Criminal investigation of child sexual abuse: a comparison of cases referred to the prosecutor to those not referred

OBJECTIVE: The present study sought to identify characteristics of child sexual abuse cases which differentiate cases referred for criminal prosecution ("criminal-action") from those not referred ("dropped") by investigators. METHOD: The study sample consisted of 1043 children who completed a forensic interview for sexual abuse that allegedly occurred at the hands of an adult between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 1996 in Bernalillo County of New Mexico. Data was systematically obtained from forensic interview files and offender records at the local prosecutor's office. RESULTS: Differences between criminal-action and dropped cases were found in relation to the children (age, sex and ethnicity), the alleged offenders (age, sex and relationship to child), and the case characteristics (disclosure and injury to the child). CONCLUSIONS: The present study provided insight into the characteristics of a previously ignored population (reported child sexual abuse cases that are not referred for prosecution). Recommendations are made to address the needs of these children and their families.     

Validation of a theory about functions and effects of embedded support devices in distance education learning materials

In this contribution a theoretical model is explored and validated that describes and explains learning based on learning materials where the basic content is enriched with embedded support devices. Embedded support devices (ESD) are elaborations of the basic content of a course, intended to support students learning in a distance educational context. Examples are: questions with feedback, advance organizers and study guidelines. The model represents the interaction of a large set of variables and processes and has been tested using a variety of research studies, each focusing on specific interrelations and/or variables. The research results support the positive impact of embedded support devices in written learning materials on study outcome. Furthermore the results indicate the impact of individual variables, such as prior knowledge and attitude towards computers. These variables influence the way students process the learning materials and/or use the task environment and have an interaction effect on study outcomes.     

New Learning Design in Distance Education: The impact on student perception and motivation

Many forms of e‐learning (such as online courses with authentic tasks and computer‐supported collaborative learning) have become important in distance education. Very often, such e‐learning courses or tasks are set up following constructivist design principles. Often, this leads to learning environments with authentic problems in ill‐structured tasks that are supposed to motivate students. However, constructivist design principles are difficult to implement because developers must be able to predict how students perceive the tasks and whether the tasks motivate the students. The research in this article queries some of the assumed effects. It presents a study that provides increased insight into the actual perception of electronic authentic learning tasks. The main questions are how students learn in such e‐learning environments with “virtual” reality and authentic problems and how they perceive them. To answer these questions, in two e‐learning programs developed at the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL) designers’ expectations were contrasted with student perceptions. The results show a gap between the two, for students experience much less authenticity than developers assume.     

Portfolios as a tool for AfL and student motivation: are they related?

ABSTRACT

The power of portfolios in enhancing student motivation is frequently emphasised. Portfolios are conceptualised as a tool to implement Assessment for Learning (AfL) in classroom practice. However, the relation between portfolios and AfL on the one hand, and student motivation on the other hand, is complex and subject to many assumptions. This study investigates whether portfolio use actually supports the integration of AfL in classroom practice and the relation with students’ motivation. Questionnaires were administered to a total of 419 grade 4 to 6 students from seven Dutch elementary schools. The results of structural equation modelling did not confirm a direct relation between portfolio use and students’ motivational orientation. The findings indicate that the relation between portfolios and motivational orientation is fully mediated by students’ perceptions of AfL. The findings indicate that the tool portfolio is not related to students’ motivation, however, AfL practices do affect motivation.     

Development of the Student-Athlete Career Situation Inventory (SACSI)

Currently a sound and reliable measure of a student-athlete's career development does not exist. The purpose of this study was to develop a psychometrically sound instrument that measures the career situation of student-athletes. Participants for the study were 204 (138 male and 66 female) student-athletes from a large midwestern Division I university. A primary axis factor analysis using promax rotation revealed that five factors, named: Career Development Self-efficacy, Career versus Sport Identity, Locus of Control, Barriers to Career Development, and Sport to Work Relationship, accounted for 81.39% of the common variance in the data. The internal reliability of each factor of the Student-athlete Career Situation Inventory (SACSI) was established using Cronbach's alpha (.70 to .80). The criterion validity of the SACSI was investigated by regressing career experiences and gains on the five factors of the SACSI, resulting in significant squared multiple correlations (.17, .28).     

Evaluating and understanding text-based stock price prediction models

Despite the fact that both the Efficient Market Hypothesis and Random Walk Theory postulate that it is impossible to predict future stock prices based on currently available information, recent advances in empirical research have been proving the opposite by achieving what seems to be better than random prediction performance. We discuss some of the (dis)advantages of the most widely used performance metrics and conclude that is difficult to assess the external validity of performance using some of these measures. Moreover, there remain many questions as to the real-world applicability of these empirical models. In the first part of this study we design novel stock price prediction models, based on state-of-the-art text-mining techniques to assert whether we can predict the movement of stock prices more accurately by including indicators of irrationality. Along with this, we discuss which metrics are most appropriate for which scenarios in order to evaluate the models. Finally, we discuss how to gain insight into text-mining-based stock price prediction models in order to evaluate, validate and refine the models.     

Ethics of automated vehicles: breaking traffic rules for road safety

Ethics and Information Technology - In this paper, we explore and describe what is needed to allow connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) to break traffic rules in order to minimise road safety...     

Understanding how a case-based assessment instrument influences student teachers’ learning approaches

In order to stimulate student teachers to thoroughly comprehend the main variables influencing their work, teaching and assessment strategies in teacher education have changed significantly. One of the changes in the assessment of student teachers in teacher education programs is the use of case-based assessment instruments. Such instruments evaluate the extent to which student teachers are able to handle authentic problems. It is expected that implementing this mode of assessment will stimulate student teachers to adopt a deep approach to learning. In this study we examine student teachers’ learning approaches in the context of case-based assessment. Hereto, we investigated the direct effects of the student teachers’ general beliefs on the cognitive demands of assessment on their learning approaches. Also the student teachers’ perceptions of the cognitive demands of the case-based assessment instrument were considered as a mediating variable. The present study is conducted in the Netherlands, in the third year of a 4-year initial teacher training program for primary education. A case-based assessment instrument, called the OverAll Test, was implemented as the major determinate of the third-year final examination grade of the student teachers.