Model-based testing with UML applied to a roaming algorithm for Bluetooth devices

In late 2001,the Object Management Group issued a Request for Proposal to develop a testing profile for UML2.0. In June 2003,the work on the UML 2.0 Testing Profile was finally adopted by the OMG. Since March 2004,it has become an official standard of the OMG. The UML 2.0 Testing Profile provides support for UML based model-driven testing. This paper introduces a methodology on how to use the testing profile in order to modify and extend an existing UML design model for test issues. The application of the methodology will be explained by applying it to an existing UML Model for a Bluetooth device.     

Curriculum-based measurement in the content areas: vocabulary matching as an indicator of progress in social studies learning

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of curriculum-based measures as indicator of growth in content-area learning. Participants were 58 students in 2 seventh-grade social studies classes. CBM measures were student- and administrator-read vocabulary-matching probes. Criterion measures were performance on a knowledge test, the social studies subtest of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), and student grades. Both the student- and examiner-read measures reflected change in performance; however, only the student-read measure resulted in interindividual differences in growth rates. Significant relations were found between the growth rates generated by the student-read vocabulary measure and student course grades, ITBS scores, and growth on the knowledge test. These results support the validity of a vocabulary-matching measure as an indicator of student learning in the content areas. The results are discussed in terms of the use of CBM as a system for monitoring performance and evaluating interventions for students with learning disabilities in content-area classrooms.     

Education in Europe and Muslim Demands for Competitive and Moral Education

While European education systems fundamentally rest on a rather monolithic world-view, some of them are explicitly oriented towards Christianity and others are comparatively secular. Apart from this, they differ in the way that they offer opportunities for Muslim minorities to enjoy a modern and competitive as well as religious-moral education. Principally, there are three approaches. The first allows private Muslim schools which are neither subsidized nor controlled or regulated by the state. Other countries require Muslim schools to apply for approval, and such schools are then subsidized and regulated; but they do not have to teach a national curriculum. In a third group of countries, only schools that teach the national curriculum are permitted, and they are subsidized and controlled by the state. In the latter case, because Islamic matters are not taught in these schools, many Muslim parents send their children to non-formal Qur’anic schools in the evening or during weekends. This study examines some typical arrangements in a number of countries.     

The links between grammar and spelling: A cognitive hurdle in deep orthographies?

A cross-sectional study tested Danish students' mastery of links between grammar and spelling (cf. the English link between past tense verbs and the -ed spelling for a word final /t/, e.g., miss ed vs. mis t). One hundred and forty-two students aged 10–17 spelled pseudo-word items with ambiguous phonemes, where the choice between a 'conditional' spelling (cf. English ed for /t/) and a simple spelling (cf. t for /t/) was predictable from the grammatical context but not from the sound. Overgeneralisations (conditional spellings used where simple spellings were appropriate) were controlled to obtain pure measures of grammatical spelling competence. The oldest group of participants performed near ceiling on four of five spelling problems studied while three younger groups in the experiment never did. The nature of the apparent grammatical hurdle in Danish spelling acquisition is discussed.     

Führen verschiedene Inspektionskonzepte zu unterschiedlicher Akzeptanz und Verwendung der Ergebnisse durch Schulleitungen und Lehrkräfte?

In the past decade, variant inspection procedures have been implemented in the German federal states, setting different priorities in terms of objectives. For example, while Bremen focused only on school improvement, Berlin and Brandenburg focused equally on school improvement and control. Considering the differences in the inspection procedures, we investigate whether the variant designs lead to differing attitudes among school principals and teachers (N = 1589) towards the inspection procedure as well as to different school improvement activities. The results show more positive attitudes towards the inspection in Bremen. In all three federal states, cooperation and participation of students and parents increased after inspection. In Berlin and Brandenburg, schools’ self-evaluations increased. In the same two federal states, school documents and curricula were updated before the inspection, while in Bremen this occurred after the inspection. Teachers’ attitudes towards the inspection are slightly more critical in comparison with school principals.     

Predictors of early versus later spelling development in Danish

The present study examined phoneme awareness, phonological short term memory, letter knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and visual–verbal paired associate learning (PAL) as longitudinal predictors of spelling skills in an early phase (Grade 2) and a later phase (Grade 5) of development in a sample of 140 children learning to spell in the opaque Danish orthography. Important features of the study were the inclusion of PAL measures and the fact that the children were followed up to Grade 5. Findings from other orthographies were replicated, in that phonological processing (awareness and memory) and RAN accounted for unique variance in early spelling skills. For later spelling skills, Grade 2 spelling was by far the most powerful predictor. PAL-nonwords was the only measure to explain additional unique variance. It is suggested that PAL-nonwords taps the ability to establish representations of new phonological forms and that this ability is important for the acquisition of orthographic spelling knowledge.     

