The lamaze certified childbirth educator: standards of practice

A student in a Lamaze Childbirth Educator Program expresses concern that some Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educators (LCCE educators) do not teach classes that reflect Lamaze standards. In this column, the ethical and professional standards of the LCCE educator and the challenges the childbirth educator experiences while practicing in the current maternity-care environment are presented and discussed. Lamaze International's Code of Ethics for Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educators provides guidance when dealing with these challenges.     

Screening of phonological awareness in the early elementary grades: an IRT approach

The purpose of the present study was to explore the possibilities for the assessment of growth in phonological awareness of children in kindergarten and first grade. Phonological awareness was measured using four sets of items involving rhyming, phoneme identification, phoneme blending, and phoneme segmentation. The results of an exploratory factor analysis and analyses conducted within the framework of item response theory showed one latent ability to underlie the different sets of items, which nevertheless differed in difficulty. Analyses in terms of the children’s ability further showed the phonological awareness measures to be sensitive to growth. The amount of information supplied by the different sets of items depended on the children’s level of ability. The conclusion that it is possible to accurately monitor the development of children’s phonological awareness in the early elementary grades appears to be justified, and this possibility opens up new perspectives for the early screening for reading problems and dyslexia.     

In the News

编者按：本专栏由英国大使馆文化处提供稿件,旨在让读者从中学习地道英文,体悟英文百味。本期介绍了网络带给英国传统报刊业的冲击。网络时代到来,新闻实现了24小时实时播报,英国纸媒业的寒冬真要到来了吗？     

Strategic narrative in multi-academy trusts in England: Principal drivers for expansion

Multi-academy trusts (MATs) are now a common feature of the English educational landscape. Yet numerous high-profile failures indicate that they present substantial challenges in terms of leadership and governance. One of the areas that most exercises school leaders and boards is the setting of strategic direction for the MAT. This includes elements such as its expansion. This article draws on 30 interviews with school leaders and trustees from 6 MATs and 10 interviews with national leaders of governance in looking to respond to the research question: What are the principal drivers for strategic expansion in MATs? The article begins by contextualising the research in light of recent policy, then moves to consider why theory on strategy as narrative was chosen in preference to other strategic approaches, and how it was employed to analyse data. The article concludes that within this sample there are a number of drivers for MAT expansion and that these fall under six principal categories: opportunities, values, pressures, feelings, risks and resources. It also concludes that resources and business viability play a substantial part in decisions to expand, and that strategy appears to be an iterative learning process. As such, it contributes to theory on the governance of multi-level organisations and to practice in terms of the Department for Education's focus on MAT growth.     

Use of the Case Method in MBA Education

The position of the case method in MBA education is discussed, followed by an examination of the nature of business cases, benefits to be derived from the case method, roles for students and instructors in case-oriented courses, and issues concerning integration of cases into an overall course design. It is argued that case analysis helps students to develop the kinds of skills that are essential to success in business organizations: identification and analysis of complex business problems, application of judgment in developing solutions, interactive problem-solving, and persuasive presentation of conclusions. The case method presents special challenges to both the instructor and the student. Both are required to sacrifice their traditional roles. The instructor is a facilitator rather than a content expert, and the student must assume a highly active role, providing the substantive content for the discussion. Both instructor and student are well rewarded for their adjustments by the many benefits of the case method.     

Gender differences in motivation and strategy use in science: Are girls rote learners?

This study explored Ridley and Novak's (1983) hypothesis that gender differences in science achievement are due to differences in rote and meaningful learning modes. To test this hypothesis, we examined gender differences in fifth- and sixth-grade students' (N = 213) self-reports of confidence, motivation goals (task mastery, ego, and work avoidance), and learning strategies (active and superficial) in whole-class and small-group science lessons. Overall, the results revealed few gender differences. Compared with girls, boys reported greater confidence in their science abilities. Average-achieving girls reported greater use of meaningful learning strategies than did their male counterparts, whereas low-ability boys reported a stronger mastery orientation than did low-ability girls. The results further showed that students report greater confidence and mastery motivation in small-group than whole-class lessons. In contrast, students reported greater work avoidance in whole-class than small-group lessons. In general, the findings provide little support for Ridley and Novak's hypothesis that girls tend to engage in rote-level learning in science classes. Differences in self-reports of motivation and strategy-use patterns were more strongly related to the student's ability level and to the structure of learning activities (small group vs. whole class) than to gender. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.