Policy Intensions and the Folds of the Self

In this essay, P. Taylor Webb and Kalervo N. Gulson argue that educational policy is a spatial process and that implementation processes in particular produce crucial emergent geographies for policy research. Webb and Gulson describe how emergent geographies are produced when policy folds actors through senses and enactments of policy. The idea that policy is sensed and enacted is developed into the concept of a policy intension that extends approaches to spatial and, in particular, micropolitical analyses in policy research. Webb and Gulson conclude by discussing cartographical methods that better map the geographies of subjectivity produced through policy intensions.     

Internationalization of the postdoctorate in the United States: analyzing the demand for international postdoc labor

The American academic research enterprise relies heavily on contributions made by foreign nationals. Of particular note is the large number of international postdocs employed at universities in the United States (US). Postdocs are among the fastest growing group of academic staff in the US, and over 50 % of all postdocs in the US are temporary visa holders. While academic mobility is sometimes understood using a ‘push–pull’ model, we argue that demand for educational migrants must be considered. Drawing from Marginson’s (Handbook on globalization and higher education. Edward Elger, Northampton, 2011; Marginson and Rhoades in High Educ 43:281–309, 2002) work, we develop a model for assessing local, national, and institutional (or local) variables that may shape the employment of international postdocs at universities in the United States, and we operationalize the model through a panel regression analysis using data covering the period 1989–2009. We find that the passage of time and federally supported research and development expenditures are strong predictors of postdoc employment. Institutional characteristics predict changes only in the subsample of private universities.     

Achievement as a Function of Test Item Complexity and Difficulty

The effects of training tests on subsequent achievement were studied using 2-test item characteristics: item difficulty and item complexity. Ninety Ss were randomly assigned to treatment conditions having easy or difficult items and calling for rote or complex skills. Each S was administered two training tests during the quarter containing only items defined by his treatment condition. The dependent measure was a sixty item final examination with fifteen items reflecting each of the four treatment condition item types. The results showed greater achievement for those trained with difficult items and with rote items. In addition, two interaction of treatment conditions with type of test items were found. The results are discussed as supporting a hierarchical model rather than a “similarity” transfer model of learning.     

Student Performance and Attitudes in a Contingency Management Course

Grade performances in a personalized instruction course are compared with those in traditionally-taught courses for students with good, average, and poor academic records. Average and poor students perform much better in a personalized instruction course than in traditionally-taught courses, and good students perform somewhat better. Course evaluation results suggest three factors that contribute to the particular effectiveness of contingency management techniques with average to poor students. 1.) Students tend to perceive the personalized instruction course as requiring a large amount of work, relative to their other courses for the semester, and to match their work input into the course with this perception. 2.) The method appears to produce “self-generated” reinforcers such as feelings of achievement and interest in course content which are unusual experiences for these students. 3.) Aspects of the technique modify poor study habits in a direction that leads to higher grade performance.     

The Implementation and Evaluation of a Computer Simulation Game in a University Course

The purpose of this study was to implement a computer simulation game in a university course and to assess its value as an educational technique. College students (N = 200) were randomly assigned to a treatment or delayed treatment group. Lecture plus a computer simulation game was compared to lecture alone on a broad range of measures (attitudinal, attendance, achievement, information-seeking behavior). Students who participated in the game earlier in the semester responded more favorably than those who participated later in the semester, p = .02. Furthermore, students attended more during the earlier part of the course than in the later, p < .01. Students performed better on the final exam than on the second exam, p < .01. No students displayed information-seeking behavior. An implication of the results is that early implementation provides a more positive response to computer simulations.     

Tutorial Programs for Freshman Engineering Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential of a 1-year tutorial program to reduce the incidence of academic failure and attrition problems among freshman engineering students. A year-long program in English, mathematics, and physics plus general tutoring was provided for freshman engineering students (ninety-four fall, ninety-four winter, and ninety-three spring quarters) throughout the 1967-68 school year.

In eleven of the nineteen comparisons between tutored and non-tutored, the tutored group’s mean adjusted grade point average (GPA) was either significantly higher or approached significance. A higher percentage of tutored students were achieving at above a 2. 00 GPA after 1 year when compared with two separate non-tutored samples (51% - 43% - 22%). A lower percentage of tutored students withdrew during the first year when compared with two separate non-tutored samples (14% - 24% - 35%). The results support the use of a tutoring program at the freshman level as a means of reducing the number of academic and attrition problems.     

Tourists of History: Memory,Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero,by Marita Sturken

Cultural and Scientific Speech Education Today. Compiled and Edited By W. Aethur Cable. Expression Company, Boston 1930, pp. 206; $2.00.

Contemporary Speeches. Compiled by James M. O'Neill and Floyd K. Riley. New York: The Century Company, 1930; pp. xviii, 558.

Modern Literature for Oral Interpretation (Revised Edition). By Gertrude E. Johnson. New York: The Century Company, 1930; pp. 638; $2.50.

Influencing Behavior Through Speech. By Howard Hubert Higgins. Boston: The Expression Company, 1930: pp. ix, 346; $2.50.

Strategy in Handling People. By Ewing T. “Webb and J. B. Morgan. Boulton, Pierce and Company, 232 East Erie Street, Chicago, 1930; pp. 260; $3.00.

Ralph Dennis

The Story of the Drama (Beginnings to Commonwealth). By Joseph Richard Taylor. Boston: The Expression Company, 1930; pp. xxv, 555.

Medieval Rhetoric and Poetic. By Charles Sears Baldwin. New York: Macmillan, 1928, pp. xi, 321, $2.50.

Greek Rhetoric and Literary Criticism. By W. Rhys Roberts. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1928, pp. 164.

Acting, Its Theory and Practice. By Lane Crauford. New York: Richard R. Smith, Inc., 1930: pp. xiii, 248; $3.00.

The American Public Mind. By Peter Odegard. New York: Columbia University Press, 1930; pp. 308. Teachers are always being told that “here is a book that must

David Lloyd George. By J. Hugh Edwards, M. P. New York: Sears and Co., 1929, 2 vols.

Evangelized America. By Grover C. Loud. New York: Lincoln McVeagh, 1928.

The Stammering Century. By Gilbert Seldes. New York: John Day Co., 1928.

Conversation. By Andre Maurois ; translated by Yvonne Dufour. New York: E. P. Dutton &; Company, 1930; 82 pp.     

Organisational self-evaluation and teacher education for community relations in a transforming society?

During 2004, the School of Education at the University of Ulster embarked on an innovative three-year project designed to embed community relations objectives within initial teacher education. With the advent of more peaceful times in Northern Ireland, this was a precipitous time for initial teacher educators to review the preparation given to beginner teachers for teaching in an increasingly pluralist society emerging from conflict. The present paper reports on one very specific and time-limited element of the broader project. That is, development work designed to investigate the possibilities of using processes of self-review and evaluation as a lever for improvements in initial teacher education for community relations. Following a brief contextualisation, the background to, and the development of, a set of materials designed to support rigorous and systematic self-review of all aspects of provision in a university-based initial teacher education department is described. The Community Relations Index for Initial Teacher Education (Cr-ITE) was envisaged as being of use to initial teacher education establishments in order to help teacher educators take responsibility for rigorous learning from their practice, whilst placing inclusive values at the centre of organisational development. The final section includes further critical reflection on the role of organisational self-review in transforming teacher education for inclusion in a society emerging from longstanding communal conflict.