What influences students to choose the elementary education major : the case of Cyprus

The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the factors that have motivated third and fourth year students at the University of Cyprus to choose the elementary school teaching profession. The sample consisted of 176 students that were studying elementary education during the Fall of 1995. The questionnaire was administered to all students that were enrolled in certain elementary education classes which were selected randomly. Responses to the questionnaire items were factored using the principal components analysis with varimax rotation. Six factors were retained and they accounted/or 63.3 percent of the variance. The first factor was accounted for 18.3 percent of the variance in the six factor solution. Items in this factor with loadings greater than 0.50 concerned the students' ideas about: love of teaching, love of the teaching / learning process, love of working with young children, and inborn talent for teaching. This factor was called 'internal motives'. The second/actor accounted for 15.3 percent of the variance and included items describing vacations, immediate employment, job possibilities, secure job, and fringe benefits, and was called 'job benefits'. The third factor accounted for 9.7 percent of the variance and was called 'status of the profession'. The fourth factor accounted for 8.3 percent of the variance and was called 'relatives' influences'. The fifth and sixth factor accounted for 6.4 and 5.3 per.cent of the variance respectively and were called 'external motives' and 'teacher influence'.peer-reviewe

Psychometric changes on item difficulty due to item review by examinees

If good measurement depends in part on the estimation of accurate item characteristics, it is essential that test developers become aware of discrepancies that may exist on the item parameters before and after item review. The purpose of this study was to examine the answer changing patterns of students while taking paper-and-pencil multiple choice exams, and to examine how these changes affect the estimation of item difficulty parameters. The results of this study have shown that item review by examinees does produce some changes to the examinee ability estimates and to the item difficulty parameters. In addition, these effects are more pronounced in shorter tests than in longer tests. In turn, these small changes produce larger effects when estimating the changes in the information values of each student’s test score. Accessed 4,021 times on https://pareonline.net from January 07, 2015 to December 31, 2019. For downloads from January 1, 2020 forward, please click on the PlumX Metrics link to the right

Evaluating the Usefulness and Properties of a Subjective Assessment of Brazilian Portuguese

This is the published version. Copyright 2002 Johns Hopkins University Press.This is an evaluation of a Brazilian self-assessment test. All questions on the test guide the students to evaluate themselves on their linguistic and socio-cultural skills in Brazilian Portuguese. The main points discussed in this article are (1) an item analysis, (2) the reliability of the test to determine the consistency of the results obtained by the instrument, (3) the construct validity, and (4) the creation of cutscores. Our analysis of the BP self-assessment was supported by the use of descriptive statistics, by a factorial analysis and by a reliability test to determine the psychometrics characteristics of the test. The major claim in this study is that this test is useful, valid and reliable, if used appropriately, especially with an audience of motivated students such as students going abroad, instead of students who take language classes only as a requirement in their school program

Methodologies for Assessing Disease Tolerance in Pigs

Features of intensive farming can seriously threaten pig homeostasis, well-being and productivity. Disease tolerance of an organism is the adaptive ability in preserving homeostasis and at the same time limiting the detrimental impact that infection can inflict on its health and performance without affecting pathogen burden per se. While disease resistance (DRs ) can be assessed measuring appropriately the pathogen burden within the host, the tolerance cannot be quantified easily. Indeed, it requires the assessment of the changes in performance as well as the changes in pathogen burden. In this paper, special attention is given to criteria required to standardize methodologies for assessing disease tolerance (DT) in respect of infectious diseases in pigs. The concept is applied to different areas of expertise and specific examples are given. The basic physiological mechanisms of DT are reviewed. Disease tolerance pathways, genetics of the tolerance-related traits, stress and disease tolerance, and role of metabolic stress in DT are described. In addition, methodologies based on monitoring of growth and reproductive performance, welfare, emotional affective states, sickness behavior for assessment of disease tolerance, and methodologies based on the relationship between environmental challenges and disease tolerance are considered. Automated Precision Livestock Farming technologies available for monitoring performance, health and welfare-related measures in pig farms, and their limitations regarding DT in pigs are also presented. Since defining standardized methodologies for assessing DT is a serious challenge for biologists, animal scientists and veterinarians, this work should contribute to improvement of health, welfare and production in pigs

Optomechanical disk resonators for real-time environmental monitoring and single-nanoparticle detection

Trabajo presentado en el 13th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics (META), celebrado en París (Francia), del 18 al 21 de julio de 202

Multifrequency Nanomechanical Mass Spectrometer Prototype for Measuring Viral Particles Using Optomechanical Disk Resonators

Nanomechanical mass spectrometry allows characterization of analytes with broad mass range, from small proteins to bacterial cells, and with unprecedented mass sensitivity. In this work, we show a novel multifrequency nanomechanical mass spectrometer prototype designed for focusing, guiding and soft-landing of nanoparticles and viral particles on a nanomechanical resonator surface placed in vacuum. The system is compatible with optomechanical disk resonators, with an integrated optomechanical transduction method, and with the laser beam deflection technique for the measurement of the vibrations of microcantilever resonators. The prototype allows the in-vacuum alignment of resonators thanks to a dedicated visualization system. Finally, in this work, we have demonstrated the detection of gold nanoparticles, polystyrene nanoparticles and phage G viruses with optomechanical disks and microcantilever resonators.Peer reviewe

The Case of Cyprus and Germany. Results of the IEA Civic Education Study

This paper explores how democratic values are stimulated by predictors related to family and school. We began by posing a simple question: How can we best explain students' democratic values in relation to their home backgrounds, school-class climate, political environment, political interest and participation of students in social activities? To answer this, we chose to elaborate on a model comparing various background factors. Both models (cf. figures 2 and 3) seem to indicate that school climate has a huge effect on political environment and political interest. Here, political environment has a stronger effect on social participation than political interest. Although Germany and Cyprus have many differences, the actual models for both countries are almost identical