Consultation with Parents of Handicapped Children

One of the most important responsibilities facing professionals in the educational setting is consultation with parents; few areas are as sensitive as consultation with parents of handicapped children. Various stages of adjustment tend to be experienced by these parents, and these need to be taken into consideration when consulting with them. Professionals should become more cognizant of the emotional factors which may be present in the lives of parents of handicapped youngsters.     

Stress and Resources in Vocational Problem Solving

By adapting the job demands-resources model of Demerouti et al. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499–512, (2001) to vocational problem-solving situations, we aimed to investigate how, and to what extent, problem-solving demands and personal resources affect stress responses and task interest. Therefore, we used a problem-solving task from the business administration domain in a computer-based office simulation. We assigned 58 participants into two groups. The treatment group worked on the problem scenario, whereas the control group was instructed to inspect the computer-based scenario and to check the software’s usability without solving the problem. Problem-solving demands, perceived stress, task interest, cardiovascular parameters, and cortisol concentration were assessed before, during and after the task at several time points. The vocational problem-solving task was associated with perceived time pressure, uncertainty, mental effort, task difficulty, and perceived stress. In addition, we found higher heart rate and cortisol concentration and lower heart rate variability values in the treatment group (compared to the control group) at the end of the task. Furthermore, we found that content knowledge buffers the impact of problem-solving demands on stress responses and it maintains task interest under high mental effort. Overall, we found evidence that vocational problem-solving activities bear stress-evoking potential and personal resources may provide buffering and maintaining functions.     

Education and colonial language policies in Latin America and the Caribbean

In Latin America governmental responses to the language issue have ranged from suppression of non-European languages to active promotion of at least a limited bilingualism. The thesis of this article is that the inconsistencies are primarily a function of economic and social struggles among contending national elites with the common goal of compelling subordinate groups to adapt to the behaviors and expectations of the elite groups. Not until the nineteenth century witnessed a shift to capital-intensive modes of production did the schools become a major locus for implementation of governmental policy. Then the schools were called upon in a direct and massive way to augment traditional forms of social control.

---

Zusammenfassung In Latein-Amerika reichte die Reaktion der Regierungen auf sprachliche Probleme von der Unterdrückung nicht-europäischer Sprachen bis zur aktiven Förderung wenigstens einer begrenzten Zweisprachigkeit. Dieser Artikel vertritt den Standpunkt, die Gegensätze seien hauptsächlich bedingt durch wirtschaftliche und soziale Kämpfe zwischen wetteifernden nationalen Führungsschichten, die alle das gleiche Ziel verfolgen, untergeordnete Gruppen zu zwingen, die Verhaltensweisen und Erwartungen der Führungsgruppen zu übernehmen. Erst als sich das 19. Jahrhundert allmählich auf kapital-intensive Produktionsweisen umstellte, wurden die Schulen in höherem Masse Zuchtstätten der Regierungspolitik. Danach wurden sie unmittelbar und massiv aufgerufen, traditionelle Formen der Gesellschaftskontrolle zu verstärken.

---

Résumé En Amérique Latine les réponses gouvernementales à la question du langage sont passées d'une suppression des langages non-européens à leur promotion active, ou du moins à un certain bilingualisme. La thèse de cet article est que ces inconséquences sont avant tout fonction des luttes économiques et sociales entre les élites nationales en présence dont le but commun est de contraindre les groupes subordonnés à s'adapter à leurs manières d'être et à leurs expectations. Ce n'est qu'après que le dixneuvième siècle ait été le témoin d'un glissement vers des méthodes de production à haute teneur en capitaux que les écoles sont devenues le locus principal de mise en oeuvre de la politique gouvernementale. On a eu, alors, recours aux écoles d'une façon directe et massive pour augmenter les formes traditionnelles de contrôle social.

     

Several factors influencing web-spinning activity in the common house spiderAchaearanea tepidariorum Koch

Web-spinning activity ofAchaearanea tepidarortum (Koch) was observed in relation to amount of prior feeding, hours of food deprivation, and the number of flies (Drosophila melanogaster) available in the animal’s environment. Web spinning was positively related to the number of flies consumed in a 24-h period prior to testing, but did not vary significantly between 24 and 72 h of food deprivation. The amount of available food in the environment was positively related to web-spinning activity during a 48-h test period.     

Measures of academic motivation: A conceptual review

This review examines the measurement of academic motivation in college students. It distinguishes pencil-and-paper group-administered instruments according to their conceptions of academic motivation: academic motivation taken as a single general motivation, as single specific motivations, or as a complex of motivations. It evaluates these classes of instruments in terms of the interpretability and the utility of the information each type of instrument is likely to provide.     

“I don’t think that word means what you think it means”: A proposed framework for defining learning communities

In this paper we address the obfuscation surrounding the concept of learning communities by operationalizing community according to four characteristics that serve as boundaries for defining a community: access, relationships, vision, and function. Although these community boundaries sometimes overlap, they represent distinctive features of possible community structures. In addition to defining and discussing learning community boundaries, we share insights for researching learning communities. We believe a clearer understanding of how to define learning communities can assist scholars and practitioners in cultivating and studying these communities.     

Departmental Planning: Use of the Directional Matrix

Directional Matrices have been used in businesses to assist the identification of an organisation's strengths and weaknesses. This approach also has application to the activities of departments within institutions of higher education. In particular it was applied to the Graduate School of Environmental Science at Monash University to assist the planning of the School's operations. Data from a sample of the School's staff and members of its Board of Studies indicated that most of the twelve activities identified were important and were performing relatively well. Although differences in the data from the two groups occurred, results obtained from the Matrix were not substantially influenced by this variation. Observations of the responses to the Matrix help to show how future application could be improved.     

Why Are Partnerships Necessary for Computer Classroom Administration?

Computer classrooms (CCs) have been an important part of writing instruction since the mid 1980s, yet little scholarship concerns the roles that directors of computer classrooms play in maintaining these facilities. Based on a review of scholarship of CC administration and an informal survey of CC administrators, this article argues that CC directors walk a tightrope between the role of teacher and manager and that we need to focus on building partnerships to maintain our facilities, because we simply cannot do by ourselves everything that this complex role requires of us.