Efficacy and authority of the message sender during emergency evacuations: a mixed methods study

To understand why coastal residents do not always evacuate before storms, a pair of studies analyzed evacuation decision-making among residents of Long Beach, NY and surrounding municipalities on Long Island, NY via a mixed methodology approach. First, residents who lived in Long Beach, NY during ‘Superstorm’ (hurricane turned post-tropical cyclone) Sandy in October 2012 were interviewed about their evacuation decision. Second, 34 pre-storm messages were developed and administered to residents of the same area: faced with a hypothetical oncoming hurricane, respondents indicated after each message whether they would evacuate. In the interviews, residents spoke more about friends and family than traditional authority figures; survey results, however, imply that residents are more likely to evacuate given messages from traditional authority figures. This can be resolved with the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, which suggests that motivation and emotional state influence information processing. Implications for actual emergency message formation are discussed.     

Childbirth education for multiple pregnancy: part 1: prenatal considerations

Women with a multiple pregnancy have unique learning needs in preparing for birth. This paper explores the issues relevant to women with a multiple pregnancy to support a positive birth experience. One of the foundations of childbirth education and nursing care is to provide the individual woman and her family with knowledge regarding the birth process, what to expect, and how to cope with labor and birth. Education also focuses on caring for the newborns after birth and how to manage in the early days at home. However, traditional childbirth education classes, which meet in a series of evenings or Saturdays, may not meet the needs of women with a multiple pregnancy. In addition, because of the differences in care that exist for women with a multiple pregnancy, new paradigms for childbirth education are needed to meet the learning needs of these families. The purpose of this paper is to provide information to the childbirth educator on the differences in care women with a multiple pregnancy can expect and to suggest strategies to meet the childbirth education needs of these families.     

Argumentation for Learning: Well-Trodden Paths and Unexplored Territories

There is increasing consensus among psycho-educational scholars about argumentation as a means to improve student knowledge and understanding of subject matter. In this article, we argue that, notwithstanding a strong theoretical rationale, causal evidence is not abundant, definitions of the objects of study (argumentation, learning) are often not well defined, and the variance in research methods is large. We argue that we systematically review the available research evidence by mapping it on the Argumentation For Learning research framework, which specifies the different antecedents, dialogue characteristics, and learning outcomes of argumentation. In doing so, we identify claims that are supported with substantive empirical evidence and demonstrate which questions are still open to further empirical examination. We also uncover several promising, relatively unexplored venues for future research.     

The Task of Professional Development

Policies of inclusive education are emerging from many ministries and departments of education in countries around the world. McLesky and Waldron (2002) have argued that when teachers and administrators in schools begin to have discussions about inclusion the discussions often lead to two conclusions about how schools must change: (a) the change must address the needs of all students, not just those with disabilities, and (b) “school improvement” replaces references to inclusion. That is, teachers and administrators begin to rethink and restructure their programs in special and general education to improve the education of all students. In having to reform their practices general education teachers, in particular, must develop new understandings related to inclusion and reconceptualise how students with disabilities and learning difficulties might best be taught. As a consequence these teachers are recognising that they must change their practices in curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. However, in order to make the changes and to develop new classroom practices general education teachers often reveal a need for inservice training. Thus there is a call from general education teachers for professional development in various areas. Several authors have described a range of initiatives in professional development in the context of school improvement. For example, there are alliances between teachers and researchers through teacher-researcher professional development groups (e.g., Vaughn, Hughes, Schumm, & Klinger, 1998) and collaborative communities (e.g., Englert & Zhao, 2001); professional development schools (PDS) where special educators are viewed as “catalysts” who further the knowledge of both inservice and preservice teachers (Voltz, 2001); “critical friend(s) groups” which are teacher support groups (Bambino, 2002); “Friday Forums” where teachers within a school use internal school expertise to inservice each other (Hudson, 2002); and professional learning communities or networks of various types, sometimes developed by professional organisations and itinerant specialists who are assigned to school districts to work on school reform with schools and teachers.