Identity Development in Counselors‐in‐Training

Researchers used 2 rounds of individual interviews and a focus group meeting to explore the identity development experiences of master's‐degree counselor education students. Grounded theory procedures generated a tentative substantive theory that conceptualized these experiences. The theory illustrated how counselors‐in‐training used a recycling identity formation process that involved conceptual and experiential learning experiences to identify, clarify, and reclarify their identities as counselors.     

Employing Wikipedia for good not evil: innovative approaches to collaborative writing assessment

Wikipedia is an open educational resource that connects writers and editors to diverse discourse communities around the world. Unwarranted stigma is attached to the use of Wikipedia in higher education due to fears that students will not pursue rigorous research practices because of the easy access to information that Wikipedia facilitates. In studies referred to in this paper, undergraduate writing students are taught about the need to interrogate any information they find on Wikipedia just as they would other online source material. They are inducted into fact checking, editing and creating Wikipedia articles as a means to analyse source material critically and to advance their research, writing and digital literacy. Meanwhile, in a postgraduate course in magazine studies, instead of writing essays, students are promoting Australian magazines and print culture by writing Wikipedia entries about Antipodean magazines and their editors. These courses experiment with new approaches to formative and summative assessment; promote group research, collaborative and participatory writing, writing across networks and negotiating discourse communities; and challenge students’ perceptions about peer review and the legitimacy of Wikipedia.     

The Development of Children's Knowledge about Inner Speech

Two studies demonstrated that preschool children have little knowledge and awareness of inner speech. Study 1 showed that, in contrast to 6-to7-year-olds and adults, 4-year-olds usually did not infer that a person silently engaged in such intrinsically verbal mental activities as reading, counting, or recalling items from a shopping list was saying things to herself. They also tended to deny that covert speech is a possible human activity. Study 2 demonstrated that 4-and 5 year-olds are much poorer than adults at detecting their own inner speech. Children seem to acquire this sort of knowledge and awareness during the early school years, perhaps through experiencing their own inner speech while reading, writing, adding, and subtracting.     

First‐Semester Experiences of Counselor Education Doctoral Students

This qualitative study explored 4 counselor education doctoral students' 1st‐semester experience. Data analysis revealed students experienced vicissitudes of thought and emotion that varied from self‐doubt to beliefs in their abilities, received information and made decisions about how to engage in their responsibilities, and felt affirmation of their capabilities and qualifications. With this affirmation, students were able to make decisions about further experiences they would have during their program. As the semester progressed, the students experienced greater feelings of confirmation yet returned to vicissitude when faced with new situations.     

The Relationship Between Teacher Beliefs and Practices, and Head Start Classroom Quality

Within early childhood research considerable emphasis has been placed on examining teachers' beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to describe Head Start teacher beliefs and self-reported practices as they relate to classroom quality and examine the potential differences in the beliefs of those teaching in high, average, and low quality classrooms. Scores on two subscales, appropriate and inappropriate, for both self-reported beliefs and practices were used as the dependent variables. Analysis of variance was used to examine differences between the self-reported beliefs and practices of teachers in classrooms of differing quality. The results for both the appropriate beliefs and appropriate activities subscales were statistically nonsignificant. However, the results for the two inappropriate subscales were statistically significant. These results would seem to indicate that teachers in the low quality group tended to respond more favorably to statements about inappropriate beliefs and practices than did those teachers in either the high or average quality classrooms. These findings provide important information about offering professional development opportunities for Head Start teachers that focus on providing theoretical perspectives on children's development and instructional practices aimed at changing beliefs about teaching practices.     

A test of the conservation model for autoshaped leverpressing and polydipsia in the rat

This study examined a conservation model (Allison & Mack, 1982) that predicts a linear relation between the weighted sum of two responses, autoshaped leverpressing and polydipsia, and the amount of food delivered on a variable-time schedule. Fifteen rats were assigned randomly to one of three groups. The rats in Group 1 were maintained at 80% of their free-feeding body weights. Those in Group 2 began at 100% but were allowed to lose weight during the experiment. The rats in Group 3 also began at 100% of their free-feeding weights and were maintained at this level. Each group was exposed to five conditions that delivered less food than that consumed during baseline and to one condition that delivered more food. The results did not support the conservation model. Contrary to the model, the decreasing linear relation between the individual responses, or the weighted sum of the responses, and the amount of food delivered was not found for all rats, and some rats responded more when an excessive amount of food was presented than during baseline.     

Learning to mentor: unravelling routine practice to develop adaptive mentoring expertise

While studies have shown that mentoring is central to new teacher development, few investigations have examined what mentors learn about themselves as mentors. The purpose of the study was to illuminate mentor learning. The article reports on two case studies that investigated the development of mentoring expertise over a two-year period. During this period, the two mentor participants were engaged in a professional development intervention focused on fostering mentoring expertise. Data sources included transcribed professional conversations, interviews and action research documentation. Analysis of these data found that despite good intentions, mentors’ preconceptions of their role were difficult to change. Where substantive change was evident, there was a conceptual shift from a focus on mentee and student learning to include mentor learning. The study suggests that the development of mentor expertise is complex and cannot be assumed. The complexity associated with letting go of deeply ingrained beliefs and practices to develop mentoring expertise is illuminated in the dynamic interaction between the school context, the mentor’s preconceptions and re-conceptualisation of their role along with the on-going assessment of professional learning opportunities.     

National policy and the development of inclusive school practices: a case study

National education policy in England under New Labour Governments has encompassed both a ‘standards agenda’ and an ‘inclusion agenda’, with schools required to respond to both simultaneously. Some previous studies have seen these agendas as contradictory and have seen schools' efforts to develop inclusive practices as being undermined by these contradictions. This paper questions this account with reference to a primary school participating in a collaborative action research project which aimed to develop inclusive practices in schools. It shows how the school, far from finding these agendas contradictory, drew on both in making sense of its situation. It argues that the development of inclusive practices may draw on national policy as a productive resource, and suggests that inclusion scholars and advocates may need to refocus their work if they are to offer such schools alternatives to the formulations of national policy.     

Integrating quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods to compare two teacher inservice training programs

Qualitative and quantitative evaluation procedures were used to compare two physical-science teacher inservice training programs. The two programs followed the master teacher training model espoused by NSF but used different types of master teachers and types of activities. The two evaluation procedures produced different results and together they provided a much clearer picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the two programs. Using only one approach or the other would have substantially altered the conclusions.