Field Practice in La Mixteca: Transnational Teacher Education in the Service of Mexican Indigenous Students in U.S. Schools

Initial research has documented the ill treatment suffered by Mexican indigenous students in U.S. schools. Using a framework of transnational teacher education, we examined the impact of field practice in an indigenous area of Mexico on teacher candidates. Candidates showed growth in new understandings, such as their role as bilingual teachers in terms of validating students’ cultures and their sense of global interconnectedness with transnational students and communities. Applied classroom projects several months after field practice showed a similar impact, beginning to make the case that transnational field practice can also positively influence the academic performance of the candidates’ future students.     

Life Roles and Values in International Perspective: Super's Contribution through the Work Importance Study

Launched in 1979, the Work Importance Study (WIS) put the finishingtouches to Super's lifework. WIS provides a richly cross-culturalexploration of peoples' life roles and values that people seek in theircareers and life in general. This major undertaking by a number ofresearchers from various countries could never have been successfullycompleted without Super's initiative and superb co-ordination. Theobjectives of this paper are to (1) describe the background,methodological approaches, and major results of the Work ImportanceStudy, in particular those that are relevant for career guidance andcounselling; (2) assess the project's international impact throughan analysis of its applications and further development in various partsof the world; and (3) mark out Super's role in promotinginternational co-operation and advancement of knowledge through thisunique collective endeavour.     

A Brief History of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (TEA)

The origins and development of the IEA are traced from its origins with a group of assessment professionals to its status as a major international organisation carrying out large‐scale educational surveys. The paper describes the people and the projects in its short history and looks at its future prospects.     

Self‐Efficacy of First‐Generation and Non‐First‐Generation College Students: The Relationship With Academic Performance and College Adjustment

The authors examined whether self‐efficacy mediated the relationship between generational status and 2 academic outcome indicators of 192 college students. A mediation effect was not found with either academic performance or college adjustment. However, high self‐efficacy at the beginning of the year predicted better college adjustment at the end of the 1st year. For college students in general, high self‐efficacy was related to better college adjustment. Recommendations for counselors are discussed.     

Overcoming visual obstacles with the aid of the Supposer

This paper presents research about the effect of intensive work with diagrams on high school students' use of diagrams in geometry. It identifies three obstacles, culled from previous research, which students must overcome when examining and interpreting diagrams: Diagrams are particular; common usage confuses certain standard diagrams with the classes of objects to which they belong; and a single diagram can be viewed and described in different ways. The paper outlines the resources of the Geometric Supposer, a set of microcomputer software tools which were designed to aid students in overcoming these obstacles. The bulk of the paper presents evidence from students' papers and classroom comments indicating that over the course of a year's work students using the Supposer became more facile in their use of diagrams and were able to overcome each of the three obstacles.The preparation of this paper was supported in part by the National Academy of Education's Spencer Fellowship program.     

Promoting social competence in deaf students: the effect of an intervention program

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a social skills training program on the social skills and social behaviors of deaf children in a mainstream setting. The study used a pretest/posttest design. The participants consisted of 18 severely and profoundly hearing-impaired children (ages ranged from 9;1 to 13;6) who were enrolled in three elementary schools in the Canary Islands. Results indicated that the intervention succeeded in improving students' social problem-solving skills, especially in making comprehensible the steps implied in the solution of interpersonal problems; the intervention also led to significant improvement of deaf students' assertive behavior as rated by their teachers and by themselves. Significant differences in social or academic integration as judged by companions in a sociometric questionnaire were not found.     

Research in Educational and Vocational Guidance in the Nordic Countries: Current Trends

The Nordic countries have followed slightly different, yet complementary paths in terms of research in guidance. The balance between studies in guidance based on sociology, psychology, and even ethnology varies according to the research focus and tradition in each of the Nordic countries. This article covers main Nordic guidance research issues with characteristic examples from the various countries under the headings of Structures, Contents, and Values. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Self-regulation advantage for high-IQ children: Findings from a research study

Current approaches in intelligence research indicate the need for a more extensive determination of characteristics of children with possible giftedness, not only at an intellectual level, but also at the level of self-regulation and motivation. The present study compares self-regulation efficiency between high-IQ and average-ability children aged 6 to 11 years using a computerized task: The ‘Self-regulation and concentration test for children’ [SRTC, Kuhl, J. & Kraska, K. (1993). Self-regulation: Psychometric properties of a computer-aided instrument. The German Journal of Psychology, 17, 11–24]. Results show that high-IQ children have better self-regulatory abilities than a comparable group of average-ability children. In addition, self-regulation efficiency is related to working memory and action orientation (i.e., self-motivation). It is concluded that the assessment of self-regulation is important both for the research and practice related to children with high intellectual ability.