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For more than four decades, studies of higher education have espoused the significance of fostering intercultural interactions between international and domestic students, yet numerous studies have provided widespread evidence of limited interactions between these cohorts and limited development of long-lasting relationships, such as friendship. After reviewing the conceptualisations of intercultural relationship development and their limitations in the extant literature, this paper outlines the rationale for a three-stage ecological and person-in-context conceptual framework of the development of intercultural relationships in university contexts. The proposed framework addresses: the issue of loose conceptualisations of intercultural relationships in the literature; the overlooked phenomena of dynamic interactions between individual and environmental dimensions that co-contribute to intercultural relationship development; and the developmental nature of intercultural relationships. The main proposal underpinning the framework is that the development of intercultural relationships occurs at the dynamic experiential interface between environmental affordances and students' agency, both of which evolve along three stages of relationships (i.e. interactivity, reciprocity and unity). The framework, illustrated by empirical data, addresses aspects of intercultural relationships that have been neglected in the higher education literature, and that are expected to stimulate further educational research and practices in various (inter-)national/regional and institutional contexts., Author(s): Kazuhiro Kudo [sup.1] [sup.2] , Simone Volet [sup.2] , Craig Whitsed [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0000 9885 2316, grid.412039.d, Dokkyo University, , 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Soka, 340-0042, Saitama, Japan [...]

IHEGEL'S CONCEPT OF 'THE CONCEPT' (der Begriff) stands at the center of his thought but also at the center of the controversy surrounding the basic meaning of his philosophy. While [...]

A rapidly growing body of scholarship shows that we can gain new insights into theories and policies by understanding and increasing their systemic structure. This paper will present an overview of this expanding field and discuss how concepts of structure are being applied in a variety of contexts to support collaboration, decision making, learning, prediction, and results. Next, it will delve into the underlying structures of logic that may be found within those theories and policies. Here, we will go beyond Toulmin's logics of claim and proof that have not proven useful for advancing the social sciences and focus on five structures of 'causal logic.' The results suggest a useful and more comprehensive approach to developing deeper understanding of our conceptual systems such as theory and policy., Author(s): Steven E. Wallis[sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: Steven E. Wallis earned his PhD in 2006 at Fielding Graduate University, focusing on the rigorous analysis and integration of conceptual systems. He [...]

In this paper, I discuss the conceptualist claim that we cannot speak of perceptual content unless we assume it is objective content. The conceptualist argues that only conceptual content can meet the requirement of being objective, so that the view that perceptual experience has nonconceptual content is not tenable. I start out by presenting the argument from objectivity as it can be found in McDowell (Mind and world, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1994b (See CR11)). I then present the following objections: First, perceptual objectivity cannot be due to the perceiver's conception of objectivity; and second, even nonconceptual capacities of the individual cannot and need not be appealed to in order to account for objective perceptual content., Author(s): Eva Schmidt[sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Philosophisches Institut, Universität des Saarlandes, 66123, Saarbrücken, Germany Some Background The argument I discuss here is taken from the debate between conceptualism and nonconceptualism [...]

Virtue Epistemology and Epistemic Twin Earth, JESPER KALLESTRUP and DUNCAN PRITCHARD A popular form of virtue epistemology--defended by such figures as Ernest Sosa, Linda Zagzebski, and John Greco--holds that knowledge [...]

Without prompting, stratified randomly selected employees addressed communication improvements at their manufacturing facility. More than one quarter expressed distrust in their leaders. Responses were coded with two distrust conceptualizations: the [...]

Conceptual atomists argue that most of our concepts are primitive. I take up three arguments that have been thought to support atomism and show that they are inconclusive. The evidence that allegedly backs atomism is equally compatible with a localist position on which concepts are structured representations with complex semantic content. I lay out such a localist position and argue that the appropriate position for a non-atomist to adopt is a pluralist view of conceptual structure. I show several ways in which conceptual pluralism provides an advantage in satisfying the empirical and philosophical demands on a theory of conceptual structure and content.

