Rethinking Superhero and Weapon Play offers a fresh and knowledgeable insight into children’s fascination with superheroes and weapon play. It explores what lies at the heart of superhero and weapon play and why so many children are drawn to this contentious area of children’s play. This innovative book offers: A detailed look at why many early years professionals and teachers are cautious about superhero and weapon play. Does weapon play make children more violent? Do ‘goodies versus baddies’ stories make children more confrontational? Do superheroes offer positive gender role-models? The book tackles these questions and suggests some alternative perspectives, as well as offering practical advice about keeping children’s superhero and weapon play positive and productive. An exploration of how superhero and weapon play relates to the development of children’s moral values, moral principles and moral reasoning; the building of children’s co-operation, empathy and sense of community; and the development of children’s sense of self and self-esteem. Discussion of the deep moral themes that lie within superhero narratives, and how superhero characters and narratives can be used to enhance and deepen children’s understanding of good character, moral responsibility, attachment, prejudice and ill-treatment, and why it is important to be good in the first place. A wealth of learning opportunities and suggestions of ways to use superheroes to advance children’s moral, philosophical and emotional thinking This book is an excellent resource for those studying or working in early years or primary education who wish to understand the phenomenon of children’s superhero and weapon play and make the most of children’s enthusiasm for it. “Warm, funny, smart, and honest, the argument made in Steven Popper’s book astutely, and with a sharp eye for detail, teases out many subtle reflections on morality, childhood development and the paradoxes of human nature, through the lens of our much-loved Superhero narratives. He is able, through nuanced and well-supported argument, drawn from both theory and practice, and from pedagogy and real life, to present a compelling and detailed account of the ways in which these stories might interface with the moral development of children. The book offers a rich, and articulate narrative of its own, which ‘aims at the good’ in its desire to propose that immersion in such superhero ‘narrative play’ can teach children about ethics, social responsibility, and what it is to be ‘human’. This is also a wonderful contribution to debates around the role of mass media in promoting critical thinking and enquiry among children.” Dr. Sheena Calvert, Senior Lecturer, University of Westminster, UK “This book authoritatively assesses the virtues of engaging in superhero play with young children. It argues that far from damaging children and encouraging them to adopt unthinking, aggressive behaviours superhero play is an implicitly moral activity. It encourages children to explore profound moral and ethical thinking. This book is both a well-researched account of the appeal that superhero play has for children of both sexes and a practical guide to how such play can be used imaginatively in early years settings.” Rob Abbott, Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood and Education, University of Chichester, UK
High up in the sky military satellites are infiltrated A petrified woman waits to give birth but to what? Three Enchantresses seduce and destroy The Angel of Death unleashes terror and devastation A Sanctifier is cruelly betrayed A civil war threatens the entire planet
Shenarias sacrifice was in vain, and the Temple lies destroyed The forces of good lie confused, scattered and broken A ghastly sacrifice engenders a diabolical summoning Chaos and rebellion break out on all civilised worlds An innocent child is vindictively hunted down The Supreme Sanctifier succumbs without even realizing The insidious Enemy Within finally reveals itself and a small, unarmed community at the foot of a mountain is all that stands between humanity and its final doom. Shenaria is gone, and the End of Everything still beckons. Bereft of her leadership and wisdom, and separated from each other, Matthias and Modesty struggle to prevent the forthcoming apocalypse; but Modesty is betrayed and Matthias is on the run and wanted for murder. How can they possibly triumph against the greatest evil of all?
A strange prophet announces the End of Everything... Twelve elite assassins stalk their prey... A foul apparition pollutes the sky above... A two-thousand-year-old conspiracy is discovered... A child of destiny is born... A long-awaited revenge is carried out... Something sacred is destroyed forever... Friends are forced to turn against each other... ...and there may not be a way out this time. Sanctifier Shenaria Calvert, her Truth-Extractor Matthias, and her Assassin Modesty could never have imagined that they might end up fighting on different sides. Will they prevent or cause the End of Everything? 'The Night of Decision' is the second volume of a gripping sci-fi trilogy about the cataclysmic struggle between Good and Evil. Catch up with previous events in 'The Day of Transformation', and don't miss the devastating conclusion to the story in 'The Hour of Revelation' - coming soon!
The Israel Police is seeking to institute changes enabling it to better serve the needs of modern Israel. This report describes a study to address issues of civil-police relations, benchmarking, performance measurement, and deterrence.
RAND researchers supported a high-level Israeli government team tasked with improving long-term socioeconomic strategy for the state. This report highlights selected inputs made to the government team to summarize the essential mechanics and roles for bringing a strategic perspective to policy consideration. To show how one can use a strategic perspective in an analysis of policy choices, the report uses the example of an aging population.
