TRAINING FOR INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION: A TRANSACTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Theorists argue that one's personal view of communication affects the actual communicative relationship. This paper explores the positive, growth‐promoting implications for communication between generations when the model that persons bring to the cross‐generational relationship is transactional, and discusses implications of the transactional model for trainers and educators in gerontology.

With the rising number of older persons in American society, the question for persons working on a consistent basis with the elderly (kin, social service provider, etc.) of how to relate most effectively on an interpersonal basis with an older person is an issue of great import. The authors suggest that the transactional perspective to interpersonal communication with older persons is the answer to most effectively dealing with factors affecting communication cross‐generationally and suggest that educators adopt this perspective. Factors that the transactional perspective addresses directly include negative stereotypes and fears of aging, crises encountered as the person ages, shifts during the later life cycle in exposure to interpersonal communication, and ability to negotiate relationships.     

Creating a space for student voice in an educational evaluation

Evaluation research focusing on educational initiatives that impact on the learning and lives of young people must be challenged to incorporate ‘student voice’. In a context of conventional evaluation models of government-led initiatives, student voice is a compelling addition, and challenges the nature of traditional forms of evaluation. It requires a student-first approach where young people actively report on their experiences, rather than being represented by others. This paper presents an evaluation that draws on large-scale ‘student voice’ contribution. Using the context of a mental health programme that was piloted in secondary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper explores the importance of a student voice agenda in evaluations. More than 2500 students participated through national surveys and an in-depth case study across five school sites. By foregrounding student voice as an evaluation tool, the ethics of student involvement becomes complex. When authentic student ‘data’ can change or challenge official thinking, students’ voice(s) can either be foregrounded or silenced. Commissioned evaluations are often fraught with wider political agendas, but evaluation researchers have a duty to ensure student voice is represented if it is to inform ongoing government policy that impacts on the lives and learning of young people.     

Self-assessment to incite learning in higher education: developing ontological awareness

Incorporating self-assessment tasks in higher education involves a conceptual shift of the function of assessment for both learners and teachers. Self-assessment is an innovative assessment initiative that foregrounds ontological knowledge and professional identity in higher education, especially where external professional bodies require additional competencies for learners to be work-ready. As a tool to develop learners’ metacognitive strategies, self-assessment challenges views around learning and assessment. The defined task that constitutes ‘self-assessment’ is considered for two key reasons. First, it is essentially a tool to reflect student-staff partnership in learning and assessment if students are positioned as agentic in the assessment process, and, second, it challenges the relationship between assessment and learning; no longer dichotomous, and more culturally relevant. This paper outlines the introduction of self-assessment over three years in a university postgraduate programme. Using cultural historical activity theory, a framework of analysis that recognises multiple networks of activity, the question ‘what constitutes a self-assessment task?’ is addressed. Results show that the development of self-assessment tasks needs to be considered in the learning-assessment nexus. While these forms of assessment initially unsettle students, they are designed to enable students to participate with an eye on their learning, not the grade.     

Using activity theory to evaluate a professional learning and development initiative in the use of narrative assessment

Analysis of the impact of professional learning and development (PLD) programmes for educators is complex. This article presents an analysis of a PLD initiative in which classroom teachers learned to use narrative assessment for students with ‘high’ and ‘very high’ learning needs. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), the analysis showed how various tensions arose across the activity system of participants during the initiative. Tensions were associated with the roles of those involved, the narrative assessment approach, and the rules of the initiative. While the new narrative assessment approach resulted in benefits for the students and their parents, role conflict emerged in relation to established assessment approaches already used by the educators. It is argued that CHAT enables a more nuanced understanding of the complex ways in which teachers actually engage with official curriculum, pedagogy or assessment PLD initiatives, than do theories that position teachers as simply resistant to change.     

Discourses of inclusion in initial teacher education: Unravelling a New Zealand ‘number eight wire’ knot

Institutional politics and diversity of ideological positions create challenges for teaching staff with polarised beliefs about inclusive education. This paper provides a methodological justification for a longitudinal study of the experience of developing an integrated ‘inclusive education’ curriculum in one initial teacher education programme. The research focus is on the day-to-day practicalities of how teacher education programme reform is attempted, rather than abstract theories about how it should take place. First, the paper considers why an ‘inclusive education’ approach is problematic. Second, the case narrative approach is explained. Finally, examples from two years of programme development are discussed.     

Assessment practices of educational psychologists in Aotearoa/New Zealand: from diagnostic to dialogic ways of working

Psychologists working in education in Aotearoa/New Zealand work in diverse educational environments making day-to-day decisions informed by evidence-based practice. As a relatively small professional group with a complex work programme, they contribute to the assessments and decision-making processes of children and young people across multiple settings. This paper explores the results of a small-scale national survey of psychologists working in education through the Ministry of Education. Results showed that these psychologists use at least 25 assessment methods including assessments within behavioural, emotional, social, and cognitive domains. The assessment data are used for three primary reasons: to understand the child, inform decision-making, and contribute to discussions around appropriate interventions. The use of interviews, observation and collaboration were identified as key to their assessment practices, illustrating a preference towards more dialogic and ecological ways of working. While the majority used assessment practices that align with facilitating the learning of the child across contexts, the psychologists reported that ethical dilemmas arose when they were expected to be more diagnostic in their focus.     

Retention of a running response following appetitive acquisition,extinction, and discrimination

In Experiment 1, hungry rats received 30 rewarded runway trials and then either extinction trials followed by retention tests or just retention tests. Different groups were tested after retention intervals of 1 min, 1, 3, or 24 h, or 30 days. Retention of extinction training was a nonmonotonic, cubic function of time for the early portion of the response chain, with good retention at 1 min and 3 h and little retention at 1 h, 24 h, or 30 days. In the latter portions of the response chain, retention of extinction decreased monotonically with time. Retention following reward-only training varied little in time, though slight losses occurred after 30 days. Experiments 2–3 differed from Experiment 1 in imposing nonchoice discrimination training (reward vs. nonreward) instead of extinction following 30 rewarded trials. After different time intervals (.017, .75, 1.25, 3, and 24 h in Experiment 1; and .017, 1, and 3 h in Experiment 2), retention tests revealed poorest discrimination at intermediate intervals in the initial portion of the response chain, i.e., a Kamin effect appeared. The deficit seemed the result of a loss of response suppression to the cue that signaled nonreward. In latter segments of the response chain, a Kamin effect tended not to appear. Implications for a number of observations and theoretical views are noted.     

Analysis of author affiliation across four school psychology journals from 2000 to 2008: Where is the practitioner research?

Articles published between 2000 and 2008 in four major school psychology journals—School Psychology Review, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, and School Psychology Quarterly—were classified based on type (empirical or narrative) and on the primary and secondary authors' affiliations. Results showed that more than 90% of the primary and secondary authors were university affiliated with little difference across article type. Although more than 85% of school psychologists are practitioners, these results suggest that their contributions to these school psychology journals are limited because they account for less than 10% of the authors of articles. Discussion focuses on practitioners' involvement in the research base that is intended to inform their professional behaviors. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.