“Today at Playcentre, we ….”: What values underpin narrative assessment in Playcentre?

Narrative assessments are widely used in Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood services, especially in the form of ‘Learning Stories’. This sociocultural approach to assessment foregrounds the importance of identifying what is valued learning within a particular context. What does this look like within the context of the parent co-operative Playcentre? A small-scale qualitative study brought together focus groups of Playcentre parents to share what Learning Stories are being written, to explore their experiences in writing and using Learning Stories, and to consider what underlying values shape narrative assessment in Playcentres. A major finding is that adult learning and relationship building are key aspects of Learning Stories in Playcentres. The authors argue that because of the positioning of parents as both learners and Kaiako in Playcentre, assessment in Playcentre is fundamentally different to that in teacher-led services

“Today at Playcentre, we ….”: What values underpin narrative assessment in Playcentre?

Narrative assessments are widely used in Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood services, especially in the form of ‘Learning Stories’. This sociocultural approach to assessment foregrounds the importance of identifying what is valued learning within a particular context. What does this look like within the context of the parent co-operative Playcentre? A small-scale qualitative study brought together focus groups of Playcentre parents to share what Learning Stories are being written, to explore their experiences in writing and using Learning Stories, and to consider what underlying values shape narrative assessment in Playcentres. A major finding is that adult learning and relationship building are key aspects of Learning Stories in Playcentres. The authors argue that because of the positioning of parents as both learners and Kaiako in Playcentre, assessment in Playcentre is fundamentally different to that in teacher-led services

Paradoxical personality scale: Its development and construct validity analysis

Se presenta el proceso de construcción y validación de la Escala de Personalidad Paradójica, diseñada a partir de la propuesta de Csikszentmihalyi (1996), quien describiera el concepto evaluado en relación a los individuos creativos. Se redactaron 150 reactivos que fueron sometidos a juicio experto y a examen de validez aparente en un estudio piloto. La versión resultante fue usada en un estudio factorial exploratorio (473 estudiantes; 50.5% varones, 49.5% mujeres; 18 a 35 años; = 21.82; DT= 3.14). La estructura resultante, de 6 dimensiones y 30 ítems, fue confirmada mediante un análisis factorial confirmatorio (800 estudiantes universitarios; 44.4% varones, 55.6% mujeres; 18 a 35 años; = 23.47; DT= 3.30). Ambas muestras provenían de la población de estudiantes universitarios de Buenos Aires, Argentina. También se analizó la consistencia interna y la estabilidad temporal de las puntuaciones, obteniéndose en ambos casos coeficientes aceptables, dada la composición de las dimensiones subyacentes al constructo analizado. Se discuten los resultados a la luz de los modelos teóricos propuestos, las ventajas de la brevedad y sencillez de aplicación y según nuevas líneas de investigación.The development and construct validation process of the Paradoxical Personality Scale is presented in this paper. The concept assessed has been posed by Csikszentmihalyi (1996) and was described as related to creative individuals. Following his guidelines, 150 items were designed and judged by five experts, and later analysed from a facies standpoint. The resulting version was used in a sample of college students (n=473; 50.5% males, 49.5% females) from 18 to 35 years (M = 21.82; DT= 3.14), to explore underlying dimensions. A 30item/6-factor solution was firstly isolated and after confirmed by a confirmatory factor analysis developed with 800 college students (44.4% males, 55.6% females), between18 and 35 years (M = 23.47; DT= 3.30). Both samples were selected from the population of college students from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Internal consistency and temporal stability of scores were also tested, obtaining adequate coefficients in both cases, in view of the composition of the dimensions underlying the construct analysed. Results show acceptable psychometric properties as well as shortness and simplicity for data gathering, which are discussed taking into account theoretical models and new research lines.Fil: Freiberg Hoffmann, Agustín. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: de la Iglesia, Guadalupe. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología; ArgentinaFil: Stover, Juliana Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez Liporace, Maria Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentin

Perceived Parenting Styles and Parental Inconsistency Scale: Construct Validity in Young Adults

The study examinesevidences of construct validity of the Perceived Parental Styles and Parental Inconsistency scale –EPIPP–, on a sample of 369 young adults. Individuals were asked about their father and their mother by means of 24 items. These conformsix subscales that constitutea first-order-model–Affection, Dialogue, Indifference, Verbal Coercion, Physical Coercion and Prohibition–that additionally group into two major scales –a second-order model–:Responsiveness and Demandingness.A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out on the first-orderand second-order factor structures,using maximum likelihood anda bootstrap procedure with 500 random samples. Resulting indexes showed an excellent fit in both modelsfor theFatherand Motherversions. Furthermore, adequate resultswere obtained in a cross-validation and afactorial invariance analysis. This way, solid evidences of construct validity were obtained for the EPIPP, suggesting it for the assessmentof perceived parenting in young adults.Fil: de la Iglesia, Guadalupe. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Stover, Juliana Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Freiberg Hoffmann, Agustín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez Liporace, Maria Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentin

