The indirect approach

Aid and conditionalities are the"carrots and sticks"of the conventional, direct approach to fostering economic development. The economic theory of agency is the most sophisticated treatment of the direct carrots-and-sticks approach to influencing human behavior. Considering the outcomes of the conventional approach, it might be worthwhile to explore alternative indirect approaches that focus on enabling clients to act more autonomously, rather than try for fuller control of clients'actions (or"agents"behaviors) with improved carrots and sticks. Are there inherent limitations in the direct approach that will not be addressed with better crafted"agency contracts"or closer monitoring of the agents? The author traces the intellectual history of indirect approaches from Socrates to modern thinkers, such as Wittgenstein, Gandhi, and McGregor. One theme of his survey is that constructivist and active-learning pedagogies constitute an indirect approach in which the teacher does not directly transmit knowledge to the learner, through training, and instruction. These pedagogies - translated into social and economic development as learning writ large - from the basis for an alternative indirect approach to fostering development. Actions have motives, just as beliefs have grounds, concludes the author. In the wide spectrum of human endeavor, there is only a fairly small"bandwidth"in which motives can be supplied by the carrots, and sticks of the direct approach (including agency theory, and market-driven activities as special cases of the direct approach to affecting behavior). Outside that spectrum, trying to use direct methods in a controlling manner, contradicts the motives for actions (and the grounds for beliefs) - like trying to"buy love."For higher activities, motives must come from within. Helpers can at best use an indirect approach to bring doers to the threshold; the doers have to do the rest, which makes the results their own.Public Health Promotion,Teaching and Learning,Curriculum&Instruction,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Educational Sciences,Educational Sciences,Teaching and Learning,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,General Technology,Curriculum&Instruction

Conditions of learning for older learners in some previously disadvantaged schools in the Cape region : a qualitative exploration

Bibliography: leaves 104-107.This study explores the positioning of learners who are more than three years older than age•norms for their school grades in societal, institutional and situational levels of education discourse in SouthAfrica. A review of research literature, of samples of lay discourse and of policy documents reveals tensions between industrially derived assumptions and rights-based assumptions in education discourse at societal and institutional levels. These opposing assumptions are seen to simultaneously disadvantage older learners while appearing to hold out the promise of unconditional inclusion in schooling. A qualitative empirical study traces some of the effects of the tension in education discourse on learners at a situational level of education discourse, namely schooling. The conclusions of the study suggest that the resolution of the tension in accordance with rights-based assumptions would result in radical reconceptualising of schooling arrangements and learner assessment. Suggestions are proposed for a research agenda that the reconceptualising of schooling might generate

Conditions of learning for older learners in some previously disadvantaged schools in the Cape region : a qualitative exploration

Bibliography: leaves 104-107.This study explores the positioning of learners who are more than three years older than age•norms for their school grades in societal, institutional and situational levels of education discourse in SouthAfrica. A review of research literature, of samples of lay discourse and of policy documents reveals tensions between industrially derived assumptions and rights-based assumptions in education discourse at societal and institutional levels. These opposing assumptions are seen to simultaneously disadvantage older learners while appearing to hold out the promise of unconditional inclusion in schooling. A qualitative empirical study traces some of the effects of the tension in education discourse on learners at a situational level of education discourse, namely schooling. The conclusions of the study suggest that the resolution of the tension in accordance with rights-based assumptions would result in radical reconceptualising of schooling arrangements and learner assessment. Suggestions are proposed for a research agenda that the reconceptualising of schooling might generate

Analysis of Intrinsic Motivation during a Problem-Solving activity

This literature review is part of the work carried out within the AIDE (Artificial Intelligence Devoted to Education) exploratory action. The team at the origin of this work allows researchers from digital sciences (computer science and applied mathematics), cognitive neurosciences and education sciences to join forces within this exploratory action to try to understand, within a specific framework, how learners learn.How do we learn? This is one of the questions that the AIDE exploratory action tries to answer, in a specific paradigm. But what is learning? How can studying the functioning of the brain have an impact on education? What about digital technologies? To what extent does it intervene in the field of neuroscience and is it at the heart of educational sciences? At this stage, contextual and conceptual clarification is necessary.This report proposes some answers from the existing literature

Controlling the imagination :how do teachers and managers of adult language literacy and numeracy define achieve and maintain quality

