Historical overview of inpatient care of mental patients who are deaf

A review of published studies of deaf mentally ill inpatients is reported. While there are conflicts in the findings of some of the studies, several generalizations seem fairly universal across countries and time periods. For example, the data indicate a greater overall prevalence of mental illness in the deaf population than in the general population as a whole, based on the relative number of each group who are patients in psychiatric hospitals. In general, deaf patients have longer hospital stays. Characteristics symptoms leading to hospitalization of deaf people tend to be different from those of hearing patients. It was thought by most investigators that restriction of sign language use in schools was one reason for these differences. For both hearing and deaf inpatients, dual diagnosis (mental illness and substance abuse) is far more common today than in years past. All investigators found frequent misdiagnoses among deaf patients. The paucity of research on deaf inpatients over the last 2 decades is noted.     

Four narratives about online international students: a critical literature review

In the current higher education context, offering online programmes is seen as an effective means to recruit more international students. However, supporting online international students studying at a distance is not a simple task for both universities and tutors. The problem mainly stems from a lack of theoretical understanding of online international students and their learning experiences. The present article, therefore, aims to address the gap, by systematically, yet critically reviewing relevant academic narratives about online international students. Our review reveals four types of narratives presented in the literature, describing online international students in particular ways: unspecified others with a rapid increase in their numbers, specific others with deficits, specific others as pedagogical resources and active participants in international learning communities. We discuss the merits and the drawbacks of each type of narratives for online educators seeking pedagogical suggestions about supporting online international students.     

Affective, cognitive and vocational skills: The employers' perspective

The employers' perspective of the functions of higher education is examined. The basic approach is a comparison between public and private sector recruitment behaviour and their perspective of the role of the university. The former places most importance on academic record while the latter places as much, if not more, on experience and the affective skills. These differences are attributed to differences in organizational behaviour. However, both see the primary role of the university as that of developing problem-solving abilities rather than specific skills. Education should be made practical through the development of these abilities and the affective skills rather than occupation-specific competences.     

Innovations in Career Counseling

The work world is now full of uncertainty and change as a result of forces such as globalization, downsizing, advancing technology, and increased diversity in the work force. Further, people cannot count on maintaining a job with one company, or even one career, throughout their work lives. In order to meet clients' needs, career counselors must utilize approaches that are compatible with these realities. We review a set of approaches for career counseling that should be effective for clients now and into the future. Specifically, we argue for a holistic approach to career counseling, use of the Personal Career Theory as a client-centered approach to counseling sessions, incorporating creative interventions that draw upon chance events and flexible decision-making, and an emphasis on building interpersonal skills and relationships. We conclude with a summary of recommendations for career counseling practice.     

You can run but you can’t hide: a grounded theory analysis of suppression among older prisoners in the Philippines

ABSTRACT

Numerous studies have dealt with suppression and its long-term effects. However, little is known about the dynamics of suppression among older prisoners in the context of a developing country like the Philippines whose penal conditions are currently in crisis. This grounded theory investigation is an attempt to describe the process of how a select group of older prisoners (n = 25) from the largest penitentiary in the Philippines experiences suppression. Field texts were subjected to thematic analysis involving open, axial and selective coding. Interestingly, the researchers’ Yo-yoing model of Suppression emerged to portray stages of their suppression experiences. The model shows four stages: devastating, or the rapid heightening of emotions upon encounter of intrusive situation; contemplating, or the progressive receding of the wallowing emotions given one’s gradual realization of the situation; diverting, or the use of various diversionary activities to relieve tension; and iterating, or the unexpected recurrence of the past characterized by “rebounding” a feeling of suffering. The emerged model may become valuable to guide health professionals and gerontological workers in developing appropriate interventions and support mechanisms to improve the overall mental health and well-being of this vulnerable group.     

