South African First-Year Students' Counselling Needs and Preferred Counselling Sources

This study investigated the personal career andlearning skills needs of first-year universitystudents and their preferred counsellingsources. Respondents completed structuredquestionnaires assessing their needs andpreferred counselling sources (n = 1292). Respondents expressed a preference for lecturesand professional help outside the university. They selected only five of forty two items forwhich they desired individual counselling. Knowing the preferred sources of counsellinghelp desired by clients would enable a betterservice and referral system.     

Multiple determinants of “blocking” effects on operant behavior

Blocking was investigated in a free-operant procedure by presenting a response-contingent signal prior to reinforcer delivery. At issue was the way in which blocking effects previously reported with this procedure are related to conditioned reinforcement effects, also previously found with similar procedures. Signal presentation decreased response rate when delay of reinforcement was 0 or .5 sec, but the signal increased response rate when the delay of reinforcement was increased to 3 sec. Thus, which effect (blocking or conditioned reinforcement) occurred depended critically on the response-reinforcer interval.     

Investigating the development of professional learning communities: compare schools in Shanghai and Southwest China

Abstract

This quantitative study investigated and compared the development of professional learning communities in schools located in two Chinese cities, namely, Shanghai and Mianyang. The two cities have significant differences in terms of educational, economic, social, and cultural development. While Shanghai is a directly controlled municipality in East China, Mianyang is a city of Sichuan Province in Southwest China. Based on the literature review and an analysis of the Chinese context, the authors developed a questionnaire to explore and compare the professional learning community (PLC) practices of schools in the two cities. Findings show that schools in Mianyang had more PLCs practices than those sampled schools in Shanghai, in terms of collaborative learning and facilitative leadership. Such differences could be explained by the educational, economic, social, and cultural differences between the two cities. Practical implications for school development in both Shanghai and Mianyang as well as suggestions for future research are provided.     

Making it all work: the engineering graduate of the future,a UK perspective

High skills are today seen as being of vital importance to economies, industries, companies and individuals. The engineering industry is no exception and the graduate engineer has a key position in this regard. In the research reported in this paper, the authors use in-depth interviews with industry experts to investigate the provision of undergraduate engineering education in the UK. The current and future skill needs of industry are examined. A typology of future engineering roles and their requisite attributes is proposed. Implications for undergraduate engineering are also discussed.     

Premature termination of conselling at a university Counselling Centre

This study investigated premature termination of counselling at a university Counselling Centre. Twenty (20) premature terminators reported on their experience of counselling by completing a mailed questionnaire containing open- and close-ended items. The following results were obtained: Premature termination was not the result of a negative experience of counselling by the client; nor was premature termination the manifestation of a failed interpersonal relationship between the client and the counsellor; clients who terminated prematurely are likely to seek counselling again at a later stage in their lives; premature terminators would be likely to refer someone for counselling and premature terminators did not consider their participation in the study as violating the counsellor-client confidentiality. Limited support was established for the hypothesis that premature terminators will consider their expectations of counselling as not having been met.     

Using Real‐Life Major League Baseball Data in an Introductory Statistics Course

A primary goal of introductory statistics courses is to develop a student's ability to think statistically. To motivate students to this end, the literature suggests that statistics courses use exercises that are relevant and familiar to students. Work in educational psychology highlights the importance of connecting new concepts to pre‐existing knowledge, mental models, or schema. One method to meet these criteria is to develop exercises and problems that use real‐life data. While real‐life data provide a context for the application of statistical methods, the data does not necessarily provide a context or process for developing the ability to think statistically. This teaching brief describes a set of logical, sequential, and ready‐to‐use exercises that motivate statistical inquiry and thought in line with the GAISE College Report recommendations. The exercises use real‐life data freely sourced from Major League Baseball and the nonfiction story of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. Student reactions indicate that these exercises, which are anchored in real‐life data with a real‐life story, are successful in motivating student interest in statistics.     

Counselor Experience Related to Complexity of Case Conceptualization and Supervision Preference

The authors investigated the relationship among trainees' counseling experience, familiarity with specific client symptomatology, case conceptualization integrative complexity (i.e., the ability to differentiate and integrate knowledge related to specific client symptomatology), and preference for supervisor style. Data from 100 beginning practicum to intern‐level counselor trainees revealed that general trainee experience and familiarity with specific client symptomatology were related to trainee case conceptualization integrative complexity. However, contrary to developmental models of counselor supervision, neither trainee experience, familiarity with specific symptomatology, nor trainee case conceptualization integrative complexity significantly predicted preference for supervisor style.     

第一场雪

他不知道是什么吵醒了他，也许是孩子的梦呓吧。但当他瞥向小被窝的时候，目光反而越过摇篮被吸引到窗边上。     

Expressing the Not‐Said: Art and Design and the Formation of Sexual Identities

Central to this paper is an analysis of the work produced by a year 10 student in response to the ‘Expressive Study’ of the art and design GCSE (AQA 2001). I begin by examining expressivism within art education and turn to the student's work partly to understand whether the semi‐confessional mode she chose to deploy is encouraged within this tradition. The tenets of expressivism presuppose the possibility that through the practice of art young people might develop the expressive means to give ‘voice’ to their feelings and come to some understanding of self. I therefore look at the way she took ownership of the ‘expressive’ imperative of the title by choosing to explore her emerging lesbian identity and its position within the normative, binary discourses on sex and sexual identity that predominate in secondary schools. Within schooling there is an absence of formal discussion around sex, sexual identity and sexuality other than in the context of health and moral education and, to some extent, English. This is surprising given the emphasis on self‐exploration that an art and design expressive study would seem to invite. In order to consider the student's actions as a situated practice I examine the social and cultural contexts in which she was studying. With reference to visual semiotics and the theoretical work of Judith Butler, I interpret the way she uses visual resources not only to represent her emerging sexual identity but to counter dominant discourses around homosexuality in schools. I claim that through her art practice she enacts the ‘name of the law’ to refute the binary oppositions that underpin sex education in schools. This act questions the assumptions about the purpose of expressive activities in art education with its psychologically inflected rhetoric of growth and selfhood and offers a mode of expressive practice that is more socially engaged and communicative.