Confucian philosophy and contemporary Chinese societal attitudes toward people with disabilities and inclusive education

This article focuses on the Chinese traditional culture, specifically Confucian philosophy, and analyses four core concepts of Confucianism which include ‘ren’ (Benevolence), ‘Jun zi’ (Superior man), ‘Tian ming’ (heaven’s mandate), and ‘Xiao ti’ (Filial piety and fraternal love). Based on these core concepts, this study explores how social attitudes in China (and among Chinese people living in other countries) toward people with disabilities are formed and influenced by Confucian philosophy, and how they impact the education of people with disabilities. It suggests that the related social attitudes of sympathy, rights awareness, and criteria of success, especially school performance in this case, can have both positive and negative impacts on inclusive education for children with disabilities. Strategies are suggested for encouraging attitude change, when appropriate, in order to facilitate special education and inclusion and how to do so in a manner that is culturally respectful of the core beliefs based on Confucianism.     

Periodic solutions to systems of reaction-diffusion equations

In this paper, necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for the existence of temporally periodic “dissipative structure” solutions in cases of weak diffusion with the reaction rate terms dominant in a generic system of reaction-diffusion equations ?c_i/?t = D_i?²c_i+Q_i(c), where the enumerator index i runs 1 to n, c_i = c_i(x, t) denotes the concentration or density of the ith participating molecular or biological species, D_i is the diffusivity constant for the ith species and Q_i(c), an algebraic function of the n-tuple c = (c₁,\3., c_n), expresses the local rate of production of the ith species due to chemical reactions or biological interactions.     

Black Faculty Facilitating Difficult Dialogues in the College Classroom: A Cross-Disciplinary Response to Racism and Racial Violence

The Urban Review - This article examines how three Black tenure-track faculty from different academic disciplines prioritized and facilitated discussions on racism and racial violence with graduate...     

Mathematical modelling of translational motion of rail-guided cart with suspended payload

In this paper modelling of the translational motion of transportation rail-guided cart with rope suspended payload is considered. The linearly moving cart,driven by a travel mechanism,is modelled as a discrete six degrees of freedom (DOF) dynamic system. The hoisting mechanism for lowering and lifting the payload is considered and is included in the dynamic model as one DOF system. Differential equations of motion of the cart elements are derived using Lagrangian dynamics and are solved for a set of real-life constant parameters of the cart. A two-sided interaction was observed between the swinging payload and the travel mechanism. Results for kinematical and force parameters of the system are obtained. A verification of the proposed model was conducted.     

An evaluation of a program to prevent the sexual victimization of young children

Young children (ages 4 and 5) and school-aged children (6 to 10) from a day-care center were randomly assigned to a sexual abuse prevention training group and a wait-list control group. Children in the prevention training group were exposed to a three-hour program teaching common sexual abuse prevention concepts (e.g., the difference between OK and not-OK touches). Children in both groups were given a structured interview before and after the prevention group received training. Results of a repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance indicate that children in the prevention training group significantly increased their knowledge of prevention concepts while children in the control group did not. Older children learned more than younger children. Both younger and older children had greater difficulty learning prevention concepts of an abstract nature than concepts of a specific nature.     

Improving the Validity and Reliability of a Health Promotion Survey for Physical Therapists

Purpose

Physical therapists (PTs) have a unique opportunity to intervene in the area of health promotion. However, no instrument has been validated to measure PTs’ views on health promotion in physical therapy practice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the content validity and test-retest reliability of a health promotion survey designed for PTs.

Methods

An expert panel of PTs assessed the content validity of “The Role of Health Promotion in Physical Therapy Survey” and provided suggestions for revision. Item content validity was assessed using the content validity ratio (CVR) as well as the modified kappa statistic. Therapists then participated in the test-retest reliability assessment of the revised health promotion survey, which was assessed using a weighted kappa statistic.

Results

Based on feedback from the expert panelists, significant revisions were made to the original survey. The expert panel reached at least a majority consensus agreement for all items in the revised survey and the survey-CVR improved from 0.44 to 0.66. Only one item on the revised survey had substantial test-retest agreement, with 55% of the items having moderate agreement and 43% poor agreement.

Conclusions

All items on the revised health promotion survey demonstrated at least fair validity, but few items had reasonable test-retest reliability. Further modifications should be made to strengthen the validity and improve the reliability of this survey.Key Words: health promotion, physical therapy, validity, reliability     

Supporting (or not) the career development of culturally and linguistically diverse migrants and refugees in universities: insights from Australia

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - The present study used a mixed-methods approach to understand the challenges faced by Australian higher education institutions in...