Organisation in the nursery

The importance of continuing professional development (CPD) is increasingly recognised as an important contributor to school improvement. Successful CPD involves gaining the commitment of teachers to the process, and to sustaining and supporting their involvement in activities that are beneficial to both their professional growth and the development of their school and the children. This article describes a whole school improvement initiative that sought to do just that: a partnership, in which Hampshire inspection and advisory service; University College, Winchester; and the teachers at Lee-on-the Solent Junior School, worked together to enable practitioner research to become both a reality, and a powerful contributor to both personal development and school improvement.     

Excavating silences and tensions of agency|passivity in science education reform

I reflect on studies by Rodriguez and Carlone, Haun-Frank, and Kimmel to emphasize the ways in which they excavate silences in the science education literature related to linguistic and cultural diversity and situating the problem of reform in teachers rather than contextual factors, such as traditional schooling discourses and forces that serve to marginalize science. I propose that the current push for top-down reform and accountability diminishes opportunities for receptivity, learning with and from students in order to transform teachers’ practices and promote equity in science education. I discuss tensions of agency and passivity in science education reform and argue that attention to authentic caring constitutes another silence in the science education literature. I conclude that the current policy context positions teachers and science education researchers as tempered radicals struggling against opp(reg)ressive reforms and that there is a need for more studies to excavate these and other silences.     

Publicly funded business advisory services and entrepreneurial outcomes

Given the mixed evidence for the impact of various publicly funded initiatives that aim to foster entrepreneurial activity, this paper empirically examines the efficacy of publicly funded business advisory services in relation to entrepreneurial outcomes. Based on a sample of 228 early-stage firms, of which 101 used business advisory services focused on helping companies secure 1st rounds of financing and start generating revenues, we examine the firm-level impact such services can have on sales growth, innovation, finance and alliances. We find services are positively associated with firms’ sales growth, patents, finance and alliances. We assess statistical and economic significance, and assess robustness to controls for the non-randomness of the firm's using business advisory service program, as well as endogeneity of advisors’ hours spent with firms. Other robustness checks are also included. We find significant robustness of hours spent on sales and finance, but sensitivity of the effect of hours on patents and alliances after controlling for endogeneity.     

General Motion Pictures

Eileen Sheahan's Moving Pictures: An Annotated Guide to Selected Film Literature With Suggestions for the Study of Film (South Brunswick: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1979 – $9.95 hardcover)

Anthony Slide, Films on Film History (Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, 1979 – $12.00 hardcover)

Hannah Elsas Miller, Films in the Classroom: A Practical Guide (Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, 1979 – $12.50)

Roy Pickard, Hollywood Gold: The Award Winning Movies (New York: Taplinger, 1979 – $1 4 .95/$9.95)

Legal and Business Problems of Financing Motion Pictures 1979 (Practising Law Institute, 810 Seventh Ave., New York, N.Y. 10019—$20, paper)

Nancy Allen's Film Study Collections: A Guide to Their Development and Use (New York: Frederik Ungar, 1979—$14.00)

David McNicoll, eds. A Guide to Film and Television Courses in Canada (Canadian Film Institute, 75 Albert Street, Suite 1105, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5E7 – $6.95)

Film Periodicals: A new journal, Discourse: Berkeley Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture (P.O. Box 4667, Berkeley, California 94704 – $9.00 for three issues for individuals, $12.00 for institutions, and $18.00 foreign)

Don Allen, ed. The World of Film and Filmmakers: A Visual History (New York: Crown, 1979—$19.95)

Raymond Fielding, comp. A Bibliography of Theses and Dissertations on the Subject of Film: 1916-1979 (Houston, Tx.: University Film Association Monograph No. 3, 1979—$6.50, paper)     

Readers are very important people

Reading groups for visually impaired people (VIPs) are a relatively recent phenomenon. This article reports on an ethnographic study of a VIP reading group. It provides a brief overview of the history of alternative formats and then focuses on reading autobiographies which have been constructed with members of this group. It concludes by suggesting that VIP reading groups present interesting opportunities for exploring ideas of reading and readers.