Using personal construct theory and narrative methods to facilitate reflexive constructions of teaching physical education

This paper reports on two lengthy studies in physical education teacher education (PETE) conducted independently but which are epistemologically and methodologically linked. The paper describes how personal construct theory (PCT) and its associated methods provided a means for PETE students to reflexively construct their ideas about teaching physical education over an extended period. Data are drawn from each study in the form of a story of a single participant to indicate how this came about. Furthermore we suggest that PCT might be both a useful research strategy and an effective approach to facilitate professional development in a teacher education setting.     

Becoming a mathematics teacher: The use of personal construct theory

Since 1981 a study of the way in which prospective mathematics teachers see mathematics teaching has been carried out using procedures derived from Personal Construct Theory (PCT). It was found that PCT procedures were very useful. They gave student teacher another way of analysing and reflecting upon mathematics teaching as he or she changed from university oriented mathematics graduate to school oriented mathematics teacher during the one year teacher education programme. Another conclusion was the PCT procedures could be used to investigate practitioners maxims: to explore the practical basis of mathematics pedagogy. This paper discusses how PCT procedures may be used to assist mathematics teacher and others to study teacher thinking.     

Death education for oncology professionals: a personal construct theory perspective

Using observations from a psychosocial training program for oncology professionals, this article illustrates how one can model, while training the student, the very methods he or she can adopt in working with patients and families. One starts with an elicitation of the student's (patient's) operative personal constructs and then devises strategies to elaborate, integrate, loosen, tighten, preempt, or take other action, as needed. The very means used to promote movement within the student's own death-related constructs can be adopted for use by him or her in the clinical situation. As the helper's pathways of action and thought with regard to this domain become more comprehensive and as the helper becomes more skilled at moving freely along them, he or she becomes more perceptive and resourceful to those in need.     

浅谈如何建设个人化学资源库

提出了一种建立个人资源库的方法,并按照“建设目录”→“收集积累”→“整理归类”的思路,对如何建设个人化学资源库进行了探讨.     

Personal construct psychology as a constructivist approach to learning

This paper proposes that Kelly's Personal Construct Psychology deserves examination as a constructivist basis for science teaching and learning. It argues that because of the explicit nature of the psychology, the clear definition of learning and meaning and the integration of affective, psychomotor and cognitive dimensions of learning, the psychology has much to offer science education.     

Absence of girl images: the gender construct in personal and social education in Hong Kong

Education Ordinance 1971 in Hong Kong not only provided girls with a much greater chance of receiving education than had hitherto been the case, it also had the effect of incorporating them into the regulatory framework of the school system. This paper examines how the discourses of civic education and sex education before and after reunification with mainland China have interchanged the concept of gender with the biological sex in the construction of the girl. In particular, it argues that, in the name of maintaining the stability of society, the developmental path for girls has been limited in the discourses of sex, personal and social education. As a result, girls are only presumed to become women and take up their appropriate gender roles according to the social norms of contemporary Hong Kong.     

Students' personal networks in virtual and personal learning environments: a case study in higher education using learning analytics approach

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the effect of the affordances of a virtual learning environment and a personal learning environment (PLE) in the configuration of the students' personal networks in a higher education context. The results are discussed in light of the adaptation of the students to the learning network made up by two undergraduate, inter-university and online courses. Besides, we also examine the influence of this effect in the learning process. The findings reflect the effectiveness of a PLE for facilitating student participation and for assisting students in the creation of larger and more balanced personal networks with richer social capital. However, the findings do not provide evidences about a difference in the learning performance between the two environments. From a methodological point of view, this paper serves as an illustration of the analysis of personal networks on digital data collected from technology-enhanced learning environments.     

Academic resilience and its psychological and educational correlates: A construct validity approach

This study examines educational and psychological correlates of academic resilience using within‐network and between‐network validity approaches. Based on a sample of 402 Australian high‐school students, a newly developed unidimensional academic resilience construct found within‐network validity by way of sound item and factor properties. In terms of between‐network validity, correlation, path analysis, and cluster analysis showed that five factors predict academic resilience: self‐efficacy, control, planning, low anxiety, and persistence. Hence, a 5‐C model of academic resilience is proposed: confidence (self‐efficacy), coordination (planning), control, composure (low anxiety), and commitment (persistence). Path analysis also showed that academic resilience subsequently predicts three educational and psychological “outcomes”: enjoyment of school, class participation, and general self‐esteem. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 267–281, 2006.     

