祝贺复旦大学百年校庆

吴女士、韩市长、王校长、各位同仁、女士们、先生们：本人非常愉快和荣幸代表悉尼大学带来对复旦大学的祝贺,祝贺复旦大学在过去一百年所取得的伟大成就。我相信,在下一个百年复旦大学能取得更辉煌的成功。我也希望悉尼大学能为成就这个未来贡献一份力量。     

Persistence to Graduation among At‐Risk Criminal Justice and Criminology Students: Experiences in Intervening with a Sophomore Cohort∗

A Seminar targeting academically at‐risk sophomores was developed and introduced in 2002 to address weak connectedness to the university and poor academic abilities. We measured changes in approaches taken to college studies by those at‐risk sophomores who enrolled in the course, as well as employed a longitudinal, quasi‐experimental design to track this experimental group (n = 29) and the remainder of the at‐risk cohort as a comparison group (n = 36). Our preliminary findings suggest that the Seminar has had a variety of positive outcomes, the most impressive impact being that the experimental group had dramatically better retention and graduation rates than the comparison group.     

The Influence of Teachers’ Efficacy and Beliefs Regarding Mathematics Instruction in the Early Childhood Classroom

This was a correlational study conducted with a population of prekindergarten educators from a large, metropolitan school district. The purpose was to examine if there were relationships between and among early childhood teachers’ sense of self-efficacy, their beliefs about the importance of mathematics, and their mathematics instructional practices. Examining teachers’ efficacy and beliefs can inform educational practice and help to differentiate between more and less successful instructional practices when teaching mathematics in the early childhood classroom. Data were collected on teacher efficacy and teacher beliefs about the importance of mathematics with two self-report questionnaires. The hypothesis that the teachers higher in efficacy will rate the importance of mathematics higher on the teacher-belief scale than the teachers with lower efficacy was found to be true with this sample, but the correlation was weak. The level of efficacy of the early childhood teachers in this sample confirmed that in assessing their capabilities, they rate themselves high in instructional strategies, classroom management, and student engagement. The early childhood teachers did not rate their belief in mathematics as high as their efficacy. Observations of mathematics instructional practices were conducted with twenty teachers. It was hypothesized that the combination of high teacher efficacy and high teacher mathematics beliefs would show alignment with the presence of standards-based mathematics instructional practices. The results were not statistically significant. No correlation signals a need for more research to explore what other personal or external factors relate to mathematics instructional practices in the early childhood classroom. The research may inform pre kindergarten teachers and teacher educators about effective instructional strategies and knowledge needed to launch early childhood students on a developmentally appropriate pathway to mathematical literacy.     

Perceived family functioning, marital status, and depression in parents of boys with attention deficit disorder

The present study examined the perceptions of parents of children with attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADD/H) regarding their family environment and depression in comparison with a clinical and a nondisabled control group. Parents of children with ADD/H perceived their family environment as less supportive and more stressful than did either the clinical or the nondisabled controls. Specifically, ADD/H parents viewed their families as having lower levels of interpersonal relationships than did either of the control groups. Ratings of depression for each of the parent groups indicated a greater frequency of depressive symptomatology among the parents of children with ADD/H. In addition, more parents of ADD/H children were separated or divorced. Correlation coefficients computed for the entire sample suggest differences between mothers' and fathers' depression and differences in their perceptions of the family. Recommendations are made for future research as well as the development of treatment programs to incorporate work with the parents of children with ADD/H.     

Predictors of academic success in medical school

This study was designed to determine the predictive validity of selected admissions variables used by the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Data for the study were collected from 586 students admitted to the M.D. program from 1961 to 1968. These students were categorized into one of three groups (Successful [SUCC], Successful with Extended Study [SWES], and Lost to Medicine [LTM]) based upon their performance in medical school. A two-way analysis of variance and the use of a post hoc Scheffé method of multiple comparisons indicated significant differences between the SUCC group and the combined SWES and LTM groups. Therefore, the data revealed the predictive ability of two admissions variables and suggested the need for additional research into the subjective variables used in the admissions process.     

RECEPTIVITY TO PEER TEACHING AND PEER LEARNING ABOUT THE SAFE AND APPROPRIATE USE OF MEDICATIONS AMONG OLDER ADULTS

The purpose of this study was to assess receptivity to peer teaching and peer learning about the safe and appropriate use of medications among communitydwelling older adults. The sample was predominately White (88.5%), female (75.9%) older adults with an average age of 80.2 ( - 9.1) years. On average, the participants perceived their health status as good (2.8 - 0.6). In addition, participants reported using an average number of 4.4 ( - 3.3) prescribed medications. The majority (75%) of participants also reported no problems with their medications. With respect to receptivity to peer teaching and peer learning, the participants, on average, were neutral to peer teaching (6.0 - 2.4), but were somewhat receptive to peer learning (6.7 - 2.2). The number of prescribed medications that a participant reported taking and the age of a participant were identified as significant predictors of receptivity to peer teaching and accounted for 14.5% of the total variance ( F = 5.84, df = 2, p = 0.005). For receptivity to peer learning, the number of prescribed medications also was a significant predictor ( F = 7.50, df = 1, p = 0.008). This study provides the initial step to identifying community-dwelling older adults who would be receptive to peer teaching and peer learning about the safe and appropriate use of medications.