Test Standards—Some Implications for the Measurement Curriculum

This paper demonstrates how an analysis of the Test Standards can be used to define the body of knowledge needed by teachers for the effective use of tests in classroom instruction. This knowledge domain is essential for describing a sound measurement curriculum for preservice teachers and for outlining specifications for teacher certification testing-. Procedures are described for identifying standards relevant to teachers' classroom role functions and for describing the behavior inherent in those standards.     

The Great Immensity: A Theatrical Approach to Climate Change

In 2010, the Civilians—a New York based investigative theater company—received a three‐year grant from the National Science Foundation to develop The Great Immensity, a play addressing the complexity of climate change. The rigorous research that the Civilians puts into each production, the balance of scientific content and public engagement, the inclusion of scientists within the artistic development process, and the effort to engage a varied audience via a multi‐platform media approach, make the project a relevant case study for curators working with public science communication.     

MENTAL STATUS AS A PREDICTOR OF RESPONSE TO MEMORY TRAINING IN OLDER ADULTS

The present study assessed the association between rated mental status and response to a memory‐training program. A commonly used general measure of cognitive impairment, the Mini‐Mental State Exam (MMSE), was administered to 102 elderly participants enrolled in a 2‐week memory‐training program. The program used two visual‐imagery mnemonics (name‐face recall and list learning by the “method of loci"). The MMSE scores were positively related to improvement in recall performance. Individuals with relatively mild deficits (those scoring below 29) showed less improvement than those scoring 29 and 30. Differences in ability to benefit from training were also noted between the two mnemonic devices, suggesting a more rapid fall off in ability to benefit from training with a more complex mnemonic, the method of loci.     

First Possession,History, and Young Children's Ownership Judgments

It is impossible to perceive who owns an object; this must be inferred. One way that children make such inferences is through a first possession bias—when two agents each use an object, children judge the object belongs to the one who used it first. Two experiments show that this bias does not result from children directly inferring ownership from first possession; the experiments instead support an alternative account according to which the first possession bias reflects children's historical reasoning. In Experiment 1, eighty‐five 3‐ to 5‐year‐olds only based inferences on first possession when it was informative about the past. In Experiment 2, thirty‐two 5‐year‐olds based ownership judgments on testimony about past contact, while disregarding testimony about future contact.     

The development of children's understanding of cyclic aspects of time

Developmental psychological approaches to the study of time have fallen into 3 categories: studies of time perception; studies of logical, reconstructive abilities; and studies of the understanding of conventional time systems. The present work examines problems spanning the latter 2 categories--the development of children's understanding of temporal cycles and the relationship between cyclic concepts and cognitive development. 62 children, ranging in age from 4 to 10 years, were administered Piagetian tests of classification and seriation and a variety of specially designed cyclic tasks. Results show major progress in the representation of cyclic order and recurrence during the age period examined. For a variety of particular cycles, order responses were shown before continuity responses. The ability to produce a correct order is related to seriation performance but not classification performance when the variance attributable to age is partialed out. Continuity responses appear to be unrelated to performance on either of the Piagetian tasks tested when age is controlled.     

Being a teacher: altruistic and narcissistic expectations of pre-service teachers

The article focuses on investigating pre-service teachers’ expectations of their future teaching career, in particular concerning teacher–student interrelations. In an attempt to comprehend why people choose teaching as a professional career, a conceptual model titled ‘Teachers’ altruistic-narcissistic classroom expectations’ was designed and tested. The model puts forward for consideration the idea that pre-service teachers view their future relations with students as being based on four basic psychological foundations: genuine altruism, paternalistic altruism, benevolent narcissism, and genuine narcissism. A study to test for the validity of this model, using Facet Theory and smallest space analysis as the methodological approach is reported. One hundred and sixty student–teachers participated in the study. The findings provided evidence in support of the model’s validity. It is argued that altruism and narcissism conjointly may be regarded as factors motivating people to opt for teaching as a career, and that altruistic and narcissistic expectations can predict teachers’ classroom behavior.     

Counselling skills training for adolescent health: A WHO approach to meet a global need

In recent years as public health measures such as improved sanitation, water supply, and immunization have taken effect in developing as well as economically developed countries, there has been an increase in attention to health problems arising from voluntary behaviour such as sexual activity and substance abuse rather than simply from passively acquired infection. This is of special relevance to adolescents who have generally been given lower priority in health services because they are relatively disease-free yet whose patterns of behaviour have great significance for their present and future health. However establishing or changing health behaviour during the dynamic period of adolescence can be difficult especially when the environment is rapidly changing too. This is especially so in developing countries where the traditional directive approach to guidance may need to give way to a somewhat more non-directive style of counselling in order to accommodate greater adolescent autonomy, without loss of fundamental cultural values. Because few people in developing countries are experienced in such techniques WHO has developed a module for training counselling skills for adolescent sexual and reproductive health which preserves culture specificity in a non-directive approach and uses behavioural techniques to train communication microskills.