views the payment rule as a signal given to subjects on purpose of the activity. The "informed principal" hypothesis views it as a signal concerning the characteristics of the agent or of the task. The incomplete contract view appears to offer the best overall explanation for our results. We also find that high-powered monetary incentives do not "crowd out" intrinsic motivation, but may elicit "too much" effort when intrinsic motivation is very high.

Independent Evaluation of the Jim Joseph Foundation's Education Initiative Year 4 Report

Research indicates that well-prepared educators help produce strong learning outcomes for students. For the continued health of Jewish education, higher education institutions should have the capacity to prepare sufficient numbers of highly qualified educators and education leaders for careers in Jewish education. Teachers, division heads, and school heads represent a substantial segment of the educator population in Jewish day schools. More than 5,000 educators enter new positions in Jewish day schools every year and are in need of adequate preparation. The most frequent obstacle to instructional quality in Jewish day schools is the difficulty in recruiting qualified teachers (Ben-Avie & Kress, 2006; Jewish Education Service of North America, 2008; Kidron et al., in press; Krakowski, 2011; Sales, 2007).A similar problem has been observed in supplementary schools in congregational or communal settings. These schools enroll the majority of Jewish children and adolescents receiving a Jewish education in the United States (Wertheimer, 2008). In recent years, congregations have begun to replace traditional educational programs with new approaches that aim to raise the quality of instruction and the level of parent and student satisfaction relative to their programs. These new approaches may include greater integration of experiential Jewish education and community service, family learning, and the integration of all aspects of congregational learning under the leadership of one director (Rechtschaffen, 2011; Sales, Samuel, Koren, & Shain, 2010). High-quality programs that are updated or reconstructed across time to meet the needs of the Jewish community require well-prepared directors and educators. However, many directors and educators in congregational schools have not participated in teacher preparation programs, and the depth of Jewish content knowledge among these teachers is highly variable (Stodolsky, Dorph, & Rosov, 2008)

Source of CP Violation for the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe

We give a description of why the existence of a fourth generation is likely to provide enough CP violation for baryogenesis, and trace how this observation came about. We survey the current experimental and theoretical pursuits and outline a research agenda, touching upon unitarity violation and very heavy chiral quarks, and comment on how the electroweak phase transition picture might be altered.Comment: Invited talk presented at 2nd International Workshop on Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Matter-antimatter Asymmetry, Hsinchu, Taiwan, November 5-6, 201