Childbirth educators, doulas, nurses, and women respond to the six care practices for normal birth

This collection of commentaries by childbirth educators, doulas, a labor and delivery nurse, and a woman preparing for the birth of her second baby provide an overall response to all six of Lamaze International's care practice papers that promote normal birth: Labor Begins on Its Own; Freedom of Movement throughout Labor; Continuous Labor Support; No Routine Interventions; Non-Supine (e.g., Upright or Side-Lying) Positions for Birth; and No Separation of Mother and Baby with Unlimited Opportunity for Breastfeeding. Strategies for using the position papers to facilitate learning in childbirth classes and for helping expectant parents access and understand research are presented. The commentaries describe the value of the position papers as a catalyst for professional growth, a foundation for creating change, a way to encourage reflection among professionals and women planning for the births of their babies, and an inspiration for everyone who advocates normal birth.     

Fostering intellectual development of students in professional schools through interdisciplinary coursework

General Education requirements, active learning, and interdisciplinary coursework are key concepts related to the renewed interest in giving students a more coherent, more meaningful undergraduate education. Although rhetoric grows apace on innovations in the undergraduate curriculum, little research has been completed on the relationship between intellectual growth of students and innovations in general education. This study is an examination of the relationship between intellectual growth and interdisciplinary general education courses designed to promote lifelong learning. In particular, the study looks at the impact of this curriculum on students in the professional schools at the University. Most students in the sample demonstrated significant growth and had taken on new perspectives, had adopted new ways of dealing with information, and had become more open to new ways of learning.Sheila P. Wright directs and teaches in the All-University Curriculum at the University of Hartford. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Wright is particularly interested in how general or liberal education affects the perceptions and behaviors of students.     

Changing legislation and its effects on inclusive and special education: Scotland

This article, by Sheila Riddell and Elisabet Weedon of the Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity, University of Edinburgh, analyses recent policy developments and outcomes in the field of additional support needs in Scotland in the context of devolution and austerity, drawing on a critical analysis of policy and administrative data. While there is a growing tendency in Scottish policy discourse to ‘decentre’ England as a main point of comparison, in the field of special and additional support needs policy there appear to be strong correspondences between the two jurisdictions. England appears to be following Scotland's lead in producing new types of statutory support plans and placing greater emphasis on children's rights. At the same time, these policy changes are being implemented in different policy contexts, with homogenous governance arrangements characterising the Scottish school system, compared with increasing complexity within the English system. In terms of the growth of the category of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD in Scotland, BESD in England) there are strong cross‐border parallels. Children in these categories tend to live in deprived areas and are unlikely to have statutory support plans. Overall, this indicates the importance of analysing not just policy discourse, but also policy outcomes.     

Using Groups to Change the Department Head Role: An organization development case

This article presents a case study of selection for graduate study at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) in the Netherlands. The VU developed and implemented an assessment instrument for students with a vocational Bachelor degree wishing to pursue a Master’s programme at the university. This instrument is new in the egalitarian higher education culture of the Netherlands. It focuses on the differences between higher vocational and academic education and makes them measurable. The article will focus on some aspects of the implementation process, the results of the first round of evaluation and on implications for Dutch and other universities.     

The lost generation? the lack of competence in using information technology amongst postgraduate students of english entering initial teacher education

Abstract

This article analyses the lack of Information Technology (IT) competence in postgraduate students of English entering teacher training, by looking at IT provision in Scottish schools. Computers first appeared in Scottish Secondary schools between 1981 and 1983. It was considered a reasonable assumption that students entering teacher education, over a decade later, would be competent in IT. The results of this 3-year study show that this assumption was misplaced and considers possible reasons as to why the results were so disappointing. A questionnaire to graduates, who had attended school between 1987 and 1992 aimed to establish their exposure to IT in school and university and establish their confidence in using IT. The second phase of the study surveyed schools to establish whether or not the situation had changed since the policy recommendations made by Her Majesty's Inspectors (HMI) in 1987 and to consider the IT competence of English graduates who might train to be teachers in the year 2000.     

How do Revenue Variations Affect Expenditures Within U.S. Research Universities?

Using Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) figures on the 96 Research Extensive Institution in academic year 2007?C2008, we employ panel data from academic year 1984?C1985 to 2007?C2008 to identify revenue-expenditure relationships. Although we consider a wide range of functional expenditure categories, we focus our analysis on instructional and research expenditures because these categories tie most closely to the core missions of research universities. Results suggest tight relationships between some revenue and expenditure categories for some institutions. For public universities, these relationships tend to follow expected paths. For example, a large proportion of tuition revenues tend to be spent in the functional category of instruction. Private universities evidence a somewhat different pattern, with revenues generally expended in the pursuit of merit aid and research. This suggests that private universities strategically deploy revenues from a wide variety of sources to secure particular students and to conduct research activities. However, the ways in which universities and IPEDS classify faculty work raises some questions about the transparency of various categories, and suggests that some current conceptions of how revenues are expended on research and instruction functions may be less than straightforward.     

Five Years after Implementation: The Role of the District in Maintaining an Ongoing School Improvement Process

The longitudinal study reported here provides insight into the role of the school district in implementing and maintaining the essential elements of a nine‐year statewide improvement project called SPUR five years after the termination of state funding and external support. Key to the conceptualization of SPUR were findings from the comprehensive Rand Study (McLaughlin & Marsh, 1978) on successful change efforts emphasizing the importance of implementing an ongoing improvement process. On‐site visits to six districts and a follow‐up survey of all 66 participating school districts were used to determine maintenance of the process, factors facilitating/impeding maintenance, and long‐term benefits. Results suggest that SPUR represents a viable improvement process that can be implemented and maintained in districts and schools with positive outcomes. Individual and organizational efficacy as well as an increased capacity for change and innovation were found to be directly related to the level of district maintenance and support.     

A Competence-Based Science Learning Framework Illustrated Through the Study of Natural Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction

This article proposes a competence-based learning framework for science teaching, applied to the study of ‘big ideas’, in this case to the study of natural hazards and disaster risk reduction (NH&DRR). The framework focuses on new visions of competence, placing emphasis on nurturing connectedness and behavioral actions toward resilience and sustainability. The framework draws together competences familiarly expressed as cognitive knowledge and skills, plus dispositions and adds connectedness and action-related behaviors, and applies this by means of a progression shift associated with NH&DRR from abilities to capabilities. The target is enhanced scientific literacy approached through an education through science focus, amplified through the study of a big idea, promotion of sustained resilience in the face of disaster and the taking of responsibilities for behavioral actions. The framework is applied to a learning progression for each interrelated education dimension, thus serving as a guide for both the development of abilities and as a platform for stimulating student capabilities within instruction and assessment.     

Developmental foundations of physiological dynamics among mother–infant dyads: The role of newborn neurobehavior

This study tested whether newborn attention and arousal provide a foundation for the dynamics of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in mother–infant dyads. Participants were 106 mothers (M_age = 29.54) and their 7-month-old infants (55 males and 58 White and non-Hispanic). Newborn attention and arousal were measured shortly after birth using the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale. Higher newborn arousal predicted a slower return of infant RSA to baseline. Additionally, greater newborn attention predicted mothers’ slower return to baseline RSA following the still-face paradigm, and this effect only held for mothers whose infants had lower newborn arousal. These findings suggest that newborn neurobehavior, measured within days of birth, may contribute to later mother–infant physiological processes while recovering from stress.