The effects of an intercultural communication workshop on participants’ intercultural communication competence: An exploratory study

It was the purpose of the present study to measure the effects of an intercultural communication workshop (ICW) on American participants’ intercultural communication competence. This study utilized the behavior observation methodology developed by Ruben (1976) with the contrast‐American simulation technique developed by Stewart (1966) to investigate intercultural communication competence development. Using a nonequivalent control group design, a structured communication event employing the contrast‐American technique was developed in which each subject discussed the topic of leadership communication with a contrast‐American at two intervals (pretest and posttest) and these interactions were videotaped. Two judges then viewed the videotaped interactions and rated the subjects’ intercultural communication competence using behavioral observation measures. The results suggest that (I) behavioral observation methodology can be reliably employed to assess intercultural communication competence and (2) the ICW did not significantly improve the American participants’ intercultural communication competence. These findings are discussed in terms of intercultural education/training and suggestions for future research on the ICW are presented.     

Idiosyncratic cases and hopes for general validity: what education research might learn from ecology / Casos idiosincrásicos y expectativas de validez general: lo que la investigación en educación puede aprender de la ecología

Abstract

We reflect on our ongoing struggles with rigour and validity in a project based on case study analyses: How can particular instances of learning, with all their idiosyncratic details and dynamics, contribute findings of lasting value to education? For this essay, we look to the field of ecology, which has faced similar challenges, for insights into the goals and methods of research.     

School Closure: What are the consequences for the local society?

School closures have been common in rural areas since the middle of the last century, when new and modern schools replaced small old‐fashioned schools with only one or two classrooms. Due mainly to the industrialisation of farming and hastened by the merging and globalisation of industry, the last 50 years have seen a migration of people from rural areas to large towns. This has caused closures of schools built in the 1950s and 1960s, which had been the pride of and a sign of development in local societies. These closures most often give rise to heated debate, the main cry of protest being that the closure of the school is a death‐blow to the local society. The present study is based on a qualitative analysis performed in 2003 of 30 Danish school closures in the period 1990–1999. The results show that school closure in itself does not have the devastating effects mentioned in the debate. The main problem for local societies is a lack of people and thus lack of human capital, and in remote areas and on small islands school closure is a sign of a community in the final phase of the death process, not a cause.     

MULTIMEDIA PEDAGOGY AND MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM

New technologies provide tools to reconstruct education as we begin a new millennium. In particular, multimedia technologies, like CD‐ROMs and Web sites, produce new resources and material for expanding education. In examining the Shoah Project—which documents the experiences of survivors of the Holocaust—we demonstrate how it provides important tools for historical and religious education, as well as making the reality of the Holocaust vivid and compelling in the contemporary moment. In this context we discuss how multimedia can provide an important supplement to multicultural education, bringing the experiences of marginal and oppressed groups to the mainstream. Yet we also argue that effective multimedia education requires historical contextualization, the skills of media literacy, and engaging pedagogical presentation in the classroom to make it effective as a supplement to traditional classroom and print‐based education. We show how educational technologies, such as those produced by the Shoah Foundation and the UCLA Film and Television Archives, can help reconstruct education for the twenty‐first century.     

Between-school variation in physical activity,aerobic fitness,and organized sports participation: A multi-level analysis

Abstract

A large proportion of a child's day is spent at school interacting with certain physical surroundings, teachers, and school friends. Thus, schools could have a marked impact on establishing physical activity habits. The aim of the present study was to assess between-school variation in physical activity, aerobic fitness, and organized sports participation. Altogether, we tested 1766 nine- and fifteen-year-old children attending 242 school classes at 35 different schools in Denmark in 1997–2003. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for objectively assessed physical activity ranged between 0.06 and 0.18 depending on the dimension of physical activity and the time considered (i.e. school time vs. leisure time). For aerobic fitness, an ICC of 0.10 was observed, whereas that for organized sports participation ranged between 0.01 and 0.10 depending on the age group. Studying between-school variation in physical activity provides information about the extent to which children adjust their physical activity habits according to the social and environmental circumstances that they share, and helps to plan future school-based physical activity studies, especially in terms of sample size and power calculation.     

Uncovering contents of mentor teachers' interactive cognitions during mentoring dialogues

In the context of developing mentor teachers' use of supervisory skills, two consecutive studies were conducted, using stimulated recall. Firstly, with eight participants, an instrument was developed to categorize contents of interactive cognitions. Secondly, with 30 participants, the instrument was applied to uncover contents of mentor teachers' interactive cognitions, before and after training in supervisory skills. After training, mentor teachers demonstrate an increased awareness of their use of supervisory skills. This indicates that mentor teachers not only seem to emphasize pupil learning and needs when conducting a mentoring dialogue, but simultaneously focus on their own supervisory behaviour.     

Formal and informal interorganizational learning within strategic alliances

Learning behaviors of employees can be either formalized (in the form of programmed events and visits) or informal (in the form of spontaneous interaction and knowledge sharing). We investigate the effect that both types of learning behaviors have on interorganizational learning of substantive knowledge in the context of an alliance. We also look at the effects that the two forms of learning behavior have on each other. We find that while informal learning behaviors have a consistently positive effect on the learning outcome and on formal learning behaviors, this is not so for formal learning behaviors. The effect of formal behaviors on both learning outcome and informal behaviors, while positive, diminishes at higher levels. This leads us to conclude that although both informal and formal learning behaviors foster interorganizational learning, too much formalization obstructs learning. Similarly, while formally programmed behaviors do encourage informal learning behaviors of the boundary spanners, an excess of formalization stifles them.     

Editorial introduction

Editorial introduction