caprice sacrilege: EDU702 Research Methodology: References ...

Azizi Yahaya, 2003. Factors Contributing Towards Excellence Academic Performance. University Technology Malaysia

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Baxter, M. Young J.L. (1982). What do employers expect from high school graduates? NASSP Bulletin, 66, 93-98.

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Reporter. (2003). Indicators of academic performance. Retrieved on August 8, 2007 from http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2002-3/weekly/5913/

Chang, M. (2004, July). Why some graduates are more marketable than others: Employers? perspective. Paper presented in a Workshop on Enhancing Graduate Employability in a Globalised Economy, Economic Planning Unit, Malaysia.

Chapman, K. (2010, march 7). Earning a place. Retrieves September 17, 2010, from the Star Online: http://thestar.com.my?education/story.asp?file=/2010/3/7/education/5782565&sec=education
Claessens, Amy, Greg Duncan, and Mimi Engel. 2009. ?Kindergarten Skills and Fifth-grade Achievement: Evidence from the ECLS-K,? Economics of Education Review 28(4): 415-427.
Duncan, GregJ., Chantelle J. Dowsett, Amy Claessens., Katherine Magnuson., Aletha C. Huston,, Pamela Klebanov, Linda S. Pagani, Leon Feinstein, Mimi Engel, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Holly Sexton, Kathryn Duckworth, and Crista Japel. 2007. ?School Readiness and Later Achievement.? Developmental Psychology, 43(6): 428-46.
Dutton, M. (1996). Tech/prep/school-to-work: Career Paths for All. Education Digest,61(5), 56-69.
Higgins, D.M., Peerson, J. B., Pihl, R. O., & Lee, A. G. (2007). Prefrontal Cognitive Ability, Inteligence, Big Five Personality, and the Prediction of Advanced Academic and Workplace Performace. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Hoyle, E. (1986). Policies of School Management, Suffolk. The press ltd.

Jailani, Wan Mohd Rashid, Noraini & Wahid (2005). Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) from Malaysia Perspective. Paper presented at 2nd International TT-TVET EU-Asia-Link Project Meeting, VEDC Malang.

Kyoshaba Martha, 2009. Factors Affecting Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students at UgandaChristianUniversity.

Lleras, Christy. 2008. ?Do Skills and Behaviors in High School Matter? The Contribution of Noncognitive Factors in Explaining Differences in Educational Attainment and Earnings.? Social Science Research 37 (3): 888-902.

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has 60,000 graduates unemployed. (2005). Retrieved from http://www.malaysia-today.net/Blog-e/2005/11/malaysia-has-60000-undergraduates.htm

Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. (2006). Development of soft skills for Institutions of Higher Learning. Universiti Putra, Malaysia.

Nabi, G. R. and Bagley, D. (1998) Graduates? perceptions of transferable personal skills and future career preparation in the UK, Career Development International, 3(1), 31-39.
Bennett, N., Dunne, E. and Carr?, C. (2000) Skills Development in Higher Education and Employment. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.
Nathan, S. and Dunn, K.A. (1997). Business Press Articles and Higher Level Learning Skills in Accounting Courses. Education & Training. 39, 4/5, 189-194
Noorlaila Yunus, Salina Noranee and Rohana Ehsan, 2004.The Perception of Employer towards Office Management (OM) Industrial Trainees? Performance during the Internship: A Case Study of Public/Private Organizations in Klang Valley.

Secretary?s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. (1992, April). Learning a Living: A blueprint for High Performance. Executive Summary. A SCANS Report for America 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.

O?Connor, M. C. & Paunonen, S. V. (2007). Big Five personality predictors of post-secondary academic performance. Personality and Individual Differences.
Raymond Young and Chadi Aoun, 2008. Generic Skills to Reduce Failure Rates in an Undergraduate Accounting Information System Course. Asian Social Science, Vol. 4, 10, October 2008. www.ccsenet.prg/journal.html

Santrock, J. W. (2006). Educational Psychology (rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Thelma Young Monk, 1998. Variables Associated with Academic Achievement of African-American Males in Four-year Undergraduate Educational Institutions: A Synthesis is Studies. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity.

The New Straits Times. (2006, March 21). Experts: Go back to drawing board. Kuala Lumpur

Usoff, C. & Feldmann, D. (1998). Accounting Students? Perceptions of Important Skills For Career Success. Journal of Education for Business. 73, 4, 215-220

Worthington, R. L., & Juntunen, C. L. (1997). Vocational Development of Non-College-bound??

