Hearing Truth from Power? Organisation Theory,School Effectiveness and School Improvement

School effectiveness and school improvement researchers have increasingly looked towards establishing some kind of synergy between their respective fields. However, most recent attempts to create such links have not sufficiently addressed their different perspectives on organisational development and change. School effectiveness research has tended to view organisational development in terms of structural change, while the school improvement field has conversely placed an emphasis upon the cultural dimensions of organisational change. This has resulted in a methodological and theoretical divide that has proved difficult to resolve. This article argues that by incorporating the concept of 'power' into the analysis the two fields can be brought together more successfully. The article suggests that this 'third dimension' provides a bridge between structural and cultural analysis. It also highlights some important research questions that arise out of this tripartite relationship. The article concludes by suggesting that an analysis of power may provide the long awaited conceptual and theoretical fusion sought by both fields.     

Using a discussion about scientific controversy to teach central concepts in experimental design

Students may need explicit training in informal statistical reasoning in order to design experiments or use formal statistical tests effectively. By using scientific scandals and media misinterpretation, we can explore the need for good experimental design in an informal way. This article describes the use of a paper that reviews the measles mumps rubella vaccine and autism controversy in the UK to illustrate a number of threshold concepts underlying good study design and interpretation of scientific evidence. These include the necessity of sufficient sample size, representative and random sampling, appropriate controls and inferring causation.     

An LSA-Based Software Tool for Matching Jobs,People, and Instruction

New LSA-based agent software helps to identify required job knowledge, determine which members of the workforce have the knowledge, pinpoint needed retraining content, and maximize training and retraining efficiency. The LSA-based technology extracts semantic information about people, occupations, and task-experience contained in natural-text databases. The various kinds of information are all represented in the same way in a common semantic space. As a result, the system can match or compare any of these objects with any one or more of the others. To demonstrate and evaluate the system, we analyzed tasks and personnel in three Air Force occupations. We measured the similarity of each airman to each task and estimated how well each airman could replace another. We also demonstrated the potential to match knowledge sub-components needed for new systems with ones contained in training materials and with those possessed by individual airmen. It appears that LSA can successfully characterize tasks, occupations and personnel and measure the overlap in content between instructional courses covering the full range of tasks performed in many different occupations. Such analyses may suggest where training for different occupations might be combined, where training is lacking, and identify components that may not be needed at all. In some instances it may suggest ways in which occupations might be reorganized to increase training efficiency, improve division of labor efficiencies, or redefine specialties to produce personnel capable of a wider set of tasks and easier reassignment.     

Body Politics: Coverage of Health Topics and Policy in U.S. Feminist Magazines

This study considered health coverage in 3 highly circulated U.S. feminist magazines: Ms., Bitch, and Bust. The authors used critical discourse analysis to examine 80 print and online articles for representations of liberal, social, radical, and postfeminist feminist ideologies in health coverage; the rhetorical strategies publications used for health content and how they compare with mainstream women’s magazines; and their emphasis on health policy and public health initiatives. The findings suggested that the magazines relied on discursive approaches resembling those of mainstream magazines when covering health, such as prioritizing personal health issues and individualized responses. However, through distinctive feminist lenses, they also performed better than mainstream women’s magazines in presenting health issues, representing a broader range of concerns affecting women, addressing people from diverse communities, and suggesting opportunities for collective response.     

The Falls Creek Project

Abstract

Four student-led investigations conducted as part of the NSF-funded Explorations from an Aerial Perspective program demonstrate how participatory action research can provide a framework for realizing environmental education goals. Students conducted the investigations–which focused on community land-use issues–in cooperation with teachers, nonformal educators, and community members. On the basis of the results of their research, the students organized activities that engendered positive changes in their local environments.     

Evaluating Environmental Education in the Context of a Junior High School State Studies Program

Abstract

This article discusses and offers solutions to three basic problems that environmentalists have encountered while teaching environmental ethics. The solutions include interdisciplinary study and research projects, teaching an intuitive understanding of the interrelatedness of the ecosystem, and a general, dynamic code of behavior for living an environmentally ethical lifestyle.