Latest Post in 'Education & the Ivory Tower'

0:40, 17 February 2010

A Cloud of Ducks. Source: Spiegel online 2/8/2010

A Cloud of Ducks. Source: Spiegel online 2/8/2010

A rhetorical question that may be asked about every human activity is – Whether such activity adds value, or is such activity the next something that is going to shade or even harm the existing values?

In that context, one may ask, what could be the values brought back to Estonia by the pupils and students studying abroad nowadays. People study different disciplines that require different skills. Common is that since Estonia still is in the transition period, before which period access to information, included scientific information, was highly restricted, the students should absorb contemporary theoretical basis generally, as well as in their research areas – meaning that they should get some guidance, and then read the achievements of the academic thought, and see how and by which scientific methodology a theory has developed and been linked to their research area. So that they could later add to that thought. Not ending with graduation from a specific programme, this is a permanent process, which ideally could well be linked to realization of one’s other aims (even economic aims) and become part of one’s lifestyle. Why would one be hindered in doing that?

Recent Posts in 'Education & the Ivory Tower'

0:01, 1 February 2010

I found the following advertisement from the Legal Writing Professors Blog: „Israel’s first international conference on academic writing, Academic Writing and Beyond in Multicultural Societies, takes place from July 28 to 29, 2010, organized by The Israel Forum for Academic Writing (IFAW) and the Institute of Research, Curriculum and Program Development for Teacher Education (known by [...]

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0:47, 8 January 2010

I passed my final Ph.D. examination the day before the day before yesterday. The result was “Very good”.
Today I was grading the Tallinn University students’ examination papers. And I felt somehow obliged to revisit the grading principles.  I am revisiting those principles now and try to resume later.
It all begins with understanding why do we grade in universities. [...]

Categories / tags: Education & the Ivory Tower
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23:51, 28 December 2009

It  w a s  in the year of 2002, at the time, for example, fixed in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, when I still hopefully faced the future. And thereafter, in 2003, 2004 …
Quite accidentally, I today started to read the Compendium on Issues on Study Design, composed by Petri Nokelainen (University of Tampere; Tallinn University of Technology). I [...]

Categories / tags: Education & the Ivory Tower
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17:48, 13 November 2009

Cognition, although determining the largest part of our lives, is an immeasurable category. Nevertheless, people use cognition as tool for transmission of knowledge.  Meaning that knowledge is transmitted from one generation /person (transmitter / teacher) to another (recipient / learner). 
If one understands pedagogy as:
● transmitting semantic knowledge by communication, or
● as a human-specific cognitive adaptation [...]

Categories / tags: Education & the Ivory Tower
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22:54, 5 November 2009

The 3rd November 2009 goes to history also because, the ECtHR solved the case Lautsi vs. Italy. What was the case about? – The ECtHR ruled that the display of the crucifix in an Italian State school was contrary to parents’ right to educate their children in line with their convictions and to childrens’ right [...]

21:18, 22 October 2009

I participated in the fist lectures of the course „Problem-Based Learning in University“, given by Einike Pilli at the University of Tartu, today. It was real fun to participate as a receiver in a learning process over a long time.
What is problem-based learning (PBL)? J. S. Savery defines PBL as „An instructional (and curricular) learner-cantered approach that [...]

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0:41, 20 October 2009

States have not or have differently regulated the right to Internet access. The Christian Science Monitor at http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0701/p07s01-woeu.html states about Estonia that the State has made Internet access a human right. Wikipedia writes that also France, Greece and Finland have made Internet access a human right. While also the United Nations supports making Internet Access [...]

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1:23, 4 October 2009

European Week of Regions and Cities takes place from 5 to 8 October 2009 at Brussels. The programme and themes are available at http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/conferences/od2009/index.cfm
Yesterday I read four lectures on fundamentals of law to the Political Governance students of the Tallinn University at Rakvere. The lectures took place in a cosy lecture room at the local [...]

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1:32, 1 October 2009

The Codification Division of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations, the international law scholars and practitioners (included our Rein Müllerson), States, institutions and other individuals have opened the Audiovisual Library of International Law. The Director of the Codification Division, Office of Legal Affairs, Ms. Mahnoush H. Arsanjani introduces the library as consisting [...]

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22:25, 26 September 2009

 
As a new lecturer at the Institute of Political Science and Governance of the Tallinn University, I was asked (as were the other academic workers of the Institute) to give my opinion on some issues concerning the work of the Institute, as well as on the general University’s Strategic Plan.
Such Strategic development aims base on [...]

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