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This report summarizes the results of a survey on attitudes toward inclusion, which was conducted in a middle school in a large school district in the Southeast. The survey was given prior to the beginning of the school year, and immediately prior to the implementation of full inclusion. Respondents were general and special educators, para-professionals, and administrators. Results of the survey revealed that, although the majority (98.2%) of respondents were willing to make needed instructional adaptations for their students with disabilities, most (76.8%) did not believe that most students with disabilities could be educated in regular education classrooms. Fewer than half (44.6%) indicated that inclusion was a desirable educational practice for regular education students, although a greater percent (57.9%) believed that inclusion was a desirable educational practice for special education students. Time was the most significant area of concern for respondents who indicated that they (a) did not have adequate time to consult with other teachers and specialists who were working with their students with disabilities, (b) lacked time to go to meetings pertaining to their students with disabilities, and (c) lacked time to undertake the responsibility to educate students with disabilities in regular classrooms. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Background: Most studies have investigated college and high school students' epistemological beliefs in Western contexts, with few studies examining how beliefs about learning are related to children's strategies and comprehension in the Chinese cultural context. Aims: The present study investigated Chinese elementary school children's beliefs about learning and examined their relations with self-regulated learning strategies and text comprehension. Sample: The participants were 417 Grade 5 (mean age = 10.8 years) and 420 Grade 6 (mean age = 11.9 years) elementary school children in Hong Kong. Methods: A questionnaire assessing children's beliefs about learning was constructed; children were also asked to complete the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and several text comprehension tasks assessing deep understanding. Results: Factor analysis indicated two contrasting factors of constructivist and reproductive beliefs about learning. High achievers outperformed low achievers on beliefs, strategy and comprehension scores. Multiple regression indicated that constructivist beliefs contributed to text comprehension over and above the effects of grade and strategy. Conclusions: This study corroborates current research on the roles of beliefs and strategies in text comprehension and suggests that meta-cognitive beliefs and strategies examined in English reading can also be identified among Chinese children in text comprehension.

Quite often in data reduction, it is more meaningful and economical to select a subset of variables instead of reducing the dimensionality of the variable space with principal components analysis. The authors present a neglected method for variable selection called the BI-method (R. P. Bhargava & T. Ishizuka, 1981). It is a direct, simple method that uses the same criterion--trace information--used in ordinary regression analysis. The authors begin by discussing the nature and properties of the BI-method and then show how it is different from other existing variable selection methods. Because the BI-method originally was applied to small datasets that had little or no relevance to psychology or education, the authors apply it to large datasets with relevance to the psychological and educational literature. Of particular interest was the application of the BI-method to select a subset of items from a large item pool. Two practical psychometric examples with 49 and 108 items, respectively, showed that item subsets selected with the BI-method reflected the underlying structure of the whole item pool and that the scales based on those item subsets showed good reliability and predictive validity. The appropriateness of this item selection method within the context of the domain-sampling model is discussed.

Using a descriptive quantitative methodology for categorical data analysis, investigates whether Chinese students' conceptions of learning included memorization. Explains that the University of Hong Kong students (n=25) ranked six conceptions of learning. Includes references. (CMK)

Using responses of 90 undergraduate and graduate students, developed a model in which action-control belief variables have only an indirect effect on students' attitudes to writing a thesis mediated through two academic orientation variables. The model accounted for a large proportion of the repeatable variance in the two academic orientation variables and in students' attitude toward writing the thesis. (SLD)

The impact of a modified wilderness program on the cooperative and aggressive behaviors of seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents was evaluated in the context of self-efficacy theory. Results indicated that participating adolescents showed a significant increase in cooperative behaviors and that direct observation procedures were more sensitive to behavior changes than were standardized measures. (DB)

In samples of 1,005 adolescents and adults in Hong Kong and 281 adolescents and adults in London (England), Moral Development Test patterns conform to that predicted by L. Kohlberg's stage theory of moral development (1969), but the degree of association between the stages differed between cultures. (SLD)

This discussion of corporal punishment as an aversive intervention with regular and special education students notes that corporal punishment is still legal and being used in many states. Special problems in the use of corporal punishment with students having disabilities are noted. The paper concludes that comprehensive procedural safeguards for corporal punishment have not been developed. (DB)

The Student-Teacher Self-Efficacy Interaction Model is described, focusing on the impact of the teacher's self-efficacy on performance, impact of teacher's performance and students' past experiences on special education students' self-efficacy, and how feedback from students' performance provides feedback on teacher abilities to meet students' needs. (Author/JDD)

Icons of Hope: The 'Last Things' in Catholic Imagination. By John E. Thiel. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2013. Pp. xiii + 223. $35. In this fascinating book [...]

The modified technology acceptance model was used to predict actual Blackboard usage (a web-based information system) in a sample of 57 Hong Kong student teachers whose mean age was 27.8 yr. (SD = 6.9). While the general form of the model was supported, Application-specific Self-efficacy was a more powerful predictor of system use than Behavioural Intention as predicted by the theory of reasoned action. Thus in this cultural and educational context, it has been shown that the model does not fully mediate the effect of Self-efficacy on System Use. Also, users' Enjoyment exerted considerable influence on the component variables of Usefulness and Ease of Use and on Application-specific Self-efficacy, thus indirectly influencing system usage. Consequently, efforts to gain students' acceptance and, therefore, use of information systems such as Blackboard must pay adequate attention to users' Self-efficacy and motivational variables such as Enjoyment.

