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"The Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity (ISGP) is a non-profit organization, dedicated to building capacity in individuals, groups and institutions to contribute to prevalent discourses concerned with the betterment of society."

"US researchers have discovered taking a nap while studying works even better if you dream about what you are trying to learn."

I defenitely agree with Lucas. According to me, many of us are not aware of how important getting enough sleep is for our learning and creativity. I know many people,who are saying that they are 'night-people' and prefer to study until late rather than getting up an hour early in the morning to finish work. My personal experience showed me that I am not only more creative but also faster in learning after sleeping. In a world, in which everything goes faster and faster we might need to give our brains even more time to rest than some hundred years ago. I can imagine that dreaming about the task while taking a nap helps to improve the learning after waking up. However, being able to switch off completely without 'thinking' about the task within the dream might help to even better relax.

I have never experienced dreaming about what I am trying to learn while taking a nap. If it can really boost learning and creativity, I would really like to try it. But, it is something beyond my control. In spite of that, power napping is always good. I would like to share a link which shows ten benefits of power napping. Some benefits are, for example, improving memory and learning, boosting creativity and increasing cognitive functioning, etc. http://ririanproject.com/2007/09/05/10-benefits-of-power-napping-and-how-to-do-it/

"We promote, develop, supply and support educational programs, studies, products and services that could introduce and address a new system of integrated education in collaboration with individuals and organizations who are dedicated to providing a comprehensive education to children worldwide."

"Here we present findings from the "Religion among Academic Scientists" study, a survey (N=1,646) and initial in-depth interviews (N=150) with natural and social scientists at twenty-one elite US research universities. We examine the attitudes academic scientists at these universities have about the perceived conflict between religion and science and their personal cultural construction of the boundaries between science and religion. Using survey data, results show that field-specific differences, being in the natural or social sciences, are not significant predictors of adopting the conflict paradigm, refuting previous research. Attention to in-depth interviews reveals three mechanisms of boundary-crossing, where boundaries between religion and science are transgressed: institutional pull, boundary pioneering, and environmental push. These results contribute key mechanisms of boundary change and boundary crossing between the specific knowledge domains of science and religion to the growing sociology of culture literature on boundaries."

Werner Heisenberg. Der Teil und das Ganze: Gespräche im Umkreis der Atomphysik. (Piper, 2001) This book is written by one of the foundator and leading scientist of quantum mechanics and physics and is a very light-speaking, anecdoting story telling about Heisenberg's life, education, personal life and development. When he mentiones his awakening interest in physicsm he talks a lot about Platon and it is very interesting to read about his attitude towards religion and the principal questions of religion. It is also him we attribute the famous sentence: The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.

merci Dora, let us look at religion & science as two sources of knowledge. In my case, I would be most familiar with the Bahai Faith (www.bahai.org) and I do believe that this Faith has a new contribution in the task of transforming society.

How to use discourse analysis to study facework and markedness for immigirants

Award-winning reporter Anne Fadiman presents a delectable "fish soup" of a book about the encounter between a Hmong family and the American medical community. This poignant study of the clash of cultural beliefs and practices touches some fundamental issues surrounding scientific progress and humanity. I read this book for my bachelor thesis, looking at it from a more linguistic perspective. It is, however, a very good example of how difficult it can be when two different cultures collide and nobody is really aware of the other culture's customs and traditions. Not being aware of the 'others' worldview makes it difficult if not impossible to crossan existing boundary. If you're interested,I think it is a really nice book to be read.

This article relates the story of Canadian students who went to India for a field placement and do social work. Grounding on Bhabha's theory of "Third Space", the authors describe the different boundaries (cultural, linguistic, cognitive and emotional) that the student had to face and could or not crossed while being in India basing their research on the different feedback given by them. The Student had to continually negotiate cultural difference which leads to inner and outer tension. This article reflects perfectly what every individual lives when going and living in another country. I think that it relates perfectly to everyone of us in this Master.

Dear Cecile, I am trying to read your article, but I cant open it. I am trying to find the options to register, but I cant find it. Can you send me the text by email. Thanks

This is typical example that shows clearly that you are never prepared enough for culture differences and to find a way how to manage them. From the students discourse, you can see that they know that they will experience culture´s shock, that they are going to encounter culture difference. They have also knowledge about Indian culture. But it´s obviously they know just the top of iceberg. I was reading what the students were saying. It´s very interesting to see their reactions. You have a group of students from the same country, the same context that react differently totally different context. The barriers of culture differences can make us more or more open to know and to share with the others or the totally opposite. Of course you need time and the example of the students is very concrete one. The students were in the process of knowing the culture, exploring it. As everything new that we encounter, we react also differently toward the unknown.

I found this while googling: development across boundaries bahai

Everyone of has experienced boundaries or conflict in our work because of different perception about work´s aim, especially cause by diversity. Here is a study that shows how boundary spanning activities were used in a multinational company to overcome the barriers that diversity cause. In this article are mentioned very interesting initiatives implemented in this company to manage diversity and to stimulate knowledge sharing.

This a report on a very interesting conference held in May 2004 at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Some keywords for those who might be interested: gender, technology and development. The report provides an interesting insight into several studies on this field. For instance, one of the papers discussed emphasizes the role of vocational training for migrant women regarding their negotiations with the workmarket. One of the aspects discussed: "how do young [migrant] North American women perceive and understand, hear and listen, to the voices of their sisters [native women] across culture, class, status, skin, and language?" It is definitely an interesting issue, where crossing boundaries is a factor of development.

I think you have to be logged in in portail bnu

Interesting resources (several links)