One Step Further

In this qualitative research study, a bidirectional ARS was integrated into a lecture. Students’ perceptions were explored by focusing on their preferences on different question and feedback types, sharing of posts, nickname use, problems, and design suggestions. A total of 25 students participated in focus group interviews. The results showed that students liked the multiple-choice type questions due to the easy answer characteristics, and they found it difficult to text their responses for open-ended questions. The majority of the students preferred getting feedback immediately after asking a question. Students also stated that using ARS ease their shyness. The findings can significantly contribute for understanding the potential of an ARS supporting two-way communication during a lecture-based approach of instruction, also demonstrate that thinking level of the questions with the feasibility of ARS should be investigated together, and the different preferences of students on the question type, feedback type, and nickname use highlight the importance of student characteristics.

Can Multiple-Choice Questions Replace Constructed Response Test as an Exam Form in Business Courses? Evidence from a Business School

The discussion of whether multiple-choice questions can replace the traditional exam with essays and constructed questions in introductory courses has just started in Norway. There is not an easy answer. The findings depend on the pattern of the questions. Therefore, one must be careful in drawing conclusions. In this research, one will explore a selected business course where 30 percent of the test is comprised of multiple-choice items. There obviously are some similarities between the two test methods. Students who perform well on writing essays tend also to achieve good results when answering multiple- choice questions. The result reveals a gender gap where multiple-choice based exam seems to favor the male students. There are some challenges in how to measure the different dimensions of knowledge. This study confirms this. Hence, it is too early to conclude that a multiple-choice score is a good predictor of the outcome of an essay exam. This paper will provide a beneficial contribution to the debate in Norway, but it needs to be followed up with more research. Keywords: multiple choice test, constructed response questions, business school, gender, regression model.

Natural Sovereignty and Omnipotence in Hobbes’s Leviathan

According to Hobbes, God is a natural sovereign because of his omnipotence, not because of his goodness or creation. The relation between power and kingship is also expressed in the idea of Yahweh as a warrior god, for example in Deuteronomy and the Book of Psalms. Kings, “mortal gods,” need power to protect their subjects and could only do so if they had properties similar to those attributed to God. In the seventeenth-century, intellectuals sometimes made God the model for human sovereigns, and sometimes the reverse. Since both God and human sovereigns are owed obedience, a troubling question arises: “Should human beings obey God or their sovereign if there is a conflict?” Hobbes has an easy answer. God commands people to obey their human sovereign. Arash Abizadeh’s interpretation that God is a person by fiction is refuted.

Collaborative Teaching, Reading and Literacy

In Portugal, students read very little and a significant part of them has great difficulties in dealing with written information. The national and international student assessments regularly situate Portugal at the lowest levels of students’ performances. This means that in Portugal everything is still to be done in what concerns reading and literacy. The problem doesn’t have an easy answer but two of the main reasons are in the poor investment in school libraries and the absence of collaborative teaching. In fighting illiteracy and promoting reading habits, school libraries should take the lead and try to evolve three distinct groups: teachers, students and families. Organising regular reading sessions with students and parents, making books andreading a constant presence in the classroom and at home, using e-technologies to promote reading and writing or publishing a school newspaper are only some examples of what school libraries, teachers, students and families can do together inorder to develop literacy and reading in Portugal.

Deciding, ‘What Happened?’ When We Don’t Really Know: Finding Theoretical Grounding for Legitimate Judicial Fact-Finding

The crucial question for many legal disputes is “what happened,”? and there is often no easy answer. Fact-finding is an uncertain endeavor and risk of inaccuracy is inevitable. As such, I ask, on what basis can we accept the legitimacy of judicial fact-findings. I conclude that acceptable factual determinations depend on adherence to a legitimate process of fact-finding. Adopting Jürgen Habermas’s insights, I offer a theoretical grounding for the acceptability of judicial fact-finding. The theory holds that legal processes must embody respect for legal subjects as equal and autonomous agents. This necessitates two procedural features. First, fact-finding processes must be factually reliable. This requires: (a) relevant evidence is admissible and exclusions are justified based on respecting human autonomy; (b) error-risk management is internally coherent and consistent; (c) the standard of proof is, at minimum, a balance of probabilities; (d) evidence is used rationally. Second, fact-finding processes must ensure fulsome participation rights. This project is justificatory—civil justice systems are imperfect, but there are attainable conditions that make them good, which must never be compromised.

