The Dimensionality of Reading Self-Concept: Examining Its Stability Using Local Structural Equation Models

For results from large-scale surveys to inform policy and practice appropriately, all participants must interpret and respond to items similarly. While organizers of surveys assessing student outcomes often ensure this for achievement measures, doing so for psychological questionnaires is also critical. We demonstrate this by examining the dimensionality of reading self-concept—a crucial psychological construct for several outcomes—across reading achievement levels. We use Programme for International Student Assessment 2018 data ( N = 529,966) and local structural equation models (LSEMs) to do so. Results reveal that reading self-concept dimensions (assessed through reading competence and difficulty) vary across reading achievement levels. Students with low reading achievement show differentiated responses to the two item sets (high competence–high difficulty). In contrast, students with high reading achievement have reconciled responses (high competence–low difficulty). Our results highlight the value of LSEMs in examining factor structure generalizability of constructs in large-scale surveys and call for greater cognitive testing during item development.

Pre-Service Geography Teachers’ Professional Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development

The professional competencies pre-service geography teachers acquire in university influence their contribution to education for sustainable development (ESD) in their future school careers. We assessed pre-service geography teachers’ (n = 100) competencies and attitudes towards the official, German ESD orientation framework to determine the specific need for higher education action. The results are a high competence assessment and even higher importance assigned to the ESD-related professional competencies. In the context of ESD, pre-service teachers are most confident in their content knowledge and social and personal competencies and least confident in their pedagogical knowledge. The cross-sectional analysis shows the perceived competence level rising with the semester number and a strong positive influence of the school practice module.

Three C’s conception of giftedness: A call for paradigm shift

Most conceptions of giftedness overly focus on the gifted “individual” and leave out the social and global context in which the individual grows. However, human lives are intricately interconnected. An individual’s actions can have large effects on other individuals, societies, and nature. In this article, I argue a paradigm shift is needed in the way giftedness is construed today. I draw on the three C’s conception of giftedness in which gifted behaviors are seen as an interplay of competence in action, commitment to task, and concern for others. I discuss seven profiles of gifted behaviors: Profile 1—competent (high competence); Profile 2—committed (high commitment); Profile 3—concerned (high concern); Profile 4—indifferent expert (high competence and commitment); Profile 5—amateur altruist (high commitment and concern); Profile 6—uncommitted thinker (high competence and concern); and Profile 7—fully developing talent (high competence, commitment, and concern). Further, I discuss how this taxonomy can inform education and identification practices in gifted education.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE ENHANCING AIRLINES EFFIECEINCY AMID THE PANDEMIC: LOW-COST CARRIERS IN THAILAND AS A CASE

The pandemic of COVID-19 has extreme impact than the intense competitors in airlines industry that never turn up in history. It derailed all airlines’ operations, company’s structure, strategy, and its markets which is highly impact to Thailand’s tourism industry. The purpose of this study is to assess the managerial practices of low-cost carriers (LCCs) to enhance the organization’s performance during COVID-19. The managerial practices concern with strategic human resources management, organizational culture, high competence personnel, and risk management affect to organizational structure. The quantitative was administered to four anonymous low-cost airlines operating in Thailand. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 150 person of each airline, hence there were 600 samples in total. The descriptive statistic and path analysis were applied. The results found that LCCs stressed greatly on the high competence personnel, followed by organizational culture, risk management, and strategic human resource management affecting organizational structure that led to efficiency and competitiveness of organization. To investigate the effect of management issues of strategic human resources management (SHRM), organizational culture (OC), high competence personnel (HQP), and risk management (RM) on low-cost carriers (LCC) in Thailand toward organizational structure (OS) which result to the competitiveness of high-performance organization (CHPO). The quantitative approach was employed by using structural equation modelling for path analysis. The data was collected by using questionnaires. There were 600 samplings from four anonymous low-cost airlines. The results found that LCCs stressed greatly on the high competence personnel, followed by organizational culture, risk management, and strategic human resource management affecting organizational structure that led to competitiveness of organization. The authors would recommend LCCs to refocus its practices to strategic human resource management during the crisis. Since, the human resource management is dealing with organization changes through the leadership and organizational culture. Finally, researchers have developed the model creating organizational structure.

