‘What do you call the dull words?’ Primary school children using corpus‐based approaches to learn about language

This article reports on a study in progress which is exploring the potential for teaching Key Stage 2 pupils about the grammar and vocabulary of English with materials based on an electronically stored corpus of texts and associated software. It includes examples of the teaching activities used and extracts of discussions between the researcher and two groups of pupils. It illustrates children beginning to explore the distinction between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ classes of words.     

Valuing the Arts: A Contingent Valuation Approach

Government funding of the arts has received considerable attention in the United States in recent years. Efforts to cut funding to the National Endowment for the Arts and declining budgets for state arts agencies have raised questions about how much individuals value the arts. This paper applies the contingent valuation method to assess this value, using surveys of random households and of arts patrons. Our analysis estimated a mean willingness to pay (WTP) among all Kentucky households from $6 to$27, depending on the estimation technique used and on whether the scenario discussed is to increase arts performances by 25 per cent, or to avoid a 25per cent or 50 per cent decrease in the number of performances. Among arts patron households, the mean WTP ranges from $61 to $132.Consumer demand for arts performances in large part follows a predictable pattern. The likelihood of respondents agreeing to make the donation that is requested rises as the size of the donation decreases. The likelihood is higher to avoid a 50 per cent decline in performances than to avoid a 25 percent decline in performances. The mean WTP rises with income, and arts patron households have a much higher WTP than all households. WTP rises with on-site use factors such as frequency of attendance. The WTP also rises for arts patrons households with off-site use such as watching arts events on television or reading about the arts in newspapers and magazines.     

Combining a human performance model and a Six Sigma model to assess performance in a military environment

Military officials continually search for improvements in processes that focus on high‐performance outcomes. This qualitative study investigated process improvements of two departments within the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center (the Security Department and the Testing Department) by assessing performance levels of the two departments using a combinatorial model from human performance theory and Six Sigma theory. Study findings produced strong empirical evidence with specific recommendations for initiating cost‐effective interventions for improvements. The Behavior Engineering Model was used to identify possible solutions to post‐training performance gaps identified during the evaluation.     

A queer circle of friends,indeed! The school social as intervention or as movement

The purpose of this paper to present two approaches intended to support the social lives of those typically on the borders of school life. Circles of friends (CoFs) was designed to assist students labelled with disabilities, while Gay-straight alliances (GSAs) addresses needs of supporting students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirited (gay/lesbian/bisexual First Nations people), queer and/or those questioning their sexual identity (LGBTTQQ). In laying out these approaches side by side, I argue that CoFs constitute a dis/abling pedagogy breed acquiescence, further pathologise students and create essentialised identification for all students. GSAs, in contrast, are constitutive of a queer pedagogy and promote active, agentive, healthy more complex identities. In short, CoFs are critiqued through GSAs and implications for inclusive schooling are explored.     

Exploring the relationship between supplementary schools and ‘cohesive communities’

The number of supplementary schools in England serving minority communities continues to grow. They are popular with the parents of such communities because they often feel their children are disadvantaged in mainstream schools and not afforded the opportunities or the learning environment that is conducive to their children achieving their full potential. Simultaneously, over the past 10 years or so there has been an increasing political focus on local communities and issues of cohesion; both of which were high priorities for the last government. Schools were viewed as key to helping the government deliver these political agendas. The current coalition government also foregrounds the role and responsibilities of communities as part of its ‘Big Society’ concept. This paper explores the positioning of supplementary schools in relation to notions of ‘cohesive communities’. It draws on findings from a study commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families on supplementary schools, which aimed to establish their level and type of provision, impact, and to a lesser degree, their role in the community and the cohesion agenda.     

Assessing mentoring in organizations: an evaluation of commercial mentoring instruments

The purpose of this article is to inform readers about the types of instruments available for assessing and improving mentoring in organizations. Extensive review of the psychological, business and medical literature was conducted to identify commercially published, practitioner‐oriented instruments. All of the instruments that were identified – including the Alleman mentoring activities questionnaire, Mentoring in the moment, Mentoring skills assessment, and Principles of adult mentoring scale – are evaluated herein. Each instrument’s target audience, raters, subscales, response options, psychometric properties, and relative strengths and weaknesses are described. Although these instruments are reported to be used extensively, evidence of their validity is not always available. This review presents information that, in combination with first‐hand inspection of the instruments, should enable practitioners to differentiate between instruments that may be a fit for their needs from those that are not. Furthermore, it may introduce academic readers to instruments that are not covered in the scholarly literature in spite of their common use for non‐research purposes.