An Extension of Four IRT Linking Methods for Mixed-Format Tests

Under item response theory (IRT), linking proficiency scales from separate calibrations of multiple forms of a test to achieve a common scale is required in many applications. Four IRT linking methods including the mean/mean, mean/sigma, Haebara, and Stocking-Lord methods have been presented for use with single-format tests. This study extends the four linking methods to a mixture of unidimensional IRT models for mixed-format tests. Each linking method extended is intended to handle mixed-format tests using any mixture of the following five IRT models: the three-parameter logistic, graded response, generalized partial credit, nominal response (NR), and multiple-choice (MC) models. A simulation study is conducted to investigate the performance of the four linking methods extended to mixed-format tests. Overall, the Haebara and Stocking-Lord methods yield more accurate linking results than the mean/mean and mean/sigma methods. When the NR model or the MC model is used to analyze data from mixed-format tests, limitations of the mean/mean, mean/sigma, and Stocking-Lord methods are described.     

Sociological Perspectives on Ethnic Minority Teachers in China: A Review of the Research Literature

Improving the quality of education has been a central goal of the People’s Republic of China since its founding in 1949. Particular concern has been focused on ethnic minority areas where educational quality lags behind that of other regions. Since 1986 the State Education Commission has been working toward the implementation of nine years of compulsory education for all Chinese children nationwide. Implementing this policy has been particularly challenging in the less developed areas of western China where many ethnic minorities live. The solution rests in training an adequate number of teachers who are themselves from ethnic minority groups or who are willing to teach ethnic minority children. This article reviews a significant and growing body of English-language literature, drawn from the sociology of education, on minority teachers and teachers of minorities in the People’s Republic of China.     

Excellence and equity in high-performing education systems: policy lessons from Singapore and Hong Kong / Excelencia y equidad en sistemas educativos de alto rendimiento: lecciones de las políticas educativas en Singapur y Hong Kong

In recent years, both Singapore and Hong Kong have been ranked top in international education rankings. They are widely admired as high-performing education systems (HPES) and, not surprisingly, among the best education systems in the world. The success stories of Singapore and Hong Kong education have aroused widespread attention internationally among different stakeholders, such as policymakers, researchers and practitioners, to investigate if it is possible for their policies and practices to be learned and borrowed by other countries. In this article, we stress the importance of context in understanding policy phenomena and possibilities for policy transfer. The Singapore and Hong Kong education systems are facing critical issues such as the economization of education, educational disparities and the paradigm shift from meritocracy to parentocracy. How well they deal with these policy issues will determine if their present international standing continues into the future. This article provides a critical review of their education policies to explore how these policies can be refined and adjusted in order to cope with the challenges facing both education systems.     

The role of learners’ epistemic beliefs in an online Community of Inquiry

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model provides a lens to examine online learning through three elements: teaching presence (the design and facilitation of learning experiences), social presence (the extent to which learners project themselves as real people) and cognitive presence (the extent to which learners are able to construct meaning through inquiry and reflection activities). While research to date has established the importance of these essential presences in online learning environments, recent research on the CoI model calls for the need to explore the role of learner characteristics. The current study responded to the call by examining the role of learners’ epistemic beliefs (EB) (ie, individuals’ fundamental beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing) in an online CoI. Multiple linear regressions analyses revealed that EB moderated the relationship between learners’ perceived teaching presence and cognitive presences. Future studies on CoI should take learners’ epistemic beliefs into consideration, especially in the case of low teaching presences. Theoretical and practical implications for designing and investigating online learning are discussed.     

Toward socio-scientific participation: changing culture in the science classroom and much more

In response to Tali and Yarden’s presentation of their efforts to teach socioscientific issues, the discussants address issues of authentic versus simulated activities; teachers as learners or co-creators with their students; educating people to contribute to science-based decisionmaking; the development of such socioscientific competence; the relationship between group or participatory processes and individual development; framing real world cases for every age of student; making space to delve into the historical and social background to any scientific theory, practice, or application; educating teachers who can coach students in socioscientific inquiry; and facing off against the traditional and resurgent emphasis on highstakes, content-oriented testing of students in science.