Lifelong learning among older professionals: How competence strategies and perceptions of professional learning affect pastors’ participation

One of the challenges of keeping older employees up to date and ensuring their continued involvement in the workplace is to provide them with relevant learning opportunities. This article aims to understand the usefulness of the concept of LLL for a group of older employees (50+). This is done using interviews and a document study on the Church of Norway (CofN) to understand how the concept of LLL is interpreted and acted upon by employers and older pastors. We assume that changes occurring outside the Church provoke the need for new knowledge and new ways of working. We ask how these older professionals perceive their learning opportunities and try to ascertain how the concept of LLL is helping them to tackle the ongoing changes. The article adds to the research on the interplay between competence strategies of employers and attitudes of older employees in a well‐established profession. Results of our study show that new strategies open up for greater participation. However, older pastors’ greatest motivation for learning seems to be their ordination vows, which include a commitment to continued learning through personal studies. This influences the kind of activities in which they participate, their expectations concerning the recognition of their learning and their views on the Church as a learning organisation. We conclude that older pastors do benefit from LLL initiatives in the workplace, but they also benefit from belonging to a profession with a conscious commitment to learning.     

Fostering self-efficacy and self-regulation in higher education: a matter of autonomy support or academic motivation?

ABSTRACT

By implementing student-centred learning environments, higher education institutions aim to foster student self-efficacy and self-regulation. Previous research that focuses on how students perceive these learning environments usually does not take the differential impact of students’ study motivation into account. However, the type of motivation might influence how students perceive their learning environment. To this end, this study investigates the relationship between students’ perceived autonomy support in student-centred learning environments and self-regulation and self-efficacy by taking study motivation into account. The results indicate that autonomy-supportive teacher behaviour enhances self-efficacy for students who are autonomously motivated. Amotivated students might need other than autonomy-supportive teacher behaviour to develop self-efficacy. Self-regulation seems to play a less distinct role. Overall, when examining the effects of autonomy-supportive teaching in higher education, the quality and quantity of students’ motivation has a role to play, an aspect which is important to consider in future research and practice.     

A Best Practice Modular Design of a Hybrid Course Delivery Structure for an Executive Education Program

This article highlights a best practice approach that showcases the highly successful deployment of a hybrid course delivery structure for an Operations core course in an Executive MBA Program. A key design element of the approach was the modular design of both the course itself and the learning materials. While other hybrid deployments may stress the importance of modular design, our deployment demonstrates how content can be easily mixed and matched into shorter courses on select topics. In particular, through the migration of select content online and the use of face‐to‐face class time for discussion and active‐learning experiences, we were able to dramatically reduce face‐to‐face student seat time, positively increase the student experience, and facilitate dramatic improvement in student academic achievement.     

4. ELECTRONIC MEDIA

Dorothy Ganfield Fowler's Unmailable: Congress and the Post Office (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1977- $14.50)

Current Developments in CATV and Pay Television (Practising Law Institute, 810 Seventh Ave., New York, N.Y. 10019—$20.00, paper, with discounts if adopted in quantity for class use).

Broadcasting and the Government: A Status Report prepared by the Relations and Legal Departments of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB, 1771 N St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20036—free on request)

Allen Hyman and M. Bruce Johnson, eds., Advertising and Free Speech (Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books [D.C. Heath] , 1977—$12.50     

Book Review

The Varieties of Delinquent Youth. William H. Sheldon. New York: Harper and Bros., 1949. 899 pages, $8.00. Reviewed by Carl E. Willgoose     

Anthropometry of Young Women

Abstract

Based upon a multidimensional model for characterizing physical activity, the development of two forms (college men, college women) of an attitude inventory is described. Items held to be representative of the six dimensions of the model were evaluated on the basis of factor and item analyses using data generated by the use of preliminary forms. Hoyt reliabilities ranged from .72 to .89 for the six scales. Scales were able to differentiate between appropriate high and low preference groups for a particular type of activity in all cases except physical activity perceived as “catharsis.” The stability of the instrument is shown by comparing measures of central tendency, variability, and reliability of the basic sample with those drawn from a second, but similar population. Normative data, instructions, and a list of items, are provided.     

Interrelationships between Physical Fitness Scores

Abstract

Ten moderately well-conditioned male students at the University of Toledo ran on a treadmill, fully attired in football equipment, with an environmental temperature of 90 F and relative humidity of 70%. Each subject was partially acclimatized and then exposed to the experimental conditions on five consecutive days (balanced Latin square). Four 1-liter water replacement schedules (designed to test specific hypotheses), and a control of no water, served as five levels of the independent variable. Data were collected on rectal temperature, heart rate, pulse pressure, specific gravity changes for whole blood and for plasma, and sweat loss. Results showed that water ingestion early during the work session combated the effects of heat stress better than late administration; however, this advantage was reduced toward the end of the work session. The results were mixed concerning the relative merits of ingesting the water in one or two administrations.     

Acquisition of Elementary Swimming Skills by Negro and White College Women

Abstract

This study was undertaken to compare Negro and white college women in beginning swimming on performance, motor ability, buoyancy, and body measurements. Thirteen Negro and 44 white nonswimmers were assigned to one of four classes for eight weeks of instruction. The criterion of a nonswimmer was the inability to propel the body 15 feet in a prone position with the face immersed. Preliminary tests included the Scott Motor Ability Test and measurements of height, weight, sitting height, leg length, shoulder width, hip width, and breathing capacity. Buoyancy was assessed by hydrostatic weighing. Learning rate was recorded as the number of trials required to execute successfully 15 progressive swimming skills. The Fox Power Test was administered as a measure of terminal achievement. Evidence indicated that the Negro group was significantly superior in motor ability, while the white group was significantly superior in swimming performance and was more buoyant. Because of the difficulty experienced by the Negro group with skills demanding buoyancy, swimming progressions for nonbuoyant college women should not utilize horizontal flotation as an integral component.