Values,intelligence and client behavior in career counseling: A field study

We examine relations of values and intelligence to overt behavior in a field study of clients in career counseling (N=365). Eleven counselors reported their clients' independence, activity and insightfulness behaviors. As predicted, both values and intelligence correlated substantially with particular behaviors. Activity and independence correlated positively with self-direction and achievement values and negatively with conformity and tradition values. Independence correlated positively with maturity values as well. Insightfulness correlated positively with maturity values and negatively with conformity and tradition values. All three behaviors correlated positively with intelligence. Values predicted behavior over and above intelligence, but intelligence added to the prediction by values only for the clients of some counselors. Implications of the findings for research on values and behavior are discussed.     

Software for managing complex learning: Examples from an educational psychology course

Inquiry-based instruction including problem-, project-, and case-based methods often incorporate complex sets of learning activities. The numerous activities run the risk of becoming disconnected in the minds of learners and teachers. STAR.Legacy is a software shell that can help designers organize learning activities into an inquiry cycle that is easy to understand and pedagogically sound. To ensure that classroom teachers can adapt the inquiry activities according to their local resources and needs, STAR.Legacy was built upon four types of design principles: learner centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered, and community centered. We describe how a STAR.Legacy constructed for an educational psychology course helped preservice teachers design and learn about effective inquiry-based instruction. This work was supported by grant #R305F60090 from the Department of Education. The authors thank the educational psychology students for their contributions to this paper and Amy Ryce for her editorial talents.     

Dynamic Transition Patterns in Acculturation Among Hispanic Adolescents

Acculturation consists of multiple domains (i.e., cultural practices, identifications, and values). However, less is known about how acculturation processes influence each other across multiple domains of acculturation. This study was designed to investigate transition patterns of acculturative processes within and across domains in a sample of 302 recent-immigrant Hispanic adolescents, M_age (SD) = 14.51 years (0.88) at baseline; male = 53%). Adolescents were assessed six times over a 3-year period. Latent profile analyses identified two profiles (high [or increasing] vs. low) for each domain at each timepoint. We found largely stable transition patterns in each domain over six timepoints. Importantly, sequential associations among profiles in acculturation domains were also detected. Implication for acculturation theory and research are discussed.     

Predicting teacher referrals of emotionally disturbed children

The degree to which teachers' perceptions of a student can be distorted by characteristics indigenous to teachers, as well as students, were investigated to determine whether teachers would initiate a referral for special education. Sixty-five teachers volunteered for participation. Twenty-seven of them were experienced, having had their own classrooms in a public school. Thirty-eight were preservice student teachers who had not yet had their own classrooms. Teachers were evaluated to have had either an internal or external locus of control and were judged to have had either a high or low opinion of self according to either of two separate scales. After viewing two video tapes of two elementary-aged students (one student was severely emotionally disturbed [SED] and the other non-SED), teachers rated the children on several child characteristics and referral questions. Results revealed that the locus of control and self-esteem of teachers, in conjunction with teaching experience and a child's characteristics, can predict teachers' inclinations to refer children. Findings point to the need to place greater care in the initiation of referrals. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Connecting photosynthesis and cellular respiration: Preservice teachers' conceptions

The biological processes of photosynthesis and plant cellular respiration include multiple biochemical steps, occur simultaneously within plant cells, and share common molecular components. Yet, learners often compartmentalize functions and specialization of cell organelles relevant to these two processes, without considering the interconnections as well as the significance of the plant as an independent biological system functioning as a nested component within local and global ecosystems. Understanding connections among biological systems at macro and micro levels is important to biological literacy. This study examined preservice elementary teachers' conceptions of photosynthesis and plant cellular respiration, with attention to interconnections and systems. Participants were limited in their understanding of the processes impacting multiple ecological levels, and they held inadequate representations of interconnections between the processes. Participants' views were laden with sociological and egocentric components. They often compared plant functions with analogous human functions. Most participants viewed plants as dependent on humans while having societal use. Justifications for views included nominal knowledge of the processes; experiential authoritarian reasoning; and anthropomorphism. We discuss instructional implications in light of the findings. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 791–812, 2009