Parent and teacher satisfaction with school‐based psychological reports

School psychologists spend a great deal of time translating assessment results into a psychoeducational report. The importance of creating reports that are both useful and understandable to the readers of the report while also being efficient for the school psychologist cannot be overstated. This study examines parent and teacher perceptions regarding the quality, understandability, and usefulness of school‐based psychological reports. Results of the surveys indicate that both parents and teachers perceive psychological reports as focusing more on tests and test scores as opposed to information that helps to understand the child or assists with intervention development. Strategies for upgrading reports to better meet the needs of parent and teacher readers are discussed.     

Charting the development of sport expertise: challenges and opportunities

This review poses three key issues that will progress our understanding of the sport expertise literature and its translational scientific impact. Primarily relying on research conducted in interceptive sport tasks, and to a lesser extent team sports, we review the perceptual-cognitive skills of sports experts and explore the challenge of designing a sufficiently representative task to examine expertise. We focus on the methodological challenges presented by the reciprocal relationship between players’ action capabilities and their perceptual-cognitive skill. Second, we consider the need for a paradigm shift in the experimental approach used when examining the development of sport expertise. In short, a shift from traditional expert-novice designs to more prospective longitudinal designs that cross-sectionally track the development of expertise is discussed. The final issue considers how the volume of in situ data now collected provides a rich source of information that sport expertise researchers have only begun to consider and integrate with more traditional sport psychology research. We demonstrate how statistical approaches that have described the likely trajectories of expert performers on their journey toward expertise coupled with more traditional qualitative experimental approaches can provide useful insights into the development of psychological performance skills and more broadly sport expertise.     

Validating a shortened form of the ARC for special populations

Autonomy describes cognition or behavior that is self-directed, according to personal interests, and free from external influence. This construct is of importance to students who are deaf because it has been shown to be positively related to their post-school transition outcomes, and this population faces unique challenges in this area. To conduct research with this construct, it is necessary to use measures that are valid and reliable for the population of interest. Therefore, a set of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses validated the unidimensionality of a shortened form of the ARC Self-Determination Scale’s autonomy dimension. A three-factor solution, including a social skills dimension, was measurement-invariant across many groups of students, including those with learning disabilities, emotional disturbances, speech and language impairments, and other health impairments. Although the shortened form of this scale was not unidimensional, as hypothesized, the generalizability of its measurement properties may prove useful. Discussion highlights the differences between these three dimensions and Wehmeyer's theory of self-determination.     

低碳发展方案编制指南(第三部分)——制定低碳发展规划

本节介绍制定低碳发展计划常用的核心步骤。本指南侧重城市层面;同样的步骤也适用于企业、市、省和国家等层级。中国自"十一五规划"起,对改善国内能源强度定出目标,包括各经济部门的节能目标。2009年12月中国政府公布了其碳强度目标,重点放在单位GDP用能引发的二氧化碳排放量。为实现该强度目标以及"循环经济"等经济性目标,制定低碳发展规划尤其必要。     

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Rural Business Clusters: The Relation Between ICT Adoption and Benefits Derived From Cluster Membership

This study examines the relationships between information and communication technologies (ICT) usage, the benefits a company derives from membership in a rural business cluster, and the success of rural companies. Analysis of 333 rural businesses located in northern lower Michigan showed a strong relationship between (a) ICT adoption and benefits derived from the membership in business clusters, (b) ICT adoption and self-reported business success, and (c) benefits derived from business clusters and business success. Although analysis indicates that these relationships may be industry specific, results suggest that ICT adoption by rural enterprises may have advantages for the region's social capital and business success and may help reduce the digital divide experienced in rural communities.     

Metacognition and Middle Grade Mathematics Teachers: Supporting Productive Struggle

Communicating mathematical ideas through writing, listening, and verbalizing allows students to think about how they “think” about mathematics. By focusing this communication on a reflection of how one thinks about mathematics, metacognitive writing engages students as mathematicians and learners. In this article we describe a professional development that we implemented with middle grade mathematics teachers focused on metacognitive writing as a tool to support productive struggle in the mathematics classroom. Thus, this practitioner article adds to the knowledge base on how to develop middle grade teachers metacognitive writing through engagement in productive struggle. Recommendations for practice are included.     

Preparing special educators to teach reading and use curriculum-based assessments

Preparing special educators who are knowledgeable about evidence-based interventions for teaching reading to students with reading difficulties and who are capable of using curriculum-based assessments to monitor student progress and differentiate interventions is vital to the success of current school reform efforts. The primary purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the effect of tutoring and using assessment to monitor the progress of struggling readers on preservice teachers’ (PSTs’) knowledge and preparedness to teach reading. Also of interest was whether reading scores of tutored students improved. PSTs (n = 18) in an undergraduate reading methods course tutored at-risk second graders using an evidence-based intervention and monitored students’ progress weekly. PSTs made significant growth on a measure of teacher knowledge about the structure of language and on a survey of their preparedness to teach reading. A qualitative analysis of PSTs’ weekly reflections and final reports revealed that the majority used curriculum-based assessment data to describe students’ response to tutoring and were beginning to use that data to make instructional decisions. On average, tutored students improved reading fluency, but did not demonstrate significant growth in reading relative to national norms. Implications and limitations of the study are described and directions for future research are discussed.     

The preparation experiences of elementary mathematics specialists: examining influences on beliefs,content knowledge,and teaching practices

Many in the field of mathematics education call for elementary schools to have elementary mathematics specialists (EMSs) who provide needed mathematical expertise and support for children and teachers. EMSs serve as a reasonable, immediate alternative to the challenges generated by elementary teachers needing improved mathematical knowledge for teaching in the classroom. However, limited inquiry has explored how to best prepare EMSs and how program features and learning activities influence their development. This mixed-method study identifies some of the interrelated benefits from a K-5 Mathematics Endorsement Program designed to prepare EMSs through examining changes in mathematical beliefs, specialized content knowledge (SCK), and classroom teaching practices during the program. Data (n = 32) were collected over the 2-semester program via belief surveys, a content knowledge assessment, observations of teaching practices, and individual interviews from elementary teachers participating in the program. The findings show some changes in beliefs can be made relatively quickly, other shifts in beliefs take more time and continued support, and changes in SCK and adoption of various aspects of standard-based pedagogy require considerably greater opportunities to learn. The described program features and learning experiences provided a context for these changes and offer considerations for EMS preparation programs.