Educating the Next Generation of Public Health Social Work Leaders: Findings from a Summit

This article reports the findings of a 2-day public health social work (PHSW) summit that brought together PHSW educators, practitioners, and administrators to generate ideas for preparing the next generation of PHSW leaders. Data from focus groups revealed four themes: the importance of PHSW in our healthcare delivery system, the need for public health social workers to develop their professional identity, the significance of branding/promoting PHSW, and the favorable consequences of infusing PHSW content into social work curricula. Attendees generated ideas for bringing PHSW forward and provided recommendations to accrediting bodies for highlighting the importance of PHSW.     

Lifelong education: a test of the accumulation hypothesis

A path model of the lifelong education cycle is developed and estimated, using data relevant to a Swedish cohort of men and the method of linear structural relations analysis. The estimates are used to address the question as to whether adult education, by offsetting differences in educational backgrounds, has reduced the gap in educational attainment between the initially poorly‐educated and well‐educated groups comprising the sample studied. The results show that a cycle of accumulation is in operation, so that the quality of earlier experiences of education predict the quality and amount of educational experiences subsequently gathered. Hence, as the expansion of adult education has served to reinforce inequality of educational attainment, at least for the group of Swedish men studied, the accumulation hypothesis is supported. However, because the stability coefficients found in the model are only of modest size, it is concluded that there is room for interventionist policy designed to influence the social distribution of adult education resources.     

Shortcomings of the IQ-Based Construct of Underachievement

Despite being plagued by serious conceptual problems, underachievement ranks among the most popular constructs in research on the gifted. Many of its problems have their roots in the use of the IQ as the supposedly best method of measuring ability levels. Only a few decades ago the opinion was still widespread that the IQ-based construct of underachievement, having withstood neither its empirical nor its theoretical test, ought to be abandoned. Since then, some points of criticism have simply been forgotten. In this article we therefore take up and follow a few of the broken threads within the discussion. To this end, we present a thorough analysis of the implications of the IQ-based underachievement concept. First we present a definition of underachievement and provide a brief overview of the history of the construct. We then enumerate the theoretical, methodological, and empirical problems of the IQ-based construct.     

Successful in Science Education and Still Popular: A pattern that is possible in China rather than in Germany or Russia

Across several countries, science is often regarded as unpopular and a male-dominated domain. Furthermore, the number of students who are interested in science education or intend to work in the field of science is relatively low. This might be due to expectations adolescents hold towards science and successful scientists. The current cross-national study investigates the expectations of students in relation to highly achieving peers in science education in the three countries China, Germany and Russia (N?=?420). Students were asked to indicate their expectations about two fictitious new classmates with respect to three categories: intelligence, social competence and eagerness. Besides national differences, differences concerning the gender of the participating students, the gender of the target students (fictitious highly achieving students in science education) and interaction effects were investigated. Whereas the effects of gender and target gender are inconsistent and negligible, there are significant national differences. Notably, Chinese students hold the most positive expectations about successful peers in science education. The results are discussed with regard to possible explanations and educational consequences.     

The relation between feedback perceptions and the supervisor–student relationship in master's thesis projects

Research supervision can be investigated from social–emotional and cognitive perspectives, but most studies include only one perspective. This study aims to understand the interplay between a social–emotional (supervisor–student relationship) and cognitive (feedback) perspective on the outcomes of master's thesis supervision in specific, by investigating student perceptions of both perspectives. Questionnaire data (N?=?1016) were collected and analysed using regression analyses. For student satisfaction (SS) and students' perceived supervisor contribution to learning (PSCL), affiliation by far is most important, followed by control for SS and feedback-forward for PSCL. Also, interaction effects between feedback and interpersonal perceptions were found, indicating that the role of feedback perceptions is most important in situations in which no optimal supervisor–student relationship could be established. Findings imply the importance for master's thesis supervisors of creating friendly and helping relationships with students and if this is problematic, extra care should be taken with giving feedback.     

Training-the-trainers in information literacy (TTT) Workshops Project,Final Report to UNESCO

This paper identifies the sources and channels of information in the rural areas of Bangladesh and highlights the information flow and access patterns at the village level of Comilla and Chittagong districts in Bangladesh. It proposes some suggestions for effective information services in rural area, as well as a specific model for a Bangladesh Integrated Rural Information System (BD-IRIS) to improve the information system of villagers. This study uses structured interviews through a pilot survey of 20% of the households from each village and information gathered by personal observations and other secondary sources, as well as appropriate statistical methods. A total of 155 responses is included in the study.

