Construction of a Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education: An Exploratory Study

Some scholars have formed a more expansive view of knowledge that moves beyond the cognitive notion of intellect. For example, emotional intelligence theory posits that human intelligence encompasses both cognitive and emotional competencies, providing a framework for a relatively new concept known as contemplative practice. The purposes of this study were: (a) to develop a self-report measure, the Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education (SCOPE), and (b) to explore issues of validity and reliability related to the SCOPE. An extensive review of the literature, reference to personal experiences, and consultation with an expert panel were used to generate scale items. The participants were 253 educator preparation graduate students. An orthogonal exploratory factor analysis resulted in a seven-factor scale that accounted for 54.48% of the variance, although four factors evidenced low reliability. The 27-item full-scale SCOPE exhibited good internal reliability (α= .857) and test-retest reliability (r = .879). Future exploration is recommended regarding content and construct validation as to whether contemplative practice is best viewed as a single- or multiple-factor construct

Construction of a Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education: An Exploratory Study

Some scholars have formed a more expansive view of knowledge that moves beyond the cognitive notion of intellect. For example, emotional intelligence theory posits that human intelligence encompasses both cognitive and emotional competencies, providing a framework for a relatively new concept known as contemplative practice. The purposes of this study were: (a) to develop a self-report measure, the Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education (SCOPE), and (b) to explore issues of validity and reliability related to the SCOPE. An extensive review of the literature, reference to personal experiences, and consultation with an expert panel were used to generate scale items. The participants were 253 educator preparation graduate students. An orthogonal exploratory factor analysis resulted in a seven-factor scale that accounted for 54.48% of the variance, although four factors evidenced low reliability. The 27-item full-scale SCOPE exhibited good internal reliability (α= .857) and test-retest reliability (r = .879). Future exploration is recommended regarding content and construct validation as to whether contemplative practice is best viewed as a single- or multiple-factor construct

Construction of a Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education: An Exploratory Study

Some scholars have formed a more expansive view of knowledge that moves beyond the cognitive notion of intellect. For example, emotional intelligence theory posits that human intelligence encompasses both cognitive and emotional competencies, providing a framework for a relatively new concept known as contemplative practice. The purposes of this study were: (a) to develop a self-report measure, the Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education (SCOPE), and (b) to explore issues of validity and reliability related to the SCOPE. An extensive review of the literature, reference to personal experiences, and consultation with an expert panel were used to generate scale items. The participants were 253 educator preparation graduate students. An orthogonal exploratory factor analysis resulted in a seven-factor scale that accounted for 54.48% of the variance, although four factors evidenced low reliability1. The 27-item full-scale SCOPE exhibited good internal reliability (α = .857) and test-retest reliability (r = .879). Future exploration is recommended regarding content and construct validation as to whether contemplative practice is best viewed as a single- or multiple-factor construct

Magnetic reversals in a simple model of MHD

We study a simple magnetohydrodynamical approach in which hydrodynamics and MHD turbulence are coupled in a shell model, with given dynamo constrains in the large scales. We consider the case of a low Prandtl number fluid for which the inertial range of the velocity field is much wider than that of the magnetic field. Random reversals of the magnetic field are observed and it shown that the magnetic field has a non trivial evolution linked to the nature of the hydrodynamics turbulence.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to PR

Mean flow instabilities of two-dimensional convection in strong magnetic fields

The interaction of magnetic fields with convection is of great importance in astrophysics. Two well-known aspects of the interaction are the tendency of convection cells to become narrow in the perpendicular direction when the imposed field is strong, and the occurrence of streaming instabilities involving horizontal shears. Previous studies have found that the latter instability mechanism operates only when the cells are narrow, and so we investigate the occurrence of the streaming instability for large imposed fields, when the cells are naturally narrow near onset. The basic cellular solution can be treated in the asymptotic limit as a nonlinear eigenvalue problem. In the limit of large imposed field, the instability occurs for asymptotically small Prandtl number. The determination of the stability boundary turns out to be surprisingly complicated. At leading order, the linear stability problem is the linearisation of the same nonlinear eigenvalue problem, and as a result, it is necessary to go to higher order to obtain a stability criterion. We establish that the flow can only be unstable to a horizontal mean flow if the Prandtl number is smaller than order , where B0 is the imposed magnetic field, and that the mean flow is concentrated in a horizontal jet of width in the middle of the layer. The result applies to stress-free or no-slip boundary conditions at the top and bottom of the layer

A Factor Analytic Validation Study of the Scale of Teachers\u27 Attitudes Towards Inclusive Classrooms (STATIC))

General and special education teachers (N = 125) completed the Scale of Teachers’ Attitudes towards Inclusive Classrooms (STATIC). The internal consistency of the instrument was strong with an alpha of .89. The measure demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability (r = .99) and a dependent t-test was non-significant, indicating mean group temporal stability. An exploratory factor analysis resulted in a five-factor scale accounting for 61.6% of the variance versus the original four factors identified by the author of the instrument. Future research and potential use of the instrument are discussed

Hysteresis phenomenon in turbulent convection

Coherent large-scale circulations of turbulent thermal convection in air have been studied experimentally in a rectangular box heated from below and cooled from above using Particle Image Velocimetry. The hysteresis phenomenon in turbulent convection was found by varying the temperature difference between the bottom and the top walls of the chamber (the Rayleigh number was changed within the range of $10^7 - 10^8$). The hysteresis loop comprises the one-cell and two-cells flow patterns while the aspect ratio is kept constant ($A=2 - 2.23$). We found that the change of the sign of the degree of the anisotropy of turbulence was accompanied by the change of the flow pattern. The developed theory of coherent structures in turbulent convection (Elperin et al. 2002; 2005) is in agreement with the experimental observations. The observed coherent structures are superimposed on a small-scale turbulent convection. The redistribution of the turbulent heat flux plays a crucial role in the formation of coherent large-scale circulations in turbulent convection.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, REVTEX4, Experiments in Fluids, 2006, in pres

Tertiary and Quaternary States in the Taylor-Couette System

The analysis of the Taylor-Couette problem in the small gap limit is extended to the cases of tertiary and quaternary solutions. The theoretical results are compared with experimental observations. Although in the latter the small-gap approximation is not always well approximated, the comparison of theoretical results and observations yields reasonable agreements. The absence of the wavy twist mode in the observed patterns is explained by the presence of no-slip boundary conditions in the axial direction of the experimental apparatus, which differ from the periodic conditions imposed in the theoretical analysis. Quaternary solutions bifurcating from the tertiary ones through subharmonic instabilities are presented and compared with experimental observations. Reasonable agreement has been found