Education and self‐change

This paper explores three psychological theories of self – Kenneth Gergen's theory of the crystallised self, Carol Dweck's theory of the incremental self and William Swann's theory of the homeostatic self – for their ability to account for personal change in general, and radical self‐change in particular. Special attention is paid to their educational implications. The overall conclusion is that whereas all three theories provide important insights into self‐change, none of them gives a fully satisfying account.     

A history of learning difficulties Australia: Part four‐managing change

Abstract

As the Australian Remedial Educational Association (AREA) approached its silver jubilee in 1990, significant changes were occurring in education. The principle, if not the practice, of integration into mainstream schools for students with disabilities had been widely adopted by education authorities, one outcome being an expectation that class teachers would provide for much greater diversity within the mainstream. Broader changes in education, including in end‐of‐school assessment, posed further challenges. During the decade from the mid‐1980s to the mid‐1990s, AREA was occupied in much internal discussion as Council searched for a framework that would encompass new ideas about special education while maintaining its service for remedial consultants as a priority. The association overcame financial and other difficulties, surviving with a new name, the Australian Resource Educators Association, to reflect an expansion of membership beyond the traditional concept of remedial teacher.     

SELF‐concept change through a microteaching experience

Thirty‐two Diploma of Education students took part in a microteaching course of 12 weeks duration. Each student taught two, 10 minute micro‐lessons to groups of five secondary school students, their performance being observed by their fellow trainee teachers and recorded on videotape. After the microlesson had been completed, the student teacher viewed his taped performance and made the decision whether to use it with his colleagues and the pupils he had taught in a discussion group format. In all cases this was done. Students completed the Tennessee Self‐Concept Scale before and after their microteaching course, their scores being compared with other Diploma of Education students who had had no such experience. Results indicated that self‐concept change in a positive direction was facilitated by the microteaching experience.     

Quality assessment,decision‐making and institutional change

The paper studies the relation between different national cost‐sharing models and how students from different socio‐economic backgrounds finance their higher education in six different European countries: the Czech Republic, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Spain. The findings reveal considerable differences both between the countries and also between different socio‐economic groups of students within each country. Even though there are only small social differences in the students’ level of income, there are considerable social differences in the students’ sources of income. The findings are discussed related to the country’s specific policy and higher education funding structures.     

A self‐study of a national curriculum maker in physical education: challenges to curriculum change

This paper captures a national curriculum maker’s experiences of revising the physical education curriculum in South Korea. A self‐study was conducted in order to make known the chairperson’s experiences concerning the various obstacles encountered in revising the national curriculum and to offer previously unseen insights afforded by the curriculum maker’s personal reflections. This study specifically offers a detailed analysis of four challenges the national curriculum maker encountered: (1) personal obstacles encountered as a young female chairperson, (2) environmental obstacles encountered as a marginally positioned chairperson, (3) professional obstacles faced as an innovative chairperson, and (4) institutionalized obstacles related to being named the official chairperson. In this self‐study conducted in the narrative inquiry tradition, several important findings emerge about the nature of curriculum making and how curriculum making transpires at a national level.     

Short‐term policy support for long‐term school change: a dilemma for reform‐minded practitioners

This paper questions the ability of a reform policy of five years’ duration to create the conditions necessary for practitioners to sustain change. California's school restructuring initiative challenged schools to transfer authority to teachers and to demonstrate that every student could succeed in learning. Analysis of this progressive policy is based upon the ‘best‐case’ experiences of an exemplary elementary school staff. After five years, the teachers are just developing the ability to confront the volatile issues of race and social class that surfaced in their inquiries into persistent disparities in student achievement. Using theories from institutional analysis of organizations, the paper argues that withdrawal of policy support means weakening of the regulative, cognitive and normative legitimacy for the goals and processes of change. Fixed‐term policies which invite radical reform thus leave schools vulnerable to the tradition‐reinforcing institutions that remain after the initiative has ended.     

A juryman‐critic's vote

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OF SPEECH AND TIME. Edited by Aron W. Siegman and Stanley Feldstein. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1979; pp. x + 230.

