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This paper offers a conceptual framework that combines Sen's concept of capability and Bourdieu's forms of capital to understand the generative mechanisms of educational advantage or disadvantage. The paper illustrates some ways that the Sen-Bourdieu framework can be applied to understand the Programme for International Student Assessment 2015 results and measures of educational contexts for Australia. The Programme for International Student Assessment 2015 results indicated that students' socioeconomic background and student-level and school-level factors affect their educational performance. Guided by the proposed framework, the paper explains some of these effects and the contexts in which they occur. It suggests educational disadvantages are attributable to economic capital and other forms of capital within broader structural, representational and relational contexts of schooling practices. The implications for improving equity in education are to recognise forms of capital that enable or limit students' educational capabilities, identify contexts and schooling practices in which such enablers or limitations occur, and improve opportunities as well as processes in schools in ways that secure students' differences and uniqueness.

Over the past 20 years, a significant amount of research has located sports coaching principally as an educational endeavour. In particular, non-linear educative approaches have attracted much attention yet few studies have explored in any real depth the theoretical underpinnings of such practices. Where conceptual analyses have been conducted, the work of Vygotsky has emerged as a useful framework. The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which Vygotskian principles of learning and development might be evident within non-linear sports coaching practices and to examine whether embracing these principles might enhance coaching practice both in youth and adult settings. Drawing on qualitative empirical data, this paper explores how six coaches perceived their everyday practice as non-linear. Resultant findings uncover the nuances of both coach and athlete experience in line with three of Vygotsky's key theoretical assertions, namely: Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), scaffolding and mediation. The paper concludes by suggesting that the application of theoretical ideas has the potential to inform and enhance non-linear pedagogical approaches, yet coaches must remain cognisant of the bespoke nature of the coaching context.

Purpose: This paper aims to clarify the term "tacit knowledge" and suggests the "onion model" as a way to explore conceptually linked layers of tacit knowledge. The model allows the application of different methodologies to elicit tacit knowledge in each layer, the ability to infer tacit knowledge in other layers from tacit knowledge gained in another layer and the exploration of the dynamics of tacit knowledge among the various layers presented in the model. Conceptual and practical advantages compared to prior works on tacit knowledge are discussed. Design/methodology/approach: The main theoretical and methodological dilemmas discussed in the literature regarding tacit knowledge are reviewed. The "onion model" presented in this paper suggests an approach and methodologies that address the issues raised in the literature. The different layers of the model are demonstrated by prior research studies. Findings: The "onion model" discussed in this study points to various layers of tacit knowledge and the links among them, allowing a research-based approach, as well as various practices. Research limitations/implications: This paper discusses different layers of tacit knowledge relying on previous works that have dealt with these layers independently. The model as a whole and the dynamics among the layers are yet to be empirically investigated. Practical implications: The "onion model" provides a conceptual framework that can be used for research and diagnosis aimed at exploring tacit knowledge that can serve individual and organizational development. Originality/value: The approach discussed in this paper addresses some major problems discussed in the literature on tacit knowledge.

The last few years have witnessed a resurgence of interest among both scholars and public intellectuals over issues associated with distributive justice and its gravitational orbit of concepts, including the idea of merit and the adjacent vision of a meritocratic society. Nevertheless, despite its centrality for conceptions of equality of opportunity, a merit-based allocation of advantaged social positions has been confronted by a range of objections. Michael Sandel's book "The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?" provides a nuanced examination of 'the age of meritocracy' and meritocratic rationality as its key characteristic. It dovetails an elaborated analysis of the troubled legacy of meritocracy with an in-depth elucidation of the various flaws and shortcomings it came to be associated with. This article aims to examine some of the distinguishing features of merit-based allocation of advantaged social positions and the main shortcomings this distributive mechanism has been associated with. The introductory section identifies the most distinctive characteristics of the merit-based allocation of advantaged social positions. The central section reconstructs some of the arguments advanced by Michael Sandel in his book "The Tyranny of Merit" (2020). The concluding section presents the motivational impulse for the book symposium on "The Tyranny of Merit" and the main issues arising out of the discussion between the commentators and Prof. Sandel.

