Education as Service: The Understanding of University Experience Through the Service Logic

With the marketization of UK higher education, this paper develops a framework from services marketing that can assist universities in understanding what market orientation means and how students would value their offerings. Our study shows that the core service in a university experience is a learning experience that is cocreated and that the value is emergent, unstructured, interactive, uncertain, with a hedonic dimension. Our paper modifies the gap model of service quality to show that an ideological gap exists that may also impede the quality of the university experience. We propose that a one-sided expectation by students leads to student consumerism and disengagement. Paradoxically, we show that a true student-orientated marketing puts the university ideology at the center of marketing efforts and that marketing may well be an effective tool to communicate such ideologies.     

Family and coordination issues in the preparation of service providers working with children with hearing impairment: the case of Cyprus

This paper explores the pre‐ and in‐service preparation of service providers on family and inter‐professional coordination issues. It particularly looks at the service providers affiliated with seven occupation groups and who work with 48 children with hearing impairment in a specific geographical region of Cyprus. The research study from which this paper draws data was conducted in 2001–3 and aimed at describing the model of coordination that exists in service provision for children with hearing impairment in Cyprus, and specifically, after the enactment of numerous pieces of legislation in accordance with European Union proposals. Data were collected through a questionnaire that was sent to service providers and included both closed‐ and open‐ended questions. First, the emphasis that is given to family and coordination issues over past years, and the subsequent slow response of the pre‐ and in‐service training programmes is discussed. The specific obstacles that are associated with the national context in which this study took place are highlighted. Finally, the study findings related to personnel preparation are presented, as well as the implications of these on the service provision system in Cyprus. Results indicate that there is a great lack of knowledge and skills regarding family issues, and a greater lack of knowledge and skills as regards coordination. The study further indicates that there is some variability among the seven occupational groups presented, and reveals that in‐service training has failed to address these issues.     

Gender Segregation Within Different Educational Levels: Austrian and Finnish Trends in the Light of Educational Reform, 1981–2005

Within most educational systems, men and women tend to specialize in different fields of study. Comparing Austria and Finland, this article traces the extent and patterns of gender segregation within different educational levels between 1981 and 2005. Relying on official enrollment figures, a logarithmic index is used to measure overall and field-specific gender segregation. Although results indicate that higher educational levels are less severely differentiated into male- and female-typical fields, notable differences exist between sectors of higher education. Reforms which shifted vocational programs to a higher educational level were often accompanied by desegregation tendencies in the affected fields. Nevertheless, this increase in educational prestige seems to have made female-dominated fields only to a limited extent more attractive to male students.     

Aims of speech training in the junior college

RHETORICAND PHILOSOPHY. Edited by Richard A. Cherwitz. Foreword by Henry W. Johnston, Jr. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990; pp. xix + 314; $36.00.

POLITICS AND CULTURE: WORKING HYPOTHESES FOR A POST‐REVOLUTIONARY SOCIETY. By Michael Ryan. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989; pp. 250. $28.95.

THE ORIGINS OF RHETORIC IN CLASSICAL GREECE. By Thomas Cole. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991; pp. x + 192. $29.95.

THE VOX DEI: COMMUNICATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES. By Sophia Menache. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; pp. 353. $39.95.

THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF JOHN WITHERSPOON. Edited by Thomas Miller. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990; pp. viii + 318. $29.95.

HENRY WARD BEECHER: PERIPATETIC PREACHER. By Haiford R. Ryan, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1990; pp. x + 179. $39.95

GUERRILLA PRINCE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF FIDEL CASTRO. By Georgie Anne Geyer. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1991. pp. ix‐445. $22.95.

RHETORICAL STUDIES OF NATIONAL POLITICAL DEBATES. Edited by Robert V. Friedenberg. Series Foreword by Robert E. Dentón, Jr. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1990; pp. xiii + 223. $42.95.

ARGUMENTATION THEORY AND THE RHETORIC OF ASSENT. Edited by David Cratis Williams and Michael David Hazen. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990; pp. v + 230. $32.95.

CULTURAL LEGACIES OF VIETNAM: USES OF THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. Edited by Richard Morris and Peter Ehrenhaus. Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1990; pp. ix + 238. $42.50; paper $24.95.

POPULAR TRIALS: RHETORIC, MASS MEDIA, AND THE LAW. Edited by Robert Hariman. Tuscalloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1990; pp. vii + 268. $32.95.

AMERICAN EVANGELICALS AND THE MASS MEDIA. Edited by Quentin J. Schultze. Grand Rapids: Academie/Zondervan, 1990; pp. 382, $15.95.

TELEVISION STUDIES: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS. Edited by Gary Burns and Robert J. Thompson. New York: Praeger, 1989; pp. 260. $39.95.

