This preliminary study addresses the urgent need for an Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) specifically designed for Senior High School (SHS) students in the Philippines. National assessments have highlighted significant deficiencies in reading proficiency, prompting the Department of Education (DepEd) to implement comprehensive reading initiatives. However, the absence of a specialized assessment tool for SHS students presents a critical gap. This study proposes a Test Design Statement for developing an IRI that aligns with Grades 11 and 12 curriculum competencies, international standards (CEFR B2 and C1 levels), and the linguistic profile of Filipino students. The proposed IRI aims to assess essential reading skills, facilitating targeted interventions and supporting the overall goal of producing proficient, independent readers. The study outlines a comprehensive evaluation plan focusing on reliability, validity, authenticity, interactiveness, and practicality, emphasizing the necessity for institutional support and collaboration. Keywords: informal reading inventory, senior high school, reading proficiency, reading assessment, literacy intervention

The roles of the two substructures of the striatum, i.e., caudate and putamen, in voluntary motor control are less addressed. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the neural correlates of motor control while participants were asked to press with their right index finger, and to hold naturally, and then to relax, and we focused on whether the caudate and putamen were involved differently during the pressing, holding, and relaxation of the finger. Only the bilateral caudates were activated in the holding process, i.e., sustaining of the muscle contraction, and only bilateral putamen were activated in the relaxation process, along with subthalamus nucleus (STN). However, both the caudate and putamen were activated in the pressing process. We conclude that the two substructures of the striatum, i.e., caudate and putamen, play different roles in motor control; the caudate plays a more important role in muscle contraction, while the putamen plays a more important role in muscle relaxation. However, they cooperate together to accomplish a successful and smooth movement, in line with the modulation role of the basal ganglia in motor modulation.

Is media sentiment a leading indicator of conflict events? Analysis through machine learning and natural language processing techniques allows us to gather and process sentiment data at unprecedented scale, depth, and accuracy. By measuring the emotional intensity and direction of text in news reports, this baseline study shows how media sentiment analysis can deliver new value for peace and conflict research. Using GDELT's global sample of more than five billion media articles, we test the relationship between sentiment data and conflict events. To achieve both spatial and temporal precision we utilize the PRIO-GRID data structure at daily and monthly intervals. We find that more conflictual sentiment is significantly associated with spatially and temporally proximate future conflict events as measured by the ACLED, SCAD and UCDP-GED datasets. We suggest that conflict sentiment can help us analyze conflict escalation processes more precisely.

This study evaluated the construct validity, concurrent validity, convergent validity, reliability, and measurement invariance of the Turkish version of the Career Decision-Making Outcome Expectancies Scale (CDMOES) and the Career Decision-Making Exploratory Intentions Scale (CDMEIS) among 297 Turkish undergraduate students (59.9% women and 40.1% men). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated a single-factor construct for each of the CDMOES and CDMEIS Turkish versions. As expected, the CDMOES and CDMEIS Turkish versions were positively correlated with selfefficacy in career decision-making. Multi-group CFAs demonstrated that the CDMOES and CDMEIS Turkish versions had measurement invariance across gender. Furthermore, the CDMOES and CDMEIS Turkish versions demonstrated high reliability (α = .92 and α = .91). The results provide evidence that the CDMOES and CDMEIS Turkish versions are valid, reliable, and thus potentially useful for practice and research on career decision outcome expectations and intentions of Turkish undergraduate students.

A document by Chi-Yong Park. Click on the document to view its contents.

This study examined the impact of parental levels of education and occupations on students’ examination integrity and academic performance. It was based on the Cognitive Development Theory (CDT) of learning and the Modified Theory of Planned Behaviour (MTPB). A survey research design was used in the study. Data were collected with an Examination Integrity Measurement Instrument (EIMI) developed by the researchers from 3214 sampled students and their academic performance in their last school examination was collected from their school authorities. The Two-Way ANOVA was used to run the analysis for determining the association or differences between Parental level of Education and Occupations as independent variables; and, Examination Integrity and Academic Performance as dependent variables. It was found that fathers who have Master’s Degrees and mothers who have Bachelors’s degrees/HND exerted the most significant impact on their children’s examination integrity. Fathers who belong to the Military/Police Occupations and Mothers who are Unemployed have the most significant impact on their children’s examination integrity while parents who belong to the Civil Service and Military/Police Occupations have the most significant impact on their children’s academic performance. It was, therefore, concluded that parental levels of education and occupations significantly impact students’ examination integrity and academic performance and the implications of these findings for adopting proactive strategies against examination malpractices were discussed.

