William E. Stilwell

A Model for Recruitment and Retention of Minority Students in Teacher Preparation Programs.

The authors provide a comprehensive model for planning, implementing, and maintaining an institutional effort to re cruit and maintain minority students in teacher education programs. Significant factors in planning a recruitment pro gram and suggestions for making the recruitment model institution-specific are discussed. Activities are suggested for each of the eight functions in the model.

Comparison of interrater reliability on the torrance tests of creative thinking for gifted and nongifted students

Despite their widespread use in identifying and evaluating programs for gifted and talented students, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking were standardized on samples that excluded gifted children. The interrater reliability of measures like the TTCT has been questioned repeatedly, yet studies with average students have demonstrated high interrater reliability. This study compares the interrater reliability of the TTCT for groups of gifted and nongifted elementary-school-aged students. Results indicated most interrater reliability coefficients exceeding .90 for both gifted and nongifted groups. However, multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant mean differences across the three self-trained raters for both gifted and nongifted groups. Consequently, use of a single scorer to evaluate TTCT protocols is recommended, especially where specific cutoff scores are used to select students.

COMMUNITY SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING, PERSONALITY TRAITS AND QUALITY OF LIFE THERAPY

In this study, factors that are instrumental in improving individuals’ as well as communities’ subjective well-being (SWB) and Quality of Life (QOL) such as positive and negative relationships, personality characteristics or traits as defined by family members or spouse, perceptions of the future as looking good, and psychological factors (such as congruency, thriving/resilience personality, belongingness, external and internal power and psychoallostasis), demographic variables, and religion were examined. The findings indicate that congruency with one’s community values and expectations, belongingness, thriving personality, psychoallostasis and positive relationships or closeness to people in one’s community, and the perception of the future both for the individual and for the community as bright, are important indicators of Quality of life and increased Subjective well-being. Additionally, family or spousal ratings of personality characteristics as desirable affected SWB only if the ratings corresponded to the individuals’ rating. Path analysis indicate that the high levels of happiness experienced by people living in Individualistic-sub-collectivistic cultures such as Appalachia is strongly linked to communal homeostasis and psychoallostasis lifestyles prevalent in these communities. Implications of these findings to Quality of life therapy (QOLT) and healthy psychology at both the individual level and community level are discussed.

The influence of paternal occupation on social interaction measures in elementary school children

Abstract The objectives of this study were to analyze the effect of paternal occupation as classified by Holland on the social interaction, vocational awareness, self-report and teacher expectations of their children in the elementary school. The paternal occupations of 1386 elementary school children in Corpus Christi, TX were identified. All of these children had taken the Barclay Classroom Climate Inventory, a multimethod needs assessment system which integrates self-report, sociometric, vocational, and teacher judgment data into a computerized report. A multivariate analysis was completed on 29 independent scales to determine differences between children in accordance with Hollands vocational classification system. The results indicated that social interaction differences in children are generally in agreement with environmental thrusts related to paternal occupation.

Teacher Certification and Employment Information: Then and Now!.

Abstract The introduction of the World Wide Web into teacher education has provided the opportunities for immediate exchange of information. Both acquiring information about teacher certification requirements and becoming aware of employment opportunities can be facilitated by the WWW. In this paper the construction of two Web pages is described. The first Web page provides links to state teacher certification requirements. The second page contains the currently available links to states listings of K-12 employment opportunities. Since states differ in their presentation of certification and K-12 employment information, challenges in maintaining Web pages that depend upon others are described.