Evaluation of the physical classroom by students and professors: a lens model approach

A method for linking classroom evaluations to specific physical properties and for comparing the evaluations of different groups is described and illustrated. Thirty-five college classrooms were photographed and shown to 20 professors and 51 undergraduate students, each of whom evaluated the friendliness of and their overall preference for all the classrooms. Seven physical properties of the classrooms were reliably assessed by independent observers. Using a modified Brunswik lens model, the relations between the physical properties and the evaluations by the two groups were established and compared. Between 40 and 57 per cent of the variance in the evaluations could be explained from only three classroom properties: view to outdoors, seating comfort and seating arrangement. Evaluations by the students and professors were surprisingly similar, an encouraging sign for classroom designers.     

Autobiographical memory functions: an emancipatory approach to construct environmental education outcomes

Abstract

In this study, we assessed how 34 young adult participants in an environmental education (EE) program from 2011 to 2014 constructed their learning outcomes through interviews and the exploration of autobiographical memory functions (AMFs) regarding program experiences. We articulated a variety of directive, social, and self AMFs, including the achievement of the top five typical objectives of EE, increase in positive social norms through reminiscing and sharing memories, and attainment of diverse personal growth. We also constructed the relationship of these outcomes with the ultimate objective of EE. This method can presumably be used to emergently construct outcomes for evaluating emancipatory EE programs, which are on the request of tackling wicked environmental problems.     

Using personal construct theory in therapist training — A way of learning about countertransference

In this paper the utilisation of Personal Construct Psychology principles in the experiential training of beginning students in psychotherapy will be discussed. Regardless of theoretical orientation the practice of psychotherapy involves the necessity of attempting to construe the construction processes of the client. This is often made easier when therapist and client construct systems show similarities, but this will not always be the case in a therapeutic setting. It is thus important for therapists to be aware of their own personal and stereotypic constructs as they impinge on their ability to attend to clients. Awareness of these factors may facilitate the ability to monitor the effects of such reactions in the therapeutic setting. A series of exercises whereby students in psychotherapy training are assisted to become aware of the impact of their countertransference reactions on the therapeutic process, is discussed.A similar version of this paper was first presented at the 5th International Congress on Personal Construct Psychology, Boston 1983.     

Computer-graphics and the literary construct: a learning method

This paper describes a third-year undergraduate module, Text Through Images (TTI; known at first as Texts with Computers) which ran for some years in the School of English, University of Exeter, UK. Instead of using only words, TTI students made their own computer graphics both to discover and to describe literary structures in texts of their choice. The results were surprising: whatever their “academic” ability, students on this course regularly produced genuinely original literary perceptions, and their natural creativity was released. The module's innovative methods are eminently transferable to other disciplines. This paper is designed to be read in conjunction with a website: for further details, go to http://www.blackwellpublishers.co.uk/asp/journal.asp?ref=0007-1013 presenting a selection of students' graphics produced on the course; these appear by generous permission of their makers, who hold copyright. The reasons for the module's success are elusive. Perhaps students feel unfettered by the attitudes associated with traditional verbal expression, the absence of preconceptions about the new process enabling them to bypass old habits of thought. Perhaps the interplay of word and image is particularly fruitful because images and words activate different areas of the brain. It may be that the computer creates the illusion of distance between design and designer, so that the latter feels less personally exposed than when drawing on paper. Perhaps success lies in the combination of individual freedom and on-screen group work, or on the way in which students are enabled to make small but publishable original discoveries. Educational psychologists may be able to explain why the mix works (it has been suggested that it represents a “constructivist/generative learning strategy that Dave Jonassen terms ‘elaboration’”) but more importantly, teachers may find the model useful. What interests me about the module is not the structure of the teaching, but the way in which the use of diagramming apparently enables the learner productively to bypass previous mental conditioning about how literature works, and what is acceptable in analysing it.     

