Collaborative assessments in Mandarin conversation

The co-production of a sentence is a phenomenon that is widely observed in talk-in-interaction across languages. However, with a few notable exceptions, there is still much room for the investigation of how the co-production of sentences is put to the service of specific actions and activities in different language communities. This paper, using 10 hours of video-recorded data, examines the co-production of assessments (“collaborative assessments”) in Mandarin conversation. It is found that speakers can use syntactic, prosodic, and bodily-visual devices to realize assessment collaboration, and that the functions of collaborative assessment include (1) helping provide a candidate assessment term and facilitating the assessment; (2) articulating/specifying ‘vague’ assessments; (3) helping complete the foreshadowing of a negative assessment term; and (4) co-participation in the assessment activity. This paper also discusses the design features of co-completion and subsequent responses on the basis of the continuum of speakers’ epistemic authority and agency in collaborative assessment sequences and concludes with some implications of this study for grammar as practice.

Admission and Assessment of Music Degree Candidates

The purpose of this survey study was to examine current admissions processes and assessment practices for music programs of National Association of Schools of Music member institutions. Representatives from 95 institutions responded to a researcher-designed questionnaire. Music education programs were perceived as being comparable to performance programs on admissions standards. We describe the current state of candidate assessment practices from matriculation through degree conferral, consider a range of assessment measures including gateway or barrier instruments, and pose critical questions about the use of such assessments to determine whether music education candidates are appropriately qualified to become P–12 music educators.

The Interactive Candidate Assessment Tool: A New Way to Interview Residents

The purpose of the residency interview is to determine the extent to which a well-qualified applicant is a good fit with a residency program. However, questions asked during residency interviews tend to be standard and repetitive, and they may not elicit information that best differentiates one applicant from another. The iCAT (interactive Candidate Assessment Tool) is a novel interview instrument that allows both interviewers and interviewees to learn about each other in a meaningful way. The iCAT uses a tablet computer to enable the candidate to select questions from an array of video and nonvideo vignettes. Vignettes include recorded videos regarding some aspect of the program, while other icons include questions within recognizable categories. Postinterview surveys demonstrated advantages over traditional interview methods, with 93% agreeing that it was an innovative and effective tool for conducting residency program interviews. The iCAT for residency interviews is a technological advancement that facilitates in-depth candidate assessment.

Pre-transplant assessment of the recipient

Recipient assessment pre transplant is a critical step in the overall process of transplantation. It is required to define the surgical and medical strategies, evaluate the prognosis based on the knowledge of global kidney transplantation results, and hopefully improve the individual’s outcome. Each transplant centre will have developed its own experience and its own way of assessing transplant candidates. This chapter describes the transplant candidate assessment according to recognized recommendations as well as the author’s local experience at Necker Hospital, Paris, France. The goals of pre-transplant candidate assessment are to discuss the indications, to fully inform the patient, to determine which tests are useful to help balance risks and benefits, and finally to prepare as many potential kidney transplant recipients as possible to be wait-listed successfully.