Towards a Competency Model for Teaching Computer Science

To address the special challenges of teaching computer science, adequate development of teachers’ competencies during their education is extremely important. In particular, pedagogical content knowledge and teachers’ beliefs and motivational orientations play an important role in effective teaching. This research field has been sparsely investigated up to now and there exists no consistent competency model for teaching computer science in Germany. Therefore, this paper describes the development of competency in the areas of pedagogical content knowledge, teachers’ beliefs, and motivational orientations with regard to computer science. Competency-relevant factors for teaching computer science are theoretically derived and concretely formulated with the help of expert interviews conducted according to the critical incident technique and analyzed using techniques of qualitative content analysis.     

Adquisición de morfemas del español

Resumen

Se han aplicado dos pruebas de palabras reales y palabras artificiales (semejante a la de Berko, 1958) a 109 niños hispano-parlantes de tres a seis años de edad, a fin de establecer la evolución en el uso de morfemas de plural, aumentativos y diminutivos, gerundio, pretérito imperfecto de indicativo y pretérito indefinido. Los resultados indican un progreso importante entre los tres y los cuatro años, siendo la curva posterior del desarrollo más suave. Se establece un orden de dificultad de estos morfemas, y se realiza un análisis de los errores cometidos, encontrándose también sobrerregularizaciones con verbos reales irregulares. Se extraen implicaciones acerca del proceso de adquisición de morfemas.     

Neighborhoods,Social Support,and African American Adolescents' Mental Health Outcomes: A Multilevel Path Analysis

This study explored how neighborhood characteristics may relate to African American adolescents' internalizing symptoms via adolescents' social support and perceptions of neighborhood cohesion. Participants included 571 urban, African American adolescents (52% female; M age = 17.8). A multilevel path analysis testing both direct and indirect effects of neighborhood characteristics on adolescents' mental health outcomes was conducted. Higher neighborhood poverty and unemployment rates predicted greater internalizing symptoms via lower cumulative social support and perceptions of neighborhood cohesion. In contrast, higher concentrations of African American and residentially stable residents in one's neighborhood related to fewer internalizing symptoms among adolescent residents via greater cumulative social support and perceptions of neighborhood cohesion. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Careers in aging: how job-seekers search for and how employers advertise positions in aging-related markets

Given its rapidly-aging population, the U.S. needs a workforce that is informed about and capable of meeting the diverse needs of older adults. Students pursing gerontology education may feel unsure of career opportunities as they enter a job market with traditionally clearly-defined disciplinary backgrounds. The goal of this study was to explore how people currently employed in an aging-related job searched for positions, and how this compared to phrasing used by employers to advertise job openings across several aging-related fields. A web-based survey was administered to employees in aging-related positions, and a search of four job-seeking websites to collect and analyze aging-related job postings was conducted. Most (63%) currently working in the field of aging reported finding their jobs through referral from a friend/colleague or through job search sites or job boards. Out of 493 relevant job postings identified, only 175 of the postings (35%), preferred or required applicants to have some type of aging-related knowledge, skills, training, or prior experience. There may be consequences to not specifically recruiting applicants with aging-related backgrounds: job seekers with qualifications in aging may look for other positions that expressly call for their specialized skills or knowledge, and quality of services and care may be different when provided by persons without such training.     

Developing a Model of Medication Adherence among Filipino Elderly

While adherence to medication remains a problematic area in the care of chronically ill elderly, an extended model that incorporates the interaction of studied variables remains a blank spot. Anchored on Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior, this article details our efforts to develop and test a model of medication adherence among Filipino elderly relative to their medication belief, follow-up visits, consultation satisfaction, memory task, trust with physician, perceived stress, memory strategies, social support, memory load, depression, length of time taking the medication, number of conditions, and self-efficacy with medication adherence. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to study causalities among all parameters. With the participation of 325 older adults located in District IV, Sampaloc, Manila, data needed were gathered through a multiaspect questionnaire consisting of a robotfoto, a memory strategy usage measure, an eight-scale Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, a 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale, a General Self-efficacy Scale, a Consultation Satisfaction Questionnaire, and a Perceived Stress Scale. Data were analyzed using AMOS version 19. Results revealed that depression, trust with physician, and number of conditions affect adherence positively, while event-based memory, consultation satisfaction, memory load, and external memory strategy affect it otherwise. Some suggested variables were found to have no impact at all. As this study reveals, careful consideration should be given to multiple factors, and their interrelationship should be examined well. Because many factors can influence medication adherence behavior of the elderly, and because the reasons for their noncompliance are also varied, multifaceted solutions must be developed.     

An Educator's Guide to the Development of Advanced Practice Competencies in Clinical Social Work

The 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards identified 10 core competencies that all social work graduates should master. MSW programs found themselves with a need to identify knowledge, values, and skill statements that reflected what concentration-year students were expected to know and be able to do. In 2009 a group of educators convened at the Council on Social Work Education in Alexandria, VA to develop a model of advanced practice in clinical social work. This article describes the work group's process; identifies and describes the resulting advanced clinical knowledge, values, and skills statements; discusses the key debates and issues that arose during the development of the statements; and concludes with the implications for social work education and practice.     

Performance indicators as conceptual technologies

This paper posits that performance indicators (PIs)are conceptual technologies that shape what issuesacademics think about and how academics think aboutthose issues by embedding normative assumptions intothe selection and structure of those indicators.Exploring the assumptions embedded in Alberta's(Canada) PIs yields an initial typology of assumptionsthat academics can apply to performance indicators inhigher education to understand, refine or criticallychallenge their introduction.