‘THE BREAD,THE JAM AND SOME COFFEE IN THE MORNING’: PERCEPTIONS OF A NURTURE GROUP

The provision of nurture groups has increasingly been advocated as a strategy for meeting the needs of young emotionally disturbed children (DfEE, 1998a, p.44). This article is based on a qualitative evaluation of a nurture group in a primary school situated in an inner‐city area of severe deprivation. Though criteria for success varied, the nurture group was viewed as effective from the different viewpoints of all involved, including teachers, parents and pupils. However, questions are raised about the group in terms of policies of inlcusion and teacher‐parent partnerships, suggesting that exclusion within mainstream schools may be fostered under the flag of inclusion.     

THE SOCIAL PATTERN OF THE LENGTH OF FULL‐TIME EDUCATION IN ESSEX

Based on the work of Barron (1966) and Hudson (1966), the hypothesis is set up that science pupils are more obsessional than arts pupils. This is confirmed on a substantial sample of sixth‐formers. However, it also appears that the possession of obsessional traits is a hindrance to performance in the sciences. The educational implications of these findings are discussed.     

THE CO‐OPERATIVE SCHOOL OF RELIGION IN PRACTICE

A report of a conference of leaders, both men and women, in the fields of secular education, religious education, community and social work, and business and professional life. In the group are Protestant, Catholic, Jew and those having less formal attachment to organized religion—the Ethical Culturist, the New Thought adherent, the pure humanist and the scoffer at man‐made schemes for personal and social salvation.     

THE USE OF FACULTY RANK IN THE COMMUNITY‐JUNIOR COLLEGE SYSTEM OF FLORIDA

This investigation was undertaken to determine the extent to which academic ranking of faculty exists in the community‐junior college system of Florida and whether the use of academic rank is on the increase or decrease. A questionnaire was submitted to each of Florida's 28 two‐year colleges. Responses were received from all the institutions included in this study, which is a replication of an earlier study done in 1974. Eight of Florida's 28 community‐junior colleges use some form of academic rank. Most of these award the traditional rank of instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and professor. In general, promotion is determined by degree, advanced graduate credit, experience, effective teaching, professional growth, and service. Six of the eight colleges have adopted a salary schedule related directly to the rank held.     

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NUFFIELD ‘O’ LEVEL CHEMISTRY COURSES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

A study of schools entering pupils for the examinations of the Nuffield ‘O’ level Chemistry project suggests that, as yet, such schools are located near the original centres of project activity. Comparison of the heads of the Chemistry departments in matched samples of ‘Nuffield’ and ‘non‐Nuffield’ schools (summer 1969), established no significant difference in academic and professional training or in experience of non‐classroom employment. Nuffield Chemistry schools were found to have a larger percentage of pupils following sixth form science courses but the difference in annual, per capita expenditure on Chemistry teaching was significant only at the five per cent level.     

THE EIGHTEEN‐MONTH EXPERIENCE OF THE NATIONAL EVALUATION COMMITTEE IN FRANCE

This article describes the origins of and the rationale for the creation of the French National Evaluation Committee, the niche which it fills within the context of French higher education, its make‐up, details of its first year of activity, its typical procedures for the evaluation of. a given institution and, in general terms, its evaluation criteria. An annex lists the current members of the Committee, the President of which is Laurent Schwartz, a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

     

THE CONFINEMENT OF BEGGARS IN EIGHTEENTH‐CENTURY FRANCE: THE POPULATION OF SOME ‘HÔPITAUX GÉNÉRAUX’ AND ‘DÉPÔTS DE MENDICITÉ’

In order to master the social problem of the transient beggars and vagrants, the eighteenth‐century French state promoted the establishment of hôpitaux généraux and dépôts de mendicité. These repressive institutions, bulwarks of the ‘great confinement’, fulfilled various social functions in the regional context. Comparing the findings of recent research on the inmates of these workhouses and asylums the author looks at some promising hypotheses on the nature and functions of these institutions. The numbers, geographical origins and the age and sex structure of the inmates are put into relation with the nature of the local and regional economy. It appears that both the local elites and the begging poor themselves used these institutions differently according to their specific Interests and social conditions.     

SCIENTISTS’ PARTICIPATION IN TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE IMPACT ON FOURTH TO EIGHTH GRADE TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INQUIRY SCIENCE

The impact of a professional development experience involving scientists and fourth to eighth grade teachers of science was explored. Teachers attended a summer program at a research facility where they had various experiences such as job shadowing and interviewing scientists. They also participated in authentic inquiry investigations and planned inquiry units for their classrooms. Data on teachers’ understanding and implementation of inquiry were collected through surveys, questionnaires, and classroom observations. Findings show that the teachers’ understanding of inquiry improved and most participants were able to successfully implement inquiry science in their classrooms. Barriers to the implementation of inquiry practices and the impact of specific experiences with the scientists were explored.     

