Character Development and the ‘In-Between’

A plethora of discussions have been made on character development since Aristotle’s musings on Eudaimonia. These musings have led to multiple perspectives on character development; however, they rarely touch on the area of the ‘in-between,’ a space of tensionality (Aoki 1996) for character development within multi-cultural settings. This article explores the concept of character development, discusses the importance of the language of virtues, critiques the notion of the ‘in-between,’ in connection with home- and host- cultures, and concludes with the implications of the ‘in-between’ within the context of character development in multi-cultural settings. The intent is to explore the ‘in-between’ as a space for negotiations that provide opportunities for character development

Collaborative, Reflective, and Iterative Japanese Lesson Study in an Initial Teacher Education Program: Benefits and Challenges

To investigate benefits and challenges to engage teacher candidates in Japanese lesson study, defined as a collaborative, reflective, and iterative teacher development pro‐ cess, we analyzed reflective papers submitted by 60 teacher candidates studying at an Ontario faculty of education, engaged 20 practicum associate teachers in a group dis‐ cussion, and considered the reflective notes of the course instructor (first author). Findings suggest that Japanese lesson study provides opportunities for teacher candi‐ dates to build professional learning communities, to deepen understanding of curric‐ ulum and pedagogy, and to develop habits of critical observation, analysis, and ref‐ lection. Although benefits of lesson study are numerous and significant, our research identified implementation challenges related to time, practicum placements, and the professional development of associate teachers. Key Words: professional learning communities, reflective practice, teacher collabora‐ tionEn vue d’analyser les avantages et les défis reliés à l’étude de leçon japonaise, une méthode de formation à l’enseignement axée sur la collaboration, la réflexion et l’itération, les auteurs ont (1) analysé les réflexions écrites de 60 candidats à l’enseignement étudiant dans une Faculté d’éducation en Ontario, (2) réuni 20 ensei‐ gnants associés pour une discussion en groupe et (3) analysé les notes de l’instructeur du cours. Les observations ainsi colligées donnent à penser que l’étude de leçons japonaises permet aux futurs enseignants de créer des communautés d’apprentissage professionnelles, de mieux comprendre le curriculum et la pédagogie et de dévelop‐ per des habitudes d’observation, d’analyse et de réflexion critiques. Bien que les avantages de l’étude de leçon soient nombreux et importants, cette recherche met en lumière les difficultés que pose sa mise en œuvre, notamment le temps requis, les endroits à trouver pour les stages et le perfectionnement professionnel des ensei‐ gnants associés. Mots clés : communautés d’apprentissage professionnelles, pratique réflexive, colla‐ boration du personnel enseignant.

Implementing the General Education Development (GED) Program in First Nations Communities: Struggles for Power

This paper describes an ethnographic case study of eleven First Nations adult learners in a Northern Ontario community attempting to earn secondary school equivalency through the General Education Development (GED) program. The paper maintains a focus on the power differentials at work in both the learners' prior educational endeavours and their experiences while working inside of the GED program. Based on the data, we argue that, despite appearances to the contrary, First Nations learners are subjected to a system of education that is failing to empower those learners to take advantage of educational opportunities that are available in mainstream Canadian society.Cet article décrit une étude ethnographique de cas auprès de onze apprenants adultes autochtones qui tentent, dans une communauté du Nord de l’Ontario, d’obtenir une équivalence d’études secondaires par des cours de formation générale (GED). Plus précisément, l’article porte sur les écarts systémiques de pouvoir qui entrent en ligne de compte tant dans les études préalables des apprenants que dans leurs expériences avec le programme GED. En s’appuyant sur les données, nous affirmons que, même si les apparences peuvent laisser supposer le contraire, les apprenants autochtones sont soumis à un système d’éducation qui ne réussit pas à les doter des compétences nécessaires pour saisir les possibilités éducatives offertes par la société canadienne

CHANGE FORCES: IMPLEMENTING CHANGE IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR THE COMMON GOOD

In this article, we investigate the change forces that act on administrators, subject department chairpersons and teachers as they seek to implement a change in a Canadian secondary school. Using a case study methodology, our analysis of the data uses Sergiovanni’s (1998) six change forces: bureaucratic, personal, market, professional, cultural, and democratic forces. Our interpretation supports the importance of the principal and administrators, working together with teachers, in implementing change. The analysis points to the chairperson of subject departments having a crucial, but often overlooked, role in the implementation of change. Three key co-requisites that allow chairpersons to play this critical role are: the existence of a school-level democratic commitment to the common good that guides the work of professional learning; the location of professional learning within departments to operationalise the common good; and, the capacity of the chairperson to fulfil their role as an instructional leader in the fullest sense of the term

An Investigation of the Effectiveness of Ignition Sparks

The effectiveness of ignition sparks was determined by measuring the volume (or mass) of hydrogen and of oxygen which combines at low pressures. The sparks were generated by a magneto and an ignition spark coil. It was found that with constant energy the amount of reaction increases as the capacitance component of the spark increases. The use of a series spark gap may decrease or increase the amount of reaction, the effect depending upon the amount and distribution of capacitance in the circuit. So far as the work has progressed, it has been found that sparks reported by other investigations as being most efficient for igniting lean mixtures cause the largest amount of reaction. Differences between the amount of reaction with a magneto spark and an ignition spark coil were noted. The method appears to offer a means of determining the most efficient spark generator for internal-combustion engines as well as determining a relation between the character of spark, energy, and effectiveness in igniting inflammable mixtures

Wind-blown mosquitoes and introduction of Japanese encephalitis into Australia.

Backtrack simulation analysis indicates that wind-blown mosquitoes could have traveled from New Guinea to Australia, potentially introducing Japanese encephalitis virus. Large incursions of the virus in 1995 and 1998 were linked with low-pressure systems that sustained strong northerly winds from New Guinea to the Cape York Peninsula

Characterization of superconducting through-silicon vias as capacitive elements in quantum circuits

The large physical size of superconducting qubits and their associated on-chip control structures presents a practical challenge towards building a large-scale quantum computer. In particular, transmons require a high-quality-factor shunting capacitance that is typically achieved by using a large coplanar capacitor. Other components, such as superconducting microwave resonators used for qubit state readout, are typically constructed from coplanar waveguides which are millimeters in length. Here we use compact superconducting through-silicon vias to realize lumped element capacitors in both qubits and readout resonators to significantly reduce the on-chip footprint of both of these circuit elements. We measure two types of devices to show that TSVs are of sufficient quality to be used as capacitive circuit elements and provide a significant reductions in size over existing approaches