Controlling the Imagination is an exploration of the tensions embedded in the notion of quality when it is\ud used in relation to the teaching and managing of Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy, with specific\ud relation to 'Skills for Life' — New Labour's policy attempt, instigated in 1999, to improve the basic\ud skills of adults living in England. The thesis offers an analysis that charts the development of discourses\ud around quality from the vague and attractive transcendental quality of the 18th C artisan to its object like\ud textualisation in the Common Inspection Framework. Through critical discourse analysis and interview\ud data with teachers and managers in further and adult education colleges graded as good or outstanding\ud in their most recent ALI / OfSTED inspection, the text traces the contours along which practitioners\ud experience the tension between quality-as-professional-aspiration in contrast to quality-as-demanded by\ud policy. This axis, wrenched apart in several directions, is further complicated by the tension between\ud quality-as-abstract and quality as embodied in day-to-day experience. I argue that practitioners talk\ud about quality in ways that journey through these competing and contrasting meanings. In considering the\ud implications of these ideas about quality, the thesis explores the research, policy and practice nexus.\ud Research can inform policy and practice, but it can also lead to uncomfortable and unsettling conclusions\ud that to some extent also unframe professional practice.\ud Key concepts: quality, adult literacy, professionalism, policy, Skills for Life, basic skills, research and practice, further\ud education,\u

The Evolution of Sociology of Software Architecture

The dialectical interplay of technology and sociological development goes back to the early days of human development, starting with stone tools and fire, and coming through the scientific and industrial revolutions; but it has never been as intense or as rapid as in the modern information age of software development and accelerating knowledge society (Mansell and Wehn, 1988; and Nico, 1994, p. 1602-1604). Software development causes social change, and social challenges demand software solutions. In turn, software solutions demand software application architecture. Software architecture (“SA”) (Fielding and Taylor, 2000) is a process for “defining a structural solution that meets all the technical and operations requirements...” (Microsoft, 2009, Chapter I). In the SA process, there is neither much emphasis on the sociological requirements of all social stakeholders nor on the society in w hich these stakeholders use, operate, group, manage, transact, dispute, and resolve social conflicts. For problems of society demanding sociological as well as software solutions, this study redefines software application architecture as “the process of defining a structured solution that meets all of the sociological , technical, and operational requirements…” This investigation aims to l ay the groundwork for, evolve, and develop an innovative and novel sub-branch of scientific study we name the “Sociology of Software Architecture” (hereinafter referred to as “SSA”). SSA is an interdisciplinary and comparative study integrating, synthesizing, and combining elements of the disciplines of sociology, sociology of technology, history of technology, sociology of knowledge society, epistemology, science methodology (philosophy of science), and software architecture. Sociology and technology have a strong, dynamic, and dialectical relationship and interplay, especially in software development. This thesis investigates and answers important and relevant questions, evolves and develops new scientific knowledge, proposes solutions, demonstrates and validates its benefits, shares its case studies and experiences, and advocates, promotes, and helps the future and further development of this novel method of science

Formative Research on an Instructional Design Theory for Virtual Patients in Clinical Education: A Pressure Ulcer Prevention Clinical Reasoning Case

Despite advances in health care over the past decades, medical errors and omissions remain significant threats to patient safety and health. A large number of these mistakes are made by trainees, persons who are just beginning to build the case-based experiences that will transform them from novices to expert practitioners. Clinicians use both intuitive and deductive problem-solving skills in caring for patients and they acquire expertise in applying these skills through interaction with many and varied cases. The contemporary heath care environment, with decreased lengths of stay for patients and reduced duty hours for trainees, makes getting optimal patient exposure difficult. Virtual patients (VPs), online, interactive patient cases, may help close the case exposure gap. Evidence has shown that VPs improve clinical reasoning skills, but no formal instructional design theory of VPs has been advanced. The goal was to conduct formative research to develop an instructional design theory of VPs to help novice clinicians cultivate clinical reasoning and diagnostic skills. The instructional design theory, goal-based scenarios (GBS), grounded in the learning theory, Case-based Reasoning, provided methods that promised to be appropriate to the goal. An existing, two-module, multimedia VP, Matt Lane, A Pressure Ulcer Prevention Virtual Patient, was tested with 10 medical trainees to determine which methods of GBS it incorporated and which of its methods were not part of GBS. Leaners\u27 experience of what worked and didn\u27t work to promote learning in the VP was analyzed. The VP was found to incorporate all GBS methods and one significant method, the Life Model, that was not part of GBS. The Life Model Method involved replicating, with a high degree of fidelity, the experiences of a real patient in creating the VP scenario. Recommendations for customization of GBS for VPs included more explicit advertisement of learning goals and leverage of Internet search engines to provide just-in-time resources to support problem-solving. Incorporation of the Life Model was also recommended along with the Simplifying Conditions Method from Elaboration Theory to manage the complexity inherent in the Life Model. The resultant, enhanced GBS theory may be particularly relevant in teaching patient-centered care