A brief behavior rating scale for children in a school setting

A brief behavior rating scale consisting of 28 items divided into 7 categories was developed for use in a school setting. Reliability coefficients for each of the categories ranged from.79 to.91; total reliability was.92. Test validity was based upon the successful discrimination between neurologically impaired, socially maladjusted, emotionally handicapped, and normal children.     

A global approach for the interpretation of the kinetic school drawing (KSD): A quick scoring sheet,reference guide,and rating scale

This paper presents a globally oriented scoring sheet, reference guide, and rating scale for facilitating clinical hypotheses from children's Kinetic School Drawings (KSDs) and further empirical evaluations of the KSD technique. The paper also provides information regarding the construction of these instruments, along with some preliminary findings in terms of the procedures' reliability and discriminant validity.     

Construction and validation of a classroom climate scale: a mixed methods approach

Students’ perceptions of their classroom climate have been found to relate significantly to students’ learning outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to construct an instrument for assessing elementary-school students’ perceptions of classroom climate, based on a previous instrument that was being used in Chile by a public national school mental health program as a tool for aiding teachers in improving classroom management, but which showed poor psychometric properties. We used a six-staged mixed-methods approach to construct relevant items and dimensions based on this measure and by adapting previously-existing scales. Item development included participatory construction of items involving program officials, focus groups with students, and a pilot study. The final version was administered to a sample of 6813 elementary-school students. Results showed adequate reliability and construct validity, convergent validity with school climate, and divergent validity with peer victimisation. When consequential validity was explored through semi-structured interviews with program officials and school administrators, we found that the instrument was being used as a tool for helping teachers to improve their school climate and management skills. We discuss the importance of constructing instruments using a mixed-methods approach.     

Factor analysis of the abbreviated conners teacher rating scale: Implications for the assessment of hyperactivity

A factor analysis of the abbreviated Conners Teacher Rating Scale (CTRS) was completed using a sample of 108 regular and special education students. Two factors accounted for 69.5% of the total response variance: Factor I consisted of items describing attention deficits and motor activity, and Factor II consisted of items describing excessive affective reactions. It is suggested that the abbreviated CTRS be interpreted with respect to its latent structure, rather than to one global score as has been common practice.     

Continuous training and wages: An empirical analysis using a comparison-group approach

Using German linked employer-employee data, this paper investigates the short-term impact of on-the-job training on wages. The applied estimation approach was first introduced by Leuven and Oosterbeek (2008). Wages of employees who intended to participate in training but did not do so because of a random event are compared to wages of training participants. The estimated wage returns are statistically insignificant. Furthermore, the decision to participate in training is associated with sizeable selection effects. On average, participants have a wage advantage of more than 4% compared to non-participants.     

School psychologists as researchers: An approach for initiating training and practice

A project is described that involved school psychology students in doing applied research. The possible impact that implementing such a plan might have on creating cooperative research opportunities, on providing training in applied research, and on influencing the school's perception of the school psychologist's role is considered.     

Errorless compliance training with physically abusive mothers: a single-case approach

OBJECTIVE: Errorless compliance training is a recently developed, success-based approach for teaching children to comply with parental requests without the use of coercive consequences. Two mothers were trained to use this intervention to reduce severe child defiance that was precipitating mother/child confrontations and physical abuse. METHOD: To determine probability of child compliance to specific requests, we observed mothers delivering requests to their child. We then developed a hierarchy of compliance probabilities for each child. Mothers were trained to deliver a high density of Level 1 requests (those that typically yielded compliance), and provide praise for child compliance. Lower probability request levels were introduced gradually, at a slow enough pace to preclude noncompliant responses, reducing the need for mothers to respond aversively to child behavior. RESULTS: At treatment completion and follow-up, both children demonstrated substantial improvements in compliance. CONCLUSIONS: The errorless approach may be well suited to managing parenting deficits and child opposition commonly associated with family violence.     

ICT teacher training: Evaluation of the curriculum and training approach in Flanders

A policy-evaluation study was set up of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) teacher training in Flanders, focusing on the following questions: (a) What is the validity of the content and format of the teacher training, and (b) to what extent is the ICT teacher training linked to policies of schools? In-depth interviews were organised with respondents of primary, secondary, and adult education schools. The results indicate that ICT school policies are not well developed and reveal a partial match between policies, needs, and the actual in-service training. Innovative applications of ICT are not promoted. The supply-driven approach, the school-based nature, and follow-up activities are questioned.     

