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The purpose of this paper is to design a rubric instrument for assessing oral presentation performance in higher education and to test its validity with an expert group.

This study, using mixed methods, focusses on: designing a rubric by identifying assessment instruments in previous presentation research and implementing essential design characteristics in a preliminary developed rubric; and testing the validity of the constructed instrument with an expert group of higher educational professionals (n=38).

The result of this study is a validated rubric instrument consisting of 11 presentation criteria, their related levels in performance, and a five-point scoring scale. These adopted criteria correspond to the widely accepted main criteria for presentations, in both literature and educational practice, regarding aspects as content of the presentation, structure of the presentation, interaction with the audience and presentation delivery.

Implications for the use of the rubric instrument in educational practice refer to the extent to which the identified criteria should be adapted to the requirements of presenting in a certain domain and whether the amount and complexity of the information in the rubric, as criteria, levels and scales, can be used in an adequate manner within formative assessment processes.

This instrument offers the opportunity to formatively assess students’ oral presentation performance, since rubrics explicate criteria and expectations. Furthermore, such an instrument also facilitates feedback and self-assessment processes. Finally, the rubric, resulting from this study, could be used in future quasi-experimental studies to measure students’ development in presentation performance in a pre-and post-test situation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the violence risk assessment practices in Israel by social workers, clinical criminologists, and marriage and family therapists using a Web-based survey.

A Web-based survey and participation letter were translated into Hebrew and distributed to members of the Israel Association of Social Workers, the Israel Society of Clinical Criminology and the Israel Association for Marital and Family Therapy following the Dillman Total Design Survey Method.

The sample was composed of 34 professionals, who reported using structured instruments to predict and manage the likelihood of violence in over half of their risk assessments over both their lifetime and the past 12 months. Younger female respondents who entered their profession more recently were more likely to use instruments during the risk assessment process. There appeared to be a trend toward decreased use of actuarial instruments and increased use in structured professional judgment instruments.

The first national survey of violence risk assessment practices by behavioral healthcare professionals in Israel was conducted. This study revealed the risk assessment utility trends in Israel, finding that compared to professionals in North America, South America, Europe, East Asia and Australia, professionals in Israel conducted fewer risk assessments and used structured instruments less often, highlighting concern about the lack of reliance on evidence-based techniques in the country.

This research was motivated and initiated by a request from industry to present a life skills learning programme to supplement young workers’ training. Subsequently, the dilemma faced by facilitators and trainers to assess the learners’ attainment of the learning outcomes of a life skills learning programme provided the impetus to develop an alternative assessment method – the collage and the stimulus instruments. A model developed by the researchers guided the development of the alternative assessment method and the stimulus instruments. Taking into account the demands, requirements and characteristics of life skills, a collage consisting of ten pictures and ten verbal concepts was developed to assess the learners’ attainment of the learning outcomes of a particular life skills learning programme. The life skills learning programme was presented to 18 artisans employed in industry. The selected material in the collage depicts more than one life skill and reflects the learning outcomes of the programme. The article is published in two parts. Part 1 is outlined above. The second part of the article will report on the outcomes of the application of the assessment instrument with the subject group of young workers.

Scoping of instruments in use for assessment of needs and the practices that surround care planning in residential care for older people in Ireland, in the wake of the introduction of national standards. The paper discusses these issues.

Survey of care providers using an online/postal questionnaire, developed from the domains of need outlined in the standards.

There is wide variation in the use of standardised instruments for assessment. Within some domains, standardised instruments enjoy near universal usage. However, within other domains, standardised instruments are often absent, external professional input and/or guidelines dominate and/or instruments have been adapted in-house. Practices surrounding care planning are largely homogeneous and the preserve of medical professionals.

This research was confined to the Republic of Ireland, limiting generalisation. The self-selecting nature of participants must also be considered. Further research could include, examining how, over time, the standards are shaping care practice, particularly in relation to interdisciplinary working and person-centred care.

The non-prescriptive nature of the standards presents a challenge to care providers in selecting appropriate standardised instruments for assessment. In addition, medical dominance of care planning limits the extent to which care plans can enhance the provision of interdisciplinary and person-centred care.

This paper contributes to a growing literature on standardisation of assessment and care planning, provides a reference point for comparison with other nations and, in an Irish context, addresses an area that has received little attention to-date. As such, it is of interest to practitioners, care providers and regulators.

This literature review identifies instruments for diagnostic assessment of cognitive impairment in prison populations. The purpose of this paper is to promote procedures for early screening and identification of cognitive impairment using instruments appropriate to prisons.

A targeted literature review identified studies on screening and diagnostic assessment of adults in jails, prisons, police watch-houses (custody suites), rehabilitation facilities and forensic settings or community settings for offenders. Discriminant validity, suitability, reliability and feasibility of instruments in correctional and forensic settings are presented.

From 135 peer-reviewed articles relating to diagnostic assessment of cognitive impairment, 15 instruments were considered appropriate for use in prison settings.

Selection of instruments for prison use considers suitability of the instrument(s) and clinical workforce capability. Cultural and gender validity of the instrument, its feasibility for use in the prison environment and cost and time to administer are also important. Using appropriate tools as part of a staged and targeted process in the screening and diagnosis of cognitive impairment is demonstrated by two case vignettes presented in this paper. As this was a desk review, the authors did not evaluate the instruments.

