Development of Training Materials for Community Based Rehabilitation Workers in Guyana

Parents of children with disabilities are not getting enough help for their education, care and training. The prevailing model of rehabilitation based on institutional care, would absorb more than the total health and education budgets of most developing countries if serious attempts were made to meet the needs of all disabled persons through this approach. Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) has therefore been suggested as an alternative approach to service delivery. For CBR to be a viable service provision a new concept needs to be developed of staff and training. This paper presents an outline of materials that have been developed in Guyana to meet the training needs of a new cadre of worker in the rehabilitation field.     

Using centrality of concept maps as a measure of problem space states in computer-supported collaborative problem solving

Problem solving likely involves at least two broad stages, problem space representation and then problem solution (Newell and Simon, Human problem solving, 1972). The metric centrality that Freeman (Social Networks 1:215–239, 1978) implemented in social network analysis is offered here as a potential measure of both. This development research study applied centrality measures to reanalyze existing concept maps from a recent investigation (Engelmann and Hesse, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning 5:299–319, 2010). Participants (N = 120) were randomly assigned to interdependent (i.e. hidden profiles) or non-interdependent conditions to work online in triads using CmapTools software to create a concept map in order to solve a problem scenario. The centrality values of these group-created concept maps agreed with the common relations count analysis used in that investigation and allowed for additional comparisons as well as analysis by multidimensional scaling. Specifically, the interdependent triad maps resembled the fully explicated problem space, while the non-interdependent triad maps mainly resembled the problem solution. The results demonstrate that centrality is a useful measure of knowledge structure contained in these team concept map artifacts that allows researchers to infer problem representation start and goal state transitions during problem solving.     

Manifestations of Quality Learning in Computer-Mediated University Courses

A prototype computer-mediated communication system was assessed for its capability to stimulate intellectual activity through mandating peer comments in graduate and undergraduate computer science classes. Measured against Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, about half the total comments in two classes exhibited no evidence of classifiable intellectual activity. Of the remaining half, a positive correlation was found between number of characters and level of cognition exhibited by a comment, though exceptions were found at every level. A significant but weak relationship was also shown between cognitive level of comments and level of classes. The results suggest modifications to the computer-mediated communication system so that students more effectively engage in peer–peer assessment.     

Students' understanding of theory in undergraduate education

This paper investigates undergraduate students' application of theory in their analysis of problems presented in authentic leadership cases. Taking a phenomenographic research approach, the paper identifies two levels at which students understand ‘theory’: Level 1-Theory as knowledge acquired from books; Level 2-Theory as support for problem solutions. Only the students at Level 2 understanding achieved the highest learning outcome described by the Bologna Reforms. This result may be accounted for by the difference in the students' pre-conceived understanding of the events and relationships in the analysed cases. The phenomenographic assumption explains why the authentic cases are problematic. The high relevancy of the learning object – as an authentic case – may reduce the effect of variation, in this case the educational environment that is the mechanism for learning according to variation theory.     

Historical Views of Film

Ted Sennett's Warner Brothers Presents: The Most Exciting Years--From "The Jazz Singer" to "White Heat" (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1971---$11.95)

Leif Furhammar and Folke Isaksson's Politics and Film (New York: Praeger, 1971---$12.50)

Peter Cowie (ed.) The Concise History of the Cinema: Volume I, Before 1940. (Cranbury, N.J.: A.S. Barnes, 1971---$3.50, paper)

Roy Armes' The French Cinema since 1946: Volume I, The Great Tradition (Cranbury, N. J.: A.S. Barnes, 1970---$2.95, paper)

Gordon Gow's Hollywood in the Fifties (Cranbury, N.J.: A.S. Barnes, 1971---$2.95, paper)

Edward Wagenknecht's The Movies in the Age of Innocence (New York: Ballentine, $2.95, paper)

Thorold Dickenson's A Discovery of Cinema (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971---$8.50 with a paperback edition available)

Rachael Low's classic History of the British Film (London: Allen and Unwin, 1971---price not known)

Bob Thomas' The Heart of Hollywood: A 50-year Pictorial History of the Film Capital and the Famed Motion Picture and Television Fund (Los Angeles: Price/Stern/Stern, 1971---$7.95)

Bob Harmon's Hollywood Panorama (New York: Dutton, 1971---$3.95, paper)     

History of intercollegiate debating in Ohio

HANDBOOK OF GROUP DISCUSSION. By Russell H. Wagner and Carroll C. Arnold. Boston: Houghton‐Mifflin Co., 1950; pp. v + 322. $2.75.

DISCUSSION IN HUMAN AFFAIRS. By James H. McBurney and Kenneth G. Hance. New York: Harper and Bros., 1950; pp. viii + 432. $3.00.

GROUP THINKING AND CONFERENCE LEADERSHIP. Techniques of Discussion. By William E. Utterback. New York: Rinehart and Co., 1950; pp. vii + 248. $2.50.

SPEECH FOR EVERYDAY USE. By Elizabeth G. Andersch and Lorin C. Staats. New York: Rinehart and Co., 1950; pp. x + 218. $2.50. STUDENTS' WORKBOOK, $0.50.

PUBLIC SPEAKING FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS. Second Edition. By Lionel Crocker. New York: American Book Co., 1950; pp. xi + 508. $4.00.

BASIC SPEECH. By Jon Eisenson. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1950; pp. xi + 344. $3.00.

DYNAMIC PUBLIC SPEAKING. By George M. Glasgow. New York: Harper and Bros., 1950; pp. vii + 315. $2.50.

SPEECH PROJECT AND DRILL BOOK. By Leroy T. Laase. Dubuque, Lowa: William C. Brown Co., 1950; pp. ix + 255. $2.25.

SPEECH EDUCATION IN OHIO. By Franklin H. Knower. Columbus: Ohio State University, 1950; pp. iv + 157.

THE ART OF SCENIC DESIGN. By Lee Simonson. New York: Harper and Bros., 1950; pp. 174. $4.50.

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF. Essentials of Reading Aloud and Speaking. By J. S. Driver. New York: Harper and Bros., 1948; pp. x + 206. $2.75.

PERSUASIVE SPEAKING: PRINCIPLES AND METHODS. By Robert T. Oliver. New York: Longman's, Green and Co., 1950; pp. xi + 272. $3.00.

NEW DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICS. By E. C. Smith and A. J. Zurcher. New York; Barnes and Noble, Inc., 1949; pp. viii + 437. $3.25.

HANDBOOK OF BIOLINGUISTICS. By Clarence Meader and John Muyskens. Toledo: Toledo Speech Clinic, 1950; pp. xxi + 330. $10.00     

Applying an Integrative Technology Adoption Paradigm to Health App Adoption and Use

The present study employs an audience-centered approach to examine motivations for mobile fitness app use. We explicate and test an Integrated Technology Adoption model, which incorporates perspectives on competition, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and audience uses and gratifications. An online survey of 469 respondents reveals that app adoption intentions were predicted by internal competition orientations and gratifications, exercise self-efficacy, social utility motives, and attitudes toward the app. External competition decreased behavioral intentions related to app use. Study results thus provide support for an integrative model linking social cognitive factors with a new set of mobile app uses and gratifications.     

Anthropometric fractionation of body mass: Matiegka revisited

In a group of 699 Belgian nursing professionals, we estimated body composition using the four-component anthropometric model, relying on the equations originally formulated by Matiegka in 1921 and later revised by Drinkwater and colleagues. We estimated muscle mass using the more recent formula proposed by Martin and co-workers. A discrepancy was noted between estimated total body mass and 'assessed' mass, suggesting erroneous estimations of the components.