Challenges in measuring wisdom-relevant constructs in young adult undergraduate students

ABSTRACT

University settings present a unique opportunity for young adults to develop characteristics constitutive of wisdom. One challenge for educators working to support this development involves effectively measuring these characteristics. In this article, we present results from a secondary analysis of cognitive interviews to examine challenges that may arise when young adult undergraduate students respond to self-report measures of Meaning, Identification with all Humanity and Dedication to Lifelong Service—three characteristics of personality-focused accounts of wisdom. Although the items had well-fitting exploratory and confirmatory latent variable models, between 12.5% and 87.5% of students (n = 8 for each item) provided unintended interpretations for each item. This mismatch between students’ interpretations and the intended interpretations can threaten item validity and obfuscate findings from applications such as pre-post assessments. Further research is needed to better understand the factors affecting young adults’ responses to measures of wisdom-relevant characteristics.     

How Ordinary is the Ordinary (Wo)man on the Street?

Interviews with the ordinary man or woman on the street are omnipresent in television news. These vox pop interviews are used to represent the general public in the news. Several editorial and practical guidelines exist about the characteristics of a “good” vox pop. But what characteristics do journalists search for in vox pops in practice? This study answers this question by looking at visual and contextual characteristics of vox pop interviews as a means to gain a better understanding of which vox pops appear in the news as a representation of the entire population. We conducted a content analysis of 2000 vox pop interviews in Flanders, Belgium’s Dutch-speaking region, supplemented by interviews with television journalists. We find that, despite editorial guidelines to do so, journalists hardly ever contextualize vox pop interviews by clarifying that they are not necessarily a good representation of the entire population. The results show that journalists select vox pops which are representative of age and gender, but not of minority groups such as ethnic-cultural minorities and people with disabilities. In some regards, vox pops thus provide a biased representation of the population and might influence the public to make wrongful generalizations about public opinion.     

‘Reflective co-education’ or male-oriented physical education? Teachers' views about activities in co-educational PE classes at German secondary schools

As much as the principle of co-education may appear to make sense in physical education (PE) lessons, trends in its development have emerged over the past years, especially in secondary schools, which were certainly not intended by the pedagogical programme of ‘reflective co-education’, which stands for respect for equality and difference in co-educational PE classes. Although this programme has been anchored in the curricula of various federal states in Germany for around 15 years, the prevailing practice even today, and documented in many empirical studies, is that so-called ‘male-oriented’ activities (e.g. games) predominate in PE classes while ‘female-oriented’ activities (e.g. dance, aerobics, gymnastics or health-related exercises) are scarcely ever taught. The purpose of this contribution is to examine (1) the extent to which male (as well as female) PE teachers actually make such a one-sided selection of activities; (2) the reasons they give for this practice and the way they perceive and judge it; and (3) how they communicate this selection to each other and to their pupils. Seventy-one PE teachers (of both sexes) were asked about these questions in problem-centred interviews. The main result of the study is that both male and female PE teachers almost exclusively do ‘male-oriented’ activities (like games and other competitive activities) in mixed-gender classes, although they give different reasons for doing so. By contrast, so-called ‘female activities’ are avoided. The observable implications are that PE lessons have increasingly become dominated by male patterns of physical activity and that a hierarchy is constructed between so-called ‘male activities’ and ‘female activities’ in PE. As a result, a key objective of ‘reflective co-education’ has not been achieved. Female PE teachers suffer considerably under these conditions. It can be observed that many of them are either planning to reduce their hours in, or even give up, teaching PE (or have already done so).     

Why are there dropouts among university students? Experiences in a Thai University

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to investigate premature dropping out of university study at Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus in southern Thailand. 21 Muslim and non-Muslim males and females and four senior staff were interviewed. The findings are discussed in terms of practical implications and also reflecting on Tinto's model of university dropouts from western findings. The five main reasons for dropout are interesting for the Eastern cultural context. These were concerns about being enrolled in a non-preferred field of study, security, and lifestyle, problems with time management and problems caused by a break or change in an intimate relationship.     

FOCUS ON PRACTICE: Difficulties in initiating and sustaining peer friendships: perspectives on students diagnosed with AD/HD

In this article, Myra Taylor, research fellow, and Professor Stephen Houghton of the Centre for Child and Adolescent Related Disorders at the University of Western Australia, report theory generated from interviews with teachers, students and mothers residing in Perth, Western Australia, on how children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) initiate and sustain peer relationships. An initial review of the three sample groups’ respective perspectives reveals that children with AD/HD exhibit three distinct socialisation patterns: a socially integrated pattern (that is, having three or more ongoing friendship pairings with peers); a marginal integrated pattern (that is, having two or less ongoing friendship pairings with peers); and a socially isolated pattern (that is, having no, or infrequent, friendship pairings with peers). Both teacher and maternal perspectives are similar in so far as both perceive children with attention deficit disorders to have marginal to non‐existent friendships. Students with AD/HD perceive themselves, however, as having strongly to marginally formed friendships with their peers. Myra Taylor and Stephen Houghton explore suggestions that differences between adult and child perspectives relate to diagnostic status, age and developmental maturity. They identify opportunities for further research arising out of their work and indicate that a wider evidence base will be needed before robust recommendations for practice can be made.     

高校大学生异地就业指导现状研究

据调查有65％的大学生准备异地就业，大学生异地就业是一种极其普遍的现象．为了帮助大学生实现异地就业．本文就异地就业面试方法和异地就业面试模拟训练进行研究。