MYTHPERCEPTIONS OF HEARING LOSS,HEARING AIDS,AND AGING

Myths are ill‐founded beliefs held uncritically by persons or groups about other persons or groups. Such myths hinder the communication process and lead to negative feelings or attitudes toward older persons with hearing loss. Hudson, Dancer, Patterson, Reynolds, and Tillery (1990) highlighted five common myths of hearing loss and aging. This article explores whether older persons themselves accept these and other myths presented by the DanPat, a 30‐item questionnaire with “Agree‐Disagree” statements such as the following: “Hearing Aids are Best Left to younger Persons Who Can Learn to Use Them,” or “Persons with Hearing Loss are Paranoid and Suspicious.”

Twenty older persons attending a Senior Companions and Foster Grandparents Health Fair filled out the DanPat with the following results to the 30 statements: informed about 14 of the statements; misinformed about 2 statements; and didn ‘t know the correct answer to 14 statements. Of the five prevalent myths presented by Hudson et al., this group of older adults still believes only one, that persons with hearing loss are excellent lipreaders. They don't know what to believe about two others, and they have discarded the remaining two. This article highlights the DanPat and provides correct answers to the questionnaire.     

Inclusive Learning: the Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the postschool education of those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities,in England, 1996

ABSTRACT

The Report, Inclusive Learning (1996), is the result of a three‐year enquiry into the educational needs of and provision for adults with disabilities and/or learning difficulties in England. It arose from the requirement of an Act of Parliament, in 1992, that the new national funding council for further education should ‘have regard’ for such students in all its work of funding, development and evaluation. The Committee commissioned some fundamental research into the nature and extent of provision, the actual and potential demand for further education and the current requirements of law, and also reviewed existing academic research (chiefly in English‐speaking countries). It took extensive evidence in many modes and, in particular, created a series of workshops in which the students and their advocates could speak for themselves. The outcome was the main Report and summary, together with six supplementary publications. The core of the Report is the notion of ‘inclusive learning’, which places the responsibility for providing appropriate education with the teachers, the managers and the system (ultimately, with society), rather than problematizing the student as one with a deficit. A good education system is not merely about offering access to what is available, but also the making of what needs to be available accessible: the moulding of opportunity. Thus the Report concentrates on a theory of learning and its educational consequences. It represents another step towards embracing students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities unequivocally within the general approach to learning appropriate for all students. This article summarizes the main lines of analysis and argument in the Report and its framework of recommendations to the Further Education Funding Council, teachers, managers, voluntary organizations and to the government.     

Open learning for national recovery

The Lord Gregson DL is an Executive Director of Fairey Holdings Limited, and a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology. In this article, based on his keynote speech at a conference in October 1986 organised jointly by the Open University and the Confederation of British Industry ‐‐ Open Learning Works ‐‐ and attended by about 200 people from industry and commerce, he analyses the problem facing British industry, and then, drawing on the analysis made by the Select Committee of the training performance of British industry in comparison with its competitors, suggests how open learning can contribute to an improvement in that performance. Lord Gregson also holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University.     

Dissolving boundaries: cross-national co-operation through technology in education

This article reports research on cross-national co-operation through Information and Communications Technology (ICT) within the statutory curricula of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, the views and experiences of teachers in partner schools in the north and south of Ireland were sought on the capacity and potential of asynchronous computer conferencing and videoconferencing to generate collaborative work in a cross-border setting, to promote cultural awareness among primary and post-primary pupils, and to improve teacher and pupil competence in ICT. The results showed a significant improvement in ICT competence, and also revealed that technical training, enthusiasm and commitment were the key factors for success, and that not only did the pupils develop an awareness of the cultural identity of distant peers, but their sense of responsibility, self-esteem and motivation grew. This particularly helped less able and quieter pupils. There was unexpected rôle reversal when children helped their teachers within an ICT context, a situation not found elsewhere in the curriculum. Additionally, there were beneficial effects on literacy, group work and independent learning, and the skills acquired were transferable. The commitment of the teachers to continue this cross-national work with limited support is a measure of its potential sustainability.     

Evaluating Growth for ELL Students: Implications for Accountability Policies

In recent years, many U.S. states have introduced growth models as part of their educational accountability systems. Although the validity of growth‐based accountability models has been evaluated for the general population, the impact of those models for English language learner (ELL) students, a growing segment of the student population, has not received sufficient attention. We evaluated three commonly used growth models: value tables or transition matrices, projection models, and student growth percentiles (SGP). The value table model identified more ELL students as on track to proficiency, but with lower accuracy for ELL students. The projection and SGP models were more accurate overall, but classified the fewest ELL students as on track and were less likely to identify ELL students who would later be proficient. We found that each model had significant trade‐offs in terms of the decisions made for ELL students. These findings should be replicated in additional state contexts and considered in the development of future growth‐based accountability policies.     

Peer choice – does reviewer self‐selection work?

The British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET) uses a novel system for obtaining referees by e‐mailing the abstracts of submissions to a panel of over 250 referees and allowing these individuals to choose which papers they would like to review. An analysis of 13 experienced referees showed that, of 473 reviews assessed, these referees were slightly more lenient than the editor and that electronic records provide useful data that can be mined in interesting ways.     

The Artist Initiative at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

The Artist Initiative at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is piloting models for increased collaboration between conservators and curators through joint work with artists. We seek a more integrated, holistic approach to the care and research of our collection. The project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, comprises five robust research engagements that serve the curatorial collecting departments of the museum (Photography, Painting and Sculpture, Media Art, and Architecture and Design). Three of the projects are monographic studies, examining the work of Ellsworth Kelly, Vija Celmins, and Julia Scher in depth, while two more are thematic, exploring modes of displaying digitally-driven design objects, and developing strategies for addressing the problem of color shift common to photographic prints made with experimental materials during the 1970s and 1980s. The Artist Initiative is also charged with developing hybrid working spaces to advance collaborative approaches to collections research at the museum's new downtown campus and at SFMOMA's new Collections Center in South San Francisco. These spaces include the Collections Workroom, a 56?sq?m (600?sq?ft) space that functions as a studio for visiting artists, a conservation laboratory, an interview suite, and a classroom at SFMOMA's downtown campus. At the Collections Center, a 121?sq?m (1300?sq?ft) Mock-Up Gallery has been built as a working model of one of the museum's new galleries. A functional exhibition space, the Mock-Up Gallery is also a venue for interviewing artists, prototyping exhibition formats, and meeting with students, scholars, museum staff, and community members. With the goal of contributing to critical discourses in contemporary art history, art conservation, and public engagement, each of the Artist Initiative projects includes a colloquium that will bring experts from multiple fields together with the featured artists. Thereafter we aim to share our findings widely through public programs and a range of publications, both digitally and in print.