Philosophy and Education: a personal retrospective

This article reports a follow‐up study of students who had failed or had not completed the first year of an Advanced General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ‐‐an academic qualification with a vocational focus intended mainly for 16‐18 year‐olds) in Business Studies in 1995‐96. Failure is usually attributed to student deficiency or deficient course‐related factors. Yet student accountability assumes capability, understanding and lack of coercion in making choices. In the present research these assumptions were critically examined and found misleading. The students’ career histories since the end of the course first year are sketched and the way in which the subjects made sense of their decisions and experience is reported. It is argued that simple ideas of choice, while supporting assignment of blame to failing students and exonerating their institutions, do not illuminate factors involved in making poor choices, or the way in which students who are ‘at risk’ can be supported.     

Comparative physical education: An international scientific approach

The article describes the growth of research on various topics and ideas in a relatively new field — comparative physical education and sport — since the end of World War II. The field is closely related to comparative education. This is also true as regards its history, definition, aims, etc., and its methodology. Physical educators on the one hand have therefore borrowed methods from comparative educators, and on the other hand have tried to work out their own approaches. Examples of the latter are mentioned. A brief review of the literature is included.

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Zusammenfassung Der Artikel beschreibt die seit dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges zunehmende Forschung im Hinblick auf verschiedene Themen und Vorstellungen auf einem relativ neuen Gebiet, der vergleichenden Leibes- und Sporterziehung. Das Gebiet ist mit der vergleichenden Erziehungswissenschaft eng verknüpft. Das gilt ebenso für seine Geschichte, Definition, Ziele usw. und für seine Methodik. Sporterzieher haben sich daher einerseits Methoden vergleichender Erziehungswissenschaftler bedient, andererseits haben sie versucht, eigene Ansätze herauszuarbeiten. Für letzteres werden Beispiele angegeben sowie eine kurze Besprechung der Literatur.

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Résumé Cet article décrit le développement de la recherche sur divers thèmes et idées dans un domaine relativement nouveau — celui de l'éducation physique et du sport comparés — depuis la Seconde guerre mondiale. Ce domaine est étroitement lié à celui de la pédagogie comparée. C'est également vrai en ce qui concerne son histoire, sa définition, ses objectifs, etc. et sa méthodologie. Les practiciens d'éducation physique ont donc d'une part emprunté les méthodes des maîtres partisans de la pédagogie comparée et essayé d'élaborer leurs propres approches d'autre part. Quelques-unes de ces approches sont mentionnées. Une brève liste de la littérature sur ce thème est incluse.

     

Prevalence and correlates of physical abuse in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents: a population-based approach.

OBJECTIVE: The objectives were to estimate the prevalence and correlates of physical abuse-related outcomes in the family setting in Hong Kong's adolescent population. METHOD: A cross-sectional study design was used. A randomly selected sample of 3,355 secondary school students in Kwai Tsing District of Hong Kong was surveyed. The response rate was 98%. RESULTS: The prevalence rates of corporal punishment, being beaten by parents for no apparent reason, being beaten to injury by family members in the past 3 months and any one of the above three were 4.9% (95% CI, 4.2% to 5.6%), 2.0% (95% CI, 1.5% to 2.5%), 1.1% (95% CI, .98% to 1.2%) and 6.6% (95% CI, 5.7% to 7.5%), respectively. Students who had experienced the above physical abuse-related outcomes were at a significant disadvantage for a wide range of morbidity indicators, including self-perceived bad health, anxiety and stress, somatic illnesses (such as asthma and epigastric pain), injuries and accidents, and hospitalization. They were more likely to have poor familial relations and coping skills, and to take up habits which potentially put their health at risk, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and fighting with others. CONCLUSIONS: Our prevalence estimates of physical abuse in the family setting for a student population in Hong Kong is an improvement over previous local estimates of physical abuse occurrence, which were mainly based on case notifications and clinical samples. The results also show that the abused adolescents are growing up in an environment filled with physical, psychological, and familial adversities.     

Engineering training: a personal account

I am very conscious of the honour you have done me by asking me to take the floor in front of this assembly and I truly appreciate being, with the help of chance, the first speaker enrolled; I am thus spared the risk of repeating the words of my predecessors.