Humility, Listening and ‘Teaching in a Strong Sense’

My argument in this paper is that humility is implied in the concept of teaching, if teaching is construed in a strong sense. Teaching in a strong sense is a view of teaching as linked to students’ embodied experiences (including cognitive and moral-social dimensions), in particular students’ experiences of limitation, whereas a weak sense of teaching refers to teaching as narrowly focused on student cognitive development. In addition to detailing the relation between humility and strong sense teaching, I will also argue that humility is acquired through the practice of teaching. My discussion connects to the growing interest, especially in virtue epistemology discourse, in the idea that teachers should educate for virtues. Drawing upon John Dewey and contemporary virtue epistemology discourse, I discuss humility, paying particular attention to an overlooked aspect of humility that I refer to as the educative dimension of humility. I then connect this concept of humility to the notion of teaching in a strong sense. In the final section, I discuss how humility in teaching is learned in the practice of teaching by listening to students in particular ways. In addition, I make connections between my concept of teaching and the practice of cultivating students’ virtues. I conclude with a critique of common practices of evaluating good teaching, which I situate within the context of international educational policy on teacher evaluation

Who Are the Stakeholders in Environmental Risk Decisions - How Should They Be Involved

[Excerpt] In the United States, as in other countries, public participation in environmental policy decisions has come a long way. In its infancy, it was limited to public hearings concerning decisions that were, for all practical purposes, done deals. Overturning public agency decisions could be accomplished only through expensive, often protracted, usually futile court cases, and then only if the issue was justiciable and the plaintiff had the funds and standing to sue. In recent decades - especially since the 1960s - opportunities for public participation in the U.S. have been overhauled. Access to documents has been assured through federal and state freedom of information acts. The public may be asked to help - scope the issue at hand (i.e., determine its salient features) early in the decision-making process. Informal question and answer sessions often supplement the formal, one-way testimony of public hearings. No longer are decisions typically made behind closed doors. Public comments usually are documented and accompanied by written responses from the decision-making agency. Administrative reviews of decisions are often a first recourse, before bringing suit. And, standing to sue is more broadly interpreted. But public participation has two inherent deficiencies. First, it fails to differentiate among members of the public. Second, it preserves an us/them distinction between the decision-making agency and citizens. As a remedy, stakeholder involvement - which does differentiate among citizens and does help to lower us/them barriers - is an increasingly popular supplement to conventional public participation, especially on controversial issues involving environmental risks

Exeter, A Special Place

Through the Exeter, A Special Place initiative, a $3 million bond for open space protection was passed at the March, 2003 town meeting, with support from 73% of the voters. Prior to the vote, the bond received 100% approval from the Select board. The success of this initiative was due in large part to the public education and outreach campaign conducted for this project. A brochure and four newsletters were developed to increase public awareness of open space issues in Exeter. A number of media articles were written to publicize the efforts of the Special Place committee, and encourage citizens to show their support for bonding funds for open space protection. Several presentations were made, and one-on-one discussions held to educate citizen groups and key decision makers about the issues. These efforts paid dividends, with a strong public mandate for open space protection. As a result of these efforts, an open space committee has been appointed by the select board to carry out the goals of the Exeter, A Special Place initiative and fulfill the wishes of the Exeter voters to protect the town’s natural resources and the unique and special character of the tow

Towards a metric for recognition-based graphical password security

Recognition-based graphical password (RBGP) schemes are not easily compared in terms of security. Current research uses many different measures which results in confusion as to whether RBGP schemes are secure against guessing and capture attacks. If it were possible to measure all RBGP schemes in a common way it would provide an easy comparison between them, allowing selection of the most secure design. This paper presents a discussion of potential attacks against recognition-based graphical password (RBGP) authentication schemes. As a result of this examination a preliminary measure of the security of a recognition-based scheme is presented. The security measure is a 4-tuple based on distractor selection, shoulder surfing, intersection and replay attacks. It is aimed to be an initial proposal and is designed in a way which is extensible and adjustable as further research in the area develops. Finally, an example is provided by application to the PassFaces scheme

Reflections on Multiple Perspective Problem Framing

The researchers have developed a system of value innovation modelling founded on the application of a multiple perspective problem framing theory (English 2008). This approach has been used to map the attributes of 43 businesses in order to reveal untapped value in these organisations, as described in a previous paper (2010). The system considers both the attributes of a company and the experience of the researchers as parameters in a design problem. This paper aims to show how the process can reveal value by taking the reader through a step-by-step guide, incorporating case studies to demonstrate the relationship between concepts and the development of the researcher’s awareness. An integrated mapping activity provides a clear overview of the company and describes relationships between technology, intellectual property and commercialisation. This mapping process is used to reveal patterns and disharmonies, enabling the researchers to identify gaps and make connections that can lead to new business opportunities. This paper describes the mapping process in detail and the researchers reflect on the way that insights have been revealed through their development of new perspectives on each company