Showing papers on "Competence (human resources) published in 1977"

Explication and test of a model of communicative competence

Abstract: This research investigated the concept of communicative competence. A definition and a five-component model of communicative competence is proposed. Interaction management, empathy, affiliation/support, behavioral flexibility, and social relaxation are identified as components of competence, with interaction management playing a central role. In an experiment designed to partially test the model, 239 Ss were assigned to evaluate a confederate's role-played communicative competence in one of four interaction management treatment conditions. Results indicated a strong, positive, linear relationship between interaction management and communicative competence. Positive correlations between competence and other components of the model were observed. The competent communicator is thus described as empathic, affinitive and supportive, and relaxed while interacting; he is capable of adapting his behavior as the situation within an encounter changes and as he moves from encounter to encounter. The manner in which the interaction is managed contributes, in part at least, to his fellow interact ants' perceptions of his competence.

Preschoolers' Competence with a Peer: Relations with Attachment and Peer Experience.

Abstract: LIEBERMAN, ALICIA F. Preschoolers' Competence with a Peer: Relations with Attachment and Peer Experience. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1277-1287. 40 3-year-olds participated in a short-term longitudinal study assessing the relationship between peer competence and 2 antecedent variables, the security of the attachment relationship with the mother and the amount of experience with peers. Security of attachment was assessed through a home visit, the laboratorybased "strange situation,"and a standardized maternal-attitude scale. The mother's report was used to estimate amount of experience with peers. Peer competence was assessed from the subjects' behavior in a familiar laboratory playroom with an unfamiliar same-age, same-sex playmate. Security of attachment as assessed at home was highly positively correlated with peer experience. Partial correlations showed that security of attachment was correlated only with nonverbal measures of peer competence, whereas peer experience was correlated only with verbal measures. It was concluded that security of attachment and peer experience were related to different aspects of peer competence. A separate analysis showed that maternal attitudes toward the child's expression of aggression and freedom to explore were significantly correlated with the measures of peer competence.

What Do Schools Teach

Abstract: One of the least attractive arguments in recent years has been that schools are relatively unexciting, boring, or what have you, because of mindlessness (Silberman 1970). The argument has it that schools covertly teach all those things that humanistic critics of schools so like to write and talk about-behavioral consensus, institutional rather than personal goals and norms, alienation from one's products, etc.-and that they do so because teachers, administrators, and other educators do not really know what they are doing. However, such a perspective is misleading at best. In the first place, it is thoroughly ahistorical. It ignores the fact that schools were in part designed to teach exactly these things. The hidden curriculum, the tacit teaching of social and economic norms and expectations to students in schools, is not as hidden or "mindless" as many educators believe. Secondly, it ignores the critical task schools perform as the fundamental set of institutions in advanced industrial societies that certifies adult competence. It pulls schools out of their setting within a larger and much more powerful nexus of economic and political institutions that give schools their meaning. That is, schools seem, by and large, to do what they are supposed to do, at least in terms of roughly providing dispositions and propensities "functional" in later life in a complex and stratified social and economic order. While there is no doubt that mindlessness does exist other than in Charles Silberman's mind, it is not an adequate descriptive device-any more than venality or indifference-in explaining why schools are so resistant to change or why schools teach what they do (Gintis and

The Professionalization of Medical Students: Developing Competence And A Cloak of Competence*

