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BOOK REVIEW

Curtin University of Technology has a strong commitment to gerontological education and is responsible for the majority of graduate education in this area of Western Australia. This article outlines various gerontological activities at Curtin. With the exception of social work, almost all are carried out in the university's Division of Health Sciences. The article describes the wide range of undergraduate courses in the division that have relevance for gerontology. The two ongoing graduate programs, the multidisciplinary or generalist and the occupational therapy streams, are described in detail, and a proposed center for gerontology is mentioned.     

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Item Generation for Test Development Reviewed by Mark J. Gierl and Jacqueline P. Leighton     

BOOK REVIEW

Book Reveiwed in this article:
Paractical Considerations in Computer-Based Testing Reviewed by William     

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Public educators of adults, because of their locally based programs, are strategically positioned to facilitate the learning of large numbers of older people. Little is known, however, about how these educators view the learning needs of elders who live in their communities. We conducted a telephone interview survey, using fixed‐response and open‐ended questions, with 30 directors of public adult education programs in Maine. The instrument assessed how important particular educational goals were for these directors at the time of the interview and how important each should be in the future. We examined both outcome and process variables. Health education was the outcome factor with the largest discrepancy between present and future program goals. Outreach to elders not presently participating in adult education programs was the process factor with the largest discrepancy. We discuss implications of this research for adult education and for potential partnerships between local educators and gerontologists.     

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Critical reviews from “outside”, notably educational sociologists arguing mainly from a British context, have caused some ripples, and maybe even waves, among school effectiveness researchers. To a large extent these external criticisms and the overall nature of the response from school effectiveness researchers are neatly summarized in the following quote from Townsend: “be like us”, say the critics, and the answer is “no thanks”. In this article the arguments form the “external” critics and the response from school effectiveness researchers will not be repeated. Some of the topics in the debate will be revisited, however. The first one is the discussion with respect to the impact of “contextual” or composition effects concerning the average socioeconomic background of students in schools and classrooms. This is one area, that bears upon the foundations of the school effectiveness concept, although it is not, as the critics would have it, a neglected area. The second one concerns conceptualization and theoretical explanation of school effectiveness, as the debate may not have been sufficiently explicit on this issue. The rest of the paper deals with “foundational” issues in school effectiveness research that have not been settled decisively and with changes in perspectives on learning and instruction and educational technology that provide serious challenges. On these issues there is reason for self-criticism and realism in the way school effectiveness research can make progress.     

BOOK REVIEW

The Educated Man: Studies in the History of Educational Thought. Paul Nash, Andreas M. Kazamias, Henry J. Perkinson (eds.).