The Cardinal Virtues and Kinesiology

What is a good kinesiologist? Is it possible that the ancient and medieval tradition of the Cardinal Virtues sheds light on this question? The four Cardinal Virtues of prudence, justice, courage, and temperance are so called from the Latin cardo meaning “hinge.” The Cardinal Virtues are said to be the hinge upon which all the other virtues rest or turn. They are the foundation of good character. If this is right, then the answer to the question posed is simple. The good kinesiologist is prudent, just, courageous, and temperate. Therefore, to move the field forward, even on a practical level, kinesiologists must give due attention to the virtues.     

Rhetoric and knowing: The search for perspective

Attempts to describe the possible relationship of rhetoric to knowing inevitably lead to conceptual distinctions. This essay argues that distinctions which relegate rhetoric to social, or explicit, or contingent knowledge incorrectly restrict our view of the rhetoric‐epistemic relationship. An alternative perspective which avoids such distinctions is suggested.     

Building on the Hopes and Dreams of Latino Families with Young Children: Findings from Family Member Focus Groups

In the past, Latino families were often regarded as being uninvolved in their child’s education, particularly within the parent involvement literature. More recently, authors are encouraging educational professionals to look at a family’s “funds of knowledge” to encourage their involvement. This expression takes into account the knowledge a teacher can gain from a family and child, including awareness of culture, familial background, and other contributions the family can add to the child’s education. This article reviews findings from the analyses of focus groups conducted with Latino family members who have a child(ren) enrolled at a Head Start Center. Findings indicate that Latino families openly communicated strengths, interests, aspirations and learning opportunities for their child and family yet often faced barriers in conveying these to teachers and other staff in their child’s life. Implications for using inquiry-based approaches to bridge this gap in family-school communication are discussed.     

The learning outcomes race: the value of self-reported gains in large research universities

This article explores the geographies of difference at LI-NSU, a Mexican university program where English is the predominant language of instruction. The interactions between LI-NSU students and students from other programs are marked by themes of national identity and symbolically charged views of English, creating a contested ‘poetics of space’ within the classroom and beyond. The article questions the impact that English-only classrooms may have on student identity in contexts where English is not the official or dominant language.     

Increasing access to learning for the adult basic education learner with learning disabilities: evidence-based accommodation research

Accommodating adult basic education (ABE) learners with learning disabilities (LD) is common practice across many instructional, testing, and work settings. However, the results from this literature search indicate that very few empirically based studies are available to support or reject the effectiveness of a great deal of accommodation implementation. In addition, in light of the profound changes to literacy taking place in today's digital, networked, and multimodal world, technology is redefining traditional concepts of accessibility and accommodation.     

Television Entertainment

Robert Metz' The Today Show: An Inside Look at 25 Tumultuous Years...and the Colorful and Controversial People Behind the Scenes (New York: Playboy Press, 1977—$10.00)

Jeff Rovin's The Great Television Series (South Brunswick, N.J.: A.S. Barnes, 1977—$17.50)

Gregg Lewis, Telegarbage: What You Can do about Sex and Violence on TV (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1977—$2.95, paper)

Richard Meyers, Super TV Stars (160 pp.)

Richard Meyers, The Illustrated Soap Opera Companion (159 pp.)     

Sense of audience and the adult writer: A study across competence levels

The purpose of this research was to investigate five audience-related constructs impacting on the written expression of adult writers who demonstrate varying degrees of literacy competence. Four specific groups of adult writers were targeted for this study, including 35 college-able writers demonstrating learning disabilities, 22 writers with learning disabilities attending a rehabilitation vocational training program, 35 remedial English college writers, and 35 normally achieving college writers. A primary trait scale was developed to investigate five major constructs identified in the literature as impacting on audience. These constructs included general characteristics, organization of text, analyzing/constructing the audience, construct differentiation of voice, and execution. The results of this research indicate that the population of adult writers demonstrating learning disabilities have difficulties with certain aspects of the writing process that may impact on the audience (reader). Implications for assessment and instruction are discussed.     

Referencing: the cohesive use of pronouns in the written narrative of college underprepared writers, nondisabled writers, and writers with learning disabilities

The purpose of this study was to explore whether college normally achieving writers (n = 35), writers with learning disabilities (n = 35), and underprepared writers (n = 35) demonstrated any differences in their ability to utilize the semantic roles and syntactic rules needed to apply cohesive referencing in written text. Cohesive referencing (the ability to assign roles to the speaker and addressee in written communication) is a critical aspect of written language. In addition, the study explored the relation between referential cohesion and the quality and coherence of a written text.