The effects of sex of teacher, sex of scenario principal, and leadership style on the performance ratings of scenario principals by teachers

This study was designed to address questions regarding the effects of sex and leadership style on teacher perceptions of principal effectiveness. On a researcher-designed instrument, middle school teachers rated the effectiveness of a scenario principal's response in several situations. The responses reflected varying levels of Task and Relationship Behavior.^ The design incorporated two between subjects factors (Teacher Sex and Principal Sex) and one within subjects factor (Leadership Style) which was treated as a repeated measure. An analysis of variance revealed no significant effects except for Leadership Style. Overall, High Task/High Relationship behavior rated significantly higher and Low Task/Low Relationship rated significantly lower than the others. The null hypothesis concerning differences could not be rejected and the stated research hypotheses were not supported.^ Additional analyses of variance were conducted substituting subject demographic variables for Teacher Sex in the research design. No significant interactions or main effects other than Leadership Style were noted when either Age or Ethnicity were substituted.^ A significant two-way interaction was noted for Teacher Experience and Leadership Style (p =.0316). Less experienced teachers rated principal's performance lower when exhibiting High Task/Low Relationship style than did more experienced teachers. A significant three-way interaction was noted for Administrative Aspiration x Principal Sex x Leadership Style (p =.0294). Teachers who indicated an intent to enter administration differed more on their ratings between male and female principals exhibiting mixed styles of High Task/Low Relationship and Low Task/High Relationship than did teachers who indicated no or undecided.^ Sex of the teacher appears less important than sex of the principal on performance ratings. Results suggest further study of the effects of teacher experience and teacher administrative aspiration on perceptions of principal effectiveness. ^

Nursing curriculum: Changing students' knowledge and biases towards older adults

Caring for the older adult is a topic debated and discussed at all levels of today's society. Nurses are expected to educate patients and family members about their medications and care following hospitalization or contact with the health care system. The majority of these patients are elderly. The purpose of the study was to determine if a course on aging would affect the knowledge and biases of nursing students in a Baccalaureate nursing program at a Southeast Florida University. Nursing students (N = 52) were surveyed at the beginning of the semester using Palmore's Facts on Aging Quiz that is structured to determine the knowledge and biases of individuals towards the older adult. Students were surveyed before and after the nursing course that had a didactic and clinical component in the hospital setting. Analysis of the data by Chi square and repeated measure ANOVA supported the hypothesis that a course segment on aging would affect the knowledge level of the nursing students and result in changes of their biases toward the older adult. ^

A comparative study of block scheduling and traditional scheduling on academic achievement

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an alternate day block schedule design (n = 419) versus a traditional six-period schedule design (n = 623) on the academic achievement of the graduating classes in two schools in which the design was used respectively. Academic achievement was measured by (a) two standardized tests: the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test Sunshine State Standards (FCAT-SSS) in mathematics and reading for 9th and 10th grade and the Scholastic Reading Inventory Test (SRI) for 9 th, 10th, and 11th grade; (b) three school grades: the mathematics final course grades for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade, the English final course grades for 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade and the graduating GPA. A total of five repeated measure analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted to analyze the difference between the two schools (representing the two designs) with respect to five achievement indicators (FCAT-SSS mathematics scores, FCAT-SSS reading scores, SRI scores, mathematics final course grades, and English final course grades). The between-subject factor for the five ANOVAs was the schedule design and the within-subject factor was the time the tests were taken or the time the course grades were issued. T-tests were performed on all eighth grade achievement indicators to ensure there were no significant differences in achievement between the two cohorts prior to entering high school. An independent samples t-test was conducted to analyze the difference between the two schedule designs with respect to graduating GPA. Achievement in the alternate day block schedule design was significantly higher than in the traditional six-period schedule design for some of the locally assigned school grades. The difference between the two types of schedule designs was not significant for the standardized measures (the FCAT-SSS in reading and mathematics and the SRI). This study concludes that the use of an alternate day block schedule design can be considered an educational tool that can help improve the academic achievement of students as measured by local indicators of achievement; but, apparently the design is not an important factor in achievement as measured by state examinations such as the FCAT-SSS or the SRI.

