The Effectiveness of the Responsive Teaching Parent-mediated Developmental Intervention Programme in Turkey: A pilot study

The case study was conducted to examine the feasibility of an early intervention curriculum called Responsive Teaching with two five-year-old children from Turkey who had significant developmental delays. This study determined whether Turkish mothers might be successful in learning to become more responsive to their children, and whether this would result in significant improvements in their children’s development. Both dyads received 28 individual parent–child intervention sessions which were conducted over a four-month period of time. Pre-, mid-, and post-assessments indicated improvements in the mothers’ responsiveness to their children and the children’s levels of engagement with their parents. There were also improvements in the children’s language and personal social development. Mothers reported that Responsive Teaching helped them learn to interact more effectively with their children and that this resulted in longer and more enjoyable interactions with them. Results from this investigation are discussed in terms of their implications for providing developmental services to preschool-aged children with disabilities in Turkey.     

How do instructional designers evaluate? A qualitative study of evaluation in practice

This study employed a qualitative research design to investigate how instructional designers use evaluation in everyday design practice. While past research has examined how designers spend their time, how they generally make decisions, and expert-novice differences, little attention has been paid to use of context, input, process, or product evaluation, from the perspective of practicing designers. Based on interviews of practitioners, our findings included ten themes regarding how designers use evaluation to improve their products. While these results substantiate to some degree the claim that practitioners believe clients will not pay for formal evaluations, they also suggest that practitioners use evaluation in important but less formal ways. Other conclusions regarding the role of evaluation in design are provided and future directions for training and research are discussed.     

Creating Collaborative Partnership With Local Churches to Improve Academic Performance of K-12 Public Schools

Since their founding, the Black churches have strived to implement and fulfill their missions. These institutions acknowledge the importance to become actively involved in the community as well as engaged in the lives of young people. Black churches are faced with unique challenges every day, however, they provide significant number of resources to the communities at large. In this study, we examine the role of partnerships through local churches and its impact on low performing schools using qualitative methodology. Research shows that low performing schools are influenced positively by partnerships with Black churches.     

The Perceptions of Administrators Concerning the One Florida Initiative

The purpose of this study was to discover the perceptions of Florida law school administrators on the impact of the OFI （one Florida initiative） and the addition of two MSI （minority serving institution） law schools on diversity in Florida＇s legal profession. This research explored the impact of Governor Bush＇s EO （executive order） on diversity within the SUS （state university system） of Florida law schools. Further, this study examined the impact of the creation of two MSI law schools after implementation of the OFI, as perceived by the administrators. The concept of CRT （critical race theory） provides modern legal debates outlining the usefulness of historical civil rights policies in opinionated climates. This study will examine the role of CRT in relation to affirmative action and desegregation case law. CRT forms the framework for examining the impact of the creation of two MSI law schools in the state of Florida. In conclusion, this study found that minority representation in law schools has improved in Florida as a result of the OFI as well as the addition of two MSI law schools. Black representation, however, continues to lag behind other races, particularly the Hispanic population. This study concluded that the OFI has helped improve minority representation in the legal profession.     

Modelling parenting styles,moral intelligence,academic self-efficacy and learning motivation among adolescents in grades 7–11

The current study investigated the associations between three maternal and paternal parenting styles, moral intelligence, academic self-efficacy and learning motivation in three serial mediation models. Omani adolescents enrolled in 7th to 11th grades (N = 296) responded to an online survey containing demographic items and scales measuring the variables noted above. Results of Path Analysis indicated that the three models had a good overall fit. In detail, the three paternal styles (authoritative, authoritarian and permissive) had direct associations with moral intelligence and indirect associations with learning motivation. However, only two maternal parenting styles (i.e., authoritative and authoritarian) correlated directly with learning motivation and these two styles did not associate with moral intelligence. All effects were in the hypothesized direction except the effect of authoritative maternal and paternal styles. Moral intelligence had a positive direct correlation with students’ academic self-efficacy and learning motivation. Moral intelligence also mediated the negative associations between three types of fathers’ parenting styles and students’ motivation. Academic self-efficacy had a positive association with students’ motivation. These findings provided useful insights about the various association between external factors (e.g., parenting styles), internal factors (i.e., moral intelligence and self-efficacy) and students’ motivation among adolescents in middle and high schools.     

Initial returns on mail questionnaires: A literature review and research note

The effects of method of reproduction, status of researcher, and personalization of signature on the initial rate of return of mail questionnaires were investigated, using a one-page combination cover letter and questionnaire mailed to 600 professors at the University of Maryland, College Park. The levels of each experimental variable were: Status — professor, graduate student; signature — hand signed in ink, mimeographed facsimile; reproduction — typed, photocopied, mimeographed.A response rate of 69% was obtained without using any follow-up procedures. Chi square analyses indicated no significant differences in the rate of returns for the levels of any of the experimental variables.It appears that initial return rate will not be significantly affected by using the most efficient, least expensive method available.     

Models and Paradigms in Kuhn and Halloun

In Modeling Theory in Science Education, Halloun (2004) adopts the word ‘paradigm’, but his use of the term is radically different from that of Kuhn. In this paper, I explore some of the differences between Kuhn’s paradigms and Halloun’s paradigms. Where Kuhn’s paradigms are public, community-defining exemplars of practice, Halloun’s paradigms are private, individualized ways of thinking. Where Kuhn writes of the paradigm shift as a revolutionary, vision-altering conversion experience, Halloun writes of a gradual evolution from one way of thinking to another and an easy back-and-forth switch between paradigms. Since Kuhn’s paradigms are self-enclosed and incommensurable, there is no objective standard by which one paradigm can be shown to be superior to the other. But Halloun uses ‘viability’ as a standard for paradigm choice. Underlying all of this is the more basic question of whether the history of science is an appropriate metaphor for student progress in the classroom. I conclude with some brief thoughts on this question.