Cooperative learning vs Confucian heritage culture's collectivism: confrontation to reveal some cultural conflicts and mismatch

Asian countries with Confucian heritage culture (CHC) such as China, Vietnam, Singapore, Korea and Japan have been proven to share characteristics of a collectivist society. Researchers agree that this collectivist mentality strongly supports cooperation that CHC's learners/workers best perform in groups. However, little is known about the other side of the coin. Whilst applying a method born in one culture to another, cultural differences have been forgotten. The so-called global application has led to a situation in which a Western model is forced to launch in a completely new and different context. This new context and the existing cultural values are not always incorporated into the implementation of a Western concept of cooperative learning. Consequently, it does not necessarily follow that all forms of cooperative learning will surely succeed within a CHC environment. As a result of ignoring, stereotyping and underestimating cultural and educational characteristics, in CHC countries, the implementation of constructivism and one of its applications—cooperative learning—has ended up in failures, suspicion or resistance. The authors would like to question (1) the fixed assumption that “group-work surely works in CHC countries” and (2) the domination of developmentalism in education nowadays and its mismatch with cultural assets. With this paper, the authors contribute to the recent call for culturally appropriate pedagogy.

《诗经》重言词正变简论

《诗经》中的重言词是古今诗经学和语言学饶有兴味的话题,本文则是从新的角度,以周代礼乐文化为背景,运用统计学、语言学、民俗学、文学、美学等方法,对《诗经》文本进行综合考察,发现重言词具有统一多变性,从而提出正变规律说,旨在探求重言词正变的发生及关系。     

利益表达视角下对群体性事件的若干思考

由于经济、社会、政治和文化建设发展的协调性不够,各类社会矛盾和社会热点问题不断增多,并在特定情形下以群体性事件的形式显现,成为影响社会稳定的负面因素。为了促进社会和谐,公安机关要配合党委政府构建起“依法维权、违法必究”的制度化利益表达渠道、法治化利益表达秩序,并且在群体性事件处置工作中把握好现场情势判断、法律法规适用和公共关系建设等环节,维护好社会稳定。     

Ideas and Influence: Scholarship as a Harbinger of Counterterrorism Institutions,Policies, and Laws in the People's Republic of China

This article demonstrates how scholarship on terrorism in China has provided the intellectual backdrop against which China's leadership has developed the country's counterterrorism institutions, policies, and laws. Building on the linkages between scholarship and policy-making, the article suggests potential avenues for policy reform in China's current counterterrorism architecture.     

社会行为的进化:个体与群体选择--演进经济学对"人的利己性"的反思

本文从生物进化的个体和群体选择角度,并在引入博弈论的基础上,探讨人是利己还是利他.人的利己性假设是西方主流经济学的基本假设之一,如果这一假设被否定,那建立在该基本假设基础上的主流经济学大厦就岌岌可危,因此,本文的意义大大超过文章本身.     

Preparation of a low-cost fingerprint powder that harnesses white light to emit long-lived phosphorescence

An inexpensive, commercially available doped strontium aluminate phosphor with long-lived afterglow has been prepared and assessed in the role of a luminescent fingerprint dusting powder. Blue, green, and aqua phosphorescence persisting for ca. 30 s was obtainable from treated fingermarks after charging the powders with the white light (400–700 nm) setting of a forensic light source. Imaging the phosphorescent afterglow enabled the elimination of background emissions encountered during latent fingermark examination. This was demonstrated by visualising fingermarks on substrates that possess inbuilt fluorescent security features and highly patterned substrate backgrounds, without any need for bespoke scientific equipment.