Author Index Volume 6

Authors Index

Author Index Volume 6     

Teaching and evaluating instructor effectiveness using the instructor effectiveness questionnaire and the instructor effectiveness check sheet combination

This article describes the use of two linked instruments, the Instructor Effectiveness Check Sheet (IEC) and Instructor Effectiveness Questionnaire (IEQ). The use of an evaluation instrument during a course can enable improvements to be made — even with experienced instructors. Detail can be taken from the IEC and IEQ to find obvious and not so obvious needed changes and attention to individuals in the group. The article gives an example where the instruments were used to teach instructors about different pedagogical constructs, describes further research using the instruments at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, USA, and describes a case study on a wilderness education group that illustrated improvement in effective teaching.     

Disclosing unwnated sexual experiences: results from a national sample of adolescent women

OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study are to identify factors that influence the disclosures made by female survivors of unwanted sexual experiences (USE) in childhood and adolescence. The predictors of both the timing of disclosure (short delay, long delay, non-disclosure) and the recipient of the disclosure (disclosing ever to an adult, disclosing to peers only, non-disclosure) were investigated. Participant characteristics, USE characteristics, and family contextual variables were explored. METHOD: A sub-sample of 263 adolescent females who reported unwanted sexual experiences in the National Survey of Adolescents (NSA) provided data on the characteristics of their experience as well as the timing and recipients of disclosure. Two multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine significant predictors of each aspect of disclosure. RESULTS: Age of onset, a known perpetrator, a familial relationship with the perpetrator, and a history of drug abuse in the household are related to the timing of disclosure. Age of onset, penetration, fear for one's life during the USE, injury during the USE, family structure, and the age differential between the survivor and the perpetrator are linked to the recipient of the disclosure. CONCLUSION: Age is a critical variable in the disclosure process. Whereas aspects of the abuse experience were more important in predicting whom a victim would tell, the relationship to the perpetrator was more important in deciding to delay disclosure. As survivors grow into adolescence, the importance of peers provides a source of support that becomes increasingly important in decisions to disclose.     

MODELS OF GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM*

The author traces recent aspects of the movement of higher education in the United Kingdom from emphasis upon a largely autonomous set of institutions operating in the internal academic market through a phase of strong central management and only subsequently onto the external market. The professional values of academics and of professional, market‐oriented managers are not necessarily incompatible, for academe has always been highly competitive. Thus, it should be possible to retain and build upon a vibrant academic core.

     

Newtonian in mind but Aristotelian at heart

This article discusses some core features of Aristotelian physics, and looks at their transformation by first Galileo, and then Newton. It shows how the Aristotelian view was rooted in commonsense, and indicates why this is the reason that such understandings prove so resistant to physics instruction. Some suggestions are made for guiding effective pedagogy.Morecover, mechanics is to physics what the skeleton is to the human figure — at first glance it may appear stiff, cold, and somewhat ghastly, but even after a brief study of its functions one experiences with mounting excitement the discovery of an astonishingly beautiful design, of a structure that is ingentiously complex, yet so simple as to be almost inevitable. (Gerald Holton, Introduction to Concepts and Theories ln Science)Mechanics is one of the branches of physics in which the number of principles is at once very few and very rich in useful consequences. On the other hand, there are few sciences which have required so much thought — the conquest of a few axioms has taken more than 2000 years. (Rene Dugas, A History of Mechanics)Although it is unsafe to read logical necessity into particular historical developments, the special position occupied by mechanics amongst the other branches of physics and natural science must be emphasised, for it was this special position that made it the starting point of modern science. (S. Sambursky, The Physical World of the Greeks)There is, in nature, perhaps nothing older than motion, concerning which the books written by philosophers are neither few nor small; nevertheless I have discovered by experiment some properties of it which are worth knowing and which have not hitherto been either observed or demonstrated. (Galileo Galilei, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences)Of the intellectual hurdles which the human mind has confronted and has overcome in the last fifteen hundred years, the one which seems to me to have been the most amazing in character and the most stupendous in the scope of its consequences is the one relating to the problem of motion. (Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science: 1300–1800)In the Beginning was Mechanics. (Max von Laue, History of Physics)I offer this work as the mathematical principles of philosophy, for the whole burden of philosophy seems to consist in this — from the phenomena of motions to investigate the forces of nature, and then from these forces to demonstrate the other phenomena. (Isaac Newton, Preface to the Principia)     

Evaluation of a randomized intervention to delay sexual initiation among fifth-graders followed through the sixth grade

US adolescents initiate sex at increasingly younger ages, yet few pregnancy prevention interventions for children as young as 10-12 years old have been evaluated. Sixteen Washington, DC schools were randomly assigned to intervention versus control conditions. Beginning in 2001/02 with fifth-grade students and continuing during the sixth grade, students completed pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys each school year. Each year, the intervention included 10-13 classroom sessions related to delaying sexual initiation. Linear hierarchical models compared outcome changes between intervention and control groups by gender over time. Results show the intervention significantly decreased a rise over time in the anticipation of having sex in the next 12 months among intervention boys versus control boys, but it had no other outcome effects. Among girls, the intervention had no significant outcome effects. One exception is that for both genders, compared with control students, intervention students increased their pubertal knowledge. In conclusion, a school-based curriculum to delay sexual involvement among fifth-grade and sixth-grade high-risk youths had limited impact. Additional research is necessary to outline effective interventions, and more intensive, comprehensive interventions may be required to counteract adverse circumstances in students' lives and pervasive influences toward early sex.ClinicalTrials. gov identifier: NCT00341471.     

The DES and Whitehall

This article outlines conflicting views of the place of the DES in the making of education policy at large and higher education in particular. It demonstrates how it changes over time and in different policy contexts. It documents different views of the status of the Department within Whitehall and seeks to account for its alleged separateness from the rest of government. An analysis of the relationships with the Treasury and the PESC system is offered. The connections with policy communities and the role of DES ministers are noted. The competence of the DES is appraised, against the status accorded to non-economic departments generally. The ability of the DES to generate stronger support for higher education is discussed in the context of the weakness of higher education as a political issue.     

Students' Misbehaviours in Turkish and English Primary Classrooms

This paper deals with the comparison of students' misbehaviours in Turkish and English primary classrooms. A field study was conducted in order to discern students' misbehaviours based on students' age, gender, time of day, seating arrangement, types of learning activities and subject matter. Semi-structured in-depth interview and systematic classroom observation were used to collect data from two different cultural contexts. Participants in this study were 20 primary school teachers. The results show that there are differences and similarities between Turkish and English primary classrooms in terms of the causes and types of students' misbehaviours. Certain misbehaviours that are caused by different cultural and educational contexts are frequently observed either in English or in Turkish classrooms.     

The Development of a Multi‐media Distance Education Prototype

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to show the state to which the initial work, the development, and the production of a multi‐media prototype has advanced in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. This prototype was commissioned by the Commission for Distance Teaching of the Department of Public Instruction of Geneva.