A Better Way to Begin Again Together: the value of a comparative approach to teaching poetry in school

This paper suggests a particular value to treating the teaching of poetry in school comparatively. It argues that the justification for this claim derives from the ways in which peculiar symbiotic dependencies between poetry, languages, cultures and uniquely individual consciousness‐‐and between poetry, childhood learning and children's achievement of literacy‐‐can be represented in a teaching methodology. It refers to a unique teaching and research project, directed by the author at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London, which has developed principles and strategies for building a new pedagogy with children and in teacher education.     

AN OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN A SAMPLE OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO PROVISIONS OF DISTANCE TEACHING

This article gives an overview of current provisions for environmental education in the context of distance education programmes in a sample of European countries. The methodology, that was employed by means of a postal survey aimed at identifying current trends in environmental education in relation to distance teaching, is described. The sample surveyed consisted of approximately 500 higher education institutions, members of the Association of European Universities (CRE), over 200 of which had signed the CRE‐Copernicus Universities Charter on Sustainable Development. The article presents a regional summary of the research findings that formed part of a larger enquiry into the status of environmental education in European countries, Commonwealth countries, and individual countries such as the United Kingdom and Pakistan.     

Die Quadratur des Kreises: Universit?tsautonomie und Wissenschaftsfreiheit

Statt eines Abstracts Der gro?e "Philosoph aus Wien", Paul Feyerabend, lehrte in den 1970er Jahren auf dem H?hepunkt seiner akademischen Karriere stehend in Berkeley. In seinen Kurs waren jedes Semester Hunderte von Studenten eingeschrieben, seltsamerweise waren darunter auch viele Sportstudenten und Fu?ballspieler, denen an den amerikanischen Universit?ten bekanntlich eine nicht geringe Bedeutung zukommt. Was war der Grund für diese Anziehungskraft einer nicht leicht zu verstehenden Philosophie? Feyerabend versprach jedem Studenten schon in der ersten Vorlesungsstunde eine Eins für seinen Kurs – und fügte noch hinzu, dass es bei ihm natürlich keinerlei Prüfung oder Hausarbeiten g?be. Man bekam seine Eins selbst dann, wenn man niemals in die Vorlesung kam, was Feyerabend mit seinem tiefen Vertrauen in das alte Humboldtsche Erziehungsziel der akademischen Freiheit rechtfertigte. Als die Universit?tsverwaltung von dieser Sache Wind bekam, wurde Feyerabend gezwungen, zumindest eine Abschlussprüfung für seinen Kurs abzuhalten. Im n?chsten Semester h?ndigte der Professor zu Beginn der Prüfungsstunde ein Blatt aus, auf dem in gro?en Buchstaben feierlich das Wort "Abschlussprüfung" stand, und darunter hie? es einfach: "Erz?hle mir deinen Lieblingswitz!" Jeder Witz, auch der dümmste, wurde dann mit der Note Eins belohnt. Der Chronist dieser Anekdote berichtet, dass das Universit?tsmanagement auch diesem Verfahren bald ein Ende gemacht hatte – ohne zu sagen, mit welchen Methoden, und wie Feyerabend auf diesen Eingriff in seine akademische Lehrfreiheit reagiert hat.     

The dick and carey model: Will it survive the decade?

Many instructional designers and numerous organizations have adapted the Dick and Carey model for use in their training functions. This article reviews the changes that have occurred to the model in the 20 years since its original publication, and identifies various influences that may determine whether it will continue to be useful in the years ahead. Consideration is given to alternative instructional design textbooks and the potential decline in interest in instructional design within academic programs. The influence of constructivist theory on the 1996 version of the Dick and Carey model is described, and the long term impact of constructivist and objectivist models on public education and business and industry is assessed.     

Development and Validation of the College Campus Environment Scale (CCES): Promoting Positive College Experiences

One of the essential factors related to student success and satisfaction with a higher education experience is the college environment in which learning takes place. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale, the College Campus Environment Scale (CCES), to measure characteristics of college campus environments valued by students. A model emerged with the following six factors: Academic and Career Expectations, Athletics, Health, Role Models and Mentors, Safety, and Social and Extracurricular Activities. The CCES demonstrates good evidence of reliability and validity and can be utilized by researchers and college personnel to promote positive college experiences for students.     

The demand for higher education facing an individual institution

The purpose of this paper is to provide an estimate of the elasticity and cros-selasticities of demand for higher education facing an individual institution. The utility which a high school graduate derives from each educational option open to him is assumed to be a stochastic function of the attributes of that option. For certain types of utility functions the maximization of utility results in the logit probability model. This model is used to analyze the choices made by a sample of high school graduates in Hawaii. Estimates of the price elasticity and the cross-price elasticities of demand for enrollment at the University of Hawaii are obtained. It is found that the demand is quite inelastic with respect to both tuition and total cost of education. These estimates imply that changes in tuition will not affect enrollment appreciably.The authors wish to express their appreciation to Arthur S. Goldberger, H. Laurence Miller, and Pan A. Yotopoulos for their comments on earlier drafts of the paper.     

Making Learning Visible

Almost two million children in more than 40 countries around the world have received a One Laptop per Child (OLPC) XO netbook computer. These netbooks represent the commitment of politicians, community leaders, and educators to implement disruptive, large‐scale education reform initiatives that will advance their countries into the 21st century and prepare their children for interconnected, global, creative, and knowledge economies. Expectations for the success of these initiatives are high, and local stakeholders as well as numerous international organizations look to these experiments with cautious optimism. These programs hold the promise to expand the learning and creative potentials of broad populations. As such, arguably, one of the greatest challenges facing these initiatives is designing and implementing mechanisms that help make the outcomes visible, understandable, and actionable by all audiences. In this article, we discuss initiatives being developed by OLPC at different levels of scale: at the meta level to understand impact across nations and learn about the emerging developments in the different programs; at the mezzo level to allow stakeholders to understand the development of the program in their countries and their schools; and at the micro level to help teachers and students understand emerging learning by children over a given period of time. We present some examples of student work to illustrate how some children are making creative contributions to OLPC. Inspired in the collaboration and work by Project Zero and Reggio Children, this article was given the name “Making Learning Visible.” Beyond the title, the work presented in this article recognizes the child both as an individual and a group learner; recognizes the acts as well as the products of learning; and above all, values the children's reflections and approaches to make their learning visible.     

Book of the Month

Walter S. Baer's Cable Television: A Handbook for Decisionmaking (Santa Monica, Cal.: Rand Corporation, 1973 — $5.00, paper)     

Motion Pictures

Richard Bunce's Television in the Corporate Interest (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1976—price not given, but about $15.00).

Ralph M. Jennings and Veronica M. Jefferson's Television Station Employment Practices, 1975: The Status of Minorities and Women (New York: Office of Communication, United Church of Christ, 1976—price not given, but about $10.00, paper)

Horace Newcomb's Television: The Critical View (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976—$4.00, paper)

Asa Berger's The TV-Guided American (New York: Walker, 1976—$8.95)

Vincent Mosco's The Regulation of Innovations in the Broadcasting Market (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Program on Information Technologies and Public Policy, 1975—$3.00, paper)

James D. Scott's Cable Television: Strategy for Penetrating Key Urban Markets (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration, 1976—$5.50, paper)

R.W. Chandler's Sparks at Sea: The Experiences of a Ship's Radio Officer (North Pomfret, Vt.: David and Charles, 1973, but only recently released in the U.S.—$9.50)