Multicultural counselling supervision: A four-step model toward competency

Multicultural elements and issues are a vital part ofeffective counselling supervision. However,traditional counselling supervision has not provideda conceptual framework that integrates multiculturalissues. The purpose of this paper is to provide afour-step model for the development of multiculturallycompetent counsellors. The four-step model includes:(a) developing cultural awareness of the counsellingsupervisor; (b) exploring the cultural dynamics of thecounselling supervisory relationship; (c) examiningthe cultural assumptions of traditional counsellingtheories; and (d) integrating multicultural issuesinto existing models of supervision.     

Google Book Search Libraries and Their Digital Copies

ABSTRACT

The Google Book Search Library Project has partnered with an array of impressive libraries, including Harvard University, the University of California System, University of Michigan, and the New York Public Library. The reasons for collaborating with Google to further book digitization are different for each library. Moreover, the exact way in which these libraries will use their own digital copies has yet to be decided for many of the libraries involved. While the Google Book Search Library Project remains controversial, the Google library partners are seizing an unprecedented opportunity to amplify the scale of their pre-existing digitization initiatives.     

Utilization of an Accelerated Queso Fresco Recipe to Teach Concepts of Food Science in a Didactic Program in Dietetics

Students in the Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) at the University of Maine were exposed to the cheese‐making process, within a lab setting of two hours, utilizing an accelerated recipe for a Queso Fresco‐style cheese. The purpose of this project was to provide students with a novel, hands‐on learning experience, which covered concepts of coagulating milk with enzymes and the treatment of curds during the cheese‐making process. The cheese recipe was tested three times by faculty and a teaching assistant to ensure standard results. The recipe, directions and procedures were adjusted and recorded. A standardized recipe and procedure were created for use in the student laboratory. Comparison of knowledge pre‐ and post‐experiment were analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed‐Rank Test using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. Thirty‐four students participated in the laboratory and when surveyed, expressed significant improvement in their understanding of the cheese‐making process (p <0.001). Students also rated themselves on a six‐step confidence scale from “not confident at all” to “very confident” in their understanding and ability in cheese‐making with 70.5 % of the 34 students participating reporting a three‐step increase in their confidence level. Students also completed a sensory evaluation of the recipe, utilizing a 9‐point Hedonic scale (1‐Dislike Extremely to 9‐Like Extremely), with over 88 % of students giving the product a positive overall acceptability rating. Through experience gained during the cheese‐making laboratory, students were able to apply concepts in food preparation, food science and sensory evaluation, all part of the curriculum content requirements of a DPD.     

The Erosion of FAPE for Students with LD

How schoolsfulfill Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) requirements has evolved. Decades of general and special education reforms have led to dramatic increases in expectations for students in special education to be included in the general education classroom and curriculum and to achieve to the same high standards as their general education peers. Students with learning disabilities (LD) in particular are impacted by these reforms. The notion of their individually‐appropriate education has been slowly eroded as limitations in special education practices and the goals of education reform have been responded to. As special education intentions and practices advance, stakeholders have a responsibility to protect the FAPE of students with LD, to ensure meeting these students’ individualized learning needs.     

‘Youth in a void’: sexuality,HIV/AIDS and communication in Kenyan public schools

The disappearance of traditional sex education during rites of passage in African societies has left many youth uncertain of where to look for information. Against this backcloth, the objectives of this study were to identify knowledge gaps amongst adolescents in Kenya regarding sexuality, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. A thematic analysis was conducted of questions posed by 735 school youth aged 12–18 years from Meru and Kajiado Districts. Results show that many questions showed curiosity and anxiousness. Knowledge appeared to be fragmented and sometimes revealed misconceptions, which may put youth at risk. The raised themes differed by gender and age. Questions on saying no to sex, sexual violence and female circumcision were a great concern for girls. Boys were more concerned with managing boy–girl relationships, preventing STI/HIV infection, and condoms. Concern about transition to adulthood, sexuality, STI and HIV/AIDS, myths and misconceptions, and intergenerational communication cut across both genders. Older teens were more concerned with questions on boy–girl relationships, norms and values regarding sexuality, and STI. Younger teens ( < 15 years) wanted to know about reproduction, saying no to sex, HIV/AIDS, condoms, sexual violence and female circumcision. Compounding these challenges was the lack of intergenerational communication. The study identified important knowledge and communication gaps in sexual and reproductive health among in-school adolescents in Kenya. There is a need for sex education interventions for different age groups and genders. These interventions should work with parents, teachers and health professionals.     

