Physical Activity of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

A preliminary study was conducted to investigate the physical activity status of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related demographic characteristics. Thirty-four parents completed the IPAQ-S and demographic survey. Mean metabolic equivalent-minutes per week (MET-min/week) across participants was 3371. Significant correlations were found between parent’s age and moderate (τ = .287, p = .034) and vigorous (τ = .318, p = .020) physical activity minutes as well as vigorous (τ = .308, p = .021) and total (τ = .366, p = .005) MET-min/week. Similarly, significant correlations were found between child’s age and walking minutes (τ = .412, p = .002), walking MET-min/week (τ = .380, p = .005) and total MET-min/week (τ = .342, p = .010). This study provides current evidence about the physical activity participation of parents of children with ASD, and demonstrates a need for further research exploring barriers and facilitators towards physical activity for this population.     

Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching a New Topic: More Than Teaching Experience and Subject Matter Knowledge

Teaching experience has been identified as an important factor in pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development. However, little is known about how experienced teachers may draw on their previous experience to facilitate their PCK development. This study examined how two experienced high school biology teachers approached the teaching of a newly introduced topic in the curriculum, polymerase chain reaction and their PCK development from the pre-lesson planning phase through the interactive phase to the post-lesson reflection phase. Multiple data sources included classroom observations, field notes, semi-structured interviews and classroom artefacts. It was found that the teachers’ previous experience informed their planning for teaching the new topic, but in qualitatively different ways. This, in turn, had a bearing on their new PCK development. Subject matter knowledge (SMK) can not only facilitate but may also hinder this development. Our findings identify two types of experienced teachers: those who can capitalise on their previous teaching experiences and SMK to develop new PCK and those who do not. The critical difference is whether in the lesson planning stage, the teacher shows the disposition to draw on a generalised mental framework that enables the teacher to capitalise on his existing SMK to develop new PCK. Helping teachers to acquire this disposition should be a focus for teacher training in light of continuous curriculum changes.     

Faculty-student engagement in teaching observation and assessment: a Hong Kong initiative

There is now a worldwide focus on the quality of university teaching and yet there is general dissatisfaction in universities with the student evaluation of teaching system. Peer observation of teaching seems to hold much promise in the assessment of teaching quality, but such observation pays little attention to the quality of teaching as perceived by students. One approach to overcome this deficiency is for faculty and students to also partner in the assessment of a faculty member’s teaching, with a student trained in observation and feedback techniques acting as a peer in the observation process. This paper describes and evaluates an ongoing student consultant initiative at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. It presents faculty and student observations in terms of the benefits to faculty regarding potential enhancement of university teaching, and the benefits to students especially in terms of close collaboration with faculty and training in consultation techniques. The paper notes that the student consultant initiative has been more popular with students than faculty, and recommends further investigation of the potential of such programmes in Hong Kong higher education.     

Readability of Informed Consent Documents at University Counseling Centers

The extent to which clients understand the nature and anticipated course of therapy is referred to as informed consent. Counseling psychologists often provide informed consent documents to enhance the education of services and for liability purposes. Professionals in numerous health care settings have evaluated the readability of their informed consent documents, but no such peer-reviewed research exists for university counseling centers. This study evaluated the informed consent documents for psychotherapy from university counseling centers using three readability formulas (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Flesch Reading Ease Score, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook [SMOG] Grading). The findings support the authors’ exploratory hypotheses that informed consent documents in university counseling centers are rated as challenging to read for college students. Recommendations and implications for practice are discussed.     

The Reported Effects of a Systematic Professional Learning Program on the Knowledge,Skills, and Concerns of Australian Early Childhood Educators who Support Young Children Displaying or at Risk of Challenging Behaviours

High-quality early childhood education is a vital experience for young children with and without disabilities. Social and communication experiences in the context of play represent a core curriculum that sets a foundation for later learning and participation. Using a new self-report instrument, this article describes data collected in a large-scale professional learning project in NSW, Australia, that aimed to support early childhood teachers, paraprofessionals and other personnel who directly work with young children, including individuals who present or are at risk of challenging behaviours. Using a case application model of remote and direct coaching support and intervention centred on the input of expert practitioners, the reports of participants were collected before and after a series of three sequential workshops with embedded action research processes for participants. The program was designed to increase social and communicative exchanges and reduce the likelihood of challenging behaviours, by providing a systematic and practical framework for the introduction of functional behavioural assessment and positive support planning. Respondents indicated significant improvements in knowledge and skills after the program, along with decreased concerns in some areas. The paper concludes by discussing potential areas for an expanded research agenda into the professional learning needs of personnel in this field and more broadly within early childhood support systems and services.     

