The economic legacy of gothic cathedral building: France and England compared

Conclusion The accomplishments of the Gothic cathedral builders are immense. They are usually examined in terms of technical and artistic achievement, however, This seems shortsighted in view of their economic ramifications. The legacy of these works can be seen in technology, specialization and mobility of labor, and procedures in accounting. They thus served as a vehicle for the transformation of feudal society to the early capitalism which generated our modern world.     

The Effect of Correspondence Training on the Rate and Quality of Written Expression of Four Low Achieving Boys

This study examined the effects of a behavioural correspondence training procedure on the rate of writing of four 13‐year‐old boys in a class for low achieving students in a city high school. A comprehensive range of collateral measures of writing was employed in addition to the target measure of writing rate. These collateral measures were assessed through analytic and holistic scoring procedures. Transfer of control of the correspondence training procedure to the class teacher and maintenance of writing gains were also examined. Results show that correspondence training effectively improved and maintained the rate and quality of written expression of all four boys.     

Diversity in diversification: an analysis of shopping trips in six-week travel diary data

Diversification in shopping, a long-pursued subject in consumer behavior analysis, is approached from a broad perspective of the diversity in daily travel patterns, which may or may not involve shopping trips, as well as the diversity in shopping locations and frequency. The focus of this analysis is on the heterogeneity across individuals in the ways in which they each diversify their respective shopping behavior. This study explores differences across individuals in the variations of their shopping travel patterns across days. Treating the day-of-the-week evolution of shopping travel patterns as a stochastic process, characteristics of diversification are quantified for respective individuals. Finally, heterogeneity across individuals is identified using an array of statistical methods. The analysis, based on results of a six-week travel diary survey in Germany with geo-coded activity locations, reveals the effects of individual, household, and urban attributes on diversification in shopping behavior, including that full-time workers with medium incomes (4000–4999 Deutsche Mark per month) tend to have more variations in their shopping engagement.     

Higher education reform in Romania

This paper reviews the crisis in Romanian universities since the country's political transition in 1989, and describes the government's strategy for revitalizing the higher education system. Attention is drawn to the expansion of access to higher education, the dramatic increase of enrollments in social science fields, the spontaneous establishment of private higher education institutions, and to the many difficulties institutions are experiencing in coping with these changes especially because of resource constraints. Comprehensive reform of the role of the state in the financing and governance of higher education are proposed. The government's reform strategy involves accreditation of public and private institutions, establishment of open transparent mechanisms for allocating institutional and research funding, as well as changes in the structure of academic employment. Successful implementation will require strengthening the fragile management capacity of the Ministry of Education and the higher education institutions.     

Reading Recovery in Context: implementation and outcome

Reading Recovery is a school‐based preventive strategy designed to reduce the number of children with reading and writing difficulties. This study evaluated the implementation of Reading Recovery in 12 New Zealand schools. Target (Reading Recovery) and Comparison pairs of children were identified through the Reading Recovery procedures operated by each school. Results indicated that very few schools adhered closely to all recommended entry and discontinuation criteria. Results for Target and Comparison children's reading progress up to the time of discontinuation are highly consistent with results reported by Clay (1985), with clear gains in favour of Target children. However, these gains had reduced considerably by the time of follow‐up. Data suggest that programme gains were greatest for children entering the programme at the lowest reading levels. Outcomes are discussed in terms of the need for better articulation between Reading Recovery teachers and regular classroom teachers.     

Special Educational Placement Decisions for Handicapped Children: An Initial New Zealand Study

An examination was made of the case records and special educational placement decisions for a sample of 40 children, all of whom had been tested and/or reviewed by school psychologists during the year preceding the study and classified within one of the traditional special educational categories: intellectually handicapped, mentally backward, physically handicapped, hearing handicapped, visually handicapped, and emotionally maladjusted. It was found that very few children receiving special education were being returned to regular classes, and that factors other than the child's ability and/or learning/behavioural characteristics were strongly implicated in special educational decisions for mentally backward (mildly retarded) children, but to a lesser extent in decisions reached for children in other special educational categories. The study highlighted a difficulty likely to arise in a wide range of situations involving parents and children, where research access to case information must be balanced against parents’ rights to privacy and confidentiality of information disclosed in casework. Implications for the present results are considered, together with the need for alternative research strategies in this and related areas of enquiry.     

The Effect of Adult Proximity and Serving Style on Pre‐schoolers’ Language and Eating Behaviour

This study examined the effects on child language and amount of food eaten by five preschool children in a day care setting of withdrawing two components of the regular mid‐day meal routine. The two components were having an adult seated at the table with the children and allowing children to serve their own food. Child language was more affected by withdrawal of the two components than was amount of food eaten. Withdrawal of the seated adult had a more powerful effect in reducing child language, than did withdrawal of self‐serving of food. Amount eaten was reduced only when both components were withdrawn simultaneously. Findings were discussed in terms of the implications of setting events for theory and practice of applied behaviour analysis.     

Teachers’ literacy-related knowledge and self-perceptions in relation to preparation and experience

After rating their own literacy-related knowledge in three areas (knowledge about reading/reading development, phonemic awareness/phonics, and morpheme awareness/structural analysis), graduate teacher-education students completed five tasks intended to measure their actual disciplinary knowledge in these areas. Teachers with high levels of prior background (i.e., course preparation and experience) rated themselves as significantly more knowledgeable than did low-background teachers in all areas; high-background participants also significantly outperformed low-background participants on all tasks. However, even high-background teachers scored well below ceiling on the tasks. Regression analyses indicated that teachers’ self-perceptions and knowledge were positively influenced by both level of preparation and teaching experience, although the influences on teachers’ knowledge differed by task. Teachers had some accurate perceptions of their own knowledge, especially in the area of phonics. Results suggest that differentiating levels of preparation may be useful in studying teacher knowledge, and also support the notion of a substantial gap between research on reading and teacher preparation in reading.     

Trust Your Own Observations: Assessment of reader and tutor behaviour in learning to read in English and M # ori

In our previous article, we reported on a research project designed to improve the attending, reading, and writing behaviour of nine older low-achieving children in a special class in an urban primary school. We attempted operational definitions of important reader and tutor behaviours that occur during one-to-one oral reading, and we applied direct observational principles to coding and recording their occurrence from transcribed tapes of children's regular reading with their teacher. This provided data that served to monitor short-term and long-term change in both child and tutor (teacher) behaviour during oral reading interactions. In the present paper, we describe how these direct observational principles have contributed to the development of assessment and tutoring strategies for both adults and peers in the English language Pause Prompt Praise and the M # ori language Tatari Tautoko Tauawhi reading tutoring programs. The assessment strategies generated from observations of reader and tutor interaction around written texts have provided strong support for students learning to read in both English medium and M # ori medium contexts. They have also served as powerful components of successful professional development programs for teachers.