Youth: Counseling Psychology and the School-to-Work Transition of Movement. The Counseling Psychologist, 25(2), 23-24.
30,000 grads in unsuitable jobs (2012,May 10). New Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.mohr.gov.my/mygoveg/extras/isunov05.htm#nst101105

Source: http://edu725nurule.blogspot.com/2012/11/references.html

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This Minimalist Christmas Tree Is Great for the Irredeemably Lazy

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An Education in Classlessness | Economics reference cell ...

Economics : Of all the people in the city of New York who should be reluctant to charge someone else with elitism, the city's richest man has to be on the top of the list. But irony has never been one of the mayor's strong suits, so there he was?the other day?with a verbal assault on Bill Perkins for, of all things, having the temerity of being a vocal critic of charters, despite having gone to the "tony" Collegiate School for his own high school education.

Here's the NY Post's (natch) account: "The Post's Dave Seifman forward some pretty choice quotes from Mayor Bloomberg going off on state Sen. Bill Perkins, a major opponent of charter schools, on his weekly WOR radio show this morning. Bloomberg jabs at the pol for attending "elite private schools" and says he's been "violently" against choice for parents."

Now's not the right time to interject a tired pot and kettle analogy, but it does take a certain amount of chutzpah to attack Perkins when the mayor probably hadn't set foot inside a public school-his kids went elsewhere obviously-until he was elected mayor. And the same goes for Chancellor Klein who, along with Bloomberg, brought absolutely zero knowledge of public education to the job?when he was elevated to his supreme commander post. And this from a man who spends all of his weekends in Bermuda!

But what's even more egregious in our view is the mayor's failure to see with any clarity what?the charter phenomenon says about his own educational effort-a point that we have already made before. Here's the Post again: "Bill Perkins is a guy who went to elite private schools, and he represents a district where most people can?t afford elite private schools, and charter schools are their opportunity to get their kids a great education," said Bloomberg. "I think the numbers are something - there?s 10,000 places this year - more places for charter schools, and there?s something like 50 or 60,000 applicants for the 10,000 places."

Now, after eight years of so-called reform-along with reams of flack touting miraculous advance-we have stampedes in poor neighborhoods to flee the public school system as fast as possible. The Post's Seifman continues to spotlight the mayor's views in a follow up story: "Bloomberg argued that charter schools promote competition, which is one reason public schools in the city are improving. "Competition is great for everybody, and it's one of those things we want to encourage, and Perkins has been violently against it, while the educators and the public and the parents want more of [it]," the mayor said."

If the Harlem clamor for choice is any indication, this kind of a competition can best be described in sports language as a blowout-and as an indictment of the failure of the overall?Bloomberg effort. Diane Ravitch's hearing testimony sheds light on the true nature of this far from healthy competition: "Some charters are as idealistic as the original vision, but many others now see themselves as competition for public schools. They want to take over public school space and replace public schools. They revel in stories about beating public schools, not helping them."

But as far as Bloomberg's observation that the charter competition is in some way aiding public school improvement, where's the evidence of that? Which brings us back to the point that we made last week: "So there is obviously a perception of failure at the grass roots level. Whether this is a reality or not-and studies indicate that the charter exploits are exaggerated in the aggregate-doesn't matter. And the clamoring for, "choice," is an indictment of the current system that the media did so much to tout when it was all about mayoral control."

So what's missing from all of this trumped up outrage, is a concomitant genuine outrage at the three card monte game that the Bloombergistas have played-with Rupert and Morticia acting as the audience shills-with a gullible public. It is time to bring in the forensic accountants, and Perkins and his state senate crew should hold follow up hearings on testing fraud, unmerited teacher and administrator bonuses, and a profligate expansion of an educational bureaucracy that has failed to deliver real success even with an 80% increase in its allocation.

But that might not even be necessary if what they think is going to happen next spring actually does-new school tests that expose the naked emperor's false positives. As the NY Post reports: "Criticized for having steadily dumbed down standardized tests -- and trumpeted phantom gains -- the state Education Department says students in grades 3 to 8 taking required math and English exams starting tomorrow won't pass as easily this year. "Students are going to have to know more and do more to demonstrate proficiency on the exams," said John King, senior deputy state education commissioner."

And it will be more difficult to teach to the test: "A rising number of pupils have passed in recent years as cut scores dipped so low that some kids could randomly guess enough right answers to squeak by, experts found. State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Education Commissioner David Steiner "are committed to ending the annual debate about whether our state tests have become harder or easier," King told The Post. "Doing that will require us to ensure that our tests become both less predictable and more comprehensive in terms of the number of items they test."