Abstract: This paper describes how medical students in an innovative educational setting adopt a cloak of competence as a critical part of the professionalizi~tion process. Faced with inordinate and variable expectations to develop and display competence, students professionalize by distancing themselves from those they interact with and by adopting and manipulating the symbols of their new status. Students were observed to engage in impression management to convince others and themselves that they are competent and confident to facethe immense responsibilities of their privileged role. The data were collected by means of participant observation and interviews. INTRODUCTION. The cultural study of a population which, unlike that of a small homogeneous community, is of diverse origins and experiences encounters many special problems. It is necessary to discover what, in the mass of that experience, is the central and consistent element in the life activities of the population under consideration. Dr. Edgerton has found this commonality in the efforts of these people (mentally retarded released into the community from institutions) to envelop themselves in a 'cloak of competence', in their need to deny themselves the reality of their condition, and in the closely related requisite that they hide-or convince themselves they have hidden-the fact that they have been adjudged deficient (Forward by Walter Goldschmidt in Edgerton, 1967: v-vi). (emphasis ours) The processes of covering up personal incompetence, the appearance of incompetence, or feelings of incompetence, are not restricted to the mentally retarded but are characteristic of participants in occupations and societies that place high value on cognitive skills and abilities. Edgerton observes that institutionalized retardates, released to the community, face the problem of acting "normally" and not revealing their secret. Goffman has suggested that managing and manipulating impressions, and conveying a competence one would like to be believed and accepted, characterizes interactions where participants desire to be successful. Individuals and groups maintain fronts conveying certain impressions and covering up less desirable aspects of personality or behavior (Goffman, 1959). Though managing impressions and role playing are basic parts of the sociological drama, they may be more obvious where participants perceive a potentially critical and condemning audience. This is obvious when the audience has high expectations of competence for others and expect, if not demand, displays of competence, particularly when those assumed to be competent control the situation and act or make decisions affecting the well-being of others. The affected parties then look for cues and indications of personal and/or collective (institutional) competence and practitioners organize a

The Role of Initiation Activities in Socialization

Abstract: The research examines the use of initiation activities during socialization, examining both "initiation to the task, " which serves to increase the feelings of competence of employees, and "initiation to the group," which serves to increase the feelings of acceptance of employees. Using interview and questionnaire data from 118 hospital employees, the research presents empirical evidence which suggests that people who undergo identifiable, symbolic initiations do not feel either significantly more competent or accepted than those who do not. In the context of a broader contingency model of socialization the research also examines: (a) those variables that do influence how competent and accepted employees come to feel; (b) the outcomes of initiation activities; and (c) the relationship between initiation to the task and initiation to the group.

Research perspective on social competence

Abstract: Because definitions of social competence have been so varied, sometimes including health (Zigler, 1973) and personal maintenance (Anderson & Massick, 1973),thisreviewwill be limited to approaches that fall within fairly circumscribed criteria. The focus will be on children in preschool or early school settings, thereby precluding im mediate generalization to non-school settings or to older children. Tentatively, social competence will be defined as productive and mutually satisfying interactions between a child and peers or adults. Productive interactions attain personal goals of the child, whether immediately or in the long run, which are adaptive in classroom settings. Interactions will be satisfying to the child when goals are attained, and to the others if actions in pursuit of the goals are re ceived in either a benign or positive manner. Areas exciuaea rrom tms review are detinitions ot positive be haviors or competence that have not generated research in class rooms. Among these are the well-known views of R. W. White (1958) and M. B. Smith (1968) suggesting an intrinsic motivation for compe tence or mastery. Another example is instrumentation identified under the label social competency but not associated with a background of research (e.g.. Levine, Elzey, & Lewis, 1969). The study of social competence is important for at least three reasons. First, behaviors associated with social or interpersonal competence are required for participation in society. Teachers and parents rate social skills, goal directedness, and emotional stability

Competence and Talent in Verbal Riddle Comprehension.

Abstract: Children in grades 1–3 (ages 6–9) were asked to retell and explain a series of riddles. The scoring system was developed to differentiate levels of competence. Ability to recall riddles was not found to be predictive of ability to explain them. Three cognitive factors seemed to determine level of riddle competence. Level of competence was NOT clearly related to age. Analysis of riddles yields descriptive attributes that distinguish easy from difficult riddles. Implications concern the relationship of riddle competence to reading ability and metalinguistic facility.

