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.     

Open learning for continuing education

The two concepts ‐ open learning and continuing education ‐ have recently come to exert a growing influence on educational provision in the United Kingdom. In this article, Malcolm Tight, Director of the Birkbeck Centre for Research and Development in Part‐time Higher Education, considers the interpretation of these concepts and the links between them, both in theory and in practice.     

Analysing attempts to support outdoor learning in Scottish schools

The new ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ in Scotland outlines a policy vision of a more integrated and holistic form of education; a commitment which offers considerable prospects for increased levels of outdoor learning in schools. With reference to Fullan’s theorizing on achieving educational change, this study investigated four main implementation areas, namely: policy aims, partnerships arrangements, and associated professionalism and sustainability issues. Evidence was collected through a series of 16 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders at national, local authority, and school level. Despite increased agreement on aims, it was found that improving the frequency and quality of outdoor learning in schools was adversely influenced by the patchwork nature of partnership support at national and local authority levels. This has curtailed the prioritizing of outdoor learning in schools and of teachers being supported when trying to make use of their increased curriculum decision-making responsibilities. Thus, only limited evidence was found of policy-related innovation and considerable evidence of policy stasis. As such, building national capacity is proving difficult. It is concluded that further research on how some atypical schools have managed to develop their programmes offers the best prospects for understanding the complexities of achieving greater levels of outdoor learning.     

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

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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.     

Salvation for the fittest? A West African sportsman in Britain in the age of the new imperialism

This paper addresses issues raised in Paul Ward's essay ‘Last man picked’, focusing on methodological and discipline-refining questions to call for a more open dialogue between sports historians and others in the discipline. The argument includes a call on the wider discipline to both recognise the need for and participation in sub-discipline specific debates.     

Promoting perseverance and challenge in physical education: the missing ingredient for improved games teaching

This paper explores critical notions about how improved understandings of students learning experiences within practical learning environments could sensitise teachers to appreciate the complex influences more that affect how levels of challenge and perseverance are constructed by students. The authors, in furthering their critique, build on the model of constructivism developed by Ollis and Sproule. This model attempted in embryonic terms to recognise the specific situational factors that most influenced the minded ways in which students identified and responded to learning challenges. In refining these ideas further the authors specifically consider how teaching games for understanding (TGfU) methodologies could be enhanced by recognising the meta-cognitions of students when constructing rich task led learning episodes. In conclusion, it is posited that comprehending the complexity of learning theory holds considerable promise for the ongoing development of physical education as a valuable and integral part of the school learning experience.     

Thorns on My Tongue

How might we bear witness to the fluidity and fragility of identity work that takes place during classroom discussion? How do teachers and pupils play with the personal politics of positioning during our everyday interactions? The piece that follows is written as a story almost entirely in everyday dialogue. It takes a methodological turn towards narrative imagining in order to develop an approach that explores the performance of projected, received and contested identity positions during an English lesson. A brief discussion of some of the issues raised and of what informed the process of writing serves as an epilogue to the story.