(1998). Accommodating Adults with Disabilities in Adult Education Programs: Project Final Report. This final report and associated materials describe a 3-year research and demonstration project whose purpose was to provide adult educators and adults with disabilities with validated accommodations useful in instruction and assessment. These accommodations were intended to help individuals with disabilities understand their legal rights, meet their educational needs, and better function in employment and community settings. The three phases of the project involved: first, a descriptive phase involving a national survey of adult education programs, a state survey of enrollees, and a case study of one local program; second, the product development phase, which resulted in a procedural guide based on the Ecology of Human Performance model, and adult educator and learner handbooks; and, third, the field testing and dissemination phase, which involved field testing of the materials at 10 sites in 8 states. Appended are project technical reports, analysis of survey and interview… [PDF]
(2004). How Children's Brains Think: Not Left or Right but Both Together. Education 3-13, v32 n3 p65-72. The burgeoning interest over recent decades about the human brain, and possible implications for education, has, perhaps not surprisingly, fostered a suite of urban myths about brain functioning. The prize for the barmiest goes to the one about using only 10% of the brain, but there are plenty more that deserve dishonourable mention. The most insidious from an educational perspective is that children engage exclusively in either left- or right-brain thinking. Regrettably, such nonsense is commonly pedalled in CPD presentations, at quite some expense to schools and LEAs, by enthusiasts who apparently lack the scientific background to interrogate the relevant neuroscience literature at the depth necessary to convey both the real complexities of brain functioning, and the caveats on extrapolating from laboratory to classroom. The brain processes which do underpin thinking, learning, creating and feeling are far more interesting and wondrous than is recognised in such over-simplistic… [Direct]
(2006). Self and Other: Tensions within Modern Liberal Individualism and Moral Education. Forum on Public Policy Online, v2006 n1 Fall. Contemporary moral education of children in America derives from multiple sources including parents, schools, religious institutions, and the media. Thus, children are commonly confronted with inconsistent, perplexing moral demands. This paper focuses on a bewildering mixed message children receive regarding ethics: American society strongly conveys that both relentless self-interest and genuine selflessness are moral imperatives. For example, the economic system promotes self-indulgent consumerism and competition while at the same time children are admonished to respect and even to love others. These contradictory messages emerge from an ethical framework, often termed "liberal individualism," which offsets an emphasis on self-interest with an ethical view of human beings as having dignity and inherent rights. The tension between the ethical poles of radical self-interest and significant commitment to others can be deeply confusing and problematic in practice. In this… [PDF]
(2006). Student Research and Ethics. Psychology Teaching Review, v12 n1 p82-86. Ethical codes of practice have largely ignored student project work, although there has been some discussion that it ought to be treated as a special case and handled by less stringent ethical review. However, if ethical review is about safeguarding the interests and rights of those who volunteer to participate, then there can be no case for accepting less stringent ethical criteria just because the researcher is a student. In this debating point article two issues are addressed. First, the principle must be established that student research is conducted under competent supervision and it is therefore the supervisor's role to ensure that the student discounts any methodological strategy which places the participants at unacceptable risk. Second, and perhaps more controversially, the question of ethical review is raised for student classroom or field exercises which involve collecting data from human participants to meet practical coursework requirements. The proposal is made that… [PDF] [Direct]
(2023). The Level of Legal Consciousness in Pedagogical College Students. International Journal of Learning and Change, v15 n2 p170-189. The issue of legal personality formation within consciousness of students in pedagogical institutions is of great importance. The aim of the article was to determine legal consciousness initial condition of pedagogical college students and to propose ways to improve it. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that pedagogical college students form a possibility of transferring moral and psychological patterns, which includes their legal consciousness in their future professional activity. The key basis within the research structure is represented with definition of legal consciousness initial values and development of methods aimed at its correcting. The initial values and their impact on programs of students' legal consciousness formation are determined. It was found that flexible strategy of legal consciousness level increase can provide full integration of the present aspect into legal framework of teaching process…. [Direct]
