STUDENTS’ ATTRIBUTIONS OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS

This study investigates higher education students’ own attributions of success using free responses, exploring in particular the relative importance of ability and effort‐related attributions on the one hand and luck‐related attributions on the other. A sample of 150 first year polytechnic degree course students from both Arts and Science faculties was investigated. A rank order of 12 categories was established: study habits, lecture‐content, lecturer, social, interest, motivation, ability, domestic security, peers, luck, financial security, health. Among study habits a rank order of 7 categories was also established: reading skills, examination technique, time, note‐taking skills, organisation of work, revision, place. Knowledge of, and practice in, study habits, is clearly important, and other implications are the need for further awareness of the lecturer‐student relationship and more research into the consistency of student attributions across faculties beyond the first year.     

Premature termination of conselling at a university Counselling Centre

This study investigated premature termination of counselling at a university Counselling Centre. Twenty (20) premature terminators reported on their experience of counselling by completing a mailed questionnaire containing open- and close-ended items. The following results were obtained: Premature termination was not the result of a negative experience of counselling by the client; nor was premature termination the manifestation of a failed interpersonal relationship between the client and the counsellor; clients who terminated prematurely are likely to seek counselling again at a later stage in their lives; premature terminators would be likely to refer someone for counselling and premature terminators did not consider their participation in the study as violating the counsellor-client confidentiality. Limited support was established for the hypothesis that premature terminators will consider their expectations of counselling as not having been met.     

The American professoriate and the movement toward unionization

This paper examines the movement away from professionalization and toward unionization by the American professoriate. A content analysis of the bi-annual addresses of the thrity-two past presidents of the American Association of University Professors demonstrates that the approach taken by this organization which has been central in representing the professional interests of the professoriate has been inadequate. The fact that academics are not independent professionals but carry out their research and pedagogical functions in bureaucratic structures makes their quest for autonomy particularly problematic. The traditional stance taken by the leadership of the American Association of University Professors seems to ignore the obstacles, e.g. the distribution of power in organizations, in the path of attaining full professional status. Consequently, the professoriate has not only fallen considerably short of its aspirations and is beset with a number of problems, e.g. continual violations of academic freedom, but increasing numbers have begun looking to labor unions to further their quest for professional status.     

Inventors and invention processes in Europe: Results from the PatVal-EU survey

Based on a survey of the inventors of 9017 European patented inventions, this paper provides new information about the characteristics of European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations, the motivations to invent, and the actual use and economic value of the patents.     

What Does Prone Skateboarding in the Newborn Tell Us About the Ontogeny of Human Locomotion?

The crawling behavior of sixty 2-day-old newborns was studied while they were supported prone on a mini skateboard and on a pediatric mattress without additional support. Analyses of the number and types of limb movements and their characteristics, the coactivation of limb pairs, and the displacement across the surface, revealed that newborns can crawl with locomotor patterns similar to those documented during quadrupedal locomotion in animals and human adults. This was particularly apparent on the skateboard. This discovery suggests that locomotor circuitry underlying quadrupedal locomotion develops during fetal life. Drawing upon other evidence for a quadrupedal organization underlying bipedal gait, we argue that early quadrupedal training may enhance interventions designed to hasten the onset of independent walking.     

Patterns of student counselling in South African Universities

This study presents an overview of counselling and research practices at South African universities. Most of the universities have well-established counselling centres which students consult for a wide range of problems. Most of the counselling centres keep a record of their endeavours in annual reports but very little counselling research is published. The most important research topics for South African counsellors were identifying high-risk students, study techniques, developing vocational information and the academic success rate of students.     

Early, late and non-participants in sexual intercourse: A profile of black South African first-year university students

This study investigated the differences among early-, late-and non-participants in sexual intercourse. 1817 first-year black South African university students completed a structured questionnaire, which tapped their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices about sexuality. The results revealed significant differences among the three groups with regard to their sources of sexual knowledge, approval of pre-marital sex, first intercourse partner relationship, number of sexual partners, contraceptive use, satisfaction with first sexual intercourse and parental communication about contraception.