Glen T. Evans

Adolescent Concerns: A Classification for Life Skill Areas

A brief review and theoretical analysis of issues involved in education for life skills was used to propose ways in which to extend work which has been done in identifying major life skills about which adolescents express concern. Using interviews, essays and questionnaires as assessment procedures, two studies were designed to explore concerns, knowledge, skills, needs and attributed sources of learning in these areas. The results suggested a taxonomy of perceived concerns and knowledge, in which social relationships, personal development and career skills were central.

Adolescents' self-perceptions of competence in life skill areas

The perceptions of a sample of 1061 adolescents of their own competence in a number of life-skill areas were assessed. Three sets of scales were used—those concerned with competence viewed as efficacy in various life areas and situations, those concerned with competence as the satisfaction of goals based on Maslows hierarchy of needs, and assessments of the structural complexity of performance on a short essay task. In addition to comparisons among self-perceptions for different areas, a number of major comtextual and personal variables was studied for differences in self-perceptions—course type, school type, state, career aspirations and expectations, major life concerns, age, and gender. There were strong gender differences that suggested that females generally underrated their own competence. The major educational or work contexts reflected important differences in patterns of self perceptions of skill. Differences between those with different major life concerns and career hopes and expectations aligned with course type differences. Finally, there were strong indications that the self-perceptions of competence that were reported formed a strong general factor, favoring the notion of generic over domain specific self-perceptions.

The architecture of human information processing: Empirical evidence

This article outlines a path analytic interpretation of data collected in light of a theoretical formulation of a dynamic model of memory, which provides a perspective on the human information processing system as a whole. The model of memory represents an attempt to integrate the relatively static models of memory structures with the more dynamic concepts underlying research on control and processing mechanisms. The outcomes of the study emphasise the role of relational knowledge (taxotomic subject matter structures), strategic knowledge (procedural algorithms) and empirical knowledge (based on first hand experience) in cognitive skill performance.

The Important Things in Life: Group Differences in Adolescent Concerns

A useful approach to group differences in adolescent concerns is to consider the distinction between instrumental values and more intrinsic and terminal values. Which of these is emphasised might be expected to depend on the major life settings of the adolescents concerned. In this study, the major settings of the 15- to 18-year-old participants were taken to be the educational context or course type—mainstream Year 11, transition program in school, prevocational programs in colleges of technical and further education, and community youth support schemes. Gender differences were also examined. The study examined differences in the nature of the concerns expressed, the reasons given for these concerns, skills needed for coping, ability to cope, problems encountered, and sources of help and hindrance. The findings suggested a course type culture in which patterns of expectations and priorities of concern are developed. Course type setting appeared to influence whether young people show more concern with immediacy of needs, proximal plans and getting a job, as distinct from distal plans, personal development, and relationships. There were also associated gender differences.

Training in Information Selection for Communication

An analysis of communication difficulties experienced by Australian children of lower socio-economic status and/or immigrant background led to the development of a program aimed at helping children in the age range 8–12 years develop linguistic selection rules necessary for effective information transfer and processing. The tasks were designed so that children were required to communicate through an opaque partition and, in turn, take the role of speaker and listener in communicating information about especially designed sets of objects and constructions. Evaluation of the materials and procedures was carried out in two metropolitan schools using a set of pretests and posttests. It was concluded that use of the materials for a period of one half day per week for nine weeks resulted in substantial gains, when compared with control groups, at two grade levels, in the childrens encoding skills.

Relationships between Verbal and Non-Verbal Abilities for Migrant Children and Australian Children of Low Socio-Economic Status: Similarities and Contrasts

Previous research indicates that mean patterns of mental ability show striking differences between different ethnic groups. In this paper, some salient features of information processing on which there are likely to be differences between children of Australian born parents of low SES and children of migrant parents are discussed. An empirical study of these differences is described. The mean performance of the migrant children studied compared with children of low SES Australian born parents was found to be related to the balance between verbal and cognitive aspects of the task. The greater the cognitive demand for a given verbal requirement the better the performance of the migrant children relative to the children in the “Australian” group. Further, the intercorrelations between performances were found to be markedly different for the two groups. The results suggest that migrant children in particular may benefit from teaching which emphasises the pragmatic use of language to indicate desired discriminations and concepts.

Substance use: A life skills perspective

The paper proposes a life skills perspective for understanding substance use, in which generative and context based competences and control strategies are central. Within that framework, reasons for substance use, general goal related competence, and specific strategies used to control substance use were examined for 360 young people (144 males, 216 females) aged 18–20 years. Relationships were established between frequency of use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs and participants’ self reported knowledge of methods and effects of use, as well as of how much use was made of knowledge of effects in social situations. Participants also answered short tests on actual knowledge of effects and results on these were related to the extent of use reported. Finally perceptions of the best ways to learn about the effects of using these substances were related to patterns of reported use. The results supported the application of the life skills perspective to the domain of substance use in six areas; goal orientation; perceived competence; control over one’s actions; contextual competence; personality traits; and utilisation of knowledge. Educational strategies to develop this perspective were suggested.RésuméCette étude se propose de contribuer à la compréhension de l’usage de substances nocives (tabac, alcool, marijuana, heroïne, etc.) chez 360 jeunes des deux sexes de 18 à 20 ans (144 hommes, 216 femmes). Elle tient compte des données démographiques et du contexte dans lequel se situe l’usage des substances nocives, ainsi que des raisons ou stratégies qui conduisent à l’utilisation ou à une limitation de leur contrôle.On a établi une relation entre la fréquence et la méthode d’utilisation des substances nocives considérées et l’explication que donnent les sujets de leur connaissance des méthodes et des effets de cette utilisation.Pour une meilleure appréciation des résultats de l’enquête faite en 1987, en Nouvelles Galles du Sud et au Queensland (Australie), les lecteurs francophones se reporteront avec profit au vocabulaire anglo-saxon de l’échelle des compétences de Maslow qui sert de cadre à un certain nombre de suggestions de stratégies éducatives.

Social and life skill competence in potential early school-leavers

Abstract Competencies in social and life skills of a group of students expecting to leave school at the end of Grade 10 in Australia is compared with groups expecting to continue. Academic performance and skills were also assessed. The results of the study indicated that the potential early school-leavers were disadvantaged both socio-economically and academically. But, surprisingly, the findings indicated that they were not significantly different from the other two groups of students targeted in the study in terms of their social and life skills. The results imply that potential early leavers in school populations may be unnecessarily disadvantaged because school programmes, in concentrating on a narrow range of cognitive skills, do not build on personal competency skills already possessed by students of all levels of ability. Whilst this is the case, potential early school-leavers will be likely to continue to be disaffected and disadvantaged educationally.

Life skills of Australian adolescents

ConclusionOur concern, then, is with the acquisition of life role skills by Australian adolescents. The expectations placed on young people today, at a time of rapidly changing values, technologies, and economic and social circumstances, make the transition from adolescence to adulthood increasingly more complex. Skills involving relationships, judgement, communication and presentation of self, as well as more specific action skills, are increasing and seen as basic to the educational process. They also involve considerable knowledge of society, community, the world of work, and technological innovation. Such skills we conceive of as life skills.How these skills might be perceived as concerns and needs by young people themselves, how such skills might be conceptualised, how they might be acquired and on what kind of learning settings, are some of the issues that we have raised. We believe that how life skills are dealt with in schools, colleges, and CYSS centres to meet the changing needs of Australian youth, may well be one of the most important educational issues of the 1980’s, of significance not only to young people themselves but to the functioning of society at large.