Counselling skills training for adolescent health: A WHO approach to meet a global need

In recent years as public health measures such as improved sanitation, water supply, and immunization have taken effect in developing as well as economically developed countries, there has been an increase in attention to health problems arising from voluntary behaviour such as sexual activity and substance abuse rather than simply from passively acquired infection. This is of special relevance to adolescents who have generally been given lower priority in health services because they are relatively disease-free yet whose patterns of behaviour have great significance for their present and future health. However establishing or changing health behaviour during the dynamic period of adolescence can be difficult especially when the environment is rapidly changing too. This is especially so in developing countries where the traditional directive approach to guidance may need to give way to a somewhat more non-directive style of counselling in order to accommodate greater adolescent autonomy, without loss of fundamental cultural values. Because few people in developing countries are experienced in such techniques WHO has developed a module for training counselling skills for adolescent sexual and reproductive health which preserves culture specificity in a non-directive approach and uses behavioural techniques to train communication microskills.     

Hypervideo for educational purposes: a literature review on a multifaceted technological tool

The term ‘hypervideo’ has different interpretations in the scientific literature. The aim of this contribution is to define hypervideo as it is and can be (more optimally) used for teaching and learning purposes. Videos can promote learning by recreating real experiences and dynamic processes, although they do not necessarily enable students to interact with contents and to self-regulate their learning. Hypervideos technically overcome these limitations and add further benefits. However, even though some literature on the topic exists, the concept of hypervideo is not well represented in the scientific community and lends itself to different interpretations. Results show that hypervideo is defined as a dynamic artefact, it should allow navigation control and include additional material; it could also integrate individual or collaborative annotation and automated or manual feedback. So far, most studies have been conducted in artificial settings involving tertiary-level students. Finally, its use is beneficial for students’ learning.     

以变应变:大学发展的动力泉源

大学教育要想掌握生存和发展的主动权,就必须以变应变,不断改革和创新。大学教育创新,是大学实现跨越式发展的必然选择,而以变应变则是大学教育创新的动力泉源。     

专门用途英语教材建设:问题与对策

教材是知识的载体和完成教学的基本工具。专门用途英语教材为培养复合型人才提供了重要保障。本文通过对专门用途英语教材编写的研究,分析了专门用途英语教材编写过程中存在的教材编写不专业、缺乏相关先进理论指导以及实践主体地位不突出等问题,并进一步提出了解决上述问题的意见和建议。     

Adapting distance education for Indonesians: Problems with learner heteronomy and a strong oral tradition

This paper discusses the difficulties being experienced by the Indonesian Open University identified in a joint UNESCO/ICDE analysis. It proposes that a fundamental cause of distance education failure in Indonesia has been the adoption of western models without adaptation to suit the acculturised behaviours of Indonesian teachers and learners. Western distance education assumes that learners will become autonomous and can cope with a teacher relationship mediated through text. The paper describes the heteronomous nature of Indonesian social and learning behaviour, and the strong oral tradition of Indonesian education. Various suggestions are advanced for adapting western models to suit local conditions.     

Multi scale risk measurement in electricity market:a wavelet based value at risk approach

Value at risk (VaR) is adopted to measure the risk level in the electricity market. To estimate VaR at higher accuracy and reliability, the wavelet variance decomposed approach for value at risk estimates (WVDVaR) is proposed. Empirical studies conduct in five Australian electricity markets, which evaluate the performances of both the proposed approach and the traditional ARMA-GARCH approach using the Kupiec backtesting procedure. Experimental results suggest that the proposed approach measures electricity market risks at higher accuracy and reliability than the bench mark ARMA-GARCH approach, as indicated by the higher p values during the Kupiec backtesting procedure. In addition, the new approach also provides more insight into the risk evolution process over time and helps in adjusting VaR estimates to the time horizons that best suit investor interests. The distribution of risk according to investor preferences is shown by decomposing VaR across different time horizons. This also provides important information for the appropriate aggregation of risk measures based on investor investment preferences.     

有机反应信息的挖掘与科学思维方法的训练

教育怎样才能真正摆脱题海的束缚,把素质教育落实到实处.笔者在教学中,注重以教材的知识信息作为起点,通过探究台阶的设计,充分地挖掘课本原有的知识信息,有目的、有计划、有步骤地训练学生对信息的加工能力,促进学生各种思维方式的协调发展,发展学生的创造潜能.本文就笔者在典型有机反应教学中的探索与实践举例介绍如下.     

产学研结合人才培养模式的构建与实践

中国教育改革和发展纲要>指出:高等教育要加强实践环节的教学和训练,发展同社会实际工作部门合作培养,促进教学、科研、生产三结合.长沙航空职业技术学院建院以来,紧紧围绕空军装备建设发展对高级技术应用型人才的要求,与空军装备主管部门和装备维修企业密切合作,积极探索产学研合作办学的道路,初步形成了一套行之有效的产学研结合人才培养模式和运行机制.