Norway's regional colleges

The regional college movement in Norway is in direct response to societal pressure felt worldwide to democratize and decentralize higher education. Created in 1969 as a three-college system coordinated by the Regional College section of the Ministry of Education, the current six institutions represent Norway's attempt to extend equal opportunity and employment-oriented education to rural and remote areas. Although initially established on a five-year experimental basis, the institutions appear to be in a solid position, having university endorsement as well as strong support of the local community constituencies. Another prominent factor giving support to the regional college movement is the egalitarian nature of Norwegian society. The “folkekögskole” (folk high school or people's college) which had become the accepted preparation for teacher training institutions throughout Scandinavia, helped to strengthen the case for short-term career-oriented education. The regional colleges operate with a high degree of administrative autonomy to allow each institution maximum freedom to develop regional identities. From the beginning, innovation and experimentation have been officially encouraged. Faculty and students participate broadly in institutional policy development, and at several colleges, in the actual day-to-day decision making process. The Ministry and institutional leaders appear firmly committed to goals expressed in the planning reports and in the enabling legislation: to prepare students for immediate employment in specific occupations and for further education in universities and professional schools, and to offer educational opportunities, including general education, for adults. Consideration in long-range planning should be given to:

1. Faculty development programs and training for administrators
2. Perfecting communication channels, and
3. Improving instructional efficiency through such means as an instructional resource center and an educational development team on each campus to encourage new ideas on improving instruction.

     

A study of the relationship between child abuse and drug addiction in 178 patients: Preliminary results

Social histories and demographic data were collected on 178 patients—101 in the United States and 77 in Australia—in treatment for drug/alcohol addiction. The purpose of the study was to determine the degree to which a correlation exists between child abuse/neglect and the later onset of drug/alcohol addiction patterns in the abuse victims. The questionnaire explored such issues as family intactness. parental violence/abuse/neglect, parental drug abuse, sibling relationships and personal physical/ sexual abuse histories, including incest and rape. The study determined that 84% of the sample reported a history of child abuse/neglect.     

Evolution in secondary school biology textbooks of the PRC,the USA,and the latter stages of the USSR

The presentations of evolutionary theory in 13 prominent, secondary-school biology textbooks—3 Chinese, 8 American, and 2 Soviet—were examined using the methods of content analysis. For each book, the amount of text devoted to each of 80 evolutionary topics was assessed. Such word counts were enumerated not only for the main narrative, but also for eight supplemental components (illustrations, marginal information, appendixes, etc.). Pronounced differences in topic emphasis among the 13 textbooks and systematic trends between countries are discussed. The strong emphasis on evolution in the USSR textbooks is impressive, but these textbooks also neglect some major themes, and they devote considerable text to certain concepts of an erroneous or dubious nature. The PRC (People's Republic of China) textbooks fail to introduce a considerable number of topics that are prominent in the other two systems. The eight USA textbooks exhibit great diversity in terms of total evolutionary content, number of themes treated, and which topics are emphasized. Unlike the USSR and PRC textbooks, the USA books position a vast amount of evolutionary content (26.5%-55.8%) within components outside the main narrative. The evolutionary text of USA editions is dispersed throughout and is presented surprisingly early. Several individual themes that proved particularly revealing are examined, including human evolution, law of recapitulation, evolution and religion, evidences of evolution, punctuated equilibria, and artificial selection.     

