BUT CAN YOU PROVE IT?

This paper offers some perspectives on quality assurance for those who wish to retain the reflective practitioner approach to professional training. It takes its examples from teacher training, but is equally addressed to those in other professions whose work uses this approach. It contends that the way forward in finding a useful system of quality assurance which is compatible with institutional demands and the intentions of courses based upon the reflective practitioner approach, is to understand the different values that lie beneath two very different models of professionalism, and to use this understanding to seek rapprochement between them. This paper explores the industrial model of quality assurance, which currently strongly influences higher education. After contextualising the current debate about quality, this paper shows how the industrial view relates to the technical rational model of professionalism. This is contrasted with the professional artistry model of professionalism which lies at the heart of the reflective practitioner approach. Appraisal and reflection are considered and a framework for reflection is offered drawn from on‐going research. This might enable practitioners to capture data which might be used as evidence of quality. The beginnings of reciprocity between the two models are sketched, and a grim warning is issued.     

Self-instruction training: A potential tool for school psychologists

Self-instruction training is a cognitive-behavioral approach to self-control in which children are taught to use covert speech to modify their own behavior. The potential effectiveness of self-instruction training as an intervention technique for school psychologists to enhance student academic and/or social behavior in the classroom is the focus of this review. Research results addressing the practical issues of how, when, and with whom to use this strategy, its generalizability, and its long-term and comparative effectiveness are presented. Implications for further research in the schools are discussed.     

Development and Validation of the College Campus Environment Scale (CCES): Promoting Positive College Experiences

One of the essential factors related to student success and satisfaction with a higher education experience is the college environment in which learning takes place. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale, the College Campus Environment Scale (CCES), to measure characteristics of college campus environments valued by students. A model emerged with the following six factors: Academic and Career Expectations, Athletics, Health, Role Models and Mentors, Safety, and Social and Extracurricular Activities. The CCES demonstrates good evidence of reliability and validity and can be utilized by researchers and college personnel to promote positive college experiences for students.     

Learning disabled students' interactions with commercial courseware: A naturalistic study

A naturalistic study investigated the interactions of learning disabled students and their teachers with instructional elements of commercial courseware. During two academic years, 62 students aged 9 to 18 and seven teachers from five subject areas were observed and interviewed with regard to their day-to-day uses of 26 packages. Findings reported here relate to students' interactions with the stimulus, response, and feedback/reinforcement dimensions inherent in those packages. Details of students' problems and strategies with verbal, numeric, graphics, and problem-solving courseware are explored to elucidate the role of courseware design in students' pervasive reading difficulties, overreliance on teacher assistance, introduction of competition to provide motivation, and limited strategies for using courseware independently. Implications are noted for improving course-ware design not only for LD students, but also for others who would profit from more carefully designed packages. The relationship of design to the overarching issues of student independence, motivation, and strategy development for computer-based instruction is discussed. The original research upon which this article is based was supported in part by a Presidential Fellowship awarded by the Graduate School of The Ohio State University. Additional work was supported in part by a grant from the Office of Graduate Studies and Research of The University of Maryland, College Park.     

The meaning of team in team identification

A voluminous literature exists on the relationship between team identification and various consumer thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours. However, the psychological meaning of team to consumers remains unknown, as scholars have studied individuals’ identification with a team without empirically investigating its meaning. Following an interpretive mode of inquiry in this study, the authors used interviews and concept mapping to understand the meaning of team among fans of two separate teams. An important discovery is that the meaning of team evolves due to environmental changes and personal experiences. At the same time, the authors determined that the meaning of team in team identification has three broad components: place, past, and present, each of which uniquely contributes to the identity. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of this research on the team identification literature and offering suggestions to practitioners and researchers.