The Effect of Correspondence Training on the Rate and Quality of Written Expression of Four Low Achieving Boys

This study examined the effects of a behavioural correspondence training procedure on the rate of writing of four 13‐year‐old boys in a class for low achieving students in a city high school. A comprehensive range of collateral measures of writing was employed in addition to the target measure of writing rate. These collateral measures were assessed through analytic and holistic scoring procedures. Transfer of control of the correspondence training procedure to the class teacher and maintenance of writing gains were also examined. Results show that correspondence training effectively improved and maintained the rate and quality of written expression of all four boys.     

Gender Norms and Access to Extension Services and Training among Potato Farmers in Dedza and Ntcheu in Malawi

Purpose: This paper explores the interaction between extension services and gender relations in order to suggest ways and strategies that can be useful in ensuring that extension services are gender-equitable and empowering for women.

Design/Methodology/Approach:In total, 35 sex-disaggregated focus group discussions with farmers, and 4 interviews with extension officers were conducted in Dedza and Ntcheu districts. Data on the type of training offered, training participants recruitment methods, as well as data on barriers to and opportunities for training were collected. A social relations approach, focusing on gender relations, was used to analyse the data.

Findings:Underlying gender norms and cultural norms mediate access to information. For instance, some men regard themselves as representatives of their households during training and, to some extent, extension officers reinforce these views by using biased training recruitment methods. Gender norms related to household decision-making impact on the ability of women to access training opportunities.

Practical implications: Agricultural extension should not be a purely technical programme focusing only on good agricultural practices. It should also embed modules aimed at addressing social practices that disadvantage some people, particularly women, as well as adopt gender sensitive recruitment methods that do not rely on male-biased recruitment channels.

Originality/Value:The social relations approach used, focusing on gender relations, is aimed at trying to come up with the conditions necessary for agricultural training to be empowering for women. This paper is therefore of interest to extension agents and other development practitioners interested in women’s empowerment and the transformation of gender relations.     

A cross-cultural study of parents' academic standards and educational aspirations for their children

The present study was an investigation of Asian Australian and Anglo-Celtic Australian parents' educational expectations of, and aspirations for, their children. It was predicted that parents from Asian backgrounds would have higher academic standards and higher aspirations for their children's education, compared with Anglo-Celtic Australian parents. These hypotheses were largely supported by a survey of 239 Australian parents from Chinese, Vietnamese and Anglo-Celtic cultural backgrounds. There was evidence of a preference for university education among the Chinese and Vietnamese parents, while Anglo-Celtic Australian parents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to prefer their children to attend TAFE or complete an apprenticeship. The results are discussed in terms of the role of parental factors in children's academic achievements.     

Restorative justice: two examples from New Zealand schools

In this article, Janice Wearmouth, formerly professor of education at the University of Wellington, New Zealand and now at Liverpool Hope University, Rawiri McKinney, an advocate for Rangatahi who has recently completed his Master of Education degree, and Ted Glynn, foundation professor of teacher education at the University of Waikato, discuss two examples of restorative justice in practice to illustrate how community norms and values can help to encourage more socially appropriate behaviour. Both examples come from a New Zealand Maori context and interventions undertaken with young men whose behaviour was of concern in school and in the local neighbourhood. The interventions operated through traditional Maori protocols to shift the focus away from individuals on to the whole community in order to focus on'putting things right'between all those involved in the wrong-doing. These examples show how the use of traditional community conflict resolution processes was able to resolve tensions, make justice visible and re-establish harmonious relations between the individuals, the school and between members of the community. The use of restorative practices in schools is not straightforward, however. The authors of this article argue that it requires that schools do not own or completely control the process but are responsive to the local context and recognise the important sources of support that may be found in some of the families and local voluntary community groups within it for addressing problematic student behaviour.     

Improvising firms: bricolage, account giving and improvisational competencies in the founding process

Improvisation occurs when the design and execution of novel activities converge. Drawing on three samples of young firms, this inductive study investigates the existence, channels and implications of strategic improvisation in knowledge-intensive new businesses. Our study suggests that not only may founding itself be improvisational in some cases, but improvisational processes and issues permeate entrepreneurial activity and have non-obvious implications for emergent firm strategies and competencies. We develop propositions in four domains: (1) the occurrence of strategic improvisation; (2) tactical improvisation rising to the level of strategy; (3) network bricolage; and (4) improvisational competencies. This study contributes to research on organizational improvisation, bricolage and entrepreneurship. Theoretically and in practice, both improvisation and bricolage represent potentially rich additions to the vocabulary of entrepreneurial action.     

Can we Speak of Alternative Frameworks and Conceptual Change in Mechanics?

This paper discusses the various conflicting trends in mechanics education that have appeared over the past two decades, and proposes the theory of schemata as a means to resolve the conflict that exists within the literature. The conflict has two causes: the prevailing relativism that exists within science education, and the mistaken view that student alternative ideas are concepts that are well defined. We argue that student alternative ideas can be best understood in terms of schema theory, and that schema theory can offer support to the Vygotskian idea of the teacher facilitating the construction of the Newtonian system within the students zone of proximal development. Within the context of schema theory we propose the category of idealised abstraction that has as its starting point the logical structure of Newtonian mechanics rather than the cognitive state of uninstructed students.     

Variables influencing teachers' decisions to refer children for school psychological assessment services

The present study examined the variables influencing a teacher's decision to refer children suspected of having developmental or behavioral problems. Results indicated that younger children were not referred at a disproportionate rate for school psychological services as compared to their older classmates as suggested by earlier research, height and weight acted as moderator variables with respect to teacher referral patterns, African American children were referred at a disproportionate rate for developmental handicap services than were Caucasian children, and males were referred more than females for behavioral problems. These findings are discussed in terms of attribution and expectancy theories. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.