Best Practices in Diversity Management

[Excerpt] The International Personnel Management Association (IPMA) has undertaken a human resource benchmarking project with the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE). IPMA is an organization representing over 1,700 organizations and 2,500 individuals involved in public sector human resource management. The Association’s mission is to optimize organizational and individual performance in the public service by providing human resource leadership, professional development, information and services. IPMA has established an International Human Resource Advisory Board to facilitate the exchange of information on international human resource developments. The International Human Resource Advisory Board has 37 members from 35 countries and international organizations. Additional information about IPMA can be obtained at http://www.ipma-hr.org

An Intervention Study in Grade 3 Based Upon Reciprocal Teaching

This article reports the results of a twelve-week intervention study in which 30 students in the third grade in a socially disadvantaged neighbourhood received training in a reciprocal teaching reading programme twice a week. Previously, (a) no study of the effects of reciprocal teaching had been conducted in a Swedish context under the conditions of larger groups in grade 3 or (b) in a socially disadvantaged neighbourhood. In the present study, the students were instructed in ‘text talk’ in large groups, with 15 participants in each group. Each session lasted 15 to 20 minutes. Some text talks were video recorded. The video recordings were analysed qualitatively. The students’ reading comprehension was tested before the intervention, immediately after completing the intervention, and three months after completing the intervention. The results presented suggest that the students’ reading comprehension significantly increased. In the conclusion, the study indicates that reciprocal teaching had a positive effect on students in grade 3 in a Swedish context; however, uncontrolled intervening variables cannot be ruled out

The association between premorbid cognitive ability and social functioning and suicide among young men: A historical-prospective cohort study

Previous studies have found associations between low cognitive ability and later completed suicide. The aim of this study was to examine the association between cognitive ability and social functioning in adolescence, and later completed suicide in a large population-based longitudinal study. Data from the Israeli Draft Board Register for 634,655 Israeli male adolescents aged 16 and 17 was linked to a causes-of-death data registry, with a mean follow-up of 10.6 years for completed suicide. Our results show that in males without a psychiatric diagnosis, both low (adjusted HR=1.51, 95% CI: 1.19–1.92) and high (adjusted HR=1.36, 95% CI: 1.04–1.77) cognitive ability, and very poor (adjusted HR=2.30, 95% CI: 1.34–3.95) and poor (adjusted HR=1.64, 95% CI: 1.34–2.07) social functioning were associated with increased risk for later completed suicide; however positive predictive values were low (PPVs=0.09% and 0.10%, for low cognitive ability and very poor or poor social functioning, respectively). No association between cognitive ability or social functioning and risk for suicide was found in males with a psychiatric diagnosis. These data do not support the clinical utility of screening for such potential predictors

Cytomegalovirus is associated with depression and anxiety in older adults

Infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV), a β-herpesvirus, is common within the population. Although asymptomatic, infection is associated with increased serum concentrations of cytokines such as TNFα and IL-6, which are also related to mood and wellbeing. The present study examined whether infection with CMV was associated with mood in a community-based sample of olderadults. Blood samples and scores on the General Health Questionnaire were available for 137 participants. Serum was analysed for the presence of CMV-specific IgG and the antibody titre was used as an indirect measure of viral load. The majority of the participants (66%) were CMV-seropositive and seropositive status was not associated with psychological morbidity. However, within the CMV-positive group, individuals with higher CMV-specific antibody titres were more likely to be depressed, anxious, and suffer more overall psychological morbidity. This association could be mediated by the impact of affect-moderating cytokines secreted through the CMV-specific immune response.\ud \u

Autism risk across generations: a population-based study of advancing grandpaternal and paternal age

Importance: Advancing paternal age has been linked to autism

Predicting Teachers’ Choice of Teaching and Learning Materials: A Survey Study with Swedish Teachers

Few Swedish studies have investigated how teachers choose teaching and learning materials. In the context of choosing teaching and learning materials Sweden provides a particularly interesting case because the country undergone a transformation from high state regulation to a self-regulated market. Consequently, the overall aim of this article is to investigate how teachers choose teaching and learning materials. The following research questions were the focus: How do teachers choose teaching and learning materials? What predicts teachers’ choice of teaching and learning materials? In the current study, 319 teachers filled out a questionnaire regarding their choice of teaching and learning materials. The descriptive statistics indicate that the content matters most to teachers when choosing teaching and learning materials. Readability is in the middle and commercials are at the bottom. The non-recursive structure of the model demonstrated that professional experience decreases teachers’ preferences for content. Talking to colleagues about teaching and learning materials increases teachers’ preferences for adhering to collegial recommendations. Special educators are more concerned with content and readability than ordinary teachers. However, special educators are also less prone to be guided by past experiences when selecting teaching and learning materials

Are “reader-friendly” texts always better?

This study involved 60 participants. 50 % of the participants were identified as normal readers, i.e. they could decode text adequately well, and 50% were identified as poor readers. The participants were exposed to two types of expository texts (1) authentic texts and (2) easy-to-read (“reader-friendly”) texts. Text comprehension was investigated by means of questions relating to the text. There was a significant difference between poor and normal readers when they read the authentic texts. Somewhat surprisingly, the normal readers performed better when reading the authentic texts than the “reader-friendly texts and the poor readers´ comprehension did not increase significantly when reading the “reader-friendly” texts. One reason proposed by the researcher, is that the “reader-friendly” texts were too easy, resulting in the normal readers not finding them challenging enough and the poor readers possibly found them too “childish”

The 20-year longitudinal trajectories of social functioning in individuals with psychotic disorders

Objective: Social impairment is a long-recognized core feature of schizophrenia and is common in other psychotic disorders. Still, to date the long-term trajectories of social impairment in psychotic disorders have rarely been studied systematically. Methods: Data came from the Suffolk County Mental Health Project, a 20-year prospective study of first-admission patients with psychotic disorders. A never-psychotic comparison group was also assessed. Latent class growth analysis was applied to longitudinal data on social functioning from 485 respondents with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and psychotic mood disorders, and associations of the empirically derived trajectories with premorbid social adjustment, diagnosis, and 20-year outcomes were examined. Results: Four mostly stable trajectories of preserved (N=82; 59th percentile of comparison group sample distribution), moderately impaired (N=148; 17th percentile), severely impaired (N=181; 3rd percentile), and profoundly impaired (N=74; 1st percentile) functioning best described the 20-year course of social functioning across diagnoses. The outcome in the group with preserved functioning did not differ from that of never-psychotic individuals at 20 years, but the other groups functioned significantly worse. Differences among trajectories were already evident in childhood. The two most impaired trajectories started to diverge in early adolescence. Poorer social functioning trajectories were strongly associated with other real-world outcomes at 20 years. Multiple trajectories were represented within each disorder. However, more participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders had impaired trajectories, and more with mood disorders had better functioning trajectories. Conclusions: The results highlight substantial variability of social outcomes within diagnoses—albeit overall worse social outcomes in schizophrenia spectrum disorders—and show remarkably stable long-term impairments in social functioning after illness onset across all diagnoses

Explaining variation in usage of instructional material in teaching practice: Collegial focus and teachers’ decision-making power

The aim of this study is to describe and explain variation in use of instructional materials such as laptops, textbooks, paper-based materials, and whiteboards in teaching in compulsory education. The data consists of video recordings of 74lessons in Swedish schools. The results from quantitative analyses confirm previous research by demonstrating that the teachers in the study distributed more time to paper-based materials than other instructional materials. These results are interpreted using field notes and video images. The regression model confirms that subject area and class size influence teachers’ and students’ use of instructional materials