Competency Characteristics of Graduates Viewed from User Satisfaction Using Nonhierarchical Clusters

This study aims to classify graduates based on the similarity of competency characteristics by referring to the indicators of graduate user satisfaction. The indicators are implementation of Islamic values; integrity, ethics, and morals; expertise based on knowledge (professionalism); foreign language skills; ability to use ICT; communication; teamwork; and self-development. The survey was aimed at graduates of five study programs totaling 211 people. Determination of respondents using the purposive sampling technique. Data was collected through a questionnaire containing statements about the eight indicators. Data analysis uses descriptive and multivariate statistics with the non-hierarchical cluster method or K-Means cluster analysis, assisted with SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) software. The results show that based on the similarity of competency characteristics, graduates are grouped into three clusters, namely Cluster 1 with 13.27% with characteristics of graduates with low competence, Cluster 2 with 32.7% with characteristics of graduates with high competence, and Cluster 3 with 54.03% with the characteristics of graduates with moderate competence. Thus, a strategic program that is systematic, comprehensive, and continuous is needed to develop human resources to shape the quality mentality and competence of students and to be competitive with students and by the needs of the workforce or users. For this reason, it is necessary to develop an e-tracer system that is integrated with the campus web and to strengthen synergistic cooperation with stakeholders, including users.

For unto every one that hath shall be given: teachers’ competence profiles regarding the promotion of self-regulated learning moderate the effectiveness of short-term teacher training

Teachers play a major role in the effectiveness of student learning. Teacher’s competence contributes to their classroom practice. We applied a generic model of teacher competence to the specific context of teachers’ promotion of self-regulated learning (SRL) in the classroom, and investigated teachers’ competence profiles regarding SRL (study 1) and how teachers’ competence can moderate the effectiveness of teacher training (study 2). In the first step, in study 1 191 teachers were assessed according to different characteristics that have been found to be important aspects of teacher competence (knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy). To investigate how these characteristics co-occur in teachers we determined latent profiles of teacher competence regarding SRL. To this end, and the data were subjected to a latent profile analysis that yielded two levels of competence profile: low and high competence to promote SRL. These competence profiles were positively associated with teachers’ self-reported SRL practice in the classroom. Next, to test whether these competence profiles affect teachers’ competence development, we conducted a training study. In this study 2, we examined the effects of an 8-h long teacher training about SRL on the development of teachers’ competence (knowledge, beliefs, self-efficacy) and on their SRL practice in the classroom with a repeated measures control group design. Forty-five teachers participated in the training, and these teachers and their 543 students evaluated the effectiveness of the training. Training effects were found on the teacher level, but not on the student level. Teachers who participated in the training outperformed the control teachers in their development of self-efficacy to foster SRL, and their perceived SRL practice. Moreover, teachers’ competence profiles moderated the training effect, showing that teachers with an initially high competence benefitted more from the training. Applying a generic model of teacher competence to the context of promoting SRL seems beneficial to inspire future research on indicators of teachers’ SRL practice.

