This article aims to explore effective ways to enhance the affinity of ideological and political course teachers in universities.By analyzing the connotation of affinity,the factors that affect the affinity of ideolog...This article aims to explore effective ways to enhance the affinity of ideological and political course teachers in universities.By analyzing the connotation of affinity,the factors that affect the affinity of ideological and political course teachers are analyzed,and corresponding improvement strategies are proposed.Research suggests that strengthening the construction of teacher ethics and conduct,improving teaching skills,enhancing emotional engagement,and enhancing practical training are key paths to enhance the affinity of ideological and political course teachers.The implementation of these paths will help improve the teaching quality and effectiveness of ideological and political courses,and promote the comprehensive development of students.展开更多
This paper takes the long-term mechanism exploration of the construction of teachers’ethics in the new era under the concept of“Sanquan education,”aiming to explore how to establish a long-term mechanism of the con...This paper takes the long-term mechanism exploration of the construction of teachers’ethics in the new era under the concept of“Sanquan education,”aiming to explore how to establish a long-term mechanism of the construction to meet the needs of college education development under the background of the new era.A series of targeted measures and suggestions are put forward,including improving the system and mechanism,strengthening the education and training of teachers’ethics,and establishing the evaluation and assessment mechanism.The implementation of these measures can promote the formation of the long-term mechanism of the construction of teachers’ethics in colleges and universities,improve teachers’ethics and behavior quality,and provide strong support for the development of education in colleges and universities.展开更多
This research reviews the construction process of business English teachers in China,and puts forward the notion that business English teachers should establish correct scientific research concept,correctly understand...This research reviews the construction process of business English teachers in China,and puts forward the notion that business English teachers should establish correct scientific research concept,correctly understand the dialectical relationship between scientific research capability and teaching,the role of scientific research capability and the necessity for teachers to carry out scientific research in teaching.Business English teachers should realize the deficiency of their own scientific research capability,and the necessity of strengthening it.They should learn to combine scientific research theory with teaching practice.Business English teachers in different colleges and universities should learn how to improve their research capability according to reality.Only in this way can they improve their understanding of the necessity of strengthening their scientific research capability and promoting their own professional quality as well as improving students’learning ability and cultivating high-level business English personnel for the society.展开更多
From students' perspectives, the quality characteristics of excellent Chinese college English teachers consist of teaching skills, teacher-student relationship, teachers' knowledge level and teachers' character. It...From students' perspectives, the quality characteristics of excellent Chinese college English teachers consist of teaching skills, teacher-student relationship, teachers' knowledge level and teachers' character. It is a multidimensional construct. Of all the four main constituents, teaching skills is ranked the highest on the explanatory ability on students' perceptions of excellent college English teachers, then teachers' relationship with students, teachers' knowledge level and teachers' character.展开更多
In this paper,practical strategies are proposed to improve the quality of teachers in higher vocational colleges.Research and analyses have shown that the key to improving the quality of teachers in higher vocational ...In this paper,practical strategies are proposed to improve the quality of teachers in higher vocational colleges.Research and analyses have shown that the key to improving the quality of teachers in higher vocational colleges lies in the improvement of professionalism,subject knowledge,and teaching ability.Thus,the following practical strategies are proposed:strengthen teachers’moral development,establish a teacher training system,focus on curriculum construction and teaching method innovation,and strengthen the teaching quality monitoring and evaluation mechanism.These measures can effectively improve the quality of teachers in higher vocational colleges and promote the development of higher vocational education.展开更多
Authors of the text present Polish context of teachers’ professional promotion and teachers’ competencies. The text also has its empirical dimension-a research about teachers’ sense of life quality has been done. T...Authors of the text present Polish context of teachers’ professional promotion and teachers’ competencies. The text also has its empirical dimension-a research about teachers’ sense of life quality has been done. There are teachers’ expressions, collected and quoted during qualitative research. Teachers’ thoughts are concerned about the sense of life quality in the context of working at lower secondary school.展开更多
