Inclusion practices with Special Educational Needs students in a Hong Kong secondary school: teachers’ narratives from a school guidance perspective

Schools in Hong Kong are concerned about the growing enrolments of students with special educational needs (SEN) and how these students could be included in school guidance. This study examines teachers’ narratives of the inclusivity of school guidance. The study was qualitative, being a case study of a Hong Kong secondary school. School documents were collected for textual analysis and semi-structured interviews with 13 teachers were conducted, including nine guidance teachers and four other teachers who worked closely with these guidance teachers. Four dimensions for the inclusivity of school guidance were identified: the development of inclusive practices of guidance, the adoption of a proactive approach, the promotion of inclusive discipline, and the clear definition of the partnership between school guidance and professional organization offering specialised services for students with SEN. The study provides insights into contextual influences of Hong Kong education on school guidance and the development of an inclusive approach to guidance.     

College‐Level Choice of Latino High School Students: A Social‐Cognitive Approach

Latino students attend 2‐year colleges more often than 4‐year colleges. This has an impact on the rate of bachelor's degree attainment, because the transfer rate between the 2 levels is low. The author uses national data to identify predictors associated with college‐level choice and then uses social‐cognitive career theory ( Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994 ) to frame counseling implications. Los estudiantes Latinos se matriculan con más frecuencia en estudios universitarios de 2 años que en estudios de 4 años. Esto produce un impacto en el porcentaje de obtención de licenciaturas, porque la tasa de transferencia entre ambos niveles es baja. El autor emplea datos a nivel nacional para identificar predictores asociados con la elección del nivel de estudios universitarios, y después emplea la teoría social cognitiva de las carreras ( Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994 ) para formular las implicaciones para la consejería.     

A Level of Care Instrument for Children's Systems of Care: Construction, Reliability and Validity

The Child and Adolescent Level of Care System/Child and Adolescent Service Intensity Instrument (CALOCUS/ CASII) is designed to help determine the intensity of services needed for a child served in a mental health system of care. The instrument contains eight dimensions that are rated following a comprehensive clinical evaluation. The dimensions are risk of harm, functionality, co-morbidity (psychiatric, substance abuse, development disability and medical), environmental stressors, environmental supports, the child's resiliency, and the child and family's willingness to engage in treatment. An algorithm connects the ratings to a level of care recommendation. The instrument specifies six levels of care defined flexibly enough to consider whatever services are available. The results of psychometric testing using raters with a broad range of clinical experience and training from four different systems of care around the country are presented. The testing demonstrates excellent reliability when rating vignettes. Using children and adolescents in live system of care clinical settings, the CALOCUS/CASII demonstrates reasonable validity when compared with the Child Global Assessment Scale, and the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale.     

女大专生自主学习策略与学业等级关系研究

为了解女大专生的自主学习策略与学业等级关系,随机整群选取了学前03大专毕业班的147名女生进行了自主学习策略问卷调查。结果发现:女大专生自主学习策略水平处于一般中等水平,她们较多采用复述策略、规范策略;较少采用批判思考策略和计划策略。学业低分组女大专生在复述策略得分上显著高于高分组,在其它策略得分上均显著低于高分组。影响女大专生学业成绩的是批判策略、组织策略、复述策略、监控策略等因子共同影响的结果,但复述策略阻碍学业成绩提高和发展。     

教育变革语境中未成年人道德观念的错位与德育革新

当下教育变革中德育革新的乏力,引发了现时德育的虚弱与苍白。这种虚弱与苍白的德育现状一定程度上导致了未成年人道德观念的错位。要矫正未成年人的错误道德观念,要使错位恢复到原位,德育必须向真正的德育回归。真正德育的达致,必须革新德育。这种革新应沿着德育者形象、德育的内容、德育的方式三个维度展开。     

从郭靖习武管窥中国人的教育心理观

郭靖习武的过程蕴涵着许多教育学和心理学的深刻道理。本文从郭靖习武的四个阶段来管窥我国传统文化下浓厚的教育心理学思想,由此得出了在学习中的一个理论：多元智力理论,两个误区：学生先天缺陷观和重德轻才观,三点建议：激发学生兴趣、摒弃“齐步走”的做法和学以致用。     

