Simple Questions and Positivity: Analysis and Reflection of a Formative Advising Session

Relay Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 231-242
Author(s):  
Bryan Buschner

This manuscript was a reflection on a single advising session with a Japanese university student, following the conclusion of an advisor training course. It combined a reflective practice approach (Schön, 1987) with elements of discourse analysis (Strauss & Feiz, 2014) to better understand the choices I (the advisor) made during the session. Originating as an assignment aimed at personal development, the reflection encouraged introspection on the events of the session. Analysis of the discourse offered further insight, resulting in a focus on three strategies that were used extensively and emerged as valuable on my road to becoming a better advisor: (1) use of questions, (2) use of metaview and linking strategies, and (3) use of positive reframing (Kato & Mynard, 2016). While investigation identified benefits from, and appreciation of, a focus on positive reframing, it also suggested that questions could have been used more effectively. More precisely, use of questions as a strategy might have been improved with a focus on more powerful questions. The reflection concludes with a discussion of insights gained from analysis and addresses some specific questions asked by advisor trainers for personal development. Finally, I offer some suggestions for my own professional development and future research.

Author(s):  
Eucharia Donnery

Although steps have been taken to address the issue of ijime or bullying, it remains is a serious social problem within the Japanese educational system. The main focus of this pilot study was to ascertain how beneficial process drama could be in developing oral communicative skills in the target language of English as well as to build social awareness through the deconstruction of the bully and victim dichotomy. Process drama in language acquisition is unique in its aim to fuse language learning and personal development. The average Japanese university student has had six years of compulsory English education, with an emphasis on grammar-translation and accuracy. This means that, while the average student excels at translation and test-taking, s/he has had little experience with communicative English and has no sense of ownership of the language. Because of this lack of oral communicative skills, process drama is an ideal means to build the bridge to communicative competence. This paper is part of a larger tri-semester process drama project and the data accumulated from all three will be used as evidence in a final PhD dissertation. Although steps have been taken to address the issue of ijime or bullying, it remains is a serious social problem within the Japanese educational system. The main focus of this pilot study was to ascertain how beneficial process drama could be in developing oral communicative skills in the target language of English as well as to build social awareness through the deconstruction of the bully and victim dichotomy. Process drama in language acquisition is unique in its aim to fuse language learning and personal development. The average Japanese university student has had six years of compulsory English education, with an emphasis on grammar-translation and accuracy. This means that, while the average student excels at translation and test-taking, s/he has had little experience with communicative English and has no sense of ownership of the language. Because of this lack of oral communicative skills, process drama is an ideal means to build the bridge to communicative competence. This paper is part of a larger tri-semester process drama project and the data accumulated from all three will be used as evidence in a final PhD dissertation.


Relay Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 100-109
Author(s):  
Phillip A. Bennett ◽  
Maria Giovanna Tassinari ◽  
Ena Hollinshead ◽  
Fergal Bradley

This paper is a reflection on our experiences as managing editors and layout editors of volume 2, issue 2 of Relay Journal. In accordance with the developmental aims of Relay Journal, via this reflective practice, our motivations are not only to foster each others’ learner autonomy and grow our professional development, but additionally to encourage others to also share reflections of their editing responsibilities, practices, and realisations. We also believe this will provide insight into the process for those who do not have the experience in such roles, yet wish to pursue them. With that in mind, we will briefly detail the journal-editing process and our roles in such; then follow with our individual reflections upon our experiences. Our reflections will focus on our responsibilities and roles, our feelings, and what we learned through the experience.


Relay Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 293-295

Welcome to the second reflective practice column where we are pleased to share another series of active advisors’ voices with our professional community. The first column of Reflective Practice in Advising in Volume 1(1) became a prelude for creating a global community of learning advisors with the aim of building a platform to share our professional development experiences and further seek opportunities for growth. As in Issue 1, in this issue of Relay Journal, all the contributors are engaged in a different advising context with various sociocultural backgrounds, but each of the case studies illustrates how their reflective practice enables learning advisors to continue exploring potential growth at any point in their career. In other words, the journey of becoming a learning advisor is ever-lasting, as long as the learning advisor is willingly seeking an opportunity for transformative learning. The post-publication reflective dialogues in Issue 1, although experimental, were a great success. They triggered active discussions among learning advisors, which lead to further reflection-on-action and reflection-for-action (Farrell, 2015) among the contributors. These open and collaborative dialogues across the sociocultural boundaries exemplify professional development for learning advisors.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000494412110034
Author(s):  
Lucy Corbett ◽  
Philayrath Phongsavan ◽  
Louisa R Peralta ◽  
Adrian Bauman

Professional development (PD) provides an opportunity to promote the psychological, social, and physical health tools teachers require to maintain teacher wellbeing. Despite their potential, little is known about PD programs targeting the health and wellbeing of Australian teachers. This study aimed to summarize the characteristics of Australian PD programs targeted at teacher wellbeing, identify gaps in existing PD and make recommendations for future research and practice. Three search strategies, (1) search engine results, (2) a manual search of known Australian education websites, and (3) requests for information from Australian education organizations, were combined to ensure a comprehensive inventory of PD programs was compiled. This study found 63 PD programs promoting health and wellbeing that currently exist for Australian teachers. Of these, only three provided evidence of their evaluation indicating programs are advertised and implemented without evidence of their effectiveness. Future PD should be evaluated with findings of the evaluations reported publicly so evidence-based programs promoting teacher’s health and wellbeing can be recommended and implemented.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110269
Author(s):  
Guangbao Fang ◽  
Philip Wing Keung Chan ◽  
Penelope Kalogeropoulos

