Review article: Consumer health information services*

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A Fragile Dialogue? Research and Primary Education Policy Formation in Bangladesh, 1971-2001

This paper considers the relationship between knowledge production and primary education policy making in Bangladesh. It investigates the form of discussions and dialogues that have taken place between policy makers and researchers and considers how these have shaped the nature of the evidence policy makers have used in different periods. The paper also attempts to assess the implications of the shifting forms of relationship between policy and knowledge production for strategies to introduce universal primary education and improve its quality. The paper itself is an example of some of the themes it examines. It has emerged out of discussions taking place in the research committee of the Bangladesh Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) and Primary and Mass Education Division (PMED). (See Figure 1.) This committee, established as part of the DFID funded ESTEEM project [1], brings together officials from DPE and PMED with education researchers from Bangladesh's universities and consultants appointed by ESTEEM. An aspect of the work of the research committee has been to consider what kinds of knowledge are useful in the implementation of policy. In summary we argue that, except for an early period after the War of Independence, there has been little open dialogue between researchers and policy makers in Bangladesh. Policy has been much more closely shaped by the changing forms and values of educational administration in central government and in large NGOs than by 'scientific' forms of research and knowledge production or by the debates these might provoke. Research and education policy development have been the preserve of elite groups closely connected to central government. Very little research has been undertaken independent of government or commissions from large NGOs. However, in different periods researchers have participated in policy formation in different ways and there are indications in the present period that the views of researchers and policy makers are beginning to diverge somewhat with some more critical commentary being published. We map the history of these changing forms of participation in order to reveal aspects of the context in which successive policies have been formed.     

ACES' Members Attitudes toward Women and Work

A 50-item questionnaire designed to assess information on attitudes about women and work was mailed to a sample of ACES members. Responses from 128 males and 64 females were analyzed. On the basis of an earlier survey of school counselors, it was expected that females would be better informed and express more positive attitudes than males. It was also expected that younger members would express more positive attitudes than older ones. It was found that, in general, ACES members are well informed and express positive attitudes. However, substantial numbers of members made incorrect or unfavorable responses to at least 25 percent of the items. Such responses appeared as likely to occur for either sex and irrespective of age, but men appeared to be misinformed about more fundamental matters than women.     

Counseling Self-Efficacy and Counseling Competence in Prepracticum Training

Counseling self-efficacy and counseling skills were examined over time in a graduate prepracticum class. Efficacy increased with training, but its relationship to performance of skills was weak.     

The Effect of Inference Training on Skilled and Less Skilled Comprehenders

This paper assess the impact of introducing inference training to skilled and less skilled comprehenders. Children aged between 6 years 6 months and 9 years 11 months, classified as skilled or less skilled comprehenders, were instructed on how to make inferences from and generate questions about a text over a period of six sessions. Comparison groups of skilled and less skilled comprehenders were trained in standard comprehension strategies. The less skilled group showed a significantly greater improvement than the skilled group, regardless of the training given, but inference training was significantly more effective than standard comprehension strategies in the less skilled group. Seven out of ten less skilled readers who were inference trained increased their performance sufficiently to become classified as skilled comprehenders, whilst four out of ten less skilled comprehenders taught standard comprehension strategies improved to the same level. It is concluded that the value of explicitly teaching children inferential skills is that the enjoyment of the task of reading is enhanced and is therefore more likely to be undertaken readily, even by pupils who may have initially found reading difficult.     

A Comparison of Self-Observation,Self-Modeling,and Practice Without Video Feedback for Improving Counselor Interviewing Behaviors

This study evaluated the effects of three different feedback procedures on counselor trainees' interviewing behaviors that were judged by their supervisors as being inappropriate in a counseling session. In addition to informing each trainee in writing of the specific target behavior(s) he or she was to attempt to improve, the feedback conditions consisted of either (a) self-observation of edited videotapes of appropriate-only behavior (entitled self-as-a-model), (b) self-observation of unedited videotapes of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, or (c) practice without video feedback. The results indicate that all three feedback strategies promoted the reduction of inappropriate interviewing behaviors. Only the self-as-a-model technique (self-observation of appropriate-only responses), however, completely extinguished the occurrence of inappropriate interviewing behaviors. Of the seven inappropriate behaviors monitored for the group using self-as-a-model, five were completely extinguished after only three practice sessions.     

International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement Science Assessment in Developing Countries

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has been active now for more than 30 years. In that time the IEA has planned and co-ordinated several international surveys of pupil performance, particularly in mathematics, science and language. Pupil test data have in every case been supplemented with information regarding pupil, school, curriculum and system features, gathered through questionnaire enquiries and other means. Despite the relatively high costs of participation, and the complex logistics associated with pupil testing on the scale required, a number of developing countries have collaborated in one or other of the surveys, most particularly in those in mathematics and science. Some of the motivations for survey participation are equally relevant for both developed and developing countries, principal among them the desire to evaluate national educational system effectiveness through international comparison. A particular motivation driving some developing countries into this form of international collaboration is the opportunity it offers for skills transfer in the general areas of curriculum development and test construction. The paper overviews the IEA's three international science surveys, notes levels of developing country involvement in these, highlights some selected survey findings, and reflects on the potential value of survey participation to developing countries in particular.