Subject Matter Areas Research Articles

Theses And Dissertations Completed In Home Economics: 1986

The purpose of this study was to compile a listing of the theses and dissertations completed in home economics in colleges and universities in the United States during 1986. The 747 titles received from 68 institutions are listed by subject matter area and degree; and the author, institution, and availability of the docu ment are reported. Information about graduate research in home economics is summarized through presentations of totals for each institution, by subject matter categories, and through rankings for the institutions reporting the largest numbers of theses and dissertations. Of all the titles, 30 percent were for disser tations. The largest number of titles was reported in nutrition; family relations ranked second. In comparison to the titles reported from 1982 through 1985, the percentage of dissertations has increased (from 23% to 30%) and the subject matter areas with the largest numbers of titles remained the same.

Australian Patent Office International Searching

The article describes how the Australian Patent Office constructed search files to fulfi; its responsibilities as a PCT International Searching Authority. Search files are established on an ad hoc basis as the need arises and comprise classified sets of abstracts of patent documents included in the PCT minimum documentation. When an international search is received a search strategy is decided upon by an examiner in conjunction with the Search Quality Assurance Unit (SQAU) and search lists are established setting out the numbers of the documents to be considered by the examiner. Abstracts of these selected documents are prepared by the Documentation Centre and forwarded to the examiner to conduct the search, on completion of which the abstract file is returned to the Documentation Centre for storage and re-use. It is claimed that the system provides a relatively quick method of establishing comprehensive classified search files and obviates the establishment of classified search files in areas of subject matter that may never be used.

A Review of Rationales for Integrated Arts Programs

The fundamental assumptions of integrated and multi-arts programs can be summarized as follows: (a) there is a similarity across the arts; (b) incorporating the arts into other subject matter areas...

HFS Job Survey: Implications for Accreditation, Certification and Education

Almost from the beginning of the human factors profession, people have wrestled with defining what human factors people do. In general, we have more or less accepted that what human factors is, is what human factors does. The problem has been that there has really not been a systematic study of what HF professional actually do, or what knowledges are important in their work. In addition, in recent years the Society has initiated efforts to develop certification and educational accreditation programs. Both these programs have had to depend on general impression of a small number of individuals as to what HF people do and need to know. Recently, the Human Factors Society undertook a survey of its membership (Sanders, Bied, & Curran, 1986) with one of the goals being to collect systematic data on what HF people do and need to know in their work. The objective of this symposium is to present information obtained from that survey and to discuss the implications of those data for certification, accreditation, and graduate education. The symposium is organized around two paper presentations. The first focuses on the activities performed by human factors professionals (Curran, Bied Sperling, & Sanders, 1986). The second deals with subject-matter areas considered important in the work of HF professionals (Bied Sperling, Curran, & Sanders, 1986). Comparisons are made between masters and doctorates, those with degrees from engineering departments and those with degrees from psychology departments, and those working in various types of organizations. Following the paper presentations, three panel members discuss the implications of the results for certification, accreditation, and graduate education. The three panel members are Ken Laughery Sr. (Chair of the Professional Standards Committee), Colin Drury (Member of Accreditation Subcommittee), and Robert Blanchard (Chair of the Certification Subcommittee). In addition to their involvement in accreditation and certification, they also represent psychology and engineering graduate programs, and industry perspectives. The discussants will address the implications of the results presented in the papers. The questions to be addressed will include: What differences in accreditation criteria are suggested by the differences between masters and doctorates and between psychologists and engineers? Should there be separate certifications for those with psychology and engineering degrees? Should there be separate accreditation criteria and requirements for psychology and engineering programs? Are our education programs adequately preparing students? Can two or three specialized human factors courses make an experimental psychologist or industrial engineer a human factors specialist? Are we making the best use of the talents of masters and doctorate level people on the job? Are we requiring knowledges and skills in our graduate programs that do not seem to be important on the job? The discussion and information presented in this symposium will be valuable for: (1) assessing whether graduate programs are providing the knowledges and skills actually used and considered important on the job; (2) assuring that a HFS certification program has content validity and addresses competencies actually needed by HF specialists; and (3) counseling students considering human factors as a career field.

Attitudes of Agronomy Teachers on Preparation for Teaching

A survey of agronomy teachers at selected land-grant universities was conducted to assess teacher preparation and the attitudes of teachers concerning formal courses in education. Of the 250 respondents, 66% had no formal training, 11% had one course, 7% had two courses, 4% had three courses, and 12% had four or more courses in education. Most of the participants (53%) began their careers as teaching assistants. There was overwhelming agreement (85%) that a formal course in education should be available for individuals joining a teaching program. Subject matter areas receiving the greatest support to be included in such a course were (i) methods of teaching, (ii) evaluation and testing of students, (iii) use of visual aids, and (iv) fundamental educational philosophies and principles. Little relationship existed between the perceived need for formal education courses and (i) formal education courses actually taken by the respondents, (ii) years of teaching experience, or (iii) the type of teaching appointment. To encourage quality teaching, many respondents noted that good teachers should be recognized and rewarded on a par with good researchers.

HFS Job Survey: What do we need to know?

