When the Price Is Too High: Rethinking China\u27s Deterrence Strategy for Robbery

Economic property crime in China has soared since the country enacted market reforms in the early 1980s. Robbery rates are rising faster than most economic property crimes, such as larceny and fraud, and violent crimes, such as rape, murder, and assault. China’s strategy for deterrence is to raise the “price” of the crime by increasing the severity of the penalty. Since 1979, China’s criminal law has permitted the use of the death penalty for robbers in nearly all cases, and courts have applied it regularly and in many different types of robbery cases. Since 1983, China has formally engaged in “strike-hard” campaigns, in which the government dedicates massive law enforcement resources to fight a particular crime. The campaigns have targeted robbery and have resulted in mass arrests, swift trials, and severe sentences—including mass executions. Despite these efforts, China has failed to deter individuals from committing more robberies. This Comment argues that China should reform its deterrence strategy by revising its criminal law and “strike-hard” campaigns. China should adopt new deterrence strategies that combine law with sociology, economics, and psychology. Not only will these strategies deter more robbery, they will also deter the more serious crimes often committed during robberies. The new strategies will also provide incentives for individuals to commit less violent crime

Relationship between the WJ-IV ACH reading tests and the GORT-5

The present study examined the relationship between the Gray Oral Reading Test – Fifth Edition and the Woodcock Johnson-IV Achievement Tests in reading in a sample of 104 school age participants between the ages of 7 and 18. Pearson correlations tests indicated large correlations (r=.87, p=.01) between the GORT-5 ORI and the WJ IV ACH Broad Reading cluster. Additional comparisons for fluency and comprehension yielded comparable results (r=.85, p=.01; r=.84, p=.01). Similarly, a Fisher’s Exact Test illustrated that the odds of scoring at or below the tenth percentile on the WJ IV ACH was very high when a student scored at or below the tenth percentile on the GORT-5. The findings suggest that the use of this relatively brief oral reading measure can be beneficial as a diagnostic assessment in a district’s MTSS because its results are closely aligned to the WJ IV –ACH, a popular achievement test frequently used in combination with other assessments to help determine if struggling readers have academic deficits significant enough to warrant special education services

El aprendizaje colaborativo: Bases teóricas y estrategias aplicables en la enseñanza universitaria

Collaborative learning is a construct that identifies a current strong field, both in face-to-face and virtual education. Firstly, three converging theoretical sources are analyzed: socio-cognitive conflict theory, intersubjectivity theory and distributed cognition theory. Secondly, a model of strategies that can be implemented by teachers to develop socio-cognitive collaboration is presented. This model integrates and systematizes several academic group animation techniques developed within the collaborative learning field. These integrated techniques, within a coherent and unified didactic intention, allow talking more about strategies than independent and dissociated techniques. Each strategy is specifically described, which refers to six areas: encouragement of dialogue, listening to others and reciprocal assessment; collaboration for negotiation and consensus building; activity organization; study and appropriation of bibliographic information; conceptual development; collective writing. These strategies proposed (designed to stimulate the collaboration between 2, 4 and exceptionally, 6 or 8 students) are not the only possible strategies, they can be combined with the ones the teacher might suggest. The strict pattern of each strategy is a characteristic of the proposal. The teacher is also encouraged to benchmark the results obtained using each strategy and those obtained using individual or non-collaborative strategies. Finally, conclusions and recommendations for the implementation of these strategies are discussed.El Aprendizaje Colaborativo es un constructo que identifica un campo de fuerte actualidad, tanto en educación presencial como virtual. En primer lugar, se analizan las tres fuentes teóricas convergentes: la teoría del conflicto sociocognitivo, la teoría de la intersubjetividad y la teoría de la cognición distribuida. En segundo lugar, se presenta un modelo propio de estrategias que el docente puede implementar para desarrollar la colaboración sociocognitiva. Dicho modelo integra y sistematiza diversas técnicas de animación grupal con fines académicos desarrolladas dentro del campo del Aprendizaje Colaborativo. Precisamente es esta integración, dentro de una intención didáctica coherente y unificada, la que habilita hablar de estrategias más que de técnicas sueltas y disociadas. Se describe concretamente cada una de las estrategias, las que se refieren a seis ejes: Estímulo del diálogo, la escucha del otro y la evaluación recíproca; Colaboración para la negociación y creación de consenso; Organización de la actividad; Estudio y apropiación de la información bibliográfica; Elaboración conceptual; Escritura colectiva. Las estrategias propuestas (pensadas para estimular la colaboración entre dos, tres, cuatro y, excepcionalmente, seis u ocho estudiantes) no son las únicas posibles; se pueden combinar o asociarse con variaciones que el propio docente puede crear. Una característica de la propuesta es la estricta pautación de cada estrategia. También se alienta al docente a evaluar comparativamente los logros de aprendizaje obtenidos con cada estrategia con los obtenidos con modalidades individuales o no colaborativas. Finalmente, se exponen conclusiones y recomendaciones para la implementación de dichas estrategias