Positive youth development and gender differences in high performance sport

ABSTRACT

We examined positive youth development within a high performance sport environment. Youth football players (N = 455; Males = 315; Females = 140) completed a range of questionnaires including: the Youth Experiences Survey for Sport; Self-Confidence subscale of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory–2 Revised; Sport Competence Inventory; Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviour in Sport Scale; and the modified Coach-Athlete Relationship questionnaire. The players reported a relatively high level of self-confidence, competence and positive youth experiences. They felt a strong coach-athlete relationship and displayed higher levels of prosocial than antisocial behaviour. Males scored significantly higher than females on self-confidence, perceived self-competence, antisocial behaviour to teammates and opponents, relationship with their coach, and cognitive skills. Findings suggest a relationship between high performance sport environments and positive youth development.     

一个外国投资商的中国难题

美国的风险投资家发现在中国很难找到一些当地高质量的投资对象，而中国的投资家在美国也发现了同样的情况。     

Gender stereotypes and gendered vocational aspirations among Swiss secondary school students

Background: Horizontal gender inequalities appear to be rather stable, with girls more often choosing ‘female’ service professions, and boys choosing career paths related to science, technology, engineering or Mathematics.

Purpose: Non-egalitarian patriarchal gender-role orientations and gender associations (perceived femininity) of the school subjects German Language Arts and Mathematics are theorised – triangulating different theoretical backgrounds – and empirically analysed as a major predictor of gender-typical vocational aspirations, considering interest in these school subjects as a mediating factor. Furthermore, we focus on a patriarchal relation of father’s and mother’s workforce participation as a root of gender-role orientations, and teacher gender in regard to its impact on gendered images of subjects.

Sample: Empirical analyses are based on survey data from eighth-graders (around the ages of 14 and 15 at the time of data gathering) in the Swiss canton of Bern. The sample only encompasses children from two-parent families, as patriarchality in terms of differences in workforce participation between father and mother is taken into account.

Design and methods: The research issues are analysed employing structural equation models. The statistical package Mplus allows for an analysis of the two dependent dichotomous variables ‘gender-typical vocational aspiration’ and ‘gender-atypical vocational aspiration’. The hierarchic structure of the sample (school class clusters) is taken into account.

Results: Findings reveal different patterns for boys and girls; for boys, gender-typical (male) vocational aspiration could be explained to a small extent via gender-role orientations, interest in Mathematics and gender associations of school subjects; for girls, the factors under consideration could be empirically linked to ‘atypical vocational aspiration’. Teacher gender only has an impact among girls: if girls are taught by a female Mathematics teacher, they perceive the subject as a bit more female and show a higher interest in this subject. Their likelihood of having a gender-atypical vocational aspiration is a bit higher than among girls with a male Mathematics teacher who perceive the subject as a bit less female and, thus, show somewhat lower interest in this subject.

Conclusions: There are still links – although weak – between gender stereotypes and vocational aspirations. Gender-role orientations are rooted in the family. A sensitisation towards gender stereotypes and their impact on aspirations and career would appear to be meaningful in broadening the vocational perspectives of men and women.     

GOAL CLARIFICATION THROUGH AIM UNDERSTANDING OF WORK VALUES

Abstract

A survey of 400 senior colleges and universities in the United States revealed that community college relations committees are not the primary organizational structures through which interinstitutional relations are maintained between 2-year and 4-year schools. Of the 304 responding institutions, only 48 reported having a community college relations committee. This number was surprisingly small considering that community college transfers account for an average of 24% of their total enrollments. Such committees were found more frequently in public than in private 4-year institutions. The lack of adequate funding inhibited the success of most of the committees surveyed. Only 27% reported that they were highly successful in achieving their stated purposes. In most instances in which a high degree of committee effectiveness was perceived, well-developed programs were in operation, and adequate funds for sustaining their activities were available. The articulation of transfer policies and the promotion of informational exchanges between senior and 2-year institutions were the most common committee purposes reported. Although most committees were not highly research oriented, several provided examples of innovative and constructive projects.     

Chronicling engagement: students’ experience of online learning over time

Although there is ample research into student engagement in online learning, much of this investigates the student experience through surveys administered at a fixed point in time, usually at the exit point of a single unit of study or course. The study described in this paper, by contrast, aimed to understand online student engagement over a whole semester, guided by two overarching questions: What factors impact students’ engagement over a semester? What factors account for fluctuation in engagement levels over time? This paper presents results from weekly feedback on online education students’ engagement over the length of one semester at a regional Australian university. It also chronicles in more depth the experiences of one student across the same semester. The findings offer longitudinal accounts of student engagement, demonstrating that levels of engagement fluctuate and are influenced by a variety of factors.     

‘Around the Meeting Tree’: methodological reflections on using digital tools for research into Indigenous adult education in the Networking Tranby project

ABSTRACT

The authors reflect on the methodology of using digital tools to learn about the experiences of Indigenous people enrolled from 1980 to 2000 as adult students at Tranby, an Indigenous-controlled post-secondary college. This collaboration between Tranby and the University of Technology Sydney drew on debates in post-colonial studies, oral history and archival studies. The authors found that participants prioritised personal control in all social media communication and engaged most actively in person-to-person communication to take part in this research. Participants were eager to share memories of student experiences but they have preferred to contribute to online publications which focused on activities, rather than on individuals. To support participants’ desire for control over digital communication, the authors slowed the pace of online outcome development to allow flexible and ongoing consent arrangements along with non-custodial approaches to oral, archival, photographic and material collections.