CHANGING IDEALS IN EDUCATION SOCIAL CHANGES IN THE COLLEGES SINCE THE CIVIL WAR

In the last issue of RELIGIOUS EDUCATION considerable space was devoted to the subject of student values. In connection with this study, religious leaders on a number of selected campuses were asked to comment on the situation with respect to values among the students with whom they are working. Comments from Harvard University, Hunter College and Ohio State University were published in that issue. The following two additional articles represent the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina and Marquette University.     

THE STABILITY OF YOUNG CHILDREN'S SOCIAL RELATIONS

An experiment was set up to discover whether ten‐ to eleven‐year‐old children would perform better on an imaginative writing task if given an aural stimulus consisting of an imaginary dialogue rather than the more commonly used written titles. The main energy of the investigation is focussed on the viability of different forms of assessing the quality of the resulting compositions. The most useful criteria from a large battery proved to be vocabulary, weighted index of modifying clauses, pre‐verb length and sequence.     

HOW IS EDUCATION POSSIBLE? PRAGMATISM, COMMUNICATION AND THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF EDUCATION

ABSTRACT:  Education cannot mean that the young are the product of the activities of their teachers. At the same time, we do not speak of education if students would simply learn something irrespective of the ac­tivities of their teachers. In this paper we focus on the question: How is education possible? Our aim is to contribute to a social theory of education, a theory that does not reduce our understanding of educational processes and practices to underlying 'constituting elements' but rather tries to understand the social nature of education as a reality sui generis.     

CONTINUING EDUCATION,THE PROMOTION OF CULTURE,AND THE SOCIAL ROLE OF THE UNIVERSITY

For many years, the author has been thinking about the problem of how to combine continuing education courses in universities with efforts to promote the dissemination of culture in the broadest sense. He begins his article with two definitions, one of the concept of continuing education itself, the other of the concept of culture. He indicates that increasingly a popular demand is being manifested for courses combining both objectives, particularly on the part of those who had to interrupt their studies prematurely or who completed them some time ago. He cites two seminars currently being offered at the University oE Athens, one an interdisciplinary seminar in philosophy, organized eight years ago, the other, a seminar in the philosophy of art. Both of them have opened their doors to all interested persons. They have been extremely popular, despite the fact that enrol‐lecs earn no credit for attending them. With the aid of the appropriate national authorities, similar programmes could be created in other universities in the countries belonging to Unesco so as to respond to a genuine social need.     

THE CHANGING SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF NURSING STUDENTS IN NEW SOUTH WALES

This study had two major aims: 1) to establish a reliable data base on the social and demographic origins of nursing students in New South Wales universities since the introduction of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) and the change from diploma to degree level programs; and 2) to compare the social and demographic origins of nursing students in higher education programs in 1995 with the data base established by Wright in New South Wales in 1986 to detect changes over time. Comparison of data from the 1986 group (N=447) and the 1995 group (N=512) revealed that there was a no significant difference between the two cohorts on the socio‐economic variable. There was, however, a significant difference in the SES variable between the 1986 and 1995 sample for the female group. From a household perspective, there was a significant difference in the number of siblings, and income received by the mother between the 1986 and 1995 cohorts. In addition, no support was found for the assertion that country students would be disadvantaged with the move to higher education programs. It was also found that almost 79.3% of the 1995 group chose to delay their HECS payment until they entered the workforce.     

THE ROLE OF THE SOCIAL SCIENTIST IN THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

The four coauthors describe the twenty-five-year history of efforts of the Council of Learned Societies in Education (CLSE) to represent the interests of the social foundations of education in the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), including the evolution of CLSE into the Council for the Social Foundations of Education and its recent departure from NCATE after a quarter century of successful involvement. The coauthors, each personally supportive of foundational involvement in national accreditation, delineate advantages gained by both CLSE and NCATE during the quarter century of involvement, while also describing concerns and arguments that have led to the current disassociation of the Council for Social Foundations of Education (CSFE) fromNCATE. The article concludes with suggestions for the future and the coauthors' hope that this history and chronicle will provide incentive for reinvolvement of the foundations in national accreditation circles.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY,ABILITIES AND SOCIAL RELATIONS IN A SPECIAL CLASS

Two years have passed since our first report on the project with primary school children at Törökszentmiklós. New results indicate that participation in the project has accelerated the development of abilities, has led to mainly favourable personality changes and has promoted the formation of advantageous social structures in the classroom. In the future, in addition to increasing support for the children's personal wellbeing (for instance, provision of more free time, promotion of communication skills), the work of four terms will be completed in three.     

THE INTEGRATION OF RESEARCH,EDUCATION, AND PRACTICE IN GERONTOLOGY: SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

This article focuses on the development of education relating to aging in a specific professional education program: social work at the University of Queensland. A brief outline of features of the aged population and services for the aged in Queensland, an Australian state, is given as a background for describing one approach to gerontology education with the University of Queensland social work faculty. The challenges and tasks of curriculum development in relation to gerontology in a generic undergraduate course are described. Specific training in gerontology at a theoretical and practical level is provided through field practicums in an institution for the aged and proposals to extend this to a community‐based practice research program for the aged are outlined. To give a combined approach to social work, current research programs relating to this program — social policy and aging — are described.