A New Approach to Quality Assurance for Higher Education

This article describes the Engineering Professors' Conference (EPC) approach to quality assurance for Higher Education Institutions, which is currently the only formalized alternative to British Standard 5750 'Quality Systems'. The EPC approach is based on principles of quality assurance and Total Quality Management which have been developed in industry. These ideas are briefly outlined, and an opinion expressed on the interpretation and application of BSS7S0 for HE. The EPC model is explained, illustrated with example elements taken from the EPC Specification and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. A top-down approach to the development of an institutional quality system is described, based on a quality policy statement. Areas of activity which have an important impact on the quality of education are identified, emphasising the quality assurance requirements of academic departments. Supporting and administrative quality system requirements are also described, as these also play an important role in the quality of education. Formal quality procedures and documentation in key areas are proposed.     

Social support and recovery from sport injury: elite skiers share their experiences.

Research suggests that social support can be an important coping resource for athletes recovering from sport injury. Few studies have investigated this claim, however. To address this gap in the literature, 10 elite downhill skiers who had recovered from serious sport injuries were interviewed about the sources of stress associated with injury and the role of social support in recovery from sport injury. This paper presents the social supportfindings that emergedfrom this research'. Content analyses of the social support data revealed that the skiers needed various types of emotional, informational, and tangible support from the occurrence of injury through the return to full activity. Members of the treatment team, the ski team, and the skiers' home support net works provided social support throughout these phases. In general, the skiers were satisfied with the support received, indicating that it reduced distress and kept them motivated throughout recovery. The findings from this research have implications for the design of sport injury interventions.     

Investigation of Poor Academic Achievement in Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a neurogenetic developmental disorder that presents with progressive muscular weakness. It is caused by a mutation in a gene that results in the absence of specific products that normally localize to muscle cells and the central nervous system (CNS). The majority of affected individuals have IQs within the normal range, generally with lower verbal than performance IQ scores. Prior work has demonstrated selective deficits on tests of verbal span and immediate memory. For the current study, 26 boys with DMD (and normal intellectual function) and their unaffected siblings were evaluated. Paired comparisons demonstrated that the children with DMD had significantly poorer academic achievement scores than their siblings, even though their vocabulary levels and home and educational environments were comparable. Children with DMD also had more behavioral concerns, physical disabilities, and poorer verbal memory spans. Linear regression indicated that behavioral concerns, executive function, and physical disability did not contribute substantially to academic performance, whereas performance on verbal span did. DMD presents with a selective developmental aberration in verbal span that has wide‐ranging consequences on learning skills.     

Assessing School Readiness: Validity and Bias in Preschool and Kindergarten Teachers' Ratings

As a part of efforts to evaluate and monitor the increasing public investment in early childhood education, teachers are being asked to assess children's school readiness. In this study, preschool teachers and kindergarten teachers rated children's skills in three areas (kindergarten readiness, academic skills, and communication skills), and these ratings were compared with direct assessments of the children's skills. Ratings by both groups of teachers tended to be more highly related to basic skills, such as counting and number naming, than to abilities such as solving applied problems and using expressive and receptive vocabulary. Preschool teachers' ratings had a lower association with children's observed skills and abilities than kindergarten teachers' ratings. Ratings of children attending Head Start were systematically inflated, but this relationship was mediated to a significant extent by the teachers' levels of education. More educated teachers rated children in a manner consistent with the children's directly assessed skills. Implications of these findings for informing future efforts to assess school readiness by using teacher ratings are discussed.     

论体育教育专业改革的职业需求适应性

体育教育专业在培养中小学体育师资方面起着重要的作用,因而,体育教育专业的培养目标和教学模式必须适应现代社会的需求,适应中小学体育教学.21世纪中小学体育必将进行一系列的改革.分析了中小学体育的教学目标、教学方法和课程设置,同时对体育教育专业改革的若干方面进行了探讨.     

National Testing or Political Testing: I s There a Difference?

Are two national reports on standardized testing realistic or simplistic? What is the difference between “political” testing and conventional testing? What are some likely consequences of politicizing school testing?     

Engaging Students with Learning Disabilities in Instructional Discourse: A Commentary on the REACH Papers

The four articles on instructional discourse contributed by the members of the REACH project offer rich examples of the learning opportunities for students with learning disabilities (LD) in upper‐elementary and middle‐school content classrooms. In this commentary, I highlight possible reasons for variations in instructional engagement within and across the studies, discuss the challenges to engaging students with LD in discipline‐based instruction, and stress the value for the LD field of greater attention to instructional discourse.     

Basic skill requirements for selected Army occupational training courses

This study investigated the basic cognitive skills soldiers must possess before entering the Army, skills that are needed for successful completion of entry-level training. Judgments of 126 instructors from 25 military occupational specialties were obtained on 129 candidate skills, which resulted in the identification of 55 basic skills. Factor analysis of these 55 skill items resulted in 11 interpretable factors. Mean scores on the factors were compared across factors and across Army training schools. The results of the study suggest that, for all occupational specialties studied, skills related to the learning process are as crucial as traditional academic skills for successful training course completion. These results have important implications for training for the Army as well as for industry.