Setting up an Email Peer Support Scheme

This article opens with a review of current research on peer interventions and their capacity to impact on school climate and bystander behaviour, as well as to meet the aims of fostering altruism. The main focus of the article is a study of an email support group in an all-boys school in the United Kingdom. It was set up in response to an incident of physical bullying and after consultation it was found that email was the preferred mode of support. The article discusses the reasons for this and presents details of how the support system was set up and operated, and reports the outcomes. The authors conclude that email provides a good medium for peer support schemes in schools, as it increases anonymity, and reduces concerns about 'grassing'.     

Demystifying Threshold Concepts

This paper shows that so‐called ‘threshold concepts’ have been defined in a way that makes it impossible, even in principle, to empirically isolate them. It continues by proposing an alternative theoretical framework, and argues: (1) that concepts are not reducible to abilities; (2) that acquisition of a given concept can be necessary, but not sufficient, for the possession of an ability; and (3) that being ‘threshold’ is an extrinsic property, such that what is threshold for one person is not for another. It closes by outlining two resultant problems for related empirical research. First, how is it possible to test for concepts, rather than abilities? Second, how can we tell if there is more than one possible conceptual route to the same ability?     

CROSS-SECTIONAL VERSUS LONGITUDINAL DATA: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON OF MEAN DIFFERENCES IN ACADEMIC GROWTH

Three sources of data for studies of growth (matched longitudinal, unmatched longitudinal, and cross-sectional) were compared using mean achievement test scores collected from 32,000 students tested repeatedly from 1961 to 1967. The principal results were that matched longitudinal data yielded significantly higher means than unmatched longitudinal data, and that a school's dropout rate was highly related to the discrepancy between cross-sectional and matched longitudinal data ( r = .85). Seven sources of differences among the three types of data were considered: age differences, cohort differences, time changes, equating errors, retest effects, cohort change effects, and selection effects. Methodological guidelines for future research in studies of growth and change are presented.     

Intrinsic Motivation and Self-esteem in Traditional and Mature Students at a Post-1992 University in the North-east of England

Recent figures have suggested that the composition of the student body is already changing in terms of mature and traditional student learner numbers--while 24% of full time students were over the age of 21 in 1980, this figure rose to 33% by 1996 (Merrill, 1999). Using the Intrinsic Motivation towards Learning Questionnaire (Whitehead, 1984) and the Rosenberg Global Self-Esteem Questionnaire (Rosenberg, 1965), the current study documents the relationship between intrinsic motivation towards learning and self-esteem in traditional and mature students, in order to compare these groups in their approach to learning. Results from sample size of 160 research participants indicated that self-esteem and intrinsic motivation towards learning were significantly associated. Mature women students had the highest intrinsic motivation scores, as well as the highest self-esteem scores in the sample. The findings are discussed in the light of previous research, which suggests that mature women students are vulnerable learners in higher education institutions and the study's conclusion draws attention to the current UK Government policy's commitment to expand student numbers.     

A Workshop Model for Developing Awareness of Sex-Role Bias in Counseling Students

There is a demonstrated need for counselors in training to develop an awareness of their own dynamics and to explore biases and stereotypes that may obscure objectivity and predetermine counseling outcomes. This article describes a workshop consisting of videotaped vignettes, minilecture, and discussion that was developed by one counselor education program in response to that need.     

Integrating Counseling Theory and Practice: Searching for F.A.C.T.S. and C.R.A.C.K.S.

This article suggests a device that counselors may use as a reference for bridging the gap between counseling theory and technique. Cognitive development theory provides the basis for understanding a single transaction between counselor and client. The acronyms FACTS and CRACKS suggest the structural dynamics taking place within the client's cognitive field as the counselor performs in two different stages of the counseling process.     

Medical libraries in Iceland

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