Family Structure and Psychosocial Correlates among Urban African-American Adolescent Males

Substance use and delinquency, psychological well-being, and social support were compared across 5 family constellations among 254 urban African-American adolescent males. Single-mother, stepparent, both parents, mother with extended family, and extended family only households were studied. The only differences found were that youth living in single-mother households reported more parental support than other youth. Relationships with father and male role models were also studied and related to several psychosocial outcomes. The results challenge the assumptions that single African-American mothers are alone in providing support to their sons and that fathers' absence results in no significant relationship.     

Academic-industry liaison in the United Kingdom: economic perspectives

In recent years, higher educational institutions (HEIs) have been under increasing pressure to liaise more closely with industry. This paper draws on some relevant areas of economic theory to analyse the relationship between HEIs and industrial organisations. The nature of the benefits from liaison is examined, and the implications for financing liaison activities are considered. It is argued that liaison can frequently strengthen the traditional functions of HEIs by contributing to teaching and research. However, there is justification for the fears of many academics that in practice the outcome of closer industrial involvement may be to weaken these functions. Such undesirable outcomes reflect the weaknesses of the internal organisation of HEIs; in particular, the scope for opportunistic behaviour provided by the incompleteness of the academic contract, and the informational disadvantages suffered by senior management. In the light of these arguments, the final section considers alternative systems for organising liaison, drawing on examples from the United Kingdom. The criteria for assessment are concerned with the likely effectiveness of the systems in reducing the costs of both facilitating and policing liaison activities.     

Women in Engineering in the Netherlands

This paper discusses the situation of women who study engineering in the Netherlands. Quantitative data expressing the underrepresentation of women in engineering is presented against the background of some characteristics of the Dutch society. Next we consider the position of the women who did enter a technical university. Their drop-out rates are compared with those of men. Drawing on the results of our qualitative interviews, we sketch a picture of factors and processes which influence the course of their study. It is argued that the social intergration of women affects the way they deal with the two dominant questions ‘can I do it’ and ‘do I want this’.     

Machines as readers： A solution to the copyright problem

INTRODUCTION Everyone associated with digital libraries, and especially participants in the joint China-India-USA Million Book Project, assumes that it will be benefi- cial to mankind to digitize all the works ever pub- lished and make them available over the Internet, whether for fee or otherwise. However, it is difficult to find a clear printed agenda explaining how society will be enriched aside from the obvious advantages of preservation, indexing and efficient digital distribu- ti…     

The transition to college: Diverse students,diverse stories

While much is known about the role of student involvement in various dimensions of student change and development, considerably less is known abouthow students become involved as they make the transition from work or high school to college. This paper describes the results of a series of focus-group interviews with 132 diverse, new students entering a community college; a liberal arts college; an urban, commuter, comprehensive university; and a large research university. The study identifies the people, experiences, and themes in the processes through which students become (or fail to become) members of the academic and social communities on their campus. The research reported here was conducted under the auspices of the National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. NCTLA is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), under Grant No. R117G10037. The opinions herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of OERI, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Presented at the 1993 AIR Forum, Chicago, May 1993.     

Effects of a Reading Strategy Training Aimed at Improving Mental Simulation in Primary School Children

This study investigated the effects of a mental simulation training targeted at improving children’s reading comprehension. In a 4-week period, one group of third and fourth graders (n?=?75) learned to draw upon their sensorimotor memories and experiences to mentally simulate text (experimental training group), whereas another group (n?=?51) received the schools’ regular reading comprehension instructions (control training group). Pre-to-posttest differences in general reading comprehension, reading motivation, and mental simulation (distinguishing between perceptual and motor simulation) were examined to evaluate the trainings’ effectiveness. Compared to the control group, children who had received the mental simulation training showed improved performance on general reading comprehension (in Grade 3) and scored higher on reading motivation (in Grades 3 and 4). There were no performance differences between groups on the mental simulation measures. These findings indicate that it is beneficial for children to encourage and teach them to connect their sensorimotor experiences to the text they are reading.     

Constructing student portfolios: A process and product that fosters communication with families

When parents pick their children up from day care or preschool, one of the first questions that is typically asked of their child is “What did you do in school today?” At an open house parents usually ask teachers, “How is my child doing in your class?” “Is my child learning new things?” “Has my child improved any since the beginning of the school year, and in what ways?” Or think of the child who turns in a product and asks, “What do you think of this, Teacher?” or “Did you like my work today?”     

Professional concerns of beginning teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students

The professional concerns of beginning teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing were examined. Five first-year teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students served as participants. Two of the participants were itinerant teachers; three taught in self-contained classrooms. Participants were selected from programs serving deaf and hard of hearing students in rural and urban areas of the midwestern and southwestern United States. To interview the study participants, the researcher used an in-depth phenomenological method employing semi-structured questions and guided by a constructivist paradigm. Data were analyzed using qualitative analysis strategies (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992; Miles & Huberman, 1994). Results showed that concerns of beginning teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students are specific to service delivery models and geography. Participants provided specific recommendations for addressing the concerns of beginning teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students.