Implementing curriculum evaluation: case study of a generic undergraduate degree in health sciences

This case study presents a longitudinal, evidence‐based approach to health science curriculum reform and evaluation. Curriculum in higher education must meet the needs of diverse stakeholders and must respond to dynamic local, national and international contexts, and this creates challenges for evaluation. The long lead time prior to the introduction of new or revised university curriculum (at least two years), the length of degree programmes (three to five years) and the lag time in the availability of objective indicators of degree outcomes (at least one year post‐graduation) mean that findings may be obsolete before an evaluation can be completed. Few would argue that evaluation is important and methods and approaches for conducting curriculum evaluation are proposed in the literature, although few published reports of the outcomes of comprehensive evaluations are evident. This paper discusses potential for evaluation to establish responsive communication between students, teaching staff and programme administrators, ensuring a match between the intended, implemented and attained curriculum.     

Listening to Another's Distress in Everyday Relationships

Talking about a difficult event may reduce discloser distress, but it may increase it in the listener. This essay offers a model that assesses some antecedent and interactional variables proposed to be involved with listening and connected with listeners' negative distress. Based on 82 reports of interactions with close relational others, levels of negative distress correlated positively with the amount of responsibility people felt for the other and time reported listening to the others' disclosure. Those who reported validating the other also reported more negative distress than did those who said their response style was to give advice. This article offers possible modifications to the model based in these results.     

Dartmouth's College Course I

Abstract

This article describes the background, activities, and outcomes of the Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center and its Summer Fellows Institute as a model for disciplinary and cross-disciplinary infusion of environmental science and technology content, curriculum, and methods into the classroom. The authors describe experiences, themes, and activities that occurred during 5 years at the Summer Institute for some of the nation's top high school and community college teachers.     

Changes in Friendship Commitment: Comparing Geographically Close and Long-Distance Young-Adult Friendships

The existence of long-distance (LD) friendships throws into question assumptions that scholars of interpersonal communication often make about commitment to relationships, the development of relationships, and friendships. An analysis of turning points comparing commitment changes in young-adult geographically close and LD same-sex friendships revealed high and fluctuating levels of commitment over the history of the friendships for both types. Over 80% of those having LD friends reported their levels of commitment were currently increasing, rather than decreasing. Women were more likely than men to report nonlinear trajectories for their friendships, more downturns in commitment to their friendships, and more turning points related to changes in commitment to their friendships.     

Teacher influence on pupil cognitive performance

Following the U.S. financial crisis of 2008, demands on our social safety nets grew as federal, state, and local revenues declined. Projected shortfalls are forcing deep cuts in state and local services including education. It is too early to know fully the nature of the cuts or impacts on various communities and constituencies. This article looks to recent reform history to understand the shaping of educational priorities in the context of shrinking public coffers, disenchantment with public institutions, and anxiety about individual and collective positions in the global economy. I employ Steven Lukes's (2005) multidimensional view of power to examine the emergence of performance accountability policy as part and parcel of a neo-liberal reconsideration of schooling. From this recounting, I raise questions about the preference and press for particular reform priorities—reconstitution and pay for performance models of remuneration—ensconced in No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.     

Aging,exercise and motivating engagement

Some older people describe learning to stay fit and healthy and exercise as a regular part of their lives. There is evidence that exercise is beneficial in terms of physical, psychological and social functioning in older adults. This paper is unique in that it is an analysis of the spontaneous discussion of exercise by older people as a priority in their lives. It also provides information about the kinds of exercise they choose. An online written data forum in Australia with responses from 103 people aged 50 to 92 years (F52, M 51) was analysed for all mention of exercise. The respondents were prompted to comment on sustainable lifestyles as they aged. Thirty per cent mentioned exercise as a priority in their lives. Activities included irregular exercise (11%) routine organised exercise such as golf or tennis (8%) and purposeful exercise such as regular gym attendance (11%), where the respondents explained why they needed to exercise. A few (7%) talked about the need to stay healthy without explaining how. Some (2%) described barriers and conditions that made exercise difficult. These figures for engaging in exercise are similar to those identified in 2018 by the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare. As evidenced by the literature in the area, lack of awareness of the specific benefits of exercise and barriers to exercise for older adults are not new problems. However, given the increase in the percentage of older people in the population and the demonstrated beneficial effects of exercise, it is worthwhile to document the motivation for exercise and engagement in older adults and to suggest strategies to increase their activity.