(1985). Elder Abuse: A National Disgrace. A Report by the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care of the Select Committee on Aging. House of Representatives, Ninety-Ninth Congress, First Session. This report presents the results of efforts of the Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care to examine the extent of elder abuse in the United States. The executive summary presents details of the actions taken by Congress to pass legislation (H.R. 7551) to help control unwarranted violence against the aged and by the states to pass elder abuse-related laws and procedures to gain compliance with the anticipated new law. The procedures taken by the subcommittee to gain information in the area of elder abuse are outlined, e.g., collecting, reviewing, and tabulating letters and case histories received by the subcommittee over a 4-year period; reviewing all Congressional hearings and reports on elder abuse; and conducting survey and telephone interviews of state human services departments. Section I of the report presents case histories submitted by the states describing physical, financial, psychological, and sexual abuse and violations of rights and self-neglect. SEction II discusses… [PDF]
(1985). Effects of Social Environment on Japanese and American Communication. The social backgrounds of Japanese and Americans differ in ways that impede complete communication. The Japanese people, historically controlled by the forces of nature, have formed groups as the minimum functioning social units. The individual is only part of the group, and individual rights and obligations have not been clearly developed. Disagreement, if expressed, is expressed ambiguously. Relationships are vertical, and people must determine the level of politeness to use in interactions. To maintain harmonious relationships, good speakers place themselves below the listeners, sometimes not saying enough and expecting the listener to understand by inference. Since the subject of a sentence is often not stated, speakers may give their opinions as someone else's or someone else's opinions as their own. In contrast, native English-speaking peoples historically have not been as dependent on each other for survival; individualism and privacy are well-developed, and individual rights… [PDF]
(1978). Rights to What? A Brief Look at \Affirmative Discrimination.\. The movement to undo the damage of American racism and to establish the conditions for genuine racial equality has lost its momentum, both in the academic community and in the Congress. The prevailing academic caution with regard to busing and affirmative action is best articulated by Nathan Glazer in his book \Affirmative Discrimination,\ which details the problems inherent in equal opportunity programs. His argument centers around the idea that quotas, racial percentages, and group rights not only discriminate against the individual, but are also un-American. Although the rights of individuals are important, individualism alone cannot provide the basis for institutional changes necessary to eradicate the effects of past discrimination and set the stage for genuine equality in the future. To end discrimination, we need women and minorities in positions of power, competence and control, not because these positions represent opportunities for individuals, but because this is the best…
(1976). Literary Foremothers Rediscovered: Knight, Fuller, Stanton, and Sojourner Truth. The literary works of four American women who lived before 1900 deserve to be introduced, if not reintroduced, to the study of literature in the United States, because of their literary merit, variety, and valuable contributions to American literary history. In a journal edited from a diary kept during a round-trip horseback journey from Boston to New York, Sarah Kemble Knight (1666-1727) wrote in the tradition of Puritan diarists, with a delightful sense of humor. The able literary critic, Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), composed distinctly original essays and literary reviews, while her contemporary, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), formulated many of the feminist principles which Susan B. Anthony (a close friend) and other feminists made famous, edited the "History of Woman Suffrage," and explained her radical feminism in an autobiography. In a speech delivered at an 1851 women's rights convention, Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) eloquently pointed out the flaws in the… [PDF]
(2006). Freedom as in a Self-Sustainable Community: The Free Software Movement and Its Challenge to Copyright Law. Policy Futures in Education, v4 n4 p337-347. Copyright law, together with the market logic it carries, penetrates deeply into our daily life. The copyright regime is so restrictive that it turns a normal learning process into a series of potential copyright violations. The Free Software Movement (FSM) represents a substantial community effort to counter this trend. It seeks to supersede the copyright regime by offering the "Copyleft" licensing mode, which facilitates the formation of a cooperative, resource-sharing community. The FSM has been so successful that it has challenged the utilitarian values presumed in copyright law, has fuelled widespread reassessment of copyright law, and has influenced many who engage in various creative activities. Claiming to bear similar values, Creative Commons (CC) provides licensing models for people to waive some rights granted to them. However, CC differs from the FSM in significant ways. Most notably, the flexible CC licensing model weakens the firm philosophical and political… [Direct]
