Communications Research

Thomas F. Gordon and Mary Ellen Verna Mass Communication Effects and Processes: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1950-1975 (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1978—$15.00),

Charles Winick, Deviance and Mass Media (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1979—$18.50/8.95),

Mail and Telephone Surveys: The Total Design Method by Don A. Dillman (New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1979—$19.95)

Fundamental Statistics in Psychology and Education by J.P. Guilford and Benjamin Fruchter (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979—$16.00)

Jane T. Bertrand Communications Pretesting (Chicago: University of Chicago Community and Family Study Center, 1978—$3.50, paper)

Gary Gumpert and Robert Cathcart, Inter/Media: Interpersonal Communication in a Media World ( New York: Oxford University Press, 1979—$S.95, paper)     

A distance education contribution to a social strategy to combat poverty: Open University Community Education courses in Glasgow

Attacking widespread under‐education with limited resources in the scattered, oppressed adult population of South Africa is a formidable challenge. One way of meeting this challenge could be to develop adults’ critical thinking skills, using their own experience as their main educational resource. Experiential learning technology, facilitated from a distance, could provide a means of achieving this aim. Research carried out at a conference on experiential learning at Natal University, Durban, provided an opportunity to assess the viability, desirability and usefulness of this educational method and aim. Participants’ responses indicate that the method is promising, although further experiment and development are necessary, particularly with different groups.

Three issues are discussed in this paper: the nature of the South African educational context, the promotion of critical thinking skills as an adult education aim, and the potential of employing experiential learning technology, facilitated from a distance, as a method of developing critical thinking skills.     

Relational agency and teacher development: a CHAT analysis of a collaborative professional inquiry project with biology teachers

Teacher quality largely determines student outcomes and many argue for high quality teacher training and professional development (PD). Much PD has been heavily critiqued and what constitutes effective provision for teachers remains contested. Disenfranchisement of teachers, through neglect of prior expertise and failure to acknowledge teachers’ working contexts, some argue, are to blame. A PD project with five biology teachers and a teacher educator, grounded within a cultural, historical activity theoretical (CHAT) tradition, was initiated to address these shortcomings. Edwards’ concept of relational agency was employed to investigate and interpret teacher collaboration. Teachers’ perceptions about the project were gathered using free-response questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, with the data being analysed using a CHAT framework. The positive impact on teacher practice reported here was related to having opportunities to own and be responsible for one’s own and others’ development, exploiting the distributed expertise available and supporting collaborative work.     

Puppets Promoting Engagement and Talk in Science

Research into classroom interactions has shown that talk that promotes reasoning can help children in their learning of science. Such talk can only be generated when teachers are willing to take a dialogic approach that is stimulating and provides opportunities for children to articulate their ideas. This research set out to determine whether the use of large puppets would help teachers to change the nature of their whole class discourse to enhance children’s talk and engagement in science. The study was carried out with sixteen teachers of children aged 7–11 years in schools in London and Manchester, UK. Through adopting a mixture of research methods, including classroom observation and teacher and child interviews, the research provides evidence that the use of puppets significantly increases the amount of teacher discourse oriented towards reasoning and argument, and decreases the amount of talk that focuses on recall. Through the puppets, teachers also use more narrative to set the science in stimulating contexts, and encourage children in their contributions to whole class discussion. Interview data also show the positive effects of puppets on children’s motivation and engagement in science. The findings have led to further major funding for professional development in the use of puppets in the UK, and research into the reasons why the use of puppets is so effective.     

Challenging accepted wisdom: Looking at the gender and science education question through a different lens

This article reports on a research project designed to explore a group of women scientists' understandings of themselves and science. The project uses an unconventional methodology: - a mixture of conventional qualitative research methods and techniques developed for use in psychotherapy. Its preliminary results appear to contradict some of the assumptions on which much of past work on girls and science education is based. For example, we found that, for the women involved in this project, factors such as the presence in their lives of strong female role models and/or the use of 'girl-friendly' curriculum materials were not important in their decision to continue the study of science to university level. Other factors - some of which were quite unexpected - had a much greater effect. The article outlines the methodology of this project and some of its findings, and explores the implications of these findings for future work on the gender and science education question.     

Re‐presenting women and leadership: a methodological journey

Research on women's leadership has tended to focus upon detailed micro studies of individual women's identity formation or, alternatively, to conduct macro studies of its broader discursive constructions within society. Both approaches, although providing helpful understandings of the issues surrounding constructions of women's leadership, are inadequate. They fail to deal with the ongoing dilemma raised in both Cultural Studies and studies of discourse and identity, in relation to the negotiation of subjectivity and representation, that is, how broader societal discourses and media representations of women's leadership both inform, and are informed by, the lived experiences of individual women. In this article, a range of methodological approaches are outlined that were drawn upon in a study of a small group of senior women academics from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse origins. The authors examine how the women negotiated the frequent mismatch that arose between, on the one hand, societal discourses and media representations which often reproduced narrow and highly stereotypical accounts of women's leadership, and on the other hand, the individual women's subjective experiences of leadership which challenged such representations. It is contended that it is necessary to draw on a number of methodological perspectives in ways which trouble and unsettle homogenized versions of women's leadership in order to fully explicate more nuanced and complex ways of understanding how women's leadership identity is formed.     

The unreliable narrator,or the difference between writing prose in literature and in social science: A commentary on Tierney's article

Qualitative research methodologies comprise distinct traditions, each of which is based on its own assumptions and discrete methods for collecting, analyzing and reporting data. This paper examines a distinctive approach to qualitative research that was employed in a recent study to open a gateway to understanding the impact of the shootings at Columbine High School. Using the Columbine study as a model, it analyzes and delineates a process for collecting data through modified oral history practices, displaying data through stories using a specialized form of poetic representation, and disclosing results through strategies adapted from educational criticism and connoisseurship.     

Mapping Children’s Discussions of Evidence in Science to Assess Collaboration and Argumentation

The research reported in this paper concerns the development of children’s skills of interpreting and evaluating evidence in science. Previous studies have shown that school teaching often places limited emphasis on the development of these skills, which are necessary for children to engage in scientific debate and decision‐making. The research, undertaken in the United Kingdom, involved four collaborative decision‐making activities to stimulate group discussion, each carried out with five groups of four children (10–11 years old). The research shows how the children evaluated evidence for possible choices and judged whether their evidence was sufficient to support a particular conclusion or the rejection of alternative conclusions. A mapping technique was developed to analyse the discussions and identify different “levels” of argumentation. The authors conclude that suitable collaborative activities that focus on the discussion of evidence can be developed to exercise children’s ability to argue effectively in making decisions.     

How young children view mathematical representations: a study using eye-tracking technology

This paper reports on a study which investigated the support needs of pupils in mainstream school with a chronic illness or physical disability. The research was carried out in three local education authorities covering both rural and urban areas. In-depth, qualitative data were collected from 33 pupils in secondary school; 58 parents of primary and secondary school pupils; and 34 primary and secondary school teachers. Overall, the data from young people suggest variability in the support offered to pupils by teachers, even by teachers within the same school, and highlights the importance of teachers' awareness and understanding of special health needs. A number of areas where young people need support from teachers were identified, including: dealing with school absence; taking part in school activities; peer relationships; explaining the condition to other pupils; and having someone to talk to about health-related worries. Data from teachers and parents indicate that school staff need assistance with obtaining health-related information; ensuring health-related information is passed between and within schools; providing emotional support; the provision of medical care; and coordinating support for this group of pupils. The implications of the findings for teachers, schools and educational policy are discussed.