Twenty five years of cognitive care education research: Time for a revolutionary change

This is the third study of Cognitive Care Education in New York State nursing homes using cross-sectional methods over a 25 year period. The data indicate that the Cognitive Care Education increased at statistically significant levels, albeit by evolutionary means. It is now time for “A Revolutionary Change,” for Cognitive Care Education, whereby the ideal level of 20 to 32 hours of education is provided to cognitive care providers.

Cognitive care encompasses a range of behavioral problems that require appropriate education. These might include communication difficulties, perseveration (repetition of an idea or activity), aggressive behaviors, paranoia, memory problems, and wandering (Savundranayagam & Orange, 2014). This study assessed Cognitive Care Education as the “Amount and type of education provided to cognitive care providers on how to care for the cognitively impaired including knowledge and skills to understand cognitive impairments and requisite standards to improve quality of care and life.”

It is apparent that nursing home employees are cognizant of cognitively impaired residents’ needs. However, the Cognitive Care Education providers receive on the job, is still inadequate to understand the overall needs of cognitively impaired, as indicated by our most recent research in 2016 (i.e., 3.81 hours). We recommend that at least 20 hours of Cognitive Care Education be provided to care providers, with a second recommendation that 32 hours would be ideal that follows the Alzheimer’s Association recommendation. The primary focus of the research studies here is to ensure care-providers are adequately trained to take care of the cognitively impaired.     

Contraception and condom use among two samples of university students: 1982 and 1992

8% of all individuals residing in the US have tested positive for infection with HIV. This study reports the use of condoms and others forms of contraception in two samples of students from East Carolina University. 234 students in 1982 taking a course in marriage and family responded to a 32-item questionnaire distributed in five classes on whether they had used contraception during their most recent episode of sexual intercourse and which method they used. 96% of the respondents were never married, 83% white, and 82% middle class. 7% were engaged to be married and 3% were cohabiting. 53.4% were women and in their junior or senior year (52.5%) of undergraduate education. While the sample was not random, it closely approximated the demographic characteristics of the university from which it was drawn. 79.1% reported using some form of contraception, with 61.8% using the pill and 15.3% using the condom. Of those who used a form of contraception, 8.1% reported using withdrawal and 1.5% rhythm. Fifty university students were again sampled in 1992 in a marriage and family class to find 76% reporting use of contraception during their last episode of sexual intercourse. The percentage of students which reported using a condom, however, increased to 39%. These findings add to the body of research literature which suggests that condom use has increased over the past decade. Further research is, however, warranted to determine whether these data reflect an actual increase in condom use or are simply the result of students providing socially desirable answers.     

Comparison of most‐to‐least to error correction for teaching receptive labelling for two children diagnosed with autism

Prompting systems are guidelines of when to provide learners with prompts and when to fade prompts. Today, there are several prompting systems implemented to teach receptive labeling to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities. This study compared most‐to‐least prompting to an error correction procedure involving feedback and remedial trials for teaching two children with autism a variety of receptive labels. All teaching was implemented in a one‐to‐one instructional setting. Researchers taught each participant how to receptively identify 18 pictures; nine were taught using error correction and nine were taught using most‐to‐least. The researchers utilized an adapted alternating treatment design nested into a multiple probe design to evaluate the two procedures. Results indicated that participants were able to reach mastery criterion on 100% of skills taught using the error correction and were able to reach mastery criterion on 88.9% of skills taught using most‐to‐least. Additionally, error correction tended to require fewer trials for participants to reach mastery criterion.     

On the Distinction between False Belief Understanding and Subscribing to an Interpretive Theory of Mind

2 groups of 5–8-year-olds were examined in an effort to explore the developing relations between false belief understanding and an awareness of the individualized nature of personal taste, on the one hand, and, on the other, a maturing grasp of the interpretive character of the knowing process. In Study 1, 20 children between 5 and 8 all behaved in accordance with hypotheses by proving to be indistinguishable in their already good grasp of the possibility of false beliefs and in their common assumption that differences of opinion concerning matters of taste are legitimate expressions of personal preferences. By contrast, only the 7- and 8-year-old children gave evidence of recognizing that ambiguous stimuli especially allow for warrantable differences of interpretation. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings with a group of 48 5-8-year-old subjects, again showing that while 5-year-olds easily pass a standard test of false belief understanding, only children of 7 or 8 ordinarily evidence an appreciation of the interpretive character of the knowing process.     

Transition from School to Adult Life: Views of School Leavers with Disabilities

USING a structured interview format this exploratory study sought the views of 73 young people with a range of disabilities regarding means for ensuring an effective transition from school to adult life for people with disabilities. A wide range of views was elicited focussing on the roles that both the school and community can play. Included in their suggestions were the need for a planned transition process, a job‐related school curriculum and structured procedures to facilitate community integration. Most importantly, however, the study has highlighted the valuable contribution made by service consumers in providing useful and meaningful information. Implications of the results of the study for future program development and research efforts are discussed.     

Collaborative online projects for English language learners in science

This paper summarizes how collaborative online projects (COPs) are used to facilitate science content-area learning for English Learners of Hispanic origin. This is a Mexico-USA partnership project funded by the National Science Foundation. A COP is a 10-week thematic science unit, completely online, and bilingual (Spanish and English) designed to provide collaborative learning experiences with culturally and linguistically relevant science instruction in an interactive and multimodal learning environment. Units are integrated with explicit instructional lessons that include: (a) hands-on and laboratory activities, (b) interactive materials and interactive games with immediate feedback, (c) animated video tutorials, (d) discussion forums where students exchange scientific learning across classrooms in the USA and in Mexico, and (e) summative and formative assessments. Thematic units have been aligned to U.S. National Science Education Standards and are under current revisions for alignment to the Common Core State Standards. Training materials for the teachers have been integrated into the project website to facilitate self-paced and independent learning. Preliminary findings of our pre-experimental study with a sample of 53 students (81 % ELs), distributed across three different groups, resulted in a 21 % statistically significant points increase from pretest to posttest assessments of science content learning, t(52) = 11.07, p = .000.     

Perceived instructor argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness and student outcomes

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between instructor argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness, and student affective learning and satisfaction. Participants were 169 undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of communication courses at a small Midwestern university. Results indicate that perceived instructor argumentativeness is positively correlated with student affect toward the course, student affect toward the instructor, and student satisfaction whereas perceived instructor verbal aggressiveness is negatively correlated with student affect toward the course, student affect toward the instructor, and student satisfaction. Future researchers may examine the reasons behind instructor argumentative and verbally aggressive behaviors as well as the composition of the various messages used to exemplify these behaviors.     

Ice Cream Seminars for Graduate Students: Imparting Chemical Information Literacy

SUMMARY

This article provides information on a chemical information literacy program designed primarily for new graduate students. The full implementation of this program is discussed, including defining its purpose, topics covered, content presented, methods of marketing, and evaluation. The result is a series of voluntary seminars given biweekly throughout the academic year. Seminars are based either around a particular resource or database or are centered on a topical problem that may be addressed using multiple resources. Evaluations show that graduate students are pleased with the seminars, including content covered and the format. Areas for future development and experimentation are also suggested.