A season-long team-building intervention: examining the effect of team goal setting on cohesion

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether the implementation of a season-long team-building intervention program using team goal setting increased perceptions of cohesion. The participants were 86 female high school basketball players from 8 teams. The teams were randomly assigned to either an experimental team goal-setting or control condition. Each participant completed the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ; Carron, Brawley, & Widmeyer, 2002; Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985), which assessed cohesion at both the beginning and end of the season. Overall, the results revealed a significant multivariate effect, Pillai's trace F(12, 438) = 2.68, p = .002. Post hoc analyses showed that at the beginning of the season, athletes from both conditions did not differ in their perceptions of cohesion. However, at the end of the season, athletes in the team goal-setting condition held higher perceptions of cohesion than athletes in the control condition. Overall, the results indicated that team goal setting was an effective team-building tool for influencing cohesiveness in sport teams.     

Focus on dementia care: Continuing education preferences,challenges, and catalysts among rural home care providers

ABSTRACT

Home care staff who provide housekeeping and personal care to individuals with dementia generally have lower levels of dementia care training compared with other health care providers. The study's purposes were to determine whether the professional role of home care staff in a predominantly rural region was associated with preferences for delivery formats of dementia-specific continuing education (CE) programs, and challenges and catalysts to attending CE on any topic. From January through March, 2014, 82 of 111 eligible home care staff in one Saskatchewan health region completed a cross-sectional postal survey (73.9% response rate). The survey included 41 nurses/case managers (client care coordinators, assessors, and team managers) and 41 continuing care aides (home health aides). Nurses/case managers and aides were equally likely to report moderate to high interest in locally delivered CE and low interest in Internet-based and computer-based CE. Compared with nurses/case managers, aides were more likely to report challenges to CE attendance due to CE not being a requirement of their position or relevant to their work. Low staffing levels were the top challenge regardless of professional role. Nurses/case managers and aides were equally likely to identify locally offered programs and paid time off as the top two catalysts of CE attendance. Given the growing number of individuals with dementia receiving home care services, the current study suggests that continuing education should be offered locally and included in rural staff’s paid time in order to encourage attendance.     

Are Graduating Students Ready for Financial Aspects of Social Work Practice?

ABSTRACT

Graduating students must be prepared with knowledge and skills for the financial aspects of social work practice. This study examines graduating students’ attitudes and perceptions about client finances, as well as their financial knowledge. Internet survey results (n = 116) of BSW and MSW graduating students indicate that respondents (a) perceive a limited function for discussing client financial circumstances in practice, (b) understand the relevance, however, of client finances, (c) are unprepared to address this aspect, and (d) are supportive of integrating this content into required policy and practice courses. Teaching and curricular implications, along with programmatic recommendations, are included.     

Management training and national sport organization managers: Examining the impact of training on individual and organizational performances

Within sport, a tremendous amount of effort is committed to the on-the-field performance of athletes and coaches, neglecting the off-the-field performance and development of sport managers. This study examines the impact of human resource training on the performance of five Canadian national sport organizations (NSO) and their managers (N = 22). Data were collected on three outcome variables (learning, individual performance, organizational performance) and three mediating variables (motivation to transfer, training design, organizational climate) at three time measures (pretraining, post-training¹, post-training²). Results indicate that training improves the learning and individual performance of sport managers, as well as the organizational performance of NSOs. Varying relationships were found at each of the three time measures, demonstrating that a progression to training-related performance change exists. Implications and future research directions are discussed and highlighted the need for on-going training opportunities for Canadian sport managers.     

Working together: Lessons learned from school,family, and community collaborations

Recent advances in treatment modalities and the manner in which services are organized have made it possible to serve children with severe emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) in a more responsive and less restrictive manner. Current approaches rely on collaboration among child‐serving agencies as well as between parents and service providers. In this article, we explore the role of schools in collaborative efforts on behalf of children with EBD. The demands on school personnel in local school districts are examined, the elements required for effective collaboration are articulated, and an exemplary model of comprehensive collaboration is described. Impediments to effective collaboration are summarized, and suggestions for how to create and sustain reliable partnerships are offered at the level of individual provider and child‐serving organization. Attention is given to contextual factors, such as financing and organizational structure, and also to programmatic issues. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 419–428, 2006.     

Parent Surveys for Teacher Evaluation

Parent or guardian perceptions play a specialized role in the evaluation of school teachers. Parents are important stakeholders in teacher success, they are in some instances partners in the teachers' work, parents have unique personal information about student learning, and they can report on the teacher duties to inform parents about the classroom and child progress. This study analyzed the responses of parents to 12 survey items concerning teacher performance in 201 classrooms. The surveys were used as part of an innovative teacher evaluation program in which teachers elected to include parent feedback as one objective data source for annual review. In this study three factors emerged as important concerns for parents: humane treatment of students, support for pupil learning, and effective communication and collaboration with parents. Recommendations for use of specific survey items can be based on the empirical results of this sampling. The data gathered by parent surveys define one dimension of quality which may vary in importance from one teacher to another.     

彰显独特十法则

你认为自己是独一无二的吗？世上每一个人都是独特的,都拥有区别于别人的特点。让我们把自己的独特完全释放,给别人一个完全不同的自己。     

A metasynthesis of the complementarity of culturally responsive and inquiry‐based science education in K‐12 settings: Implications for advancing equitable science teaching and learning

Employing metasynthesis as a method, this study examined 52 empirical articles on culturally relevant and responsive science education in K‐12 settings to determine the nature and scope of complementarity between culturally responsive and inquiry‐based science practices (i.e., science and engineering practices identified in the National Research Council's Framework for K‐12 Science Education). The findings from this study indicate several areas of complementarity. Most often, the inquiry‐based practices Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, and Developing and Using Models were used to advance culturally responsive instruction and assessment. The use and development of models, in particular, allowed students to explore scientific concepts through families’ funds of knowledge and explain content from Western science and Indigenous Knowledge perspectives. Moreover, students frequently Analyzed and Interpreted Data when interrogating science content in sociopolitical consciousness‐raising experiences, such as identifying pollution and asthma incidences in an urban area according to neighborhood location. Specific inquiry‐based practices were underutilized when advancing culturally responsive science instruction, though. For example, Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking and Engaging in Argument from Evidence were infrequently encountered. However, culturally responsive engineering‐related practices were most often connected with these, and thus, represent potential areas for future complementarity, particularly as the United States embraces the Next Generation Science Standards. In considering innovative directions for advancing equitable science education, several possibilities are discussed in light of the findings of this study.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 54:1143–1173, 2017