My contribution to this special issue engages with Michael Sandel's "The Tyranny of Meritocracy" and its significance to the academic conversation about meritocracy and its discontents. Specifically, I highlight Sandel's diagnosis of the rise of populism and his proposed remedy for the 'tyranny of merit'. First, building on Menno ter Braak's writings on the rise of fascism, I explore the sources of "ressentiment" in contemporary societies as stemming not from disillusionment with meritocracy but from the broken promise of liberalism and democracy more generally. Second, I consider Sandel's proposals to reform elite university admissions and to 'recognize work', explore their wider applicability, and reflect on their limitations to meaningfully change how success and failure is socially experienced and morally understood.

Background: A strengths-based lens is essential for the pursuit of health equity among Indigenous populations. However, health professionals are often taught and supported in practice via deficit-based approaches that perpetuate inequity for Indigenous peoples. Deficit narratives in healthcare and health education are reproduced through practices and policies that ignore Indigenous strengths, disregard human rights, and reproduce structural inequalities. When strengths are recognised it is possible to build capacities and address challenges, while not losing sight of the structural factors impacting Indigenous peoples' health. Objective: In this paper, we examine Indigenous strengths-based approaches to policy and practice in healthcare and health professions education when delivered alongside teachings shared by Elders from the Cree, Blackfoot and Métis Nations of Alberta, Canada. Method: Literature and Elders' teachings were used to shift strengths-based approaches from Western descriptions of what might be done, to concrete actions aligned with Indigenous ways. Results: Four pointers for future action adopting a strengths-based approach are identified--enacting gifts: focusing on positive attributes; upholding relationality: centring good relationships; honouring legacy: restoring self-determination; and reconciling truth: attending to structural determinants of health. Conclusion: Identified directions and actionable strategies offer a promising means to advance Indigenous health equity through strengths-based actions that change existing narratives and advance health equity.

Educational psychology is replete with verbal or qualitative definitions through which students can be considered members of categories, such as learning disabled, autistic, or gifted. These conceptions carry quantitative implications regarding the incidence rates of the phenomena they describe. To be scientifically useful, such definitions should have sufficient specificity and internal consistency. We analyzed four influential definitions of giftedness and assessed their internal consistency by computing the giftedness rate implied by each. Results reveal that the proportion of individuals who meet the standard of giftedness under some definitions is unrealistically high (e.g., >75% in some conditions). The implication of this work is that the rigor and internal self-consistency of educational concepts requires improvement. The field must carefully consider the quantitative implications of its concepts, statements, and definitions. An Open Science Framework project page containing R code, a technical appendix, and all figures and tables from this paper is available at https://osf.io/6e7g9/.

A steward of the discipline was originally defined as "someone who will creatively generate new knowledge, critically conserve valuable and useful ideas, and responsibly transform those understandings through writing, teaching, and application". This construct was articulated to support and strengthen doctoral education. The purpose of this paper is to expand the construct of stewardship so that it can be applied to both scholars "and non-academic practitioners", and can be initiated earlier than doctoral education. To accomplish and justify this, we describe a general developmental trajectory supporting cross-curriculum teaching for stewardship of a discipline as well as of a profession. We argue that the most important features of stewardship, comprising the public trust for the future of their discipline or profession, are obtainable by all practitioners, and are not limited to those who have completed doctoral training. The developmental trajectory is defined using the Mastery Rubric construct, which requires articulating the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) to be targeted with a curriculum; recognizable stages of performance of these KSAs; and performance level descriptors of each KSA at each stage. Concrete KSAs of stewardship that can be taught and practiced throughout the career (professional or scholarly) were derived directly from the original definition. We used the European guild structure's stages of Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master for the trajectory, and through a consensus-based standard setting exercise, created performance level descriptors featuring development of Bloom's taxonometric cognitive abilities (see Appendix A) for each KSA. Together, these create the Mastery Rubric for Stewardship (MR-S). The MR-S articulates how stewardly behavior can be cultivated and documented for individuals in any disciplinary curriculum, whether research-intensive (preparing "scholars") or professional (preparing members of a profession or more generally for the work force). We qualitatively assess the validity of the MR-S by examining its applicability to, and concordance with professional practice standards in three diverse disciplinary examples: (1) History; (2) Statistics and Data Science; and (3) Neurosciences. These domains differ dramatically in terms of content and methodologies, but students in each discipline could either continue on to doctoral training and scholarship, "or" utilize doctoral or pre-doctoral training in other professions. The MR-S is highly aligned with the practice standards of all three of these domains, suggesting that stewardship can be meaningfully cultivated and utilized by those working in or outside of academia, supporting the initiation of stewardship prior to doctoral training and for "all" students, not only those who will earn PhDs or be scholars first and foremost. The MR-S can be used for curriculum development or revision in order to purposefully promote stewardship at all levels of higher education and beyond. The MR-S renders features of professional stewardship accessible to all practitioners, enabling formal and informal, as well as self-directed, development and refinement of a professional identity.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals include an explicit commitment to ''substantially expand'' the study abroad scholarships available to developing countries (Target 4b). Although this Target indicates a level of consensus about the benefits of scholarship programmes, it is made ambiguous by assuming coherence among many types of scholarship programme with different aims, approaches, and undergirding theories. In this paper, we examine the potential consequences of underpinning Target 4b through three theories: human capital, human rights, and human capabilities. Through the lenses of these three theories, we find significantly different outcomes projected for the ways that scholarship programs are linked to sustainable development. Additionally, failing to comprehend the theoretical frames that undergird scholarship programs creates an opportunity for diverse (and sometimes perverse) outcomes that may not serve the world's compact for a sustainable future. We propose a way forward through a human capabilities approach.