Designing Competence-based Training

Abstract: This publication is intended for trainers who have some experience in training design but are looking for a new approach. It advocates a flexible, learner-centred approach and uses cases studies to provide trainers with a practical guide to the skills and methods required to design training programs to meet the needs of their own organisations. The author provides an introduction to the basics of competence-based training and information on National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in the United Kingdom, competency models from the USA and other countries, identifying standards on which to base training programs, identifying training needs, designing programs, choosing appropriate delivery methods, assessment, evaluation and accreditation.

Business Failures, Managerial Competence, and Macroeconomic Variables:

Abstract: Identifying the causes of business failures is crucial for effective policy making, and is especially important for small businesses which account for the largest component of firm failures in the ...

Teachers for Tomorrow

Abstract: Summary Sixth‐form students who had expressed varying degrees of commitment to entering teaching as a career reported on their knowledge of the teaching profession, their expectations for teacher training and on their own educational experiences. By the time they had entered the sixth form most had developed quite sophisticated views about the profession and about their own potential to become effective teachers. A warm and approachable personality was seen as the most important characteristic of the good primary teacher, while for the secondary teacher, subject matter competence was emphasized. Students planning to enter teaching saw themselves, already, as warm and approachable, but felt that their training would have a great effect on their general level of competence, and indeed on their confidence. At their chosen college of education, they anticipated too much ‘educational theory’ and not enough on ‘methods of teaching’ or teaching practice. Most students who planned to teach had had a reasonable am...

Part one: The self‐diagnosis of early pregnancy: An investigation of lay competence 1

Abstract: Like many other physiological phenomena such as eating, sleep­ ing, or dying, any consequenti~l pregnancy (any pregnancy whose course and termination become an object of attention) is seen in contemporary Western societies as an event belonging to the domain of professional medical practice. Accordingly, the diag­ nosis of pregnancy has generally been considered a task that re­ quires professional knowledge and specialized technology for its proper and efficient execution. Whether this is so, is a question that will be investigated here through a study of the ability of lay women to diagnose their own pregnant state. There do not appear to be any a priori grounds why women should have an ability of this kind except, possibly, from an evolutionary vantage point. The capacity for early self-diagnosis

Information content of chess positions

Abstract: Chess has served as a convenient vehicle for studying cognition and perception (see de Groot [1965], Chase and Simon [1973]) as well as machine intelligence. Perhaps the central question for both of these research uses of chess is: How much chess-specific knowledge does it take to play at a given level of competence, for example, at the master level? It is difficult to say what chess-specific knowledge is, and it certainly consists of different types of knowledge, that must be considered independently of each other (for example, "book knowledge" obtained by studying chess books is quite different from experience obtained in over-the-board play). Even if one succeeds in defining what "chess-specific knowledge" is, there remains the difficulty of measuring it. Because of these difficulties, any approach to measuring the amount of knowledge possessed by a practitioner of a craft must be based on questionable assumptions, and any result obtained is subject to uncertainty and criticism. Only the inherent interest of the question posed justifies reporting on a rough and inconclusive experiment designed to answer one aspect of the tantalizing question: How much chess-specific knowledge does it take to play at a given level of competence?

Richness of vocabulary: an attributional analysis

Abstract: Five experiments demonstrated a positive relationship between a speaker's lexical diversity level and listeners' judgments of his socioeconomic status, competence, emotional state, and communicatio

The First Year Teacher: Perceived Needs, Intervention Strategies and Results.

Abstract: This document presents a two-year overview of the University of Alabama/Birmingham First-Year Teacher Pilot Program, designed to share the responsibility for aiding beginning teachers among the teacher training institution, the local educational agency, and the State Department of Education. pbjectives of the program were to determine first-year teacher common and specific needs for skills and knowledge and to fulfill those needls. Needs were determined through the use of questionnaires; pretests and posttests were administered to determine the initial status and progress of each participating teacher; mid-program interviews and summative questionnaires were used to identify effective strategies for personnel support. In a first-year evaluation, the performance of the control group in respect to student attitudes, student achievement, overall teacher axtitudes, and teacher competency did not vary significantly when compared to data received from a non-support group of first-year teachers. However, a more direct relationship between student attitudes and teacher competence, and student attitudes and teacher attitudes, existed for the experimental group than for the control group. Data from the second year showed significantly higher levels for teaches attitudes and principal rating of teacher competencies for the experimental group. Again, no significant differences were observed in the academic achievement level and attitudes of students of control and experimental groups. Despite some program shcrtcomings, the project demonstrated that the local school systems, the State Department of Education, and institutions of higher education can work together and that the cooperative effort can result in a positive Oifference in the behavior of the teachers. (MB)

