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Student volunteering is currently being promoted through the Higher Education Active Community Fund, which runs to August 2004 and may be extended further. This development of higher education's "third mission" has strong links with the government's agenda for citizenship and the active community. This initiative appears to have taken little account of debates concerning both the ideological bases of volunteering, in particular the contested nature of citizenship and social capital, and the practicalities of students volunteering. In an increasingly instrumental climate for higher education this represents a possible strategic flaw. The merits of integrating volunteering activity into the curriculum are discussed through comparison with service-learning in the USA, and illustrations of present practice from a number of UK universities. In conclusion, a case is made for more open and widespread dialogues between higher education institutions, the voluntary sector and policy-makers in exploring service-learning and its role in the curriculum and the community.

Evaluation of a project to improve higher education access for adults with disabilities found students preferred separate over integrated provision. In integrated programs they felt isolated by teachers' lack of understanding and other students' reactions. In discrete programs they experienced shared understanding of disability, support, and work geared to their pace. (SK)

Reexamines the construct of field independence/dependence and its measurement in second-language acquisition research, focusing on its role in language testing and good language-learner theories. (68 references) (Author/CB)

Pollution from endocrine disrupting compounds and related micropollutants is widely regarded as a major environmental issue on both a regional and a global scale, largely due to concerns over risks to human and ecological health. Between 2005 and 2010, the United Kingdom is conducting a demonstration program, costing ~40 million (~$80 million at the time of writing), to evaluate technologies to remove these compounds from wastewater. However, while such advanced treatment techniques will undoubtedly reduce the discharges of micropollutants, they will also inevitably result in large financial costs, as well as environmentally undesirable increases in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Here we calculate the price of treating urban sewage with two of the major options specifically proposed in the U.K. demonstration program: (i) granular activated carbon and ozone and (ii) membrane filtration and reverse osmosis. Economic analysis indicates that treating wastewater with these advanced technologies may be economically and environmentally undesirable due to the increased energy consumption and associated economic costs and CO2 emissions. Since the costs of advanced treatment of sewage would most likely have to be passed on to customers (both domestic and industrial), we propose that national demonstration programs should not only compare and contrast the most advanced treatment methods but also consider alternative techniques, such as increased sludge ages and hydraulic retention times in conjunction with nutrient removal stages and the varying redox conditions associated with them, which potentially may be almost as effective but with much lower environmental and financial costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student volunteering is currently being promoted through the Higher Education Active Community Fund, which runs to August 2004 and may be extended further. This development of higher education's ‘third mission’ has strong links with the government's agenda for citizenship and the active community. This initiative appears to have taken little account of debates concerning both the ideological bases of volunteering, in particular the contested nature of citizenship and social capital, and the practicalities of students volunteering. In an increasingly instrumental climate for higher education this represents a possible strategic flaw. The merits of integrating volunteering activity into the curriculum are discussed through comparison with service-learning in the USA, and illustrations of present practice from a number of UK universities. In conclusion, a case is made for more open and widespread dialogues between higher education institutions, the voluntary sector and policy-makers in exploring service-learning and its role in the curriculum and the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the case of dyslexia in nine year old girl, Jaye. Dyslexia is a perceptual problem where the child was trouble understanding language in written form. Austin, a clinical psychologist in Corpus Christi, Texas, has been very successful with children who have problems in academic development. Austin and his staff provide the special help that is needed for children with such problems; thereby, making it possible for them to develop to full academic potential. Austin provided the briefing about dyslexia. He explained that dyslexia is word blindness. It is not in terms of inability to read or write, but it is associated with perceptual problems. Jaye's brain did not develop the perceptual skill needed to sort out the differences between visual impressions. The tutor would use various techniques available to build a foundation for visual perception. Austin pointed out that the tutor must be highly specialized and trained in working with dyslexia. He went on to explain that Jaye's inability to read stemmed from this problem. Simple letters or phrases did not always align correctly when Jaye tried to assemble them.