The authors comment on a paper on the ideas of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee and how it aligns with contemporary theorizing in movement skill acquisition, which references a study by S. Myszka et al., published within the issue. They tackle concerns on misinterpretation and inaccuracies regarding martial arts in the paper, and their proposal that Lee's philosophy conformed to principles of ecological dynamics framework.

We contend that the notion of critical friend is a legitimate consideration with respect to considering how to most effectively encourage professional relationships that support and enhance professional learning and development (PLD). This paper will firstly consider an overarching framework of professional relationships and define characteristics, roles and expected tasks of a critical friend, noting that the development of trust is central to both. The authors thread (where relevant) elements of PLD throughout the framework, before introducing the reader to a proposed dual-continuum model of critical friend roles and tasks in PLD. A scenario is then mapped for each of the four quadrants, displaying elements of a specific type of critical friend activity related to the defining characteristics of critical friend shared in the paper. The intention is to capture the nuances between multiple enactments of critical friend as well as informing a possible continuum of what constitutes operating as a critical friend supporting and enhancing PLD. The paper concludes with observations from the scenarios and future considerations for further exploration of critical friend roles, tasks, skills and behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we compare the newly developed pseudo-equivalent groups (PEG) linking method with the linking methods based on the traditional nonequivalent groups with anchor test (NEAT) design and illustrate how to use the PEG methods under imperfect equating conditions. To do this, we proposed a new method that combines the features of PEG linking and NEAT equating (referred as PEGAT) and compared it with NEAT and PEG. PEG mainly uses test takers' background variables to create PEG and then links scores on different forms whereas NEAT equating adjusts group differences in ability through the anchor test scores. The proposed method, PEGAT, uses background variables and anchor scores to adjust group ability differences. Using simulated data, these 3 linking methods were compared in 2 equating scenarios: small and large group difference in ability. The simulation design was based on real data on a test in operation. The test scores and the background variables were assumed to have a multivariate multinomial distribution. A log linear model was used to manipulate and produce simulated data. For PEG and PEGAT linking, 3 different sets of background variables were manipulated to study the impact of correlation strength of background variables to the total scores. Our results showed that NEAT linking outperformed PEG linking when the group ability difference was large, but that NEAT linking could be improved by incorporating the PEG adjustment procedure based on background variables. When the groups were similar in ability, PEG linking produced comparable results to NEAT. This finding justifies the use of PEG linking when a good anchor test is not available as well as the use of PEGAT when a good anchor is available but needs to be strengthened by background variables.

