Face-to-face and at a distance: The mediation of guidance and counselling through the new technologies

The hitherto widely-held assumption that the counselling interaction should be conducted face-to-face, while other activities within the overall guidance process could be supported by computer, is re-examined. Recent computer-mediated information and communications technologies are reviewed, and their implications for guidance and counselling as a whole are explored. While fears are still current that human relations will be mechanised through the use of the information and communications technologies, it is contended that human relations will be changed but not necessarily diminished. Comparisons are drawn with the ways in which open and distance learning have brought a re-examination of what is understood to be a 'real' teaching interaction. It is suggested that practitioners in the fields of guidance and counselling must similarly be prepared to manage radical change.     

ADAPTIVE GUIDANCE: ENHANCING SELF-REGULATION, KNOWLEDGE, AND PERFORMANCE IN TECHNOLOGY-BASED TRAINING

Considerable research has examined the effects of giving trainees control over their learning (Steinberg, 1977, 1989; Williams, 1993). The most consistent finding of this research has been that trainees do not make good instructional use of the control they are given. Yet, today's technologically based training systems often provide individuals with significant control over their learning (Brown, 2001). This creates a dilemma that must be addressed if technology is going to be used to create more effective training systems. The current study extended past research that has examined the effects of providing trainees with some form of advisement or guidance in addition to learner control and examined the impact of an instructional strategy, adaptive guidance, on learning and performance in a complex training environment. Overall, it was found that adaptive guidance had a substantial effect on the nature of trainees' study and practice, self-regulation, knowledge acquired, and performance.     

On the role of knowledge of results in motor learning: exploring the guidance hypothesis

Recent work on the role of knowledge of results (KR) in motor learning has challenged some traditional assumptions. In particular, the guidance hypothesis suggests that there is a detriment to learning when KR guides the learner toward correct performance. Three experiments that explored this hypothesis are reported here. These experiments contrasted the effects of relative frequency of guidance versus the relative frequency of KR. According to the guidance hypothesis, it was predicted that parallel effects of the relative frequency manipulation on motor learning and performance would result under guided and KR conditions. The movement task was a reciprocal timing task that was either paced by a metronome (Experiment 1) or augmented by auditory KR (Experiments 2 and 3). The results of Experiments 1 and 3 revealed a number of parallel effects, thus providing support for the guidance hypothesis. The contrast of Experiments 1 and 2 resulted in a number of dissociable effects, however. These findings are discussed in relation to the potential guiding properties of KR and their impact on motor performance and learning.     

Building career guidance capacity in the voluntary and community sector

A programme designed to develop the capacity of voluntary agencies and community groups to deliver information, advice and guidance (IAG) on learning and work to their clients and members is outlined. Four forms of capacity building are distinguished: internal IAG capacity building, based on developing IAG resources within the agency or group itself; external IAG capacity building, based on the agency or group offering IAG resources delivered by outside providers; learning capacity building, based on learning brokerage; and organisational capacity building, contributing to the development of the agency or group in broader terms.     

Haptic Guidance Can Enhance Motor Learning of a Steering Task

Haptic guidance can improve the immediate performance of a motor task by enforcing a desired pattern of kinematics, but several studies have found that it impairs motor learning. In this study, we studied whether guidance from a robotic steering wheel can improve one's short-term learning of steering a simulated vehicle. We developed a computer algorithm that adapted the firmness of the guidance based on ongoing error. Training with "guidance-as-needed" or "fixed guidance" allowed participants to learn to steer without experiencing large errors and produced slightly better immediate retention than did training without guidance, apparently because participants were better able to learn when to initiate turns. Training with guidance-as-needed produced slightly better results than training with fixed guidance: the guidance-as-needed participants' errors were significantly smaller when guidance was removed. However, this difference quickly dissipated with more practice. We conclude that haptic guidance can benefit short-term learning of a steering-type task while also limiting performance errors during training.     

