Normative achievement assessment of gifted children: Comparing the K-ABC,WRAT, and CAT

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) purports to assess fluid and crystallized intelligence via processing and achievement subtests, respectively. Eight K-ABC Mental Processing and five K-ABC Achievement subtests were administered to 41 gifted students. Scores were subsequently compared to concurrent achievement measures from the California Achievement Test (CAT), as well as previously obtained mental ability measures (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised [WISC-R], Stanford-Binet [SB], and Wide Range Achievement Test [WRAT] achievement scores). In general, K-ABC mental ability scores were lower than WISC-R and SB IQs. K-ABC achievement scores were consistent with K-ABC mental ability scores, but more highly related to SB and WISC-R VIQ (r = .42 and .40, respectively) than to WISC-R FSIQ (r = .16) and PIQ (r = .09), or to the K-ABC Mental Processing (Composite r = .17), Simultaneous Processing (r = .08), and Sequential Processing scores (r = .20). With the exception of WRAT Word Recognition, WRAT, K-ABC, and CAT achievement scores were similar. The patterns of intercorrelations suggest that the K-ABC achievement scores are more verbally loaded than are the CAT and WRAT achievement measures.     

“I am smart and I am not joking”: Aiming high in the middle years of schooling

In this paper, we draw on accounts from students to inform a Middle Schooling movement that has been variously described as “arrested”, “unfinished” and “exhausted”. We propose that if the Middle Schooling movement is to understand the changing worlds of students and develop new approaches in the middle years of schooling, then it is important to draw on the insights that individual students can provide by conducting research with “students-as-informants”. The early adolescent informants to this paper report high hopes for their futures (despite their lower socioeconomic surroundings), which reinforces the importance of supporting successful learner identities and highlights the role of schooling in the decline of adolescent student aspirations. However, their insights did not stop at the individual learner, with students also identifying cultural and structural constraints to reform. As such, we argue that students may be both an important resource for inquiry into individual school reform and for the Middle Schooling movement internationally.     

从贵族的自由到民主的自由－论托克维尔的自由主义思想

托克维尔出身于贵族家庭，但是他却理性地认为贵族制必然衰落，民主社会必然到来，民主是现代社会的重要特征。于是，托克维尔分析了贵族式自由的特征、价值、弊端以及民主的本质。他相信在一个民主的时代，自由不可能建立在贵族政治体制的基础之上；与此同时，他特别感兴趣的是如何避免民主专制主义，以及如何避免以民主的名义破坏自由。因此，托克维尔期望即将到来的社会不仅是一个民主的社会，而且是一个自由的社会；在这个社会中，民主和自由的结合会得以实现。     

A cross‐cultural comparison of student social attributions

One hundred sixty American and 397 Korean fourth‐ and fifth‐graders were administered the Student Social Attribution Scale (SSAS), designed to assess students' explanations for social successes and failures. A Korean version of the SSAS was developed for the study. The American and Korean instruments' internal consistency reliability were determined (rs ranged from .56 to .86 for the Korean instrument and .62 to .88 for the American instrument). The means from both the American and Korean SSAS versions on the 8 scales and global scores (e.g., internal, external) were compared. Based on the literature, Korean children should have had higher scores for effort attributions in failure situations than the American children and Americans should have shown higher scores for ability attributions in successful situations. In fact, Korean children did show significantly higher ( p < .005) Failure Effort scores and American children showed significantly higher ( p < .005) Success Ability scores. Findings indicate that Korean children are potentially more willing to accept responsibility for social failure than American students. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A comparison of class‐wide taped problems and cover,copy, and compare for enhancing mathematics fluency

