Japan's policy on steel trade disputes with the United States: a comparative analysis

Abstract

This article examines interactions among the United States, Japan and the European Union over steel trade disputes with particular interest in Japan's reactions to the disputes. For this objective, this paper establishes an analytical framework that takes into account bilateral, international, and domestic factors in formulating a state's external policy and relations. It was found that the special relationship with the United States still impinged on Japan's reactions to steel trade disputes, but its influence has gradually declined. Moreover, growing familiarity with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and practices and collaboration with other countries enabled Tokyo to expand its policy options to handle steel trade conflicts with Washington. Significantly, Japan formally adopted seemingly bold measures to cope with the US steel safeguard action, but the measures’ substantial influence on the US government was limited compared with those adopted by the European Union. Weak policy coordination among ministries prevented Japan from formulating strategic and effective measures in managing steel trade disputes with the United States.     

Digitizing Peircean semiotics to analyze students’ peer-review comments: classroom use of an application in open-source R

ABSTRACT

Statistical software applications are increasingly used to measure student engagement in the classroom. However, more work remains to be done to clarify how meaning is created and measured in classroom settings. With the growing use of technology in the classroom, students’ peer review has become a standard practice to improve students’ writing skills. This article examines the use of an open-source R software application based on Peirce’s sign theory to analyze students’ peer-review comments. Peer review is the assessment of student or professional work by others. The importance of open-source R as a platform lies in the fact that users can extend its code without having to ask permission. The results suggest a new approach, based on computational and social semiotics, to the assessment of students’ peer-review comments in higher education.     

Differences in levels of deviance between Japanese and American students: the influence of peer deviance

In the current study, by drawing on the literature concerning peer deviance and criminological social learning theory, and on theory and research concerning cultural variability in uncertainty avoidance, we offer a rationale for predicting that peer deviance will be lower among Japanese than among Americans. The lower level of peer deviance among Japanese, in turn, might explain why crime and deviant behaviour are less common in Japan compared to the United States. Analyses of comparable survey data from college students in Japan and the United States (N = 1271) provide strong support for our hypothesis.     

Pedagogy of the Logic Model: Teaching Undergraduates to Work Together to Change Their Communities

Undergraduate community psychology courses can empower students to address challenging problems in their local communities. Creating a logic model is an experiential way to learn course concepts by “doing.” Throughout the semester, students work with peers to define a problem, develop an intervention, and plan an evaluation focused on an issue of concern to them. This report provides an overview of how to organize a community psychology course around the creation of a logic model in order for students to develop this applied skill. Two undergraduate student authors report on their experience with the logic model assignment, describing the community problem they chose to address, what they learned from the assignment, what they found challenging, and what they are doing now in their communities based on what they learned.     

Community-Partnered Needs Assessment: A Strategy to Teach College Students About Health Disparities

Partnering with communities to provide service-learning opportunities for undergraduates can be an effective strategy to teach college students about health disparities. In the current study, undergraduates partnered with a public K–8 school to conduct a participatory needs assessment. College students worked directly with teachers, parents, public school students, and key stakeholders to identify and prioritize health needs, and they awarded the partnership school a grant to address physical activity and bullying. Undergraduates rated the class highly favorably and reported a deeper understanding of health disparities resulting from the service-learning activity. Health disparities research is increasingly becoming a national priority and service learning can attract future talent by providing undergraduates with the opportunity to engage in the material in a meaningful way with clear community benefit.     

Linking Academics and Social Learning

Abstract

This article examines how school staff conceptualize their work with youths in an alternative school for weapon policy offenders after having undergone at least one year of a whole-school violence prevention program conducted by the Syracuse University Violence Prevention Project. The article examines the intent of school staff, their ideas, perspectives, and language about youths, violence, and schooling, and provides insights into the challenges and benefits of a whole-school approach to violence prevention. Their insights highlight what is needed for a violence prevention program to be successful. A major issue raised in the article is the importance of linking social learning and academics in violence prevention strategies, and of sustaining collaborative efforts that connect conflict resolution to acts of justice and support for youths' intellectual and emotional lives.     

Deciding to teach online: Communication,opportunities and challenges for educators in distance education

ABSTRACT

Adopting technology in support of educational programmes brings about self-evident changes and challenges both for students and educators (faculty members/facilitators), as well as for teaching and learning in distance education. The participatory culture of online learning and teaching demands new skills and competencies that pose challenges for existing teaching and learning pedagogies. The purpose of this literature review is to identify and exemplify facilitator roles in e-learning, to argue that there is a need for facilitators to undergo e-learning-related training, and to consider certain other challenges that result from using an online platform for teaching and learning. The results of the literature survey confirm that the roles of the educator change in a digital environment, while communication also enables him/her to maintain a degree of control over computer-mediated learning. It is argued that training in phases can enhance mentors' personal development and encourage positive attitudes towards accepting responsibilities in e-learning, while ensuring continued support and back-up for educators and novice facilitators.     

Teaching law in Scotland

ABSTRACT

The theory of threshold concepts has become a popular way to describe the difficulties students face when trying to grasp fundamental ideas in a discipline. In law authors have suggested a range of concepts as thresholds. However these suggestions conflict with each other, and have not emphasised the way in which students repeatedly encounter such thresholds. Using variation theory and the concept of knowledge capability this article suggests that the Threshold Capability Integrated Theoretical Framework may be a way to resolve those differences and to highlight the ongoing nature of liminality in becoming a professional. Students may grasp initial threshold concepts early in a degree or subject, develop the ability to manipulate and use them in a variety of settings towards the end of the degree, and develop a lifelong professional ability to use them in diverse settings after graduation. Law students, lawyers and indeed law teachers may be best seen as in a constant state of learning. The uncertainty that goes with that learning is to be embraced, and encouraged as part of the way we teach law.     

论行政体制改革过程中的学习型政府组织

学习型政府是对“生态政治”这一新的政治认识的价值思考。建立学习型政府组织是政府管理创新的核心内容 ,政府管理创新的关键或切入点是把政府建设成为一个学习型的组织 ,全方位革新政府的运行机制 ,提高政府在管理活动中的效率 ,体现政府的职能转变。对学习型组织理念进行历时性解释和共时性分析将有助于我们更深刻地认识和研究学习型政府组织。     

新建警察院校学风建设研究

学风是学校办学水平、办学品位的表现形式,是衡量教学质量和管理水平的重要指标。影响学风建设的因素主要包括人的因素、制度的因素、环境的因素、传统的因素等,加强学风建设需要立足于这四个主要因素展开有针对性的路径分析。