Preparing the Workforce to Prevent Behavioral Health Problems in Children and Youth

Educating social work students to address behavioral health needs of youth requires new training approaches that prepare students for interprofessional prevention-focused practice. This study examines whether a newly developed graduate certificate in integrated behavioral health effectively prepares students for prevention-focused behavioral health practice. A mixed method approach is used for evaluation, with 34 students completing the program from 2016 to 2017. Quantitative, qualitative, and employment data are analyzed to identify if and how the program prepares graduates for prevention practice. Results highlight key components that support student attainment of program competencies. Implications for curriculum development, field site training, and future research are discussed.     

Fred Clarke and the internationalisation of studies and research in education

Fred Clarke (1880–1952) was a key figure in the internationalisation of educational studies and research in the first half of the twentieth century. Clarke aimed to heighten the ideals and develop the practices of educational studies and research through promoting mutual influences in different countries around the world. He envisaged the Institute of Education at the University of London, England, as having a leading role, and was the director of the Institute from 1936 until 1945. His notion of internationalisation was reciprocal and transnational in nature, with aspirations for partnership within a common tradition. This built on the ideal of a “Commonwealth” that was current in the interwar years, and emphasised the affinities between the dominion nations and in particular Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It also drew on the financial support and cultural influence of the Carnegie Corporation in New York. Two specific projects taken forward by Clarke to put these ideas into practice were his “world tour” of 1935 and his role as the “Adviser to Oversea Students” at the Institute of Education. These initiatives helped to convert strategic visions and policies into social practices, and to shape the subject of Education in higher education as a multi-disciplinary field in the generation after the Second World War.     

‘Doing the Best for the Students’: dilemmas and decisions in carrying out statutory assessment tasks

This paper considers the effects on teachers, students and the curriculum of the experience, in the spring of 1993, of the first extended assessement tasks in Design in Technology in England and Wales. It examines the frustrations experienced and the dilemmas faced by teachers in working on these tasks with students, and their attempts to resolve their resulting role conflicts. It is suggested, that in this case at least, teachers' loyalties to their ideas about good teaching and learning took precedence over the requirement to follow the Government's assessment procedures. This is because teachers felt that the tasks set by the Government were inappropriate both for student learning and for assessing the curriculum which they had followed, and that the ways in which they were expected to carry them out were detrimental both to student learning and to ‘fair’ assessment. It is suggested that in some cases this led to a ‘radicalisation’ of a comparatively conservative group. The effects on the curriculum, the schools and the teachers concerned are critically examined in the light of planned changes in the Design and Technology curriculum.     

Competition between ethanol-induced reward and aversion in place conditioning

Previous place conditioning studies in mice have shown that injection of ethanol immediately before a conditioned stimulus (CS+) produces conditioned preference, whereas injection of ethanol immediately after CS+ produces conditioned aversion. In the present experiments, we examined the learning that occurs when ethanol is injected in “ambiguous“ procedures that provide the opportunity for both types of conditioning. When ethanol was given midway through the CS (Experiments 1 and 2) or both before and after the CS (Experiment 3), the direction of place conditioning was the same as when mice were exposed only to whichever contingency occurred first (a primacy effect). That is, injection of ethanol in the middle of the CS conditioned aversion, whereas injection both before and after the CS conditioned preference. Because these results support the idea that ethanol elicits both aversive and rewarding effects, they are most consistent with conditioning theories that conceptualize unconditioned stimuli (USs) as events that can activate multiple representational components.     

A Comparison of Preservice Teachers' Mathematics Anxiety Before and After a Methods Class Emphasizing Manipulatives

The changes in levels of mathematics anxiety among future teachers in two different mathematics materials and methods classes were investigated. The changes were a function of using: (a) Bruner's framework of developing conceptual knowledge before procedural knowledge, and (b) manipulatives to make mathematics concepts more concrete. The sample included 87 preservice teachers enrolled in mathematics methods courses. Two strategies were used to gather data both at the beginning and ending of each quarter. First, future teachers completed 98-item, Likert-type questionnaires. Second, some of the factors that influence the levels of mathematics anxiety were determined through the use of questionnaire-guided narrative interviews. Multivariate analysis of variance was employed as the quantitative measure for comparing mathematics anxiety both at the beginning and ending of the quarter. Data revealed a statistically significant reduction of mathematics anxiety levels (p < .05). Tukey's HSD was used to determine that a significant difference in mathematics anxiety levels occurred between the classes in the fall and winter quarters. Results of the study have implications for teacher education programs concerning the measurement of mathematics anxiety levels among future teachers and the determination of specific contexts in which that anxiety can be interpreted and reduced.     

Does research degree supervisor training work? The impact of a professional development induction workshop on supervision practice

Supervisor induction and continued professional development programmes constitute good practice and are enshrined in institutional policies and national codes of practice. However, there is little evidence about whether they have an impact on either supervisors’ learning or day-to-day practice. Set in a discussion of previous literature, this article unpacks the concepts ‘impact’ and ‘evaluation’ and assesses the medium- and longer term impact of the University of South Australia's doctoral supervisor induction programme, Supervising@UniSA. It suggests that the workshop leads to the acquisition of understanding and knowledge and, for the majority of attendees, also has an impact on supervisory practice.     

An Exploratory Evaluation of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation to Promote Collaboration Among Family,School, and Pediatric Systems: A Role for Pediatric School Psychologists

Pediatric school psychology is a relatively new subspecialty in the field; however, few specific, prescribed roles have been articulated, and fewer have yielded preliminary efficacy data. In this exploratory study, the acceptability and potential efficacy of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) as a model for linking families, schools, and pediatric settings to address concerns for children with medical issues were evaluated. Twenty-nine children, their parents, teachers, and consultants were involved in conjoint consultation, a model of cross-system collaboration to address shared concerns of medically referred children. In this structured indirect service delivery model, parents, teachers, and school psychology pediatric consultants worked collaboratively in interdisciplinary problem solving and joint decision making with extensive input regarding medical issues from a developmental pediatrician. Outcome measures included parent and teacher observations of child functioning across home and school settings as a result of consultation-mediated interventions and social validity indices assessing acceptability and consumer satisfaction. Results suggested that CBC is a socially valid procedure for addressing concerns of medically referred children across home and school systems. Both parents and teachers reported the consultation process to be highly acceptable. Preliminary effect size analyses of child outcomes, derived from uncontrolled case study designs, suggest generally positive effects across home and school, although limitations with the methodology preclude conclusive statements. Research is needed to determine the contexts and conditions under which the model is more or less effective using rigorous controlled trials.