Strategic leadership of Teaching and Learning Centres: from reality to ideal

This paper reports on the third phase of a study of Australian Teaching and Learning Centres to identify factors that contribute to the effective strategic leadership of Centres. Focus groups at 10 Australian universities included 66 respondents, providing a diverse range of perspectives, from students to members of the university executive. Analysis of participant contributions extended findings from prior project phases and the wider literature. They also contributed to the final construction of the strategic leadership Teaching and Learning Centre maturity framework presented here. Centres remain in a state of flux, enduring regular reconfiguration. For most Centres, their level of interaction with students is low and increased engagement with students would be of benefit. Perceptions of Centres vary widely, reinforcing the importance of a strategic partnership between the University's Senior Executive, the Centre and faculties as a prerequisite for implementing identified high-impact strategies for improvement in teaching and learning.     

On the Meanings of Self‐Regulation: Digital Humanities in Service of Conceptual Clarity

Self‐regulation is of interest both to psychologists and to teachers. But what the word means is unclear. To define it precisely, two studies examined the American Psychological Association's system of controlled vocabulary—specifically, the 447 associated terms it presents—and used techniques from the Digital Humanities to identify 88 closely related concepts and six broad conceptual clusters. The resulting analyses show how similar ideas are interrelated: self‐control, self‐management, self‐observation, learning, social behavior, and the personality constructs related to self‐monitoring. A full‐color network map locates these concepts and clusters relative to each other. It also highlights some of the interests of different audiences, which can be described heuristically using two axes that have been labeled abstract versus practical and self‐oriented versus other‐oriented.     

Balancing academic and professional pedagogies: a comparative study of two accounting departments in South Africa and the UK

The paper adds to extant professional education literature by reflecting on apparent differences in pedagogy of similar professional programmes of study, allowing deeper insight into the unique strand of higher education influenced by the professions. A comparative international case study approach is adopted of an interpretive qualitative nature regarding curricular, teaching and learning and assessment strategies of an accounting department in South Africa (SA) and one in the UK. Findings point to significant differences in curriculum and assessment but less so in teaching and learning approaches. One department endeavoured to find a balance between vocational and academic activities, whilst the other favoured the former being inconsistent with both its governmental and institutional governing bodies. Explanations offered include differing strengths of coercive, competitive, mimetic and normative influence     

Does training matter? Comparing the behaviour management strategies of pre-service teachers in a four-year program and those in a one-year program

Survey-based research was conducted with Australian pre-service teachers to identify the classroom management strategies that they would employ, their confidence in employing them, and the effectiveness of the strategies. Furthermore, the study aimed to identify significant differences in these variables between pre-service teachers in the final year of a four-year teacher training course and pre-service teachers undertaking a one-year, stand-alone teaching program. The results of this study indicate that the most frequently reported strategies by all the Australian pre-service primary teachers surveyed were rewards and initial corrections. The pre-service teachers were selective in the type of corrective strategies they would employ, with a preference for relatively less intrusive reactive strategies. All of the pre-service teachers here found rewards and preventative strategies to be the most effective. The only significant differences found between the four-year trained and one-year trained pre-service teachers were around preventative strategies. Specifically, four-year trained pre-service teachers employ preventative strategies significantly more often than pre-service teachers in the one-year teaching course. Similarly, four-year trained pre-service teachers are significantly more confident in using preventative strategies than those in the one-year course. The implications of the results for teacher education programs are considered.     

Culture and Survival: the role of symbol in improving the quality of a comprehensive school

The relationship between organisational culture and effectiveness is one of the dominant themes in current organisational and management theory. The major problem in the field is to establish a clear link between cultural change and increased effectiveness. The article illustrates one aspect of this relationship. Data for a comprehensive school in a London borough illustrate a steady decline in its intake and in the 11 + component of that intake. It then describes the steps taken by the head and staff collectively to strengthen the culture of the school. The data shows the consequent rise in both the overall intake and its 11 + component.     

The Paperwork Reduction Act: Benefits,costs and directions for reform

Congress passed the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) in 1980. Intended to ensure that the federal government carefully managed information and to reduce the burden of information collection on the American public, it has arguably failed to do either. This article uses a simple analysis of the benefits and costs of the Act to evaluate possible directions for reform. The implementation of the PRA has resulted in the misallocation of government resources. Far too much time is spent at the Office of Management and Budget and at agencies reviewing collections and soliciting input on thousands of information collections that are routine and unchanging. If this time was cut back, both OMB and agencies could devote more time to new information collections that have methodological issues and significant policy impacts. Agencies and OMB could also devote more time to tying information collection to information management as the authors of the PRA initially intended.     

Literature of broadcasting: Books in review

THE TELEVISION COMMERCIAL, revised edition, by Harry Wayne McMahan. New York: Hastings House, 1957. 223 pp. $6.50.

THE AGE OF TELEVISION. By Leo Bogart. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1956. 348 pp. $6.50. Text edition, $4.75.

ELEMENTS OF COLOR IN PROFESSIONAL MOTION PICTURES, prepared by a Special Committee of the SMPTE, W. R. Holm, Chairman. Published (1957) by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, 55 West 42nd Street, New York 36; 104 pages, 27 in color, 53/4”; by 81/2”; hard‐bound. Price is $3.50 for single copies.

TELEVISION AUDIENCE RESEARCH FOR GREAT BRITAIN. By Arthur C. Nielsen. A. C. Nielson Company, 1955. 143 pp.

SAY IT SAFELY. By Paul P. Ashley. The University of Washington Press, 1957. 117 pp. $2.50.     

Broadcasting and Cable

Sydney W. Head's Broadcasts in America: A Survey of Television and Radio (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1976--- price not given but about $16.00)

Barcus, two studies of children's television program content

Stuart Hood's The Professions: Radio and Television (North Pomfret, Vt.: David and Charles, 1975---$9.95)

Televisions (Washington Community Video Center, P.O. Box 21068, Washington D.C. 20009---bimonthly/510 for individuals, $15 for institutions)

Cable Television: Promise versus Regulatory Performance (Washington: House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Submommittee on Communications, Committee Print, January 1976---free on request to the Committee Clerk)

“Developing Legal Issues in Cable Communications,” The Catholic University of America Law Review 24:675-898 (Summer 1975)