Religion and Science

The authors discuss the challenges of creating an integrated, interdisciplinary team-taught course. This case study focuses on conflict arising from interdependency, when interdisciplinary teams determine course content and negotiate identity, relationship, and process issues. Although no formulaic solutions can resolve such conflicts, the study makes suggestions that can help achieve integration and collaboration when disciplines join forces.     

Educational Media

Dorothy T. Taggart's A Guide to Sources in Educational Media and Technology (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976—$6.00).

Christine L. Wynar's 1974-75 Supplement [to] Guide to Reference Books for School Media Centers (Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1976—18.00 in U.S.and Canada, $10.00 elsewhere).

Bernard Chibnall's The Organization of Media (Hamden, Conn.: Linnet Books/Shoestring Press, 1976—$5.50)

Robert D.B. Carlisle's Media and the Adult Student: One Man's Journal (Lincoln, Neb.: Great Plains National Instructional Television Library, 1976—price not known, paper).

Margaret E. Chisholm and Donald P. Ely's Media Personnel in Educational: A Competency Approach (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976—$12.95)     

E-Readers: New Opportunities for Hospital Patients and Staff

E-readers provide an opportunity for hospital librarians to reach out to staff and patients with new approaches to library lending. Librarians in four Veterans Health Administration medical centers are using e-readers to enlarge their scope of service in unique ways. The libraries of VA hospitals in Minneapolis, Des Moines, Tampa, and Philadelphia have developed several ways to reach out to new library users.     

Legal Aspects of Preventing Problem Behavior

Changes to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (Public Law 108-446) (now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, H.R. 1350 (passed both houses of Congress 11/19/04; signed by President Bush 12/3/04) [Google Scholar]: IDEA) mandated new requirements for providing discipline to students with disabilities. These changes led to simplified procedures when students with disabilities commit infractions of the school code. A review of potential legal dilemmas, however, challenges the simplicity of the revised procedures and may actually underscore new legal entanglements to parents and school officials. We discuss what we know about discipline and reasons for an interest in discipline applications, potential legal complications resulting from the reauthorized IDEA, and implications of prevention strategies for students with disabilities demonstrating problem behaviors.     

One Brief,Shining Moment? The Impact of Neo‐liberalism on Science Curriculum in the Compulsory Years of Schooling

The past 20 years or so have seen ongoing concern for the nature of science education in the Anglophone developed world. A particular focus of this concern has been the need to find new ways to frame science curricula that will engage students, yet it is proving difficult to achieve this goal. In this article I argue that the impact on science curriculum of a societal shift to neo‐liberalism and an attendant policy shift to outcomes‐based education should be explicitly acknowledged; further, that the forms of curriculum that emerge from neo‐liberalism are unlikely to provide the engaging and inclusive science education needed today. To illustrate the impact of the neo‐liberal societal shift on science curriculum I compare an exemplary, inclusive and innovative science curriculum document from the 1980s with its outcomes‐based successor from the 1990s. I show that in this case the shift to the outcomes‐based form significantly restricted the possibilities for framing science education to respond to the local community, restricting a vision of science as a social institution; further, it framed each learner as an individual to the exclusion of community while reducing options for framing learning to meet individual needs. I argue that it is important for the future disciplinary well‐being of science, and for the well‐being of society on the whole, that both science and its scientists be seen as socially located. Science curriculum documents must initiate and support this perspective.     

Remediating child poverty via preschool: exploring practitioners' perspectives in England

Within developed countries child poverty is a social problem with significant negative effects. With a backdrop of austerity, the UK's first child poverty strategy was released in 2011. Pervaded by neo-liberal ideology this strategy identifies preschool services as key to remediating the negative effects of child poverty on children and families as a means to ‘unlock social mobility’. Drawing on interviews with preschool practitioners working in the poorest region of England, this article provides a rare, close-up insight into how they have responded to assumptions about their role within the policy discussions and debates about child poverty. Findings reveal how those interviewed have internalised the UK Coalition government's discursive formation of child poverty and social justice. Their narratives also indicate how, alongside the child poverty strategy, ‘policy technology’ accompanying the emergence of related reforms to the preschool sector in England and financial cuts are regulative and restrictive to practitioners' thinking and actions. Although only small scale, this research identifies challenges which will potentially prevent practitioners from creating the conditions necessary to address the effects of child poverty and ensure the Coalition government's vision of social justice in England.     

Predicting student success in open and distance learning

This paper reviews some of the ways in which student success can be predicted in conventional and distance education. Predicting such success is particularly important for new students where the pre‐course start information available is sometimes slight and withdrawal often occurs very early in a course. It suggests that, in such cases, statistical methods involving logistic regression analysis are more useful than questionnaires or tutors’ opinions. Identifying students with low probability of success allows support to be targeted on them. However, there are ethical dilemmas to do with targeting support and openness with students about the results of any analysis.     

The Middle School Trend: Another Look in the Upper Midwest

Teacher retention has become a major issue facing policy makers as our nation's school-age population continues to grow while the teaching workforce continues to decline because of attrition and an aging workforce. Common reasons cited by teachers for leaving the profession can also be linked to burnout. This study examined burnout levels in a specific subset of teachers—those who achieved certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). The potential benefits to teachers who pursue NBPTS certification include professional pride, recognition of outstanding teaching practice, new leadership roles and responsibilities, and higher salaries (Shapiro 1995 Shapiro, B. 1995. A boost for teachers?. Vocational Education Journal, 68: 28–29.  [Google Scholar]). Some of these potential rewards seem to address a number of the factors that are related to the onset of burnout, and therefore may not only alleviate burnout but also impact retention rates. The study found that National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) demonstrated significantly lower levels of burnout in two of its three dimensions.