Practical Logic Research Articles

Assessment and the logic of instructional practice in Secondary 3 English and mathematics classrooms in Singapore

By any measure, Singapore's educational system has generated an extraordinary record of achievement over the past two or three decades. In this article, we report on one key component of a broader three year investigation into why Singapore has done so well, and explore the logic, strength, resilience and limits of the underlying pedagogical model and policy framework that have helped secure this record of achievement. Specifically, we draw on data we collected in 2010 to analyze the pedagogical organization of four theoretically specified ‘models’ of instructional strategy–traditional instruction, direct instruction, teaching for understanding, and co‐regulated learning strategies–in Secondary 3 mathematics and English. In the course of our analysis, we develop three arguments. The first is the single‐minded performative orientation of instructional practices generally–and instructional strategies specifically–in Singaporean classrooms that rarely deviated from a logic of curriculum coverage, knowledge transmission and assessment. Second, while we found substantial evidence of a pervasive performative orientation to instruction, we also found that teachers in Singapore draw from a variety of instructional perspectives in ways that reflect a pragmatic, instrumental fit‐for‐purpose approach and broader performative orientation. Third, we found that the national high stakes assessment system, by virtue of its considerable institutional authority, both shaped the pattern of instructional practice at the classroom level and constrained opportunities for instructional improvement. In the conclusion, we review related findings from the research program on the impact of instructional practice on student achievement in Singapore.

The logic of practicality: An inquiry into the nature of the EU's practice of international peace mediation

In the paper, the authors use the practice approach to untangle the nature of the EU's practice of international peace mediation (IPM). Drawing on the recent practice turn in international relations scholarship, Bourdieu's well-known concept of habitus is employed in order to elicit the background knowledge and values that constitute and transform this practice. In this regard, the EU's practice of international peace mediation is examined through the lens of general peace mediation norms, as well as through the rules, norms, identity and culture that are specific to the European Union. Three cases are used for this endeavor: (1) the EU support for the Aceh peace process in Indonesia (2004-2008); (2) the EU engagement in the Russian Georgian war (2008-2012); and (3) the mediating role which the EU has undertaken in the recent dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia (2011-2013).

No More Excuses: the shaping of community interventions in England and Wales in the 1980s

In 1997, the UK Government signalled a sea-change in youth justice policy and practice with the publication of its tellingly titled White Paper No More Excuses. It laid the ground work for much of the current youth justice landscape in England and Wales. The White Paper provided not only a vision for the future of youth justice institutions, powers, and practices but also set out a disparaging narrative on the state of youth justice as it had developed, in particular, during the 1980s. The present paper, through an exploration of documentary materials and qualitative interviews with practitioners, challenges the historical account presented by the Government and offers a new narrative which explores a practice transition to a new youth justice specialism and the development of community interventions during the 1980s. It offers an insight into the practice logic of the period and thereby questions the ‘legibility craft’ of New Labour and the youth justice legacy it has left behind.

The logic of practice? Art, the academy, and fish out of water

The various institutional imperatives that have arisen in past decades have reshaped not only the academy but also the careers, responsibilities and practices of artistacademics. This transformational process has been characterized by both extensive and intensive competition. In a series of moves that might have been choreographed by Pierre Bourdieu, those involved have struggled with each other and with policies, procedures, shifting values and discourses to refine their understandings of the changing academic landscape, to acquire the capital necessary for success, and to achieve a better position within the field. In this paper I draw on Bourdieu’s work and extend his analysis of the discipline of sociology to the creative arts disciplines in contemporary Australian universities. Bourdieu’s distinction between practical knowledge and reflexive practice is central to my discussion about ways in which artist-academics might find a better fit for themselves, their practices and their values, within the academic domain.

Culture, Discursive Practices and Literacy Work in Families: Why is Mathematics Important to Indian Immigrants in UK?

Indian immigrants bring from their country of origin a habitus that, in part, places them in a specific way in their own family as well as in the society. Being ‘middle class Indian’ both ‘disposes’ and also ‘positions’ a parent differently in relation to ‘mathematics education’ and its perceived value for their offspring. This serves to motivate the parents to ensure that the children are ‘good at maths’ as it may further enhance the value of the parents as immigrants in a host country that might in other ways (e.g., linguistically and racially) tend to disenfranchise and marginalise them. The discursive embedding of the history of migration, struggle and sacrifice and the pre-migration cultural capital of Indian immigrants explain how specific trajectories of families and home-based literacy-numeracy practices emerge and how these practices lay down the cognitive and motivational structures that may help Indian children internalise high educational ambitions and the desirable behaviour to achieve these goals. The logic of these literacy practices could be a logic of developing social psychological tools to overcome ethnic, racial and economic disadvantages.

