A method for transcribing signed and spoken language

Transcribing sign communication used simultaneously with spoken English presents investigators with a unique problem: the singular quality of the bimodal communicative interactions cannot be accurately depicted using accepted conventions for recording either spoken or signed language samples. This article proposes guidelines for transcribing such data. The need for guidelines arose during an earlier study of the language development of a hearing child of deaf parents. To meet the immediate needs of that study, rules and conventions from previous studies were combined with newly generated ones, resulting in the guidelines proposed in this article. The guidelines can be applied to data in which intermodal linguistic influence is suspected.     

Environmental attitudes of pre-service teachers: A conceptual and methodological dilemma in cross-cultural data collection

Human generated environmental problems are significant issues of global concern. Despite this, varying attitudes towards environments continue to exist across the globe, impacting on environmental decision-making and action at local, national and international levels. This paper probes some of the similarities and differences in environmental attitudes amongst pre-service teachers in Australia, Republic of Maldives and Indonesia. Data were collected using an established environmental attitude questionnaire and individual interviews. The three communities exhibited a similar range of environmental attitudes using the established questionnaire but significant differences emerged when the interview data were analysed phenomenographically. These differences reflect diversity within and across cultural groups that cannot be satisfactorily explained by the theory underpinning the established questionnaire. Consequently, a revised conceptual framework is proposed.     

The Technical Quality of Performance Assessments: Standard Errors of Percents of Pupils Reaching Standards

How accurate is the reported percent of students’reaching standards at the school level? How are standard errors for these statistics computed? How do estimates vary with choice of generalizability model?     

Academic libraries and university presses

In recent years university presses have undergone some significant changes, such as expansion of their scope to include materials that may have appeal beyond the scholarly market. This article investigates, through the use of a survey of university libraries, the acquisition of university press products by libraries. In general, recent years have been changes in the relationship between university presses and libraries that have resulted in fewer items being purchased by the libraries.     

Basic skill requirements for selected Army occupational training courses

This study investigated the basic cognitive skills soldiers must possess before entering the Army, skills that are needed for successful completion of entry-level training. Judgments of 126 instructors from 25 military occupational specialties were obtained on 129 candidate skills, which resulted in the identification of 55 basic skills. Factor analysis of these 55 skill items resulted in 11 interpretable factors. Mean scores on the factors were compared across factors and across Army training schools. The results of the study suggest that, for all occupational specialties studied, skills related to the learning process are as crucial as traditional academic skills for successful training course completion. These results have important implications for training for the Army as well as for industry.     

Children's skill in making predictions and their understanding of what predicting means: A developmental study

The purpose of this study was to describe the development of elementary students' skill in making predictions and of their understanding of what predicting means. The study involved observing and assessing the performance of 167 children on the Physical Manipulation Test (PMT), a test involving the manipulation of science materials and equipment. Children were interviewed about what they understand predicting to mean, how they use it at school and at home, and why they think it is important. For each of the seven topics tested, even the youngest children were able to offer predictions. Accuracy varied with the topic, increasing between Grades 1 and 4 and leveling off after that. The increase in skill involved children's growing ability to attend to patterns discerned through their own observations. Four levels in the development of predicting skill, as it relates to particular topics, are described. Children's understanding of predicting showed steady improvement through Grade 6. Children's awareness of their use of predicting at school and at home, and their ability to explain the importance of predicting, also increased through Grades 1 to 6, with a spurt at Grade 4. Children understood predicting to be an internal process in which one uses knowledge to anticipate a future event; they regarded predicting as an important way of being intellectually involved with the world.