(1972). Ethical Issues in the Use of Humans for Research. The APA Ethical Principles, the University of Georgia policy, standard research texts, and research literature on specific methodologies, all in relation to ethical issues in human research, are discussed. The 10 APA principles state, in essence, that the investigator is responsible for what happens, that confidentiality and the protection of the welfare and dignity of the subjects must be maintained, that the subject has the right to decide if he wishes to participate and has the right to drop out if he wishes, and that subjects should not be subjected to any form of discomfort, harm, danger or mental stress except when they have been informed of the risks and have agreed to participate, and if the researcher is taking special precautions. The University of Georgia policy, which is based on 13 principles, maintains that personality manipulation is dangerous, that the researcher is responsible for what happens, that the personal integrity of the subject must be respected, that…
(2014). Beach Books: 2013-2014. What Do Colleges and Universities Want Students to Read Outside Class?. National Association of Scholars Assigning a summer reading to entering freshmen is a growing trend at hundreds of American colleges and universities. Colleges typically pick one book and ask students to read it outside their courses. Many invite the author to help kick off the year by speaking on campus at convocation. Most colleges see the key purpose of a common reading program as an opportunity to build community on campus. Many also declare that common reading is important because it sets academic expectations, begins conversations, inspires social activism, and encourages critical thinking. This years' annual "Beach Books" reports is the most comprehensive and the only one to categorize the books according to their main subjects and track trends in genres, publication dates, and additional themes. The study for the academic year 2013-2014 covers 341 colleges and universities and the 231 books they assigned. The authors present the results of their study in terms of findings, facts, and gaps. Their… [PDF]
(1988). The Rhetoric of Possessive Individualism. Although rhetoric is traditionally viewed through its relationships with law, politics, philosophy, and religion, other disciplines, such as economics, also shape contemporary rhetorics, and these rhetorics influence current writing pedagogies. "Product" and "process" theories of composition can be examined in light of the rhetoric of "possessive individualism"–the view that the right to possession is the keystone of human freedom. In the "product" approach to composition, students rely on their own abilities and application for success (i.e. good grades). Because ownership is linked to honor or disgrace in possessive individualism, grades define students, and their relationships to the meaning of their writing is undermined. "Process" approaches seek to eliminate this aspect of the "product" approach by inviting students to join the discourse community of the composition classroom as equal members. But the…
(1996). The Private Revolution: Women, the Family and Human Capital. Changes in women's lives and voices are both cause and effect of larger economic, social, and political processes. Women today live longer, have fewer children, are more likely to be literate; they are also likely to have some control over fertility, to work outside the home during part of their life, and to have political and legal rights more often than at any previous time in history. These shifts in social, demographic, and political conditions are linked to massive economic changes. The growth in the quality of human capital is a major contribution to economic development. Within constraints on women's ability to invest in land and physical capital, women have rationally invested in the quality of human capital through having fewer children and shaping the quality of their families' lives. Women have a stronger tendency than men to prefer child quality to quantity. Evidence for this position comes from findings on women's fertility preferences and the links between women's… [PDF]
(1970). Hearings Before the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs of the United States Senate, Ninety-First Congress, Second Session on Nutrition and Human Needs. Part 1–Hunger and the Income Gap. Hearings Held Washington, D.C., March 2, 3, 4, and 6, 1970. These hearings before the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs are organized in several parts, of which this document is the first. These hearings begin with opening statements by a number of Senators. Following these, presentations are made by such witnesses as the following: Rev. Jesse Jackson, national director, Operation Breadbasket, Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Hon. John V. Lindsay, mayor of New York City, N.Y., accompanied by Commissioner Mitchell Ginsberg, administrator, Human Resources Administration, New York, N.Y.; Hon. Peter Flaherty, mayor of the city of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Prof. Alvin L. Schorr, professor of social policy, Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.; Dr. George A. Wiley, executive director, National Welfare Rights Organization, accompanied by Mrs. Jeanette Washington, member of the executive committee; Robert Harris, executive director, Commission on Income Maintenance Programs; Hon. John G. Veneman, Under Secretary, Department of… [PDF]