Using cultural historical activity theory to uncover praxis for inclusive education

This paper explores ways in which cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) provides a useful framework for examination of reflection and action during inclusive education fieldwork. Deeper understanding of combined reflection and action – praxis – is needed for researchers and teacher educators to support teacher candidates’ implementation of inclusive practices. We present a framework that includes core components of CHAT and potential insights these elements can bring to describing, analysing, or facilitating praxis during fieldwork. In particular, we discuss affordances of identifying activity systems, examining tool appropriation, and discovering tensions in teacher fieldwork. Examples based on evidence from two studies applying a CHAT lens to inclusive education fieldwork are embedded throughout the paper to illustrate the utility of this approach.     

Measuring the severity of child maltreatment

OBJECTIVE: The purpose was to identify different operational definitions of maltreatment severity, and then to examine their predictive validity. METHOD: Children and their primary caregivers participating in a consortium of ongoing longitudinal studies were interviewed when they were approximately 4 and 8 years of age to assess behavior problems, and developmental and psychological functioning. Four different severity definitions were identified and applied to 519 children who were reported for alleged maltreatment between Birth and the Age 8 interview. A taxonomy for defining maltreatment characteristics (Barnett, Manly, & Cicchetti, 1993) was applied to Child Protective Service records to define severity as (a) Maximum Severity within each of five maltreatment types, (b) Overall Maximum Severity across the five types, (c) Total Severity or the sum of the maximum severity for each of five types, and (d) Mean Severity or the average severity for those types of maltreatment alleged, during each of two time periods-Birth to Age 4, and Age 4 to Age 8. RESULTS: Regression analyses that controlled for socio-demographic factors, early maltreatment (Birth to Age 4), prior functioning (Age 4), and site revealed that (a) all four severity definitions for maltreatment reports between Age 4 and Age 8 predicted Age 8 behavior problems, (b) Maximum Severity by Type and Mean Severity predicted adaptive functioning at Age 8, and (c) only Maximum Severity by Type was related to anger, at Age 8. Follow-up regression analyses indicated that only Maximum Severity by Type, specifically physical abuse, accounted for outcomes, beyond maltreatment occurrence versus non-occurrence. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that maltreatment severity definitions that preserve ratings within types of maltreatment may be the optimal approach to measure the severity of children's experiences.     

An Interview Protocol and Scoring Rubric for Evaluating Teacher Performance

This paper introduces an interview protocol, administration procedures, and scoring rubric for evaluating teacher performance. Procedures used to develop and adminis ter the protocol and scoring rubric and subsequent validity and reliability studies are reported. All evidence suggests that the protocol and scoring rubric are aligned with professional standards and focus on a teacher's assessment of and ability to modify instruction to improve student learning. These findings support the viability of the interview protocol as an effective method of evaluating teacher performance.     

Written feedback: Response certitude and durability

This study tested assumptions of a servocontrol model of test item feedback. High school students responded to multiple-choice items and rated their certainty of correctness in each response. Next, learners either received feedback on the items or responded again to the same test. The same items were tested again after 1 and 8 days, with the order to alternatives randomized for half of the subjects in each feedback group. The results generally supported the control model and suggest that response certitude estimates can be treated as an index of comprehension.     

Tests of the conditioned reinforcement value of sequential stimuli in pigeons

Egger and Miller (1962) hypothesized that the conditioned reinforcing value of stimuli depends on their information value. Egger and Miller and others have tested this hypothesis by comparing the conditioned reinforcing value of S1 and S2 following S1-S2-reward training. However, none of these experiments have controlled for differential generalization of conditioned reinforcement value from training to comparison tests. That is, the S1 cue pattern during the conditioned reinforcement tests has been very similar to the S1 cue pattern of training, while the training and test S2 cue patterns have been quite dissimilar. In Experiment 1, pigeons in a procedure unconfounded by differential generalization produced S2 reliably more frequently than S1, and pigeons in a confounded procedure produced S1 somewhat more frequently than S2. A significant groups × stimuli interaction was attributed to differential stimulus generalization from training to test for S1 and S2 in the confounded condition. In Experiment 2, pigeons in an unconfounded procedure again produced S2 reliably more frequently under a different testing procedure. The results are interpreted as demonstrating that, following S1-S2-food training trials, S2 is the more effective conditioned reinforcer in unconfounded conditions. A reconceptualization of the information hypothesis is shown to be consistent with these results.     

