THE EFFECT OF PRACTICE SESSIONS ON THE USE OF SEPARATE ANSWER SHEETS BY FIRST AND SECOND GRADERS

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of formal practice sessions on the ability of first and second graders to use separate answer sheets on the California Test of Mental Maturity. The Ss were all 79 pupils enrolled in these grades at one elementary school. Academically, these Ss were above average. Through the use of a counterbalanced design, the CTMM was administered twice to all Ss; once employing the usual answer marking format contained in the test booklet and once employing a separate answer sheet preceded by a formal practice session. Significant mean raw score differences between formats of 10.30 and 7.19 were obtained for Ss in grades one and two respectively in favor of the booklet format. Accuracy scores, which removed the effect of speed from raw score performances, were also analyzed and the results confirmed the superiority of the booklet format. It was concluded that even with prior practice sessions, above average pupils in grades one and two are unable to utilize separate answer sheets in an effective manner.     

Pragmatic Standards versus Saturated Phenomenon: Cultivating a Love of Learning

Phenomenologist Jean‐Luc Marion describes our capacity for awe as an ability to recognise that certain phenomena are saturated. More than we constitute them with our categorical frames or organising objectives, the phenomena constitute us; their excess and givenness overwhelms our ability to fully grasp them. It is through this experience of awe and wonder, Marion suggests, that we are drawn into loving something or someone. In tension with this experience is the attempt (omnipresent in educational contexts) to organise and demarcate phenomenon (or fields of study) into a tidy list of coherent standards. This reductive move, while pedagogically pragmatic, risks masking the ‘exuberant splendor’ of saturated phenomenon, obscuring what initially drew teachers into their respective disciplines. What moves teachers (and students) to love a discipline, Marion suggests, is not standards, which are often instrumentally selected, but an experience of saturated phenomenon. More than standards, a teacher's deep and often secret hope is that her students love or at least appreciate her love for her subject. A teacher's love for her discipline, and her hope to impart it to her students, should stand in tension with the standards movement.     

Using a Popular Film in Counselor Education: Good Will Hunting as a Teaching Tool

The popular film Good Will Hunting, which portrays a counseling relationship, is discussed as an effective tool for facilitating the teaching of counseling theories. This article describes the authors' experience using this movie as a teaching tool, documenting the students' improved comprehension and application of course concepts and the instructor's improved rapport with the class.     

The Role of Abductive Logic in Understanding and Using Advanced Empathy

Abductive reasoning, which is the basis of hypothesis formation, holds promise for facilitating the development of advanced empathy in counselor trainees.     

THE USE OF SEPARATE ANSWER SHEETS BY PRIMARY AGE CHILDREN1

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects on test scores of employing a separate answer sheet using the California Test of Mental Maturity with 117 pupils in the primary grades of one through three. The CTMM was administered twice to all students; once employing the usual answer marking format contained in the test booklet and once employing a separate answer sheet. A counterbalanced design was used to control for order effects. The mean raw differences between marking format conditions decreased from 23.67 to 10.79 to 3.32 for students in grades one through three respectively, indicating that the need for the test booklet marking format decreases sharply as the grade level of the Ss increases.