Student,home, and school socio-demographic factors: links to school,home, and community arts participation

This study explored the role of student (e.g., age, language background, gender), home (e.g., parent/caregiver education), and school (e.g., school type, size) socio-demographic factors in students’ school (e.g., in-school arts tuition, arts engagement), home (e.g., parent/caregiver–child arts interaction), and community (e.g., arts attendance, arts tuition) arts participation. The sample comprised 1172 elementary and secondary school students from 15 schools. Findings revealed that student and home socio-demographic factors were the most salient in predicting arts participation across school, home, and community contexts. Age, gender, and prior achievement were the key student socio-demographic factors, while parent/caregiver education and occupation were also associated with students’ arts participation. Implications for practice and intervention pertinent to young people’s arts participation are discussed.     

Learning consequences for university students using computerized mastery testing

Mastery learning, it is claimed, is among the most successful practices in higher education. Evidence supporting this claim has recently been criticized as empirically weak. This experiment employed a four-group, pre-post design to examine the learning consequences of a computer-administered mastery-testing approach in comparison with a seminar-discussion approach in a third-year university course. The mastery-testing approach generated significantly higher learning achievement than did the seminar-discussion approach. Replication and extension of this research approach are recommended to support generalizations across mastery-testing techniques, delivery systems, and disciplines.     

Three dimensional couette flow and heat transfer through a porous medium with variable permeability

This paper reports research on the effects of variations in injection velocity and permeability on the heat transfer and flow through a highly porous medium between two horizontal parallel plates situated at constant distance with constant suction by the upper plate. Due to this type of variation in injection velocity and in permeability the flow becomes three dimensional. The governing equations are solved by adopting complex variable notations to obtain the expressions for the velocity and temperature field. The skin-friction along the main flow direction and rate of heat transfer are discussed with the help of graphs.     

Media counseling: A new frontier for health professionals

The authors are co-hosts of a popular open line radio show in Western Canada. In this article the term media counseling is explored and strategies in bringing expertise from the fields of Psychology and Psychiatry to the public are outlined. The authors have been convinced of the value of their approach, and outline purposes, as well as providing data relevant to this radio show That's Living.     

Knowing and learning about science in a preservice setting: A narrative study

This study employs narrative methods to give a holistic view of the experiences of five mature age preservice teachers in a semester unit of science education. The unit was designed to help teachers examine and make explicit their ideas about science and science teaching and consider ways in which they might put those ideas into practice. The pivotal theme, around which the teachers' experiences could be organised, was found to be learning science. The preservice teachers expressed a need for a supportive learning environment in which concepts were built gradually and introduced using concrete examples. Previous science experience was found to be a major influence on the attitudes the participants brought to the present course. A lack of previous experience or negative past experiences were a major cause of anxiety. Gender was also important as it had limited the science experiences available to some participants in the past and continued to influence the way they participated in classes during the semester. Specializations: primary science, science teacher education, primary school field experience. Specializations: formation of teachers' knowledge, leadership, teacher change, school reform.     

History Run Wild: The Alternate World of Joan Aiken’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Wolves of Willoughby Chase</Emphasis> Series

This article examines the historical fantasy world created by Joan Aiken in the eleven volumes of her Wolves of Willoughby Chase series. In particular it looks at her subversion of historical reality by the creation of an alternative yet recognisable representation of our own world, using a wide range of events, and the remoulding of aspects of language and geography. It also discusses her reasons for writing in this form and explores the character of Dido Twite as heroine and major raison dtre of the series.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the article title.