Contemporary aesthetic education is one of the educational methods under the contemporary cultural system,which includes contemporary educational ideas,methods,and countermeasures of art.Teachers under contemporary ae...Contemporary aesthetic education is one of the educational methods under the contemporary cultural system,which includes contemporary educational ideas,methods,and countermeasures of art.Teachers under contemporary aesthetic education must take on the responsibility of improving their artistic qualities in this process,express differences through perceiving life,and reshape aesthetics by regulating oneself.Teachers need to be concerned about the society,and based on the present,with independent thinking,capture the essence of life and conform to the laws of art,maintain a vigilant and critical edge,advance with the times in teaching and life,as well as embody their own educational philosophies and value judgments.展开更多
Objective:This article aims to deeply analyze the feedback on teacher training in an affiliated hospital,so as to clarify the current needs and situation of teacher training and provide a scientific basis for further ...Objective:This article aims to deeply analyze the feedback on teacher training in an affiliated hospital,so as to clarify the current needs and situation of teacher training and provide a scientific basis for further optimizing the teacher training system.Methods:The current situation and needs of teacher training in the affiliated hospital were collected by designing and distributing Tomato Form questionnaires on the DingTalk platform.The questionnaire adopted a percent-point system,all of which were indeterminate multiple-choice questions.Results:The average age of the clinical teachers participating in the survey was 40.44±7.85 years old,with an average teaching length of 4–10 years.The results showed that 60.20%of teachers think that the amount of teacher training in an affiliated hospital is sufficient;91.10%of teachers think that the factors affecting training conflict with working hours;97.96%of teachers believe that the training time has an impact on the training effect;81.63%of teachers prefer online training;51.53%of teachers tend to arrange training time on working days;33.16%of teachers tend to train once a month;17.78%of teachers prefer to receive training on clinical theoretical courses and practical teaching norms and skills content.Conclusion:Based on the above survey results,we propose to build a comprehensive management mechanism for teacher training,including improving the access,training,and assessment mechanism for clinical teachers,and adjusting and optimizing the training program according to actual needs.At the same time,an effective communication platform should be built to promote the deep integration of teaching and practice and enhance social recognition,so as to comprehensively improve the teaching quality and medical service of the hospital.展开更多
The writer aims at emphasizing the significance of assuring the all-round quality in Xinjiang Medical University by analyzing the current situation and problems in XMU and discussing the feasibility of the issues by p...The writer aims at emphasizing the significance of assuring the all-round quality in Xinjiang Medical University by analyzing the current situation and problems in XMU and discussing the feasibility of the issues by providing various measures and by using different managing approaches.展开更多
Purpose This study elucidates the rationale,implementation,values,and challenges of the Synergized Quality Improvement Program in Teacher Education(SQIPTE)—the first policy specifically dedicated to the development o...Purpose This study elucidates the rationale,implementation,values,and challenges of the Synergized Quality Improvement Program in Teacher Education(SQIPTE)—the first policy specifically dedicated to the development of teaching staff since the founding of the People's Republic of China.Design/Approach/Methods After introducing the primary structure and rationale of the SQIPTE,this study reviews the existing data and research to explain why the program focuses on local normal colleges and determine how it could be implemented more effectively.Findings In establishing group-based assistance under the principle of“1+M+N”(M≥N),the SQIPTE seeks to make normal colleges the primary force in the education of rural teachers and explores a collaborative operating mechanism to this end.Evidence suggests that this innovative program will provide new practical experience for the collaborative development and quality improvement of teachers.Originality/Value This study reviews the SQIPTE as a new Chinese intervention to improve the quality of rural teachers.There is strong evidence to suggest that this innovative program will inspire the construction of collaborative operating mechanisms incorporating multiple resources for teacher education systems across different areas.展开更多
Accelerating the convergence speed and avoiding the local optimal solution are two main goals of particle swarm optimization(PSO). The very basic PSO model and some variants of PSO do not consider the enhancement of...Accelerating the convergence speed and avoiding the local optimal solution are two main goals of particle swarm optimization(PSO). The very basic PSO model and some variants of PSO do not consider the enhancement of the explorative capability of each particle. Thus these methods have a slow convergence speed and may trap into a local optimal solution. To enhance the explorative capability of particles, a scheme called explorative capability enhancement in PSO(ECE-PSO) is proposed by introducing some virtual particles in random directions with random amplitude. The linearly decreasing method related to the maximum iteration and the nonlinearly decreasing method related to the fitness value of the globally best particle are employed to produce virtual particles. The above two methods are thoroughly compared with four representative advanced PSO variants on eight unimodal and multimodal benchmark problems. Experimental results indicate that the convergence speed and solution quality of ECE-PSO outperform the state-of-the-art PSO variants.展开更多
