Insights into teacher learning about pedagogy from an international group of teachers of students with severe intellectual disabilities

This article examines teacher professional learning about pedagogy for teachers of students with severe intellectual disabilities within broader teacher education and pedagogical frameworks for this group of learners. The article presents and discusses findings from a USA–England research project, involving classroom observations and interviews with nine teachers of students with severe intellectual disabilities from four specialist public school settings, intended to explore teachers’ pedagogical decision-making and learning. The theoretical lens of situated learning and the conceptual lens of evidence-based practice are used to contextualise and examine the teachers’ views about the what, how and when they learn about pedagogical approaches and strategies. Teachers emphasised the situated and interactional nature of their learning, particularly highlighting the personal responses of students and their relationship with these students. They use this knowledge and understanding to adapt evidence-based strategies and programmes and inform their pedagogical decisions. This affords the concepts of ‘situated generalization’ and ‘practice based evidence’ an influential role in how teachers engage in the process of pedagogical decision-making. An implication for teacher educators is the need to support teachers in making connections of new pedagogical understandings and skills with the individual learning profiles and responses of their students with severe intellectual disabilities.     

Ohio Regional Depositories: Moving from Warehousing Separate Collections to Servicing Shared Collections

In Ohio, the space needs of campus libraries are changing just as book depositories are filling up. In response to this situation, the university libraries are re-examining the depositories to see if the space can be used even more efficiently, the funding distributed more predictably, and the services standardized and expanded. The Northeastern Ohio Cooperative Regional Library Depository has a plan to rethink the space in the depository, redefine the collection housed there in terms of ownership and access, and to repurpose the depository from a warehouse model to a service-centered model. The Northeastern Ohio Regional Library Depository plan and its anticipated role in changing the way that contributing libraries statewide assess depository collections and provide for access to those collections is the focus of this paper.     

English language learners with reading-related LD: linking data from multiple sources to make eligibility determinations

Results are reported for an exploratory study of eligibility decisions made for 21 Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) with learning disabilities (LD) and no secondary disabilities who received special education support in reading. Eligibility determinations by an expert panel resulted in decisions that differed significantly from those of school multidisciplinary teams. The panel agreed that some students appeared to have reading-related LD (n = 5) but also identified students that they believed had disabilities, but not necessarily reading-related LD (n = 6). Another group of students (n = 10) had learning problems that the panel believed could be attributed to factors other than LD or for whom substantive additional data would be required to validate eligibility. Issues associated with referral, assessment, and eligibility determinations for ELLs are discussed, and recommendations for improving practice are offered, with an emphasis on the importance of linking data from multiple sources when deciding whether ELLs qualify for special education.     

Clinico-histologic conferences: histology and disease

Providing a context for learning information and requiring learners to teach specific content has been demonstrated to enhance knowledge retention. To enhance students' appreciation of the role of science and specifically histology in clinical reasoning, disease diagnosis, and treatment, a new teaching format was created to provide clinical context, promote integration and application of science knowledge, and to foster peer teaching and learning: the Clinico-Histologic Conference (CHC) for the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Histology course. Teams of six students were each assigned specific disease processes and were charged with creating oral presentations and handouts that taught their classmates about the clinical manifestations, etiopathogeneses, diagnoses, and treatments of the assigned processes, along with comparisons of normal histology to the pathology of the disease. Each team also created four questions, some of which were used on Histology written examinations. The physician facilitator evaluated the presentation and handouts. About two-thirds of students agreed the CHC enhanced appreciation of the importance of histology, provided a context for integration and application of basic science to patient care and enhanced their ability to teach their peers. Student feedback demonstrated that the CHCs were successful in promoting teamwork, peer teaching, and the application of histology to diagnose diseases. The authors believe that teaching basic science content in this new format enhanced student learning and application of medical knowledge, and that this new teaching format can be adopted by other medical school courses.     

To refer or not to refer: Evaluation for special education

The authors are with the School of Education, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL.     

Court-Defined Job Analysis Requirements for Validation of Teacher Certification Tests

What are the implications for teacher certification tests as courts begin to interpret the need for using a job analysis as a basis for testing? What is the character of recent court cases related to teacher certification tests?     

5. Radio and Television

ANCHORS: BROKAW, JENNINGS, RATHER AND THE EVENING NEWS by Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg (New York: Birch Lane/Carol Publishing, 1990—$19.95, ISBN 1-55972-019-0, 399 pp.)

FDR AND THE NEWS MEDIA by Betty Houchin Winfield, 1990—$34.95, ISBN 0-252-01672-6, 276 pp.) takes a broad view of the legendary president and his administration's varied relations with the press throughout his presidency (1933-45)

FOREIGN POLICY AND THE PRESS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES' COVERAGE OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY by Nicholas 0. Berry (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990—$39.95, ISBN 0-313-27419-3, 184 pp.)

SOB SISTER JOURNALISM by Phyllis Leslie Abramson (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990—$35.00, ISBN 0-313-26513-5, 144 pp.)

THE COURSE OF TOLERANCE: FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IN NINETEENTH–CENTURY AMERICA by Donna Lee Dickerson (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990—$45.00, ISBN 0-313-27534-3, 272 pp.)     

Scholarly Communication

MAKERS OF THE MEDIA MIND: JOURNALISM EDUCATORS AND THEIR IDEAS edited by William David Sloan (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1990—$49.95/27.50, ISBN 0-8058-0698-9 hard, 0-8058-0699-7 paper, 357 pp.)

LIBRARIES AND SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION IN THE UNITED STATES: THE HISTORICAL DIMENSION edited by Phyllis Dain and John Y. Cole (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1990—$37.95, ISBN 0-313-26807-X, 164 pp.)

SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION AND BIBLIOMETRICS edited by Christine L. Borgman (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1990—$38.00, ISBN 0-8039-3879-9, 363 pp.)     

CLOTHING PREFERENCES OF OLDER WOMEN: IMPLICATIONS FOR GERONTOLOGY AND THE AMERICAN CLOTHING INDUSTRY

This paper reports the findings of a study investigating the clothing preferences and problems of older women. The sample consisted of thirty women age 65 years and over who were members of two clubs in Tallahassee, Florida. Personal interviews were conducted by the researcher in the home of each respondent.

Style features discovered to be preferred were A‐line skirts; princess, A‐line, and shift dresses; V‐necklines; convertible collars; long with cuff, three‐quarter length, and short sleeve styles. Color preferences revealed blue as the most popular color for clothing. Implications of the research for gerontologists in higher education and for the American clothing industry are cited and discussed.