Applied sport psychology: Are we a profession?

Although the field of applied sport psychology has developed, it faces further challenges on its way towards gaining greater professional status. The following principal criteria of professionalism are proposed as a test of such status (Carr, 1999): (a) provide an important public service; (b) underpinning knowledge base; (c) organizational regulation; (d) distinct ethical dimension; and (e) professional autonomy. This paper undertakes to explore the nature of implications for practice and the extent to which the suggested principal criteria justify a distinctive applied sport psychology profession. In doing so, we hope to stimulate debate on these, and other issues, in order that an even greater professionalization of our applied discipline may emerge

The Question of Competence: Reconsidering Medical Education in the Twenty-First Century

[Excerpt] The real challenge for those involved in designing competency-based educational programs is to recognize the complexity of competence as a concept. Only then can they effectively delineate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that learners must acquire to be able to perform within each domain at a predetermined level and to recognize that the expected level of performance within each domain will vary depending on the learner\u27s stage of education and the specialty he or she is learning. The authors of this book help us do just that. They examine the challenges facing medical education and introduce the concept of discourse as a mechanism both for examining the idea of competence and considering how to implement competency-based education. In so doing, they provide us with a new way to ask the questions that are at the heart of every report advocating change, every criticism of medical education, and every conversation that questions why health care is the way it is today

Information Literacy Instruction for Upper-Year Undergraduate Students: A Stratified Course-Integrated Approach

Undergraduate students face many potential barriers to learning about the process of conducting research. Information literacy instruction provided through faculty-librarian collaboration in an effort to expand the abilities of the “novice researcher” can ease the experience of undergraduate students. In addition, information literacy instruction may invoke increased student participation in the scholarly discourse of their chosen discipline. The implementation of a stratified course-integrated approach may be particularly valuable to upper-level undergraduates in preparation for completing a thesis or other culminating project in their final year of study. This claim is examined within the context of an instruction session observed as a component of a third-year undergraduate Materials Science and Engineering course

The recruitment and selection of pension trustees:an integrative approach

The role of a pension trustee is significant, which makes the recruitment and selection of labour trustees an important issue. In this article, we examine and combine aspects of two approaches to recruitment and selection: the political nomination model and the more professional HRM approach. We argue that an integrative approach would acknowledge the political, regulatory and organisational context while incorporating valid selection criteria such as domain-specific skills and performance on the job. Such an integrated process can help trade unions in filling labour trustee positions with talented individuals who are more likely to be effective in achieving labour's goals in pension governance

The Search for Good Lawyering: A Concept and Model of Lawyering Competencies

Every task performed by a lawyer can be analyzed and evaluated as a manifestation of that lawyer\u27s underlying abilities. A system for analyzing these tasks, when conducted in a valid and consistent manner, could eventually result in the creation of standards for all legal education, ranging from teaching methods and curriculum design to questions of student retention and lawyer certification. The Competency-Based Task Force of the Antioch School of Law has been working on such a system for six years and believes that a workable model has been developed. The purpose of this article is to describe and explain that model, and to give some examples of its uses

Technology Solutions for Developmental Math: An Overview of Current and Emerging Practices

Reviews current practices in and strategies for incorporating innovative technology into the teaching of remedial math at the college level. Outlines challenges, emerging trends, and ways to combine technology with new concepts of instructional strategy

Contextualizing the Competency-Based Schooling

To a classroom teacher the current debate about work-related competencies might appear far removed from his/her classroom and have no significance for teacher education. Yet the proposed policy changes are likely to affect the work and the professional status of teachers in a very direct way. As Whitty and Willmott (1991: 312) point out, one of the fundamental problems of competency-based teaching/training (CBT) approach consists in the difficulty to define just how narrow or broad the competencies might be. A too narrow definition based on observable work-related skills might indicate a radical departure from the traditional role teachers played in the old and more liberal educational system, and consequently the status of the reflective professional might be questioned if teachers becomes mere technical instructors and skills assessors. A too broad definition, on the other hand, can make it impossible to define criteria of competence in any meaningful way. The second, and no less important ramification of the CBT approach is related to the capacity of a CBT system to produce intellectually autonomous and reflective citizens. The consequences of having skilled but not necessarily intelligent citizenry might not become apparent in a short term; however, the future social and moral developments of our civilization might be threatened should the CBT system prove inefficient in delivering such desired outcomes

Information Literacy Instruction in an English Capstone Course: A Study of Student Confidence, Perception, and Practice

An English professor and an instruction librarian at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester felt that the college\u27s new English Capstone course for majors provided a unique opportunity to assess the information literacy skill levels of graduating English majors. They therefore engaged in a three-year study to evaluate the IL competency of these students, to gauge their perceptions of library instruction provided during the Capstone course and throughout their academic careers, and to determine students\u27 confidence and self-efficacy with respect to these skills. The researchers sought to determine the ways in which the IL program for English majors effectively met established IL goals and to identify areas for improvement