Eliciting personal constructs and articulating goals

Summary A structured exercise that is based on PCP theory has been described and demonstrated to show how it can facilitate self-understanding and career development. The primary advantage of a PCP-based approach, when compared to approaches that use standardized inventories, is that a PCP approach encourages career explorers to use their own constructs. It is hypothesized that when people use goals that are articulated from their own constructs, they will understand their goals more fully and be more empowered to work towards those goals. A fuller understanding of their goals should allow them to find environments where these goals are more likely to be realized. Future investigations will continue to test these hypotheses.     

Beyond a Pets Theme: Teaching Young Children to Interact Safely with Dogs

Although it is commonplace for early childhood educators to include a theme or unit on pets, opportunities to incorporate safety goals frequently are overlooked. Approximately 400,000 incidents of dog bites to children are documented in the United States annually and this estimate may be low, due to the fact that not all injuries are reported. Young children are the group at highest risk of sustaining dog bites. Due to the child’s smaller stature, these bites are more likely to be severe or disfiguring. Yet research from various disciplines supports that many of dog bite injuries to children are preventable with education and even brief interventions appear to be effective. This article offers research-based, developmentally appropriate strategies as well as a wide array of free or inexpensive resources that teachers can use to coach children in ways of interacting more safely with dogs. By making health and safety concerns a key component of themes or units about pets, teachers not only improve the curriculum but also make an important contribution to young children’s well-being.     

Personal and Contextual Factors Associated With Students’ Cheating in Science

The authors conducted a correlational study to investigate the relations among seventh-grade Turkish students’ cheating behavior, academic self-efficacy beliefs, usage of self-handicapping strategies, personal goal orientations, and classroom goal structures specific to the science domain. The Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales was administered to 1,950 seventh-grade students enrolled in 12 public schools. The authors conducted hierarchical linear modeling analyses to measure to what extent personal and contextual factors can be used to predict students’ cheating behavior. Analyses revealed that although students’ cheating behavior was positively predicted by performance-approach goals, it was negatively predicted by mastery goals. Students who used more self-handicapping strategies and who were less self-efficacious were also more likely to demonstrate cheating behavior. The authors found that the mastery goal–structured science-learning environment, in which understanding the material and self-improvement was emphasized, discouraged cheating.     

在计算机辅助语言学习环境中培养学习自主性

本文主要探索了计算机辅助语言学习环境是否有利于学生学习自主性的培养.实验表明,在这一环境下,学生普遍认为自己是语言学习的关键因素,是否有明确的学习目标对学习成败起关键影响;这一环境可以让学生更加独立地完成学习计划;同时它也有助于学生认识到自我评估的重要性及更好地进行自我评估.     

How much is transferred from training to the job? The 10% delusion as a catalyst for thinking about transfer

This article explores the common belief that only a small amount of what is taught in a training program is actually transferred to the job. After providing evidence of the source of the generalization and the acceptance of the notion despite the lack of empirical, behavioral evidence, we take the opportunity to examine the likely reasons for that acceptance. We present five questionable assumptions behind the generalization about minimal transfer. Based on this analysis, we offer four practical strategies for planning, assessing, and reporting training transfer. These strategies include investigating and accounting for variables influencing transfer, expanding the definition of use, stating realistic transfer goals, creating specific transfer objectives, describing observable indicators of use, setting quantitative standards of successful transfer, and reporting the complete transfer story. These strategies provide avenues for producing a more accurate picture of the training transfer experience.     

Modifications in children's goals when encountering obstacles to conflict resolution

Previous studies have demonstrated that children's goals are associated with their success in peer relationships. The current study extends earlier findings by examining changes in children's goals during hypothetical conflicts. Participants were 252 children ages 9 to 12 years old (133 boys, 119 girls). As predicted, children's goals changed significantly when they encountered obstacles to conflict resolution, and these changes were predictive of their subsequent strategy choices. Both aggressive- and submissive-rejected children were more likely to evidence antisocial changes in their goals, including an increased desire to retaliate. They also showed reluctance to forego instrumental objectives. Other findings highlighted the need to investigate the combinations of goals children pursue as predictors of their strategies and the quality of their peer relationships.     

