National Survey of School Counselor Supervision

A sample of 267 American School Counseling Association members were surveyed regarding their current supervision, desire for clinical supervision, and rating of supervision goals. Although a small minority of respondents indicated that they were currently receiving supervision, a majority of respondents indicated a desire to receive supervision. Factor analysis of ratings of supervision goals resulted in 3 factors related to the foci or learning dimensions described in J. M. Bernard's (1997) Discrimination Model. Recommendations for counselor educators and school counselor supervisors are discussed.     

Literacy instruction: From assignment to assessment

This action research demonstrates the answer to this question: How can literacy professors provide effective training in evaluating writing to preservice graduate education students? The study examines writing assessment instruction in the context of a literacy course required of preservice teachers seeking secondary (7–12) certification in content area instruction. Approximately half of the course is devoted to instruction in 3 areas of writing assessment: (1) theory and practice in aspects of holistic writing assessment analysis, (2) methods for designing teachable rubrics, and (3) approaches to creating and sharing written feedback. Student-participants’ written responses to protocols demonstrate learning outcomes in these 3 areas along with their attitudes and the effects of their practice with an authentic set of high school students’ essays. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of this assessment instruction as a part of overall effectiveness in teacher preparation programs at the graduate level.     

The structure and function of academic self‐concept in gifted and general education students

Using structural equation modeling techniques, this exploratory study investigated the differences in the factor structure of academic self‐perceptions in a sample of gifted students and within a general population of students. The factor structure exhibited partial measurement invariance, suggesting that two of the items on the factor work differently in the gifted sample than in the sample from the general population. The gifted sample demonstrated higher academic self‐perceptions than the general school sample and higher self‐reported GPAs than the general school sample. However, the relationship between academic self‐perceptions and self‐reported GPA was invariant across groups. For both gifted students and the general population of high school students, GPA and academic self‐perceptions were moderately and positively related. Therefore, although there are large mean differences between gifted students and the general population of students on the academic self‐perceptions scale, the structure of the relationship between academic self‐perceptions and GPA was similar.     

Towards a More Appropriate University English Curriculum in China in the Context of English as an International Language

The rapid and wide spread of English has given rise to its lingua franca status, which in turn, changes the nature of English and English teaching at the tertiary level. This paper, based on a survey, discusses some of the problems with the current English curriculum used in Chinese universities and proceeds to offer some suggestions for a more appropriate university English curriculum in China in the context of English as an international language.     

A Review of “Sequels: An Annotated Guide to Novels in Series”

This note discusses, with examples, correct ways of determining the average growth rates of phenomena that grow exponentially, such as typical library collections. Library expenditures also tend to grow exponentially; and because analysis of their growth rates is complicated by the effects of currency inflation, methods of compensating for inflation in the analysis are presented.