Jordanian and British Primary Schoolchildren's Attitudes Towards the Environment

The paper explores the important but neglected field of primary schoolchildren's attitudes towards the environment using a specifically designed scale in Arabic and English. It reports attitude differences towards the environment and three domains -- pollution, waste and animals and plants -- according to nationality and gender. Overall the findings show that environmental education programmes produce only slightly positive attitudes. Consideration is given to the further research required to enhance such programmes.     

Testable computer myths

Our attitude to computers is informed by what the author calls the Computer Literacy Credo: a pervasive belief that working with computers requires—and creates—a new type of human mind. But there is no empirical evidence for this belief. The Computer Literacy Credo is grounded not in fact, but in a millennarial hope typical of Western culture that one day we will be able to bridge the schism between reason and passion, between the abstract and the concrete, between science and art, between the artificial and the natural, between responsibility and freedom. Our faith in computers reflects a rather new version of this old dream, in that this time the schism is healed by technological means.     

Hidden treasure: successful international doctoral students who found and harnessed the hidden curriculum

This paper draws from an institutionally-funded phenomenological study of international PhD students’ academic acculturation, which focuses on the distinctive strengths, challenges, and hidden opportunities facing this cohort within the context of their transition from one academic culture to another. The first section introduces the theoretical base employed in the study and is then followed by exploring the conceptualisations of the hidden curriculum and its associated concepts: ‘the third space’ and ‘darkness in higher education’. Drawing upon our study findings, the second section illustrates practical exemplars of finding and harnessing the hidden curriculum. Without discounting the wide range of formal and informal institutional support provisions designed to facilitate international PhD students’ acculturation to a new academic setting, our study findings strongly endorse that students themselves have a crucial role to play in their complex transitional journey. Our study also offers a unique insight, i.e. if found, the hidden curriculum is an effective tool not only for international PhD students’ coping and survival but even more importantly, in thriving in new societal and academic contexts.     

Basic parameters of the static stability,loads and strength of the vital parts of a bucket wheel excavator’s slewing superstructure

Determining a bucket wheel excavator (BWE)’s slewing superstructure weight and its center of gravity (COG) is of extreme importance not only in the design phase, but also after the completion of the erection process and during the operation of the machine. This paper presents a critical comparative analysis of the basic parameters of the static stability of a BWE 1600 superstructure, with the parameters being obtained by both analytical and experimental procedures. The analysis shows that a relatively small difference in superstructure mass, obtained by calculation, leads to a relatively large unfavorable shifting of its COG, necessitating a significant increase in counterweight mass for balancing. A procedure for superstructure 3D model mass correction is presented based on results obtained by weighing after the completion of the erection process. The developed model provides enough accuracy to determine the superstructure’s COG in the entire domain of the bucket wheel boom inclination angle, and enables accurate load analysis of the superstructure’s vital parts. The importance of this analysis is reinforced by the finding that the procedure prescribed by standard DIN 22261-2 gives results which are not on the side of safety, as shown by an example of strength analysis of a bucket wheel boom stays’ end eyes.     

The Search for Solutions to Truancy and Other Forms of School Absenteeism

This article explores current thinking and practice on approaches to attendance and truancy in schools. The author argues that despite a wide and sometimes, innovative range of initiatives and approaches there is little evidence that attendance rates within a lot of individual schools are improving. He explores possible reasons for this and offers some ideas for consideration at a national level which might lead to even further and better practice within schools and, amongst the caring professions in order to reduce, combat and prevent truancy and other forms of non–attendance from their existing levels. He argues that this is a difficult and complex task but has some constructive recommendations to make for work at national and local level.     

Reviews of research on the attitude–behavior relationship and their implications for future environmental education research

Since the early days of the field, attitude–behavior (A–B) relationships have received sustained attention in the evaluation and researching of environmental education (EE). This level of interest extends beyond the field’s scope though, in part due to a certain reliance on theoretical and empirical assertions which claim that attitudes serve as a strong precursor and/or predictor of behavior. In this paper, we consider reviews of studies on the A–B relationship in EE and other fields that routinely challenge such assumptions, leading to the questioning of corresponding foci and commitments for research, evaluation, practice, and development. With key findings from these studies hand, we highlight several insights that may be useful for dispelling some of the folklore about what matters in, and what can be argued with, A–B studies, if we are to develop the design, conduct, reporting, and critique of studies and practices of EE reliant on such relationships.     

Improving satellite tutorials at the University of the South Pacific

Since 1974 the University of the South Pacific has been conducting tutorials using the medium of radio via the satellite ATS‐1. That experience is reviewed.

A series of case‐study tutorial recordings and a number of Flanders‐type interaction analyses in two different semesters have gathered information about tutor and student behaviour. Observations reveal that there has been less student participation than is desirable in tutorials. Student and tutor perceptions of satellite classes show that they are valued additions to the basic distant teaching elements which are delivered by post, and that student contribution to the tutorials is desired. Following interventions to improve the quality and effectiveness of the classes there are indications that desirable changes are taking place.     

Tempus I at the Technical University of Sofia: The Political Economy of Academic Survival

This study focusses on an investigation of the patterns of institutional change influenced by the TEMPUS I (European Community/European Union) assistance programme in Bulgaria during 1990‐1994, specifically at the Technical University of Sofia. The theoretical model of the research has used as its point of departure Burton Clark's concept (1983) of institutional relations and has examined the roles of state, government, market, and academic oligarchy in the dynamics of university administration and management during the transition period. The data collected demonstrate that the role of TEMPUS I JEP grants was a major factor in favour of change in the process of development and the implementation of new institutional policies and organizational structures. The study opens for discussion a number of issues related to the role and the policies of multinational funding agencies in a national university setting undergoing institutional change, forms of academic governance, and the conditions and requirements related to the implementation of market‐oriented approaches in academe.     

Motivation coaching training for instructional coaches: a pilot study of motivational interviewing skills training

In our paper we describe a newly developed teacher coaching model that provides training on motivational interviewing (MI) to improve instructional coaches’ effectiveness with classroom teachers. Participants were 38 coaches who completed a three-day coaching training. At pre- and post-test, the participants completed role plays with an actor who played the role of a new teacher. Then, these sessions were coded for MI-consistent behavior. The results of our study revealed that the majority of the coaching conversations were inconsistent with effective MI. At baseline, conversations were primarily characterized by questions (60%) followed by attempts to persuade without permission (20%). Following training, coaches did not change their conversational style. Because an MI-inconsistent conversation style is associated with decreased self-efficacy and motivation for change, the findings suggest a need to help coaches develop interactions that are more consistent with best practices of MI.