The 15-item Proactive Attitude Scale is defined as a unidimensional measure of belief in one's ability to effect positive life changes. The current study tested the scale's unidimensionality assumption with confirmatory factor analysis on a mixed sample of 157 fourth-year Bachelor of Education (n = 30) and first year Masters of Education (n = 121) students from The University of Hong Kong. 49 were men and 108 women, with a median age of 3i yr. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that a two-factor congeneric model fit the data significantly better than the unidimensional model. The two factors were characterized as reflecting proactive attitude and independent mindedness, respectively. The moderate correlation between these factors clearly defined them as reflecting distinct constructs, making untenable the scale's unidimensionality assumption.

A small sample of 40 second-year university students in Hong Kong were asked to perform a Q sort on the 36 items of a questionnaire used to assess six dimensions of student approaches to learning, the Learning Process Questionnaire. Participants were instructed to sort the items into as many groups as they liked with the only conditions being that all items within a group be as similar as possible in perceived meaning and that no item be placed into more than one group. By treating participants' responses as a form of multiple-choice data and by applying optimal scaling, three solutions were obtained. A two-dimensional plot of the optimal item scores for the first two solutions yielded 10 clearly defined item clusters suggesting a possible ten-factor model as opposed to the six-factor model found in studies of this questionnaire. The implications of using this approach to identify potential competing factor models, especially within a cross-cultural context, are discussed.

Positively-charged substances influence K-Cl cotransport activity in red blood cells. Two amphiphile cations, spermine and methylglyoxal, exert inhibitory effects on both the shrunken or swollen RBCs. Neutralization of a negative charge on the inner surface of the host membrane takes place resulting in the inhibition of cotransport activity.

Recently I surveyed in this journal the treatment of universal salvation and the problem of hell in current Catholic eschatoloy.(1) Virtually all theologians emphasize the universal scope of God's saving [...]

Ghosts developed from human red blood cells were studied to explore the link between K-Cl retransport activity and ATP. ATP enhances K-Cl cotransport activity in swollen ghosts. This enhancement most probably results from the phosphorylation of some membrane component, as it needs Mg. Neither phosphrylation nor dephosphorylation nor any other known messenger are concerned with signal transduction between the cell volume sensor and the cotransporter, although both these processes alter the activity of the cotransproter in shrunken and swollen ghosts.

Current Eschatology: Universal Salvation and the Problem of Hell, building on recent Roman Catholic developments in the theology of human freedom, explores the perennial notion of universal salvation from within the Catholic tradition and in a way that does not undercut human freedom or responsibility

HERIBERT MUHLEN: HIS THEOLOGY AND PRAXIS. By Wolfgang Vondey. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2004. Pp. 1i + 387. $47. Muhlen is a figure best known for the two [...]

Self-efficacy theory is used to explain the reluctance of regular educators to comply with requirements of Public Law 94 142 and the Regular Education Initiative as well as to suggest changes in teacher preparation programs and state certification processes. (DB)

By Jurgen Moltmann. Translated from the German by Margaret Kohl. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996. Pp. xxii + 390. $23. Here is the fifth volume of Moltmann's 'systematic contributions to theology.' This [...]

In the last five years a number of books about von Balthasar have appeared. E.g., David Schindler edited a very informative collection of essays, Hans Urs von Balthasar: His Life [...]

SELF AND SALVATION: BEING TRANSFORMED. By David F. Ford. Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine. New York: Cambridge University, 1999. Pp. xiv + 298. $59.95. This is the first volume of [...]

The family of P-type ion pumps are responsible for generating ion gradients across cell membranes in a wide variety of organisms. Such gradients require energy and it is the job of these pumps to couple the hydrolysis of ATP to transport of their respective ions. To understand the structural basis for this energy coupling, we are using electron microscopy to study tubular crystals of both [Ca.sup.2+]-ATPase from rabbit muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum and [Na.sup.+]/[K.sup.+]-ATPase from duck salt glands. In both cases, crystallization requires the addition of vanadate and an absence of the primary transport ion ([Ca.sup.2+] or [Na.sup.+]), which strongly suggests that the [E.sub.2] conformation of the enzyme is present in the crystals. The conformational change between [E.sub.2] and [E.sub.1] is a key step in coupling ion binding within the membrane to ATP use within the cytoplasmic domain. This involves formation of a transient aspartyl phosphate, by which the pump harnesses the energy of ATP. In a subsequent step, the pump undergoes a related conformational change, which alters the sidedness of ion binding and dramatically lowers its affinity. We have compared our 3-D structures for the [E.sub.2] conformation of [Ca.sup.2+]-ATPase and [Na.sup.+]/[K.sup.+]-ATPase with a structure for [H.sup.+]-ATPase from Neurospora that we believe corresponds to the [E.sub.1] conformation. Dramatic changes in the domain organization of the cytoplasmic head are apparent, whereas the 10 transmembrane helices appear to have a rather similar organization. To interpret these differences, we have modeled the structure of the phosphorylation domain, based on a distantly related bacterial enzyme: L-2 haloacid dehalogenase. This enzyme adopts a Rossman fold with a conserved ligand binding site at the interface between two domains. By fitting the modeled structure for the phosphorylation domain into our 3-D map for [Ca.sup.2+]-ATPase, we propose particular domain movements that account for the very open arrangement of domains in the [E.sub.1] conformation. We have considered the specific conformational effects of forming the aspartyl phosphate with reference to the group of bacterial receiver domains, such as CheY. These proteins have a different topology, but the architecture of the active site is the same as the dehalogenase and the effects of phosphorylation have been characterized by x-ray crystallography. According to our proposed structural analogy, phosphorylation would induce a significant movement of the two segments connecting the phosphorylation and nucleotide-binding domains; if amplified by a relatively long lever arm, this movement could account for the dramatic rearrangement observed in the pump cytoplasmic domains. By improving the resolution of our structures, we hope to reveal more subtle changes amongst the transmembrane helices, which would reflect expected changes in ion binding and allow us to speculate about the structural coupling between ion binding and nucleotide binding sites.