Beliefs and perceptions about the future: A measurement of future time perspective

Human's ability to consider the future, willingness to make sacrifices in the present to obtain something better in the future has been a significant part of our success as a species (Suddendorf, T., & Corballis, M. C. (1997). Mental time travel and the evolution of the human mind. Genetic, social, and general psychology monographs 123, 133–167.). Although the importance of thinking about the future is apparent to many educators it has only begun to gain prominence within educational research (Kauffman, D. & Husman, J. (2004). Effects of time perspective on student motivation: Introduction to a special issue. Educational Psychology Review, 16, 1–7.). So that educational researchers may continue to consider some of the many dimensions of “future thinking” more fully, this article discusses Future Time Perspective Theory and presents some evidence for the validity of four constructs within FTPT. Over the course of three studies four subscales consistently emerged: Extension, Speed, Connectedness, and Value.     

Volitional strategies and future time perspective: embracing the complexity of dynamic interactions

This study investigated the dynamic interaction, over time, between volitional strategy use and perceptions of endogenous instrumentality, two constructs associated with choice and executive motivation. The Academic Volitional Strategy Inventory and the Perceptions of Endogenous Instrumentality scale were administered at multiple points throughout the semester to 103 undergraduates in a human development course. Results showed the relationship between volitional strategy use and perception of endogenous instrumentality to grow over time, thereby supporting a dynamic interpretation.     

Prospective teachers’ future time perspective and professional plans about teaching: The mediating role of academic optimism

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of prospective teachers’ academic optimism in the relationship between their future time perspective and professional plans about teaching. A total of 396 prospective teachers voluntarily participated in the study. Correlation, regression, and structural equation modeling analyses were conducted in order to examine the mediating role of academic optimism. Results demonstrated that the relationships between future time perspective and planned effort, planned persistence, and professional development aspirations were significantly and fully mediated by academic optimism; whereas the relationship between future time perspective and leadership aspirations was not.     

Youth in the context of chronic unemployment in Spain and Brazil

ABSTRACT

The article argues that chronic unemployment has become the main context of youth policies in Spain and Brazil. Our point is that the current structural crisis of the capitalist system eventually provokes chronic unemployment. To be precise, both business and international organisations have endorsed structural adjustments and austerity policies that have destroyed productive forces through expropriation and exploitation in many countries, thus expanding chronic unemployment despite youth policies claiming otherwise. In Spain, two public policies try to circumvent the adverse situation of many youth, namely: the Quality of Education Act (LOMCE) and the Youth Guarantee Scheme. Brazil follows the same logic of these policies through initiatives such as the High School reform and Projovem program. However, in both countries the structural crisis threatens the future of young generations despite these fashionable policies exclusively targeted to them.     

Examining the role of future time perspective (FTP) and affective commitment on the work engagement of aging Filipino professors: A structural equation model

This study examined the roles of future time perspective and affective commitment on the work engagement of a select group of aging Filipino professoriate. A total of 208 respondents aged 40–60 years old, teaching at the largest Catholic University in the Philippines, were requested to accomplish a multi-aspect questionnaire covering the variables of the study. Data gathered were processed through SPSS v.17 and AMOS v.19. The structural equation model reveals (i) a positive relationship between future time perspective and affective commitment (β = .485) and (ii) a positive relationship between affective commitment and dimensions of work engagement, namely, vigor (β = .986), dedication (β = .943), and absorption (β = .983). Also, of all the dimensions of work engagement, absorption has the biggest impact, while dedication has the smallest impact on work engagement. Findings yielded in this study provide valuable information in structuring human resource programs that can help address the aging workforce’s needs and concerns, thus improving their future orientation, commitment, and work engagement.     

Understanding the association between future time perspective and self-regulated learning through the lens of self-determination theory

The present cross-sectional research examined a process underlying the positive association between holding an extended future time perspective (FTP) and learning outcomes through the lens of self-determination theory. High school students and university students (N = 275) participated in the study. It was found that students with an extended FTP regulated their study behaviour on the basis of several internal motives, including feelings of guilt and shame (introjected regulation), personal conviction (identified regulation) and interest (intrinsic motivation). The association with identified regulation was strongest and the association with intrinsic motivation fell below significance when controlling for identified regulation. Moreover, introjected and identified regulation emerged as mediators accounting for the association between FTP and cognitive processing. Further, to the extent that FTP engenders an internally pressuring mode of regulation it was found to be indirectly negatively associated with determination/metacognitive strategy use. In contrast to FTP, a present fatalistic and present hedonic time-orientation yielded more negative motivational and learning correlates. The link between FTP and self-determination theory is discussed.     

