Becoming a Reflective Practitioner in the Age of Accountability

Drawing on Zeichner's levels of reflection (Liston and Zeichner 1996 Liston, D. and Zeichner, K. 1996. Reflective teaching: An introduction, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc..  [Google Scholar]), this study uses a fine-grain analysis of portfolio entries to describe the reflective practice of a cohort of preservice secondary education teachers as they student teach, participate in a student teaching seminar, and prepare the Vermont Licensure Portfolio. The paper raises questions about the tension between satisfying state mandates while facilitating critical reflection among preservice teachers and recommends a broader curriculum for teacher education programs to further develop preservice teachers' critical reflection.     

PREPARING THE EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIST

The author describes the course for the Diploma in Applied Educational Technology at the University of York. with particular reference to the programme of practical attachments and visits.     

Toward a Developmental Counseling Curriculum

Extensive attention has been given by ACES and AACD to the unique role of the counseling profession. It is suggested that the definition of the profession lies in the association name: American Association for Counseling and Development. Counselors must integrate developmental theory systematically into the practice of counseling. Several alternative developmental models are summarized in this article, along with their implications for the future. Special attention is given to the soul of counseling, which is defined as a professional commitment to development. Counseling is not psychology, it is a specialized profession with a unique role in society.     

Strategies for Elevating the Public and Professional Regard of the Ed.D.

A nationwide strategy for improving Ed.D. programs is needed to overcome two important dilemmas that are typical in schools of education: low academic status for Ed.D. programs and an overreliance on tuition as a source of revenue. Other major hindrances are the lack of agreement about research-based standards, a weak alignment with other elements of educational reform, and fuzzy accreditation standards. The authors then discuss two broad strategies for reversing the downward spiral in educational leadership programs: a compact among elite schools of education to improve their Ed.D. programs and a National Academy of Educational Leadership. For both strategies, the authors explore lessons from a range of analogies drawn frome experience both in the United States and internationally.     

Infants' attentional responses to frequency modulated sweeps

In 3 experiments, the attentional responses of 4-month-old infants to frequency-modulated (FM) sweeps corresponding to the frequency range of adult-to-infant and adult-to-adult intonation patterns were assessed. In Experiment 1, infants were observed to discriminate "exaggerated" (i.e., adult-to-infant) FM sweeps from "normal" (i.e., adult-to-adult) FM sweeps in a habituation-dishabituation paradigm but did not selectively attend to one over the other. In Experiment 2, where the same stimuli were used in a paired-comparison paradigm, again no differential attention was observed. In Experiment 3, the most exaggerated sweep was paired against a continuous, monotonic pure tone, but again no difference in salience was observed. These data suggest that the extent of modulation or intonation of an auditory stimulus per se does not constitute a salient cue for infants' attention to sound.