Tracing children's vocabulary development from preschool through the school‐age years: an 8‐year longitudinal study

In this 8‐year longitudinal study, we traced the vocabulary growth of Chinese children, explored potential precursors of vocabulary knowledge, and investigated how vocabulary growth predicted future reading skills. Two hundred and sixty‐four (264) native Chinese children from Beijing were measured on a variety of reading and language tasks over 8 years. Between the ages of 4 to 10 years, they were administered tasks of vocabulary and related cognitive skills. At age 11, comprehensive reading skills, including character recognition, reading fluency, and reading comprehension were examined. Individual differences in vocabulary developmental profiles were estimated using the intercept‐slope cluster method. Vocabulary development was then examined in relation to later reading outcomes. Three subgroups of lexical growth were classified, namely high‐high (with a large initial vocabulary size and a fast growth rate), low‐high (with a small initial vocabulary size and a fast growth rate) and low‐low (with a small initial vocabulary size and a slow growth rate) groups. Low‐high and low‐low groups were distinguishable mostly through phonological skills, morphological skills and other reading‐related cognitive skills. Childhood vocabulary development (using intercept and slope) explained subsequent reading skills. Findings suggest that language‐related and reading‐related cognitive skills differ among groups with different developmental trajectories of vocabulary, and the initial size and growth rate of vocabulary may be two predictors for later reading development.     

Perception of parents as demonstrating the inherent merit of their values: Relations with self‐congruence and subjective well‐being

This study focuses on the parenting practice of inherent value demonstration (IVD), involving parents' tendency to express their values in behaviours and appear satisfied and vital while doing so. Data from Chinese college students (n = 89) confirmed the hypothesis that offspring's perception of their parents as engaged in IVD predicts offspring's subjective well‐being (SWB) through sense of self‐congruence. Importantly, these relations emerged also when controlling for fundamental autonomy‐supportive (FAS) parenting practices such as taking children's perspective, minimising control and allowing choice. These findings are consistent with the view that parents concerned with their children's sense of autonomy may do well to engage in IVD in addition to more fundamental autonomy‐supportive practices. Future research may examine the role of IVD in promoting authentic values that serve as an internal compass that guides children to act in ways that feel self‐congruent.     

人与世界:以事观之——杨国荣教授访谈

以事观之,主要是从"事"这一角度出发来对人和世界加以理解,而不是对"事"本身做出某种终极的哲学论述。现实世界与真实存在的生成过程,与人所从事的多样活动——人所作的多样之事——无法相分。西方没有类似"事"这样的概念,这表明了中国哲学的独特意义:中国哲学包含不少其他文化传统所缺乏的概念,后者有助于我们更深入地理解现实世界和人类生活。就意识层面而言,作为意识主体的自我和作为反观对象的自我之间的关联,实在地发生于做事过程。在事的展开过程中,知识与价值的问题密切联系在一起,做事既需要解决做什么的问题,也需要解决怎么做的问题。从事的角度来看,儒道两家的理想人格呈现出不同特点。道家以自然为第一原则,主张"为无为",儒家则更重视参与活动的合目的性。从事的角度来理解世界和人,既着眼于大的哲学问题,也关注于伦理学、语言哲学等具体领域的思考。     

Diagnostic Classification Models for a Mixture of Ordered and Non-ordered Response Options in Rating Scales

When developing ordinal rating scales, we may include potentially unordered response options such as “Neither Agree nor Disagree,” “Neutral,” “Don’t Know,” “No Opinion,” or “Hard to Say.” To handle responses to a mixture of ordered and unordered options, Huggins-Manley et al. (2018) proposed a class of semi-ordered models under the unidimensional item response theory framework. This study extends the concept of semi-ordered models into the area of diagnostic classification models. Specifically, we propose a flexible framework of semi-ordered DCMs that accommodates most earlier DCMs and allows for analyzing the relationship between those potentially unordered responses and the measured traits. Results from an operational study and two simulation studies show that the proposed framework can incorporate both ordered and non-ordered responses into the estimation of the latent traits and thus provide useful information about both the items and the respondents.     

国内外预立医疗照护计划社会经济效益的探讨

从卫生经济学视角,探讨预立医疗照护计划的社会经济效益。通过分析预立医疗照护计划的卫生经济政策、经济分析模式及社会经济效益评价研究等发现,预立医疗照护计划具有较明显的社会经济效益。借鉴国外经验和结合我国文化背景提出预立医疗照护计划在我国发展的对策和建议,包括建立相关政策突破发展障碍;构建激励制度,加强人才培养以支撑预立医疗照护计划发展;开展评价预立医疗照护计划经济效益的研究,以价值为导向构建本土化的医疗模式,以期为我国发展预立医疗照护计划的卫生经济学研究领域提供理论依据。