You can’t ignore us: what role does family play in student engagement and alienation in a Ghanaian university?

Much of the existing literature on student engagement focuses on what happens within the higher education environment or what the institution has direct control over, restricting understanding of how issues outside of the institution affect engagement. This paper argues that efforts to improve student engagement should be broadened to incorporate issues relating to the family. It employed a case study design in order to develop a broad and more in-depth understanding of how family influences the amount of time and effort students invest in their learning in a large public university in Ghana. It was established that engagement is influenced by family expectation, financial and social support, as well as monitoring of students’ academic performance. The unique contribution of the study is that it broadens current understandings of engagement because it adds an aspect that has not been highlighted in current work on engagement, making a case for institutions to work more with families to get a broader understanding of challenges students face in order to provide comprehensive support.     

Comparison of teacher talk directed to boys and girls and its relationship to their behaviour in secondary and primary schools

There have been a number of earlier investigations, using differing methodologies, into the extent to which teachers in the secondary school interact with boys and girls and the results have suggested an imbalance in the teachers’ verbal behaviour towards the genders that is quite similar to the imbalance found in teachers’ behaviour in the primary school. The main aim of this study was to devise an investigation using the same methodology as that used in a recent primary school investigation in order to be able to make a fair comparison between the two levels. The results showed considerable differences in the teachers’ verbal behaviour towards the genders in the secondary school from that of teachers in the primary school. Where the primary school data showed teachers interacting more with the boys than the girls and the boys being less on‐task than the girls, the secondary school data showed no such differences.     

“The Company You Keep”: Unpacking a Measurement Model of Social Network Interdependence

Both classical and contemporary interpersonal theories have identified the social networks surrounding a couple as integral players in relational development and maintenance. The current project extends this line of research by designing (Study 1) and implementing (Study 2) a measurement of social network interdependence. Scales of network interference and facilitation are developed and probed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Results support distinct measures of network interference and facilitation. Invariance between differencing samples is tested for using multi-factor CFA. Results showed that measures of network interference and facilitation significantly vary between married and dating couples. Finally, convergent, divergent, and concurrent validity is tested for subscales using variables in relational turbulence theory. Results demonstrate that network interference and facilitation uniquely impact outcome variables above and beyond experiences of partner interference and facilitation. Results are discussed in terms of theory development.     

CHID: a unique health information and education database

The public's growing interest in health information and the health professions' increasing need to locate health education materials can be answered in part by the new Combined Health Information Database (CHID). This unique database focuses on materials and programs in professional and patient education, general health education, and community risk reduction. Accessible through BRS, CHID suggests sources for procuring brochures, pamphlets, articles, and films on community services, programs at HMOs and hospitals, aspects of coping, and more. CHID is a joint project of six federally funded agencies in the Public Health Service. CHID provides citations with abstracts to major health journals, books, reports, pamphlets, hard-to-find information resources, and to health education programs under way in state and local health departments and other locations.