New Technology Meets an Old Teaching Challenge: Using Digital Video Recordings, Annotation Software, and Deliberate Practice Techniques to Improve Student Negotiation Skills

There is a world of difference between teaching negotiation theory, which pertains to conceptual understanding, and teaching negotiation skills, which pertain to actual behavior in real‐world situations. The principle of reflective practice is widely used for theoretical instruction. Deliberate practice, however, is a more powerful model for skills training. Cognitive scientists have discovered that subjects will learn skills best when they perform well‐defined tasks at appropriate levels of difficulty, and when they are given immediate feedback, an opportunity to correct their errors, and an opportunity to practice until the tasks become routine. To satisfy the deliberate practice conditions for large graduate‐level negotiation courses (some as large as seventy students), students were assigned to use webcams with their laptop computers to video record their negotiation exercises. Before each exercise, students were assigned to prepare for and to concentrate on performing two or three well‐defined tasks. Students reviewed these recordings and commented on their performances in a journal before uploading the videos and journals to an assigned network folder. The instructor and teaching assistants then reviewed the journals and specified portions of the videos and provided individual written feedback to the students. The instructors found that student negotiating skills have improved significantly using this new system. In comparison with earlier semesters, students also felt they were involved in a more intense and personal learning experience. A majority of students reported they intend to apply the principles of deliberate practice in their professional lives after graduation. The authors have found this method continues to challenge their ability to identify and describe the skills used by expert negotiators. As an addition to this new methodology, two of the authors have spearheaded the development of video annotation software, known as “MediaNotes,” to help students and instructors review, comment upon, and learn from video recordings of negotiations. Based on their experiences using the software to support deliberate practice, the authors expect this tool to initiate a significant advance in our ability to recognize and describe expert negotiation behavior and in students’ ability to improve their negotiating skills.     

Improvisation and Teaching Negotiation: Developing Three Essential Skills

The notion of an adaptable negotiator, who can respond to any situation he or she encounters, resonates with every negotiation expert. Unexpected things happen in negotiation, and negotiators must be able to adapt in fleet and effective ways. Dealing with the unexpected, responding “in the moment,” and adapting effectively to sudden changes — these are the skills of an improvisational artist, and they are effective skills for negotiators to learn. How can improvisational skills be taught to negotiation students so that they will be able to draw upon these skills in the heat of a negotiation or mediation? By bringing together teachers of improvisation in various disciplines, we explored how improvisation is currently applied and taught in theater, business, and psychotherapy. We then developed some ideas about ways in which teachers of negotiation might begin to incorporate improvisation as part of the negotiation lesson plan.     

"Spontaneous" Interethnic Order: The Emergence of Collective, Path-Dependent Cooperation

Can "spontaneous," decentralized interethnic cooperation emerge among ethnic groups whose members heavily discount future interethnic relations and do not fear punishment for interethnic noncooperation? Why is it that once the interaction between two ethnic groups evolves along a certain (cooperative or conflictual) path it sometimes becomes harder for the interacting groups to reverse course and seek alternative paths? The answer to these two questions lies in the fact that individual members not only are always calculative and could hence act opportunistically, but also are interdependent and can learn from one another. Because the members of interacting groups operate interdependently they thereby create collective nonlinear path dependence. Using a social game (within evolutionary game theory) the article shows counterintuitively that the emergence of collective, nonlinear path dependence within and across ethnic groups whose members heavily discount the future and face no punishment for interethnic noncooperation makes "spontaneous" decentralized interethnic cooperation a long-run equilibrium. Collective cooperation can thus develop path-dependently among ethnic groups without a Damocles' sword of any sort hanging over their members' heads, even when most individuals are shortsighted and opportunistic.     

Learning leaders: The key to learning organisations

Learning and knowledge management are crucial capacities for many NGOs. This article attempts to answer such questions as: why is learning seen as so important for NGOs? How do successful NGOs actually learn? And what role do key individuals or leaders play in this process? The article draws heavily on the findings of a study of South Asian NGOs, which suggests that an NGO's ability to learn is dependent on its organisational culture and in particular the development of an internal culture of learning. The case studies from South Asia reveal that the creation of this 'learning culture' derives primarily from the attitude of the leadership towards learning: at the heart of a learning organisation is a 'learning leader'.     

Adult learning and literacy learning for livelihoods: some international perspectives

Reflecting contemporary interest in developing new adult literacy learning programmes based on ‘literacy for livelihoods’, this article examines some case studies from New Zealand, Bangladesh, and Egypt, illustrating literacy being used in livelihoods, and relates these to the kind of literacy being taught in many adult literacy programmes today. It argues that people often change their livelihoods, and that each livelihood has literacy practices embedded within it. The authors suggest that the use of these literacy practices embedded within the livelihood activities might be a better starting point for adult literacy learning than a school-based textbook.     

