This article concerns how noncognitive constructs--personality and motivation--can be assessed and developed to increase students' readiness for college. We propose a general framework to account for personality and motivational differences between students. We review numerous studies showing that personality and motivational factors are related…

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of personality traits measured by the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; [Tellegen, 2000] and [Tellegen and Waller, 2008]) in selecting educational majors. Personality traits were examined alone, and with the combination of Holland's hexagonal confidence domains, as measured by the…

The level of science skills in Spanish students are significantly below the average of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and university teachers agree that the level of freshmen students' skills is too low. Moreover, the number of engineering enrollments has been declining in recent years. The purpose of this study…

Background: The literature on those who choose to become PE teachers received healthy attention in the late twentieth century but has been largely ignored since. Querying those PETE majors in first decade of the new century enables PETE faculty to have updated and pertinent knowledge of their charges. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to…

An adaptive testing method is presented that controls the speededness of a test using predictions of the test takers' response times on the candidate items in the pool. Two different types of predictions are investigated: posterior predictions given the actual response times on the items already administered and posterior predictions that use the…

Holland influenced practice and research in career development by contributing a clear theory useful in organizing information about individuals and career alternatives and for understanding individuals' entry and persistence in occupational and other environments. His theory was repeatedly revised in response to evidence. As Holland's own career…

Research on the SAT has shown a substantial correlation with measures of "g" such as the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). Another widely administered test for college admission is the American College Test (ACT). Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, measures of "g" were derived from the ASVAB and correlated with…

Today's effective school counselors are integral in education reform, school leadership, and student achievement. It is typically the responsibility of building principals to hire effective school counselors. This article builds on previous literature and provides principals with questions to ask and information to gather that may be helpful in…

There is scientific and popular dispute about whether there are sex differences in cognitive abilities and whether they are relevant to the proportions of men and women who attain high-level achievements, such as Nobel Prizes. A recent meta-analysis (Lynn, R., and Irwing, P. (2004). Sex differences on the progressive matrices: a meta-analysis.…

Spearman's ''Law of Diminishing Returns'' with regard to ability is tested in a dataset from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth. The dataset consisted of a sample of 6980 children aged 12-16 from the 1997 cohort. The subjects were tested with a computer administrated adaptive format of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery…

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) involves an idea of "making learning visible"--of valuing knowledge irrespective of how, when and where it is learnt. This is a phenomenographic analysis of how a group of caretakers from a Swedish property management company experience participation in an RPL initiative focusing on their vocational competence.…

Reviews the hundreds of studies showing that general cognitive ability predicts job performance in all jobs. Shows that general cognitive ability predicts supervisor ratings and training success and that general cognitive ability predicts objective, rigorously content valid work sample performance with even higher validity. (Author/ABB)

Examined the structure and relationship of vocational interests and primary abilities in 149 college women. Factor analysis of the ability measures showed a pattern similar to Holland's interest model, except that no ability factor analogous to Realistic interests emerged, and there were two Artistic factors, musical and artistic/spatial. Little…

Construct validity of the Occupational Aptitude Patterns Map was supported in an experiment in which positions held by young adults in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth were classified and characteristics compared to job aptitude theories. The map differentiates jobs on the basis of their cognitive ability requirements. (SK)

Strong Interest Inventory items from 320 counseling clients were classified into Occupational Aptitude Patterns (OAP) Map clusters. Principal components analysis supported this structure, suggesting the potential use of the OAP Map for job classification and improvement of person/environment fit. (SK)