Stress and career adaptability during COVID-19: A serial multiple mediation model

To understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected students about to enter the job market, we surveyed 754 university seniors to investigate the perceived stress–career adaptability relationship. We also assessed if positive psychological capital (PsyCap) and work volition mediated this relationship. The results show that the seniors' perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic negatively predicted career adaptability. Moreover, the sequential mediation effect (perceived stress reduces positive PsyCap and work volition, which predicts career adaptability) was supported. Thus, lower positive PsyCap can reduce work volition and adaptability. We are among the first researchers to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has disadvantaged recent university graduates in the labor market, and we have provided new perspectives on how to improve their career adaptability.

"What concerns pre-service teachers the most?" A quantitative research for concurrent and consecutive teacher training models

In the Republic of Turkey, as in many other countries, there are primarily two types of teacher preparation. One is the concurrent model, where a student spends four to five years at university in an Education faculty, learning to become a school teacher. The second is the consecutive model, where university seniors and/or graduates of the Arts & Sciences faculty attend a one-year pedagogical formation certification programme to become qualified as a teacher. Only authorized Education faculties are eligible to provide these types of pedagogical formation education. Students attending an Education faculty through the concurrent model, take several pedagogical and practicum courses over a four-year period, while the students in the consecutive model only take a portion of the pedagogical courses and then complete a teaching practicum during the second semester of the year-long programme. This current study is based on the idea that along with professional competencies, psychological readiness for teaching is also affected by teacher education and training. Thus, in this study, the pre-service teachers’ concerns about teaching were analyzed as well as whether their concerns differed according to programme type, gender, and/or field of study. Data from a Teacher Concerns Checklist (TCC) completed by 545 pre-service teachers was analysed through descriptive statistics as well as multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and one-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA). It was revealed in the analysis results that students from the concurrent model of teacher education were most concerned about the lack of public support for schools, insufficient clerical help for teachers, and the large number of administrative interruptions. While, the students from the consecutive teacher education model were most concerned about having too many students in class, lack of public support for schools, and too many standards and regulations for teachers to follow. Overall, the students from the concurrent model had significantly fewer concerns about teaching than students from the consecutive model. The field of study did have a significant effect on the concerns of preservice teachers; whereas, gender had no effect.

An Analysis of Digital Literacy Skills among Thai University Seniors

Digital literacy and the associated skills are becoming the basic and essential skill set of any employer that wishes to survive in a highly competitive world. Given the global importance of these skills for many sectors including education, medicine, information technology, tourism, etc., the researchers sought to determine which digital literacy skills were most important in using digital technology, communications tools, and/or networks to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate information in order to function in a knowledge society. From a multistage random sampling survey of 400 second semester university seniors finishing their degrees in 2014 at 9 Thai public and private universities, it was determined that the ability to evaluate was the most important skill indicator in the development of digital literacy. Analysis was conducted by use of LISREL 8.72.

University Senior Students on the Web

The Internet is increasingly prominent in all walks of life, and Web connection is a key factor in social integration. The rise in life expectancy and quality of life mean that our active seniors now represent a growing sector in society. This study analyses what senior citizens use the Internet for and why, as well as the main benefits of its usage and the perceived obstacles of those who are non-users. The results derive from a questionnaire completed by senior citizens enrolled on university courses for older people, and they show that university seniors frequently connect to the Internet –daily or 2 or 3 times per week–, and use it mainly to look up facts, contact family and friends, for course work and to read the press. They consider the Internet easy to use but they could survive without it. For those who do not have access to the Internet, lack of knowledge about how to use it is the main barrier; yet they do not consider themselves incapable of learning how to use the Internet if they wished to do so. The data gathered from the survey challenge negative stereotypes of older people, and encourage us to modify our view of active seniors as disconnected from and incapable of using the Web and instead see their progress and motivation to learn as something highly positive.Hoy día la relevancia de Internet es cada vez mayor en todos los ámbitos. Participar en la misma es fundamental para estar integrados socialmente. El aumento de la esperanza y la calidad de vida conllevan que los mayores activos supongan un volumen significativo de la población. En este trabajo se analiza el uso que personas mayores activas realizan de Internet, así como los principales beneficios o motivaciones de su utilización, y las barreras que encuentran aquéllos que no la utilizan. Se administró un cuestionario a personas inscritas en programas universitarios de mayores. Los resultados muestran que estos mayores universitarios se conectan a Internet frecuentemente, a diario o entre dos o tres veces por semana. Se destaca la relevancia de Internet para estar actualizados, contactar con la familia y los amigos, el uso académico, y consultar la prensa. La consideran fácil de utilizar aunque afirman que podrían vivir sin ella. Por otro lado, para los que no acceden a Internet no saber utilizarla es una de las principales barreras, si bien las personas que no la utilizan consideran que serían capaces de aprender. En su conjunto los datos animan a romper estereotipos negativos sobre los mayores y a no considerar a los mayores activos como personas incapaces o desconectadas de la Red sino a valorar positivamente los avances que realizan y la motivación por aprender.