Intercultural Rhetoric, Technology Transfer, and Writing in U.S.-Mexico Border Maquilas

This article explores the transfer of U.S. technologies to three maquilas, or joint U.S.-Mexican manufacturing facilities in northern Mexico. Drawing on case study methods, it focuses on the rhetorical strategies that Mexican engineers and manufacturing personnel used to translate U.S. technologies and corresponding documentation for their Mexican contexts. It also suggests ways U.S. technical communicators can adapt their documentation to be more effective for these U.S.-Mexican intercultural rhetorical contexts.     

The educational technology mix: Production functions from “Sesame Street”

This is a re-analysis of data collected in an evaluation of Sesame Street. The data were obtained from 695 kindergarten-aged children randomly selected from five areas of the United States. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of Sesame Street in a multi-variate framework, and to develop production functions showing the contributions which could be derived from the production function paradigm, most especially what might be gained by examining the possible results of mixing television viewing with teacher effort.The major findings are that the more a child watches Sesame Street, the more he learns; the higher a child's social class the more he learns from watching the program; and that Sesame Street does not affect disadvantaged children more than advantaged children, and hence has limited utility as a means of reducing differences in school performance between the rich and poor. Limitations in the data prevented calculation of production functions estimating trade-offs between teacher input and television viewing, but the limited data available suggest that mixes are better than either teacher alone or television alone.This research was partially supported by Grant #Y-NGL-008-054 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The authors would also like to acknowledge the support of their colleagues in Washington University's Center for Development Technology.     

Do Cultural Attitudes Matter? The Role of Cultural Orientation on Academic Self‐Concept Among Black/African College Students

The authors explored the relationship between academic self‐concept and noncognitive variables (i.e., Africentric cultural orientation, academic class level, gender, and involvement in culturally relevant school and community activities) among Black/African college students. Results indicated that Africentric cultural orientation and academic class level were significantly related to academic self‐concept. Female students had higher scores on the Academic Self‐Concept Scale ( Reynolds, Ramirez, Magrina, & Allen, 1980 ) compared with their male peers. Implications for counseling practice and future research are discussed.     

Effectiveness of National Board Certified (NBC) teachers in terms of classroom environment, attitudes and achievement among secondary science students

No previous research has employed learning environments criteria in evaluating the effectiveness of the system of teacher certification sponsored by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Because the litmus test of any professional development effort is the extent of the changes in teaching behaviours in participating teachers’ classrooms, our study drew on the field of learning environments in evaluating the effectiveness of National Board Certified (NBC) teachers in terms of their students’ perceptions of their classroom environments. A sample of 443 students in 21 Grade 8 and 10 science classes taught by NBC teachers in South Florida was compared with a matched group of 484 students in 17 classes taught by non-NBC teachers in terms of classroom environment (as assessed by the What Is Happening In this Class?) and students’ attitudes and achievement. Statistically significant differences (with small to medium effect sizes ranging from 0.14 to 0.35 standard deviations) were found in favour of NBC teachers for numerous classroom and environment scales (Teacher Support, Involvement, Task Orientation, Investigation and Cooperation) and for student attitudes.