Abstract: This paper is an empirically grounded theoretical critique of the idea of the “regulatory state.” The language of the “regulatory state” obscures the nature of the modern state as a constitutive “thing.” The modern state is crucially constituted through the co-productions of science and government. It needs to be investigated in terms of its discursive, practiced, and material dimensions, its meanings, its agencies, and its formation as a material entity composed of land, people and built environment. This critique is needed because the idea of the regulatory state too often leaves implicit the notion that capitalism exists prior to the state, and is thus only “regulated” as such post-hoc. The methods used are those of historical sociological case based analytics, utilizing archival materials. The purpose is to challenge the taken-for-granted distinction between the state and capitalist social organization. The implications for further research are the need to delve deeper into the complex entanglements of state and society, and the ironic role that science as culture played in constructing both those concrete entanglements and the abstract bounded categories that obscure them..

Keywords: Regulation, technoscience, capitalism, state formation, constitutive view.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between five factors of personality traits of Turkish late adolescents and computer anxiety in a Turkish study group. The study group consisted of 119 students: 97 females and 22 males. The study data was collected using the Adjective-Based Personality Test and Personal Information Form. Findings of this study revealed that there is no significant statistical difference among the participant scores for the Personality Test Based on Adjectives (ABPT)’s dimensions of emotional instability/neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and responsibility, owning computers and anxiety during the use of computers.

Keywords: Five factor personality traits, computer anxiety, late adolescence.

Abstract: This article compares the changes in efficacy of pre-service teachers in an immersive learning practicum and in a traditional practicum. It does not assume that pre-service teachers take the same pattern of development as in-service teachers because of the restructuring that must occur in an educational setting. The first study followed the development of 159 preservice teachers and found a significant interaction between the two groups across time in terms of teacher efficacy. The immersive group’s efficacy increased significantly more than the control group. The second study assessed the response-shift of pre-service teachers between their pretests and their retrospective pretests. As hypothesized, the difference between the pretest and the retrospective pretest was greater for the immersive group compared to the control group, indicating the power that immersive experiences has to recalibrate the concept of teacher-efficacy. Implications for pre-service teacher education are discussed.

Keywords: Teacher-efficacy, response-shift bias, immersive learning, retrospective pretest, pre-service teacher.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to make a comparison between the patentable subject matter in French and Jordanian law in order to extract the similarities and differences to establish basic principles for Palestine. The Jordanian law is selected as it is in general the law that is applied in Palestine.

Palestine is the only country in the Middle East that does not have legislations protecting intellectual property rights. However, there are sporadic laws applied in Palestine, such as the Ottomans’ law in 1910 related to copyright law and the Jordanian trademark 1952 and patent law in 1953. In 1995 the Palestinian Authority approved some legislation in the field of private law, such as civil and commercial law, but without including in it intellectual property legislation. The term intellectual property is not popular among Palestinian legislators as there are among them few experts in this field.

Keywords: Intellectual property rights, Innovation, Patent, Trips Agreement, Business Method, Discoveries.

Abstract: Evaluation reflects the educationalists’ interest in understanding and improving the techniques and instruments of school assessment. Postmodern didactics brings forth a fresh perspective on the evaluation act, which is analysed not only as the final act of the instruction process, but also as a process meant to permanently adjust teaching and learning acts. The aim of this paper is to underline the evolution of evaluation theory and practice in Romanian education, emphasising both its benefits and drawbacks. The paper uses the extant research in the literature as well as personal knowledge of the author about the factors that are related to the improvement of didactic evaluation. Most of the results of these studies lead to the conclusion that building a culture of evaluation is necessary, that formative evaluation should valorise a wide range of strategies and docimologic tools in order to attain an objective evaluation, and to be able to employ its outcomes in designing the teaching-learning undertaking.

Keywords: Evaluation, performance, objectivity, evaluative strategies, evaluative skills.