Analysis of Satisfaction and Perceived Learning of Science in Different Distance Education Delivery Modes for Rural Elementary School Teachers Involved in a Professional Development Project

The Science Co-op is a local systemic change project that connects eight regional clusters of elementary schools in rural Missouri and Iowa in the USA. These clusters are comprised of 38 school districts distributed over 40,000 square miles and include more than 1,400 teachers and 20,000 elementary school students. The project stresses inquiry science in the classroom and involves investigating science ideas using a constructivist approach and cross-curricular connections. Within the frameworks of the Science Co-op project a technology known as Interactive Television (ITV) allows for almost real-time interaction (a 3–5 second delay) within the state boundaries of Missouri and Iowa, respectively. The primary goals of the ITV sessions are to enhance the science content and science pedagogical knowledge among the population of elementary school teachers that they may have lacked in their prior education, and to reinforce and extend instructional strategies emphasized in this local systemic change project. In this study the participants' self-reported learning and reactions to live ITV sessions and videotaped, delayed broadcast of ITV sessions were compared. Regression analysis results show teaching experience's influence on overall satisfaction with ITV (p<0.05) while mode attended, perceived technical difficulty, preferred mode, and perceived new skills or content learned in the session entered the regression equation at p=.000. Further t-tests suggested p>0.05 for perceived new skills and content learned on the different modes of communication.     

Approaches to Studying and Perceptions of the Academic Environment in Students Following Problem-Based and Subject-Based Curricula

To investigate the effects of different kinds of curriculum, the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and a short form of the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) were administered to 225 2nd-year students at six different schools of occupational therapy. Their curricula were classified as problem-based, subject-based or hybrid. Their scores on the scales of the CEQ and ASI were closely related, insofar as they shared more than half of their respective variance. Problem-based curricula were associated with higher scores on the scales of the CEQ concerned with appropriate assessment and emphasis on independence. With the ASI, problem-based curricula were associated with lower scores on all of the scales concerned with a reproducing orientation, and with higher scores on the scale concerned with a deep approach. These findings suggest that the implementation of a problem-based curriculum has desirable effects on the quality of learning, and these are at least in part mediated by students' perceptions of their academic environment.     

The Mind's "I": Children's Conception of the Mind as an Active Agent

1 hypothesis about children's developing conception of the mind is that preschoolers are limited to an understanding that persons have internal, mental contents like thoughts and beliefs, whereas older children and adults conceive of the mind itself as an independent, active structure or processor. Adults' conception of the mind in this independent active fashion seems evident in their use of personified mental metaphor (e.g., "My mind tricked me"). 3 studies examined the development and consolidation of this active, personified view. Study 1 provided an analysis of natural language data regarding 1 child's uses of vision words such as see and look from age 2 1/2 to 8 years. We examined the child's use of such words to refer literally to perception (e.g., "I see the TV") and also to refer nonliterally to active mental processes such as comprehension and inference (e.g., "I see what you mean"). Studies 2 and 3 examined 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds' comprehension and production of mental metaphors. In a metaphor comprehension task, we asked children to interpret personified metaphoric statements about the mind (e.g., "My mind wandered") and 3 comparison domains, mechanics (e.g., "The car is dead"), nature (e.g., "The wind is howling"), and emotion (e.g., "Her heart was smiling"). In an explanation task, we asked children to explain the processes underlying the making of both instant photos and mental images. The findings reveal a developing ability to interpret and produce statements personifying the mind and provide considerable evidence about children's movement toward a conception of the mind as an independent entity deserving reference and conceptualization in its own right.     

Identifying correlates of reabuse in maltreating parents

Forty-five abusive parents (40 mothers, 5 fathers) in treatment at a large, urban medical center's child abuse program were compared on 22 parent, child, and treatment variables posited to bear on reabuse. While no one variable by itself was strongly associated with reabuse, the data indicated that interactions involving several variables (e.g., income source, marital status, and the abuser's personal abuse history) significantly differentiated between reabusers and nonreabusers. Implications of the findings for research and clinical intervention are discussed.     

