Electronic Media

TELEVANGELISM: THE MARKETING OF POPULAR RELIGION by Razelle Frankl (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986--$19.95)

BROADCAST AND CABLE MANAGEMENT by Norman Marcus (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986--price not given)

NORMAN CORWIN AND RADIO: THE GOLDEN YEARS by R. LeRoy Bannerman (University: Univ. of Alabama Press, 1986---$28.50)

AMERICAN TELEVISION DRAMA: THE EXPERIMENTAL YEARS by William Hawes (University: University of Alabama Press, 1986--$29.95)

PRODUCERS ON PRODUCING: THE MAKING OF FILM AND TELEVISION edited by Iry Broughton (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1986---$29.95)

OFF CAMERA: CONVERSATIONS WITH. THE MAKERS OF PRIME-TIME TELEVISION by Richard Levinson and William Link (New York: New American Library/Plume, 1986---$8.95, paper)

CABLE ADVERTISER'S HANDBOOK by Ronald Kaatz (Lincolnwood, IL: Crain Books, 1985---$19.95)

TELECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES AND PUBLIC BROADCASTING 1986 by John Carey (Washington, DC: Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1986---$5.00, paper)     

Advertising/Marketing

TRADE BOOK MARKETING: A PRACTICAL GUIDE edited by Robert A. Carter (New York: Bowker, 1983---$29.95/19.95)

ELEMENT'S OF DIRECT MARKETING by Martin Baier (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983---price not given)

BROADCAST ADVERTISING: A COMPREHENSIVE WORKING TEXTBOOK by Sherilyn K. Zeigler and Herbert H. Howard (Columbus, Ohio: Grid Publishing, 1984---$34.95/17.95)

PUBLIC RELATIONS: MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES by Norman R. Nager and T. Harrell Allen (New York: Longman, 1984---$29.95/16.95)

CHOOSING AN ADVERTISING AGENCY by William M. Weilbacher (Chicago: Crain Books, 1983---$19.95, paper)     

Frail,Fatal, Fundamental: The Future of Public Libraries

No abstract available for this article.     

A study of changes in middle school teachers' understanding of selected ideas in science as a function of an in-service program focusing on student preconceptions

This article examines the impact of a specially designed in-service model on teacher understanding of selected science concepts. The underlying idea of the model is to get teachers to restructure their own understanding of a selected science topic by having them study the structure and evolution of their students' ideas on the same topic. Concepts on topics from the life, earth, and physical sciences served as the content focus and middle school Grades 4–9 served as the context for this study. The in-service experience constituting the main treatment in the study occurred in three distinct phases. In the initial phase, participating teachers interviewed several of their own students to find out what kinds of preconceptions students had about a particular topic. The teachers used concept mapping strategies learned in the in-service to facilitate the interviews. Next the teachers teamed with other teachers with similar topic interests and a science expert to evaluate and explore the scientific merit of the student conceptual frameworks and to develop instructional units, including a summative assessment during a summer workshop. Finally, the student ideas were further evaluated and explored as the teachers taught the topics in their classrooms during the fall term. Concept maps were used to study changes in teacher understanding across the phases of the in-service in a repeated-measures design. Analysis of the maps showed significant growth in the number of valid propositions expressed by teachers between the initial and final mappings in all topic groups. But in half of the groups, this long-term growth was interrupted by a noticeable decline in the number of valid propositions expressed. In addition, analysis of individual teacher maps showed distinctive patterns of initial invalid conceptions being replaced by new invalid conceptions in later mappings. The combination of net growth of valid propositions and the patterns of evolving invalid conceptions is discussed in constructivist terms.     

Reviews

Annals of Dyslexia -     

Effectiveness of a “Grass Roots” Statewide Enrichment Program for Gifted Elementary School Children

Enrichment programs provide learning opportunities for a broader or deeper examination of curricular or extracurricular topics and are popular in gifted education. Herein, we investigated the effectiveness of a statewide extracurricular enrichment program for gifted elementary school children in Germany. The program implemented a ”grass roots“ strategy by which local units developed and offered the enrichment courses, which spanned a broad array of topics. The courses targeted different outcomes, including students' cognitive abilities, school achievement, interests, creativity, self-control, self-concept, and social competencies. We compared third-grade students attending the enrichment program (N =423) with nonattending third-grade students (N = 2,328) by means of a propensity score analysis. Specifically, we controlled for potential selection effects and estimated the average causal effect of the enrichment program for children attending the program. The findings revealed positive program effects on academic achievement but not on the other targeted outcomes.     

Systematic modeling versus the learning cycle: Comparative effects on integrated science process skill achievement

This study assessed the effectiveness of the systematic modeling teaching strategy on integrated science process skills and formal reasoning ability. Urban middle school students received a three-month process skill intervention treatment from teachers trained in either the use of systematic modeling or the learning-cycle model. A third, control group received traditional science instruction. The analysis of data revealed that (a) students receiving modeled instruction demonstrated a significant difference in their achievement of process skills when compared to either of the control groups. (b) Students taught by teachers who had received special process skill and strategy training demonstrated a significant difference in their process skill achievement when compared with the control group. (c) Students at different cognitive reasoning levels demonstrated significantly different process skill ability.     

The Structure and Coherence of Competence from Childhood through Adolescence

The structure and coherence of competence from childhood (ages 8–12) to late adolescence (ages 17–23) was examined in a longitudinal study of 191 children. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test a conceptual model and alternative models. Results suggest that competence has at least 3 distinct dimensions in childhood and 5 in adolescence. These dimensions reflect developmental tasks related to academic achievement, social competence, and conduct important at both age levels in U.S. society, and the additional tasks of romantic and job competence in adolescence. As hypothesized, rule-breaking versus rule-abiding conduct showed strong continuity over time, while academic achievement and social competence showed moderate continuity. Results also were consistent with the hypothesis that antisocial behavior undermines academic attainment and job competence.