Schiraldi, Vincent; Soler, Mark (1998). The Will of the People? The Public's Opinion of the Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act of 1997. The Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Act of 1997 (S-10) contains provisions that would affect youths arrested for criminal offenses and status offenses (acts that are not crimes if committed by adults). A telephone survey was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation to determine public opinions about the provisions of S-10. A national probability sample of 503 men and 504 women, aged 18 and older, was surveyed. Survey results show strong public opposition to some of the most important elements of S-10. Respondents overwhelmingly opposed housing juveniles in adult jails, jailing status offenders with adults, sharing arrest records with prospective colleges, expelling students for smoking cigarettes, and granting prosecutors exclusive jurisdiction over whether juveniles should be tried as adults. Respondents also strongly supported setting aside funds in the new act specifically for juvenile crime prevention programs. (SLD)… [PDF]

Guldberg, K.; Pilkington, R. (2006). A Community of Practice Approach to the Development of Non-Traditional Learners through Networked Learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, v22 n3 p159-171 Jun. This paper analyses a sample of online discussions to evaluate the development of adult learners as reflective practitioners within a networked learning community. The context for our study is a blended learning course offering post-experience professional training to non-traditional university students. These students are parents and carers of people with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). We use Lave and Wenger's \communities of practice\ as a theoretical framework for establishing how students develop a learning community based upon mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoires. Those three aspects are analysed according to two measures. The first focuses on learner appropriation of the professional discourse, values and goals of the ASD carer through the network. The second relates to changes in the quality of collaborative activity over time. Our analysis demonstrates that students belong to an overarching community of practice, with different subsets who work at… [Direct]

Dumas, Nathaniel William (2010). Morphophonological Practice: An Ethnographic Study of Grammar and Discourse in Four American English Stuttering Speech Communities. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. Using the Practice Theory Approach to Language, this dissertation examines how social actors use communicative practices within activities to constitute a communicative context that I call the American English Stuttering Speech Community (AESSC). Building on previous linguistic research on stuttering and sociological research on collectives of persons-who-stutter, I expand upon and diverge from many of the available analytical models and conceptual frameworks. Contrary to previous work in linguistics and speech pathology that locates stuttering as a disability, I argue for conceptualizing stuttering as sociolinguistic variation (i.e., linguistic behavior partly driven by social context). Moreover, I extend previous ethnographic research in sociology that positions collectives of persons-who-stutter (PWS) as "self-help groups." I reposition these collectives as part of a broader "speech community," which entails participation in particular discursive activities in… [Direct]

Goel, Sanjay; Kathuria, Vanshi (2010). A Novel Approach for Collaborative Pair Programming. Journal of Information Technology Education, v9 p183-196. The majority of an engineer's time in the software industry is spent working with other programmers. Agile methods of software development like eXtreme Programming strongly rely upon practices like daily meetings and pair programming. Hence, the need to learn the skill of working collaboratively is of primary importance for software developers. During computing education, this may be particularly important for the stronger students as they may be the ones who least desire to work with other programmers. Further, programmers need to develop the ability to comprehend the programs developed by others and, also, to write programs that can be easily comprehended by other programmers. Increasing dependence on large amounts of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) makes this even more crucial. Until a decade ago, one weakness in the typical undergraduate experience was the failure to train students to work with other programmers–in fact it was often considered a form of cheating. Over time,… [PDF]

Dalton, Mary Jo; Ross, Helgola G. (1981). Perceived Closeness in Adult Sibling Relationships: Origins, Maintenance, and Meaning. Research on adult sibling relationships suggests a concern about the quality of these relationships. The meaning of closeness in sibling relationships across the adult life span, its perceived origins, maintenance, and dynamics, were investigated in a sample of 55 adults ranging in age from 25 to 93 years. Semi-structured interviews with the subjects in small groups elicited perceptions of closeness to siblings, feelings of rivalry, perceptions of critical incidents and their consequences, and changes of feelings and interactions over time. Analyses revealed that most subjects perceived themselves as always having been close to their siblings, some as having grown more or less close over time, and a few as never having been close. Most commonly, closeness was perceived as a childhood development. A variety of factors led interactively to the development of closeness, contributed to its maintenance, and to its transformation of meaning over time. The social factors included norms,…