Each year, Americans spend increasingly significant amounts of money on healthcare costs. The American Medical Association estimates that U.S. healthcare spending grew 2.7 percent in 2021, reaching $4.3 trillion or 18.3% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Despite these statistics, healthcare quality and accessibility remain problematic. Many approaches have been suggested and implemented in response to these major shortcomings. Some of these remedies have included the proliferation of mid-tier healthcare providers such as nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants to alleviate the strain on doctors. However, there is sufficient evidence that patient education can critically impact the efficacy of the healthcare system and merits serious consideration for better patient outcomes and potentially reducing healthcare costs. This paper describes challenges and opportunities to patient education based on extensive research and practical insights from various disciplines. Furthermore, this paper sets forth recommendations for promoting a comprehensive, cohesive, and evolving patient education framework.

While dissent is key to successful science, it is clear that it is not always beneficial. By requiring scientists to respond to objections, epistemically detrimental dissent (EDD) consumes resources that could be better devoted to furthering scientific discovery. Moreover, bad-faith dissent can create a chilling effect on certain lines of inquiry and make settled controversies seem open to debate. Such dissent results in harm to scientific progress and the public policy that depends on this science. While Biddle and Leuschner propose four criteria that draw on inductive risk as a method for separating this EDD from beneficial dissent, de Melo-Martín and Intemann reject this approach for failing to capture paradigmatic instances of EDD. Against de Melo-Martín and Intemann’s objections, I propose the inductive risk account can be saved and strengthened through the following modifications: 1) removing the requirement that the four conditions of EDD be jointly satisfied, 2) requiring that each criterion be measured as a matter of degree rather than as a binary, and 3) requiring that the four criteria are measured holistically. These modifications not only mitigate the criticisms but produce five benefits over Biddle and Leuschner’s account, including: 1) capturing paradigmatic instances of EDD, 2) reflecting the degree to which an instance of EDD is problematic, 3) capturing the interactions between criteria, 4) avoiding legitimizing inappropriate dissent, and 5) reflecting changes to the epistemic standing of dissent. As such, I argue that the modified IndRA provides a powerful tool for identifying EDD and strengthening science.

Breaking stereotypes and changing generational outcomes of historically excluded students requires educators who are willing to be what civil rights leader John Lewis called “good troublemakers”. Transformational, culturally competent educators can make a significant impact in the lives of students, classrooms, and communities. This research studies the impact of teaching experience of the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools® Servant Leader Interns on young educators themselves. This study reveals how SLIs were transformed by the process of teaching in ways that influenced their sense of self-authorship, their career aspirations, and expectations of how education should be.

The primary purpose of this paper is to shed light on the difficulties and potential practices involved in meeting the educational requirements of English Language Learners (ELs) who live in rural locations. It explores how new people’s movement into rural regions has resulted in an inflow of English Language Learners (ELs) with varied histories, languages, and cultures into schools that once had a homogeneous student body.

Evaluators are interested in capturing how things causally influence one another. They are also interested in capturing how stakeholders think things causally influence one another. Causal mapping, the collection, coding and visualisation of interconnected causal claims, has been used widely for several decades across many disciplines for this purpose. It makes the provenance or source of such claims explicit and provides tools for gathering and dealing with this kind of data, and for managing its Janus-like double-life: on the one hand providing information about what people believe causes what and on the other hand preparing this information for possible evaluative judgements about what actually causes what. Specific reference to causal mapping in the evaluation literature is sparse, which we aim to redress here. In particular we address the Janus dilemma by suggesting that causal maps can be understood neither as models of beliefs about causal pathways nor as models of causal pathways per se but as repositories of evidence for those pathways.

As Canada’s federal police force celebrates its 150th anniversary, the past and future of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police/Gendarmerie royale du Canada (RCMP/GRC) is coming under intense scrutiny. Dogged by historical legacies and endemic external and internal controversies, the gendarmerie is a national police force with military characteristics that serves the Canadian state loyally and professionally. The anachronistic connection with horses in the English name has long outlived its usefulness and it is time that Canada’s federal police force embraced more French, greater inclusivity in the ranks, better accountability, and a functional approach to provision of national security policing at higher levels. A new refresh requires rebranding into a true gendarmerie adequately manned, trained, and equipped for the task, already anticipated in the French name. Refocusing on federal roles at the national level without the distraction of contract policing would give the RCMP/GRC greater purpose and coherence. The aligned symmetry of a Royal Canadian Gendarmerie/Gendarmerie royale du Canada (RCG/GRC) provides a basis for necessary change to happen and reconciliation to begin.

