PLANNING AN ELEARNING DEMENTIA CARE PROGRAM FOR HEALTHCARE TEAMS IN LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES: THE LEARNERS’ PERSPECTIVES

This paper presents a needs analysis conducted to obtain information concerning online dementia care training of healthcare workers in long-term care (LTC) facilities. The resulting information was used to guide the development of an online dementia care training program designed to facilitate the acquisition of skills and knowledge necessary for healthcare teams to deliver better care to the residents with whom they work. Three focus groups were conducted at two sites across Canada. Data analysis revealed five major themes that will help program designers develop effective online learning programs. Recommendations for the development of an online dementia care program are proposed.     

Using Age,Cohort, and Period to Study Elderly Volunteerism

American volunteers, both informally and through organizations like the Corporation for National Service, make huge contributions to the well-being of millions of Americans and, via their unpaid or minimally-reimbursed work, to the American economy. Can America continue to count on maintaining or increasing volunteer contributions in the future? This question is especially important as the Baby Boomers replace the current generation of older Americans. This article provides faculty and students with information on elderly volunteering. It suggests and demonstrates using age-cohort-period analysis to understand different forces affecting volunteering by older Americans. A major benefit of age-cohort-period analysis is preventing faulty conclusions and, consequently, faulty policy decisions and waste of resources. Such analysis can also enhance current and future efforts to recruit and retain volunteers, particularly among the elderly.     

Using Personal Narratives for Curriculum Development about Substance Abuse and Older Adults

This article reports on a project to sensitize graduate social work students taking courses in substance abuse to the needs of older adults. Graduate social work students at a major urban school of social work in the Northeast were recruited and trained to interview older adults with a history of substance abuse problems regarding their life experiences. The authors developed educational vignettes based on the interviews and curriculum units based on these vignettes to be incorporated into the substance abuse curriculum. The challenges and rewards of engaging students in the process of developing educational vignettes based on older adults lived experiences are also discussed.     

Education as Service: The Understanding of University Experience Through the Service Logic

With the marketization of UK higher education, this paper develops a framework from services marketing that can assist universities in understanding what market orientation means and how students would value their offerings. Our study shows that the core service in a university experience is a learning experience that is cocreated and that the value is emergent, unstructured, interactive, uncertain, with a hedonic dimension. Our paper modifies the gap model of service quality to show that an ideological gap exists that may also impede the quality of the university experience. We propose that a one-sided expectation by students leads to student consumerism and disengagement. Paradoxically, we show that a true student-orientated marketing puts the university ideology at the center of marketing efforts and that marketing may well be an effective tool to communicate such ideologies.     

Family and coordination issues in the preparation of service providers working with children with hearing impairment: the case of Cyprus

This paper explores the pre‐ and in‐service preparation of service providers on family and inter‐professional coordination issues. It particularly looks at the service providers affiliated with seven occupation groups and who work with 48 children with hearing impairment in a specific geographical region of Cyprus. The research study from which this paper draws data was conducted in 2001–3 and aimed at describing the model of coordination that exists in service provision for children with hearing impairment in Cyprus, and specifically, after the enactment of numerous pieces of legislation in accordance with European Union proposals. Data were collected through a questionnaire that was sent to service providers and included both closed‐ and open‐ended questions. First, the emphasis that is given to family and coordination issues over past years, and the subsequent slow response of the pre‐ and in‐service training programmes is discussed. The specific obstacles that are associated with the national context in which this study took place are highlighted. Finally, the study findings related to personnel preparation are presented, as well as the implications of these on the service provision system in Cyprus. Results indicate that there is a great lack of knowledge and skills regarding family issues, and a greater lack of knowledge and skills as regards coordination. The study further indicates that there is some variability among the seven occupational groups presented, and reveals that in‐service training has failed to address these issues.     

Student-Generated Scientific Inquiry for Elementary Education Undergraduates: Course Development, Outcomes and Implications

While some researchers have argued for science classrooms that embrace open-inquiry by engaging students in doing science as scientists do (cf. National Research Council [NRC] 1996; Driver et al. in Sci Educ 84:287–312, 2000; Windschitl et al. in Sci Educ 87(1):112–143, 2008), others have argued that open-inquiry is impractical, ineffective, and perhaps even counter-productive towards promoting normative scientific ideas (cf. Kirschner et al. in Educ Psychol 41(2):75–86, 2006; Settlage in J Sci Teach Educ 18:461–467, 2007). One of the challenges in informing the debate on this issue is the scarcity of well-documented courses that engage students in open-inquiry characteristic of scientific research. This paper describes the design, implementation, and outcomes of such a course for undergraduates planning on becoming elementary teachers. The goal of the class was to immerse future teachers in authentic, open-inquiry (without specific learning goals related to scientific concepts) in hopes that students would come away with a deeper understanding of the nature of science (NOS) and improved attitudes towards science. Data collected from a variety of sources indicate that an authentic, open-inquiry experience is feasible to implement in an undergraduate setting, gives students a more sophisticated NOS understanding, improves students’ attitudes towards science and open-inquiry, and changes the way they intend to teach science in their future classrooms.     

