The development of curriculum-based measurement norms in literature-based classrooms

Few published reports exist on the appropriateness of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) procedures for literature-based reading programs. The purpose of this paper is to describe a preliminary study of the development and psychometric integrity of CBM norms for literature-based reading using children's literature books. During the 1993–1994 and 1994–1995 school years, the reading achievement of 403 first, second, and third grade students in two rural elementary schools was assessed with CBM methods modified for a literature-based curriculum. Based on the results of this study, standard CBM procedures can be modified to develop local norms for the literature-based classroom. Furthermore, these literature-based CBM norms were found to have adequate test/retest reliability and criterion-related validity. No sampling bias in the selection of individual reading passage probes was found. The extent to which these norms can be used to monitor reading progress must be determined. Further study is necessary before CBM procedures with literature-based reading programs can be used to inform policy and practice.     

INTO TERRA INCOGNITA: CHARTING BEYOND PETER HARRISON'S THE TERRITORIES OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Peter Harrison's The Territories of Science and Religion throws down a serious challenge to advocates of dialogue as the primary means of engagement between science and religion. This article accepts the validity of this challenge and looks at four possible responses to it. The first—a return to the past—is rejected. The remaining three—exploring new epistemic frameworks for the encounter of science and religion, broadening out the engagement beyond the context of the physical sciences and Western culture, and looking at ways in which scientific and theological practitioners may collaborate on practical problems—are all offered as potential ways in which science and religion may engage with one another, in ways which move beyond Harrison's critique.     

Perceptions of the Targets and Sources of COVID-19 Threat are Structured by Group Memberships and Responses are Influenced by Identification with Humankind

The purpose of this study was to investigate which social groups are perceived as a threat target and which are perceived as a threat source during the COVID-19 outbreak. In a German sample (N = 1454) we examined perceptions of social groups ranging from those that are psychologically close and smaller (family, friends, neighbors) to those that are more distal and larger (people living in Germany, humankind). We hypothesized that psychologically closer groups would be perceived as less affected by COVID-19 as well as less threatening than more psychologically distal groups. Based on social identity theorizing, we also hypothesized that stronger identification with humankind would change these patterns. Furthermore, we explored how these threat perceptions relate to adherence to COVID-19 health guidelines. In line with our hypotheses, latent random-slope modelling revealed that psychologically distal and larger groups were perceived as more affected by COVID-19 and as more threatening than psychologically closer and smaller groups. Including identification with humankind as a predictor into the threat target model resulted in a steeper increase in threat target perception patterns, whereas identification with humankind did not predict differences in threat source perceptions. Additionally, an increase in threat source perceptions across social groups was associated with more adherence to health guidelines, whereas an increase in threat target perceptions was not. We fully replicated these findings in a subgroup from the original sample (N = 989) four weeks later. We argue that societal recovery from this and other crises will be supported by an inclusive approach informed by a sense of our common identity as human beings.     

Exploring gene-environment interactions: socioregional moderation of alcohol use.

Examples of gene-environment interaction in human behavioral data are relatively rare; those that exist have used simple, dichotomous measures of the environment. The authors describe a model that allows for the specification of more continuous, more realistic variations in environments as moderators of genetic and environmental influences on behavior. Using data from a population-based Finnish twin study, the authors document strong moderating effects of socioregional environments on genetic and environmental influences on adolescent alcohol use, with nearly a five-fold difference in the magnitude of genetic effects between environmental extremes. The incorporation of specific environmental measures into genetically informative designs should prove to be a powerful method for better understanding the nature of gene-environment interaction and its contribution to the etiology of behavioral variation.     

Organizational Commitment in Nepalese Settings

This study examines the three-dimensional organizational commitment (OC) concept (Meyer & Allen, 1997) in Nepal. Standardized questionnaires were administered to a heterogeneous sample of 103 employees of four different Nepalese organizations (bank, food corporation, telecommunication, and an airline). Exploratory factor and confirmatory factor analyses replicate the dimensionality of OC, i.e., the three facets of commitment (affective, normative, and continuance commitment) could be found also in a developing country with a cultural background very different from the places where the commitment concept was originally formulated. Antecedents and consequences of organizational commitment were investigated by multiple regression analyses. Continuance and normative commitment were both explained by job characteristics, i.e., by the perception of the job as interesting, affective commitment could not be explained with the set of variables used in this study. However, it is affective commitment which particularly accounts for variance in search intentions as well as in turnover intentions.     

Performance-enhancing drugs in sport: a different form of drug abuse

The use and abuse of drugs in American society is recognized as a major issue among those who study youth. This paper addresses an often overlooked area of drug abuse: performance-enhancing drugs in sport. The reasons these vocational drugs are used by athletes are different from those of the recreational drug user. This paper examines the seriousness and prevalence of performance-enhancing drugs and presents the results of a series of interviews with steroid users to determine their attitudes. These attitudes and rationalizations suggest that an expanded view of drugs is required if performance-enhancing drug use is to be understood.     

Generic generalized Rosser fixed points

To the standard propositional modal system of provability logic constants are added to account for the arithmetical fixed points introduced by Bernardi-Montagna in [5]. With that interpretation in mind, a system LR of modal propositional logic is axiomatized, a modal completeness theorem is established for LR and, after that, a uniform arithmetical (Solovay-type) completeness theorem with respect to PA is obtained for LR. This paper supersedes: Franco Montagna, Extremely undecidable sentences and generic generalized Rosser's fixed points, Rapporto Matematico, No. 95, Siena, 1983.