Paradigm Shifts in and around Special Education in New Zealand

There are few sectors in New Zealand education that have been as frequently reviewed and subjected to such wide-ranging policy changes as special education. The evolution of special education policy that has taken place in the past decade reflects the coalescence of several paradigm shifts. Some of these have been in the field of special education, where there has been an international shift away from categorising students in terms of their disabilities to making judgements on their needs for educational support, and away from segregated educational provisions to more inclusive approaches. Others reflect changes in the broader education system, in particular the shift towards more local control of decision making about resource allocation. This paper will examine the tensions inherent in these paradigm shifts and the interactions between them.     

Research parks: Instrument,or harbinger of a new university paradigm?

This paper examines research, or science, parks as indicators of a possible change in the concept and role of modern universities. The battle for knowledge-intensive industry and enterprise among world economic superpowers and universities' control over educational manpower has led to a closer scrutiny of those institutions by the state and private enterprise.The private and public sectors are urging universities to respond rapidly to a strategic need for skilled human resources and relevant research. Universities will experience increasing pressures to direct energies and resources to collaborative relationships among universities, industry, and government for the public good. Those who do not will risk reduced freedom and control of their own affairs whereas those who do are likely to prosper and play their part in influencing society in this information age and be transformed themselves. Research and science parks are becoming powerful and valued agents of change in bridging this university-industry gap.     

Evidence-based retrieval in evidence-based medicine.

OBJECTIVE: Clinical decisions based on a meta-analysis that is based on an ineffective retrieval strategy may have serious negative consequences for patients. The study objective was to investigate the extent to which meta-analyses report proof of their retrieval strategies' effectiveness. METHODS: The authors examined a random sample (n = 100) of articles in the 1996 to 2002 full-text subset of Ovid MEDLINE indexed as "meta-analysis." We classified the articles in three ways: the article (A) reported both a retrieval strategy in sufficient detail (such that it could be repeated) and with evidence of the strategy's effectiveness, (B) reported a retrieval strategy in sufficient detail but not with evidence of the strategy's effectiveness, or (C) neither reported a strategy in detail nor evidence of the strategy's effectiveness. Articles classified as (A) were further classified according to the level of evidence reported. RESULTS: Of the eighty-nine articles in our final analysis, six (6.7%) were classified as category (A), fifty-seven (64%) as (B), and twenty-six (29%) as (C). Articles in category (A) reported a previously validated search, a published strategy, or strategy based on expert opinion. CONCLUSION: Peer-review standards must be developed that require authors of meta-analyses to report evidence for the effectiveness of their retrieval strategies.     

Dimensions of intercultural effectiveness: An exploratory study

The present study investigated some of the major dimensions of intercultural effectiveness. Based upon a review of the literature, 24 “abilities” thought to be important for intercultural effectiveness were generated. Fifty-three subjects who had reported functioning effectively in other cultures rated these abilities in terms of their importance in facilitating intercultural effectiveness. Factor analysis of the data yielded three dimensions of intercultural effectiveness: (1) the ability to deal with psychological stress; (2) the ability to communicate effectively; and (3) the ability to establish interpersonal relationships. Results of the study were then related to previous work on intercultural effectiveness.     

Developing young readers through the linguistic phonics approach

This paper reports findings from a large‐scale evaluation undertaken to explore the impact of the ‘linguistic phonics approach’ (LPA) on young children’s reading. The LPA is a systematic and applied programme that differs from traditional phonics programmes. For example, rather than ask children to look at letters and speculate on the sounds they make, the LPA begins with the sounds and oral language skills children bring with them to school and progresses to a stage where they marry sounds with the written word. Implicit in the approach is the notion that children can learn to make associations between their spoken language (native speech sounds which are embedded from around the age of one) and the written language. Findings from this three‐stage test/retest matched‐samples evaluation (n = 745, Yr 2 and Yr 3 pupils) indicate that the LPA does significantly raise standards and that the gains made by pupils taught through this approach sustain over time. Particularly worthy of note is the finding that, in contrast to non‐systematic phonics approaches, the LPA positively affects the attainment levels of high‐, middle‐ and low‐ability readers.