Promoting ecologic health resilience for minority youth: Enhancing health care access through the school health center

Ethnic minority youth experience problems in access to healthcare, yet little is known about how to enhance utilization. This article will discuss the demographic realities of children of color in the United States, with a focus on health care needs and access issues that have an enormous influence on health status. The article will consider health policy as it describes the considerable barriers to quality health care for minority youth such as a lack of a usual source of care and limited health insurance. An ecologic model is presented that incorporates cultural values and community structures into the school health center. Enhancing access and utilization through the school setting is viewed as promoting ecologic resilience in youth. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 265–278, 2003.     

Teaching sustainable entrepreneurship to engineering students: the case of Delft University of Technology

Sustainability, enhancement of personal skills, social aspects of technology, management and entrepreneurship are of increasing concern for engineers and therefore for engineering education. In 1996 at Delft University of Technology this led to the introduction of a subject on sustainable entrepreneurship and technology in the course programmes of Chemical Engineering and Materials Sciences Engineering. This subject combines lectures, project work in which a business plan is written, sustainability and presentation training. This paper shows that it has been possible to combine entrepreneurship, sustainability and project education successfully in a subject for undergraduate engineering students and describes background, assumptions, outline, results and recent adjustments of this subject. It includes a discussion on how to integrate sustainability and entrepreneurship in terms of triple P (People, Profit, Planet) and how to incorporate it pragmatically in the key elements of a business plan: (1) business idea, mission and strategy; (2) context, stakeholder and market analysis; (3) marketing; (4) production; (5) organisation and management; (6) finance and reporting. Attention is paid to results regarding the business plan, spin-off like start-ups and also to the learning results of both students and lecturers. It ends drawing some lessons derived from the subject’s results and the learning experiences of both students and lecturers.     

Wellness of Counseling Students: Practicing What We Preach

A study of wellness among 263 graduate students in counseling revealed that counseling students experienced greater wellness than the general population; however, significant within‐group variability existed. Doctoral students reported significantly greater wellness in most areas measured by the Wellness Evaluation of Lifestyle (J. E. Myers, T. J. Sweeney, & J. M. Witmer, 1996) as compared with entry‐level students. Moderate effect resulted for Sense of Control, Intellectual Stimulation, Work, and Total Wellness. Students who were not Caucasian reported greater wellness in Cultural Identity than did Caucasian counseling students.     

Influence of deviant behaviours in workgroups in relation with group composition

The potential for behaviourally challenged students to negatively impact typically developing students is a concern shared by many parents and teachers. However, deviant peer influence during workgroup activities has not been thoroughly investigated through systematic observation of deviant interactions. This study compares sequences of deviant behaviours and peer responses recorded during cooperative activities. Seventy fifth-grade elementary school students were observed in three specific contexts, homogeneous EBD workgroups, homogeneous regular workgroups and inclusive workgroups. Findings reveal a greater prevalence of verbal aggressions and more explosive exchanges in EBD workgroups. In groups consisting solely of typically developing students, intentionally ignoring disruptive teammates proved to be effective in stopping deviant behaviours. Finally, it was in inclusive workgroups that observed deviant interactions sequences were the longest. These findings are discussed in relation with the role of group composition and workgroup training in fostering effective cooperative learning environments.     

High school students’ literacy practices and identities,and the figured world of school

Conventional wisdom holds that American teenagers do not read or write – that they are a media‐driven group who prefer movies, television and playing video games. Ethnographic data gathered in the High School Literacy Project, a study of four North Carolina high schools, showed a far different picture of teenage literacy. This paper reports on partial findings of the larger study and argues that students use their literacy practices to form their identities within, and sometimes in opposition to, the figured worlds of school, work and family. Many students look to school to provide formal literacy experiences, but find their reading and writing passions at odds with the demands of the school curriculum.     

