Evaluation in primary prevention: an obligation, I. The obstetrical point of view

Evaluation of research in primary prevention is often complicated. Various objections and difficulties are discussed: imprecision or lack of practical definition of the child abuse syndrome, definition of primary prevention, lack of epidemiological data, and the existence of ethical problems. Obstetrical models of evaluation are proposed: evaluation of screening methods, postpartum follow-up and contraception, action against prematurity, and unfollowed pregnancies. Results of a four-year antenatal program are presented as indicators and may be served to determine the efficiency of preventive action. Therefore, evaluation of antenatal prevention is possible for at-risk parents.     

Hospital-based primary prevention strategy in child abuse: a multi-level needs addressment

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a primary prevention effort in child maltreatment, the focus of which was a community-wide endeavor (i.e., subjects were not prescreened for risk potential). Specific components of the planned intervention addressed four causal levels of maltreatment: individual, family, community, and cultural factors. That assessment was intended to build strengths in those parenting areas which are predictive of abusive or neglectful outcomes. Target areas included knowledge of child development, child-rearing attitudes, mother-infant interaction patterns, and parenting skills. A posttest-only control group design was employed. The control postpartum mothers received traditional or routine hospital services; experimental mothers received special in-hospital and after-care services by trained student nurse volunteers. These volunteers functioned in a dual educative/supportive role. Experimental mothers reported more realistic expectations of behavior, embraced more democratic child-rearing principles, providing more verbal stimulation to their infants (reflecting an increased sensitivity), and displayed increased problem-solving abilities.     

The educator's point of view

The educator's point of view stresses the development potential of education, together with respect for human rights. It is seen that nations need to make clear policy statements in this respect, and the consequent planning and curricular issues, together with some relevant strategies, are indicated.

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Zusammenfassung Im Standpunkt des Pädagogen wird gemeinsam mit der Anerkennung der Menschenrechte das Entwicklungspotential der Bildung betont. Nach Meinung des Autors müssen Nationen in diesem Zusammenhang klare politische Aussagen treffen, und der Artikel befaßt sich mit der entsprechenden Planung sowie Themen zum Curriculum und einigen relevanten Strategien.

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Résumé Le point de vue de l'éducateur souligne le potentiel de développement offert par l'éducation, ainsi que le respect des droits humains. Il s'avère que chaque nation doit énoncer clairement sa politique à cet égard; l'auteur indique les questions de planification et de curriculum qui en découlent, ainsi que quelques stratégies pertinentes.

     

The politician's point of view

The politician's point of view refers to studies which prove that neither a socio-economic development plan which ignores population questions, nor population education in isolation, can succeed. Educated people tend to have fewer children and to provide better education for them, while girls marrying before the age of 20 have little hope of continuing education and are subject to other social pressures. Examples are given from population education programs in Egypt.

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Zusammenfassung Der Standpunkt des Politikers bezieht sich auf Studien, die beweisen, daß sich weder ein Bevölkerungsfragen ignorierender sozial-ökonomischer Entwicklungsplan noch die Bevölkerungslehre allein durchsetzen können. Gebildete Menschen haben im allgemeinen weniger Kinder und bieten ihnen eine bessere Erziehung, während Mädchen, die vor dem 20. Lebenjahr heiraten wenig Hoffnung auf weiterführende Bildung haben und anderen sozialen Auflagen unterliegen. Programme über die Bevölkerungslehre in Ägypten werden angeführt.

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Résumé Le point de vue du politique se réfère à des études qui démontrent que ni un plan de développement socio-économique qui laisse à l'écart les questions de population, ni l'éducation en matière de population (EmP) faite sans considération du contexte, ne réussira. Les gens instruits tendent à assurer une meilleure éducation à un nombre réduit d'enfants, tandis que les filles mariées avant l'âge de 20 ans risquent de perdre la chance d'une éducation continue et sont soumises à d'autres pressions sociales. L'auteur donne des examples tirés de programmes d'EmP de l'Egypte.

     

Engineering Continuing Education: a point of view

After a general comment on the observation that continuing education is offered mainly in management and engineering areas, attention will be focused on engineering continuing education (ECE)programmes at university level: ECE specificity compared to management continuing education; hotu to structure ECE provision; which kind of pedagogical methods and content.     

Evaluation of the effectiveness of the stay safe primary prevention programme for child sexual abuse

OBJECTIVE: This child abuse prevention study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Stay Safe Programme in training unscreened 7 and 10 year old children in personal safety skills. Subsidiary aims were to evaluate the program's impact on children's self-esteem and parents' and teachers' knowledge and attitudes of relevance to child abuse and protection. METHOD: Changes in safety knowledge and skills and self-esteem of 339 children who participated in the Stay Safe Programme were compared with those of 388 waiting list controls. Children in the training group were also followed up at 3 months. In addition, the knowledge and attitudes of parents and teachers of children who completed the program were evaluated before and after the program and 5 month follow-up data were collected from teachers only. RESULTS: Compared with waiting-list controls, trained children showed significant improvements in safety knowledge and skills and these gains were maintained at follow-up. The greatest gains were made by 7 year olds. Children who participated in the program also showed significant improvements in self-esteem which were maintained at 3 months follow-up but only the 7 year olds in the training group made significantly larger gains in self-esteem than their control group counterparts. Children with a higher socioeconomic status benefited more from the program than less privileged children. Both parents and teachers showed significant improvements in knowledge and attitudes concerning protection over the course of the program and for teachers, these gains were maintained at follow-up. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that the Stay Safe Programme was effective in training children in safety skills and so may usefully be used as a primary prevention intervention for child abuse.     

