Mass Communications

Ted Perry (ed.) Performing Arts Resources: 1974 (New York: Drama Books Specialists/Theater Library Association, 1974—price not known)

George N. Gordon's Communications and Media: Constructing a Cross-Discipline (New York: Hastings House, 1975—$12.50/6.95)

Francisco J. Lewels Jr.'s The Uses of the Media by the Chicano Movement: A Study in Minority Access (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1974— $15.00)

Lester Asheim and Sara I. Fenwick's Differentiating the Media (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975—$5.95)

C.A. Schicke's Revolution in Sound: A Biography of the Recording Industry (Boston: Little, Brown, 1974—$6.95)

T. Jan Wiseman and Molly J. Wiseman's Creative Communicati Teaching Mass Media (Minneapolis: National Scholastic Press Association at the University of Minnesota, 1974—price not given, paper)     

Understanding the Formation, Functions, and Challenges of Grassroots Leadership Teams

This study examined the nature, characteristics, and challenges of grassroots leadership teams and the role of these factors in promoting cognitive complexity in order to provide insight into collective forms of bottom-up change. The study is framed by the literature on leadership teams. Using interviews from a case study conducted at five higher education campuses, we explored two types of leadership teams (sense-making and problem-solving) across different initiatives. The results from this study extend the literature on bottom-up change, leadership, and grassroots teams.     

A new look at the professional training of secondary school mathematics teachers

Typical patterns followed in American colleges and universities in the preparation of mathematics teachers are inadequate for at least four reasons: some mathematics courses are perceived by students as irrelevant, the preparation is often not in step with societal changes, little attention is given to developing a solid understanding of mathematics content which is particularly important for secondary teachers, and insufficient emphasis is placed on the big ideas and unifying themes which pervade all of mathematics. This article discusses the reasons for these shortcomings and suggests a possible remedy involving the design of a program based on the intersection of certain needs of a secondary teacher and certain mathematics courses studied by prospective teachers.     

Educational policy and the courts: The case of Washington,D. C.

Since 1954, the courts have assumed a great deal of leadership in setting educational policy. In each instance, citizen dissatisfaction with the educational process has led to court suits, often resulting in massive or disruptive changes. However, the blame cannot and should not be leveled on the courts. The problems and solutions have clearly rested with boards of education, local and state legislative bodies, and executives. Their failure to respond affirmatively to various issues is clearly the problem.The District of Columbia presents a marvelous example of governmental inaction and what can result. This paper provides a brief judicial history of education in the District and what the implications have been. The reader must keep in mind that although the District is a city, its government, especially the Board of Education, functions as though on a state level. Thus, court decrees concerning education in Washington, D. C. may give other states the incentive to improve the education of all students, regardless of ethnic or economic background.[/p]Julius Hobson, Jr. is a Member of the District of Columbia Board of Education Washington, D. C.     

Negative instances and the acquisition of the mathematical concepts of commutativity and associativity

The effects of negative instances in the acquisition of the mathematical concepts of commutativity and associativity were examined. Two treatment levels for commutativity (positive instances or positive and negative instances) and the same treatment levels for associativity were crossed to form a 2 × 2 factorial design with 21 subjects per cell. Subjects were undergraduate elementary education majors. Criterion variables were number of correct responses, stimulus intervals, and postfeedback intervals. Results supported the contention that negative instances enhance concept acquisition but also appear to require more time during treatments. No evidence for a transfer effect for negative instances from one concept to another was found.     

Creating original knowledge in and for the workplace: evidence from a practitioner doctorate

The workplace is becoming acknowledged, if not without some contention, as a site of knowledge production that can have equal validity with academic and other research-oriented contexts. One way of investigating practice-based knowledge generation is through doctoral work that is based on research and development in the workplace. Examination of a selection of outputs from a doctorate geared specifically to work-based candidates confirms the workplace as a site of valid knowledge production, and also indicates that real-life projects concerned with development and change rather than explicitly with research can, if pursued with intellectual rigour and critical reflection, be a powerful source of new knowledge.