An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of class‐wide applications of Taped Problems (TP) and Cover, Copy, and Compare (CCC) procedures designed to enhance subtraction fact fluency in an intact third‐grade classroom. During the TP procedure, a tape provided an auditory prompt (i.e., the problem), followed by a 2‐second delay and then the correct answer. Students attempted to supply the correct answer before the answer was provided by the tape. During the CCC procedure, students would cover a math‐fact family triangle, attempt to write one of two possible problems and answer, write the reciprocal fact and answer, and evaluate their responses. Results show that TP caused greater increases in subtraction fact fluency than CCC or a control condition. Discussion focuses on preventing student math deficits, issues regarding alternating treatments designs, and future directions for research. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

论新时期女性青年的体育文化创造

当代城市取向的深刻变化，使体育化建设迅猛发展。新时期青年女性通过自身的性别优势在自觉与不自觉中创造着独特的现代体育化，日益成为体育化的重要载体和创生，是富有特殊聚焦能力的体育化创造群体。     

Inspire to aspire: raising aspirational outcomes through a student well-being curricular focus

Australian Government policy initiatives to increase young peoples' participation in higher education are pursued in this paper. It argues that pedagogy and curriculum have a direct influence on student engagement. The interrelationships between pedagogical practices, curriculum based on a well-being framework, and the shaping of subjectivities and aspirations of young people in a region characterised by socio-economic challenge are explored. This 2-year case study used action research by university academics, school-based teachers and school students in an R-12 school in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Findings drawn from narratives, field notes, student work samples and professional conversations, situate well-being as central to young people's self-awareness of their aspirations. The themes of: Pedagogies and learning activities; Relationships, caring and connections, and; Places, spaces and belonging help to arrange the argument that concludes that young people living in low socio-economic areas do have aspirations for the future. Furthermore, the educational implications highlight the significance of the role of the teacher within the social and emotional domains which connect student life-worlds within their particular contexts, building cultural capital and broadening capabilities, self-awareness, aspirations and achievement.     

No effect of fluid intake on neutrophil responses to prolonged cycling

Ingesting carbohydrate beverages during prolonged exercise is associated with fewer numbers of circulating neutrophils and attenuated neutrophil functional responses, yet there is little information about the effect of fluid intake alone on immune responses to prolonged exercise. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of regular fluid ingestion compared with no fluid ingestion on plasma cortisol, circulating neutrophil and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated neutrophil degranulation responses to prolonged cycling. In a randomized design, nine recreationally active males cycled for 2 h at 65% VO2max on two occasions with either fluid ingestion (lemon-flavoured water, fluid trial) before and during the exercise, or with no fluid intake at all (no fluid trial). Venous blood samples were obtained at rest, immediately after exercise and 1 h after exercise. Immediately after exercise, the plasma cortisol concentration was significantly higher in the no fluid trial than in the fluid trial (592 +/- 62 vs 670 +/- 63 nmol x l(-1), P < 0.05). Circulating numbers of neutrophils increased 4.5-fold (P < 0.01) and LPS-stimulated elastase release per neutrophil decreased 34 +/- 7% (P < 0.01) immediately after exercise; there were no differences between trials. These results suggest that in ambient environmental conditions, fluid ingestion alone has a negligible effect on circulating neutrophil and LPS-stimulated neutrophil degranulation responses to prolonged exercise.     

The Validity of National Testing at Age 11: the teacher's view

National testing at age 11 in mathematics, science and English has been introduced into all primary schools in England from 1995, following voluntary trials in 1994. Data gathered in 32 representative schools as part of the National Assessment in Primary Schools (NAPS) Project is used to report teachers’ views of the validity of the results of these tests, using theoretical notions proposed by Messick in the Interplay of Evidence and Consequences in the Validation of Performance Assessments (1992). Teachers’ major concerns about validity centred around the unfairness of the tests to specific types of pupils, and the poor match with classroom practice. These factors were believed to account for the significant discrepancies between teacher‐assessed levels and test results. While a minority of teachers remained opposed in principle to national tests, most teachers accepted them as fulfilling a moderation role, believing that the results should be combined with teacher assessments rather than being separately reported.