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Many people with a cognitive impairment are likely to become lost at some stage of their illness; this can cause great distress to individuals and to their relatives. GPS location equipment has become available recently and has been trialled with a number of families. Although the technology itself is not complicated, it introduces a number of problems including battery management, device selection and returning the individual when they have become lost. A process has been developed to simplify these problems. When it is followed, the outcomes have been positive for all stakeholders.

MOTION AND TIME STUDY DESIGN AND MEASUREMENT OF WORK By Ralph M. Barnes. (John Wiley, £12.00) SINCE this classic work was first published, six editors and over forty years ago, the concept of time and motion study has considerably expanded. It remains, however, a powerful means for increasing productivity, though there may even have been some change in the meaning of this latter term; hence the inclusion of a new first chapter, “Productivity”, which defines the terms Labour productivity, Capital productivity and Materials productivity, and discusses the applicability of time and motion study to each.

This chapter explores the impact of context on the teaching of a multicultural teacher education course and illustrates what can be learned through partnering self-study methodology with discourse analysis. The study described in this chapter draws on data collected at two teacher education institutions with different student demographics in two different states in the United States. By drawing on methods of discourse analysis, we explore how the differences between two classes manifested in response to a set of class readings on race and racial stereotyping in schools. Specifically, we look closely at the discursive resources available in each location to talk about issues of race and racism. Through partnering discourse analysis and self-study methodologies, we uncovered deep-seated assumptions held by each of us that resulted in a reification of issues of race and class in ways that surprised and troubled us.

There is a huge amount of information and data stored in publicly available online databases that consist of large text files accessed by Boolean search techniques. It is widely held that less use is made of these databases than could or should be the case, and that one reason for this is that potential users find it difficult to identify which databases to search, to use the various command languages of the hosts and to construct the Boolean search statements required. This reasoning has stimulated a considerable amount of exploration and development work on the construction of search interfaces, to aid the inexperienced user to gain effective access to these databases. The aim of our paper is to review aspects of the design of such interfaces: to indicate the requirements that must be met if maximum aid is to be offered to the inexperienced searcher; to spell out the knowledge that must be incorporated in an interface if such aid is to be given; to describe some of the solutions that have been implemented in experimental and operational interfaces; and to discuss some of the problems encountered. The paper closes with an extensive bibliography of references relevant to online search aids, going well beyond the items explicitly mentioned in the text. An index to software appears after the bibliography at the end of the paper.

The threatened status of social studies instruction in elementary schools demands strong methods instruction to preserve the subject. This threatened status and other factors create issues specific to elementary social studies methods instruction. Moreover, university-level methods instruction can be idiosyncratic due to the various educational and professional backgrounds of the instructors. This study examined individuals serving in the “dual roles” of inservice teacher and elementary social studies methods instructor. While teaching the methods, participants encountered issues related to methods students, the filling of dual roles, and the status of elementary social studies and field placements. In addition, filling these dual roles facilitated their methods instruction through their ability to relate/react to methods students’ experiences and concerns.

WITH the Pompey doldrum in mind, many misgivings were expressed about the Rothesay conference as the delegated gravy trains raced north to Glasgow. (Incidentally Sir Brian Robertson will find comfort in our belief that rail travel is the most satisfying way to attend conference with corridor exchanges and dining car badinage shortening the long haul).

With the Pompey doldrum in mind, many misgivings were expressed about the Rothesay conference as the delegated gravy trains raced north to Glasgow. (Incidentally Sir Brian Robertson will find comfort in our belief that rail travel is the most satisfying way to attend conference with corridor exchanges and dining car badinage shortening the long haul).

There have been recent proposals that schools should teach politics. In a recent book Political Education and Political Literacy (Longman £3.95), the case is argued at length on behalf of the Hansard Society. It is in effect a report of a working party, chaired by Professor Bernard Crick, in which political literacy is defined as: the skills, knowledge and attitudes to be effective in political situations. The survey reveals that school‐leavers are politically inept and almost totally ignorant. (A quarter of them thought the IRA was a Protestant organisation). The report also recommends that a small core of general politics should be taught to all teachers in training, that all local education committees should have advisers on political education, and that the DES should have its own specialist HMI on the subject. In fact two of these three recommendations have already been adopted in part: an experienced HMI (an historian) has been given responsibility for political education, and Sheffield recently appointed a subject adviser in politics.

Fiscal restraint promotes a greater emphasis for accountability. In education and training, accountability has often been seen by policy makers to equate to a need to improve the quality of instruction. The writer agrees that the quality of instruction is one important dimension in the complex teaching‐learning process, but to encourage the pursuit of excellence of instruction the instructor appraisal process must not polarise policy makers and instructors. The appraisal process must not be used for summative purposes, and must be well separated from personnel decisions. Many present practices of appraisal use inaccurate, imprecise, narrow and unproved instruments in an attempt to quantify instructor competence. This destroys any innovativeness or spontaneity in the teaching‐learning process and results in a mechanistic approach to the human interactions of instruction. A formative process where peers assist their peers is required.

A few years ago, in an effort to promote co‐operation between the two professional associations of librarians in Ireland, a Liaison Committee, consisting of members nominated by the Council of the Library Association of Ireland and members nominated by the Committee of the Northern Ireland Branch of the Library Association was formed. The first fruit of its endeavours was found in the establishment of an Annual Joint‐Conference of the two bodies, the first one being held at Portrush, in Northern Ireland in 1963.