Bücher der Reihe American University Studies Series 14: Education

This study was undertaken to determine if the credibility principle of attitude change applied in the multi-variable context of a team-taught education methods course. Defined as respondent perceptions of communicator expertise and trustworthiness, credi- bility is believed to be the probable producer of attitude changes. Six education team members functioned as independent variables while the dependent variables consisted of preservice teacher attitudes toward science and science teaching as well as perceptions of team member credibility and attitudes. Three principal team members were perceived as being most credible. Repeated measures on the dependent variables increased toward the perceived levels of the principal educators. Results of this study support the credibility principle, in general, but additional findings indicate that credibility alone is not the probable producer of attitude changes.

Reading Curriculum Theory: The Development of a New Hermeneutic is a study of curriculum theory texts of the 1980s. Focusing on three divisions within the theoretical traditions of the field; the conservative, the reconceptualist and the reproductionist, the book provides a hermeneutic reading of specific texts within each tradition. The book relies heavily upon the interpretation theory of Paul Ricoeur and discusses Ricoeur's theoretical works. The book reveals and demonstrates that the ultimate aim of interpretive reading or the hermeneutic process is enhanced self understanding.

In Literacy, Culture and Identity, Canadian literacy educator and researcher Jill Sinclair Bell uses narrative inquiry to argue that literacy should be understood as an individual construct growing out of personal experiences shaped by societal attitudes. Through her innovative autobiographical study of an attempt to become literate in Chinese, Dr. Bell makes evident the conflicting stories of literacy held by members of different cultures. The difficulties encountered and the resulting challenge to the image of self highlight the degree to which identity is bound up in literacy and learning practices. Given the multicultural nature of education in North America today, this individually and culturally based notion of literacy has profound implications for our understanding of the teaching and learning situation.