But, once the test fraud is exposed will it finally become clear that, as far as NYC's master of the house is concerned, "there's not much there?" Here's the Post's observation: "The sliding standards weren't revealed when Mayor Bloomberg touted dramatic spikes in state scores as a triumph of his stewardship. But the lid was blown off when federal officials found reading and math scores for New York students had remained flat on a national benchmark exam since 2007, while their scores on the state tests skyrocketed over the same period."

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, cited in Sol Stern's upcoming City Journal article, makes this telling point: ?We have to stop lying to children,? education secretary Arne Duncan said recently at a meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA).?We have to look them in the eye and tell them the truth at every stage of their educational trajectory.?

If Mike Bloomberg really wants to advance the interests of NYC school kids, he can begin by laying off the glass house?ad hominen attacks on Bill Perkins; and he can follow Duncan's advice by starting to?tell the truth-to those with an actual stake in public education-about how all of his extra funding and top down control of the educational bureaucracy has yielded a truly lackluster result. Don't expect this anytime soon, because mea culpas are conspicuously absent in the Bloomberg personality profile.

Source: http://economics-reference-cell.blogspot.com/2012/11/an-education-in-classlessness.html

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News Release | National Restaurant Association

Restaurant Performance Index Fell to its Lowest Level in 14 Months as Operator Optimism Plunged

Same-store sales remained positive; Restaurant operators are more pessimistic about sales growth and the economy

November 30, 2012
Contact: Annika Stensson (202) 973-3677, Rachel Salabes (202) 331-5997

(Washington, DC) Due in large part to restaurant operators? dampened outlook for sales growth and the economy, the National Restaurant Association?s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) fell sharply in October. The RPI ? a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry ? stood at 99.5 in October, down 0.9 percent from September. In addition, October represented the first time in 14 months that the RPI fell below 100, which signifies contraction in the index of key industry indicators.

?Although restaurant operators overall continued to report positive same-store sales in October, their short-term outlook for sales growth and the economy is decidedly more pessimistic,? said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the Research and Knowledge Group for the Association. ?Nearly two out of five restaurant operators expect business conditions to worsen in the next six months, which is double the proportion that expect conditions to improve.?

Watch a video of Riehle providing commentary on the October RPI.

The RPI is constructed so that the health of the restaurant industry is measured in relation to a steady-state level of 100. Index values above 100 indicate that key industry indicators are in a period of expansion, while index values below 100 represent a period of contraction for key industry indicators. The Index consists of two components ? the Current Situation Index and the Expectations Index.

The Current Situation Index, which measures current trends in four industry indicators (same-store sales, traffic, labor and capital expenditures), stood at 99.3 in October ? down 0.6 percent from a level of 99.9 in September. While same-store sales remained positive in October, declines in the labor and customer traffic indicators outweighed the performance, which resulted in a Current Situation Index reading below 100 for the third time in the last four months.

Although restaurant operators reported positive same-store sales for the 17th consecutive month in October, results continued to soften from recent months. Forty percent of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales gain between October 2011 and October 2012, down from 48 percent in September and the lowest proportion in 17 months. Meanwhile, 36 percent of operators reported lower same-store sales in October, essentially unchanged from 35 percent in September.

While sales remained positive overall, restaurant operators reported a net decline in customer traffic levels in October. Thirty percent of restaurant operators reported higher customer traffic levels between October 2011 and October 2012, down from 36 percent who reported positive traffic in September. In comparison, 41 percent of operators reported lower customer traffic levels in October, unchanged from September.

Along with the softer sales and traffic results, restaurant operators reported a slight drop in capital spending activity. Forty-six percent of operators said they made a capital expenditure for equipment, expansion or remodeling during the last three months, down from 49 percent who reported similarly last month.

The Expectations Index, which measures restaurant operators? six-month outlook for four industry indicators (same-store sales, employees, capital expenditures and business conditions), stood at 99.7 in October ? down 1.2 percent from September. October represented the first time in 14 months that the Expectations Index fell below 100, which represents a pessimistic six-month outlook for the four industry indicators.

Restaurant operators? outlook for sales growth deteriorated significantly in recent months. Thirty-one percent of restaurant operators expect to have higher sales in six months (compared to the same period in the previous year), down from 45 percent last month and the lowest level in three years. Meanwhile, 21 percent of restaurant operators expect their sales volume in six months to be lower than it was during the same period in the previous year, up from 11 percent last month.

Similarly, restaurant operators are increasingly pessimistic about the direction of the overall economy. Only 20 percent of restaurant operators said they expect economic conditions to improve in six months, down from 26 percent last month. In contrast, 38 percent of operators said they expect economic conditions to worsen in the next six months, up from 18 percent last month and the highest level in nearly four years.

