Teaching conversation skills to behaviorally disordered children

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of an instructional package designed to teach conversation skills to behaviorally disordered children. A multiple baseline design with a reversal was employed to assess the effectiveness of this package. Six children were taught in two groups of three. The teachers were taught to use the package prior to implementation to insure standardization across both groups. Data were collected in a contrived setting with a peer trained as a conversant. Observation also took place in the school cafeteria to assess generalization of the training to a naturalistic setting. Social validation data were collected from teachers and children to evaluate their impressions of the instructional package. Results indicated that the instructional package was effective in increasing conversational skills above baseline levels in all children and in both settings.     

Dimensionality of the Piers-Harris children's self-concept scale for miniority gifted children

The relationship between children's self-concepts and their academic achievement has been well established. More recently, the multidimensionality of the self-concept and the relationship of specific self-concept dimensions to achievement have been investigated. However, the multidimensionality of the self-concept among minority gifted children has not been studied. The present study examined the multidimensional structure of the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale among 438 predominantly Black gifted children. Six clearly defined orthogonal factors emerged. However, the structure of these factors differed from those reported by Piers and Harris.     

Decreasing “obscene” language of behaviorally disordered children through the use of a DRL schedule

The purpose of the present study was to determine the value of DRL schedules in reducing the behavior of a group of behaviorally disordered children. During the DRL procedure, reinforcement was made available for inappropriate language that was less than a prescribed limit for each day. When the DRL limit was successively decreased across weeks, the behavior of the students systematically decreased. Data indicated that reinforcing low rates of behavior may be an effective alternative to the use of aversive contingencies to reduce the misbehavior of such children.     

Measuring academic Self-Concept in children: A comparison of two scales

While numerous studies attest to a relationship between academic self-concept and achievement, a variety of measures of self-concept have been used, and the equivalence of these instruments has received limited attention. In this investigation, the Self-Concept of Ability Scale (SCAS) and the newer and less examined Self-Perception of Attainment Scale (SPAS) were compared for their ability to predict achievement in reading as measured by the California Achievement Test (CAT). We predicted that: (a) both scales would be significant predictors of reading achievement, (b) when used as single predictors, the SCAS would have significantly greater weight than the SPAS, and (c) a linear combination of these scales would have greater weight than either scale alone. Using 187 eighth-grade students, we confirmed that both scales were significant predictors of achievement in reading and that a linear combination of the two accounted for more variance than either scale alone. We did not find, however, that the SCAS was a significantly better predictor than the SPAS.     

语音系统困难儿童的评估和治疗:个案研究

本研究采用语音加工分析方法 ,探讨了一名说广东话有语音障碍的儿童的语音系统 ,并对其语音系统进行了评估和分析 ,本文亦藉此个案对语音系统困难提出一系列的治疗建议。     

Social interaction development among behaviorally handicapped preschool children: Research and educational implications

Literature is reviewed that documents the effectiveness of a behavioral approach for increasing the social behaviors of behaviorally handicapped preschool children. However, this literature also suggests that reciprocal interaction between target subjects and significant others seldom generalized beyond treatment settings. The importance of developing positive, reciprocal interaction has been well documented. The results of observational studies suggest that with respect to both quantity and quality of interaction, the child creates his own social environment. For example, the passive, withdrawn child is the more frequent recipient of social rejection than is the more socially active child; the physically aggressive child receives more hostile social bids from peers than less aggressive youngsters; and, of course, the child who initiates positive interaction with peers tends to receive more positive social attention than less socially adept youngsters. Thus, children's behavior patterns tend to set the occasion for that kind of social approach by peers that validates, in a sense, their own approach to peers. If affective education for young handicapped children is to become a reality, additional research is necessary to identify those response patterns that set the occasion for positive reciprocal interaction.     

