Kemp-Vincent Rally Test of Tennis Skill

Abstract

The Kemp-Vincent Rally Test of tennis skill was constructed to overcome the criticisms of available tennis skills tests. The major criticisms have been that current tests do not measure skills under game conditions, require the use of special equipment or line markings, and the time involved in their administration is prohibitive. In the Kemp-Vincent Rally Test the students rally as in a game situation, a relatively short time period is involved, and no special equipment or court markings are needed. The validity of the Kemp-Vincent Rally Test was found to be .84 for beginners and .93 for intermediate players when correlated with round robin tournament rankings. When validated against the Iowa revision of the Dyer test, the validity coefficient was .80. Test-retest reliability coefficients were .86 for beginners and .90 for intermediate players.     

Developing Peer Groups for the Oregon University System: From Politics to Analysis (and Back)

In the fall of 1997, institutional research staff in the central office of the Oregon University System were asked to build a set of peer comparators for the state's seven diverse public universities. The peer groups were to serve the analytic needs of budgeting, performance measurement, and trend analysis. Because of several critical political issues requiring interinstitutional unity, the peer groups had to be developed and implemented with the participation and support of the seven university presidents. In addition, the peer groups had to be understood and accepted by board members, legislators, and the governor's office. Through a process that combined detailed statistical information with a sensitivity to the political dynamics and judgments of campus presidents and staff, the system office developed a set of peer groups that found acceptance in both the political and analytical environments. Ten conditions that contribute to the creation of peer groups on a systemwide basis are identified and offered as guidance to other university systems.     

The teaching portfolio: A professional development tool

Abstract

There seems to be some confusion in the literature regarding what a collection of evidence about teaching should be called. In some instances it is referred to as a ‘profile’ (see for example, Gibbs, 1989), in others a ‘dossier’ (see for example Shore et al, 1986) or portfolio. For simplicity I use the term ‘portfolio’ to describe a collection of data on teaching. A summary of this information can then be used in conjunction with a curriculum vitae and is termed a ‘teaching profile’. This paper will examine some of the current writing on teaching portfolios, and the use of teaching portfolios at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. While they are recognized as invaluable dossiers of professional information per se, the author promotes their use, more particularly, as powerful tools for personal, professional development.     

Selective habituation of defensive behavior: Evidence for predator-prey synchrony

The selective nocturnal persistence of death feigning, an antipredator behavior, was assessed in four studies involving single daily trials. In Experiments 1 and 2, White Leghorn chicks exhibited a progressive decline in death feigning durations in both the light and the dark phases of their photoperiods over 8 days, but resistance to habituation was greater at night. When nocturnal death feigning was induced to a habituation criterion (Experiment 3), it was extremely persistent and was not completely abolished in some chicks, even after 25 consecutive test days. Because nocturnal response durations of chicks tested cross-sectionally increased over the same developmental period (Experiment 4), a shifting developmental baseline was excluded as the basis for the declining response durations observed in the first three studies. The differential plasticity of death feigning at two times of day is consistent with the argument that predatorprey synchrony confers a selective advantage, and suggests an additional biological constraint on learning.     

Meeting the mathematical demands of the safety-critical workplace: medication dosage calculation problem-solving for nursing

This article addresses a key issue for mathematics educators preparing students for work: How should teaching, learning and assessment be designed to meet the mathematical demands of the workplace, especially when those demands are safety-critical? We explore this question through a discussion of our interdisciplinary research on numeracy for nursing, focusing in particular on the characterization and authentic assessment of competence in medication dosage calculation problem-solving, where errors can and do cause patient morbidity and mortality.     

Using a Think-Aloud with Diverse Students: Three Primary Grade Students Experience Chrysanthemum

Many struggling readers, students with English as a second language, and children with disabilities do not engage in the strategies that good readers use when reading for understanding. Reading comprehension depends upon the students’ ability to successfully use strategies to monitor and control their own comprehension. Teachers need to help students develop skills that will aid in reading comprehension. The think-aloud is one strategy that can help struggling readers improve fluency and comprehension. One of the most important components to determine the success of the think-aloud is the teacher’s ability to model and facilitate the think-aloud procedure. The teacher needs to have a basic understanding of what is meant to be accomplished using this method. This article profiles how three teachers model and facilitate a think-aloud with three struggling readers.     

Unionization and Perceived Control Among Community College Faculty

The research reported in this paper examined what role working in a union or nonunion college has in influencing faculty perceptions of control over their work. Using data from the 1993, 1999, and 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, this study explored the relative importance of variables in influencing perceived control among full-time teaching faculty in unionized and nonunionized community colleges. Union status was not found to be predictive of perceived control.     

DEVELOPING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY GERIATRIC CURRICULUM: THE PERILS AND PAYOFFS OF COLLABORATION

Almost all of the emphasis within interdisciplinary education in geriatrics has focused on the training of clinical teams, to the exclusion of an appreciation for the unique issues facing educational teams. This paper explores the perils and payoffs of the development and implementation of an interdisciplinary curriculum by an inter-institutional faculty team at the Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center (RIGEC). Following a discussion of the principles and concepts guiding the development of the curriculum - an interdisciplinary team approach, a goal-based focus, and continuous quality improvement - the structure and implementation of the curriculum development are described. Special attention is directed toward process and outcome evaluation issues. Lastly, recommendations related to the educational team process are suggested as guidelines for faculty developing academic teams in gerontology and geriatrics. Overall, the unique and multifaceted challenges of educational teams are highlighted and lessons learned from the RIGEC experience summarized.     

Promoting safe schools and healthy students in rural Pennsylvania

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative is currently underway in the Tyrone Area School District. Tyrone is a rural community characterized by high levels of poverty, unemployment, and youth problems including substance use and alienation from school and community. Its strengths include strong administrative leadership and prior successful collaboration with Penn State University. The goals of the SS/HS Initiative involve reducing risk and building competencies for students and their families through integration of law enforcement and mental health into school‐based prevention efforts. The programs include early childhood, elementary, and secondary school components; and also district‐wide components that span these developmental levels. Despite challenges associated with the integration of different professional perspectives into the school environment, the Tyrone SS/HS Initiative has been quite successful. Program evaluation is varied, and reflects the different programs and student populations served. Currently, plans for sustaining and institutionalizing SS/HS programs are underway in Tyrone. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 457–472, 2003.