TEACHING PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN

A 38-item questionnaire was sent to 440 instructors of psychology of women courses; 230 surveys were returned. This article examines characteristics of people who teach courses in psychology of women, characteristics of their institutions, characteristics of the course itself, and the instructors' reactions to the course. Among the findings are: (a) instructors in this course vary greatly in the number of years they have taught the course and in their area of graduate training; (b) few instructors had taken a formal course in psychology of women; (c) the course is usually a highly emotional one; and (d) almost all instructors enjoyed teaching the psychology of women course more than their other courses.     

“No no no” and Other Types of Multiple Sayings in Social Interaction

Relying on the methodology of conversation analysis, this article examines a practice in ordinary conversation characterized by the resaying of a word, phrase, or sentence. The article shows that multiple sayings such as “No no no” or “Alright alright alright” are systematic in both their positioning relative to the interlocutor's talk and in their function. Specifically, the findings are that multiple sayings are a resource speakers have to display that their turn is addressing an in progress course of action rather than only the just prior utterance. Speakers of multiple sayings communicate their stance that the prior speaker has persisted unnecessarily in the prior course of action and should properly halt course of action.     

Women Engineering Students: Competence Perceptions and Achievement Goals in the Freshman Engineering Course

Research suggests that women engineering students in the United States typically have lower competence perceptions than their male classmates. According to achievement goal theory, low competence perceptions are associated with avoidance achievement goals which involve a preoccupation with avoiding failure rather than a focus on approaching success. The current study was conducted to see if women in a freshmen engineering course would rate their competence lower than their male classmates and if they would be more likely to adopt avoidance achievement goals. Further, would lower competence perceptions (i.e., perceived ability, self-efficacy) and avoidance goals have negative effects on grades and interest in the freshman engineering course? A sample of 117 first-semester engineering students from a U.S. Midwestern University completed surveys several times during the semester. Data were also collected from a sample of 82 first-semester students enrolled in an introductory psychology course for comparison purposes. Women in the freshman engineering course reported lower competence perceptions and higher levels of avoidance achievement goals than did men in the engineering course and than men and women in the psychology course. However, there were no significant gender differences in course grades or interest in the engineering course. Further analyses revealed indirect effects of gender on grades and interest in the engineering course through the competence perceptions. The indirect effects were negative suggesting lower values for women in engineering. The avoidance achievement goals were not influential in the indirect effects. The implications of these finding for the persistence of women in engineering are discussed.     

Evaluation of a counselling skills course for health professionals

A counselling skills course run by a London hospital for 11 health professionals was evaluated. The course covered family counselling skills and child management techniques. Qualitative and quantitative measures were used at five times of testing over a period of 10 months. It was found that participants improved self-perceptions of their counselling ability, increased their knowledge of counselling theories, and considered the course to be helpful in their subsequent work with families. There was no significant change in trainees' self-concept scores. Regular supervision was regarded as helpful in consolidating skills and exploring aspects of practice in a safe environment. Issues relating to evaluation research are discussed.     

Student responses to a reflexive course evaluation

Simple surveys are the predominant tool for course evaluations in most universities, but their validity has been questioned. They have been criticized for being a ritual way of complying with administrative regulations rather than a way of improving educational quality. Moreover, there is often a focus on student satisfaction, where the complexity of learning processes and the development of learner identities are lost. As an alternative approach, a qualitative course evaluation was tested that consisted of a single question: What could have been done in this course in order to better support your learning? Twenty-one second-year psychology students completed the evaluation at the end of a course. They provided rich answers describing learning activities and communication, and they described both teachers and students as agents. Going beyond merely reporting possible improvements, the students saw their learning processes in a context of academic demands and social mechanisms. It is argued that qualitative course evaluations can provide information about students’ understanding of their own learning that is difficult to uncover in a traditional survey. It is concluded that qualitative course evaluations would support the development of a student learner identity and help create a role for students as co-producers of knowledge.     

FREUDS PSYKOANALYS

According to Walter Benjamin, we find in the images of recollection and dreams access to a potential of not yet actualized meaning. The images of recollection and dreams are images of the unfulfilled in history, both general and personal. The past has left traces which primarily are the traces of absence. They are traces of something unrecognized in their own time, overseen and forgotten by the course of history. In the sudden moment of recollection, this course can be brought to a standstill, and the images can reveal their salvaging value.     

Kenyan students' expectations upon beginning a master's course in counselling studies

A sample of 23 students - 12 women, 11 men - enrolled on a two-year part-time master's course in counselling studies in Nairobi, Kenya, took part in a focus group discussion about their expectations of the course. The key themes that emerged were: adding to their skills and status and challenges to the counsellors. The findings are discussed within the context of counselling and culture.     

