'Bad Days don't Kill You; They Just Make you Stronger': A case study of an early childhood educator's resilience

What enables some early childhood educators to sustain their commitment to a career in children's services despite multiple adverse conditions that lead to high rates of attrition from the field? The case study documented in this article seeks to address this question by identifying influences contributing to the resilience of an Australian early childhood educator. The findings highlight the importance of personal qualities, contextual features, and the interplay between the personal and the contextual. I conclude by suggesting that fostering resilience could contribute to efforts to address the escalating staffing shortfall in children's services in Australia and internationally. Qu'est-ce qui permet quelques e´ducateurs de la premie ¤ re enfance de soutenir leur engagement a ¤ une carrie ¤ re dans le service des enfants en de´pit des conditions contraires divers qui menent aux hauts taux d'attrition dans ce champ? L'e´tude de cas documente´e dans cet article cherche a ¤ adresser cette question en identifiant des influences contribuant a ¤ la re´sistance demontre´e par un e´ducateur Australien de la petite enfance. Les de´couvertes soulignent l'importance des qualite´s personnelles, les caracte´ristiques contextuelles, et l'interaction entre ce qui est personnel et ce qui constitue le contexte. Je conclus en sugge´rant que la stimulation de cette re´sistance pourrait contribuer aux efforts qui abordent une manque croissante de personnel dans les services des enfants dans l'Australie et dans le cadre international. Que´ permite a algunos educadores de la primera infancia a sostener su compromiso a una carrera de servicios para nin ¨ os a pesar de variadas condiciones adversas que llevan a altas tasas de desgaste de personal en este campo? El caso documentado en este art L ´culo procura contestar esta pregunta identificando las influencias que contribuyen a la resistencia de un educador de la primera infancia australiano. Las conclusiones destacan la importancia de las caracter L ´sticas personales y contextuales y de la interaccio´n entre lo personal y lo contextual. Concluyo sugiriendo que al fomentar la resistencia se podr L ´a contribuir a los esfuerzos que se hacen para solucionar el de´ficit creciente de personal en los servicios para nin ¨ os en Australia y en el plano internacional.     

Emergent Supervisors: Comparing Counseling Center and Non‐Counseling‐Center Interns' Supervisory Training Experiences

Predoctoral interns' responses to an internship supervision training questionnaire indicated that counseling center interns supervised more trainees, received more supervision in their supervisory roles, reported more supervision training activities, and yielded higher supervisor development scores than did non‐counseling‐center interns. A qualitative analysis of participants' responses showed that non‐counseling‐center interns desired more supervision training and opportunities to provide supervision during their internship year than did counseling center interns.     

Measuring strategy use in context with multiple-choice items

A number of authors have presented data that challenge the validity of self-report of strategy use or choice of strategy. We created a multiple-choice measure of students’ strategy use based on the work of Kozminsky, E., and Kozminsky, L. (2001), and tested it with three samples as part of a series of studies testing the fit of the DIME model of reading comprehension. One study was conducted at the high school level (N = 175) and two at the undergraduate level (N = 185 and 737). Over the three studies with three different samples, we found good evidence for the internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity of this type of measure. Commonality analysis suggested that strategy use mainly makes a shared contribution to comprehension with other predictors, especially inference, and to some extent vocabulary, background knowledge, and word reading. The measure was relatively easy to construct and easy to administer to large numbers of students, and showed much higher evidence of concurrent validity than self-ratings of frequency of use of strategies.     

Does Fidelity of Implementation Account for Changes in Teacher–Child Interactions in a Randomized Controlled Trial of Banking Time?

This study examined fidelity of implementation in a randomized trial of Banking Time, a classroom-based intervention intended to improve children's behavior, specifically for those at risk for developing externalizing behavior problems, through improving the quality of teacher–child interactions. The study sample comes from a randomized controlled trial that took place over three years and included 183 teachers and 470 preschool children recruited across three sites. Results exploring fidelity of implementation indicated that Banking Time practices were present across treatment and nontreatment groups. In addition, the presence of more Positive Banking Time Practices accounted for improvements in teacher–child interactions while Restricted Banking Time Practices showed inconsistent patterns, relating both to positive and negative teacher–child interactions. Further, random assignment to Banking Time resulted in the presence of more Positive Banking Time Practices and fewer Restricted Banking Time Practices, which accounted for the improved teacher–child interactions. Thus, findings point to the critical need to better account for intervention fidelity across conditions in randomized trials, allowing for better understanding of the mechanism through which interventions lead to intended outcomes.     

Exit cards: creating a dialogue for continuous evaluation

This study explored the use of Exit Cards, which are formative evaluations of student knowledge and instruction undertaken at every class meeting. Its results are based on Exit Card data from two undergraduate research methods courses. Thematic analysis indicated that students used Exit Cards to communicate (1) what they learned, (2) challenges with course material, (3) experiences with peers, (4) requests for help, (5) challenges with coping, and (6) successes. While the present study is an initial exploration of the use of Exit Cards, it contributes to knowledge on the utilization of informal formative assessments.     

Counselor Educators' Experiences Preparing Preservice School Counselors: A Phenomenological Study

The authors conducted a phenomenological study to explore the experiences of 32 school counselor educators preparing preservice school counselors. Analysis of data from 3 focus groups revealed 3 themes: breadth versus depth, balancing specialties and professor partiality, and preparation versus practice. These results highlight the need for collaboration across counseling specialties at the preservice level.