Cultural specificity of approaches to studying in higher education: A literature survey

Students in higher education exhibit different approaches to learning, but there is evidence that these vary systematically from one culture to another. The broad distinction between an orientation towards comprehending the meaning of learning materials and an orientation towards merely reproducing those materials seems to be a universal feature of all systems of higher education. The former is both consistent and coherent, apparently reflecting the relatively high degree of agreement that exists across different cultures with regard to the goals and purposes of higher education. The latter reflects students' attempts to cope with academic practices that are inappropriate to those goals and purposes; it is more fragmented and more likely to be constructed in a way that is distinctive to each particular cultural context.     

South Korean mothers’ beliefs regarding aggression and social withdrawal in preschoolers

South Korean mothers’ reactions to preschoolers’ aggression and social withdrawal were examined within a cultural framework. With recent social, political, and cultural changes in South Korea, there appears to be a conflict between traditional values and the Confucian heritage on one hand, and Western influence on the other. Mothers (N = 81) of preschoolers from Seoul reported their emotional reactions, causal attributions, socialization strategies, and socialization goals that were endorsed in response to these behaviors. Mothers reacted with negative emotions to both child aggression and social withdrawal, with more anger, disgust and embarrassment for aggression. Mothers also believed that aggression was due to external causes, and less stable than social withdrawal. High-powered and directive strategies were provided more often in response to aggression than social withdrawal, whereas lower-powered/indirect strategies were favored for social withdrawal over aggression. Finally, mothers were more likely to suggest parent- and social-centered goals for aggression, and child-centered goals for social withdrawal, indicating the increasing influence of westernized child developmental information on South Korean mothers. The significance of changing cultural norms and conventions in South Korean mothers’ perceptions and evaluations of maladaptive behaviors in children was supported.     

Cultural Differences in Maternal Beliefs and Behaviors: A Study of Middle-Class Anglo and Puerto Rican Mother-Infant Pairs in Four Everyday Situations

This study examines cultural patterning in situational variability in mother-infant interactions among middle-class Anglo and Puerto Rican mothers and their 12 to 15-month-old firstborn children. Forty mothers were interviewed regarding their long-term socialization goals and childrearing strategies, and videotaped interacting with their infants in four everyday settings: feeding, social play, teaching, and free play. Results suggest that: (1) Anglo mothers place greater emphasis on socialization goals and childrearing strategies consonant with a more individualistic orientation, whereas Puerto Rican mothers place greater focus on goals and strategies consistent with a more sociocentric orientation; (2) coherence was found between mothers' childrearing beliefs and practices, with Puerto Rican mothers more likely to directly structure their infants' behaviors; and (3) situational variability arose in mother-infant interactions, but this variability showed a cultural patterning consistent with mothers' long-term socialization goals and childrearing beliefs.     

Understanding What We Do: Emerging Models for Human Rights Education

The author presents three approaches to contemporary human rights education practice: the Values and Awareness Model, the Accountability Model and the Transformational Model. Each model is associated with particular target groups, contents and strategies. The author suggests that these models can lend themselves to theory development and research in what might be considered an emerging educational field. Human rights education can be further strengthened through the appropriate use oflearning theory, as well as through the setting of standards for trainer preparation and program content, and through evaluating the impact of programs in terms of reaching learner goals (knowledge, values and skills) and contributing to social change.     

Enhancing learning in South African schools: strategies beyond outcomes-based education

This paper addresses the problem of post-Apartheid South African schools as ineffective learning environments, and the question whether there are strategies for enhancing learning that are more effective and that might be more easily and successfully implemented than an outcomes-based education. Because of historical and situational constraints, an outcomes-based education has limited potential for enhancing learning there. We argue that there are other factors, notably proximal variables such as teaching strategies that focus on the setting of learning goals and the provision of feedback and reinforcement to students, and the quality of teaching itself, that could more effectively enhance learning in South African schools, and that could be more successfully implemented. The paper thus aims to recommend and justify a policy decision in South African education to limit the implementation of an outcomes-based education to only those selected aspects that have been shown to enhance learning most effectively, and to implement other effective strategies for enhancing learning that might be more successfully introduced into schools.     

