Not all Dull alike—the Question of Terminology

This article was also written especially for the Walsall Seminar. Its author was at the time Head of the Remedial Advisory Centre at Wolverhampton and is now Research Officer for the Birmingham Educational Priority Area Project.     

Effects of Race and Communication Style on Indian Perceptions of Counselor Effectiveness

This article reports the results of a study in which 102 American Indian 11th and 12th grade high school students rated 7 dimensions of perceived counselor credibility and utility. Results indicated that Indian counselors were perceived as more effective than non-Indian counselors and that the non-directive, “facilitative” verbal response style was rated as less effective than either a directive or a cultural/experimental style.     

Knowledge Adequacies and Training Needs of Rehabilitation Educators

This article describes results of a national survey of rehabilitation educators concerning their perceptions of their knowledge adequacies and training needs. Twelve vital instructional areas were identified and respondents were asked to rate each area for their adequacy of knowledge, need for inservice training, and willingness to attend inservice training. Findings showed that educators rated their knowledge adequacy high and their need for inservice training low. Although there was a significant inverse relationship between knowledge adequacy and need for inservice training, there was no significant relationship between willingness to attend inservice training and knowledge adequacy, or between willingness to attend inservice training and need for inservice training.     

Group Project Work with Undergraduate Veterinary Science Students

This paper evaluates the experience of second year undergraduate veterinary science students performing group project work. The goals of the study were to encourage deep learning and to develop specific 'life skills', such as decision making, teamwork and communication skills. The results were compared with two similar studies by using a similar survey form to collect student responses. Overall, the students appeared to enjoy the group project and developed new learning skills, although the issue of passengers (poor contributors) was not fully eliminated.     

The Hong Kong School Curriculum and the Political Transition: Politicisation,contextualisation and symbolic action

This paper uses a historical perspective to analyse the impact on the school curriculum of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. Whilst the transition has relaxed the criteria used by the state to select school knowledge, it has occurred at a time when the selective and allocative role of schooling has become paramount. Consequently, the transition has had a significant impact on the intended curriculum as a result of attempts by the departing colonial government to reform the curriculum. However, these reforms have had a limited impact on the implemented curriculum, which has been more strongly influenced by the emergence of a market in which schools compete for academically more able pupils.     

Cognitive training for children: Effects on inductive reasoning,deductive reasoning,and mathematics achievement in an Australian school setting

Inductive reasoning is a core cognitive process of fluid intelligence, predicting a variety of educational outcomes. The Cognitive Training for Children (CTC) program is an educational intervention designed to develop children's inductive reasoning skills, with previous investigations finding substantial effects of the program on both inductive reasoning ability and classroom learning. The present study assessed both individual and small‐group CTC training against a no‐treatment control condition to investigate the effects on inductive and deductive reasoning and mathematics achievement in a primary school‐aged Australian cohort. Students who received individual training outperformed those in the control condition on measures of inductive and deductive reasoning, and those in the small‐group condition also outperformed the control condition on a measure of inductive reasoning 3 months following training. However, hypotheses regarding transfer effects to mathematics achievement were not supported. Directions for future research, focusing on extended longitudinal studies and motivational variables, are discussed.