Medicine as a career: Choices and consequences

Medicine has traditionally been regarded as a rewarding career both financially and socially. How true, however, is that tradition in today's world of rising costs and decreasing revenues? The educational debt of the physician-in-training is steadily increasing, and currently does not affect specialty choice. As the cost of medical education continues to rise, the applicant pool begins to shrink, thereby possibly affecting the quality of future physicians. Once the physician has completed training however, the majority enjoy a positive return on investment. Their incomes generally fail to remain ahead of inflation, and therefore, have remained within a narrow band of $40,000 in 1970 dollars. Finally, the demand for physician services cannot be attributed solely to either the consumer (patient) or to the supplier (physician). Rather, the demand for medical services appears to be a unique combination of the two. In conclusion, medicine still is an attractive career path, but the choices and consequences are becoming much more demanding.     

TEACHING SOCIAL/VOCATIONAL SKILLS TO RETARDED ADULTS WITH A MODIFIED TABLE GAME: AN ANALYSIS OF GENERALIZATION

In this study, a social skills training program for institutionalized mildly or moderately retarded adults was extended to include skills relevant to vocational settings. Target behaviors involving a verbal action or reaction within six skill areas were taught using a commercially available board game, Sorry, and a specially designed card deck. The training program featured response specific feedback, self-monitoring, individualized reinforcers, and individualized performance criterion levels. Using a multiple baseline across two groups (n = 3 per group), the game contingencies increased social/vocational skills in all targeted areas. Generalization was assessed in two settings: a simulated workshop in which pre and post measures were taken and in the institutional workshop where the residents worked. The posttraining simulated workshop results revealed that the residents' newly learned skills had generalized. However, repeated generalization measures of the residents' social interactions in the institutional workshop were equivocal as were measures of their productivity.     

Primes, contingent attention, and training: effects on a child's motor behavior

The use of primes, contingent attention, and training sessions to assess a child's engagement and skill in six large motor activities was examined using a combination reversal and multiple-baseline design. Assessment was based on four levels: proximity to equipment, touching equipment, unskilled participation, and skilled participation. Before training, priming (suggestion to the child) was more effective than contingent attention for increasing the subject's engagement (but not skill) in five activities and for increasing skilled participation in one activity. Training of four activities in the natural environment effectively increased the subject's skill level in five activities. Thus, training appeared to generalize to one of these five activities in this setting and also to skillfully executed stair climbing in an adjoining setting. After training, primes and contingent attention were sufficient to maintain both the subject's skill level and engagement in all activities. Postchecks in the same setting the following semester with different teachers revealed only slight increases in participation, as compared to previous baselines, but all participation was at the skilled level. Social interaction, which was not experimentally manipulated, did not systematically vary in relation to changes in experimental conditions.     

Component models for three-way data: An alternating least squares algorithm with optimal scaling features

A review of the existing techniques for the analysis of three-way data revealed that none were appropriate to the wide variety of data usually encountered in psychological research, and few were capable of both isolating common information and systematically describing individual differences. An alternating least squares algorithm was proposed to fit both an individual difference model and a replications component model to three-way data which may be defined at the nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio, or mixed measurement level; which may be discrete or continuous; and which may be unconditional, matrix conditional, or row conditional. This algorithm was evaluated by a Monte Carlo study. Recovery of the original information was excellent when the correct measurement characteristics were assumed. Furthermore, the algorithm was robust to the presence of random error. In addition, the algorithm was used to fit the individual difference model to a real, binary, subject conditional data set. The findings from this application were consistent with previous research in the area of implicit personality theory and uncovered interesting systematic individual differences in the perception of political figures and roles.This paper is part of a Thesis performed by Richard Sands under the direction of Forrest Young at the L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Thanks are extended to Drs. Charles Schmidt and Andrea Sedlak for the use of their political role data set.