Portugal

In the library literature, a great deal of interest in patron-driven collection development has recently been expressed, especially in those programs that link acquisitions with interlibrary loan. However, the implementation of such programs has been limited, at least in part because of concerns over the potential for wasteful spending. The authors will attempt to address this common concern by assessing whether monies spent via a patron-driven acquisitions program were more or less effective than monies spent via traditional modes of acquisition.     

Reprints of Interest

Parker Tyler, The Hollywood Hallucination (originally published in 1944) and The Magic and Myth of the Movies (originally published in 1947)

Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (Signet Books, $1.50)     

An effective mathematics and science curriculum option for secondary gifted education

Project Ga‐GEMS (Georgia's Project for Gifted Education in Math and Science) viewed the effect that placement in an integrated, hands‐on mathematics and science curriculum had on the achievement of academically talented high school students. For a two‐year period of time, students gifted in the areas of mathematics and science participated in a curriculum which incorporated higher‐level thinking skills and more real life laboratory experiences into mutually reinforcing mathematics and science lessons. After the conclusion of the two‐year program, Ga‐GEMS participants and a control group were given the mathematics and science sections of the ACT as they exited the tenth grade. The Ga‐GEMS students scored significantly higher on the Science Math Total, Pre‐Algebra/Elementary Algebra, Intermediate Algebra/Coordinate Geometry and Plane Geometry/Trigonometry sections of the ACT. To determine if the Ga‐GEMS students retained their higher scores throughout high school the SAT scores of both groups were compared as the students exited high school. Significant differences in the areas of total score and mathematics were noted. This study lends support for the use of a differentiated curriculum for educating gifted students in science and mathematics.     

Construction of difference and diversity within policy and practice in England

Policy and practice responses to diversity and difference in pupil populations continue to challenge education systems around the world. This paper considers how teachers’ understandings of diversity and difference and their pedagogical responses at the local level are influenced by, and can be reconciled with, policy at the general level with its impulse for categorisation, normalcy and ‘ableness’. Two frameworks around orientations to diversity and types of pedagogic need are combined in order to examine this tension and develop possible responses. This is illustrated through the example of special educational needs as a type of difference. The paper argues that for critical, ethical and socially just pedagogies, policy needs to support teachers in acknowledging and troubling difference at the classroom level.     

Implementing the Ecosystemic Approach to Changing Chronic Problem Behaviour in Schools

The present paper discusses a study of the ecosystemic approach to changing chronic problem behaviour in schools undertaken with a group of 33 primary and two secondary teachers. The impact of the ecosystemic techniques and the main theoretical issues are discussed. Three case examples are presented and conclusions are drawn on the potential of this new approach.