Variables affecting teacher attitudes concerning regular classroom placement of children with disabilities.

The Regular Education Initiative (REI) and the Renewed Service Delivery System (RSDS) are educational reforms movements which advocate the placement of handicapped students in the regular education program. Although the REI and RSDS have been gaining increasing attention, the movements have not escaped criticism. One of the criticisms is that regular classroom teachers\u27 views regarding many of the beliefs and assumptions underlying the REI and RSDS have not been adequately addressed and evaluated. The present study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between specific variables and teachers\u27 attitudes toward the proposed changes and underlying assumptions of the REI and RSDS. The variables examined in this study were: the availability of support services, formal training in special education, and influence in the decision­ making, programming, and scheduling procedures of mainstreamed handicapped students. Ninety-nine regular and special education teacher in southwest Iowa completed a survey which contained (18) attitudinal items designed to measure agreement/disagreement with the REI and RSDS. The survey also contained (15) items designed to collect information relating to demographics and the variables addressed in the study. The results of a stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that two of the three variables were significantly related to teachers\u27 attitudes toward the REI and RSDS. These variables were formal training in special education and the availability of support services. The results also indicated that the teachers in the sample were generally undecided about their agreement/disagreement with the assumptions underlying the REI and RSDS. Implications of the results with respect to the implementation of the REI and RSDS are discussed. Additionally, practical recommendations are provided to assist school personnel in developing optimal conditions for the successful implementation of the REI and RSDS

Constructing an alternative language: Historical revision in the fiction of Bessie Head

Through consideration of Bessie Head's fiction and essays, the paper that follows investigates Head's use of fiction to challenge the hegemony of South African history, a history that fails to represent black South Africans except as "objects of abuse and exploitation" (Head, A Woman Alone 66). The absence of a subject position in history for black South Africans betokens a need for critical reevaluation of the structures and language of that history. History should document and create a people's identity; however, Head contends that South African historical discourse has obliterated the historical identity of black South Africans. The imaginative freedom that fiction allows provides Head with a radical means for reinscribing an alternative historical identity. Through four interrelated sections, then, this paper describes and evaluates the way in which Head's works challenge existing historical discourse by working through literature to establish an alternative set of historical structures. The Botswana land, offers Head, a space for experimentation with writing styles that evade reproducing an account of historical oppression and also for the practical construction of a new world. This construction includes agricultural reform that would give power over the forces of production to the workers of the land and which would in turn provide these workers with both economic and spiritual independence. The novels, however, display an incongruous duality wherein the construction of Head's new world is interfered with by the dominating voice of South African history. Hence, the subject and the problem of the novels becomes a conflict for the authority of history. Head's efforts towards constructing a new world also seek to implement women as a primary labor force in both material and creative production, thereby further challenging a history that has rendered women as sexual commodities. The Collector of Treasures offers a culmination of this conflict. Here, Head offers a strategy of narrative fragmentation interrelated with a dialogic, multi-voiced discourse that dismantles the single-voiced structure of a history determined by the politics of repression. Fiction offers a freedom of structure and thought unavailable to the historian; therefore fiction transgresses the boundaries created by a repressive history and is able to establish an original and self-sustaining historical world

Measurement and manifestation of the need to belong

The need to belong is a fundamental, universal, and innate motivation to seek out and maintain relationships with other people. Because everyone possesses some degree of this need for acceptance and inclusion, the experience or threat of rejection often produces strong negative affect. The present research sought to investigate the role of belongingness needs in individuals\u27 reactions to rejection. Study I addressed issues associated with measurement of the need to belong. Psychometric analyses of three belongingness/affiliation scales revealed that the Need to Belong Scale should be the measure of choice in future belongingness research. The purpose of Study II was to explore individual differences in reactions to social rejection. Results indicated that the strength of one\u27s belongingness needs had no reliable effect on responses to rejection; however it appeared that satisfaction of one\u27s need to belong strongly affected responses to rejection. Negative affective and cognitive reactions to interpersonal rejection were amplified in people who were lonely, anxious, depressed, and had low self-esteem. These findings clearly indicate that dispositional variables influence the magnitude of emotional and cognitive responses to rejection

An Innovative Methodology for Conceptualizing and Evaluating Government Information Systems: The CTG Approach

The paper describes CTG’s interdisciplinary approach to conceptualizing and evaluating government information systems. The CTG partnership approach emphasizes an iterative process that fosters organizational learning in a neutral, low-risk environment. CTG’s partnership model brings together individuals from government agencies, vendors of technology and technology services, and university faculty and students across a range of disciplines to evaluate the potential costs and benefits of technology solutions in the context of programmatic and policy objectives. The CTG methodology is described both generally and more specifically through a discussion of three distinct programs of activity focused on aspects of information system conceptualization and evaluation in the public sector

Assisted Reproduction Versus Spontaneous Conception: A Comparison of the Developmental Outcomes in Twins

The use of assisted reproductive technology is increasing rapidly. Research, although sparse, has resulted in inconsistent findings as to the developmental prognosis for infants conceived by assisted reproductive techniques such as in vitro fertilization and the use of fertility drugs. In the present study, the authors compared twins who were spontaneously conceived with those who were conceived through assisted reproductive technology. The authors found differences in birth weight and gestational age. Infants conceived by assisted reproductive technology fared worse than did those who were spontaneously conceived. The authors found no differences between the groups in mental development at 24 months of age, but they found evidence of differences in physical development. Implications of the findings are discussed

Detecting short-term change and variation in health-related quality of life: within- and between-person factor structure of the SF-36 health survey.

BackgroundA major goal of much aging-related research and geriatric medicine is to identify early changes in health and functioning before serious limitations develop. To this end, regular collection of patient-reported outcome measure (PROMs) in a clinical setting may be useful to identify and monitor these changes. However, existing PROMs were not designed for repeated administration and are more commonly used as one-time screening tools; as such, their ability to detect variation and measurement properties when administered repeatedly remain unknown. In this study we evaluated the potential of the RAND SF-36 Health Survey as a repeated-use PROM by examining its measurement properties when modified for administration over multiple occasions.MethodsTo distinguish between-person (i.e., average) from within-person (i.e., occasion) levels, the SF-36 Health Survey was completed by a sample of older adults (N = 122, M age  = 66.28 years) daily for seven consecutive days. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to investigate the factor structure at both levels for two- and eight-factor solutions.ResultsMultilevel CFA models revealed that the correlated eight-factor solution provided better model fit than the two-factor solution at both the between-person and within-person levels. Overall model fit for the SF-36 Health Survey administered daily was not substantially different from standard survey administration, though both were below optimal levels as reported in the literature. However, individual subscales did demonstrate good reliability.ConclusionsMany of the subscales of the modified SF-36 for repeated daily assessment were found to be sufficiently reliable for use in repeated measurement designs incorporating PROMs, though the overall scale may not be optimal. We encourage future work to investigate the utility of the subscales in specific contexts, as well as the measurement properties of other existing PROMs when administered in a repeated measures design. The development and integration of new measures for this purpose may ultimately be necessary

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