Helping Clients Cope with Change in the 21st Century: A Balancing Act

The national vision to equip all individuals with the knowledge, skills and desire for lifelong learning in order to meet the challenges in the world of work today, and in the future, is a powerful incentive for career services professionals. The authors use the analogy of a chair to discuss four strategies to assist clients in maintaining balance as they cope with uncertainty and change.     

A good student subject: a Foucauldian discourse analysis of an adolescent writer negotiating subject positions

In this article, we draw on the work of Michel Foucault to analyze one student’s subject development in an expository writing classroom. James, the participant, was embarking on the project of becoming a good student, as he understood it, after struggling and leaving school previously. Drawing on interviews, classroom observations and written artifacts, we use Foucauldian concepts and discourse analysis, along with one James Gee’s discourse analysis tools – the identities building tool – to conduct a microanalysis of James’s efforts to objectify himself as a good student subject. The data show how James acquiesced to the truths and practices of the regime of school, including how he mobilized truths of the regime through a process we call masked confession. That is, he negotiated his good student subject position by masking or silencing other subject positions. James’s masked confession was his way of negotiating the realm of ‘multiple truths,’ or multiple subject positions.     

Challenges in preparing aspiring principals for instructional leadership: voices from the field

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the challenges professors of educational leadership encounter as they prepare aspiring principals to be instructional leaders. Drawing upon an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews of professors from across the U.S.A., we analyzed significant statements and created themes that illuminate the challenges facing university faculty in preparing aspiring principals for instructional leadership. From the analysis of the combined data sources, five overarching challenges emerged for preparing future principals for the role of instructional leader. These challenges are: (a) teaching instructional leadership via online courses, (b) time in the internship to focus on instructional leadership, (c) instructional leadership mindsets, (d) pedagogical knowledge for use in instructional leadership and (e) the professor’s knowledge/experience in instructional leadership. The five challenges presented in the findings highlight the need for continuous program evaluation and collaboration among faculty to address coursework both in the classroom and in the internship. Additionally, the challenges highlight the need for more research in how to prepare aspiring principals to be culturally responsive and adopt a growth-mindset when it comes to teacher development, and how to create powerful learning experiences for aspiring principals in varying program contexts.     

Effects of single-sex and mixed-sex cooperative interaction on science achievement and attitudes and cross-handicap and cross-sex relationships

Single-sex cooperative, mixed-sex cooperative, and individualistic learning situations were compared to determine if they promoted systematic differences in relationships between male and female students and handicapped and nonhandicapped students. One-hundred-fifty-four 5th-and 6th-grade students were assigned to conditions on a stratified random basis controlling for ability, sex, grade level, homerooms, and handicap. They participated in a study for 45 minutes a day for 21 days in science class. The results indicate that cooperative learning situations, compared with individualistic ones, promoted more positive cross-sex and cross-handicap relationships. Males achieved higher and had more positive attitudes toward science than did females.     

A Domain-Referenced Approach to Diagnostic Testing Using Generalizability Theory

This paper describes a four-step approach to constructing diagnostic test profiles that provide precise but practical information on students' instructional needs. The approach is based on the specification and analysis of a domain and uses generalizability theory to determine which skills within the domain need to be assessed to diagnose gaps in students' skills and to estimate score profiles. A 64-item test of pronoun use was constructed to represent 32 categories of usage defined by different combinations of five factors in the domain. Generalizability analyses were conducted to determine the optimal number of categories to be included in students' profiles and the number of items needed for each category, and to produce univariate and multivariate estimates of students' universe scores. Multivariate profiles of universe scores were the most accurate and differed substantially from observed score and univariate universe score profiles.     

The efficacy of utilizing a phonics treatment package with middle school deaf and hard-of-hearing students

Research indicates that the acquisition of phonemic awareness and phonic skills is highly correlated with later success in learning to read. Numerous studies support the hypothesis that deaf and hard-of-hearing children are able to utilize alternative systems to develop phonological awareness that are not dependent on the ability to hear sounds or accurately pronounce words. A quasi-experimental, pre- and posttest design was employed in this study that evaluated the efficacy of implementing a phonics treatment package with middle-school-aged students. Results indicate that treatment students were able to demonstrate acquisition and generalization of the phonic skills taught. Additionally, acquisition of these skills did not appear to be related to degree of hearing loss.     

Using visual phonics to supplement beginning reading instruction for students who are deaf or hard of hearing

The purpose of the current study is to expand upon the effectiveness of using Visual Phonics in conjunction with Direct Instruction reading programs (B. J. Trezek & K. W. Malmgren, 2005; B. J. Trezek & Y. Wang, 2006) and to explore the results of utilizing Visual Phonics to supplement another phonics-based reading curriculum for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Twenty students with various degrees of hearing loss in kindergarten and first grade as well as 4 teachers participated in the study. Results of the investigation reveal that, given 1 year of instruction from a phonics-based reading curriculum supplemented by Visual Phonics, kindergarten and first-grade students who are deaf or hard of hearing can demonstrate statistically significant improvements in beginning reading skills as measured by standardized assessments.