Meaning‐making,adult learning and development: a model with implications for practice

Where the meaning of life can be found, and how people make meaning in their lives are age‐old questions pursued by philosophers, clergy, psychologists and educators. More recently, there has been a focus on the role of meaning‐making in learning and development in adulthood. Several writers have proposed that meaning‐making is what adult learning is all about, and a few have explicitly linked meaning‐making activity to development. First reviewed in this article are some of the basic understandings of meaning‐making advanced by classical and contemporary writers. Next, models of cognitive and ego development that directly link with meaning‐making are examined. Finally, a model of the relationship of meaning‐making to learning and development is presented and implications drawn for applying the model to adult education practice.     

El papel del padre en el sistema familiar

RESUMEN

Se hace una revisión de la investigación reciente sobre la naturaleza de la interacción padre-hijo y su impacto en el desarrollo del niño en el período neonatal y más allá de este período. Los padres son tan sensibles como la madre a las señales del niño, pero emplean menos tiempo que ésta en actividades de cuidado y vigilancia y más en actividades de juego. El sexo del niño actúa como determinante en esta relación. La calidad de la interacción padre-hijo influye en el desarrollo cognitivo y social del niño. Todos estos aspectos deben estudiarse dentro del contexto de la relación familiar global. Sería interesante la creación de sistemas de apoyo cultural que animen al padre a una mayor implicación con sus hijos.     

Faculty and staff perceptions of undergraduate mentoring

ABSTRACT

The connection between students and faculty is a recognized component of student belonging and engagement. To better understand how these relationships are formed, we utilized a qualitative design to explore the ways in which faculty and staff at a mid-sized public university perceived their roles in supporting, and connecting with, students. Based on our focus group data, we identified three themes. The first theme defined the mentoring relationship in the university context. The second theme addressed the unique features of mentoring Underrepresented Minority (URM) and First Generation (FG) students. Our third theme focused on perceived barriers to mentoring, including personal, institutional, and student-related barriers. Our findings provide a first step in developing a framework for colleges and universities working to promote a culture of mentoring as a means to support students.     

Creating and funding school buildings that promote the inclusion of pupils with behaviour problems

Abstract

In the course of her work as a behaviour consultant and teacher, the author has access to many different types of educational settings, both private and under LEA control, in the UK and Belgium. In all cases, it is apparent how a sympathetic physical environment can reduce alienation and encourage social inclusion, especially with regard to difficult behaviour. Once this viewpoint has been reached then there are funding implications which this present review considers and researches for UK educational establishments.     

The Internal Triangle: Self,peers and society in boys' identity formation with implications for sexual health education

Drawing on qualitative data from a research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), this article investigates boys' own construction of gender identity and the correlation between this and formal Sex and Relationships Education (SRE). It offers a simple but flexible model as a basis for understanding this correlation-or its lack-and for the construction of SRE approaches that the boys might find more relevant to their current priorities. The model takes the form of a triangle whose sides equate with the time and energy that boys are expending on the private, peer and societal aspects of their lives. The shape of the triangle alters according to shifts in this personal expenditure, forcing the individual into different areas within the triangle according to the circumstances they find themselves in at different times. The article also draws some methodological conclusions on the experience of doing qualitative research with young people in sensitive areas.     

Knowledge and attitudes of secondary school teachers regarding sexual health education in England

Objective To assess the sexual health knowledge of teachers who contribute to secondary school sexual health education in order to determine whether teachers are adequately prepared to implement present government education and public health policies.

Design Results were obtained from a questionnaire as part of a two‐phase intervention study.

Setting Nineteen mixed‐sex, state secondary schools in central England.

Participants One hundred and fifty‐five teachers (94 female, 61 male) participated.

Main outcome measures The questionnaires were distributed to teachers to assess their knowledge of sexual health, contraception and sexually transmitted infections. In addition, teachers' attitudes on the subject of sex and relationships education were evaluated.

Results The results suggest that teachers have insufficient sexual health knowledge to effectively teach sexually transmitted infections or emergency contraception, although their general sexual health knowledge was good. Therefore, at present teachers do not have adequate specialist knowledge in sexual health to contribute to current recommendations for sex and relationships education in secondary schools. There were no statistically significant differences in the results regarding location of school, area of residence, gender or age of the participant.

Conclusions Many teachers are being expected to contribute to secondary school sexual health education programmes at a time when they do not have sufficient knowledge to provide young people with adequate sexual health education and when they do not feel prepared to teach, and in many cases would prefer not to teach, these programmes.     

The ‘outdoor industry’ as social and educational phenomena: Gender and outdoor adventure/education

Abstract

This paper discusses social and cultural theory and tracts the ways in which gender has been conceptualised. It argues that the ‘outdoor industry’ in its various manifestations constitutes an aspect of society that can not be ignored. It suggests that outdoor adventure/education, like other dimensions of society, can usefully be subjected to critical examination. Having discussed perspectives surrounding the social construction of gender, the paper draws attention to classic work that has explored ideologies of femininity and the implication for women and men. The paper then goes on to argue that the more recent interactionist theories and cultural studies offer less deterministic and more insightful approaches to exploring people's experiences of outdoor adventure/education. The concept of hegemonic masculinity is drawn upon to examine ‘the outdoor industry’ in light of the current ‘crisis of masculinity’. Finally, the paper raises further questions regarding outdoor adventure/education as a site of alternative femininities and masculinities and as counter-culture.     

REDEFINING BUREAU EFFECTIVENESS

As central agencies for Jewish education face the year 2000, they must address both their past shortcomings, considering theme challenges for the future, and past successes which will require redefinition and reinvestment of human and financial resources for the future. The bureau movement would be well served in adopting Rav Kook's aphorism — “The Old Should be Renewed and the New Invested with Holiness” — as its motto.     

Mediating Roles of News Curation and News Elaboration in the Relationship between Social Media Use for News and Political Knowledge

Social media have opened up new possibilities for news engagement, and one of the important possibilities is news curation, which is defined as the reconstructing, reformulating, repurposing, reframing and sharing of news through social media. Focusing on this news curation concept, this study extends the Cognitive Mediation Model and the Communication Mediation Model (O-S-R-O-R) to the social media context. Drawing on a national survey of 1,135 South Korean adults, the present study finds that news elaboration and news curation are positively related to political knowledge and mediate the association between social media use for news and political knowledge.     

The Music Industry

After finding that factor analysis is used extensively in the journal of Broadcasting &; Electronic Media, and further finding that there is little consistency to how the analysis is used, this article proposes some standards which authors ought to consider when using factor analysis, especially releasing the limits on the number of factors in exploratory analysis, and using structural models for confirmatory analysis.