Market segmentation for improved distance education program planning

Distance education planners face two basic, yet difficult decisions: which students should be targeted and which programs should be offered? This paper reports the process and results of the planning committee of a consortium of engineering schools in the United States that was tasked with these very decisions. A market research study measured the program preferences of potential students. Three program characteristics (course type, delivery method, and time availability) were examined. The results show there is no ‘average’ student and no single program will satisfy all the needs of the student population. Rather, the committee must choose one or more segments based on the program preferences of the students and the resources required to provide the programs.     

Development of a Clinical Practice Model for Serving Clients with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

There is a lack of systematic research on the training of clinicians toward providing counselling services and support to individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The aim of this qualitative project was twofold: (1) to develop and pilot a clinical consultation process that would address clinicians’ reported need for greater communication and information sharing in serving clients affected by FASD; and (2) to build a model of FASD-informed clinical counselling practice by examining this consultation process and by capturing the experiences of clinicians who were involved. Findings from focus groups and meeting minutes are reported with respect to the model’s focus on reflection, communication, and action.     

What Teachers Take from Professional Development: Cases and Implications

In this article, we report on an 18-month longmathematics professional development projectwith elementary school teachers. Using a modelwe developed, three participant case studieswere analyzed with respect to not only theprofessional development milieu, but also howthese teachers interacted with the professionaldevelopment experience. In particular we foundthat having teachers reflect on new, authenticreform-oriented mathematics learningexperiences leads some teachers to take aninquiry stance concerning their own teaching,resulting in self-sustaining changes in theirmathematics instructional practices. Thisimplies that professional development forelementary mathematics teachers should includechallenging mathematics learning experiencescomplete with opportunities to reflect on personal and professional implications.     

Psychodiagnostic Properties of the Piotr Oleś “Internal Dialogical Activity Scale”

The article discusses the concept of internal dialogue and how it is understood in various schools of psychological research, including both Russia and abroad. The authors briefly investigate how the concept was understood by Mikhail Bakhtin, Lev Vygotsky, G.M. Kuchinskii, and Hubert Hermans. The “Internal Dialogical Activity Scale” (IDAS) methodology, pioneered by Piotr Ole?, is introduced. A sample of 256 people was tested using a Russian-language version of the IDAS. A subset of 123 people from the original sample was retested two weeks later. After analysis of the empirical data, the general test score (tendency to engage in internal dialogue) was successfully validated. However, according to our data the three-factor structure of the IDAS (consisting of internal dialogue, internal world, and internal conflict) turned out to be more suitable than the original model, which included seven subscales. The former returned the highest reliability and validity indicators. Construct validity is grounded in its high correlation with various forms of reflexive processes and aspects of self-attitude. Unlike the differential reflection test proposed by Dmitry Leontiev and E.N. Osin, the IDAS represents a negative pole of reflection, confirmed by an analysis of how the IDAS correlates with other personality variables. The approach proposed in the article is suitable for both research and applied contexts.     

The Role of Study Habits in Foreign Language Courses

The purpose of this study was to determine which study habits distinguish successful from unsuccessful foreign language learners. Participants were 219 college students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, enrolled in either Spanish, French, German or Japanese classes. A canonical discriminant analysis (F [6, 117], p < 0.0001; canonical R = 0.92) revealed that, compared to their high-performing counterparts, students with the lowest levels of foreign language performance tended to report that: (a) they frequently include a lot of irrelevant or unimportant information in their notes; (b) when they have difficulty with their assignments, they do not seek help from their instructor; (c) they put their lecture notes away after taking the test and never consult them again; (d) they have to be in the mood before attempting to study; (e) they have a tendency to doodle or to daydream when they are trying to study; and (f) they do not look up in a dictionary the meanings of words that they do not understand. Implications are discussed.     

Mild head injury as a source of developmental disabilities.

The hospital-reported incidence of mild head injury among children indicates a prevalence of 2% to 3% in high-school-aged adolescents (14 to 18 years). Yet, our survey of 616 high school adolescents suggests that light and mild head injury (not necessarily leading to hospital admission) is almost 10 times this level. Despite the common notion that such injury is generally benign, we found significant relationships in our sample between reported head injury and hyperactivity, stuttering, mixed handedness, and dislike of mathematics.     

Student,home, and school socio-demographic factors: links to school,home, and community arts participation

This study explored the role of student (e.g., age, language background, gender), home (e.g., parent/caregiver education), and school (e.g., school type, size) socio-demographic factors in students’ school (e.g., in-school arts tuition, arts engagement), home (e.g., parent/caregiver–child arts interaction), and community (e.g., arts attendance, arts tuition) arts participation. The sample comprised 1172 elementary and secondary school students from 15 schools. Findings revealed that student and home socio-demographic factors were the most salient in predicting arts participation across school, home, and community contexts. Age, gender, and prior achievement were the key student socio-demographic factors, while parent/caregiver education and occupation were also associated with students’ arts participation. Implications for practice and intervention pertinent to young people’s arts participation are discussed.