Reliability of the Clinical Application of a Mechanical Inclinometer in Measuring Glenohumeral Motion

Objective: Establish intra- and inter-examiner reliability of glenohumeral range of motion (ROM) measures taken by a single-clinician using a mechanical inclinometer. Design: A single-session, repeated-measure, randomized, counterbalanced design. Setting: Athletic Training laboratory. Participants: Ten college-aged volunteers (9 right-hand dominant; 4 males, 6 females; age=23.2±2.4y, mass=73±16kg, height=170±8cm) without shoulder or neck injuries within one year. Interventions: Two Certified Athletic Trainers separately assessed passive glenohumeral (GH) internal (IR) and external (ER) rotation bilaterally. Each clinician secured the inclinometer to each subject’s distal forearm using elastic straps. Clinicians followed standard procedures for assessing ROM, with the participants supine on a standard treatment table with 90° of elbow flexion. A second investigator recorded the angle. Clinicians measured all shoulders once to assess inter-clinician reliability and eight shoulders twice to assess intra-clinician reliability. We used SPSS 14.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL) to calculate standard error of measure (SEM) and Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) to evaluate intra- and inter-clinician reliability. Main Outcome Measures: Dependent variables were degrees of IR, ER, glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD) and total arc of rotation. We calculated GIRD as the bilateral difference in IR (nondominant–dominant) and total arc for each shoulder (IR+ER). Results: Intra-clinician reliability for each examiner was excellent (ICC[1,1] range=0.90-0.96; SEM=2.2°-2.5°) for all measures. Examiners displayed excellent inter-clinician reliability (ICC[2,1] range=0.79-0.97; SEM=1.7°-3.0°) for all measures except nondominant IR which had good reliability(0.72). Conclusions: Results suggest that clinicians can achieve reliable measures of GH rotation and GIRD using a single-clinician technique and an inexpensive, readily available mechanical inclinometer.

Acute Effects of Neuromuscular-Training with Handheld-Vibration on Elbow Joint Position Sense

Context: Clinicians use exercises in rehabilitation to enhance sensorimotor-function, however evidence supporting their use is scarce. Objective: To evaluate acute effects of handheld-vibration on joint position sense (JPS). Design: A repeated-measure, randomized, counter-balanced 3-condition design. Setting: Sports Medicine and Science Research Laboratory. Patients or Other Participants: 31 healthy college-aged volunteers (16-males, 15-females; age=23+3y, mass=76+14kg, height=173+8cm). Interventions: We measured elbow JPS and monitored training using the Flock-of-Birds system (Ascension Technology, Burlington, VT) and MotionMonitor software (Innsport, Chicago, IL), accurate to 0.5°. For each condition (15,5,0Hz vibration), subjects completed three 15-s bouts holding a 2.55kg Mini-VibraFlex dumbbell (Orthometric, New York, NY), and used software-generated audio/visual biofeedback to locate the target. Participants performed separate pre- and post-test JPS measures for each condition. For JPS testing, subjects held a non-vibrating dumbbell, identified the target (90°flexion) using biofeedback, and relaxed 3-5s. We removed feedback and subjects recreated the target and pressed a trigger. We used SPSS 14.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL) to perform separate ANOVAs (p<0.05) for each protocol and calculated effect sizes using standard-mean differences. Main Outcome Measures: Dependent variables were absolute and variable error between target and reproduced angles, pre-post vibration training. Results: 0Hz (F1,61=1.310,p=0.3) and 5Hz (F1,61=2.625,p=0.1) vibration did not affect accuracy. 15Hz vibration enhanced accuracy (6.5±0.6 to 5.0±0.5°) (F1,61=8.681,p=0.005,ES=0.3). 0Hz did not affect variability (F1,61=0.007,p=0.9). 5Hz vibration decreased variability (3.0±1.8 to 2.3±1.3°) (F1,61=7.250,p=0.009), as did 15Hz (2.8±1.8 to 1.8±1.2°) (F1,61=24.027, p<0.001). Conclusions: Our results support using handheld-vibration to improve sensorimotor-function. Future research should include injured subjects, functional multi-joint/multi-planar measures, and long-term effects of similar training.

