Major Survey Findings of Listening to MothersSM III: Pregnancy and Birth: Report of the Third National U.S. Survey of Women’s Childbearing Experiences

To understand the experiences and views of childbearing women in the United States and trends over time, Childbirth Connection carried out the third national Listening to Mothers survey among 2,400 women who gave birth in U.S. hospitals to a single baby from mid-2011 to mid-2012 and could participate in English. Harris Interactive conducted the survey using a validated methodology that includes data weighting to ensure that results closely reflect the target population. Results of the initial survey describe experiences from before pregnancy through the early postpartum period, and were reported in Listening to Mothers III: Pregnancy and Birth. A follow-up survey directed to the same participants explored postpartum experiences, attitudes about maternity care, and some additional pregnancy and birth items.     

The American University in Bulgaria as an Entrepreneurial University

Entrepreneurship in an educational institution is not strictly commercial. It is also defined in terms of educational objectives. The author, who is the Provost and Dean of Faculty at the American University of Bulgaria at Blagoevgrad, describes the setting up of this university in 1990‐1991 as a case study in educational entrepreneurship. This American‐style liberal arts university has become very successful through offering a curriculum that is unique to the Bulgarian higher education environment and employing faculty and staff who have a very strong professional and personal commitment to the institution and its mission. The university operates according to democratic principles of shared governance with an emphasis upon Total Quality Management and state‐of‐the‐art facilities in such areas as Internet access, computerization, and library automation. The university has made a successful adaptation to the Bulgarian cultural, linguistic, and material environment, and has won the respect of the traditional Bulgarian academic establishment. Success in this case is illustrative of entrepreneurship defined as taking an exciting idea and making it work in spite of difficulties.     

KDU e-Community Network

The democratization of education has brought forth an unprecedented demand for education by the masses, especially at the tertiary level. However, the availability of education is hampered by limited resources to provide pervasive and effective teacher–student interaction, changing lifestyle patterns, changing expectations of the students, and the problems associated with the great urban–rural divide and nonuniform access. The problem of availability of education is compounded by the tide of globalization and the Internet that demands not only high efficiency but also competitive delivery of services and goods in all sectors of our economy, including education. Education is not immune to these current trends. It is imperative that education institutions rise up to the challenge in meeting the demand of a more discerning, discriminating, mobile, and selective student population. It is imperative that education institutions reconsider the necessary ingredients to make learning effective, relevant, and fun for the students. Our company, Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU), has embarked on an education experiment begun almost 3 years ago to implement a student-centered, teacher-facilitated, Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-enabled and knowledge-based initiative. The goal of this experiment has been to create an active learning environment, and to promote learning for our students. The knowledge ecosystem, comprising students, teachers, administrators, parents, partner institutions, employers, and the community at large, forms the KDU e-Community Network (KCN). The KCN enables passive, interactive, collaborative, and constructive learning to take place as long as the stakeholder has a connection to the Internet.     

Listening to Mothers II: Report of the Second National U.S. Survey of Women's Childbearing Experiences: Conducted January-February 2006 for Childbirth Connection by Harris Interactive(R) in partnership with Lamaze International

With permission from Childbirth Connection, the concise version of the Listening to Mothers II "Survey Methodology" is reprinted here. Harris Interactive(R) conducted Listening to Mothers II: Report of the Second National U.S. Survey of Women's Childbearing Experiences on behalf of Childbirth Connection. The survey consisted of 1,373 online interviews and 200 telephone interviews with women who had given birth in U.S. hospitals in 2005, with weighting of data to reflect the target population. Interviews were conducted from January 20 through February 21, 2006. The methods used to conduct the survey and analyze the data collected are described.     

The difference of literature: Writing now for the future of young readers

CLIE is pleased to print the 1992 Sidney Robbins Lecture, given at the Annual Conference of The International Association of School Libraries at The Queen's University, Belfast. Sidney Robbins founded this journal in 1970, arising from the series of Children's Literature Conferences which be had initiated at St. Luke's College, Exeter, where be worked. He died in 1971.Aidan Chambers began his career as a secondary school teacher of English and drama. For the last twenty-seven years he has been an author of fiction for young readers and a part-time tutor of pre-and inservice teachers. In 1969, with his wife Nancy, he founded Thimble Press, publisher of the magazineSignal and various guides to and monographs on children's books. He is a visiting lecturer in literature for children at Westminster College, Oxford.