Some Impressions of Competency-Based Training Programs

This article presents some impressions gained after two years of involvement in a competency-based training program in the pupil personnel services area, and it raises questions concerning the major features of such programs. The article includes discussion of program goals, the instructional process, assessment of student progress, and student attitudes. The danger of competency-based training becoming another fad in education is considered, and possible causes of this are noted.     

An Examination of Counselor Preparation Doctoral Program Goals

Doctoral counselor education programs nationwide were surveyed to determine their relative emphases on the professional roles of instruction, supervision, scholarship, clinical practice, and leadership, and how they carried it out.     

Minority Faculty Representation and Hiring Practices in Counselor Education Programs

Counselor education chairpersons indicated that minority faculty members are under-represented and hired at a slower rate than are nonminority faculty members. Results are mixed in terms of advancement opportunities.     

Professional Identification of Counselor Preparation Programs

A survey of 521 counselor preparation programs nationwide revealed that most programs with master's or both master's and doctoral degrees have a counseling professional orientation as opposed to psychological or other orientation.     

PREDICTION OF GRADE POINT AVERAGES IN NURSING SCHOOLS USING SECOND-ORDER MULTIPLE REGRESSION MODELS

The present study was concerned with the prediction of first year grade point averages of associate degree nursing students. The primary objective of this investigation was to determine whether the inclusion of quadratic and/or interaction terms in a regression model would improve the prediction of student nurses' grade averages. The predictor battery included cognitive, biographical, and personality variables. Results indicated that interaction and quadratic terms improve both the predictability of grade point averages and the replicability of these predictions. The inclusion of higher order terms in prediction research is suggested as a means of improving predictive efficiency.     

Engineering Design Simulation: A Computer-based Teaching Environment

In engineering education, design provides an excellent project-based environment in which to teach the fundamentals of synthesis, analysis and decision-making. It is proposed to create a computer-based teaching tool which provides a close simulation of the design environment. All activities of design, i. e. problem definition, conceptualizing, analysis, decision-making and documentation, are envisioned to be part of the simulation, which should be flexible in its use and highly interactive, with the student in full control for maximum learning benefit. While some real difficulties are foreseen in simulating the conceptual and intuitive areas of the design process, the more structured aspects of the design process are already computerized in engineering practice. Restricting the proposed simulation to a specific field of design should make the development of such a teaching tool entirely possible