Education and Skills: An Assessment of Recent Canadian Experience

The skills issue is currently at or near the top of the federal government’s policy agenda, given its importance for harnessing the benefits of technological advances. Policy initiatives in the area should be premised on an accurate assessment of Canada’s recent experience in education and skill formation. In his paper, W. Craig Riddell attempts such an assessment. He provides a careful examination of trends in education expenditures and outcomes in Canada compared to other countries, looks at trends in the incidence of education, and analyzes the link between education and labour market success. Riddell’s overall assessment of Canada’s record in education and skills is quite positive. He finds that relative to other OECD countries, Canada ranks near the top in terms of expenditure per student and share of GDP devoted to elementary, secondary and post-secondary education; that Canada’s population is well educated by international standards, with the highest proportion of the population with non-university, post-secondary education in the OECD; and that the country’s literacy skills, particularly for the young and well educated, are above average among the G7 countries that participated in the International Adult Literacy Survey. One possible weakness he identifies is the relatively low student achievement in mathematics among the G7 countries that participated in the standardized tests. This suggests Canada may not be obtaining good “value for money” from its relatively high expenditure on education. Riddell notes that the conventional estimates of the return to education appear downward biased so that the causal effect of education on earnings may be higher than previously believed. Evidence suggests that the marginal return to incremental investment in education exceeds the average from previous investments and that there is no evidence that investments in schooling are running into diminishing returns. Riddell concludes that investments in human capital remain an important potential source of economic growth and equality of opportunity.Education, Human Capital, Skills, Literacy, Numeracy, Canada, Post-secondary, Postsecondary, Post Secondary, Earnings, Return To Education

Recognizing the Other: Training\u27s Ability to Improve Other Race Individuation

Members of one race or ethnicity are less able to individuate members of another race compared to their own race peers. This phenomenon is known as the other race effect (ORE) or the cross race effect (CRE). Not only are individuals less able to identify members of the other race but they are also more likely to pick those individuals out of a crowd. The categorizationindividuation model predicts that this deficit arises from a lack of motivated individuation; in which members of the other race are remembered at the category level as a prototype while own race members are remembered by name with individual characteristics. Discrimination training regimes derived from animal research for use in humans have demonstrated efficacy at improving discrimination of novel stimuli after several hours of training because participants are motivated to remember the face as an individual. The current study tested a shortened individuation training program using twelve own race/other race stimuli paired with names or letters. A go/no-go task was used to measure transfer of individuation ability. The present research demonstrates that a regimen as short as described is not sufficient to improve recognition. Future directions for research are discussed in consideration of tentative results including modifications of both the training task and transfer test

Practical applications of interactive voice technologies: Some accomplishments and prospects

A technology assessment of the application of computers and electronics to complex systems is presented. Three existing systems which utilize voice technology (speech recognition and speech generation) are described. Future directions in voice technology are also described

To what distances do we know the confining potential?

We argue that asymptotically linear static potential is built in into the common procedure of extracting it from lattice Wilson loop measurements. To illustrate the point, we extract the potential by the standard lattice method in a model vacuum made of instantons. A beautiful infinitely rising linear potential is obtained in the case where the true potential is actually flattening. We argue that the flux tube formation might be also an artifact of the lattice procedure and not necessarily a measured physical effect. We conclude that at present the rising potential is known for sure up to no more than about 0.7 fm. It may explain why no screening has been clearly observed so far for adjoint sources and for fundamental sources but with dynamical fermions. Finally, we speculate on how confinement could be achieved even if the static potential in the pure glue theory is not infinitely rising.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures. Additional arguments presented, a new figure and references adde

Evidence-Based Practice in Clinical Social Work

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a major shaping influence in clinical social work practice, in relation to economic policies, and in professional education. The definition of EBP remains contested; professionals still fail to distinguish EBP as a practice decision-making process from a list of treatments that have some type of research support (which are correctly called empirically supported treatments). All mental health practitioners should understand what EBP is, what it is not, and how it shapes both client options and their own practice experiences. This book explores EBP in depth and in detail. Our focus includes case exemplars that show how the EBP decision-making process is done in practice. There are many recent books about evidence-based practice in social work and in other mental health professions. In reviewing these books, it appeared to us that most of the books on EBP have been written by researchers, bringing a particular point of view and expertise to the technicalities of EBP. These books are important to social workers and other mental health professionals because EBP involves a lot of technical details about research design, methods, and interpretation that are not always covered in other social work texts. On the other hand, the lack of a more direct practice and clinical viewpoint seemed to leave out a lot of the day-to-day realities clinical social workers confront in learning and using EBP in practice. Recent books also lacked much in the way of a broad and critical perspective on EBP as a social movement shaping policy, agency practice, and views of what constitutes “good” research. As we explored other books as resources for our students and for our own practice, we missed both a larger or meta-perspective on EBP and a lack of attention to doing it in clinical practice. This book seeks to illustrate through several cases how important clinical knowledge and expertise are in doing EBP well. We seek to introduce the core ideas and practice of EBP and then illustrate them by applying the concepts and processes to real-world cases. We also take a critical look at how EBP has been implemented in practice, education, and policy. Eight years after we wrote the first edition of this book, EBP continues to be a major influence on clinical practice. Some areas of the book, particularly the research evidence used in our case examples, needed to be updated and mad

Can a Logarithmically Running Coupling Mimic a String Tension?

It is shown that a Coulomb potential using a running coupling slightly modified from the perturbative form can produce an interquark potential that appears nearly linear over a large distance range. Recent high-statistics SU(2) lattice gauge theory data fit well to this potential without the need for a linear string-tension term. This calls into question the accuracy of string tension measurements which are based on the assumption of a constant coefficient for the Coulomb term. It also opens up the possibility of obtaining an effectively confining potential from gluon exchange alone.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, two figures not included, available from author. revision - Line lengths fixed so it will tex properl

Competencies and Experiences Needed by Entry Level International Agricultural Development Practitioners

The use of competencies within extension can be an effective way of training and developing extension practitioners (Stone, 1997). In preparation for careers in tomorrow’s agricultural sector, the National Research Council (2009) recognized the need to expose college students to international perspectives. The purpose of this study was to determine the competencies and experiences that entry level agricultural development practitioners need in order to successfully work in an international setting. A modified Delphi method was used to achieve this purpose. A panel of experts in international agricultural development from non–government organizations, government organizations, and academic institutions were selected through snowball sampling (Goodman, 1961). The panelists agreed on 26 competencies and 7 experiences that entry level agricultural development practitioners working internationally should have before entering the profession. The results of this study should be used when planning, designing, and implementing agricultural extension education programs at the university level