A study involving approximately 300 Kuwaiti parents found that 86% agreed with physical punishment as a means of child disciplining. Agreement with punishment was higher in cases of serious misbehaviors such as stealing and using drugs. Parents' lower level of education and Bedouin ethnicity were positively associated with physical punishment.…

Analyzes the media-effects research published in this journal during the last 25 years via meta-analysis. Finds that, as children age, they better understand media messages; mass media are a significant source of learning; and media can influence attitudes. Discusses political, social, and educational implications, as well as implications for…

Suggests that the field of communication study is divided into two subdisciplines: mass communication versus interpersonal communication. Expresses the division by (1) lack of cross-citations between five mass-communication journals and five interpersonal-communication journals; (2) separation of the two subdisciplines in communication…

Discusses consortium-based licensing as a means of meeting libraries' information resources needs. Topics include information needs, the need for more affordable information, requirements for libraries and for vendors, competition across disciplines, saving money, pricing and market practices, experiences at OhioLINK, and future possibilities.…

Concerned about the inexact terminology used in job descriptions and in documents connected with promotion and tenure, this article defines second-language acquisition as a subfield of applied linguistics and compares it to other fields with which it is often confused. Misunderstandings about SLA do not allow it the credit it deserves as a…

A typical instrument used to elicit college students' evaluations of teaching was critically analyzed with reference to two teaching paradigms: transmission and engaged-critical. Analysis revealed that the evaluation form does not represent all conceptions of teaching and learning, but is more consistent with the transmission paradigm and…

Argues U.S. secondary school reform requires a serious rethinking of the curriculum, in addition to revising the structures and relationships within schools. Explores problems posed by disciplines as the primary influence on curricula, and proposes an alternative model that evenly integrates the influence of disciplines with other influences on…

Investigated the occurrence of grade retention across all socioeconomic classes in urban and suburban populations, focusing on the effects of alcohol abuse, school suspension, violence, and lack of discipline in the home. Surveys of 243 African-American adolescent boys indicated that there was a positive association between number of suspensions…

Reminisces about challenges and events associated with setting up the Getty Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts, the purpose of which was to evaluate strategies for making visual arts an academic and required school subject. Discusses the genesis of the Institute, programs offered, and outcomes, including Discipline-Based Art Education.…

Examines the effectiveness of Discipline-Based Art Education staff development and a graduate course provided by the Alaska Center for Excellence in Art Education. Features progress reports from nine organizations that hosted development sessions and 90 educators who completed the course. Discusses precedents for the study, relevant research,…

School subjects are not the same as the forms of inquiry that produce their underlying knowledge base, and the existence of conceptual structure does not automatically legitimize subjects. Beyond process and content approaches is the central ethos of a subject; for technology education, tools, materials, and ideas are at the core and students are…

Investigates the effects of depressive symptomatology, parental stress, and instrumental support on maternal spanking. Results show that employment has a moderating effect on the relationship between mothers' psychological functioning and their decision to use spanking. The availability of instrumental support seems to increase the frequency of…

Discusses cultural wars in academic disciplines and among populations within college and university campuses. Examines multiculturalism and the curriculum, ranging from reform of basic curricular requirements to the persistence of ethnic and gender studies programs, and considers opportunities for effecting change in academic libraries.…

Explores the status of the librarian in the Canadian university. Discusses the lack of peer status; the value of cross-national research; patterns of university restructuring, including libraries and librarians as targets for reductions; and the possibility of establishing Discipline Research Librarians, or Research Bibliographers, to improve…

The structure that best develops a discipline's core has a high density of positive network ties within the discipline, relatively weak subdivisions, and a lower density of ties to outside institutions. Theoretical insights about interactional dynamics that weaken this optimal disciplinary structure may help sociologists deal productively with…