Film Use to Promote Understanding in Change and Diffusion of Innovation

The paper explores cinematic films as a pedagogical tool to promote critical thinking and student discussions in a doctoral-level learning, design, and technology seminar course at a major U.S. research university. These discussions focused on systemic change and systemic thinking concepts. The authors offer evidence from the literature that supports films’ power as a visual metaphor and neurocognitive stimulator to promote development of new perspectives in graduate students on case studies through articulation, reflection, and explanation of their thought processes on change and diffusion of innovation. There are theoretical, political, social, and technological issues that create tensions during any systemic change effort. The goal of using film in this seminar is to equip students with the requisite skills, theoretical frameworks, and interpersonal experiences needed to address these issues within organizations and communities. The change expected from systemic thinking is for students to think more deeply about the interconnectedness of systems and the importance of bottom-up change efforts that consider the perspective of all stakeholders.     

数学差生诊断系统研究中的数学方法

用层次分析、聚类分析、主因子分析、模糊评判等方法,对数学差生诊断系统进行研究,为数学差生界定和诊断提供了一种数量化方法。     

Student Engineers as Agents of Change: Combining Social Inclusion in the Professional Development of Electrical and Computer Engineering Students

Community-based action research helps students link subject matter to everyday life and developing sense of responsibility to their community. While combining research and a development into teaching engineering software which has been vastly conducted in engineering disciplines such as Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Computer Science (CS), including inclusive participatory research is yet to be fully developed. We participated in the NGO by providing information technology (IT) and/or assistive technology (AT). This paper examines the practice of action research in service-learning projects that aim to introduce more socially responsible studies in the context of engineering education. It begins by exploring different forms of action research that may benefit engineering disciplines with a focus on action engagement to improve students’ involvement in marginalized communities. The article provides field-based reflections of the action research project and suggests ways in which practice of action research may increase socially responsive value in the professional development of student engineers.     

完成时间限制下的任务-平台关系设计模型及算法

针对指挥控制组织结构设计中任务-平台关系的设计问题,提出了一种使命完成时间限制条件下的问题的设计模型及其求解算法。分析了使命完成时间限制条件下任务-平台关系设计(task platform relation design under mission completion time constraint, TPRDTC)问题的约束条件,建立了以使命执行质量的值最大为目标的问题数学模型。设计了用于求解该模型的循环多动态列表规划(multi-dimensional dynamic list scheduling, MDLS)算法,给出了该算法的详细步骤和流程。最后通过一个联合作战的战役案例,分析并验证了循环MDLS算法对求解TPRDTC问题的有效性和适用性。     

Enhancing Collaborative Learning in a Blended Learning Environment: Applying a Process Planning Model

The research reported here was undertaken in a blended learning environment where contact tuition is “blended” with computer-supported (online) learning. The context is a developing country (South Africa). After completion of two full cycles of an action inquiry the planning for the third cycle was undertaken according to an existing process planning model which was originally developed for the design and planning of team-based action learning and action research (ALAR) projects. The illustration of the application of the model focuses on the aspect of student collaboration in a blended learning environment and shows how the original process planning model was adapted and applied during the re-planning phase of the project. The final deliverable is a set of action plans for future collaborative learning that could strengthen student-centred learning experiences in a context which still bears the scars of an unfortunate segregated past.     

An Adaptive Use of Viable System Model with Knowledge System Diagnostics Serving Industrial Democracy in a Textile Manufacturing Company

The primary purpose of this research is to improve Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM) which is built on cybernetic principles and tools and aims to design adaptive, responsive and goal-seeking organisations possessing all features of viability. Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of VSM, this research proposes to enhance the model by using it in combination with Topp’s Knowledge System Diagnostics (KSD) which tries to uncover an organisation’s rules of formation making possible the creation and maintenance of knowledge within an organisation. It is thought that, equipped with this information, an adaptive application of VSM with KSD might cure unhealthy managerial practice—a lack of employee involvement in decision making and responsibility and authority sharing—observed both in a textile manufacturer and VSM. Methodological implications of this version of multimethodology are discussed, and then research site issues are revealed and recommendations are made.     

Overcoming Challenges in Writing About Action Research—The Promise of the Development Story

There is great demand for articles and books describing what action researchers do but little methodological literature available explaining how researchers can go about writing such articles and books. This constitutes a serious challenge as writing high quality scientific texts is crucial for researchers to learn about and improve their practice. This paper addresses that challenge and offers a ‘recipe’ for writing, the development story, which aims to help action researchers reflect deeply on their empirical observations and convert these into concise and meaningful texts. The main purpose is to examine how using the development story as a support tool for writing impacts on engaged researchers’ field practice. We assess the value of the development story by using it to analyse and present an organizational development project in four Norwegian industrial service firms. We conclude that the development story can help instigating valuable reflection on the various roles researchers play out in the field, thereby helping them improve future practice. There is a need for more literature about analysis and writing adapted to the specific challenges of action research.     