Academic Self-Concept: Modeling and Measuring for Science

In this study, the author developed a model to describe academic self-concept (ASC) in science and validated an instrument for its measurement. Unlike previous models of science ASC, which envisage science as a homogenous single global construct, this model took a multidimensional view by conceiving science self-concept as possessing distinctive facets including conceptual and procedural elements. In the first part of the study, data were collected from 1,483 students attending eight secondary schools in England, through the use of a newly devised Secondary Self-Concept Science Instrument, and structural equation modeling was employed to test and validate a model. In the second part of the study, the data were analysed within the new self-concept framework to examine learners’ ASC profiles across the domains of science, with particular attention paid to age- and gender-related differences. The study found that the proposed science self-concept model exhibited robust measures of fit and construct validity, which were shown to be invariant across gender and age subgroups. The self-concept profiles were heterogeneous in nature with the component relating to self-concept in physics, being surprisingly positive in comparison to other aspects of science. This outcome is in stark contrast to data reported elsewhere and raises important issues about the nature of young learners’ self-conceptions about science. The paper concludes with an analysis of the potential utility of the self-concept measurement instrument as a pedagogical device for science educators and learners of science.     

论网上插播广告的法律规范

插播广告在互联网上的应用已相当普遍,但也产生了一定的副作用,招致了不少用户的反感和抵触.插播广告据其来源可分为广告软件制造的插播广告、收费网站的插播广告、免费网站的插播广告,这三种情形对于用户利益之影响具有不同性质,应采取不同的规范措施.     

The relationship between the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III scales and subtests with gifted children

Each year thousands of children are evaluated or reevaluated utilizing the current edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale to determine their eligibility for gifted programs. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (1991) is new enough that only limited research is available on how it compares to the previously used Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (1974). The purpose of this study was to determine the comparability between the previously dominant intelligence scale, the WISC-R, and the revised WISC-III with gifted children. The results of this study indicate that the latest revision (WISC-III) and the earlier version (WISC-R) produce remarkably similar scale and subtest scores when administered under clinical conditions to gifted children. All 51 children determined eligible through the administration of one of these two Wechsler tests would have been eligible for services had the other test been administered. The Verbal and Performance scale IQ scores were within two points of each other across the two test administrations, while only a one-point difference existed between the Full Scale IQ scores. The Arithmetic, Comprehension, and Object Assembly subtest scores were in high agreement across the two administrations (p<.01). The level of agreement between some subtests across the two administrations suggests that clinical judgment is just as important as scores in considering who is eligible for gifted programs.     

Concurrent validity of the Battelle Developmental Inventory for speech and language disordered children

Concurrent validity of the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI) was investigated with speech and language disordered children between the ages of 35 and 60 months. Correlations between the BDI expressive communication subdomain and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R), Preschool Language Scale-Revised (PLS-R), and Arizona Articulation Proficiency Scale-Revised (AAPS-R) were significant. The BDI total score was also significantly correlated with the PPVT-R and the PLS-R. There were no significant differences between the three BDI developmental quotients and PPVT-R standard scores. The receptive communication subdomain of the BDI did not correlate significantly with any of the language measures.     

The Time-Bound Nature of Norms: Understandings and Misunderstandings

Presenting a view from CTB/McGraw-Hill, the author discusses the time-bound nature of test norms and argues that the phenomenon of most elementary students' scoring above averages from previous years' norms is a result of generally increasing levels of achievement.     

法学的难题：在规范与自由之间

文章从希腊著名的悲剧故事安提戈涅入手,讨论西方法学传统中延绵不绝的自然法与实证法之冲突。通过将此种冲突难以或者无法解决之根源,定位于法学之根本任务与困境上——法律条文有限的意义空间要面对不断扩展的社会情势与个体意志,法学之根本任务即在于努力弥合规范与自由间之冲突。笔者通过对东西方思想原典的简要挖掘,指出这种弥合之努力必然失败的命运,同时亦主张在此种不能成功之中发现法学之真正价值。     

The Conners Teacher Rating Scale: A different factor structure with special education children

The Conners Teacher Rating Scale was completed as part of a comprehensive psychological evaluation of 138 children who were subsequently placed into one of four special education classrooms in a large metropolitan public school system. The questionnaires were subjected to principle components analysis with varimax rotation, and comparisons were made between the newly created factor structure and Conners' (1969, 1973) original factor solution. Finally, comparison of behavioral profiles of the four special education groups was done according to both factor solutions.