Written Versus Videotaped Precounseling Training of Clients for Counseling

The comparative effects of two types of precounseling training in facilitating client-counselor relationships and client self-exploration of internally and externally oriented clients were investigated. Treatments included viewing a videotaped, simulated, initial counseling session depicting desirable client and counselor behavior and the reading of a document that matched the content of the videotape. Sixty college undergraduates, who presented themselves as first-time counselees, were randomly assigned to one of the two treatments and classified as internally or externally oriented. Both internally and externally oriented clients who experienced videotaped precounseling training reported a significantly higher level of client-counselor relationship than internally and externally oriented clients who experienced written precounseling training. No significant differences were found for level of self-exploration according to either type of precounseling training or locus of control orientation.     

Interdisciplinary Groups and Leadership Teams: Restructuring World Higher Education for Information Processing

Adaptations by higher education to an information-processing world will involve the development of new organizational forms that encourage and reward collaboration. As the world ‘becomes smaller’, we are rediscovering the interdependence of things. The leadership team and interdisciplinary group are emerging as the workplaces for the information-processing world. Colleges and universities that develop viable networks for processing information will lead the way into the 21st century. Recommendations for higher education worldwide include the following: developing interdisciplinary, team-taught courses of study; forming interdisciplinary groups to bring together people to analyze problems; implementing leadership teams in the decision-making structures of departments, schools and colleges. The creation of interdisciplinary problem-solving groups as the building blocks of the information-processing society will require changes in our attitudes toward leadership. The leader as servant will emerge as governance model. Changes in our systems of selection, evaluation and promotion of faculty and administrators will also be required. Interdisciplinary groups and leadership teams will form the infrastructure of the new world order of information processing and decision making.     

Effects of Principal Actor Time Structuring on Goal Attainment in Group Counseling

The purposes of this study were to determine whether clients' individual goal attainment was influenced by the structuring of principal actor time in a series of group counseling experiences and to discover the effects of such structuring on the therapeutic climate in the groups. Subjects of the study consisted of a combination of 84 university and high school students. Data for the study was obtained from responses to a behavioral goal questionnaire and the Truax Relationship Inventory. A multivariate analysis procedure was used to test for differences in individual goal attainment between structured and unstructured groups and in the level of the therapeutic relationship achieved between groups. Structuring of group counseling through the use of principal actor time did not result in differential goal attainment between clients of structured or unstructured groups. Neither was any significant difference noted in the measured therapeutic relationship achieved between counselors and clients of the respective groups.     

School Counselors' Perceptions of Training Needs in Multicultural Counseling

Ratings by practicing school counselors' of their needs for training in multicultural counseling indicated that additional training is most needed to promote students' academic achievement and to enhance counselors' cross-cultural communication and racism awareness. Curricular implications are discussed.     

Achieving Quality in Engineering Degrees in the UK

Developments in the design of first degrees in engineering in the UK are described. ‘Quality in education’ is interpreted as ‘defining worthwhile learning goals and enabling students to achieve them’. The implications of this definition for the education phase of the formation of chartered engineers and incorporated engineers are discussed. It is concluded that two kinds of degree are needed, one which emphasizes the development of ‘understanding’ while the other emphasizes ‘know-how’. Both degrees, of course, include relevant ‘knowledge’ and ‘transferable skills’. Once all these educational terms have been carefully defined, how teaching and assessment methods can be adapted to match these different learning goals and how integrative thinking can be developed for problem-solving purposes are explained.     

The Development of National Qualifications and Quality Assurance Frameworks in the Context of the TVET Reform in Romania

Romania is reforming its Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system and introducing a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and a National Quality Assurance Framework (NQAF) to create a new and comprehensive national quality assurance system for qualifications. These reforms have their origins in the social and economic restructuring which followed the fall of Communism, preparation for membership in the European Union, and developments in the field of education and training related to the Lisbon agenda. This article explains the background to the reforms and explores the purposes and scope of the NQF and the NQAF and the relationship between them. It argues that the way that the reforms are being undertaken should ensure that the NQF is developed in harmony with the NQAF and that, as a result, the NQF will be strongly supported by policies and processes which will secure the quality of the provision which it contains. The article looks at the way that the Romanian institutional structure is being used to implement the key functions and processes of the two frameworks and draws out some of the key issues which face the reformed Romanian system.     

A DISCRIMINATION INDEX FOR ITEMS IN INSTRUMENTS USING GROUP RESPONSES

Item discrimination for instruments used to measure characteristics by means of group responses is stressed. It is argued that a percentage of the total sum of squares which is due to groups can appropriately be used as an index of item discrimination.