The influence of speech perception,oral language ability,the home literacy environment,and pre-reading knowledge on the growth of phonological sensitivity: A one-year longitudinal investigation

Individual differences in phonologicalsensitivity are among the most powerfulpredictors of early word decoding ability and adeficit in phonological sensitivity is thoughtto be the primary stumbling block for thosechildren who have difficulty learning to read. However, only recently have researchers begunto search for the potential causes andcorrelates in phonological sensitivitydevelopment. In the present one-yearlongitudinal study, the influences of speechperception, oral language ability, emergentliteracy, and the home literacy environment(HLE) on the growth of phonological sensitivitywere examined in a group of 115 four- andfive-year-old children. When the variables wereentered simultaneously into a multipleregression equation, emergent literacy, orallanguage, and the HLE contributed significantunique variance. However, when theautoregressor was controlled, only phonologicalsensitivity at Time 1 and HLE contributedsignificant unique variance to predictinggrowth in phonological sensitivity. Resultsare discussed in terms of their implicationsfor the education of preschool as well asschool-aged children.     

Project interact: A study of patterns of interaction in abusive, neglectful and control families

Child Abuse refers to non-accidental physical and psychological injury to a child under the age of 18 as a result of acts of omission or commission perpetrated by a parent or caretaker. Conceptual problems abound in part because we are clearly dealing with behavior which falls along a continuum of caregiver-child relationships. At one end of the continuum we have seemingly innocuous verbal punishment — disparagement, criticism, threat and ridicule. Or, we have fairly typical forms of physical punishment such as a slap on the hand or a swat on the bottom. Then there are forms of physical punishment that exceed current community standards — hitting the child with a closed fist or with an object such as a razor strap, belt, cord, or paddle, slamming the child against the wall, kicking him, burning the child with a cigarette, scalding the child with hot water, torturing or even killing the child. It is not always clear where a particular case should be placed on this conceptual continuum. What is more devastating to the development of a child, a single occasion where a parent loses control and slams a child across the room, in the process knocking out a tooth and breaking a child's arm, or the persistent day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year use of ridicule, criticism and sarcasm toward that child? Nor is it always clear whether acts of omission which are harmful to the child (i.e., neglect) are functionally equivalent to acts of commission that harm the child. This problem of definition and the establishment of a uniform response class is but one of many problems plaguing the systematic study of child abuse. Other problems such as the tendency to dramatize the bizarre and extreme use of physical violence or aggression at the expense of more subtle forms of verbal punishment, the tendency to equate child abuse either with psychopathology, on the one hand, or with poverty, on the other, and the tendency to rely upon impressionistic accounts of behavior also have retarded the accumulation of sound knowledge about the causes, consequences, treatment and prevention of abusive behavior.     

Instructional Investment or Administrative Bloat: The Effects of Charter System Conversion on Resource Allocations and Staffing Patterns

Despite the growing call for local autonomy and flexibility, few scholars have examined the role of school district–level flexibility on resource allocation and staffing patterns. Leveraging the charter system law within the State of Georgia, we utilize a generalized difference-in-differences approach to estimate the impact of flexibility of system-level expenditures and staffing changes. We find evidence of increases in central office spending and staffing post-conversion to a charter system. In addition, we find evidence that local support is replaced by the state-funded supplemental funding.     

Postmodern Feminisms: Problematic Paradigms

In 1995 Frances Borzello claimed that feminist art criticism had ‘just touched the national curriculum with its fingertips.’ [1] Over the last five years constant challenges to curriculum provision have all but resulted in a loss of contact as educators pull back into ‘safe’ places and away from the edges where feminist art practices were just starting to take hold. Clinging to ‘safe’ practices has meant the affirmation of formalist modernist orthodoxies which have fostered a restricted canonical patriarchal approach to the subject. The recent publication of the ‘Manifesto for Art’ 1999 which calls for a postmodern view of art with an emphasis on ‘difference, plurality and independence of mind’ can, all too easily, be read as a panacea ‘a post modern solution to a postmodern situation.’ [2] However, embracing postmodern pluralism creates as many problems as it solves. Postmodernism often renders any feminist intervention superfluous in spite of new feminist art criticisms’ insistence that the politics of feminism remains a vital element of both artistic practice and critical discourse. While agreeing that art education urgently needs to review its complicity with high Modernist values, we suggest that there are dangers in uncritically accepting a postmodern view of education. Surely postmodernism renders any blueprint for change problematic. This paper does not provide answers, rather it raises questions in order to encourage teachers to reflect upon existing practices with a view to identifying what is still missing and why. It sets out to interrogate implications for pedagogy, educational policy and social transformation of the contemporary academic preoccupation with postmodernism.     

The Changing Corporate Mind: Organizations,Vision, Missions,Purposes, and Indicators on the Move Toward Societal Payoffs

Where are the world's organizations headed? What do they see as their primary destination and contribution? What do they commit to deliver and to whom? How rigorous are they in defining their destinations? What label do they use to describe statements of their intended future? To find the answers to these and other questions, we examined 26 of the leading organizations internationally as well as 60 leading organizations in the United States. Based on this sample of world organizations, we found indications that many organizations see some aspect of societal good as basic to their future, while many others regard their own organization's well-being as what is most important. We find no clear favorite for what organizations label their statements of purpose: most use “mission” while some use “vision,” and some use “values” or “philosophy.” Few of the organizations in our sample state their intended destination in measurable performance terms. From these data, we discuss the implications in terms of an increasing emphasis in the literature on organizations having to deliver outputs that contribute to external clients and society. We also note that purpose statements must be accompanied by appropriate actions to achieve those intentions. In addition, we discuss how this move toward socially-responsive organizations is impacting the role of the performance technologist.     

Using Deliberative Inquiry to Assess Future Needs for a Graduate HRD Curriculum: A Case Study

The many changes in today's workplace argue for equivalent changes in educating human resource development (HRD) professionals. The need for HRD curricular changes to be thought out fully and future-focused warrants the use of systematic methods for formulating, solving, and learning more about how to formulate and solve curriculum problems. Deliberative inquiry is such a method. This research methodology is directed toward curricular decision-making as it occurs within a specific context and, simultaneously, toward learning how to formulate and solve such problems. This study focuses on how faculty members in one university department used the problem formulation phase of deliberative inquiry to assess future needs for their HRD specialization. The article first overviews the research methodology of deliberative inquiry and then describes the systematic approach-subject matter analysis-that was used to structure the problem formulation relative to HRD curricular needs. The problem formulation process clarified stakeholders' values. It also resulted in reframing the situation, which led to new insights about the issues facing the HRD curriculum and ways to address them.     

Supervision of Doctoral Students in the Natural Sciences: expectations and experiences

Within the natural sciences and engineering, literature relating to postgraduate education, in particular the process of completing a doctorate, remains generally scarce. That which does exist emphasises the role of the supervisor in effecting successful completion and points to a wide range of activities performed by supervisors. There remains, however, little by way of accounts of the actual experiences of supervisors or students when engaged in the process of doctoral supervision. It is these experiences which form the basis of this paper which focuses upon doctoral students and their supervisors in the disciplines of physics, mathematics and engineering science. Data for the paper have been collected, as part of an ESRC funded project, by means of in‐depth interviews with students and supervisors in nine universities in England. In particular, we address students expectations of PhD supervision, the extent to which expectations have been met, and within the context of the ‘career’ of the PhD, the ways in which supervision changes as the doctoral process progresses. Important issues relating to the need for training for PhD supervisors and their capacity to meet the expectations of their students are raised, together with those which question the relationship between the PhD and the culture of academic work.