Physician‐patient communication: Mutual role expectations

This study examined physician‐patient communication as it relates to expectations that patients and physicians hold for themselves and each other. Dimensions of mutual role expectation were determined to be physician as humanistic practitioner, physician authority, patient in the sick role, and patient as consumer. The study tested five hypotheses. Results showed patients had significantly higher expectations for patients in the sick role than had physicians. Other role expectations varied significantly by age within physician and patient groups. The implications of these differences for physician‐patient communication are discussed.     

Two- and Three-Year Achievement Results From the Memphis Restructuring Initiative

The purpose of this study was to analyze student achievement data from the first 3 years of the Memphis Restructuring Initiative (MRI). The MRI represents one of the first efforts by an urban school district to move past traditional top-down versus bottom-up reform debates by providing systemic support for outside-in/inside-out implementation and local co-construction of externally-developed reform designs in schools. Analyses of academic achievement focus on a state-of-the-art measure of value added assessments. At the end of 3 years the reforming schools had produced generally positive gains relative to locally matched control schools. Those results varied somewhat by reform type and by level of poverty in the communities being served. Based on the research methods used and the results, implications for future research and practice in educational reform are discussed.     

The influence of academic scientists and technologists on Alberta's secondary science curriculum policy and programme

In democratic societies, it is becoming increasingly common for the government to formulate science education policies and programmes to reform education. In Alberta, Canada, government policies on education, including science, have been formulated on the basis of unprecedented public consultation. However, in the implementation of these policies, the initially proposed senior high science programme ran counter to views on science education held by academic scientists, technologists and academic high school science teachers. By garnering public support and applying political pressure, these groups were successful in forcing the government to re‐examine its science education policies and draft programmes. This review resulted in changes in the programme design and, more significantly, in the processes used to develop the science curriculum. This paper examines the complexity of reforming science education, and the dynamic tension and conflict that can develop between curriculum experts and academic scientists in the development of science programmes that meet broad education goals.     

THE 1998 DAVID WILLS LECTURE: INTEGRATING THE LEGACY OF DAVID WILLS IN AN ERA OF BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT PLANS,INCLUSION AND TARGET SETTNG

This paper examines the legacy of the pioneering work of David Wills for current thinking and practice in current educational context between the needs of vulnerable children as revealed by wills and the demands for managerial accountability imposed by government.     

Book reviews

Post‐Secondary Distance Education in Canada: Policies, Practices, and Priorities. Edited by Robert Sweet. (Edmonton, Alberta: Athabasca University and the Canadian Society for Studies in Education, 1989, 272 pp., $15.95 Canadian.)

The Computer Revolution in Education: New Technologies for Distance Teaching. Edited by Ann Jones, Eileen Scanlon and Tim O'Shea. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987. 282 pp. $37.50)