Using data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS; 2013), this article explores teachers’ needs, support, and barriers in their professional development. The research finds that Australian teachers expressed greater needs in information and communication technology (ICT) use and new technology training for teaching, while Shanghai teachers required more assistance to satisfy students’ individual learning and pedagogical competencies. More than 80% of Australian and Shanghai teachers received scheduled time to support their participation in professional development, whereas less than 20% of Australian and Shanghai teachers received monetary or nonmonetary support. In terms of barriers, Australian and Shanghai teachers reported two significant barriers that conflicted with their participation in professional development: “working schedule” and “a lack of incentives to take part.” This article reveals implications of the study in the design of an effective professional development program for Australian and Shanghai teachers and ends with discussing the limitations of the research and future research directions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 875687052110279
Author(s):  
Malarie E. Deardorff ◽  
Corey Peltier ◽  
Belkis Choiseul-Praslin ◽  
Kendra Williams-Diehm ◽  
Melissa Wicker

The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act mandates transition planning to occur in conjunction with the individualized education program for secondary age students with disabilities beginning by age 16, or earlier. To fulfill this mandate, teachers must possess a depth of content and pedagogical knowledge related to the transition planning process. However, the majority of special educators do not receive coursework dedicated to transition in their undergraduate programming. Furthermore, teachers in under-resourced and underserved rural districts may have inequitable professional development opportunities to bolster their transition planning knowledge. This lack of transition-related education potentially leads to inadequate and noncompliant transition plans for students with disabilities. The current study examined differences in teachers’ knowledge based on locale: rural ( n = 75), suburban ( n = 48), and urban ( n = 64) from one southern state. Determining whether differences are identified by locale can inform the allocation of resources to provide high-quality, evidence-aligned professional development models to improve teacher knowledge in underserved and under-resourced rural locales. In addition, identifying gaps in teacher knowledge will inform pre-service and in-service teacher preparation. We provide an avenue of needed future research to improve transition-planning processes for students with disabilities.


Author(s):  
Anna Lee ◽  
Kathleen Knafl ◽  
Marcia Van Riper

The purpose of this scoping review was to identify the family and child quality of life variables that have been studied in relation to one another in children with Down syndrome, the frequency with which different relationships have been studied, and the extent to which family variables were the focus of the research aims. A literature search was conducted to find studies published between January 2007 and June 2018. The initial search yielded 2314 studies; of these, 43 were selected for a final review. Researchers most often addressed family resources and family problem-solving and coping concerning child personal development and physical well-being. Little attention to child emotional well-being was observed, with none considering family appraisal of child emotional well-being. The relationship between family variables and child QoL rarely was the primary focus of the study. Methodologically, most reviewed studies used cross-sectional designs, were conducted in North America and based on maternal report. From future research considering the issues found in this review, healthcare providers can obtain an in-depth understanding of relationships between children and family variables.


2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Knowles ◽  
Jonathan Katz ◽  
David Gilbourne

This paper examines reflective practice by illustrating and commenting upon aspects of an elite sport psychology practitioner’s reflective processes. Extracts from a practitioner’s reflective diary, maintained during attendance at a major sporting event, focused upon issues that relate to on-going relationships and communication with fellow practitioners and athletes. Authors one and three offered subsequent comment on these accounts to facilitate movement toward critical reflection via an intrapersonal process creating considerations for the practitioners with regard to skills and personal development. These issues are discussed in relation to pragmatic topics such as “staged” and “layered” reflection encouraged by author collaboration and shared writing within the present paper. We argue these outcomes against more philosophical/opaque considerations such as the progression of critical reflection and critical social science.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105413732110398
Author(s):  
Erica Frechman ◽  
Patricia M. Wright

Burnout in hospice and palliative care nurses is a growing issue, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have focused specifically on burnout in this population. A scoping review was undertaken to identify what is known about burnout among hospice and palliative care nurses, and to unify disparate findings. Analysis of eight articles revealed three overarching categories: personal factors, organizational/workplace factors, and nursing professional development factors. Each category was then divided into three cross-cutting subcategories: contributory and noncontributory factors, mitigating factors, and workplace issues. Recommendations for individuals include self-care as well as self-awareness of intrinsic characteristics that can predispose one to burnout. Within the workplace, leaders are challenged to support evidence-based practice and ongoing education. Role modeling positive communication skills, effective conflict mitigation, responsiveness, promotion of equity, and workplace commitment also help to create a culture of wellness. Nursing professional development may aid in resilience-building, and promotion of self-efficacy, self-confidence, and assertiveness. Although all identified recommendations were derived from the literature, no interventional studies have been conducted to test the effects of suggested interventions. Future research should include interventional studies as well as qualitative research to capture nuanced experiences of burnout in hospice and palliative care nurses.


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