Schneider, Walter (1984). Training High Performance Skills: Fallacies and Guidelines. Final Report. High performance skills are defined as ones: (1) which require over 100 hours of training, (2) in which a substantial number of individuals fail to develop proficiency, and (3) in which the performance of the expert is qualitatively different from that of the novice. Training programs for developing high performance skills are often based on assumptions appropriate for simple skills but fallacious when extended to high performance skills. Six fallacies of training are described. They are: practice makes perfect; it is best to train the total skill; skill training is intrinsically enjoyable; the goal of training is to produce accurate performance; initial performance is a good predictor of trainee and training program success; and once the learner has a conceptual understanding of the system, proficiency will develop in the operational setting. Empirical characteristics of high performance skill acquisition include: long acquisition rates; heterogeneity of component learning;…

Cotton, Kathleen, Ed. (1988). Work Now and in the Future: Implications for Education, Business and Training. Conference Proceedings (5th, Portland, Oregon, November 14-15, 1988). These proceedings provide a summary of a conference for business and industry representatives, educators, and others concerned with the changing world of work. They present an overview of the over 100 speeches, panel discussions, film and video presentations, displays, participant sharing sessions, and hands-on demonstrations. These presentations are organized around these topical areas: at-risk youth (employment/training programs, teenage parents, student service centers, dropout prevention programs); special needs students (community college programs, learning disabled students); educational policy (integrated curriculum, ERIC, career development programs, applied academics developers and users); technology (computer networks, robotics in education, CD ROM technology); business/education partnerships (apprenticeship programs, state approaches); community college programs (articulation programs, occupational information database); economic development (social security, lifelong… [PDF]

Odden, Allan (1983). State Programs of School Improvement. Issuegram 11. Diverse low-cost, innovative, and successful state initiatives for school improvement have been developed over the last five years. Generated by public pressures for accountability, many states' increased capacity for policy analysis, and insights gained during 15 years of administering categorical grant programs, the initiatives include: programs for upgrading faculty; new curricula or curriculum guides; new school accreditation standards, requirements for state planning, and expanded state review of instructional programs; comprehensive school impovement plans; programs for sharing knowledge, problem solving skills, and technical assistance with schools and districts; testing strategies including state administered minimum competency tests; and new and improved parent involvement programs. Common characteristics of these efforts are a focus on the school as the unit of improvement, requirements for clear academic goals for improving basic skills, the use of longitudinal data for… [PDF]

Grosenick, Judith K.; Huntze, Sharon L. (1983). More Questions Than Answers: Review and Analysis of Programs for Behaviorally Disordered Children and Youth. National Needs Analysis in Behavior Disorders. The monograph details a process for evaluating programs for behaviorally disordered students as well as the results of that analysis. Initial chapters consider the establishment of criteria for well-conceptualized programs and review of a broad literature search on programs for this population. Difficulties are noted with minimal information on many components of 81 identified programs. A chapter on outcome summarized the 81 programs as a group according to quality of discussion on eight program criteria: philosophy, goals, population, entry, methods, exit, evaluation, and operations. Among findings were that exit criteria was the weakest element described, while methodology and operations discussions were the strongest. A final chapter cites questions raised by the data, including reasons for over-representation of mental health programs and programs for adolescents and the nuture of distinctions between programs and programming. Implications for teacher education and the sharing… [PDF]

Thomas, Grace Gilliard (1989). Increasing Involvement of Elementary School Teachers in Problem-Solving, Vertical Communication, and Policy Development by Implementing Quality Circles. The implementation of quality circles to increase elementary school teachers' involvement in problem solving, vertical communication, and policy formation is examined in this practicum report. An attitudinal survey of 44 elementary teachers to document lack of vertical communication yielded 32 responses. A followup survey was administered to the 31 teachers who participated in 3 quality circles over 12 weeks. Findings demonstrate that the practicum met its 3 objectives: 20 out of 31 participants indicated increased involvement in school policy formation, increased sharing of ideas in the work environment, and improved vertical communication. Recommendations for improving quality circles stress the importance of a dedicated and knowledgeable facilitator, cooperative management, and scheduling during regular working hours. Appendices include a teacher opinion followup inventory, teacher attitudinal questionnaire, a quality circle weekly report form, a workshop evaluation form, and a…