Recently, there has been a growing emphasis on basic number processing competencies (such as the ability to judge which of two numbers is larger) and their role in predicting individual differences in school-relevant math achievement. Children’s ability to compare both symbolic (e.g. Arabic numerals) and nonsymbolic (e.g. dot arrays) magnitudes has been found to correlate with their math achievement. The available evidence, however, has focused on computerized paradigms, which may not always be suitable for universal, quick application in the classroom. Furthermore, it is currently unclear whether both symbolic and nonsymbolic magnitude comparison are related to children’s performance on tests of arithmetic competence and whether either of these factors relate to arithmetic achievement over and above other factors such as working memory and reading ability. In order to address these outstanding issues, we designed a quick (2 minute) paper-and-pencil tool to assess children’s ability to compare symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical magnitudes and assessed the degree to which performance on this measure explains individual differences in achievement. Children were required to cross out the larger of two, single-digit numerical magnitudes under time constraints. Results from a group of 160 children from grades 1–3 revealed that both symbolic and nonsymbolic number comparison accuracy were related to individual differences in arithmetic achievement. However, only symbolic number comparison performance accounted for unique variance in arithmetic achievement. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed which include the use of this measure as a possible tool for identifying students at risk for future difficulties in mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that violence in society can be reflected in the microcosm of the classroom, primarily taking the form of a range of bullying behaviours, and that TESOL educators can play a role in addressing conflict by connecting individuals and communities through a dialogic approach to TESOL. The article goes on to describe the nature of dialogic pedagogy and identifies its relationship to past paradigms of methodology, using as a framework three questions taken from Prator's (1979) "Cornerstones of Method": (a) What is known about the nature of language? (b) What is known about the nature of the learner? (c) What are the aims of instruction? The paper concludes that a dialogic approach assists TESOL educators not only to support the learning of all students from a wide range of ability levels and ages but also to go beyond the classroom to view praxis as connecting with all communities with global perspective for social justice and peace.

Moral Education (ME) in Malaysia has undergone numerous changes and face lifts but still there are complaints about the subject and the latest was how students themselves voiced their opinions that ME is of no use to them. However due to policy and the fact that the subject complements Islamic Studies confirms that the subject is going to be in existence. To date, the Moral Education syllabus has been revised once in Malaysia, in the year 2000, but it lacks attention to a student perceptive when being redesigned or evaluated. This paper looks into alternatives of teaching ME using real-life moral dilemmas and how the use of Vygotsky's principle on Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) encourages peer collaboration in adolescents in resolving their real-life moral dilemmas. By applying Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), the paper aims to include the perception of students facilitated by adults and peers to open up an alternative dimension in the teaching and learning of the subject. Vygotsky's approach of using the notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is utilized with adjustment and adaptations to the sociocultural setting in Malaysia. (A bibliography is included.)

This paper presents the Design for Somebody (DfS) philosophy targeted to iterative, user-oriented development of solutions for special user groups. In this article, the DfS is discussed using a game development context. The paper gives concrete examples how the DfS can be used in developing motivating serious games. The paper presents three games which can be adjusted according to the user's abilities. The aim is to generate personalized means to enable and motivate physical, cognitive and social skill development. The development process of the three games is described in order to clarify the DfS approach and the features which are of key importance in game development for special user groups. Authentic user experiences are also presented and discussed. The user experiences and the suitability of the games were investigated through interviews and observations in game test events. The main findings in general indicated the usefulness of the DfS principles and the great interest and positive experiences in special user groups. The findings encourage further research and development of serious games for these target groups.

This paper reports on a pilot study that used eye tracking techniques to make detailed observations of item response processes in the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The lab-based study also recorded physiological responses using measures of pupil diameter and electrodermal activity. The study tested 14 adult respondents as they individually completed the PIAAC computer-based assessment. The eye tracking observations help to fill an 'explanatory gap' by providing data on variation in item response processes that are not captured by other sources of process data such as think aloud protocols or computer-generated log files. The data on fixations and saccades provided detailed information on test item response strategies, enabling profiling of respondent engagement and response processes associated with successful performance. Much of that activity does not include the use of the keyboard and mouse, and involves 'off-screen' use of pen and paper (and calculator) that are not captured by assessment log-files. In conclusion, this paper points toward an important application of eye tracking in large-scale assessments. This includes insights into response processes in new domains such as adaptive problem-solving that aim to identify individuals' ability to select and combine resources from the digital and physical environment.

