Being Fair: Teachers’ Interpretations of Principles for Standards-Based Grading

Knowing that grades can have long-term consequences for students, teachers voice concern about being fair in the grading process. However, their interpretations of fairness are varied and sometimes contradictory. This study looked at how teachers in one standards-based educational system determined secondary students’ grades, focusing specifically on the extent to which they followed a specific set of principles for grading. The results support previous research, and suggest that a better understanding of essential principles is needed for grades to accurately reflect students’ achievement.     

An Examination of the Factor Structure of the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Competency Scale-II Assessment and Intervention Subscales

The Hartford Geriatric Social Work Competency Scale II (GSWCS-II) is the gold standard for assessment of social work competency and confidence in gerontological practice behaviors, but minimal research to date has examined the factor structure of this important instrument. This study employed exploratory factor analysis to determine the underlying structure of the measure's subscales related to assessment and intervention. Results indicate that the Assessment and Intervention subscales each have two underlying components that differentiate between core geriatric competencies necessary for all social workers and competencies required for specialists in aging. Findings have implications for the evaluation of competency and self-efficacy in gerontological social work, furthering the application of the GSWCS-II for both social work education and practice settings.     

Interdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning in Gerontology: A Plan of Action

Issues of older adults are often ill-structured and complex, requiring the application of insights from different disciplines to be adequately addressed. Gerontology has often used a multidisciplinary rather than an integrated interdisciplinary approach. Interdisciplinary and problem-based learning (PBL) provide pedagogical tools which teach gerontology students skills for understanding and resolving gerontological issues. The paper presents the concepts of interdisciplinarity and problem-based learning, the types of interdisciplinarity (interdisciplinarity at micro and macro levels of analysis, interdisciplinarity with different attributes of the same unit of analysis), learning outcomes of interdisciplinarity and problem-based learning, the incorporation of interdisciplinary problem-based learning in academic programs, steps of interdisciplinary problem-based study of a gerontological issue, and directions for the future study of this approach.     

Factors Influencing M.S.W. Students' Interest in Clinical Practice

This study utilizes linear and log‐linear stochastic models to examine the impact that a variety of variables (including graduate education) have on M.S.W. students' desires to work in clinical practice. Data was collected biannually (between 1992 and 1998) from a complete population sample of all students entering and exiting accredited graduate programs of social work in California (n = 5,793). The influences of past practice experiences, professional motivations, socio‐demographic characteristics, ideological affiliations, and education and training experiences while a graduate students were all examined. Findings suggest that there is tremendous commonality in the variability of interest toward doing clinical practice among all student groups both before and after the completion of graduate studies. Male and female students, students of varied ethnic, social class and political identifications/affiliations, along with students of varied ages did not differ in their desire or interest to engage in clinical practice. The desire to prepare for private practice had the strongest influence—that was maintained over the course of their education—on students' interests in clinical social work. Desires to work with the poor were not associated with students' desires to be clinicians who wish to apply their trade across a wide variety of problems and populations.     

`But What is a Chemical Engineer?': Profiling the Membership of the British Institution of Chemical Engineers, 1922–1956

This paper examines the membership of the professionalassociation of chemical engineering in Britain – the Institutionof Chemical Engineers – during its first three decades. Usingcollective methods of biography, it explores how long it took forclear boundaries to develop between this membership and the widerchemical community. Delineation was linked to the development ofan academic discipline. This paper argues that the indeterminateconstituency of the IChemE delayed growth, but allowed it to playa key role in shaping the development of the new profession.