Identification of instruments that are suitable for diagnosis of cognitive impairment in forensic populations informs the rehabilitation of offenders with cognitive impairment in prison and upon release to probation and parole.

This project compared the use of an evidence‐based, systematically developed, standarised assessment instrument for community care with existing assessment instruments, in two social services departments. We conclude that assessment methods without proven reliability may jeopardise the interests of older people and the need to raise standards.

A vast array of leadership dispositions associated with school and student success is well-documented in extant leadership development literature. However, persistent challenges face practitioners as they attempt to measure leader dispositions and apply what is known about dispositions to hiring, selection, development, and retention of school leaders. We begin this chapter with an exploration of the essential leader dispositions which surfaced through an exhaustive cross-disciplinary review of literature, in concert with a review of disposition tools and frameworks in use in a variety of practical settings. Next, we illuminate significant challenges associated with reliably measuring school leader dispositions and explore promising emergent innovative strategies for assessing disposition development. Though difficult to measure, we argue that dispositions are too important to ignore and conclude with practical recommendations for using research on leader dispositions to cultivate outstanding school leaders.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically validate an instrument containing operational measures of lean service. The instrument is intended for use by both researchers and practitioners.

The instrument was developed and validated in an iterative process between theoretical and empirical insights. Drawing on a wide selection of frequently cited papers on lean service, a preliminary list of items was generated. These items were then vetted through four steps in order to achieve high validity. Empirical refinement and validation included workshops and semi‐structured interviews with expert practitioners, as well as testing the instrument's ability to discriminate between high and low adoption of lean and portray changes during lean service adoption.

The instrument contains 34 items that assess enablers of lean adoption, lean practices, and operational performance. Empirical validation suggested the instrument was able to discriminate between high and low adoption of lean service, as well as portray changes over time during lean adoption.

Practicing managers will be able to use the instrument in order to track progress during lean service adoption, thereby identifying and acting upon deviations from planned progress.

The paper represents the first comprehensive attempt to develop an instrument for assessing lean service adoption. Through this instrument, operational definitions of lean service will allow researchers to measure the level of lean service adoption, and using this information, to develop knowledge of for instance the contingencies to lean service adoption, the problems and pitfalls in lean service adoption and the feasibility of transferring practices to various service settings.

The purpose of this study is to help teachers resolve the difficulties in assessing the students' characters through the development of valid, reliable, goodness-of-fit statistic instrument of emotional and social intelligence assessment for elementary school students.

This study used a research and development model from Plomp with five phases, such as investigation, design, realization, testing and implementation. The research subjects were 345 students of class IV amongst 20 elementary schools in Yogyakarta. Data collection used questionnaires, documentation, interviews, Forum Group Discussion and an observation. Data analysis used descriptive analysis, Aiken's V, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis formulae.

The research study helps solve the difficulties of teachers in assessing emotional and social intelligence, which have previously been in only one area of psychomotor. The design of emotional and social intelligence assessment instruments is made from three domains of character, namely, cognitive, affective and psychomotor. The form of the instrument is non-test in three variations. The construct of social and emotional intelligence assessment for a character reinforcement has met the validity, reliability and goodness-of-fit statistic.

This study explains that the Emotional and Social Intelligence (ESI) model is applied for measuring cognitive, affective and psychomotor in children. This study proves that the ESI model is a comprehensive assessment model for evaluating the children's soft skills, includes (1) personal abilities: the ability to make rational decisions, the ability to design the future and (2) social skills: the ability to work together and the ability to understand other people.

Teachers can measure and determine the condition of children's soft skills by operating the ESI model. Based on the knowledge of the correct soft skill conditions, the teacher can adjust the teaching materials and teaching methods that would improve the child's soft skills regarding to their respective conditions. Mastering these soft skills will affect the children's capability in facing the challenge in the upcoming society's life.

The novelty of this study is the design model of the emotional and social intelligence assessment instrument developed comprehensively and practically as it is created from three domains of character and three forms of non-test questions, so that the assessment is not mechanical, and easily practiced by users.

Police play an essential role in reducing harms associated with family violence by identifying people at increased risk of physical or mental health-related harm and linking them with support services. Yet police are often poorly trained and resourced to conduct the kind of assessments necessary to identify family violence cases presenting with increased risk. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This paper describes a multi-project collaboration between law enforcement, forensic mental health, and academia that has over three years worked to improve risk assessment and management of family violence by police in Victoria, Australia.

Evaluation of existing risk assessment instruments used by the state-wide police force showed they were ineffective in predicting future police reports of family violence (AUC=0.54-0.56). However, the addition of forensic psychology expertise to specialist family violence teams increased the number of risk management strategies implemented by police, and suggested that the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk assessment instrument may be appropriate for use by Australian police (AUC=0.63).

The practical implications of this study are as follows: police risk assessment procedures should be subject to independent evaluation to determine whether they are performing as intended; multidisciplinary collaboration within police units can improve police practice; drawing on expertise from agencies external to police offers a way to improve evidence-based policing, and structured professional judgement risk assessment can be used in policing contexts with appropriate training and support.

The paper describes an innovative collaboration between police, mental health, and academia that is leading to improved police practices in responding to family violence. It includes data from the first evaluation of an Australian risk assessment instrument for family violence, and describes methods of improving police systems for responding to family violence.