Effect of individual career counseling on psychological distress: impact of career intervention components,working alliance,and career indecision

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This study examined the impact of intervention components, working alliance, and career indecision on the change in psychological...     

Does site architecture matter? The political implications of public- versus private-oriented social network sites in China

Political communication researchers have shown that social network site (SNS) use and online network characteristics can impinge on people’s political attitudes and behavior. Nevertheless, individual SNSs have varying site architecture, basic design features, and functionalities, which may influence usage and online network characteristics. This study thus examines whether site architecture matters for understanding the political implications of SNSs. Specifically, this article conceptualizes the distinction between public-oriented and private-oriented SNSs. It contends that the two types of SNSs would have varying impact on political behavior through the kinds of online networks that they tend to sustain. Analysis of a survey of university students in Guangzhou, China (N?=?897), shows that respondents using public-oriented SNSs tended to have a relatively more ‘public’ online network – larger, involving more strangers, and with more connections to public actors. Some of these network characteristics in turn affected political discussion behavior. The analysis thus demonstrates how SNS architecture can indirectly impinge on individual-level political outcomes.     

Does Religious Education as an examination subject work to promote community cohesion? An empirical enquiry among 14- to 15-year-old adolescents in England and Wales

This study begins by examining the way in which, in both England and Wales, Religious Education has become implicated in political discussion regarding the role of education in promoting community cohesion. The relationship between taking Religious Education as an examination subject and attitude towards religious diversity (as an affective indicator of community cohesion) is then explored among 3052 14- to 15-year-old students. After controlling for contextual factors (school type and geographical location), personal factors (sex and age), psychological factors (psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion) and religious factors (Christian affiliation, worship attendance, personal prayer and belief in God), a small but significant positive association was found between taking Religious Education as an examination subject and attitude towards religious diversity. This finding may be interpreted as supporting the view that Religious Education works to promote community cohesion, although the wider debate that the community cohesion agenda has generated among religious educators needs further exploration.     

Alternatives to Multilevel Modeling for the Analysis of Clustered Data

Multilevel modeling has grown in use over the years as a way to deal with the nonindependent nature of observations found in clustered data. However, other alternatives to multilevel modeling are available that can account for observations nested within clusters, including the use of Taylor series linearization for variance estimation, the design effect adjusted standard errors approach, and fixed effects modeling. Using 1,000 replications of 12 conditions with varied Level 1 and Level 2 sample sizes, the author compared parameter estimates, standard errors, and statistical significance using various alternative procedures. Results indicate that several acceptable procedures can be used in lieu of or together with multilevel modeling, depending on the type of research question asked and the number of clusters under investigation. Guidelines for applied researchers are discussed.     

Validity of alternative approaches for the identification of learning disabilities: operationalizing unexpected underachievement

This article reviews the validity of models based on (a) aptitude-achievement discrepancies, (b) low achievement, (c) intraindividual differences, and (d) response to instruction for the classification and identification of learning disabilities (LD). Models based on aptitude-achievement discrepancies and intraindividual differences showed little evidence of discriminant validity. Low achievement models had stronger discriminant validity but do not adequately assess the most significant component of the LD construct, unexpected underachievement. All three of these status models have limited reliability because of their reliance on a measurement at a single time point. Models that incorporate response to instruction have stronger reliability and validity but cannot represent the sole criterion for LD identification. Hybrid models combining low achievement and response to instruction most clearly capture the LD construct and have the most direct relation to instruction. The assessment of students for LD must reflect a stronger underlying classification that takes into account relations with other developmental disorders as well as the reliability and validity of the underlying classification and resultant identification system.     

‘Science disproves the biblical account of creation’: exploring the predictors of perceived conflict between science and religion among 13- to 15-year-old students in the UK

This study drew on data provided by 11,809 13- to 15-year-old students drawn from the four nations of the UK to explore the level of agreement with the view that science disproves the biblical account odf creation, and to explore the power of five sets of variables to predict individual differences in responses to that opinion. The five sets of variables were personal factors, psychological factors, religious factors, attitudinal factors (including ‘scientific fundamentalism’, understood as an exaggerated, uncritical, and unqualified belief in the inerrancy of science), and theological factors (distinguishing between differing implied theologies of religion). Blockwise multiple regression demonstrated that personal, psychological, religious, and theological factors all held significant power, but that the greatest variance was explained by the attitudinal variables. When the five sets of variables were assessed within the model, 25% of the variance was accounted for. Greater incompatibility between science and religion was associated with scientific fundamentalism (β = .37, p < .001), with anti-religious attitude (β = .16, p < .001), and with atheism (β = .07, p < .001). These findings suggest that young people who believe in science in an unqualified way are more distrustful of religion.     

Student engagement and mathematics achievement: Unraveling main and interactive effects

The present study explored the relationships between student engagement and mathematics achievement for 295,416 15‐year‐old students from 11,767 secondary schools in 34 countries who participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012. Affective engagement was measured by students’ mathematics interest (InterestMath) and perceived usefulness of schooling (PerceptionSch), behavioral engagement by behaviors facilitating mathematics learning (BehaviorMath) and participation in mathematics learning activities (ActivitiesMath), and cognitive engagement by openness (Openness) and perseverance (Perseverance) in problem‐solving. Results showed that students who were more engaged had higher levels of academic achievement, with cognitive engagement having the strongest association with achievement. Results also showed that students who were highly engaged in two domains had higher achievement levels than peers who were engaged in only one domain in six pairwise comparisons (InterestMath‐BehaviorMath, InterestMath‐Openness, InterestMath‐Perseverance, PerceptionSch‐BehaviorMath, PerceptionSch‐Openness, PerceptionSch‐Perseverance). These results highlighted the importance of a whole‐school based approach in enhancing student achievement.     

Mentoring and Beginning Teachers' Workplace Learning

Mentoring has been the focus of much attention in the recent literature on initial teacher education and induction and as such has become a 'foundation stone' of collaborative endeavours between universities and schools in the facilitation of teacher development. In 1998 some 220 beginning teachers and 245 supervisors and mentors in New South Wales government schools were surveyed and beginning teachers' professional learning observed closely in six case study schools in different settings across the state. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated the relevance of internship to initial teacher education programs and established the importance of mentoring support in beginning teachers' professional learning in the induction year. The case studies also identified key practices, conditions and professional interactions that sustained transmission, transactional and transformational approaches to teacher learning. The complementary qualitative and quantitative methodology provided strong evidence of the importance of the mentoring strategy.     

A Five Country Study of Gender and Sexuality Diversity and Schooling in Southern Africa

The importance of quality education provision for all is a globally acknowledged principle for the creation of sustainable learning environments at primary and secondary levels. This article reports on a study that aimed to increase understanding of the context of how gender and sexuality diversity is responded to in schools in Southern Africa. In this regard, the researchers drew on a recent five country study focusing on what the literature says about gender and sexuality diversity and schooling in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. Drawing on a review of reports and publications by relevant ministries, policy documents, published research, relevant statistical data, as well as the grey literature from civil society organisations, the findings indicated significant barriers to access for learners who embody non-normative gender or sexualities. The policies and schooling cultures in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland foreground discourses that marginalize, silence and invisibilise gender and sexual minorities. The researchers argue that if educational institutions in the region are to include all learners, there must be real engagement with the ongoing realities of heterosexist exclusion and marginalisation. The findings pointed to the need for teacher education to step up efforts to prepare teachers in the region to comfortably and professionally engage with and teach about issues of gender and sexuality diversity in the classroom.