Work models: Beyond instructional objectives

While instructional objectives have provided a cornerstone for the practice and science of instruction, they have also locked us into a lexically based conceptual system. In order to realize the interactive potential of computer-based instructional systems, we need a new way of representing performance. This paper presents the concept of a work model which is a unit of practice which allows replication of both information and interaction. In addition, the work model idea also addresses some of the fundamental problems with objectives such as their inability to capture the richness of terminal behavior or how to relate objectives to content.     

Factors influencing mothers' reactions to intrafamily sexual abuse

A mother's question of whether to believe her child's disclosure of intrafamily child sexual abuse is complex, with many factors influencing her conclusion. Variables related to the abuse and to the family's functioning are examined to determine if particular circumstances are too threatening to mothers, resulting in their disbelief. The findings indicate that the age of the victim, nature of the abuse, presence of the mother in the home during the abuse, relationship of the victim to the offender, prior physical abuse of the child, and alcohol abuse by the offender all contribute to mother's conclusion regarding the reported abuse. The majority of mothers do believe their child, with difficult situations and other family stressors occasionally detracting from a mother's willingness to accept the report.     

Changes in Professional Degree Programs in the USA: An Environmental Analysis of Professional Education Requirements

American universities, colleges and schools are uniformly moving toward modernisation and innovation in their academic programs. Nowhere is this more evident than in professional degree programs. The impetus behind the move is overall to produce quality graduates prepared for the changing environment and its demands of the 21st century. Another impetus is survival in the academic competition for students and revenue. A force that affects both impetuses is technology, both the technology of professional practice and the technology of educational delivery.

This paper is in two parts. The first part provides a comparison of changes in four professional degree programs in U.S. institutions, Accounting and Engineering at the baccalaureate level, and Business and Law at the graduate level. The second describes early efforts in the application of “total quality management” to curriculum planning and implementation.     

Attitudes toward the level of men's involvement in abortion decisions

College students completed a questionnaire that assessed their attitudes toward the level of male responsibility in abortion decisions. Overall, both men and women thought that men should have some degree of involvement in the abortion decision. However, as expected by the first hypothesis, men indicated a desire for more responsibility in the abortion decision than women thought the men should have. A second hypothesis predicted women would feel more strongly than men that abortion was strictly a woman's issue. Contrary to the hypothesis, women tended to disagree that abortion was strictly a women's issue. Implications of the findings are discussed.