Construct validity of the universal nonverbal intelligence test (UNIT)

Data from 104 public school children were analyzed to determine the psychometric and conceptual soundness of a new model-based measure of intellectual functioning: the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT; Bracken & McCallum, in press). The UNIT was designed to assess the construct of intelligence for at-risk children who are limited English language proficient. The UNIT and subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson-Revised Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ-R; Woodcock & Johnson, 1989) were administered in counterbalanced order using standardized procedures. Spearman-Brown reliability coefficients provided evidence of the UNIT'S reliability: Global score coefficients ranged from .86 (Reasoning Quotient) to .93 (Symbolic Quotient). Confirmatory factor analyses of the UNIT provided evidence for a two-factor structure. Exploratory factor analyses of the UNIT with the WJ-R yielded support for the UNIT'S measurement of memory and reasoning constructs, although the many subconstructs assessed by the WJ-R and the UNIT preclude a simple interpretation. Correlations among UNIT global scores with age and with composite scores of the WJ-R provide additional evidence of the UNIT'S construct validity.     

全球性问题与２１世纪国际教育

人类面临的全球性问题构成了人类教育的氛围,人类的困境人人都必须分担,人类的生存和发展同样取决于各国人民和所有国家间的合作,国际教育已成为建树道义和增强人类团结的最有力的工具。２１世纪的国际教育应当对一切社会里进行的人类价值观的教学和实践确定一个普适的方向,以促成一种新的同心同德与合作的化的形成,追求人的价值应成为２１世纪国际教育的基本目标,以人为基础的学习应是２１世纪国际教育的基本内容和方法。     

‘Becoming your best’: student perspectives on community in the pursuit of aspirations

Achieving equitable schooling outcomes for young people living in communities of low socio-economic status is a prominent issue that assumes focus in educational policy, theory and practice both in Australia and internationally. This paper draws upon the narratives of five secondary school students living in the northern urban fringe of Adelaide in South Australia, a region that is characterised by socio-economic challenge (Prosser et al. in Connecting lives and learning: Renewing pedagogy in the middle years, 2010). Specifically, the participants’ understandings and perspectives about community are used to examine their aspirations through the analysis of qualitative data obtained from a focus group, visual methods, a storying activity and semi-structured interviews. Discussion on students’ construction and pursuit of aspirations is framed by Appadurai’s (Culture and public action: 59–84, 2004, p. 67) conceptualisation of aspiration as a cultural capacity influenced by one’s social, cultural and economic contexts. This paper demonstrates that students from low socio-economic backgrounds have aspirations for their future which are influenced by their schooling experiences and the positive trust relationships they develop with teachers in community. As such, connections between place and learning are highlighted as critical factors in achieving more equitable schooling outcomes. The research identifies factors in ‘community’ that shape young people’s aspirations and ways in which young people can be supported in navigating toward their aspirations.     

Social class,ethnicity and educational performance

This study draws on information derived from the Census and from pupil records to explore the relationships between the backgrounds and GCSE performance of the 1998/99 GCSE cohort of pupils in an Inner London borough. It provides evidence of substantial differences between the backgrounds of pupils attending different schools and of a strong relationship between these differences and differences in the GCSE performance of schools. This is followed by discussion of the methodological implications of the use of Census data for further research.     

The Repetitive Name Game

Because of the Common Core State Standards there is a renewed emphasis on the importance of visual literacies in today's classrooms. Students need prior knowledge before approaching these types of texts. This article describes the results of one 6th-grade language arts class's engagement in pre-reading prior to viewing a theatrical performance. The study examined whether obtaining background knowledge through print can be used effectively to increase the knowledge of drama, visual literacy, and nonprint text. The study utilized an experimental control-group design; t-test results revealed that using pre-reading as a comprehension strategy is more effective than just viewing drama. In addition, factorial ANOVA results showed that the treatment did not signficantly interact with reading ability or gender. Overall, this 6th-grade class's comprehension skills were enhanced with the help of pre-reading. This study indicates that pre-reading is a powerful strategy that can build background knowledge and ultimately increase comprehension of visual literacy for all students, and it and offers insight for a larger study.     

A comparison of the pencil‐and‐paper and computer‐administered Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent

Within the context of a counterbalanced design, 102 students from either a high school or a large Southeastern university were administered two versions of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent (MMPI–A): a computer‐administered version (CA) and a paper‐and‐pencil version (PAP). Time between testing sessions was approximately one week. Differences in individual scale means between the CA and PAP were calculated using paired t tests, with the Bonferroni correction procedure; no mean differences were statistically significant ( p > .05). To determine if the scale distributions were similar Hartley's homogeneity of variance tests were conducted; there were no differences in the shapes of the scale distributions ( p > .05). Pearson product‐moment coefficients were calculated to determine if the relative rankings were similar across administration formats; coefficients for every scale were positive and statistically significant ( p < .01). © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 605–613, 2005.     

Information extraction from research papers using conditional random fields

With the increasing use of research paper search engines, such as CiteSeer, for both literature search and hiring decisions, the accuracy of such systems is of paramount importance. This article employs conditional random fields (CRFs) for the task of extracting various common fields from the headers and citation of research papers. CRFs provide a principled way for incorporating various local features, external lexicon features and globle layout features. The basic theory of CRFs is becoming well-understood, but best-practices for applying them to real-world data requires additional exploration. We make an empirical exploration of several factors, including variations on Gaussian, Laplace and hyperbolic-L₁ priors for improved regularization, and several classes of features. Based on CRFs, we further present a novel approach for constraint co-reference information extraction; i.e., improving extraction performance given that we know some citations refer to the same publication. On a standard benchmark dataset, we achieve new state-of-the-art performance, reducing error in average F1 by 36%, and word error rate by 78% in comparison with the previous best SVM results. Accuracy compares even more favorably against HMMs. On four co-reference IE datasets, our system significantly improves extraction performance, with an error rate reduction of 6–14%.     

Recurrent Otitis Media and Attachment Security: A Path Model

The present study examined the processes through which recurrent episodes of otitis media influence children's attachment security. The model guiding the research suggests that mothers of children who experience recurrent episodes of otitis media have higher levels of parenting stress, which can have a direct negative effect on attachment security. As well, an increase in parenting stress may be indirectly related to attachment security by decreasing maternal sensitivity, a known precursor of attachment security. A structured telephone illness interview was conducted with mothers of 161 children every 2 weeks for 6 months to determine the number of episodes of otitis media children experienced. At the end of this period, parenting stress, attachment security, and maternal sensitivity were assessed. Recurrent episodes of otitis media did negatively affect attachment security by increasing mothers' perceptions of their children as behaving more negatively. Parenting stress was not related to maternal sensitivity; however, maternal sensitivity did predict attachment security.     

Teachers as Political Actors

In this paper the authors argue that contrary to official rhetoric, education is a political process and teachers are political actors who operate in a number of political arenas. Contemporary political processes, it is suggested have marginalized the voices of teachers, constructed teachers as technicians and limited the transformative potential of education work. If teachers are to wrest back greater control over their work, they will need to engage in concerted political action. This requires teachers to be politically literate and politically active. The development of such skills and attitudes should not be left to chance, and it is maintained that political education should be placed at the core of teacher education programmes. This paper explores the nature of the political skills, understandings and attitudes which should be central to teacher education and an attempt to achieve this is outlined by reference to a preservice programme in which this is attempted.