Is Something Better Than Nothing? An Evaluation of Early Childhood Programs in Cambodia

This study evaluated the relative effectiveness of home-based, community-based, and state-run early childhood programs across Cambodia. A total of 880 five-year-olds (55% girls) from 6 rural provinces in Cambodia attending State Preschools, Community Preschools, Home-Based Programs, or no programs were assessed twice using the Cambodian Developmental Assessment Test. Controlling for baseline differences, children who participated in any early childhood programs performed significantly better in posttest than those of children who did not participate in any programs. Children in State Preschools scored significantly higher than those in either Community Preschools or Home-Based Programs; scores did not differ as a function of attending Community Preschools or Home-Based Programs. The results indicate that some preschool experience is better than none at all.     

Technology Talk: Public Speaking Textbooks' Coverage of Information Retrieval Technology Systems

College students use technology to gather information and conduct their daily lives. Textbooks increasingly relate course content to students through technology. An analysis of the top ten public speaking textbooks revealed the ways in which technology is addressed within information-gathering chapters. Seven areas of technology were identified: search engines/conducting searches, the Internet, general computing, non-computer technologies, technology applications, technology in general, and the provision of Website addresses. Chi-square tests showed significant differences in the coverage of the technology topics. Instructors can make more informed textbook selections as a result of this investigation. Technology is essential to the information gathering process, and this study suggests how its treatment may be more beneficial to both students and instructors.     

Diversity and Power in Public Speaking Textbooks

The frequency of gender and ethnic groups in positions of power represented in photographs in the top 10 public speaking textbooks were investigated. Men are pictured in power positions more often than are women. In photos displaying multiple ethnicities, with or without Caucasians, people of other ethnicities were more likely to be shown in positions of power than were Caucasians. This discrepant finding is particularly interesting in light of the consistent finding on gender.     

Editorial

The field of educational development has a 40-year history of providing continuing education or professional development for academic staff, particularly focusing on improving teaching and learning. However, little has yet been written on the historical origins and development of this field, apart from content analyses of some key journals and books conducted recently. This article asks critical questions about the emergence and evolution of educational development, focusing particularly on Australia. It traces the genealogies of some of its dominant positionings and demonstrates, through historical textual analysis, how some topics, themes and methods have retained their dominance over this 40-year period, while others continue to remain marginal. Finally, it argues for further historical research, particularly employing genealogical historical methodologies, as a means of enabling the field to recover from historical amnesia, develop more critical means of interrogating its underlying epistemologies and creating the possibility for broader, contested futures.     

Rituals in Committed Romantic Relationships: The Creation and Validation of an Instrument

Rituals are widely studied in interpersonal communication research, but no instrument for assessing the preceived use of rituals among couples in committed romantic relationships exists. The purpose of this investigation was to create and validate such a measure (Rituals in Committed Romantic Relationships; RCRR). Five-hundred-sixty individuals in committed romantic relationships responded to a 50-item questionnaire that measured 5 sets of rituals pertaining to daily routines and tasks, idiosyncratic behavior, everyday talk, intimacy, and couple-time. In addition, they completed measures of perceived relational quality and perceived relational intimacy. Multiple analyses supported a 5-factor model consisting of 30 of the original 50 items. Perceived use of rituals was predictive of alterations in both perceived relational quality and perceived relational intimacy.     

Curriculum Integration: Helping Career and Technical Education Students Truly Develop College and Career Readiness

All students need to learn how to read, write, solve mathematics problems, and understand and apply scientific principles to succeed in college and/or careers. The challenges posed by entry-level career fields are no less daunting than those posed by college-level study. Thus, career and technical education students must learn effective math, literacy, and scientific concepts and processes. The National Center for Career and Technical Education Research completed three separate experimental design studies about the integration of math, literacy, and science in CTE courses. Across the studies, integration of core academics in CTE courses improved students' academic achievement as measured by standardized assessments.     

The Trouble with Aileen Wuornos,Feminism's “First Serial Killer”

Lesbian prostitute Aileen Wuornos was popularly termed “America's first female serial killer.” Between 1989 and 1990, she killed six men, later testifying they had raped or attempted to rape her. By analyzing media coverage of Wuornos’ story, I argue that Wuornos’ incommensurability with available stories of women who kill illustrates the need to expand the rhetorical resources that make female violence and victimage intelligible. After demonstrating that Wuornos’ gender transgressions were disciplined into intelligible terms by understandings of criminality as an already spatial and gendered category, I conclude by discussing the “trouble” Wuornos poses to feminist and queer cultural politics.