Becoming a strategic reader

An important aspect of learning to read is understanding how to use strategies to aid comprehension. Many actions such as skimming, using context to discern unfamiliar words, and taking notes to aid remembering can promote reading comprehension and learning. In this paper we examine aspects of knowledge and motivation that are critical to becoming a strategic reader. We emphasize that agents are strategic, not actions removed from contexts, and that self-guided learning depends on the intentions, perceptions, and attributions of learners. Learning to read strategically is related to children's cognitive development as well as to the social contexts of instruction. Some suggestions are offered for classroom instruction that can promote children's awareness and use of strategic reading.     

Procedural Facilitators and Cognitive Strategies: Tools for Unraveling the Mysteries of Comprehension and the Writing Process,and for Providing Meaningful Access to the General Curriculum

A solid, emerging research base exists to inform how we provide meaningful access to the general education curriculum for students with learning disabilities (LD). For example, the presentation of challenging content to academically diverse learners can be demystified using content enhancement techniques. Additionally, a range of strategies can be taught to enhance reading comprehension and expressive writing abilities. Examples from several lines of research in comprehension and writing are used to highlight the underlying features of these empirically based approaches and to introduce the reader to the history of this expanding body of research.     

The limits of tolerance in assessing the competence of counselling trainees

At a time when there is intense demand for counselling training in Britain, at considerable cost in terms of time and money for students, the pressure for successful outcome weighs heavily on course tutors. At the same time the pressure to ensure that professional standards of competence in counselling are upheld make the process of continual and final assessment critical.As part of a study investigating the assessment of competence of counsellors in training, trainers were asked a series of questions about the ethical difficulties they have encountered in assessing students. Four case scenarios were presented highlighting various dilemmas that can face trainers when aspects of a student's personal development or self awareness potentially pose a threat to the counselling relationship they have with clients. Trainers were also asked whether they had ever passed students studying on their courses against their better judgement or with reservations about their capacity to fully engage with their clients in a competent and professional manner. If so they were also asked how this came about. The response to these questions was varied and interesting. The majority of respondents reported that students had graduated from their courses about whom they had reservations. The response to the varied scenarios produced valuable qualitative data that reflects both differing frames of reference and value systems of trainers and training courses.The information gathered in this enquiry is discussed with reference to recent sparse literature on counselling training, professionalism and ethics. This paper addresses the concerns that counselling trainers agonise over in private, now open for debate in a public arena, namely how tolerant can they afford to be when assessing the competence of their trainees.     

Book Reviews

Indexing from A to Z Second edition by Hans H. Wellisch, New York and Dublin: H.W. Wilson, 1996, 569 pp, $45, ISBN 0 8242 0882 X Winning the Publications Game by Tim Albert, Oxford and New York: Radcliffe Medical Press, 1997 100pp £15, ISBN 1-85775 183 3     

Reactive attachment disorder

This single case study, written from the personal perspective of an adoptive parent, tells the story of Anna, a child who experienced many difficulties adjusting to her life at home and at school. Sue Chapman, who is a teacher as well as being Anna's mother by adoption, describes her frustration with the ineffective behaviour management strategies she is initially encouraged to use. Her discovery of information about reactive attachment disorder and her consequent use of 're-nurturing' approaches led to a transformation in Anna's behaviour, outlook and achievements. This successful experience encourages Sue Chapman to speculate about the relevance of these approaches.     

Using successful graduates to improve the quality of undergraduate engineering programmes

This paper reports on a study of engineering graduates identified as high performers by their work supervisors. The study involved 20 graduates from different universities working in seven companies covering electrical, civil, mechanical, telecommunications and environmental engineering. The aim of the study was to identify the capabilities that were seen to be most important for successful engineering practice during the first few years after graduation, and to evaluate the extent to which universities were typically developing these capabilities. The reported study is a pilot for a larger scale study of a number of professional disciplines which will be used to shape the ongoing evolution of the undergraduate programmes in these disciplines at UTS. The results reaffirm the fact that while technical expertise is a necessary capability for successful practice it is certainly not sufficient. A range of 'emotional intelligence' capabilities appears to be judged by graduates and their supervisors alike as being very significant success factors. By focusing on the entire undergraduate experience rather than just what is taught, course designers can do much to provide learning opportunities to develop the capabilities identified.