Nausea is associated with endotoxemia during a 161-km ultramarathon

This study explored possible contributing factors to gastrointestinal distress, including endotoxemia, hyperthermia, dehydration and nutrition, during a 161-km ultramarathon. Thirty runners participated in the study and 20 finished the race. At three checkpoints and the finish, runners were interviewed to assess the incidence and severity of 12 gastrointestinal symptoms and to determine dietary intake. Core temperature was measured at the same locations. Runners were weighed pre-race, at the three checkpoints and the finish to monitor hydration status. Blood markers for endotoxemia (sCD14) and inflammation (interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein) were measured pre- and post-race. Gastrointestinal symptoms were experienced by most runners (80%), with nausea being the most common complaint (60%). Runners with nausea experienced significantly greater (P = 0.02) endotoxemia than those without nausea (sCD14 mean increase 0.7 versus 0.5 µg · mL^?1). There was a significant positive correlation (r = 0.652, P = 0.005) between nausea severity and endotoxemia level. Inflammatory response, core temperature, hydration level and race diet were similar between runners with and without nausea. This study links endotoxemia to nausea in ultramarathon runners. Other possible contributing factors to nausea such as hyperthermia, dehydration and nutrition did not appear to play a role in the symptomatic runners in this study.     

Breaking the Constraints of Modernist Psychologizing: Mathematics Education Flirts with the Postmodern

Mathematics education emerged as a field in the height of modernism in science and mathematics. For decades, modernist psychology provided the dominant framework for inquiry in the field. Recently, this framework has started to sustain questions, leading to an ongoing conversation in the literature about the identity of the field. We join this conversation via a critical notice of a volume that proposes to package postmodern theorists for mathematics educators. We argue that the book falls short of providing a substantive contribution to the conversation, and we present an argument for the role of postmodernism in mathematics education.     

Counseling Children in Crisis Based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Basic Needs

This article addresses how Maslow's hierarchy of basic human needs can be used as a framework for cross-cultural counseling with children in crisis; that is, children of the world who are unable to fulfill adequately their basic human needs because of extreme circumstances such as natural disaster, violence, various forms of child abuse, extreme poverty, lack of school and community resources, and emotional abandonment. Assessment of child needs is discussed and counseling strategies are presented; strategies that include supportive counseling techniques, crisis intervention techniques, program development, delivery of social services and resources, referral to helping agencies, and counselor consultation with parents and other significant adults in the lives of children.     

A mediational model of the association between socioeconomic status and three-year-old language abilities: the role of parenting factors

The mechanisms through which socioeconomic status (SES) influences three-year-old expressive and receptive language abilities were examined in a sample of 1016 families from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that maternal sensitivity and cognitive stimulation were significant partial mediators of the relation between SES and verbal comprehension, expressive language, and receptive verbal conceptual abilities. Path analyses revealed that a unified model including both parenting factors and distal SES factors demonstrated solid fit indices. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.     

Scientific practice and the tradition of advocacy in special education

The purpose of this discussion is to describe and contrast several tenets of scientific behavior and practice with the behaviors and practices associated with advocacy. We argue that scientists must focus their efforts on solvable problems, consider their efforts to be uncertain, and present their findings dispassionately, so that others might judge the evidence for themselves. Advocates, in contrast, must confront the problems facing the people for whom they have concern over whether the problems appear to be solvable or not. Furthermore, advocacy requires a certainty of conviction that leads to the promotion of particular positions and their adoption by others. We suggest that although special education's roots are more closely aligned with advocacy than with science, its future depends on its ability to adopt a more fully scientific approach to practice. We conclude with a discussion of how the assignment of test accommodations to students with disabilities illustrates the tension between science and advocacy.     

Relationship between language proficiency and growth during reading interventions

Many English language learners (ELLs) experience difficulties with basic English reading due in part to low language proficiency. The authors examined the relationship between English language proficiency and growth during reading interventions for ELLs. A total of 201 second- and third-grade students with a variety of home languages participated. The students were identified as needing a targeted intervention, because scores on the fall oral reading fluency screening measure fell below the benchmark criterion. Thus, all participating students received reading interventions approximately four times each week throughout the school year. Results indicated that those students identified in the lowest English proficiency stage on the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State (ACCESS) made the highest growth as indicated in the spring benchmark assessment, and the ACCESS score added negligible variance beyond baseline reading skills. Implications for practice and research are discussed.