THE GERIATRIC INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM APPROACH: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN EDUCATING TRAINEES TOGETHER FROM A VARIETY OF DISCIPLINES

The special health needs of older persons and the organization of managed care systems necessitate interdisciplinary team health care. However, there is a paucity of training or familiarity with team care among most health care professionals. This article describes one nationwide initiative, funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, in which eight sites trained health care workers from different disciplines to participate as interdisciplinary geriatric health care team members. Although the goal of the initiative was to develop trained interdisciplinary team participants, a major concern of the programs was the initial overcoming of challenges to training professionals from different disciplines together. Both benefits and challenges are identified and several training modalities and techniques to meet the challenges are discussed. These include case studies, standardized patients, cross-discipline role-playing, glossaries, and use of the DISC Personality Profile. The benefits of each of these modalities are examined, and potential pitfalls and perils to be avoided are emphasized.     

Effects of group work training on science attainment in rural and urban schools

This study investigated the effects of collaborative group work skills training on pupil attainment in science. Twenty‐four experimental classes were drawn from schools in rural and urban settings. Pupils in experimental classrooms engaged in general group work skills training and two structured group work activities in science. Attainment was assessed using the Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) instrument. Significant gains in science attainment were observed in the experimental urban and rural classes. Significant changes in observed group work behaviours were observed in both urban and rural classes. Changes in group work behaviour were correlated to increased science attainment. The implications for practice, policy and future research are explored.     

Teachers’ Attitudes towards Disruptive Behaviour and their Use of Internal Referral

This study offers a very neat demonstration of something which conventional wisdom holds: that our actions reflect our beliefs. But the topic under investigation is a challenging one – teachers’ uses of ‘referral systems’ in school. The evidence suggests that referrals reflect teachers’ beliefs – not, therefore, the pupils’ behaviour. We do not know of a study of this sort anywhere in the literature on school behaviour, yet these findings have major implications for those pastoral systems which have become distorted into discipline systems. Michael examines these with care, taking pains not to be simply ‘pointing the finger’.

Michael Evans has been teaching physical education and mathematics in London for seven years. Currently in his second secondary post as Head of Year, Michael is working to complete his MA at the University of London Institute of Education. In his spare time he heads for the hills, wind and rain of Scotland.     

Not quite normal: Consequences of violating the assumption of normality in regression mixture models

Regression mixture models are a new approach for finding differential effects which have only recently begun to be used in applied research. This approach comes at the cost of the assumption that error terms are normally distributed within classes. The current study uses Monte Carlo simulations to explore the effects of relatively minor violations of this assumption, the use of an ordered polytomous outcome is then examined as an alternative which makes somewhat weaker assumptions, and finally both approaches are demonstrated with an applied example looking at differences in the effects of family management on the highly skewed outcome of drug use. Results show that violating the assumption of normal errors results in systematic bias in both latent class enumeration and parameter estimates. Additional classes which reflect violations of distributional assumptions are found. Under some conditions it is possible to come to conclusions that are consistent with the effects in the population, but when errors are skewed in both classes the results typically no longer reflect even the pattern of effects in the population. The polytomous regression model performs better under all scenarios examined and comes to reasonable results with the highly skewed outcome in the applied example. We recommend that careful evaluation of model sensitivity to distributional assumptions be the norm when conducting regression mixture models.     

Sex-related differences on a task of volume and density

A sex-related difference, favoring boys, was found on initial performance of two samples (one British, one American) of 10- and 11-year-old children on a task of volume and density. After a period of classroom instruction that included opportunities for children to interact with appropriate materials and each other, both boys and girls performed at a higher level on the task, but the difference between them remained the same. There was no indication of a sex-related difference other than a time lag, in pattern of development of the concept. The question of why there is a sex-related difference, which persists in spite of experience and instruction, is discussed.