The signature of the whole. Radical interconnectedness and its implications for global and environmental education

The author presents a holistic concept of Global Learning, concerning different scientific disciplines, spiritual suggestions and practical consequences. He interprets the global environmental crisis especially as a crisis of worldview, stamped by mechanistic belief. (DIPF/Orig.)Der Autor präsentiert ein holistisches Konzept Globalen Lernens in Auseinandersetzung mit verschiedenen Wissenschaftsdisziplinen, spirituellen Anregungen und praktischen Konsequenzen. Die globale Umweltkrise interpretiert er dabei v. a. als eine Krise der Betrachtung von Welt, die von mechanistischem Denken geprägt sei. (DIPF/Orig.

Responding to globalisation and the global condition. Technocratic skills or normative ideals for transformation? A critique of Douglas Bourn\u27s conception of global education

This article reacts to the response of Doug Bourn to David Selby\u27s article in the last number of ZEP. David Selby overviews different renditions of global education \u27Global Competitiveness Education, Reformist Global Education, Transformative Global Education\u27 and locates Bourns position as falling between the competitiveness and reformist agendas. He argues that such a position brushes too closely against calls for technocratic and skills-based education that are influenced by globalization and the needs of the global marketplace. He also sees such an approach as overly conforming to the culture of compliance currently prevailing within UK education. Selby argues for a transformative global education, the first premise of which is \u27that we live on a planet, not in a market\u27. (DIPF/Orig.)Dieser Beitrag reagiert auf die Erwiderung von Doug Bourn auf den Beitrag von David Selby in der letzten Ausgabe der ZEP (Selby, David: The signature of the whole: radical interconnectedness and its implications for global and environmental education, ZEP 27(2004)4, S. 23-31). Der Autor gibt einen Überblick der verschiedenen Einschätzungen Globaler Bildung - \u27globale Wettbewerbsbildung, re-formerische globale Bildung und transformative globale Bildung\u27 - und verortet die Position von Bourn zwischen einer Wettbewerbs- und Reformagenda. Selby argumentiert, dass solch eine Position zu nah an die Forderung technokratischer oder skills-orientierter Bildung herankommt, die von Globalisierung und den Bedürfnissen eines globalen Marktplatzes beeinflusst ist. Er sieht einen solchen Ansatz auch als zu konform mit einer \u27Kultur der Erfüllung\u27, die derzeit innerhalb der Bildung Großbritanniens vorherrsche. Selby plädiert für eine transformative globale Bildung, deren erste Prämisse ist, \u27dass wir auf einem Planeten und nicht in einem Markt leben\u27. (DIPF/Orig.

The middle Waikato Basin and hills

The middle Waikato (or Hamilton) Basin is a roughly oval-shaped depression more than 80 km north to south and more than 40 km wide. The basin, except in the south, is almost completely surrounded by ranges up to 300 m high, broken by only a few gaps. In the south the basin floor rises gradually and merges with the dissected plateaux of the King Country

Judging a book by its cover: how much of REF `research quality' is really `journal prestige'?

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a periodic UK-wide assessment of the quality of published research in universities. The most recent REF was in 2014, and the next will be in 2021. The published results of REF2014 include a categorical `quality profile' for each unit of assessment (typically a university department), reporting what percentage of the unit's REF-submitted research outputs were assessed as being at each of four quality levels (labelled 4*, 3*, 2* and 1*). Also in the public domain are the original submissions made to REF2014, which include -- for each unit of assessment -- publication details of the REF-submitted research outputs. In this work, we address the question: to what extent can a REF quality profile for research outputs be attributed to the journals in which (most of) those outputs were published? The data are the published submissions and results from REF2014. The main statistical challenge comes from the fact that REF quality profiles are available only at the aggregated level of whole units of assessment: the REF panel's assessment of each individual research output is not made public. Our research question is thus an `ecological inference' problem, which demands special care in model formulation and methodology. The analysis is based on logit models in which journal-specific parameters are regularized via prior `pseudo-data'. We develop a lack-of-fit measure for the extent to which REF scores appear to depend on publication venues rather than research quality or institution-level differences. Results are presented for several research fields.Comment: 50 pages, 19 figure

Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula : Case Studies from Thirty Countries

Información sobre Perú, pp. 170-171This document reports the findings of a UNICEF/UNESCO Mapping of Global DRR Integration into Education Curricula consultancy. The researchers were tasked with capturing key national experiences in the integration of disaster risk reduction in the curriculum, identifying good practice, noting issues addressed and ones still lacking and reviewing learning outcomes. The methodology employed has been one of meta-research of available literature and case study documentary research into the experiences of thirty countries. The most frequently found approach to DRR integration is that of infusion, i.e., disaster-related themes and topics that are woven into specific school subjects. DRR is, for the most part, integrated into a narrow band of subjects, typically the physical and natural sciences, although there are examples of its appearance across a wider range of subjects. There are a limited number of examples of DRR appearing as the primary focus or key strand within a special new subject area. Moreover, there is little evidence of cross-curricular linkages being forged nor of an interdisciplinary approach being adopted. If horizontal integration is not prominent, neither is vertical integration of DRR learning at the primary and secondary grade levels. A broad range of approaches to integrating disaster risk reduction has been identified: the textbook-driven approach; the pilot project approach; the centralized competency-based approach (in which curriculum development is determined by the identification of key competencies); the centrally developed special subject approach; the symbiosis approach (in which an established cross-curricular dimension such as environmental education, education for sustainable development or life skills education serves as a carrier for DRR); the ‘special event’ approach. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach are enumerated. Learning and teaching approaches used in addressing DRR curriculum tend to be generally limited in application. Links are not, in many cases, being made between the competency, community engagement and proactive citizenship ambitions of DRR and the need for interactive, participatory and ‘in the field’ learning through which competencies, involvement literacy and confidence are built. Successful examples of interactive, inquiry, experiential and action learning are to be found across the case studies but not in great numbers. There is little evidence for affective learning approaches (involving the sharing of feelings and emotions) even though learning about hazard and disaster can elicit a strong emotional response in the learner. The need for affective learning becomes ever stronger in that the increasing incidence of disaster means that pre-disaster learning is increasingly taking place in post-disaster or slow-onset disaster learning environments

Addressing some common objections to generalized noncontextuality

When should a given operational phenomenology be deemed to admit of a classical explanation? When it can be realized in a generalized-noncontextual ontological model. The case for answering the question in this fashion has been made in many previous works, and motivates research on the notion of generalized noncontextuality. Many criticisms and concerns have been raised, however, regarding the definition of this notion and of the possibility of testing it experimentally. In this work, we respond to some of the most common of these objections. One such objection is that the existence of a classical record of which laboratory procedure was actually performed in each run of an experiment implies that the operational equivalence relations that are a necessary ingredient of any proof of the failure of noncontextuality do not hold, and consequently that conclusions of nonclassicality based on these equivalences are mistaken. We explain why this concern in unfounded. Our response affords the opportunity for us to clarify certain facts about generalized noncontextuality, such as the possibility of having proofs of its failure based on a consideration of the subsystem structure of composite systems. Similarly, through our responses to each of the other objections, we elucidate some under-appreciated facts about the notion of generalized noncontextuality and experimental tests thereof.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures. Comments welcome

Use of 3D visualisation tools for representing urban greenspace spatial planning.

The objective of this paper is to report on the development of prototype models for use in raising public awareness of changes in urban areas, focusing on green spaces, and testing responses to scenarios of change. Specifically, the focus is on the design of appropriate types of outdoor features for community planning and engagement. This modelling is fulfilled using the Autodesk Maya, Google SketchUp and ArcGIS software packages together in a novel combination of spatial and visualisation tools. The experiment results show evidence that different types of 3D iconic symbols with interactive communication will influence participation and decision making in land use planning