Antenarrative and managerial practice

An antenarrative approach to organizational communication acknowledges the fragmented, collective, situated, and performative nature of organizational stories and storytelling. Adopting an antenarrative approach to managerial practice focuses our attention on the ways individuals manage the multi‐voiced nonlinear character of organizfitional life. Antenarrative theory and its significance for managerial practice is overviewed followed by an explication of how an organizational consultancy firm has developed systemic story making as a core practice for managing the multiple, often conflicting stories comprising organizational experience. Systemic story making raises significant issues regarding how antenarrative theory may consider the relationships among stories, inquiry, and change.     

Motivational Climates,Achievement Goals,and Physical Education Outcomes: A Longitudinal Test of Achievement Goal Theory

The present research tested the longitudinal relations over a school‐year between motivational climates, achievement goals, and five physical education outcomes, namely intrinsic motivation, perceived competence, positive attitude, exertion, and attendance in physical education. The results showed that students’ mastery goals measured early in the school‐year (Time 1) predicted all five physical education outcomes one year later (Time 2), controlling for physical education outcomes at Time 1. Two structural equation change models of climates and goals were also tested: (1) change in mastery climate predicted positively change in mastery goals, which positively predicted physical education outcomes after one year; and (2) distinct performance climate sub‐factors, namely changes in normative praise and negative emotional tune, predicted positive changes in performance‐approach, and performance‐avoidance goals, respectively. In turn, change in performance‐approach goals predicted positively, and change in performance‐avoidance goals predicted negatively, the PE outcomes after one year.     

The usefulness of motivational interviewing as a consultation and assessment tool for working with young people

Previous case‐study research has explored the efficacy of motivational interviewing (MI) as a therapeutic approach for supporting young people in schools. This article considers how MI may additionally be used as an assessment and consultation tool for ascertaining the needs of disaffected young people and identifying appropriate support strategies. Here, the approach is used with three pupils aged 13–15 years, using visual stimuli to involve them explicitly in the process of MI. Findings indicate that in general MI was felt by the young people to be helpful in allowing them to think about issues relating to their behaviour. The article also indicates that MI may be useful both as an initial assessment tool and in providing supporting adults with practical ideas for assisting disaffected young people in making positive changes to their behaviour. The authors acknowledge limitations in terms of the usefulness of this approach for pupils who may be less ready for change, have difficulty in identifying aspirational goals or have language and communication difficulties. Further larger scale research is recommended, including other vulnerable groups, such as excluded pupils or school refusers.     

Using Motivational Interviewing Techniques to Address Parallel Process in Supervision

Supervision offers a distinct opportunity to experience the interconnection of counselor–client and counselor–supervisor interactions. One product of this network of interactions is parallel process, a phenomenon by which counselors unconsciously identify with their clients and subsequently present to their supervisors in a similar fashion ( Searles, 1955 ). Addressing parallel process has the potential to be valuable in the advancement of counselor development, but few strategies exist in the literature for working with the phenomenon. The authors describe the use of motivational interviewing as one method for effectively addressing parallel process in supervision.     

Social Work Values Systems of Chinese Students

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the findings of a study conducted on the social work values systems of social work students in the City University of Hong Kong. A social work values scale composed of six dimensions, namely human worth, potential for change, mutual care, societal responsibility, social participation and freedom to make choice, was constructed. The findings in this study indicated that all batches of students had a common pattern in the ranking of the order of the value dimensions. Not all the value dimensions had an increase in scores with the increase in training and practice experiences. The fieldwork placement was considered by the students as the most important formal channel during trainingin the acquisition of social work values. It is suggested that social work educators need to have a thorough review of the relationship between curriculum design and the inculcation of professional values.     

So what exactly do teacher‐researchers think about doing research?

The desirability of teacher engagement with research has been made apparent by several recent secretaries of state and encouraged through legislation and some support mechanisms intended to encourage practitioner‐led investigations. Yet it is still regarded as exceptional, rather than the norm, when teachers become involved in formal research processes. In this article Amanda Watkins examines the factors which might encourage teachers to become more involved in research, discussing their motivations, the support required and the advantages which they perceive as emanating from classroom inquiry. Having conducted her own classroom‐based research she suggests that there is a clear case for promoting practitioner inquiry, but that there remains a need to examine the conditions which must be created in order to move this agenda forward.     

社会新闻基本特征及其采写原则

社会新闻的特性直接影响到社会新闻的采写,只有弄清其定义及特性,才能指导我们正确地采写社会新闻。本文尝试从社会新闻的根本特性“生活性”及其附属的“边缘性”、“复杂性”、“跨文化性”等方面特性加以探讨,并同时论及每个特性采写时的原则性要求。     

An ecological analysis of a preschool mastery climate physical education programme

Background: Previous studies of mastery motivational climates within physical education have reported that providing students with opportunities to become self-directed leads to a number of positive outcomes, including skill attainment and increased perceptions of ability. Nonetheless, within all of these studies, there has been no account of the teaching/learning process or the behaviour of the students and teachers within the various interventions.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide a micro-analysis of life in a mastery climate which was grounded in the classroom ecology paradigm.

Participants and setting: The participants in this study were 13 children (11 boys and 2 girls) all aged 4 years at the commencement of the programme. The children were attendees at a day-care centre that serves mostly African-American children from the local community who are environmentally at risk for developmental delay and poor health. The teacher in this study was a faculty member at the university where the programme took place. For 30 minutes each Tuesday and Thursday, the children participated in a programme of motor skill instruction that was based upon the key principles of a mastery-motivational climate. Selected station activities were designed to promote the acquisition of locomotor and object control skills.

Methods: A mixed-methods approach was taken, with data sources including interviews with the teacher, and an analysis of the ecology of the gymnasium using a modified version of the task structure system. Focus was placed upon the task goals, the teacher's accountability strategies, as well as task accomplishment in both the managerial and instructional task systems.

Findings: The key finding from this study was an appreciation of how time is a significant factor in the ways in which children initially responded to and eventually embraced the freedoms afforded to them in a mastery climate. Of particular note, the results show substantial differences in the children's lesson engagement not only across time, but also within lessons themselves. It is hypothesized that as they progressed through the programme, the children not only were more able to identify the demands of the task but were also able to filter out extraneous signals that might promote off-task or inappropriate behaviour.

Conclusions: The design of this study reinforced the value of adopting an ecological analysis of life in a mastery climate. Further, the results of the study showed the value of examining young children's engagement over a lengthy intervention. While such climates are expected to have lower levels of engagement and higher levels of off-task behaviour than more teacher-directed formats, by the end of the study the children were able to achieve levels of appropriate task engagement above 80% of lesson time.     

Group work as a strategy for attribution retraining in the Asian educational context of Singapore

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of group work as a strategy for attribution retraining and improving students’ motivational styles. Students were first categorised into one of three motivational styles: learned helplessness, self-worth motivation and mastery orientation. In the intervention procedure, selected students from each of these three categories were subjected to an intervention procedure requiring the students to work in groups, with the emphasis on personal effort as the major contributor to group success. Post-intervention assessment of motivation showed an improvement in the motivation of self-worth motivated students although there was generally a decrease in mastery orientation amongst students in both the control as well as the experimental groups.