Foreign Systems of Communication

Gunnel Rikardsson's The Middle East Conflict in the Swedish Press: A Content Analysis of Three Daily Newspapers 1948-1973 (Stockholm: Esselte Studium, 1978—price not given, paper)

Ron Sanders' Broadcasting in Guyana (London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978-13.95 or$9.50, paper)

Charlotte Brunsdon and David Morley's Everyday Television: 'Nationwide' (94 pp.)

Revue Francaise de Communication (CEEPP 38, rue de Bassano, 75008 Paris, France—various rates from different regions: about $38.00 to the USA/quarterly)

A Comparison of Commercial Television in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Japan and Australia (Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, 153 Walker St., North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia—apparently free on request, paper with spiral binding)

Dean T. Jamison and Emile G. McAnany's Radio for Education and Development (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1978—$15.95/7.95)     

Continuing evolution: The Rhode Island early childhood summer institute

Abstract

This narrative chronicles the continued evolution and development of the Rhode Island Early Childhood Summer Institute, an intensive 5‐day inservice professional development program designed for educational leaders from various sectors of the early care and education field. The goal is to review the continued use of successful practices implemented in the 1993 through 1997 programs and to highlight new programmatic features that were introduced in the most recent 2000 and 2001 programs. The Rhode Island Early Childhood Summer Institute program may serve as a model to others responsible for designing inservice professional development experiences to enhance the capacity of the early childhood workforce.     

Teachers and students' divergent perceptions of student engagement: recognition of school or workplace goals

In extant research, the concept of student engagement refers to individual behavioural patterns and traits. Recent research indicates that engagement not only should be related to the individual but also should be anchored in the social context. This ethnographic field study of students and teachers in a Danish vocational education and training school responds to the need for more knowledge on this theme by exploring the social dynamics of engagement perceptions. Results show that teachers and students held diverging perceptions of student engagement that rested on educational goals as well as goals related to the perceived future work settings. The misrecognition of the students' perception of engagement had direct negative consequences for student performance and school attachment. The implications of the findings are discussed in detail.     

Integrated Learning with Physical Education and Music

Integrated learning is well established in education, primarily in the classroom subjects. This article describes settings and ways for extending integrated instruction to physical education and music. Benefits of these connections include reinforcing content and better meeting the needs of students whose intelligences include the bodily kinesthetic, musical, and interpersonal as well as the linguistic and logical-mathematical structure predominating in traditional instruction.     

Islam in Egyptian Education: Grades K–12

Abstract

This article explores the important role that the religion of Islam plays in the education of Egyptian children. The scrutiny under which the Islamic world finds itself in the after-math of September 11, 2001 has resulted in calls for educational reform, not only from the outside world, but also from the Muslim world itself. The author has a personal interest in the educational reform debate in Egypt as she has two granddaughters who attend a private Christian school in Cairo. Research for the article is grounded in direct interviews of students, teachers, and parents during a 5-month stay as well as analysis of Arabic and social studies textbooks. This study reveals that while education of children in Egypt is essentially Islamic, the question is: What kind of Islam will prevail? Will it be the Islam of the moderate Islamists who see the purpose of education to be the advancement of the ideals of Islam above all other concerns? Or will it be the Islam of Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, and his government, which promotes national unity and non-sectarian ethics? In this article the author gives a brief review of early Arab education, surveys challenges in Egyptian education today, discusses ways in which the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is attempting to help reform education in Egypt, and, finally, focuses on students and teachers at New Ramses College in Cairo and how they are handling some of the challenges.     

The impact of the social environment on the student teacher’s agency

This paper explores the agency of student teachers during the Post/Professional Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) year at a Higher Education Institution in England. It presents part of the findings of a year-long investigation into the reflective practice of student teachers during the PGCE year. The multi-method study includes surveying student teachers (n = 101) and longitudinal interviews with student teachers (n = 6). One of the aims of the study was to investigate the impact of the social environment on the student teacher. The research analysis found that the complex environment the student teachers exist in can be both supportive and constraining.     

A journey towards sustainable feedback

Meeting students’ expectations associated with the provision of feedback is a perennial challenge for tertiary education. Efforts to provide comprehensive, timely feedback within our own first year undergraduate public health courses have not always met students’ expectations. In response, we sought to develop peer feedback activities to support the development of ‘self-evaluative strategies’ that would acknowledge the centrality of students in the feedback process. We describe these activities, their staged development and the qualitative and quantitative data gathered from students and the teaching teams to evaluate this. Our first steps towards embedding peer feedback with first year students indicated they are willing to engage in the process and appreciated the opportunity to provide and receive feedback, but the quality and extent of the peer feedback was largely superficial. Students’ reflections on the feedback received were also shallow. Supporting students to develop self-evaluative skills cannot be achieved in the short term, but must be embedded in courses and consistently reinforced, with greater emphasis placed on the development of a dialogue around feedback that connects students with peers and educators.     

Social Presence and Implications for Designing Online Learning Communities

With the rapid global proliferation of the Internet and telecommunication networks , online education , one form of distance education is currently becoming the fastest growing trend of domestic and international education. A major challenge to designing online learning is the development of appropriate means to facilitate the social environment that is critical for higher order learning in many disciplines. In many online learning designs, the majority of resources are channeled to web interface design and technology, while little or no resources are devoted to facilitating the teaching and learning process, the negotiation of meaning and the validation of knowledge among peers and instructors that depends on a conducive socio-cultural environment and adequate learner support.