Assessment of the English Skills of Tertiary Students

Despite increasing concern about student writing at the tertiary level there has been little empirical research into the nature and extent of the problem in Australia. The writing skills of three samples of university students in different courses were assessed using the multiple choice English Skills Assessment (ESA) test, and two other measures developed by the researchers: a detailed error checklist and wholistic ratings. The error checklist was intended to supplement as well as complement the skills areas covered by the ESA. On average, students responded correctly to 86 per cent of the ESA test items and made a total of 21 errors per 1000 words when writing narrative. The checklist enabled the detection of important deficiencies in writing not identified by the ESA, particularly in some areas of punctuation and sentence structure. Some different emphases are indicated for the testing of writing skills at the university level.     

CD‐ROM Technology for Education and Support of Site Supervisors

The authors discuss the creation and evaluation of a CD‐ROM to train and support prepracticum, practicum, and internship site supervisors in a master's‐level counselor education program. The authors, from a small, rural, southwestern college, created and distributed a CD‐ROM containing video and document resources for this purpose. Small focus groups were then conducted to gather data to measure the CD‐ROM's effectiveness. Data showed strong support for the use of CD‐ROM technology in providing training of site supervisors. Recommendations are offered to improve future versions of the CD‐ROM.     

Sexism on the Set: Gendered Expectations of TV Broadcasters in a Social Media World

This research examines gender performance expectations of television journalists in the era of social media. A qualitative survey found little to no progress in reducing discourse critical of broadcasters’ appearance in the 20 years since Engstrom and Ferri’s (2000) study, with social media adding another avenue to “correct” rather than challenge gender norms. Nearly all journalist respondents believe viewer criticism has increased with the rise of social media and believe their organizations should provide training and policies addressing this concern. However, 90% of respondents said their organizations provide neither, suggesting news outlets should enhance social media policies.     

Job change in the future

Job change now and in the future is a reality. Currently, job change appears to be a continental occurrence and is moving toward a global phenomenon. The present discussion of job change in the global marketplace is not meant to be an exhaustive explicative of the topic nor is it inclusive of all future contexts for employment. The intent, instead, has been to encourage the consideration of a multitude of issues related to job change, and to highlight the importance and implications of the evolution of the world of work in regard to this process. Research questions have also been delineated in anticipation of the refinement and expansion of current conceptualizations of job change in the future.Job change is an important dimension in an individual's career development process. It is anticipated, therefore, that this special issue about job change will, at a minimum, lead to a more informed and sophisticated means of understanding and intervening with individuals. Hopefully, the issue will stimulate thinking, dialogue, interventions, programs, and empirical investigations about job change. Regardless of the ultimate eventualities, job change offers exciting opportunities and challenges for individuals now and in the future.     

Helpful Resources for Childbirth Educators and Parents

In this column, reviewers offer perspectives and comments on a variety of current media resources (videos, books, a computer-based program) that address topics related to pregnancy and birth.     

TEACHER’S REFLECTION OF INQUIRY TEACHING IN FINLAND BEFORE AND DURING AN IN-SERVICE PROGRAM: EXAMINATION BY A PROGRESS MODEL OF COLLABORATIVE REFLECTION

In inquiry-based science education, there have been gradual shifts in research interests: the nature of scientific method, the debates on the effects of inquiry learning, and, recently, inquiry teaching. However, many in-service programs for inquiry teaching have reported inconsistent results due to the static view of classroom inquiries and due to the partial perspective between individual and collaborative reflections. Thus, by means of a theoretical progress model of collaborative reflection, this qualitative research aims to investigate reflections of four participant teachers before and during a half-year in-service teacher program. The model captures the following four interactions for each individual teacher and among the teacher cohort: belief to practice, practice to belief, stimulation, and reinforcement. The audio–video data and their quantification allowed identification of the teachers’ consistent prior beliefs and practices as a multiplicity of inquiry teaching and their interwoven progress during the program. The findings are further discussed in terms of the implicit development and the richer repertoire.