Interactive Storytelling: From the Book of Genesis

Keith Park, advisory teacher for Sense (the National Deafblind Rubella Association) in Greenwich and Lewisham, London, has written about his approach to interactive storytelling for BJSE before. This article describes a series of poetry workshops based on chapters 37 to 45 of the Book of Genesis (the story of Joseph and his family) using the text of the King James Bible of 1611. The workshops took place at Charlton School in Greenwich between September and November 2002. The full text of the Genesis workshops, with a clear exposition of their implementation, is provided here but the article begins with a restatement of the principles of interactive storytelling. The importance of developing curriculum access for pupils with multi-sensory impairments while simultaneously supporting staff who work with these young people in schools is emphasised. Keith Park discusses the relevance of the circle concept in storytelling and the strong focus, in the poetry workshops, on rhythm. He goes on to evaluate the impact of the workshops, both in terms of staff confidence and through examples of the pupils' responses mapped against the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) framework for recognising the attainments of pupils with learning difficulties. The article concludes with some indications of further developments in this exciting and innovative area of practice.     

Social‐Information‐Processing Skills of Kindergarten Children with Developmental Learning Disabilities

The study examined the social‐information‐processing skills of kindergarten children with developmental learning disabilities (LD) utilizing Crick and Dodge's (1994) model of children's social adjustment as a theoretical framework. Participants consisted of 20 kindergarten children with developmental LD who attended three integrated kindergartens and 20 children without developmental LD from the same kindergartens. Participants were assessed on social‐information‐processing skills, feelings of loneliness, sense of coherence, and teachers' ratings of behavioral problems and positive resources. The results indicated that girls with developmental LD performed significantly lower on two information‐processing steps—the response decision and the enactment steps—than did girls without LD. Such differences were not found for boys. The results also showed that the social‐information‐processing skills of children with developmental LD were correlated with teachers' ratings.     

Review article

Ducellier, A., Kaplan, M., Martin, Bernadette, avec la collaboration de Françoise Micheau. Le Moyen Âge en Orient. Byzance et l'Islam. Des Barbares aux Ottomans. Paris: Hachette Histoire Université, 1990.     

The study of research methods in LIS education: issues in Korean and U.S. universities

This study investigates the current state of research methods education in Korean library and information science (LIS) programs and compares research methods education between Korea and the United States. The definition of research methods is consistent and homogeneous across Korean schools, whereas research methods are defined loosely and differently in the United States. Research methods in both the United States and in Korea appear to be in a state of methodological uncertainty where dominant methods may be taught but not necessarily applied by graduate students. Research methods, as shared knowledge, offer fields the tools needed to investigate problems and understand the process by which they are studied. Thus, if LIS wants to increase its research capacity and improve its research quality, then it will need to require research methods of all students. While the range of topics covered in Korean research methods courses may need to be expanded, those in the United States may need greater depth of coverage.     

Effects of Media Attributions on Responsibility Judgments and Policy Opinions

This study tests how the public’s responsibility judgments and their policy opinions could be affected by different types of attributions made by the media. Study 1 examined three types of attributions regarding smartphone addiction: (a) individualistic (e.g., lack of self-control), (b) societal (e.g., the media industry or government), and (c) none (i.e., control group). Results showed that individualistic attributions by the media did not affect perceived individual responsibility and support for smartphone-addicted children. On the other hand, societal attributions increased perceived industry responsibility, which subsequently increased punishment opinions for the smartphone industry. Study 2 examined three types of attributions regarding childhood obesity (child vs. parent vs. societal) by two types of exemplar formats (“interviews” vs. “user comments”). Consistent with Study 1, results showed that the societal attribution condition resulted in greater perceived industry responsibility and greater punishment opinions for the food industry. However, the effect was not moderated by the type of exemplar format.