Correlates of Geriatric Loneliness in Philippine Nursing Homes: A Multiple Regression Model

Numerous studies have been conducted worldwide about loneliness in older adults living in nursing homes and the factors associated with it. However, only a few studies have focused on social factors that may predispose these older adults to experience loneliness. The purpose of this study was to examine the interplay between and among loneliness, social isolation, social engagement, and life satisfaction among Filipino elderly (n = 180) recruited from government and nongovernment nursing homes in the Philippines. A multiaspect questionnaire, which included the UCLA Loneliness Scale, Revised Index for Social Engagement, Friendship Scale, and Life Satisfaction for the Third Age-Short Form was used to gather the needed data and information. Results of single and multiple regression analyses indicate an effect of the three factors (social isolation, social engagement, and life satisfaction) on loneliness with social isolation having the greatest impact on loneliness. Notably, increased social isolation, inadequate social engagement and decreased life satisfaction consequently aggravate loneliness. Social engagement produced a positive effect to both social isolation and life satisfaction in a way that a decrease in social engagement will decrease life satisfaction and increase social isolation. On the whole, loneliness in geriatric nursing homes is evident, and it is shaped by social isolation, social engagement and life satisfaction. Impliedly, interventions and measures to minimize loneliness are necessary, and further research is needed to explore other variables contributing to loneliness in geriatric nursing homes.     

Dealing with an aging workforce: Locating threats and opportunities in corporate media

ABSTRACT

Although workforce aging is among the major challenges facing developed countries, organizational communication about this issue has received little scholarly attention. Drawing on a content analysis of corporate media, we reconstruct how Dutch organizations (N = 50) framed older workers’ employability during the period 2006–2013 in diagnostic (problem-definitions) and prognostic (solution-definitions) terms, and we trace the influence of corporate media types and organizational characteristics on these frames. Results reveal that organizations frequently highlight problems on the macrolevel (societal) and the mesolevel (organizational), while most solutions are located on the microlevel (individual). Using multilevel modelling, we found support for the expectation that the issue is more strongly problematized in internal compared to external corporate media, and that problems related to individual older employees are most pronounced in public sector organizations’ communication. Our findings highlight diverse ways in which organizations can communicatively address factors that hamper older workers’ employability.     

DISCOVERING COMMUNAL VITALITY IN AFRICAN RITUALS: SEEING AND HEARING GOD THROUGH ZIMBABWEAN CHRISTIANS

Rituals provide opportunities for teaching and learning meanings of communal life and ways of enlivening it. Moreover, rituals serve as a pathway for learning to see God and to hear God through the peoples of God. This article explores key attributes of rituals of Christians in Zimbabwe Africa which constitute teaching and learning material and through which God is seen and heard through Zimbabwean Christians. Attention is also given to African concepts of time for ritual life and approaches useful in preparing for cross-cultural participation in rituals.     

“Rights as well as duties”: The rhetoric of Leonora O'Reilly

The following essay provides an analysis of the rhetorical strategies employed by Leonora O'Reilly, a Progressive Era labor reformer. The essay argues that O'Reilly's use of enactment and empowerment are representative of a “feminine style” as defined by Campbell (1989) and extended by Dow and Tonn (1993). As a subject of analysis, O'Reilly's rhetoric provides an opportunity to examine the public voice of a working‐class female reformer.     

Enhancing the Practicum Experience for Pre-service Chemistry Teachers Through Collaborative CoRe Design with Mentor Teachers

This paper reports findings from an ongoing study exploring how the Content Representation (CoRe) design can be used as a tool to help chemistry student teachers begin acquiring the professional knowledge required to become expert chemistry teachers. Phase 2 of the study, reported in this paper, investigated how collaboration with school-based mentors (associate teachers) on teaching practice (practicum) might impact on this process and student teachers’ development of their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The collaboration involved identifying and discussing pedagogical issues related to a practicum-teaching topic using a student teacher’s draft CoRe as a starting point and ongoing focus for the professional dialogue. Practicum offered an opportunity for aspects of student teachers’ PCK, as embodied in their draft CoRes, to be explored and expanded upon in classroom programmes with the support and input of associate teachers. The findings were influenced by different contextual factors; however, the student teachers found their CoRes to be very useful frameworks for engaging in focussed professional dialogue with their teaching mentors. They valued the expertise, currency of knowledge and mentoring of their associates and reported positively about the contribution this support made to their PCK development via the CoRe design process and the transformation of the CoRe into classroom teaching.     