Jember Fashion Carnival: Konstruksi Identitas dalam Masyarakat Jaringan

This research focuses on the construction of Jember city identity in the network society era. This research revealed that the construction process of Jember city identity is complex. By using Manuel Castells’ theory about territorial identity especially in network society, this paper intends to interpret Jember Fashion Carnival (JFC) as a project identity in the discourse of network society. The findings show that JFC does not only negotiate Jember city identity but also practice logic of network society. It can be seen by the way that media can change JFC as a fashion carnival into a project of Jember city identity, and then transform it to financial capital as entertaining carnaval performed in various cities. Logic of networks have the ability to transform resources to be more profitable. But, how to internalize this idea to Jember cultural space that it recognized by all citizens is still a problem. Finally, how the end of this process is, and whether world city carnival will be a new identity of Jember, will be unveiled by time.

Changing the logic of practice: (re)drawing boundaries, (re)defining fields

Background: The relationship between sport and exercise science (SES) and health and physical education (HPE) has been of interest to those of us involved in the general field of human movement studies in higher education for at least the last four decades. Purpose: The purpose of this research was to determine how the proposed merging of the health and physical education teacher education practices within a university department of SES impacted on the teacher educators and then why they fought to retain their place in the Faculty of Education. Participants: The research participants included a group of five HPE teacher educators from a College of Education, the Dean and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education, and the Director of Teacher Education. Research design: The research employed ethnographic case-study methods involving participant interviews and daily monitoring and journaling of the participants’ involvement and position-taking during the period of the research. Data gathering also included document analysis of all the related documentation available to the researcher relating to the research topic during the period of the investigation. Research themes were then analysed using Bourdieu's sociological lens, which is reported in this paper. Findings: Although the HPE teacher educators and sports scientists recognised the different ‘logics of practice’ underpinning their respective fields, the faculty leaders did not share their views. Consequently, while the teacher educators argued to retain the existing logics underpinning the two fields, the faculty leaders sought to redraw the boundaries seeking some degree of collaboration between the two fields. Conclusion: The relationship between HPE and SES is determined by the externally structured and internally embodied logics of practice underpinning the respective fields in higher education, and this in turn is important in determining how people engage in sport, physical activity, and physical education.

The Logic of Practice in the Practice of Logics: An ethnographic study in a newspaper newsroom

This paper investigates the workings of institutional logics in practice, by focusing in particular on the interplay between material, practical and linguistic dimensions of practices. In other wor...

Reinsurance Trading in Lloyd's of London: Balancing conflicting-yet-complementary logics in practice

Drawing on a year-long ethnographic study of reinsurance trading in Lloyd’s of London, this paper makes three contributions to current discussions of institutional complexity. First, we extend existing dichotomous views of co-existing institutional logics by offering a more nuanced view on constellations of logics that are conflicting yet complementary. Second, we outline a set of four activities, labelled segmenting, switching, bridging, and demarcating, through which individuals balance conflicting yet complementary institutional demands in practice. Third, we show how competent actors perform such balancing continuously, and not necessarily consciously, as part of their everyday practice.

Constructing the Concept of Success in Brazil: The Role of the Business Media.

The logic of modern management practices has expanded beyond the economic sphere and has been disseminated as a model of conduct for other spheres of social life, through a process called managemen...

Re‐situating expert project managers' praxis within multiple logics of practice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider how multiple logic systems employed by project managers lead to manifold understandings of two foundational project management constructs (“project” and “planning”) that in turn influence both the practice of project management and project outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – Largely conceptual in nature, this paper focuses on the language project managers use to make sense of projects and plans, seeking to get beyond the surface recitation of discourse to the underlying logic systems that influence practice. The discussion is illustrated with stories of practice, collected through interpretive phenomenological interviews with project managers perceived by their peers to demonstrate special skill or knowledge in successfully delivering projects, and reference to project management doctrine embedded in professional standards.Findings – Expert project managers use multiple thinking styles to adapt their practice to emergent project issues. While instrumen...

The lost path to emancipatory practice: towards a history of reflective practice in nursing

This paper historicizes the taken-for-granted acceptance of reflection as a fundamental professional practice in nursing. It draws attention to the broad application of reflective practice, from pedagogy to practice to regulation, and explores the epistemological basis upon which the authority of reflective discourse rests. Previous work has provided a series of critiques of the logic and suitability of reflective practice across all domains of nursing. The goal of this paper is to commence a history of nursing's reflective identity. The paper begins with a discussion of Dewey and Schön then focuses on Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action as the epistemological basis of reflective practice's standing as a authoritative discourse in nursing.