Existing conditions of information flow and access in this case study indicate that there are problems in access in spite of interpersonal sources and channels of information. Of course, it is important to remember that the low literacy rate in the villages studied and in many similar communities presents many serious barriers. The author recommends establishing a Village Information Center (VIC) to provide integrated and concerted information services, along with an integrated rural information system for the purpose in the villages studies, and more widely, to meet the requirements of all people in villages in Bangladesh. The case study is one of very few studies focusing on the flow and access of information for rural areas of Bangladesh, particularly as regards information sources and channels, system and services. The approach can be replicated in other communities, and the proposed model for future direction to improve information system of village level people of Bangladesh could be modified for use in other countries.     

Broadcasting and Cable

Larry James Gianakos' Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1959-1975 (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1978—$27.50)

Albert C. Book and Norman D. Cary's The Radio and Television Commercial (Chicago: Crain Books, 1978—$6.95, paper)

Jay S. Harris's TV Guide: The First 25 Years (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978—$14.95)

Steven R. Rivkin's A New Guide to Federal Cable Television Regulations (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1978—$25.00)

Felix Chin's Cable Television: A Comprehensive Bibliography (New York: Plenum Publishing, 1978—$45.00)     

The expansion of adult education and training in Europe: Trends and issues

The main purpose of this article is to describe the factors that are contributing to the recent expansion of adult education and training in the European region, A second purpose is to spell out the ramifications of the problems and policy issues that arise. The focus is on the dilemmas faced by decision-makers which, formulated as challenges confronting European adult education, will be summarized towards the end of the article. The central theme running through these concluding paragraphs is that there may well be a conflict between the economic and labour market objectives of adult education, on the one hand, and its cultural, social and redistributive goals on the other. The overriding challenge is how to find innovative ways of reducing this apparent conflict.

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Zusammenfassung Hauptziel dieses Artikels ist die Beschreibung von Faktoren, die zu der kürzlich begonnenen Erweiterung von Erwachsenenbildung und Weiterbildung im europäischen Raum beitragen. Außerdem sollen die Zusammenhänge der auftretenden Probleme und politischen Themen verdeutlicht werden. Im Brennpunkt stehen die als Herausforderung für die europäische Erwachsenenbildung formulierten Schwierigkeiten der Entscheidungsträger. Im Schlußteil werden diese Schwierigkeiten noch einmal kurz zusammengefaßt. Zentrales Thema dieses letzten Abschnitts ist der befürchtete Konflikt zwischen den Zielen der Erwachsenenbildung in Bezug auf Wirtschaft und Arbeitsmarkt auf der einen Seite und kulturellen, sozialen und umverteilenden Aspekten auf der anderen. Die vorrangige Herausforderung besteht darin, innovative Möglichkeiten zur Verringerung dieses offensichtlichen Konflikts zu finden.

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Résumé L'objectif majeur du présent article est de décrire les facteurs qui contribuent à l'expansion récente de l'éducation et de la formation des adultes dans la région Europe. Le second objectif consiste à mettre en lumière les ramifications des problèmes et des questions politiques qui se manifestent. L'accent est mis sur les difficultés auxquelles font face les décideurs. On les résume à la fin de l'article où elles sont présentées comme les défis auxquels l'éducation des adultes est confrontée en Europe. Le thème central qui sous-tend les paragraphes de cette conclusion se rapporte au fait qu'il pourrait très bien y avoir un conflit entre les objectifs de l'éducation des adultes en matière d'économie et d'emploi, d'une part, et ses buts culturels, sociaux et de redistribution, d'autre part.

     

The impact of core and infrastructure business activities on information systems planning and effectiveness

Core and infrastructure business activities are vital to the organization, and are growing more and more dependent on information systems. Theory suggests that more core and infrastructure business activities would inspire more strategic information systems planning which in turn would result in greater planning effectiveness. One hundred thirty chief information officers in manufacturing companies completed a questionnaire about the extent that their organization performed core and infrastructure business activities, and carried out technical, personnel, and procedures planning. The findings showed that infrastructure activities lead to all three types of planning whereas core activities lead only to procedures planning. Moreover, they showed that technical planning leads to planning effectiveness whereas personnel and procedures planning do not. The findings suggest that future researchers might try to uncover the reasons that core activities do not lead to more information systems planning. For practitioners, the findings suggest that managers reconsider how their organizations respond to core and infrastructure needs, and whether they should adjust their information systems planning.     

Changing Notions of Lifelong Education and Lifelong Learning

Drawing on material from IRE as well as other sources, this article describes how the notion of lifelong education came into prominence in the educational world in the late 1960s, how it related to the concepts of formal, non-formal and informal education, and how it contrasted with the idea of recurrent eduction, as promoted by the OECD. The author goes on to discuss the emergence of the broader and more holistic concept of lifelong learning and the various ways in which it is understood. The article shows how IRE and its host institute have played an important part in the debate on these issues.