English Language Teachers' Attitudes towards Instructional Policy in Public Secondary Schools: An Interview Study

The purpose of this study was to explore secondary school English teachers' attitudes towards English language instructional policy as given in the official English language curriculum documents. This study intended to understand teachers' attitudes by exploring their beliefs, feelings, and practices constituting their attitudes. This study used a qualitative semi-structured interview research design, and a purposive sampling technique was used to recruit 15 secondary English language teachers from different public schools of Lahore, having at least three years of experience. A semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data. The analysis of the data revealed a gap between teachers' beliefs, feelings, and practices. Teachers believed that all proposed methods worth using, and they felt that the methods were beneficial for teaching English at the secondary level. However, the situation was quite different concerning practices. Discussion and cooperative learning strategies were the most preferred methods to use besides the lecture method at the secondary level. Teachers also described the factors which hinder the use of all policy recommended methods.

Currents in Contemporary Ethics

In what is clearly an important development related to research integrity and the protection of human research subjects, the U.S. government has instituted two new training requirements as a condition of receiving federal financial support. First, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is requiring, as a condition of funding, that key research personnel involved in human subject research complete education “in the protection of human subjects.” Evidence that key personnel have completed this training must be provided in NIH grant applications or contract proposals.The NIH education policy will eventually be superseded by a more broadly applicable instructional policy for the “responsible conduct of research,” which will be promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Research Integrity and the Public Health Service (PHS). The instructional policy will apply to all persons engaged in any research or research training with PHS support. Presently, the only version of the policy is in draft form.

Issues Facing the Field of Learning Disabilities

Four issues facing the field of learning disabilities are discussed: (a) defining learning disabilities in terms of discrepancy scores, (b) delineating the boundaries of how specific a learning disability must be, (c) identifying treatments with scientific credibility, and (d) implementing instructional policy that is in the best interest of the child. Although these issues have been discussed in the literature for some time, some deeper conceptual issues lie below the surface. These issues are related to (a) a weak research foundation for operationalizing learning disabilities; (b) too narrow a research focus, thereby excluding work in other areas; (c) few answers to some practical instructional questions; and (d) implementation of policy independent of data. Illustrations and possible redresses are provided.