Ch. 06 - Pilgrim and Quest Revisited

In Pictures of Music Education, Estelle Jorgensen extends her analysis of the pilgrimage metaphor and its associated model of quest in music education. The purpose of the present chapter is not to refute or critique Jorgensen’s work with this metaphor but to build on it by exploring even further the possible meanings captured by the metaphor for music educators. While the notion of pilgrimage carries religious overtones from its long association with faith practices, in a secularized world our present understandings continue to be shaped by remnants of meaning from past mythologies. To that end, various notions associated with pilgrimage are explored in the current context: quest (what is a pilgrimage?), hero (what is a pilgrim?), initiation and graduation (how does one get started on a pilgrimage?), journey (what is a pilgrimage like?), discipline (what does it take to be a pilgrim?), and paradise (where is the pilgrim headed and why?). The analysis suggests that the pilgrimage metaphor applied to music education evokes a progressive view of teaching and learning. The metaphor and its glosses may serve as a counterinfluence to standardized curricula, assessment procedures, and external expectations, for instance, that impact how music education is conducted today

Conceptual framework for a curriculum in social change

Colleges, universities, and many high schools are expressing their mission in terms of creating social change or contributing to the common good. Such a mission suggests that if they are going to graduate students who will fulfill this mission, they will need to consider how they will best prepare students to do this. The conceptual framework for a curriculum in social change in this article offers a holistic approach, taking into account what a student should know, be able to do, and what values and attitudes should be nurtured. To that end, the article identifies three competencies in the knowledge domain (scholarship, systemic thinking, and reflection), four in the skills domain (application, advocacy, collaboration, and political engagement), and three in the affective domain (ethics, commitment, and courage). Each of the competencies is supported by theory and illustrated in practice

Conceptual Framework for a Curriculum in Social Change

Colleges, universities, and many high schools are expressing their mission in terms of creating social change or contributing to the common good. Such a mission suggests that if they are going to graduate students who will fulfill this mission, they will need to consider how they will best prepare students to do this. The conceptual framework for a curriculum in social change in this article offers a holistic approach, taking into account what a student should know, be able to do, and what values and attitudes should be nurtured. To that end, the article identifies three competencies in the knowledge domain (scholarship, systemic thinking, and reflection), four in the skills domain (application, advocacy, collaboration, and political engagement), and three in the affective domain (ethics, commitment, and courage). Each of the competencies is supported by theory and illustrated in practice

Pentecostal spirituality and relationality: union with God in Christ through the Spirit

Pentecostal spirituality in relationality is a renewal approach to union with God through the works of Christ and the Spirit. This thesis re-envisions Land’s apocalyptic approach to Pentecostal spirituality, which is centred on a passion for the kingdom of God, through a lens of relationality in theological anthropology. By transforming and reconfiguring Pentecostal orthodoxy, orthopathy and orthopraxy, the renewal approach elevates apocalyptic Pentecostal spirituality to the level of relationality for union with God in Christ through the Spirit. That is, the renewal approach attempts to build Pentecostal spirituality upon the relationality that is grounded first in an anthropological understanding of union with God, and second in a dialogue with Spirit-Christology in the trinitarian concept. A passion for union with God is the heart of Pentecostal spirituality, because relationality for union with God reaches deep into Pentecostal beliefs, affections and practices. The union with God embraces both the Western concept of justification and the Eastern idea of theosis or deification. As a synthesis of the West and the East, such union is both instantaneous and progressive; it begins with regeneration, is transformed by sanctification, is embodied by Spirit baptism, and is achieved by Christ’s return and glorification

Three Essays on Household Finance.

