Speaking of books

Clinical Experiences in Teaching for the Student Teacher or Intern. Edgar M. Tanruther. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, Inc., 1967, 297 pp. Paper $4.50.

Education in a Free Society: An American History. S. Alexander Rippa. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1967. 369 pp. $3.75.

Education of the Disadvantaged. A. Harry Passow, Miriam Goldberg, and. Abraham J. Tannenbaum, editors. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1967. 497 pp. $7.95.

Programmed Teaching: A Symposium on Automation in Education. Revised edition. Joseph S. Roucek, editor. New York: Philosophical Library, 1965. x, 195 pp. $10.00.

The Friend of the Singing One, E. C. Foster and Slim Williams. Illustrated by Fermin Rocker. New York: Atheneum, 1967. 122 pp. $3.75.     

Changing views of teachers and teaching in Vietnam

In order for Vietnam to seek better international integration into an increasingly globalised world, the Vietnamese Government has launched educational reforms requiring teachers to adopt ‘Western’ constructivist pedagogies. This paper reports on an action research study in a Vietnamese teacher training institution which found that Vietnamese student teachers were willing to accommodate and accept change and were often very enthusiastic about the ‘Western ideas’ of teaching and learning, but that their unquestioning respect for the authority of their tutors remained firmly fixed. The data also showed that the students’ tutors had a relatively limited exposure to the ‘Western theories’ and their implications and therefore did not model or demonstrate the theories effectively. The paper draws on these findings to argue that the focus for transforming Vietnamese teachers’ practice should be on promoting the responsibility of teacher educators to introduce student teachers to new ideas about the processes of teaching and learning. This strategy is likely to be more supportive of student teachers’ development as it allows them to separate the processes of teaching from culturally dominant beliefs about roles which are part of their established identities.     

“Governing by templates” through new modes of school inspection in Norway

To date, few observational studies have addressed Scandinavian school inspectors in the field, specifically how inspectors use templates to monitor the formative assessment routines of schools and local school authorities. This paper investigates how the current inspection handbook is being adopted and enacted on the municipal level and the school level in Norwegian compulsory schools. Specifically, this study illuminates through observation two empirical examples of how one of the 17 County Governors’ Offices, as part of a larger study, conducted regular, state school inspection. Conceptually, the paper focuses on how inspection guides and steers though use of fixed templates. Analysis shows that inspectors and schools under scrutiny are struggling in combining the traditional focus on legal compliance with a more performative emphasis on formative assessment of students. In addition, the examples given highlight how combining field observation and the concept of “governing by templates” contributes to school inspection studies, in a dynamic policy context undergoing substantial change.     

PUBLISHING ABOUT AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER IN SIX SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY JOURNALS: 2002–2012

Recent years have seen a rise in the number of students identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with increasing estimates of prevalence still emerging from cohorts monitored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, dissemination to a school psychology audience about these students’ needs has been disparate, with publications being idiosyncratic in the extent to which certain areas have received focused and sustained attention and other areas receiving much less attention. A structured review of the literature examined the extent to which research on children and adolescents with ASD was published within school psychology journals from 2002 through 2012. Results indicate that published studies relating to ASD can be grouped in seven categories, with some being deeply investigated, whereas other topics have been minimally discussed within the field. The most surprising of these findings is the relative lack of publication on the development and psychometric properties of assessment tools used to evaluate students with ASD.     

Performance Indicators in Indonesian Universities: The Perception of Academics

This study aimed to explore the perceptions of Indonesian academics towards the implementation of Performance Indicators (PIs) on teaching and research. The study was a case study using semi‐structured interviews, conducted with 30 academics in three state universities in Indonesia. The results of the study revealed academics believed that outcome indicators used in PIs for control mechanisms have neglected the humane side of the teaching and learning process, and scientific research. Academics also perceived that PIs are valuable for improving daunting workplace conditions and poor institutional culture if they are used for the improvement of internal management. The findings of this study, if seriously considered, may provide information for policy makers to revisit and refine the existing indicators used to measure academics’ teaching and research performance. This can be implemented by taking into account the collegial nature, organised anarchy, of a bottom‐up approach that emphasises the emancipation of academics to determine what elements of their teaching and research should be covered and be measured. This research argues that indicators used for PIs can be a blend of quantitative and qualitative measures, which compensate for each other.     

Making sense in the city: Dolly Parton,early reading and educational policy‐making

In this paper, we present a case study of a philanthropic literacy initiative, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a book‐gifting scheme for under 5s, and consider the impact of the scheme on literacy policy in the English city where it was introduced. We bring four lenses to bear on the case study. First, we analyse the operation of the scheme in the community it was intended to serve; second, we consider the case study as an early literacy intervention aimed at promoting reading development; then we consider it from the perspective of theories about marketing and branding; and finally, we analyse it from the perspective of new philanthropy theory. We use these lenses to help us make sense of the current pressures on educational policy‐making in English cities, as city officials struggle to manage competing political agendas, to initiate reforms in situations where they have significant responsibilities but reduced power, and to maintain the distinctiveness of the places they represent. We argue for the need to reassess our understandings of the ways that literacy policies are made at the local level within this rapidly changing context.     

Being a Man,Being a Member: Masculinity and Community in Britain’s Working Men’s Clubs, 1945–1960*

By 1960, there were more than 3,500 working men’s clubs in Britain, with a combined membership of more than two million people. This article explores their post-war transformation from small homosocial enclaves for drinking and bar-games to larger family-oriented entertainment venues, while they continued to provide social, welfare and educational activities for local communities. Operating on the boundaries of public and private life, they remained alternative sites of domesticity to the home, in which men nurtured relations with both friends and family. Nevertheless, though women and children came to represent a significant presence in the clubs, their cultures remained largely patriarchal and discriminatory. I argue that working men’s clubs provided important sources of agency, community and continuity for their members, during a period of rapid social and cultural change.     

Perceptions of the Authenticity of Reality Programs and Their Relationships to Audience Involvement,Enjoyment, and Perceived Learning

This survey study investigated whether viewer perceptions of reality programs' authenticity were associated with involvement, enjoyment, and perceived learning. Four dimensions of perceived authenticity were identified: cast eccentricity, representativeness, candidness, and producer manipulation. Perceptions that the cast was not eccentric, that they were representative of people the respondents could meet, that they were behaving candidly, and that the producers were manipulating the show were associated with cognitive involvement. Cast representativeness was also positively associated with social involvement. Each form of involvement was associated with enjoyment. Perceptions of the cast members' representativeness, candidness, and lack of eccentricity were associated with perceived learning.