Technical Rhetoricians and the Art of Configuring Images

Advances in computing technologies, growth of business involvement on the Web, and our culture's affinity for image-intensive communication have forced technical communicators to become more involved with making and using a wide variety of images in their compositions. Too often our theories about how to write and read images are limited to a functional view, which stresses objectivity, ignores interpretation, and sees design as preset layout formulae. Combining current graphic design theory with rhetoric's understanding of techne, I argue for a configural view of images that stresses their artificiality and cultural significance and articulates design in strategic terms.     

The relations of effortful control and impulsivity to children's resiliency and adjustment

The unique relations of effortful control and impulsivity to resiliency and adjustment were examined when children were 4.5 to 8 years old, and 2 years later. Parents and teachers reported on all constructs and children's attentional persistence was observed. In concurrent structural equation models, effortful control and impulsivity uniquely and directly predicted resiliency and externalizing problems and indirectly predicted internalizing problems (through resiliency). Teacher-reported anger moderated the relations of effortful control and impulsivity to externalizing problems. In the longitudinal model, all relations held at T2 except for the path from impulsivity to externalizing problems. Evidence of bidirectional effects also was obtained. The results indicate that effortful control and impulsivity are distinct constructs with some unique prediction of resiliency and adjustment.     

An assessment of the sources of the reversal error through classic and new variables

We present two empirical studies with 241 and 211 pre-service teachers that evaluate the explanatory power of word order matching and static comparison as models for the reversal error. We used tasks consisting of generating an algebraic equation representing a comparison given in a verbal statement. We introduce the types of magnitude involved in the statement as variables of analysis, something that was not previously tackled in previous works. Our results show that there are no statistical differences in the production of reversal errors depending on the information included in the name used to designate the variable, and that there are statistical differences depending on the syntactic configuration as well as the type of magnitude involved in the statement. The interpretation of these results indicates that both word order matching and static comparison have some potential as explanatory models for the reversal error, and that neither one of them, alone, is enough to completely explain the phenomenon.     

Experiences in education innovation: developing tools in support of active learning

The paper focuses on educational projects developed in the ETSII (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid during the past few years. These projects were developed as new tools for enhancing the active role of students, for improving practical teaching, especially by means of virtual laboratories and different sets of problems and exercises, and for promoting self-learning. The paper analyses the use of ICT in teaching, with the case of a developed e-learning platform as a tracking system for subjects. The paper concludes by discussing the new educational trends in the Centre, devoted to develop an active role of students by activities such as peer mentoring and laboratory monitors programs, and competitions for achieving multidisciplinary engineering challenges.     

Fighting an epidemic: The role of schools in reducing childhood obesity

Obesity among children and adolescents is a major public health concern affecting the physical and emotional health of youth while increasing their risk of reduced quality and duration of life. Schools and communities have begun to galvanize to address this epidemic and need quality empirical information to guide their policy, programming, and intervention efforts. This article reviews the definition of childhood obesity and the physical, psychosocial, and academic consequences of obesity among youth. The roles of schools and school psychologists in intervening against this overwhelming trend are discussed as well as current empirically based programs. Schools are recommended to take a comprehensive, multifaceted approach to school policies and programs to increase nutrition and physical activity. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 361–376, 2006.     

SCHOOL‐WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORTS FOR STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS

This investigation employed a participatory action research method involving school psychology consultants and educators to design and evaluate the impact of school‐wide positive behavioral interventions and supports in a self‐contained school serving students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The traditional practices of a universal system, including teaching and acknowledging expected behaviors and responding to disruptive behaviors, were adapted to better accommodate the needs of a more challenging student population. In addition, system‐wide practices, including various teaming and professional development strategies, were instituted to promote sustainability. Results, after implementation of Tier 1, showed reductions in the frequency of discipline referrals and the number of emergency safety interventions, with a sustained impact across the next 3 years. Limitations included the lack of experimental control in evaluating the intervention. Discussion includes recommendations for an expanded role for school psychologists in promoting evidence‐based practices for high‐risk student populations.     

Do Proper Accommodation Assignments Make a Difference? Examining the Impact of Improved Decision Making on Scores for English Language Learners

Does it matter if students are appropriately assigned to test accommodations? Using a randomized method, this study found that individual students assigned accommodations keyed to their particular needs were significantly more efficacious for English language learners (ELLs) and that little difference was reported between students receiving incomplete or not recommended accommodations and no accommodations whatsoever. A sample of third and fourth grade ELLs in South Carolina (N = 272) were randomly assigned to various types of test accommodations on a mathematics assessment. Results indicated that those students who received the appropriate test accommodations, as recommended by a version of a computerized accommodation taxonomy for ELLs (the selection taxonomy for English language learners accommodations; STELLA), had significantly higher test scores than ELLs who received no accommodations or those who received incomplete or not recommended accommodation packages. Additionally, students who were given no test accommodations scored no differently than those students that received accommodation packages that were incomplete or not recommended, given the students' particular needs and challenges. These findings are important in light of research and anecdotal reports that suggest a general lack of systematicity in the current system of assigning accommodations and a tendency to give all available accommodations regardless of individual child characteristics. The results also have important implications for how future accommodation research should be structured to determine the benefits of particular accommodations and accommodation packages. This study would suggest that control and treatment groups should be assembled based on specific student needs in order for direct comparisons to be made.     

Comparative education: Towards a basic theory

Former Vice-Rector in charge of Planning and former Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature at the National University, Heredia, Costa Rica. Former Unesco educational planning expert (Somalia, Central America). Consultant with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). Founding President of the Institute for Social Cybernetics Applied to Planning (ICSAP), Costa Rica. Author of several works on educational planning and administration and on comparative education.     

Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations

This paper relates and analyses the experience of various Brazilian institutions organized in a consortium with the aim of providing integration and unified access, via a web gateway, to full-text electronic theses already available at different Brazilian universities. The rise and impact of free electronic academic publishing on scientific communication and the development of science is analyzed. The results of a pilot programme, developed under the coordination of IBICT, as well as technical and technological aspects of information system models adopted, are presented. Aspects such as metadata sets and formats, protocols for automatic gathering of metadata, union catalogue databases, user interfaces and integration with other Brazilian STI systems, are analyzed. Finally, future developments and the enlargement of the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations are discussed.