DEVIATIONS FROM PREDICTED GROWTH OF ABILITIES FOR MALE AND FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENTS1

126 university seniors were retested with the same battery of precollege aptitude measures administered four years earlier. To evaluate the effect of different educational experiences and orientations, college test performance, corrected for level of high school performance, was correlated with amount of work taken in specific course areas, grades awarded in these areas, and inventory items relating to background and educational philosophy. The results support the notion of greater differentiation in the residual intellectual growth of males. Deviations from predicted growth on the college test performance indices were relatively uncorrelated with each other and more correlated with specific experiences for males than for females.     

Gender Issues in Counselor Education: Current Status and Challenges

This article examines the status of gender studies in counseling programs and the ethical significance for integrating gender within curricula.     

MEASURING SUBSKILLS OF READING: INTERCORRELATIONS BETWEEN STANDARDIZED READING TESTS, TEACHERS' RATINGS, AND READING SPECIALISTS' RATINGS

The study examined the convergent and discriminant validity of three methods for assessing three subskills of reading: word analysis, vocabulary, and comprehension. These three subskills were measured by teachers' ratings, specialists' ratings, and standardized tests. Correlations of all three skills, each measured by the three different methods, were studied by the multi-trait-multimethod procedure. Although there was some support for convergent validity, the study revealed a total lack of discriminant validity for any of the three subskills of reading.     

Videos Versus Role Plays to Increase Counseling Self-Efficacy in Prepractica Trainees

A brief mock counseling session was potentially more risky but more potent than a brief videotaped counseling session as an intervention for increasing counseling self-efficacy in prepractica trainees.     

Ethical Concerns for Counselor Educators

This article identifies four areas of ethical concern in counselor education. Counselor educators in the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SACES) region were surveyed regarding their attitudes and practices concerning these four areas. Survey results with conclusions and recommendations are given. Vignette 1: J. Jones, a single counselor education professor, is told by K. Adams, a single female graduate student in one of his classes, that she finds him very attractive. She then invites him to her home for dinner. Vignette 2: J. Smith, a student and advisee of counselor educator M. Thompson, is taking a group dynamics course from her this semester. He believes that participation in the course has triggered his desire to work on some issues in his personal life. He approaches Dr. Thompson to be his counselor. Vignette 3: Counselor educator F. Rogers suggests an idea for a research study to graduate student P. Collins. Ms. Collins carries out the study and submits a paper describing it in order to meet a requirement in Dr. Rogers's class. Dr. Rogers later decides that with some revision this paper could be publishable. He spends many hours revising the paper so that it is suitable for publication. When he submits it, he lists himself as first author. Vignette 4: Counselor educator A. Johnson is serving on C. Young's dissertation committee. Ms. Young, who is a training director at a major business in the community, offers Dr. Johnson a lucrative consulting contract with her company.     

Experiential Learning Theory as a Guide for Effective Teaching

David Kolb's experiential learning theory involves a framework that can be helpful in designing courses that meet the needs of diverse learners. Kolb described learning as made up of two dimensions, prehending or grasping information, and transforming or processing that information. The prehending dimension ranges from concrete experience to abstract conceptualization. The transforming dimension ranges from reflective observation to active experimentation. Kolb suggested that learning occurs as the individual moves through a cycle of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. The cycle is then repeated at more complex levels. A course design that provides systematic activities in all four of these modes (concrete experience, reflective observations, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation) will be sensitive to the students' learning styles while at the same time challenging them to develop competence in other ways of learning as well. Students are thus encouraged to master the information with which the course deals and to develop skills in processing and applying that information. They are therefore engaged in learning how to learn, a competence that is critically important for effective adult functioning.     

The SUNY Assessment Initiative: Initial campus and system perspectives

The State University of New York (SUNY) is in the process of implementing a remarkably ambitious and collegial system-wide assessment of general education and academic majors across its 64 campuses. The SUNY Assessment Initiative is founded upon a balanced view of assessment as both accountability and improvement as well as the utilization of best assessment practices. Another fundamental component is the critical role of faculty governance in the assessment of student learning outcomes, at the campus and system levels. This paper explains the rationale underlying the SUNY Assessment Initiative, describes specific procedures and processes involved in its implementation, and provides a preliminary report on its status.     

School Counselors' Participation in Continuing Education Activities

All certified school counselors in Wisconsin were surveyed in regard to their participation in a variety of professional development activities during a 12-month period. Results reveal that while many counselors were actively involved in such activities, others were only minimally so and some completely uninvolved. The latter tended to be older males with several years of counseling experience. Implications for maintaining counselor effectiveness in a changing society are discussed.