A Comprehensive Approach to Human Relations Training for Teachers

This article develops a comprehensive approach to human relations training (HRT) for teachers based on knowledge of student diversity and application of communication skills. The author treats HRT as more than just training in communication skills and develops a model that integrates the two major components of HRT. He also develops specific goals, skills, and attitudes capable of being fitted into a teaching paradigm.     

THE INFLUENCE OF TEST TITLE ON TEST RESPONSE

This study was designed to determine the extent to which responses to test items of the type frequently found in personality inventories would be influenced by the title associated with the test. The basic hypothesis was that subjects respond to the test title by developing a particular response set which will be reflected in the individual responses. An instrument was constructed and administered to eight treatment groups. Each administration differed primarily in the title each group's tests bore. The dependent variables were measures of the tendency to lie, respond defensively, answer carefully, and complete questions. Subjects tended to lie and respond more defensively to titled tests than to a test having no title and administered under nonthreatening conditions. All other comparisons were not statistically significant.     

INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF CREATIVITY AND IQ ON NINTH-GRADE ACHIEVEMENT

The interactive effects of IQ and creativity upon ninth-grade achievement were examined, with special focus upon the IQ threshold concept of Torrance He hypothesized that achievement is predicted better by IQ than by creativity below the IQ threshold, while IQ validity decreases as creativity validity increases above the threshold. This implies an IQ X Creativity interactive effect on achievement. If an IQ threshold exists, regression weights for IQ X Creativity interactive predictors should be statistically significant when included in multiple regression equations. Three creativity factor scores were estimated and were each multiplied by IQ to define three moderated or interactive predictor variables. A slight though statistically significant increase in validity resulted by adding the moderated variables to IQ and the three factor scores in multiple regression equations. Thus, there was weak support for the existence of an IQ threshold, but the regression of achievement on creativity decreased rather than increased with higher IQ.     

Wellbeing and Education: Issues of Culture and Authority

The idea that education should equip people to lead flourishing lives and help others to do so is now becoming salient in policy-making circles. Philosophy of education can help here by clarifying what flourishing consists in. This essay examines one aspect of this. It rejects the view that wellbeing goods are derivable from human nature, as in the theories of Howard Gardner and Edmond Holmes. It locates them, rather, as cultural products, but not culturally-relative ones, drawing attention to the proliferating forms they have taken over the past three or four centuries. It looks to aesthetics and art criticism as a guide to a philosophical treatment of wellbeing goods more generally. It also takes off from aesthetics and art criticism in seeking to identify reliable authorities on the flourishing life. On this, it rejects elitist conceptions in favour of a more democratic model, emphasising its importance in education for citizenship.     

From Constructionism to Deconstructionism: Anticipating Trends in Educational Styles

This paper reviews various issues concerned with the design of computer-based learning (CBL) systems and the educational philosophies from which they are derived. It considers them from the point of view of four themes of contemporary thinking: rational, pragmatic, critical and radical. In particular, the paper considers the current enthusiasm for constructionist learning and teaching methods and how these may evolve in the light of recent research. It is seen that many of the current trends in CBL system design can be related to post-modern ideas about the role of technology in society.     

Why Minimally Guided Teaching Techniques Do Not Work: A Reply to Commentaries

Knowledge, although seemingly available, is often not used for problem solving. That means it remains "inert." Three types of explanations exist for this phenomenon. Metaprocess explanations assume that the relevant knowledge is available, but it is not used because of disturbed access processes (e.g., lacking metacognitive control). Structure deficit explanations suppose that the deficit is rooted in the structure of the knowledge itself (i.e., the knowledge is not available in a form that allows for its application). In situatedness explanations, the traditional concepts of knowledge and transfer are questioned. One basic assumption of this perspective is that knowledge is fundamentally situated (i.e., context-bound). In the last decade, instructional models have been developed that try to remedy the inert knowledge problem and take into account important aspects that have been raised by the different explanations.     

Constructivist,Problem-Based Learning Does Work: A Meta-Analysis of Curricular Comparisons Involving a Single Medical School

Effects of problem-based learning as reported in curricular comparison studies have been shown to be inconsistent over different medical schools. Therefore, we decided to summarize effects of a single well-established problem-based curriculum rather than to add up sometimes-conflicting findings from different problem-based curricula. Effect sizes were computed for 270 comparisons. The results suggest that students and graduates from the particular curriculum perform much better in the area of interpersonal skills, and with regard to practical medical skills. In addition, they consistently rate the quality of the curriculum as higher. Moreover, fewer students drop out, and those surviving need less time to graduate. Differences with respect to medical knowledge and diagnostic reasoning were on average positive but small. These outcomes are at variance with expectations voiced in recent contributions to the literature. They demonstrate that constructivist curricula can have positive effects on learning even if they deemphasize direct instruction.     

The future of HRD

What organizational, technological and training developments will become crucial in the coming years, and what consequences will they have for human resource development? These questions have led to a study carried out by the faculty of Educational Science and Technology at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands. The ultimate aim of the study was to create an inventory of trends and developments which professionals deem to be influential with regard to the future HRD field. One direct catalyst for the study was the report of a similar study in the United States, involving HRD executives, carried out by the American Society for Training & Development. Following a brief explanation of the research plan and methods, this article describes the findings of the Dutch study an compares these with the results of the American research. It concludes with comments regarding the implications of the information obtained through this investigation.