A Phrase Well Turned: Creative Facility in Narrative Production

It is commonly recognized that messages are simultaneously patterned and creative, but studies of message production have tended to focus on repetitive features of messages, to the relative exclusion of examination of their novel characteristics. This study is concerned with creative facility—the ability readily to construct novel, appropriate messages. In order to investigate this phenomenon, subjects produced a series of simple SITUATION-ACTION-BECAUSE narratives and also completed measures of speed of information processing (Digit-Symbol Substitution Test, DSST), cognitive tempo (Matching Familiar Figures Test, MFFT), and need for cognitive structure (Personal Need for Structure scale, PNS). Results indicate each of these measures was related to the speed with which participants were able to formulate their narratives. Moreover, the impact of both cognitive tempo, assessed as number of errors on the MFFT, and need for cognitive structure was heightened under more cognitively demanding message-production conditions. Implications of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The Creative Character of Talk: Individual Differences in Narrative Production Ability

The creative character of human message behavior is at once ubiquitous and elusive. Our talk is routinely novel, and yet our understanding of the processes that give rise to such creativity is in its infancy. Moreover, everyday experience suggests that some people are simply better at “thinking on their feet” than are others. The current studies sought to ascertain whether people do, indeed, differ in their ability to produce novel messages or whether our impression of individual differences is more perceived than actual. Two studies involving examination of simple SITUATION-ACTION-BECAUSE narratives are reported. The results of Study 1 suggest that people do differ in their message-production abilities. Additional analyses suggest that this individual difference in message-production ability is distinct from extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism as assessed by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. EPQ lie-scale scores were, however, related to narrative-production performance, and this may reflect differences in social knowledge and skill. Study 2 replicated the finding of an individual difference in narrative-production ability and again indicated that performance in the experimental paradigm is related to lie-scale scores, but not extraversion or neuroticism (as those dimensions are assessed by the EPI). Additional findings in both studies relate message fluency to the cognitive demands of narrative production. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

External-Focus Feedback Benefits Free-Throw Learning in Children

Purpose: Considerable research supports the motor-learning advantage associated with an external focus of attention; however, very few studies have attempted to generalize these findings to children especially with attentional focus feedback. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of attentional focus feedback on motor learning in children. Method: Boys (n = 14) and girls (n = 14) aged 9 to 11 years old were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 gender-stratified groups: (a) internal-focus feedback or (b) external-focus feedback. Following initial instructions and task demonstration, participants performed 100 modified free throws over 2 days while receiving feedback statements respective to their attentional focus condition. Approximately 24 hr later, participants performed a retention test consisting of 20 additional free throws. Participants were also asked to respond to a retrospective verbal report at the end of each day to serve as a manipulation check. Results: Results of the analysis revealed a statistically significant learning advantage for participants receiving external-focus feedback, and retrospective verbal reports provide support for the self-invoking trigger and constrained action hypotheses. Conclusions: Future research should continue to incorporate retrospective verbal reports and explore potential causal links between internal attentional focus and self-evaluation.     

Problems of Professional Competence Among Counselor Trainees: Programmatic Issues and Guidelines

Counselor education programs have a responsibility to ensure that individuals are competently trained, demonstrate understanding of ethical guidelines, and are free of observable psychological issues that may affect their ability to provide adequate counseling services. Counselor trainees who do not reach or maintain these professional standards may exhibit problems of professional competence (PPC). This position paper provides a review of the issues related to PPC among counselor trainees. It offers guidelines to counselor education programs for developing PPC policies and procedures. Future directions for research and training practice are discussed.     

The social experience of early childhood for children with learning disabilities: inclusion,competence and agency

This paper tells of the social experiences of three four‐year‐old children with learning disabilities as they negotiate their daily lives in their homes and early education settings in England. We apply a social model of childhood disability to the relatively unexplored territory of young children and use vignettes drawn from video observation to explore the interactive spaces contained in settings with different cultures of inclusion. Using a multimodal approach to the data we show the nuanced ways in which the children enact their agency. We explore the relationships between agency, culture and structure, and argue that children with learning disabilities are active in making meaning within social and relational networks to which they contribute differently depending on the barriers to doing and being that each network presents. Thus, the paper provides an original use of the notion of distributed competence.     

An Examination of Nurses’ Intergenerational Communicative Experiences in the Workplace: Do Nurses Eat Their Young?

The modern workforce is becoming increasingly older, and because of this demographic shift, intergenerational interactions are more common. However, these interactions are often described negatively and could be exaggerated when housed in a workplace setting. This study explores intergenerational communication in the increasingly diverse nursing profession through the lens of communication accommodation theory. Specifically, 32 nurses were interviewed in order to understand how they experience and describe intergenerational communication in the healthcare context. Through an abductive approach to data analysis, we found three interrelated findings: (a) intergenerational hostility is commonplace, (b) intergenerational hostility is socialized, and (c) nurses are viewed as a dispensable resource. These findings were communicated and justified through the colloquialism “nurses eat their young.” Theoretical implications related to communication accommodation theory and the Communication Predicament Model of Aging were developed along with practical suggestions that focus on ways to disrupt the acceptance of intergenerational hostility, enhance intergenerational communication in the workplace, and create a space for structural change.     

The Difficulty of Teacher Dispositions: Considering Professional Dispositions for Preservice English Teachers

This article explores the place of teacher dispositions in English teacher preparation by contextualizing the issue of dispositions in English teacher preparation. This allows consideration for the importance of developing professional dispositions during English teacher preparation by recognizing that various stakeholders (teacher educators, university supervisors, mentor teachers, and preservice teachers) in teacher education often understand dispositions differently. The authors reflect and offer suggestions on how professional dispositions might be more effectively addressed in an English teacher education program through richer interactions among all stakeholders.     

Education and Leisure: a reappraisal

Early years education and special needs education have been the focus of UK government interest in recent years, with a strong emphasis on ‘joined up thinking’ across professional boundaries in order to plan and provide cohesive and increasingly inclusive programmes of education and care. This article considers the potential for joined up thinking and action across the early years and special needs education domains with the argument that there is often neglected common ground between the two, such as the shared need for a holistic perspective, partnership with parents, multidisciplinary collaboration and developmentally appropriate practice. Examples are provided from the UK context but the debates are relevant more widely. The article ends with an exploration of why this potential has often not been realised, arguing that separate histories and vulnerabilities and a desire to avoid parallel stigma are partly responsible.