Task Performance

Task performance is the responsibility and duty carried out by each teacher in carrying out his work which contributes to administrative tasks. This study aims to provide information about the influence of instructional leadership and persistence on task performance. The causal survey involved 120 teachers, selected using Simple Random Sampling (SRS). There are three instruments developed to measure task performance (25 items, reliability 0.952), instructional leadership (30 items, reliability 0.948) and persistence (24 items, reliability 0.940). Data were analyzed using regression, correlation, and path analysis. The results of the analysis show that the instructional leadership and persistence have a direct and significant influence on the teacher's performance tasks. Therefore, to improve teacher performance tasks, factors such as instructional leadership and persistence need to be considered.

This article aims to explore the nature and functioning of trust in work teams. Trust is defined as a multi‐component variable with distinct but related dimensions. These include propensity to trust, perceived trustworthiness, co‐operative and lack of monitoring behaviours. A model was tested relating trust with perceived task performance, team satisfaction, and two dimensions of organisational commitment, i.e. attitudinal and continuance. Survey data from 112 teams(n=395) was collected in three social care institutions in The Netherlands. The results are supportive of a multi‐component structure for trust and of its importance to the functioning of teams and organisations. Work team trust appeared strongly related with team member's attitudes towards the organisation. Trust between team members was positively associated with attitudinal commitment and negatively with continuance commitment. Trust was also positively related with perceived task performance and with team satisfac...

Multimedia technology is increasingly being used as an alternative way of delivering instruction. According to researchers, the success of multimedia is due to the dualcoding aspect of the information processing theory. In applying dual-coding principles, different information has to be coded in different media in order for people to learn effectively. Designers of interactive multimedia applications are faced with thousands of different combinations of input and/or output modalities of information representation. Each single modality or multimodal combination has its own specific capabilities and limitations for representing or conveying information. It is important to be able to select the right combination of modalities for a given application. This paper describes Modality Theory and how it can be used to guide designers developing interactive multimedia applications. Given any particular set of information which needs to be exchanged between the user and system during task perf...

There are no government mandated vision standards for aviation maintenance inspectors. Empirically derived vision standards for other occupations cannot be extended to this very different occupation. We apply a psychophysical human-in-the-loop methodology toward defining an empirically-based visual acuity standard for a representative task performed by aircraft maintenance inspectors. Visual acuity declines are simulated using a Gaussian blur function on airframe images. Psychophysical data were collected in non-inspectors and in highly experienced aviation maintenance inspectors. The data may be used to construct an empirically-based visual acuity standard.

As individuals who abuse methamphetamine (MA) often exhibit socially maladaptive behaviors such as violence and aggression, it is possible that they respond abnormally to social cues. To investigate this issue, we exposed 12 MA-dependent participants (abstinent 5-16 days) and 12 healthy comparison participants to fearful and angry faces while they performed an affect matching task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Although the groups did not differ in task performance, the healthy participants showed more task-related activity than the MA-dependent participants in a set of cortical regions consisting of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ), anterior and posterior temporal cortex, and fusiform gyrus in the right hemisphere, and the cuneus in the left hemisphere. In contrast, the MA-dependent participants showed more task-related activity than the healthy participants in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). As expected, the task elicited activation of the amygdala in both groups; however, contrary to expectation, we found no difference between groups in this activation. Dorsal ACC hyperactivity, along with high self-ratings of hostility and interpersonal sensitivity in the MA-dependent group, suggest a hyper-sensitivity to socially threatening cues in the MA-dependent participants, while lower VLPFC activation could point to a deficit in integrating socio-emotional information and/or regulating this limbic hyperactivity. Additional activation differences in neural circuitry related to social cognition (TPJ, anterior, and posterior temporal cortex) suggest further socio-emotional deficits. Together, the results point to cortical abnormalities that could underlie the socially inappropriate behaviors often shown by individuals who abuse MA.

