Communication skills programs that last: Face to Face and relapse prevention

Communication skills are basic to effective management. However, communication training programs must not only show evidence that the skills have been learned, but also demonstrate that this learning can be converted into effective on the job behavior. A communication skills program, Face to Face, based on the microtraining model, is described. This model has substantial empirical evidence of successful skill acquisition. A novel approach to skill transfer and retention, the relapse prevention model is proposed as a methodology for maintaining communication skills in the work setting.     

Deaf/hearing cultural identity paradigms: modification of the deaf identity development scale

The Deaf Identity Development Scale (Glickman, 1993) was modified to include hearing individuals and examine how hearing and deaf adults identify themselves. Statistical analysis based on 244 deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing respondents revealed a significant interaction between hearing status of self and parents on the hearing, marginal, and immersion scales of the modified version but not on the bicultural scale. Codas are more marginalized, less immersed, and similarly 'hearing' in comparison to deaf persons with deaf parents. Hard-of-hearing respondents with deaf parents endorse more hearing values and fewer deaf values in comparison to deaf counterparts and also appear to be more marginalized. There were no significant differences between deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals with hearing parents. Compared to hearing respondents with hearing parents, deaf counterparts were more marginalized, more 'hearing,' and equally 'deaf.' Strong professional affiliation with the deaf community resulted in scores that differed significantly from those for individuals not as strongly affiliated. We discuss implications for identity development.     

Stability and change in attachment security across adolescence

This study examined both continuity and familial, intrapsychic, and environmental predictors of change in adolescent attachment security across a 2-year period from middle to late adolescence. Assessments included the Adult Attachment Interview, observed mother-adolescent interactions, test-based data, and adolescent self-reports obtained from an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of moderately at-risk adolescents interviewed at ages 16 and 18. Substantial stability in security was identified. Beyond this stability, however, relative declines in attachment security were predicted by adolescents' enmeshed, overpersonalizing behavior with their mothers; depressive symptoms; and poverty status. Results suggest that although security may trend upward for nonstressed adolescents, stressors that overwhelm the capacity for affect regulation and that are not easily assuaged by parents predict relative declines in security over time.     

Aspects of promotion procedures in Australian universities

This paper describes formal procedures for the promotion of academics in Australian universities within the general context of economic constraints and increasing pressures on promotion to higher categories. Government statistics show that, over the last decade, tertiary education in Australia has become more expensive to maintain. In the universities the major reason for this has been the rising cost of the academic staff establishment, a trend which has come under increasing public scrutiny. Financial restrictions have resulted in a lack of recruitment and a consequent lack of staff mobility. With annual progression within the staff categories, there is now a concentration of academics at the top of the respective salary scales and the problem is compounded by a naturally rising age factor. Promotion opportunities and a system of tenure have led to a situation in which more than half of academic staff are in the senior categories. Recent studies show that academics themselves are becoming more concerned about promotion issues.A comparison is made of formal promotion procedures before the passing of recent federal legislation on equal opportunity in employment. Although there are differences in detail, procedures for promotion to senior lecturer and reader/associate professor reveal a very high level of consensus on what constitutes rewardable academic performance. Nevertheless, promotion opportunities for academic staff are of necessity becoming more restricted, a trend which has far-reaching implications for the Australian university system.     

Black students in U.S. higher education: Toward improved access,adjustment, and achievement

This paper seeks to broaden our knowledge and understanding of black student experiences in U.S. higher education over the past 20 years. Toward this end, I analyze black student enrollment/earned degree trends in the state of Michigan during the 1965–80 period; examine the institutional experiences of black students who enrolled as freshmen at the University of Michigan between 1975 and 1983; and assess the correlates of access, adjustment, and achievement of 700 black college students who attended six predominantly white public institutions in 1981. The analyses out across four different levels of U.S. higher education (national, state, institutional, and individual) and shed considerable light not only on black student experiences but also those of other minority and white students as well. Based on the result of the multidimensional analyses, I set forth an agenda for action to improve the status of blacks in higher education.     

Because trucks aren’t bicycles: orthographic complexity as an important variable in reading research

Severe enduring reading- and writing-accuracy difficulties seem a phenomenon largely restricted to nations using complex orthographies, notably Anglophone nations, given English’s highly complex orthography (Geva and Siegel, Read Writ 12:1–30, 2000; Landerl et al., Cognition 63:315–334, 1997; Share, Psychol Bull 134(4):584–615, 2008; Torgesen and Davis, J Exp Child Psychol 63:1–21, 1996; Vellutino, J Learn Disabil 33(3):223, 2000). They seem rare in transparent orthography nations such as Finland, which use highly regular spelling and few spelling rules beyond letter sounds, and most children read and write with impressive accuracy by the end of Year 1 (Holopainen et al., J Learn Disabil 34(5):401–413, 2001; Seymour et al., Br J Psychol 94:143–174, 2003; Spencer and Hanley, Br J Psychol 94(1):1–29, 2003; J Res Read 27(1):1–14, 2004). Orthographic complexity has strong and diverse impacts on reading, writing and academic development (Aro, Learning to read: The effect of orthography, 2004; Galletly and Knight, Aust J Learn Disabil 9(4):4–11, 2004; Aust Educ Res 38(3):329–354, 2011). Despite these strong effects, orthographic complexity is rarely included as a variable in reading research studies considering evidence from both Anglophone (complex orthography) and transparent-orthography readers, or included in discussion of factors influencing results. This paper discusses the differences in reading-accuracy development and difficulties evidenced in studies of Anglophone (complex-orthography) and transparent-orthography readers. It then explores instances of orthographic complexity not being considered in studies where it may have impacted results. This disregarding of orthographic complexity as a variable in research studies appears an oversight, one likely to be contributing to continuing confusion on many aspects of reading and writing development in both healthy- and low-progress readers. Needs for research in these areas are discussed.     

Relationships between writing motivation, writing activity, and writing performance: effects of grade, sex, and ability

A convenience sample of 618 children and adolescents in grades 4 through 10, excluding grade 8, were asked to complete a writing motivation and activity scale and to provide a timed narrative writing sample to permit an examination of the relationships between writing motivation, writing activity, writing performance, and the student characteristics of grade, sex, and teacher judgment of writing ability. Female students and older students wrote qualitatively better fictional stories, as did students with higher levels of writing ability based on teacher judgment. With respect to writing activity, more frequent writing in and out of school was reported by girls, better writers, and younger students. In a path analysis, grade and sex directly influenced writing activity, while sex, teacher judgment of writing ability, and writing activity directly influenced some aspects of writing motivation. Overall, teacher judgment of writing ability, grade level, and motivational beliefs each exerted a significant direct positive influence on narrative quality, whereas performance goals exerted a significant direct negative impact on quality.     

Response of school personnel to student threat assessment training

This article analyzes the distribution of mathematics achievement among class, school, municipality, and state in Argentina. Data from the Year 2000, 6th-grade Primary School Census from the Minister of Education are analyzed using multilevel methodology. The results indicate that all levels of the education system are relevant and must be considered. If all levels are included, the school “raw” effect is much less (18%) than if they are not (31%). Prior academic performance and socioeconomic level of the individual pupil, plus socioeconomic composition variables, accounted for most of the performance distribution among school, municipality, and state levels. These kinds of variables do not explain significant inter-class differences inside the school. As a consequence, the class became the superior level with the larger proportion of the total unexplained variance (15%), while the school variation represents just 8,6% of that variation. Finally, unexplained inter-school and inter-class variation is still significant making it necessary to further investigate relevant schooling and classroom factors.