The Effect of Executive Function on Biological Reasoning in Young Children: An Individual Differences Study

There is substantial variance in the age at which children construct and deploy their first explicit theory of biology. This study tests the hypothesis that this variance is due, at least in part, to individual differences in their executive function (EF) abilities. A group of 79 boys and girls aged 5–7 years (with a mean age of 6½ years) were presented with two test batteries: (a) a biology battery that probed their understanding of life, death, and body functions and (b) an EF battery that tested working memory, inhibition, and set‐shifting skills. Individuals' EF scores significantly predict their biology scores, even after controlling for age and verbal IQ.     

Between Two Worlds: Australian Publishing on the Horns of an Import Dilemma

This article looks at the consequences of the 1991 amendment to the Australian Copyright Act, which meant that, for the copyright owner or authorised distributor to attain the right to control imports, it had to make the book available in Australia within 30 days of first publication overseas; and, to retain that right, it had to notify the retailer within 7 days of receiving an order whether it could be fulfilled within 90 days, and then in fact do so (. Accessed 28 June 2008). The article discusses the background to that change, what has happened since and what arguments are marshalled by those in favour of the status quo (restrictions that must be qualified for), and those in favour of a completely open market. The arguments used say much about the current preoccupations of those in Australian publishing. The debate around whether booksellers should be free to import copies of a new book from any supplier willing to sell them boils down to four issues: the availability in Australia of books published overseas; the price of books in Australia; the preservation of Australian publishing; and the protection of the rights of copyright holders. Those in favour of the open market believe that it would improve the first two without diminishing the latter two; those who support the status quo, that changing would bring no substantial benefits, and hurt both publishing and the rights of copyright holders. In summary, the reasons for maintaining the status quo are that things work fine as they are; that Australian literature (authors, bookshops, publishers) would suffer if things changed; and that the publisher is entitled to protect its investment through territorial control of copyright. The reasons for going to a completely open market are that only an open market can determine market price; that booksellers are unfairly disadvantaged competing against online sellers, on whom parallel importing restrictions are effectively not imposed; that copyright holders lose their rights when they sell something, and shouldn’t get a secondary chance to protect their investment; there is already a de facto open market, which unfairly restricts those who obey the law; there is a narrow window of opportunity for selling a book, which the current restrictions don’t serve; and the current situation is a poor compromise that doesn’t achieve the benefits of the open market.     

Plain journalism: The maintenance of a “vocabulary of kinship” in an Amish newspaper

Media may serve as avenues for the expression of common ideals and values that help individuals place themselves in a community of like-minded people. Using Benedict Anderson’s notion of a mediated “vocabulary of kinship” that binds individuals together, this study illustrates the ways the very structure of media content can encourage feelings of commonality. The vehicle for this inquiry is The Budget, a weekly newspaper produced by and for a North American audience of Amish and Mennonite readers. The research suggests that structural aspects of dispatches in The Budget, such as conversational and intentionally informal writing styles, the encouragement of dialog, and use of particular dialects and phrases, reinforce values of familiarity and intimacy that are central to Amish and Mennonite culture.     

The limits of cultural competence: an Indigenous Studies perspective

Taking the Universities Australia report, National best practice framework for Indigenous cultural competency in Australian universities (2011) as the starting point for its discussion, this paper examines the applicability of cultural competence in the design and delivery of Australian Indigenous Studies. It argues that both the conceptual underpinnings and the operationalisation of cultural competence necessitate an over-reliance on essentialised notions of Indigeneity, cast in radical opposition to non-Indigeneity, which negate multiple and diverse expressions of Indigenous identity and lived experience. Thus, this approach perpetuates the very colonialist logics Indigenous Studies should endeavour to overcome. Secondly, it argues that cultural competency's emphasis on non-Indigenous self-reflexivity, broadly consistent as it is with both scholarship and praxis in Indigenous Studies, is represented in some of the literature as uncritical deference to an always-unified Indigeneity, thereby exacerbating the original essentialising impulse evident in the cultural competence paradigm. Therefore, this paper proposes that Indigenous Studies should explore the limits of self-reflexivity, with a view to establishing a genuinely anti-colonial/decolonising praxis that incorporates the capacity to negotiate Indigenous intracultural diversity along with other markers for identity.     

The Future in Three Stages: Managing a Health Sciences Collection through Multiple Moves in an Urban Setting

For decades, the Health Professions Library at Hunter College served the college's health professions programs, all housed at one campus. In 2011, part of the library's collection moved to follow the public health department to a new location, and in 2015 the entire library will relocate to an interim space before moving on to its final home several years later in a shared building yet to be constructed. These moves, whether accomplished or anticipated, raise collection management issues in several areas: geographic dispersal of programs, structural reorganization of schools and departments, and collaboration with other departments or outside institutions.     

The validity of performance assessments for teacher licensure: Connecticut''s ongoing research

This article was based on a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, March 27 to March 31, 1989.     

新闻教育错在哪里

文章以哥伦比亚大学新闻学院新闻教育为线索 ,探讨了新闻教育中存在的若干问题 :新闻学教育、职业伦理教育过多地倾向于政治和意识形态 ;新闻教育中缺乏新闻实践技能。文章批判了传播学以功利主义的眼光审视新闻 ,而不能深入研究其内涵 ,并指出了新闻学教育应该遵循的原则。