Responsible Leadership

The world in which educational leaders operate is changing—from one dominated by national interests to one of a global community. In this transition, schools must prepare the present generation of young people to participate as active citizens of the global community, rather than as spectators or tourists. Schools face major challenges as they prepare their charges for a world which requires (a) agreements among nations to share in managing the earth's fragile ecology; (b) sharing ideas on human, cultural, and economic capital and on manufacturing and medical technologies to improve the quality of life for all people; and (c) guarantees of global peace and security. Schools need to target their curriculum toward preparing youngsters with the desperately needed understandings, perspectives, and skills this global transition will demand. A different kind of school leader will be required—a multidimensional leader that understands the various dimensions of the learning tasks which schools must cultivate. In turn, these leaders must have a moral vision of what is required of them and of the whole community. A moral vision of taking proactive responsibility for making this kind of learning a reality is required.     

Reliance to Independence: Approaches to learning in peer‐led undergraduate science,technology, engineering,and mathematics workshops

The phenomenographic ‘approach to learning’ literature holds that students’ approaches to learning can change depending on the learning context. This implies that, by modifying the learning context, teachers can change the way students approach learning, and this can ultimately lead to a change in learning outcomes. The study presented here examines one effort to modify a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning context and the approaches to learning taken by students experiencing this environment. Using a qualitative, phenomenographic approach, we interviewed 45 students in a STEM peer‐led workshop programme at a large US research university. Similar to previous approach‐to‐learning research, the study identified three approaches students took to learning in the peer‐led programme, in which they focused on simply making it through the course, engaging more meaningfully with the material, and gaining better control over their own learning.     

A trial of three commercial document delivery suppliers with strong holdings in biomedicine

The University of Vermont's Medical Library evaluated the services of three commercial document delivery suppliers with significant holdings in biomedicine. The purpose of the trial was to determine whether journal articles could be procured in less time than routine interlibrary loan without greatly increasing costs. Each supplier offered a quick delivery method employing modern technology at a standard fee. The need to pay copyright royalties at times and a desire to test the possibility of substituting "access" for "collection" also prompted the trial. Results reported include: mean and median delivery times, percentages of requested titles held, and average price per transaction, including copyright fee. The Medical Library continues to use commercial services to augment interlibrary loan.     

Child abuse in South Africa: an examination of how child abuse and neglect are defined

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to explore which of 17 categories of child maltreatment South Africans evaluated as most serious and to determine if those working with abuse and neglect evaluated abuse and neglect differently from those who did not. METHOD: A revised version of Giovannoni and Becerra's [Giovannoni, J., & Becerra, R. (1979). Defining child abuse. New York: The Free Press] questionnaire exploring the definition of abuse and neglect was completed by 181 residents of Cape Town, South Africa. The new form had 17 categories of child maltreatment, including 4 categories of societal abuse. Respondents were social workers (n = 57), human service workers (n = 42), laypersons (n = 65), and members of the child protection unit of the South African Police (n = 18). ANOVA was used to compare the groups' responses. When significant differences among groups were found, a Bonferroni post hoc test was run to determine differences between groups. RESULTS: The respondents ranked sexual abuse and child prostitution as most serious and housing and child labor as least serious of the 17 categories. There was a significant difference (p < or = .01) between groups on nine categories. When post hoc tests were run, differences were found for eight categories with laypersons generally evaluating categories as significantly more serious than social workers. CONCLUSIONS: Reasons for the order of the rankings are discussed, but concern remains that differences in the evaluation of child maltreatment will lead to difficulty in implementing a protocol for identifying and responding to incidents of abuse and neglect.