Journalism and cultural literacy: an exploration towards a model for training journalism students

SUMMARY

Since the end of the Second World War, the growing influence of television and the gradual decline of newspaper readership worldwide have been linked to a continuing lowering in the level of cultural literacy and general knowledge of the general population, and specifically that of adolescents. Various surveys have confirmed that specialisation can also be linked to this phenomenon.

Since 1987 the debate about the causes of the decline in acceptable levels of cultural literacy has centred on the study of E D Hirsch who refused to lay the blame for this state only at the door of television, rather suggesting that a great deal of accumulated evidence exists that faulty policy in the schools is the chief cause of deficient literacy and, eventually, cultural literacy.

Journalism educators are confronted daily by the reality of unacceptable levels of cultural literacy when it is often expected of them to bring journalism students up to standard, even in postgraduate courses.

In this article a brief historical background is given of the debate about the causes of cultural illiteracy. Definite proposals are also made to address the question of eliminating this problem among journalism students who purport to be the future information gatherers and messengers. Some of these are, inter alia, the introduction of stricter admission standards at journalism schools and a structured course in cultural literacy and general knowledge, as well as the teaching of higher-order skills (metaskills) to students.     

Assessment Procedures for Skills‐Based MBA Courses Adapted from the U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps Leadership Development Program

Measuring student progress toward the achievement of learning outcomes in negotiation skills courses is a difficult task. Measuring the effectiveness of the delivery of course instruction can be equally challenging. This article proposes some answers to these questions: How can student performance in skills such as negotiation, leadership, and teamwork (sometimes referred to as “soft skills”) be effectively measured and accurately evaluated? What standards can be used to determine whether student performance is superior, adequate, or inferior? How can teaching effectiveness be evaluated to determine whether students are receiving the instruction necessary to achieve the course learning objectives? This article describes how the authors collaborated on an adaptation of the assessment processes used in the U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadet Leadership Development Program for use in an MBA course on negotiation skills. We report on a pilot effort that has demonstrated that the ROTC‐style leadership assessment process can be successfully adapted for use in a graduate course on negotiation and that it provides useful means for evaluating both individual student performance and overall course effectiveness. While our work involved a negotiation course, we suggest that the process could be adapted for use in other skills‐oriented courses such as leadership.     

Whom do international donors support in the name of civil society?

International funding of civil society organisations within the framework of support for democratisation processes has increased significantly in recent years. Yet this raises a set of questions quite apart from the effectiveness of the activities of the recipient organisations. Who are these groups? Whom do they represent? What effect does international funding have on their organisational workings and their rootedness in their local societies and political systems? This article presents the results of a survey that examined the sources of financing, level of organisation, domestic constituencies, and relationships to political parties of 16 civil society groups in Latin America that received support from the National Endowment for Democracy in 1999. It finds that while the groups demonstrate a remarkable diversity in their sources of funding, all of them receive the lion's share of financing from international donors. The author argues, however, that given the scant possibilities for domestically generated funding, this dependence is to be expected. The article concludes with a series of questions about the meaning of international support for local groups in developing democracies and the potential effects it may have on de-linking such groups from their broader political and party system.     

Beyond access: Youth and digital skills

Abstract

There is an increasing growth in access to the Internet among youth, gained largely through cell phones, computer laboratories on campuses, home connections, and connections on personal computers. Also, the availability of social software tools for webpage creation, blogging, and creating and sharing multimedia content has made content creation relatively accessible. But are the youth using these tools effectively? What are the levels of digital skills among this population? This study investigates digital skills among South African university students. Through a survey conducted at ten universities, and two skill experiments conducted at two universities, this study explores the pattern of perceived skills and actual skills, to examine current trends of digital skills among the students. The findings reveal that forms of Internet access, the cost of access, social stratification, and inequalities have implications for the patterns of digital skills, with content creation being a challenge for many youth.     

制度变迁的经济效果——原苏东国家经济转轨20年回顾

原苏东国家向市场经济的转轨已近20年.这场规模宏大的制度变迁到底带来了怎样的经济效果?本文从体制变革进展、经济增长与收入分配状况三个方面比较研究了原苏东国家的转轨实践,得出结论:体制变革速度与经济发展实效之间,一方面存在后发赶超优势,即转轨速度慢的国家尽管摆脱转轨衰退的时间晚,但中期增长速度加快,甚至普遍超越转轨速度快...     

