Responding to Sexual Assault Victims: Considerations for College Counselors

College counselors need to be informed of effective interventions when counseling students who have been sexually assaulted. This article applies research and theory from the general literature on counseling sexual assault victims to college counselors' work with this population. An overview of the effects of sexual assault is followed by specific implications for counseling students who have been sexually assaulted.     

Improving educational outcomes for at‐risk students

Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of at‐risk youth (n = 593), this article reports on the analysis of factors that enabled these youth to succeed at school. It considers the impact of three baseline factors (age, gender, ethnicity) and a number of time‐dynamic factors [positive school environment, additional educational support, positive peer and parent relationships, exclusion/expulsion from school, depression and externalising individual risk, as well as the involvement of a range of services (mental health, justice, welfare)] upon educational progress. Over time, the educational status of this group of youth deteriorated. Differences were observed for indigenous, older and male youth who had poorer outcomes on average. Positive peer groups and a positive school environment predicted better outcomes, while the use of harsh disciplinary practices such as expulsion was the strongest predictor of poorer educational outcomes and had a pervasive negative impact on all three educational progress measures. Formal services did not make an appreciable difference to educational outcomes, while the provision of additional educational support only contributed to keeping youth enrolled in educational programmes but did not appreciably improve their educational outcomes. Improving educational outcomes for at‐risk youth requires a pan‐system response, whereby schools reduce the use of expulsion and create a positive school climate, other professionals support schools to retain challenging students at school and the positive resources generated by pro‐social peer groups are harnessed.     

Using Authentic Assessment to Evidence Children’s Progress Toward Early Learning Standards

The increasing emphasis on accountability in early care and education has created an opportunity for programs to revisit their child assessment practices. This article presents a model for using authentic assessment practices to document children’s progress toward a set of program standards, specifically the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, as well as describe how authentic assessment processes can inform curriculum planning. Programmatic implementation issues are discussed and a case study is presented.     

Measuring the impact of a community of practice in Aboriginal health

Effective strategies to enhance the competence of practising health professionals are limited. Communities of Practice are proposed as strategy, yet little is known about their ability to develop cultural competency and practice. This study aimed to measure the impact of a Community of Practice on the self-assessed cultural competency and change to practice of dietitians working in Aboriginal health. A mixed-method approach including a quantitative 16-item cultural-competency self-assessment tool (completed at baseline and after 12 months of participation) together with the qualitative most significant change stories were used. Quantitative and qualitative data were compared together for congruence and difference. All participants (n?=?13) completed the cultural competency-self assessment and participated in the significant change story development. They reported that through networking and joint problem solving they increased competence (13 of 16 performance indicators) and qualitative described increased self-confidence for their work in Aboriginal health through improved understanding of the factors related to the impact of history, culture and utilisation of resources on service delivery, appropriate communication strategies, effective relationships and managing conflict. These findings suggests that formalised and structured Communities of Practice may be an effective workforce development strategy to influence the practice of health professionals working in Aboriginal health.     

Building Preschool Children's Emotional Competence: A Parenting Program

Poor emotional competence has been identified as a precursor to later social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties in children. Aspects of parenting, including modeling, reactions to and coaching of children's emotions, have been associated with the development of emotional competence in children. In this paper, a parenting program with this theoretical basis is outlined and a pilot study of the program is presented. The six-session parenting program was delivered in preschool centers to 47 parents with a four or five year old child, and data were collected about parenting and children's functioning twice prior to program commencement, following program completion, and at three month follow-up. Pre and post program teacher assessments were also collected. Following the program parents reported that they were more encouraging of their children's emotional expression, used emotion-focused approaches more frequently in interactions with their children, and were less critical and dismissive of their children's emotional expression. Their children showed less emotional negativity and had significant reductions in difficult behaviors, especially those who had behavior problems prior to their parents' participation in the program. This program offers a promising approach to fostering the development of children's emotional competence and consequently enhancing social and behavioral functioning.     

Reconceptualising professional experiences in pre-service teacher education…reconstructing the past to embrace the future

This paper provides a conceptual framework for developing high-quality professional experiences for pre-service teachers. The paper begins with a discussion of how professional experiences are conceptualised, structured and supervised in each of three orientations, which we have termed traditional, reflective and learning communities. We then describe a number of professional experience initiatives at two Australian universities, which are being reconceptualised around the notion of learning communities. We argue that framing professional experience around the notion of learning communities has the potential to support pre-service teachers to work with their peers and mentor teachers in more collegial and reciprocal ways.     

Increasing explanatory behaviour,problem-solving,and reasoning within classes using cooperative group work

The present study builds on research that indicates that teachers play a key role in promoting those interactional behaviours that challenge children’s thinking and scaffold their learning. It does this by seeking to determine whether teachers who implement cooperative learning and receive training in explicit strategic questioning strategies demonstrate more verbal behaviours that mediate children’s learning than teachers who implement cooperative learning only. The study also sought to determine whether students who receive training in explicit questioning strategies demonstrate more explanatory behaviour than their untrained peers, and, as a consequence, do these same students demonstrate more advanced reasoning and problem-solving skills on follow-up reasoning and problem-solving tasks. The study involved 31 teachers in two conditions, the cooperative + strategic questioning condition and the cooperative condition, and two groups of students from each teacher’s classroom. The results show that the teachers in the cooperative + strategic questioning condition used significantly more mediating behaviours than their peers in the cooperative condition. The study also showed that the children in these teachers’ classes engaged in more elaboration and obtained significantly higher scores on the follow-up reasoning and problem-solving tasks. The study demonstrates the importance of explicitly teaching strategic questioning strategies to children during cooperative learning.     

How mature-age students succeed in higher education: implications for institutional support

This article draws on stories of success in higher education by mature-age students of diverse backgrounds to highlight some key implications for institutional support. We begin by reviewing the post-World War II background of mature-age study in Australian higher education to provide a context for presenting some major findings from a small, in-depth research project. We examine these findings to focus on the role of institutional support in the success of mature-age students, particularly given recent sectoral factors affecting their access and support. The study findings show students’ primary supports were families and friends. Participants all belonged to equity categories as designated by the Australian government, but many did not use institutional supports. Some lacked the confidence to approach staff; others were unaware support services existed or lacked the time to access them. The participants’ stories demonstrate the complex disadvantages experienced by mature-age students. They highlight universities’ need to ensure support services are ‘student-centred’ in order to ensure improved educational and equity outcomes for their mature-age student populations.