Engaging Students with Learning Disabilities in Instructional Discourse: A Commentary on the REACH Papers

The four articles on instructional discourse contributed by the members of the REACH project offer rich examples of the learning opportunities for students with learning disabilities (LD) in upper‐elementary and middle‐school content classrooms. In this commentary, I highlight possible reasons for variations in instructional engagement within and across the studies, discuss the challenges to engaging students with LD in discipline‐based instruction, and stress the value for the LD field of greater attention to instructional discourse.     

An interpretive profile for the slosson intelligence test

The Slosson Intelligence Test (SIT) is an age scale of intelligence with demonstrated reliability and high validity coefficients correlated to the Stanford-Binet. The items of the SIT were classified according to a scheme resembling Valett's classification of Stanford-Bmet test, items. A comparison of the classifications was made and an explanation given of how the interpretive profile can be used to enhance the value of the SIT.     

Unfair play in World Cup qualification? An analysis of the 1998–2010 FIFA World Cup performances and the bias in the allocation of tournament berths

This paper reviews the FIFA World Cups 1998–2010 with data available from the FIFA website and assesses the performance of each region in relation to the number of World Cup qualifications spots that the region is awarded. We raise the issue of whether FIFA should be more concerned with the participation of more members from its federations in the World Cup than the financial gain from doing so. Our non-econometric analysis illustrates that the current allocation may be resulting in the awarding of qualification spots to teams that if not unfair, certainly warrants discussion. We seek to demonstrate that the current system of qualification is based neither on ensuring the qualification of the best 32 teams in the world, nor does it fairly allocate qualification spots on the number of teams per federation or any other metric. We conclude with a plea for more transparent allocation processes.     

Law enforcement officers as investigators and therapists in child sexual abuse: A training model

Law enforcement officers, often the first professionals to come in contact with a victim of child sexual abuse, can either increase or decrease the traumatic impact on the child and the family at the time of disclosure. The model for a training program for police officers in handling cases of child sexual abuse outlined in this paper is divided into three sections. The first part is directed towards theoretical issues involved in this problem, including an explanation of the history and background of sexual abuse of children by adults and of the difference in the dynamics of extra- and intrafamilial sexual abuse. The second part consists of a detailed explanation of different types of sex offenses and of standard physical examinations of sexual abuse victims. Graded slides of physical trauma geared towards wound identification are paired with relaxation exercises. The third section focuses on special considerations when interviewing sexually abused children. The difference between interviewing and interrogation, specific questioning techniques, and the use of videotape is explained. Each part of this training procedure is followed by a question and answer period and small group discussions for the purpose of encouraging disclosure and better understanding of the officers' personal reactions to cases of child sexual abuse.     

MARKETING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES TO COMMERCIAL BROADCASTERS

A major investment in educational television programmes by the federal government led the United States Department of Education to seek ways to extend the audience size for these programmes beyond public television by placing them on commercial broadcast stations in America. This article describes the programmes, the marketing organization and strategies used to promote programming to the commercial marketplace, and the successes achieved in persuading commercial broadcasters to accept educational children's programming, particularly programmes aimed at minority audiences.     

Higher education for the elderly: Continuing in the mainstream of American life

Research in Higher Education - Do persons over age 62 enroll in universities to maintain their social interaction and stay in life's mainstream? This question was researched through a...     

Do achievement goals mediate stereotype threat?: an investigation on females' soccer performance

This research investigated stereotype threat effects on women's performance in sports and examined the mediation of this effect by achievement goals. The influence of two stereotypes-relative to the poor athletic ability and the poor technical soccer ability of women-were studied. Fifty-one female soccer players were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, introducing the task as diagnostic of athletic ability, technical soccer ability, or sports psychology. Next, they filled out a questionnaire measuring achievement goals and performed a soccer dribbling task. Results showed that compared with the control condition, females' performance significantly decreased in the athletic ability condition and tended to decrease in the technical soccer ability condition. Moreover, participants endorsed a performance-avoidance (relative to performance-approach) goal when the stereotypes were activated. However, this goal endorsement was not related to performance. The implications of these results for understanding the role of stereotypes in gender inequalities in sports are discussed.     

Animals,Governance and Ecology: Managing the Menace of Venomous Snakes in Colonial India

During the nineteenth century, the British Raj launched a campaign to reduce the number of people killed annually by venomous snakes on the Indian subcontinent. Unlike its successful effort to cull large mammals, the colonial government was forced to abolish its bounty scheme in 1890 and instead seek to use sanitation to reduce interactions between humans and snakes. This article will assess this transition in policy as a means to understand how attitudes towards the governance of animals were shaped by cultural and ecological factors. It will be shown that during its inception, discourses of scientific governance statistically augmented perceptions of the threat posed by snakes, presenting them as a direct yet manageable danger within an anthropocentric cultural model. However, financial and practical limitations forced the government to recognise that the behaviour, seasonal patterns and territorial movements of snakes influenced the rate of mortality, and thus adjust its policy to acknowledge the experience of cohabitation in India’s diverse ecological contexts.