Following on from the definition of a conceptual model and its requirements laid out in a previous paper, a framework for conceptual modelling is described. The framework consists of five iterative activities: understanding the problem situation, determining the modelling and general project objectives, identifying the model outputs, identify the model inputs, and determining the model content. The framework is demonstrated with a modelling application at a Ford Motor Company engine assembly plant. The paper concludes with a discussion on identifying data requirements from the conceptual model and the assessment of the conceptual model. Keywords: discrete-event simulation; model development; conceptual modelling; validation

The traditional debate about whether race should be eliminated from public discourse is often conducted in significant part by examining whether race is real. Whether race is real, in turn, often comes down to whether racial discourse purports to refer to social or natural kinds, which means that analysis of racial concepts is crucial to the question of racial eliminativism. The dominate theory of conceptual analysis in the race debate is that racial concepts should be analyzed according to how those terms have been used by historical experts. It is argued here that this dominant theory is misguided, and that we should therefore analyze racial concepts according to how they are used in contemporary, folk discourse. In addition, and in contrast to the main rival to the dominant theory, I argue that we should analyze folk racial discourse not from the armchair, but instead through empirical research.

The purpose of this article is to present many solid reasons to carry out a study of the topics related to the construction of world-unity and world-citizenship vocabularies through the [...]

The broadening of the term theory in the conceptualization of literacy and the use of this word to consider implications for the production of knowledge about literacy as a social practice in the major literacy research journals is described.

The article examines Russian cinema and its re-conceptualization leading to its gaining popularity in countries abroad.

The concept of communities of practice has enjoyed a major affirmation in recent literature. In particular, the evolving research on communities of practice resurrects the idea that groups of people can integrate their diverse experiences and knowledge to function in a socially and economically just and value-adding way. This current movement, however, has tended to overlook Mary Parker Follett's original conceptualization of the community of practice phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to reacquaint us with her unique ideas and embed them into the current view of the community of practice concept. We focus on three dichotomies/paradoxes that must be understood and resolved if unity is to emerge from diversity. We conclude that this reacquainting of the research community with Follett's seminal ideas on communities of practice reaffirms the legacy of management history to bring the wisdom of past insights to future research committed to capturing the essence of social change. Keywords: Mary Follett, communities of practice, integration, pluralism

This paper aims to contribute to a defense of the now quite familiar argument from the perceptual model of religious experience (hereafter PMR) to the rationality (1) of beliefs formed on the basis of religious experience. (2) The contribution will not, however, come in the form of a positive argument for PMR. Neither will this contribution take the form of a response to key objections to the plausibility of that model. Instead, I wish to argue that there is a widespread assumption about the role of concepts in perceptual experience generally which, when assimilated by PMR, complicates the attempt to respond to the most serious objection to the argument from PMR to the rationality of religious belief--viz, the objection from conflicting religious claims. Again, this paper will not respond to the objection from conflicting religious claims. Rather, it will explain how a common assumption makes that problem worse (or even intractable) and it will offer a positive suggestion about how to avoid that common assumption. Of course, to have shown how not to make a problem worse is not yet to have solved the problem. But, if the argument of this paper succeeds, it is a crucial first step. In what follows, I will (i) very briefly summarize the role of PMR in an argument for the rationality of religious belief, (ii) state the problem of conflicting religious claims, (iii) explain how a widespread assumption about the role of concepts in perceptual experience exacerbates the problem and (iv) offer the beginnings of an alternative account of the role of concepts in perceptual experience and comment on the evidential force of religious experience construed along the lines of this alternative account. Of course, an adequate treatment of the points in (iv) would require far more attention than can be devoted to them here. The primary burden of this paper is to establish the critical point in (iii), i.e., to generate some dissatisfaction with the 'widespread assumption,' and to use this dissatisfaction as a motivation for exploring an alternative account of conceptual contribution.

The philosophical concept of causation is used to explore the nature of conceptual analysis and a brief sketch of some of the traditional philosophical approaches to understanding causation is provided. New trends in the empirical study of causal reasoning are highlighted and it is argued that the theoretical role analysis and empirical results serve to illuminate one another.

A historically persistent way of reading Leibniz regards him as some kind of conceptualist. According to this interpretation, Leibniz was either an ontological conceptualist or an epistemological conceptualist. As an ontological conceptualist, Leibniz is taken to hold the view that there exist only concepts. As an epistemological conceptualist, he is seen as believing that we think only with concepts. I argue against both conceptualist renditions. I confront the ontological conceptualist view with Leibniz's metaphysics of creation. If the ontological conceptualist interpretation were right, then Leibniz could not invoke compossibility as a criterion of creation. But since he does invoke compossibility as a criterion of creation, the ontological conceptualist approach cannot be right. I confront the epistemological conceptualist interpretation with Leibniz's assertion of non-conceptual content. Since Leibniz acknowledges non-conceptual content at least when it comes to metaphysical knowledge, Leibniz could not have been an epistemological conceptualist either. So, Leibniz could not have been a conceptualist at all.

