Enhancing nursing home care for seniors: impact of a living classroom on nursing assistant’s education

ABSTRACT

Nursing Assistants (NAs) are the largest workforce in nursing homes, but often lack adequate preparation for their role. The Living Classroom (LC) is an integrated learning approach, whereby a NA program is delivered in a nursing home (NH) in collaboration with a community college. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the LC. Mixed methods were used to gather data from 48 NA students, 5 faculty, and 42 NH staff over 30 weeks. Students, faculty, and nursing home staff described the LC as a positive learning experience. Students’ gerontological knowledge increased over time (p = .0012). Students reported very positive relationships with program mentors and NH residents. The LC provides a unique approach to prepare NAs to work in nursing homes. This model could expand to other educational programs with a gerontology focus.     

SPIRAL OF DISAPPOINTMENT: DECLINE IN ACHIEVEMENT AMONG GIFTED ADOLESCENTS

The view that the pattern of development and the scholastic performance of potentially highly gifted children are as prone to disturbances as those of less gifted youngsters is now widely accepted. The emergence of giftedness and the unfolding of talent has been shown to be a developmental process, in which a variety of cognitive, noncognitive, and ecopsychological preconditions are involved. Whether the observed developmental patterns of a young person are harmonious or disruptive depends on what has been described in the literature as a favourable (vs. unfavourable) constellation of facilitating factors. With the help of a dynamic model, case studies of failure and refusal to perform in school among young underachievers are analyzed and related to previous school experiences.     

Combining issues of “girl-suited” science teaching,STS and constructivism in a physics textbook

This paper outlines the design of a physics textbook that addresses issues of gender-inclusive physics teaching, STS and constructivism. Difficulties of addressing these issues in a textbook for normal classes, which has to compete with other textbooks on the market will be discussed. Specializations: constructivist approaches in science education research and practice. Specializations: gender issues in science instruction. Specializations: primary education, integrated science. Specializations: STS, phenomenological oriented physics instruction. Specializations: peace education within science education.     

Prediction of self-reported knowledge with over-claiming, fluid and crystallized intelligence and typical intellectual engagement

We investigated the usefulness of the Over-Claiming Questionnaire (OCQ) as a measure of cognitive abilities. In OCQs respondents are asked to rate their familiarity with items of academic or everyday knowledge (Paulhus, Harms, Bruce, & Lysy, 2003). Some items exist in reality (reals), and others do not (foils). We developed four OCQs, each consisting of 40 reals and 8 foils from the domains of Science, Humanities and Civics. The OCQs were administered in a longitudinal rotation design to 112 participants who attended the 9th school grade at the beginning of the study. In latent variable regression analyses 53% of variation in the reals could be explained by fluid and crystallized intelligence and over-claiming as indicated by responses to foils. Further variation in responses to reals and foils was explained by intellectual engagement. Our results show that self-reported knowledge, although positively related to measures of ability, to a large extent reflects over-claiming.     

丛林中的守财奴

[童话大意]一个农场主有一个忠诚的仆人,这个仆人辛辛苦苦地给他干了三年的活,而他却没有付给仆人任何工钱。后来仆人打定主意,想出去看看外面的世界,不再干下去了。他找到农场主说:"我为你勤勤恳恳地做了这么久的事,相信你会根据我的劳动付给我应得的工钱。"农场主是一个极其吝惜的守财奴,只拿出三便士给他,也就是一年一便士的工钱。可怜的仆人对钱没有多少概念,     

Old Players—New Rules: Higher education institutions’ response to educational demand

Tertiary Education and Management - Performance indicators and performance-based funding are becoming integral components of higher education (HE) policy around the globe. We explore some of the...     

提升就业质量:职业教育发展的新视角

职业教育应努力追求“充分的、生产性的和自由选择的就业”目标的实现;不能仅仅关注毕业生的“就业率”,而更要将“提升就业质量”作为发展的新视角。所谓“就业质量”,一般概括为职业社会地位、工资水平、社会保障、发展空间等四大方面,具体体现在职业声望、职业期望满足程度、职业成就、职业锚、专业方向与职业的适应性、人职匹配诸方面。提升就业质量途径和措施主要概括为:首先,重视提高职业咨询或职业指导的质量;其次,基于就业质量的提升,改革职业教育课程与教学;再次,借鉴发达国家和地区的“现代学徒制”理论和实践经验,创设“本土化的”产学合作现代职业教育模式。     

Selection for special education services: the role of gender and socio-economic status

Children from some demographic groups disproportionately receive special education (SE) services. Due to methodological shortcoming in existing work, it remains unclear whether this is due to real differences in academic needs or cultural selection/bias. Hence, in a community sample of 1250 Norwegian children, we examined the role of third grade SE services, academic test scores, behavioural problems, and teacher’s level of helplessness in mediating the effect of family socio-economic status (SES) and students’ gender on fifth-grade SE services. Results revealed no direct effects of either gender or SES on fifth-grade SE, but four mediated pathways were identified: (1) Boys had a greater likelihood of receiving fifth-grade SE services when (a) they previously received SE and (b) they experienced more ADHD symptoms, both in third grade. (2) Students from low-SES families were more likely to receive SE services in fifth grade when (a) they performed poorly in math in third grade and (b) their teacher reported greater feelings of helplessness when teaching these students. The findings are discussed with respect to the differential-needs hypothesis, mechanisms of cultural selection and the possibility of gendered selection for SE at younger ages.     

Primary teachers' understanding in science and its impact in the classroom

Research carried out over a period of two years into primary teachers' understanding of concepts in science and technology provided information about teachers' confidence in teaching science, their understanding of a range of key ideas and their background of science in their own education. The early part of the paper describes how these data were collected, noting that the method of interviewing used to explore teachers' understanding served as an opportunity for the advancement of their understanding. The relationships among the variables of confidence, understanding and background in science are then explored. Although teachers expressed low confidence in teaching science, which was linked to a lack of understanding of scientific ideas, they also claimed not to find great difficulty in using certain teaching skills required for science, including those which would appear to demand content knowledge. This apparent anomaly is discussed and linked to the strategies used by teachers to cope with low confidence and understanding. The paper ends by considering briefly the role of content knowledge in teaching science.