Pressing Issues in College Counseling: A Survey of American College Counseling Association Members

The authors conducted a survey of members of the American College Counseling Association to ascertain the experiences and opinions of college counselors on several pressing issues within the college counseling profession. Survey results from 133 respondents indicated that counseling centers may benefit from increasing the number of group counseling interventions by increasing the multicultural competence of services provided, by implementing crisis/disaster mental health initiatives, and by more effectively consulting with other professionals on campus.     

The Effects of Videoconferencing,Class Size,and Learner Characteristics on Training Outcomes

ABSTRACT We examined direct and interaction effects of learners' characteristics (cognitive ability, prior knowledge, prior experience, and motivation to learn) and classroom characteristics (videoconferencing and class size) on learning from a 16-week course. A 2times2 quasi-experimental design varied the class size between large (∼60 students) and small (∼30 students) and between traditional classes with the instructor always present and classes taught using a videoconferencing system with the instructor present at each site every other week. Theory regarding instructor immediacy was used to predict that larger and videoconferenced classes would have negative effects on learner reactions and learning, but that highly motivated learners would overcome the negative effects on learning. Interactions between videoconferencing and motivation to learn, and class size and motivation to learn, were found in support of the theory. Research and practice implications are discussed.     

A Review of Engagement with Creativity and Creative Design Processes for Visual Communication Design (VCD) Learning in China

Understanding the enigma of how learners from the Peoples Republic of China enact and engage with creativity and creative design processes can be problematic for VCD educators. Central to the concerns are questions which relate to the relevance of Western creative and creative design process definitions, explanations and models. This review provides an overview and analysis of the literature in this area. Findings indicate challenges attributed to a dearth of empirical evidence from the Asian region. However, a number of studies were found, which enabled learner engagement with creative design process models. Such models may help illuminate complex pictures of learners’ interactions, artefacts, social, cultural and historic forces. The review highlights issues and common areas upon which to build and prompts theoretical and methodological approaches for future creative design process research.     

A Comparison of Item Sampling Plans in the Application of Multiple Matrix Sampling

This study used a Monte Carlo approach to investigate the effect of item sampling by item stratification on parameter estimation when applying multiple matrix sampling to achievement data. From the results of this study it was concluded that the item sampling method and sampling plan which is a practical compromise in terms of precision and sample size is one based on item stratification by item discrimination and a sampling plan with a moderate number of subtests. This sampling condition provides reasonable precision of the mean and variance estimates but requires only a moderately sized sample.     

‘Talking up and talking down’: the presentation of educational need in an age of inclusive education policy reforms

This article draws on data from an ethnographic study that begins with the experiences of educational professionals doing the ‘work’ of educationally supporting students with long-term health conditions in a paediatric health-care setting in Victoria, Australia. The study was conducted over the same period of time but separately from the Keeping Connected project, although it utilises some selected research data produced as part of that larger-scale project. Investigations concerning the inclusion of students with disabilities – including those with long-term health conditions – within mainstream schools continue to indicate that not only do they often have specific educational needs but also that significant structural barriers exist within education for young people and families. I argue that intersecting discourses of child development and child-centred education, along with education reforms promoting social inclusion, construct particular understandings of capability and needs which do not fully account for the complexities facing teachers, students and families.     

Fostering innovation through collaborative action research on the creation of shared instructional products by university science instructors

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to profile four university science instructors who utilized action research as a means of learning how to develop and integrate a novel curriculum innovation – engineering design – in their science courses. Data included curriculum maps, lesson plans, notes from group meetings, and instructor reflections. Data analysis included document review and content analysis. Findings from this study suggest that action research effectively enabled the instructors to 1) establish shared ownership of the project goal – to improve preservice teachers’ learning of science through engineering design; 2) continuously test, revise, and recalibrate their shared instructional products; and 3) leverage multiple sources of innovation. Knowledge generated and used by the instructors represented different kinds of knowledge and distributed expertise resulting in products that were more useful and of higher quality than products created by individuals working alone. Consequently, this resulted in increased use of the products and increased instructor commitment to improve them over time. By simultaneously engaging in research and consequently taking specific action to inform their practice, science instructors in this study successfully created shared instructional products that both guided and enhanced their classroom teaching.     

Differential-associative processing or example elaboration: Which strategy is best for learning the definitions of related and unrelated concepts?

Definitions of related concepts (e.g., genotype–phenotype) are prevalent in introductory classes. Consequently, it is important that educators and students know which strategy(s) work best for learning them. This study showed that a new comparative elaboration strategy, called differential-associative processing, was better for learning definitions of related concepts than was an integrative elaborative strategy, called example elaboration. This outcome occurred even though example elaboration was administered in a naturalistic way (Experiment 1) and students spent more time in the example elaboration condition learning (Experiments 1, 2, 3), and generating pieces of information about the concepts (Experiments 2 and 3). Further, with unrelated concepts (morpheme-fluid intelligence), performance was similar regardless if students used differential-associative processing or example elaboration (Experiment 3). Taken as a whole, these results suggest that differential-associative processing is better than example elaboration for learning definitions of related concepts and is as good as example elaboration for learning definitions of unrelated concepts.