Despite the uncertainty, more restaurant operators are planning for capital spending in the months ahead. Fifty percent of restaurant operators plan to make a capital expenditure for equipment, expansion or remodeling in the next six months, up from 44 percent who reported similarly last month.

The RPI is based on the responses to the National Restaurant Association?s Restaurant Industry Tracking Survey, which is fielded monthly among restaurant operators nationwide on a variety of indicators including sales, traffic, labor, and capital expenditures. The full report and a video summary are available online.

The RPI is released on the last business day of each month, and more detailed data and analysis can be found on Restaurant TrendMapper (www.restaurant.org/trendmapper), the Association's subscription-based service that provides detailed analysis of restaurant industry trends.

###

Founded in 1919, the National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry, which comprises 970,000 restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of nearly 13 million employees. We represent the industry in Washington, D.C., and advocate on its behalf. We operate the industry's largest trade show (NRA Show May 18-21, 2013, in Chicago); leading food safety training and certification program (ServSafe); unique career-building high school program (the NRAEF's ProStart, including the National ProStart Invitational April 19-21, 2013, in Baltimore, Md.); as well as the Kids LiveWell program promoting healthful kids' menu options. For more information, visit www.restaurant.org and find us on Twitter @WeRRestaurants, Facebook and YouTube.

Source: http://www.restaurant.org/pressroom/pressrelease.cfm?ID=2349

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Rebels leave key Congo town, boosting peace hopes

Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

A M23 fighter walks with his rifle as he and other rebels withdraw from Goma, Congo, on Saturday.

By Pascal Fletcher, Reuters

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo -- Rebel fighters, singing and brandishing weapons, pulled out of Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern border city of Goma on Saturday, raising hopes regional peace efforts could advance negotiations to end the insurgency.

The rebel withdrawal from Goma on Lake Kivu, a strategic hub in the country's war-scarred eastern borderlands, was agreed in a deal brokered by presidents of the Great Lakes states under Uganda's leadership a week ago.

Goma's fall on November 20 to the Tutsi-led M23 rebel movement which routed United Nations-backed government forces triggered a diplomatic scramble to prevent a wider escalation of the eight-month-old rebellion in the conflict-prone region.

The rebels had said they would fight to topple Congo's President Joseph Kabila and march on the capital Kinshasa, 1,000 miles to the west. U.N. experts accuse Rwanda and Uganda of supporting the revolt, a charge both strongly deny.

---

In the center of Goma, blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay in white armored vehicles watched as camouflage-clad M23 fighters scrambled on to the back of flatbed trucks with battered suitcases and other belongings before driving off.

"We are leaving today," M23's military chief Colonel Sultani Makenga told reporters.

Residents lined the streets leading out of the city to watch as the truckloads of singing rebels drove out, heading for previously agreed positions 13 miles north of Goma from where M23 launched its lightning offensive two weeks ago.

On the dusty road by the U.N.-controlled airport, about 100 rebels trudged out of town on foot. Some of the trucks leaving Goma carried crates of captured munitions and military supplies.

Makenga, who faces a U.N.-imposed assets freeze and travel ban for leading the revolt, said the M23 withdrawal was in response to a request from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

"We are leaving for peace," Makenga said, following a brief ceremony in which a squad of around 40 M23 fighters, wearing mottled green camouflage uniforms, peaked caps and black gumboots, first paraded and then sang and danced.

If there are no hitches, a full rebel withdrawal from lakeside Goma, which lies in sight of the towering Mount Nyiragongo volcano, will provide breathing space for possible follow-up negotiations between the rebels and Kabila.

Humanitarian agencies say hundreds of people have been injured and thousands displaced by the recent fighting.

The Congolese president has said he is willing to listen to the rebels' grievances, but there is considerable mistrust between the two sides and Kabila faces pressure from within his own army to pursue a military solution rather than talks.

PhotoBlog: Rebels start to pull out

"If Kabila provokes us, we will come back," Makenga said. "If he wants peace there will be peace, if he wants war, there will be war," he added.

Uganda's junior foreign minister, Asuman Kiyingi, told Reuters Kampala would encourage the two sides to talk. "Now that M23 has withdrawn, it's important that the Kinshasa government also addresses the grievances of these people (M23)," he said

Goma lies at the heart of Congo's eastern borderlands which have suffered nearly two decades of conflict stoked by long-standing ethnic and political enmities and fighting over the region's rich resources of gold, tin, tungsten and coltan. The latter is a precious metal used to make mobile phones.