Studies reveal that geospatio-temporal conceptual models give a mechanism to explicitly represent geospatial and temporal aspects of applications. Conceptual schema comprehension of geospatio-temporal data semantics in terms of matching the external problem, representation to the problem solving task, an argument based on the theory of cognitive fit is viewed.

An assumption is presented that the human mind can actively marshal the body to facilitate the construction of a satisfactory body image that will enhance self-worth and self-identity. The body image is a variety of images that have accumulated from the past, rather than a fixed projection of how one looks or a mental construct of one's appearance.

The possibility of a parallel between early 'transformational' theories of evolution and modern naive theories are explored. Studies are conducted on a group of people based on their understanding of six evolutionary phenomena and results reveal that most participants demonstrate transformational reasoning inconsistent with natural selection and participants demonstrating transformational reasoning are as internally consistent as participants who understand natural selection.

Purpose: This U.K. study explored how older adults with depression (treated and untreated) and the general older population conceptualize depression. A multicultural approach was used that incorporated the perspectives of Black Caribbean, South Asian, and White British older adults. The study sought to explore and compare beliefs about the nature and causes of depression, and to suggest ways in which these beliefs act to facilitate or deter older people from accessing treatment. Design and Methods: One hundred and ten in-depth separate interviews were conducted for 45 White British, 33 South Asian, and 32 Black Caribbean individuals. The interviews explored what the word depression meant to participants, and their beliefs regarding depression's causes. Results: Depression was often viewed as an illness arising from adverse personal and social circumstances that accrue in old age. White British and Black Caribbean participants defined depression in terms of low mood and hopelessness; South Asian and Black Caribbean participants frequently defined depression in terms of worry. Those receiving antidepressants were more likely to acknowledge psychological symptoms of depression. Differences in attribution were found between the ethnic groups. Implications: A social model of depression is closer to the beliefs of older people than the traditional medical model. Culturally appropriate inquiries about recent life events could be used to facilitate discussion about depression. Our data suggest that many older adults would respond to probing by primary care physicians about their mood. Health and social care professionals need to be sensitive to the language of depression used by different ethnic groups. Key Words: Depression, Qualitative methodology, Ethnicity, Cultural differences, Mental health

Conceptual Foundations are the theoretical, conceptual philosophical and historical aspects; perspectives from outside the field; trends, issues, and future directions; and social political and economic facets that underlie our field. This paper attempted to capture these foundational aspects, taking stock of accomplishments and suggesting future directions. The last 16 years of Conceptual Foundations program abstracts from NAGC Conventions were analyzed quantitatively (numbers/types of presentations) and qualitatively, using grounded theory, for patterns in each of the seven Division missions. An historical overview of Division development, each of the Division's missions and how close we have come to their accomplishment, and luminous presentations were discussed. Suggestions were made for future efforts in each mission area, particularly related to more dynamic, organismic approaches., This paper is an attempt to capture big-picture exploratory thinking in the field of gifted education, with the aim to clarify, expand, and integrate aspects of theoretical and philosophical underpinnings [...]

A discussion on whether the contents of experience are conceptual or nonconceptual, which is actually the relationship between thought and perception, necessitates the understanding of the theory of 'nonconceptual content'. Two bases for the interpretation of nonconceptual and related arguments result in ambiguity, with unresolved questions about contents of perceptions being either absolutely or relatively nonconceptual, or about contents of perceptions being both absolutely and relatively conceptual.

Byline: Gregory C. R. Yates (1), E. Harry Lyndon (2) Keywords: conceptual change; high school students; metacognition; prior knowledge; proactive interference Abstract: We report on two studies in which high school students who had been exposed to a cognitive training procedure known as the Conceptual Mediation Program (CMP) were compared to students who had not participated within the program. In the first study, based on data from two sites, it was found that 70 CMP students exhibited higher levels of school affect and strategy awareness than 103 comparable students not in the program. In the second study, based on retrospective data from one site, 53 students who had participated within CMP classes were found to exhibit higher levels of attainment on Year 12 South Australian public examination results (effect size of 1.04 on the aggregate). On the Year 12 examination results, the CMP students outperformed both the school and state norms. Author Affiliation: (1) University of South Australia, Australia (2) Department of Education and Children's Services, South Australia Article History: Registration Date: 30/12/2004

The diversity and similarity curves (DSC) model is used to capture the interactive effects of dual paradoxes associated with work/play and job stress/task creativity. The DSC model allows representing the interactive effects of different permutations of theory novelty/continuity on perceived theory complexity and theory assimilation.

1. Conceptual Role vs. Reference We can make a distinction between the conceptual role of the first person and the reference of the first person. By 'conceptual role' I mean [...]

