Perfection as a pedagogical category : evidence from the works of Polish Neo-Thomists

Fundamentem artykułu jest kategoria doskonałości. Autorka rozpoczyna od symbolicznego ukazania pochodzenia tego pojęcia w myśli filozoficznej: źródeł pojęcia, ewolucji definiowania oraz rozumienia doskonałości. Następnie wskazuje na związki doskonałości z pojęciami związanymi z wychowaniem (kalokagatia, paideia). Głównym celem niniejszej pracy jest zlokalizowanie kategorii doskonałości w myśli tomistycznej. Ma to miejsce w obszarach takich jak: wychowanie, moralność, cele wychowania oraz cele życia. Wśród pism polskich neotomistów autorka poszukuje odwołań do doskonałości, form jej postrzegania oraz zakresu realizacji tej kategorii. Kluczem do powyższych rozważań jest wykazanie zależności pomiędzy pojęciami doskonałości, cnoty i sprawności.The article is based on the category of perfection. The author begins by symbolically showing the origin of this concept in philosophical thought: the sources of the concept as well as the evolution of various defi nitions and conceptualisations of perfection. Then, she points to the relationship between excellence and concepts related to education (kalokagathia, paideia). The main purpose of this article is to situate the category of perfection in Neo-Thomistic thought. This takes place in such areas as: upbringing, morality, purposes of education and purposes of life. Among the works of Polish Neo-Thomists, the author seeks appeals to perfection, forms of its perception and the scope of this category. The analysis chiefly aims to show the relationship between the concepts of perfection, virtue and efficiency

Opportunities and threats of the upbringing in an intercultural family

Celem niniejszej pracy jest przedstawienie i omówienie szans oraz zagrożeń występujących w procesie wychowania w rodzinie międzykulturowej. Pierwszą część pracy stanowią rozważania teoretyczne oparte na analizie literatury. Przedstawione zostały pojęcia takie jak: szansa, zagrożenie, wychowanie. Następnie znajduje się charakterystyka rodziny międzykulturowa. Główną część pracy stanowią badania przeprowadzone wśród rodzin międzykulturowych. Badania zostały oparte na zdefiniowanych szansach oraz zagrożeniach w procesie wychowania. Całość pozwoliła na stworzenie obrazu specyfiki wychowania w rodzinie międzykulturowej.The purpose of this work is to present and discuss the opportunities and threats that occur in the process of upbringing in an intercultural family. The first part of the work is theoretical considerations based on the analysis of literature. There are concepts such as opportunities, threat, upbringing. Then there is characterisation of the intercultural family. The main part of the work is research conducted among intercultural families. The research was based on defined opportunities and threats in the upbringing process. The whole enabled the creation of the image and the specificity of upbringing in an intercultural family

Perfection as a pedagogical category and guiding idea in the writings of Kazimierz Twardowski

Nadrzędnym celem niniejszej pracy było poszukiwanie doskonałości – jako kategorii pedagogicznej i idei przewodniej – w pismach Kazimierza Twardowskiego. Poszukiwałam desygnatów oraz form wyrazu poprzez które doskonałość przejawiała się w misji uniwersyteckiej i praktyce pedagogicznej uczonego. Podstawę teoretyczną pracy tworzą: rekonstrukcja pojęcia doskonałości w myśli filozoficznej oraz poszukiwania doskonałości w wybranych koncepcjach pedagogicznych (pedagogika tomistyczna, pedagogika personalistyczna oraz pedagogika humanistyczna). Celem badań było dokonanie – na podstawie wybranych pism – rekonstrukcji rozumienia, zakresu i sposobów obecności doskonałości. Przedmiotem badań, a więc wybranym wycinkiem rzeczywistości poddanej badaniom, było rozumienie oraz praktyczne sposoby, zakresy, obszary realizacji i wdrażania kategorii doskonałości w uniwersyteckiej misji i praktyce dydaktycznej.The main purpose of this work was to seek perfection - as a pedagogical category and guiding idea - in the writings of Kazimierz Twardowski. I was looking for referents and forms of expression through which perfection manifested itself in the university mission and pedagogical practice.The theoretical basis of the work is constituted by the reconstruction of the concept of perfection in philosophical thought and the search for perfection in selected pedagogical concepts (thomistic pedagogy, personalistic pedagogy and humanistic pedagogy).The aim of the research was to - based on selected writings - reconstruct the understanding, scope and ways of the presence of perfection. The subject of the research, and thus a selected part of reality subjected to the research, was the understanding and practical ways, scopes, areas of implementation and implementation of the category of excellence in the university's mission and didactic practice

