BOOK REVIEWS

THE DEVELOPMENT AND SCOPE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. By Richard Hofstadter and C. DeWitt Hardy.
NATURE AND NEEDS OF HIGHER EDUCATION.     

Environmental Education: Arguing the case for multiple approaches

This paper develops existing arguments about the need to rethink ways in which environmental education is conceptualised, interpreted and enacted by schools, teachers and students working within their communities. In doing this, it critiques what it sees as the narrowing and constraining influence that socially critical theory has exerted over the field, and calls for multiple approaches, carefully and communally deliberated on, in order to deliver the (environmental) educational goals deemed appropriate and necessary by schools and communities. Such an approach, it is argued, will likely be cross-disciplinary and multi-faceted in that it will be informed by a combination of traditions and ideological persuasions which together will offer more than any one of them could alone.     

Does Every Child Know They Matter? Pupils' Views of One Alternative to Exclusion

Schools are now urged to make every child matter. In this paper we present the case of the Coalfields Alternatives to Exclusion (CATE) strategy in which pupils at risk of permanent exclusion are offered the opportunity to start afresh in a new school. Without the stigma of exclusion, pupils are able to develop new relationships with peers and teachers and enhance self-esteem. We argue that this system of managed moves, despite some difficulties and challenges, offers an insight into the ways in which feelings of mattering can be translated into new behaviours and intentions. This we suggest provides pupils with a positive opportunity to resume their education and to be genuinely included in the life of their new school.     

MEASURING FACULTY REACTION TO HOMOGENEOUS GROUPING

A 6-item instrument to estimate teacher reaction to homogeneous grouping is described. With slight changes in wording, its format can be adapted to evaluate opinion toward other educational practices.     

Comparison of Modeling Techniques in Counselor Training

Two techniques of videotape recorded modeling for training counselors to ask open-ended questions (OEQ) were examined. It was hypothesized that a pure video model, exhibiting only desired behavior, would result in greater learning than a corrective video model, exhibiting both desired and undesired behavior, given that both models contained cues to indicate whether the behaviors are desired or undesired. Eighteen undergraduate peer counselors were randomly assigned to either (a) pure video model, (b) corrective video model, or (c) no-treatment control. Pre and postmeasures of level of OEQ responses were obtained by simulated interviews with one of four research assistants trained as pseudo-clients. Results indicate: (a) treatment had a significant effect on percentage of OEQ (F (2, 15) = 3.75, p<.05); (b) only the pure model was significantly different from the no-treatment control (Dunnett's t (3, 15) = 2.58, p <.02); and (c) the pure model was not significantly different from the corrective model. The findings support, but do not confirm, the hypothesis of the study that a pure video model would result in greater learning than a corrective video model. The experimenters suggest that negative modeling examples may interfere with learning at this introductory level of training and that these results have implications for the training methods used by many trainers of counselors.     

ITEM-RACE INTERACTION ON A TEST OF SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE1

Several samples of black and white students were drawn from the 1970 PSAT administration in Georgia and studied for item x race interaction on both the verbal and mathematical sections of the test. When subsamples of candidates were drawn from their respective racial groups, matched on mathematical for the study of verbal items and matched on verbal for the study of mathematical items, there was an observable decrease in the size of the item x race interaction, suggesting that one factor contributing to that interaction was simply the difference in performance levels on the test shown by the two races. Further analyses demonstrated a moderate item x group interaction for blacks native to different cities and a moderate item x group interaction for blacks native to areas of different population density.