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The purpose of this paper is to understand and develop ways to enhance patients’ experiences of preoperative education received prior to surgery for colorectal cancer.

Based in the UK, three-action research cycles were undertaken to evaluate preoperative education, identify changes seen by patients and staff as likely to improve the service and to re-evaluate such changes following implementation. Data in each cycle were collected from: observations of clinic interactions; patient questionnaires; individual semi-structured interviews with multidisciplinary colorectal unit staff; longitudinal semi-structured interviews with patients and carers pre-surgery, two weeks post-surgery and 12 weeks post-surgery; patient and carer focus groups post-surgery; and existing educational material.

In total, 138 participants shared their experiences of either giving or receiving preoperative education. Findings were themed into why patients want preoperative education, and patients’ views of the educational processes.

Patients emphasised the need for educational provision to be fully understandable, comprehensive and client-centred using a range of communication processes. Patients emphasised the need for educational provision to be more fully understandable, comprehensive and client-centred and that important messages should be reinforced using a range of media. At a time of many uncertainties for patients’ lives, such education needed to encompass the experiences patients could expect, delivered by confident healthcare professionals.

Contextualising understanding and facilitating their own actions, enabled patients to regain control in circumstances particularly disruptive of bodily and other life routines. Establishing a sense of control is confirmed as important for patient's wellbeing in preparing for surgery and postoperative rehabilitation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between preferred choice of school subject and student information behaviour (IB).

Mixed methods were employed. In all, 152 students, teachers and librarians participated in interviews or focus groups. In total, 1,375 students, key stage 3 (11-14 years) to postgraduate, responded to a questionnaire. The research population was drawn from eight schools, two further education colleges and three universities. Insights from the literature review and the qualitative research phase led to a hypothesis which was investigated using the questionnaire: that students studying hard subjects are less likely to engage in deep IB than students studying soft subjects.

Results support the hypothesis that preferences for subjects at school affect choice of university degree. The hypothesis that a preference for hard or soft subjects affects IB is supported by results of an analysis in which like or dislike of maths/ICT is correlated with responses to the survey. Interviewees’ comments led to the proposal that academic subjects can be classified according to whether a subject helps students to acquire a “tool of the Mind” or to apply such a tool. A model suggesting how IB may differ depending on whether intellectual tools are being acquired or applied is proposed.

The “inner logic” of certain subjects and their pedagogies appears closely linked to IB. This should be considered when developing teaching programmes.

The findings offer a new perspective on subject classification and its association with IB, and a new model of the association between IB and tool acquisition or application is proposed, incorporating the perspectives of both teacher and student.

The purpose of this paper is to inform small business owners about recent Supreme Court rulings interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

A review of recent Supreme Court rulings.

Recent Supreme Court rulings have increased the plaintiff’s burden of proof in employment-discrimination cases in the USA.

Assuming that Congress does not legislatively overrule these decisions, business owners (including small business owners) should find it easier to shield themselves from employment-discrimination claims. However, this change should not be considered license to be less vigilant when it comes to preventing employment discrimination.

While there have been numerous reports on this law in the legal community, the primary audience for this piece is the business owner. The author’s goal is to provide a combination of background information and practical advice, making this valuable to business owners who are not versed in the law.

This volume, sponsored by the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, was shaped at the University of Bologna where earlier drafts of the 16 essays it contains were presented at a Conference on institutions, markets and the division of labor. Like any collection of essays, especially if they come after a conference, the quality of the contributions varies, but it must be said that the average exceeds the usual standard. Moreover, although the title “Knowledge, Social Institutions and the Division of Labour” is broad enough to accommodate a diversity of subjects, there is a degree of congruity among the different contributions. The book is divided in three parts, “Rationality, Communication and Connecting Principles” (comprising four essays), “Social Interaction and Moral Sentiments” (comprising five essays) and “Division of Labour, Patterns of Interdependence and Social Institutions” (comprising seven essays).

Things seem to be going desperately wrong with the concept of the “brave new world” predicted by the starry‐eyed optimists after the Second World War finally came to an end. To those who listen only to what they want to hear, see everything, not as it is, but as they would like it to be, a new society could be initiated and the lusty infant would emerge as a paragon for all the world to follow. The new society in truth never really got off the ground the biggest mistake of all was to cushion millions of people against the results of their own folly; to shelter them from the blasts of the ensuing economic climate. The sheltered ones were not necessarily the ordinary mass of people; many in fact were the victims and suffered the consequences. And now that the state has reached a massive crescendo, many are suffering profoundly. The big nationalised industries and vast services, such as the national health service, education, where losses in the case of the first are met by Government millions, requests to trim the extravagant spending is akin to sacrilege in the latter, have removed such terms as thrift, careful spending, value for money from the vocabulary.