Teaching to discuss controversial public issues in fragile times: Approaches of Israeli civics teacher educators

Civics teachers play a critical role in maintaining classroom environments that encourage discussions of controversial public issues. Thus, preparing new teachers to consider the role of such discussions is crucial. Building on theories of teacher knowledge development, this study explores how Israeli civics teacher-educators conceptualize discussions as part of their courses. The findings present four approaches that include: discussion as a pedagogical practice; discussion as a means for reflection; discussion as a way to bring the curriculum to life; and discussion as a vehicle that represents disciplinary content. Based on these findings, the role of discussion as an educational goal, not just a secondary means, will be argued.     

Assessments to evaluate bilinguals: The overdue discussion of the deaf and hard of hearing student population in the United States

Assessment is a major part of the United States schooling system. Legal requirements make assessment a large part of practitioner responsibilities. The significance of assessment is, even more, the case for special populations such as bilingual hearing and Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, groups that are often the target of concern for English language development delays, differences, and/or disorders. In this article, we discuss the issues around assessing the language of Deaf and Hard of Hearing bilingual students in the United States. We highlight parallels between Deaf Education and hearing bilingual education in regard to language assessment, as well as discuss important distinctions such as the placement of Deaf Education within Special Education and working with two or more language modalities (e.g., signed, spoken, and written). In addition, alternative language assessment practices are discussed. We close this article by proposing ways for practitioners to satisfy legal and field mandates to assess Deaf and Hard of Hearing students while also applying best practices for assessing language skills in bilingual populations.     

Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions

The use of the internet and social media have changed consumer behavior and the ways in which companies conduct their business. Social and digital marketing offers significant opportunities to organizations through lower costs, improved brand awareness and increased sales. However, significant challenges exist from negative electronic word-of-mouth as well as intrusive and irritating online brand presence. This article brings together the collective insight from several leading experts on issues relating to digital and social media marketing. The experts’ perspectives offer a detailed narrative on key aspects of this important topic as well as perspectives on more specific issues including artificial intelligence, augmented reality marketing, digital content management, mobile marketing and advertising, B2B marketing, electronic word of mouth and ethical issues therein. This research offers a significant and timely contribution to both researchers and practitioners in the form of challenges and opportunities where we highlight the limitations within the current research, outline the research gaps and develop the questions and propositions that can help advance knowledge within the domain of digital and social marketing.     

Political Socialization of International Students: Public-Issue Discourse and Discussion on the College Campus

ABSTRACT

This study examined international students’ interests in public issues in the U.S. and motivational factors behind their discourse or avoidance of such issues. In-depth interviews with international students revealed that they discuss certain public issues in the U.S. to gain or exchange information and knowledge, because these issues are relevant to themselves and others, or due to the misconceptions that others have about their country. Moreover, international students tend to avoid certain public issues because of the level of their knowledge and lack of interest in such issues and in order to avoid dissonance caused by the public issues.     

Study on Farmers' Issues in Thomas Hardy's Novels

Lots of papers of periodicals concentrate on discussing the pessimistic fatalism of Hardy.Few concerns about farmers’issues in Hardy’s novels.This paper explores the farmers’issues in Hardy novels in three aspects.     

异种移植技术中的几个问题

简单地说,异种移植是将器官、组织或细胞从一个物种的机体内取出,植入另一物种机体内的技术。异种移植一方面能为得不到同种供体器官的病人带来生的希望,另一方面又存在着给整个人类带来跨物种感染和毁灭性疫病流行的潜在风险。本文对这一近年来充满争议、比较危险的基因工程应用技术的科学上的不确定因素,以及所引发的伦理问题进行分析,尝试着为今后在我国开展异种移植伦理问题的研究做一些初步的问题清理工作。     

The extreme as the normal; binary teaching and negative identification in religious education lessons about Islam

ABSTRACT

This article examines how representations of Islam in the media influence religious education. Reporting from a case study of religious education in an upper secondary school in Norway, the article analyses the way aspects of Islam are approached and structured by ongoing media debates. Based on research into media coverage of Islam in Norway, the article argues that when teachers adopt the polarized structure of media debates, they also come to privilege the more extreme actors in their teaching. Although the debates commonly present opposing views in order to give a balanced representation of the issue, the observed lessons often revolve around the most controversial side of the debate. This happens through what is called binary teaching and negative identification. In this way, lessons aimed at nuancing what is seen as biased media coverage of Islam, favouring controversial issues and extremism, may come to revolve around these same issues. The article claims that religious education in some instances reinforces the strong focus on controversial issues prominent in media coverage, confirming the ‘normality’ of extremism in Islam.     

毕业研究生的就业形势、问题与应对策略研究——以广西科技大学“控制理论与控制工程”专业为例

研究生作为国家高新技术人才的主力军,其就业质量影响着国家各个高新技术领域的发展,是实现高等教育可持续发展的重要标志。文章针对毕业生就业能力专门对广西科技大学“控制理论与控制工程”专业硕士毕业研究生进行调研,分析当前的就业形势,总结存在的主要就业问题,并提出相应改进的培养模式,以提高研究生的就业能力,增强其在人才市场中的竞争力。