Educational games as a strategy for teaching and learning Accounting

Throughout the history of education, tools or mechanisms have been used for student learning, which is why educational institutions have not only focused on increasing their use, but also on updating the way and means they use to to teach. These institutions are also concerned with innovating and generating didactic tools, so that students can have the means of support that allow them to obtain new knowledge or reinforce those acquired in the classroom. In the present work, the design of a simulation kit or sets of support means is presented to carry out learning activities in an individual or group context, for the subject Introduction to Financial Accounting of the Public Accountant career of the National Technological Institute of Mexico , San Martín Texmelucan campus (ITSSMT). The methodology used was a non-experimental design, the variables in question were not manipulated, with a descriptive study to identify and design the content of the kit, a qualitative approach, having as object of study the needs of the students of the Public Accountant career ITSSMT, to which the survey for field research was applied.

The Training Setting as a Social and Liminal Space for Professional Hybridization

This article addresses the liminality concept as a way to explore a particular group context, relating to a training setting intended as a liminal space, and to highlight its potential to trigger evolutionary personal and organizational identity trajectories. Dealing with a contemporary uncertain, volatile, and ambiguous organizational scenario, people are asked for consistent and quick professional hybridization processes. This article refers to a case study related to an action research process aimed at a cultural transformation and nurturing organizational learning inside an extra-hospital Rehabilitation Center, challenged by a strong organizational reconfiguration and the creation of new functions and roles, among which the one coordinator, responsible for the operational activity to be managed within the units of the organizational context. This article also highlights both the main features that characterize a training setting as a liminal space and identifies the possible plots of professional hybridization paths that a training group as a liminal space can trigger and develop.

Reflective Practices to Study Group Dynamics: Implement Empowerment and Understand the Functioning of Groups

Introduction: Individual and group reflection practices are qualitative methods useful in a group context to develop group skills and more awareness of the dynamics that take place within the group to which one belongs.Aim: The aim of this work is to highlight how individual reflective practices and group reflections contribute to the development of group skills. More specifically, the effectiveness of relevant group dynamics is investigated, with the aim of creating a space for reflection, and activation for individual and group empowerment.Participants: The participants were 130 university students (86% female), resided in northwestern Italy, and had a mean age of 27.5 years (SD = 7.52). They were randomly divided into 23 groups (ranged from four to nine members).Method: The participants engaged in several online training activities and at the end of every activity they completed individual reflection practice in which they presented both positive and negative aspects related to the group experiences. Then they participated in online group reflections that allowed them to reflect on the group dynamics, particular attention given to factors such as climate, participation and roles played by each participant in a variety of training activities. This study analyzes 130 individual reflective practices and 23 group reflections. The data collected through individual reflective practices and the transcripts of the group reflections were analyzed using grounded theory. Two independent judges analyzed and categorized the data and then identified the main common categories that emerged by the support of Nvivo software.Results: From the analysis of the content, it is determined that the participants, based on the construction of the individual and group reflections, paid greater attention to the dynamics that occurred within the group during the various activities in which they participated, thus allowing them to be more aware of the various factors that affected the importance attributed to the different roles, the climate, and their active participation.Conclusion: Combined, these factors allowed participants to strengthen their relationships with each other and enhance the cohesion of the group.

Not (Entirely) Guilty: The Role of Co-offenders in Diffusing Responsibility for Crime

Objectives: Test the diffusion of responsibility hypothesis by examining associations between the presence, number, and role of co-offenders and adolescents’ perceived responsibility for criminal behavior. Methods: The study uses data from the Crossroads Study, a longitudinal study of 1,216 male adolescents who were arrested for the first time. A series of generalized ordered logistic regressions assess how different features of the group context are linked to adolescent offending. Models first examine the relationship between the presence of a co-offender and adolescents’ perceptions of responsibility for their crime, followed by co-offending specific models examining the impact of the number of co-offenders and role in the co-offense. Results: Adolescents’ perceptions of responsibility for criminal behavior decrease when they co-offend, as the size of the group increases, and when crime is not solely their idea. Conclusions: The study's findings are consistent with the diffusion of responsibility hypothesis, which highlights an important psychological experience tied to the group context. The findings contribute to our understanding of adolescent risky decision-making and shed insight into how the group context may facilitate criminal behavior.

“I’m not alone, my story matters”: Incarcerated women’s perspectives on the impact and acceptability of group psychotherapy involving imaginal exposure to sexual assault memories

Background Although it is clear that incarcerated women need access to effective therapies for trauma sequelae, some have argued that one of the most effective treatments – exposure therapy – should not be provided in carceral settings due to the presumed lack of safety and stability making such an intervention inappropriate. Group therapy, the typical mode of intervention in prisons, has also been presumed to be unacceptable for exposure-based processing due to assumptions that hearing others’ trauma narratives would be traumatizing and unhelpful to listeners. However, there is a lack of data to support either of the aforementioned assumptions. This study examined the acceptability of an exposure-based group therapy for women survivors of sexual violence who were currently incarcerated (N = 61) by asking women themselves about their experiences completing an exposure-based group therapy protocol (SHARE; SurvivorsHealing fromAbuse:Recovery throughExposure) while incarcerated. We assessed women’s reasons for enrolling in the group, satisfaction with various therapy components (e.g., exposure, skill-building) and the treatment overall, and experiences of both sharing and listening to trauma narratives using a feedback survey that included a mix of multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Treatment dropout was examined as an additional index of acceptability. Results Treatment completion was very high (88.8%). Nearly all women who completed the group reported that they would recommend it to other incarcerated women (96.7%, with the remaining 3.3% reporting “it depends”). Qualitative results revealed overwhelmingly positive feedback about the effect of the group and indicated that sharing and listening to trauma narratives in a group setting serve discrete but dually important functions. Specifically, women almost universally experienced listening to others’ trauma narratives (i.e., exposures) in the SHARE group context as helpful—making them feel less alone and normalizing their experiences. Sharing one’s own story primarily provided an emotional release and/or transformation (i.e., an intrapersonal rather than interpersonal function). Conclusions Our findings challenge common concerns about the appropriateness of 1) prison as a context for trauma-focused treatments, including exposure and 2) sharing trauma narratives in a group setting. Unless empirical evidence demonstrating harm is uncovered, best practices for PTSD and other trauma-related sequelae—those recommended in reputable treatment guidelines and interventions like SHARE that incorporate components shown to be effective (e.g., cognitive challenging, exposure)—should be offered to incarcerated women as part of standard of care.

Youth Development, Education, and Identity

The leading research question in this chapter is how formal and informal educational practices affect Roma identity formation and, in turn, may influence Roma youth empowerment and positive development. The goal is to provide an interdisciplinary examination of marginalized youth development based on the example of Roma in Hungary. This chapter dissects positive youth development (PYD) through a detailed study of group–context relationships, in this case Roma in formal and informal educational institutions. The case study reveals that there are two critical variables for successful PYD in the case of minority discriminated youth: positive identity and supportive institutional context.

The influence of group life-design-based counselling on learners’ academic self-construction: A collective case study

The purpose of this study was to explore how life-design-based counselling can influence young learners’ academic self-construction within a group context. The study involved a qualitative mode of enquiry with 12 participants. Life-design-based intervention strategies, together with various (postmodern) qualitative techniques, were used to gather data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data and identify themes and sub-themes. The findings indicate that the participants exhibited enhanced academic self-construction in general after the intervention. More specifically, they displayed improved future aspirations as they made sense of their current learning. Future research could assess the feasibility and value of life-design counselling as early as the primary school years, as it seems to hold numerous benefits for young individuals that may positively influence their life-long career development.