Examining Contextual Effects in a Practice Analysis: An Application of Dual Scaling

Practice analyses are routinely used in support of the development of occupational and professional certification and licensure examinations. These analyses usually survey incumbents to obtain importance ratings of (1) specific tasks and (2) knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA) statements deemed by subject matter experts as essential to safe and effective practice. Several researchers have made important criticisms of traditional practice analysis procedures, particularly the lack of attention to contextual constructs and the resulting problematic interpretation of mean importance ratings. The present study provides a framework for assessing the impact of context in practice analysis studies. It focuses on a practice analysis of a health profession that sought to enhance the meaning of incumbents' importance ratings by embedding the statements in the context of patient acuities. Results indicate that incumbents' importance ratings varied as a function of patient acuity. Dual scaling analysis was used to obtain a multidimensional visual representation of the associations between importance ratings and contextual content. The implications of the contextual component of the study design for future practice analysis studies are discussed as well as possible applications of this approach to professions in education.     

视频网站 并购风将把互联网引向何方？

网络视频业是否在走向衰退？ 10月10日，谷歌（Google）以16.5亿美元的价格收购了YouTobe，这是该网站创立网络视频业务以来最新，也是最大手笔的收购活动。     

Instructional designers as reflective practitioners: developing professional identity through reflection

As the design thinking approach becomes more established in the instructional design (ID) discourse, the field will have to reconsider the professional identity of instructional designers. Rather than passively following models or processes, a professional identity rooted in design thinking calls for instructional designers to be dynamic agents of change who use reflective thinking to navigate the design space and develop solutions to ill-structured problems. Graduate programs in ID will also need to prepare students to manage the complexities they will encounter in their professional practice, including the establishment of design precedents, reflective thinking skills, and the foundations of professional identity. This research explored the use of reflective writing assignments in an introductory ID graduate course, with results indicating that most students are able to engage in meaningful reflection in relation to prompts concerning design concepts, experiences, and identity attributes, although no clear patterns of improvement emerged over time. Future directions for research include the use of feedback and the structure of prompts (including frequency of writing assignments and wording of prompts) to support improved student performance.     

Winning Beginnings Learning Circles: Outcomes from a Three-Year School Readiness Pilot

The current project examined school readiness outcomes of children participating in a preschool professional development initiative, Winning Beginnings Learning Circles, which focused on school readiness and teacher professional development. Children were assessed on knowledge and understanding of school readiness concepts in the fall and spring of each school year, and outcomes were reported back to preschool staff to be incorporated into teaching strategies. Preschool teachers and administrators attended monthly professional development seminars that consisted of workshops in child development and social-emotional health, parent engagement, and use of data as evidence-based best practices. Preschool assessment data from the first 2 years of the project showed significant increases in average scores from pre- to post-assessment on school readiness, self/social awareness, and quantity subtests. Kindergarten assessment data indicated that children who remained in the project for at least one full year outperformed comparable peers and the average for the school district they attended as kindergartners. The results highlight the potential of professional development programs and the importance of teacher quality in promoting positive outcomes for preschool children.     

Sexual behaviour and interest in using a sexual health mobile app to help improve and manage college students' sexual health

Many US college students are reported to engage in risky sexual behaviour. Smartphone applications are a popular way to provide users with information in real time. We explored the potential for mobile technology to be used in promoting the sexual health of college students. Using findings from an online survey among a random sample of 5000 college students (15% response), we examined sexual behaviours and interest in a sexual health application in January 2012. The majority of students were female (73%) and owned a smartphone (74%). Twenty-nine per cent currently used health-related applications on their phone and 67% reported interest in using a free application that could improve/manage their sexual health. Interest in use varied based on gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, having an unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, smartphone ownership and past application use. The top most useful features for women included a period tracker (46%), birth control reminder (43%) and STI and pregnancy symptom checker (30%). Women were more likely to be interested in using the application compared with men and those engaging in more sexual activity were more likely to be interested as compared with those engaging in less sexual activity. The evaluation of mobile technology to promote healthy sexuality among college students is warranted.     

Tensions of Reimagining Our Roles as Teacher Educators in a Third Space: Revisiting a Co/autoethnography Through a Faculty Lens

This co/autoethnography uses our lens as university faculty to examine how engaging in a year-long self-study with mentors nurtured a complicated third space where we could together begin to reimagine our roles as teacher educators. Two secondary faculty members and a doctoral assistant used co/autoethnography to revisit a collaborative self-study with mentors to better identify both the individual and programmatic complexities that arise when a third space is opened and we are invited to reinvent our perspectives and responsibilities as co-teacher educators. We ask two questions: What happens when faculty facilitate a third-space teacher education program with mentor teachers? How does this third space influence the teacher education practices in an urban teacher residency program? We present a series of tensions about our work together as teacher educators in the third space. They include professional into authentic relationships, authority into collaboration, collaborative agency into individual agency, and apprenticing to master teacher into apprenticing within a collective. Following findings about each tension, we discuss how we as faculty navigated each tension. Finally, we consider the implications of our work for all field-based teacher education programs.     

An examination of the decision-making process used by designers in multiple disciplines

Design-thinking is an inductive and participatory process in which designers are required to manage constraints, generate solutions, and follow project timelines in order to complete project goals. The researchers used this exploration study to look at how designers in various disciplinary fields approach design projects. Designers were asked to describe a project and a decision that they had to make previously. Decisions were analyzed to determine whether they were ready-made versus custom-made solutions. The process by which the designers arrived at the decisions was categorized as idea-imposition or discovery. Results indicated that designers work with multiple constraints while designing, and the majority used a custom-made solution following a discovery process.