A Centre for Excellence in Education for Sustainable Development

The English higher education landscape has recently experienced a significant change with the addition of 74 Centres for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETLs), each one devoted to a particular educational issue or theme. This paper highlights a CETL which is of special interest to geographers in that it is focused on the promotion of education for sustainable development (ESD). The CETL is based at the University of Plymouth, UK, and is tasked with the responsibility of embedding a whole-university approach to sustainability. It will also seek to encourage best practice more widely, working with other institutions regionally, nationally and internationally.     

Greening the University Curriculum: Appraising an International Movement

The declaration of the ‘United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD), Resolution 57/254, February 2003, provides the best yet occasion for higher education institutions (HEIs) to ‘green’ their curricula. The idea for the Decade emerges from a progression of high-level international conferences, beginning with Stockholm, 1972, that have seen ESD thinking move from general statements of intent to increasingly detailed specifications for action. There has also been a growth in awareness that the changes to the curriculum for sustainable development must suffuse all areas of education provision. They cannot be restricted to the environmental disciplines or ‘ecoliteracy’ modules or even to the classroom, but must be demonstrated by the whole of an HEI's approach to the world. Obstacles to implementation include: funding and perverse subsidies, departmental and disciplinary barriers, ivory-tower traditions in teaching that externalize and objectify the subjects studied and persistence of the obsolete mind-sets of the ‘industrial age’. These barriers may mean that change in HEIs will have to be driven by external processes, such as the transformation of primary and secondary education where the fragmentation of knowledge is less entrenched. However, there now seems to be growing agreement that HEIs should equip all their students with ‘environmental literacy’ and that sustainability should be central to concerns both in HEI curricula and in operational practice.     

A note from the editors of JGHE

Abstract

Employers were involved in assessing students’ presentations, giving feedback and in the development of staff skills for providing feedback. The curriculum context to the oral presentations is described and the problems and benefits of employer involvement are considered. It is argued that it is possible to develop an effective small‐scale approach to employer involvement as an alternative to major schemes.     

Development of a Methodology for the Assessment of Vulnerability Related to Wildland Fires Using a Multi‐Criteria Evaluation

In the geography of risk, vulnerability may be defined as a physical characteristic that describes the tendency of a territory to suffer damage as a result of the occurrence of certain phenomena. According to this synthetic definition, there are two main components of vulnerability in the context of wildland fires. The first is internal, and is related to the effects of fires on the value of the affected assets affected and their capacity for recovery. The second is external, and is related to the characteristics of fires and the ability of society to deal with the hazards of wildland fires. The aim of the present study is to develop an assessment of spatial vulnerability in the context of wildland fires, at a scale appropriate for planning (1/25 000), in a mountainous region of the Spanish Mediterranean coast (Sierra Calderona). The proposed methodology entailed the definition of a synthetic index associated with the management of the risk of wildland fires, which was made up of significant factors such as the difficulty of extinction, the need for forest defence, the need for civil protection, and territorial value. To define and calculate the factors, variables and indicators that reflected aspects of the components of vulnerability (such as exposure, sensitivity, and the capacity to fight fires) were used. These were combined in a hierarchical structure, each having its own cartographical representation. Geographical information systems and multi‐criteria evaluation were then used to provide a successful framework for the analysis of vulnerability in relation to wildland fires. The cartographical outputs of the various components of the index are of particular interest to the planning of certain activities (e.g. forest, wildland fire, and civil protection), all of which are directly involved in the management of risk. In turn, the final synthetic index provides comprehensive spatial information that is useful for spatial planning and also enables the assessment of potential future land use in view of its usefulness in simulations.     

应县木塔结构监测与试验分析研究综述

应县木塔历史悠久,结构复杂,其主要结构构件及构造做法基本上保留了原建时期的面貌,是研究我国早期古代建筑技术及大木制度的重要实物遗存,具有独特的艺术价值和极高的科学价值和成就。然而,由于年久失修。再加上民国时期的错误修缮和战争年代的炮弹袭击以及后来多次地震的损伤累积,当前,应县木塔二层明层结构倾斜变形严重,底部三层结构病害缠身,结构亟须修缮加固。近80年来,国内数十家单位参与应县木塔保护和研究工作,取得一些成果,为制定应县木塔保护方案提供了理论依据和基础数据。本文围绕应县木塔结构试验、结构计算及结构监测等几个方面的工作,梳理和归纳了应县木塔结构监测与试验分析的研究现状,并提出现存问题和建议,供相关研究和技术人员参考。     

近十年宋辽金元宗族研究综述

宋辽金元宗族研究取得可喜的成果,出版了数部学术水准很高的专著。台湾的宋代宗族研究尤为突出,深入探讨了宗族与科举、婚姻的关系,阐述了宗族在地方社会的作用以及保持强盛的机制。辽金宗族研究也取得了不小进展。宋辽金元宗族的研究,需要将宋辽金元各时期宗族与明清时期的宗族连在一起,注重宗族与社会历史断裂与连续的关系,进行长时段研究。加强地域性宗族研究,开展宋元时期不同地域宗族的比较研究、宋元与明清宗族的比较研究也是必要的。     

初中英语教学方法略论

作为一门语言,英语的教学特别需要有针对的方法进行指导,而对于初中英语教学来说,在课堂中充分运用赞美激励法、利用课外时间和课外实践机会、发现和引导学生们的趣味、传授成功的经验、合理使用多媒体教学,能够有效地提高学习积极性,促进教育质量的提升。     

浅谈初中信息技术课教学模式和方法

初中计算机教学主要目的是激发学生学习和使用计算机的兴趣,巩固学生学习计算机的热情,让学生初步掌握计算机的基本操作技能并应用于实践,注重培养学生的信息素质和创新思维以及自学能力,为达此目的在教学中应根据学生实况采取灵活多样的教学模式和方法。     

新课程下地理学习的评价

地理教师的评价应该渗透到教学过程的各个环节之中,针对学生学习的学习特点和心理特征,采用灵活多样的评价体系,基于《地理课程标准》理念,从多角度、多方位出去,建立以激励性机制为主的科学的评价机制,通过评价激发学生的学习积极性,使每个学生都得到充分发展。     

New paleoparasitological techniques

Ruffer was the first researcher to show, using hydration of samples and histological techniques, the presence of Schistosoma haematobium eggs in the kidneys of Egyptian mummies dating between 1250 BC and 1000 BC. Since then, with the collaboration of archaeologists, palynologists, parasitologists, biologists, entomologists, ecologists, malacologists…new ideas have arisen and different techniques have been adapted for the study of parasites in an archaeological context. Research into the hydration of samples has been carried out, and flotation and sedimentation techniques started to be used, testing different solutions. Eggs, larvae and adults of both ecto- and endoparasites, as well as non-parasitic arthropods have been found, but none of the methods used have enabled to quantify the parasitic forms found, which is important to know the epidemiology of parasitic diseases and to carry out comparative studies. At present, the development of molecular biology techniques applied to palaeoparasitology is permitting the detection of traces of parasites in the past.