Social and Emotional Functioning of Children with Learning Disabilities: Does Special Education Placement Make a Difference?

Children with learning disabilities in four types of special education settings were compared in terms of social acceptance, number of friends, quality of relationship with best friends, self‐concept, loneliness, depression, social skills, and problem behaviors. Two of the placements (In‐Class Support and Resource Room) were for children with mild to moderate learning disabilities and involved between 30 and 90 minutes of special education per school day. The other two placements (Inclusion Class and Self‐Contained Special Education Class) were designated for children with severe learning disabilities and involved at least a half‐day of special education. Children in the more inclusive placements had more positive social and emotional functioning. Children receiving In‐Class Support were more accepted by peers, had higher self‐perceptions of mathematics competence, and fewer problem behaviors than children receiving Resource Room Support. Children in Inclusion Classes had more satisfying relationships with their best school friends, were less lonely, and had fewer problem behaviors than children in Self‐Contained Special Education Classes.     

Multivariate prediction of academic performance by Hong Kong University students

Verbal intelligence, English-language skills, personality, and attitude scales were used as predictors of academic performance in 230 male and female arts students at the University of Hong Kong. A series of bivariate, multiple, and canonical correlation analyses were performed. The results showed that verbal intelligence and attitudes, excepting study orientation, were not predictive of performance. English-language skills had the most predictive value, accounting for about 10% of the variance of performance measures. Personality variables failed to predict performance when composite criterion measures (GPAs) were used; however, they proved to be of predictive value when results of individual academic subjects were used as criterion measures. The study points to the importance of using noncomposite criterion measures in prediction and of considering the cultural context of achievement.     

Walsh Operational Matrices for Fractional Calculus and Their Application to Distributed Systems

The Walsh operational matrix for performing integration and solving state equations is generalized to fractional calculus for investigating distributed systems. A new set of orthogonal functions is derived from Walsh functions. By using the new functions, the generalized Walsh operational matrices corresponding to √s, √(s²+ 1), e^-s and e^-√s etc. are established. Several distributed parameter problems are solved by the new approach.     

Poststructural feminist pedagogy in English instruction of vocational-and-technical education

The purpose of this study was to develop a poststructural feminist pedagogical model and to investigate whether vocational-and-technical college students receiving poststructural feminist instruction would exhibit better learning achievement and critical thinking ability, and express greater satisfaction with their classes than those receiving traditional instruction. In applying a poststructural feminist model, the researchers intended to help both the teacher and students work together to overcome the estrangement and alienation that have long been the norm in the contemporary Chinese education system. The research results show that the poststructural feminist pedagogy had a positive effect upon the participants in the experimental group. Several conclusions are elicited from the study. First, in the English language achievement post-test, the participants receiving the poststructural feminist instruction significantly outperformed those receiving the traditional banking instruction in terms of listening, vocabulary, grammar, and reading. Second, in the critical thinking ability post-test, the participants significantly outperformed those receiving the traditional banking instruction in terms of length, focus, content, organization, and style. Third, in regard to the students’ satisfaction, it was clearly shown that the students who received the instruction informed by poststructural feminist pedagogy expressed significantly greater satisfaction than those who had received traditional banking instruction in terms of instructional objective, teaching method/materials, teacher quality, class environment, and assessment.     

Collaborating with Information Technology: Implementing Web Search at the University of New Mexico

The University of New Mexico (UNM) has used the Google Search Appliance (GSA) to provide search for the University's Web content. When the GSA license expired, the campus Information Technologies (IT) department and the University Libraries (UL) took the opportunity to collaborate on a re-launch of the service as a joint project. By collaborating closely with IT, the UL personnel gained insight and first-hand information on how to optimize the Libraries’ Web presence. Outcomes were positive, both in the resulting product and in building bridges between the work cultures.     

Classification Consistency and Accuracy With Atypical Score Distributions

The current study aims to evaluate the performance of three non-IRT procedures (i.e., normal approximation, Livingston-Lewis, and compound multinomial) for estimating classification indices when the observed score distribution shows atypical patterns: (a) bimodality, (b) structural (i.e., systematic) bumpiness, or (c) structural zeros (i.e., no frequencies). Under a bimodal distribution, the normal approximation procedure produced substantially large bias. For a distribution with structural bumpiness, the compound multinomial procedure tended to introduce larger bias. Under a distribution with structural zeroes, the relative performance of selected estimation procedures depended on cut score location and the sample-size conditions. In general, the differences in estimation errors among the three procedures were not substantially large.     

Social Work Intervention with White Collared Employees and Their Families

This investigation presents a framework for understanding and also to test the efficacy of Social Work intervention on the well being of the white collared employee (industrial employee) and his/her family. A comprehensive and intensive personal- family exploration was done to uncover the relatedness of seemingly disparate areas of the clients lives. A total of 80 executives (industrial employees) served as subjects. A baseline assessment was done using structured, standardized interview-schedules/questionnaires. The results of the study can be enumerated as follows: After the Social Work intervention, the executives in occupational profile, there were significant changes in Role perception, overload, role conflict, low status and poor peer relations. In coping strategies there was significant improvement in sub-scales like problem solving and unproductive coping. Significant reduction was noticed in their proneness to heart disease, depression, inadequate mental mastery, and perceived ill health. There was significant improvement in their family group support, and in their expressiveness, achievement, orientation, active-recreational and organizational characteristics.     

Coping efficacy and psychological problems of children of divorce

Three models of the relations of coping efficacy, coping, and psychological problems of children of divorce were investigated. A structural equation model using cross-sectional data of 356 nine- to twelve-year-old children of divorce yielded results that supported coping efficacy as a mediator of the relations between both active coping and avoiding coping and psychological problems. In a prospective longitudinal model with a subsample of 162 of these children, support was found for Time 2 coping efficacy as a mediator of the relations between Time 1 active coping and Time 2 internalizing of problems. Individual growth curve models over four waves also found support for coping efficacy as a mediator of the relations between active coping and psychological problems. No support was found for alternative models of coping as a mediator of the relations between efficacy and symptoms or for coping efficacy as a moderator of the relations between coping and symptoms.