Graduate Students in Education: A Comparison of Counselor,Supervisor, and Teacher Candidates

Male and female graduate students majoring in counseling and guidance were compared with their peers specializing in supervision or a teaching field. Significant differences among subgroups of both sexes were observed on both intellective and nonintellective variables. Male counselor candidates were more clearly differentiated from noncounseling majors than female counselor candidates. However, the similarities among categories of graduate students in education were more striking than the differences. It appeared that groups of education students differed more markedly from men and women in general than from each other. It was suggested that groups of individuals who have completed a bachelor's degree in education are significantly better adjusted than men and women in general and that differences among large subgroups of graduate students in education tend to be small because teachers are not a normal sample.     

Babies overboard! The complexities of incorporation culturally relevant teaching into mathematics instruction

A collective case study guided by reconceptualized critical theory explored the teaching of four elementary teachers as they incorporated a model of culturally relevant teaching into their mathematics instruction at four predominantly Black schools in Bermuda. The study examined how teachers sought to (a) foster critical mathematical thinking and critical consciousness, (b) build on informal mathematical and cultural knowledge; and (c) utilize empowerment orientations toward students' culture and experience. The teachers embraced culturally relevant teaching but varied in their efforts to incorporate these perspectives into instruction. Four facets of their teaching are illuminated. These complexities included situations were teaching focused on sustaining empowered relationships;building on or to students' cultural knowledge; and fostering critical thinking as framed in the model, or personal definitions. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Counseling Self-Efficacy and Counseling Competence in Prepracticum Training

Counseling self-efficacy and counseling skills were examined over time in a graduate prepracticum class. Efficacy increased with training, but its relationship to performance of skills was weak.     

Student Evaluation of the Tutorial System in Engineering Programmes

The tutorial system in engineering education is a common feature of most undergraduate degree courses and often takes a sizeable percentage of the total contact hours of the programme. Therefore its effectiveness and control is a very important issue and of interest to all parties concerned. The paper summarises, through a case study, some important elements which contribute to the quality of the tutorial system. The relationships between the value of the tutorial, the course, professor and teaching assistant ratings, as measured by student's responses, are examined.     

Simulated Consulting Experiences in Counselor Preparation

Simulation, using role-playing and commercially available materials, was used to provide counselor-teacher consultation experience for counselor trainees. Students in a master's level guidance program worked with teachers in a consultative situation on a series of problems. Representative situations in which a teacher might consult with a counselor about possible courses of action in solving a problem were presented via simulation. Experienced teachers rated the adequacy of counselor recommendations concerning the problem situation. The trained counselors' recommendations were rated as superior (p < .01 level) to those of untrained counselors. These results support the use of simulation as a technique for counselor education. Implications for counselor education programs are discussed.     

Teaching Phonological Awareness and Metacognitive Strategies to Children with Reading Difficulties: A comparison of two instructional methods

This paper describes an applied training study which investigated the differential effects of two instructional methods on the reading performance of primary school children with reading difficulties. Sixty five children aged 7-10 participated. Twenty five children were assigned to each of two experimental groups: direct instruction in phonological awareness and the alphabetic principle, or the same direct instruction in phonological awareness in conjunction with training in specific metalinguistic concepts and metacognitive strategies. Fifteen children were selected as controls. Reading performance from baseline was measured within a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest experimental design. Data and results are presented on 60 children owing to attrition. Results showed that direct instruction in phonological awareness improved the reading performance of children with reading difficulties over time. However, direct instruction in phonological awareness in conjunction with explicit training in specific metalinguistic concepts and metacognitive strategies was more advantageous overall.