CONVERSATIONS WITH…: Environmental Educators A Conversation With Rick Wilke

Abstract

The Independent Commission on Environmental Education, a panel of scientists, economists, and educators, reviewed some 100 K-12 environmental education teaching materials used in America's classrooms. Its report has received considerable attention. This essay discusses the commission's formation, goals, findings, and recommendations, with special emphasis on areas within the report that have been a source of discussion within the environmental education field.     

What are Students Being Taught about Ethics in Public Speaking Textbooks?

Current conceptions of communication and ethics were investigated in the top ten public speaking textbooks in the communication discipline. Content analysis was used to examine eight ethical topic areas within each textbook. Results indicate the textbooks by Lucas, Jaffe, Beebe and Beebe, and Brydon and Scott provide the most overall coverage to ethics. In addition, plagiarism, ethnical listening, honesty, and ethical research are discussed most frequently while freedom of speech, hate words, and codes of ethics are least discussed among the top ten selling public speaking books. Each author references different philosophers, defines ethics, and describes the consequences of cheating in diverse ways. The implications of how ethics is not given the same amount of space in the top ten best-selling public speaking textbooks are discussed.     

Identifying exemplary science teachers through their students’ perceptions of the assessment process

This paper reports on part of a large‐scale study aimed at examining students’ perceptions of assessment. This paper will report on a study utilising mixed methodology in 150 Australian middle school classrooms. The purpose of the study described in this paper was to use the Students’ Perceptions of Assessment Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (SPAQ) to identify and describe exemplary science teachers. With a sample of over 3000 science students, the reliability of the SPAQ scales ranged from 0.62 to 0.82. The exemplary teachers were identified as those whose students’ perceptions were more than one standard deviation above the mean on three of the five scales of Congruence with planned learning, Transparency, Authenticity, Student consultation, and Diversity. The construct validity of the SPAQ to identify these exemplary teachers was confirmed through interviews with students and these views are reported in the article.     

Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity During the War on Terror

VALUES AT WORK: EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION MEETS MARKET PRESSURE AT MONDRAGÓN. By George Cheney. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999; pp. xviii+190. $35.00.

THE HERO AND THE PERENNIAL JOURNEY HOME IN AMERICAN FILMS. By Susan Mackey‐Kallis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001; pp. 248. $24.95.

JOYOUS GREETINGS: THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S MOVEMENT 1830–1860. By Bonnie S. Anderson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000; pp. xii + 288. $ 15.95

STANDING ON THE PREMISES OF GOD: THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT'S FIGHT TO REDEFINE AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS. By Fritz Detwiler. New York: New York University Press, 1999; pp. 235. $35.00     

Short Reports

Government legislation over two decades has brought about major changes in the management and governance of schools. School governing bodies have been awarded far more power and influence than ever before and are now required to make important decisions affecting the quality of education provision for the nation's children. With an estimated 60,000 governors assuming their responsibilities for the very first time, questions about their preparedness for such a substantial task are bound to be asked. The significance of training for governors has increased as the extent of governing body responsibilities has expanded. Whereas the importance of training was recognized by the 1986 Education Act which gave the local education authority a statutory duty to provide the training it thinks necessary for governors to carry out their duties effectively, it remains optional. This small‐scale research project set out to investigate the induction needs of governors newly appointed to a local authority's schools. The project, undertaken in the autumn term 1996 and spring term 1997, made use of two different but complementary research tools. The first was a questionnaire survey of 314 new governors which attracted a response rate of just over 65 per cent. In addition, follow‐up telephone interviews were conducted with a small sample in order to gather extended responses to those given in the questionnaires. The research concluded that the new governors surveyed: ? had received little or no formal training for their role as school governors

? identified as their future training needs the following topics: roles and responsibilities of governors; local management of schools (LMS); and recruitment and selection procedures

? identified the need for a comprehensive programme of induction made up of a combination of centrally run and school‐based courses, briefings, information and guidance materials, videos, helplines and updates.

     

Sport event innovativeness: Conceptualization,measurement, and its impact on consumer behavior

Although scholars have had a long-standing interest in product innovation based on technological development, limited attention has been devoted to the study of the innovation of sport event experiences. Two quantitative studies, from the consumer's perspective, were completed to validate the proposed conceptualization of sport event innovativeness composed of six dimensions (player performance, respectful access, self-service technology, aesthetic environment, fan community, and loyalty program), and to examine the hypothesized relationships impacting consumer behavior. Including the dimensions of player performance, fan community, and loyalty program, extends previous research that has focused primarily on technology and process-based innovations. The results indicate the effects of the six dimensions on overall innovativeness are contingent on a consumer's age. The ideas merit further research with respect to formulating an explanation of what factors contribute most to connecting consumers to sport organizations through innovative sport event experiences.