Explaining student and home variance of Chinese reading achievement of the PIRLS 2011 Hong Kong

Hong Kong attained the top place in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011, an international study of reading achievement, which arouses keen interest in understanding the reasons behind this remarkable achievement. Although factors associated with reading achievement in English have been widely studied, similar studies using Chinese as a different language system are limited. The present study proposes and tests a hypothetical model that attempts to explain the variance of reading achievement of Hong Kong pupils in the PIRLS 2011 study, focusing on parental and student factors. Data of 3,875 fourth graders from 132 primary schools and their parents or caregivers (n = 3,682) are involved in the analysis. Structural equation modeling supports the hypothesized model as tenable explaining 34% of the variance of reading achievement. Parental background acts as the fundamental factor that exerts an indirect effect on reading motivation, reading self‐efficacy, and reading achievement of students via books at home and early reading abilities. Reading motivation and reading self‐efficacy are found to be significant in influencing reading achievement. Implications for educational practices and future research are discussed.     

Measuring the Expertise of Paediatric Rehabilitation Therapists

This article describes the development of a classification system to measure the expertise levels of practicing paediatric rehabilitation therapists. Seventy‐five therapists from five disciplines (physical, occupational, speech‐language, behaviour, and recreational therapy) were involved, along with 170 peers, and 188 parents of children with disabilities. A cluster analysis of 10 indicators of expertise (derived from a battery of self‐completed, peer‐completed, and parent‐completed measures) indicated three levels of therapist expertise—novice, intermediate, and expert. Expertise level was related to various aspects of experience but not to therapy discipline. The classification system will be useful for the education and professional development of paediatric therapists, and for research on expertise in paediatric rehabilitation.     

The Interplay of School Readiness and Teacher Readiness for Educational Technology Integration: A Structural Equation Model

Decades of research have shown that technological change in schools depends on multiple interrelated factors. Structural equation models explaining the interplay of factors often suffer from high complexity and low coherence. To reduce complexity, a more robust structural equation model was built with data from a survey of 349 Swiss primary school teachers. It confirms that educational technology integration is dependent on individual teachers' readiness, which is in turn influenced by school readiness. Teacher readiness to integrate educational technology is based on perceived skills and beliefs. Facets of school readiness include educational technology resources in classrooms, perceived importance of technology integration, goal clarity, head teacher support, as well as formal and informal exchange among teachers.     

Dribble Deficit: A novel method to measure dribbling speed independent of sprinting speed in basketball players

Basketball tests assessing dribbling speed predicated on total performance times are influenced by sprinting speed. This study examines an approach termed Dribble Deficit to counter this limitation by examining the relationships between sprinting and dribbling speed during linear and change-of-direction (COD) tasks measured using total performance time and Dribble Deficit. Ten semi-professional basketball players completed linear sprints and COD sprints with and without dribbling. Dribble Deficit was calculated as the difference between the best time for each dribbling trial and corresponding non-dribbling trial for linear and COD sprints. Large to very large significant relationships (P < 0.05) were evident between linear sprint and dribble times (R = 0.64–0.77, R² = 0.41–0.59), and between COD sprint and dribble times (R = 0.88, R² = 0.77). Conversely, trivial-small relationships were evident between linear sprint time and linear Dribble Deficit (R = 0.01–0.15, R² = 0.00–0.02). A non-significant, moderate, negative relationship was observed between COD sprint time and COD Dribble Deficit (R = ?0.45, R² = 0.20). These findings indicate Dribble Deficit provides a more isolated measure of dribbling speed than tests using total performance times. Basketball practitioners may use Dribble Deficit to measure dribbling speed independent of sprint speed in test batteries.     

‘The miseries of others’: boxing in Hogarth’s Second Stage of Cruelty

ABSTRACT

The violence inherent in boxing has been a topic of public discourse since the early days of the sport, as has its supposed effect on society. In 1751, artist and social commentator William Hogarth weighed in by including boxing references in his four-part work addressing cruelty in 1740s London. In his Second Stage, dedicated to cruelty to animals, he somewhat incongruously includes a poster for a prizefight. This essay examines boxing in early-to-mid Hanoverian London to reveal why Hogarth chose to include this particular fight, using a variety of sources including an unpublished eyewitness account. This examination will allow us to better understand a transformational period in the sport of boxing and its place in 1740s London society.     

Student perceptions of gender roles: Implications for counsellors

Occupational aspirations of school children are undergoing changes as more men and women enter nontraditional spheres of work. Nevertheless, Papageorgiou (1982) reported that the overwhelming majority of a sample of upper elementary through high school students in Colorado regarded traditional gender roles as their only choice, and gender role stereotyping as placing serious limitations on career choices, particularly for females. In this article, we describe a replication of Papageorgiou's study in a western Canadian school district, with similar results. Gender-role stereotyping still appears to dominate the occupational aspirations of the majority of school children. Implications are drawn for counsellors interested in promoting career aspirations based on abilities and interests rather than gender-role stereotypes.     

The academic and the community meet: two Black,female voices

This paper focuses on some of the life histories and presents experiences of two Black, professional women: one, a university, academic researcher (Doreen), and the other, a state nursery head teacher and research gate-keeper (Syble). We united with a mutual purpose, that is to embark on research into the success of Black children, now adults, of a 1970s Black-led, inner-city community nursery. Although sharing a research stage/agenda, the same gender, racial and social class grouping and thus seemingly having much in common, this paper will show that our stories sometimes vary substantially due to distinctive social, geographical, time-frame, career-choice factors, and personal and professional values. Issues such as identity, culture, citizenship, and race and racism will feature strongly here among some matters arising with regards to femininity and social class. The paper will conclude by emphasizing that among a homogeneous, gender and racial grouping of apparent generalities, individuals exist—a frequent oversight, especially with regards to African-Caribbean people.     

Parent empowerment for family literacy: a European initiative

The article describes the genesis of, rationale for and running of the Parent Empowerment for Family Literacy Project (PEFaL), a European‐Union funded six‐nation family literacy initiative that took place between 2001 and 2004. Whilst a number of features of the project are typical of family literacy programmes, some aspects of PEFaL are identifiably distinctive. These include the multicultural, trans‐cultural and linguistic dimensions, and an innovative attempt to encourage parent and child participants to communicate with each other across countries by email and the Internet. These features and some of the project outcomes are discussed and prospects for follow‐on activities are examined.