THE RELATIONSHIP OF PARENTING STYLES TO COMMITMENT TO THE CHURCH AMONG YOUNG ADULTS

A survey of 653 Seventh‐day Adventist young adults, randomly distributed throughout the United States and Canada, compared their perceptions of the way their parents treated them as children with their present commitment to the church. Warm, caring behaviors from parents predicted strong religious commitment when the children entered adulthood. In the case of the mother it also predicted regularity in worship attendance. Of the four styles of parenting, “affectionate constraint,” a mixture of care and control, produced the largest percentage of enthusiastic members and the fewest drop‐outs.     

Adult Questions and Children's Responses: Coordination of perspectives in studies of children's theories of other minds

The main aim of this study is to shed light on the issue of how children learn to identify what is meant by what is said in communicative practices. The study replicates and extends the well-known work on what is referred to as children's 'theories of other minds'. The focus in the present study is on the interplay between the adult and the child, the nature of the task and the child's position in the communicative encounter. Rather than assuming that children have or do not have 'theories of other minds', we explore the communicative conditions under which children can be made sensitive to the nature of other people's (mistaken) beliefs. The empirical work was carried out amongst children aged three to five, since this is the critical age at which it is claimed that children become sensitive to the fact that other people's perspectives of a situation may differ from their own. The results show that whether or not children 'are able' to adopt other people's perspectives is very much a situated affair and reflects the manner in which they are brought into a position where they can share the framing of the adult. The questions posed are interpreted differently by the children in ways that go beyond the intended difference that concerns perspectivity. The test situation is polysemous in many respects and the variation in responses cannot be reduced to such a simple distinction as the one implied in the theory of mind research paradigm, which represents a monological conception of communication.     

Socio-Political-Cultural Foundations of Environmental Education

Abstract

This research project identified concepts from the social sciences that are prerequisite for understanding or analyzing environmental issues. Concepts were identified through a review of social science textbooks and educational materials and through interviews with social scientists. A list of 57 concepts was sent to a validity panel to rate each concept for clarity, acceptability to environmental education, and importance to environmental education. Means and standard deviations were calculated. Results showed that the panelists generally thought the concepts were acceptable and important to environmental education. Concepts were then revised and 6 were added based on panelists' comments.     

Pre‐service Teachers’ Subject Knowledge of and Attitudes about Radioactivity and Ionising Radiation

This study focussed on secondary school (11–18 years) pre‐service teachers’ (n = 73) knowledge of and attitudes towards risks associated with alpha, beta, and gamma radiations. A multi‐method approach was used with physics, chemistry, biology, and history graduates undertaking the one‐year initial teacher training, Post Graduate Certificate in Education course at a university in central England. A novel research tool, involving interviews about real concrete contexts and first‐hand data collection with radioactive sources, was employed to gain insights into a sub‐set of the sample (n = 12) of pre‐service teachers’ subject knowledge of and attitudes towards risk. The subject knowledge of all the pre‐service teachers was also measured using a Certainty of Response Index instrument; multiple‐choice questions with associated confidence indicators. Although the physicists displayed the higher levels of knowledge, they also demonstrated limitations in their knowledge and held misconceptions such as irradiation being confused with contamination. Physics graduates hold more rational attitudes and a greater willingness to accept risk while the attitudes of graduates in the other subject disciplines are more disparate. These findings raise questions about the extent to which pre‐service science and history teachers have the knowledge necessary to teach this topic. The article concludes with discussion of the implications these findings have for initial teacher training, continuing professional development needs for teachers already in the profession, and curriculum developers.     

Technology and Practical Humanism

Abstract

The paper describes how the Éiducâble service was set up in France around the three active principles of a national film bank, a telematic server, and educational marketing. It looks at the location of the sites, the operation of the service, its use, and its economics. It then mentions the Nord/Pas‐de‐Calais? ? This is fully described in Antoine Filippi's paper, ‘Teaching by Cable ‐ in the Nord/Pas‐de‐Calais Region’. project and how this can be used as an example for developing similar systems throughout the country.

     

Constructing the Good Teacher in Higher Education: The discursive work of standards

Professional development for academics in higher education is increasingly important in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Promoting better teaching practices through professional development is part of the drive for quality and excellence. However, the focus has been on teaching as a "technical" activity, defined as competence in a particular domain of practice. This has obscured the social and discursive practices through which a very particular sort of teacher identity is produced. It is possible, therefore, to examine the ways in which the standards of competence operate to normalise and fashion what it means to be a "good teacher". In this article, we examine extracts from course documentation produced by a UK university through which the professional standards of those working in higher education are being constituted. Our focus is not the quality of these particular materials but the work the documentation performs in building up a particular notion of what characterises a professional teacher in higher education.     

Reflections on self‐directed adult learning: some implications for educators of adults

Self‐directed learning has attracted intense interest among researchers, theoreticians and practitioners in adult education and human resource development. This paper explores some general reasons for this, before examining several different perspectives on self‐directed adult learning. The main theme is that attention needs now to be focused less on process and more on the self‐directed learner. The key element in self‐directed learning, it is argued, is reflection. This concept is analysed and implications drawn for the educator of adults.     

EFFECTS OF AGE AND INSTRUCTIONS ON TEACHING OLDER ADULTS TO USE ELDERCOMM,AN ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM

This study focused on how to train older adults to perform computer procedures. Young-old (aged 60 74 years) and old-old (aged 75 years and older) adults were instructed on how to use ELDERCOMM , an electronic bulletin board system using one of two types of text-based instructions. The first set of directions consisted of illustrated, step-by-step instructions (simple condition). The second set of directions included the same step-by-step instructions as in the first set, but explanatory information about how the bulletin board system worked was added before the