Elicitation Methods of Organisational Knowledge: From the Individual to the Collective Through an Integrative Approach

The importance of the cyclic transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge for the knowledge-creation organisations is strategic. Yet in many instances this transformation is supported by informal settings with low process controllability. It is critical though that this be followed by a more systematic approach. A number of models of organisational learning have been developed by extrapolating individual learning styles, as is the case of the holonomic framework. However, there is a need to relate more closely models of learning and of knowledge creation to the knowledge elicitation methods, in order to further support knowledge management practice. This paper examines the holonomic framework with the view of informing the systematic elicitation of strategic knowledge in professional practice. It draws upon the experience and practical application of elicitation methods–in particular causal mapping and scenario building methods–to elicit middle-senior managers’ strategic knowledge by candidates to a Masters in Business Administration. The two methods are benchmarked against the holonomic cycle of knowledge development with regards to its learning phases, thus providing a more integrative approach to strategic knowledge elicitation methods.     

Insights into Operationalizing Communities of Practice from SSM-Based Inquiry Processes

Two systemic inquiries, based on soft systems methodology (SSM), into the potential for using community of practice (CoP) theory by an Australian-government created research and development corporation to change its knowledge management (KM) strategy, are reported. Key staff were engaged in the inquiry into how to build a third-order KM strategy based on CoPs; an exploration of key published work on CoPs yielded four SSM activity models—‘being a community practice system’; ‘doing the work of imagination sub-system’; ‘doing the work of alignment sub-system’ and ‘doing the work of engagement sub-system’. These models can be used as heuristics to aid the purposeful design of CoPs in other settings. SSM, enacted as a systemic inquiry, can be understood as a form of systemic action research, which was well equipped to deal with CoP theory and, when enacted participatively, can generate important systemic insights. The inquiry began the process of fostering an appreciation of third order KM but, on the evidence available, did not lead to on-going commitment to a CoPs-based KM strategy. Future research should acknowledge how the framing of research situations influences the research process, the importance of the design of practice change settings and the limited evidence for purposeful interventions leading to successful CoPs.     

Improvements in Introductory Programming Course: Action Research Insights and Outcomes

Programming is a rewarding and yet demanding field in the ICT labormarket, but it is considered a challenging and difficult area of learning for significant numbers of novice programmers. As a result, high attrition rates from introductory programming (IP) courses are reported despite extensive research which attempts to address the issue. In this research, an action research methodology was used with three cycles to investigate and improve the teaching and learning process of the IP course. There were nine activities performed during the span of these three cycles. All three entities of the didactic triangle (student, instructor, and content) together with learning context were incorporated into the research design to understand the problem better and execute the proposed solution. The result shows that three cycles of the action research methodology helps in understanding and improving the students learning outcomes in the IP course. Moreover, the attrition rate was also reduced in the IP course.     

All together now: The circular organization in a University Hospital. Part I. Planning and design

During a period of significant change in health care, hospitals are being transformed. This article—part I—reports on one university hospital's experience with a project funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Pew Charitable Trusts initiative. The article presents the history and conditions that led to a planning year during which participants defined external and internal conditions contributing to the needs for change. Along with the driving pressures, the article addresses the planning process and the basic design for organization change, Ackoff's idealized design and circular organization. This model had been used in industry, but not in a hospital. Key themes related to the design and start-up are offered. Part II addresses the implementation of the model, the process of change, supports and barriers, and progress to date.     

Systems and Environmental Decision Making—Postgraduate Open Learning with the Open University

Environmental issues affect everyone though the ways in which people engage with them varies a great deal. The Open University's Masters program in environmental decision making has at its core a modular course that enables students to incorporate environmental factors into their decision making from a starting point of identifying their own environmental issues using a systems approach. Students carry out a project based on their own experience in a decision-making situation of their own choice. A framework for environmental decision making is introduced and students learn how to use the framework systematically, systemically and critically. The course has evolved since it was first introduced in 1997 as both students and the course team have learnt about environmental decision making together. This paper analyses and interprets some of the data that have emerged from students projects since the course began.     