基于经济视角大学生结构性失业问题探究

伴随着高等教育的改革发展,大学毕业生越来越多,就业市场压力不断增大,大学生失业问题引起了社会各界的广泛关注。文章基于宏观经济学的失业理论对大学生失业进行了分类,指出当代大学生失业主要属于结构性失业。进而运用二元劳动力市场分割理论梳理、分析大学生失业问题的原因。     

Education for the future: an international perspective

Building a strategic direction for education ultimately rests on the extent, to which we resolve the key issue addressed by UNESCO’s International Commission on Education for the 21st Century (the Delors Report): what kind of education is needed to create the kind of world, we want to emerge in the future? Certainly, globalisation brings with it many new challenges, opportunities and dangers and global forces are impacting on the directions being taken by education systems around the world. At the same time, we, individually and collectively, must strive to determine our own destiny. The direction in which education heads depends both on the global forces shaping our common future, and on the policy choices and programs, we put in place over the next decade. In this paper, it is argued that in the 21st century, we need a renewed sense of the purpose in education, one which restores harmony in human development by giving greater emphasis to the social, cultural and moral dimensions of education. In essence, we must learn to live together and develop the competencies needed tackle the social, environmental and economic challenges facing us in a rapidly changing, complex and unequal and conflicted world.     

Defining the future: an interrogation of education and time

This paper examines notions of ‘educational time’ with particular reference to the work of Basil Bernstein. It focuses closely on the 1967 Plowden report as a particularly appropriate policy case study to demonstrate how different constructions of time can exist within the same document. It then develops educational models originally mapped out by Bernstein, arguing that a full understanding of the areas of consensus and conflict among these models is vital if we are to understand how teaching professionals think about the future. The paper addresses the following questions: How does time affects education? What influence does this have on educational outcomes? How does this relate to public policy initiatives? Assuming a tacit, collective understanding of time and the future can undermine the very policy intentions a government might be seeking to promulgate.     

Factors influencing teaching choice,professional plans about teaching,and future time perspective: A mediational analysis

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of prospective English teachers’ future time perspectives in relation to their motivations for teaching, beliefs about the profession, career choice satisfaction, and professional plans. A total of 423 prospective English teachers voluntarily participated in the study. The mediating role of the future time perspective was investigated through correlation, regression, and structural modeling analyses. Results showed that the prospective teachers’ future time perspectives played a significant mediating role in relationships among planned effort, planned persistence, ability, intrinsic career value, making social contribution, and career choice satisfaction.     

University affiliation and the role of the university in the moderation of teaching practice in Botswana

The focus of the paper is on the way in which university affiliation can be used to improve the teaching practice component of teacher training programmes. The model of affiliation used by the University of Botswana is described, and a rationale is offered for procedures used to maintain and improve standards in affiliated institutions. The role of external examining is assessed, the term moderation is defined in the context of affiliation, and the procedures used to moderate teaching practice are scrutinised. Using the moderation reports and data relating to the period 1991–96, the principal issues that have arisen are reviewed and analysed, and their significance is assessed. An evaluation of some of the main outcomes, in terms of the impact made on the affiliated institutions, is then undertaken, in tandem with the way in which experience has brought about modifications made to the moderation procedures. A resume´ is offered of the principal lessons learned to date, and how the University of Botswana model could be replicated. Finally, attention is given to the value of the University of Botswana experience to provide guidelines whereby universities could use a system of teaching practice moderation to raise standards and improve institutional practices in teacher training colleges.     

Assessment moderation: constructing the marks and constructing the students

In this paper the author considers the positivist approaches in mainstream higher education assessment research. She contrasts this to emerging poststructuralist perspectives and goes on to report on a study into the assessment moderation practices in a higher education art department. In this research she explores the ways in which art and design lecturers talk about students’ grades in moderation meetings and reports on the different ways that groups of lecturers co‐construct meaning in relation to the practice of agreeing marks.     

Relations between the development of future time perspective in three life domains, investment in learning, and academic achievement

Relations between the development of future time perspectives in three life domains (i.e., school and professional career, social relations, and leisure time) and changes in students’ investment in learning and academic achievement were examined in this study. Participants were 584 students in the first and 584 in the second year of the lower vocational education in the Netherlands who completed self-report measures at four different time points during a school year. The data were analysed using multivariate latent growth curve modelling. Future time perspective influenced the development of academic achievement via the growth of investment in learning. Long-term time perspective in leisure time had a negative effect on the development of investment in learning, whereas the effects of the long-term time perspective in school and professional career, as well as in social relations, were positive.     

论教育的时间内涵——时间不可逆的教育意义

在简单性思维里,时间客观存在,反映在一定的因果联系中,没有方向,是可逆的;复杂性科学的兴起,指出时间具有方向性,是不可逆的。时间不可逆表明了“从存在到演化”的转变,说明发展有着多种可能性,指向了开放、可能、生成和创造。时间不可逆之于教育会引发一系列的思想变革:一是时间成为人的发展的结构性内涵;二是强调教育的生成性和非连续性;三是注重人的发展和教育过程中的遭遇、唤醒等。