A pluralist view of generalization in qualitative research

A common way of discussing generalisation is to search for one conception – a monist view. Another approach is to create a dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative research, each having a single definition – a dualist perspective. A pluralist view is argued for here, i.e. the existence of several lines of reasoning, each of which can be evaluated in specific cases in terms of usefulness, strengths and weaknesses. Five different lines of reasoning about generalization, which could possibly be useful in qualitative research, are presented. They are: ‘studies that undermine established universal “truths”’, ‘the ideographic study’, ‘enhancing the generalisation potential by maximizing variation’, ‘generalisation through context similarity’ and ‘generalisation through recognition of patterns.’ Each is critically commented on.     

Foreign and International Communication

Approaches to Communication Planning edited by John Middleton (1980, 300 pp.)

Communication Planning for Development: An Operational Framework by Alan Hancock (1981, 198 pp.)

Impact of Modern Communication Technology I: Australia, by Chris Duke (n.d., 122 pp.)

Impact of Modern Communication Technology II: Indonesia (n.d., 72 pp)

Flow of News in the Gulf, by Phil Harris, et al. (n.d., 70 pp.)

Protection of Journalists (no author, n.d., but 142 pp.)

82. The Book in Multilingual Countries by Abul Masan (1978, 40 pp.)

83. National Communication Polic Councils: Principles and Experiences by M.A. Rodrigues Dias, et al. (1979. 44 pp.)

84. Mass Media: The Image, Role, and Social Conditions of Women: A Collection and Analysis of Research Materials (1979, 78 pp.)

85. News Values and Principles of Cross-Cultural Communication (1980, 51 pp.)

(86) Special Issue: Mass Media Codes of Ethics and Councils: A Comprehensive International Study on Professional Standards by J. Clement Jones (1980, 80 pp.)

87. Communication in the Community (this title not yet seen)

88. Rural Journalism in Africa by Paul Ansah, et al. (1981, 35 pp.)

89. The SACl/EXERN Project in Brazil: An Analytical Case Study by Emile G. Mc- Anany et al. (1981, 46 pp.)

90. Community Communications: The Role of Community Media in Development by Frances Berrigan (1981, 50 pp.)

1. Historical Development of Media Systems–Japan by Shinichi Ito, et al. (1979, 69 pp.)

2. Historical Development of Media Systems–German Democratic Republic by Emil Dusiska (1979, 35 pp.)

3. Communication Indicators I: Communication Indicators and Indicators of Socio-Economic Development by Rita Cruise O'Brien, et al. (1979, 96 pp.)

4. Communication Indicators II: 100 Years of Mass Communication in Germany by Anton Galli, et al. (1979, 28 pp.)

5. Sccio-Economic and CommunicatioA Indicators in Development Planning: A Case Study of Iran by Majid Tehranian (n.d., 126 pp.)

6. Communication Methods to Promote Grass-Roots Participation by Jeremiah O'Sullivan-Ryan (n.d., 155 pp.)

7. Importation of Films for Cinema and Television in Egypt by Gehan Rachty (n.d., 77 pp.)

Reporting of International News and Roles of the Gatekeepers (1980) is a summary of two late 1979 meetings on the subject in Paris. (18 pp.)

Intergovernmental Conference on Communication Policies in Africa (1981, 81 pp. plus 47 page working paper for same meeting)

Intergovernmental Conference for Co-operation on Activities, Needs and Programmes for Communication Development (1980, 65 pp. plus 32 page working paper)

List of Documents and Publications in the Field of Mass Communication 1979 (no. 5 in the series, 1980, 187 pp.)

Mass Media and the Transnational Corporation by Basskaran Nair (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1980—$12.50/7.50)

Mass Media and National Cultures, by the International Association for Mass Communication Research (Leicester, U.K.: Adam Bros., and Shardlow Ltd., 1980—price not known, paper)

Organisations Internationales et Regionales de Journalistes [International and Regional Organizations of Journalists] (Prague: International Organization of Journalists, 1980—price, if any, not given, paper)

Bruce L. Cook, Understanding Pictures in Papua New Guinea (David C. Cook Foundation, Cook Square, Elgin, Ill. 60120—$8.95, paper)

Paul Lendvai, The Bureaucracy of Truth: How Communist Governments Manage the News (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1981—$24.75)     

The Korean government's electronic record management reform: The promise and perils of digital democratization

Recently, the Korean government instituted a reform in its archives with the goal of increasing transparency in government and meeting the challenges of the new digital environment in records management. President Roh's administration focused on a “process and system” reform through a shift from paper-based records management to electronic records management. The E-jiwon task management system of the Office of the President, invented by President Roh himself, served as the archetype for the reform. This study explores and critiques the administration's choice of a “process and system” reform over institutional reform, examines the legal framework used to enact the reform and its shortcomings, and analyzes the benefits and deficiencies of the E-jiwon as a tool for democracy in the archives. It concludes that while the new digital environment can assist in promoting government transparency, technological change by itself is inadequate; ultimately, institutional change is necessary for true reform.