A Practical Guide to Practice Analysis for Credentialing Examinations

Practice analysis (i.e., job analysis) serves as the cornerstone for the development of credentialing examinations and is generally used as the primary source of evidence when validating scores on such exams. Numerous methodological questions arise when planning and conducting a practice analysis, but there is little consensus in the measurement community regarding the answers to these questions. This article offers recommendations concerning the following issues: selecting a method of practice analysis; developing rating scales to describe practice; determining the content of test plans; using multivariate procedures for structuring test plans; and determining topic weights for test plans. The article closes by suggesting several references for further reading.     

开放大学面临的挑战：来自韩国的案例

韩国国立开放大学有过成功的历史，但目前它正处在困境之中。本文通过数据分析，描述了开放大学所存在的主要困难：①报名人数和在学学生的人数急剧减少；②学生注册率呈连续下降趋势；③学生出现女性化和大龄化的趋势；④学生数量少于招生指标的院系数目增多，不同院系学生数量之间的差距增大。根据韩国开放大学的经验，作者提出以下建议：把学生数维持在一个合理的范围内；开放大学要尽力提高教育质量。     

Examining the development of action learning practice in South Korea

This year marks the 25th anniversary since action learning (AL) was first introduced in 1993 in South Korea. Although AL has greatly contributed to meeting organizational needs so that it would result in its strong presence as an organizational learning tool, there is no single review study on the development of AL practice in Korea. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine the development of AL practice in Korea to understand its current state and envision the future. To that end, two research questions guided our inquiry: What are the distinctive features of the development of AL practice in Korea? What is unique about the development of AL practice in Korea? To answer the two research questions, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 AL practitioners who have experienced AL practice for many years, analyzed 13 annual AL conference proceedings published since 2005, and reviewed Korean publications on AL published since 2000. Based on the triangulated data analysis, we discuss the uniqueness of the development of AL practice in Korea and implications for research and practice.     

Reading Achievement in the Middle School Years: A Study Investigating Growth Patterns by High Incidence Disability

Numerous research studies (e.g., Anderson, Kutash, &; Duchnowski, 2001; Lane, Carter, Pierson, &; Glaeser, 2006 Lane, K. L., Carter, E. W., Pierson, M. R., &; Glaeser, B. C. (2006). Academic, social and behavioral characteristics of high school students with emotional disturbances or learning disabilities. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 14, 108–117. doi:10.1177/10634266060140020101[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Volpe, Dupaul, Jitendra, &; Tresco, 2009 Volpe, R. J., Dupaul, G. J., Jitendra, A. K., &; Tresco, K. E. (2009). Consultation-based academic interventions for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Effects on reading and mathematics outcomes at 1-year follow-up. School Psychology Review, 38, 5–13.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Wei, Blackorby, &; Schiller, 2011 Wei, X., Blackorby, J., &; Schiller, E. (2011). Growth in reading achievement of students with disabilities, age 7 to 17. Exceptional Children, 78, 89–106.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) have shown that students with disabilities generally exhibit lower reading scores than their peers without disabilities. However, questions remain about the possibility of longitudinal differences among high-incidence disability classifications (e.g., speech/language impairments, SLI; emotional disturbances, ED; learning disabilities, LD; and attention deficit disorders, ADD). This study investigated growth patterns in reading achievement among middle school students from 5th to 8th grade with different high incidence disability classifications on one state's high-stakes assessment. After a repeated measures analysis of variance and post hoc testing, results reveal that students identified as LD and SLI evidenced more growth in reading than those classified as either ADD or ED. In light of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 legislation, findings about the various growth patterns are discussed with respect to policy, measurement, and practical implications.     

On the construction of cryptographically strong Boolean functions with desirable trade-off

INTRODUCTION A variety of desirable criteria for functions have been identified: balancedness, local and global ava-lanche characteristics, high nonlinearity, etc. These properties are also very important for cryptographic purpose. Obtaining optimal tradeoffs among so many properties is hard. If we take into account more crite-ria, it is more difficult to generate Boolean functions satisfying those properties purely by constructive algebraic methods. How to construct Boolean func-tions …     

精准医学发展趋势:从定量成像到放射组学（英文）

放射学(影像学)及影像引导的介入手段能提供多参数的形态学及功能信息,在精准医学中扮演着越来越重要的角色。因此,放射科医生需要理解影像表型,并将这些表型与潜在的疾病相关联,进而描述图像特征。但是为了能理解并描述异质性实体肿瘤的分子表型(基因组学信息),就需要通过活检取得这些组织更进一步的序列信息。因此,放射科医生为了能获得详尽的影像表型,需要从不同视图和角度采集图像,而这就产生了大量的数据。从所有这些影像数据中提取有意义的细节非常具有挑战性,并衍生出了大数据这个命题。因为影像组学有对诊断支持提供有意义的诠释性和预测性信息的潜力,所以近年来对于影像组学的关注越来越多。影像组学是传统的计算机辅助诊断、深度学习和人类技能的结合,因此它能被用来定量描述肿瘤表型。本文对影像组学流程的概览、基于不同手段(如计算机断层扫描(CT)、磁共振成像(MRI)和正电子发射计算机断层扫描(PET))的影像组学研究结果、面临的挑战和影像组学对于精准医学潜在的贡献等方面进行了讨论。     

Demystifying Creativity: What Creativity Isn’t and Is?

To understand creativity is to recognize and develop the creative potential within oneself and others. This article examines what creativity is not and then what creativity is. First, the six leading misconceptions about creativity are discussed: Creativity belongs solely to the arts; creativity is quickly recognizable; innovators always work alone; mental illness enhances creativity; creativity is a divine flash of inspiration; and newness is a prerequisite to creativity. Then, using the research-based CATs model, what creativity is and how creativity develops into innovation are discussed: (a) cultivate creative climates; (b) nurture creative attitudes; and (c) develop creative thinking skills. Creativity does not come from nature but from nurture, and developing gifted children’s creativity should be the goal of parenting and education.