'I wasn't trained to work with them': mainstream teachers' attitudes to children with speech and language difficulties

Approximately one-eighth of early school-aged children in the UK have speech and language difficulties. Many such children are now being educated in mainstream settings. However, there is a dearth of up-to-date and valid research that considers UK (student) teachers' attitudes towards such children. Two hundred and sixty-eight trainee teachers (PGCE students) from Manchester were given two questionnaires, containing both closed and open questions, to measure their attitudes towards and experiences with children with speech and language difficulties. A range of attitudes was expressed and most concern was around the issues of resources (both time and knowledge based). Most teachers were positive about their expectations of such children. Attitudes were not significantly related to teachers' gender, teaching type/subject, previous knowledge of someone with speech and language difficulties or experience of children with such difficulties. Views on the educational placement for children with a range of communication difficulties varied. The authors consider that two-pronged action is needed to facilitate an improvement: a greater focus on the inclusion debate (not specifically tied to this group of children) and also additional knowledge and resources.     

A Normative Approach to Shaping College Students' Attitudes Toward Organ Donation

This study tested the effects of normative influence on increasing college students' attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate about organ and tissue donation (OTD). It was hypothesized that students would look to their peers (referent group) in forming their own attitudes about organ donation. Three hundred thirty-nine (N = 339) participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions: (1) control group; (2) general referent/normative message group; (3) specific referent/normative message group; (4) general referent/counternormative message group; and (5) specific referent/counternormative message group. An interaction effect was predicted between message type (normative > counternormative) and attributed message source (specific referent > general referent). Students reported highly favorable attitudes toward OTD, moderate-to-high levels of intentions to become organ donors and willingness to communicate about OTD. The hypothesis that participants within the normative message condition would report more favorable attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate about OTD compared to participants within the counternormative message condition was supported for participants' willingness to communicate about OTD. The second hypothesis that participants within the specific referent condition would express more favorable attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate was rejected.     

1. CBQ REVIEW ESSAY: Reality Television: Scholarly Treatments Since 2000

Edwin Emery, Phillip Ault and Warren Agoe's Introduction to Mass Communications (Dodd, Moad, $7.95)

Denis McQuail, Towards a Sociology of Mass Communications (Macmillan, paperback at ca.$2.50)

Marshall McLuhan, Culture is Our Business (McGraw-Hill, $10.00)

David Manning White, Pop Culture in America (Quadganglo paperbacks, $2.45)

Mass Culture (Free Press, $2.95)

Theodore Peterson, Jay Jensen and William L. River's The Mass Media and Modern Society (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, now edition to cost $8.95)     

Motion Pictures

Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen (eds.) Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974 -- $4.95, paper)

Jump Cut (3130 West Schubert, Chicago, Ill. 60647 -- $3.00 per year for Six issues)

Sam Ewing and R.W. Abolin's Professional Filmmaking (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB Books, 1974 -- $9.95)

David Coynik's Movie-Making, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1974 -- $3.50 (2.63 to schools), paper with a teacher guide at $1.00, paper)

Lewis Yablonsky's George Raft (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974 -- $8.95)

Al DiOrio, Jr.'s Little Girl Lost: The Life and Hard Times of Judy Garland (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1974 -- $8.95)

Eileen Hsu-Balzer, Richard H. Balzer and Franciz K.J. Gsy's China Day by Day (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974 -- $15.00/7.95)     

You Call That Perpetual? Issues in Perpetual Access

At the Mississippi State University Libraries’ eResource & Emerging Technologies Summit in August 2013, Chris Bulock, Electronic Resources Librarian at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, offered strategies on working through problems encountered with tracking and documenting access to electronic resources, with emphasis on the continuing challenge of perpetual access. He presented results of a survey he conducted to determine how institutions were doing in regard to access and preservation of electronic content.     

El niño como espejo de su desarrollo cerebral

RESUMEN

El desarrollo del niño está íntimamente ligado a su desarrollo cerebral. El estudio de los movimientos y reflejos en fetos humanos demuestra que la médula espinal y el tronco cerebral están funcionando en los primeros meses de vida fetal. El estudio de niños prematuros nos indica que su cerebro sólo está desarrollado hasta el nivel correspondiente al tiempo transcurrido desde la concepción, como si el entorno no actuara sobre él. Se describen los reflejos y respuestas a estímulos del bebé a término durante los primeros meses, cada vez más influenciados por el desarrollo de los sentidos. Poco a poco va aumentando la actividad de los niveles superiores y, hacia los tres años, el sistema nervioso está ya organizado funcionalmente.