The European Union suffers from a deficit in democracy. Policy-driven treaties cause insufficient coordination, speed, and efficiency in their response to internal and external challenges. In order to create a more democratic, effective, and integrated policy in Europe, a Citizens’ Convention was held between October 2021 and April 2022. The objective of this Convention was to create a European Constitution that might serve as the basis of a European Federation. The Convention agreed on three essential pillars to achieve a robust and stable democratic system in Europe: (i) the transfer of common powers from the European States to the Federation, (ii) a strict separation of the legislative, executive, and legal powers, and (iii) direct citizens’ participation. Underpinned by these principles, a number of structural and functional changes are proposed to achieve strong democratic institutions, greater integration, and effective cooperation between the European States.

An analysis of a sample of 143 news stories and opinion pieces published in the first two months since ChatGPT’s release. The method of analysis is critical discursive psychology.

A key challenge to real-world policy making is determining how to match policy goals with the means available to implement them. This match is problematic for several reasons, not the least of which is the lack of  conceptual clarity surrounding how targets should be set for policy goals and how exactly policy tools should be calibrated to meet them. These subjects have been examined by a number of scholars, but  their insights have not been synthesized into a common framework, applicable in practice. This paper examines this literature and presents a framework which allows analysts and practitioners  to ensure that the designs they propose contain the necessary elements to have a significant chance of attaining policy success. The utility of the framework is illustrated through examination of two high profile recent cases of policy development: the Affordable Care Act in USA, and the regulation of car emissions in the EU.

The last few verses of the Hebrew book of Daniel are famously difficult. Among other issues, they present a duration problem that has long seemed intractable. But they also contain a key that provides a solution to the problem. That key is found in the lack of parallelism between the Aramaic expression of Dan 7:25b and the Hebrew expression of Dan 12:7b. The solution it allows is both accessible and expected. The author of Daniel created in his closing verses a mechanism to convey his view of the proper cultic calendar. That view places him securely among the other writers of early Jewish apocalypse and the authors of much of the sectarian and non-sectarian literature of the second century BCE. That mechanism and the solution it reveals are the subjects of this paper.

Chatbot use is increasing for mobile health interventions on sensitive and stigmatized topics like mental health because of their anonymity and privacy. This anonymity provides acceptability to sexual and gendered minority youth (ages 16-24) at increased risk of HIV and other STIs with poor mental health due to higher levels of stigma, discrimination, and social isolation. This study evaluates the usability of Tabatha-YYC, a pilot chatbot navigator created to link these youth to mental health resources. Tabatha-YYC was developed using a Youth Advisory Board (n=7), and the final design underwent user testing (n=20) through a think-aloud protocol, semi-structured interview, and a brief survey post-exposure which included the Health Information Technology Usability Evaluation Scale. The chatbot was found to be an acceptable mental health navigator by participants. This study provides important design methodology considerations and key insights into chatbot design preferences of youth at risk of STIs seeking mental health resources.

This study relies on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with both makers and trackers of political content on EMAs in order to facilitate free-flowing conversations in which the insight of these interviewees can be uncovered. The interviewees consisted of activists, experts, fact-checkers, journalists, politicians, and producers of disinformation to glean insight from members of civil society (fact-checkers, organized activists), the state (politicians and propagandists), and the public (experts who spoke on the general public). We began by contacting experts, fact-checkers, and politicians in each region and then utilized snowball sampling to contact hard to reach populations, such as activists and disinformation producers. We conducted 16 qualitative interviews from June 2021 to October 2021 virtually of interviewees in, from, or knowledgeable about the spaces of Myanmar, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Our interviewees in the Philippines consisted of two presidential communications employees (one of which was a social media specialist), a political manipulation researcher, a former Facebook public policy director for global elections, and a politician/cybersecurity expert. Our five interviewees in Indonesia consisted of an OSINT journalist, an academic, the founder of a fact-checking organization, an employee of a fact-checking organization, and an employee of a “public relations” firm, who we identified as a producer of political propaganda. In Myanmar, our interviewees consisted of a Burmese journalist forced to flee the country, a journalist knowledgeable about current events in Myanmar, an academic, and three activists fighting against disinformation produced by the Tatmadaw: one founder of an organized activist network, and two individual activists. The University of Texas at Austin Institutional Review Board granted approval for this study [20190900940]. We obtained and recorded verbal informed consent in each interview and maintained strict anonymity by using pseudonyms and encrypted storage for personal identifiable information. Interviews were analyzed using open coding, whereby to the best of our ability we allowed theory to emerge from a close reading of the data. Although we sought to further understand the nature of the global public sphere through these case studies, we allowed trends and themes to emerge from the data itself. Referencing interview recordings, interview memos were written following each interview to summarize the key takeaway observations from each interview. After three interviews in a region were conducted, thematic memos were written to connect themes across interviews. The process of memo writing allows for the consolidation of findings to identify trends or dissimilarities across regions of interest.