Canadian Communications

MASS MEDIA AND THE CONSTITUTION: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPREME COURT DECISIONS by Richard F. Hixon (New York: Garland Publishing, 1989—$85.00, ISBN 0-8240-7947-7)

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EDUCATIONAL MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY edited by Derick Unwin and Ray McAleese (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988—price not given, ISBN 0-313-23996-7)

KNOWLEDGE INDUSTRY 200: 1987 EDITION edited by Ira Mayer (White Plains, NY: Knowledge Industry Publications, with library distribution by Gale Research, Detroit, 1987—price for latter is $250, ISBN 0-8103-4254-5)

RADIO AND TELEVISION: A SELECTED, ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, SUPPLEMENT TWO: 1982-1986 by Peter Pringle and Helen Clinton (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1989—$27.50, ISBN 0-8108-2158-3)

THE BROADCAST COMMUNICATIONS DICTIONARY edited by Lincoln Diamant (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1989—$35.00, ISBN 0-313-26502-X)

THE LIBRARIAN'S COMPANION: A HANDBOOK OF THOUSANDS OF FACTS AND FIGURES ON LIBRARIES/LIBRARIANS, BOOKS/NEWSPAPERS, PUBLISHERS/BOOKSELLERS by Vladimir F. Wertsman (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987—$35.00, ISBN 0-313-25500-8)

INDEX TO JOURNALS IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES THROUGH 1985 edited by Ronald J. Matlon (Speech Communication Association, 5105 Backlick Rd., Bldg. E, Annandale, VA 22003—$40.00, paper, ISBN not provided)

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND SERVICES edited by Amy Lucas (Detroit: Gale Research, 1988—$420 for a three volume set, ISBN for the set: 0-8103-2646-9)

COMMUNICATIONS GLOSSARY (Canadian Law Information Council, 5th Floor, 161 Laurier Ave. West, Ottawa, Ontario KIP 5J2—$30 each in Canadian funds, no ISBN provided)     

The Changing Nature of Private Engagement in Public Education: For-Profit and Nonprofit Organizations and Educational Reform

Recent years have seen a shifting landscape around private engagement in K-12 public education, one that involves a reorientation of education policy and practice around the principles of the marketplace. In this article, we examine the roles of both not-for-profit and for-profit agencies, as distinct from government agencies, in this movement. Past research has generally focused on subsets of these private actors (i.e., for-profit firms, charter management organizations, or alternative preparers of educators for public schools). We try to look more broadly in order to examine how private actors and the roles of those players in K-12 education are changing, both in terms of the scope of their engagement and the extent to which their role increasingly involves areas at the core of educational practice. In doing so, we consider some of the reasons for these changes, including the influence of federal policy, markets as drivers, and the broader political context. We conclude by raising questions for future research and examining how these developments intersect with values such as democratic voice, equitable distribution of resources, and the public purposes of schooling.     

Accommodation and Adjudication in Student–Administration Conflicts: The Difficult Legacy of the U.S. Supreme Court

In this article, we consider a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that place public school students under an expansive shield of constitutional rights while often hampering the ability of administrators to engage in flexible and creative conflict resolution in the context of the school's mission. The court's readiness to adjudicate a large range of student–administration conflicts has weakened schools’ ability to pragmatically accommodate conflicts that, by their nature, do not have principled solutions at the level of the law. We argue that as long as adjudication is the privileged course of action, the court seems locked into a philosophical zigzag, now endowing 8th graders with due process and constitutional rights, now framing them as mere “subjects.” To strengthen schools as educational and moral institutions, school leaders need to be able to construct systems of accommodation that are sensitive to their special educational nature and mission.     

Developing a Model of Medication Adherence among Filipino Elderly

While adherence to medication remains a problematic area in the care of chronically ill elderly, an extended model that incorporates the interaction of studied variables remains a blank spot. Anchored on Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior, this article details our efforts to develop and test a model of medication adherence among Filipino elderly relative to their medication belief, follow-up visits, consultation satisfaction, memory task, trust with physician, perceived stress, memory strategies, social support, memory load, depression, length of time taking the medication, number of conditions, and self-efficacy with medication adherence. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to study causalities among all parameters. With the participation of 325 older adults located in District IV, Sampaloc, Manila, data needed were gathered through a multiaspect questionnaire consisting of a robotfoto, a memory strategy usage measure, an eight-scale Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, a 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale, a General Self-efficacy Scale, a Consultation Satisfaction Questionnaire, and a Perceived Stress Scale. Data were analyzed using AMOS version 19. Results revealed that depression, trust with physician, and number of conditions affect adherence positively, while event-based memory, consultation satisfaction, memory load, and external memory strategy affect it otherwise. Some suggested variables were found to have no impact at all. As this study reveals, careful consideration should be given to multiple factors, and their interrelationship should be examined well. Because many factors can influence medication adherence behavior of the elderly, and because the reasons for their noncompliance are also varied, multifaceted solutions must be developed.     

Self-Assessment of Gerontology Teaching Practice: A First-Step in Enhancing Student Learning

This article discusses self-assessment of gerontology teaching practice. Through a process of self-reflection one may find insight into their teaching and, concomitantly, develop best-practices for enhancing student learning in gerontology. A self-assessment framework is presented, illuminating best-practices in the areas of the lecture-discussion cycle and teacher-student interactions. The self-assessment areas and reflective questions, while not exhaustive, will hopefully lead gerontology professors to a more expansive inquiry of their teaching practice and the impact it has on student learning. Regular self-assessment of teaching practice may lead to more effective instruction in undergraduate or introductory gerontology courses as well as enhancement of student learning outcomes.     

Response bias in follow-up studies of college students

The problems of response bias in longitudinal studies of college students are examined. An extensive follow-up questionnaire was sent to 1,253 college seniors who had participated in a similar survey as freshman four years earlier. Careful measure of student responsiveness in relation to various techniques designed to increase the proportion of responders (e.g., postcard, telephone contact) were kept.The less responsive groups were significantly different from their more responsive counterparts on nearly a dozen variables representing a wide variety of content areas, including academic achievement, self-concept, alcohol consumption, social deviance, and major choice preferences. Controlling for sex and socioeconomic status served to reduce, but not eliminate, these biases. Overall, the results indicate that researchers cannot account for follow-up nonresponse bias by making statistical adjustments according to data available at initial testing. The results are discussed in light of identifying the reasons for nonresponse, and attempting to develop categories of nonresponders who may be motivated to cooperate by different types of follow-up techniques.     

Young Travellers and the Children's Fund: some practical notes on an experimental image-based research project

The paper reflects on how photography was used during a small piece of mixed methods qualitative research with some young Travellers and their families. The context for the study was 'Every Child Matters' and the accompanying push aimed to include groups considered as marginalised, such as young Travellers, in mainstream educational provision, as well as to listen to children and involve them in decision-making about service provision and its evaluation. Photography was used experimentally as a kind of participatory methodology to engage young Travellers in the formative evaluation of a Children's Fund project that aimed to increase their participation in formal and informal learning activities. The account discusses some of the outcomes of using the image-based methodology, as well as some of the limitations and dilemmas that emerged.