Performance Assessment: Is Creative Thinking Necessary?

The study examined the relationship between creative thinking ability of 13 to 14‐year old female students and their ability in tackling problem solving situations in the science laboratory. The latter has been variously labeled as hands‐on problem‐solving tasks, scientific investigations, and performance assessment. No tutoring or guidance concerning how to solve the problem was provided. The scientific concepts embedded in the tasks are within the scope of the 13 to 14‐year old students, but the setting for the tasks are novel and not likely to be dealt with by their class teacher during the course of instruction. The solution process for these tasks is likely to involve the following components: preliminary trialing, planning, performing, communicating, interpreting and reflecting on the task to provide feedback for further refinement of the task (Department of Education & Science, U.K., 1987; Toh, 1990). The paper looks into the correlation of creative thinking ability and each of the six performance components, as well as the overall performance.     

SHIFT WORK RELATED TO JOB ATTITUDES,SOCIAL PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL BEHAVIOR: A STUDY OF NURSES AND INDUSTRIAL WORKERS1

The present study investigates the relationship between shift schedules and mental health, job satisfaction, social participation, organizational commitment, anticipated turnover, absenteeism and tardiness among nurses (N=440) in two hospitals and among rank-and-file workers (N=383) in a manufacturing organization. Results are generally supportive of the model which projected that workers on fixed work schedules (high routine-oriented) would be better off than workers on rotating work schedules (low routine-oriented) in terms of mental health, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and social participation. In addition, workers on fixed shift schedules are found to be lower on anticipated turnover, absenteeism and tardiness than workers on rotating shift schedules. Six potential moderators: age, marital status, place of socialization, cultural background, seniority and respondent's sex, were measured and their association with these relationships analyzed. Results are discussed in the light of the previous empirical evidence.     

Rumi and the Universality of his Message

This article evaluates the universal message of Rumi to offer it as a hopeful alternative to the ignorance and lack of spirituality in modern times. Drawing upon Rumi's writings of the thirteenth century, it advocates an understanding that there is something beyond religion and scholarly learning that can open our eyes to the reality beyond this existence; for Rumi we must climb a spiritual ladder of love. Furthermore, Rumi envisioned a universal faith, embodying all religions, because he understood that the cause of every religious conflict is ignorance. The article implies that religiosity consists in something other than outward religions. Real belief is apparent only on the inside of a person, which is not visible. Therefore, through Rumi, the article makes it clear that the religion of love involves loving the eternal and invisible source of existence.