An Experimental Study of the Effect of Educational Guidance on a Selected Group of High School Sophomores

The question of an interaction over time between ability grouping and personality variables was the focus of the present study which examined pertinent data from 260 female high school students. Two standardized personality instruments, in addition to several scales designed by the E’s, were administered to students of the upper and lower ability tracks in a Catholic high school, grades 9 and 12. Ss in the lower track were found to have a lower need for achievement, a higher need to avoid failure, and a higher average score of test anxiety than Ss in the upper track. The effects of ability grouping did interact with grade level for a correlate of personality, level of aspiration. Relative to Ss in the upper track, the lower track Ss experienced a reduction in level of aspiration over time. Both future directions of associated research and educational practices were discussed within the context of the present findings.     

TRAINING CHURCH YOUNG PEOPLE FOR LAY SERVICE

In this article, the emerging field of youth ministry research is presented and interpreted through the lens of practical theology. International developments are described and compared as local responses to the ongoing global dynamics of youth culture. After an overview of four different contexts in which youth ministry research can be situated, the article discusses four thematic dimensions of this research: globalization, vulnerability, politics, and interreligious encounter. In the third part of the article these dimensions are theologically reflected in order to unravel four chances and challenges for future practical theological research.     

Significant Evidence

The purpose of this column is to keep religious educators abreast of the relevant significant research in the general field of psychology. Its implications for methods and materials in religious education are clear. Religious educators may well take advantage of every new finding in scientific research.

Each abstract or group is preceded by an evaluation and interpretative comment, which aims to guide the reader in understanding the research reported.

All of these abstracts are from PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS, and are used by permission of that periodical. The abstract numbers are from Volume 25, Numbers 11 and 12, November‐December 1951.     

Management Strategies for Complex Adaptive Systems Sensemaking,Learning, and Improvisation

Misspecification of the nature of organizations may be a major reason for difficulty in achieving performance improvement. Organizations are often viewed as machine‐like, but complexity science suggests that organizations should be viewed as complex adaptive systems. I identify the characteristics of complex adaptive systems and give examples of management errors that may be made when these characteristics are ignored. Command, control and planning are presented as managerial tasks that come to the fore when a machine view of organizations dominates thinking. When we treat organizations as complex adaptive systems the focus of managerial activity changes, and sensemaking, learning and improvisation become appropriate strategies for performance improvement. Each of these is defined and described. A modest research agenda is presented.