Coming Attractions and Reprints

John Dunn's The Studio (Bantam, 95¢)

Bob Thomas' Thalberg: Life and Legend (Bantam, $1.25)

Mrs. D.W. Griffith's When the Movies were Young (Dover, $2.50)     

Television History

SATURDAY MIGHT: A BACKSTAGE HISTORY OF SATURDAY MIGHT LIVE by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad (New York: Beech Tree Books/Morrow, 1986—$17.95)

THE SOAP OPERA ENCYCLOPEDIA by Christopher Schemering (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985—$8.95, paper)

WARNER BROS. TELEVISION: EVERY SHOW OF THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES EPISODE-BYEPISODE by Lynn Woolley, et al. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1985—$25.95)

THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN BANDSTAND by Michael Shore with Dick Clark (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985—$12.95, paper)

A COLLECTOR'S GUIDE TO TV MEMORABILIA by Anthony Slide (Wallace-Homestead Book Co., 580 Waters Edge, Lombard, IL 60148—$13.95, paper)     

Has lead‐in lost its punch? An analysis of primetime inheritance effects: Comparing 1992 with 2002

Abstract

Recognizing the recent dramatic increase in the number of channels available to the typical American household coinciding with an equally dramatic decrease in audience ratings for the major broadcast networks, there was reason to hypothesize that, in recent years, lead‐in or inheritance effects have diminished. However, an analysis of prime time ratings comparing 1992 with 2002 for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox showed no support for this notion, suggesting that, despite the recent upheavals in the television industry, lead‐in has not lost its punch.     

Making Sense of your Usage Statistics

Usage statistics are a key decision making tool for most librarians. In this tactics session, Bob Schufreider showed how some libraries are using their vendor's usage statistics to inform purchase decisions and justify expenses, discussed the latest technologies and standards designed to make collection and integration of these statistics less time-consuming and more effective, and outlined some of the problems and pitfalls encountered with the collection of usage statistics.     

Religious broadcasting: 1920–1965, a bibliography

The following bibliography is the first installment of an extensive bibliography of books, pamphlets, theses, dissertations, documents, addresses, unpublished mimeographed and other miscellaneous materials, and periodical articles on religious broadcasting. The years covered are from the dawn of American broadcasting up to the present. Of particular importance is the first section on “Sources of Bibliographical Information” on this subject.

Because of the length of the entire bibliography, only the sections on sources, theses and dissertations, books and pamphlets, and unpublished and miscellaneous materials will be published in this issue of the Journal. The section on periodical articles will be published in a forthcoming issue. It is also intended to update the entire bibliography from time to time.

The importance of religious broadcasting is well‐recognized by anyone who has ever completed the programming section of an FCC application form, or has ever examined the body of law that has ranged from the Scott and Schuler cases of yesterday to the Maclntyre case of today. Those readers who find this bibliography of interest might also wish to read FCC Commissioner Lee Loevinger's “Broadcasting and Religious Liberty” in the Winter 1964–65 issue of the Journal of Broadcasting.

The major portion of this bibliography was compiled as a part of the author's Ph.D. dissertation, completed in 1965 in the Department of Speech of Michigan State University. Co‐chairmen of the guidance committee were Drs. Kenneth G. Hance of the Speech Department and Walter B. Emery of the Department of TV‐Radio. It has been updated and corrected to July 1965. Dr. Dick is Associate Professor of Speech and General Manager of KSDA at La Sierra College in Riverside, California.     

Name Disambiguation—Learning From More User-Friendly Models

Library catalogs do not provide catalog users with the assistance they need to easily and confidently select the person they are interested in. Examples are provided of Web services that do a better job of helping information seekers differentiate the person they are seeking from those with similar names. Some of the reasons for this failure in library catalogs are examined. This article then looks at how much information is necessary to help users disambiguate names, how that information could be captured and shared, and some ways the information could be displayed in library catalogs.     

Dyslexia‐friendly schools and parent partnership: inclusion and home–school relationships

This paper summarizes an action research project in five local areas in the south‐west of England which aimed to support parents of children with dyslexic difficulties who were experiencing problems in obtaining appropriate provision in mainstream schools. It was based on the importance of effective parental partnership and quality inclusive practice for children having dyslexic difficulties. A development officer worked over two years in the five participating LEAs that were selected to represent a range of professional practice with a mix of urban and rural populations. As part of the evaluation, the authors also examined longitudinally the educational experiences of a sample of parents. The paper includes a conceptual framework of parental agency in this field in terms of knowledge, identity and parental strategies, and the conditions under which parents escalate their strategies to secure appropriate provision for their children. The support provided by the development officer is analysed in terms of the kinds of support requests received, the kinds of support offered and qualitative evidence of the impact of this support. This research is theorized in terms of current ideas about parent‐partnership and theories about parent–teacher relations in terms of the diversity of parents. It highlights the significance of thinking about inclusive schooling and parent–school relations in terms of the interconnections between general systems for all, for those with special educational needs and those with specific difficulties. The policy and practice implications are interpreted in terms of the importance of a system of extended professionalism, which is inclusive of parents with learning difficulties and disabilities.     

EUROPEAN DISSERTATION SUMMARIES

Co‐operative learning means shared leadership where there is not just one leader in a group but where each member of the group is a leader. A leader demonstrates academic as well as collaborative skills in helping the group achieve a goal. Some academic skills are verbal interactions such as initiating ideas, responding by summarizing or suggesting procedures. Collaborative skills that build and maintain a good working relationship within the group include verbal interactions of praising group members and inviting others to get involved. The purpose of this study was to examine the verbal interactions and non‐verbal behaviours within unstructured learning groups. The verbal interactions were classified as positive if they aided the group to accomplish its goal and negative if they inhibited the group accomplishing its goal. Twenty‐eight students from seven intermediate‐grade level classrooms, grouped heterogeneously for sex and race and homogeneously for their ability in science, were selected for observation as they were doing a science activity. In general students’ verbal interactions were positive (i.e., there were more than four times more positive interactions than negative interactions). Further, in reviewing the positive interactions, students presented ideas more than four times as much as any of the other types of interactions. Females encouraged other members to participate in the activity significantly more than the males did. There was a trend in the number of times the equipment (clay) was handled; the males handled it more than the females as a function of race. Qualitative analyses revealed consistent patterns of interactions within groups of black and white males and females.     

Extract from new understandings of teachers' pedagogic knowledge 1

Abstract

The focus of this article is a comparative review of the science curriculum for England and Wales from the perspective of recent developments in the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand and the Canadian province of Ontario. In the comparison of science curriculum documents and the language deployed, questions are raised about differences as well as commonalities among and between documents from various jurisdictions. Issues discussed include: the varying emphases upon science topics and/or intended learning outcomes; integration with other curriculum areas; the content and organization of the science curriculum; and ways of assessing students’ performances and understandings. The article draws attention to the importance of comparative analysis which informs our understanding of the effects of curriculum change, its relation to students’ achievements in science, and the need to support the development of teachers.     

Institutionalisation of assessment capacity in developing nations: the case of Malawi

Building assessment capacity of educators has historically been unregulated practice in post-independence Malawi. However, recent attempts by government to integrate curriculum and assessment reforms and the introduction of continuous assessment in the system have represented a significant policy shift. These and several other initiatives have necessitated the empowerment, in terms of assessment knowledge and skills, of educators at different levels of the system to support implementation of the reforms. This paper discusses the strategies that Malawi has followed so far to institutionalise the development of assessment capacity and highlights the challenges that it has faced in its efforts to improve the capacity of its staff in assessment. Key lessons for other African and developing nations from the Malawian experience have also been noted.