Plowing in Rocky Land: Organizational Culture,Managed Change,and Quality Improvement in Selected Romanian Post-Communist Libraries

Romanian libraries have had a rich heritage of collecting and preserving materials in the domains of national and foreign history, literature, art, and science. During the communist regime they served as propaganda tools for the government's Marxist ideology. In post-communist Romania, there is a desire among some librarians to promote change from a system of limited access to information to a more open system that focuses on quality improvement of library services, operations, and organization. In their efforts to overcome the communist legacy to libraries in their country, some Romanian librarians—with local resources and support from international agencies—are implementing western managerial styles and services. This case study reflects the results, assessments, and recommendations from a survey conducted at a workshop of selected Romanian librarians in August 1998. Considerations for the implementation of needed changes are also included.     

Aims of speech training in the junior college

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POLITICS AND CULTURE: WORKING HYPOTHESES FOR A POST‐REVOLUTIONARY SOCIETY. By Michael Ryan. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989; pp. 250. $28.95.

THE ORIGINS OF RHETORIC IN CLASSICAL GREECE. By Thomas Cole. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991; pp. x + 192. $29.95.

THE VOX DEI: COMMUNICATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES. By Sophia Menache. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; pp. 353. $39.95.

THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF JOHN WITHERSPOON. Edited by Thomas Miller. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990; pp. viii + 318. $29.95.

HENRY WARD BEECHER: PERIPATETIC PREACHER. By Haiford R. Ryan, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1990; pp. x + 179. $39.95

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RHETORICAL STUDIES OF NATIONAL POLITICAL DEBATES. Edited by Robert V. Friedenberg. Series Foreword by Robert E. Dentón, Jr. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1990; pp. xiii + 223. $42.95.

ARGUMENTATION THEORY AND THE RHETORIC OF ASSENT. Edited by David Cratis Williams and Michael David Hazen. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990; pp. v + 230. $32.95.

CULTURAL LEGACIES OF VIETNAM: USES OF THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. Edited by Richard Morris and Peter Ehrenhaus. Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1990; pp. ix + 238. $42.50; paper $24.95.

POPULAR TRIALS: RHETORIC, MASS MEDIA, AND THE LAW. Edited by Robert Hariman. Tuscalloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1990; pp. vii + 268. $32.95.

AMERICAN EVANGELICALS AND THE MASS MEDIA. Edited by Quentin J. Schultze. Grand Rapids: Academie/Zondervan, 1990; pp. 382, $15.95.

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Liminality in education: generating a creative space of encounter and dialogue between teachers and students within educational structures

ABSTRACT

The dominant results-driven/performance-oriented culture and the pressures of performativity in education have meant that the promotion of creativity has been narrow in scope and the translation into practice less apparent than the rhetoric would suggest. Creativity can survive even in times of standardisation, but it is more likely to be confined to interstitial zones. Interstitial zones are in-between social spaces outside the formal teaching zones in which creativity may give voice to those students whose voice is not always heard in the formal teaching context.

Often, creativity is equated exclusively to substantial creative outputs and, as a result, teachers who are not sensitised to creativity in a broader sense may underestimate their own creative ability and the positive impact this might have on the relationship with their students. A shift in teacher education that results in a more meaningful appreciation of both the nature of creativity and its benefits is therefore required. A developmental approach which starts with teacher cultivation of creative sensibility is essential to achieve greater infusion of creativity. The paper posits that teachers who resist rigid social structures and engage in critical pedagogy are also more likely to be receptive to creativity and its the pastoral potential in education.     

Relationships between learning approach,procrastination and academic achievement amongst first-year university students

Individual differences in student learning influence academic performance, and two aspects influencing the learning process are the particular learning approach the students use and procrastination behaviour. We examined the relationships between learning approaches, procrastination and academic achievement (measured 1 year later as the grade point average (GPA)) amongst 428 first-year university students. Deep and strategic learning approaches positively predicted GPA, and a mediation analysis showed that the strategic learning approach also partly mediated the effect between deep learning approach and GPA. Less procrastination was associated with a strategic learning approach, but procrastination tendencies did not predict GPA. Recommendations are made for educating new students in cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, helping reduce their procrastination and facilitating the use of deep and strategic learning approaches.