Ability emotional intelligence,trait emotional intelligence,and academic success in British secondary schools: A 5 year longitudinal study

This study examines the long-term effects of ability- and trait EI on academic performance for British adolescents. The sample comprised 413 students from three secondary schools in the North-West of England. Students completed tests of ability EI, trait EI, personality, and cognitive ability in Year 7 (mean age = 11 years 2 months). Performance data at the end of Year 11 (mean age = 15 years 10 months) were collected. Structural Equation Modelling examined the longitudinal relationships between latent variables of these constructs. Results show that the importance of ability EI resides in the fact that it moderates the effect of cognitive ability on performance in Year 11. Trait EI has a direct effect on Year 11 performance for boys only. This suggests that initiatives that help to develop ability EI and increase trait EI offer educators opportunities to improve educational achievement.     

Performance‐based certification—How to design a valid,defensible, cost‐effective program

Initiating a certification program is the overall intent of this book. Judith Hale starts with the program's business case, navigating you through requirements, standards, and assessments, and concluding with implementation and tips for “going global.” The book provides you with a roadmap for starting and implementing a certification program. Whether you are a C‐level executive or a performance improvement practitioner, this book has the explanation and rationale for implementing a certification program, using examples demonstrating learning points clearly and effectively. Performance‐Based Certification‐How to Design a Valid, Defensible, Cost‐Effective Program (ISBN: 978‐1‐118‐02724‐0) is published by Pfeiffer.     

Gender Differences in College Preparedness: A Statewide Study

In this study, the authors investigated the extent to which boys and girls differed in their college-ready performance in reading, in math, and in both subjects for the 2006–2007 school year for the state of Texas (n = 1,099 high schools). Also examined were the extent to which boys and girls differed in their performance on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT) for the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 school years. Differences in criterion scores, as well as how many boys and girls actually took these exams, were examined in addition to their average scores. Statistically significant differences were present between the college-ready scores of boys and of girls in reading, math, and in both subject areas. Of special note is that less than one-third of all students were deemed to be college-ready in both subject areas. Statistically significant differences also were revealed between boys and girls in the percentage taking the SAT or ACT, in the percentage meeting the SAT or ACT criterion, and in their SAT average scores, but not in their ACT average scores. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

New rationale for large metazoan embryo manipulations on chip-based devices

The lack of technologies that combine automated manipulation, sorting, as well as immobilization of single metazoan embryos remains the key obstacle to high-throughput organism-based ecotoxicological analysis and drug screening routines. Noticeably, the major obstacle hampering the automated trapping and arraying of millimetre-sized embryos on chip-based devices is their substantial size and mass, which lead to rapid gravitational-induced sedimentation and strong inertial forces. In this work, we present a comprehensive mechanistic and design rationale for manipulation and passive trapping of individual zebrafish embryos using only hydrodynamic forces. We provide evidence that by employing innovative design features, highly efficient hydrodynamic positioning of large embryos on a chip can be achieved. We also show how computational fluid dynamics-guided design and the Lagrangian particle tracking modeling can be used to optimize the chip performance. Importantly, we show that rapid prototyping and medium scale fabrication of miniaturized devices can be greatly accelerated by combining high-speed laser prototyping with replica moulding in poly(dimethylsiloxane) instead of conventional photolithography techniques. Our work establishes a new paradigm for chip-based manipulation of large multicellular organisms with diameters well above 1 mm and masses often exceeding 1 mg. Passive docking of large embryos is an attractive alternative to provide high level of automation while alleviating potentially deleterious effects associated with the use of active chip actuation. This greatly expands the capabilities of bioanalyses performed on small model organisms and offers numerous and currently inaccessible laboratory automation advantages.     

The influence of exercise-induced fatigue on cognitive function

Although anecdotal reports suggest that information processing and decision making is impaired immediately following prolonged periods of physical activity, results obtained from laboratory studies of exercise-induced fatigue have been inconsistent. Fatigue effects may be task specific and related to the time of post-exercise testing. The present study examined the effects on adults' performance of two cognitive tasks that differed in processing demands over an 80-min period of fatigue. Thirty young adult men and women were randomly assigned to either an exercise group and completed a 60-min bout of cycle ergometry at 90% ventilatory threshold or a control group and rested for 60 min. Following interventions, each participant completed a simple and complex version of a visual perceptual discrimination test, a 40-min memory-based vigilance test and a repetition of the visual perceptual discrimination tests. Those who exercised evidenced significant decrements in performance on complex perceptual-discrimination tasks compared to participants who rested. The response time of exercisers during a memory-demanding vigilance test were significantly slower than those of participants who rested; however, detection performance did not differ between groups neither was there a decrease in target detection across the vigil. The effects of exercise-induced fatigue may be task specific, with greater effects on perceptual tasks, which involve relatively automatic processing, compared to effortful memory-based tasks.     

Objectives—Are they useful? A quick assessment

Most people understand the importance of objectives and the link between having objectives and accomplishing results. However, there is a difference between a well‐defined objective and a poorly developed objective both in how they are constructed and in what they ultimately lead to. In this article, we explore three levels of objectives, provide examples of good objectives at each level, and put forth a 7‐point inspection any objective should meet if it is to be a useful objective.     

Making it REAL: Using Informational Picture Books in Preschool Classrooms

This article addresses the importance and benefits of integrating informational texts into read alouds in preschool classrooms through an instructional approach entitled REAL Time. Teachers use the REAL Time framework to pair complex storybooks with one or more informational texts in order to develop children’s understanding of key vocabulary and important real world concepts. Teachers are then encouraged to plan curricular experiences for children that deepen and extend their understanding. Such experiences help the teacher link children’s content knowledge across texts and learning experiences. While implementing REAL Time, teachers draw attention to text features and functions of informational texts in ways that build children’s understanding of print.     

From Drill Sergeants to Maternal Negotiators: Mass-Mediated Business Strategies in the 1980s

By drawing on Foucault's theory of governmentality, this essay posits that media discourses helped to create, deliberate upon, and circulate proper practices for U.S. white-collar working women in the 1980s. Analysis of discourse circulating in mass media about the woman manager, the saleswoman, and the woman union leader shows that media outlets claimed each would offer innovative solutions to counteract the volatile economy in the 1980s. For example, the logic of maternal management propagated in these discourses valorized a “return to the home” for women while simultaneously claiming that men were better maternal managers than women. The privileged subject ultimately emerging in this discourse was a feminized businessman, rather than a maternal or feminized businesswoman.