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.     

Multicutural literature and gifted black students: Promoting self‐understanding,awareness, and pride

Social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and socially desirable responding were examined among a sample of self-identified supporters of gifted education (N = 341), 70% of whom had an official role in gifted education as researchers, teachers, or gifted-talented (G/T) trainers. The sample was primarily female, White, well-educated, and upper middle class. The relationship of SDO, RWA, socially desirable responding, and support for various gifted education practices such as testing for identification, curricular differentiation in a heterogeneous classroom, and cooperative learning was explored through latent class analysis and logistic regression. Two distinct groups, communitarians and individualists, were found on the basis of their support for different gifted programming. Higher deference to authority among communitarians predicted support for an inclusive social norm, compared to a preference for maximizing potential without regard for inclusion among the individualists, who were less likely to defer to authority.     

A comparative study of the learning style preferences among gifted African‐American,Mexican‐American,and American‐born Chinese middle grade students

The purpose of this study was to determine whether significant group, gender, and grade differences existed in the preferred learning styles of gifted minority students. The Learning Style Inventory (Dunn, Dunn, & Price, 1987) was administered to 54 African‐American (20 males, 34 females), 61 third‐generation Mexican‐American (26 males, 35 females), and 40 third‐generation American‐born Chinese (25 males, 15 females) students. A three‐way analysis of variance on the LSI raw scores of gifted African‐American, Mexican‐American, and American‐born Chinese students indicated significant group differences in preferences for noise, light, visual modality, studying in the afternoon, and persistence. Significant gender differences were found in preferences for the tactile modality and intake. Finally, significant grade differences were found in preferences for temperature (warm/cool environment) and mobility. Findings support and extend past research regarding the learning styles of gifted students.     

Determinants of underachievement as perceived by gifted,above‐average,and average black students 1

This study examined determinants of underachievement as perceived by 148 Black fifth‐and sixth‐grade students in an urban school district. Explored were the respective influences of social, psychological, and cultural determinants of underachievement as perceived by Black students in three different academic programs (gifted, above‐average, and average). Students were placed into groups based on profiles of achievement behavior (Types I through V) and compared relative to their perceptions and attitudes. Findings from the statistical analyses (frequency analyses, t‐tests, analyses of variance, and multiple regression) suggest that psychological factors played the greatest role in underachievement or poor achievement motivation, and that underachievement behaviors were noted among all students, irrespective of their academic program. Implications and recommendations are suggested for educators working with gifted, above‐average, and average Black students in urban areas.     

Science Policy in Action: Policy and the Researcher

Government policies for science, usually incorporatingeconomic and social aims, are increasingly influencing the contentand management of university research. This essay discusses theinfluence of selected science policies on individual researchersand group leaders. Within the limitations of a case study, itargues that policies that steer the content of research have agreater influence on research behaviour, than do policies relatedto overall research management. Increasing pressures for compliancewith mission-objectives point to the need for closer discussionbetween those who make policy decisions, and the wider researchcommunity.