A mixed method study of ethical issues in classroom assessment in Chinese higher education

The purpose of this study was to explore Chinese university professors’ decisions about ethical issues in classroom assessment. A survey with fifteen scenarios that describe professors’ thoughts about ethics in assessment practices was administrated to 555 professors from 143 colleges and universities in 29 provinces in China. The results of the quantitative analysis indicated that professors’ interest in professional development related to classroom assessment, and their dispositions were significantly associated with their agreement with experts in the field of classroom assessment. Professors’ gender, highest degree, professional rank, and years of teaching experience did not significantly predict their agreement. The qualitative analysis revealed that maintaining fair assessment vs being caring to students and asserting professors’ rights vs abiding by university policy were the crucial aspects for professors to consider in classroom assessment. Findings of the study could help educators identify ethical issues in assessment, develop guidelines to ensure fair assessment, and incorporate differentiated strategies in professional development workshops in higher education.

     

Content and impact of articles published by school psychology faculty

School Psychology faculty members are expected to publish articles in peer‐reviewed journals that impact the fields of education and psychology. Both the content and the impact of the articles school psychologists publish may change across time and differ from other disciplines. The current analysis sought to understand average article impact, content, and research focus, and to describe those articles that have the highest impact factor. All of the articles (n = 3670) published by school psychology faculty between January, 2010 and December, 2015 were collected and examined. Three reviewers were trained over 2 hr to read abstracts and to classify the content of those abstracts. The literature was systematically classified into four categories: assessment, consultation, intervention, and professional issues. The title, keywords, and abstract were used to find the category of best fit for each publication. The majority of articles published fall into the broad category of Professional Issues. The average article is cited 17.68 times in Google Scholar and 4.9 times in Web of Science. These data will be useful to understand publication content trends and identify gaps in research.     

An approach to psychosexual counselling

Summary In considering in this paper the origins, development and need for psychosexual counselling to be an integral part of the provision of a counselling service, one must not lose sight of the fact that some higher educational institutions still have no general counselling provision.It is interesting to note that in the UK at a time when the age of consent and voting age were lowered to eighteen years (Family Law Reform Act, 1969, operational 1970 and Representation of the People Act, 1969), and students were rejecting the idea of wardens and academic tutors acting in loco parentis, the National Union of Students (at their annual conference in 1969) passed a resolution pressing for Counselling Services to be established in each higher educational institution-staffed by fully trained personnel, Milner (1974). Nine years later this resolution has not yet been fully implemented.The university community represents a cross-section of the population, any of whom may have a psychosexual problem and seek help from the counselling service. Counsellors must be trained to treat psychosexual problems as part of their normal range of activities.Storr (1960) points out that it is The individual as well as the disease that needs treatment. This applies in counselling as it does in medicine, so that the counsellor should be able to treat the individual as a whole, and at the same time treat his psychosexual problem.University of Reading     

An Instrumental Case Study Analysis of Anticipatory Leadership Practices in Community Colleges

This qualitative instrumental case study explored the experiences and perceptions of seven community college leaders of their use of anticipatory leadership. Two research questions guided this study: (a) How do community colleges use anticipatory leadership to respond to internal and external changes? (b) How do community college leaders use anticipatory leadership principles for problem solving? The themes that emerged to address question one were engagement with others is required to respond to change effectively, data analysis and currency of knowledge are required to identify gaps and to respond to them, leaders must be willing to take calculated risks, and leaders must communicate effectively in order for change to occur. The themes that emerged to address question two were analysis of data is instrumental to identifying and closing the gaps in institutions, leading to better informed decisions; and anticipatory leadership reduces the need to use reactionary leadership practices. The findings of the study are that the participants identified and supported that anticipatory leadership practices are effective for responding to change. The anticipatory leadership practices highlighted as needed by the participants included the need for leaders who are engaged, have the skills and ability to utilize data to make decisions, are current in their higher education knowledge, take calculated risks when needed, and can communicate effectively. These skills are needed for community college leaders to be able to be proactive versus reactionary in their decision-making, as well as effective with their gap analysis identification, trend predictions, decision-making, and problem solving.     

The role of law in protecting the child: A critique of the English system

We have undertaken a critical appraisal of the current English system of law regulating: (1) Provision of services designed to prevent children coming into care of local authorities, which are the authorised agencies for dealing with children who are abused or neglected. (2) Ways of receiving children into care and also ways of terminating care orders. We question whether, and under what circumstances, care orders are really necessary. (3) Periodic reviews of children in care. We are critical of the English system and look to models in the USA as guides towards the possible reform of English law. We take the same perspective when considering termination of parental rights. In our opinion good laws do not of themselves provide the care and love which a child requires, but they make the caring possible by loved and loving adults. We argue that the law must provide the best possible framework to allow adequate caring by members of the non-legal professions, such as social workers and foster parents. At the same time the law must ensure that the rights of parents and children are protected.     

Developmentally appropriate parent training for families with young children

In an effort to explore the value and feasibility of teaching the principles behind developmentally appropriate practices to parents, 53 families with young children were studied. Parents were randomly assigned to participate or not participate in a three month-long, weekly, parent training program. Following completion of the program members of participating families were less likely to engage in conflict during a puzzle solving task than were members of nonparticipating families. Parents who participated were more likely to take a supportive leadership role and have age-appropriate expectations during a puzzle solving task than were nonparticipating parents. Children in participating families showed better social skills than children in nonparticipating families. Portions of the increase in social skills were related to reductions in family conflict and to the development of a task orientation that was more appropriately focused on process than outcome. Lower family conflict was also related to better gross motor skills in children.     

Crazy Children, Fantastical Theories, and the Many Uses of Metaphysics

Woolley rightly challenges the incredible idea, held by some adults, that it is children who are peculiarly "fantastical" in their thinking. However, Woolley expresses little appreciation for "fantastical thinking" as it underlies the capacity for both grand delusions and amazing insights. In reducing "fantastical thinking" to conceptual error, she overlooks the mythical underpinning of her own theorizing and neglects the many constructive roles of "fantastical thinking" in development.     

Analysis of switching devices with bond graphs

Modelling and simulation of switching devices with bond graphs is a subject which has no totally satisfying solutions. In this paper, switching devices are represented by flow or effort sources, with a variable circuit topology at switching time. For the simulation, the usual method uses causality resistors to insure integral causality to energy storage elements. The choice of those resistors is quite arbitrary and can lead to stiff systems. We propose, for linear systems, an approach without such resistors. When components lose the integral causality, the order of the state vector changes, provoking the use of pulse variables. A solution is proposed to compute the amplitude of the pulse and the value of the new variables.