A sophisticated reader ought to view with great skepticism the prospect of answering questions about the long-term future. The checkered history of predicting the future-from the famous declarations that humans would never fly to the Limits to Growth study to claims about the "New Economy"-has dissuaded policymakers from considering the effects of their decisions more than a few months or years ahead. However, today's choices will significantly influence the course of the twenty-first century. New analytic methods, enabled by modern computers, may transform our ability to reason systematically about the long term. This report reviews traditional methods of grappling with the morrow, from narratives to scenario analysis, which fail to address the multiplicity of plausible long-term futures. The authors demonstrate a quantitative approach to long-term policy analysis (LTPA). Robust decision methods enable decisionmakers to examine a vast range of plausible futures and design near-term, often adaptive, strategies to be robust across them. Reframing the question "What will the long-term future bring?" as "How can we choose actions today that will be consistent with our long-term interests?" these methods provide powerful analytic support to humans' innate capacity for "what-if-ing." Choosing the challenge of sustainable development as an example, the authors discuss how these methods may be applied to real-world LTPA and a wide range of other challenges of decisionmaking under conditions of deep uncertainty.
The Brain Korea 21 Program (BK21), which seeks to make Korean research universities globally competitive and to produce more high-quality researchers in Korea, provides funding to graduate students and professors who belong to research groups at top universities. The authors develop quantitative and qualitative models to evaluate how well BK21 is fulfilling its goals and make suggestions for further stimulating Korean university research.
This book discusses the opportunities and risks the government of Israel faces in shifting to a greater reliance on domestic and imported natural gas. By applying newly developed methods for strategic planning and decisionmaking under deep uncertainty, the analysis seeks to help the Israeli government engage in managed change by choosing robust strategies that minimize potential consequences of relying more heavily on natural gas.
Imagine that, in 2050, not a single person in the United States dies in a traffic crash. This executive summary to The Road to Zero: A Vision for Achieving Zero Roadway Deaths by 2050, describes how changes in policy, technology, and social norms can substantially improve road safety, and the steps that can be taken to set the United States on the road to zero deaths from traffic crashes by 2050.
Tecnológico de Monterrey and RAND Corporation researchers help develop an adaptive water management strategy for Mexico's third-largest metropolitan area, Monterrey, using RAND's Robust Decision Making (RDM) methods.
A sophisticated reader ought to view with great skepticism the prospect of answering questions about the long-term future. The checkered history of predicting the future-from the famous declarations that humans would never fly to the Limits to Growth study to claims about the "New Economy"--Has dissuaded policymakers from considering the effects of their decisions more than a few months or years ahead. However, today's choices will significantly influence the course of the twenty-first century. New analytic methods, enabled by modern computers, may transform our ability to reason systematically about the long term. This report reviews traditional methods of grappling with the morrow, from narratives to scenario analysis, which fail to address the multiplicity of plausible long-term futures. The authors demonstrate a quantitative approach to long-term policy analysis (LTPA). Robust decision methods enable decisionmakers to examine a vast range of plausible futures and design near-term, often adaptive, strategies to be robust across them. Reframing the question "What will the long-term future bring?" as "How can we choose actions today that will be consistent with our long-term interests?" these methods provide powerful analytic support to humans' innate capacity for "what-if-ing." Choosing the challenge of sustainable development as an example, the authors discuss how these methods may be applied to real-world LTPA and a wide range of other challenges of decisionmaking under conditions of deep uncertainty.
This open access book focuses on both the theory and practice associated with the tools and approaches for decisionmaking in the face of deep uncertainty. It explores approaches and tools supporting the design of strategic plans under deep uncertainty, and their testing in the real world, including barriers and enablers for their use in practice. The book broadens traditional approaches and tools to include the analysis of actors and networks related to the problem at hand. It also shows how lessons learned in the application process can be used to improve the approaches and tools used in the design process. The book offers guidance in identifying and applying appropriate approaches and tools to design plans, as well as advice on implementing these plans in the real world. For decisionmakers and practitioners, the book includes realistic examples and practical guidelines that should help them understand what decisionmaking under deep uncertainty is and how it may be of assistance to them. Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty: From Theory to Practice is divided into four parts. Part I presents five approaches for designing strategic plans under deep uncertainty: Robust Decision Making, Dynamic Adaptive Planning, Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways, Info-Gap Decision Theory, and Engineering Options Analysis. Each approach is worked out in terms of its theoretical foundations, methodological steps to follow when using the approach, latest methodological insights, and challenges for improvement. In Part II, applications of each of these approaches are presented. Based on recent case studies, the practical implications of applying each approach are discussed in depth. Part III focuses on using the approaches and tools in real-world contexts, based on insights from real-world cases. Part IV contains conclusions and a synthesis of the lessons that can be drawn for designing, applying, and implementing strategic plans under deep uncertainty, as well as recommendations for future work. The publication of this book has been funded by the Radboud University, the RAND Corporation, Delft University of Technology, and Deltares.; Offers a comprehensive examination of the approaches and tools for designing plans under deep uncertainty and their application Identifies barriers and enablers for the use of the various approaches and tools in practice Includes realistic examples and practical guidelines to help readers better understand the concepts This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.
In this report, the authors describe what information would be needed to better understand China's innovation trajectory in the coming decades. They examine the propensity in China's innovation system to realize its potential as an innovating nation.
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