Fowler's Faith Development Christian Perspectives on Faith Development

The work of James W. Fowler on faith development has become well known in the USA and in British theological and religious education circles in the last 15 years, even if this research has yet to make much impact on general education or any on philosophy of education. Now Drs Astley and Francis have produced a large, one volume collection of papers by Fowler, his associates and his critics. His theory and discussion of it, evaluation and application of it in various spheres, is at last available in a convenient compass (although for a detailed acquaintance, reference must be made to his main publications, cited in this book's bibliography).     

'Shame' as a Neglected Value in Schooling

The first part of the paper examines the significance of shame values in South Asian societies and the implications of this for schools. The second section considers the common anthropological distinction and disjunction between 'shame culture' and guilt culture. The third section draws on the recent study of Ancient Greece by Bernard Williams. Williams suggests that the conflict between shame values and autonomy is not inevitable. In fact, shame values may have much to contribute to ethical thought, exposing weaknesses in contemporary Kantian moral outlooks and contributing to fuller conceptions of personal autonomy and personal identity, thus holding, as the final section indicates, important educational implications.     

Current Trends in Practicum Supervision Research

This article presents a conceptual framework and explores the results and implications of practicum research published from 1975–1982. Forty-two studies were found pertaining directly to practicum supervision and were divided into two categories: maximizing effectiveness of the practicum experience and specific techniques in practicum supervision. Overall, practicum supervision was found to be a worthwhile and beneficial experience and a necessary part of counselor education programs. Focusing on the personality characteristics or value systems of supervisors or supervisees, however, produced mixed results in predicting training effectiveness. There was greater consistency in the examination of specific techniques in supervision with positive outcomes resulting from the utilization of microtraining, dual supervision, peer supervision, modeling, and IPR. The use of programmed instruction was not supported.