On Art Education and Testing in a Period of Educational Reform

This interview deals with arts education in Iran. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, a drastic change occurred in arts education. In terms of aim, arts education in Iran assumed a teleological orientation according to which art should be a process aimed at appreciating the manifestation of God's beauty in the world. As for curricular subjects, some branches of art such as dance are prohibited or used in modified and restricted forms. Arts education has a marginalized position in Iran for two reasons: one, which is more or less global, is that science and mathematics are widely granted a superior position in education, and the other is based on a religious understanding of some arts being inherently associated with sinful activities prohibited in Islam. However, a development in this religious understanding has led to a critical approach according to which the alleged association with sinful activity is denied and thus the prohibited forms of art can be allowed under some conditions. This new approach may have different educational consequences in the realm of arts education.     

The Educational Experience and Performance of Immigrant and Minority Students in Israel

The educational needs of Jewish and Arab primary and secondary school-age student populations are provided by two separate and parallel educational systems. The immigrant context is discussed first, then educational issues pertaining to the Arab minority are examined. Emphasis is placed on emerging trends in the educational treatment of immigrant children as well as on shifts in educational policy and practice in the Arab sector. The educational experience and performance of immigrant students and Israeli Arab students are discussed within this broader context.     

Silences and Serenades: The Journeys of Three Ethnic Minority Women School Leaders

This article articulates the need to explore the knowledge and practice of ethnic minority women school leaders, to encourage dialogue, and to ask, "What is it about these women's lives that reveals ontological and political discourses and practices that disrupt the rhythm of the mainstream?" The stories affirm each woman's explicit struggle against "overt and passive racism" and objectifying marginalization. Additionally, each story reveals a unique "self-text," which is a composite of history, family, profession, and cultural memories. Each woman, in the way she expresses this "self," is an advocate for respect and equity.     

Obesity in Minority Populations: An Epidemiologic Assessment

This article reviews issues relating to the prevalence, health implications, and prevention and treatment perspectives of obesity in U.S racial and ethnic minority groups. The growing interest in obesity in minority populations reflects an awareness of the high prevalence of obesity among black, Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islander and Native Americans as well as a generally increased interest in minority health. In addition, the fact that some aspects of obesity among minorities differ from those in whites suggests that new insights may be gained from studying obesity in diverse populations. However, there are many methodological problems to be overcome, including some that arise from the way minority groups are defined. Under the assumption that all obesity results from a period of sustained positive energy balance at the individual level, an epidemiologic explanation for the excess of obesity in minorities at the population level seems readily apparent. A surplus of obesity-promoting forces and a deficit of obesity-inhibiting forces, caused by secular changes in food availability and physical activity, accompany the early phases of modernization and economic advancement. The high prevalence of obesity in minority populations can be viewed as a function of the slope and timing of these secular changes. Genetic predisposition, cultural attitudes, and exposure to maternal obesity and diabetes in utero may be potentiating factors. In this context, interventions targeting individuals would seem inevitably to put racial and ethnic minority groups on the path toward the same weight control crisis now observed in the majority white population. This suggests that the underlying causes of the societal energy balance problem must be addressed at the population level in order for effective clinical approaches to be developed for minority populations with a high obesity prevalence.     

高师院校微生物实验教学改革的实践与思考

针对中学新课改下的微生物学实验教学体系对高师院校现行微生物实验教学进行了改革,提出以培养学生的动手能力为出发点,从实验内容改革,实验教学手段改革和实验教学人员等方面入手,尝试建立一套适合高师院校生物科学专业本科生的微生物实验课程的创新教学体系。     

Women in the civil rights movement: Reform or revolution?

Conclusion I have tried to show that revolutionary conditions propelled women into leadership and mass action in the early stages of the civil rights movement. As the movement gained impetus, more men became available and sought or even vied for formal leadership roles. Some of the major male leaders competed for prestige, funding, and publicity; we hear of no power struggles among movement women. Welcoming men's increased show of militancy, and presuming male leadership to be advantageous in facing male-dominated power structures, women gave up their prominence in the movement and allowed the importance of their contributions to be obscured. Encouragingly, as new histories, biographies and autobiographies are being published, women of the civil rights movement are emerging from the background and finding their way back into history.     

Hypnotizability,Hypnosis and Prepulse Inhibition of the Startle Reflex in Healthy Women: An ERP Analysis

A working model of the neurophysiology of hypnosis suggests that highly hypnotizable individuals (HHs) have more effective frontal attentional systems implementing control, monitoring performance, and inhibiting unwanted stimuli from conscious awareness, than low hypnotizable individuals (LHs). Recent studies, using prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the auditory startle reflex (ASR), suggest that HHs, in the waking condition, may show reduced sensory gating although they may selectively attend and disattend different stimuli. Using a within subject design and a strict subject selection procedure, in waking and hypnosis conditions we tested whether HHs compared to LHs showed a significantly lower inhibition of the ASR and startle-related brain activity in both time and intracerebral source localization domains. HHs, as compared to LH participants, exhibited (a) longer latency of the eyeblink startle reflex, (b) reduced N100 responses to startle stimuli, and (c) higher PPI of eyeblink startle and of the P200 and P300 waves. Hypnosis yielded smaller N100 waves to startle stimuli and greater PPI of this component than in the waking condition. sLORETA analysis revealed that, for the N100 (107 msec) elicited during startle trials, HHs had a smaller activation in the left parietal lobe (BA2/40) than LHs. Auditory pulses of pulse-with prepulse trials in HHs yielded less activity of the P300 (280 msec) wave than LHs, in the cingulate and posterior cingulate gyrus (BA23/31). The present results, on the whole, are in the opposite direction to PPI findings on hypnotizability previously reported in the literature. These results provide support to the neuropsychophysiological model that HHs have more effective sensory integration and gating (or filtering) of irrelevant stimuli than LHs.     

医学检验专业实践教学改革与毕业生质量评价

目的：寻求医学检验专业教学改革新方案。方法：以我校检验专业2000、2001届毕业生为对照组,以2002、2003届毕业生为实验组,对实验组进行实践教学改革。毕业前分别进行综合实践技能考核,并对部分毕业生进行了追踪调查。结果：实验组的技能考核成绩明显高于对照组,毕业生质量明显提高。结论：实践教学改革有利于提高医学检验专业教学质量。