Celebrating Chinese New Year Worldwide

<正>During the Spring Festival in 2012, the Cultural Ministry of China, along with China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, State Administration of Radio, Film and TV and the State Council Office for Overseas Chinese Affairs     

Chinese Cultural Ministry Hosts Mid-autumn Reception

正On the evening of September 21, 2012, a new moon hangs over the newly lit streetlights. The Mid-Autumn reception for the year of the Dragon was held by Chinese...     

Children's adaptive behavior scale: A new measure of adaptive functioning

This article describes a new instrument for the measurement of adaptive behavior that is administered directly to the child. It was designed for brief administration, to be educationally relevant, and to measure these five domains of adaptive behavior: Language Development, Independent Functioning, Family Role Performance and Economic-Vocational Activity, and Socialization. An initial study of test-retest reliability indicates the instrument has high reliability.     

Validation of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children with a sample of preschool children

The validity of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) (Kaufman & Kaufman, 1983) was investigated with a sample of preschool-age children. The sample consisted of 50 subjects aged 21/2 through 4 who were distributed roughly equally by age, sex, and race according to the 1980 census. The validity of the K-ABC was examined using the Slosson Intelligence Test (SIT) (Slosson, 1982) and the Classroom Behavior Inventory-Preschool Form (CBI) (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1978) as criterion measures. The SIT and CBI-Preschool Form Verbal Intelligence Scale were found to correlate significantly (p<.01) with the global scales of the K-ABC. The K-ABC did not differentiate between age or sex groups, but blacks scored lower than whites. The findings are supportive of previous validity studies (Kaufman & Kaufman, 1983) and two-factor theories of intelligence (e.g., Das, Kirby, & Jarman, 1975).     

Factor structure evidence for developmental levels of perceptual processing on the developmental test of visual-motor integration

Beery's Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration was individually administered to 193 school-age children. Test protocols were factor analyzed by a principal component solution. Four factors were obtained, indicating that the test does not measure a unitary dimension of perceptual-motor development, but rather four distinct levels or stages for the age range of children investigated. The structural features of the designs that make up the test were used to define the factors. It is argued that a more useful interpretation of performance on this test would be one that designates visualmotor processing in terms of levels, not age equivalents.     

Factor analysis of the metropolitan readiness test on first-grade children

The factor composition of the Metropolitan Readiness Test was investigated, using 1st-grade subjects in a suburban school district. In this analysis, a total battery score was supported, as well as a second factor believed to represent a language dimension of the test. None of the MRT's other content areas (auditory, visual, or quantitative abilities) or a distinct prereading measure were identified for this sample.     

A comparative study of three methods for the popularization of a physical phenomenon

A study of Norwegian science textbooks for grade 8 indicates an individualistic image of science where individual scientists are discovering truth, through experiment. Scientific rationality is grounded in procedures of inquiry alone and not in debate and argumentation within scientific communities. The communal aspects of science tend to become visible in historical examples where science did not function properly due to prejudices or ignorance. Furthermore, science proper and school science are not differentiated between, and 'scientific knowledge about nature' and 'nature' are one and the same. The discourse identified is well suited to provide students with broad and general knowledge about natural and everyday phenomena. However, it is less suitable for teaching about the scientific enterprise in contemporary society. This is worrying for students' scientific literacy as future adults, as this dimension is essential for understanding the nature of science and for democratic citizenship in socio-scientific issues.