The use of a Markov model in assessment of alternate faculty personnel policies

This study demonstrates the usefulness of the Markov modeling technique for analysis of alternative faculty personnel policies at a university. The necessary faculty flow model and transition matrix are developed with limited resources and only two years of time-series data. By making adjustments to the input vector (those entering the university) and the transition matrix, faculty personnel policy decisions are simulated and their outcomes, in terms of important faculty characteristics, are determined. Six hiring and retirement policies at a major university are assessed utilizing this procedure. The results that are presented provide an illustration of the nature of the information which can be obtained from this procedure.     

A comparison of teacher checklists used over 15 days and a one‐day antecedent analysis to conduct a medication trial

A one‐day antecedent analysis and an extended school‐based double‐blind medication trial were used to assess the effects of Ritalin on the disruptive behavior of a child diagnosed with ADHD. The evaluations took place in an outpatient clinic and in the child's general education classroom. The results of both evaluations indicated that the medication had a positive effect on reducing disruptive behaviors. The investigation suggests that the one‐day antecedent analysis procedure could be used as an initial evaluation of the use of Ritalin. More importantly, the one‐day trial provided results similar to the outcomes obtained during the school‐based evaluation. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 235–240, 2004.     

Outreach by College Counselors: Increasing Student Attendance at Presentations

Psychoeducational outreach programming by college counselors can be an effective service to meet students' needs; however, getting students to attend outreach programs on a college campus can be challenging. The authors describe a model of an outreach series and the strategies implemented to increase student attendance at the presentations. Information collected from students through focus groups, a survey, and presentation evaluation forms revealed factors that seem to be important to increasing attendance.     

Temptations of the flesch

A Briton's educational level, social class, sex and age all go to determine the degree of linguistic difficulty which he finds acceptable in reading matter. Tables show how these determinants of acceptability relate to readability as measured by word and sentence lengths.It is hypothesised that long sentences are difficult because comprehension depends upon combining cortical patterns evoked by grammatically related elements; but in long sentences the pattern evoked by one element may have decayed before the next related element is read. Long words may cause difficulty because they are generally the more precise words, requiring longer to categorise semantically; but the longer the search for a word's meaning, the more likely that the preceding context will be lost beyond recall.     

An activity theory approach toward teacher professional development at scale (TPD@Scale): A case study of a teacher learning center in Indonesia

Asia Pacific Education Review - Continuous teacher professional development (TPD) ensures that teachers have the capacity to continually plan and implement quality teaching and learning that...     

The effects of the copy, cover, compare approach in increasing spelling accuracy with learning disabled students

This study compared the traditional spelling approach of presenting a list of spelling words at the beginning of the week and a final test at the end of the week with a daily copy, cover, and compare spelling approach. Weekly spelling performance of nine special education students was measured in a ABAB single-subject design. Results indicated improved spelling performance during the copy, cover, and compare spelling phase of the experiment. This finding was replicated across all nine students. Questionnaires given to students at the end of the study revealed that all students preferred the copy, cover, and compare spelling method over the more traditional approach to spelling.     

Effects of instructions for on-task behavior and academic behavior: Two case studies

The effects of daily teacher instructions to “work hard” for the on-task behavior of two special education students during a math period were examined in a multiple-baseline design. The results indicated that teacher instructions could increase such behavior. Generalization to work output (the rate of correct math problems) was observed. Follow-up data revealed that the effects of the instructional procedure were of lasting duration. It was suggested that instructions could be an effective, inexpensive, easy to implement, and socially acceptable classroom intervention procedure.