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The ability to make sense of a wide array of stimuli presupposes the human tendency to organize information in a meaningful way. Efforts to assess the degree to which students organize information meaningfully have been hampered by several factors including the idiosyncratic way in which individuals represent their knowledge either with words or visually. Concept maps have been used as tools by researchers and educators alike to assist students in understanding the conceptual interrelationships within a subject domain. One concept-map assessment in particular known as the construct-a-map task has shown great promise in facilitating reliable and valid inferences from student concept-map ratings. With all of its promise, however, the construct-a-map task is burdened with several rating difficulties. One challenge in particular is that no published rubric has been developed that accounts for the degree to which individual propositions are important to an understanding of the overall topic or theme of the map. This study represents an attempt to examine the psychometric properties of two construct-a-map tasks designed to overcome in part this rating difficulty. The reliability of the concept-map ratings was calculated using a person-by-rater-by-occasion fully crossed design. This design made it possible to use generalizability theory to identify and estimate the variance in the ratings contributed by the three factors mentioned, the interaction effects, and unexplained error. The criterion validity of the concept-map ratings was examined by computing Pearson correlations between concept-map and essay ratings and concept-map and interview transcript ratings. The generalizability coefficients for student mean ratings were moderate to very high: .73 and .94 for the first concept-mapping task and .74 and .87 for the second concept-mapping task. A relatively large percentage of the rating variability was contributed by the object of measurement. Both tasks correlated highly with essay and interview ratings: .62 to .81.

The purpose of this study was to refine a rating procedure used to assess intermediate elementary school students' ability to orally retell what they had read from two expository passages. Oral retellings from 28 fourth grade students were tape-recorded and rated on two different occasions by each of 4 raters. A four-facet (passage, day of test administration, rater, and rating occasion) generalizability study was conducted using a partially nested design. The six largest sources of variability identified in the G-study included (a) students, (b) the student-by-day interaction, (c) the interaction of passage with rater (nested within student and day), (d) the student-by-day-by-occasion interaction, (e) the passage-by-raters (nested within students and day)-by-occasion interaction, and (f) the residual. A D-study was conducted to predict the values of the error variances and generalizability indices for both relative and absolute decisions. The results show how the error variance and the generalizability coefficients vary as a function of the number of passages, days of test administration, raters, and rating occasions. The results of the D study indicate that adding an extra reading day would produce a greater increase in reliability than asking the students to read more passages, or using more raters or more rating occasions. To achieve the greatest gain in generalizability, teachers should have students read at least two passages on at least two separate days and have their retelling rated by at least two raters and then compute a mean rating for each student averaged across the various passages, testing days, and raters.

Intuition is an important aspect of counseling, several revered counselors have either attested to the powers of their intuition or have had such powers attributed to them by their contemporaries. Moreover, many counselors believe that their intuition is more influential in their work with clients than are evidence-based practices (EBPs). However, the academy criticizes intuition for its susceptibility to cognitive errors and its poor performance when compared to statistical methods. In addition, the exact nature of intuition’s role in counseling is largely unknown. Therefore, its contribution to client outcomes is equally a mystery, making it difficult for counselors to justify their reliance on its powers. Until this study, counselor intuition has been regarded as a, more or less, phantom construct in need of evidence to even suggest that it does in fact exist. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop the Counselor Intuition Scale (CIS). The construction of the CIS began by adapting the methodology of instruments already in existence and whose purpose was to measure interpersonal and emotional sensitivity. The construction of the CIS began by creating a series of 39 video segments (lasting approximately two minutes each) depicting a client discussing a presenting problem. The video segments were then reviewed by two rounds of counseling experts (N = 45) whose intuitive responses to the clients featured in the CIS were used to create the criterion responses of the instrument. The expert responses were analyzed using Q-Methodology, the results of which suggested that the counseling experts approached the clients from a unidimensional perspective, which the researcher named "counselor intuition." The expert ratings were also analyzed using generalizability theory to assess the consistency of expert responses, the results of which iv suggested that interrater reliability was excellent, ranging from .88 to .85. Lastly, the experts identified 263 criterion responses that can be used for the future development of the instrument. The implications of the study’s findings, as well as the recommendations for future research are discussed

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(EN) Title: The process of pilot standardization of the Czech version of the questionnaire SERVQUAL for the sports services indurty. Objectives: This paper focus is to initiate the standardization process of the Czech version of the SERVQUAL questionnaire for fitness and recreational sport and prepare the ground for its future use in practice. Methods: First was SERVQUAL questionnaire translated into Czech language and distributed to two fitness centers during six months period. Then using Generalizability theory and faktor analysis the reliability and internal structure of this instrument was examined. Results: Provides information about use of this instrument in assesing service quality of fitness centers in Czech republic . Proposes recommendations for further modification and use the questionnaire in the Czech environment. Key words: Service quality, Measurement of service quality, Generalizability theory, Factor analysis. This research was supported by the Grant agency of Charles University, project no. 267811 Measuring sport services quality in fitness industry