Haptic guidance can enhance motor learning of a steering task

Haptic guidance can improve the immediate performance of a motor task by enforcing a desired pattern of kinematics, but several studies have found that it impairs motor learning. In this study, we studied whether guidance from a robotic steering wheel can improve one's short-term learning of steering a simulated vehicle. We developed a computer algorithm that adapted the firmness of the guidance based on ongoing error. Training with "guidance-as-needed" or "fixed guidance" allowed participants to learn to steer without experiencing large errors and produced slightly better immediate retention than did training without guidance, apparently because participants were better able to learn when to initiate turns. Training with guidance-as-needed produced slightly better results than training with fixed guidance: the guidance-as-needed participants' errors were significantly smaller when guidance was removed. However, this difference quickly dissipated with more practice. We conclude that haptic guidance can benefit short-term learning of a steering-type task while also limiting performance errors during training.     

Career-learning space: New-dots thinking for careers education

For more than 20 years, both careers education and guidance have drawn much of their rationale from the DOTS analysis which analyses practice for coverage of decision learning (D), opportunity awareness (O), transition learning (T), and self awareness (S). Its assumptions are rooted in theory, unifying the aims of careers education and careers guidance as enabling choice. More recent theory and practice engage a wider range of thinking: they acknowledge the complexity of contemporary career planning, and accommodate interactions which occur in the social and community life of the 'choosing person'. The practical implications are for more progressive career learning, in conditions which enable 'due process' to establish viable bases for both choice and change of mind. This thinking more sharply differentiates careers education from guidance, setting out a strong rationale for the former. It does not replace DOTS, but extends it into a new-DOTS re-conceptualisation termed 'career-learning space'. The effectiveness of career learning is determined by its transferable outcomes. New-DOTS thinking resonates with the conditions for transferable learning. There are possibilities here for building a strong consensus between practice, theory and policy.     

The relationship between learning environment and career competencies of students in vocational education

This article focuses on which aspects of the learning environment, aimed at fostering career learning, correspond with the development of career competencies among students (aged 12–19 years) enrolled in prevocational and secondary vocational education in The Netherlands. Aspects of the learning environment that are taken into account here are the following: career orientation and guidance methods used, instruments implemented, and the degree to which the curriculum is practice-based and dialogical. In the study, three career competencies are identified: career reflection (reflective behaviour), career forming (proactive behaviour), and networking (interactive behaviour). To research the relationship between the learning environment and the presence of career competencies, a study was done among 3499 students and 166 teachers in 226 classes in 34 schools. The results show that career guidance in school, in which a dialogue takes place with the student about concrete experiences and which is focused on the future, contributes most to the presence of career competencies among students. Without this dialogue, career guidance methods and instruments barely contribute to the acquisition of career competencies.     

On Guessing: An Alternative Adjusted Positive Learning Estimator and Comparing Probability Misspecification With Monte Carlo Simulations

Practitioners in the sciences have used the “flow” of knowledge (post-test score minus pre-test score) to measure learning in the classroom for the past 50 years. Walstad and Wagner, and Smith and Wagner moved this practice forward by disaggregating the flow of knowledge and accounting for student guessing. These estimates are sensitive to misspecification of the probability of guessing correct. This work provides guidance to practitioners and researchers facing this problem. We introduce a transformed measure of true positive learning that under some knowable conditions performs better when students’ ability to guess correctly is misspecified and converges to Hake’s normalized learning gain estimator under certain conditions. We then use simulations to compare the accuracy of two estimation techniques under various violations of the assumptions of those techniques. Using recursive partitioning trees fitted to our simulation results, we provide the practitioner concrete guidance based on a set of yes/no questions.     

Introduction to the Special Series: Clinical Applications of the Inhibitory Learning Model

Exposure therapies (ETs) are treatments of choice for a number of mental health disorders, particularly anxiety and associated conditions, and problems due to avoidance. Exposure has received broad empirical support as a primary intervention. Recent efforts have focused on improving the efficacy and acceptability of exposure-based treatments. As proposed by Craske etal. (2014), strategies to improve ETs based on the inhibitory learning model have shown notable promise. However, surveys suggest that clinicians continue to avoid ETs, or implement them in a manner that interrupts their efficacy. In this special series, articles focus on specific inhibitory learning strategies in exposure, and their adaptation to multiple patient populations. The aim of the special series is to critically assess the research support for inhibitory learning approaches to exposure, and provide guidance for clinicians to implement these strategies in everyday practice.     