This dissertation studies household saving and investment decisions in a variety of circumstances. The first chapter of the dissertation investigates the effects of housing and labor income risk on household stock investment behavior. Housing market risk is geographically heterogeneous in that house price growth rate and its correlations with stock return and local labor growth rate vary across regions. In the presence of housing market risk, which is not easily diversifiable due to a special characteristic of houses as a residence, households adjust their stock share according to local housing market risk. Households in areas where the housing market risk is higher tend to respond by holding less stock in their portfolios, although this tendency weakens after retirement when labor income risk disappears. This finding suggests that housing market risk exerts more influence on household portfolio choice when it is combined with labor income risk. In the second chapter, the effect of retirement on portfolio choice is examined. The conventional wisdom suggests that, when labor income is reduced, households should hold more safe assets in their portfolios after retirement. However, little theoretical consensus has been reached and empirical evidence has been scarce to evaluate this argument. This chapter provides empirical evidence that the retirement has a causal effect on portfolio choice. The household level panel data and the instrumental variable approach are used to deal with endogeneity problem and identify the effect of retirement. The result shows that the retirement causes a 5-7 percent increase in risky shares in portfolios. The third chapter examines the cash-out mortgage refinancing behavior and its effect on portfolio rebalancing. Owing to the mortgage market expansion and low mortgage interest rate in the early 2000s, households cashed out a large amount of home equity. Cashed-out households reduce their home equity actively, thus rebalancing their portfolios. This rebalancing effect, however, is offset due to aggressive investments in other real estate. As households increased their real estate holdings using cashed-out home equity, they enjoyed a greater leveraging effect in real estate investment during the booming housing market, while household portfolios became more vulnerable to housing market risk.PhDEconomicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113308/1/tynam_1.pd

Cultural Perspectives on Social Responsibility in Higher Education

The writers of the UNESCO document, Rethinking education: Towards a global common good? challenge educators to address their efforts to meet the current threats to sustainable life for all who share this planet. One way that higher education has been attempting to do this is through campus-community partnerships working to solve social problems locally or further afield. In this exploratory study, answers were sought to the question of why faculty members and administrators participate in these service partnerships, both in terms of what motivates them to do so and what they hope to accomplish, and how cultural context may influence their answers. Answers to these questions may have implications for faculty recruitment and support and for curriculum design and student preparation for serving the common good as well as for the larger vision of how institutions might fulfill their social responsibility. Using one-on-one semi-structured interviews in a number of different countries, some trends could be identified. Responding to a sense of duty was found across all cultural contexts as a primary motivator for faculty members and administrators, but how duty was interpreted and legitimized depended on their various religious and political grounds. Cultural context also influenced whether participants saw their impact as empowering their service partners or establishing social justice

ELECTROKINETIC STABILIZATION OF KAOLINITE SLOPE

This report assists the remedy selection process by providing the best methodology in conducting the electrokinetic method in term of stabilizing kaolinite slope. The reports also discuss the objectives of this research and the way how to run the testing or experiment from the model which is specially design for testing purposes.The objectives of this study are to determine the effectiveness of the electrokinetic method for the purpose of soil treatment. Some of experiments were conducted on the kaolinite soil such as sieve analysis, Compression test for soil strength and vane shear test. All those testing were intended to establish the properties of the kaolinite soil. The experimental work was done using the model which specially fabricated. The dimension of the model work is 9" X 16" in the box shapes consist the slope of kaolin. Several set of laboratory testing have been done to ensure that the soil properties was the same with a real kaolin properties and to ensure it is suitable to use in test. Three factors were considered in this testing which is moisture content, shear strength and the current flow in the soil. From the result obtained, it was found that electrokinetic method was shown some improvement in the desired factors. Overall, the study on Electrokinetic Stabilization of kaolinite slope was observed to be effective as the method capable on increased the strength of the slope. From the analysis, it also found that the effectiveness of the electrokinetic method depends on the voltage, period of testing and also the arrangement of the cathodes and anodes along the slope. However, the thorough study and research should be made for more findings in the future

Keeping students in by sending them out: Retention and service-learning

This review of recent literature examines the research on the impact of service-learning on student retention. The theoretical framework of the review draws on both Tinto’s model of student attrition and Knowles’s theory of adult learning, which together suggest that academic and social integration, active participation and engagement in learning, and application and relevancy of the subject-matter under study are key factors in student success. The role of these factors has been confirmed in a growing body of research around learning experiences in general and, as this review shows, particularly in service-learning experiences. Suggestions are made for how future research might expand and critically deepen this evidence and offers some implications for service-learning as a means of improving student retention.DOI: 10.18870/hlrc.v4i2.17

Wideband Multi-Port Reflectometer as an Alternative in Reflection Coefficient Measurement

 This paper presents the characterization and operation of an alternative device, which is known as multi-port reflectometer to measure the reflection coefficient of any device under test (DUT). Its configuration is formed by two power dividers (D) and four couplers (Q). The characterization is evaluated through the centres of power circles that also known as q-points. Its operation in the reflection coefficient measurement is tested by using three DUTs. The reflectometer’s good performance and wideband operation are proven between the frequency band of 1 and 6 GHz via the practical hardware measurement in the laboratory