A Communicative Analysis of a Sexual Health Screening Intervention Conducted in a Low-Income Housing Complex

Providing free HIV screening within public housing sites offers the potential for increased participation of at-risk populations. Residential-based screening, however, raises concerns about privacy because of the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS and even to the testing for HIV. This study examined the effectiveness of offering HIV screening within a public housing high-rise in upstate New York. Through interviews with both women who obtained testing and those who did not, this study explored the tension between convenience and privacy concerns. The findings suggest that offering HIV screening where people live could encourage participation in the screenings, as well as lead to a destigmatization of HIV testing over time. Some women chose to eschew the convenience of on-site testing in favor of a more private venue for screening, whereas some women responded positively to the accessibility of on-site testing, using communicative strategies to manage privacy concerns.     

Characterizing the Experimental Procedure in Science Laboratories: A preliminary step towards students experimental design

Many studies have stressed students’ lack of understanding of experiments in laboratories. Some researchers suggest that if students design all or parts of entire experiment, as part of an inquiry-based approach, it would overcome certain difficulties. It requires that a procedure be written for experimental design. The aim of this paper is to describe the characteristics of a procedure in science laboratories, in an educational context. As a starting point, this paper proposes a model in the form of a hierarchical task diagram that gives the general structure of any procedure. This model allows both the analysis of existing procedures and the design of a new inquiry-based approach. The obtained characteristics are further organized into criteria that can help both teachers and students assess a procedure during and after its writing. These results are obtained through two different sets of data. First, the characteristics of procedures are established by analysing laboratory manuals. This allows the organization and type of information in procedures to be defined. This analysis reveals that students are seldom asked to write a full procedure, but sometimes have to specify tasks within a procedure. Secondly, iterative interviews are undertaken with teachers. This leads to the list of criteria to evaluate the procedure.     

Education for an Aging Planet

As low income societies experience rapid aging of their populations, they face major challenges in developing educational policies to prepare their workforce for the future. We review modest efforts undertaken to assist colleagues in three societies: Mexico, China, and Jamaica. Graduate education in gerontology has an important opportunity to expand research, training, and service-learning programs in global aging.     

Insights into casual relief teaching: casual relief teachers’ perceptions of their knowledge and skills

Research into the experiences of casual relief teachers (CRTs) (substitute or supply teachers) across Australia and internationally has reported feelings of marginalisation among participants. These findings are concerning when one considers that students might be in the care of CRTs for an equivalent of 1 year or more throughout their schooling. When CRTs describe such feelings there is a suggestion that they do not feel a part of the community of practice in which they work. Accordingly, their opportunities for professional learning are often compromised, which has implications for their ability to maintain pedagogical knowledge and skills. This study used cluster sampling survey data to offer insights into professional challenges faced by CRTs. The discussion examines the self-determined skills of 59 Australian CRTs and the way schooling is organised that may leave them feeling excluded rather than members of what should be their “communities of practice.”     

Educational and Public Television

Natan Katzman, Program Decisions in Public Television (1976, 72 pp.)

Caroline Isber and Muriel Cantor, Report of the Task Force on Women in Public Broadcasting (1975, 141 pp. no price shown)

Advisory Council of National Organizations, Public Broadcasting and Education (1975, 114 pp., no price shown)

Bradley S. Greenberg, et al. An Ascertainment Handbook for Public Broadcasting Facilities (1975, 64 page loose-leaf notoboOk, no price shown)

Philip A. Rubin, A Report on the Minimum Equipment Needs and Costs to Upgrade the Facilities of the Public Television Stations (1975, 40 pp., $1.00, paper)

Annual Report 1975 (1976, 43 pp., free on request)

Print Handicappeda Handbook for Local Use (1975, loose-leaf notebook of some 200 plus pages)

E. Edward Cavert (ed.) Designing Diversity 1 75: Second National Conference on Open Learning and Nontraditional Study--Conference Proceedings (University of Mid-America, Lincoln, Neb. 82006---$7.50, paper)

Phillip J. Sleeman and D.M. Rockwell's Instructional Media and Technology (New York: Halstead Press/John Wiley, 1976---$30.00)