Reconsidering Standards and Criteria

An early debate about the nature of setting standards on educational achievement tests centered on the extent to which resulting standards were arbitrary. Subsequent research in the area has advanced solutions to many practical standard setting problems, but the more fundamental issue regarding the empirical grounding of judgmental standard setting procedures has remained unresolved and largely unaddressed. This article reviews some of the salient elements of the debate about the nature of standard setting on educational assessments and suggests that the dispute can never be satisfactorily resolved within the current paradigm. A reconcep-tualization of the nature of standard setting is proposed, and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Training courses in personal counselling

The paper, Training Courses in Personal Counselling, by J. M. Fuster starts by depicting the local situation in India. On the one hand, much personal counselling is done by astrologers, palm-readers and elders; and, on the other hand, training programmes in personal counselling are either non-existent or of poor quality in Indian Universities. Hence the urgent need for good training programmes in personal counselling.In order to meet this need, though in a very limited way, the author started Xavier Institute of Counselling at St. Xavier's College, Bombay. He trains people on the model of counselling of Carkhuff since 1973. Thus he has conducted 34 training courses of, at least, 50 hours duration each for 402 trainees in 5 countries India. Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Spain and Italy.The author gives a picture of the population that benefits from these courses in terms of the various professions they belong to. He also reports the findings of an evaluative study, which was started in 1978. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effects of the training courses on the past trainees' daily work. 262 questionnaires were sent to past trainees in India and Sri Lanka. 94 of them or 35 per cent were returned. Based on the data of these 94 returns, it appears that, on the average, the training courses in personal counselling have had a helpful influence on this group of 94 past trainees. About the rest, we can only guess from these data, but we do not know for sure. I say on the average, for the ranges of the ratings on the 20 items of the questionnaire were 3 to 5 for most items in the diploma-holders group, and 1 to 5 for a few items and 2 to 5 foor most items in the nondiploma-holders group.That means that, while for most of the 94 past trainees the courses have had a very helpful or helpful influence in most items of the questionnaire, they have had a negative or very negative influence on some items of the questionnaire for a very few trainees.From the remarks they wrote on the questionnaire, it appears that some trainees had joined the course in search of therapy for their own personal problems. As this was not the objective of the course, their need was not met. As one trainee wrote: After attending a course of therapy for three months immediately after the counselling course, I feel that the counselling course was a waste of time, energy and money. From this remark we trainers should learn to screen the candidates for the course very carefully and to ascertain their needs.Table I gives a picture of the past trainees in terms of their professions. Tabel II shows the statements of the questionnaire and the mean ratings given by the diploma-holders group and by the nondiploma-holders group. A Chart shows graphically the model of Carkhuff.     

Mild head injury as a source of developmental disabilities.

The hospital-reported incidence of mild head injury among children indicates a prevalence of 2% to 3% in high-school-aged adolescents (14 to 18 years). Yet, our survey of 616 high school adolescents suggests that light and mild head injury (not necessarily leading to hospital admission) is almost 10 times this level. Despite the common notion that such injury is generally benign, we found significant relationships in our sample between reported head injury and hyperactivity, stuttering, mixed handedness, and dislike of mathematics.     

Really teaching lamaze: the power of pain

In response to a reader's question, this column discusses the benefits and uses of pain to facilitate childbirth. Childbirth educators are urged to help women understand pain, so that they may work with pain and appreciate the role it plays in providing them with the inner wisdom to give birth.     

Student,home, and school socio-demographic factors: links to school,home, and community arts participation

This study explored the role of student (e.g., age, language background, gender), home (e.g., parent/caregiver education), and school (e.g., school type, size) socio-demographic factors in students’ school (e.g., in-school arts tuition, arts engagement), home (e.g., parent/caregiver–child arts interaction), and community (e.g., arts attendance, arts tuition) arts participation. The sample comprised 1172 elementary and secondary school students from 15 schools. Findings revealed that student and home socio-demographic factors were the most salient in predicting arts participation across school, home, and community contexts. Age, gender, and prior achievement were the key student socio-demographic factors, while parent/caregiver education and occupation were also associated with students’ arts participation. Implications for practice and intervention pertinent to young people’s arts participation are discussed.