In the summer of 1985, a survey was sent to a sample of 997 members of the Human Factors Society (HFS) living in the continental United States. A part of the survey focused on what people need to know to perform their job effectively. Respondents indicated how important each of 101 subject-matter areas was in their work. This paper discusses these results, comparing masters and doctorates, those with degrees in engineering and in psychology, and those working in various types of organizations.

Theses and Dissertations Completed in Home Economics 1985

The purpose of this study was to compile a listing of theses and dissertations completed in home economics in colleges and universities in the United States during 1985. The 885 titles received from 73 institutions are listed by subject matter and degree; and the author, institution, and availability of the document are reported. Information about graduate research in home economics is summa rized through presentations of totals for each institution, by subject matter cate gories, and through rankings for the institutions reporting the largest numbers of theses and dissertations. Of all the titles, 26 percent were for dissertations. The largest number of titles was reported in nutrition, and family relations ranked second. In comparison to the titles reported in 1983 and 1984, the percentage of dissertations was similar (25% vs. 26%) and the subject matter areas with the largest numbers of titles were the same.

A decade of CAL at a Dutch University

This paper outlines the history of the CAI Group at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The first part describes the group's formation and structure, responsibilities, and selection of a CAL system. Following this is an overview of past and current projects with commentary on: modes of CAL, role of CAL, subject matter areas, motivational factors, role of externally developed courseware. The third part isolates four major areas related to CAL service, namely: the hardware switch from mainframe to micros, student attitudes towards CAL, service and authoring policies, and courseware design characteristics. Each area is discussed with some “constants” and “variables” provided. The final section looks to the future of CAL at this university, given the problems currently facing Dutch higher education.

Optimally Allocating Federal Money to Cities

The purpose of this article is to discuss some basic methods for optimally allocating federal money to cities. Optimally allocating in this context means using the quantitative methods of operations research, management science, and related fields in order to allocate federal money to cities in such a way as to (1) maximize benefits subject to a given budget, (2) minimize costs subject to a minimum satisfaction level, or (3) maximize benefits minus costs. The basic methods include (1) allocating by marginal rates of return, which partly relies or statistical regression analysis; and (2) allocating by part/whole percentages, which partly relies on ideas associated with multiattribute utility theory. The basic methods will be illustrated with the example of allocating anticrime dollars to cities, although one could easily reason by analogy to allocation in any subject matter area.

Indonesia's Small Schools Project: A fresh look at a persistent problem

The delivery of quality education to elementary school students in remote and isolated areas continues to be a major problem in most countries. Solutions to this problem should be inexpensive, easy to develop and implement, and straightforward enough for local educational officials and teachers to understand and use. The Small Schools Project of the Indonesian Ministry of Education is attempting to solve this problem through an imaginative programme unique in its provision of an interrelated group of educational interventions of proven effectiveness. These interventions are: self-paced learning modules covering basic subject matter areas, self-paced evaluation for the content covered, learning groups of six to eight students led by peer tutors, supportive rather than didactic teacher behaviours and regular teacher training sessions to impart these behaviours, active support from the community, repair of school buildings, a small number of carefully chosen supplementary materials, larger teaching staffs, planning which integrates a variety of government offices at different levels, cooperative arrangements with universities and teacher training high schools, continuous formative evaluation, and a handbook which describes programme materials, policies and procedures. Preliminary evaluation indicates that the programme is succeeding. The problems of educating isolated youth are strikingly similar across cultures and temporal periods, and given the universality of this problem, other imaginative solutions should be studied and the results of these studies disseminated.

Response to Changing Assessment Needs: Redesign of the National Assessment of Educational Progress

To improve the interpretability, comparability, timeliness, and policy relevance of the results within fixed budgets, the new design for NAEP moves to a biennial schedule assessing four subject-matter areas in each wave. Reading is assessed in every wave to provide timely reporting of trends in a basic area and to calibrate alternate cohorts; writing is assessed every other wave (4 years), as are math and science in alternate waves. In addition to the traditional assessment of 9-, 13-, and 17-year olds, sampling is expanded to permit reporting of the associated modal grades (with redefined age definitions, the grades are 3, 7, and 11). There are thus four years intervening between subject assessments, age levels, and grade levels, thereby introducing a systematic cohort matching procedure. Balanced-incomplete spiralling of exercises, as well as of background and program variables, permits the estimation of intercorrelations among all variables. This facilitates dimensional analyses within and across subje...

