Sexuality in school: the limits of education

This paper reports on aspects of an Australian study into the factors and conditions that make it possible for secondary school health education teachers to include and affirm gender and sexual diversity in their teaching. The study examined the impact of a two-day intervention designed to prepare teachers to use a major new government-funded teaching and learning resource called Talking Sexual Health. The study found that whilst there was a range of personal and structural barriers inhibiting change, professional development and access to teaching and learning resources could indeed impact positively on teachers’ willingness and ability to include and affirm diverse sexualities in their health education programs.     

Predicting parents' satisfaction with the education of their child with Down's syndrome

This study investigated parents' satisfaction with the schooling of their children with Down's syndrome and its relationship to parent identity. Responses to a postal questionnaire from 131 parents of children with Down's syndrome aged from 4 to 19 years were recorded for analysis. Using identity process theory to provide a theoretical framework, it was predicted that parent satisfaction with education would be a function of the extent to which the identity principles described by this theory are threatened by perceived educational circumstances. Composite measures of identity, perceived school climate and parents' satisfaction with school were obtained, and correlations among these variables calculated. Regression analysis confirmed the prediction that parents' satisfaction is closely related to self-efficacy, perceived involvement with their children's education and perceived school climate.     

Contextualizing Nature of Science Instruction in Socioscientific Issues

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two learning contexts for explicit-reflective nature of science (NOS) instruction, socioscientific issues (SSI) driven and content driven, on student NOS conceptions. Four classes of 11th and 12th grade anatomy and physiology students participated. Two classes experienced a curricular sequence organized around SSI (the SSI group), and two classes experienced a content-based sequence (the Content group). An open-ended NOS questionnaire was administered to both groups at the beginning and end of the school year and analyzed to generate student profiles. Quantitative analyses were performed to compare pre-instruction NOS conceptions between groups as well as pre to post changes within groups and between groups. Both SSI and Content groups showed significant gains in most NOS themes, but between-group gains were not significantly different. Qualitative analysis of post-instruction responses, however, revealed that students in the SSI group tended to use examples to describe their views of the social/cultural NOS. The findings support SSI contexts as effective for promoting gains in students’ NOS understanding and suggest that these contexts facilitate nuanced conceptions that should be further explored.     

Comparison of Three Methods of Estimating Energy Expenditure: Caltrac,Heart Rate,and Video Analysis

Abstract

This study examined the accuracy of a new device (Caltrac) in estimating energy expenditure via acceleration measurements. Energy expenditure of 20 high school students during basketball class activity (average length = 37 min) was estimated using the Caltrac, heart rate recording, and video analysis. Heart rate recording and video analysis estimates of energy expenditure were determined from heart rate, caloric expenditure curves, and an activity rating scale, respectively. The following estimates of caloric expenditure (M ± SD) were found: heart rate recording = 196 ±73 > Caltrac = 163 ±49 > film analysis = 123 ± 30 kcal (p < .05). Laboratory simulations of the basketball activity revealed that the Caltrac energy expenditure was not significantly different from the actual energy expenditure (p > .05). The heart rate recording and video analysis estimates of energy expenditure were significantly (p < .05) higher and lower, respectively, than the actual energy expenditure. The Caltrac is a lightweight, low-cost device that provides a relatively accurate estimate of energy expenditure in free-ranging activities, such as basketball.     

Examination of the Validity of the Social Support Survey Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Abstract

The Social Support Survey (SSS), validated by Richman, Rosenfeld, and Hardy (1993), is a multidimensional self-report measure of social support tested with student athletes. The SSS contains eight dimensions of support. For each dimension of support the same four questions are posed. The SSS could, therefore, be scored in two ways: (a) to derive a score for the support dimensions; (b) to derive a score for the questions posed across all eight support dimensions. Confirmatory factor analyses of the SSS on 416 university athletes revealed poor fits to models for both the eight support dimensions and the four questions across all eight dimensions. This problem was clarified by using a multitrait-multimethod model, which led to improved model fit but revealed that most of the SSS items were two-dimensional. Caution should, therefore, be exercised in using the SSS as a measure of multidimensional social support.     

Fragments of your communication: Email,vmail, and fax

Abstract

How are new media, such as electronic mail, voice mail, and fax, used when people have access to several of them simultaneously? This paper reports findings from a field study of media use in four sizable subunits within two large organizations where most employees had access to email, vmail, and fax. Respondents tended to use multiple electronic media rather than relying on one. However, they also showed a tendency to prefer one medium for asynchronous communication and to use the others for occasional, specialized purposes. Further, there were considerable differences across subunits in typical media use patterns. Although respondents expressed strong desires for multimedia integration, this study suggests that technological integration may not necessarily result in seamless, collaborative work.     

Exploring the future of lifelong learning: advocacy, research and footprinting

This reflective think-tank contribution begins by comparing advocacy and research as distinct modalities of professional and social action. In practice they frequently elide and merge into one another. While alliance and complementarity between the two modalities is constructive for shaping policy and practice, it poses risks when governments and state apparatus play their own advocates, co-opting research into the endeavour. Established classification and distribution policy logics are ill-attuned to transversal and holistic agendas such as lifelong learning; this leads to competition between interest groups defined by educational sector and level, and it occludes life-course perspectives on learning that have the capacity to resituate understandings of shared interests. Transversal and holistic agendas demand forms and styles of evidence that can encompass these qualities; indicators and benchmarks as currently employed in educational policymaking are under-developed with respect to lifelong learning. The successful example of eco-footprinting could suggest a way forward that is not only evidentially more appropriate, but could also achieve greater impact for the development of lifelong learning policy and practice.     

Enigma Variations: Parsing the Riddle of Main Entry and the “Rule of Three” from AACR2 to RDA

ABSTRACT

In the ten years since the International Conference on the Principles and Future Development of AACR, long-standing debates have continued as to whether or not to have a “main entry,” and whether or not to exercise the rule of three to limit the number of headings or access points in certain cases. Recent proposals from the Joint Steering Committee for Development of RDA have recommended a change in “main entry” terminology to “primary access point,” and the elimination of the rule of three. This article explores how and why these shifts have occurred.     

Mountains to Molehills: The Past,Present, and Future of Cataloging Backlogs

While backlogs have existed in libraries and the literature that describes them, the decline in the acquisition of physical collections relative to digital resources, as well as the availability of cataloging copy has called into question the continued viability and relevance of arrearages. Yet, at a time of economic restraint, a rethinking of library operations is timely, if not urgent. What does nearly sixty years of research tell us about materials that are removed from cataloging workflow pending availability of a bibliographic record? This article analyzes the characteristics of, and reasons for, arrearages, and assesses approaches to reducing or eliminating backlogs.