International Differences in Information Privacy Concerns: A Global Survey of Consumers

We examine three possible explanations for differences in Internet privacy concerns revealed by national regulation: (1) These differences reflect and are related to differences in cultural values described by other research; (2) these differences reflect differences in Internet experience; or (3) they reflect differences in the desires of political institutions without reflecting underlying differences in privacy preferences. Using a sample of Internet users from 38 countries matched against the Internet population of the United States, we find support for (1) and (2), suggesting the need for localized privacy policies. Privacy concerns decline with Internet experience. Controlling for experience, cultural values were associated with differences in privacy concerns. These cultural differences are mediated by regulatory differences, although new cultural differences emerge when differences in regulation are harmonized. Differences in regulation reflect but also shape country differences. Consumers in countries with sectoral regulation have less desire for more privacy regulation.     

Using online glossing lessons for accelerated instruction in ASL for preservice deaf education majors

Teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students must serve as language models for their students. However, preservice deaf education teachers typically have at most only four semesters of American Sign Language (ASL) training. How can their limited ASL instructional time be used to increase their proficiency? Studies involving deaf and hard of hearing students have revealed that glosses (written equivalents of ASL sentences) can serve as "bridges" between ASL and English. The study investigated whether glossing instruction can facilitate hearing students' learning of ASL. A Web site was developed in which ASL glossing rules were explained and glossing exercises provided. Posttest scores showed the experimental group improving from 39% to 71% on ASL grammar knowledge. These findings indicate that online glossing lessons may provide the means to obtain ASL skills more readily, thus preparing deaf education teachers to serve as ASL language models.     

Academic Literacy Skills and Progression Rates Amongst Pharmacy Students

This article addresses relationships between academic literacy skills and progress in a university degree program. Academic literacy skills of enrolling cohorts of pharmacy students were measured on four criteria. Correlations were calculated between these literacy measures; the time taken to reach graduation; the Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER); and each final first‐year course mark. Results indicate that almost half the enrolling students lacked adequate English language resources necessary for tertiary study. More interesting was the lack of significant correlation between each of these literacy skills and the TER. Logistic regression indicated that measures on three separate literacy criteria were better predictors of university success than the TER alone. When each of these three literacy measures was combined with the TER, prediction of the time taken to reach graduation was improved above using the TER alone. The outcome of this research indicates not only the importance of identifying and subsequently assisting those incoming students who may be experiencing literacy related problems, but also has wider implications for curriculum design and choice of selection criteria employed by university faculties.     

Syndicate methods: two styles compared

A comparison is made between two styles of syndicate work. In the first, referred to as unstructured (U), groups range in size from four to six students. In the second, referred to as formal (F), groups are eight to ten in size and tend to adopt a formal chairman-secretary structure. This latter type is here illustrated by one of the authors from his experience in a Medical School, where the tasks presented to the students are complex problem boxes requiring many man-hours from different departments for their creation. The analysis of the U type is based on the second author's experience in an American university and an English polytechnic.The areas examined are, first, the size and the composition of the groups; second the tutor's role; third, the development of higher order cognitive skills in the students; and fourth the management of research in this field. Questions are raised particularly in relation to the consolidation of syndicate work, to ensure command of the basic material; to the change of role required of both teachers and students; to the influence of the institutional culture on the work; to the adaptation of assessment techniques to measure development in the higher order skills; and to the possibility that investigation needs to be carried out on actual courses by teachers, students and researchers in collaboration.     

Pay,rank, and growing old with more of each

Factors which comprise the bases for salary increases and adjustments at major research universities have long been topics of conversation and supposition. Based on responses from over 12,000 faculty members, this paper reviews, by faculty rank, items which are likely to contribute to salary and suggests that faculty members can follow certain strategies which are more likely than others to bring a financial reward. Research procedures employed include linear models and multiple regression.     

Equity among assistant professors in instructional work load

In recent years salary equity has been the focus of studies dealing with equity. This paper extends the concept of equity to include faculty instructional activities or work load. In an effort to determine to what extent instructional efforts differed between men and women at a large land-grant university, the following variables were investigated: number of weighted student credit hours, number of sections taught, number of different courses taught, and didactic hours by level of course. Because the faculty members varied in their full-time-equivalent instructional effort, it was necessary to normalize the data. When men and women were compared for equity of instructional activity (MANOVA) taking their college into consideration, there was no significant difference by sex or from the interaction of college with sex. When a balancing technique was used to review men and women by departments, again no significant differences were found in the pattern of instructional activity within the group of departments being compared.     

Research and the Challenges of Contemporary School Leadership: The Contribution of Critical Scholarship

There is a widespread policy assumption that school leaders such as headteachers and governors need to have 'raining courses' which are constituted by a growing corpus of Education Management Studies (EMS) if they are to achieve successfully current schooling goals of 'effectiveness', 'quality', 'excellence' and 'value for money' Another body of work which attempts to address these issues in a wider cultural framework and which may be called Critical Leadership Studies (CLS) is regarded as interesting for those studying for higher graduate qualifications but hardly relevant for everyday school busyness. While EMS is constructed as 'practical'and therefore a necessary constituent of the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers and other training courses for school leaders, CLS is constructed as 'academic' and more suitable for the EdD seminar. It will be argued here that both cultural analysis and recent research shows this to be a simplistic and reductionist view with dangerous policy consequences. Critical scholarship in education has much to offer to those meeting the everyday challenges of school leadership. In particular, feminist critical scholarship offers oppositional models to both traditional and market forms of patriarchal school leadership.     

Telecommunications Technology

Ithiel de Sola Pool, The Social Impact of the Telephone (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1977—$15.95)

Gerald F.J. Tyne Saga of the Vacuum Tube (Indianapolis: Howard W. Sams, 1977—$9.95, paper with a hardback available as well)

Ronald W. Clark Edison: The Man Who Made the Future (New York: Putnam, 1977— $12.95)