Predicting academic achievement: The role of Motivation and Learning Strategies

The aim of this study consists in testing a predictive model of academic achievement including motivation and learning strategies as predictors. Motivation is defined as the energy and the direction of behaviors; it is categorized in three types of motivation –intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Learning strategies are deliberate operations oriented towards information processing in academic activities (Valle, Barca, González & Núñez, 1999). Several studies analysed the relationship between motivation and learning strategies in high school and college environments. Students with higher academic achievement were intrinsically motivated and used a wider variety of learning strategies more frequently. A non-experimental predictive design was developed. The sample was composed by 459 students (55.2% high-schoolers; 44.8% college students). Data were gathered by means of sociodemographic and academic surveys, and also by the local versions of the Academic Motivation Scale –EMA, Echelle de Motivation en Éducation (Stover, de la Iglesia, Rial Boubeta & Fernández Liporace, 2012; Vallerand, Blais, Briere & Pelletier, 1989) and the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory –LASSI (Stover, Uriel & Fernández Liporace, 2012; Weinstein, Schulte & Palmer, 1987). Several path analyses were carried out to test a hypothetical model to predict academic achievement (Kline, 1998). Results indicated that self-determined motivation explained academic achievement through the use of learning strategies. The final model obtained an excellent fit (χ2=16.523, df= 6, p=0.011; GFI=0.987; AGFI=0.955; SRMR=0.0320; NFI=0.913; IFI=0.943; CFI=0.940). Results are discussed considering Self Determination Theory and previous research.Fil: Stover, Juliana Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Freiberg Hoffmann, Agustín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: de la Iglesia, Guadalupe. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez Liporace, Maria Mercedes. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Speech tested for Zipfian fit using rigorous statistical techniques

Zipf’s law describes the relationship between the frequencies of words in a corpus and their rank. Its most basic form is a simple series, indicating that the frequency of a word is inverselyproportional to its rank:1/2, 1/3, 1/4,...The past two decades have seen the emergence of usage-based and cognitive approaches to language study. A key observation of these approaches, along with the importance of frequency, is that speech differs in substantial and structural ways from writing. Yet, except for a few older analyses performed on very small corpora, most studies of Zipf’s law have been done on written corpora. Further, a judgement of Zifianness in much of this work is based on loose and informal criteria.  In fact, sophisticated statistical techniques have been developed for curve fitting in recent years in the mathematics and physics literature. These include the use of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic, along with maximum likelihood estimation to generate p-values and the use of the complementary error function for normal distributions. The latter helps determine if a corpus, failing a Zipfian fit, might be better described by another distribution. In this paper, we will:Show that three corpora of recorded speech follow a power law distribution using rigorous statis- tical techniques: Buckeye, Santa Barbara, MiCaseDescribe preliminary results showing that the techniques outlined in this paper may be useful in the diagnoses of those conditions that can include disordered speech.Explain how to do the analyses described in this paper.Explain how to download and use the R/Python code we have written and packaged as the Zipf Tool Ki

Academic Motivation Scale: adaptation and psychometric analyses for high school and college students

The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS), supported in Self-Determination Theory, has been applied in recent decades as well in high school as in college education. Although several versions in Spanish are available, the underlying linguistic and cultural differences raise important issues when they are applied to Latin-American population. Consequently an adapted version of the AMS was developed, and its construct validity was analyzed in Argentine students. Results obtained on a sample that included 723 students from Buenos Aires (393 high school and 330 college students) verified adequate psychometric properties in this new version, solving some controversies regarded to its dimensionality.Fil: Stover, Juliana Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología. Instituto de Investigaciones; ArgentinaFil: de la Iglesia, Guadalupe. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Rial Boubeta, Antonio. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela; EspañaFil: Fernandez Liporace, Maria Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

CRUISE, a Tool for the Detection of Iterons in Circular Rep-Encoding Single-Stranded DNA Viruses

Iterons are short, repeated DNA sequences that are important for the replication of circular single-stranded DNA viruses. No tools that can reliably predict iterons are currently available. The CRUcivirus Iteron SEarch (CRUISE) tool is a computational tool that identifies iteron candidates near stem-loop structures in viral genomes

Star Clusters in the Nearby Late-Type Galaxy NGC 1311

Ultraviolet, optical and near infrared images of the nearby (D ~ 5.5 Mpc) SBm galaxy NGC 1311, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, reveal a small population of 13 candidate star clusters. We identify candidate star clusters based on a combination of their luminosity, extent and spectral energy distribution. The masses of the cluster candidates range from ~1000 up to ~100000 Solar masses, and show a strong positive trend of larger mass with increasing with cluster age. Such a trend follows from the fading and dissolution of old, low-mass clusters, and the lack of any young super star clusters of the sort often formed in strong starbursts. The cluster age distribution is consistent with a bursting mode of cluster formation, with active episodes of age ~10 Myr, ~100 Myr and ~1 Gyr. The ranges of age and mass we probe are consistent with those of the star clusters found in quiescent Local Group dwarf galaxies.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, accepted by A