Measuring up: Academic performance of Canadian immigrant children in reading,mathematics, and science

Using the Canadian sample from the Programme for International Student Assessment, this study examined the effects of student and school characteristics on academic achievement of immigrant and non-immigrant students. No differences were found in mathematics achievement, but non-immigrant students outperformed immigrant students in both reading and science achievement. At the student level, there was more gender equity in academic achievement among immigrant than non-immigrant students. Socioeconomic inequity was related to fathers among immigrant students but to both mothers and fathers among non-immigrant students. Home language had weaker effects among immigrant than non-immigrant students. At the school level, teacher-student ratio, teacher morale, and academic pressure were predictors for immigrant students, whereas disciplinary climate for non-immigrant students. Non-immigrant students demonstrated tremendous regional differences that were absent among immigrant students.     

我国城市居民消费心理预期的结构及其影响因素研究

本研究采用自编《消费心理预期结构问卷》对1097名城市居民进行了研究,结果表明：1《消费心理预期结构问卷》具有较高的信度和效度;2．消费心理预期由预测经历、信息量、价格知觉水平、信息来源与渠道,以及预测依据等5个因素构成;3．现阶段,我国城市居民消费心理预期的一般特点是预期的准确性不高预期的理性化程度尚有待提高;影响消费心理预期结构的主要因素是消费者的性另、年龄、学历、职业和所在城市等变量。     

Family meaning of self-starvation: themes discerned in family treatment in Hong Kong

This study aims to identify themes from the treatment of Chinese families with an adolescent or an adult member suffering from anorexia nervosa (AN), through a multiple case study. This study reveals that self-starvation may be regarded as a cultural metaphor. Four major themes emerged at the family level: self-starvation as an expression of love and control, coalition of the AN daughter with the mother, family loyalty, and the powerlessness and helplessness of the mother. The themes identified are narrative accounts of the Hong Kong Chinese families, rather than causal explanations proposed by Western literature. The emerging themes are believed to be constructed and legitimized by traditional Chinese cultural values, with females being subordinated to and dependent on males and the self being subjugated to or sacrificed for the collective. Treatment implications are discussed.     

藏族大学生自我意识与价值观初探

通过对411名藏族大学生的自我意识结构,价值观类型进行问卷调查 ,结果显示藏族大学生有较强的自尊心和独立意识,表现出较好的自我接纳,具有积极的价值观倾向;文、理科不同的教育内容、教育方法对藏族大学生自我意识和价值观的形成产生不同的影响;男女大学生自我意识的发展存在性别差异。     

Interpersonal relations as a source of risk of mobbing in the local police

Social relations in the workplace are one of the main sources of risk for the onset of mobbing. In this work, we analyzed, through the perceived social climate, the influence of interpersonal relations on the characterization of the processes of mobbing, in a sample of local police (N = 235). In particular, the policemen and women's opinions of the quality of the personal relations among the group members and the treatment they receive from the command posts were assessed. The results of the study show that the development of guidelines of social interaction based on discrimination and abuse of authority are predicting variables of mobbing in this group.     

Cognitive plasticity in Alzheimer's disease patients receiving cognitive stimulation programs

The main purpose of this article is to examine whether cognitive plasticity increases after cognitive training in Alzheimer's disease patients. Twenty six patients participated in this study, all of them diagnosed with mild Alzheimer's disease, 17 of them received a cognitive training program during 6 months, and the other 9 were assigned to the control group. Participants were assigned to experimental or control conditions for clinical reasons. In order to assess cognitive plasticity, all patients were assessed before and after treatment with three subtests from the "Bateria de Evaluación de Potencial de Aprendizaje en Demencias" [Assessment Battery of Learning Potential in Dementia] (BEPAD). After treatment, Alzheimer's disease patients improved their performance in all the tasks assessing cognitive plasticity: viso-spatial memory, audio-verbal memory and verbal fluency. However, the cognitive plasticity scores of the patients in the control group decreased. In conclusion, this study showed that cognitive stimulation programs can improve cognitive functioning in mildly demented patients, and patients who do not receive any cognitive interventions may reduce their cognitive functioning.     

Tangibles as predictors of customer satisfaction in sports services

This study investigates the power of tangible dimensions of service quality to predict customer satisfaction. For this purpose, we statistically controlled the effects of dimensions of service quality that describe social interaction between employees and customers, both functionally and relationally. A field survey was conducted with the participation of 556 customers of a sports centre. The results showed that tangible dimensions of service quality predicted an additional and significant amount of customer satisfaction variance, beyond the effects of service quality of the social interaction. The article concludes with the discussion of the implications of these results.     

Cognitive impairment in the early phase of multiple sclerosis and its relationship with mood, demographic and clinical variables

Our aim was to study cognitive performance in the early phase of MS. In addition, we studied whether depression, demographic and clinical variables differentiate cognitively impaired patients from non-impaired patients. A group of 52 MS-RR patients with mild level of neurological disability and 51 healthy controls were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. The MS group performed significantly worse on several measures of attention and processing speed and visuoperceptive/visuoconstructive tasks. Verbal memory is characterized by working memory deficits, whereas the visual memory impairment is attributable to deficits in acquisition and consolidation/recuperation. Results shows that cognitive impairment is evident even in MS patients in the early course of their disease. Depression scores were higher in cognitively impaired patients as compared with unimpaired patients. The effect of educational level suggests that higher education delays the onset of cognitive decline.     

Evaluation of Halpern's "structural component" for improving critical thinking

Halpern (1998) proposed a four-component model for promoting the transfer of critical thinking. One of them, the "structural component," focuses on how to organize teaching so that critical thinking skills can be generalized. Here, we assess the efficiency of that type of organization. Thus, one group of university students received instruction following the suggestions specified in that component and their performance was compared with that of other university students who received instruction in the same skills but using a different procedure, and with that of a control group. In comparison with the control group, the performance of both instructed groups was better after training. However, no significant differences were observed between either instruction group; both forms of instruction afforded very similar results.     

教师上级信任、知识分享与工作绩效的关系

知识分享和组织信任能够有效提高绩效,已在企业组织中得到证实,但在学校组织中是否成立及作用路径如何鲜有实证研究探讨。本研究以天津市10所学校的168名教师为研究对象,通过问卷调查探讨教师对直接上级的信任、知识分享及教师工作绩效之间的关系。路径分析结果显示：教师上级信任和知识分享的不同维度对教师工作绩效的影响存在差异;教师知识分享的质量在教师上级信任的依赖维度与工作绩效的关系中起部分中介作用。