A atividade de camelô como prática urbana no contexto das cidades

O objetivo neste ensaio foi analisar a atividade de camelô a partir das discussões e dos conceitos de cidade e território. Essa análise leva em consideração estudos etnográficos desenvolvidos no mercado camelô e, também, os dois deslocamentos propostos, sendo: primeiro o deslocamento da ideia de cidade-conceito para o de práticas urbanas; e, segundo, a desmistificação da lógica estabelecida na reestruturação produtiva, que verifica o funcionamento da atividade de camelô como uma prática marginalizada. Por isso, é necessária uma análise sobre os conceitos de cidade, e o funcionamento e as possibilidades da atividade de camelô no entremeio a esses conceitos, para, no fim deste ensaio, subsidiar algumas implicações sobre a lógica até então estabelecida e que cria pressupostos e preconceitos sobre o funcionamento de tal atividade de comércio. Assim, um primeiro passo será a discussão dos conceitos de cidade e as implicações da atividade de camelô neste entremeio; o segundo passo será um aprofundamento das discussões sobre a cidade na lógica das práticas urbanas, procurando salientar a importância de se observar os microterritórios; o terceiro será a apresentação de estudos etnográficos desenvolvidos no mercado camelô; e, por fim, o quarto passo é uma análise sobre os dados discutidos nesses trabalhos etnográficos, levando em consideração as discussões sobre cidade e território, e permitindo o deslocamento para a ideia de práticas urbanas, bem como a desmistificação da lógica na reestruturação produtiva.

The Challenge of Burden-Sharing

Historically associated with transatlantic discords about Atlantic alliance, burden-sharing is a term that comes and goes on policy agenda.1 Last year, Robert Gates made headlines when he chastised most of his European counterparts for not shouldering enough of burden in NATO -led operation in Libya. Evoking spectre of a two-tiered made up of those willing and able to pay price and bear burdens of alliance commitments, and those who enjoy benefits of NATO membership... but don't want to share risks and costs, outgoing US defence secretary warned, [t]he blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in US congress - and in American body politic writ large - to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote necessary resources or make necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense.2 A few months earlier, Gates had made similar comments, this time about what he saw as Europeans' over-eagerness to pull out of Afghanistan, where their troops make up less than a third of total forces deployed. In a way, Gates had a point. In last io years, US's share of total NATO spending has indeed jumped from 50 percent to 75 percent, in no small part because of America's own formidable increase in military expenditures after 11 September 2001.Accusations of free-riding have marred transatlantic relations ever since creation of Atlantic alliance in 1949. Then as now, rhetoric of burden- sharing has served as a useful rhetorical weapon to blame those who were seen as not contributing enough to cause. Each time, however, Washington's call has fallen on deaf ears, at least in public. In private, European and Canadian officials highlight other contributions they they are to NATO operations, for example in shape of development aid or considerable troop casualties in Afghanistan. They mention UN peacekeeping missions, such as in Lebanon, where US is not involved. Cynics admit that they never really bought much into military adventures into which US threw them, and that US itself did not seem to believe much in Libya mission. The reality, French foreign minister Alain Juppe retorted to Gates, is that it is Europeans who think Americans aren't enough.3The evolution of transatlantic debate suggests two things. First, burden-sharing is about more than NATO. One cannot just look at defence spending at a time when humanitarian aid, diplomatic mediation, and fight against climate change can all be considered contributions of a sort to collective security.4 Disentangling what counts as a contribution to which public good is no easy thing. Second, burden-sharing is a contested political concept. Statesmen and diplomats do not speak abstract language of public choice, with its non-excludable and non-rival goods. Rather, they talk about being fair, doing what you can, and making a real contribution. In other words, they speak normative language of justice rather than utilitarian language of economics.Rather than attempting to prove who's right and who's wrong, our research agenda is to reconstruct practical logic of claims that bedevil global governance. Our starting point is that we have to understand logic of burden- sharing a lot better before we start pointing fingers at other countries and congratulating our own. In our ongoing project, we look at how government elites construe good of collective security, different contribution strategies that they develop, and domestic and international constraints and opportunities that they face in implementing such strategies. We address each of these issues in turn.WHAT IS GOOD?The first question that comes to mind is how to define the In a broad sense, international security is assumed to be a collective good. …

“Handbook of Practical Logic and Automated Reasoning,” by John R. Harrison, Cambridge University Press, 2009

“Handbook of Practical Logic and Automated Reasoning,” by John R. Harrison, Cambridge University Press, 2009