Effects of real -time captioning and sign language interpreting on the learning of college students who are deaf or hard of hearing

College personnel are required to provide accommodations for students who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HoH), but few empirical studies have been conducted on D/HoH students as they learn under the various accommodation conditions (sign language interpreting, SLI, real-time captioning, RTC, and both). Guided by the experiences of students who are D/HoH at Miami-Dade College (MDC) who requested RTC in addition to SLI as accommodations, the researcher adopted Merten’s transformative-emancipatory theoretical framework that values perceptions and voice of students who are D/HoH. A mixed methods design addressed two research questions: Did student learning differ for each accommodation? What did students experience while learning through accommodations? Participants included 30 students who were D/HoH (60% women). They represented MDC’s majority minority population: 10% White (non-Hispanic), 20% Black (non-Hispanic, including Haitian/Caribbean), 67% Hispanic, and 3% other. Hearing loss, ranged from severe-profound (70%) to mild-moderate (30%). All were able to communicate with American Sign Language: Learning was measured while students who were D/HoH viewed three lectures under three accommodation conditions (SLI, RTC, SLI+RTC). The learning measure was defined as the difference in pre- and post-test scores on tests of the content presented in the lectures. Using repeated measure ANOVA and ANCOVA, confounding variables of fluency in American Sign Language and literacy skills were treated as covariates. Perceptions were obtained through interviews and verbal protocol analysis that were signed, videotaped, transcribed, coded, and examined for common themes and metacognitive strategies. No statistically significant differences were found among the three accommodations on the learning measure. Students who were D/HoH expressed thoughts about five different aspects of their learning while they viewed lectures: (a) comprehending the information, (b) feeling a part of the classroom environment, (c) past experiences with an accommodation, (d) individual preferences for an accommodation, (e) suggestions for improving an accommodation. They exhibited three metacognitive strategies: (a) constructing knowledge, (b) monitoring comprehension, and (c) evaluating information. No patterns were found in the types of metacognitive strategies used for any particular accommodation. The researcher offers recommendations for flexible applications of the standard accommodations used with students who are D/HoH.

The effects of sex of teacher, sex of scenario principal and leadership style on the performance ratings of scenario principals by teachers

This study was designed to address questions regarding the effects of sex and leadership style on teacher perceptions of principal effectiveness. On a researcher-designed instrument, middle school teachers rated the effectiveness of a scenario principal's response in several situations. The responses reflected varying levels of Task and Relationship Behavior. The design incorporated two between subjects factors (Teacher Sex and Principal Sex) and one within subjects factor (Leadership Style) which was treated as a repeated measure. An analysis of variance revealed no significant effects except for Leadership Style. Overall, High Task/High Relationship behavior rated significantly higher and Low Task/Low Relationship rated significantly lower than the others. The null hypothesis concerning differences could not be rejected and the stated research hypotheses were not supported. Additional analyses of variance were conducted substituting subject demographic variables for Teacher Sex in the research design. No significant interactions or main effects other than Leadership Style were noted when either Age or Ethnicity were substituted. A significant two-way interaction was noted for Teacher Experience and Leadership Style (p = .0316). Less experienced teachers rated principal's performance lower when exhibiting High Task/Low Relationship style than did more experienced teachers. A significant three-way interaction was noted for Administrative Aspiration x Principal Sex x Leadership Style (p = .0294). Teachers who indicated an intent to enter administration differed more on their ratings between male and female principals exhibiting mixed styles of High Task/Low Relationship and Low Task/High Relationship than did teachers who indicated no or undecided. Sex of the teacher appears less important than sex of the principal on performance ratings. Results suggest further study of the effects of teacher experience and teacher administrative aspiration on perceptions of principal effectiveness.