Medical students following a traditional curriculum get few opportunities to engage in activities such as a literature search, scientific writing, and active and collaborative learning. An analytical essay writing activity (AEWA) in physiology was introduced to first-year students. Each student prepared an essay incorporating new research findings…

This paper begins with a brief introduction to [Thomas] Hardy's whole life and his works, especially this novel "Tess [of the D'Urbervilles]" and points out the tragic effect's importance and Hardy's tragic idea. Linked to this tragic effect, this paper analyzes the nice application in "Tess." At last, we can understand more…

The primary focus for this article involves aspects of professional mathematical writing and examines the possibility of a form of literary criticism in relation to it. By means of examples from contemporary style guides for academic articles in mathematics (AMS, MAA), as well as the writing of mathematicians (Hamilton, Dedekind) from earlier…

This essay explains the relevance of fiction to the practice of rural education research, in so doing engaging questions about the nature and purposes of research and, therefore, of science itself. Although many may assume science and fiction (in this account, novels) harbor contrary purposes and devices, this essay argues that, to the contrary,…

Liberal education and the liberal arts are not synonymous. "Liberal arts" refers to certain subjects of study, which may be pursued to many possible ends. "Liberal education" may be pursued through any subject matter, but the term implies distinct purposes: (1) breadth of awareness and appreciation; (2) clarity and precision of thought and…

We respond to Hwang and Kim and Yeo's critiques of the conceptual continuity framework in science education. First, we address the criticism that their analysis fails to recognize the situated perspective of learning by denying the dichotomy of the formal and informal knowledge as a starting point in the learning process. Second, we address the…

How researchers can go about judging, or adjudicating among, different knowledge claims recently has become a highly contested issue. In this response to Hammersley, we argue that he has not been able to justify his neorealist position that we can/must appeal to an independently existing reality, which can be known as it really is, to sort out our…

Enrollment in for-profit colleges, while still a relatively small share of the higher-education market, has grown more than tenfold over the past decade. For-profit education companies are now in high demand among venture capitalists and investment bankers, and the industry is one of the rare ones that is faring well in this economy. But while…

Though the oral proficiency interview (OPI) rates the examinee's overall language proficiency in face-to-face interaction, the rating is based solely upon the evaluation of the examinee's contribution in isolation. No attempt is made to evaluate conversational skills in interaction. A criticism that has been made of the OPI is that the format is…

Critical, postmodern, and constitutive rhetorics are typically guided by an ethical stance opposing domination and marginalization. However, this stance often functions as an unreflective morality operating outside the constitutive practices of rhetoric itself. To locate an ethical stance within rhetorical practice, we can turn to Isocrates, who…

This article presents the author's critique of R. Stephen RiCharde's argument in his essay on the humanities and interrater reliability in the July-August 2008 issue of "Assessment Update." RiCharde suggests that the humanities' historical commitment to a dialectical pedagogy, a "nonlinear" process that values disagreement and debate, is at odds…

Although, in recent years there have been several advances in critical applied linguistics which have attempted to problematize the ideological underpinnings of language practices, there have in parallel been resistances mounted on the part of traditional applied linguistics that adamantly oppose any form of coming to terms with the political and…

From the perspective of an African ethic, analytically interpreted as a philosophical principle of right action, what are the proper final ends of a publicly funded university and how should they be ranked? To answer this question, I first provide a brief but inclusive review of the literature on Africanising higher education from the past 50…

The pressing need for English oral communication skills in multifarious contexts today is compelling impetus behind the large number of studies done on oral proficiency interviewing. Moreover, given the recently articulated concerns with the fairness and social dimension of such interviews, parallel concerns have been raised as to how most fairly…

The article discusses the role of human rights education in prejudice reduction. It critiques some selected educational principles that may be crucial for successful pedagogical approaches against prejudice in multiethnic societies. These pedagogical principles are elaborated further and illustrated with exemplary good pedagogy practice…