Persistent lack of mathematics achievement and disparity in achievement has led to the publication of research findings related to equitable teaching practices. Although the publication of such research provides insights about approaches for potentially increasing equity in mathematics education, teachers must be able to apply what has been learned from these studies to their classroom teaching practices. Despite the widespread expectation that teachers use research-supported teaching strategies to meet the needs of their diverse classrooms, the research to practice gap persists. Little research is currently available to guide mathematics teacher educators in how to prepare future teachers to apply research to teaching practices. Inspired by advancements in social work and other health-related fields, this study departed from the standard approach of preparing teachers to utilize specific, research- based teaching strategies to preparing teachers to engage in the meta-process of applying research to practice. This meta-process has been defined by the health-related disciplines as the process of evidence-based practice (EBP). This process is explicated in a conceptual framework that is composed of the following five steps. The practitioner (1) formulates an answerable practice question, (2) searches for the best research evidence, (3) critically appraises the evidence, (4) selects the best intervention for a specific practice context, and (5) evaluates the outcome of the intervention. The purpose of this study was to examine the process of preparing preservice elementary teachers of mathematics to engage in the five-step process of EBP. Because this process, which can be conceptualized as a routine of practice, has not been identified for the field of mathematics education previously, it was examined using a design-based research (DBR) methodological approach. There were two objectives to the study: (1) to create an empirically tested teaching intervention that mathematics teacher educators can use to prepare preservice teachers to apply research to teaching practice and (2) to create a system of assessment that supports the teaching of this intervention. The study involved five iterations of the DBR process that permited the intervention to be evaluated and revised after each iteration. Although each iteration is discussed, this study focuses primarily on the process used in the fifth iteration of the DBR process. This iteration took place in the context of a mathematics methods course in a clinically-rich, undergraduate residency program for initial preparation of elementary school teachers. The twelve participants were simultaneously enrolled in the methods course and embedded in co-teaching assignments at an elementary school. The intervention to prepare teachers to engage in EBP included two workshops that were co-facilitated by an education librarian and a mathematics teacher educator and a semester-long Education Research Project. The project required participants to identify a problem of practice related to teaching or learning mathematics, find relevant research to address that problem, create an intervention to apply the research findings to classroom instruction, implement that intervention, and collect data to evaluate the effectiveness of the designed intervention. Instruments used to collect data included: (1) a self-report Information Literacy Questionnaire, (2) a self-report Familiarity with the Process of Evidence-Based Practice in Education Scale, (3) the Education Research Project report, and (4) a standardized performance assessment. The standardized performance assessment was used to assess beginning proficiency with the process of EBP. Generalizeability theory was used to evaluate the reliability of the system created for the standardized performance assessment. The system that included three raters, two tasks, and two scoring occasions was found to be fairly reliable (absolute generalizability coefficient = .81). Results from this study revealed that participants were more successful at creating implementation plans and linking those plans to research than they were at modifying their plans to meet the needs of specific students or evaluating their research implementation. This study contributes to both research and mathematics education communities' understandings about the potential of EBP as a high-leverage routine of practice and the use of generalizability theory in the creation of a reliable assessment to evaluate this routine of practice. This study documents the complexity of the process of linking research to practice and provides an empirically tested conceptual framework for preparing preservice teachers to engage in this complex practice.

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No description available.