Application of family therapy theory to complex social issues: using the WebQuest in family therapy training

This paper describes how the WebQuest is used to foster critical thinking and application of theory to complex social problems in a Master's level class on contemporary family therapy theories. The issue of child trafficking and prostitution is explored through the web‐based inquiry learning where scaffold learning is provided. Scaffolding includes resource links and guidance on cognitive and social skills, which are provided to facilitate the learner's development. The WebQuest design includes the task, the process and the evaluation rubrics. Student feedback on the WebQuest was positive and included increased motivation in learning, critical thinking and global awareness.     

The social conditions, consequences and limitations of careers guidance

The recent influence of developmental theories of occupational choice upon guidance practice in Britain is criticised. It is suggested that people do not typically 'choose' occupations in any meaningful sense: they simply take what is available. Moreover, the career of the typical industrial worker cannot be meaningfully understood in terms of self-actualisation and implementing a self-concept: guidance work based upon these concepts is accordingly unrealistic. An adequate theory for understanding school-leavers' transition to employment in Britain needs to be based around the concept not of 'occupational choice', but of 'opportunity structure'. Guidance should concentrate not on raising unrealistic expectations, but on helping people to adjust successfully within the opportunity structures open to them.     

The effects of classroom teaching on students' self-efficacy for personal development

The personal development of students is an essential component of school guidance and counselling programmes, but no published research on guidance and counselling has investigated the effects of regular classroom teaching on students' self-efficacy for personal development. In this study, questionnaire items were constructed to measure classroom teaching, student self-efficacy for personal development and student use of deep learning strategies. Data were collected from 16,208 secondary school students in Hong Kong. Using structural equation modelling, regular classroom teaching was found to have a direct effect on personal development self-efficacy as well as an indirect effect through student use of deep learning strategies. Implications of these findings for implementing a whole-school approach to guidance and counselling are discussed.     

A secondary task is not always costly: Context‐based guidance of visual search survives interference from a demanding working memory task

Repeatedly encountering a visual search display with the target located at a fixed position relative to the distractors facilitates target detection, relative to novel displays – which is attributed to search guidance by (acquired) long‐term memory (LTM) of the distractor ‘context’ of the target. Previous research has shown that this ‘contextual cueing’ effect is severely impeded during learning when participants have to perform a demanding spatial working memory (WM) task concurrently with the search task, though it does become manifest when the WM task is removed. This has led to the proposal that search guidance by LT context memories critically depends on spatial WM to become ‘expressed’ in behaviour. On this background, this study, of two experiments, asked: (1) Would contextual cueing eventually emerge under dual‐task learning conditions if the practice on the task(s) is extended beyond the short training implemented in previous studies? and given sufficient practice, (2) Would performing the search under dual‐task conditions actually lead to an increased cueing effect compared to performing the visual search task alone? The answer is affirmative to both questions. In particular, Experiment 1 showed that a robust contextual cueing effect emerges within 360–720 dual‐task trials as compared to some 240 single‐task trials. Further, Experiment 2 showed that when dual‐ and single‐task conditions are performed in alternating trials blocks, the cueing effect for the very same set of repeated displays is significantly larger in dual‐task blocks than in single‐task blocks. This pattern of effects suggests that dual‐task practice eventually leads to direct, or ‘automatic’, guidance of visual search by learnt spatial LTM representations, bypassing WM processes. These processes are normally engaged in single‐task performance might actually interfere with direct LTM‐based search guidance.     

The role of knowledge of results frequency in learning through observation

The authors examined whether reduced knowledge of results (KR) frequency during observation of a model's performance enhances learning. As they viewed a timing task, observers (n = 54) received KR about the model's performance on each trial (100% KR) or on 1 out of 3 trials (33% KR). Controls (n = 18) received only physical practice; they did not take part in the observation session. The authors also wanted to dissociate the guidance effect of KR during physical practice from the guidance role played by the representation acquired during observation. Therefore, following the observation phase, participants physically performed the task with either the same or a different KR frequency than that experienced during observation. The effects of observation and physical practice on learning were assessed in delayed retention tests. The beneficial effect of reduced KR frequency during observation continued for the following physical practice phases. Possible explanations as to why KR influences observational learning are discussed.     