Byline: Sukjin Kang (1), Lawrence C. Scharmann (2), Taehee Noh (3) Keywords: cognitive conflict; discrepant event; science concept learning Abstract: In this study, we defined and quantified the degree of cognitive conflict induced by a discrepant event from a cognitive perspective. Based on the scheme developed, we investigated the relationship between cognitive conflict and conceptual change, and the influences of students' cognitive characteristics on conflict in learning the concept of density. Subjects were 171 seventh-grade girls from two city middle schools in Korea. Tests regarding logical thinking ability, field dependence/independence, and meaningful learning approach were administered. A preconception test and a test of responses to a discrepant event were also administered. Computer-assisted instruction was then provided to students as a conceptual change intervention. A conception test was administered as a posttest. In analysing students' responses to the discrepant event, seven types of responses were identified: Rejection, reinterpretation, exclusion, uncertainty, peripheral belief change, belief decrease, and belief change. These types were then ordered into four levels. The results indicated that there existed a significant correlation between cognitive conflict and conceptual change. t-test results revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the degree of cognitive conflict by the levels of students' logical thinking ability and field dependence/independence. Meaningful learning approach, however, was found to have no statistically significant effect on cognitive conflict. Educational implications are discussed. Author Affiliation: (1) Jeonju National University of Education, Korea (2) Kansas State University, USA (3) Seoul National University, Korea Article History: Registration Date: 21/10/2004

God's relationship to modalities poses a serious problem for the theist. If God determines modalities, then it seems that he can do anything. If, on the other hand, modalities determine God's actions, then it seems that he is not genuinely free. Conceptualism offers a solution to this problem by maintaining that modalities are determined by what is conceivable for the intellects of the universe that God has chosen to create. Prior to the creation of intellects, there are no modalities restricting God's choice. Consequently, God is genuinely free. What is more, prior to creation there are no modalities, thus it is not the case that anything is possible. However, there are several problems with conceptualism. In particular, because the necessary features of the modal concepts themselves are independent of the shape of any intellect, no form of conceptualism will succeed as a solution to the problem of modalities.

Byline: Chi-Yan Tsui (1), David F. Treagust (1) Keywords: computers; conceptual learning; genetics; multiple representations; reasoning Abstract: This paper explores a case study of a class of Year 10 students (n=24) whose learning of genetics involved activities of BioLogica, a computer program that features multiple external representations (MERs). MERs can be verbal/textual, visual-graphical, or in other formats. Researchers claim that the functions of MERs in supporting student learning are to complement information or processes, to constrain the interpretation of abstract concepts, and to construct new viable conceptions. Over decades, research has shown that genetics remains linguistically and conceptually difficult for high school students. This case study using data from multiple sources enabled students' development of genetics reasoning to be interpreted from an epistemological perspective. Pretest-posttest comparison after six weeks showed that most of the students (n=20) had improved their genetics reasoning but only for easier reasoning types. Findings indicated that the MERs in BioLogica contributed to students' development of genetics reasoning by engendering their motivation and interest but only when students were mindful in their learning. Based on triangulation of data from multiple sources, MERs in BioLogica appeared to support learning largely by constraining students' interpretation of phenomena of genetics. Author Affiliation: (1) Curtin University of Technology, Australia Article History: Registration Date: 17/10/2004

Keywords: protein; experimentation; conceptual variation and selection; evolution; Mulder; Liebig; Pfluger; Nageli Abstract: A philosophically comprehended account is given of the genesis and evolution of the concept of protein. Characteristic of this development were not shifts in theory in response to new experimental data, but shifts in the range of questions that the available experimental resources were fit to cope with effectively. Apart from explanatory success with regard to its own range of questions, various other selecting factors acted on a conceptual variant, some stemming from a competing set of research questions, others from an altogether different field of inquiry, and still others from the external environment. These results are best explained on, hence support, an evolutionary model of the progress of experimental investigation, whose outlines are briefly discussed. Article History: Registration Date: 29/09/2004

In mathematics, it is not just the how, the procedures for solving problems, that is important, but the why, the underlying concepts, Perla Myers explains. When teachers regain the childlike [...]

The plastic arts of painting, sculpture and so forth are similar to the literary arts in Cuba in their use of irony and parody to discuss political and social issues. These are discussed as real issues rather than debates over the details of a utopia. Artists have generally done well professionally, working both inside and outside Cuba in the late 20th century. There is an emphasis on fine technique and craftsmanship. The island itself is often used as a literal and metaphorical image.