Using Reader Profiles as Snapshots to Investigate Students' Reading Performance

Explanatory patterns regarding situational differences in reading comprehension performance may be best captured by multidimensional reader profiles. Data from 56 third- and fifth-grade students were collected to investigate the applicability, scope, and convergent validity of a reader profiling scheme based on Alexander's (2005) reader profile framework and then compared with results from a hierarchical cluster analysis and a Bayesian cluster analysis. The reader profiling methodology used identified examples of all six of Alexander's reader profiles at each grade level, along with an additional hypothesized profile, the interest-reliant reader. The reader profiles related as expected to reading outcomes on a researcher-designed comprehension measure and a standardized comprehension assessment, with a few exceptions, and explained variance in those outcome measures better than the use of cluster analysis, except for the third-grade standardized scores. Finally, interesting differences emerged in the proportions of elementary students assigned to each profile across the grade levels.     

Including Diagnostic Training in Counseling Curricula: Implications for Professional Identity Development

During the last decade, diagnostic training has been increasingly assimilated into counseling curricula; however, the consequences for counselor identity of including this training have seldom been critically examined. The author argues that this diagnostic trend has major implications for the formation of individual counselor identity and for the counseling profession. He discusses associated risks and suggests ways of presenting diagnostic topics.     

Examining the Relationship Between Emergent Literacy Skills and Invented Spelling in Prekindergarten Spanish-Speaking Dual Language Learners

The purpose of the present study was to examine associations among English and Spanish emergent literacy skills of prekindergarten (pre-K) Spanish-speaking dual language learners in relation to their English invented spelling. Study participants included 141 Spanish-speaking 4-year-old children enrolled in state-funded pre-K programs in a large urban city located in the Southeast. All children were receiving English-only instruction. Children’s Spanish and English receptive vocabulary and code-related skills were assessed in the fall and spring of their pre-K year, but their invented spelling was assessed only in the spring. Research Findings: Analyses revealed significant correlations among children’s English and Spanish receptive vocabulary as well as English and Spanish early code-related skills in the fall and spring of the school year. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed direct contributions of children’s English vocabulary and growth in Spanish code-related skills across the year to children’s English invented spelling in the spring of the school year. This analysis also revealed that associations between children’s English code-related skills and invented spelling appear to work through Spanish code-related skills. Practice or Policy: In order to promote young dual language learners’ English invented spelling skills, early childhood educators should seek to support children’s English vocabulary and English and Spanish code-related emergent literacy skills.     

An Analysis of the Relative Influences of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Presidential Debate Viewing on Shifting Confidence in President George W. Bush

This study analyzes the influence of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 in coordination with presidential debate viewing on the outcome variable of confidence in George W. Bush's policy positions. In addition, the combined influence of these competing persuasive appeals is assessed across three political ideology groups: liberals, moderates, and conservatives. There is a statistically significant experimental stimulus-by-political ideology interaction, with Bush making substantial gains among political moderates who viewed Moore's film prior to a Bush-Kerry debate. The study also reveals similar patterns of influence for liberals and conservatives.     

Academic and Social Integration in the Basic Communication Course: Predictors of Students' Out-of-Class Communication and Academic Learning

This study reports an investigation designed to determine the generalizability of source credibility scales for immediate superiors across organizational contexts. Four meaningful and statistically independent dimensions for the measurement of the source credibility of immediate superiors in an organizational setting are reported.     

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES IN THE ILLINOIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM

In a time of declining resources and restricted faculty mobility, faculty mobility, faculty development has become increasingly important. This study addressed faculty development activities, their evaluation, and their perceived impact on the improvement of instruction in the community colleges of Illinois. Data gathered through the use of a questionnaire mailed to the chief academic officer of each of the state's community colleges were analyzed and interpreted. It was found that a wide variety of activities — orientation, inservice, professional, individual, and group — are available to faculty members. Orientation activities were viewed as being moderately useful for the improvement of instruction. Respondents saw professional activities as somewhat more useful than inservice activities. With some qualifications, group activities were perceived as being more useful than individual activities. Evaluation efforts, for the most part, are as yet sporadic and unsophisticated.

The results of this study suggest that perhaps the traditional inservice‐type activities may not be the “one best way” to deliver quality faculty development aimed at the improvement of instruction. Faculty‐development planners may want to examine more closely the needs of their faculty in relation to the activities available. In addition to continuing the most useful of the group and inservice activities, attention should be directed toward those individual and professional activities not frequently offered but rated as highly effective in improving instruction.     

Sports nutritionists’ perspectives on enablers and barriers to nutritional adherence in high performance sport: A qualitative analysis informed by the COM-B model and theoretical domains framework

ABSTRACT

Athlete adherence to nutritional guidance is critical for optimal health and performance, yet little is known about the barriers and enablers to athletes’ dietary behaviours within high-performance sport. To advance understanding, we applied a theoretical lens derived from the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation – Behaviour (COM-B) model and the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to explore the qualitative accounts of sports nutritionists. Five focus groups comprising sports nutritionists working in Olympic and Paralympic sport (n = 14), professional sport (n = 6), or both (n = 6) were undertaken. Thematic analysis was conducted and the interpretations of the findings were guided by COM-B and the TDF. To achieve nutritional adherence, the behavioural analysis identified the need to intervene across all three COM-B components and at least five associated TDF domains (e.g., decision-making processes, reinforcement, social influences, behavioural regulation and environmental context and resource). For the first time, the findings illustrate the complex interplay of the training setting with the capabilities, opportunities, and motivation of the practitioners, athletes and coaches. By applying established behavioural science theories to sports nutrition, the foundations for the development of targeted and multifaceted behavioural interventions addressing athlete dietary adherence in high-performance sport have been laid.     

Sport Participation Motivation in Young Adolescent Girls

Abstract

This study examined the factor structure of the Sport Friendship Quality Scale (SFQS; Weiss & Smith, 1999) and compared two models in which (a) self-worth mediated the relationship between physical self/friendship quality and sport commitment and (b) friendship quality and physical self-perceptions directly predicted self-worth and sport commitment. Female team sport participants (N= 227) between the ages of 11 and 14 years completed measures of sport commitment, enjoyment, athletic competence, physical attractiveness, self-worth, and friendship qualities. A confirmatory factor analysis found an inadequate fit for the SFQS, mainly due to problems with the loyalty and intimacy subscale. Separating the loyalty and intimacy factor into two subscales provided an adequate fit. Examination of the two structural models indicated that both models provided an adequate overall fit but that self-worth only weakly predicted sport commitment, suggesting the mediator model was impractical. Friendship quality had a weak relationship with self-worth and sport commitment. Results are discussed in light of issues in measuring sport friendship quality and future directions in this developing field.