Using Action Research to Enhance Teaching and Learning at the University of Technology,Jamaica

As part of its quality assurance systems, the University of Technology, Jamaica initiated a project aimed at exploring how action research could be used as a vehicle for enhancing the quality of the teaching/learning process. Following a series of orientation sessions and the development of a handbook for project teams, five action research projects were undertaken in the second semester of the academic year 2001-2002. The projects focused on using a student-centred approach in traditionally teacher-centred courses. At the end of the project cycle, results indicated that students became more independent learners and instructors had learned much about student-centred classroom strategies.     

Comparative Perceptions of Practicum Counselor Behavior

Nineteen counseling interviews were rated by the respective clients, counselors, and supervisors on the Counselor Rating Form; these ratings of perceived counselor expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness were compared in a repeated measures analysis of variance. Results indicated that all three sources of perceptions were similar, although counselors rated their own behavior as significantly less expert than their clients. The article discusses the results in terms of their relevance to counselor supervision and training.     

Comparative Effects of Teaching Basic Counseling Competencies Through Brief Microskills Practice Versus Mental Practice

Students enrolled in an introductory counselor education course who lacked training and experience as interviewers were randomly assigned to one of two short-term attending and responding skills training groups or a wait-control (WC) group. Brief microskills practice (MS) and mental practice (MP) training methods were used in the two treatment groups. All students conducted posttraining simulated counseling interviews, and their videotapes provided data for analysis of the quality of their interview competence and their proficiency with attending and responding skills. MANOVA and follow-up analyses of data from independent ratings of the videotapes indicated that MS was superior to MP and WC on attending skills, MP led to superior performance on responding skills, and neither MP nor MS led to significant differences in perceived competence on qualitative dimensions.     

Educating Counselors For Primary Prevention

Although the idea of primary prevention has become prevalent in the literature of the helping professions, actual services in this area have lagged behind. If counselors can develop the special skills needed to carry out primary prevention strategies, they may be effective in helping their clients find and maintain personal and environmental resources that they need to ward off problems. Primary prevention skills include educational skills, program development skills, and change agent skills, all of which can be learned in the context of master's level education or in-service training. Mention the words “primary prevention” in mental health circles these days and you're a hero!     

Conducting and Reporting Integrative Research Reviews: Accumulating Scientific Knowledge

Integrative research reviews are conceptualized as empirical research. Guidelines are offered to promote rigorous standards for conducting and reporting reviews in counselor education and supervision.     

The Politics of Bilingualism: A reproduction analysis of the policy of mother tongue education in Hong Kong after 1997

After the resumption of sovereignty in 1997 mother tongue education in Hong Kong, though it began with the good intention of national reintegration, politically, socially, culturally and educationally, has escalated the tensions and contradictions of the politics of bilingualism in its implementation. The government policy of bi-literacy and trilingualism addresses, rather than resolves, the problems of hegemonic struggle among different social groups in the society, and between the indigenous elite class and national ruling elites at both the local and national level. A reproduction analysis is conducted to examine the events pertinent to the language shift of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) to Chinese as a medium of instruction (CMI), with particular emphasis on controversial issues such as parental choice, antagonism of elite classes, and group politics in the face of the internationalisation of English under globalised developments of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). English, a colonising language in the past and now a world language for changes in ICT, remains problematic for Hong Kong's language policy undergoing decolonisation and internationalisation in its early post-transitional years. Putonghua, the national language of China, challenging Cantonese, the regional dialect, as the formal and high Chinese language of the society, has added complexities to the discourse of polemical mother tongue education under the 'one country, two systems' framework practised in Hong Kong.     

Upper extremity augmentation of lower extremity kinetics during countermovement vertical jumps

Twenty-five volleyball players (14 males, 11 females) were videotaped (60Hz) performing countermovement vertical jumps with and without an arm swing. Ground reaction force and video-based coordinate data were collected simultaneously. The resultant joint force and torque at the hip, knee, ankle and shoulder for two trials per subject per condition were computed and normalized. Average kinematic, resultant joint force and torque data were compared using repeated-measures analysis of variance. Larger values were recorded for the vertical velocity of the centre of mass at take-off in the jumps with (mean 2.75, s=0.3m.s-1) versus without (mean 2.44, s= 0.23m.s-1) an arm swing. The jumps with no arm swing produced larger torques at the hip during the first third of the propulsive phase (from zero to maximum vertical velocity of the centre of mass). During the final two-thirds of the propulsive phase, the arm swing augmented hip extensor torques by slowing the rate of trunk extension and placing the hip extensor muscles in slower concentric conditions that favoured the generation of larger forces and resultant joint torques. During the first two-thirds ofthe propulsive phase, knee extensor torque increased by 28% in the jumps with an arm swing, but maintained a relatively constant magnitude in the jumps with no arm swing.