Assessing the learning style preferences of adult workers (consumers) with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities and accommodating the consumer's learning style preference during the job training process is a critical feature of quality supported employment services and an under-explored area of applied research. However, before evaluating the effects of learning style preferences on job training outcomes, consumers must first demonstrate the skills to express learning preferences. This research sought to demonstrate a method of assessing the learning style preference of consumers with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities and to investigate which of two instructional interventions, when matched with the consumers preferred learning style, would have the greatest impact on consumer job performance. Three independent variables were included in this study: (1) the consumer's learning style preference, (2) auditory instructional cues, and (3) visual instructional cues. The dependent variable was the accuracy of job task performance for each consumer under the alternating instructional interventions. ^ Four participants participated in the exploratory phase (phase I) of the study and three participants participated in the empirical phase (phase II) of the study. Phase I involved a descriptive analysis. Consumer learning style was assessed utilizing the Learning Style Inventory-Primary (Perrin, 1991), which was modified for use with the participant group. Phase II involved single-subject research design principles. Specifically, an alternating treatment withdrawal design was utilized to determine which instructional strategy (auditory or visual cues) when matched with the consumer's preferred learning style, had the greatest impact on the dependent variable. An Independent t-Test and a Helmert Contrast were used to determine statistical significance between conditions. An alpha level of .05 was set for determining significance. ^ Results indicate that learning style preferences for consumers with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities can be reliably assessed. Analysis of the data indicated that there was a significant difference in the effect of the two instructional interventions on consumer job performance. When the instructional intervention was congruent with the consumer's learning style, the greater the improvement in job performance. When the intervention was incongruent to the consumer's preferred learning style, a lesser degree of improved job performance would result. ^

Complex learning aims at the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitudes; the coordination of qualitatively different constituent skills; and the transfer of what is learned to daily life or work settings. Recent instructional theories stress authentic learning tasks as the driving force for learning; but due to the complexity of those tasks, learning may be hampered by the limited processing capacity of the human mind. In this article we present a framework for scaffolding practice and just-in-time information presentation, aiming to control cognitive ...

Difficulty in transferring, the ability to rise in and out of a bed and chair, is a common problem in older adults, particularly those residing in skilled nursing facilities. Focusing on one aspect of transferring, rising from supine to sitting position, we devised a set of bed mobility tasks to test key arm, leg, and trunk movements that likely contribute to successful rising from bed. Healthy young controls (YC, n=22, mean age 23), and older adults (aged 60 and over) either residing independently in congregate housing (CH, n=29, mean age 84) or undergoing rehabilitation in a skilled nursing facility (SNF, mean age 77) were assessed in the time to rise from supine to sitting and in the ability or inability to perform 16 other bed mobility tasks. Trunk function-related tasks, specifically those requiring trunk elevation and trunk balance, were most difficult for the SNF, followed by CH, and then YC. Tasks focusing on trunk flexion strength (sit up arms crossed, bilateral heel raise)...

This study tested the direct effects of three dimensions of organizational justice – distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice – on contextual performance, counterproductive work behaviors, and task performance. The study also examined the moderating effects of ...

The main purpose of the present work was to examine the construct of Constructive Thinking [Epstein, S., & Meier, P. (1989). Constructive thinking: a broad coping variable with specific components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 332–350] in the context of task performance with specific difficult goals. Based on former studies we hypothesized that different aspects of Constructive Thinking

We enhance theoretical precision of cultural intelligence (CQ: capability to function effectively in culturally diverse settings) by developing and testing a model that posits differential relationships between the four CQ dimensions (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral) and three intercultural effectiveness outcomes (cultural judgment and decision making, cultural adaptation, and task performance in culturally diverse settings). Before testing the model, we describe development and cross-validation (N=1,360) of the multidimensional cultural intelligence scale (CQS) across samples, time, and country. We then describe three substantive studies (N=794) in field and educational development settings across two national contexts, U.S. and Singapore. Results demonstrate a consistent pattern of relationships where metacognitive CQ and cognitive CQ predicted cultural judgment and decision making; motivational CQ and behavioral CQ predicted cultural adaptation; and meta-co...

In this article I bring artistic production into the learning sciences conversation by using the production of representations as a bridging concept between art making and the new literacies. Through case studies with 4 youth media arts organizations across the United States I ask how organizations structure the process of producing autobiographical digital art through a focus on representational tasks and how learning can be traced by examining youth artists' representations over time. Using a distributed cognition framework I analyze data on the process of making digital art in terms of the macro and micro tasks performed in order to identify occasions for external representation construction and use across organizations. I then examine how individual youth engage in these macro and micro tasks by producing representations that demonstrate their understanding. These analyses show that youth media arts organization production processes engage young artists in a representational trajectory that begins with developing a story about the self, moves toward a focus on how the tools of the medium afford representation of that story, and culminates in digital representations that reflect an understanding of the relationship between story and tools.