In 2007, I embarked on a PhD study to explore diverse students' experiences, representations and understandings of personal development and personal development planning at one British university. The timing of this project was critical because universities were charged with a responsibility to provide opportunities for students to engage with…

The Yew Chung Education Foundation operates a network of five international schools in China, plus one in California, serving in total around 5500 children. This article investigates the aims and philosophy of a "model" of international education which aims not only to educate children but also to bring about an inner transformation of…

Although considerable research has addressed development from childhood giftedness to adult excellence, subjective perceptions of this development by gifted individuals themselves have remained largely unexplored. This multiple case study examined the ways in which young adults, who in the past had been identified as gifted, made sense of their…

This report is about learning and older people. In the UK, one person in three is over 50, and the numbers are rising. People are living longer, and while some of these years are healthy active retirement, some are spent in poor health. In both cases, learning can make a major contribution both to the well-being of older people, and their…

The purpose of this study was to help higher education practitioners and researchers better understand the role that body image plays in first-year traditional-aged college females' development of physical competence and also provide new insights regarding the role that body image plays in the psychosocial development of first-year…

Researchers contend that committing to an inspiring purpose in life is an important component of healthy identity development for adolescents; however, little research has focused on how identity and purpose develop together. Therefore, the study followed a sample of eight adolescent purpose exemplars for five years in order to develop a grounded…

The dynamic systems (DS) approach has emerged as an influential and potentially unifying metatheory for developmental science. Its central platform--the argument against design--suggests that structure spontaneously and without prescription emerges through self-organization. In one of the most prominent accounts of DS, Thelen and her colleagues…

The goal of this paper is to contribute to the revival of Heinz Werner's organismic-developmental theory by considering some of its key claims in relation to contemporary developmental theory and research. The organismic-developmental definition of development in terms of differentiation and integration is first discussed in relation to…

Purpose: The anatomic origin for prepubertal vowel acoustic differences between male and female subjects remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to examine developmental sex differences in vocal tract (VT) length and its oral and pharyngeal portions. Method: Nine VT variables were measured from 605 imaging studies (magnetic resonance imaging…

Drawing on identity development theory, the connection between engagement in sport and identity status was examined. First-year undergraduates (n = 116 sport-involved youth; 67% women; mean age = 18.58 yrs) completed measures of interpersonal and ideological identity status (achievement, moratorium, diffusion, foreclosure), along with behavioral…

Counselling and psychotherapy is attracting government interest and intervention, for instance the proposal to regulate the profession by the Health Professions Council. Many therapists see this as a threat to its fundamental principles due to the fact that government policy is influenced by the medical model and managerialism. This article looks,…

Teacher learning can be modeled in a variety of different ways. In this study, an analysis of teacher social capital was used to describe the effects of a school-wide professional development program. Social capital refers to the resources that teachers can access through peer collaboration to support their ongoing learning. Findings indicate that…

We present two studies that examined developmental differences in the implicit and explicit acquisition of category knowledge. College-attending adults consistently outperformed school-age children on two separate information-integration paradigms due to children's more frequent use of an explicit rule-based strategy. Accuracy rates were also…

Transition planning using a person-centred approach has, in the main, failed to shape service provision. We offer an alternative based on an ecological understanding of human development linked to public health approaches that prioritise whole system planning. A total of 43 young people with intellectual disabilities, in Bradford, England, who…

This research was conducted with the purpose of determining the contribution of creative drama to the personal development of housewives. The study group consisted of 17 housewives who attended the Creative Drama Course in 2009 at the Contemporary Drama Association (Cagdas Drama Dernegi) in Cankaya, Ankara. The qualitative method was employed in…