FROM A MARGINAL INSTITUTION TO INSTITUTIONAL MARGINALIZATION. DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ‘CRIMINAL’ CHILDREN IN THE DUTCH PRISON SYSTEM. 1833‐1884

In half a century's time, between 1830 and 1880, the common treatment of criminal children in the Netherlands was totally overhauled. After discovering that the criminal child needed a different treatment than its adult companion, it was swiftly concluded that confinement in special prisons on its own wasn't a sufficient guarantee for better results. Next attention was shifted toward those children in the general group of criminal children, who hadn't been convicted by the judge and had been expressly sent in to receive reeducation. In the end, by an interplay of demand and supply, the majority of criminal children was not convicted but sent in to be re‐educated in newly founded reformatories.

This development wasn't initiated by the government but fostered by private enterprise, embodied in the Dutch Prison Society (the ‘Nederlandsch Genootschap tot Zedelijke Verbetering der Gevangenen’).

Although the reported results of the new institutions were positive, their animators lost interest and left for the neighbouring working area of residential care for children in danger who hadn't been tried in court.     

THE RESPONSE OF OLDER WOMEN TO A CREATIVE PROBLEM‐SOLVING PROGRAM

Little work has been done in the development of creativity in older adults. The limited research seems to support the notion that older people are not as creative as younger people.

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether or not creative behavior as measured by Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking can be increased in older adult women through a creative problem‐solving program. The major hypothesis under investigation was: The use of a specific problem‐solving program designed to increase certain creative thinking abilities will increase those abilities at a significant level in older adult women. Forty women volunteers, ranging in age from 60 to 82, participated in the six‐week program.

Experimental subjects did not score significantly higher on the Torrance tests than the control subjects who had not participated in the program. However, information collected via the teacher's log and a questionnaire given to the subjects at the end of the class showed that the experience was unusually positive and creatively beneficial.

It is concluded that the program was not of sufficient intensity and that in order to measure change in creative thinking with older people, a more creative approach in testing may need to be developed.     

THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF CHURCH LEADERSHIP IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION FROM THE SUNDAY‐SCHOOL VIEWPOINT

Dorothy Day's love of the poor originated from reading novels that portrayed the poor as persons worthy of respect. This article explores how Day's reading novels opened her mind and heart to the realities of poverty. The methodology is literature-based. Dorothy Day's autobiography reveals the novelists who captivated her mind and cultivated a religious heart: Charles Dickens, Upton Sinclair, Jack London, and the Russian authors Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy. As a journalist and writer, Day described how the poor struggled to survive and how love is needed to counter the challenges that poverty presents. Finally, two novels by authors favored by Day will serve as examples for educating young adults religiously and encouraging love for the poor.     

EFFECTS OF FUTURE MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ AFFECTIVE, COGNITIVE AND SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS ON THEIR KNOWLEDGE AT THE END OF THE TEACHER EDUCATION IN GERMANY AND TAIWAN

How individual characteristics affect the acquisition of knowledge in teacher education has been widely unexplored thus far. The “Teacher Education and Development Study—Learning to Teach Mathematics (TEDS-M)” provides a database for examining this research question across countries. Based on the Taiwanese and German sample of TEDS-M, the relationship between future lower secondary mathematics teachers’ knowledge and their affective, cognitive and socio-demographic characteristics was examined using multilevel modelling whilst controlling for the teachers’ opportunities to learn. The results reveal that in Germany, teacher knowledge is more strongly affected by future teachers’ individual characteristics than teacher knowledge in Taiwan. These results are interpreted against the background of cultural differences between “the West” and “the East” or “individualism” and “collectivism”, respectively.     

THE ‘NEW LEARNING’ IN ADULT JEWISH EDUCATION

The period between Passover and Shavuot has been dramatic from time immemorial, because it signifies the Exodus from Egypt — physical rescue — and culminates with the stand at Mount Sinai — the attainment of spiritual nationhood. Modern Jewish history has added an unprecedented tone of tragedy and drama, which is symbolized by Yom Hashoah and Yom Haatzmaut. The March of the Living to the Sites of Struggle and Extermination and to the Land of Life and Promise, took place during that two week period, April 18th – May 4th, 1990.