Social engagement in a diversifying campus: a phenomenological exploration

With more non-local (Mainland China and overseas) students admitted into the universities of Hong Kong, the student population on campus is becoming much more diversified. This study was a phenomenological inquiry into the social engagement experiences of local and non-local Chinese students in their first year at a university in Hong Kong. Qualitative data was obtained from 10 focus groups. The findings suggested that the majority of the students in the study were active in social engagement and most achieved a sense of belonging to the university or its sub-communities. The culture in student communities played an important role in students' social engagement. It pushed students to become intensively involved in out-of-class activities and challenged them to reflect on the direction in which they would carry this historical legacy forward in the diversifying campus.     

Cross-cultural counseling: A systematic approach to understanding the issues

Counseling theory and practice tend to be dominated by a European-American orientation. Cross-cultural counseling is advanced as an approach that transcends European dominance while focusing on the specific needs of African American, Asian and Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American cultures. This paper reviews the major conceptual models, described by social scientists, and advances a more culturally sensitive, cross-cultural approach to conceptualizing counseling theory and practice when counseling members of large minority groups living in the United States.     

中国近代文化对两岸婚约制度影响——兼谈我国婚约制度的立法完善

婚约为债法及亲属法上之契约,在我国古代占有很重要地位,具有强大的法律约束力。近现代的新文化思想改变了旧婚约制度,并分别体现在南京国民政府时期和红色革命根据地的亲属法和婚姻法中。台湾地区现行婚约制度基本上传承了南京国民政府的婚约立法精神,而大陆对婚约问题不做明文规定,有其积极意义,但也造成现实中大量的婚约纠纷无法可依,不利于法制建设。传承近现代法文化思想,借鉴台湾地区立法经验,制定并完善我国婚约制度。     

Student engagement: rhetoric and reality

Recently, there has been much interest in higher education literature and policy on the concepts of student engagement and disengagement. While most academic writings recognise the significance of student engagement, they have tended to concentrate on it in relation to academic activities. Increasingly, universities are ‘cascading’ down the need to improve student engagement to schools and ultimately to individual academics. This article asserts that ideas about student engagement in the university context are often fragmented, contradictory and confused. Even the meaning of the term ‘student engagement’ is uncertain. Further, while government and universities urge attention to student engagement, many of their actions, it may be argued, have contributed to greater student disengagement. Relying on the available literature, we argue that the student experience as a whole is the key to engagement and, thus, efforts to re-engage students cannot be successful until a ‘whole-of-university’ approach is adopted.     

The multifaith campus: Transforming colleges and universities for spiritual engagement

Dafina Lazarus Stewart, Michael M. Kocet, and Sharon Lobdell explore what college and university campuses would look like if transformed to promote and sustain religious and secular pluralism and interfaith cooperation.     

Transforming engagement in literacy instruction: The role of student genuine interest and ability

In this case study paper, I describe my work with Bill, a first grade boy with dyslexia. My goals were to identify his interests and abilities and create contexts in which these interests and abilities supported his literacy learning. A theoretical foundation that merged current understandings of highly effective pedagogical practices for individuals with dyslexia with Dewey’s (1913) theory of genuine interest within a social-constructivist perspective (Vygotsky 1987, 1993) was utilized. A noticeable improvement in Bill’s willingness to engage in activities of reading, writing, and phonological awareness occurred when he was given a voice in the activities. Within contexts of literacy learning that allowed him to demonstrate his interests and talents, Bill became increasingly engaged in activities surrounding the reading and writing of text. Ultimately, this project was successful in creating a context, for this six-year-old boy with dyslexia, in which meaningful learning took place and motivation was provided for future literacy learning.     

Enhancing student motivation and engagement: The effects of a multidimensional intervention

The present study sought to investigate the effects of a multidimensional educational intervention on high school students’ motivation and engagement. The intervention incorporated: (a) multidimensional targets of motivation and engagement, (b) empirically derived intervention methodology, (c) research-based risk and protective factors, (d) established practices that nurture optimal youth development, (e) use of interpersonally skilled staff, and (f) evidence-based programming. Using a pre-/post-treatment/control group design, it was found that the self-complete intervention brought about significant shifts in motivation and engagement. Specifically, findings showed that the treatment group made positive motivation shifts on key dimensions including task management, persistence, anxiety, failure avoidance, and uncertain control. Moreover, against a large weighted external comparison group, the treatment group made positive shifts on valuing, mastery orientation, planning, task management, persistence, failure avoidance, uncertain control, and self-handicapping. Taken together, these findings attest to the potential for multidimensional educational interventions for enhancing students’ motivation and engagement.     

The cultural grid: A framework for multicultural counseling

The Cultural Grid suggests a structure for interpreting a person's behavior in the context of culturally learned expectations. When two persons' expectations are similar, but their behaviors are dissimilar, cross cultural misunderstanding is likely to result. When their expectations are dissimilar, the result is likely to be a personal misunderstanding even though their behaviors are similar. This article introduces a framework for differentiating personal and cultural differences in the interview which is essential for appropriate multicultural counseling. The alternatives are to allow apparent and obvious cultural differences to mask underlying personal differences or to incorrectly assume that two persons who appear culturally similar are having a personal disagreement.     

The development of career guidance and counseling in Taiwan

This paper presents a report on the development of career guidance and counseling services in Taiwan, Republic of China. Based on extensive interviews in 1983 and 1987 with leaders in public and private education, government agencies, and faculty and students in junior colleges and universities, the services currently provided are described as they interface with the educational system. Certain issues emerged from the research which may affect the further development of counseling services in Taiwan; guidelines are offered for addressing these. The issues discussed are: the stigma against counseling; the general resistance to change and the traditionalism of the educational system; the potential conflict between serving national labor needs and developing individual human potential; the stress produced by the educational system itself; the traditional emphasis on testing in schools and colleges; the need to professionalize counselors; and the judicious integration of western perspectives into an indigenous Chinese philosophy of counseling and guidance.     

The role of counseling in developing countries

Development is an important goal for developing countries. This goal cannot be achieved without the growth of human potential. Counseling is one of the effective means for developing human potential. Yet counseling has been evolving slowly in developing countries. Reports show that counseling and guidance have been started in the schools in some of these countries; they rarely show that counseling has been implemented in other settings. The purpose of this paper was to examine the obstacles for implementing counseling services in developing countries, to discuss a working definition of counseling and to propose the settings in which counseling may be implemented.Paper Presented at the meeting of the Thirteenth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counseling, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, August 14–18, 1988.