Team members’ direct participation in decision-making processes and the quality of decisions

PURPOSE: Do teams manage to reach better decisions than those made by individuals? Numerous studies have delivered inconclusive results. Meanwhile, participation in decision-making can take various forms and is not limited to consensus group decisions, and the influence of the various forms of participation on the quality of decisions has been less frequently examined. The aim of the research was to determine the effect on decision quality of changing the form of direct participation in the decision-making process in the case of complex, multi-stage problems. METHODOLOGY: The article presents the results of a long-term experiment in which 598 teams of 2,673 people took part. The participants were asked to solve a decision problem using three decision-making styles: autocratic, consultative, and group. The participants played the role of members of a newly established project team that must plan its own work. The task concerned a problem that requires the analysis of a number of dependencies between sub-problems, in contrast to eureka-type problems. The decision problem was new to the participants, making it impossible to apply known solutions; a creative approach was therefore required. The decision was then compared with the optimal solution established by experts. Decision quality was based on the deviation of the proposed solution from the optimal solution. FINDINGS: The results of the experiment confirm the significant synergistic potential of increasing direct participation in decision-making for complex, multi-stage problems. A significant proportion of teams made better decisions as a result of increasing direct participation – replacing autocratic decisions with consultative and group decisions. The quality of consultative decisions was roughly in the middle of autocratic and group decisions. By using group decision-making, teams made better decisions than the average individual decision and came closer to the decision quality achieved by the best team members. This effect was universal, observed both in the strongest and weakest teams. It should be remembered that, while group decision-making has the potential for synergy, it is not always achieved. Group decision-making markedly reduced the risk of making highly misguided decisions, and it can be reasoned that direct participation protects against serious mistakes more than it guarantees the best possible results. IMPLICATIONS: Team leaders should be familiar with different decision-making styles, their advantages and disadvantages, and the scope of their application. This research suggests that increasing team members’ participation to a consultative role and even better, a full participatory role, increases the quality of the decision. With the growing complexity of organizations that have to deal with accelerating change, technology development and increased competition, creating structures that can flexibly respond to the challenges of the environment requires the participation of team members at all managerial levels. The use of consultative and group decision-making styles for complex and multi-stage problems supports this process. The group decision-making style can bring better quality, but it has its limitations and it is not always possible to use it. It requires a team of highly competent people who identify themselves with the interests of the organization. Otherwise, the consultative form will bring better results. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: For the first time, an empirical study analyses the case of consultative decision-making, in which the team leader consults the individual opinions independently to finally come up with a final “team” decision. This approach is widely used by team leaders and managers in the field. This study shows that this approach constitutes an improvement over the individual (autocratic) one but still falls short of the group decision-making approach. Finally, this study which has been done with the largest number of participant teams (598 teams, 2,673 individuals), professionally active post-graduate students and over a 24-year period allows a sound statistical confirmation of the proposed decision quality improvement when moving from individual to consultative and group decision-making styles

The Potential Role of Proinflammatory Cytokines and Complement Components in the Development of Drug-Induced Neuropathy in Patients with Multiple Myeloma

The launch of novel chemotherapeutic agents—in particular, proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs—dramatically changed multiple myeloma (MM) therapy, improving the response rate and prolonging progression-free survival. However, none of the anti-MM drugs are deprived of side effects. Peripheral neuropathy (PN) seems to be one of the most pressing problems. Despite extensive research in this area, the pathogenesis of drug-induced peripheral neuropathy (DiPN) has not yet been fully elucidated. In the present study, we aimed to assess the potential relationship between proinflammatory factors and the development of PN in MM patients with particular emphasis on the application of VTD (bortezomib, thalidomide, dexamethasone) regimen. Our analysis identified increased concentrations of CCL2, IL-1β, and IFN-γ in plasma of MM patients during treatment, both with and without symptoms of PN, compared with untreated neuropathy-free MM patients. At the same time, the plasma concentration of IL-1β in patients with neuropathy was significantly increased compared with patients without PN before and during treatment. Moreover, the results were enhanced at the transcript level by performing global mRNA expression analysis using microarray technology. The most significant changes were observed in the expression of genes responsible for regulating immunological and apoptotic processes. An in-depth understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the development of DiPN might in the future reduce the incidence of PN and accelerate diagnosis, allowing the choice of neuropathy-free treatment strategies for MM