A Community of Voices: Educational Blog Management Strategies and Tools

Web 2.0 offers a new type of interactive technology that may change the focus and approach of formal education in ways we are just beginning to comprehend. The new and unique qualities of Web 2.0 can be compounded in traditional educational settings by the fact that students often times have far more experience with and understanding the new technology than the teachers who are developing curriculums and setting educational goals. At the same time, Web 2.0 has become so pervasive in such a short time that it makes little sense to ignore it in educational settings. This current article suggests blogging may be the most “education friendly” of the new interactive tools. Blog posts offer students the opportunity to develop their own voice in the classroom, while commentary serves as an important reinforcement for self-reflection and continued participation. The difficulty for teachers is in understanding how to integrate, use and maintain course blogs so that they are a strong and positive educational force in the classroom. At the core of using blogs is the development of blog management strategies. Based on the authors’ use of blogs in undergraduate courses, the current paper outlines an approach to blog management.     

Students’ goals and self-regulation in the classroom

This chapter argues for an understanding of action regulation as inextricably related to the motivational process of goal setting and planning. Within this conceptual framework our research has explored students’ action patterns, both in normal ongoing classroom situations and in stressful circumstances. Goals are emphasized as essential aspects of the motivational quality of activities, namely through the role they play in the regulation of action. In this study the detection of students’ behavioral goals is addressed. Several achievement and social goals are described and ways to assess students’ goal setting and planning processes are proposed. Strategies that students use to handle classroom stressors are explored. These include strategic flexible action, strategic rigid action, passive behavior, and disorganized behavior. These strategies represent distinct forms of action regulation. Relations between students’ strategies, which are viewed as indications of their control, and agency beliefs are also examined. Finally, classroom features, which might help or hinder students’ self-regulation are discussed, including teachers’ goals and students’ perceptions of teachers’ goals for classroom activities.     

Feedback about Teaching in Higher Ed: Neglected Opportunities to Promote Change

Despite ongoing dissemination of evidence-based teaching strategies, science teaching at the university level is less than reformed. Most college biology instructors could benefit from more sustained support in implementing these strategies. One-time workshops raise awareness of evidence-based practices, but faculty members are more likely to make significant changes in their teaching practices when supported by coaching and feedback. Currently, most instructional feedback occurs via student evaluations, which typically lack specific feedback for improvement and focus on teacher-centered practices, or via drop-in classroom observations and peer evaluation by other instructors, which raise issues for promotion, tenure, and evaluation. The goals of this essay are to summarize the best practices for providing instructional feedback, recommend specific strategies for providing feedback, and suggest areas for further research. Missed opportunities for feedback in teaching are highlighted, and the sharing of instructional expertise is encouraged.     

Decoding and sight-word naming: Are they independent components of word recognition skill?

Word recognition skill is the foundation of the reading process. Word recognition could be accomplished by two major strategies: phonological decoding and sight-word reading, the latter being a marker for proficient reading. There is, however, a controversy regarding the relationship between decoding and sight-word reading, whether the two are independent or the latter is built on the foundations of the former. A related controversy about instructional strategy could be whether to use whole-word method to improve word recognition skills, or to first build decoding skills and then introduce sight words. Five goals were set up to address these issues: (a) developing a criterion that can be used easily by classroom teachers to assess sight-word reading ability, (b) examining this relationship between decoding and sight-word reading, (c) identifying the mechanism that can explain the relationship, (d) examining factors that facilitate sight-word reading, and (e) discussing potential instructional implications of these findings. In order to accomplish these goals, naming time and word-naming accuracy of three groups of subjects (elementary school children, children identified as having reading disability, and college students) were studied by using a variety of verbal materials. The over-all conclusions are that the difference in naming time of letters and words can be used as a metric for assessing sight-word reading skill. Sight-word reading appears to be intimately related to decoding. Sight-word reading is accomplished by parallel processing of constituent letters of words and is influenced also by the semantic nature of words. It is conjectured that sight-word reading instruction is likely to be successful if decoding skills are firmly established first.     