Ethnomethodology reconsidered: The practical logic of social systems theory

This article compares ethnomethodology to social systems theory and attempts to clarify their theoretical concerns, differences and similarities when synthetically considering the former as a practical logic of the latter. As two poles on a continuum of research methods, ethnomethodology is a microanalysis of social order and human agency, whereas systems theory assumes a macro and theoretical abstraction of system formation and social evolution. When attempts are made to solve the problems of the micro/macro, part/whole, or individual/society relation, this comparison is conducive to elucidating how the practical logic is implied on both micro and macro sides, and to enhance our understanding of the human social world. Three points are suggested. First, systems theory and ethnomethodology do not contradict each other; they are complementary in an intricately dialectical process. Second, ethnomethodology can be observed through indexical rather than objective expressions. Third, due to a higher level of abstraction of systems theory, this article argues that ethnomethodology can possibly be utilized to explicate and also be regarded as the practical logic of systems theory. This comparison may contribute to reformulating systems theory, and also to some philosophical puzzles.

The Trouble with ‘Tacit Knowledge’

The development and maintenance of organized cooperative work practices require, as an integral feature, what can loosely be termed `didactic practices' or `mutual learning' (giving and receiving instruction, advice, direction, guidance, recommendation, etc.). However, such didactic practices have not been investigated systematically in CSCW. Michael Polanyi's notion of `tacit knowledge' vs. `explicit knowledge', which plays a key role in the area of Knowledge Management, would seem to offer an obvious framework for investigating didactic practices in CSCW. But as argued in this article, the notion of `tacit knowledge' is a conceptual muddle that mystifies the very concept of practical knowledge. The article examines the historical context in which the notion of `tacit knowledge' was devised, the purpose for which it was formulated, its original articulation, and the perplexing ways in which it has been appropriated in Knowledge Management. In an attempt to gain firm ground for our research, the article towards the end offers a general analysis of the concept of `knowledge', informed by the work of Gilbert Ryle and Alan White. Overall, the article argues that a framework based on the notion of `tacit knowledge', or on similar conceptions devoted to categorizations of kinds of knowledge, impairs the for CSCW essential focus on actual work practices: instead of focusing on forms of symbolism, what is required is to focus on uncovering the logics of actual didactic practices in cooperative work.

A survey of corporate governance: international trends and China's mode

PurposeThe literature on corporate governance has experienced an explosive growth in the past decade and presented some new trends. One purpose of this paper is to make an exploratory survey of this. Since China is a typically emerging and transition economy, another purpose of this paper is to review some domestic studies with an intention to discover the evolution logic of corporate governance practices in China under a complicated and exclusive context, the third purpose is to provide future research directions.Design/methodology/approachThis paper surveys recent literature in the field of corporate governance, intending to find out the development trends and extract the main line of literature on and practices of Chinese corporate governance.FindingsIn this paper, we find that recent literature on corporate governance provides some new insights into subtle characteristics of governance, governance effects of relational network, political connections, corporate governance evaluation and financial institutions governance. During the past decade, the literature on Chinese corporate governance has referred to some new areas during the transition process from administrative governance to economic governance. In addition to the above, we attempt to put forward an analytical framework and the proposition that Chinese corporate governance is in the transition process from administrative governance to economic governance.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors propose some research topics where future studies on corporate governance may prove valuable, especially putting forward an analytical framework which can be used for discussing and analyzing corporate governance in China.Originality/valueThis paper reviews some new trends of literature on corporate governance and makes a contribution to corporate governance studies by providing fruitful directions, extracting the main line and analytical framework for China's mode during the transition process from administrative governance to economic governance.

Unproven clinical evidence in mechanical ventilation

To describe the management principles that have not been verified or tested but nonetheless successfully guide the logic of everyday practice at the bedside. The importance of physiologic data integration, timing, and careful patient selection has been emphasized by reanalyses of recent clinical trials that individually have led to controversial conclusions and recommendations. The practitioner of intensive care often has no choice but to make difficult decisions and to select a course of treatment that remains unguided by specific, scenario-specific evidence from observational studies and clinical trials. Experience gathered over many prior encounters combined with solid physiologic understanding helps to develop guiding principles and unproven rules of management that serve well in confronting complex, ever changing problems of acute illness. Although some element of trial and error is unavoidable, careful monitoring, short loop feedback, and mid-course corrections render many logic-driven and experience-driven decisions relatively safe to implement and often effective in an uncertain, high-stakes environment.

A Genre-aware Approach to Online Journalism Education

New media has brought along constant evolution to professional journalism practices and news genres. Online/digital/multimedia journalism courses, where both online and multi-platform expertise of journalism is taught, are then a core element of those convergent curriculums. Drawing upon four theoretical traditions, i.e., genre analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, the theories of media logic and communities of practice, the present study proposes a genre-aware approach to facilitate the design and assessment of online journalism courses with a methodological triangulation of classroom observation, qualitative interviews with students and instructors, analyses of students’ online news assignments and a student questionnaire survey.