The Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale: A Valid Criterion of Counselor Effectiveness?

Should the Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale (CERS) be used as a criterion measure of counselor effectiveness in studies attempting to identify correlates of counselor effectiveness? The validity of recent recommendations regarding the use of certain factors of the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) to select persons for counselor training programs, where the CERS was the criterion measure, is challenged. Relationships between the three scales of the CERS and levels of empathy, respect, and empathy offered in a counseling relationship were investigated; only one of the hypothesized relationships was found (p < .05).     

Toward More Adequate Selection Criteria: Correlates of Empathy,Genuineness, and Respect

Correlations were obtained between scores or ratings on 17 variables derived from a review of the research and theory on the problem of selection and rated levels of empathic understanding, genuineness, and respect provided by 19 graduate students to clients during the counseling practicum experience. The results revealed that empathic understanding and respect are significantly related to two similar personality variables: tolerance of ambiguity and need for order. Ratings from Carkhuff's Index of Communication were significantly related to empathic understanding. None of the variables investigated was significantly related to genuineness. Suggestions are made for further research and the improvement of existing selection instruments.     

Crits—An Examination

Architectural design education relies upon a practice known in Britain as the ‘crit’ through which to discuss student's work. The author, who studied as an architect and now teaches design to architecture students, describes the history of this institution and the ways in which its use has changed in the last 150 years. She uses the context of a British school of architecture and both contemporary and earlier research examples to support the hypothesis that these changes have contributed to the current atmosphere of doubt in which the crit is held. Central to her argument is the unresolved connection between formative and summative assessment occasions brought about by an apparently unavoidable association between the work of students and the students themselves. The paper supports the call for a review of architectural education methods, whilst stressing that the nature and flaws of the existing process must first be recognised.     

What is an Educational Good? Theorising Education as Degrowth

Greed and power have morphed into forms of capitalism unaddressed from a philosophical, moral or educative framework. This article seeks to address this important gap in the literature by first outlining how the financialisation of capital constitutes the new educational subject in primary, secondary and tertiary school. The author establishes how these new morphologies of power create an imagination that renders students and even the goal of education as a function of unending growth, extraction and disembodiment. In response, the author posits a different vision of habits, practices, postures and morals that root out power in education. Drawing from degrowth theory and an emphasis on simplicity, care, conviviality and the ritual destruction of accumulation, the author theorises what a pedagogy of degrowth may entail. Doing so answers an ever‐important question—what is an educational good?—by conceiving of the ‘value’ of education beyond the bounds of capitalism.     

Confidence and Mathematics: A gender issue?

In the many studies undertaken on pupils' attitudes to mathematics, confidence has been recognised as a contributing factor to gender differences in participation. A number of issues have been identified which affect confidence. In this paper we discuss the 'confidence factor' and the part it plays in pupils' mathematics learning. We then outline three intervention strategies which may encourage girls to develop confidence, drawing on our own experience of using these strategies in Britain.