Training college-age women to perform the pull-up exercise

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of a combined strength and aerobic conditioning program on the ability of college-age women to perform the pull-up exercise and to identify the characteristics of women successful in performing a pull-up at the end of the program. Participants significantly increased upper body strength and fat-free mass and deceased fat mass and percentage of body fat. Participants successful at performing a pull-up had significantly greater 1 repetition maximum strength, strength to mass ratio, and strength to fat-free mass ratio. A two variable equation (% body fat and strength to fat-free mass ratio) was developed to predict which women would be successful at completing a pull-up at the end of a similar training program.     

The utility of the Kaufman assessment battery for children (K-ABC) and the wechsler intelligence scales for linguistically different children: Clinical considerations

Little literature addresses the difficulty of conducting an unbiased assessment of youngsters whose second language is English but who are conversational in English and no longer qualify for English as a Second Language services. Academic difficulty frequently persists, although the children appear functional in English. The use of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) is discussed in relation to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale as a second measure of cognitive ability for youngsters of various linguistic backgrounds. In the cases presented, the use of the K-ABC illustrated that the youngsters had higher cognitive ability than was measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), which in turn guided educational decisions. Additionally, the utility of the K-ABC for assessing youngsters from linguistic backgrounds that may not be adequately represented in the norm sample is suggested. Implications for school psychology practice are discussed.     

A national survey investigating consultation training occurring in school psychology programs

The 203 school psychology training programs in the United States were surveyed regarding their approaches to consultation training, and responses were obtained from 60% of these programs. Forty percent of the programs offer at least one course devoted solely to consultation, while 60% do not offer such a course; more of the doctoral programs responding offer consultation training than do the nondoctoral programs; and practicum experience is considered an important aspect of consultation training. It is concluded that a greater emphasis on consultation training may help to promote implementation of this role.     

Observational,physiological, and self-report measures of children's anger: relations to reactive versus proactive aggression

The goal of this study was to examine the relations of reactive versus proactive aggression to children's anger, as assessed using observational, physiological, and self-report measures. Anger was hypothesized to be related to reactive aggression, but not to proactive aggression. Children (N = 272 second-grade boys and girls) participated in a procedure in which they lost a board game and prize to a confederate who cheated. Skin conductance reactivity and heart rate reactivity were measured throughout the procedure. Following the interaction, children viewed a videotape of the game and self-reported on their level of anger after each turn of the game. Observational coding of children's angry facial expressions and angry nonverbal behaviors was conducted. Reactive aggression, but not proactive aggression, was positively related to skin conductance reactivity and angry nonverbal behaviors, both at an aggregated level and in terms of rate of increase over the time span of the game.     

Increasing Interaction in a Flipped Online Classroom through Video Conferencing

Interactive learning is vital to schooled learning because it encourages and enables the exploration and application of knowledge. The difficulty of providing for this learning-based interaction among students who never meet in person has been a continuing concern in online education. This paper describes six different interactive structures (whole group discussions, break-out groups, show-and-tell, independent small groups, online conferences, and virtual poster sessions) developed to allow students in online courses to interact virtually face-to-face using free video conferencing programs and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each. Student response to these video conferencing structures in 18 fully online classes was overwhelmingly positive, based on data from anonymous end-of-course evaluations. Student comments emphasized increased engagement and enjoyment from being able to see and talk with each other in both large and small groups, and the value of the relationships and learning community they believed such interaction fostered.     

Empirical and clinical methods in the assessment of personality and psychopathology: An integrative approach for training

School psychologists have a critical role in identifying social‐emotional problems and psychopathology in youth based on a set of personality‐assessment competencies. The development of competencies in assessing personality and psychopathology is complex, requiring a variety of integrated methods and approaches. Given the limited extent and scope of formal preparation in personality assessment in school psychology training programs, it is important to develop models using multiple methods of assessment. It is proposed that an integrated paradigm associated with a combination of empirical and clinical methods serve as a framework for the development of school psychology practice competencies in personality assessment. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 513–526, 2006.     

Liberal education and the criminal justice major

New perspectives on the impact of college on students, on linking general education, the major, electives and extra-classroom experiences toward the goal of “integrated learning,” and renewed emphasis on the importance of producing liberally educated college graduates, present opportunities for criminal justice educators to make their field a keystone in the architecture of a liberal education. In this essay, I argue that the multidisciplinary perspectives that characterize the field of criminal justice, as well as its core intellectual concerns, make criminal justice well-suited to serve as the infrastructure for a high-quality undergraduate liberal education program.     

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY AND TEST PERFORMANCE: AN EVALUATION OF BILINGUAL STUDENTS WITH THE WOODCOCK‐JOHNSON III TESTS OF COGNITIVE ABILITIES

In this article, we report the findings of an exploratory empirical study that investigated the relationship between English Language Proficiency (ELP) on performance on the Woodcock‐Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities‐Third Edition (WJ III) when administered in English to bilingual students of varying levels of ELP. Sixty‐one second‐grade students, identified as Limited English Proficient, were recruited from a suburban public school district and were given the WJ III in addition to their annual state standardized assessment of ELP. The findings of this study provide evidence to support a linear, inverse relationship between ELP and performance on tests that require higher levels of English language development and mainstream cultural knowledge. The implications of the findings of the present study suggest that practitioners must consider an examinee's level of developmental language proficiency and cultural knowledge acquisition as continuous variables when determining the impact of such factors on test performance and evaluation regarding whether scores obtained from tests administered in English are indeed valid for interpretation.     

Janusz Korczak and the problem(s) of childhood

The recent decision by the Department of Education and Science in the Republic of Ireland to introduce the mandatory testing of children in Irish primary schools provides the broad context for this paper. This decision has particular implications for schools designated as disadvantaged. The main focus of this study is on identifying the strategies used by these children in completing standardised tests. The sample comprises 51, mixed gender, 6^th class children from contrasting ideal type socio–economic urban communities. The findings reveal a considerable level of difficulty on the part of some children in designated disadvantaged schools, with most aspects of the test format and much of the testing process. A number of socio-linguistic and socio-cultural factors are identified that affect children's attainment levels on these tests. Failure to take account of these issues will continue to present an overly crude picture of national attainment patterns and serve only to contribute to the stigmatisation and ghettoisation of children living in marginalised and disadvantaged communities. The paper argues for a broader discussion of the use standardised testing that will take account of the well-established patterns of socio-economic inequality.