Finds that a semantic network analysis of the International Communication Association (ICA) based on paper titles presented at its 1991 conference had a high degree of correspondence with the affiliation structure. Suggests validity of the procedures employed for determining semantic networks. Interprets results in regard to this journal's…

Documents the rise and fall of public relations in public-administration education through a content analysis of textbooks. Notes some early signs of renewed attention. Suggests reestablishing public relations as a valuable part of contemporary public-administration education. (RS)

Identifies and clarifies the difficulties encountered in the effort to revive rhetoric as a modern academic discipline. Discusses briefly the institutional histories of speech communication and composition studies. Describes a new rhetoric (the "current-traditional rhetoric") that began to dominate universities in the late 19th century and has…

Notes that faculty members in communication departments or schools of journalism and mass communication must navigate between the Scylla of diminishing faculty lines and the Charybdis of the turbulent waters of academic scholarship. Examines problems faced by journalism and communication researchers and places their work in a contemporary…

Examined processing strategies, regulation strategies, conceptions of learning, and motivational orientation for 60 vocational-secondary-education students in the Netherlands. Also studied the systematic relations among these concepts for 1,036 students, resulting in descriptions of four learning styles. Results support strong differences in…

Although liberal arts colleges are reputed not to offer business education, a study of 182 nationally known colleges found that most offer business majors. Apart from economics, these programs predominantly operate outside disciplinary mainstreams. Although business education is associated with lower performance and reputation rankings, it is a…

Presents information about the development of psychology around the world and outlines challenges to be faced in the international development of the field. Information is based on a 1998 survey completed by 34 national member organizations. Notes increased numbers of psychology students world wide. (SLD)

Presents the selective synthesis of instructional research with children and adolescents with learning disabilities, analyzing studies across instructional domain, sample characteristics, intervention parameters, and sampling procedures. Synthesis indicates that reading is the most researched domain, and intervention studies that produce the…

Based on analysis of a computer corpus of 80 research articles and interviews with experienced writers, this study investigates the contextual variability of citations in eight disciplines and suggests how textual conventions point to distinctions in ways knowledge is negotiated and confirmed within different academic communities. (Author/VWL)

This pilot study looked at the British lay public's evaluation of 20 different disciplines by asking them to rank-order them. In a cutting-saving exercise those departments (disciplines) thought most worthy of saving were English, mathematics, and computer science; those rated as least important were anthropology, film and media studies, and…

Reviews the opportunities available in the field of agriculture for African American students and notes efforts of the 136 colleges of agriculture to publicize their offerings and recruit students. Profiles six black leaders in agriculture, highlighting their achievements in research and aid to developing countries. A table provides data on annual…

Offers an autoethnographic essay which follows one individual throughout his day to explore how evaluation functions as a fundamental orientation of a scholar's academic life. Questions the individual's relationship to criticism and its presence in the ongoing process of doing one's job and of living one's life. (SR)

Describes a partially ethnographic study of written discourse based on texts produced on three floors of an academic building, each containing a different academic community. It is proposed that such an approach can be used to study text-community associations, explore inhabitants' textual careers, piece together group-specific sets and systems of…

Language teachers are faced with a paradox: if they do not exert autonomy or respond flexibly to the teaching context, they can not produce significant results, and the language teaching field is criticized as inept and ill-informed; if they do exercise autonomy and flexibility to ensure learning, the field is criticized for lack of unity and…

Describes the nature of school effects on academic achievement for different groups of students based on performance in selected subjects. Uses a "value added" approach, controlling for students' backgrounds. Indicates that schools that are more or less effective for one group of students are likely to be similarly effective for all…