Challenges and transformations: Counselling in a multicultural context

During the last two decades counselling in a multicultural context has been on the increase with more and more training programmes now including issues of race, culture and ethnicity. This has led to numerous approaches, for example transcultural, inter-cultural, cross-cultural, multicultural, Afro-centric, anti-racist and black feminist, which define counselling with minority groups. Although many of these approaches have a sound theoretical base, they nevertheless remain marginal in terms of convincing the minority communities of their value and effectiveness. This is clearly seen in the pre-mature termination and lack of participation by minorities in counselling and therapy. The chief criticism against counselling throughout this period is that, it has remained essentially, Eurocentric, ethnocentric and individualistic. Culture-sensitive counsellors and counselling within a "culture fit" model have been suggested as a way of making the process more appropriate to a diversity of cultures. Furthermore, this has led to some practitioners strongly advocating the inclusion of socio-economic and political constructs as part of a broader definition of multicultural counselling. For example, the issues of power and influence, cultural hegemony, racism and masculinities are becoming key schemas in cross cultural counselling practices. The challenge for multicultural counselling, in the next decade, would be to include traditional healing practices as part of its discourse, if it is to encourage the active participation of ethnicminorities. This paper is an attempt to explore some of these challenges and highlight some of the transformations that are taking place within multicultural counselling. Finally, through a discussion of a case vignette, the paper illustrates the need to accommodate traditional healing methods in counselling the culturally diverse client.     

Toward a Learning Technologies knowledge network

The National Science Foundation-funded Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT) is designed to be a national resource for stimulating research and development of technology-enabled solutions to critical problems in K-14 science, math, engineering and technology learning. The Center, launched at the end of 1997, is organized around four themes identified as areas where research is likely to result in major gains in teaching and learning, and sponsors research across disciplines and institutions in its four theme areas. CILT brings together experts in the fields of cognitive science, educational technologies, computer science, subject matter learning, and engineering. It engages business through an Industry Alliance Program and is also training postdoctoral students. CILT's founding organizations are SRI International's Center for Technology in Learning, University of California at Berkeley (School of Education and Department of Computer Science), Vanderbilt University's Learning Technology Center, and the Concord Consortium. Through its programs, CILT seeks to reach beyond these organizations to create a web of organizations, individuals, industries, schools, foundations, government agencies, and labs, that is devoted to the production, sharing and use of new knowledge about how learning technologies can dramatically improve the processes and outcomes of learning and teaching. This paper describes the rationale and operations of the Center, and first-year progress in defining a set of CILT partnership projects with many other institutions that came out of our national theme-team workshops. Roy Pea, of SRI International, is Director of CILT. Marcia Linn (U. California, Berkeley), John Bransford (Vanderbilt University), Barbara Means (SRI International), and Robert Tinker (Concord Consortium), serve as CILT's coprincipal investigators. Sherry Hsi (Ubiquitous Computing) and Sean Brophy (Technology and Assessment Models) are among the first group of CILT Postdoctoral Fellows. Jeremy Roschelle (SRI International) and Nancy Songer (University of Michigan) are CILT theme-team leaders. Roy Pea and Marcia Linn would like to thank the Spencer Foundation for support during their year at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, in which they developed the CILT concept with the other authors. CILT is funded by National Science Foundation grant #CDA-9720384. Pea and Linn would also like to acknowledge contributions to this article by the many authors of CILT partnership project proposals, and by theme-team leaders. The authors thankfully acknowledge Donna Baranski-Walker for her many contributions to developing the CILT Industrial Alliance Program while serving as its Director in 1998.     

Season of birth is related to child retention rates, achievement, and rate of diagnosis of specific LD

A sizable literature has demonstrated that the achievement of children in early elementary school is related to their season of birth: Those born in summer typically perform less well than those born in the fall. A small literature indicates that more children diagnosed with specific learning disabilities (SLD) are born in the summer. We have begun to explore the possibility that the same processes may account for both outcomes. In order to better understand these processes, the standardized achievement levels and rates of diagnosis of SLD for children born during each season were studied in one geographical area of the State of Georgia served by 28 school districts. Standardized achievement scores in reading, mathematics, and science were reliably lower for those born in the summer. Furthermore, there was a strong relationship between season of birth and the rate at which children received a diagnosis of SLD. Summer-born children were diagnosed with SLD at a higher rate than their peers. Four hypotheses for both the lower performance in the general school population and the greater rate of SLD diagnosis among these children are discussed.     

Bernstein and the explanation of social disparities in education: a realist critique of the socio‐linguistic thesis

Can an explanation of the origins of social disparities in educational achievement be assisted by a critical examination of Bernstein’s sociology? This central question is approached by a consideration of the status of Bernstein’s socio‐linguistic thesis. The focus is on the nature of the explanations provided. The paper asks: What is the explanatory force of Bernstein’s structuralism? What is the relationship between Bernstein’s sociological explanations and Vygotskian psychological explanations? What are the effects for pedagogy of cognitive socialization mediated by language‐use consistent with Bernstein’s theory? The answers to these questions may pose a challenge for sociologists of education engaged with Bernstein’s sociology.     

在博物馆、科学中心和展览馆中利用数字技术学习

本文以博物馆和展览馆等利用数字化技术所提供的学习为综述对象,描述了博物馆学习的相关理论及发展;对在博物馆内、外利用数字化技术进行学习的趋势进行了预测;并针对未来发展趋势,对博物馆学习的设计者和开发者提供了相关建议。     

Talking into literacy

In this article Roy Corden explores the view that the meaning of text is something readers construct by talking their way into. He illustrates some of the potential of appropriate, focused and well managed collaborative learning situations where children use their spoken language to develop literary skills and their awareness of language.     

Photoresists for microlithography

Photoresist technology, which is used for micro-patterning exploits changes in properties of polymeric materials, such as their solubility or volatility, upon photo-irradiation. This process has greatly benefitted from the knowledge base of organic chemistry and photo-induced organic transformations. The role of chemistry in the development of photoresists is described in this article.