Magister- en doktorale navorsing — Departement Kommunikasiekunde,Unisa, 1991/92

SUMMARY

The visual representation of meaning is an extremely complex activity in computer system design. Apart from a few simple guidelines for screen design, little attention is being paid to the visual construction of meaning by means of illustrations, diagrams, symbols, etc. Also no widely agreed set of icons or symbols exist for use by system designers. Nor are there any proven procedures to improve the effectiveness of screen designs. Current design practices fail to address the underlying problem of the structural analysis of images and the communication of meaning.

This dissertation therefore investigates the nature of visual literacy in computer applications and offers a paradigmatic approach to the analysis and design of computer images as a method to increase the probability that the user will receive and interpret the intended message accurately. The proposed model includes taxonomies of the structure and organisation of visual images and a set of evaluation criteria.     

Bridging the gap between negotiating experience and analysis

This article describes a teaching approach aimed at helping students to develop the skills needed to understand the negotiation research literature as well as make them more sensitive observers of negotiation processes. The approach consists of moving from the students' specific experiences to a general framework which is used to analyze cases of international negotiation. Students then attempt to reconceptualize their experiences in terms of the framework's analytical categories. This approach is recommended as an alternative to role-play exercises for integrating experience and analysis in graduate courses on negotiation.In addition to teaching the course on negotiation processes (the subject of this article), he teaches courses on research methods in George Mason's doctoral program. Among recent projects, he just completed an analysis of diplomatic communications sent among the kingdoms during the Bronze Age.     

Civilian self-defense militias in civil war

To mitigate the costs associated with suppressing rebellion, states may rely on civilian self-defense militias to protect their territory from rebel groups. However, this decision is also costly, given that these self-defense groups may undermine control of its territory. This raises the question: why do governments cultivate self-defense militias when doing so risks that these militias will undermine their territorial control? Using a game theoretic model, we argue that states take this risk in order to prevent rebels from co-opting local populations, which in turn may shift power away from the government and toward the rebels. Governments strategically use civilian militias to raise the price rebels must pay for civilian cooperation, prevent rebels from harnessing a territory’s resources, and/or to deter rebels from challenging government control in key areas. Empirically, the model suggests states are likely to support the formation of self-defense militias in territory that may moderately improve the power of rebel groups, but not in areas that are either less valuable or areas that are critical to the government’s survival. These hypotheses are tested using data from the Colombian civil war from 1996 to 2008.     

Global attributes or local literacy? International students in Japan’s graduate employment system

International students graduating from Japanese universities are becoming an important component of graduate recruitment strategy in globalising Japanese firms. They are praised for possessing exactly the kinds of attributes seen as lacking in their Japanese counterparts – such as intercultural communication skills, self-confidence and a competitive spirit. Their value is also emphasised in national policies addressing the human resource challenges of globalisation. Higher education policy-makers, too, are increasingly conscious of the need to connect efforts to attract international students to Japan with strategies to maximise their utility in the Japanese workforce. To succeed in the job market, however, international students are required to conform to the conventions of graduate job-hunting. Career support services offered by universities and third-party intermediaries tend to focus on bringing students into line with these conventions rather than developing alternatives thereto. This article explores this interface between policies and practices surrounding international graduate job-seekers, analysing the positions of several different stakeholders – including the job-seekers themselves – in order to develop a more critical understanding of the possible outcomes of current moves towards internationalisation of higher education and employment in Japan and the future of the graduate job-placement system itself. The article highlights a paradox whereby the ‘global’ attributes that underpin the expectations placed on international students originally are overshadowed by a concern with testing local socio-cultural literacy through the application of the conventional norms and practices of the graduate job hunt.     

Cuban Medical Internationalism and its Role in Cuban Foreign Policy

Cuba's medical internationalism is extraordinary, and in many ways the extent of its outreach programme puts the developed world to shame. It is impossible to fit Cuba's actions into any neat theoretical box—quite simply the revolutionary process follows no established paradigm. This exceptionalism is seen both in its approach to foreign relations and in its medical internationalism policy. Indeed, even during the days when it was economically dependent upon the Soviet Union, Cuban actions showed an exceptional degree of political independence. But because Cuba is so different, it is also difficult for developed nations to understand. This is a tremendous pity, for there is much to learn from Cuba's approach to developing sustainable public health systems in poor, Third World countries. There is also a great deal that, on a moral basis, wealthy nations can also learn about Cuba's policy of internationalist solidarity.     