The evolution of a hybrid classroom: Introducing online learning to educators in American samoa

Conclusion This case study suggests that the process of designing and facilitating hybrid courses in the island community of American Samoa required continuous negotiation with respect to the pace of instruction and the acculturation to online learning. The need for gentle transitions, such as constructing the face-to-face community before rushing into the online community, was apparent for instructors and students. Without honoring the local community, and making time for its renewal on a regular basis, the online community would be difficult, if not impossible, to sustain. The feeling of isolation that characterizes many online experiences is often compounded when one is geographically isolated on an island. It was obvious that the presence of a local teaching assistant was essential in bridging the physical and psychological gap between students and online instructor. Before and after each online activity it was important to take time to discuss in face-to-face sessions the questions and concerns that had arisen while engaged in online activities. These sessions, facilitated by a local instructor, reinforced the sense of community that is so important in this island culture and helped students overcome the challenges inherent in online learning. The importance of honoring the traditions of an oral culture, particularly in an island community, underscores the need to purposefully employ information and communication technologies in a hybrid course. Asynchronous communication such as email and discussion forums allows the widest participation because of low bandwidth internet requirements. However, synchronous modes of communication seem to provide the most natural transition from the oral to digital cultures. Chat sessions and videoconferencing offer students with access to broad bandwidth connections the opportunity to interact directly. Videoconferencing seemed the most successful technology for accommodating American Samoan students’ need for oral expression and visual connections with their distant instructor. Ultimately, instructors must strive for a delicate balance while constructing a hybrid classroom that introduces online learning activities to relative novices. To achieve a healthy equilibrium, instructors must pay heed to the cultural context, social needs and technical constraints of their learning community, fostering a learning environment that simultaneously honors oral traditions and textual innovations, enables synchronous and asynchronous communication and accommodates low bandwidth access while experimenting with broadband technologies.     

Reliability and validity of the Learning Styles Questionnaire

The reliability and predictive validity of a short form of Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles Questionnaire were examined. Students' learning preferences were measured by self-report ratings on their degree of likings for 19 teaching and learning activities commonly used in higher and professional education. Subjects were 381 second-year undergraduates enrolled in accountancy, engineering and communication programmes at the Hong Kong Polytechnic. The alpha coefficients for the four learning styles scales were quite low, ranging from 0.311 for the Pragmatist scale to 0.421 for the Reflector scale. Factor analysis of the items did not reveal any coherent factor structure congruent with the underlying constructs. However, significant though weak correlations were found between the learning styles scores and the learning preferences of the students as hypothesised.     

Validation of senge ’s learning organization model with teachers of vocational high schools at the Seoul Megalopolis

This study measured and applied Senge ’s (1990) fifth discipline model of learning organizations in a culturally distinct population, namely teachers in 17 vocational high schools located in the Seoul megalopolis. The participants were 976 full-time vocational and academic teachers in public trade/industry-technical and business high schools in the Seoul megalopolis. Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine responses from Korean vocational high school teachers to questionnaire items designed to test the theoretical constructs and indices of Senge ’s learning organization model to establish a measurement model. The hypothesized model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Strong evidence was provided for the construct validity of the measurement model (i.e., instrument) to measure the learning organization concept in school contexts. The results also support the notion that the theory of learning organization and related concepts, initially developed against the background of Western culture, can apply to a South Korean school context, reflecting Asian culture.     

Measuring the performance of Oxford University, Oxford Brookes University and the government laboratories’ spin-off companies

The paper reports on a recent study, which uses various indicators to provide an insight on the performance of spin-off companies from the public sector research base in Oxfordshire (UK). The study builds upon the other studies and fills a gap in the field by gathering empirical information on the performance of technology-based spin-off companies. While the main geographical focus is the county of Oxfordshire, UK, the findings will also be of value for other researchers and institutions with an interest in assessing the performance of spin-off firms. The evidence shows that the number of spin-offs in Oxfordshire has increased rapidly over recent years, as the result of evolving national policy and the entrepreneurial culture of the universities and laboratories. However, the academics and scientists in Oxfordshire's institutions were already entrepreneurial in the 1950s, less so in the 1960s, but increasingly in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Oxford University, which is by far the largest generator of spin-offs in the region.     

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幼儿基本体操成套动作的编排,要从幼儿身心发育的规律出发,把握好动作与队形的设计,选择合适的乐曲,编出特色。