Lise Øen Jones

An examination of shared variance in self-report and objective measures of attention in the incarcerated adult population.

Objective: The present study was designed to test some assumptions about screening procedures for ADHD in adults. Method: Twenty-eight incarcerated male adults completed a self report scale of attention deficits as a part of an examination of attention and reading skills. Further assessment of attention included a battery of tests that assessed vigilance, attention shifts, and other aspects of cognitive control. Results: Fifty seven percent of the sample showed test performance indicating a high probability of ADHD. Correlation analyses yielded significant effects for self report scales and objective tests of attention. Conclusion: The results support the assumption that the self report measures share a significant part of the variance with tests of attention commonly used in clinical assessment. However, the risk of making both false positive and false negative inferences about ADHD is present, as the specificity and the sensitivity of the rating scale needs to be further explored.

Detecting Preschool Language Impairment and Risk of Developmental Dyslexia

ABSTRACT This study assessed and compared results from evidence-based screening tools to be filled out by caregivers to identify preschool children at risk of language impairment (LI) and dyslexia. Three different tools were used: one assessing children’s communicative abilities, one assessing risk of developmental dyslexia, and one assessing early language skills. Caregivers of 79 children filled out the schemes. A typical group (n = 51) and a risk group (n = 28) were established on the background of the cutoff scores of all three tools. As expected, there was a significant difference between the typical and the risk groups, with a moderate correlation between the tool scores. Only four children from the risk group were identified by all three tools; seven were identified by two tools, and 17 children were identified by one tool alone. These subgroups varied as to risk severity, gender, and heredity. The variations seen in the risk group are in line with large-scale studies pointing to persistent and late-onset LI. This should encourage evidence-based preschool screening by caretakers to detect early risks of LI and dyslexia. However, a longitudinal design with individual follow-up during literacy training in school would validate the use of these tools.

Ethical Monitoring: Conducting Research in a Prison Setting

Conducting research in a prison setting is ethically challenging. Because history is full of unethical research conducted in prison settings, researchers are often afraid of doing research in this area. It is argued that too much emphasis has been put on the protection of prison inmates as a vulnerable population. Consequently, too little research is being conducted where the focus is on those factors which serve to make the prison population vulnerable. In this paper ethical questions, emerging when conducting a study on literacy and mental health among Norwegian prison inmates, are presented and discussed. Relevant questions relate to topics which include ethical clearance of the research protocol, the consent procedure, clarification of roles and the publication of the results. The ethical questions are discussed in relation to the four principles of ‘respect for the clients rights and dignity’, ‘competence’, ‘responsibility’ and ‘integrity’ set out in the meta-code of ethics, formulated by the European Federation of Professional Psychologists Associations. The wider relationships between ethics in society, research ethics in general, and ethics when conducting research in a prison setting are also considered.

Utdanningsledelse og digitale læringsformer i høyere utdanning

This position paper examines what constitutes good educational, study and teaching quality in higher education today with a special focus on digital learning and lecturing as teaching method. One sees this in the light of policy documents and research in the area, as well as some PEK-projects where three digital paradoxes are used as an example of how important the students are as partners in raising the quality of teaching. This article finds that there is still a gap between formulationand realization arena when it comes to digital ÅRGANG 40, NR. 1-2017, S. 18–37 ISSN ONLINE: 1893-8981 19 UNIPED | ÅRGANG 40 | NR. 1-2017 This article is downloaded from www.idunn.no.