The Reputational Advantages of Demonstrating Trustworthiness: Using the Reputation Index with Law Students

Lawyers should care about their reputations. But exactly what sort of reputation should lawyers seek to establish and maintain in the largely nontransparent context of legal negotiation? And even if a lawyer has developed a reputation as a negotiator, how will he/she know what it is and how it came to be? I force my students to grapple with these questions by incorporating the issues of reputation and reputation development into my negotiation/mediation course. I introduced this innovation at the same time that I decided to increase my focus on developing students' skills in distributive (or value‐claiming) negotiation. Although legal negotiation certainly offers frequent opportunities for the creation of integrative joint and individual gains, the process will almost inevitably involve distribution. The pie, once baked, must be cut. As a result, I now base a portion of my students' final grade on the objective results they achieve in two negotiation simulations. Two dangers of this assessment choice are that it can encourage students to focus only on the numbers and, even worse, engage in “sharp practice”— an extreme form of hard bargaining that tests ethical boundaries — in order to achieve the best short‐term distributive outcomes. Of course, neither a quantitative focus nor sharp practice is synonymous with a distributive approach to negotiation. Nonetheless, to counterbalance the temptations posed by the focus on, and ranking of, objective results, I also base part of students' final grades on their scores on a “Reputation Index.” These scores are based on students' nominations of their peers, accompanied by explanatory comments. This article describes the Reputation Index and how I use it. It also explores the empirical support for the validity of the Reputation Index as a tool for simulating the development and assessment of lawyers' reputations in the “real world.” To that end, the article considers research regarding the bases for lawyers' perceptions of effectiveness in legal negotiation, the sometimes counterintuitive distinction between negotiation “approach” and negotiation “style,” and the relationships among perceptions of negotiation style, procedural justice, trustworthiness, and reputation.     

The Pleiades Join the Stars: Transatlanticism and Eastern Enlargement

EU enlargement and the inclusion of countries previously under communist domination led many West Europeans as well as Americans to think these countries would play the role of a ‘Trojan Horse’. These new EU members indeed have tended to approach the US with greater understanding, but these attitudes differ little from those of Western Europe after the end of World War II. East European pro-Americanism may turn out, however, to be short-lived. This paper argues that the real tension within Europe comes not from the East Europeans' attitudes toward transatlanticism or the Iraq War but rather from their dramatically different experiences under Soviet rule. Based on their empirical experience with Moscow and vital national interests in the democratisation of the EU's neighbourhood, the new members are unlikely to challenge old members over the US; when it comes to Russia, the prospects are quite different.     

Enhancing Community Leadership Negotiation Skills to Build Civic Capacity

Most intra‐ and interorganizational decision making entails negotiations, and even naturally talented negotiators can improve with training. Executive trainings for managers and leadership programs for publicly elected officials, public managers, and nongovernmental organizations frequently include negotiation modules. These efforts, however, have yet to reach community leaders who also need to develop their negotiation skills. We propose that members of disadvantaged low‐income communities who lack educational and economic opportunities, and are less able to advocate for their own interest, need to build and strengthen their civic capacity, including their negotiation skills, to become more effective parties to decisions affecting them. While many professionals and executives have access to training, such opportunities are less accessible to the leaders of these disadvantaged communities. Although such leaders draw from their own heuristic knowledge, skills, and abilities, they could also benefit from sharpening their negotiation skills. We propose that the multidimensional understanding of their community that members accumulate through direct experience is indispensable, nontransferable to outsiders, and not teachable through in‐class activities. Leaders with the ability to leverage knowledge and assets to connect effectively to community insiders as well as to outside people, institutions, and resources, however, possess some specific inherent personality traits as well an understanding of social structures, strategies, and agency, which can be taught and learned. Such skills as how to conduct negotiations around the table and away from it and how to identify community members who can help and how to rally them are also teachable. The cases were chosen to illustrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that make these leaders effective in and beyond their communities. We highlight those KSAs that we think are teachable in the framework of a negotiation module in community leadership training to enhance civic capacity for community betterment.     

Uneven and combined confusion: on the geopolitical origins of capitalism and the rise of the west

This article offers a critique of Alexander Anievas and Kerem Ni?ancio?lu’s How the West came to rule: the geopolitical origins of capitalism. We argue that while all historiography features a number of silences, shortcomings or omissions, the omissions in How the West came to rule lead to a mistaken view of the emergence of capitalism. There are two main issues to be confronted. First, we argue that Anievas and Ni?ancio?lu have an inadequate and misleading understanding of “capital” and “capitalism” that tilts them towards a theoretical stance that comes very close to arguing that everything caused capitalism while at the same time having no clear and convincing definition of “capital” or “capitalism”. Second, there are at least three omissions—particular to England/Britain within a geopolitical context—that should be discussed in any attempt to explain the development of capitalism: the financial revolution and the Bank of England; the transition to coal energy; and the capitalization of state power as it relates to war, colonialism and slavery. We conclude by calling for a connected-histories approach within the framework of capital as power.