Supporting the transition to inclusive education: teachers’ attitudes to inclusion in the Seychelles

The inclusion of children with disability in regular classroom settings has been identified worldwide as crucial to the provision of effective education for all children and to the creation of more inclusive societies. To this end there has been significant focus on pre-service and in-service teacher education to ensure that teachers are adequately prepared to teach in inclusive classrooms. When delivering a unit on inclusive education in the Seychelles, which was developed in Australia, we considered it essential to determine the suitability of the unit in supporting Seychellois teachers to teach inclusively. Teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about people with disability are two aspects that have consistently been shown to impact on a teacher’s willingness to include children with disability. Therefore, the Seychellois teachers were asked to complete questionnaires in the first and final weeks of the semester in which the teachers undertook the unit. The two sets of responses were analysed to determine significance and effect sizes of any change in attitudes and beliefs. Data revealed that the Seychellois teachers reported more positive attitudes and beliefs about the inclusion of children with disability in regular classrooms after completing the unit, suggesting that the unit of study was suitable for the Seychellois context.     

Wider die „Sternchenkunde“!

In general, empirical results are analyzed using statistical methods to examine and discuss differences and interrelationships. Statistical methodological evaluation and the underlying reporting strategy can be described as a technical language that has to be learnt for successful communication between researchers, authors and reviewers; however, empirical science is a constantly changing environment which is why the statistical methods applied have to be refined to adhere to new empirical approaches. This line of thought will be discussed in this article and five essential recommendations will be presented: (a) directionality of hypotheses, (b) confidence intervals, (c) effect sizes, (d) confidence intervals of effect sizes and (e) practical meaningfulness.     

Dissecting “Peer Presence” and “Decisions” to Deepen Understanding of Peer Influence on Adolescent Risky Choice

This study evaluated the aspects of complex decisions influenced by peers, and components of peer involvement influential to adolescents’ risky decisions. Participants (N = 140) aged 13–25 completed the Columbia Card Task (CCT), a risky choice task, isolating deliberation-reliant and affect-reliant decisions while alone, while a friend monitors choices, and while a friend is merely present. There is no condition in which a nonfriend peer is present. Results demonstrated the risk-increasing peer effect occurred in the youngest participants in the cold CCT and middle-late adolescents in the hot CCT, whereas other ages and contexts showed a risk-decreasing peer effect. Mere presence was not sufficient to influence risky behavior. These boundaries in age, decision, and peer involvement constrain prevailing models of adolescent peer influence.     

Achieving high quality of use-case-based requirements

Zusammenfassung Seit der Einführung von Use Cases hat deren Bedeutung zur Spezifikation von Anforderungen stetig zugenommen. Die Qualit?t der Use Cases ist ein entscheidender Faktor für den Erfolg des Entwicklungsprozesses, da die meisten Entwicklungsschritte auf den Use Cases aufbauen. Trotz der extremen Wichtigkeit der Qualit?t der Use Cases stellen die meisten use-case-basierten Entwicklungsans?tze keine oder nur unzureichende integrierte qualit?tssichernde Ma?nahmen bereit (z.B. ad-hoc Empfehlungen, Erstellungsrichtlinien, einige Checklisten zur Inspektion von Use Cases). Diese Techniken werden in den meisten F?llen unabh?ngig voneinander eingesetzt, so dass bestimmte Fehlerklassen in den Use Cases durch mehrere Techniken, andere Fehlerklassen überhaupt nicht adressiert werden. In diesem Artikel wird ein integrierter Ansatz vorgestellt, in dem Use Case Erstellungsrichtlinien, Inspektionen und Simulation in systematischer Weise miteinander verknüpft werden. Der Ansatz basiert auf einer Fehlerklassifikation für Use Cases, die als Grundlage dient, die verschiedenen Techniken auf bestimmte Fehlerarten zu fokussieren .

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Since their introduction, use cases (UCs) have become increasingly important for the specification of software requirements. High quality UCs are a prerequisite for project success. Despite the high importance of their quality, UC driven approaches often lack systematic and integrated quality assurance techniques. Only ad-hoc recommendations, creation guidelines, and a few checklists for inspection are available in the literature. If at all, these techniques are developed and used separately, so that one class of defects is addressed by several techniques and other classes are not addressed at all. In this paper, we present an integrated approach that combines UC creation guidelines, UC inspections, and simulation in a systematic way. We base our combined approach on a defect classification for use cases. This classification enables the requirements engineer to focus the different techniques on different types of defects.

CR Subject Classification D2.1     

Fan identification and national identity

It is commonly assumed that sport plays an important role for national identity. However, empirical research has primarily focused on sport’s role for emotional-affectice rather than cognitive aspects of national identity. Therefore, research presented here explores whether identification with the German national soccer team serves to reinforce ethnic or civic conceptions of national identity. Analyses of a unique dataset conducted during the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016?EURO show that national team identification is an important determinant of national pride and national belonging. Respondents who identify with the national soccer team can adhere to different conceptions of national identity. It seems that national pride and affection as well as conceptions of national identity represent stable attitudes not affected by the success of the national team. Further research should improve conceptual clarity and measurement.