THE EVOLUTION AND IMPACT OF PROGRAMME EVALUATION IN A NEW MEDICAL SCHOOL

While the purpose, theory and method of evaluation of educational programmes are well‐documented, there is little published evidence on the actual evaluation of higher professional educational programmes and their outcomes. This paper outlines the background and development of programme evaluation in a new institution of higher professional education. It outlines current programme monitoring activities and their effects, and identifies the urgent and feasible tasks to be undertaken in the methodologically difficult and politically sensitive area of outcome evaluation.     

Profanity as a Critical Variable in Counseling

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the use of profanity in counseling. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of three videotapes, two of which included profanity. The participants tended to give higher therapeutic ratings to sessions including both client-initiated and counselor-initiated profanity than to the session free of profanity. Results are presented in tabular form.     

“Frayed All Over:” The Causes and Consequences of Activist Burnout Among Social Justice Education Activists

Despite the growing body of scholarship on burnout among social justice activists who are working on a variety of issues, from labor rights to queer justice, little attention has been paid to burnout among those whose activism focuses on issues of educational justice. To begin to address this omission and understand what supports might help social justice education activists mitigate burnout and sustain their activism, we analyzed interview data from 14 activists focused on activist burnout and its implications on movements for educational justice.. This analysis identified 3 major symptom categories of activist burnout and we gained insights into the culture of martyrdom in social justice education movements. These symptoms and the culture of martyrdom, by negatively impacting the health and sustainability of activists, threaten the efficiency and effectiveness of educational justice movements.     

The Relation between Law and Morality: Children''s Reasoning about Socially Beneficial and Unjust Laws

This study investigated children's reasoning about laws and legal compliance. A total of 72 children, 24 each at 6, 8, and 10 years of age, made judgments of law evaluation ("Is it a good or bad law?"), legitimacy of legal regulation ("Is it OK or not for government to make a law?"), and law violation ("Is it OK or not for people to break the law?") for three socially beneficial laws (a traffic law, a vaccination law, and a law requiring compulsory education for children under 16) and three unjust laws (denial of education to a class of persons, denial of medical care to the poor, and age discrimination). Participants also evaluated the application of laws in conflict scenarios in which a socially beneficial law infringed on individual freedom. Results showed that children considered a number of factors in their judgments, including the perceived justice of the law, its socially beneficial purpose, and its potential for infringement on individual freedoms and rights. The findings showed that children apply moral concepts of harm, rights, and justice to evaluate laws and to inform their judgments of legal compliance.     

Fermat’s last theorem

After more than three centuries of effort by some of the best mathematicians, Gerhard Frey, J-P Serre, Ken Ribet and Andrew Wiles have finally succeeded in proving Fermat’s assertion that the equationX ⁿ + Yⁿ = Zⁿ has no solutions in non-zero integers ifn ≥ 3. Each of the four mathematicians made a decisive contribution with Wiles delivering thecoup de grace. The proof, as it finally came to be, is in some sense a triumph for Fermat.     

The Handicapped Children's Protection Act of 1986: time to pay the piper?

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), Public Law 94-142, provides for a free, appropriate public education for handicapped children, as well as due process procedures. However, the EAHCA does not directly address relief available to parents who successfully allege inappropriate actions by school. In this article, we examine case law that has provided three primary types of relief (injunctive relief, tuition reimbursement, and attorneys' fees) in special education lawsuits. The Supreme Court's decision in Smith v. Robinson, (1984) which removed attorneys' fees for action under the EAHCA, is analyzed. The congressional reaction to Smith v. Robinson and the Handicapped Children's Protection Act of 1986, Public Law 99-372, is described, and case law relying on that act is examined.     

Dynamical Patterns in the Development of Clapping

The development of a complex rhythmical behavior—clapping—is modeled using a formal, explicit model of coupled oscillator dynamics. Even though this behavior manifests a good deal of nonstationarity and high variability within and across subjects, results indicate that these properties may be dynamically modeled quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Results suggest that clapping goes through a less stable period of relative coordination between 3 and 7 years before more stable absolute coordination is achieved. Nevertheless, in that the clapping behavior is affected in highly predictable ways by inertial loading of the limbs, the same underlying dynamic seems responsible for the coordination of both the younger and older children. Developmentally, the behavior of the coordination variable (relative phase) changes from a nonconstant magnitude in younger clappers to a constant magnitude in older clappers. These results suggest that development of proficiency in rhythmic motor skills displays developmental changes that can be understood well in dynamical terms.     

Understanding the Impact of Accountability on Preservice Teachers’ Decisions About Where to Teach

Research has shown that individuals who become teachers are uniquely oriented to the psychic rewards of teaching such as connecting with students and making a difference. Yet, in the era of “No Child Left Behind”, emphasis upon test scores as indicators of student learning, competition within and between school districts, and threats of external sanctions seem to promote a different orientation to teachers’ work. This is especially the case in schools with limited human, social, physical, and cultural capital serving disproportionate numbers of low-income, racial/ethnic and linguistic minority students typically located in urban areas. Given the existing problem of teacher shortages in urban schools and the current impact of accountability, this study seeks to explore two questions: How do preservice teachers believe their aspirations to teach will be affected by the accountability movement? And how do these views affect their considerations about where to teach?