An Examination of the Host Country Factors Affecting the Export of U.S. Video Media Goods

The United States is by far the leading exporter of video media goods in the world. It is also the biggest investor in theatrical films, spending over $63 million per theatrical production and leading the world in box-office receipts. This article investigates the host country factors that have influenced the export of U.S.-based video media products, including film and television programs. It was found that economic environment, geographical proximity, technological infrastructure, and market size influenced the purchase of motion pictures and video programming from the United States. In addition, countries with better economic environments, implementation of intellectual property rights, political rights, larger market size and cultural differences, and language similarity seemed to import more heavily broadcasting content products from the United States.     

Theme-Based Information Literacy Instruction

Theme-based library and information literacy instruction offers an innovative, challenging, and timely approach to teaching credit library courses. This mode of instruction creates a learning environment that enhances student engagement and expands the teaching repertoire of library instruction faculty. Two practical examples of this methodology are discussed.     

意志之桥——布鲁克林大桥

除了帝国大厦和自由女神像，横跨纽约东河的布鲁克林大桥当数纽约的叉一个标志性建筑。众多的电影电视画面让人们对这座以曼哈顿的璀璨灯海为背景的长达487米的悬索桥已经不再陌生。     

The preparation of highly motivated and professionally competent teachers in initial teacher education

Education systems around the world need to recruit highly motivated individuals to become teachers and prepare professionally competent teacher education graduates to take up these broadened and deepened roles and responsibilities with a deep and lasting engagement to the profession. This article reports on a mixed-methods study that examines types of teaching motivation in relation to various facets of professional competence and planned engagement in future teaching. One hundred and thirty-two student teachers of a postgraduate diploma in education programme participated in the quantitative survey of whom seven were interviewed. The quantitative data analysis shows the positive association between ‘intrinsic–altruistic motivation constellation’ and selected facets of professional competence, with ‘intrinsic–multifaceted and stimulating job nature’ as the most distinctive type of teaching motivation. To complement the quantitative findings, the qualitative data analysis reveals two professional orientations of the ‘intrinsic–altruistic motivation constellation’, namely (1) student-centred orientation and (2) subject-centred orientation. In addition, three types of professional development aspirations are identified: ‘classroom engaged careerists’, ‘highly engaged persisters’ and ‘pessimists’. The study provides insights into the design of appropriate ITE practices to support professional learning in the light of student teachers’ motivations. It also suggests the importance of matching career opportunities and beginning teachers’ professional development aspirations and supporting ‘pessimists’ in the face of the stringent job market.     

Complexity and lexicality effects on the acquisition of Spanish spelling

This study investigated how Spanish orthographic code complexities influence learning to spell. Word and pseudoword dictation tests were carried out by 208 first- to fourth-grade students. Items included the following orthographic code complexities: digraph, contextual effect, position effect, letter H, inconsistency, and stress mark. The results revealed effect of grade and type of complexity on spelling performance. The type of complexity also interacted with grade and lexical value of the type of items (word vs. pseudoword). It seems that children acquire spelling skills early in terms of phoneme–grapheme correspondence rules, but lexical knowledge develops more slowly. The importance of lexical knowledge is highlighted, as well as the need of prosodic knowledge for the stress mark.     

Market Values,Civic Culture and Schools

Against the dominance of market considerations in the determination of educational values, and the influence of the radical Right on our social institutions more generally, this article argues that schools should help to ‘liberate the voice’ of parents and the community. Following the insights of Henry Morris, it is argued that schools should promote involvement, dialogue and ‘the healing force of the individual and collective imagination’ in responding to contemporary value diversity and uncertainty.