Similarity of Interpersonal Behaviour in Career Counselling

This article explores how similarities in expected and perceived in-session behaviour between clients and career counsellors are related to evaluation of sessions. Interpersonal behaviour was defined by the Structural Analysis of Social Behaviour, SASB (Benjamin, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(6), 1203–1212, 1996a; Journal of Personality Assessment, 66(2), 248–266, 1996b; Interpersonal diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders. New York, NY, Guilford Press). Fifteen dyads of clients and career counsellors in a Swedish upper secondary school participated. The hypotheses were that if clients and career counsellors had more similar expectations regarding their behaviour and more similar perceptions of in-session behaviour this would lead to more positive evaluations of the session. Only weak support was found for an association between positive evaluation of sessions and interpersonal similarities in expectations and experiences of behaviour.

---

Résumé. Comportement interpersonnel dans l’entretien vocationnel. Cet article explore la manière dont les similitudes dans le comportement attendu et perçu à l’intérieur de sessions entre des clients et des conseillers d’orientation sont liées à l’évaluation de ces sessions. Le comportement interpersonnel a été défini par la Structural Analysis of Social Behaviour, SASB(Analyse Structurale du Comportement Social, ASCS) (Benjamin, 1996). Quinze dyades de clients et de conseillers d’orientation dans une école secondaire suédoise de deuxième cycle ont participé à cette étude. Les hypothèses étaient que si les clients et les conseillers d’orientation avaient des attentes concernant leur comportement et des perceptions du comportement intra-session plus proches, ceci mènerait à des évaluations plus positives de la session. On n’a trouvé qu’un faible appui à l’association entre l’évaluation positive des sessions et les similitudes interpersonnelles dans les attentes et les perceptions comportementales.Zusammenfassung. Interpersonelles Verhalten in der Beruflichen Beratung. Dieser Artikel untersucht die Einflüsse zwischen dem erwarteten und dem wahrgenommenen Verhalten von Klienten und Beratern während Beratungssitzungen und der Bewertung dieser Sitzungen. Das interpersonelle Verhalten wurde auf der Grundlage der “Strukturanalyse für soziales Verhalten (Structural Analysis of Social Behaviour, SASB, Benjamin, 1996) ausgewertet. Fünfzehn Klienten-Berater-Paare aus einer höheren Sekundar-Schule in Schweden nahmen an der Untersuchung teil. Ausgangshypothese war, dass die Bewertung der Beratungssitzung um so positiver ausfallen würde, je ähnlicher sich die Verhaltenserwartungen von Klienten und Beratern und die gegenseitigen Verhaltenswahrnehmungen sind. Für diesen vermuteten Zusammenhang zwischen positiver Bewertung einer Sitzung und interpersonellen Verhaltenserwartungen und –beobachtungen wurde jedoch nur ein sehr schwacher Nachweis gefunden.Resumen. Comportamiento Interpersonal en la Orientación (personalizada) para la Carrera. Este artículo explora cómo las semejanzas en el comportamiento esperado y percibido en las sesiones de orientación entre los clientes y los orientadores están relacionadas con la evaluación de dichas sesiones. El comportamiento interpersonal fue definido en el Análisis Estructural del Comportamiento Social (Benjamín, 1996). Participaron quince díadas de clientes y orientadores en una escuela secundaria superior sueca. La hipótesis de partida era que si los clientes y orientadores tenían expectativas semejantes con respecto a su comportamiento y percepciones más parecidas sobre el comportamiento en la sesión, esto llevaría a evaluaciones más positivas de la sesión. Los resultados proporcionaron sólo un débil apoyo a la relación entre la evaluación positiva de las sesiones y las semejanzas interpersonales en expectativas y experiencias de comportamiento.

     

Exploiting Distance Technology to Foster Experimental Design as a Neglected Learning Objective in Labwork in Chemistry

This paper deals with the design process of a remote laboratory for labwork in chemistry. In particular, it focuses on the mutual dependency of theoretical conjectures about learning in the experimental sciences and technological opportunities in creating learning environments. The design process involves a detailed analysis of the expert task and knowledge, e.g., spectrophotometry as a method for the determination of the concentration of a compound in a solution. In so doing, modifications in transposing tasks and knowledge to the learning situation can be monitored. The remote laboratory is described, as well as the specific features that alter the degree of fidelity of the learning situation in comparison with the expert one. It is conjectured that these alterations might represent actual benefits for learning.     

Student Success in University Education: A Multi-measurement Study of the Impact of Student and Faculty Factors on Study Progress

This study focuses on the factors that determine study progress and numerical success rate in higher education. Study progress is influenced at three levels, namely the student level, course/institute level and government level. It is expected that various groups of economic, social, psychological and organisational factors will together influence the study progress. This study uses a multi-level and multi-disciplinary framework, in so far as it considers all of these factors at the different levels. The database contains about 9,000 students and 60 courses at the institutional level. The results show the relative importance of student level and institutional factors on study progress.     

Student Preference Rates for Predominately Online,Compressed, or Traditionally Taught University Courses

Universities and colleges in the United States are actively searching for new ways to increase student enrollment as one means to offset recent government budget cuts in educational funding. One proposal at a particular institution involves transitioning a commuter university from a traditional semester length calendar to one that offers predominately online and compressed courses. University students responded to a survey, based on a number of variables, regarding their impressions of taking considerably more online and compressed courses in lieu of traditionally taught courses. While the students wanted to keep the traditional semester calendar, findings showed that some of the benefits of online and compressed teaching schedules were appealing.     

White on White: Researcher Reflexivity and the Logics of Privilege in White Schools Undertaking Reform

I use this paper to reexamine my role as a White researcher on a multi-racial research team. I reanalyze data I collected during an evaluation project to reveal how I avoided seeing race in the schools I visited and how I dodged discussions of race with members of those school communities. By analyzing my own discursive practice, I introduce a series of logics enacted through a variety of strategies that I used to manage race talk. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: (1) an analysis of the strategies I used to sustain White privilege and (2) an examination of the logics of those strategies in order to understand the power they have in reproducing inequity. Only by understanding the self-perpetuating nature of White privilege will we be able to begin to dismantle it. Jenny Gordon is an assistant professor in the Division of Education, School of Education and Human Development at Binghamton University. She teaches foundations courses for elementary education and courses on qualitative research methods. Her scholarly work includes articles on methodological issues pertaining to qualitative research methods and narratives on the impact of race on research and teaching.     

Optical computing

Researchers are using new conducting polymers to make transistor-like switches that are smaller and thousand times faster than the silicon transistors. Electricity-conducting organic molecules that are much thinner than semiconductor wires, are being teased into self-assembling. These advances promise super-tiny all-optical chips. In fact, progress in optical storage devices can now shrink an entire Library’s book collection down to sugar-cube size. Optical computers could be leaving silicon number crunchers choking in the dust by decade’s end.     

Why Universities Need Institutional Researchers and Institutional Researchers Need Faculty Members More Than Both Realize

This paper provides an overview of research that I have conducted during my career using data sets collected by offices of institutional research. Many of the examples discussed in the paper deal with graduate education. The paper illustrates how valuable the data collection efforts by these offices are to academic researchers interested in helping to formulate institutional, state and national higher education policies. It concludes with suggestions for how the usefulness of institutional researchers to colleges and universities can be improved and stresses that institutional researchers and administrators would be wise to involve more faculty members in research that aids in institutional decision making and the formulation of public policy towards higher education.