Counsellor bias against shorter term counselling? A comparison of counsellor and client satisfaction in a Canadian setting

The American counselling/psychotherapy outcome research documenting the effectiveness or brief, time-limited treatments is substantial, however, this appears to have had little influence on changing the views of practitioners. One respected researcher has concluded, for example, that a science/practice schism has developed where practitioners continue to believe that brief counselling is superficial and to underestimate the effects of their own shorter-term work. A study was undertaken to determine if counsellors at a large urban Canadian university counselling centre also had lower expectations of change for those clients who received fewer treatment sessions. It was found that the counsellors significantly underestimated treatment gains relative to their clients' reports, and that this discrepancy was greater for those clients seen for fewer sessions. Counsellor satisfaction was also lower with clients seen for fewer sessions. These findings suggest that, like their American counterparts, Canadian counsellors tend toward a practitioner bias against shorter-term treatment based on misconceptions about its efficacy.     

新疆少数民族饮食民俗中的性别角色差异

饮食是人类活动中必不可少的环节,事事男女有别,而这种男女差别在饮食活动中也有所体现。主要介绍和分析了新疆少数民族在饮食及饮食活动中的男女性别角色差异以及不同的分工。     

Research productivity and perceived teaching effectiveness: A survey of economics faculty

The relationship between research productivity and teaching effectiveness has long been a controversial topic among university professors. This study utilizes a nationwide survey of economics faculty to examine the relationship between research productivity and classroom performance, using self-reported measures of research output and teaching evaluation scores, and to solicit the participants' opinions on this issue. Findings indicate a very weak relationship between research output and teaching effectiveness. However, individual and institutional characteristics seem to explain some differences in research output and teaching evaluation scores. Further, faculty opinions on the research-teaching relationship seem to be influenced by institutional and individual characteristics.     

试论高校辅导员职业倦怠的成因及干预

高校辅导员作为教师中一支特殊的队伍,因其特殊的职业要求、巨大的社会责任以及较高的公众期盼,辅导员队伍职业倦怠的现象凸显,这在一定程度上影响着高校辅导员队伍的发展。从辅导员工作特性出发,初步分析了辅导员职业工作特性导致辅导员职业倦怠的成因,并对如何干预、缓解辅导员职业倦怠的对策进行了讨论和思考。     

Decomposing ethnic differences in university academic achievement in New Zealand

We use individual-level administrative data to examine the extent and potential explanations for the relatively poorer academic performance of three ethnic minority groups in their first year of study at a New Zealand university. Substantial differences in course completion rates and letter grades are found for Māori, Pasifika, and Asian students relative to their European counterparts. These large and significant gaps persist in the face of alternative definitions of ethnicity and sample restrictions. We use regression analysis and formal decomposition techniques to test whether differences in other personal characteristics, high school backgrounds, and university enrollment patterns might account for these ethnic disparities in early academic achievement. We estimate that no more than one quarter of the relatively poorer performance of Māori and Pasifika students would be eliminated if they had the same relevant observable factors of European students. Substantial unexplained ethnic differences in early academic performance at university raise concerns about appropriate policies to close ethnic gaps in academic achievement at university.     

Age, Gender, and Ethnicity of Counsellor Trainees and Corresponding Counselling Self-Efficacy: Research Findings and Implications for Counsellor Educators

This study explored the counselling self-efficacy of students in a counsellor education programme, in regard to age, gender, and ethnicity characteristics. To assess counselling self-efficacy, the Counselling Self-Estimate Inventory (COSE) of Larson et al. (Counsellor Education & Supervision 41: 120–130, 1992) was administered at the end of a semester to counselling students engaged in different stages of a counsellor training program. No significant differences were found in regard to gender and age-group categories, but significant differences were found among ethnic groups. It was found that Asian and White students generally had similar and also lower counselling self-efficacy means than the other ethnic groups in the sample in regard to several counselling-specific categories. Implications for counsellor educators in training counselling students of diverse characteristics are discussed.     

