Pop the “maths anxiety” bubble : an approach to support nursing students to self-manage anxiety while studying drug calculations

This is a report on an informal action research undertaken between 2013 to 2014 to find solutions to support tertiary nursing students experiencing anxiety while studying drug calculation. The literature identifies traditional “Maths Anxiety” and modern-day specific categorisations of “Dyslexia” and “Dyscalculia”, yet offers no clear solution on how to support students. Exploring the constructive-developmental perspective of human development, the conception of the triune brain and the Psychosynthesis conceptual map of body-feelings-mind enabled me to develop an approach to base on all this wisdom in order to help students navigate their daily experience on campus and consciously express their will to succeed. These techniques proved to be successful, evidenced in the overwhelmingly positive feedback from both students and maths tutors. This article invites colleagues within the broader ATLAANZ community to adapt and apply this approach in their practice to support students with anxiety to succeed while studying.

Developmental Pathways to Intercultural Competence in College Students

Despite travel restrictions, U.S. colleges invest in students’ global learning, to prepare graduates to thrive in today's interdependent society and world. This multi-method longitudinal study applies a constructive developmental and intersectional lens to examine the impact of travel and non-travel based global learning on intercultural competence and change in social diversity, also assessing the pathways that connect these variables. Our pilot findings suggest a greater contribution of on-campus global learning to development of intercultural competence compared to travel-based experiences, such as study abroad. Furthermore, on-campus global learning also contributes significantly to increases in the diversity of students’ peer relationships, and that diversity then connects to intercultural competence. Somewhat surprisingly, these patterns remain consistent for those with historically dominant and marginalized identities.

Adolescents’ Experiences of a Developmental Coaching and Outdoor Adventure Education Program: Using Constructive-Developmental Theory to Investigate Individual Differences in Adolescent Meaning-Making and Developmental Growth

Using interpretative phenomenological analysis and Robert Kegan’s constructive-developmental theory, this study investigated how developmental stage shaped the subjective experiences of 13 adolescents ( Mage = 15.92 years, 54% females) in a developmental coaching and outdoor adventure education program. Participants were drawn from socioeconomically disadvantaged schools in Sydney, Australia, and represented Asian, Middle Eastern, and European ethnicities. A single, semi-structured interview was conducted with participants postprogram, following protocols approved by an institutional ethics committee. Interview data were used to investigate participants’ meaning-making structures as evidence of constructive-developmental stage both at the time of interview and program participation. We found that, despite being similar ages at program commencement, participants displayed a range of constructive-developmental stages. The data demonstrate how participants at different stages of meaning-making experienced the same activities differently, including what they experienced as challenging and supportive. Furthermore, our findings suggest that there is a valuable role for developmental coaching in scaffolding program challenges to stimulate constructive-developmental growth. Constructive-developmental theory provides a novel framework for understanding the different ways in which adolescents make meaning of developmental programs. We hope the findings from this study will help those who design and implement these programs to appreciate constructive-developmental differences in their participants to better target interventions aimed at facilitating developmental growth.

Wise academic development: learning from the ‘failure’ experiences of retired academic developers

© 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Informed by Constructive Developmental Theory and the Threshold Concepts Framework, we interviewed retired academic developers from four continents and asked them to describe their processes of learning from perceived failures and how they see the role of academic developers in supporting academics through failures. Findings regarding participants’ definitions of failure, ways of making sense of and learning from failure, and recommendations for supporting academic colleagues’ learning from failure are shared through tables, quotations, and poetry. Findings show that ‘wise academic development’ embraces curiosity about failure, integrates the (sometimes) transformative nature of failure, shares the load of sense-making, and cultivates connectedness.

Wise academic development: learning from the ‘failure’ experiences of retired academic developers

© 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Informed by Constructive Developmental Theory and the Threshold Concepts Framework, we interviewed retired academic developers from four continents and asked them to describe their processes of learning from perceived failures and how they see the role of academic developers in supporting academics through failures. Findings regarding participants’ definitions of failure, ways of making sense of and learning from failure, and recommendations for supporting academic colleagues’ learning from failure are shared through tables, quotations, and poetry. Findings show that ‘wise academic development’ embraces curiosity about failure, integrates the (sometimes) transformative nature of failure, shares the load of sense-making, and cultivates connectedness.

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost: Critically Reflective Research for a New HRD Landscape

The Problem The pandemic and subsequent changes to norms and practices in the workplace mean that for many, existing meaning-making structures are challenged and the limits of existing ways of knowing are revealed. The problem for HRD scholars and practitioners is that dominant approaches to research are largely insufficient for understanding individuals’ meaning making in response to the pandemic. The Recommendations Two critically reflexive method/ologies are presented and overlaid with Constructive-Developmental Theory (CDT) to offer not only a means of capturing data about individuals’ experiences during/post-pandemic but for interpreting the data with an understanding of the mental complexities associated with capturing an emic perspective. The Stakeholders Stakeholders include HRD scholars and practitioners who conduct research in organizations.

A New Lens for Seeing: A Suggestion for Analyzing Religious Belief and Belonging among Emerging Adults through a Constructive-Developmental Lens

In recent years, there has been an explosion of research on the religious lives of adolescents and emerging adults. Methodologies vary from large-scale quantitative surveys to smaller qualitative interview protocols. Findings point to a significant drop in religious affiliation among emerging adults. Making good sense of the findings can be difficult for ministers and educators who serve across these populations. In this article, we suggest using a constructive-developmental lens to read qualitative findings. We offer a framework to guide researchers in interpreting the narratives of research subjects, noting how they make sense of religious belief and belonging.

Learner-Created Podcasts: Fostering Information Literacies in a Writing Course

This paper describes an experimental learner-created podcasting assignment in a first-year This paper describes an experimental learner-created podcasting assignment in a first-year undergraduate research skills course for professional writers. The podcasting assignment serves asa contextualized experiential writing project that invites students to refine their research skills by participating in the invention of an emerging genre of radio storytelling. The power of the podcast assignment lies in the liminal space it creates for learners. It moves students beyond familiar andregimented essay conventions to an unstable writing environment where digital tools for producing, publishing, and negotiating meaning offer a range of possible audiences, modalities, forms, and modes of meaning making. This space creates the pedagogical conditions for epistemic development, through which students adopt as their own the research practices of adept and experienced writers. The multiple demands of this course on writing, research, and digital environments generates the beginnings of interdisciplinary writing pedagogy involving Kent’s (1993, 1999) postprocess mindset, the ACRL’s (2015) Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, Baxter Magolda’s (1999) constructive-developmental pedagogy, and Arroyo (2013)’s elaboration of participatory digital writing pedagogy.