Integrating storytelling and quantitative career assessment

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - Combining quantitative career assessment with narrative career counselling is a career counselling challenge. The Integrative...     

Exercising a bounded autonomy: novice and experienced teachers’ adaptations to curriculum materials in an age of accountability

This study explores teachers’ first enactments of a set of theory-based curriculum materials designed to support academic language instruction. Specifically, this multiple case study looks at how six middle school English teachers in three US schools adapted the materials; each case includes a pair of teachers, one novice and one more experienced. All schools were located in the same district where a school performance measurement system was being used to publicly rank schools’ academic performance and growth. Multiple measures were used to look for evidence of adaptations and why teachers made adaptations. We found that all teachers adapted the curriculum, most often in response to either perceived student needs or district reform pressures. In two cases, patterns of adaptation differed by teacher experience; experienced teachers appeared better able to adapt curriculum materials to meet instructional goals. This pattern did not hold up at the third school, where teachers faced greater reform pressures. Taken together, these findings suggest that researchers should pay more attention to the role of school and district policy on teachers’ enactments of theory-based reforms. We conclude with guidance to researchers, instructional leaders and others interested in the potential of theory-based curricula as a lever for improving classroom instruction.     

Student outcomes and perceptions of instructors' demands and support in online and traditional classrooms

In this study, seven graduate students were interviewed and 187 (91 online; 96 traditional) graduate students were surveyed about perceptions of differences in instructors' demands and support and student' motivation, self-regulation, satisfaction, and perceptions of learning in these environments. Results indicated significant differences in students' perceptions on all variables except self-efficacy. Results indicated a strong effect for differences between perceived instructor affective support in online and traditional classrooms. Although students in traditional classrooms ranked instructors' affective support higher, the variable had a stronger relationship with online students' satisfaction. Differences between online and traditional students' reports of instructors' academic support, instructors' demands, and students' satisfaction were significant with medium effect sizes. Results are important because they provide information about students' perceptions of the differences in environments created by instructors that relate to students' affective outcomes.     

Student beliefs and learning environments: Developing a survey of factors related to conceptual change

This paper presents a model for the type of classroom environment believed to facilitate scientific conceptual change. A survey based on this model contains items about students' motivational beliefs, their study approach and their perceptions of their teacher's actions and learning goal orientation. Results obtained from factor analyses, correlations and analyses of variance, based on responses from 113 students, suggest that an empowering interpersonal teacher-student relationship is related to a deep approach to learning, a positive attitude to science, and positive self-efficacy beliefs, and may be increased by a constructivist approach to teaching. Specializations: secondary school science learning environments, writing in science, alternative frameworks, the language of science.     

Child abuse potential inventory and parenting behavior: Relationships with high-risk correlates

The primary purpose of this research was to examine the construct validity of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory by comparing maltreating and high-risk parents' CAP Inventory abuse scores to their behavior during interactions with their children. A second purpose was to determine the degree to which CAP Inventory scores and parenting behavior were related to several known correlates of abuse, as measured by parent and teacher reports. Participants (n = 41) included abusive and high-risk parents and their children referred to a treatment group. Correlational analyses revealed that CAP Inventory scores and observed parenting style yielded highly related findings, supporting construct validity of the CAP Inventory. However, the CAP Inventory and observed behavior index showed a different pattern of relationships to the risk correlates. Implications for assessment of risk status are discussed and recommendations are provided for continued research.     

武术英译研究

作为中国传统文化的一部分,中国武术正以它独特的魅力征服世界,而武术的英译则是将武术理论、技击、养生与科研成果介绍到国外,使国外学者正确理解掌握,促进武术的发展与学术交流的一个重要途径。本文以一些翻译实践为基础探讨了武术英译的难点,原则及策略。