A preliminary analysis of the misidentifications of nine American vowels

The first step in the investigation of the affective power of dramatic performances is the identification of those ways in which performances, either of the same or of different plays, differ from one another. Various studies have suggested that relatively few factors or dimensions account for the major portion of the variance among concepts. Using the general format of the semantic differential, the author has used audience reactions to dialogue, plot, acting, scenery, costumes, and lighting of filmed dramatic performances to identify paired adjective scales which define factors relevant to dramatic performances.     

Emergency Response Systems and the Creeping Legibility of People and Places

Over the last 35 years, centralized universal-number (in the United States, 9-1-1) systems have come to be the preferred means of emergency-response dispatching. The creation of these systems has motivated the development of information systems that render the landscape, to those with the right access, increasingly legible. This has been to the benefit of those receiving emergency services, but also to the benefit of police and commercial interests, who have used the improved infrastructure as bases for the creation of geodemographic and other profiling systems. More recently, the creation of wireless telephony has motivated the creation of a further surveillance infrastructure built on and integrated into that landscape. One consequence has been the commercialization of the systems in ways that permit the incorporation of more intimate and detailed data into preexisting systems. Public concern with locational surveillance systems has focused on privacy. However, “privacy” may be an inadequate frame through which to understand these issues and to fashion appropriate responses.     

Equality and Education: Fact and Fiction

This paper reports on a series of statistical analyses carried out on some of the National Curriculum tests in mathematics for 11-year-olds in England. In England all 7-, 11- and 14-year-olds are tested in English, mathematics and science (11- and 14-year-olds only). The tests for 11-year-olds are very high stakes, in that the results are published in a school-by-school basis in newspapers etc. The analyses were prompted by the suggestion (from governmental organisations) that the balance of the curriculum content in the mathematics tests should be changed to accommodate better the require ments of the government-initiated National Numeracy Strategy. The analyses were carried out on two datasets, involving nationally representative samples of 11-year-old pupils. The analyses reveal some interesting patterns of change in the overall outcomes when Handling Data questions were statistically replaced by Number items of various kinds and also some interesting changes at the individual level, which could potentially affect the Level outcomes of a significant number of children nationally. However, the final conclusion reached is that, given an appropriately sized and structured pool of items across the curriculum content areas, tests can be constructed which are of an appropriate level of difficulty and discrimination power and which still allow year-on-year calibration of the national standards in mathematics.     

Achieving Cultural Competency: Assessment of US-Based Counselor Educators Instructing Internationally

This article presents the outcomes of a qualitative investigation addressing the global exchange of counselor education. Findings delineate key traits and behaviors applied by counselor educators and counseling psychologists in cross-cultural exchanges. Personal traits noted by educators as essential for international exchanges included flexibility, respect, openness to learning, and passion for the experiences provided by international travel. Factors that increased cultural competency were cited as communication skills, increased comprehension of the context, and understanding of the counseling profession within the culture.     

The Power Game: Continued Reflections on the Early Development of Modern Football

In this paper the authors seek to continue the debate on the development of modern football. They note the support offered by Tony Collins to the long-standing reservations of Graham Curry and Eric Dunning regarding the weaknesses of the revisionist case, which has sought to lessen the influence of public schoolboys on the game’s early years. The authors do, however, offer some correctives to Collins’s thoughts, particularly in terms of the complex Sheffield footballing subculture. Curry and Dunning support the need for more research based on local studies and attempt to gather together current thinking in this area.     

An Alternative Counseling Model for Alcohol Abuse in College: A Case Study

Abstinence education remains a prevailing approach for addressing college student alcohol abuse. This case study illustrates an alternative method of intervening that combines motivational interviewing, harm reduction, and a brief solution‐focused model. The counseling approach illustrated emphasizes reduction in, rather than abstinence from, drinking behaviors and therefore may be especially useful on campuses where cultural context rejects abstinence and where many student constituents resist engaging in traditional abstinence approaches.     

Student commitment and school organization in relation to on-task behavior and achievement

Three experiments considered student commitment to school, IQ, and school organization type in relation to student task behavior and to school achievement. The first two correlational studies indicated the relationship between student commitment and student task behavior; the third study used student task behavior, student commitment, IQ, and school organization to predict achievement. This prediction equation was quite robust with a final R² = .85. School achievement is predicted by intelligence and academic time on task in traditionally structured schools, and by intelligence and student commitment in open structured schools. Increasing the amount of teacher directed time would increase achievement in traditional schools, but decrease achievement in open schools.