A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale in a Sample of International College Students

There is the need for a reliable and valid measure to facilitate emotional intelligence (EI) research on international college students (ICSs). The present study examined the factorial invariance of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), a trait EI measure, in a sample of 628 ICSs. A web-based survey was developed to facilitate data collection across the country. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis support the factorial invariance of the WLEIS in ICSs. Reliabilities and scale correlations further supported the psychometric properties of the measure for international students. Additional findings indicate possible country-of-origin difference on trait EI among different national groups. An erratum to this article can be found at     

The Role of Social Support in Moderating the Relationship Between Psychological Distress and Willingness to Seek Psychological Help Among Black and Latino College Students

This study examined the role of social support in moderating the relationship between psychological distress and willingness to seek psychological help in 158 Black and Latino college students from a large, predominantly White university. The authors found that a social support network served as a significant moderator for Black college students but not for their Latino counterparts. Implications of the findings are presented.     

Calibration of ϵ−insensitive loss in support vector machines regression

Support vector machines regression (SVMR) is an important tool in many machine learning applications. In this paper, we focus on the theoretical understanding of SVMR based on the $??$insensitive loss. For fixed ??≥?0 and general data generating distributions, we show that the minimizer of the expected risk for $??$insensitive loss used in SVMR is a set-valued function called conditional $??$median. We then establish a calibration inequality of $??$insensitive loss under a noise condition on the conditional distributions. This inequality also ensures us to present a nontrivial variance-expectation bound for $??$insensitive loss, and which is known to be important in statistical analysis of the regularized learning algorithms. With the help of the calibration inequality and variance-expectation bound, we finally derive an explicit learning rate for SVMR in some $L^r?$space.     

The Singapore School and the School Excellence Model

Nation', schools in Singapore are now asked to develop themselves into excellent schools. To support this change, the way that schools are being appraised has been changed since 2000. The school today is asked to do self-appraisal using the new School Excellence Model (SEM), which is adapted from a business excellence model. This article discusses the SEM, its major implications to the leadership and management of schools in Singapore and the areas still to be addressed in the implementation of the model. In particular, school leaders should focus on the substance and not the form of the SEM, be systemic in their approach to quality improvement in schools and truly lead the way by being the first believing and practicing member of this movement. Key Words: excellence, leadership, quality, school, self-appraisal     

The Si Huan Playgroup: an initiative to provide non-formal early childhood education experiences to children of migrants in Beijing

This paper is about an experiment in non-formal early childhood education for migrant children in Beijing. The Si Huan Playgroup was set up by a group of volunteers in 2004 and is built on ideas of early childhood pedagogy, equity, life-long learning and non-formal education. Non-formal education has implications for policy makers as this is a model that has the potential to build capacity in disadvantaged communities and provide educational experiences for preschool children. The model, as envisaged by the participants of the Si Huan Playgroup, is a provider of preschool education, operates on a volunteer basis that aims to be an educational experience for both the volunteer parents and the children. The playgroup operates alongside existing preschools in the formal education sector. Policy makers in Beijing can see tensions around the growth of a sector that is developing outside regulatory and legislative guidelines. The Si Huan playgroup has been closed down by the authorities a number of times. In this paper we outline the history and growth of the Si Huan Playgroup, explore the theoretical underpinnings of non-formal education and discuss the problems inherent in such an initiative, as well as commenting on the sustainability of such a model.     

Bibliographic Data Science and the History of the Book (c. 1500–1800)

Abstract

National bibliographies have been identified as a crucial resource for historical research on the publishing landscape, but using them requires addressing challenges of data quality, completeness, and interpretation. We call this approach bibliographic data science. In this article, we briefly assess the development of book formats and the vernacularization process in early modern Europe. The work undertaken paves the way for more extensive integration of library catalogs to map the history of the book.     

A case study of teacher appraisal in Shanghai, China: in relation to teacher professional development

Literature has confirmed that teacher appraisal can and should facilitate the professional development of teachers. In the past, teacher appraisal in China has been conducted mainly for administrative purposes; nowadays, it is increasingly being viewed as a means of teacher professional development. However, the way in which teacher appraisal affects teacher professional development has not been fully recognized. This case study, of a junior secondary school in Shanghai, China, explores how teacher appraisal has been carried out and how teachers and administrators have perceived it in relation to teacher professional development. The research findings identify the mechanism by which the teacher appraisal system in question facilitates professional development. The system creates pressure and extrinsic incentives that ‘push and pull’ teachers to improve, and supports their growth through guidance and directions. In addition, environmental factors such as school culture contribute to the positive impacts that teacher appraisal has on professional development.