An experimental comparison of urban children with suburban children on eight tasks of basic skills

About 1500 children from an inner city school district and a suburban school district were asked to perform eight tasks of basic skills. There were differences in the performances of the children. The differences depended upon the socio-economic background of the children. On many of the skills, third grade urban children were similar to first grade suburban children. It is for this reason that the inner city children in this study were considered disadvantaged and a program of skill development has begun. Inner city children must have experiences that will help them acquire the skills that suburban children have acquired before entering school.     

Higher education in a vacuum: stress and reform in Ecuador

Ecuadors higher education system mirrors that of other Latin American countries in its many internal and external stresses. It also provides an opportunity to view a reform process occurring in a vacuum of central government influence and authority, one whose direction is largely set by the universities in response to perceived stresses. Those stresses arise from the differentiation of the system in the last decade, questions about the role of higher education in Ecuador, and the absence of governmental direction. Changes in higher education in Ecuador must be examined in the context of higher educations role in development. The paper notes the case for the importance of higher education and the new theoretical support for higher education that endogenous growth models provide. It then examines the self-generated reform process which is occurring in Ecuador in the areas of teaching, of student access and of university finance. The final issue addressed is the relation between these changes, with their important implications for transforming the higher education system, and the development needs of Ecuador. There are many positive elements to the reform process which will contribute to development. However, until the government policy vacuum is filled, their potential benefit will remain only partially realized.     

“ACCENTUATION EFFECTS” OF DISSIMILAR ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS: An Application and Exploration of Holland's Theory

This longitudinal study of college students found accentuation of initial group differences among academic subenvironments for Artistic abilities of both male and female students and for Enterprising abilities of male students. It also showed that male and female students in Artistic subenvironments-for whom Artistic abilities and interests were each of the two gender groups' initially prominent characteristic-increased still further in score on the Artistic abilities and interest scale over four years of college; and parallel results were found for male students in Enterprising subenvironments in terms of Enterprising abilities and interests. Moreover, both male and female students initially high on Artistic and Enterprising abilities and interests gained more on these attributes if they entered congruent academic subenvironments (Artistic and Enterprising subenvironments, respectively) than if they entered any of the other subenvironments. Whereas these findings support Holland's theory, other data (primarily for Investigative and Social abilities and interests of students) were either less supportive or unsupportive of Holland's theory. Some implications of these results are discussed.     

MicroObservatory Net: A Network of Automated Remote Telescopes Dedicated to Educational Use

Many students have a deep interest in astronomy, but a limited opportunity to use telescopes to explore the heavens. The MicroObservatory Network of automated telescopes is designed to provide access to classroom teachers who wish their students to conduct projects over the World Wide Web. The intuitive interface makes it easy for even 10-year-olds to take pictures. Telescopes can be remotely pointed and focused: filters, field of view, and exposure times can be changed easily. Images are archived at the website, along with sample challenges and a user bulletin board, all of which encourage collaboration among schools. Wide geographic separation of instruments provides access to distant night skies during local daytime. Since first light in 1995, we have learned much about remote troubleshooting, designing for unattended use, and for acquiring the kinds of images that students desire. This network can be scaled up from its present capability of 240,000 images each year to provide telescope access for all US students with an interest in astronomy. Our WWW address is http://mo-www.harvard.edu/MicroObservatory/     

Scholarly Productivity of Editorial Board Members of Three American Counseling and Counseling Psychology Journals

The scholarly journals in professional and scientific fields serve the function of communicating new knowledge and informed discourse on the major issues affecting the field of counseling, and editorial board members (EBMs) serve as gatekeepers of what information will be communicated. The ability of EBMs to make sound judgments directly affects the quality of research and scholarship published. This study analyzed one important EBM qualification, the scholarly productivity of the editorial board members of three major American counseling journals (The Counseling Psychologist [TCP], the Journal of Counseling Psychology [JCP], and the Journal of Counseling and Development [JCD]). An analysis of the productivity rates of editorial board members on these journals was conducted using the PsycINFO database. The results indicated that editorial board members of JCP have significantly more experience publishing than members of TCP and JCD. The differential publication rates of editorial board members suggest that these three journals place different emphasis on scholarly productivity as part of their selection criteria for editorial board membership and may reflect that the three journals have different missions and serve different clientele. These findings have implications, not only for the profession of counseling in the United States, but also for the international counseling community.This article is dedicated to our esteemed colleague, Stephen G. Weinrach, who died after a long and courageous battle with leukemia on April 24, 2004. This article was the last that Steve was working on prior to his death. It was his brainchild. The contributions that Steve made to the counseling profession over the years are inestimable. He was truly through his numerous writings and professional association activities the “conscience of the couseling profession.” He is dearly missed.     

What does it mean to be an exemplary science teacher?

In order to provide a refreshing alternative to the majority of research reports, which malign science education and highlight its major problems and shortcomings, a series of case studies of exemplary practice was initiated to provide a focus on the successful and positive facets of schooling. The major data-collection approach was qualitative and involved 13 researchers in hundreds of hours of intensive classroom observation involving 20 exemplary teachers and a comparison group of nonexemplary teachers. A distinctive feature of the methodology was that the qualitative information was complemented by quantitative information obtained from the administration of questionnaires assessing student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment. The major trends were that exemplary science teachers (1) used management strategies that facilitated sustained student engagement, (2) used strategies designed to increase student understanding of science, (3) utilized strategies that encouraged students to participate in learning activities, and (4) maintained a favorable classroom learning environment.