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Student populations in higher education in the United States have become increasingly diverse as a result of demographic changes. As a result, educators need an understanding of the background and characteristics of these demographic subgroups in order to improve the quality of their education. Students’ approaches to learning affect their quality of learning and are influenced by their perceptions of the learning environment and assessment. The present study extends prior research by examining the approaches to learning, assessment preferences, and the relationship between approaches to learning and assessment preferences of intermediate accounting students enrolled in a public university in the United States with a diverse student population. Students with higher deep approaches to learning had higher preferences for assessment involving higher-order thinking tasks, integrated assessment, and nonconventional assessment. Students with higher surface approaches to learning had lower preferences for assessment involving higher-order thinking tasks. The differences in these relationships for subgroups of students defined by citizenship, age, gender, and race are presented. The implications of the results for teaching and learning in accounting education are discussed.

The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multicriteria decision support system that has been successfully applied to numerous decision-making situations, has been applied to patient assessment. The AHP was used with Timeslips™, a group storytelling program that encourages creative expression among dementia patients, to determine the optimal scale for pre and post assessment among the nine most common agitation and anxiety scales. The AHP used the six criteria identified by qualitative assessment of the nine scales: (1) validity/reliability, (2) observation period, (3) training required, (4) time to administer, (5) most appropriate administrator, and (6) accessibility/cost. The AHP indicated that the Overt Agitation & Anxiety Scale was optimal for use with Timeslips; the process and results are discussed.

Developing countries such as the Philippines depend greatly on their natural resources and ecosystem services. However, the capacity to sustain these services is currently being pressured by various environmental hazards, mainly brought about by climate change. Thus, it is imperative to assess the vulnerability of the environment so that effective ecosystem-based management strategy can be developed to improve the sustainability of these services. This chapter presents a geospatial-based method in assessing the vulnerability of watersheds in the country to various environmental hazards. This model is called the Geospatial-Based Regional Environmental Vulnerability Index for Ecosystems and Watersheds, or, in short, the GeoREVIEW model. GeoREVIEW is composed of 21 indicators and each indicator is evaluated using a scale of 1 to 5. A scale of 1 indicates low vulnerability while a scale of 5 signifies high vulnerability. Finally, to determine the vulnerability level of the area, its overall vulnerability point (OVP) is calculated. This model is utilized to evaluate the vulnerability of two significant ecosystems near Metro Manila – the La Mesa Watershed (LMW) and the Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve (MFR). Based on the assessment, it was found that both are already classified as “at risk” levels. However, MFR (OVP=55.24) is found to be less vulnerable than LMW (OVP=62.52). The results from this assessment can be used to improve the management of these areas and can also aid in targeting policy interventions associated with climate change.

Numerous scales have been developed and utilized in the tourism and hospitality field, yet, their psychometric properties have not been systematically reviewed and evaluated. This gap compromises researchers' ability to develop better measures and improve measurement decisions. In this current study, 56 scales were identified and evaluated in terms of their psychometric properties. It was found that most scales were imperfect in measuring tourism and hospitality domains, and most scales did not provide explicit information about the scale development procedures that were adopted. The scale development procedure and psychometric properties of the reviewed scales are summarized, evaluated, and recommendations are made for future tourism and hospitality scale development.

This chapter reviews and compares Southeast Asia country practices on global, regional, and local practices for disaster risk assessment (DRA). DRA research and practices include and create a disaster risk management (DRM) solution. There are 11 countries in Southeast Asia, but only 10 countries are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), except Timor-Leste. The key objective of ASEAN’s formation is cooperation in economic growth, social, regional peace and cultural development, disaster management cooperation, and humanitarian assistance at the regional level. The DRM system practiced in ASEAN member countries is discussed in this chapter. Furthermore, the system and findings of DRAs are also addressed. Globally, two DRA structures are discussed and compared, namely Index of Risk Management (INFORM) and World Risk Index (WRI). In addition, regional vulnerability assessment guidelines for regional and national levels are discussed. However, several selected studies and practices such as the Indonesian Risk Index (InaRISK) are being discussed at the local level. Overall, there is space for improvement of coordination in terms of data and technology sharing for DRM, especially for assessment. The finding of this review highlighted the complexity of DRA at the global and regional levels and encouraging community DRA among the ASEAN members.

Identifying the dimensionality of a construct and selecting appropriate items for measuring the dimensions are important elements of marketing scale development. Scales for measuring marketing constructs such as service quality, brand equity, and marketing orientation have typically been developed using the influential classical test theory paradigm (Churchill, 1979), or some variant thereof. Users of the paradigm typically assume, albeit implicitly, that items and respondents are the only sources of variance and respondents are the objects of measurement. Yet, marketers need scales for other important managerial purposes, such as benchmarking, tracking, and perceptual mapping, each of which requires a scaling of objects other than respondents such as products, brands, retail stores, websites, firms, advertisements, or social media content. Scales that are developed without such objects in mind might not perform as expected. Finn and Kayande (2005) proposed a multivariate multiple objective random effects methodology (referred to here as M-MORE) could be used to identify construct dimensionality and select appropriate items for multiple objects of measurement. This chapter applies M-MORE to multivariate generalizability theory data collected to assess online retailer websites in the early 2000s to identify the dimensionality of and to select appropriate items for scaling website quality. The results are compared with those produced by traditional methods.

The Global Mathematics Education Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) provides a forum for researchers and practitioners from around the world to discuss theory, practices, and techniques for mathematics learning from early childhood to tertiary education. Teacher education and professional development is a significant focus of the SIG’s conversations. This chapter discusses and current and future impact of CIE research on teacher education and professional development in global mathematics. A range of factors can undermine students’ performance in mathematics. In many contexts, teacher shortages result in underqualified teachers; teachers trained in other subjects are assigned to teach mathematics; or teacher training lacks adequate focus on teaching mathematics for understanding. While these factors exist in many contexts, they are most acute in low-income countries and communities. Mathematics is widely recognized as a mechanism for economic growth, at individual and system levels. However, low-income countries and marginalized populations perform poorly in cross-national assessments. As a result, lower-performing countries may emulate policy and practice of the higher-performing countries. In such cases there is a risk of superficial “fixes” that ignore contextual factors. There are ways to reduce such risks by combining such assessments with more contextual studies, or by using cross-national assessments as catalysts for examining what is happening locally. Looking forward, there is reason for optimism about the recognition of the importance of early-grade numeracy; recognition of the intersections of mathematics, culture, and language; and potential for reaching across CIE areas and methodologies to develop a more measured and nuanced view of assessment results.

Two interrelated theoretical schemes on leadership are presented in this paper. One is the Chinese CPM leadership behavior model, and the other, the Chinese implicit leadership theory. The CPM model recognizes three factors: Moral Character (“C” factor), Performance (“P” factor) and Maintenance (“M” factor). The Chinese implicit theory on leadership differentiates four trait factors: Personal Morality, Goal Efficiency, Interpersonal Competence, and Versatility. As such, it corresponds well with the CPM theory’s three-factor model. Both of these studies point to the salience of a cultural aspect. It has been demonstrated in the Chinese cultural context that the Chinese still place key importance on the moral character of their leaders and their behavior.