School-age passwords: C.I.A.

CIA does not stand for what you ordinarily would think, The Central Intelligence Agency! These initials can be quite meaningful to caregivers and definitely beneficial to school-agers who are involved in before and after school care. CIA—Creativity, Imagination and Anticipation! These are key words and functions which can enhance a school-age program.     

Exploring the Usefulness of the Monsen Problem‐solving Framework for Applied Practitioners

This paper explores the reflections of practising educational psychologists on the usefulness of a framework used in training for the role of educational psychologist. The Monsen problem‐solving framework is taught on the M.Sc. Educational Psychology Programme at Strathclyde University. The framework aims to support learning in the processes of conceptualising complex and ill‐defined problems and in subsequently developing effective interventions. It offers systematic steps to help structure, organise and analyse the complexities of problems in a coherent way, facilitating understanding and transparency of processes for both psychologists and clients. How effective is the training device in ensuring that problems are understood and addressed in practice? Does the framework influence or shape the work of the fully‐fledged practitioner? The present study indicates that the Monsen framework is perceived to be highly effective in some executive areas and that these aspects transfer well to applied practice. However there is less transferability in those aspects relating more directly to psychological theory and thinking, in particular the formulation of hypotheses and the sharing of the problem dynamics with stakeholders. Respondents describe the limitations of the model in the contexts of collaborative working, time management and competing theories and frameworks. These issues are discussed in relation to professional practice and accountability. It is proposed that the advantages of using the Monsen model may be even clearer if the role of psychological theory is more fully articulated within the framework.     

Analysis of Personality,Suicide, and Self‐Injury in Emerging Adulthood

Nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) is a maladaptive coping strategy that is of significant clinical concern for behavioral health professionals in college settings. Relationships between NSSI, acquired capability for suicide, interpersonal cognitions, and five‐factor model personality traits were assessed in a survey‐based study that included 192 young adults in a college setting. Results indicated that those with an affirmative suicide attempt history, greater acquired capability for suicide, and elevated neuroticism had an increased likelihood of lifetime NSSI.     

The role of schools in explaining individuals’ subject choices at age 14

Abstract

The subjects that young people study from age 14 onwards may have important consequences for their future academic and labour market outcomes. These decisions are shaped by the schools in which they find themselves. Schools also face constraints of their own. This paper explores the extent to which individuals’ decisions are affected by the school they attend and to what extent this is affected by the composition of schools in terms of academic attainment, gender, and socioeconomic background. We use multi-level variance decomposition models applied to administrative data on the subjects that young people in mainstream state-funded schools in England study between ages 14 and 16. Our results highlight the important role that constraints on schools play in subject choice decisions. We also note the particular role of attending a non-selective school within a selective schooling district.     

What makes for effective feedback: staff and student perspectives

Since the early 2010s the literature has shifted to view feedback as a process that students do where they make sense of information about work they have done, and use it to improve the quality of their subsequent work. In this view, effective feedback needs to demonstrate effects. However, it is unclear if educators and students share this understanding of feedback. This paper reports a qualitative investigation of what educators and students think the purpose of feedback is, and what they think makes feedback effective. We administered a survey on feedback that was completed by 406 staff and 4514 students from two Australian universities. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on data from a sample of 323 staff with assessment responsibilities and 400 students. Staff and students largely thought the purpose of feedback was improvement. With respect to what makes feedback effective, staff mostly discussed feedback design matters like timing, modalities and connected tasks. In contrast, students mostly wrote that high-quality feedback comments make feedback effective – especially comments that are usable, detailed, considerate of affect and personalised to the student’s own work. This study may assist researchers, educators and academic developers in refocusing their efforts in improving feedback.     

Conditions that enable effective feedback

ABSTRACT

Despite an increasing focus on assessment feedback, educators continue to find that simply replicating an effective feedback practice from one context does not guarantee success in the next. There is a growing recognition that the contextual factors surrounding successful practices need to be considered. This article reports on a large-scale mixed methods project and proposes 12 conditions that enable successful feedback in higher education. The conditions were distilled from seven rich case studies through multiple stages of thematic analysis, case comparison and reliability checking. The conditions were also evaluated by surveying senior leaders of Australian universities. These conditions highlight the importance of carefully designing feedback processes, along with the need for addressing capacity and culture for feedback. This helps to explain why there are such variances in effective feedback across contexts, and offers insight into how it may be achieved.     

Family background,subject specialization and occupational recruitment of Scottish university students: Some patterns and trends

University entrants from different social backgrounds tend to specialize in different subjects at university. Self-recruitment operates to a large extent in the ancient professions of medicine, dentistry and law, and few working class students enter these faculties. Self-recruitment of male students to engineering, business, farming and to a lesser extent teaching, is also evident. Working class university entrants frequently specialize in education or engineering. Comparisons with data from earlier years show little change since the 1930s in occupational recruitment patterns at Scottish universities.     

Do Preschool Children Recognize Auditory-Visual Numerical Correspondences?

The present study investigated the ability of 3- and 4-year-old children to perform tasks which require matching sets of sounds to numerically equivalent visual displays. We found that 3-year-olds performed at chance on the auditory-visual matching task, while 4-year-olds performed significantly above chance. There is evidence that mastery of the linguistic counting system is related to success on this task. These findings are unexpected given previous research reporting that 6–8-month-olds can detect the numerical equivalence between a set of sounds and items in a visual display.     

Dialogic spaces: a critical policy development perspective of educational leadership qualifications

The critical exploration of policy development processes employed to construct leadership qualifications is the focus of this inquiry. This exploration is made through specific application of the necessary conditions of Habermasian ‘practical discourse’ to current dialogic procedures used to develop policies for principal, supervisory officer and teacher leadership qualifications. This exploratory inquiry illuminates current means of policy development and the enhancements required for the embodiment of the idealizing conditions of practical discourse. Situating practical discourse within policy development practices for educational leadership also broaches the broader question of establishing a suitable moral epistemology for educational institutions in pluralist societies. As such, the current inquiry represents an important step in the progress of educational governance with relevant implications for all regulatory institutions charged with the task of creating policy guidelines that shape educational leadership practices across highly diverse and culturally rich societies.