Success in Consulting

Do you regularly reflect on the value you bring to your client? The act of reflection is something experienced consultants, both internal and external, consistently do in their practice. This article examines the ways in which Certified Performance Technologists (CPTs) define and recognize the success of their efforts, but most importantly, how they learn from engagements that do not always end with the desired outcome. You will hear from CPTs across several industries in their own words about what strategies they have employed to continue to improve their skill sets.     

Using critical literacy to explore genetics and its ethical, legal, and social issues with in-service secondary teachers

The described interdisciplinary course helped a mixed population of in-service secondary English and biology teacher-participants increase their genetics content knowledge and awareness of Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) that arose from discoveries and practices associated with the Human Genome Project. This was accomplished by applying a critical literacy approach that allows people develop cognitive skills such that they are able to read the world (Wink, 2004). The approach is one that permits readers to go beyond the literal text to examine what is present as well as what is missing as it relates to issues of equity and fairness. Becoming critically literate enabled these teacher-participants to challenge the subtle attitudes, values, and beliefs conveyed by a range of written and oral texts. The teacher-participants in this course improved their critical literacy skills by actively reading, critically writing about, and using evidence to support their conclusions about issues arising from advances in human genetics. A biologist, a linguist, and an educator collaboratively designed and taught the course. The personalized focus on the integration of thoughtful reading and writing in this class enhanced the teacher-participants' (n = 16) professional and intellectual development and will potentially improve learning in their biology and English classrooms in the future.     

VALIDATION OF THE SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH SURVEY FOR FIVE SOCIOCULTURAL GROUPS: MULTIGROUP INVARIANCE AND LATENT MEAN ANALYSES

Social‐emotional health influences youth developmental trajectories and there is growing interest among educators to measure the social‐emotional health of the students they serve. This study replicated the psychometric characteristics of the Social Emotional Health Survey (SEHS) with a diverse sample of high school students (Grades 9–12; N = 14,171), and determined whether the factor structure was invariant across sociocultural and gender groups. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) tested the fit of the previously known factor structure, and then structural equation modeling was used to test invariance across sociocultural and gender groups through multigroup CFAs. Results supported the SEHS measurement model, with full invariance of the SEHS higher‐order structure for all five sociocultural groups. There were no moderate effect size or higher group differences on the overall index for sociocultural or gender groups, which lends support to the eventual development of common norms and universal interpretation guidelines.