The Impact of Gatekeeper Training for Suicide Prevention on University Resident Assistants

Resident assistants (RAs) can serve as important suicide prevention gatekeepers. The purpose of the study was to determine if training improved RAs’ crisis communications skills and suicide‐related knowledge and to determine if the knowledge elements predicted crisis communications skills. New RAs showed significant improvement in all areas from pretest to posttest, whereas returning RAs showed no significant increase in any of the areas. None of the knowledge areas predicted communications skills for either group.     

Practitioners' Perspectives of Collaboration: A Social Validation and Factor Analysis

This investigation was designed to socially validate the characterization and operational definitions of collaboration as described in the professional literature and quantitatively identify salient features of collaboration. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase employed an adelphi methodology asking practitioners to define and describe the collaborative process. Open-ended surveys were sent to teachers, special education teachers, administrators, and related service providers at the building, district, and state levels in 3 states representing distinct national regions. A content analysis team identified 35 thematic units that were used to create a second instrument for the second phase of the study, a factor analysis. Surveys were sent to teachers, special educators, administrators, and related service providers at the building, district, and state levels in 7 states. A factor analysis revealed 4 factors as salient components of collaboration. Results of the investigation socially validated most concepts of collaboration articulated in the literature. Overall, practitioners have a pragmatic view of the process of collaboration coupled with an emphasis on the collaborative ethic. Each identified factor is described and discussed. This article concludes with implications of these findings for professional preparation programs.     

Characteristics of male and female science teachers

The characteristics of 273 male science teachers were compared with 72 female science teachers randomly selected from a fourteen-state region in the USA. A multivariate analysis of variance found differences between the two groups significant at the p ? 0.0005 level. Female teachers were higher on measures of interest in science and receptivity to change. Males scored higher on science knowledge indicators and on their perceptions of the teaching support they received. No differences were noted on measures of professional development or their perceptions of teaching effectiveness, curriculum, workload, or facilities. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of science career selection by women.     

Policy considerations based on a cost analysis of alternative test formats in large scale science assessments

This article compares the costs of four assessment formats: multiple choice, open ended, laboratory station, and full investigation. The amount of time spent preparing the devices, developing scoring consistency for the devices, and scoring the devices was tracked as the devices were developed. These times are presented by individual item and by complete device. Times are also compared as if 1,000 students completed each assessment. Finally, the times are converted into cost estimates by assuming a potential hourly wage. The data show that a multiple choice item costs the least, and that it is approximately 80 times as much for an open ended item, 300 times as much for a content station, and 500 times as much for a full investigation item. The very large discrepancies in costs are used as a basis to raise several policy issues related to the inclusion of alternative assessment formats in large scale science achievement testing. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 615–626, 2000     

China-ASEAN Relations in Higher Education: An Analytical Framework

China’s dramatic economic rise has tended to overshadow other wider perspectives on the developing China and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) relationship, including in higher education. The article examines contemporary relations between China and ASEAN, set against the longer term development of cultural and trade relations. It is argued that, notwithstanding current territorial disputes, and a history of discrimination against ethnic Chinese in several parts of ASEAN, prospects for a deepening of relations in higher education remain strong. Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam are selected as three instances of the developing relationship in higher education and some of the links traced, with the former assessed as best placed to take advantage of its China relations in higher education. The developing sense of regionalism is seen as likely to further enhance China-ASEAN relations in higher education.