Two measures of the quality of group care for infants and toddlers

Two sets of quality measures of group care were used to assess their predictive power for two sets of measures of the development of infant and toddlers in group day care. One of the quality measures we investigated was the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). We replicated the findings of Scarr, Eisenberg, & Dealer-Deckard (1994) which were that the total score of the ECERS represents a global index and that the 37 items making up the scale are redundant and could be shortened considerably without loss of the scale as a quality criterion of group care for young children. Neither Scarr, Eisenberg, and Dealer-Deckard (1994) nor our own Factor Analyses of the 37 items supported the a priori distinction of seven Subscales. However further findings indicate that regardless of the redundancy within ECERS, two Subscales, dealing mainly with adult-child, child-child and adult-adult interactions, predict the development of infants and toddlers, but only when the measures of development were based on participant observations of the children over a longer period of time and in the broad context of the natural daycare environment. None of the Subscales, nor the total ECERS predicted social development when it was based on precise time sampling observations, assessed by non participant observers, in interactions between a child and a specific caregiver. Such measures of development were well predicted in our study by caregiver behaviors assessed through Time Sampling Observations.     

Children’s transitions to school: ‘so what about the parents’? or ‘so,what about the parents’?

Children progress through a number of life transitions and each is a pivotal point of development and growth for them, their parents and family members. Through a review of the literature, the Bioecological Model will be used to frame childhood transitions as highly social, contextualised and political. This paper will assert that governments, schools and educators have an increased role in supporting parents with their changing roles, responsibilities and relationships as their child transitions to school and that schools need to provide space for parents to share their own transition to school narratives in order to better understand the effect these stories may have on the transition process for them and their children. Finally, schools and systems will be challenged to engage in a strengths-based approach to support parents at this pivotal time in their own and their child’s growth and development and call for increased research to identify ways in which this can occur within respectful, collaborative and agentic relationships.     

Emergence and constructvalidation of the big five factors in early childhood: a longitudinal analysis of their ontogeny in Sweden

Researchers have shown that the five major dimensions of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) and two additional factors (irritability and positive activity) are evident from adolescence. This study attempted to replicate and extend these results in a longitudinal study of 102 Swedish children, followed from 2.3 to 15.2 years of age. Item analyses revealed consistently reliable irritability, conscientiousness, and positive activity factors, whereas the internal reliability of the extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to experience factors increased over time. Irritability and positive activity were not independent of the other factors. Scores on most of the personality factors were fairly stable over time. Over time, children became less extraverted, more agreeable, and more conscientious. Neuroticism and openness to experience increased in Phase III, although openness then decreased in Phase V. Validity of the original factors was demonstrated by correlations with independent assessments of the children's cognitive performance and adjustment to school.     

Training in interactive sports

The general purpose of this systematic review was to study the effectiveness of off-court perceptual–cognitive training interventions in nonnovice, interactive sport athletes. We looked at task-specific practice effects and, more importantly, the transfer of effects. Databases used for the literature search were PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO. In all, 16 studies were found to be eligible for this review. These studies were independently evaluated by four reviewers for methodological quality and their evidence for specific practice effects and transfer effects. The effectiveness was analyzed with respect to the level of transfer, i.?e., from training-task-specific effects to near-transfer (e.?g., a similar perceptual task), further-transfer (e.?g., a sensorimotor sports skill), and far-transfer (e.?g., competition performance) intervention effects. Analyses of the 16 included studies suggest that around 60% of the training-specific measures tested after off-court practicing perceptual–cognitive training in sports athletes signal performance enhancement. However, transfer, be it near, further or far, is mostly not studied empirically; if studied, there is currently only limited and weak evidence for intermediate and far transfer. To reason that perceptual–cognitive off-court training interventions are ineffective might be premature at this point of time as methodological quality can still be improved and only a very limited number of studies actually included transfer variables. In those few studies integrating transfer variables, results are mixed and inconsistent. Future work should focus on critical factors to assure transfer of perceptual–cognitive training interventions.