Determinants of placement for sexually abused children

While conducting a prospective study of 100 sexually abused children, we found a much higher rate of out-of-home placement than has been previously described for child maltreatment. This study was designed to determine which factors were most influential in predicting the placement experiences of this cohort. The children, ages 6-17 years, were recently substantiated victims of intrafamilial sexual abuse whose parents or guardians permitted study involvement. We examined child and family demographics, abuse characteristics, and family response as possible determinants of immediate and later placement. At the initial assessment, within a few weeks of the disclosure, 50% of the children had already been removed. A follow-up assessment of 83 children two years later revealed that 73% had been removed from the abusing home. In a multivariate regression model, only maternal support of the child emerged as a significant predictor of immediate placement and placement over time. The offender's status as a resident in the child's home was an important predictor of immediate placement but was not significant as a predictor of all placements at any time. As maternal support is an important predictor of the need for placement, workers are encouraged to seek ways of enhancing maternal support as a means of reducing placement.     

A Comparison of the Counselor Rating Form and the Counselor Effectiveness Rating Scale

The purpose of this study was to compare two measures of perceived counselor expertness, trustworthiness, and attractiveness: the Counselor Rating Form (CRF) and the Counselor Effectiveness Rating Scale (CERS).     

Field research methodology for the study of Latin American ministries of education

In Third World countries a key to the course of nation-building is the modernization of the organizational and administrative infrastructures which drive the development process. Increasing the operational capabilities, effectiveness, and efficiency of the ministry of education, and hence the quality and quantity of school outcomes, is typically a high priority item in the development plans of a nation. In order to promote the modernization of management activities in ministries, however, it is first essential to understand their existing patterns of operation. Toward this objective, the paper presents a methodological framework for a field study approach to the examination of the working of a ministry of education in Latin America. Several issues are introduced which influence the process of inquiry, such as: (1) examining the impact of historical traditions on contemporary management procedures; (2) exploring concerns for ethics and academic colonialism; (3) distinguishing between anthropological and sociological participant-observation field methods; (4) gathering and analyzing data on complex ministries; and (5) exploring the task of Third World theory building.

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Zusammenfassung Einen Schlüssel zum Verlauf des nationalen Aufbaus in der dritten Welt liefert die Modernisierung der organisatorischen und administrativen Infrastrukturen, die den Entwicklungsprozess vorantreiben. Im allgemeinen wird der Verbesserung der Handels-Fähigkeiten, der Wirksamkeit und Effizienz des Bildungsministeriums eine hohe Priorität in den Entwicklungsplänen eines Landes beigemessen. Um jedoch die Modernisierung der Führungsarbeit von Ministerien beschleunigen zu können, müssen zunächst ihre jetzigen Operationsweisen untersucht werden. Zu diesem Zweck wird in diesem Artikel ein methodologischer Rahmen für einen Feldstudienansatz zur Prüfung der Arbeit eines Bildungsministeriums in einem lateinamerikanischen Staat vorgelegt. Verschiedene Fragen, die den Untersuchungsprozeß beeinflussen, werden erörtert, zum Beispiel; (1) die Auswirkung historischer Traditionen auf derzeitige Leitungsverfahren; (2) Grad der Beachtung von Ethik und akademischem Kolonialismus; (3) Unterschied zwischen anthropologischen und soziologischen Methoden zur Beobachtung von Beteiligten in der Praxis; (4) Sammlung und Analyse von Daten über komplexe Ministerien; und (5) die Aufgabe, in der dritten Welt eine Theorie aufzubauen.

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Résumé L'un des éléments essentiels de la course à l'intégration nationale, dans les pays du Tiers Monde, est la modernisation des infrastructures administratives et organiques qui guident le processus du développement. L'une des premières priorités à respecter est typiquement le développement des moyens d'action, de la compétence et de l'efficacité du ministère de l'éducation, et par voie de conséquence, la qualité et l'importance des résultats scolaires. Toutefois, afin de moderniser judicieusement les activités du management dans les ministères de l'éducation, il est primordial de comprendre leur mode actuel de travail. Ayant cet objectif en vue, l'auteur de cet article propose un cadre méthodologique permettant d'aborder sur le terrain l'examen du fonctionnement d'un ministère de l'éducation en Amérique Latine. Il expose plusieurs démarches qui influent sur le processus de l'enquête: (1) examiner l'impact des traditions historiques sur les procédés contemporains du management; (2) déterminer les préoccupations relatives à l'éthique et au colonialisme académique; (3) faire la distinction entre les méthodes anthropologiques et sociologiques de l'observation participante sur le terrain; (4) rassembler et analyser les données concernant les ministères complexes; et (5) explorer la tâche de l'élaboration de théories relatives au Tiers Monde.