Some Speculations about Cognitive Dissonance in Counselor Education

For some years the challenge of bringing greater sophistication to the area of counselor education has touched upon many interesting conceptualizations, one of which deals with cognitive dissonance. This paper is an exploration of the concept of cognitive dissonance as it is reflected through the seemingly conflicting roles of counseling and testing. To anticipate the potential interplay between such roles creates some speculations not only about what dissonance exists but about what might be done to bring two apparently discrepant cognitions into harmony.     

Artificial agency, consciousness, and the criteria for moral agency: what properties must an artificial agent have to be a moral agent?

In this essay, I describe and explain the standard accounts of agency, natural agency, artificial agency, and moral agency, as well as articulate what are widely taken to be the criteria for moral agency, supporting the contention that this is the standard account with citations from such widely used and respected professional resources as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. I then flesh out the implications of some of these well-settled theories with respect to the prerequisites that an ICT must satisfy in order to count as a moral agent accountable for its behavior. I argue that each of the various elements of the necessary conditions for moral agency presupposes consciousness, i.e., the capacity for inner subjective experience like that of pain or, as Nagel puts it, the possession of an internal something-of-which-it is-is-to-be-like. I ultimately conclude that the issue of whether artificial moral agency is possible depends on the issue of whether it is possible for ICTs to be conscious.     

Demanding and resisting vocational education: a comparative study of schools in rural and urban China

The Chinese government is pouring resources into building vocational education at all levels of the Chinese educational system. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in three vocational secondary schools in 2007–2012, this article compares rural and urban schools to highlight the persistent urban–rural divide in implementing vocational education, and to understand popular resistance to vocational education and its effects on students and families. Through observations of classroom practice and interviews with students, parents, teachers, and administrators, the authors investigate the paradox of why vocational education is growing rapidly in China, even though parents and students have deeply-held objections to this form of schooling.     

Using teacher ratings of social behavior to differentiate gifted from non‐gifted students

This study investigated the effectiveness of teacher ratings of student social behavior in differentiating a group of 81 elementary‐age gifted students from a control group of 81 age and gender matched non‐gifted students. The School Social Behavior Scales, a recently developed set of rating scales that assesses both social competence and antisocial behavior, was used for the ratings. Gifted students were rated as having significantly higher levels of social competence and lower levels of antisocial behavior than the comparison group, and the individual scores of the gifted students were significantly skewed in the direction of better social‐behavioral adjustment. The findings also indicated the presence of a small subset of gifted students who appeared to have extremely poor social competence and high levels of problem behaviors. The results are compared to previous research on the psychosocial development of gifted children, and important areas for future research on this topic are recommended.     

Social effects of collaborative learning in primary schools

There is conflicting evidence on whether collaborative group work leads to improved classroom relations, and if so how. A before and after design was used to measure the impact on work and play relations of a collaborative learning programme involving 575 students 9–12 years old in single- and mixed-age classes across urban and rural schools. Data were also collected on student interactions and teacher ratings of their group-work skills. Analysis of variance revealed significant gains for both types of relation. Multilevel modelling indicated that better work relations were the product of improving group skills, which offset tensions produced by transactive dialogue, and this effect fed through in turn to play relations. Although before intervention rural children were familiar with each other neither this nor age mix affected outcomes. The results suggest the social benefits of collaborative learning are a separate outcome of group work, rather than being either a pre-condition for, or a direct consequence of successful activity, but that initial training in group skills may serve to enhance these benefits.