Human inquiry: Steps towards emancipatory practice

In this paper we explore the contribution of work in Human Inquiry to the debate about what might constitute authentic emancipatory practice and about how such an ideal might be approached. We beghin by considering some key values, issues, and commitments which characterise this work and distinguish it from other established research traditions. A number of distinct approaches to the practice of human inquiry have been articulated. These are referred to but it is not our purpose to review particular approaches in detail here. Rather our aim is to move from this overview of human inquiry to consider some important implications for practice. In particular, we look at Bateson's theory of levels of learning and explore ways in which both the intellectual and the more personal frameworks of participants can contribute to, and at times impede, the kinds of mutual learning with which human inquiries are concerned. We illustrate this discussion by drawing on examples from our own work in human inquiry. Here we aim to highlight particular implications and issues that might arise within human inquiries. One source of illustrations is Peter's work with general and complementary practitioners in a primary health care centre, the other is Anne's work with UWE student groups acting as consultants for local community organisations. In each case we consider some origins, forms, and expressions of power differences and show how empowerment can occur as participants learn within and across Bateson's levels as inquiries progress. We conclude by summarising the evidence of and opportunities for empowerment in each case and by showing how a deeper appreciation of Bateson's levels of learning can further understanding of the nature of emancipatory practice. Finally, we make more general suggestions about the role of approaches to Human Inquiry in future emancipatory practice.     

含作业到达时间的同类机调度问题启发式算法

研究了目标函数是最小化完成时间和的同类机调度问题,其中作业到达时间可能不同.此问题被证明是强NP-hard问题.由于同类机调度是一种重要的平行机调度问题,而最小完成时间和目标是最常见的正则目标之一,因此完成时间和的同类机调度问题在相关研究领域具有非常重要的地位.为此问题建立数学模型,通过对单机和同型机的相应问题研究成果的推广,提出6个启发式算法,给出算例及其计算结果,并通过实验对算法的性能及算法适应的情形进行了分析.     

Systemic Approaches to Managing Across the Gap in the Public Sector: Results of an Action Research Programme

This paper tells the story and conclusions of a 1 year research project which took place over the calendar year of 2006. It was undertaken within a local government authority (or Local Authority—LA) in the UK. The specific research question to be answered was: “Can the application of systems methods in the LA aid Authority staff in developing and enhancing their professional practice?” A supplementary question arising was: “Can such learning be of wider value to other sections of the public sector (for example in other regions of local government or the health sector)?” In the process of the year 91 separate action research interactions took place. The research comes to three systemically linked findings: Firstly, LA middle managers are often caught between two realities ... strategic initiatives and operational demands. In the gap between these two realities they experience change in many guises but most critically in terms of government directives, ICT initiatives and restructuring. Despite this complexity managers did not appear to always have adequate tools to deal with issues arising in their context. Secondly, an assessment matrix developed originally at the Open University is a valuable tool for assessing the systemisism and reflective capacities of staff and, thirdly, a new, blended hybrid training programme to develop systemic reflective practitioners able to manage across the strategy/operations gap was developed and pilot tested in 2007. This programme shows signs of providing enhanced professional practice and, at the time of writing, is being further piloted with a view to establishing its wider applicability within the public sector.     

Research and Reflection: Potential Impact on the Professional Development of Undergraduate Occupational Therapy Students

In occupational therapy education in South Africa, community service (CS) focuses learning opportunities during fieldwork placements. CS therefore enabled the researcher to utilise successive small scale research projects to guide learning of students during fieldwork while simultaneously developing the occupational therapy service at a residential care facility. This community setting provided a powerful environment through which research, in combination with opportunities for reflection, contributed to nurturing skills needed by these future health professionals. A technical action research (AR) approach incorporated AR cycles and opportunities for structured reflection. Therefore situations were created for the students to embrace experiential learning. Experiential learning in the form of anticipatory reflection, reflection-in-action, reflection on reflection and retrospective reflection impacted on the quality of the students’ work. Besides encouraging unique leaning opportunities for students when engaging in research during their fieldwork placement, engagement in AR cycles simultaneously improved service delivery to residents in the facility. Key benefits of this investigation were that fieldwork education utilising AR cycles within a CS situation promoted students to identify voids in their theoretical background as well as practice skills; to apply reflective practice that could contribute to their personal and professional development; and to utilize learning opportunities optimally. Despite positive gains showed by this study, the role of power relations between the researcher as fieldwork educator and the students prohibited the AR cycles from being more emancipatory in nature and should be addressed in follow-up studies.     

Windows下读写内存绝对地址的方法

运行于Ｗｉｎｄｏｗｓ下的应用程序都是通过Ｗｉｎｄｏｗｓ来分配和读写内存的，一般情况下，应用程序不能绕过Ｗｉｎｄｏｗｓ来直接读写内存绝对地址。本文介绍一种在ｗｉｎｄｏｗｓ下读写内存绝对地址的方法，这对某些特殊情况下的编程是非常有用的。