El desarrollo de las capacidades intelectuales superiores supondrá probablemente cambios estructurales en el sistema nervioso. Los cambios que ocurren en la pubertad suponen una mayor maduración del sistema nervioso central, ya que son consecuencia de una interrelación entre este sistema y el sistema endocrino.     

In Pursuit of Validity: A comprehensive review of science attitude instruments 1935–2005

The purpose of this review is to present a comprehensive evaluation of science attitude instruments based on published psychometric evidence. A multitude of instruments have been used through the years and some have been linked to career choice and school performance. Substantiating such associations is of paramount importance if researchers wish to influence educational policy. However, associations are reduced, or hard to discover, if instruments have weak psychometric properties. Several databases were searched for peer‐reviewed articles that discussed the development and use of science attitude instruments. Instruments were grouped into the following categories: attitudes toward science, scientific attitudes, nature of science, scientific career interests, and other. A data abstraction and scoring rubric was used to summarize and evaluate 150 published articles that spanned 66 instruments. Most instruments had single study usage and showed an absence of psychometric evidence. This review demonstrated that there are few instruments available with the necessary psychometric data to merit recommendation. The review quantifies the current state of the research regarding the measurement of science attitude in students; the results should elicit further discussion and encourage more rigorous analyses of instruments. The findings may assist other researchers to select an instrument and alert them to its strengths and weaknesses. This review points the way forward for research in this field. Instruments already in existence should be used in repeat studies, and reliability and validity evidence should be collected and shared.     

ICEM News

This article addresses the results of analysis of the data collected over four semesters of a situated course in Web-based instruction. In particular, it discusses results in such areas as synchronous vs. asynchronous interaction, the importance of technical prowess, aids and barriers to the establishment of a learning community, and the affective dimensions of Web-based instruction. In addition, it discuses the effectiveness of various traditional and constructivist instructional strategies in a Webbased environment. We also focus on the use of social engineering techniques as a means of facilitating the creation of a constructivist learning community. Analyse d’un environnement éducatif en ligne. Cet article présente les résultats d'une analyse de données collectées durant quatre semestres d'un cours utilisant Internet. En particulier, il étudie les résultats obtenus dans le domaine des interactions synchrones et asynchrones, l'importance du potentiel technologique, les aides ou les freins à l'établissement d'une communauté éducative, ainsi que la dimension affective de l'éducation par Internet. De plus, il examine l'efficacité de différentes stratégies d'apprentissage constructivistes utilisées dans cet environnement en ligne. Il aborde aussi des techniques d'ingénierie sociale utilisées qui sont aptes à faciliter l'établissement d'une véritable communauté d'apprentissage. Analyse einer Web-basierten Ausbildung. Dieser Artikel behandelt die Ergebnisse der Analyse der über vier Semester gesammelten Daten eines vorliegenden Kurses über web-basierte Ausbildung. Insbesondere werden Ergebnisse zu Fragen von synchroner versus asynchroner Interaktion, die Wichtigkeit des technischen Prozesses, Hilfen und Hindernisse für die Aufstellung einer Lerngemeinschaft und die affektiven Dimensionen web-basierten Instruierens diskutiert. Außerdem wird in dem Artikel die Wirksamkeit verschiedener traditioneller und konstruktivistischer Lehrstrategien in einer web-basierten Lernumgebung problematisiert. Wir verweisen auch auf die Verwendung von Sozialtechniken als ein Mittel, die Schaffung einer konstruktivistischen Lerngemeinschaft zu erleichtern.     

Teachable-moment-oriented curriculum practice in early childhood education

This study explores aspects of teachable-moment-oriented curriculum practice by questioning whether a teacher's teachable moment is relevant to the learner's 'learnable moment'. For teachable-moment-oriented curriculum practice to result in developmentally and culturally appropriate meaningful learning, transforming the identity between learner and teacher seems imperative. Data collected from naturalistic settings in various teacher education contexts over the last few years are used. Both prospective and in-service teachers' images of teachable-moment-oriented curriculum practices are presented