A Preliminary Examination of Burnout Among Counselor Trainees Treating Clients With Recent Suicidal Ideation and Borderline Traits

Treating suicidal clients with borderline traits can be conducive to burnout. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) may assuage this burnout in counselors. As part of a DBT treatment outcome study, 6 counselors in training collected their own salivary cortisol samples and completed self‐report measures of burnout and well‐being for 1 year. Findings indicate a significant interaction for cortisol levels by treatment condition, such that DBT counselors experienced less physiological stress over time relative to a control group of counselors. There were no group differences in self‐reported burnout or well‐being. DBT may have a salutary effect on trainees' physiological stress levels over time.     

“There Is No Substitute for a Sense of Reality”: Humanizing the Humanities

Do the humanities have a future? In the face of an increased emphasis on the so‐called practical applicability of education, some educators worry that the presence of humanistic study in schools and universities is gravely threatened. In the short‐term, scholars have rallied to defend the humanities by demonstrating how they do, in fact, advance our practical interests. Martha Nussbaum, for example, argues that the humanities uniquely support democratic citizenship by cultivating critical thinking and narrative imagination — two skills needed for the development of sympathetic and autonomous judgment. Defending the humanities in this manner, however, puts practitioners of the humanities in an impossible position. In this essay, Megan Laverty explains that while arguments such as Nussbaum's, which defend the instrumental value of the humanities, are persuasive and strategic, their use is double‐edged. They belie the fact that the humanities are valuable for their own sake. Such arguments imply that the humanities derive their value from their ability to provide extrinsic benefits such as critical thinking and narrative imagination. Moreover, they can prevent individuals from discovering that the value of the humanities is revealed over time and from the inside out. In fact, having to answer the question of why the humanities matter puts us in an impossible position precisely because humanistic study is what Laverty describes, drawing upon the work of Talbot Brewer and R. F. Holland, as a form of dialectical activity: one in which the activity's constitutive ideals and internal goods are progressively clarified by means of the individual's ongoing engagement in the activity itself. Having redescribed the humanities as intrinsically valuable, Laverty goes on to distinguish humanistic study from other forms of dialectical activity, arguing that the humanities call upon students to imagine alternative linguistic and conceptual possibilities — thereby connecting us with others. It is in the pursuit of this question about the nature of our humanity — not its answer, but the question itself — that the meaning of humanistic study continues, indefinitely, to unfold.     

Differences in Child Care Quality for Children With and Without Disabilities

Research Findings: Federal, state, and local agencies legislate and support inclusive settings for the education of young children with disabilities. Recommended practices outline critical elements for meeting the educational and developmental needs of children with and without disabilities in inclusive settings, and minimal and essential quality characteristics have been articulated. Research has suggested that inclusive and non-inclusive settings may offer different levels of care as measured against best practices and essential quality characteristics. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine program quality in inclusive and non-inclusive preschool classrooms using observational, interview, and survey data. Results showed that inclusive classrooms earned higher scores on an observational measure of global quality and higher scores on an observational measure of language and literacy. Results also suggested that teachers with higher levels of education tend to have classrooms of higher quality. Practice or Policy: Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Residential Mobility,Inhibitory Control,and Academic Achievement in Preschool

Research Findings: The present study investigated the direct effects of residential mobility on children's inhibitory control and academic achievement during the preschool year. It also explored fall inhibitory control and academic skills as mediators linking residential mobility and spring achievement. Participants included 359 preschool children (49% female) studied in the fall and spring of the preschool year (73% were enrolled in Head Start). Residential mobility was significantly and negatively associated with fall inhibitory control and fall math and literacy. Significant indirect effects of mobility were found for spring math and literacy through inhibitory control and fall achievement. Specifically, the negative relation between mobility and spring math and literacy was partially explained by lower scores on fall inhibitory control and academic skills. Practice or Policy: The current study contributes to the existing literature by specifying pathways linking frequent moves and achievement for young children. Policy implications are discussed.     

Instructional Sensitivity of a State's Standards-Based Assessment

Abstract

The accuracy of achievement test score inferences largely depends on the sensitivity of scores to instruction focused on tested objectives. Sensitivity requirements are particularly challenging for standards-based assessments because a variety of plausible instructional differences across classrooms must be detected. For this study, we developed a new method for capturing the alignment between how teachers bring standards to life in their classrooms and how the standards are defined on a test. Teachers were asked to report the degree to which they emphasized the state's academic standards, and to describe how they taught certain objectives from the standards. Two curriculum experts judged the alignment between how teachers brought the objectives to life in their classrooms and how the objectives were operationalized on the state test. Emphasis alone did not account for achievement differences among classrooms. The best predictors of classroom achievement were the match between how the standards were taught and tested, and the interaction between emphasis and match, indicating that test scores were sensitive to instruction of the standards, but in a narrow sense.     

Predictors of Obligatory Exercise Among Undergraduates: Differential Implications for Counseling College Men and Women

This study examined predictors of obligatory exercise in college undergraduates (N= 172). Regression models indicated that internalization of Western attitudes toward appearance predicted exercise fixation and commitment in women, whereas perceived pressure from dating partners predicted exercise commitment in men. Findings suggest that men may respond more to peer pressure, whereas women may be more susceptible to internalized sociocultural pressure. Implications for differential assessment and treatment of college men and women are discussed.     

The online or e‐survey: a research approach for the ICT age

Over the last two decades or so, organisations everywhere have been subjected to considerable restructuring and reform. Schools have been no exception to this trend. Devolution has been prominent amongst the managerial reforms which have affected primarily the work practices of managers (James, 2003). In the context of schooling, devolution or school based management has increased the decision‐making powers of schools and their communities. It has also brought with it the requirement that schools meet a wider range of accountability measures (Whitty et al., 1998). In such a climate, school leaders are likely to find themselves juggling a ‘multitude of competing obligations and interests’ (Cooper, 1998, p. 244). This complex operational milieu requires school leaders to confront and resolve conflicting interests as they endeavour to balance a variety of values and expectations in their decision‐making. Not surprisingly, the result is often ethical dilemmas for leaders.

In this paper we argue that an understanding of ethics and ethical dilemmas is crucial for educational leaders due to the value‐laden nature of their work. We put forward a tentative generic model that endeavours to assist our understanding of the forces impacting upon and processes characterising the decision‐making dynamics emerging from an ethical dilemma. A scenario is posed and tested against the model.     

On the Road,Playing with Legos®, and Learning about the Library: The Rutgers University Art Library Lego Playing Station,Part Two

ABSTRACT

In Playing with LEGO®, Learning about the Library, and “Making” Campus Connections: The Rutgers University Art Library Lego Playing Station, Part One, the author discusses the importance of outreach, creativity, and innovation to the future of academic libraries. Low-cost making activities, can encourage creative problem-solving skills and be an innovative way to teach students, faculty, and staff more about academic libraries. In this article, the author will look more closely at the hands-on learning experiences that resulted when academic library faculty and staff were introduced to the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology by means of a mobile makerspace.     

Reflecting on Quiz Placement in Online Tutorials: Creating a More Active Learning Experience

As the number of online library tutorials increases, so does the need to create active learning experiences and options for self-assessment. This article looks at embedding short Flash quizzes into tutorials created with Camtasia as a way to address this need. It also attempts to determine how quiz placement affects desire to view online tutorials and information retention.