When a population exhibits collective cognitive alignment, such that group members tend to perceive, remember, and reproduce information in similar ways, the features of socially transmitted variants (i.e., artifacts, behaviors) may converge over time towards culture-specific equilibria points, often called cultural attractors. Because cognition…

Social scientists have frequently sought to understand the distinct effects of age, period, and cohort, but disaggregation of the three dimensions is difficult because cohort = period - age. We argue that this technical difficulty reflects a disconnection between how the cohort effect is conceptualized and how it is modeled in the traditional…

Agent-based modeling has become increasingly popular in recent years, but there is still no codified set of recommendations or practices for how to use these models within a program of empirical research. This article provides ideas and practical guidelines drawn from sociology, biology, computer science, epidemiology, and statistics. We first…

It has previously been shown that the effective use of dialogic instruction has a positive impact on student achievement. In this study, we investigate whether linguistic features used to classify properties of classroom discourse generalize across different subpopulations. Results showed that the machine learned models perform equally well when…

As a result of a relative lack of cross-cultural validity in most current (Western) psychological models, indigenous models of psychology have recently become a popular approach for understanding behaviour in specific cultures. Such models would be valuable to vocational psychology research with culturally diverse populations. Problems facing…

This report constructs a model public agenda to address the mounting challenges facing California higher education. It is intended to inspire broad discussion potentially leading to an official public agenda for California higher education. The report describes some of the structural barriers that are preventing more dramatic progress in meeting…

The prison population in the United States has increased significantly. Children of prisoners experience academic and social challenges. Professional school counselors are in an ideal position to provide theory-based interventions to support children of prisoners. This article (a) describes challenges experienced by children of prisoners, (b)…

Most traditional models, frameworks, and findings that apply to the majority of students and faculty do not adequately apply to important subpopulations. The recommendations here will help researchers become more sensitive to the nuances among various educational subgroups, and to pay more attention to outliers.

This article describes an interactive and collaborative strategic planning process by a community college in which student retention and success became a focus of a re-accreditation endeavor. The underlying assumption of this strategic planning effort was that engaging all groups that have a stake in student retention at the beginning of the…

Higher education in Australia contributed almost $3 billion to the Australian economy in 2000 and education has become an essential source of export profits. Australia now provides university places for over six per cent of the global student population. However, there is little empirical research undertaken in that domain. The research…

In this article, I discuss a Canadian public school controversy and Supreme Court of Canada decision involving competing stakeholder rights to freedom of religion, safety and equality. Policy considerations that allowed one group of stakeholders to express their constitutional rights raised concerns among other stakeholders. A policy vacuum and a…

Although typically applied to entire enterprises, the concept of business models applies to training and performance improvement groups. Business models are "the method by which firm[s] build and use [their] resources to offer.. value." Business models affect the types of projects, services offered, skills required, business processes, and type of…