Competence as a Facilitator of Personal Growth Groups.

Abstract: This article exammes the accreditation process m the encounter group field. Its fundamental thesis is that most attempts to accredit practitioners have little value and do not accomplish their stated purpose of protectmg the public from harm. Difficulties arise because important assumptions tend to remam unexammed. In particular, the following areas have posed significant hurdles. It is especially difficult to define the limits of the field of personal growth groups. What is meant by competency (i.e., what kmds of outcomes will occur m a group led by an accredited professional) is also rarely identified. Standards and criteria appropriate for measurmg competence and valid and reliable methods of selection have not been adequately estabhshed. Finally, accreditmg orgamzations have a tendency to strive for absolute control of a particular field (witness the AMA) without examining some of the evil effects of that influenced. To clarify the nature and extent of these problems, this article exammes the proposed accreditation process of the International Association of Applied Social Scientists. It concludes that the basic purpose of accreditation should be changed from the ambitious aim of protecting the public to simply identifymg practitioners who perform certam types of service. Given the primitive state of the art, it is suggested that educatmg the public about the problems m identifying competent professionals may be the best way of protecting that public.

Summer outdoor programs: Their participants and their effects

Abstract: In a study of the benefits of various summer programs, especially those involving wilderness experiences, the use of pretests for all the groups made possible evaluation of the degree of self-selection as well. Similar tests 6 months later showed the influences of the summer programs themselves. The results suggest that even a relatively short encounter with the out-of-doors results in pervasive changes, the most striking of which relate to increased competence in skills required in the woods.

Staff relations in psychiatric hospitals.

Abstract: This study is concerned with the roles of doctors, nurses, occupational therapists and social workers in psychiatric hospitals, as perceived by members of these occupations. Fifty-one respondents from three psychiatric hospitals were interviewed. Information was sought concerning the ways respondents evaluate (a) occupational importance, (b) occupational competence and (c) inter-group contacts. Most respondents regarded the occupational importance of psychiatrists as being higher than that of the non-medical occupations. There was, however, disagreement among the various groups regarding their specific roles and areas of occupational competence. Existing inter-group contacts were evaluated as much less satisfactory by non-medical staff than by psychiatrists.

Teaching Operational Research Technique

Abstract: Good technique, i.e. competence in carrying out operational research, is as vital for the practitioner to acquire as competence in the traditional ‘techniques’. It is suggested that universities should teach students how to conduct simple projects prior to alerting them to more sophisticated methodological issues.

Accountability: Who Does What to Whom, When, Where, and How?.

