Dream, Myth and Reality: New Universities in England, 1960–1990

The New Universities of the 1960s began as a dream and degenerated into a myth before waking up to reality. The dream was to reform English higher education by example: to recover advanced general education, restore small-group teaching, renew interest in research, introduce cross-disciplinary subjects, and rebuild community in green-field, residential sites. Early euphoria turned to disillusionment, born of unrealistic expectations and student unrest. Finally, they achieved solid institutional success but failed to transform national higher education.     

Exploring elementary students’ perceptions of disabilities using children's literature

The portrayal of characters in children's literature can be a very powerful influence on young children. Teachers have a responsibility to expose children to characters of all types, including those with disabilities. The goal of this study was to explore how third and fourth grade students responded to characters with disabilities in children's books. We read a total of 12 books that included characters with disabilities to students in two third‐grade and one fourth‐grade class at three elementary schools. We video‐recorded discussions about the books and identified the following four themes, all of which related to influences on students’ responses to the character with a disability: (a) societal messages, (b) academic responses, (c) teacher influence and (d) portrayal of disability. We recommend that teachers carefully select books featuring characters with disabilities based on the way the disability is portrayed in the book, and, after the read‐aloud, use questioning strategies that encourage students to make thoughtful, deep comments rather than giving ‘expected’ responses.     

Peer evaluation: A case study

Peer evaluation is the process whereby students critique the performances of other students. A peer evaluation format emphasizes skills, encourages involvement, focuses on learning, establishes a reference, promotes excellence, provides increased feedback, fosters attendance, and teaches responsibility. The process of peer evaluation is explained, the criteria are specified, the training for use is described, and how standards are maintained is explained. Finally, objections are suggested and addressed. Peer evaluation is a unique, controlled, and precise form of classroom evaluation that involves carefully constructed evaluation instruments, structured classroom situations, and exact evaluative assessments. Peer evaluation is a new and different form of evaluation.     

Mainstreaming the Hearing Impaired Student‐‐An Area of Preparation Responsibility for Teacher Training Programs: A Pilot Study

Interviewing, as an information‐gathering tool for prospective teachers of the deaf, was used to document the perspectives which deaf children, their parents, teachers and administrators bring to the mainstreaming process. Data revealed the different, and sometimes competing priorities of mainstreaming participants; these priorities are discussed in terms of their impact upon the success or failure of the mainstreaming process and the preparation responsibilities of teacher training programs.     

The Moon after Apollo

Material collected by unmanned landings and from the manned landings of the Apollo programme, together with observations from a large number of orbiting satellites, have been subjected to detailed examination over the past twenty years. This article reviews the picture of the Moon's structure, composition, and geological history that has emerged as a result.     

Use of Case Study Method To Increase Near and Far Transfer of Learning

The purpose of vocational, technical and professional education is to produce practitioners who perform competently on the job. However, many programs, particularly those of third world countries with strong colonial legacies, employ instructional strategies that do not result in high degrees of transfer. This article presents a field-based experimental study conducted in Ivory Coast with 162 secondary school accounting clerk subjects. The study, which lasted ten weeks, employed three case study method (CSM) treatment groups and a control (lecture and textbook) group. The control group performed significantly better on a theory post-test than all treatment groups. All CSM treatment groups significantly outperformed the control groups on a transfer post-test designed as an internship simulation laboratory. The behaviorist-based CSM treatment group performed significantly better on the near transfer post-test compared to the cognitivist-based CSM treatment group. The cognitivist-based CSM treatment group performed significantly better than the behaviorist-based CSM group on the far transfer post-test. Both groups performed significantly better on the transfer post-test than a third, mixed behaviorist-cognitivist CSM treatment group. This study suggests that low-cost, well designed and targeted cases can lead to high degrees of specific types of transfer compared with lecture-textbook methods.