Self and social judgments of ability: beyond distributional information

In a given domain, low-skill individuals typically evaluate the ability level of other people more favorably than high-skill individuals. The current study tests whether this tendency continues to occur even when people have unambiguous distributional information available through which to judge others. Students received distributional information detailing their percentile rank in a statistics course and the percentile rank of another student in the course. Then, students were asked to evaluate their own and the other students' statistics ability. Students evaluated the other person's ability more favorably when their own rank in the course was low rather than high. Therefore, people may use themselves as a standard of comparison when they judge others even when more diagnostic sources of information are available.     

Virtual Empathy? Anxieties and Connections Teaching and Learning Pastoral Care Online

Is it possible to teach pastoral care online? McGarrah Sharp and Morris describe their process of transforming a residential on‐campus pastoral care course into the first online offering of the course at their seminary. They begin by describing a series of pedagogical choices made with the intent of facilitating dynamic movement between peer‐to‐peer, small group, and whole class discussions throughout the semester. Before and during the course, anxieties arose at many levels of instruction for the professor, teaching assistant, and students. Anecdotes and examples from the online course show how the online course design and facilitation was able to name and respond to anxieties as part of integrating pastoral care course content and practice – a key learning goal for the course. The authors are persuaded that online pedagogy can help identify how anxieties create space for developing empathy as much, if not more than, a traditional on‐campus format.     

Effects of counsellor training: Further findings

The 1972/73 class of the University of Aston's Diploma in Counselling course were measured one year after training on their ability to respond empathically and on their ability to discriminate the quality of other counsellors' responses. The same group was also administered the Counsellor Attitude Scale six months and one year after their training. Differences from the administration at the end of the course were not significant on any measures, indicating that skills and attitudes persisted after training. Additionally, during the 1973/74 academic year, the Counsellor Attitude Scale was administered both at five different stages on the Aston course and also to other counsellor training courses. Results of the various CAS administrations are reported, and reasons are suggested for the different outcomes which seem – inter alia – to indicate the value of starting long courses with an intensive client-centred workshop.     

Student-Driven Courses on the Social and Ecological Responsibilities of Engineers

A group of engineering students at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, designed a course on engineering ethics. The core element of the developed Blue Engineering course are self-contained teaching-units, “building blocks”. These building blocks typically cover one complex topic and make use of various teaching methods using moderators who lead discussions, rather than experts who lecture. Consequently, the students themselves started to offer the credited course to their fellow students who take an active role in further developing the course themselves.     

TEACHING ABOUT LOSS

In this article, we develop a case for teaching about loss as part of social and behavioral science curricula. We discuss the first author's development of a class that focuses on loss and trauma. This class emphasizes the view of loss as a pervasive aspect of human life and that it is the core experience for other phenomena, including trauma and chronic illness. The course involves a component in which students write about some loss experience that may reflect their personal life. This component permits many students to express pain, sometimes for one of the first times in their lives, regarding the events in question and relate their experience to what they have learned in the course. Significant features of the course are a score of videos and guest presentations, documenting the diversity of loss and people's myriad ways of coping with loss. It is argued that the course and students' experiences in fulfilling course requirements speak to the gains that may be realized by honest, in-depth probing of losses within the context of psychological and other literatures.     

Examining Career Readiness in a Liberal Arts Undergraduate Career Planning Course

This study explored a career planning course at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities’ College of Liberal Arts. The course aimed to improve students’ career readiness through reflections about their liberal arts education. Individual interviews explored how the course affected students’ ability to articulate the value of their education to potential employers. The authors found that students learned how to articulate career competencies and developed an understanding of what a liberal arts education entails and how it aligns with career readiness. Implications for career development practice are highlighted.     

Self and Social Judgments of Ability: Beyond Distributional Information

ABSTRACT

In a given domain, low-skill individuals typically evaluate the ability level of other people more favorably than high-skill individuals. The current study tests whether this tendency continues to occur even when people have unambiguous distributional information available through which to judge others. Students received distributional information detailing their percentile rank in a statistics course and the percentile rank of another student in the course. Then, students were asked to evaluate their own and the other students' statistics ability. Students evaluated the other person's ability more favorably when their own rank in the course was low rather than high. Therefore, people may use themselves as a standard of comparison when they judge others even when more diagnostic sources of information are available.     

Adult reflection in a graduate-level online distance education course

This study examined adult learners’ ability to engage in critical reflection concerning their own learning in a graduate-level online instructional technology course. The online course was facilitated through asynchronous discussions, and the course topic was about the design and delivery of distance education. The data for this study consisted of four critical reflection papers about students’ perception of their learning. The Periodic Reflection Tool, based on activity systems analysis, was introduced to participants as a guide for engaging in in-depth reflection about their learning process and completing their course assignment. After course completion and during data analysis, we applied instrumental learning and communicative learning theories to evaluate how participants used the tool to reflect on their personal learning in the course. At the conclusion of an analysis of their reflection statements, it was found that purposeful reflections guided by the Periodic Reflection Tool could help guide adult learners to reflect on many aspects of their learning and we suggest that the tool could be used to examine adults’ transition from traditional to online settings.     

