A Study of Cluster Grouping

The increasing size of most universities in the United States at times has led to efforts to counteract largeness by creating many small units within the larger one. The following study reports on a pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of a grouping pattern in which freshman students had their class schedules arranged in such a way as to have at least three sections (courses) in common with others in their respective group.     

Coherence,dissonance, and personal style in learning to teach

Concern that practical realities in classrooms will ‘trump’ theories has led some universities to design residency teacher education programs that maximize coherence between university coursework and field experiences. Yet, some research suggests that student teachers can learn from dissonance. This qualitative case study of one cohort in an urban teacher residency program that sought to maximize coherence asks how the apprentice teachers experienced connections between the university and the field. Although apprentices experienced dissonance, they nonetheless expressed coherent philosophies aligned with university values. Coherence was something that individual apprentices constructed for themselves as they developed a personal ‘style’ or way of teaching in a program that welcomed their prior identities. Coherence was achieved through early development of a personal professional identity, not perfect alignment between field and university.     

Designing an internationationalised curriculum for higher education: embracing the local and the global citizen

In this article, differing interpretations of the internationalisation of higher education curriculum are explored analysing the structural and cultural aspects of the curriculum. Voices of tertiary staff from around the world taking part in a four-week, fully online course, entitled ‘Internationalising the curriculum for all students’ contributed to stimulating discussions that raised many questions about whose perspectives were being privileged in defining an internationalised curriculum and what constituted a transformed curriculum. In this analysis, the framework illuminates the varied theoretical and practical stances towards an internationalised curriculum. It highlights that indigenous knowledges and the positionings of marginal and diaspora peoples have been widely overlooked in internationalisation of curriculum practices, and these perspectives need to become integral to discussions of future tertiary education policies and curricula.     

Contextual and individual-level predictors of abused children's reentry into out-of-home care: a multilevel mixture survival analysis

Objectives

This study examined the effects of individual and contextual factors on reentry into out-of-home care among children who were discharged from child protective services in fiscal year 2004-2005. The objectives were to: (1) examine individual and contextual factors associated with reentry, (2) explore whether there are meaningful groups of youth who differ in terms of risk for reentry, and (3) determine whether relatively homogeneous clusters of child welfare agencies, based on contextual characteristics, differ significantly in terms of the reentry rates of the children whom they serve.

Method

The study design involved a multilevel longitudinal analysis of administrative data based on an exit cohort. Two Cox proportional hazards multilevel mixture models were tested. The first model included multiple individual level predictors and no agency level predictors. The second model included both levels of predictors.

Results

The results of multilevel Cox regression mixture modeling indicated that at the individual level, younger age, being placed in out-of-home care because of neglect and having physical, health problems corresponded to a decreased likelihood for reentry. At the agency level, lower average expenditures per child and contracting out case management services were associated with faster reentry into out-of-home care.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that children who reenter out-of-home care appear to be a homogeneous population and that reentry is associated with both contextual factors and individual characteristics.

Practice implications

The most important implication that can be drawn from the study findings is that reentry may be most effectively prevented by focusing on such factors at the organizational level as contracting out case management services and funding allocation. Child welfare agencies that are responsible for an array of services and decide to contract out case management should consider the use of performance-based contracts and emphasize and strengthen quality assurance approaches for contracted services. In addition, to compensate for lower funding allocated for children served in out-of-home care, child welfare workers should become more familiar with community resources and help connect families to these supports.     

Evidence of alphabetic knowledge in writing: connections to letter and word identification skills in preschool and kindergarten

The writing skills of 286 children (157 female and 129 male) were studied by comparing name writing and letter writing scores from preschool to kindergarten with letter and word reading scores over the same time period. Two rubrics for scoring writing were compared to determine if scores based on multiple components (i.e., letter formation, orientation on the vertical axis, left–right orientation, and correct letter sequencing) would better reflect differences in children’s writing knowledge in preschool and kindergarten than rubrics composed of one component (i.e., letter formation only). While developmental changes in writing scores were found, little additional information was provided by multiple component scoring rubrics compared to the single component rubric. Letter writing scores were more strongly related to letter and word reading scores than name writing scores but neither writing score was predictive of growth. Implications of the findings for intentional/systematic writing instruction in preschool curricula are discussed.     

‘New Ways of Working’ as a tool for improving the performance of a knowledge-intensive company

This paper explores ‘New Ways of Working’ (NewWoW) – that is, non-traditional mobile and flexible work practices, settings and locations using sufficient ICT tools – as a novel approach to improve the performance of a knowledge-intensive organization. This paper makes a contribution by illustrating how the measurement of the impacts of NewWoW can be done and by producing empirical evidence of the benefits of NewWoW. The conceptual background of the study is anchored in the literature on knowledge work productivity and performance as well as on NewWoW. The empirical section reports a longitudinal case study of a change process during which the case company, Rapal, went through a NewWoW project. The impacts of the change are evaluated based on the results of both objective and subjective performance measures. The project was successful and resulted in significant cost savings as well as improvements in environmental performance (CO₂ emissions).     

Physical Disability,Stigma, and Physical Activity in Children

Using the stereotype content model as a guiding framework, this study explored whether the stigma that able‐bodied adults have towards children with a physical disability is reduced when the child is portrayed as being active. In a 2 (physical activity status) x 2 (ability status) study design, 178 university students rated a child described in one of four vignettes on 12 dimensions of perceived warmth and competence. Results revealed a main effect of ability status on warmth (p < 0.001) such that children with a physical disability were rated significantly higher in perceived warmth than able‐bodied children, regardless of activity status (d = 0.86). Also, there was a significant interaction (p = 0.02) of ability and activity status on perceived competence, indicating that ratings of perceived competence were significantly higher for active children with a physical disability than for all other children (d = 0.54–0.64). Results suggest that physical activity should be explored as a way to mitigate the stigmatisation of children with a physical disability.     

Home birth matters-for all women

Although it remains rare in the United States, planned home birth has drawn increasing attention and criticism in the mainstream media and has come under attack from organized medicine. Yet, recent peer-reviewed studies contribute to the evidence base supporting home birth as a safe option for low-risk women attended by skilled midwives. The author of this editorial argues that home birth is an important cultural touchstone in the landscape of American maternity care.