Unifying different theories of learning: theoretical framework and empirical evidence

The main aim of this research study was to test out a conceptual model encompassing the theoretical frameworks of achievement goals, study processing strategies, effort, and reflective thinking practice. In particular, it was postulated that the causal influences of achievement goals on academic performance are direct and indirect through study strategies, effort, and reflective thinking. Furthermore, the effects of study strategies on academic performance are hypothesised to be direct and indirect through reflective thinking practice. Participants were 298 (182 females, 116 males) university students. Likert‐response questionnaires were used and data were analysed by means of latent variables approaches. The results provided moderate support for the hypothesised conceptual model. Achievement goals had no direct effects on academic performance, whereas study strategies and reflective thinking directly influenced performance. Mastery goals directly influenced deep processing and effort, whereas performance avoidance and work avoidance influenced surface processing and effort. A one‐way MANOVA indicated, with the exception of understanding, no statistical significance between males and females in the variables. This evidence is theoretically significant as it highlights the mediating mechanism of study strategies and reflective thinking and, more importantly, amalgamates different theoretical frameworks within one study.     

The Teacher's other Role

Given that many high school students come to school unmotivated to learn, the purpose of this article is to examine various motivational constructs and to determine if educators are incorporating the most effective motivational strategies. In fact, adolescents vary from adults physically, cognitively, emotionally, and physiologically and, therefore, they generally differ in their perceptions on the effectiveness of a variety of motivational practices. Students are more likely to attribute their own motivation to their intrinsic desire to learn or as a result of the goals they adopt. Teachers, on the other hand, believe students are more likely to be motivated as a result of the teachers’ actions. Teachers do not always recognize which motivational constructs are the most effective, demonstrating the value of pre-service and in-service programs that stress student motivation. If educators wish to maximize student academic achievement, they must understand how to motivate students successfully.     

全员全程化职业指导模式的实践性思考

阐述了针对大学生的全员全程化职业指导的内容体系,论述了其模式的构建,在实施过程中分为三个阶段。第一阶段初步确立大学生人生目标和职业生涯规划;第二阶段进行多渠道职业指导,强化职业培训：第三阶段强调求职技巧和宣传就业政策,使学生成功就业。这一模式实施的保障是要树立新的职业指导理念、强化指导教师队伍建设、完善指导的政策。     

自我调节学习与英语写作技能的培养

自我调节学习是动机心理学研究的重要问题。自我调节学习有四个基本要素:自我效能、目标设定、自我监控和策略运用。培养学习者英语写作技能,可以从四个方面入手:客观地进行自我评价,不断提高自我效能;设置具体写作目标,合理选择学习策略;积极执行学习策略,监控自我学习过程;结合已定学习标准,比较进步调整策略。     

Improving science teaching practices

A review of research relating to the problem of using research findings to improve classroom practice is presented. There are two aspects to this problem: familiarizing teachers with relevant research and identifying an aspect of teaching that needs to be improved. Research conducted in local settings appears to have most relevance to teachers and is more likely to be accepted by them. Studies indicate that research can have an impact on practice as long as teachers are involved in identification of problems in their class and are provided with a context in which they can learn the strategies to be implemented and understand why they are likely to improve teaching. Teachers need opportunities to practice teaching in peer groups where errors can be made without jeopardizing student learning; receive performance feedback; practice the strategies in their own classes; observe others teach; and discuss teaching with others. Strategy analysis, coaching and peer coaching are techniques which enable most of these criteria to be met and to facilitate science teaching improvement.