Evolution, learning, and semiotics from a Peircean point of view

One of the most salient arguments in favor of a semiotic approach, put forward on various occasions among others by Luis Radford, claims that semiotics is most appropriate to treat the interaction between socio-cultural and objective aspects of knowledge problems. But if we want to take such claims seriously, we have to undertake revisions of our basic conceptions about reality, existence, cognition, and cultural development. The semiotic evolutionary realism of Charles S. Peirce provides, or so it appears, an appropriate basis to such intentions. Man is a sign, Peirce had famously said, and ??thought is more without us than within. It is we that are in it, rather than it in any of us?? (Peirce CP 8.256). And as there is no thought without a sign, we have to accept thoughts, concepts, theories, or works of art as realities sui generis. Concepts or theories have to be recognized as real before we can ask for their meaning or relevance. This was the problem that concerned critics and protagonists of the New Math Reform of the 1960s and 1970s of the twentieth century, like Thom or Bruner.     

The engineering of engineering education: curriculum development from a designer's point of view

Engineers have a set of powerful tools at their disposal for designing robust and reliable technical systems. In educational design these tools are seldom applied. This paper explores the application of concepts from the systems approach in an educational context. The paradigms of design methodology and systems engineering appear to be suitable for both analysing existing education and designing new curricula.     

From a child's point of view: Studying Thailand and Nigeria

Young children enjoy studying about other cultures when they experience them in a concrete, hands-on manner. Cross-cultural study by young children should encourage them to experience a culture from an indigenous child's viewpoint. Learning facts and information about a culture is less important than experiencing how children from other places might play a game or what they might eat for dinner.Cynthia Szymanski Sunal is a professor of early childhood education and a social studies specialist at the University of Alabama. Barbara Gibson Warash is a clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Laboratory Preschool at West Virginia University.     

Disentangling life events, stress and social support: Implications for the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect

There is a growing body of literature linking stress and child abuse and neglect, but the relationship is not unambiguously supported by empirical data. Two considerations regarding Garbarino's ecological model of child abuse and neglect may explain this research problem. First, any of the predisposing factors, which are grouped into four levels called individual, familial, social, and cultural, may either positively or negatively affect the potential for child abuse and neglect depending upon the quality of social networks and social supports available to families. Second, these factors operate most importantly, not between the perception of stress and the act of abuse or neglect, but through the interpretation of whether a given life event is stressful or not. This clarification of the ecological model points the way to redefining interventions for the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect. Existing support systems can be strengthened in order to increase a family's ability to cope with untoward events before these become stressful. In addition, advocacy activities which support children and families in general can be major components in the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect.     

From conceptual development to science education: a psychological point of view

A theoretical framework based on cognitive/developmental research is described. It is argued that science learning is a gradual process during which initial conceptual structures based on children's interpretations of everyday experience are continuously enriched and restructured. Conceptual change also involves increased metaconceptual awareness, cognitive flexibility, and theoretical coherence. Some of the implications of this research for the development of science curricula and for instruction are discussed. It is also argued that while cognitive/developmental research can provide us with important information about the process of learning science, it does not provide much information about the external, environmental variables that can facilitate cognitive performance and conceptual change. What is needed in the future is the development of a theory of learning that bridges science education and cognitive/developmental research. Such a theory should specify the mechanisms that can take an individual from one level of cognitive performance to the next and relate them to situational and cultural factors.     

Conceptualizing curriculum differentiation in higher education: a sociology of knowledge point of view

Sociologists of education rooted in social realism have for more than a decade argued that knowledge matters in education, there are different kinds of knowledge, not all forms of knowledge are equal and that these differentiations have significant implications for curriculum. While this argument has made an important contribution to both theoretical and policy debate, the implications for curriculum have not been sufficiently addressed. In other words, a theory of differentiated knowledge has not translated into an adequate theory of differentiated curriculum. Drawing on Basil Bernstein’s work on knowledge differentiation and Karl Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory, this paper offers an empirically derived emerging framework for conceptualizing differentiated higher education curricula with a particular interest in occupationally and professionally oriented curricula. The framework illuminates the principles underlying curriculum differentiation, thus enabling a richer conversation about epistemological access and progression.     

TA training: From the TA's point of view

Teaching assistants (TAs) at a major university were surveyed about the annual campus-wide and departmental TA training programs in which they had participated. Responses from these TAs differ markedly from reports based on surveys conducted with the administrators of such training programs. Current training practices can be improved by considering more seriously the TA's point of view.Janet Lee Jones received her B. A. from Pomona College in 1984, concentrating in psychology and Chinese language. Her Ph.D. was awarded in 1989 in the area of cognitive science, with a specialization in psycholinguistics. She has supervised undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants for the past five years. Dr. Jones now teaches a wide variety of psychology courses and interdisciplinary seminars at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.     

论管理哲学的学术视野及其功能

哲学学科的管理哲学是根据哲学思维的根本特性反思人类管理实践而形成的哲学理论。管理哲学虽然与管理学具有不同的研究对象、研究方法和研究目的,但是管理哲学必须根植于聚焦管理实践的管理学土壤中,以各种管理理论作为自己的反思对象,从中概括和提升出管理哲学的基本范畴和理论,由此承担特定的学术使命与社会功能。