Predictors of Social Workers Employment in Gerontological Work

The rapidly growing aging population highlights the need for social workers trained in gerontological practice and interested in work with older adults. This study, conducted in two southern states, examined recent social work graduates' perceptions of aging-related work and identified factors influencing their employment in aging related jobs. One-quarter of the graduates were employed in aging-related work. Logistics regression analysis revealed that aging-related skills, belief that work with older adults would be depressing, and having taken an undergraduate gerontology class were significant in predicting employment in aging-related jobs. Implications for social work education as well as directions for future research are discussed.     

Is Earlier Better? Mastery of Reading Fluency in Early Schooling

Research Findings: The goal of the present study was to provide empirical evidence for the importance of mastering reading fluency in early schooling. Study participants were 1,322 students in 3rd grade in 42 schools in a northwestern state. These students were assessed using a battery of reading skill tests as well as comprehensive tests of more general reading outcomes from kindergarten through 3rd grade. Practice or Policy: The results of the study show that mastery of reading fluency prior to currently established benchmarks is a significant positive predictor of later reading skills in primary grades even after student demographic information and initial reading levels are controlled. The results provide additional evidence for the importance of early reading development, early intervention, and preventing reading difficulties as early as possible in schooling.     

The effect of U.S. policies on the economics of libraries

The decline in federal support of educational programs has made it difficult for libraries to apply new technologies to improve practices and services. While federal support has declined in constant dollars, there has been a modest increase in grants from private foundations. Current U.S. policies require federal agencies to recover full costs of rendering services (Circular A-25) and require the transfer of many federal service-oriented activities to the commercial sector (Circular A-76). Additionally, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 is inhibiting the production and dissemination of federal publications. Government pursuit of these policies adds a heavy economic burden to libraries and threatens to reduce access to the scholarly and scientific record.     

The preference of Asian overseas students for the United States: An examination of the context

Asian students in increasing numbers have over the postwar period decided to go overseas for tertiary education, and an increasing proportion of those overseas students have selected the United States as their place of study. Eight elements of the changing context of Asian-American relations are identified which influence the Asian preference for American higher education:

1. The improving Asian-American political links
2. The increased volume of Asian-American economic exchange
3. The sharp increase in Asian immigration to the United States
4. The increasing similarity in the structure and content of Asian and American educational systems
5. The absorptive capacity of American higher education
6. The quality of American higher education
7. The complementarity of Asian demand and American supply
8. The opportunities provided in American higher education to cover educational costs through part-time work

     

From knowledge seeking to knowledge creation: The Japanese university's challenge

Underlying the steady expansion of Japanese education is a strong public faith that success in schooling leads to a secure adult career with permanent employment in an organization. The Japanese work contract emphasizing stability and security pervades all walks of life including universities and research laboratories. This strength of the Japanese system is also its major weakness. It induces a penchant towards conformity and uniformity that sometimes conflicts with the creativity and initiative required in the best scientific and technical work. Thus, a major concern in the present reform effort is to bring greater flexibility and instability to a system that is premised on limited choice and stability. Japan's university challenge is to identify the structural reforms required to reverse the traditional focus of the educational sector. The current concern to expand graduate education, break down the chair system, expand university-industry collaboration, and increase the number of foreign researchers in Japanese laboratories is all part of the thrust for a new more stimulating educational process. But even bolder reforms are required if Japan hopes to move the educational sector to a new knowledge creation paradigm.     

Children's responses to different forms of expression of anger between adults

Anger is not a homogeneous stimulus, but can vary on a variety of dimensions and domains. This study examined children's responses to anger as a function of: (a) the mode of expression of anger (nonverbal, verbal, verbal-physical), and (b) whether or not anger between others was resolved. Children were presented with videotaped segments of angry and friendly interactions and asked questions concerning their responses. All angry interactions, including non-verbal anger, were perceived as negative events and elicited negative emotions. Unresolved anger was perceived as a far more negative event than resolved anger and induced greater feelings of anger and distress in children. Verbal-physical anger was perceived as the most negative form of expression of anger. Boys reported more angry feelings in response to anger than girls. Distress responding was greater in children from homes in which there was interparent physical aggression and in children with behavior problems. Finally, the utility of this methodology is supported by relatively high test-retest reliability and limited evidence of context effects.     

Open the door,let's explore: Neighborhood field trips

Trips give adults an opportunity to see for themselves something they have heard or read about. Trips serve not only that same function for children, but also its opposite. They give children an opportunity to see for themselves something they will learn more about later in pictures or books or through conversation. Children learn to make sense of the world around them through many different experiences. The greater the quantity and variety of experiences, the greater the learning potential. Rhoda Redleaf is a child development specialist with Resources for Child Caring in St. Paul, MN. This article is excerpted, with permission, from Open the Door, Let's Explore, ©1983, Toys 'n Things Press. The book is available for $8.95 plus $1.75 shipping and handling from: Toys 'n Things Press, 906 North Dale Street, St. Paul, MN 55103.     

Children's emotions and behaviors in response to infants' cries

Infant crying can elicit in others both a range of emotions and contrasting behavioral reactions, such as altruistic caregiving versus aggression. Variations in reactions to young infants' cries were examined in 60 children ranging in age from late preschool to preadolescence. Each child over-heard either a preterm or a full-term tape-recorded cry from an adjacent room. Then a mother, carrying her infant, came looking for her (previously) "crying" infant's bottle. Later each child was interviewed after hearing a tape recording of a preterm and a full-term cry. Children's emotions and behaviors thus were assessed in response to simulated, real distresses and hypothetical representations of distress. Children's self-reports of empathy, their verbalized intentions to help, their actual helping responses, and observers' ratings of negative emotion were common responses to cries at all ages. In addition there were significant increases with age in prosocial, behavioral interventions. Expressions of negative emotion were inversely related to subsequent forms of prosocial behavior that required direct interaction with the infant. The emotions and behaviors of most children were not influenced by whether they heard preterm or full-term cries. They were, however, able to discriminate between such cries and some articulated "theories" about the impact of the cries on the listener.