The children's centre teacher role: developing practice in the private,voluntary and independent sector

This study assessed the impact of the role of the teacher in two children's centres in England and identified some of the supporting and limiting factors that influenced outcomes. The teachers worked across several settings in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector, with the aim of enhancing early years practice and practitioner confidence. A conceptual framework was devised to model the impact of the teacher role based on Leithwood and Levin (2005 Leithwood K, Levin B. 2005. Assessing school leader and leadership programme effects on pupil learning. DfES Research Report 662. http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR662.pdf (accessed December 2006) [Google Scholar]). Teachers were found to bring vital professional knowledge and experience to the role and delivered their methods through a range of leadership styles as identified in the literature. Teachers were successful in developing practice and staff confidence in settings; this also impacted positively on outcomes for children. However, success was dependent on a number of moderating factors, including sector‐related factors such as the qualifications of staff. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Student and tutor perceptions of effective tutoring in distance education

Questionnaire responses of 457 students and 602 tutors were used to investigate conceptions of a ‘good tutor.’ In each case, factor analysis identified scales that reflected key constructs; cluster analysis identified subgroups with different patterns of scale scores; and discriminant analysis determined the scales that contributed the most to differences among the clusters. Both sets of data yielded conceptions of tutoring that were described as task‐oriented and student‐oriented, respectively. The students’ data yielded an additional, career‐oriented conception. The tutors’ data yielded two additional conceptions that were described as knowledge‐oriented and impersonal, respectively. The distribution of the tutors’ conceptions (but not that of the students’ conceptions) varied across different faculties, suggesting that tutors from different disciplines have different beliefs about effective tutoring. The study suggests that both tutors and students would benefit from having a better appreciation of the importance of support in facilitating learning.     

Rearranging pigeonholes: interrupting the ethnic hierarchy of a school's workforce

Increasing the cultural and linguistic diversity of the teaching workforce in Australia was a key recommendation of the House of Representatives Standing Committee Inquiry into Teacher Education in their report, Top of the Class (written by L. Hartsuyker Hartsuyker, L. 2007. Top of the class: Report of the inquiry into teacher education, (Report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training) Canberra, Australia: The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.  [Google Scholar]). The report reflects findings from national and international research that support the need to increase the diversity of the teaching profession as a means to improve student outcomes, particularly given the increasingly diverse make-up of student populations. The Hartsuyker Report also notes, as a “national concern”, the relatively low enrolment of World English-speaking (WES) students in Australian teacher education courses and calls for targeted funding by the federal government for further research into why this is the case (as discussed by J. Han and M. Singh in 2007 Han, J. and Singh, M. 2007b. Getting World English speaking student teachers to the top of the class: Making hope for ethno-cultural diversity in teacher education robust. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 35(3): 291–309. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]). This paper seeks to add to current research on the attraction and retention of WES students into Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes in Australia. It does so by relating some of the key findings from a case study of three WES Education Assistants, originally from Malaysia, who retrained to become teachers through an ITE programme at an Australian university. Significantly, as a result of a partnership developed between a school and a university, they entered the programme through an alternative access course, were awarded Recognition of Prior Learning for their work experience, and were able to remain in their community while studying externally. They were also provided ongoing mentoring support by the teaching staff and myself as programme co-ordinator. This paper aims to add to current research in this field by identifying the key driving and restraining forces that impacted on their ability to become teachers via an Australian ITE programme.