Andrews, Greg (1978). The Case for School Based Decision Sharing. A Discussion Paper. If schools are to be professionally responsive to and accountable to their clients, each school must have some control over decisions affecting its particular student body. These include decisions in the areas of policy, curriculum, staffing, facilities, resources (and related finances), evaluation processes, and participation in system-level planning. Involvement of students, parents, teachers, and the school administrative staff in these decisions can have several advantages, including broader-based and better informed decisions, a reduction in alienation of the local school community, improved communications and relations between school and community, the development of better methods for conflict resolution, and the creation of a school program more reflective of the sociocultural makeup of the community. This document presents the concept of decision sharing as handled in New South Wales as a topic for further discussion, concentrating specifically on the roles of parents,…

(1989). Kansas Communication and Instruction System through Fiber-Optic Transmission. Schools and communities will restructure as they move into the next decade. The success of this restructuring will be dependent upon access to and sharing of quality teaching and information through an expanded communication system. One of the major two-way interactive technologies is the fiber-optic cable: a delivery system that will provide access to quality instruction and a larger information base over short and long distances. Appropriately applied, this technology can be used to share outstanding teachers, increase access to postsecondary education, enhance health and welfare delivery, and support economic development. All schools and communities can use this technology to increase educational and service access through a learning community concept. In order to move Kansas forward in economic growth and to provide access of all communities and citizens to information and instruction, a fiber-optic system will be imperative. Developmental pilot projects should start…

DePorte, A. W. (1984). The Atlantic Alliance at 35. Foreign Policy Association Headline Series, No. 268. One in a series of booklets whose purpose is to stimulate greater and more effective understanding of world affairs among Americans, this six-chapter report examines the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) first 35 years and probes the extent to which the alliance can find common ground on the perennial issues of military doctrine, burden-sharing, global strategy, and international economics. "The Balance Sheet" outlines NATO's development. "The Security of the North Atlantic Area" looks at technology and nuclear strategies. "Grand Strategy?" identifies the areas in dealing with the Soviet threat. "The Third World" examines NATO responses outside its scope. "Economic Relations" looks at the severe economic problems of NATO. "The Future" considers the alliance's future. The "Talking It Over" section offers questions for students and discussion groups. The report includes maps, charts, and suggested…

Petrizzi, David M.; Wright, A. J. (1977). Proposal for Implementation of Office of Educational Radio Services. Auburn University's radio station is being faced with providing quality public radio programing with inadequate resources, including money, personnel, and university support. This proposal is directed to the university community and discusses the university radio station's problems at three levels. At the federal level, concerns relate to demonstrating community service, paying for frequency changes as a Class D station when higher classes begin local operations, adhering to minimum operating hours when averaged over a whole year, and mandatory time sharing for less than 72 operating hours per week. On the state level, the primary concern is with crowding of the frequency bank in Alabama, while being locked into a fixed power output. Problems at the local level deal with organization and management difficulties. The proposal describes the needs and goals of public radio in general and offers recommendations and objectives toward improving Auburn's public radio station. (DAG)… [PDF]

Bennett, N.; Vorapipatana, K. (1975). Towards Community-Centered Education for National Harmony and Development in Thailand. IIEP Seminar Paper: 13. Though various adult and nonformal adult education programs have existed in Thailand over the last half-century, up to quite recently most of these remained second-class copies of the full-time formal school system. The new adult education programs concentrate on creating situations and raising issues relevant to the villagers' environment. The programs encourage villagers to discuss their problems among themselves and to examine various possible alternative solutions. Through sharing their own experiences in class and in other semiformal activities, the villagers find solutions to their problems and gradually master the process of "Khit Phen." Descriptions are given of three programs that are currently in operation–the functional literacy program, newspaper reading centers, and the school equivalency adult education curricula–and of three programs in the planning stage–a skill training system to meet the needs of villagers, lifelong education centers, and regional… [PDF]

