Service Learning as a Mechanism for Change in Attitudes and Perceptions of Human Services Students Toward Substance-Dependent Mothers

The purpose of the study was to explore the potential effectiveness of service learning as a pedagogical technique for providing substance abuse education to human services/social work students. Using a quasi-experimental design, the authors assigned 38 human services undergraduate students to experimental and comparison groups on the basis of their availability to attend a service-learning project in substance abuse. The service learning consisted of a 30-min educational presentation followed by a visit to a residential substance abuse treatment facility for women. Results indicated that service learning in substance abuse had a positive effect on the general knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes of human services students toward substance-dependent mothers and their children. The findings from this exploratory study support future research in this area.     

Europe and the World of Learning: Orthodoxy and Aspiration in the Wake of Modernity

If Rome was for centuries the centre of power and influence for Christendom and the European world of learning associated with it, Brussels can claim to be such a twofold centre in the late twentieth century. The radical pluralism and postmodernist orientations which are now part of the Enlightenment legacy becloud the point that a new uniformity of belief and outlook—mercenary rather than spiritual—furnishes the context for most educational policy-making in European countries. Far from calling for a return to a patriarchal past, the paper attempts to sketch an understanding of education as a universally defensible practice, while addressing the challenges of both postmodernism and the new uniformity.     

An evaluation of MEDLARS output: demand and recurring bibliographies

The cooperation between the National Library of Medicine and various agencies of government and professional societies is producing a number of useful tools in the recurring bibliographies. Because the MEDLARS system is still in a state of flux, the demand bibliographies are slow in reaching the patron, but the results have been satisfactory.     

The influence of students’ interest,ability and personal situation on students’ perception of a problem-based learning environment

The twofold purpose of this study is to identify engineering students’ perceptions of a problem-based learning environment and to analyse the influence of their personal situation, general interest in engineering and ability to succeed on their perception, after they were exposed to PBL for the first time. Based on an adjusted version of the problem-based learning environment inventory [Senocak, E. 2009. “Development of an Instrument for Assessing Undergraduate Science Students’ Perceptions: The Problem-based Learning Environment Inventory.” Journal of Science Education Technology 18 (6): 560–569], data regarding students’ perception were collected through a questionnaire survey and analysed by applying exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The analysis revealed a three-factorial PBL environment consisting of learning facilitator support, student responsibility and project quality, with strong influences of students’ personal situation on project quality, interest on the learning facilitator support and ability to succeed on students’ responsibility. Supporting students’ general interest in engineering seems to improve their perception of the learning facilitator support and ensuring students’ ability to succeed in a PBL environment seems to increase students’ awareness of their own responsibility.     

Byron's oratory

The occasion for Edward Kennedy's Lynchburg address on “Tolerance and Truth in America” has been called “something of a mistake.” However, Kennedy used the opportunity to speak at Liberty Baptist College in 1983 to propose a “contract” for the public relationship between himself and Jerry Falwell. Virtually auditioning for a part in a new form of dialogue, Kennedy displayed for Falwell a universe of discourse in which each could be more civil toward the other without betraying his own constituencies or threatening the other's supporters. Subsequent events demonstrate that the contract, although never explicitly stated, was accepted.     

AN UPDATE ON REVERSE TRANSFERS TO TWO‐YEAR COLLEGES

Reverse transfers, students who transfer from four‐year to two‐year colleges, now make up 20% of the two‐year college enrollment. This paper will describe reverse transfers in terms of demographics, educational goals, and academic performance. Data from thirteen two‐year colleges includes official student records on a 1984 class of newly enrolled students and a survey of this same cohort.

Reverse transfers differ significantly from two‐year natives in terms of race and other demographic characteristics. Reverse transfers were older, more likely to be married, employed full‐time, and had higher socioeconomic status indicators. Reverse transfers’ parents were more likely than native students’ to have earned a college degree.

Two‐year students who had already earned a college degree had short‐term occupational goals aimed at upgrading job skills or making themselves more employable. Those who had not yet earned a degree were most likely to aspire to the bachelors degree. Reverse transfers earned significantly higher grades than natives. Reverse transfers were less likely to be enrolled in remedial courses or to indicate a need for special help in basic skills in order to succeed at the two‐year college.