Some Years 10-12 students' perceptions and experiences of their religious education programs: Implications for curriculum development and planning

The nature and purpose of Religious Education in Catholic schools has continued to be the subject of much interest and discussion. Contributors to the field operate out of varied contexts and concerns which reflect different understandings of the nature and purpose of the subject. This has been influenced, as much, by the cultural, political and technological changes in society as by reforms that were introduced at the wider school curriculum level which have been a response to new knowledge about the learning process and a focus on the individual student’s growth and development

Promoting inter-spiritual education in the classroom: Exploring a concept at the heart of the perrenial philosophy as a useful strategy to encourage freedom of religious practice and belief

The beginning of the twenty-first century has witnessed the emergence, globally, of multi-faith, multicultural and multi-linguistic societies which, in some ways, have ‘grown’ more inclusive and interactive communities with increased tolerance levels. Nonetheless, recent global events in the political, cultural and religious spheres have resulted in division, discrimination and distrust, often between different religious groups. This paper argues that what is needed is an inter-spiritual education for all students, one that promotes dialogue and engagement and which reflects the perennial philosophy, as discussed by Huxley (1945) where two thought patterns prevail in all the main religions: the esoteric and the exoteric. The first subscribes to the metaphysic of a divine Reality at the core of being; it is the spiritual, almost secretive face of religion and is practised by only a few adherents. The second is the exoteric form which is the public form by which the religion is usually identified, that is, through its rituals, practices, architecture and so on. Arguably, it is this form in today’s world that tends to exclusivity; it provides a boundary around its followers which promotes a sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Thus, the exoteric form encourages divisiveness but the essence of esoteric thinking is connectedness. Education programs that address these two dimensions may lead to a change in consciousness where respect for and acceptance of the Other is paramount and, therefore, such programs may be more appropriate for the contemporary world. However, there is, first, a brief discussion of the context that seems to call for a program in interspiritual learning

The Complex Reasons for Missing Spirituality. A Response to Democratic Foundations for Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy

This article is written in response to Lingley’s (2016) concept of spiritually responsive pedagogy. To begin with, the word spiritual, when applied to education, still attracts varied responses. Therefore, I have begun by examining contemporary understandings of spirituality as reflected in current research and literature, which provides an informed context for my response. I follow up by aligning some of the key features noted by Lingley in democratic education and spiritually responsive pedagogy to other perspectives that deal with the spiritual dimension in education; I do this in order to offer a supportive stance to Lingley’s assertion that, if we are to address the real needs of our students today and prepare them to meet the challenges of the world of tomorrow, we must incorporate spiritually responsive pedagogy into educational policy and practice

Quantifying the decay of quantum properties in single-mode states

The dissipative dynamics of Gaussian squeezed states (GSS) and coherent superposition states (CSS) are analytically obtained and compared. Time scales for sustaining different quantum properties such as squeezing, negativity of the Wigner function or photon number distribution are calculated. Some of these characteristic times also depend on initial conditions. For example, in the particular case of squeezing, we find that while the squeezing of CSS is only visible for small enough values of the field intensity, in GSS it is independent of this quantity, which may be experimentally advantageous. The asymptotic dynamics however is quite similar as revealed by the time evolution of the fidelity between states of the two classes.Comment: Accepted versio

The Transmission of a Religious Heritage to Younger Members of Small Ethnic Communities in a Pluralist Society: The Perceptions of Young Australian Copts

Contemporary Australia has clearly become a multi-faith and multi-cultural society. Even within the mainstream Christian religions there are many new arrivals whose countries of origin are non Euro-centric, and they have brought with them a wide variety of cultural practices that are different from the Anglo-Saxon/Celtic culture that has dominated Christian practice in this country. Consequently, the 'face' of Australian Christians has been slowly changing. In particular, young Australians have been exposed to a wide range of cultural and religious practices through both community interaction and a highly influential media. Within this framework, the Copts are a small growing ethnic community who are focused on handing on their cultural and religious heritage to their younger members. This paper will explore the transmission of the Coptic religious heritage, and discuss what some school-going Copts say about the various influences on their religiosity and spirituality

Mixedness and entanglement for two-mode Gaussian states

We analytically exploit the two-mode Gaussian states nonunitary dynamics. We show that in the zero temperature limit, entanglement sudden death (ESD) will always occur for symmetric states (where initial single mode compression is $z_0$) provided the two mode squeezing $r_0$ satisfies $0 < r_0 < 1/2 \log (\cosh (2 z_0)).$ We also give the analytical expressions for the time of ESD. Finally, we show the relation between the single modes initial impurities and the initial entanglement, where we exhibit that the later is suppressed by the former.Comment: Accepted for publication in Optics Communication

Characteristic Time and Maximum Mixedness: Single Mode Gaussian States in Dissipative Channels

We derive an upper limit for the mixedness of single bosonic mode gaussian states propagating in dissipative channels. It is a function of the initial squeezing and temperature of the channel only. Moreover the time at which von Neumann's entropy reaches its maximum value coincides with that of complete loss of coherence, thus defining a quantum-classical transition.Comment: Accepted versio

Estudo prévio de uma unidade industrial para produção de vinagrete sólido

Este trabalho consiste num estudo prévio tendo em vista o projeto de uma unidade industrial para a produção de vinagrete sólido. O produto em causa, o vinagrete sólido, assume-se como inovador, colocando-se como uma alternativa fácil para o tempero de saladas e potenciando novos sabores agradáveis ao paladar que cativem o consumidor. O trabalho inclui o estudo do processo, com descrição das etapas de preparação, os balanços mássicos, a descrição das peças de equipamento, a implantação fabril e uma breve estimativa do investimento necessário