Autonomy and Emancipation: The Challenge of Identity Construction

Identity acts as a nucleus to the subject's references, their memories, their choices of life, to the construction of their history. Identity is, therefore, a minimal cellular basis from which life develops in its poetics of creation. The construction of identity thus has potential for the development of a critique, the establishment of a grammar of rules and conditions, for standing before the world. The path towards emancipation implies in exercising an external look at one's identity, the inherent existing narrative, to discover the paradigm of the minimum base from which one's life develops. With the increasing complexity of the postcolonial world, no straight or easy answer is at hand. The effort should draw towards the construction of conceptual tools that can enable reflection and critique. The humanities education, is one possible tool towards autonomy and emancipation once it encourages knowledge, construction and appraisal. The reflections brought to light through this work intends to fertilize the discussions about identity construction in the Brazilian present day context, characterized by a discourse that foster ruptures and decreases the possibilities of one’s identity. For this purpose, the current challenge of emancipation, will be developed through 6 analytical semantic dimensions which express the diversity and complexity of the actual scenario: Understanding identity, (CIAMPA, 1987; RICOEUR, 1990), as the synthetic goal of existence has the dynamism to give new possibilities to the frontier-men (HARTOG, 2004; LEVINÁS, 1972), whose challenge is the gain of consciousness of one’s own movement in the world. Marked by perversity (HONNETH, 2003) the present world enforces political, social, motivational, and subjective domination (CASTORIADIS, 1987). This scenario compels the frontier-men towards an emptied signifier alienating his possibilities of recognition. The search for emancipation (HABERMAS, 1983) asks for a critical look at the current formation of people's strategic thinking.

Plantinga on warrant and acceptability of Christian Belief

Alvin Plantinga wants to answer the following question: Is Christian belief intellectualy or rationaly acceptable? We will present the answer John Locke gives, based on his evidentialism, to the aforementioned question, as well as Plantinga?s critique of Locke?s evidentialist approach. Plantinga thinks that the question ?Is Christian belief intellectualy or rationaly acceptable?? is best understood as meaning ?Is Christian belief warranted??. We will analyze Plantinga?s argument for the claim that Christian belief probably has warrant if it is true, which implies that we first have to show that Christian belief (probably) is false in order to show that it (probably) has no warrant. But than that means that we have to show that Christian belief is false in order to show that it is unacceptable, making it very hard, if not impossible, to show that Christian belief is unacceptable. We will then present one objection to Plantinga?s argument, ?the Great Pumpkin Objection?. Relying on Linda Zagzebski?s analysis, we will claim that the Great Pupmpkin objection shows that Plantinga?s notion of ?warrant? does not adequately capture the meaning of the relevant notion of ?intellectual or rational acceptability? of beliefs, and that, hence, his conclusion about warrant of Christian belief are not necessary relevant for the claims about intellectual or rational acceptability of Christian belief. We will also analyze a solution given by Kyle Scott. He thinks that if we have, in addition to Plantinga?s argument showing that Christian belief is warranted if true, favouring evidence in support of Christian belief, which he thinks we obviously have, than Christian belief is acceptable. We will point out that Scott does not elaborate what makes adequate favouring evidence in support of some belief, and we will calim that adequate understanding of favouring evidence will, in some respects, be very similar to Locke?s evidentialism. If so, than Scott proposal will reintroduce some elements of Locke?s evidentialism, and the question of whether there is favouring evidence in support of Christian belief will not have an obvious and easy answer.

Antipsychotics during Pregnancy: Pros and Cons

Background: As a general rule, medical professionals agree that it is best to avoid all drugs during pregnancy. Sometimes, however, drugs are essential to a woman’s health and well-being and to the safety of her fetus. Aim: The aim of this article is to review the pros and cons of pregnant women with schizophrenia remaining on antipsychotic medication. Method: The medical database, PubMed, was initially searched for literature in English of the last 5 years using the search terms: “pregnancy” and “antipsychotics”. Forty-four papers were selected. Results: There is no easy answer to the question of the wisdom of continuing antipsychotics during pregnancy. The reviewed literature suggests that the decision depends on the woman’s previous experience, the severity of her illness, her stage of pregnancy, and the specifics of the drug she is taking. Conclusion: As long as the woman is well-informed and competent to make decisions, she needs to carefully weigh benefits against risks to make the final determination. Whatever the decision, close clinical monitoring is warranted throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period. Keywords: Schizophrenia; Adverse Effects; Antipsychotic Discontinuation; Pregnancy