The Administrators’ Roundtables: A Model for Increasing the Leadership of Elementary School Principals in Special Education

A MODEL PROGRAM, the Administrators’ Roundtables, was developed to increase the leadership of school principals in special education. The program was designed to meet the individual needs of participants as well as provide information regarding “best practices” in the field of special education. The one‐year program components include a series of monthly roundtable sessions where principals discuss relevant topics, distribution of professional materials and information, and participant site visits to model special education programs. An evaluation of the program is given based upon a questionnaire presented to the special education staff of participants before and after they became members of the Roundtable and an interview with a sample of the participants in the program. Results indicated that the Roundtables have had a positive impact on principals’ awareness and knowledge in the area of special education policies and practices with some secondary, indirect effects on programs for students with handicaps.     

Spatial awareness in seven to 11‐year‐old physically handicapped children in mainstream schools

ABSTRACT

Ten mainstream‐educated children with physical handicaps that restrict their independent mobility, aged between 7 and 11 years, were compared with matched classmates on measures of spatial awareness and cognitive mapping skills. Compared with their classmates, the handicapped children were significantly worse at drawing plan maps of their classrooms, placing missing objects on accurate classroom maps, and pointing in the direction of distant landmarks on the school campus. All motorically impaired children were deficient on one or more measures (whether brain damaged or not). Awareness of spatial relations is likely to be important for the development of several intellectual skills, and since physically handicapped children may be disadvantaged in this area, it is worthy of special attention from teachers and support staff.     

Thoughts on a theory of constructive failure

Failure is defined and distinguished from concepts such as learned helplessness, low normative feedback and low absolute feedback. The anti‐failure trend characterizing educational practices and programs of recent decades is examined in light of empirical evidence — some of which offers support for this trend and some of which poses a serious challenge to this trend. Finally, a set of factors predicted to be determinants of the facilitative and debilitating effects of failure is presented.     

The use of a computer simulation to promote scientific conceptions of moon phases

This study described the conceptual understandings of 50 early childhood (Pre‐K‐3) preservice teachers about standards‐based lunar concepts before and after inquiry‐based instruction utilizing educational technology. The instructional intervention integrated the planetarium software Starry Night Backyard™ with instruction on moon phases from Physics by Inquiry by McDermott (1996). Data sources included drawings, interviews, and a lunar shapes card sort. Videotapes of participants' interviews were used along with the drawings and card sorting responses during data analysis. The various data were analyzed via a constant comparative method in order to produce profiles of each participant's pre‐ and postinstruction conceptual understandings of moon phases. Results indicated that before instruction none of the participants understood the cause of moon phases, and none were able to draw both scientific moon shapes and sequences. After the instruction with technology integration, most participants (82%) held a scientific understanding of the cause of moon phases and were able to draw scientific shapes and sequences (80%). The results of this study demonstrate that a well‐designed computer simulation used within a conceptual change model of instruction can be very effective in promoting scientific understandings. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 346–372, 2008     

Character Motivations in the Representation of Mental Health Professionals in Popular Film

A narrative approach to studying media that focuses on character motivations represented in film is presented. A content analysis identified the motivations of 58 mental health professional characters represented in popular films (1990–1999). These characters were most commonly motivated by money, power, or a concern for others. Characters motivated by love/lust or self-healing were less common. Young female characters were more strongly motivated by love than other characters. Those characters motivated by a concern for others also tended to be motivated by a need for self-healing but not by a need for power. The distortions and insights of cinematic depictions of mental health professionals' motivations are considered. The implications of a narrative approach for future audience response media research are also discussed.