Reasoning About the Scope of Religious Norms: Evidence From Hindu and Muslim Children in India

Conflicts arise when members of one religion apply their norms to members of another religion. Two studies explored how one hundred 9- to 15-year-old Hindu and Muslim children from India reason about the scope of religious norms. Both Hindus and Muslims from a diverse Hindu–Muslim school (Study 1) and Hindus from a homogeneous Hindu school (Study 2) more often judged it wrong for Hindus to violate Hindu norms, compared to Muslim norms, and said the opposite for Muslims. In contrast, children judged it wrong for both Hindus and Muslims to harm others. Thus, even in a setting marred by religious conflict, children can restrict the scope of a religion's norms to members of that religion, providing a basis for peaceful coexistence.     

A bibliometric analysis of the clinical development of drugs in Norway for the year 2000

Purpose: Bibliometric analysis of publications was used to investigate the research output relating to the development of drugs in Norway and to evaluate the impact of Norwegian involvement in this research. Material and methods: One hundred and nine articles published between 2002 and 2008 were analysed. Bibliometric methods used were as follows: information on peer review, impact factor (IF), the Science Citation Index (SCI) and the representation of Norwegians in the list of authors. Results: All publications were in journals with peer review or in publications with corresponding evaluation. Industrial support, international research cooperation and drug development in phases I, II and III seem to promote publication in journals with high IF and a high SCI. In 63% of the international project articles, the Norwegian contributors were not represented in the list of authors. Conclusion: In addition to a scientific standard secured by referees, three probably independent factors – industrial support, international cooperation and early phases of the research (phases I, II and III) – seem to promote publications in journals with high IF and a high SCI. A more active Norwegian contribution to the research should be encouraged.     

Preparing the educational interpreter. A survey of sign language interpreter training programs

Despite rapid growth in the field of educational interpreting little is known about the formal training of educational interpreters. This gap in the research is the focus of this study. A questionnaire was sent to the directors of 50 interpreter training programs nationwide asking for information about their course work in educational interpreting and related areas; instruction in signed English systems; and the directors' opinions on certain ethical and professional questions facing the educational interpreter. The results suggest that graduates of interpreter training programs who obtain employment as public school interpreters are not adequately prepared. Training programs provide few courses on the education of deaf children, on the language systems used, and on issues specific to classroom interpreting. The directors of these programs overwhelmingly support the development of guidelines on the educational interpreter's role. They show some support for the "interpreter as tutor" role but are equivocal about the development of a special certification for educational interpreters.     

Analysing Cognitive Learning Processes through Group Interviews of Successful High School Pupils: Development and Use of a Model

The focus is on the metacognitive awareness of ten high-achieving high school pupils in mathematics in Denmark and England and their understanding of their cognitive learning processes and strategies. Mainly unstructured focus group interviews investigate how they explain that they learn a mathematical concept that is new to them. I develop the ‘CULTIS model for analysis’ (Consciousness, Unconsciousness, Language, Tacit, Individual, Social), which consists of six themes in which various psychological theories of learning are expressed. The model uses the theories of Ernest, von Glasersfeld, Hadamard, Krutetskii, Mason, Piaget, Polya, Sfard, Skemp, and Vygotsky. The model is used to sort the pupils' explanations and it also functions as a tool with which to compare the pupils' explanations with the various theories. I conclude that the pupils can talk about their learning in their own words and each pupil refers to elements that the researcher associates with different theories. Half the pupils furthermore explain that how they are used to learning, or being taught, influences how they later on are able to learn. I also discuss metacognition and whether this can be an aid to enhance learning.     

A Critical Mapping of Practice‐Based Research as Evidenced by Swedish Architectural Theses

This article presents an investigation that was funded by the Swedish Institute into the role of creative practice in architectural research as evidenced in Swedish doctoral theses. The sample was mapped and analysed in terms of clusters of interest, approaches, cultures of knowledge and uses of creative practice. This allowed the identification of the ontological, epistemological and methodological attitudes of the researchers, and hence a glimpse of their implicit worldview. The authors claim that the relationship between worldview and research actions in emerging areas of research such as architecture is often under‐scrutinised, resulting in a disjunction between aims and strategies for action. Architectural research in which creative practices make an essential contribution to the aims, might represent something new in academic research. The investigators therefore focused on identifying cases in which creative practice was – or was claimed to be – integrated in an essential way into the research process. There were two principal conclusions. The first was that the mere presence of practice was not necessarily an indicator of so‐called arts‐based research. The second was that cases of arts‐based research that could be regarded as a new paradigm – as opposed to a variant of existing paradigms – are less common than is claimed by the researchers themselves. As a result, this article makes a contribution to the debate on whether so‐called practice‐based research should be regarded as a distinct new paradigm.     

Production Methods

Nathan J. Sambul, ed., THE HANDBOOK OF PRIVATE TELEVISION: A COMPLETE GUIDE FOR VIDEO FACILITIES AND NETWORKS WITHIN CORPORATIONS, NON-PROFIT INSTITUTIONS AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1982---$64.95)

Mark Beach, EDITING YOUR NEWSLETTER: A GUIDE TO WRITING, DESIGN, AND PRODUCTION (Coast-to-Coast Books, 2934 N.E. 16th Avenue, Portland, Oregon, 97212---$9.95 plus $1.50 packing and postage, paper)

Charles J. Sippl and Fred Dahl VIDEO/COMPUTERS: HOW TO SELECT, MIX, AND OPERATE PERSONAL COMPUTERS AND HOME VIDEO SYSTEMS (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1981--- $15.95)

Daniel E. Garvey and William L. Rivers BROADCAST WRITING (New York: Longman, 1982---$13.95, paper)

Garvey and Rivers BROADCAST WRITING HANDBOOK ($10.95, paper)

Courtland L. Bove and William F. Arens CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING (Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, 1982---$26.95)     

Relationships between learning approach,procrastination and academic achievement amongst first-year university students

Individual differences in student learning influence academic performance, and two aspects influencing the learning process are the particular learning approach the students use and procrastination behaviour. We examined the relationships between learning approaches, procrastination and academic achievement (measured 1 year later as the grade point average (GPA)) amongst 428 first-year university students. Deep and strategic learning approaches positively predicted GPA, and a mediation analysis showed that the strategic learning approach also partly mediated the effect between deep learning approach and GPA. Less procrastination was associated with a strategic learning approach, but procrastination tendencies did not predict GPA. Recommendations are made for educating new students in cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, helping reduce their procrastination and facilitating the use of deep and strategic learning approaches.     

Lifelong learning from natural disasters: transformative group-based learning at Philippine universities

This study explores reflective experience during transformative, group-based learning among university leaders following a natural disaster such as a typhoon in two Philippine universities. Natural disasters are recurrent phenomena in many parts of the world, but the literature largely ignores their impact on lifelong human learning, for instance regarding preparing the university setting for future natural disasters. The study used interviews and document analysis, drawing on a body of interrelated works in transformative learning theory, critical educational theory and conceptions about group processes and reflective practice to understand university leaders’ lifelong learning from natural disasters as experiential, transformative, reflective and group oriented. The findings document that university leaders’ reflective, transformative learning depends on individuals’ experience of natural disasters as disorienting dilemmas, and that reflection is facilitated by decisive group dynamics rather than only personal reflection. Facilitating a learning space for transformative, reflective learning in university settings might assist university leaders to enhance disaster risk preparedness, for instance through local policy change.