An integrative nutrition education framework for preschool through grade 12

The need for comprehensive and sequential pro­ gram in nutrition education ... as an integral part of the curriculum of every school in the United States was recommended in the final report of the 1969 White House Conference on Food. Nutrition. and Health (1). This recommendation culminated in the establishment of the federal Nutrition Education and Training (NET) pro­ gram in 1977. After the Tennessee NET program was established. a needs assessment revealed that the state lacked a comprehensive and sequential framework for school-based nutrition education. Elementary teachers wanted a program that could be integrated into several subject matter areas; and secondary teachers in health. home economics. science. and social studies indicated interest in teaching nutrition. As part of a NET contract. we developed and evaluated a framework for nutrition education designed to meet these needs. The framework consists of goals. objectives. and sequential topics for children in preschool through grade 12. Development of the framework. Our interdisciplinary team included specialists in nutrition and food sciences. human development. curriculum and instruction. home economics education. and health education. Most team members also had expertise in a second of these areas or another area related to nutrition education. For each year of the project. an advisory board with statewide representation was established. Members included teachers in various disciplines. school administrators. district and state supervisors. foodservice supervisors. and parents. Based on a review of the literature. Tennessee's needs assessment. and consultation with the year 1 advisory board. we established criteria for an optimal nutrition education framework and subsequent curriculum. These criteria were that the framework be a) compre

Quality Issues in Measurement

Summary Measurement error affects all kinds of statistical data, i.e. data which are used as the basis for decisions. In this paper the concept of statistical control of the measurement process, the need for replication and reproducibility, and the meaning of accuracy and precision are explored. Seven examples from widely diferent subject-matter areas are used to illustrate the steps taken to gain statistical control, to reduce measurement error, and to report the limitations of the data. This paper is based on a somewhat different version presented at the meetings of the International Statistical Institute in Madrid, September 1983, as the Mahalanobis Lecture.

"Care Gemelle d'un Parto Nate": Marino's Picta Poesis

Giambattista Marino's interest for the visual arts and his involvement in them, both theoretical and practical, are well known. A patron of Poussin and a passionate art collector, he is best known as the author of l'Adone, that last of Renaissance attempts to write in the grand epic mold, notable for its highly pictorial qualities. The particular relations between literary work and the arts is important, however, throughout the whole range of Marino's writings; and pictorial sources are among the varieties of materials that he drew upon in his extreme and idiosyncratic manner of assembling the elusive inlay-work of his poetry.' Regarded by him as a challenge to the most educated of explicators, the refined mosaic of sources, allusions and deformations typical of his writing is concerned not only with the erudite sampling of wide areas of subject matter, but also with the problematic activity of fitting smoothly together such a rag bag of heterogeneous materials. When it came

Policy and Practice Issues in Preservice Teacher Education: The California Experience

In this article the author first traces changes occurring over the past two decades in the California legislature's conception of teacher education. He then describes the legislature's response to the state's current needs for improved bilingual education, for recruiting teachers in critical subject matter areas, and for recruiting teachers with strong academic preparation. Implications of the legislative response for teacher selection, induction, and inservice, as well as for revised university-school rela tionships, are then noted. In the final section, implications for preservice policy and research are identified.

The Role of Disciplines in the Consumer Sciences

This thinkpiece about the state of the field identifies consumer studies as a subject matter area rather than as a discipline because no unifying methodology or system of logic characterizes it. In the absence of a distinct methodological or theoretical core, the disciplines involved in the field are better thought of as the allied “consumer sciences” rather than as “consumer science.” The subject matter, “consumer studies,” sits alongside many other fields like American studies, environmental studies and marketing in drawing together a number of distinctive methodological bents to explain its topic. On the other hand, when consumer studies takes the form of an interdisciplinary undergraduate program, it must ultimately deal with a tradeoff: while students may gain greater insight into the subject matter, they receive less formal grounding in a system of logic than do graduates of disciplinary programs.

A gifted and talented program for migrant students

A gifted and talented program, designed specifically for migrant students and taught by university professors ivas implemented at a high school located in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. The thirty‐seven students were provided with supplemental instruction in one of four subject matter areas —English, mathematics, science, or social studies. Although achievement test data did not indicate significant gains in cognitive learning, there were several indices of a high degree of student improvement within the affective domain after the first year of operation.

Response bias in sex-role attitude measurement

The widespread use of survey research by social scientists as a means for generating data has prompted an examination of the interview situation for sources of bias. Two potential aspects of the interview have been of particular interest to analysts — dissimilarities between interviewers and subjects on key sociopersonal variables and the nature of the subject matter of the interview. This study examines the impact of sex differences between interviewers and subjects on responses to a sensitive subject-matter area — sex-role orientations — in a telephone interview situation.

Job satisfaction related to tested congruence and differentiation

Tested personality-environment congruence and differentiation, singly and in combination, as measured by the Vocational Preference Inventory ( J. L. Holland, Palo Alto, California, Consulting Psychologists Press, 1977b), were predictive of reported job satisfaction for teachers employed in five subject matter areas. Time-related variables and sex were not significantly related to the job satisfaction measure used in the study.

Effects of Self-Recording for On-Task and Academic Responding: A Long Term Analysis

The purpose of the present study was to examine the immediate and long term effects of self-recording for on-task responding. Data were taken for both on-task and accuracy of performance in handwriting, spelling, and math with three behaviorally disordered elementary school students. The effects of self-recording were evaluated in a multiple-baseline design across subject-matter areas. The overall results revealed an increase in both on-task and academic performance when the students self-recorded their own on-task behavior. Only one pupil decreased his academic performance over that noted in baseline. Follow-up data taken during the first, second, and third school years yielded rates of on-task behavior over that of baseline, but not at the levels found in the self-recording condition. The practical aspects of the self-recording procedure were discussed.