The cognitive levels test: Its relationship with reading and mathematics achievement

Any instrument designed to measure broad cognitive ability is expected to correlate substantially with valid measures of academic achievement. This report describes an investigation designed to evaluate the relationship between the Cognitive Levels Test, a newly available instrument, and two tests of academic achievement that have been widely used for nearly two decades: the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests and the KeyMath Diagnostic Arithmetic Test. The study included children in grades K-2 who were enrolled in a remedial summer school program. The results showed the Cognitive Levels Test (Cognitive Index) to be rather highly correlated with the KeyMath Diagnostic Arithmetic Test Total score (r=.72) and moderately correlated with the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests Total Reading score (r=.55). A repeated measures analysis of variance comparing standard scores for the Cognitive Levels Test with those of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests indicated few mean differences between the two sets of scores. Implications concerning the validity of the Cognitive Levels Test were discussed.     

The Professional Accreditation of Conservator-Restorers: Developing a competence-based professional assessment system

The accreditation and registration systems used by professional bodies serve a number of purposes including offering clients a measure of confidence, creating or maintaining a market niche, and raising the profile of the profession. The currently dominant technocratic model of professional accreditation normally places a high value on examining knowledge, with sometimes a secondary assessment of practice. A few UK professional associations are beginning to accept practice-based accreditation, generally as an alternative to their mainstream systems. Conservators and restorers represent a small occupational group in the process of professionalising. A recent project has seen agreement on a practice-based system as the primary route to professional accreditation. This system draws on some of the principles established through UK occupational standards and National Vocational Qualifications, while incorporating modifications to aid clarity, improve the ease and rigour of assessment, and reflect intelligent, reflective practice. The approach used raises some issues and questions about how and on what grounds professional practitioners are accredited, and how occupational standards can be applied and assessed in a professional context.     

中国参与信息全球化的潜力

全球的新闻媒体以大量篇幅报道了迅速成长的中国经济,并预言在21世纪中国将领先于世界各经济强国。与此同时,中国投入了大量的人力和物力来实施INTERNET联网。使之覆盖整个中国。发达的电讯设施将成为推动任何国家经济成长的主导力量。本文将讨论中国在经济方面快速成长这个大环境下INTERNET的发展,并对影响中国信息产业发展和有碍于中国全方位参与信息全球化的各种因素做一探讨。     

Direct or directed: orchestrating a more harmonious approach to teaching technology within an Art & Design Higher Education curriculum with special reference to visual communications courses

In this scoping study we have investigated the integration of subject‐specific software into the structure of visual communications courses. There is a view that the response within visual communications courses to the rapid developments in technology has been linked to necessity rather than by design. Through perceptions of staff with day‐to‐day experience of the issues arising from the incorporation of such technology, we were able to construct an account of potential directions. There is a necessity for continual review of course content to ensure that training in software is embedded in the creative aspects of the curriculum in order to maximise the potential of new technology, maintain currency and future‐proof the curriculum. We argue that curriculum developers in visual communications need to incorporate appropriate hardware and software within the studio environment.