THE MEDIATING ROLE OF ENGAGEMENT IN MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS AND SELF‐ESTEEM AMONG AFFLUENT ADOLESCENT GIRLS

This study examined the influence of growth‐fostering mentoring relationships on the self‐esteem of adolescent female students from affluent communities. Studies have demonstrated that this population of students is susceptible to psychological distress and self‐esteem problems, due to perfectionistic strivings and achievement pressures. Specifically, we hypothesized that growth‐fostering mentoring relationships (e.g., with teachers and school staff) would be positively associated with self‐esteem. Moreover, we expected that this association would be mediated by engagement in purposeful activities. The authors surveyed 207 girls from two independent secondary schools and found support for the mediation hypothesis. Using an ordinary least squares regression approach, the association between growth‐fostering mentoring relationships and self‐esteem was mediated by youth engagement in purposeful activities. Implications for future research and practice in schools are discussed.     

Feedback sessions as mediation spaces: empowering teacher candidates to deepen instructional knowledge and engage in the construction and transformation of theory in practice

ABSTRACT

The process of engaging in classroom research provides teacher candidates with opportunities to enter into the kind of deep, self-reflective work that we believe is an important capacity to build in teachers as they begin to engage in the construction and transformation of theory and knowledge within their own unique contexts. Our Action Research (AR) process involves multiple opportunities throughout their coursework, advising, and feedback sessions to try to promote the development of this capacity. These opportunities serve as a holding space where candidates are both supported and challenged through interactions with their research advisors, other faculty members, their peers, and panelists consisting of educators from the field. In this paper, we present what we believe to be important elements of AR that emerged from our final feedback sessions with 13 teacher candidates in our program as they prepared for the professional presentations. We found that considering these feedback sessions as mediation spaces (1) empowers teacher candidates to externalize and deepen personal understandings of their research through dialogical discourse with expert others, and (2) negotiate their power and emerging practitioner researcher identities.     

联想集团首席执行长讲述外籍经理人的跨文化管理

阿梅里奥不到一年前辞去了在戴尔公司(Dell Inc.)亚洲业务负责人的职务,加盟联想集团担任现职.在2004年斥资12.5亿美元收购了国际商业机器公司(International Business Machines Corp.,IBM)的个人电脑业务之后,联想集团已经成为按市场份额计全球第三大电脑公司.……     

Counselor Educators' Strategies for Success

Fourteen counselor educators identified strategies for research, teaching, and service activities. Responses were analyzed for themes, which were presented as recommendations for counselor educators. Recommendations included developing a disciplined, focused, and collaborative approach to research. Strategies for effective teaching included using multiple teaching methods, taking a student‐centered approach, and keeping current in one's field. Recommendations for participation in service activities included using effective interpersonal skills, appreciating multiple perspectives, and following through on one's commitments. Additional strategies for balancing time, overcoming obstacles, and coping with multiple life roles are presented.     

Elements of a successful capstone course considering the needs of stakeholders

One of the principal objectives of engineering education is to prepare graduates for the practice of engineering in industry. Industry involvement in the educational process can be very helpful in devising programs to meet this objective. Yet, engineering education has a number of other stakeholders including students, faculty, academic administrators, and others. Identifying and meeting the needs and wants of these various stakeholders is essential in developing educational programs and learning activities that are effective and sustainable. Stakeholders in engineering education are identified, including their wants and needs. Alternative approaches to developing a Capstone course, with input from these stakeholders, are proposed and evaluated in light of stakeholder needs and wants. A case study for developing a two-semester senior design capstone course at Brigham Young University is presented. In this example more than 300 industry sponsored, design and build, projects have been completed by cross-functional student teams over more than ten years. Feedback from alumni on the success of this course in meeting desired educational objectives is also presented.     

Stressed and Losing Sleep: Sleep Duration and Perceived Stress Among Affluent Adolescent Females

This study examined the relationship between stress and sleep duration for adolescent females from affluent backgrounds. Participants were 218 students attending two independent single-sex secondary schools. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models (cross-sectional and longitudinal) were run to examine the association between stress and sleep duration and to determine whether any associations lasted from the beginning to the end of the academic year. In the cross-sectional models, the relationship between perceived stress and sleep duration was reciprocal and negative. Findings from the longitudinal analyses suggested that perceived stress had lingering negative effects on sleep. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Educational Risk and Resilience in African-American Youth: Context, Self, Action, and Outcomes in School

This study examined the empirical validity of a model of human motivation as it applies to school success and failure in 3 independent samples of 10-to 16-year-old African-American youth. Specifically, we assessed how indicators of context, self , and action relate to measures of risk and resilient outcomes in school in 3 different samples, using 3 different measurement strategies. Correlational and path analyses on the 3 data sets supported the empirical validity of the model. African-American youth's experience of their parents' school involvement predicted a composite of self-system processes, which in turn predicted the subjects' reports of their engagement in school. Engagement then predicted school performance and adjustment. The data supported a reciprocal path from action to context, suggesting that youth who show more disaffected patterns of behavior and emotion in school experience less support from their families than those reporting more engaged patterns of action. Implications for program and policy decisions are discussed.     

Modes, media and methods: the search for educational effectiveness

The educational effectiveness of illustrations, visual-based instructional media, programmed learning, computer assisted learning, audio-tutorial instruction, organization of groups, and mastery learning strategies, are discussed. Attention is drawn to those aspects which produce educationally significant improvements in student performance. It is suggested that this research, which clearly indicates a variety of ways in which levels of attainment can be greatly enhanced, is being ignored in new curriculum developments. The author concludes that the improvements sought by educationists and politicians will not be achieved until the knowledge gained from many years of research is acted upon.