Tracking Detracking: Sorting Through the Dilemmas and Possibilities of Detracking in Practice

Tracking, the sorting and grouping of students in schools, has been criticized for separating students along race and class lines, re-segregating diverse schools and perpetuating unequal access to a college-bound curriculum. Detracking, a reform in which students are placed intentionally in mixed-ability classes, is an attempt to remedy the negative effects of tracking. In this “think piece,” the authors review the relevant literature and reflect upon their experiences teaching and researching in detracked classrooms, presenting several dilemmas apparent within detracked classrooms and identifying a number of practices that have proven successful at meeting students' needs in these classrooms. The authors argue that if detracking is to achieve its aims, it must be part of more comprehensive reform aimed at the equitable redistribution of resources and opportunities within schools, deliberately placing the needs of previously underserved students at the center of reform initiatives.     

Mothers' Sensitivity and Book-reading Interactions with First Graders

Research Findings: The present longitudinal study investigated whether a range of social–emotional difficulties in early childhood predict the development of depressive symptoms in middle childhood. Participants were 56 children and their teachers. Teachers' reports of internalizing and externalizing behaviors were obtained during preschool, and children's displays of negative affect were observed through classroom videotapes in preschool. Children's self-reports of depressive symptoms were collected approximately three and a half years later. Teachers' ratings of social problems and atypical behaviors were positively associated with later depressive symptoms. Teachers' ratings of rule breaking and observed negative affect in preschool were stronger predictors of later depressive symptoms in girls than in boys. Findings point to social non-conformity as an important feature in the developmental course of depressive symptoms. Results lend support to a developmental psychopathology framework, showing change over time across types of social–emotional difficulties in gender-specific directions. Practice or Policy: Findings underscore the role that preschool teachers and classroom observation could play in identifying early risk for depressive symptoms. Results suggest the possible utility of early screening programs for at-risk preschool-aged children. Moreover, results could inform school-based intervention or prevention programs targeting internalizing symptoms, an under-recognized area of children's mental health.     

An associative analysis of instrumental biconditional discrimination learning

Three different techniques were employed to analyze the associative structures mediating performance on an instrumental biconditional discrimination. In all three experiments, rats were trained concurrently on two tasks in which different stimuli signaled which one of two responses would be followed by reward. In each task, one response was rewarded in one stimulus and the other response was rewarded in the other stimulus. Correct responses earned pellets in one task and sucrose in the other task. The transfer procedure was used in Experiment 1A to identify whether or not an association developed between a biconditional discriminative stimulus and its instrumental outcome. Evidence was obtained that a biconditional cue elevated preferentially a new response trained with the same outcome. Experiments 1B and 3 examined the potential contribution of this stimulus-outcome association to biconditional performance by training the biconditional cues as signals (S-s) for the nonreinforcement of a different response. There was no evidence that this operation interfered with the ability of a biconditional cue to control performance of its correct response. In Experiments 1B and 2, the value of the instrumental outcome was reduced in an attempt to assess the contribution of stimulus-response associations to performance on the biconditional discrimination. The results of Experiments 1B and 2 reveal that correct responses were depressed following devaluation of the outcome used to train them, suggesting that learning about the response-outcome relation occurs. The implications of these results for binary and hierarchical models of instrumental learning are discussed.