pillay r. (2010) Journal of Nursing Management  18, 134–144 The skills gap in nursing management in South Africa: a sectoral analysis: a research paper Aim To identify competencies important for effective nursing management and to assess managers’ proficiency therein. Background A lack of management capacity has been identified as the key stumbling block to health delivery in South Africa. Despite nursing managers being central to overcoming the challenges facing health care, there has been a paucity of research that empirically evaluates their skill levels. Methods A survey was conducted among 171 senior nursing managers in South Africa using a self-administered questionnaire. Results Public sector managers assessed themselves as being relatively less competent than private sector managers. The largest skill gaps for public sector managers were for ‘ethico–legal’, ‘task-related’ and ‘controlling’ skills whereas those for private sector managers were for ‘ethico–legal’, ‘health-related ‘ and ‘task-related’ skills. Conclusions This research confirmed the lack of management capacity within the health sector and identified areas in which the skills deficit was most significant for both the public and private sectors. Implications for nursing management These findings reflect the needs of nursing managers and will be useful in the conceptualization, design and delivery of health management programmes aimed at enhancing management and leadership capacity in the health sector in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two decades have witnessed a wave of utilising the capability approach for shifting the commitment of child disability policy from addressing impairments towards promoting child agency. Guided by the approach, the agency experienced by the 1,291 middle-school adolescents with disabilities within the 2011 Taiwanese Special Needs and Education Longitudinal database is explored. The analysis has led to the general finding that the big picture is an optimistic one, but it has also been elicited that about 40% of the sample was still suffering from different types of agency deprivation. Also, we have identified distinct configurations of personal, parental and school factors that are associated with their diverse agency deprivation. Notably, the agency status of adolescents with disabilities has been successfully proved to be closely linked to their functionings and capabilities. Based on these research findings, we end this paper with recommendations to service providers for enhancing the agency of these adolescents.

This paper explores how mainstream teachers, in mainland China with experience of inclusive education, perceive individual differences (ID) among students in general education classrooms. The study adopted a qualitative research approach and employed purposeful sampling and semi-structured interviews. It was found that the mainstream teachers tended to conceptualise ID among students in accordance with five categories: perceived student ability; perceived student behaviour and motivation; perceived students' personal attributes; perceived family factors and observed learning outcomes. The mainstream teachers' particular concerns in relation to catering for ID were also revealed and discussed.

Since the start of the Reform Era in 1978, vocational education and training (VET) in China has been seen as inferior to academic routes and positioned at the bottom of the educational hierarchy. VET students are stereotyped as being 'stupid and lazy' and suffer considerable prejudice in Chinese society. Drawing on Foucault's disciplinary power and Ball's idea of performativity, this paper analyses how academically focused, exam-driven societal attitudes, as a form of meritocratic discourse, impact on these students and on how they perceive their stereotyped position within the Reform Era educational system. The findings reveal that these students have internalised the ideology of meritocracy, coming to see themselves as inferior and inadequate compared to their academic counterparts. Turning 'the gaze' upon themselves, they examine whether they 'add up' and assume responsibility for their own 'failures'. VET students are trained to be the new kind of youthful subject required to sustain the Reform Era China's engagement with neoliberal governance.

Peer assessment has become a primary solution to the challenge of evaluating a large number of students in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). In peer assessment, all students need to evaluate a subset of other students' assignments, and then these peer grades are aggregated to predict a final score for each student. Unfortunately, due to the lack of grading experience or the heterogeneous grading abilities, students may introduce unintentional deviations in the evaluation. This paper proposes and implements a semi-supervised peer assessment method (SSPA) that incorporates a small number of teacher's gradings as ground truth, and uses them to externally calibrate the procedure of aggregating peer grades. Specifically, each student's grading ability is directly (if students have common peer assessments with teacher) or indirectly (if students have no common peer assessments with teacher) measured with the grading similarity between the student and teacher. Then, SSPA utilizes the weighted aggregation of peer grades to infer the final score of each student. Based on both real dataset and synthetic datasets, the experimental results illustrate that SSPA performs better than the existing methods.

With the increased reliance on technology, computer programming has emerged as an essential skill that is interesting to many audiences beyond merely computer scientists. As a result, many students from various disciplines take first-year computer science courses. This led to classrooms with a lot of diversity in student motivation, backgrounds, learning needs, and educational levels. Teaching the same material to such a diverse group is challenging. The aim of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, we present a flipped-based approach that benefits from the mixed-ability nature of first-year programming courses rather than considering it as a burden. Secondly, we present a study that evaluates the extent to which the proposed approach enhances student learning in such a mixed-ability environment. The study was conducted in a first-year course at the University of British Columbia -- Okanagan, and it was based on three components:1) a survey of 25 Likert items(n = 46), 2) class average grade and pass rate over 6 years (n = 42 + 38 + 56 + 79 + 90 + 74), and 3) student ratings of the course over 5 years (n = 42 + 38 + 56 + 79 + 90). Findings of the survey indicate an overall positive students' impression with no significant difference in the opinions of various student populations. Analyzing the course grades, pass rates, and student ratings confirmed the survey findings and showed an overall improvement in grades, pass-rates, and student satisfaction.