Improving Preschoolers’ Numerical Abilities by Enhancing the Home Numeracy Environment

Research Findings: Young children develop numeracy competencies during interactions with more knowledgeable others. Such interactions typically occur in the home numeracy environment (HNE). In this study a nonintensive intervention procedure was developed to improve both the HNE and numerical competencies. All parents of 113 Australian children (age 4 years, 5 months, on average at the beginning of the study) were invited to participate in a 2-part intervention that included attending 1 group meeting at which information regarding the HNE was provided and participating in an additional individual session that introduced them to the principles of counting. The HNE and children’s numerical competencies were assessed before and after the intervention. Participating and nonparticipating families did not differ on any of the study variables at the beginning of the study, yet not only did the intervention group significantly improve their HNE, but children in this group also showed significantly greater numerical competency development compared with the nonparticipating group. Practice or Policy: Results indicate that less intensive interventions can have effects on the HNE and children’s numerical competencies. Consequently, even on small budgets interventions should be undertaken.     

Consultation and Collaboration to Develop and Implement Restorative Practices in a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Elementary School

ABSTRACT

Through an embedded single-case study design and qualitative methods, this article describes the school-wide implementation and preliminary results of a restorative practices (RP) program within a culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) elementary school. Located in an urban area with high rates of crime, violence, and poverty, the three-year multisystemic project brought school psychology knowledge and skills to (a) use multicultural consultation and participatory methods to introduce, adapt, and support RP in a CLD school, (b) present findings related to teachers, parents, students, and school climate, and (c) increase youth, parent, and community engagement and voice. The authors developed a comprehensive, culturally relevant model through an interdisciplinary school-university-community partnership. They used multicultural consultee-centered consultation, including bilingual/bicultural practices and cultural brokers, and participatory culture-specific intervention methods to collaboratively design, implement, and evaluate outcomes for students, parents, teachers, and others.     

Migration to an electronic journal collection in a hospital library: implications for reference service

This article provides a perspective on the migration to an electronic-only journal collection in a hospital library and its effect on reference services, information-seeking, and library use patterns. Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, NY is one of the first major teaching hospitals in the United States to begin a fundamental shift to a current, electronic-only journal collection. This article describes the process and develops a model for use by other hospital libraries, with commentary on the impact on reference services to library users. Key findings are that physicians, residents, and nurses have come to expect electronic journal collections and use the Internet in the hospital library to access electronic journals. Similar to many academic health sciences libraries, the reference desk in a hospital library has become more like a technical support desk. Users who contact the library have questions about access to the library's electronic resources or about searching techniques. In the future, medical reference librarians will continue to assist searchers who cannot find what they are looking for and will assist those who repeatedly get results that do not match their information needs.     

Biomechanical pole and leg characteristics during uphill diagonal roller skiing

Diagonal skiing as a major classical technique has hardly been investigated over the last two decades, although technique and racing velocities have developed substantially. The aims of the present study were to 1) analyse pole and leg kinetics and kinematics during submaximal uphill diagonal roller skiing and 2) identify biomechanical factors related to performance. Twelve elite skiers performed a time to exhaustion (performance) test on a treadmill. Joint kinematics and pole/plantar forces were recorded separately during diagonal roller skiing (9°; 11 km/h). Performance was correlated to cycle length (r = 0.77; P < 0.05), relative leg swing (r = 0.71), and gliding time (r = 0.74), hip flexion range of motion (ROM) during swing (r = 0.73) and knee extension ROM during gliding (r = 0.71). Push-off demonstrated performance correlations for impulse of leg force (r = 0.84), relative duration (r = ? 0.76) and knee flexion (r = 0.73) and extension ROM (r = 0.74). Relative time to peak pole force was associated with performance (r = 0.73). In summary, diagonal roller skiing performance was linked to 1) longer cycle length, 2) greater impulse of force during a shorter push-off with larger flexion/extension ROMs in leg joints, 3) longer leg swing, and 4) later peak pole force, demonstrating the major key characteristics to be emphasised in training.