The relationship between adaptive behavior and intelligence for special needs students

This study employed the technique of factor analysis to study the relationship between social system adaptive behavior, as measured by the Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children, and intelligence, as measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, in a sample of 100 special needs students, ages 6–11. The results clearly supported the existence of two distinct factors among the WISC-R and ABIC subscales, with each factor composed primarily of either intelligence or adaptive behavior subscales. Thus, the data supported the discriminant validity of the two measures. Implications for the evaluation of special needs students are discussed.     

网球比赛分析的几个关键点

许多运动队将全程比赛分析作为教练员的指导工具,研究己方和对方运动员的类型、战术和技术特点.网球项目中,拥有个人分析师的运动员并不多见,大部分运动员和教练员使用分析设备和程序提供的客观、可靠的反馈信息,自己进行赛前及赛后分析.很多教练员采用其他教练员的有效训练模式,因为不是所有人都有时间去分析1000h的大满贯录像来找出战术差异,但可利用他人的分析结果.赛事录像记录的客观数据提供了充足的反馈信息,教练员可根据这些反馈信息调整技战术,进行针对性的训练.     

Bringing Cinderella to the ball: constructing a federal system of technical and further education in Australia, 1971–1975

Australian vocational education has a history dating from the late eighteenth century. As Australian colonies and, later, federated states evolved each constructed its own version of vocational education provision. Generally the systems, consisting of community‐based or state‐controlled colleges for the training of operatives, apprenticeships and professional support personnel, were poorly resourced and lacked powerful sponsors to support and promote the education and training of their mostly working‐class students. By the early 1970s Australian governments had developed commissions to supplement the funding of state‐based elementary, secondary and university education systems, even though under the Australian Constitution education remained state‐controlled matter. A reformist federal Labor government at the time consolidated elementary, secondary and university funding but neglected to consider, or even acknowledge, the 400,000 vocational education students not covered by these commissions. Following pressure from vocational education teacher unions, among others, the Labor government established the Australian Committee for Technical and Further Education (ACOTAFE) to address the needs of these students. At ACOTAFE’s first meeting on 25 March 1973, the Minister for Education Kim E. Beazley said, ‘It will be a renaissance in education when technical and further education cease to be Cinderellas in education. It is the role of your committee to bring Cinderella to her rightful role as princess’. ACOTAFE was to be chaired by Myer Kangan from the Department of Labour and National Service. The committee’s published outcomes were referred to evermore as the iconic ‘Kangan Report’ rather than TAFE in Australia: Report on Needs in Technical and Further Education, its formal title. The report gave Australian vocational education a name (TAFE), a philosophy (access to all through lifelong learning) and much needed capital works and infrastructure funding. The paper will outline the circumstances leading to the formation of the committee, its work and its outcomes. Focus will be placed on the influential role of Chairman Kangan in shaping ACOTAFE’s conclusions. A key theme within the paper is the intersection of biography, politics and the economy in shaping policy construction.     

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Examining the Career Choices of Alternatively Licensed Teachers in Urban Schools

In order to address the issue of persistent teacher shortages, urban districts increasingly rely on alternatively licensed teachers who are often viewed as well-suited to work in urban areas because of their greater age, life and work experiences, and understanding of diverse communities. Yet, research on the retention of these teachers remains inconclusive, with some notable studies suggesting that alternatively licensed teachers are as likely as their traditionally prepared counterparts to quit teaching or migrate out of urban school settings. In this study, we explore the process and salient considerations of five alternatively licensed math and science teachers deciding whether or not to continue teaching in a Midwestern, urban school district. Whereas previous studies typically examine teacher recruitment and retention issues through a narrow analysis of labor market incentives and other external inducements, our study situates teachers’ career decisions within a more holistic narrative that illustrates how individual actions are never determined by any single factor, but rather a web of simultaneous and sometimes contradictory forces generated by prior expectations and immediate realities that are professional as well as personal in nature.     

Finite element simulation of the ski–snow interaction of an alpine ski in a carved turn

Skiing manufacturers depend on the development of new skis on trial and error cycles and extensive product testing. Simulation tools, such as the finite element method, might be able to reduce the number of required testing cycles. However, computer programs simulating a ski in the situation of a turn so far lack realistic ski–snow interaction models. The aim of this study was to (a) implement a finite element simulation of a ski in a carved turn with an experimentally validated ski–snow interaction model, and (b) comparison of the simulation results with instantaneous turn radii determined for an actual carved turn. A quasi-static approach was chosen in which the ski–snow interaction was implemented as a boundary condition on the running surface of the ski. A stepwise linear function was used to characterise the snow pressure resisting the penetration of the ski. In a carved turn the rear section of the ski interacts with the groove that forms in the snow. Two effects were incorporated in the simulation to model this situation: (a) the plasticity of the snow deformation, (b) the influence of the ski’s side-cut on the formation and shape of this groove. The simulation results agreed well with experiments characterising snow penetration. Implementation of the groove in the ski–snow interaction model allowed calculation of the instantaneous turn radii measured in actual turns, but also caused significant numerical instability. The simulation contributes to the understanding of the mechanical aspects of the ski–snow interaction in carved turns and can be used to evaluate new ski designs.