EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES,NEEDS, AND INTERESTS OF OLDER ADULTS WITH MENTAL RETARDATION

This article presents baseline information on the educational experiences, needs, and interests of a statewide sample of older adults with mental retardation. Data were collected through an interview with the older person with mental retardation and through a questionnaire sent to a knowledgeable other who was matched to each older adult. Findings are presented on previous educational experiences, current educational opportunities, and educational needs and interests. Results indicate that this group of older persons strongly desires continued opportunity for learning, particularly in academic and independent living areas. Two subgroups within this sample were least likely to have access to instructional opportunities: persons 55 years or older and persons living in community residences with less than 24‐hour care. Access to this instruction would improve the independence and quality of life of both these groups, as it would for the entire sample. Implications of the findings for educators in gerontology, mental retardation, and adult education are discussed.     

Students' understandings about animal skeletons

Surprisingly few studies have looked at people's understanding of skeletons. Most of the work in this field that has been done has only involved children's understanding of human skeletons. This study looks at students' understandings of the structure of animal (including human) skeletons. A crosssectional approach was used involving a total of 175 students in England from six different age groups (ranging from 4 year olds to 20 year olds). Students were presented, on separate occasions, with specimens of a brown rat, a starling and a herring and asked to draw what they thought was inside each specimen. On a final occasion, they were also asked to draw what they thought was inside themselves. Repeated inspections of the completed drawings allowed us to construct a seven point scale of 'skeletal understanding'. Our analysis shows the extent to which student understanding increases with age and the degree to which pupils know more about human than other skeletons. The findings are interpreted with reference to current trends in English science curricula and pedagogy. We comment in particular on the current inability of most students to see the skeleton as a functional, integrated whole.     

Editorial

This issue of the International Journal of Public Opinion Researchassembles six contributions—three articles and three researchnotes—that represent the diversity of subjects, methods,and research sites that we aim at. The first article is by agroup of (mostly) Ohio State University scholars (Lindsay H.Hoffman, Carroll J. Glynn, Michael E. Huge, Rebecca Border Sietman,and Tiffany Thomson) who used two surveys about a school districtballot issue to study the process of opinion formation. Drawingon     

Police power

He (the constable) will be civil and obliging to all people of every class and rank. He must be particularly cautious not to interfere idly or unnecessarily in order to make a display of his authority. … if he does his duty in a quiet and determined manner such conduct will probably excite the well-disposed of the bystanders to assist him if he requires them…particular care is to be taken that the constables of the police do not form false notions of their powers and duties. Initial regulations of the Metropolitan Police, 1829.     

Similarity of science textbooks: A content. Analysis

The investigator completed a content analysis of the astronomy portion of science texts at three grade levels (4th, 5th, and 6th) that were produced by five different publishers. The analysis used an operant paradigm and compared the responses expected of students who used one science text to those expected of students using other science texts. The response comparisons were made both within and across grade levels. Using similarity of the responses expected of students as a basis of comparison, elementary school science texts produced by different publishers had more in common across grade levels than within grade levels. Less than 50% of the responses expected of students at one grade level were common to other science texts at the same or different grade levels.