Self‐directed learning and prostate cancer: a thematic analysis of the experiences of twelve patients

Although self‐directed learning is a common response for many of the 232,090 US men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, very little is known about the nature of the experience for them. Four themes emerged from interviews with 12 prostate cancer patients describing their self‐education efforts in regard to their disease. A qualitative paradigm was used for this study with data collected using a semi‐structured interview protocol. Purposeful sampling technique was employed to identify information‐rich subjects who were within five years of diagnosis and who had used self‐directed learning extensively in coping with their prostate cancer. Using the constant comparative method, four common themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews:

• Men don’t talk. The participants indicated that men are reluctant to talk about health problems, including prostate cancer.

• Living with the reality of my situation and my choices. These prostate cancer patients found that they had difficult choices to make in regard to their treatment and that learning about the side effects of their cancer treatments did not prepare them for the reality of actually experiencing them.

• The struggle with emotions. The men in this study appeared to be very strong in regard to the cognitive aspects of their self‐directed learning in regard to their cancer but to struggle with their emotional responses.

• Watchful waiting. The men in this study indicated that once having been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the process of dealing with it is never over. Their learning involved coming to terms with this uncertainty.

Conclusions included that, for the men in this study, gender appeared to be an important influence on their experiences with self‐directed learning and prostate cancer.     

The Influence of School Health Education Programmes on the Knowledge and Behaviour of School Children towards Nutrition and Health

A comparative investigation was conducted involving two school situations; one identified as being health promoting and having a comprehensive policy and a defined programme of health education, and the other not health promoting, having no policy and an unstructured programme of health education. A total of 367 students from two secondary and four primary schools participated in the study. The factors used to categorise schools are highlighted. A self-completion questionnaire was employed to assess students' knowledge and behaviour with regard to nutrition and health. Students' dietary intake was monitored by employing a frequency of consumption tick sheet. The results revealed that students from the more health promoting secondary school (School 1(H)) were more knowledgeable of what constitutes a healthy diet and the benefits and risks to health. The implications of these results are considered within the context of the many factors that could influence students' knowledge and behaviour.     

Evaluation of Affective and Cognitive‐Affective Domains in Socially‐Oriented Innovative Science and Technology Curricula

Summaries

English

The present work is an attempt to contribute to the field of evaluation of the affective domain in socially‐oriented innovative science and technology curricula. The main concern of such curricula is the long‐term development of the student's personality in terms of decision‐making capability, attitudes, intellectual power, and social involvement.

Since it appears that the realistic choice in the evaluation of such curricula is between ‘no measures’ (subjective judgements) and ‘imperfect proxies’, it is proposed to concentrate on finding adequate (and agreeable) measures to evaluate the long‐range intended (but also the unintended) effects of the programmes in hand, and only then to switch to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum in achieving these effects (i.e. the educational objectives) in the affective domain. Selected ideas with respect to the above are ‘translated’ here into manageable and applicable procedures within the science class, taking into consideration the ‘local realism of constraints’ within which every science teacher performs.

The development of feasible methods for measurement of curricular outcomes in the affective and affective‐cognitive domains is a precondition for future summative evaluation of socio‐technologically oriented science and technology curricula. Contending with the moral and value‐judgement components of any future science curriculum is therefore the inescapable task ahead.     

Developing a characterisation of citizenship education: issues arising from work undertaken in a higher education network

In order to understand better the way in which the emerging field of citizenship education is being characterised we reflect on work emerging from a higher education network (citizED) for citizenship education. Three of the four authors of this article are closely involved in that network. CitizED was established with funding from the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) (now the Training and Development Agency for Schools, TDA) in order to establish a network and provide resources to support the initial training of citizenship teachers. We analysed download data from the network's website, a sample of the resources produced by the network, and interviewed a sample of users and developers. In this article we identify who is using the resources, how they are using them and what form of citizenship education is developing as a result. We argue that there is now a clear citizenship teacher education community that uses common resources for a variety of purposes. We suggest that there is some consensus in relation to the official characterisation of citizenship, but that ‘turf wars’ still exist in this contested field.     

