Exploring Developmental Appropriateness of Multitouch Tables in Prekindergarten: A Video Analysis

This study explored how developmentally appropriate practices influenced the affordances of a multitouch surface in an early childhood classroom. Children, ages 4 to 5 years old, were videotaped while engaged in a storymaking application on a multitouch table. As a result of the study, we found that some challenges with the functionality undermined children's autonomous control. The researchers observed numerous instances of issues with control of the medium, including height of the table, sensitivity to multiple types of touch, and limited instructions and prompts. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Eating Attitudes and Behaviors Among Female College Students

The authors assessed the influences of several risk factors—self‐esteem, history of unwanted sexual contact (USC), depression, and sorority membership—on eating‐related and weight‐related attitudes and behaviors. Findings provide support for the roles of self‐esteem, depression, and USC on restricting attitudes. According to the authors' model, these independent variables predicted restricting attitudes that then predicted restricting behaviors. Implications for preventive interventions and the study's limitations are discussed.     

Behavioural inhibition and hyperactivity: a commentary from alternative perspectives

Attention disorders in the school population include attention deficit, hyperactivity and conduct disorders. A key concept for distinguishing hyperactive from attention disorders is behavioural inhibition as advocated by Barkley, a prominent American researcher. However, the concept itself needs to be understood because, as argued in this paper, there are two kinds of inhibition: Pavlov's original concept and the American one. These should be differentiated if the abnormal conditions associated with attention and hyperactivity are to be rationally connected to cognitive characteristics, rather than to be solely based on clinical symptoms and behavioural ratings. We suggest a consensus on the concept of inhibition and a unified view of attention disorders integrating cognitive and behavioural manifestations. Finally, the importance of basing remediation on a theoretically supported and rationally derived set of cognitive training tasks for the amelioration of inattention and hyperactivity is offered.     

Distance education copyright,intellectual property,and antitrust concerns

Abstract

An empirical examination of accredited American higher education institutions was conducted to obtain baseline data regarding distance education copyright, intellectual property, and antitrust concerns. Additionally, a multiple‐case study involving ten of the top thirty accredited distance education institutions in America was conducted. Policy approaches were examined for all institutions, and differences were discussed between public and private institutions as well as between the following Carnegie Classification institutions: Research I and II, Doctorate I and II, and Master's I and II. Data indicated that, out of the schools surveyed, 22% of the institutions in these Carnegie Classification categories published copyright and intellectual property policies on their institution's Web site. In the case study, it was found that 90% of the institutions centrally controlled their distance education program administration as well as the copyright and intellectual property policies related to it.     

The Effect of a National Initiative on Exam Results

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the examination results of TVEI and non TVEI pupils in the database established at the University of Newcastle in 1985‐87. The pupils took national exams in the summer of 1987, when they were about 16 years old. Their average grades (Exam Means) and their accumulated grades (Exam Totals) were considered separately.

The Exam Mean and Exam Total scores were generally worse for TVEI than non TVEI pupils, even when pupils with the same ability test scores and aspirational scores were compared. However, it is possible that non TVEI factors caused the discrepancy in results and it is these factors which are the subjects of this paper.

The paper considers firstly whether the differences are an artefact of regression analysis. Secondly, the data are considered using various multilevel models. Both analyses suggest that there was no TVEI effect on the Exam Mean score and a negative TVEI effect on the Exam Total. Various explanations for these findings, concerning internal school allocational and curriculum policies, are considered and discussed.     

Information Technology and Special Needs in Education

Abstract

The paper discusses some theoretical and practical problems in using information technology to help people with special needs with some aspects of education. The paper reports the progress on two projects and some findings from a recent survey on Information Technology and Special Needs.     

An intervention in the Halliwick Method procedures (swimming) for a group of individuals with Downs syndrome

The purpose of this study was to intervene in the process of the Halliwick Method (swimming), in order to improve the method, or some of its aspects, for a sample of 14 individuals with Downs syndrome (aged six to 21 years), using both an individualized educational setting approach and a differentiation of the elements of the Halliwick Method. The pre-intervention phase included medical examination, IQ, measurement of the behaviour according to the Rutter Scale and a Test of Physical Performance for each subject. Next, the subjects were assigned to seven pairs of case studies, where each individual following a Halliwick Methods swimming programme was paired with an individual following a modified swimming programme based on the same method, on physical health variables, IQ, behaviour and motor abilities. The duration of each swimming programme was 24 weeks for each individual, at a frequency of once per week, for 40 minutes. In the light of the findings of this study, further recommendations for the improvement of Halliwick Method procedures were made, common factors that affected the performance of each individual were identified and their relation with performance was explored.