Some Goma residents jeered as the trucks carrying the departing rebels lurched through the dusty streets. Some of the vehicles stopped to fill up with petrol, while others were held up temporarily by teeming traffic.

A military observer from Rwanda, one of several defense representatives from neighboring states who watched the withdrawal, said it was going ahead without problems.

"It is all very smooth," he said, asking not to be named.

On Friday, the pullback plan appeared to run into problems, including a dispute over abandoned army supplies the insurgents wanted to take with them.

But this incident did not appear to impede the pullout, which U.N. officials expected would be completed on Saturday.

Congolese policemen who had been brought in to help keep order as the rebels left were also visible in the streets.

In the face of evidence supplied by U.N. experts about Rwandan involvement in the rebellion, a number of Western donors have frozen aid to Kigali. Rwandan President Paul Kagame has angrily rejected the charges against his government.

In the latest move, Britain, Rwanda's largest bilateral donor, said on Friday it was withholding 21 million pounds ($34 million) of budget support.

Rwanda has twice invaded its western neighbor Congo over the past two decades, at one point sparking a conflict dubbed "Africa's World War" that drew in several countries.

It has justified its interventions by arguing it was forced to act against hostile Rwandan Hutu fighters who fled to Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide that saw 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed by Hutu soldiers and militia.

The M23 rebels said they took up arms over what they cited as the government's failure to respect a March 23, 2009, peace agreement that envisaged their integration into the army.

They have since broadened the scope of their movement, which takes its name from the peace deal date, declaring their aim to "liberate" the entire Central African nation and oust Kabila.

Aid agencies say more than 5 million people have died from conflict, hunger or disease in Congo since 1998.

More world stories from NBC News:

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Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/01/15596161-congo-sees-rebels-pull-out-of-key-town-boosting-hopes-for-peace?lite

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Official: Hamas leader Mashaal set to visit Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) ? A senior Hamas official in Gaza says the Islamic militant group's leader is poised to pay his first visit ever to the coastal strip.

Khaled Mashaal is set to visit Gaza next week to mark the movement's 25th anniversary and congratulate its leaders and militants for battling Israel during a recent 8-day offensive.

Mashaal was previously prevented from crossing into Gaza by longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. Hamas says it is coordinating the visit with Egypt's new Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

The official, who spoke anonymously Saturday, citing security concerns, called the visit "historic."

Hamas violently overtook Gaza from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party in 2007. It has yet to reconcile with Fatah, which rules the West Bank.

Until recently, Mashaal had been based in Syria.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/official-hamas-leader-mashaal-set-visit-gaza-111304240.html

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Army GI in WikiLeaks case takes stand at hearing

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) ? An Army private charged in the biggest security breach in U.S. history took the stand Thursday at a military hearing about what he contends was needlessly harsh treatment at a Marine Corps brig.

Pfc. Bradley Manning testified on the third day of a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade, outside Baltimore.

Wearing his dress uniform, he appeared nervous, stuttering over his words as he tried to answer questions from a defense attorney about his arrest in Baghdad in May 2010. He was testifying only about his arrest and confinement.

Seated in the witness booth, he swiveled back and forth and gestured with his hands as he described the layout of his confinement quarters overseas.

Manning is trying to avoid trial in the WikiLeaks case. He argues he was punished enough when he was locked up alone in a small cell for nearly nine months at a brig in Quantico, Va., and had to sleep naked for several nights.

The military contends the treatment was proper, given Manning's classification then as a maximum-security detainee who posed a risk of injury to himself or others.

Earlier Thursday, a military judge accepted the terms under which Manning would plead guilty to eight charges for sending classified documents to the secret-spilling WikiLeaks website.

Col. Denise Lind's ruling doesn't mean the pleas have been formally accepted. That could happen in December.

But Lind approved the language of the offenses to which Manning would admit.

She said those offenses carry a total maximum prison term of 16 years.

Manning made the offer as a way of accepting responsibility for the leak. Government officials have not said whether they would continue prosecuting him for the other 14 counts he faces, including aiding the enemy. That offense carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Under the proposal, Manning would admit to willfully sending the following material: a battlefield video file, some classified memos, more than 20 Iraq war logs, more than 20 Afghanistan war logs and other classified materials. He would also plead guilty to wrongfully storing classified information.

Meanwhile, Manning's lawyers are arguing that the charges against the soldier should be dismissed because of how he was treated while confined at Quantico.

Other prospective witnesses include a military psychiatrist who examined Manning at Quantico, and the former commander of the confinement facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Manning was later moved there, re-evaluated and given a medium-security classification.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/army-gi-wikileaks-case-takes-stand-hearing-190359537.html

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