Classroom materials

Five children and five families

Scholastic Book Series, 904 Sylvan Avenue Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 07632

The Bowmar nature series: The ways off plants

Bowmar Publishing Corporation 4563 Colorado Los Angeles, CA 90039

Science experiences for young children

Rosemary Althouse and Cecil Main, Jr. Teachers College Press Teachers College, Columbia University New York and London, 1975 1234 Amsterdam, N. Y. 10029

Walker Plays: Mythology Curriculum Associates 6 Henshaw Street Woburn. Mass. 01801     

The socially skilled teacher and the development of tacit knowledge

Skilled interpersonal relations are crucial for effective teaching and learning but much professional knowledge here is tacit and thus not easily communicated. This article presents the results of a study that examined the tacit knowledge of trainee and experienced teachers in relation to various problematic interpersonal aspects of school life. Trainee (n = 501) and experienced (n = 163) teachers in secondary schools were presented with a series of hypothetical vignettes and asked to rate each of 128 potential response options. Trainees completed the survey at the beginning and end of their professional training year. It was found that experience appeared to be related to the capacity to identify ‘bad’ responses, but there was little difference in relation to the identification of ‘good’ responses. Further differences between novice and experienced teachers in relation to preferred strategies are reported. Implications for teacher education and for future research are identified and discussed.     

Component processes of early reading, spelling, and narrative writing skills in Turkish: a longitudinal study

The study examined: (a) the role of phonological, grammatical, and rapid automatized naming (RAN) skills in reading and spelling development; and (b) the component processes of early narrative writing skills. Fifty-seven Turkish-speaking children were followed from Grade 1 to Grade 2. RAN was the most powerful longitudinal predictor of reading speed and its effect was evident even when previous reading skills were taken into account. Broadly, the phonological and grammatical skills made reliable contributions to spelling performance but their effects were completely mediated by previous spelling skills. Different aspects of the narrative writing skills were related to different processing skills. While handwriting speed predicted writing fluency, spelling accuracy predicted spelling error rate. Vocabulary and working memory were the only reliable longitudinal predictors of the quality of composition content. The overall model, however, failed to explain any reliable variance in the structural quality of the compositions.     

Framing democracy: stadium financing and civic paternalism in Test Market,USA

The vast majority of North America’s professional sport arenas, ballparks and stadiums are publicly subsidized without direct approval from voters. In this article, we examine the discursive constitution of ‘no-vote subsidies’ within the public sphere, and in particular problematize the twinned production(s) of citizenship and democratic process in framing public subsidization of these sites of private accumulation. To do this, we examine the recent no-vote subsidy occurring in Columbus, Ohio – thereby providing a context-specific interrogation of the mediations of participatory citizenship, political decision-making and the institution of democracy as related to sport stadium funding. As part of this analysis, we discuss the public production of civic paternalism – a political ideology focused on urban growth and unconcerned with future electoral consequences – in the Columbus arena financing case. We conclude the article with a call for increasing scholarly engagement in, and intervention into, the political processes that result in the public subsidization of professional sport venues.     

Meeting the information needs of clinicians for the practice of evidence-based healthcare

This article reports on clinicians’ use of library resources and the competencies they require to access information necessary for the practice of evidence-based healthcare. It is based on the results of a study commissioned by North Thames Region to identify the training needs of clinicians for the adoption and practice of evidence-based healthcare. Participants in this qualitative research study included librarians, clinicians (doctors, nurses and PAMs) and managers from four Acute and Community Trusts in and around London. The research indicates that the majority of clinicians recognize the need to keep up-to-date with changes in their specialty and many visit their libraries on a frequent basis, however, few appear to be searching for information with which to inform their immediate clinical decisions. Our sample acknowledged their low usage of journals such as Bandolier, the Health Effectiveness Bulletin and Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine. Similarly, low use of electronic databases, such as Cochrane and Cinahl, were reported. Examination of skill and self-efficacy levels in accessing and using information databases revealed wide variations across professions, specialities and Trusts. Qualitative research methods were employed to elicit the key competencies required to access clinically relevant research evidence, and a framework for integrating these competencies is presented.     

Current Developments in Patterns of Graduate Study

During recent years considerable attention has been given to an analysis of the changing patterns of graduate study in engineering. Reviews by the American Society for Engineering Education, the University of Chicago under a Carnegie Grant, and the Ford Foundation have been directed to the problem. A primary observation has indicated a trend towards greater diversity in patterns and a closer correlation with current requirements of research and development in industry and government. These patterns, including evening and various forms of off-campus training, are described and their effect on the nature of the graduate program is examined. The effect of direct and indirect industry support is analyzed, and the changing role of the faculty in cases where close coordination with industry exists is examined. Current trends are evidently enriching and strengthening the value of the graduate program, particularly through immediate contact by both student and faculty with research and development applications. There exist, however, a consequent overemphasis on immediate needs, and an ambiguity of long-range academic objectives. The critical financial needs of students, faculty, and engineering educational institutions are emphasized by the demands of new patterns and current high standards of academic endeavor.