Eliminating the confusion over the EdD and PhD in colleges and schools of education

This article argues that despite an absence of distinctions in implementation, there are perceived and actual differences between the Ed.D. and Ph.D. degrees in education. Failure to make the distinctions in administering the degrees has caused confusion among faculty in other fields and within graduate schools. The article suggests that all doctoral degrees in education be changed to the Ph.D. with two tracks-one for scholars of practice and one for scholarly practitioners.In addition to his professional interests in administration and program development, he teaches and conducts research in educational gerontology and instructional methods. This article describes the dilemma of having two doctoral degrees in the field of education. The Ph.D. degree with two tracks is suggested as the solution.     

Another look at the “C” in CBM: Does it really matter if curriculum‐based measurement reading probes are curriculum‐based?

This study investigated differences between two types of reading probe material to monitor students' oral reading fluency over time. Thirty‐six second‐grade students participated in this study. Twice each week for 5 weeks, participants read two passages from each of two sources. One source was the curriculum in which the child was being instructed at school, and the second source was the “Tests of Reading Fluency,” a set of generic (curriculum‐independent) passages. Standardized curriculum‐based measurement administration and scoring procedures were used. Level and rate of improvement (slope) of oral reading fluency were the dependent measures. Level and slope data were analyzed using two, two‐tailed t‐tests. Also, readability of passages was calculated using two readability formulas. Correlational analyses were used to examine the relation between the readability and reading fluency. Correlations among readability and words read correct were not significant. Results of the analyses examining level and slope indicated that students read significantly more words correct in the generic reading passages than in the curriculum‐based passages. However, rate of progress was not significantly different. These results suggest that practitioners could use either set of passages to gauge students' reading progress over time. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Fatherhood in the twenty-first century

The twentieth century has been characterized by four important social trends that have fundamentally changed the social cultural context in which children develop: women's increased labor force participation, increased absence of nonresidential fathers in the lives of their children, increased involvement of fathers in intact families, and increased cultural diversity in the U.S.. In this essay, we discuss how these trends are changing the nature of father involvement and family life, and in turn affecting children's and fathers' developmental trajectories. We end with an eye toward the twenty-first century by examining how the children of today will construct their expectations about the roles of fathers and mothers as they become the parents of tomorrow. This life-span approach to fatherhood considers the broader sociohistorical context in which fatherhood develops, and emphasizes the urgent need to consider mothers, fathers, and family structure in future research as we seek to understand and model the effects of parenting on children's development.     

Computer Anxiety and Student Teachers: antecedent and intervention

We argue in this article that student teachers’ anxiety about computers can be properly understood only through an examination of cultural and historical antecedents concerning fears of technology. This perspective provides us with a context to examine the development, implementation and evaluation of a computer education course for student teachers over a 2‐year period. The results of the evaluation indicate that the methods adopted have been successful in promoting computer literacy and reducing computer anxiety. The empirically‐based approach to course development and evaluation adopted in this study provides a model for other tertiary educators.     

The challenges of a high-performance student athlete

To become a top athlete requires time, commitment and carefully planned training. Optimum adaptation to training requires the careful balancing of stress and recovery. The student athlete has to balance all these demands with the additional requirements of an academic programme. This can bring unique stresses and challenges. This research aims to investigate the challenges of combining high-level sport with academic demands. Nine elite student athletes (three females, six males) took part in semi-structured interviews around how the student athletes balanced their training and sporting demands with the academic demands of their course of study. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using grounded theory. The results suggested that the athletes had each developed their own distinct approach towards training management. Most of the subjects had experienced setback in their study and athletic performance due to overtraining or burnout. The findings highlight the need to empower and educate not only the athlete but also the coach on the impact of overtraining. Key findings from this study were the need for open coach–athlete communication, in-depth planning and the need for adequate recovery.     

Factors Influencing Counselor Educators' Subjective Sense of Well‐Being

A national survey of 230 counselor educators was conducted to examine issues that encourage or discourage these educators to continue as faculty members. Three of the 5 factors (Organizational Control, Internal Control and Rewards, and Time and Effort Management) identified in a factor analysis of the 91‐item, author‐developed questionnaire (Pluses and Minuses of Being a Counselor Educator) were found to be correlated (p < .01) with the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (M. J. Stones & A. Kozma, 1994). The factors and their relationship to counselor educators' sense of well‐being are discussed in relation to potential actions for institutions and individuals.     

‘I've had to swallow my pride’: help seeking and self‐esteem

One of the paradoxes confronting higher education teachers and other staff supporting students is that despite their perception that they offer students opportunities for support, students do not take advantage of them. Our research was based on the desire to understand the ways students cope and what resources they draw on. To this end, we interviewed students from a range of backgrounds and courses. We famed our analysis in terms of situated self‐esteem because the data revealed the strength of students' personal projects, together with clear evidence of the complexities of help seeking. Situated self‐esteem concerns proper and measured judgements about the self and the ability to cope rather than conceptualizing esteem in a therapeutic framework. We conclude by considering the ways in which institutional support for learning and teaching might strengthen students' resources, not undermine them.     

An Investigation of Classification Consistency Indexes Estimated Under Alternative Strong True Score Models

Using several data sets, the authors examine the relative performance of the beta binomial model and two other more general strong true score models in estimating several indexes of classification consistency. It is shown that the beta binomial model can provide inadequate fits to raw score distributions compared to more general models. This lack of fit is reflected in differences in decision consistency indexes computed using the beta binomial model and the other models. It is recommended that the adequacy of a model in fitting the data be assessed before the model is used to estimate decision consistency indexes. When the beta binomial model does not fit the data, the more general models discussed here may provide an adequate fit and, in such cases, would be more appropriate for computing decision consistency indexes.