La scoliose idiopathique (SI) est une déformation tridimensionnelle (3D) de la colonne vertébrale et de la cage thoracique à potentiel évolutif pendant la croissance. Cette déformation 3D entraîne des asymétries de la posture. La correction de la posture est un des objectifs du traitement en physiothérapie chez les jeunes atteints d’une SI afin d’éviter la progression de la scoliose, de réduire les déformations morphologiques et leurs impacts sur la qualité de vie. Les outils cliniques actuels ne permettent pas de quantifier globalement les changements de la posture attribuables à la progression de la scoliose ou à l’efficacité des interventions thérapeutiques. L’objectif de cette thèse consiste donc au développement et à la validation d’un nouvel outil clinique permettant l’analyse quantitative de la posture auprès de personnes atteintes d’une SI. Ce projet vise plus spécifiquement à déterminer la fidélité et la validité des indices de posture (IP) de ce nouvel outil clinique et à vérifier leur capacité à détecter des changements entre les positions debout et assise. Suite à une recension de la littérature, 34 IP représentant l’alignement frontal et sagittal des différents segments corporels ont été sélectionnés. L’outil quantitatif clinique d’évaluation de la posture (outil 2D) construit dans ce projet consiste en un logiciel qui permet de calculer les différents IP (mesures angulaires et linéaires). L’interface graphique de cet outil est conviviale et permet de sélectionner interactivement des marqueurs sur les photographies digitales. Afin de vérifier la fidélité et la validité des IP de cet outil, la posture debout de 70 participants âgés entre 10 et 20 ans atteints d'une SI (angle de Cobb: 15º à 60º) a été évaluée à deux occasions par deux physiothérapeutes. Des marqueurs placés sur plusieurs repères anatomiques, ainsi que des points de référence anatomique (yeux, lobes des oreilles, etc.), ont permis de mesurer les IP 2D en utilisant des photographies. Ces mêmes marqueurs et points de référence ont également servi au calcul d’IP 3D obtenus par des reconstructions du tronc avec un système de topographie de surface. Les angles de Cobb frontaux et sagittaux et le déjettement C7-S1 ont été mesurés sur des radiographies. La théorie de la généralisabilité a été utilisée pour déterminer la fidélité et l’erreur standard de la mesure (ESM) des IP de l’outil 2D. Des coefficients de Pearson ont servi à déterminer la validité concomitante des IP du tronc de l’outil 2D avec les IP 3D et les mesures radiographiques correspondantes. Cinquante participants ont été également évalués en position assise « membres inférieurs allongés » pour l’étude comparative de la posture debout et assise. Des tests de t pour échantillons appariés ont été utilisés pour détecter les différences entre les positions debout et assise. Nos résultats indiquent un bon niveau de fidélité pour la majorité des IP de l’outil 2D. La corrélation entre les IP 2D et 3D est bonne pour les épaules, les omoplates, le déjettement C7-S1, les angles de taille, la scoliose thoracique et le bassin. Elle est faible à modérée pour la cyphose thoracique, la lordose lombaire et la scoliose thoraco-lombaire ou lombaire. La corrélation entre les IP 2D et les mesures radiographiques est bonne pour le déjettement C7-S1, la scoliose et la cyphose thoracique. L’outil est suffisamment discriminant pour détecter des différences entre la posture debout et assise pour dix des treize IP. Certaines recommandations spécifiques résultents de ce projet : la hauteur de la caméra devrait être ajustée en fonction de la taille des personnes; la formation des juges est importante pour maximiser la précision de la pose des marqueurs; et des marqueurs montés sur des tiges devraient faciliter l’évaluation des courbures vertébrales sagittales. En conclusion, l’outil développé dans le cadre de cette thèse possède de bonnes propriétés psychométriques et permet une évaluation globale de la posture. Cet outil devrait contribuer à l’amélioration de la pratique clinique en facilitant l’analyse de la posture debout et assise. Cet outil s’avère une alternative clinique pour suivre l’évolution de la scoliose thoracique et diminuer la fréquence des radiographies au cours du suivi de jeunes atteints d’une SI thoracique. Cet outil pourrait aussi être utile pour vérifier l’efficacité des interventions thérapeutiques sur la posture. / Idiopathic scoliosis (IS) is characterized by three-dimensional (3D) deformity of the spine and rib cage which can increase during growth. The morphologic changes of the trunk result in posture asymmetries. Correction of posture is an important goal of physiotherapy interventions among persons with IS to prevent scoliosis progression, to reduce morphologic deformities and their impact on quality of life. Currently, there are no tools that globally quantify changes in posture that may be attributable to scoliosis progression or to treatment effectiveness, that are usable in a clinical setting. The objective of this thesis was thus to develop and validate a new clinical quantitative posture assessment tool among persons with IS. More specifically, this project aims to determine reliability and concurrent validity of posture indices (PI) of this new tool and to verify their capacity to detect changes between standing and sitting positions. We conducted a literature review and selected 34 PI representing frontal and sagittal alignment of the different body segments. We constructed a software-based quantitative posture assessment tool to calculate different PI (angular and linear measurements). The software has a user-friendly graphical interface and allows calculation of PI from a set of markers selected interactively on digital photographs. For the reliability and validity studies, standing posture of 70 participants aged 10 to 20 years old with IS (Cobb angle: 15º to 60º) was assessed on two occasions by two physiotherapists. Markers placed on several bony landmarks as well as natural reference points (eyes, ear lobe, etc.) were used to measure the PI from photographs with the 2D tool and to calculate 3D PI obtained from trunk reconstructions with a surface topography system. Frontal and sagittal Cobb angles and trunk list were also calculated on radiographs. The generalizability theory was used to estimate the reliability and standard error of measurement (SEM) of PI of the 2D tool. Pearson correlation coefficients served to estimate concurrent validity of the 2D trunk PI with corresponding 3D PI and with those obtained from radiographs. Fifty participants were assessed for the comparative study between standing and sitting positions. We compared the average values of each PI in standing and long sitting positions using paired t-tests. Our results show a good level of reliability for the majority of PI of the 2D tool. Correlation between 2D and 3D PI was good for shoulder, scapula, trunk list, waist angles, thoracic scoliosis and pelvis but fair to moderate for thoracic kyphosis, lumbar lordosis and thoracolumbar or lumbar scoliosis. The correlation between 2D and radiograph measurements was good for trunk list, thoracic scoliosis and thoracic kyphosis. Our tool can detect differences between standing and sitting posture for ten out of thirteen PI. A few recommendations specific to this work are: camera height should be adjusted according to the subject’s height; training of judges is important to maximize accuracy in placement of markers; and measurement of sagittal vertebral curves may be facilitated by using markers mounted on pins. In conclusion, the tool developed in this thesis has good psychometric properties to evaluate posture. This tool should contribute to clinical practice by facilitating the analysis of standing and sitting posture. This tool may also be a good alternative to monitor thoracic scoliosis progression in a clinical setting and may contribute to a reduction in the use of x-rays in the follow-up of youths with thoracic IS. It may also be useful to verify the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions on posture.