Antidoping Education Using a Lifelong Situated Activity-Based Approach: Evidence,Conception, and Challenges

Studies have shown that doping behavior emerges from contexts. Educational research would therefore be enriched by explorations of the situatedness of athletes’ activity and its dynamics of development inside sporting life courses. The principles can be summarized as (a) the connection between antidoping and athletes’ time-specific and meaningful concerns, (b) the creation of fields of possible activity that preserve athletes from doping, (c) the focus on propensities toward activities that pull athletes away from doping, and (d) the regular and timely updating of programs. Following this, the general framework for the antidoping education of elite athletes comprises four levels articulated by their distribution over the periods of athletes’ careers: (a) creating and maintaining a global antidoping culture via continuous socialization, (b) developing a sustained antidoping background via situated activities, (c) supporting punctual and specific needs with free services for all athletes, and (d) promoting tertiary prevention and post-career education.     

El impacto del ordenador en la organización de la escuela: perspectivas para la investigación

No puede hablarse en abstracto de las virtudes o insuficiencias del ordenador con «el niño» o «la educación». La investigación y experimentación educativa actuales se dirigen a ver cuántos ordenadores y en qué contextos y para qué actividades interactúan en el proceso educativo.

El concepto de «apropiación» que se deriva de la teoría socio-histórica subraya que las escuelas pueden aprovechar la tecnología para objetivos muy distintos de los previstos por el investigador.     

Reading Ages and NFER Reading Tests

The article outlines some practical and theoretical weaknesses of the concept of ‘reading age’. It considers ambiguity in the computational methods for determining the ‘average’ reading age and the tendency for a reading age to become a fixed property of a pupil rather than an estimate of his standing, relative to time of testing and choice of test. A theoretical standpoint is taken that insufficient is known about the way a reader develops for his attainment to be given a developmental or age‐based score. It is further suggested that in any case the relationship between age and reading development is imperfect. This point is developed further when the assumption of a linear pattern in reading development is criticized. It is further suggested that insofar as reading does follow chronological age an age‐adjustment in the scale used to express attainment is highly desirable. Practical considerations such as selection of reading material, comparison with other educational tests and the assessment of reading progress, are mentioned. The article concludes with a brief resume of the problems associated with reading ‘quotients’ and designating children as ‘under‐achievers’.     

Walking on egg shells: the significance of socio‐cultural factors in the mentoring of primary school students

In this article I present evidence based on primary student teachers' accounts about the way in which socio‐cultural factors in placement schools affected the quality of their experiences. I examine the proposition that school culture has a significant impact upon performance, and that the strain of adjusting to school values and expectations can lead to stress and loss of confidence for a significant minority of students. I suggest that effective mentoring needs to take close account of students' socialisation into the school culture, as failure to do so may adversely influence their teaching effectiveness and well‐being.     

Book Reviews

Mentors responsible for student primary teachers on school placement were asked about the qualities they expected to see in their trainees. The key finding from an analysis of their responses was that although they were concerned with abilities relating to planning and teaching, the majority of responses were to do with student teachers’ personal attributes. Evidence from this small‐scale survey suggested that mentors believed that unless certain personal qualities and attitudes were present in student teachers, the process of teaching‐and‐learning was unlikely to be effective, however well planned and executed it was. The virtue of ‘being willing’ figured particularly strongly in mentors’ replies, raising difficult questions about the significance of relationships, character, and personality as determinants in teaching effectiveness. The implications for student teachers’ professional growth in demonstrating willingness through their positive response to mentors’ advice form a key element of the article.     

World Communication

WORLD BROADCASTING IN THE AGE OF THE SATELLITE by W. J. Howell, Jr. (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1986—$45.00/27.50)

MEDIA IN COMPETITION: THE FUTURE OF PRINT AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA IN 22 COUNTRIES by George Wedell and Georg-Michael Luyken ($30.00, paper, 173 pp.)

LOCAL RADIO AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EUROPE by Philip Crookes and Patrick Vittet-Philippe ($26.00, paper “Media Monograph No. 7,” 162 pp.)

NEW MEDIA POLITICS: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES IN WESTERN EUROPE edited by Denis McQuail and Karen Siune (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1986—$40.00/14.95)

THE POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE GLOBAL SPREAD OF VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDERS AND PROGRAMMING by Gladys Ganley and Oswald Ganley (Harvard Program on Information Resources Policy, 200 Aiken, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 price not given, paper)

XEROX: AMERICAN SAMURAI by Gary Jacobson and John Hillkirk (New York: Macmillan, 1986—$18.95)

A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE—THE INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF INFORMATION: THE MEDIA AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES by Gunnar Garbo (Paris: Unesco Communication Documentation Centre, [or, write Public Information, Unesco, 2 United Nations Plaza, Room 900, NY 10017] 1986(?)—price not given, paper)     

General Mass Communication

THE KNOWLEDGE INDUSTRY 200: 1983 EDITION—AMERICA'S TWO HUNDRED LARGEST MEDIA AND INFORMATION COMPANIES (White Plains, N.Y.: Knowledge Industry Publications, 1983---price not given, paper; with hardback edition available from Gale Research Co., Detroit---$98.00)

MASS COMMUNICATION THEORY: AN INTRODUCTION by Denis McQuail (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1983---$25.00/$12.50)

CREATING MEDIA CULTURE by Robert P. Snow (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1983---$25.00/ $12.50)

THE CRITICAL COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW, VOLUME I: LABOR, THE WORKING CLASS, AND THE MEDIA edited by Vincent Mosco and Janet Wasko (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1983---$37.50/$21.95)

MARCONI TO McLUHAN: A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF N.Y. TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE ARTICLES ON COMMUNICATION, 1900-1980 by Gerald V. Flannery (Department of Communication, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, LA 70504---$12.00, paper)

INTRODUCTION TO MASS COMMUNICATION by Jay Black and Frederick C. Whitney (Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown, 1983---price not given, paper)