Process capability indices have been widely used in the manufacturing industry,providing numerical measures on process precision,process accuracy,and process performance.Capability measures for processes with a single...Process capability indices have been widely used in the manufacturing industry,providing numerical measures on process precision,process accuracy,and process performance.Capability measures for processes with a single characteristic have been investigated extensively.However,capability measures for processes with multiple characteristics are comparatively neglected. In this paper,inspired by the approach and model of process capability index investigated by K.S.Chen et al.(2003) and A.B. Yeh et al.(1998),a note model of multivariate process capability index based on non-conformity is presented.As for this index, the data of each single characteristic don’t require satisfying normal distribution,of which its computing is simple and particioners will not fell too theoretical.At last the application analysis is made.展开更多
Achieving Six-Sigma process capability starts with l istening to the Voice of the Customers, and it becomes a reality by combining th e People Power and the Process Power of the organisation. This paper presents a Six...Achieving Six-Sigma process capability starts with l istening to the Voice of the Customers, and it becomes a reality by combining th e People Power and the Process Power of the organisation. This paper presents a Six-Sigma implementation case study carried out in a magnet manufacturing compa ny, which produces bearing magnets to be used in energy meters. If the thickness of the produced bearing magnets is between 2.35 mm and 2.50 mm, they will be ac cepted by the customers. All the time the company could not produce the bearing magnets within the specified thickness range, as their process distribution was flat with 2.20 mm as lower control limit and 2.60 mm as upper control limit. This resulted in a huge loss in the form of non-conformities, loss of time and goodwill. The process capability of the company then was around 0.40. Organisat ion restructuring was carried out to reap the benefit of the People Power of the organisation. Statistically designed experiments (Taguchi Method based Design o f Experiments), Online quality control tools (Statistical Process Control To ols) were effectively used to complete the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Impr ove and Control) cycle to reap the benefit of the Process Power of the organisat ion. Presently the company enjoys a process capability of 1.75, a way towards Si x-Sigma Process Capability.展开更多
State-owned enterprises are important pillars of socialism with Chinese characteristics,and the modernization of their governance system and governance capacity is an important part of the modernization of the nationa...State-owned enterprises are important pillars of socialism with Chinese characteristics,and the modernization of their governance system and governance capacity is an important part of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.Through case study and specific practice,this paper carries out an in-depth thinking and serious analysis on how to promote the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity of state-owned enterprises under the new situation and requirements.This paper puts forward three kinds of management and control mechanism to enhance core competence in addition to the specific implementation path by using digital governance means.展开更多
The industrial organisations have a vested interest in quality and its practices in making a quantum leap, thereby requiring proper refocusing and rethinking. This is targeted seriously towards firms acquiring Knowled...The industrial organisations have a vested interest in quality and its practices in making a quantum leap, thereby requiring proper refocusing and rethinking. This is targeted seriously towards firms acquiring Knowledge Systems (KS) in order to nurture the employees' capabilities. Therefore, to enhance performances and their highly creative direction takes consideration of QE (quality engineering) and KS and disciplines complementary to each other. Additionally, the flow of operations and activities of the KS through the application of quality engineering (QE) principles is according to the view of Japanese engineer Taguchi. This aims to achieve good quality in the product design and processes, and also to anticipate problems that may occur before the shipping of the products. In this study, the use of quality control engineering and Taguchi's function methods in determining these properties and the loss caused by the company will be examined. However, the adopted approach of study scope to the society will aid KS. Also, efforts in this direction motivate the employment of a statistical method by Taguchi which relied on the principle of target-oriented quality, representing the value characterising the product quality.展开更多