Rosel, Natalie (2003). Aging in Place: Knowing where You Are. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, v57 n1 p77-90. Research on aging in place appropriately emphasizes the value of familiar surroundings. The current study contributes an exploration of elders' personal knowledge of where and with whom they are aging in place, knowledge actively accumulated from a lifetime spent in the same area. Structured conversations over a four-month period with 10 elders living on a peninsula in northern Maine provide richly detailed narratives of physical and social particulars of where they live. I use Rowles' (1978) image of concentric circles radiating out from home to organize the information gathered regarding each elder's dwelling, neighborhood and community. Most notable is the depth and detail of their personal knowledge of where they are and with whom they are growing old. I conclude that both the knowledge itself, and the sharing of that knowledge with others, contribute to the implicit and explicit support deemed so valuable for elders who age in place…. [Direct]

Deutsch, Francine M. (1999). Halving It All: How Equally Shared Parenting Works. Noting that details of everyday life contribute to parental equality or inequality, this qualitative study focused on how couples transformed parental roles to create truly equal families. Participating in the study were 88 couples in 4 categories, based on division of parental responsibilities: equal sharers, 60-40 couples, 75-25 couples, and alternating-shift couples. Equality was defined as a 50-50 split in child care over a typical week. Data were collected through telephone interviews and follow-up face-to-face interviews. The study found that couples' employment decisions set them on trajectories toward or away from equality, with unequal parenting often developing over time through numerous husband-wife interactions. Parents' emotional responses, role identities, distrust of daycare, and cultural ideals jeopardized translating egalitarian ideologies into equal parenting. Equal couples varied in how they defined and divided family work, how they explained it, and how they…

Kloosterman, Peter; And Others (1988). Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching for the Intermediate Grades: Report of a Long-Term Inservice Project. From March, 1987, through June, 1988, an inservice program took place to help teachers in grades 3 through 6 improve their skills in teaching mathematics and science. The teachers, from central and southern Indiana, met for a week in June, 1987 and for 3 days in June, 1988. From October, 1987, to May, 1988, workshop staff visited classrooms of the participants to help them apply workshop ideas to their specific teaching situations. A second group of teachers was added for the June, 1988, workshops. Much of the time in the June, 1988, workshops was devoted to sharing of teaching experiences among both groups of teachers. Evaluation data from the project indicate that working with teachers over an extended period of time is an excellent inservice format. Participants spoke of the camaraderie they developed over that period and of their opportunities to try out new ideas when workshop staff were available to help with any problems. Participants who attended only the June, 1988, session… [PDF]

Davis, Benjamin G. (1976). Annual Evaluation Report for the Arizona Migrant Education Program, 1975-1976. During the 1975-76 school year, there were almost 8,000 migrant students enrolled in the regular school program and 1,300 in the summer program. Students received both academic and health services. Over 460 full-time equivalent staff persons were directly involved in project activities. All projects attempted to actively involve parents in their child's educational process, and had an ongoing plan for the dissemination of project information to enable the sharing of insights and knowledge. The program was a part of the educational process for over 400 students who graduated from school. Standardized tests which were used for both diagnostic and evaluative purposes indicated that one-third of 21 projects achieved at least a one-year average gain in reading ability and that high school level students as a whole performed significantly better. This report presents a description of the State's exemplary migrant education projects and gives information on enrollment, program content,…

Moller, Karla (1999). \I Get Proud When I Read\: First Graders Talk about Reading. This interpretive research explores five first graders' perceptions of reading and of being readers, asking the questions: What does reading or being a reader mean to a group of children who are at the end of first grade? What do they see as its purpose? and How do they view themselves as readers? The data are presented in the form of narratives describing the children and their views, followed by a discussion of the children's reading identities and purposes for reading as condensed into five categories: practice, people, power, pleasure, and performance. Practice, a main purpose for the children, entailed reading longer words and books, learning more words, and developing decoding skills. Reading as a social process included connections to people, both while being taught to read and when sharing texts with others. Mastery of reading provided varied feelings of power and control either over general textual ideas or over the words themselves. Pleasure and humor were emphasized in… [PDF]

