Attitudes and experiences of parents regarding inclusive and special school education for children with learning and intellectual disabilities

In a survey, 840 parents of children with cognitive deficits who were educated either in special schools or in inclusive classes were asked to assess their children's school experiences. The results showed an overall high degree of satisfaction with the schooling, but there were marked differences among the parents' assessments depending on the degree of learning disabilities and on the type of school. Satisfaction with their children's social experiences and satisfaction with the special education curriculum depend on these two factors. All in all, many parents of children in inclusive classes were satisfied with their children's schooling than those of children in special schools. The analysis of the causes for discontent showed that dissatisfied parents had chosen the type of school under less favourable conditions and a larger part of them are still not convinced of this necessity of additional help. This applied to parents of pupils in inclusive classes as well as to those of pupils in special schools. Furthermore, parents of children with German as a second language showed a higher degree of discontent than others.     

Crossing ‘boundaries’ with the collective girl: a poetic intervention into sex education

Feminist poststructuralist approaches to research can authorize different ways of working with different types of texts in search of insight into the discursive constitution of subjects. In this paper I undertake a close reading of women's memories about early sexual experiences generated in a small collective biography workshop. The collective poetic text that emerges from the workshop is analysed in terms of recent feminist sociological research on girls' experiences of (hetero)sex and in terms of Foucault's work on power. Analysis reveals the discursive complexity and deep (and often dangerous) contradictions through which girls negotiate their shifting subjectivities as they become sexual. My readings of this text imply that school sex education programs might attend more closely to the ambiguities of agency and desire experienced by adolescent subjects of the curriculum. Finally, I suggest that reflexive readings of our own (sexed) subjectivities can be productive professional development strategies for teachers of sex education.     

A domain-specific account of self-regulated learning: the cognitive and metacognitive activities involved in learning through historical inquiry

Educational researchers have recently begun to conceptualize theoretical constructs and mechanisms of metacognitive activities in terms of the features that are specific to particular academic domains and subject matter. In this paper, we propose a framework of domain-specific metacognition in relation to learning through historical inquiry. The framework postulates that students’ comprehension of historical events is mediated by a state of coherence in understanding the causes that explain why an event occurred. Comprehension breaks down when the causes that explain the occurrence of historical events are unknown, uncertain, or unreported. In order to reinstate coherence in understanding, students engage in cognitive and metacognitive activities in accordance with disciplinary-based practices. Drawing on the existing empirical evidence, we discuss how the study of self-regulatory processes contributes to our understanding of the challenges faced by students while learning about complex historical topics as well as the skills that are required to gain knowledge while investigating the past.     

General Media Works

Ida Oswald and Susanne Wilson, This Bag Is Not A Toy: A Handbook for The Use of Videorecording in Education For the Professions (New York: Council on Social Work Education, 1972 – (price not known), paper.

Thomas R. Giblin (ed.) Popular Media and the Teaching of English (Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Goodyear Publishing Co., 1972 – $3.95, paper)

Charles Boeckman's And the Beat Goes On: A Survey of Pop Music in America (Washington: Luce, with distribution by David McKay of New York, 1972 – $5.95)

Donald R. Gordon's The New Literacy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971 – $10.00/2.75/10.00 (hard, paper, microfiche editions)

Jess Ritter and Grover Lewis (eds.) Focus/Media (San Francisco: Chandler, 1972 – $5.00, paper)

Otto Lerbringer (of Boston University's School of Public Communication), Designs for Persuasive Communication (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972 – $8.95/4.95)     

Collaboration and Organization for Successful Serials Cancellation

Serials cancellations are dreaded equally by librarians and faculty. Previously, faculty reviewed title lists, and librarians canceled what they recommended. Today's cancellation process is more complex; there has to be a context and a timetable. Reports must include at least data about historical pricing and titles associated with e-packages that are not cancellable. Although libraries' workflows differ, there are basic steps necessary to carry out a successful cancellation process. This joint presentation demonstrated how integrated planning and the use of serials management tools are used to organize complex information into useable data. It takes early and collaborative planning between Collection Development, teaching faculty, and Serials Technical Services to make a dreaded process less painful and more effective. This tactics session was delivered in parts by Susanne Clement and Gaele Gillespie, Head of Collection Development and Serials Librarian, respectively, at Watson Library, University of Kansas, and by Sarah Tusa, Coordinator of Collection Development and Acquisitions at the Mary and John Gray Library, Lamar University.     