MAKING MEANING: INFERENCE AND RHETORIC IN THE INTERPRETATION OF CINEMA. By David Bordwell. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989; pp. xvi + 334. $32.50; paper $14.95.

BASS &; STOGDILL'S HANDBOOK OF LEADERSHIP: THEORY, RESEARCH &; MANAGERIAL APPLICATIONS. By Bernard M. Bass. 3rd ed. New York. Free Press, 1990; pp. xviii + 1182. $75.00.

DISCORDANT HARMONIES: A NEW ECOLOGY FOR THE TWENTY‐FIRST CENTURY, by Daniel B. Botkin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; pp. xii + 241. $19.95.

CONVERSATIONAL COMPETENCE AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT. By Ioanna Dimitracopoulou. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990; xi + 167. $44.50.

TALKING POWER: THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE IN OUR LIVES. By Robin Tolmach Lakoff. New York: Basic Books, 1990; pp. xii + 324. $22.95.

RHETORIC AND CIVILITY: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, NARCISSISM, AND THE GOOD AUDIENCE. By Harold Barrett. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991. pp. xi + 202. $39.50; Paper $12.95.

RHETORIC IN AN ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIETY: MANAGING MULTIPLE IDENTITIES. By George Cheney. Foreword by Carroll C. Arnold. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1991; pp. xi +202. $29.95.     

Addressing institutional potential loss of records and knowledge in Africa: The case of the ECA institutional repository – A knowledge base on African socio-economic development

In its 50 years of existence, the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa (UNECA) has created and holds a vast quantity of information and knowledge in a variety of formats, including printed and electronic. These represent the corporate memory, providing historical evidence of its actions and decisions. The information resources include published materials such as flagship publications, journal articles, conference proceedings, technical reports, mission reports, annual reports, working papers, policy briefs, speeches and other grey literature, all which outline important research or decisions that have been made on the economic and social development in Africa. In 2009 the Library was awarded seed funding to implement the ECA Institutional Repository (IR). This paper discusses the various activities that have been undertaken to realize the project including; highly customized Dspace installation to support the MARC21 metadata, digitization, migration of metadata from the Library Integrated Management System (HORIZON) and, customization of the Dspace workflow to enable review of imported records. The paper also highlights lessons learnt, challenges and some of the best practices developed throughout the implementation and roll out of the ECA IR project. The Institutional Repository at http://repository.uneca.org/ is the first of its kind within the United Nations Secretariat and offers unique knowledge and information not available elsewhere pertaining to regional programmes, decisions and resolutions promoting social and economic development of Africa.     

Preparing novice principals in Australia and Turkey: How similar are their needs?

Part of a 13-nation, cross-cultural study of the extent to which principals perceive their pre-appointment experiences had prepared them for the job, the International Study of Principal Preparation (ISPP), this paper compares the responses of novice principals in Turkey and Western Australia. Using a survey based on data from case studies of principals in their first 3 years, the views of 50 Western Australian and 60 Turkish principals were examined in terms of the difficulty of the problems they faced and the extent to which they felt prepared for these problems. Responses were analysed by sex, qualification, age at appointment, school size, and school location. Respondents from both countries found that managing the budget and achieving work/life balance presented challenges for them while working with parents and acquiring adequate resources were not challenging. For Turkish respondents, building positive relationships with staff was more challenging than it was for the Australian respondents. Surprisingly respondents felt well prepared for the tasks they faced, with Australians, females, principals of small schools in rural and remote locations reporting significantly more positive views about their preparation than their counterparts.     

Spelling! Developing a Good Foundation

This articie is a brief response to an article on spelling by David Waugh which appeared in Vol. 29(2). The authors argue that the Letterland system can be of great benefit in approaching spelling.     

Verträge an Universitäten und deren Besonderheiten

Die Universität benötigt zur Umsetzung ihrer hoheitlichen und privatwirtschaftlichen Aufgaben und Ziele eine Vielzahl vertraglicher Vereinbarungen. In diesem Beitrag werden beispielhaft gewählte Vereinbarungen und einige wesentliche vertragliche Regelungen im Folgenden dargestellt und sollen als Praxisanregung bei der Vertragsgestaltung mit der Universität dienen.     

Willingness to pay and experienced utility as measures of affective value of information objects: Users’ accounts

The article discusses two instant measures of affective value of information objects: Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) and Experienced Utility (EU). The potential utility of these measures for information retrieval research is positioned within a broader discussion of distinctions between instant utility and remembered utility and their relationship to immediate as opposed to retrospective subjective evaluations. The paper describes an approach for obtaining instant WTP and EU ratings in document evaluation in contexts of information search and thereafter reports results from a usability study of its implementation. Participants encountered no difficulties in use of the design format and in rating documents using WTP and EU measures. Although two measures were found statistically significantly correlated with each other, participants in the usability study offered different reasons for the ratings of WTP and EU made for the same document.