Foreign Communication (Specific Countries)

Gertrude Joch Robinson and Donald F. Theall's Studies in Canadian Communications (Montreal: McGill University Department of English, 1975—price not known, paper)

Multilingual Broadcasting in the 1970s

A.C.H. Smith's Paper Voices: The Popular Press and Social Change, 1935-1965 (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975—$12.50)

Television Advertising Conditions in Europe No. 4: Cyrus, Greece, Italy

R.K. Chatterjee Mass Communication: India, the Land and People (New Delhi: National Book Trust, 1973—R9.75 or about $1.25)     

An Examination of Coursera as an Information Environment: Does Coursera Fulfill its Mission to Provide Open Education to All?

In terms of international education, the concept of online education seems to be a growing trend. Edxonline.org, Minervaproject.com, and Udacity.com are all new massive online open courses (MOOCs)—education websites similar to Coursera offering students the ability to receive the best education from elite universities entirely online. The most tantalizing promise of a company like Coursera is the role it might play in improving education for the world's have-nots: high school dropouts, the global poor, and those less able to self-teach.     

Taking sides in the war on news: exploring curvilinear associations and group differences related to perceptions of news media as threat

ABSTRACT

The free press performs essential democratic functions, but widespread negative attitudes toward the press threaten its legitimacy and effectiveness as a check on formal institutions. In order to combat these attitudes, media organizations must understand who holds them and why. A survey-based study of U.S. adults (N?=?2052) focuses on associations between perceptions of the news media industry as a threat to political performance and a range of politically oriented behaviors (i.e. news media exposure, political talk, political participation). Analyses reveal a series of non-monotonic relationships. Group differences between those who hold the most extreme views concerning news-media-as-threat are also explored. The opposing groups are distinct in some important ways (e.g. ideology, race), but are also found to be surprisingly similar (e.g. income, education, gender, news media exposure). The results suggest new strategies for maintaining and restoring confidence in media organizations.     

Partnership as an Intervention Strategy in Self-Managing Schools

The alternatives of taking over failing schools or handing over resources for them to develop their own improvement strategies are recognized as ineffective in achieving improvement. When deciding how best to intervene in 26 self-managing schools, the Ministry of Education in New Zealand attempted to avoid the negative consequences of these alternatives by developing a partnership with the schools and their communities. This article documents both the difficulties experienced in the first intervention phase, dominated by concerns about respecting the schools’ autonomy, and the successes of the second phase, when the Ministry was more explicit about the school improvement tasks.     

Exploring Prospective Teachers’ Worldviews and Conceptions of Nature of Science

This study explores the relationship, if any, between an individual’s culturally based worldviews and conceptions of nature of science. In addition, the implications of this relationship (or lack of relationship) for science teaching and learning are discussed. Participants were 54 Taiwanese prospective science teachers. Their conceptions of nature of science and their worldviews specific to humans’ relationship with the natural world were assessed using two open‐ended questionnaires in conjunction with follow‐up interviews. Their understandings of nature of science were classified into informed and naïve categories based upon contemporary views of these constructs and those stressed in international reform documents. An anthropocentric–naturecentric continuum emerged and is used to explain the participants’ views about humans’ relationship with Nature. Participants who recognized the limitations of scientific knowledge, and accept the idea that science involves subjective and cultural components, were more likely to emphasize harmony with Nature. In contrast, participants who possessed narrow views about the scientific enterprise and described science as close to technology and as of materialistic benefit tended to provide an anthropocentric perspective regarding the human–Nature relationships. The findings illustrate the interplay between participants’ sociocultural beliefs and conceptions of nature of science. Concisely, people with different worldviews may have concurrently different views about nature of science. The study suggests the need for incorporating sociocultural perspectives and nature of science in the science curriculum.     

The Usefulness of Time Lines in Learning Chronological Relationships in Text Materials

Methodological problems, have limited the usefulness of findings from experiments into learning by discovery. By using programmed instruction materials, a within-class design, and other controls, an attempt was made to remove confounding. Two tasks were used: concept learning and principle learning. For each task, a separate 2x2x2 factorial design containing sixteen Ss in each cell was used. Independent variables were instructional method (egrule and ruleg), school grade (9 and 5), and intelligence (high and average). A set of eight different measures, involving retention, transfer, and ease of relearning, was used for each task. It was found that the egrule and ruleg methods did not differ significantly, and that interaction between instructional method and the other variables was low.     

Value Differences Among Public High School Teachers Using a Regression Model Analysis of Variance Technique

This study examined outcomes of a supervision practicum in which graduate students supervised under-graduates in teacher education during microteaching activities and studied their supervisory behavior using videotape replays of conferences with teacher-trainees. Pre- and post-measures were used to assess changes in conference style as reflected by verbal behavior, and changes in the relationship between conference dialogues and subsequent teaching behavior. Supervisors shifted toward more indirect-supportive conference styles. Conclusions were that videotaped microteaching can be adapted to improve supervisor education by 1.) providing realistic supervisory experience, 2.) serving as a vehicle to modify the conference behavior of potential supervisors, and 3.) serving as a research vehicle for accumulating new knowledge and testing current theories concerning the process of supervision.