Abstract: M uch has been written about the excuse frequently given is that much of subject of accountability as it relates to the work of a counselor is in the affective education and counseling. The common domain and is not measurable (Humes theme of these books and articles seems 1972a). Educators are often consumed by to be the question of who does what to the fear that the accountability criteria whom, when, where, and how well. In will be dictated by the administration, spite of the fact that most educators leaving them with litle control over the agree that accountability is a necessary process (Gubser 1974; Huber 1974). One and good thing, many disagree on how additional problem area is that many to establish and implement such a procounselors view an evaluation, especially gram. of projects or programs, as "a personal The confusion and disagreement often threat to their competence or professional begins with the definitions of accountareputation" (Burck & Peterson 1975, p. bility and accountable. Webster's New 565). Collegiate Dictionary states that to be In addition to feeling threatened by accountable is to be liable, to be answeraccountability, some writers suggested able, or to explain. Both Miller (1972) that it was nonsense even to question the and Huber (1974) agreed with this results of guidance services. Humes concept of being responsible for a level (1972) stated that the mere structure of a of performance or accomplishment. guidance program was enough proof that Gubser (1974), however, felt that equatit was needed and useful. As a result, ing accountability with liability was guidance services continue to be justified confusing and unjust. He preferred to simply because they are an established define accountability as being "responsitraditional service of the school (Pulvino ble for something of value that has been & Sanborn 1972). Other counselors entrusted to one's care" (p. 296). Hence, expressed the opinion that informal it is unfair to hold counselors liable student feedback provided enough when many responsibilities are beyond support of guidance services because their control. Krumboltz (1974) and counselors' busy schedules seldom permit Lieberman (1970) concluded that an accountability system exists when in formation and results of evaluation are , . , . . ,. , . Susan K. Crabbs is an Elementary School used in decision or policy making. _ , , „ , , r ' Counselor, Ankeny Community Schools, Iowa, Numerous excuses have been given for and Michael A. Crabbs is a doctoral student the resistance to accountability. One at Iowa State University, Ames.

Television in the Education of Teachers: a Case Study

Abstract: Videorecording has become increasingly used in teacher education during the past decade, largely in connection with microteaching. The balance of evidence so far reported suggests that microteaching programmes result in the acquisition of skills by students in tightly-structured laboratory sessions: however, when the criteria of success are aspects of subsequent classroom teaching the research findings are inconsistent. This small-scale study sought to compare the relative effect of two short courses in the general methodology of teaching on the subsequent classroom performance of student teachers. One course was wholly lecture-based, while the other required students to develop their teaching competence through devising lessons and teaching them to groups of approximately fifteen top junior pupils. These lessons were videorecorded and the videorecordings were discussed in the presence of a supervisor, who guided the discussion towards matters covered during the lecture course. The relative effectiveness of the two treatments was assessed by comparing the subsequent classroom teaching performance of seven volunteer students from each group, the criterion being the performance of their pupils on a test constructed by the author. No significant difference was found between the two groups. The study illustrates a number of the problems associated with investigations into two important, and surprisingly neglected, areas of research—the validity and transferability of skills required during courses of teacher education.

Appraisal: Peer-Centered and Administrator-Centered.

Abstract: Most of us would agree that as supervisors we have all used some of the techniques implied above, along with uttering many statements parallel in content. A consequence of this pattern of supervision is that excellent teachers have been without benefit of specific counsel or advice for as much as 15 to 20 years. The authors of this article contend that these teachers can also be the beneficiaries of super visory practices that will enable them to receive the necessary feedback and support that will assist them to continue to grow and develop their professional abilities. Contact with many teachers has revealed that they have never had an admin istrator or supervisor participate in any prolonged period of observation and give anything other than the general support and comments relating to this individual teacher's interaction with stu dents and the learning process. The subject area specialist and the building administrator can use and apply the techniques that will be described under the headings of PeerCentered Systems of Evaluation and Administra tor-Centered Systems of Evaluation. Both systems center on classroom visitation, the core element of the process. Both systems also focus on the actions of teachers working with students, and the techniques suggested will yield concrete, observable, verifiable data. Research in the field of supervision has focused in the past on teacher characteristics, progress of students, and the development of classification systems for describing the inter action of students and teachers in the classroom. The last category appears to be producing data that are helpful in improving teacher competence and assisting teachers to see themselves in opera tion with their students in a variety of contexts. Educators have known for many years that the climate surrounding personal interaction be-

Assessment of psychological testing in the Philippines: Focus on industries and national education.

Abstract: Two areas of psychological testing are surveyed, namely industrial testing and national-education testing, for testing-related issues. This paper calls attention to the relative absence of efforts in test construction and test validation, despite the great actiyity in psychological testing. The need to upgrade the competence level and to define the responsibilities of psychologists involved in psychological testing is heavily underscored