Moore, Alan D.; Sorenson, Dean (1998). Participation with the Superintendent in Decision Making: A Decade of Rhetoric or Reform?. For over a decade, numerous educators have espoused the need for increased participation in decision making. Yet, evidence shows that mechanisms intended to broaden access actually result in governance that is little different from traditional, more autocratic management methods. To better understand this phenomenon, an examination of the decentralization of authority and control in the school superintendency of teachers, parents, and students is offered. The paper compares the level of participation provided by school superintendents following a decade of rhetoric about the inclusion and sharing of governance. For the 1996 study, surveys were administered to 120 superintendents randomly selected from three northwestern states. The survey instrument described situations in six general topic categories: business; instruction; personnel relations; student relations; community relations; and noninstructional operations. The findings were compared to a similar survey performed in 1984…. [PDF]

Spitler, Deborah; And Others (1984). Initial Report of the Evaluation of the Elementary Writing Program. The Fairfax County, Virginia, Schools' Elementary Writing Program (EWP) was evaluated over a two-year period. The first year focused on describing and analyzing program development and implementation. The second year of the evaluation addressed program effectiveness. Three questions comprised the development and implementation phase of the evaluation: (1) the effects of inservice training workshops on participants' attitudes and behavior; (2) the extent of implementation in the schools; and (3) the roles played by administrative and school district staff in planning, implementation, and support of the program. Writing processes (prewriting, drafting, revising, and sharing) were taught by teams consisting of the principal, reading teacher, a primary level teacher, and an upper level teacher. Evaluation data were collected from questionnaires, interviews, and a case study of one school. Results indicated that EWP implementation was highly satisfactory, although program developers had…

Bradley, Darcy; Collins, Laura J.; Rickey, Melissa (1998). Redesigning Masters of Education Programs To Meet the Needs of Classroom Teachers: The Place of Action Research. This paper describes how Western Washington University's Woodring College of Education designed an elementary Master in Education program to meet the needs of practicing teachers. Data gathering activities included systemic review of the graduate catalog's programs and enrollment; surveys of administrators and educators who completed Master's degrees; and information-sharing meetings with teachers and administrators from area public schools. A cohort model of up to 25 students to complete the courses and program over 6 consecutive quarters was developed. Classes were held on weekends during the academic year and Full-time during the summer. Candidates learned to implement innovative literacy assessment and evaluation techniques, develop superior literacy-based curricula, design and implement action research literacy projects in their schools, and understand social, psychological, and philosophical theories related to literacy and child development. Faculty communicated about the… [PDF]

Carmichael, Patrick; Procter, Richard (2006). Are We There Yet?: Teachers, Schools and Electronic Networks. Curriculum Journal, v17 n2 p167-186 Jun. The "Learning How to Learn" project of the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme engaged teachers from primary and secondary schools in the UK in development and research of practice related to "assessment for learning" between 2001 and 2005. As part of the project, we were concerned to discover what factors encouraged the development and sharing of practice within and between schools, including the use of electronic networking. A range of data about the use of electronic networks, tools and resources was collected through: a survey of over 250 teachers; an audit of participating schools' IT infrastructures and available resources; semi-structured interviews; and a novel "network mapping" task. We discovered that while use of IT is now a well-established element of classroom practice, teachers made less use of electronic networks to develop their professional practice, even when their schools were part of networks designed to support them in so… [Direct]

(1983). Strengthening the Government-University Partnership in Science. Over the past decade the relationship between the federal government and universities with regard to federally funded scientific research has become increasingly strained. Mounting concern over the deterioration of this relationship and its impact on research led to the formation of the Ad Hoc Committee on Government-University Relationships in Support of Science. This document is the committee's report. The two chapters in part 1 describe a new and independent body: the Forum on Government-University Relationships. The Forum is concerned with science and technology and is designed to improve communication between the partners and to facilitate resolution of the problems they share and will share in the future. The establishment of the Forum is the primary result of the committee's work. The origin and substance of specific issues in government-university relations are discussed in the five chapters presented in part 2. Issues considered are related to: graduate education in the…