Pilot Evaluation of a University-Based Training in Trauma-Informed Services for Gang Intervention Workers

The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of a course designed to bring trauma-informed practices into community-based intervention programming for gang-involved youth and families. There have been no formally evaluated trauma trainings for gang intervention workers to date. Thirty gang intervention workers completed a University-based course on trauma, which aimed to raise the level of knowledge regarding trauma exposure and its effects on youth, increase intervention workers’ confidence in their ability to identify and respond to posttraumatic stress reactions among clients, and build resilience among staff. Pre-post results revealed that participants significantly improved in their knowledge related to trauma and confidence in their ability to respond to trauma among clients. Participants also rated themselves significantly higher on these domains compared to gang intervention workers who did not take the course. Participants rated the course positively on dimensions that are associated with staff members’ willingness to implement evidence-based interventions following training. The findings indicate a number of important recommendations for supporting gang intervention workers and integrating trauma-informed practices into gang intervention services.     

Factors Predicting Intention to Enroll in a Philosophy of Life Course

This research examined factors predicting university students' intentions to enroll in a philosophy of life course. One hundred and ninety subjects participated in two surveys. The first was qualitative, identifying factors students considered in forming intentions, but without ranking the factors. The second study used a quantitative model to predict student intentions from their beliefs about the course, themselves, and other people. The model was based on Ajzen's theory of planned behavior, a theory that successfully predicts many different behaviors. Analysis was done using partial least squares, a robust structural equation modeling technique. The results show that students focused primarily on personal outcomes from the course. They wanted the course to help them understand life and themselves. To a lesser extent, students' perceptions of other people's views affected their intentions, especially the opinions of parents, friends, and religious people. Some students thought all beliefs are subjective, and discussing them would be pointless. Recommendations are given for designing and promoting philosophy of life courses.     

A structural equation model of pre‐service teachers' perceptions of future goals and current course‐related motivation

This study examined relationships between pre‐service teachers' perceptions of future goals and motivation to complete current tasks required in teacher education courses. Using 351 pre‐service teachers' survey responses from two southern universities in the USA, a full‐structural modeling was conducted. Results showed pre‐service teachers' perceived endogenous instrumentality (value of the current course “content” to attain future goals) had a direct effect on their intrinsic motivation, and their perceived exogenous instrumentality (value of the current “grade” to attain future goals) had a direct effect on their extrinsic motivation. This research suggests students' understanding of a relationship between their course content and future goal encourages their motivation to learn for enjoyment. Furthermore, students' understanding of a relationship between the course grade of the current course and their future goal encourages their motivation to get a high course grade, not necessarily because they enjoyed the course content. This study contributes to understanding pre‐service teachers' cognitive/motivational characteristics and to developing appropriate learning environments of teacher education that align with pre‐service teachers' learning characteristics to promote their effective learning.     

Students' perceptions and reported use of their memories after a memory-improvement course

23 college students who had taken a memory-improvement course completed a questionnaire at three different times: the beginning of the course, the end of the course, and two months after the end of the course. The questionnaire assessed the students' perceptions of their memory abilities, e.g., how good their memories were and how confident they were in their memories and knowledge about their memories, and their reported use of the memory techniques; it did not assess actual memory performance or ability. The students' responses to the questionnaire were compared with those of 23 control students who completed the questionnaire at the same three times. The memory students reported more positive changes in how they perceived their memory abilities and knowledge, and these reported changes in perceptions were still evident two months later. The students also reported that they were still using their memory techniques two months later.     

Applying Theories of Communal Motivation to Sexuality

One important but challenging aspect of maintaining a satisfying romantic relationship is keeping the sexual spark alive. Research suggests the importance of a couple's sexual connection in the maintenance of their relationship, but sustaining high levels of desire for a partner over the course of time can be difficult. In the current review, we argue that one novel approach to understanding how couples might maintain desire and satisfaction over the course of time in their relationships is applying theories of communal motivation to the domain of sexuality. In this line of research, we have demonstrated that people high in sexual communal strength – those who are motivated to be non‐contingently responsive to their partners' sexual needs – are able to sustain higher sexual desire over the course of time and navigate sexual disagreements in a way that maintains both partners' relationship quality. Future research directions include broadening the view of sexual needs to include the need to decline or reject a partner's sexual advances and investigating how partners manage unmet sexual needs.