Nowadays, with the rapid progress and development of the Chinese society, people’s material level has been continuously improved, and the demand for electricity has also been increasing year by year. For thermal powe...Nowadays, with the rapid progress and development of the Chinese society, people’s material level has been continuously improved, and the demand for electricity has also been increasing year by year. For thermal power plants, it is of great importance to strictly control the feedwater quality and to conduct real-time tracking and supervision, as well as to ensure the safety of the production process. In this paper, we take the boiler feedwater quality in the production process as the research object. First of all, the cause-and-effect diagram is used to find out the reasons for the deviation of feedwater quality;Secondly, each index of feedwater is analyzed by multiple linear regression method to find out the key variables affecting the change of its pH value, so as to develop and implement improvement measures;Finally, the pH value is compared and verified by control chart and process capability analysis, and relevant improvement suggestions and countermeasures are proposed.展开更多
Engineering Drawing course is one of the main contents of teaching at most of science and engineering colleges or univer- sities. In this paper, some feasible measures is discussed on improving the teaching quality of...Engineering Drawing course is one of the main contents of teaching at most of science and engineering colleges or univer- sities. In this paper, some feasible measures is discussed on improving the teaching quality of Engineering Drawing course from four aspects, including diversified teacher participation and coordinating the teaching process, optimizing the content of teaching and im- proving teaching quality, improving teaching effect and reforming teaching methods, and integrating practice and cultivating practi- cal ability.展开更多
文摘This article aims to explore effective ways to enhance the affinity of ideological and political course teachers in universities.By analyzing the connotation of affinity,the factors that affect the affinity of ideological and political course teachers are analyzed,and corresponding improvement strategies are proposed.Research suggests that strengthening the construction of teacher ethics and conduct,improving teaching skills,enhancing emotional engagement,and enhancing practical training are key paths to enhance the affinity of ideological and political course teachers.The implementation of these paths will help improve the teaching quality and effectiveness of ideological and political courses,and promote the comprehensive development of students.
基金Central University of Finance and Economics Theoretical Research Project on Party Building and Ideological and Political Work(Project number:DJW23002)。
文摘This paper takes the long-term mechanism exploration of the construction of teachers’ethics in the new era under the concept of“Sanquan education,”aiming to explore how to establish a long-term mechanism of the construction to meet the needs of college education development under the background of the new era.A series of targeted measures and suggestions are put forward,including improving the system and mechanism,strengthening the education and training of teachers’ethics,and establishing the evaluation and assessment mechanism.The implementation of these measures can promote the formation of the long-term mechanism of the construction of teachers’ethics in colleges and universities,improve teachers’ethics and behavior quality,and provide strong support for the development of education in colleges and universities.
文摘This research reviews the construction process of business English teachers in China,and puts forward the notion that business English teachers should establish correct scientific research concept,correctly understand the dialectical relationship between scientific research capability and teaching,the role of scientific research capability and the necessity for teachers to carry out scientific research in teaching.Business English teachers should realize the deficiency of their own scientific research capability,and the necessity of strengthening it.They should learn to combine scientific research theory with teaching practice.Business English teachers in different colleges and universities should learn how to improve their research capability according to reality.Only in this way can they improve their understanding of the necessity of strengthening their scientific research capability and promoting their own professional quality as well as improving students’learning ability and cultivating high-level business English personnel for the society.
文摘From students' perspectives, the quality characteristics of excellent Chinese college English teachers consist of teaching skills, teacher-student relationship, teachers' knowledge level and teachers' character. It is a multidimensional construct. Of all the four main constituents, teaching skills is ranked the highest on the explanatory ability on students' perceptions of excellent college English teachers, then teachers' relationship with students, teachers' knowledge level and teachers' character.
文摘In this paper,practical strategies are proposed to improve the quality of teachers in higher vocational colleges.Research and analyses have shown that the key to improving the quality of teachers in higher vocational colleges lies in the improvement of professionalism,subject knowledge,and teaching ability.Thus,the following practical strategies are proposed:strengthen teachers’moral development,establish a teacher training system,focus on curriculum construction and teaching method innovation,and strengthen the teaching quality monitoring and evaluation mechanism.These measures can effectively improve the quality of teachers in higher vocational colleges and promote the development of higher vocational education.
文摘Authors of the text present Polish context of teachers’ professional promotion and teachers’ competencies. The text also has its empirical dimension-a research about teachers’ sense of life quality has been done. There are teachers’ expressions, collected and quoted during qualitative research. Teachers’ thoughts are concerned about the sense of life quality in the context of working at lower secondary school.