The effect of directive tutor guidance on students' conceptual understanding of statistics in problem‐based learning

Background. Education is aimed at students reaching conceptual understanding of the subject matter, because this leads to better performance and application of knowledge. Conceptual understanding depends on coherent and error‐free knowledge structures. The construction of such knowledge structures can only be accomplished through active learning and when new knowledge can be integrated into prior knowledge. Aims. The intervention in this study was directed at both the activation of students as well as the integration of knowledge. Sample. Undergraduate university students from an introductory statistics course, in an authentic problem‐based learning (PBL) environment, were randomly assigned to conditions and measurement time points. Method. In the PBL tutorial meetings, half of the tutors guided the discussions of the students in a traditional way. The other half guided the discussions more actively by asking directive and activating questions. To gauge conceptual understanding, the students answered open‐ended questions asking them to explain and relate important statistical concepts. Results and conclusions. Results of the quantitative analysis show that providing directive tutor guidance improved understanding. Qualitative data of students' misconceptions seem to support this finding. Long‐term retention of the subject matter seemed to be inadequate.     

The well-being outcomes of career guidance

ABSTRACT

The potential for career guidance to impact on well-being has received insufficient attention in the UK. There are both conceptual and empirical reasons to expect that the impacts may be positive, but a lack of evidence directly testing this proposition. Career guidance has commonalities with therapeutic counselling suggesting analogous effects, and it promotes positive engagement in work and learning, which may be associated with health benefits. There are implications for services in reconciling health and employment objectives. However, the promotion of well-being need not imply quasi-clinical ways of working. A call is made for more research and debate in the career guidance community as to the extent and implications of the potentially important relationship between career guidance and well-being.     

All-age guidance—public,private or welfare service?

The emphasis upon the creation of a culture of lifelong learning propels the issue of accessibility to guidance for adults into the limelight. The Careers Service and other careers guidance providers have demonstrated a communient to all-age guidance in the absence of a coherent policy or resource framework. Following 'contracting out', Careers Services are wrestling with the ambiguities inherent in the 'private company-public service' equation. These are compounded by the continuing absence of clarity at policy level regarding the development of all-age guidance. The central question remains that of how a service, with benefits accruing to the individual, the community and the economy, is most appropriately funded and delivered.     

Visual and tactile guidance of dexterous manipulation tasks: an fMRI study

Models of motor guidance that dynamically adjust to the availability and quality of sensory information are based on the observation that dexterous tasks are routinely performed using various combinations of visual and tactile inputs. However, a dynamic neural system that acquires and processes relevant visual and tactile information remains relatively uncharacterized in humans. In this study, whole-brain functional magnetic resonance images were acquired during a dexterous manipulation task, compression of the end caps of a slender spring prone to buckling, to investigate the neural systems associated with motor guidance under four visual and tactile guidance conditions: (1) eyes closed (no visual input), smooth end caps, (2) eyes dosed, rough end caps, (3) eyes open and watching hand, smooth end caps, and (4) eyes open and watching hand, rough end caps. Performance of the dexterous task remained constant in all conditions. Variations in the two levels of visual input resulted in modulation of activity in the middle and inferior occipital gyrii and inferior parietal lobule, and variation in the two levels of tactile input during the task resulted in modulation of activity in the precentral (primary motor) gyrus. Although significantly active in all conditions, cingulate gyrus, medial frontal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and cerebellum activities were not modulated by levels of either visual or somatosensory input, and no interaction effects were observed. Together, these data indicate that a fine-tuned motor task guided by varying visual and tactile information engages a distributed and integrated neural complex consisting of control and executive functions and regions that process dynamic sensory information related to guidance functions.     

机器学习在儿童创伤后应激障碍识别及转归预测中的应用

创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)会给儿童发展带来负面效应,其影响甚至延续至成年期。然而传统诊断方式难以做到快速、客观、准确的识别和诊断儿童PTSD,机器学习作为一种处理大量变量和数据的新兴方法,逐渐被应用到儿童PTSD的早期预测、识别及辅助诊断等研究中。机器学习凭借其性能、原理等方面的优势,可被应用在儿童PTSD的识别与转归领域。相比自我报告式的诊断,通过机器学习辅助识别和诊断儿童PTSD的过程具有效率高、客观准确、节约资源等独特优势。然而,机器学习也在硬件成本、算法选择和预测准确度等方面存在局限性。未来研究人员需要进一步提高机器学习诊断识别儿童PTSD的准确率,并将机器学习算法同传统诊断方法结合进行更多的探索和应用。