Two-hundred-and-ninety secondary school students from Years 7, 9 and 11 completed questionnaires relating to motivational goals, metacognitive awareness, need for af liation, social anxiety and feelings towards group work. Factor analysis revealed three attitudes towards participation in group work: a preference for group environments, a preference for individual work environments, and a sense of discomfort in group environments. Students reporting a preference for group work also indicated higher levels of sociability, lower levels of social anxiety, stronger mastery and performance goals, and greater levels of metacognitive awareness. Students expressing a preference for individual work environments reported lower levels of sociability and higher levels of social anxiety, but were not differentiated on any of the cognitive measures. Students reporting discomfort in groups similarly reported enhanced levels of social anxiety combined with lower levels of sociability, but also indicated lower levels of metacognitive awareness. Results are discussed in the context of current theoretical and empirical work on group-based learning.This paper examines the role of individual differences in explaining secondary students' attitudes towards engaging in group-based learning. There is a strong literature suggestive of bene ts to students of group based learning (for a review, see Slavin, 1996). From a Vygotskian perspective, there are clear and well documented cognitive advantages to establishing group based learning environments. King (1997), for example, points to the metacognitive advantages of using group learning contexts as a means of facilitating higher-order learning. However, we suggest that little attention in this literature has been given to the underlying cognitive and psychological factors that may in uence both the willingness of students to take part in group learning, and the degree to which group learning might effectively occur. We propose that the use of groupbased learning is premised on three assumptions: rst, that all children are comfortable

Aim.  To examine relationships between psycho-social and patho-physiological measures in explaining medication compliance in older heart failure (HF) patients. Background.  Self-efficacy is a predictor not only of medication compliance, but also health recovery. How older HF patients conceptualize and manage this life-threatening event is central to ongoing rehabilitation. Regulating ongoing medical and lifestyle changes in the rehabilitation process requires that any underlying negative affect be productively managed by the use of appropriate coping strategies. Method.  Using an exploratory correlational design, 51 older HF patients were asked to complete the Beck Depression Inventory, Beliefs about Medication and Diet Questionnaire, Reactions to Daily Events Questionnaire and Self-regulation scale. A self-report measure of medication compliance was obtained as part of a semi-structured interview. The study was conducted in 2003-2004. Results.  Using descriptive statistics, patho-physiological and psychosocial characteristics were given. Independent t-tests were used to assess the gender effects. Pairwise correlations were used to examine the relationships between presenting circumstances, psychosocial characteristics, medication compliance beliefs and self-reported medication compliance behaviours. All positive coping strategies and self-regulation were associated with positive intentions in medication compliance. Males were more inclined towards proactive coping and self-regulatory strategies than were females. Increased depressive symptoms were linked to carelessness in compliance. A belief in medication compliance was associated with a reduced likelihood of carelessness Conclusion.  Bandura's three conditions for agency in rehabilitation, self-efficacy and goal-directed intention appeared to be important even in the early phase of the programme. Positive coping strategies and self-regulation suggests a positive basis for medication compliance and more successful ongoing rehabilitation for older HF patients. We identify a significantly enhanced educative role for nurses in this context. Relevance to clinical practice.  We suggest that nurses dealing with compliance issues among older patients need to monitor behaviour through addressing both the quality of affect during the patient's response to HF (self-concept, -esteem and -efficacy) as well as the quality of health-related metacognitive knowledge underlying the self-regulatory decisions (such as the patients conceptions of 'wellness' and the strategic knowledge underpinning its achievement and maintenance).

This paper identifies the nature of initial expectations of PhD candidates, the prevalence and type of mismatch between expectations and experience, and to what extent mismatch is reflected in satisfaction with candidature. The data were drawn from telephone interviews with a sub-sample of 104 PhD candidates from an initial online national survey of 1,374 candidates at Australian universities. Based on the interviews, eight categories of initial expectations coalesced into three dimensions: the doctoral 'Task', the 'University' (including supervision), and 'Personal' factors. The relationships between candidates' initial expectations and subsequent experience were examined, with specific reference to mismatches that were positive, neutral, or negative (most being negative). Where there was mismatch, this was primarily in relation to what was involved in the 'Task' and the associated emotions. The negative mismatch codes were consistently related to candidate satisfaction with supervision, with department/university provision, and with their own preparation for the degree. Further analyses of experience indicated that negative mismatch caused candidates to question, not necessarily productively, their preparation, purpose, fit, and persona.

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