Counsellor education and the future: Cautious sailing

The future remains always elusive and yet by examining the present, some hints of what is to come may be seen by the discerning. In this article, six existing social forces (the baby boom, the new woman, the silicon chip, disenchantment, the monetary system and the increased tempo of modern life) are reviewed as well as some of the implications of these forces for counselling education programmes. The hope is that such an examination will help counsellors and counsellor educators to be better prepared for the future and therefore better able to influence it.University of Alberta     

Effects of formative feedback on intrinsic motivation: Examining ethnic differences

In this study we investigate the influence of ethnic differences on student motivation when learning from formative feedback. Interpersonal teacher behavior and student motivational needs are used to explain the effects of assessment for learning on intrinsic motivation by comparing students from different ethnic backgrounds. The final study's sample consisted of 558 students from Dutch secondary vocational education. Multi-level structural equation modeling was used to test possible models. Our findings show that modes of feedback (monitoring, scaffolding) and teacher interpersonal behavior are strongly related to predictors of student motivation. In line with self-determination theory, our findings indicated that competence and relatedness mediate the effect of feedback (both monitoring and scaffolding) on motivation. Multi-group analyses showed only small differences for ethnicity, especially in relation to mode of feedback, which led us to conclude that, irrespective of the “Immigrant Paradox”, assessment for learning may facilitate feedback provision for both immigrant and native Dutch students indiscriminately, thereby enhancing motivation to learn. Implications of these findings for learning in classrooms are discussed.     

School Counsellor Preparation in Nigeria and the USA

This paper compares and contrasts school counsellor training programmes in two institutions from different cultures: The University of Ilorin, Nigeria and The Pennsylvania State University. While the USA is an industrialised Western nation, Nigeria is a developing African nation. A comparative inquiry of this nature is likely to provide a comprehensive and contemporary view of the national conditions from which guidance and counselling concerns emerge in the two countries. The areas covered include course content, method of training, programme emphasis, and accreditation. The implication of these issues for the development and improvement of counsellor education programmes are discussed.     

The perceived impact of playing music while studying: age and cultural differences

Rating scale questionnaires were administered to 600 students in three age groups, 12–13, 15–16 and 20–21 from Japan, the UK, Greece and the USA. The questionnaires explored the extent of playing music while studying, the kinds of tasks when music was played, the perceived effects of music on studying, the characteristics and types of music played while studying and the factors that influenced the decision to play music while studying. Statistical analysis revealed both commonality and differences in playing music while studying related to both age and culture. Some tasks were more frequently accompanied by music than others. Students reported being able to make decisions about the impact of background music on their performance. The results are discussed in relation to their educational implications.     

Faculty role orientation and perceived teaching effectiveness: The case of an intervening variable

This study was designed to explore the relationship between faculty role orientations and student perceptions of teaching effectiveness in community colleges. Survey questionnaires were completed by 260 faculty members and 12,396 students at five Pennsylvania community college campuses. Using a conceptual framework drawn from symbolic interaction theory, it was hypothesized that faculty members holding a student-centered role orientation will be perceived as more effective teachers than those holding a subject-matter orientation. Results indicate that whereas there is an association between a student-centered role orientation and perceived teaching effectiveness, the relationship is due to an intervening variable—the expected course grade. An examination of the causal chain of relationships among these variables is presented.This is a revision of a paper presented at the 1975 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (see South, Morrison and Hill, 1975).     

Interested instructors: A composite portrait of individual differences and effectiveness

The present study is a multi-phased, mixed methodological investigation of teacher interest. In Phase 1, 12th grade students nominated and quantitatively evaluated teachers who were perceived as helping them learn and become interested in a high school core subject. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that student perceptions of teacher interest were represented by items related to both teacher effectiveness and individual differences. In Phase 2, the top three nominees and a stratified random sample of their current students were examined using qualitative research methods. Findings indicate that teacher interest is a complex construct comprised of cognitive, affective, motivational, and volitional dimensions.     

An investigation of WISC-R verbal-performance differences as a function of ethnic status

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised was administered to 187 black, 184 Hispanic, and 184 white children aged 6–11. The Verbal-Performance (V-P) IQ discrepancies were determined for the total group and for each ethnic group. The overall mean of 10.74 was similar to the V-P discrepancy found in the WISC-R standardization sample. The Hispanic group had a significantly greater V-P split than did the black group or the white group. Implications of these results were discussed, focusing on the various cautions of using V-P discrepancies for diagnostic decision making.     

Comparison of Client and Counsellor Satisfaction with Treatment Duration

Abstract

After termination of personal counselling at a large urban Canadian university, 72 subjects and their counsellors were asked to rate their satisfaction. The subjects were asked to rate to what extent the counselling had helped with the presenting problem, and with other secondary problems, and to rate their degree of overall satisfaction. Statistical analyses conducted to investigate the relationship among number of sessions attended and client and counsellor satisfaction, led to these results: clients who attended a brief number of sessions (1-3) reported no significant difference in satisfaction with the counselling compared to those who attended more sessions; and the majority of clients who had only one session were satisfied with their counselling; counsellors, however, were less satisfied overall with the briefer counselling process, and the author suggests that they were biased against it. The author recommends more research on this critical topic of counsellor expectations toward briefer treatment.