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION IN THE ELDERLY. Edited by Loraine K. Obler and Martin L. Albert. Forward by Carl Eisdorfer. Lexington Books, 1980; pp. xi + 220. $22.95.

CHILDREN'S ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS. Edited by W. Patrick Dickson. New York: Academic Press, 1981; pp. xviii + 394. $29.95.

DEVELOPING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE OF ORGANIZATIONS. By Karlene Roberts, Charles Hulin and Denise Rousseau. San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass, 1978; pp. xiii + 171. $13.95.

POWER AND POLITICS IN ORGANIZATIONS. By Samuel Bacharach and Edward Lawler. San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass, 1980; pp. xiii + 249. $15.95.

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THE GREAT DEBATES: CARTER VS. FORD, 1976. Edited by Sidney Kraus Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979; pp. xi + 553. Paper $19.50, cloth $29.95.

THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES: MEDIA, ELECTORAL, AND POLICY PERSPECTIVES. Edited by George F. Bishop, Robert G. Meadow, and Marilyn Jackson‐Beeck. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1980; pp. xxii + 324. $25.00.

CARTER VS. FORD: THE COUNTERFEIT DEBATES OF 1976. By Lloyd Bitzer and Theodore Rueter. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1980; pp. xii + 428. Paper $9.95, cloth $27.50.

SUBLIMINAL POLITICS: MYTHS AND MYTHMAKERS IN AMERICA. By Dan Nimmo and James E. Combs. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1980; pp. xiii + 256. Paper $4.95.

PLAYING TO WIN: AN INSIDER'S GUIDE TO POLITICS. By Jeff Greenfield. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980; pp. 286. $11.95.

THE VOICES OF HISTORY: MOMENTS FROM THE GREAT SPEECHES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Selected and Introduced by Lord George‐Brown. New York: Stein &; Day, 1980; pp. xxiv + 262. $12.95.

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THE ACT OF BEING. By Charles Marowitz. New York: Taplinger, 1978; pp. x + 196. Paper $4.95, cloth $9.95.

METAPHORS WE LIVE BY. By George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980; pp. xiii + 242. $13.50.

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HITLER: A STUDY IN PERSONALITY AND POLITICS. By William Carr. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979; x + 200. $12.95.

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JUSTICE DOUGLAS AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Compiled and with an Introduction by Haig Bosmajian. Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1980. pp. xli + 377. $17.50.

COMMUNICATION UNDER LAW Volume I: Free Speech. By Joseph J. Hemmer, Jr. Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1979; pp. ix+307. $15.00.     

Achievement goal orientation and differences in self‐reported copying behaviour across academic programmes

This survey study investigated the relationship between achievement goal orientation and self‐reported copying behaviour among college students (N = 2007) enrolled in five different academic programmes in Thailand. Results of statistical analysis showed several significant findings: performance approach goal orientation, performance avoidance goal orientation, academic major in humanities, gender and grade point average were the best predictors of self‐reported frequency of copying behaviour. Compared with humanities students, management, engineering, science and vocational students were significantly more performance avoidance goal oriented and reported significantly higher frequency of copying behaviour. We primarily use achievement goal theory to interpret the effect of multiple goal orientations on self‐reported copying behaviour across academic programmes.     

The influence of intercultural communication apprehension and socio‐communicative orientation on uncertainty reduction during initial cross‐cultural interaction

This study is an investigation of the influence of intercultural communication apprehension, socio‐communicative orientation, and uncertainty during initial cross‐cultural communication. Prior to interacting with unknown partners from another culture, participants completed measures of intercultural communication apprehension and socio‐communicative orientation. After interacting with their partners, participants completed measures of uncertainty. As predicted, intercultural communication apprehension was positively associated with uncertainty. Also as predicted intercultural communication apprehension was negatively correlated with socio‐communicative orientation. A third hypothesis, which was partially supported, posited that socio‐communicative orientation would be negatively correlated with uncertainty.