Introduction

Abstract

THE BLACKWELL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MANAGEMENT, 12 Vols. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell Publishers, Inc., 1997, $1,200.00 or $100.00/vol.

INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS &; MANAGEMENT. Warner, Malcolm (Ed.). London: International Thomson Business Press, 1996, $1295.00, ISBN 0-415-07399-5 (set). Reviewed by Judith M. Nixon.

MORNINGSTAR PRINCIPIA PLUS FOR MUTUAL FUNDS. Available: Morningstar, Inc., $495.00–quarterly updates for one year. (Hardware requirements: Hard drive space: 85 MB (500 MB Networked Server; 7 MB workstation); 8 MB of RAM; Pentium PC). Reviewed by Bobray Bordelon.

MANAGEMENT CONSULTING: EXPLORING THE FIELD, FINDING THE RIGHT JOB, AND LANDING IT. Opler, Tim and Tim Laurel. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0-87584-752-8. CD-ROM. Windows or Mac versions available at $39.95. Reviewed by Timothy A. Dixon.

SMALL BUSINESS PROFILES. Bourgoin, Suzanne M. and Jennifer Arnold Mast (Eds.). New York: Gale Research, 1994 (Vol. 1) and 1995 (Vol. 2), $95.00 each, ISBN: 0-8103-9178-3 (Vol. 1), 0-8103-9325-5 (Vol. 2), ISSN: 1076-8483. Reviewed by Brent Alan Mai.     

Our Conception of Competitiveness: Unified but Useless?

‘Competitive’ is one of the most commonly and confidently used words in sports. I argue that, while this term does have necessary and sufficient conditions, it is still a fairly useless one. Knowing someone is competitive does not tell one about the type of desire to win, the type of quantity of that desire, and the precise way in which one wants to be better. We also don’t know who a person feels a desire to beat, when winning actually becomes a goal, and what kind of knowledge and talents that person has at their disposal. Without this information, knowing someone is competitive tells you very little.     

Validity of the Simultaneous Approach to the Development of Equivalent Achievement Tests in English and French

The evidence gathered in the present study supports the use of the simultaneous development of test items for different languages. The simultaneous approach used in the present study involved writing an item in one language (e.g., French) and, before moving to the development of a second item, translating the item into the second language (e.g., English) and checking to see that both language versions of the item mean the same. The evidence collected through the item development stage suggested that the simultaneous test development method allowed the influence and integration of information from item writers representing different language and cultural groups to affect test development directly. Certified English/French translators and interpreters and the French Immersion students confirmed that the test items in French and English had comparable meanings. The pairs of test forms had equal standard errors of measurement. The source of differential item functioning was not attributable to the adaptation process used to produce the two language forms, but to the lack of French language proficiency as well as other unknown sources. Lastly, the simultaneous approach used in the present study was somewhat more efficient than the forward translation procedure currently in use.     

Principles for Fair Student Assessment Practices for Education in Canada

Developed in response to examples of unacceptable assessment practices, the Principles for Fair Student Assessment Practices for Education in Canada contains a set of principles and guidelines generally accepted by professional organisations as indicative of fair assessment practice within the Canadian educational context. Assessments depend on professional judgment: the ’Principles’ identify the issues to consider in exercising this professional judgment and in striving for the fair and equitable assessment of all students.     

Visualizing Social Justice: Using Controversial Images in Social Studies Classrooms

In this article, we promote the use of controversial images to enhance the discussion of social justice issues in schools. Controversial images provide rich opportunities for students to question what is occurring currently in society as well as what has occurred in the past. We provide an example set of activities to be used in teacher education that can help future teachers explore engaging methods for teaching with controversial images, discuss tensions involved with the use of controversial images, and to develop connections between using controversial images and teaching for social justice.     

Differences in the development of creative competencies in children schooled in diverse learning environments

Studies on the development of creativity have highlighted the impact of learning environments. In particular, pedagogical approaches are hypothesized to differ concerning their emphasis on individual initiative, and action-based learning. A semi-longitudinal study was conducted during two consecutive years with 210 children in elementary schools with traditional and alternative pedagogical approaches. Our results highlight (1) an influence of pedagogy on children's creative performance; (2) a positive influence of alternative pedagogy on creative development from year 1 to year 2 mainly for Montessori school. Children's creative performance was influenced not only by the type of task but also by the type of school.