DIALOGICAL SELF THEORY: AGAINST WEST VERSUS THE REST

Huimin Jin’s article on cultural self-confidence is a welcome invitation to deliver a short commentary from a western point of view. My purpose is to show that in Western scientific publications of the past decades, there is an increasing interest in both the necessity and fertility of developing a dialogical self as part of a globalizing world society. In this context, I discuss (a) the dialogical self as an alternative to Western individualism (b) the origin of Dialogical Self Theory and some of its main tenets; and (c) tension between global and local positions; and (d) the necessity of recognizing the otherness and alterity of voices emerging from different cultures and selves. I show that recent developments in Western social sciences are well in agreement with some of Jin’s main arguments on Chinese self-confidence

Foreword by Hubert Hermans

When a society becomes more complex and heterogeneous, the identity of teachers "is also challenged to become more complex and heterogeneous. The school, as a reflection of society, needs flexible educators, capable of adapting to change. From the perspective of Dialogical Self Theory, this flexibility translates into the need to adopt a multiplicity of positions of the self as involved in permanent dialogue. These I-positions have the quality of being individual, but also social and their coalition with the I-positions of others can generate shared positions or We-positions. This is an indispensable condition to achieve the successful development of innovative educational projects. Among the different functions that I-positions can adopt, two are crucial. The activation of metapositions that allow reflection on the other, more specific, positions and promoter-positions that provide a developmental impetus and direction to the other positions. The text ends by underlining the relevance of this dialogical perspective to the contemporary world.Cuando la sociedad se vuelve más compleja y heterogénea, la identidad de nuestros maestros es también desafiada para convertirse en más compleja y heterogénea. La escuela, reflejo de la sociedad, precisa de educadores flexibles, capaces de adaptarse a los cambios. Desde la perspectiva de la Dialogical Self Theory esta flexibilidad se traduce en la necesidad de adoptar una multiplicidad de posiciones del yo involucrado en un diálogo permanente. Estas I-positions tienen la cualidad de ser individuales, pero también sociales y su coalición con las I-positions de otros puede generar posiciones compartidas o We-positions. Se trata de una condición indispensable para lograr el desarrollo exitoso de proyectos educativos innovadores. Entre las distintas funciones que pueden adoptar la I-positions, dos resultan clave. La activación de meta-posiciones que permite la reflexión sobre otras posiciones, más específicas, y las posiciones-promotoras que proporcionan impulso y dirección en el desarrollo de otras posiciones. El texto finaliza subrayando la relevancia de esta perspectiva dialógica en el mundo contemporáneo

Educational Modelling Language

This chapter is about an open learning technology specification called Educational Modelling Language (EML, 2000). EML has been designed within the Development-programma of the Open University of the Netherlands as a means to support re-use and interoperability. This language and conceptual ideas behind it have evolved and have gained world-wide acceptance in the shape of the IMS-Learning Design. The chapter elaborates on the requirements for the creation this language and provides several examples of use, accompanied by the representation of these examples in the run-time system Edubox. Published as: Hermans, H., Manderveld, J., & Vogten, H. (2004). Educational Modelling Language. In W. Jochems, J. van Merrienboer, & R. Koper, Integrated e-Learning (pp. 80-99). London: RoutledgeFalmer

Flexible provisioning for adult learners

In adult education there is a continuous, growing demand for learning opportunities that fit the specific characteristics and preferences of particular learner groups or individual learners. This requires educational institutions to rethink their business and educational models, and develop more flexible online course solutions using ICT. An important downside of this trend is an increasingly complex logistic process that is very difficult to manage, in particular with respect to the provisioning process: which teaching and learning services and facilities should be made available, to whom, when, and how. Rather than implementing provisioning rules directly in the software applications that make up the online delivery environment, we propose a model for an educational provisioning system (EPS) that allows for highly flexible provisioning and reduces the workload drastically. This system is responsible for both expressing and processing provisioning rules that meet the demands of new (online) course models. It supports the use of so-called course access levels that enable to address and provision various learning target groups separately by means of a single course. For reasons of efficiency we suggest an architecture in which the EPS is loosely coupled to the applications in the teaching and learning environment. A first EPS implementation at the Open University of the Netherlands is presented and discussed

Flexible provisioning for adult learners

In adult education there is a continuous, growing demand for learning opportunities that fit the specific characteristics and preferences of particular learner groups or individual learners. This requires educational institutions to rethink their business and educational models, and develop more flexible online course solutions using ICT. An important downside of this trend is an increasingly complex logistic process that is very difficult to manage, in particular with respect to the provisioning process: which teaching and learning services and facilities should be made available, to whom, when, and how. Rather than implementing provisioning rules directly in the software applications that make up the online delivery environment, we propose a model for an educational provisioning system (EPS) that allows for highly flexible provisioning and reduces the workload drastically. This system is responsible for both expressing and processing provisioning rules that meet the demands of new (online) course models. It supports the use of so-called course access levels that enable to address and provision various learning target groups separately by means of a single course. For reasons of efficiency we suggest an architecture in which the EPS is loosely coupled to the applications in the teaching and learning environment. A first EPS implementation at the Open University of the Netherlands is presented and discussed

