‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’: The Great Gatsby in the 1980s

This essay illustrates the application of reception study, the subfield of literary history that emphasises the historical experiences of readers, to pedagogical contexts by investigating the teaching of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) in American high schools during the 1980s. Focusing on the episode in which Jay Gatsby leads Nick and Daisy on a tour of his mansion, the analysis draws on published lesson plans and other primary source documents and reimagines the contemporary cultural contexts to reconsider the novel’s lessons about social class during a decade that saw escalating wealth disparity, mirroring Fitzgerald’s 1920s and anticipating our present.     

Dyslexia: stability of definition over a five year period

The results of longitudinal studies suggest that although dyslexic children improve their reading skills with time, they do not outgrow their disability (Spreen, 1982). This paper compares the development of reading and spelling in a group of dyslexics and non-dyslexics over a five-year period. In addition to addressing the issue of the relative rates of development of reading in the two groups, a central focus of the paper is the extent to which dyslexia can be said to represent a stable disability. How many of the children classified as dyslexic at age eight would be reclassified as dyslexic at age thirteen? Three distinct groups emerged: ‘stable',‘transient’ and ‘late emerging dyslexics'. The ‘stable’ dyslexics were children classified as dyslexic at both ages, the transient were those classified only at the younger age, and the ‘late emerging’ were those classified at age thirteen. Regression analysis was used as the technique of identification of the dyslexics.     

The impact of student composition on schools’ value-added performance: a comparison of seven empirical studies

In many countries, policy makers struggle with the development of value-added indicators of school performance for educational accountability purposes and in particular with the choice whether school context measured in the form of student composition variables should be included. This study investigates differences between 7 empirical studies that have looked at changes in value-added indicators through the inclusion of school composition variables. Differences were found in the strength of the association between Type A (student-level covariates) and Type B (student- and school-level covariates) school effect models in various regions, varying between 0.74 and 0.99 for secondary education. Important differences were found between the estimate of a school’s effectiveness by using a Type A or a Type B value-added model in secondary education in The Netherlands, Belgium, Chile, and Australia and in US and UK primary education. However, few differences were found in other cases.     

Patients' perspectives on the role of prepared childbirth education in decision making regarding elective labor induction

The purpose of our study was to explore reasons why nulliparous women chose to have an elective labor induction and to identify the influence of prepared childbirth classes on their decision. The study included 1,349 nulliparous women at term who participated in a survey regarding their choices for childbirth, their attendance at prepared childbirth classes, and their experience with labor and birth. Sixty-three percent of women who attended childbirth classes and did not have elective induction reported that classes provided helpful information to assist in their decision-making process. Study results suggest attendance at prepared childbirth classes can be an effective source of information regarding elective labor induction and influential in women's decisions regarding whether or not to have elective labor induction. Women perceive prepared childbirth classes positively and find the information provided valuable.