Issues in Component Computing: A Synthetic Review

This paper provides a review of the rhetoric behind the component movement in educational software, and a critical analysis and synthesis of issues underlying the movement. We draw on case studies of several significant recent component projects in order to assess claims and to uncover and examine issues that are less often considered. While our empirical base cannot definitively answer all the questions raised, we hope to bring some clarity and some empirically based judgments to bear on how a promising technological innovation can best serve educational ends. Our study led to a focus on three critical issues: (1) the nature of the environment in which components are configured and used; (2) the extent of modifiability that is necessary for effective re-use of components; (3) how the work of designing components and component configurations is distributed among people with different competencies.     

Comparison of a behavioral model of physicians' drug product choice decision with pharmacists' product choice recommendations: A study of the choice for the treatment of panic disorder

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the decision process for physicians and pharmacists when considering medications to treat patients with panic disorder. A second‐order confirmatory factor analysis modeling physicians' prescribing influences revealed high factor loadings for efficacy considerations and side effects in conjunction with patient characteristics. A multisample analysis using the physician model revealed that pharmacists also consider the same factors important. Both health care professionals were concerned about the patient's quality of care, recovery, and medication efficacy.     

THE IMPACT OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ON FACULTY COMPENSATION IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

This study examines the impact of collective bargaining on faculty compensation at two‐year colleges over the period 1970‐81. The results show that faculty at unionized community colleges have not experienced significantly greater increases in compensation than their nonunionized brethren. In fact, the nonunion institutions actually experienced higher relative gains in compensation for the first three years after the unionized colleges first engaged in collective bargaining.     

Construction of “glocal” (global–local) identity among Israeli graduate students in the USA

Abstract This study focuses on the effect of doctoral and postdoctoral studies at leading research universities in the USA on constructing the academic identity of Israeli students. The findings are based on constant comparative analysis of semi-structured interviews with 27 Fulbright alumni. The results show that while American scientific standards become a model for the Israeli scientists, Israeli culture and identity become much more evident, for better or worse. Several ways of handling these identities were recognized and include: the intertwine method, ordering, and buffering. Further theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Lay experts and the politics of breast implants

This paper discusses the controversy around breast implants in the United States and Europe. It focuses on the emergence of consumer and support groups for women and offers an analysis of the role they have played in recent policy developments in UK and Europe. The politics of breast implants is seen as a politics of knowledge in which scientific expertise has consistently been deployed in ways that minimize the credibility and legitimacy of women's accounts of their bodies and illness experiences. These women have been doubly disadvantaged in a policy debate that turns on scientific controversy and uncertainty. This implies a gendered dynamic to the changing relations of knowledge and expertise. The paper contributes to an understanding of the relations between regulators, manufacturers, users, and clinicians in the global medical device industry and to wider debates around the public understanding of science.     

Guest Editorial

Editorial Board

Guest Editorial     

Being sloppy about slope: The effect of changing the scale

What is the slope of a(linear) function? Due to the ubiquitous use of mathematical software, this seemingly simple question is shown to lead to some subtle issues that are not usually addressed in the school curriculum. In particular, we present evidence that there exists much confusion regarding the connection between the algebraic and geometric aspects of slope, scale and angle. The confusion arises when some common but undeclared default assumptions, concerning the isomorphism between the algebraic and geometric systems, are undermined. The participants in the study were 11^th-grade students, prospective and in-service secondary mathematics teachers, mathematics educators and mathematicians — a total of 124 people. All participants responded to a simple but non-standard task, concerning the behavior of slope under a non-homogeneous change of scale. Analysis of the responses reveals two main approaches, which we have termed ‘analytic’ and ‘visual’, as well as some combinations of the two.