Cawthon, Laurie; Farmer, Yvette; Lindsay, Jonathan (2001). Comprehensive Program Evaluation Project: Program Development and Implementation. This pilot project was designed as a collaborative effort to serve substance abusing women and their young children. The goals were to improve the health and welfare of these families by early identification of pregnant substance abusers; improve access to and coordination of health care services and chemical dependency treatment; and provide family-focused early intervention services. This report emphasizes the process evaluation and focuses on issues surrounding program implementation during the first service year. Three pilot sites served 194 women and their children. Key findings include: (1) more than half of the women were over age 25 and 73% were Caucasian; (2) over 80% of the women received chemical dependency treatment services; (3) the majority of women reported conventional parenting attitudes; (4) most understood the dangers of drug use; and (5) less than half said they were able to handle their problems. Several factors were identified as critical to the successful… [PDF]

Braxton, Barbara (2004). Taking Stock of Library Resources. Teacher Librarian, v31 n4 p42 Apr. At the end of each school year there are discussions on all the international teacher-librarians' lists about whether there is a need for inventory or, as the Australians call it, "stocktake"; whether it is reasonable for us to request resources be returned before the last day of school; and whether the library should be closed to allow staff to undertake this procedure without interruption. The list in this article, is a guide for those who find themselves having to justify their actions, compiled with the assistance of teacher-librarians all over the world in response to a question posed on their discussion lists. An inventory is a legal requirement that ensures that librarians are accountable for the money spent throughout the year. Including staff salaries, this can amount to over $100,000 per year. It is done at the end of each academic year as part of the collection evaluation process, at a time when there is less demand for resources and most of the collection is…

Smith, Kelly (2007). Supporting E-Learning in Enterprise: The TE3 Project. Education & Training, v49 n8-9 p656-671. Purpose: The Technology Enhanced Enterprise Education project (TE3) promotes the use of learning technologies to enhance enterprise and entrepreneurship education in the 12 HEI partners of the Mercia Institute of Enterprise (MIE). This paper describes the formal processes and procedures underpinning TE3, describes issues around material development and use, and comments on the lessons learned and added value outcomes experienced by community members. Design/methodology/approach: TE3 works as a community of practice with regular events and online support for the sharing of materials and experience. Materials developed with TE3 funds are made available to all partners to download, adapt, and use for educational or research purposes. Community learning is captured via quarterly progress and end-of-project forms which ask educators to reflect on the lessons they have learned, and to note any added-value benefits that have emerged as a result of material development. Findings: Since its… [Direct]

Kahn, Patricia; Radosevich, David J. (2006). Using Tablet Technology and Recording Software to Enhance Pedagogy. Innovate: Journal of Online Education, v2 n6 Aug-Sep. A key benefit of information technology in educational settings is its ability to support engaged, interactive learning experiences consistent with constructivist principles. At the same time, educators are continually searching for low threshold technologies that integrate well in traditional learning environments, that do not require a high degree of technical expertise, and that merge seamlessly with learning management system platforms. In their study, David Radosevich and Patricia Kahn establish how tablet PCs and recording/playback software offer a way to meet such needs while also making a significant difference in learning outcomes. Radosevich and Kahn evaluate this hardware/software combination by comparing student performance over two semesters; during the first semester students in three courses did not receive the technology, and during the second semester students taking the same three courses did receive the technology. Both quantitative and qualitative evidence… [Direct]

Maxwell, Rhoda J.; Meiser, Mary Jordan (1997). Teaching English in Middle and Secondary Schools. Second Edition. Offering a comprehensive view of teaching that takes into account the great variety of backgrounds, abilities, and interests of secondary students, this book uses a holistic, integrated approach to teaching the English language arts, including group activities throughout to provide listening and speaking opportunities in literature, composition, and language. The book does not stress one curricular component of English over another but emphasizes the relatedness of literature and reading, composing and writing, speaking and sharing, listening and responding, acting and creating, and constructing language and meaning. Chapters in the book are (1) The English Language Arts; (2) The Students We Teach; (3) Understanding Curriculum and Instruction; (4) Individual Planning; (5) Oral Language: The Neglected Language Arts; (6) Teaching Composition; (7) Teaching Literature; (8) Selecting Literature; (9) Improving Writing Skills: Usage, Syntax, Mechanics; (10) Understanding Grammar; (11)…