Modelling test-interactions

This report presents the results of work package 2 ('Technology') of the Development programme of the OUNL. The activities reported upon have been carried out from October 2001 until the first week of December 2001 on the specific area of test-interactions. Initially the intended scope was to cover the whole process of creating an UML domain model within the area of test-interactions, validating this model by gathering relevant cases and working out best practices, and at last translating this model into a XML DTD binding. However, reallocation of the available human resources in the beginning of December 2001 forced us to stop the process temporarily. As a result this report does not cover the whole spectrum, but presents the interim results. The main focus in this report is on the process of constructing a coherent domain model on interactions. The WP2 handbook on interactions complements this report

Adaptation of water resources systems to changing society and environment: a statement by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences

Hydrol. Sci. J.-J. Sci. Hydrol.ISI Document Delivery No.: EB2CDTimes Cited: 0Cited Reference Count: 153Ceola, Serena Montanari, Alberto Krueger, Tobias Dyer, Fiona Kreibich, Heidi Westerberg, Ida Carr, Gemma Cudennec, Christophe Elshorbagy, Amin Savenije, Hubert Van der Zaag, Pieter Rosbjerg, Dan Aksoy, Hafzullah Viola, Francesco Petrucci, Guido MacLeod, Kit Croke, Barry Ganora, Daniele Hermans, Leon Polo, Maria J. Xu, Zongxue Borga, Marco Helmschrot, Jorg Toth, Elena Ranzi, Roberto Castellarin, Attilio Hurford, Anthony Brilly, Mitija Viglione, Alberto Bloeschl, Guenter Sivapalan, Murugesu Domeneghetti, Alessio Marinelli, Alberto Di Baldassarre, GiulianoPeople Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union [329762]; IRI THESys; German Excellence Initiative; EU [603587]IW acknowledges the support of the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's 7th Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/(grant agreement no. 329762). TK is funded, through IRI THESys, by the German Excellence Initiative. SC, AM, AC, and ET acknowledge financial support from the EU funded project SWITCHON (603587).Taylor & francis ltdAbingdonWe explore how to address the challenges of adaptation of water resources systems under changing conditions by supporting flexible, resilient and low-regret solutions, coupled with on-going monitoring and evaluation. This will require improved understanding of the linkages between biophysical and social aspects in order to better anticipate the possible future co-evolution of water systems and society. We also present a call to enhance the dialogue and foster the actions of governments, the international scientific community, research funding agencies and additional stakeholders in order to develop effective solutions to support water resources systems adaptation. Finally, we call the scientific community to a renewed and unified effort to deliver an innovative message to stakeholders. Water science is essential to resolve the water crisis, but the effectiveness of solutions depends, inter alia, on the capability of scientists to deliver a new, coherent and technical vision for the future development of water systems

Correction: Protocol of the Healthy Brain Study:An accessible resource for understanding the human brain and how it dynamically and individually operates in its bio-social context

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260952.]

Why Are Outcomes Different for Registry Patients Enrolled Prospectively and Retrospectively? Insights from the Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF).

Background: Retrospective and prospective observational studies are designed to reflect real-world evidence on clinical practice, but can yield conflicting results. The GARFIELD-AF Registry includes both methods of enrolment and allows analysis of differences in patient characteristics and outcomes that may result. Methods and Results: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and ≥1 risk factor for stroke at diagnosis of AF were recruited either retrospectively (n = 5069) or prospectively (n = 5501) from 19 countries and then followed prospectively. The retrospectively enrolled cohort comprised patients with established AF (for a least 6, and up to 24 months before enrolment), who were identified retrospectively (and baseline and partial follow-up data were collected from the emedical records) and then followed prospectively between 0-18 months (such that the total time of follow-up was 24 months; data collection Dec-2009 and Oct-2010). In the prospectively enrolled cohort, patients with newly diagnosed AF (≤6 weeks after diagnosis) were recruited between Mar-2010 and Oct-2011 and were followed for 24 months after enrolment. Differences between the cohorts were observed in clinical characteristics, including type of AF, stroke prevention strategies, and event rates. More patients in the retrospectively identified cohort received vitamin K antagonists (62.1% vs. 53.2%) and fewer received non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (1.8% vs . 4.2%). All-cause mortality rates per 100 person-years during the prospective follow-up (starting the first study visit up to 1 year) were significantly lower in the retrospective than prospectively identified cohort (3.04 [95% CI 2.51 to 3.67] vs . 4.05 [95% CI 3.53 to 4.63]; p = 0.016). Conclusions: Interpretations of data from registries that aim to evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of patients with AF must take account of differences in registry design and the impact of recall bias and survivorship bias that is incurred with retrospective enrolment. Clinical Trial Registration: - URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier for GARFIELD-AF (NCT01090362)