Lord's bias function and the weighted likelihood estimation method are effective in reducing the bias of the maximum likelihood estimate of an examinee's ability under the assumption that the true item parameters are known. This paper presents simulation studies to determine the effectiveness of these two methods in reducing the bias when the item parameters are unknown. The simulation results show that Lord's bias function and the weighted likelihood estimation method might not be as effective in bias reduction in the 3PL cases when item parameters are unknown as they are when the true item parameters are given. Algorithms and methods for obtaining the global maximum value of a likelihood function or a weighted likelihood function are discussed in this paper.

This paper reports on developments in teaching and learning for first year employment relations students at the University of Wollongong based on creating conditions of learning informed by Vygotsky's "zone of proximal development" theory. Essentially, this meant emphasising collaborative learning (group work) in the lecture theatre and in assessment tasks to provide opportunities for students to "learn the language" of employment relations. The paper also considers collaboration between an employment relations discipline lecturer and an learning development discipline lecturer that helped identify the objectives for teaching and learning (the desired attributes of a Wollongong Graduate, ethical concerns about how students' may affect one another in group work, and developing knowledge and skills to equip students to be effective in employment relations practice) within a particular task environment (characterised by an organisational imperative to "do more with less," and students' beliefs that lectures have the purpose of didactic information delivery) simultaneously with teaching. This paper offers readers a case study of the application of a teaching and learning theory that may stimulate reflection on their practice.

The purpose of this practice paper is to promote the teaching of learners with neurodevelopmental conditions from a neurodiverse perspective. The challenge teachers face in having to draw on up-to-date research evidence and theoretical perspectives, and align these with practical considerations to generate contextualised teaching strategies, are addressed with the introduction of a three-factor model. The utility of considering pupil assessment data gathered from a strengths-based perspective is positioned as a central component to bridging the gap between the incipient neurodiversity literature and the realities of applied teaching practice. Two case examples have presented that draw on the proposed three-factor model to demonstrate how teachers can assess and teach learners from a neurodevelopmental perspective. These case studies focus on supporting learners with Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in a secondary setting.

Throughout this practitioner-oriented paper, we provide a rationale, framework, and supporting materials to promote the development and implementation of personalized, contextualized, and holistic individualized education plans (IEPs) with a strength-based orientation. We believe that adopting strength-based IEP writing practices is vital to reconstructing students with disabilities as capable contributors to their inclusive classrooms. The use of strengths-based approaches is not necessarily new, however supporting individuals' needs in a strength-based model has been largely overlooked in special education. Despite their growing application, inclusive pedagogical approaches are largely absent in the development of strength-based IEPs for students with disabilities. IEPs remain largely deficit-focused with only surface level attention given to documenting students' strengths and abilities. When present levels academic performance statements and IEP goals are written in a deficit-oriented manner, special educators miss opportunities to see beyond the limitations and challenges that their students may face, and instead, overly focus on the shortcomings of the student. However, by adopting a strength-based approach, special educators can instead focus their attention on remediating these deficits by paying attention to the student as an individual and highlight their students' many strengths and capabilities.

This study investigated the relationship between paper and pencil measures and molecular behavioral indicators of social skills in three widely used assessment options. A total of 221 students engaged in either a “get acquainted” or “role play” interaction, in which they were given instructions and knew they were being observed. A third group engaged in a “waiting period” interaction, in which they were given no instructions to interact and had no knowledge of being observed. Results showed that subjects in the “get acquainted” and “role play” situations scored higher on several measures of social skills than those in the “waiting period” situation. In addition, there was most variability in the measures of social skills in the waiting period situation. In general, trait measures exhibited poor correspondence with behavioral measures of social skills in all situations. However, state paper and pencil measures of social skills exhibited strong correspondence with behaviors in the waiting period, but not in the get acquainted or role play situations. Implications for the assessment of social communication skills through commonly used assessment procedures are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]