An ELITE service model: Creating and implementing a peer-to-peer library tech support team

Academic libraries are providing technical support and assistance to their patrons using models such as the information commons, learning commons, and designated service points. Applying a constructivist, experiential approach, one small liberal arts college created a team of students to provide peer-to-peer tech support in response to an influx of new technology resources and equipment available for checkout. This team has provided much-needed services to the campus and an important professional development opportunity for its members. This experience offers a useful example for implementing in-house technical support in libraries at similar institutions.     

Differential Ability Scales – Second Edition (neuro)psychological predictors of math performance for typical children and Children with Math Disabilities

Concerns about the ability‐achievement discrepancy method for specific learning disability (SLD) determination led to alternative research‐based methods, such as failure to respond to intervention. Neither of these regulatory methods address the statutory SLD definition, which explicitly includes a deficit in basic psychological processes. Examining neuropsychological processing differences among typical children and children with math SLD, commonality analyses revealed that Differential Ability Scales – Second Edition (DAS‐II) predictors accounted for more achievement variance in typical children (46% to 58%) than in children with math SLD (33% to 50%), with substantial loss of predictive validity when General Conceptual Ability was used instead of subcomponent scores. Results suggest that differences in typical predictor‐outcome relationships may provide a foundation for developing specific cognitive and academic interventions for children with math SLD. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Collaborative teacher roles in facilitating inclusion: Preservice preparation for general and special educators

Abstract

Collaboration between general and special education teachers has been viewed as important to the successful education of students with disabilities who are served in inclusive classes. The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the perceptions of a national sample of general and special education teacher educators regarding their perceptions of actual and ideal emphases placed on specific collaborative roles in teacher preparation programs for general and special education teachers. The authors analyzed the data and found significant differences between teacher educator perceptions of the degree of emphasis actually placed on collaborative roles and the degree of emphasis that should be placed on these roles in teacher preparation programs.     

Cross‐informant agreement of children's social‐emotional skills: An investigation of ratings by teachers,parents, and students from a nationally representative sample

This study examines the agreement across informant pairs of teachers, parents, and students regarding the students’ social‐emotional learning (SEL) competencies. Two student subsamples representative of the social skills improvement system (SSIS) SEL edition rating forms national standardization sample were examined: first, 168 students (3rd to 12th grades) with ratings by three informants (a teacher, a parent, and the student him/herself) and a second group of 164 students who had ratings by two raters in a similar role—two parents or two teachers. To assess interrater agreements, two methods were employed: calculation of q correlations among pairs of raters and effect size indices to capture the extant rater pairs differed in their assessments of social‐emotional skills. The empirical results indicated that pairs of different types of informants exhibited greater than chance levels of agreement as indexed by significant interrater correlations; teacher–parent informants showed higher correlations than teacher–student or parent–student pairs across all SEL competency domains assessed, and pairs of similar informants exhibited significantly higher correlations than pairs of dissimilar informants. Study limitations are identified and future research needs outlined.     

Effects of Improving the Reliability of the GPA on Prediction Generally and on Comparative Predictions for Gender and Race Particularly

The reliability of a method of adjusting grade point averages for differences in departmental grading standards was examined, as were the effects of such adjustments on the predictive validity of high school grades, SAT scores, and achievement test scores. The index of differential grading standards for all on-time graduates of the Dartmouth College class of 1986 was quite reliable, and its use in adjusting grade averages increased predictive validity, reduced its erosion over years, reduced the apparent underprediction of women, and improved predictions for blacks. Differential group enrollment in courses in the science division seems to account for much of the effect of adjustment on grades. Improvement in the reliability of the criterial grade averages also was shown to have similar effects on gender and race prediction in another data set     

The influence of club-head kinematics on early ball flight characteristics in the golf drive

Despite many coaching and biomechanical texts describing how the kinematics of the club-head at impact lead to distance and accuracy of the ball flight, there is limited quantitative evidence supporting these assertions. The purpose of this study was to quantify the relationships between club-head kinematics and subsequent early ball flight characteristics during the golf drive. An opto-reflective system operating at 400 Hz was used to capture the swings of 21 male golfers using their own drivers. The 3D displacement data permitted the calculation of club-head kinematics at impact, as well as subsequent early ball flight characteristics. Using regression analyses, club-head kinematics at impact (velocity, orientation, path, and centeredness) were used to explain the variability in five dependent variables of early ball flight characteristics (resultant velocity, launch angle, side angle, back spin, and side spin). The results of the study indicated that club-head kinematics at impact explained a significant proportion of early ball flight characteristics (adjusted r ² = 0.71–0.82), even when generalized across individual clubs.     

Accuracy of qualitative analysis for assessment of skilled baseball pitching technique

Baseball pitching must be performed with correct technique if injuries are to be avoided and performance maximized. High-speed video analysis is accepted as the most accurate and objective method for evaluation of baseball pitching mechanics. The aim of this research was to develop an equivalent qualitative analysis method for use with standard video equipment. A qualitative analysis protocol (QAP) was developed for 24 kinematic variables identified as important to pitching performance. Twenty male baseball pitchers were videotaped using 60 Hz camcorders, and their technique evaluated using the QAP, by two independent raters. Each pitcher was also assessed using a 6-camera 200 Hz Motion Analysis system (MAS). Four QAP variables (22%) showed significant similarity with MAS results. Inter-rater reliability showed agreement on 33% of QAP variables. It was concluded that a complete and accurate profile of an athlete's pitching mechanics cannot be made using the QAP in its current form, but it is possible such simple forms of biomechanical analysis could yield accurate results before 3-D methods become obligatory.