文摘Contemporary aesthetic education is one of the educational methods under the contemporary cultural system,which includes contemporary educational ideas,methods,and countermeasures of art.Teachers under contemporary aesthetic education must take on the responsibility of improving their artistic qualities in this process,express differences through perceiving life,and reshape aesthetics by regulating oneself.Teachers need to be concerned about the society,and based on the present,with independent thinking,capture the essence of life and conform to the laws of art,maintain a vigilant and critical edge,advance with the times in teaching and life,as well as embody their own educational philosophies and value judgments.
基金2023 Shaanxi Teacher Development Research Program“Research on the Construction and Improvement Path of a Teaching Engagement Model for Double Qualified Teachers in Medical Colleges”(2023JSQ011)2022 Education and Teaching Reform Research Project of Xi’an Medical University“Construction and Practice of the Teaching Quality Assurance System in the Three-Level Teaching Base of General Practice Medicine under the Internet+Model”(2022JG-05)。
文摘Objective:This article aims to deeply analyze the feedback on teacher training in an affiliated hospital,so as to clarify the current needs and situation of teacher training and provide a scientific basis for further optimizing the teacher training system.Methods:The current situation and needs of teacher training in the affiliated hospital were collected by designing and distributing Tomato Form questionnaires on the DingTalk platform.The questionnaire adopted a percent-point system,all of which were indeterminate multiple-choice questions.Results:The average age of the clinical teachers participating in the survey was 40.44±7.85 years old,with an average teaching length of 4–10 years.The results showed that 60.20%of teachers think that the amount of teacher training in an affiliated hospital is sufficient;91.10%of teachers think that the factors affecting training conflict with working hours;97.96%of teachers believe that the training time has an impact on the training effect;81.63%of teachers prefer online training;51.53%of teachers tend to arrange training time on working days;33.16%of teachers tend to train once a month;17.78%of teachers prefer to receive training on clinical theoretical courses and practical teaching norms and skills content.Conclusion:Based on the above survey results,we propose to build a comprehensive management mechanism for teacher training,including improving the access,training,and assessment mechanism for clinical teachers,and adjusting and optimizing the training program according to actual needs.At the same time,an effective communication platform should be built to promote the deep integration of teaching and practice and enhance social recognition,so as to comprehensively improve the teaching quality and medical service of the hospital.
文摘The writer aims at emphasizing the significance of assuring the all-round quality in Xinjiang Medical University by analyzing the current situation and problems in XMU and discussing the feasibility of the issues by providing various measures and by using different managing approaches.
基金the Key Project of the Chinese Society of Education in 2021,titled"The Synergized Quality Improvement Program in Teacher Education"(grant number 2021093104LWT).
文摘Purpose This study elucidates the rationale,implementation,values,and challenges of the Synergized Quality Improvement Program in Teacher Education(SQIPTE)—the first policy specifically dedicated to the development of teaching staff since the founding of the People's Republic of China.Design/Approach/Methods After introducing the primary structure and rationale of the SQIPTE,this study reviews the existing data and research to explain why the program focuses on local normal colleges and determine how it could be implemented more effectively.Findings In establishing group-based assistance under the principle of“1+M+N”(M≥N),the SQIPTE seeks to make normal colleges the primary force in the education of rural teachers and explores a collaborative operating mechanism to this end.Evidence suggests that this innovative program will provide new practical experience for the collaborative development and quality improvement of teachers.Originality/Value This study reviews the SQIPTE as a new Chinese intervention to improve the quality of rural teachers.There is strong evidence to suggest that this innovative program will inspire the construction of collaborative operating mechanisms incorporating multiple resources for teacher education systems across different areas.
基金supported by the Aeronautical Science Fund of Shaanxi Province of China(20145596025)
文摘Accelerating the convergence speed and avoiding the local optimal solution are two main goals of particle swarm optimization(PSO). The very basic PSO model and some variants of PSO do not consider the enhancement of the explorative capability of each particle. Thus these methods have a slow convergence speed and may trap into a local optimal solution. To enhance the explorative capability of particles, a scheme called explorative capability enhancement in PSO(ECE-PSO) is proposed by introducing some virtual particles in random directions with random amplitude. The linearly decreasing method related to the maximum iteration and the nonlinearly decreasing method related to the fitness value of the globally best particle are employed to produce virtual particles. The above two methods are thoroughly compared with four representative advanced PSO variants on eight unimodal and multimodal benchmark problems. Experimental results indicate that the convergence speed and solution quality of ECE-PSO outperform the state-of-the-art PSO variants.
