Correlates of Geriatric Loneliness in Philippine Nursing Homes: A Multiple Regression Model

Numerous studies have been conducted worldwide about loneliness in older adults living in nursing homes and the factors associated with it. However, only a few studies have focused on social factors that may predispose these older adults to experience loneliness. The purpose of this study was to examine the interplay between and among loneliness, social isolation, social engagement, and life satisfaction among Filipino elderly (n = 180) recruited from government and nongovernment nursing homes in the Philippines. A multiaspect questionnaire, which included the UCLA Loneliness Scale, Revised Index for Social Engagement, Friendship Scale, and Life Satisfaction for the Third Age-Short Form was used to gather the needed data and information. Results of single and multiple regression analyses indicate an effect of the three factors (social isolation, social engagement, and life satisfaction) on loneliness with social isolation having the greatest impact on loneliness. Notably, increased social isolation, inadequate social engagement and decreased life satisfaction consequently aggravate loneliness. Social engagement produced a positive effect to both social isolation and life satisfaction in a way that a decrease in social engagement will decrease life satisfaction and increase social isolation. On the whole, loneliness in geriatric nursing homes is evident, and it is shaped by social isolation, social engagement and life satisfaction. Impliedly, interventions and measures to minimize loneliness are necessary, and further research is needed to explore other variables contributing to loneliness in geriatric nursing homes.     

Children's Ideas about Aging before and after an Intergenerational Read-aloud

This study describes a pilot project that included senior volunteer readers reading aloud to third graders in diverse schools across a district in northeast Florida. The researchers interviewed students about their perceptions of the aging process before and after the read aloud as well as their view of the read aloud events. The children enjoyed being read to by the senior volunteers, who were able to support the children's understanding of a fairly complex book. Further, the senior volunteers, who had expressed some hesitancy about reading to older children, greatly enjoyed the interaction. The study supports the idea that children's ideas about aging may be impacted both by book selection and the reader, and it posits that reading aloud to older children by senior volunteers may be beneficial to all parties involved.     

Where Theories of Mind Meet Magic: The Development of Children's Beliefs about Wishing

In two studies, we probed children's beliefs about wishing. In Study 1, we gathered initial data on 50 3- to 6-year-old children's concepts of wishing and beliefs about its efficacy, with both a semistructured interview and a variety of tasks. Results revealed considerable knowledge about wishing in young children, along with an age-related decrease in beliefs about its efficacy. Parents were not found to encourage differently the beliefs of children at different ages, nor were they found to begin actively discouraging such beliefs at any particular age. A moderate relation was found between environmental supports for wishing and children's beliefs in its efficacy. In Study 2, we continued to probe these issues and also address the nature of the broader conceptual context in which children situate their beliefs about wishing. Participants were 92 3- to 6-year-old children. Results of this study suggest that children may reconcile beliefs in the efficacy of wishing with knowledge about everyday mental-physical relations by situating these beliefs more within their emerging beliefs about magic than within their theories of mind.     

Children's Museum Experiences: Identifying Powerful Mediators of Learning

This article reports on a study of young children and the nature of their learning through museum experiences. Environments such as museums are physical and social spaces where visitors encounter objects and ideas which they interpret through their own experiences, customs, beliefs, and values. The study was conducted in four different museum environments: a natural and social history museum, an art gallery, a science center, and a hybrid art/social history museum. The subjects were four‐ to seven‐year old children. At the conclusion of a ten‐week, multi‐visit museum program, interviews were conducted with children to probe the saliency of their experiences and the ways in which they came to understand the museums they visited. Emergent from this study, we address several findings that indicate that museum‐based exhibits and programmatic experiences embedded in the common and familiar socio‐cultural context of the child's world, such as play and story, provide greater impact and meaning than do museum exhibits and experiences that are decontexualized in nature.     

AN EXAMINATION OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN OBSERVED AND SELF‐REPORTED CULTURALLY PROFICIENT TEACHING PRACTICES

A critical next step in advancing our understanding of teacher practices that can equitably engage and support learning in diverse classrooms is determining the effectiveness of culturally responsive interventions. Yet, quantitative measurement indicators of the effectiveness of culturally responsive teaching interventions are scarce. Most research relies exclusively on self‐reports, with limited attention to issues of social desirability, and few studies observe teacher practices. Data come from 142 K‐8 teachers in six schools who were assessed via the Assessing School Settings: Interactions of Students and Teachers (ASSIST), an externally‐conducted observation, and who also provided self‐report data of cultural responsiveness. Analyses indicated that teachers self‐reported higher rates of culturally responsive teaching strategies than were observed on the ASSIST. There were, however, significant associations between observations and teachers’ ratings of self‐efficacy. Findings suggest a need for additional research to develop and validate efficient, multi‐informant approaches for assessing cultural responsiveness in the classroom.     

规模经济与规模不经济内在因素分析及其案例

从经济学的角度介绍了规模经济与规模不经济的内在因素及其因果关系，同时用一个案例来说明企业在发展、扩充的同时应多方面考虑自身应具备的条件和资本，否则将导致企业发展有规模但不经济的结局。     

Weaving an interpretivist stance throughout mixed methods research

ABSTRACT

A recurring debate in mixed methods research involves the relationship between research methods and research paradigms. Whereas some scholars appear to assume that qualitative and quantitative research methods each necessarily belong with particular research paradigms, others have called for greater flexibility and have taken a variety of stances toward the integration of paradigms and methods in mixed-method studies. In this article, we review these arguments and stances, positioning ourselves in favour of flexible (but intentional) integration of any research method with any research paradigm. We then draw on a recent study of teachers’ experiences of professional development to provide an illustration of how a single paradigm can be used to inform the entirety of a mixed methods study, including study design, data collection, analysis and reporting. This illustration is particularly noteworthy since past mixed-method studies that have been grounded in a single paradigm have typically used the post-positivist paradigm, whereas our study involved an interpretive stance and a social constructivist epistemology. This article may, therefore, provide a useful resource for those considering the design of mixed methods studies as well as a practical demonstration to support theoretical claims in support of moving away from binary methods–paradigm associations and assumptions.