Internal and external influences on vocabulary development in preschool children

Competency in society's lingua franca plays a major role in the emergence of social disparities within education. Therefore, the present longitudinal study investigates vocabulary development and its predictors in preschool years. We focus on whether internal (phonological working memory) and external variables (preschool and home learning environment) have different impacts depending on parental native language. The study considers 547 children from 97 German preschools. Children's vocabulary was assessed at the ages of 3, 4, and 5 years. Latent growth curve models show that non-native German language children are characterized by reduced vocabulary at first assessment and lower progress compared to monolingual peers. Phonological working memory has a strong impact on all children's initial vocabulary but also on vocabulary growth in those whose parents speak German as an additional language. The effects of preschool and home learning environment are comparatively smaller.     

Regulation During Cooperative and Collaborative Learning: A Theory-Based Review of Terms and Concepts

This article reviews the terms and concepts that have been used for describing regulation of learning during cooperative and collaborative learning and suggests differentiating them on the basis of which parts of a regulatory feedback loop model are being shared. During cooperative and collaborative learning, not only self-regulation but also the regulation of the group process is important. This regulation might occur on both an individual level and a social level. Several modes of regulation have been identified, but the terms used for them vary tremendously—including social regulation, socially shared regulation, coregulation, and other-regulation. This article seeks to clarify the diverse terminology. To this end, we use a theoretical framework based on Winne and Hadwin's (1998) model of self-regulated learning to analyze how the different terms are used in the literature. We make and exemplify suggestions for a consistent usage of terms.     

Differences in Conversational Skills as a Function of Attachment Style: A Follow-up Study

A recent set of studies demonstrated that people evaluate their own and their partner's social skills differently as a function of attachment style. The present study extends this work by examining attachment-style differences in four conversational skills—expressiveness, composure, other-orientation, and interaction management—as rated by observers. To test for attachment-style differences, romantic couples were videotaped as they discussed relational problems or conflict issues. Based on a pretest, one of the romantic partners was targeted as representative of the secure, dismissive, fearful avoidant, or preoccupied attachment style. Two dimensions related to attachment—anxiety and avoidance—were also investigated in regard to their relations with conversational skills. Results suggest that the behavioral profiles largely reflect attachment theoretical assumptions for secures, dismissives, and fearful avoidants, and to a lesser extent, preoccupieds.     

My school redux: re-storying schooling with the My School website

This paper explores the effects of audit cultures on school education through a highly personal reading of the My School website, launched in Australia in 2010. It situates two personal narratives, from the points of view of student and teacher, alongside the other stories available about two of the secondary schools listed on the website. Although statistics such as those generated through the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy tests, school comparisons and post-school destinations present certain kinds of stories about these schools, I argue that these are reductionist and insufficient for understanding the complexities of pedagogical spaces and the teachers and learners within them. Whilst arguments for hard data to address educational inequity can be marshalled to support My School, I suggest that it also inadvertently disguises other elements of schooling and risks increasing inequity. Rather, the statistical stories might be recognised as partial and supplemented and disrupted by richer accounts, including narrative accounts, about schooling.     

Asked and answered--online: how two medical libraries are using OCLC's QuestionPoint to answer reference questions

This paper imparts the experiences of two similar but unaffiliated medical libraries that use QuestionPoint, OCLC's collaborative virtual reference product. The authors introduce the major features of QuestionPoint, with particular emphasis on its asynchronous e-mail reference service. After presenting how both libraries have employed this service in their respective environments, the paper examines the quantity and quality of reference questions submitted via QuestionPoint. The types of questions are explicated, and statistical trends are compared.