Two different types of voice

Chief European Dramatists. Selected and edited by BRANDER MATTHEWS. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916. Cloth, pp. 786. $2.75.

A Handbook of American Speech. By CALVIN L. LEWIS, Chicago: Scott, Foresman, and Co., 1916. Cloth, pp. 246. $0.80.

The Brief: With Selections for Briefing. By CARROLL LEWIS MAXCY. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1916. Cloth, pp. 332. $1.25

The Essentials of Effective Gesture. By JOSEPH A. MOSHER, A.M., Ph.D. New York; Macmillan Co., 1916. Cloth, pp. VII+188. $1.00.

Complete Guide to Public Speaking. Compiled and edited by GRENVILLE KLEISER. New York: Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1915. Cloth, pp. XV+639.

AMERICA FIRST. By J. L. MCBRIEN. New York: American Book Company, 1916. Cloth, pp. 288. $0.65.

“The Tonsil and Its Uses”; By RICHARD B. FAULKNER, M.D., Philadelphia: The Blanchard Company, 1916. Paper, pp. 29. $1.00.     

Towards social progress and post‐imperial modernity? Colonial politics of literacy in the Anglo‐Egyptian Sudan, 1946–1956

This article explores the politics of literacy in late colonial Sudan. Drawing upon hitherto untapped archival sources in English and Arabic, it focuses on two key questions: What were the purposes and uses of literacy in the eyes of colonial authorities? What means were used to spread literacy skills among Sudanese people? Positioning these issues in the context of British imperial policy in Africa, it is argued that mixed teams of British and Sudanese educationists came to view literacy as a central tool to foster social progress and political modernity. The analysis puts special emphasis on literacy campaigns and follow‐up literature as experimental means used to promote and perpetuate Arabic literacy in Northern Sudan. Examining both ‘nationwide’ and provincially based magazines, it highlights their multifaceted role as pedagogic materials, vehicles of political, cultural and ideological representations, social networks, as well as public platforms of expression for young Sudanese literates.     

An Assessment of Visitor Attitudes toward Resource Use and Management

Abstract

The Morro do Diabo State Park environmental education program was developed, implemented, improved, and modified using the Planning-Process-Product (PPP) evaluation model. Questionnaires, interviews, and observation were used to assess the needs and the available resources and to clarify goals and objectives to guide the design of activities. The program targeted school children and consisted of a slide show and a guided visit to the park. Formative evaluation provided educators with continuous feedback to improve activities. Summative evaluation used systematic measurement through an experimental design involving 144 students from fifth to eighth grades, randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. A written questionnaire was completed on three occasions: pretest, posttest, and retention. The results demonstrated that the program was effective and the objectives achieved. Other indirect outcomes based on community involvement also were assessed and confirmed the program's success.     

Equality and Resistance in Higher Education

ABSTRACT

This paper is an account of how higher education can become a site of resistance in the pursuit of equality while also identifying the dangers and limitations involved in this process. The development of a new intellectual perspective, namely Equality Studies, is examined and its potential for the understanding of egalitarian practice is explored. The paper examines the reasons why sociology, in particular critical and neo‐Marxist sociology, became inadequate as a way of understanding inequality and exploring egalitarian goals. It explores the limitations of the work of equality empiricists which has failed to move outside the liberal paradigm, and of critical theory and neo‐Marxism which has not gone beyond critique to identify mechanisms and institutions to develop a new egalitarian order. Prom the author's perspective, the seeming inability of sociology to marry empirical and normative discourses was a key factor in contributing to the development of Equality Studies. The latter part of the paper outlines some of the central issues in Equality Studies and the positive influences on its development, both nationally and internationally. It argues for a new and more politically involved role for radical academics while recognising the very real constraints within which they now work.