基金Contract/grant sponsor:China National Key Laboratory for analog IC(51439040103DZ0102)
文摘Process capability indices have been widely used in the manufacturing industry,providing numerical measures on process precision,process accuracy,and process performance.Capability measures for processes with a single characteristic have been investigated extensively.However,capability measures for processes with multiple characteristics are comparatively neglected. In this paper,inspired by the approach and model of process capability index investigated by K.S.Chen et al.(2003) and A.B. Yeh et al.(1998),a note model of multivariate process capability index based on non-conformity is presented.As for this index, the data of each single characteristic don’t require satisfying normal distribution,of which its computing is simple and particioners will not fell too theoretical.At last the application analysis is made.
文摘Achieving Six-Sigma process capability starts with l istening to the Voice of the Customers, and it becomes a reality by combining th e People Power and the Process Power of the organisation. This paper presents a Six-Sigma implementation case study carried out in a magnet manufacturing compa ny, which produces bearing magnets to be used in energy meters. If the thickness of the produced bearing magnets is between 2.35 mm and 2.50 mm, they will be ac cepted by the customers. All the time the company could not produce the bearing magnets within the specified thickness range, as their process distribution was flat with 2.20 mm as lower control limit and 2.60 mm as upper control limit. This resulted in a huge loss in the form of non-conformities, loss of time and goodwill. The process capability of the company then was around 0.40. Organisat ion restructuring was carried out to reap the benefit of the People Power of the organisation. Statistically designed experiments (Taguchi Method based Design o f Experiments), Online quality control tools (Statistical Process Control To ols) were effectively used to complete the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Impr ove and Control) cycle to reap the benefit of the Process Power of the organisat ion. Presently the company enjoys a process capability of 1.75, a way towards Si x-Sigma Process Capability.
文摘State-owned enterprises are important pillars of socialism with Chinese characteristics,and the modernization of their governance system and governance capacity is an important part of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.Through case study and specific practice,this paper carries out an in-depth thinking and serious analysis on how to promote the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity of state-owned enterprises under the new situation and requirements.This paper puts forward three kinds of management and control mechanism to enhance core competence in addition to the specific implementation path by using digital governance means.
文摘The industrial organisations have a vested interest in quality and its practices in making a quantum leap, thereby requiring proper refocusing and rethinking. This is targeted seriously towards firms acquiring Knowledge Systems (KS) in order to nurture the employees' capabilities. Therefore, to enhance performances and their highly creative direction takes consideration of QE (quality engineering) and KS and disciplines complementary to each other. Additionally, the flow of operations and activities of the KS through the application of quality engineering (QE) principles is according to the view of Japanese engineer Taguchi. This aims to achieve good quality in the product design and processes, and also to anticipate problems that may occur before the shipping of the products. In this study, the use of quality control engineering and Taguchi's function methods in determining these properties and the loss caused by the company will be examined. However, the adopted approach of study scope to the society will aid KS. Also, efforts in this direction motivate the employment of a statistical method by Taguchi which relied on the principle of target-oriented quality, representing the value characterising the product quality.
文摘Nowadays, with the rapid progress and development of the Chinese society, people’s material level has been continuously improved, and the demand for electricity has also been increasing year by year. For thermal power plants, it is of great importance to strictly control the feedwater quality and to conduct real-time tracking and supervision, as well as to ensure the safety of the production process. In this paper, we take the boiler feedwater quality in the production process as the research object. First of all, the cause-and-effect diagram is used to find out the reasons for the deviation of feedwater quality;Secondly, each index of feedwater is analyzed by multiple linear regression method to find out the key variables affecting the change of its pH value, so as to develop and implement improvement measures;Finally, the pH value is compared and verified by control chart and process capability analysis, and relevant improvement suggestions and countermeasures are proposed.
文摘Engineering Drawing course is one of the main contents of teaching at most of science and engineering colleges or univer- sities. In this paper, some feasible measures is discussed on improving the teaching quality of Engineering Drawing course from four aspects, including diversified teacher participation and coordinating the teaching process, optimizing the content of teaching and im- proving teaching quality, improving teaching effect and reforming teaching methods, and integrating practice and cultivating practi- cal ability.