Privileged communication in the school psychologist–client relationship

In the years since the 1996 Supreme Court Jaffee v. Redmond decision, many states broadened the scope of their laws governing privilege to include non‐doctoral school psychologists. This article addresses the meaning of the term privileged communication and identifies common exceptions to privilege. Findings from a computerized search of the status of privileged communication between school psychologists and their clients in all states are reported. Implications of privilege communication laws for the delivery of school psychological services are discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

中国的大学英语改革

The key factors that pushed College English in China to the stage of transformation are: globalization, student challenges, expansion of enrolment and primary and high school coordination challenge. The theoretical frameworks should cover the concepts of communicative competence, the learning-centered approach and learner autonomy. It then describes the major areas affected by the transformation to a new CE, in which the primary objective is to develop students’ English comprehension and communicative competence: the nature and goal of the curriculum, curriculum requirements, teaching mode, assessment, and administration, In the new CE, focus has shifted from reading to listening and speaking, and special attention is now given to independent learning by capitalizing on advanced information technology; five principles are understood as the underpinnings of the transformation: a shift in orientation towards competence, the dominance of learning, focus on process, emphasis on culture, and increasingly democratic learning.      

An examination of the Counting Talk Test’s ability to discern individual variability in exercise-induced metabolic stress

The purpose of this study was to determine if the counting talk test can be used to discern whether an individual is exercising above or at/below maximal lactate steady state. Twenty-two participants completed VO₂peak and counting talk test incremental step tests followed by an endurance test at 65% of work rate at VO₂peak (WR_VO2peak). The change in relative count time during endurance exercise decreased in those exercising above maximal lactate steady state only (p < .01); however, this change was less than 1 second. Despite a significant correlation during the incremental step test, large changes in counting talk test performance and blood lactate concentration occurred at different points and there was considerable inter-individual variability in counting talk test performance at a given blood lactate concentration. These results suggest that the counting talk test cannot discern whether an individual is exercising above maximal lactate steady state and that it cannot be used to accurately prescribe intensities targeting specific blood lactate concentrations.     

Exploratory Analysis of a Blended-learning Course Redesign for Developmental Writers

This quasiexperimental investigation describes the relative effects of a technology-driven course redesign on retention and achievement in a developmental writing program at a large, urban community college in the southwest United States. The new program focused on student learning and included online as well as face-to-face components that allowed students to complete the program in half the usual time in most cases. On average, students enrolled in the new program had lower placement test scores compared to students in the old program, but the gap was closed in the subsequent test and English course. Details of the redesign and challenges to conducting educational research and data analysis in community colleges are provided for other 2-year colleges considering course redesigns intended to impact student success.     

Data Driven Similarity Measures for <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Means Like Clustering Algorithms

We present an optimization approach that generates k-means like clustering algorithms. The batch k-means and the incremental k-means are two well known versions of the classical k-means clustering algorithm (Duda et al. 2000). To benefit from the speed of the batch version and the accuracy of the incremental version we combine the two in a ping–pong fashion. We use a distance-like function that combines the squared Euclidean distance with relative entropy. In the extreme cases our algorithm recovers the classical k-means clustering algorithm and generalizes the Divisive Information Theoretic clustering algorithm recently reported independently by Berkhin and Becher (2002) and Dhillon1 et al. (2002). Results of numerical experiments that demonstrate the viability of our approach are reported.This research was supported in part by the US Department of Defense, the United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), and Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NG/MS).     

Developing science process skills in special schools in South Africa

This paper describes research conducted alongside the implementation of 'Translation Activities' to teach science process skills in three Schools for Children with Special Educational Needs (known as special schools) in the Western Cape, South Africa. Teachers were interviewed about the differences of teaching science to their learners in the context of the new Outcomes Based Education Curriculum. They were then trained in the strategy and observed while they started to implement it in their classrooms. Further interviews were conducted over the period of a year to discover how this particular teaching innovation fitted with the special conditions. The case studies explain how pupils were able to spend a greater proportion of time working in groups, learning from the activities, and attempt to throw light on how access to science might be facilitated in a future system characterised by inclusion.     

Distributed media cooperation for enhanced video communication

INTRODUCTION According to yearly statistics the demand for multimedia traffic over computer networks is con- stantly on the increase (Nielsen//NetRatings, http:// www.nielsen-netratings.com/). Therefore, it is inevi- table that situations where different media streams will need to share communication resources will be- come commonplace. In such cases, it would be of interest to optimize the overall performance of the network. In other words, resources should be allo- cated across the com…