Meaning in Life for Patients With Severe Dementia: A Qualitative Study of Healthcare Professionals' Interpretations

The need for meaning in life is a key aspect of being human, and a central issue in the psychology of religion. Understanding experience of meaning for persons with severe dementia is challenging due to the impairments associated with the illness. Despite these challenges, this article argues that meaning in life is as important for a person with severe dementia as it is for everyone else. This study was conducted in a Norwegian hospital and nursing home context and was part of a research project on meaning in life for persons with severe dementia. The study builds on two other studies which focused on how meaning-making and experience of meaningfulness appeared in patients with severe dementia. By presenting the findings from these two studies for a group of healthcare professionals and introducing them to research on meaning in life, the aim of this study was to explore how healthcare professionals interpret the patients' experience of meaning in life in practise for patients with severe dementia in a hospital and nursing home context, and to highlight its clinical implications. The study was conducted using a qualitative method with exploratory design. The data were collected at a round table conference, a method inspired by a mode of action research called “co-operative inquiry.” Altogether 27 professional healthcarers, from a variety of professions, with high competence in dementia care participated together with six researchers authoring this article. This study revealed that healthcare professionals were constantly dealing with different forms of meaning in their everyday care for people with dementia. The findings also showed clear connexions between understanding of meaning and fundamental aspects of good dementia care. Meaning corresponded well with the principles of person-centred care, and this compatibility allowed the healthcare professionals to associate meaning in life as a perspective into their work without having much prior knowledge or being familiar with the use of this perspective. The study points out that awareness of meaning in life as an integrated perspective in clinical practise will contribute to a broader and enhanced repertoire, and hence to improved dementia care. Facilitating experience of meaning calls for increased resources in personnel and competence in future dementia care.

Student’s Awareness in Basic First Aid and their Academic Performance

Emergency cases and any untoward incidents may happen anytime and anywhere. Thus, first aid is an invaluable skill one must learn. Since children spend considerable time at school, knowledge, and awareness in first aid is important especially in situations requiring the skill. This quantitative inquiry investigated the level of awareness of students in performing basic first aid and explores the relationship to their academic performance. It utilized a researcher-made questionnaire to answer the descriptive and inferential questions. It was revealed that students are in high level in performing first aid in burns, wounds and bleeding, and fracture considering the variables. Thus, a very satisfactory level was culled out. In addition, a significant difference exists in their level of awareness and academic performance of students when grouped according to sex, and section. But, there was a positive significant relationship between the student’s awareness in performing first aid and their academic performance. Therefore, the two major areas have direct relationship. It is recommended that a regular emergency awareness campaign be conducted to students to maintain and improve to a highest level. As such, teachers should be provided with the trends in emergency response to effectively teach the concepts of first aid in high competence.

An Extrapolation of the Stereotype Content Model to University Lecturers

We extrapolated the stereotype content model to the perception of university lecturers by their students. Specifically, using a sample of Zimbabwean students, we tested whether lecturers fall into different clusters in reflection to the degree to which they are perceived as high or low on competence: (1) high competence-high warmth, (2) high competence-low warmth, (3) low competence-high warmth, and (4) low warmth-low competence. We also tested whether lecturers elicit different emotions and whether they are evaluated differently, depending on the clusters they fall into on the competence-warmth nexus. The findings were largely in line with the above hypotheses.

Intensified Job Demands and Cognitive Stress Symptoms: The Moderator Role of Individual Characteristics

Intensified job demands (IJDs) originate in the general accelerated pace of society and ever-changing working conditions, which subject workers to increasing workloads and deadlines, constant planning and decision-making about one’s job and career, and the continual learning of new professional knowledge and skills. This study investigated how individual characteristics, namely negative and positive affectivity related to competence demands, and multitasking preference moderate the association between IJDs and cognitive stress symptoms among media workers (n = 833; 69% female, mean age 48 years). The results show that although IJDs were associated with higher cognitive stress symptoms at work, that is, difficulties in concentration, thinking clearly, decision-making, and memory, competence demands-related negative affectivity explained the most variance in cognitive stress symptoms. In addition, IJDs were more strongly associated with cognitive stress symptoms at work in individuals with high competence demand-related negative affectivity, and low multitasking preference (moderation effects). Altogether, the present findings suggest that HR practices or workplace interventions to ease employees’ negative affectivity from increasing competence demands at work could usefully support employees’ effective cognitive functioning when confronted with IJDs.