The Effectiveness of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention for College Freshmen Who Have Aged out of Foster Care

This study investigated the effects of a brief meditation intervention on perceived stress, mindfulness, and sleep quality for college freshmen who have aged out of foster care. Thirty-six youth who had aged out of foster care and enrolled at a large midwestern 4-year university (n?=?16 experimental group, n?=?20 control group) participated in a study in which they were assessed three times on the dependent variables. Students also participated in a focus group after the intervention ended. Four sessions of the brief mindfulness intervention resulted in significant short-term reductions in stress levels and increases in sleep quality. Finding effective personal interventions to increase chances for college success for students with histories in foster care can also offer potential insight toward the development of educational models and resources for other vulnerable college student populations.     

Translating Policy into Practice: the teaching and learning experience

Student diversity has increased within Australian universities. This has changed the teaching and learning needs of students. The implementation of quality was aimed at enhancing the quality of the higher educational product. However, the policy, while providing an accountability framework at the institution level, failed to provide the structural mechanisms needed to achieve quality in the teaching and learning the students receive, that is the sub‐faculty level. Other factors, such as the potential growth of non‐government resources in the form of more international students have perhaps a greater chance of improving the quality of teaching and learning within the faculties, because they provide both the funds and an incentive for more funds as a reward for implementing quality assurance within the teaching and learning function of universities.     

Performance Indicators and Quality Review in Australian Universities

This paper examines the relationship between sets of quantitative performance and diversity indicators and the qualitative banding of Australian universities made by the Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. Using factor analysis, three performance factors (Traditional Research University Performance, Teaching Performance and Competitive Research Performance) and four diversity factors (Size, Equity, Student Staff Ratios and Access) were obtained. Strong association was found between quality ranking and composite measures of performance. When factor‐based composite measures were used, quality rankings were significantly correlated with Traditional Research University Performance, Teaching Performance and Size, and negatively with Equity.     

Dimensionality and Predictive validity of the Classroom Learning Activities Checklist in Prekindergarten

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - The Classroom Learning Activities Checklist (CLAC) is a brief classroom observation measure that assesses task-oriented and self-regulated...     

A comparison of the criterion-related validity (academic achievement) of the WPPSI and the WISC-R

Correlations of WPPSI IQs with concurrently administered subtests from the WRAT were compared with analogous WISC-R/WRAT correlations in a group of children referred by regular classroom teachers for school psychological services. Although the magnitudes of all correlations were reduced, due to restriction of range, the comparisons indicated no significant differences in the magnitudes of the correlations of the WPPSI and the WISC-R with the WRAT. These results support the use of the two instruments as equivalent predictors of achievement.     

Factorial validity of the 1976 edition of the metropolitan readiness tests for males and females

The 1976 edition of the Metropolitan Readiness Tests was factor analyzed from the responses of 408 beginning first graders. A single General Readiness factor, consistent with prior research, best described the battery of eight subtests. This factor was found to be invariant across sex when separate analyses for males and for females were compared. The coefficient of congruence for the general factor across sex was .98, and the salient variable similarity index reached a value of 1.00.     

Mental Rotation of Tactical Instruction Displays Affects Information Processing Demand and Execution Accuracy in Basketball

Purpose: In sports games, coaches often use tactic boards to present tactical instructions during time-outs (e.g., 20 s to 60 s in basketball). Instructions should be presented in a way that enables fast and errorless information processing for the players. The aim of this study was to test the effect of different orientations of visual tactical displays on observation time and execution performance. High affordances in visual-spatial transformation (e.g., mental rotation processes) might impede information processing and might decrease execution performance with regard to the instructed playing patterns. Method: In a within-subjects design with 1 factor, 10 novice students were instructed with visual tactical instructions of basketball playing patterns with different orientations either showing the playing pattern with low spatial disparity to the players’ on-court perspective (basket on top) or upside down (basket on bottom). Results: The self-chosen time for watching the pattern before execution was significantly shorter and spatial accuracy in pattern execution was significantly higher when the instructional perspective and the real perspective on the basketball court had a congruent orientation. Conclusion: The effects might be explained by interfering mental rotation processes that are necessary to transform the instructional perspective into the players’ actual perspective while standing on the court or imagining themselves standing on the court. According to these results, coaches should align their tactic boards to their players’ on-court viewing perspective.     

Preliminary norms and technical data for use of the Revised-Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale with kindergarten children

The Revised-Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978) was administered to 97 kindergarten children. Coefficient alpha reliabilities of .79 for males (N = 53), .85 for females (N = 44), and .82 for the total sample resulted. Contrary to findings with older children, no sex differences occurred in scoring on the anxiety scale. The kindergarten children generally scored higher on the anxiety scale than did older children. Lie scale scores were comparable to those of other primary grade children. Implications for use of the scale with young children are discussed.     

Profile analysis of standardized intelligence test performance of very high IQ children

Practitioners are frequently faced with the need to evaluate the intellectual skills of individuals with very high levels of functioning. Due to the statistical rarity of these persons, few tests have sufficient range of scores for a detailed analysis of intraindividual differences in performance. This paper describes a method using age equivalents and standard scores to recreate the full range of variability in the scores of high-functioning individuals. The method allows for a more complete interpretation of performance that can lead to better educational and therapeutic programming.