Changing Conceptions of Careers Guidance and a Proposed Model for Singapore Schools

The paper examines the evolution of the concept of careers guidance from an international perspective. A four-stage model encompassing information, interview, curriculum and integration is proposed to explain how various patterns of careers guidance have emerged. The proposed model for careers guidance in Singapore is then described in terms of philosophy, delivery, roles, resources and training. Some suggestions are made as to how difficulties with this model can be overcome.     

Using PowerPoint Animations to Teach Operations Management Techniques and Concepts

This article examines the value of using complex animated PowerPoint presentations to teach operations management techniques and concepts. To provide context, literature covering the use of PowerPoint animations in business education is briefly reviewed. The specific animations employed in this study are identified and their expected benefits to students and faculty are discussed. Evidence of their perceived value to students and faculty is then presented.     

Careers guidance in a developing country: Malaysia

Formal careers guidance services are a product of economic and social development. In relatively primitive societies, allocation to adult roles is determined largely by the family, caste or class into which one is born. As the society becomes more complex, these systems start to break down, and careers guidance services are needed to lubricate—and, perhaps, catalyse (Daws, 1977)—increasing levels of social and occupational mobility. How then is the role of careers guidance evolving in those Third World countries that are trying so to accelerate the pace of economic and social development that they will be able to catch up with the living standards attained by the Western world? How far are they being influenced by the approaches to careers guidance that have evolved in such countries as the USA and Britain? How applicable are these approaches to cultures that in many ways are very different? An opportunity to examine these questions in the context of one developing country—Malaysia—was afforded by a visit carried out in February-March 1977. This article outlines some impressions of the careers guidance system that seems to be emerging there.     

Evaluating a Classroom Multimedia Programme in the Teaching of Literacy

This paper explores classroom interventions using a particular form of multimedia ICT, and looks to study pupil learning gains which accrue from its use. Work within the Literacy Hour in eight schools was detailed in order to evaluate the effectiveness of this communication system and the research data include pre- and post-test assessments, along with interviews with classroom teachers and pupils. The children are presented with a series of journalistic tasks and classroom activities which they resolve through the use of a compact and coordinated information system. The outcomes demonstrate that children can become self-directive and very active, exploratory, learners in a very short period of time. They quickly enjoy the freedom and control which the system permits, and through which they can be shown to enhance particular literacy skills. The lessons to be learned here relate to the management and organisation of classroom teaching in the face of systems which promote rapid devolution of learning to the learner.     

The affective dimensions of learning science

In this study, we identified middle school and college students' prior ideas about electrostatic induction and interviewed them through presenting observational evidence which supported or refuted their own prior ideas. Their responses to the evidence were interpreted from perspectives based on philosophies of science, especially the Popperian and Lakatosian views of scientific hypothesis testing. In the process of confirmation, almost all of the students showed a logical error known as an 'error of affirmation of the consequent' in a syllogism. The students' falsification processes were classified into two groups: those which rejected the hard core of prior ideas, and those which modified the students' protective belt of auxiliary ideas related to the hard core while still preserving the hard core. From an analysis of the students' falsification processes, it was found that the Lakatosian rather than the Popperian view was more acceptable in understanding the students' responses to the conflicting evidence. It was observed that the quality of the understanding of auxiliary ideas should also play an important role in the changing of core concepts.     

Reality Therapy and Personalized Instruction: A Success Story

Abstract

A longitudinal pilot study investigating the cumulative effects of reality therapy counseling and individualized instruction on the control expectancy and success rates of high-risk community college students was conducted. Findings support the tentative hypotheses that control expectancy, achievement, and holding power can be modified by instruction and counseling. The study was conducted over a three-year period at a community college in southeastern North Carolina.     

Child care and family processes: Bi-directional relations between child care quality,home environments,and maternal depression

The current study examined whether within-family changes in child care quality and quantity predicted subsequent changes in home environment quality and maternal depression across early childhood (6 to 54 months of age). Data were drawn from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1239; 77% White; 48% female; data collection from 1991 to 1996), and were analyzed using Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models. Within-family increases in child care quality predicted modest increases in home environment quality (β = .13–.17). These effects were most robust from child age 6 to 15 months. Increases in child care quality produced small, statistically non-significant, reductions in depression. Time-specific increases in child care quantity were not consistently predictive of either outcome.