Students' understandings about animal skeletons

Surprisingly few studies have looked at people's understanding of skeletons. Most of the work in this field that has been done has only involved children's understanding of human skeletons. This study looks at students' understandings of the structure of animal (including human) skeletons. A crosssectional approach was used involving a total of 175 students in England from six different age groups (ranging from 4 year olds to 20 year olds). Students were presented, on separate occasions, with specimens of a brown rat, a starling and a herring and asked to draw what they thought was inside each specimen. On a final occasion, they were also asked to draw what they thought was inside themselves. Repeated inspections of the completed drawings allowed us to construct a seven point scale of 'skeletal understanding'. Our analysis shows the extent to which student understanding increases with age and the degree to which pupils know more about human than other skeletons. The findings are interpreted with reference to current trends in English science curricula and pedagogy. We comment in particular on the current inability of most students to see the skeleton as a functional, integrated whole.     

Technical Reliability Assessment of the Actigraph GT1M Accelerometer

The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of the Actigraph GT1M (Pensacola, FL, USA) accelerometer activity count and step functions. Fifty GT1M accelerometers were initialized to collect simultaneous acceleration counts and steps data using 15-sec epochs. All reliability testing was completed using a mechanical shaker plate to perform six different test conditions in Experiment 1 and 18 test conditions in Experiment 2. The overall intra- and inter-instrument reliability of the GT1M was CV_intra = 2.9% and CV_inter = 3.5% for counts and CV_intra = 1.1% and CV_inter = 1.2% for steps. No batch effects were evident in the 50 GT1Ms. The Actigraph GT1M accelerometer demonstrated good reliability for measuring both counts and steps. However, the ability of the GT1M to consistently detect acceleration at a given acceleration and frequency condition varied widely. Future studies clarifying the filtering limitations and the threshold necessary to detect the occurrence of movement are warranted.     

National Survey of School Counselor Supervision

A sample of 267 American School Counseling Association members were surveyed regarding their current supervision, desire for clinical supervision, and rating of supervision goals. Although a small minority of respondents indicated that they were currently receiving supervision, a majority of respondents indicated a desire to receive supervision. Factor analysis of ratings of supervision goals resulted in 3 factors related to the foci or learning dimensions described in J. M. Bernard's (1997) Discrimination Model. Recommendations for counselor educators and school counselor supervisors are discussed.     

The social condition of higher education: globalisation and (beyond) regionalisation in Latin America

This article aims to discuss the relationship between higher education (HE), globalisation and regionalism projects focusing on HE in Latin America and Brazil. It is claimed that HE has predominantly taken the diverse, yet concerted and co-ordinated routes of globalisation and regionalisation and, by doing so, been profoundly transformed. The first section considers a set of theoretical categories in relation to the phenomena of globalisation and regionalisation. The second section analyses the global and regional dimensions of HE in Latin America, exploring: (1) the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), along with the processes and mechanisms put into place to settle MERCOSUR's Educative Sector. It is argued that despite the political relevance of this regional project, its major developments are still harbouring important but preliminary preparations for future regional positioning and empowerment; (2) it is argued that the commodification, privatisation and ‘marketisation’ of HE, having occupied the centre stage in determined nations of the world, have become the founding conditions of a global market in HE; and (3) the Brazilian HE policies are examined in order to develop an argument about the decisive role played by national government in promoting and adjusting the process of globalisation and the regionalism project for HE.     

Word Reading Fluency: Role of Genome‐Wide Single‐Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Developmental Stability and Correlations With Print Exposure

The genetic effects on individual differences in reading development were examined using genome‐wide complex trait analysis (GCTA) in a twin sample. In unrelated individuals (one twin per pair, n = 2,942), the GCTA‐based heritability of reading fluency was ~20%–29% at ages 7 and 12. GCTA bivariate results showed that the phenotypic stability of reading fluency from 7 to 12 years (r = 0.69) is largely driven by genetic stability (genetic r = 0.69). Genetic effects on print exposure at age 12 were moderate (~26%) and correlated with those influencing reading fluency at 12 (genetic r = 0.89), indicative of a gene–environment correlation. These findings were largely consistent with quantitative genetic twin analyses that used both twins in each pair (n = 1,066–1,409).     

Scientific Teaching Targeting Faculty from Diverse Institutions

We offered four annual professional development workshops called STAR (for Scientific Teaching, Assessment, and Resources) modeled after the National Academies Summer Institute (SI) on Undergraduate Education in Biology. In contrast to the SI focus on training faculty from research universities, STAR''s target was faculty from community colleges, 2-yr campuses, and public and private research universities. Because of the importance of community colleges and 2-yr institutions as entries to higher education, we wanted to determine whether the SI model can be successfully extended to this broader range of institutions. We surveyed the four cohorts; 47 STAR alumni responded to the online survey. The responses were separated into two groups based on the Carnegie undergraduate instructional program categories, faculty from seven associate''s and associate''s-dominant institutions (23) and faculty from nine institutions with primarily 4-yr degree programs (24). Both groups expressed the opinion that STAR had a positive impact on teaching, student learning, and engagement. The two groups reported using techniques of formative assessment and active learning with similar frequency. The mix of faculty from diverse institutions was viewed as enhancing the workshop experience. The present analysis indicates that the SI model for training faculty in scientific teaching can successfully be extended to a broad range of higher education institutions.     

Self‐monitoring and the cognitive editing of arguments

This report improves upon the authors’ previous investigations of naive actors’ argument standards in two ways: (a) by using a checklist to obtain subjects’ rationales for not using various arguments and (b) by using multiple operationalizations of each compliance gaining strategy. Overall results correspond generally to those of the earlier studies: effectiveness concerns account for 23.5% of rejections, principled objections to specific strategies for 15.7%, person‐centered issues for 26.1%, and discourse competence rules for 34.6%. The self‐monitoring scale has serious psychometric problems and does not strongly predict use of rejection criteria.     

Motion Picture History

Paul Smith (ed.) The Historian and Film (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1976---$13.95)

Tino Balio (ed.) The American Film Industry (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976---$15.00/6.95)

Dale McConathy with Diane Vreeland's Hollywood Costume (New York: Abrams, 1976---$35.00)

David Chierichetti's Hollywood Costume Design (New York: Harmony Books/Crown, 1976---$15.00)

Anthony Slide's The Big V: A History of the Vitagraph Company (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976---$9.00)

Michael G. Fitzgerald's Universal Pictures: A Panoramic History in Words, Pictures and Filmographies (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1976---$25.00)

James R. Silke's Here's Looking at You, Kid: Fifty Years of Fighting, Working and Dreaming at Warner Brothers (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976---$24.95)

P. Adams Sitney (editorial director), The Essential Cinema: Essays on the Rims in the Collection of Anthology Film Archives (New York: New York University Press, 1976-420.00/ 8.95)

Leo Braudy's The World in a Frame: What We See in Films (New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1976---$8.95)