Treatment outcome for a maltreated population: benefits, procedural decisions, and challenges

OBJECTIVE: To review the benefits, challenges, and procedural decisions to consider when implementing and managing a treatment outcome program for a maltreated population. METHOD: We reviewed the reasons to implement a treatment outcome program, decisions regarding procedures, and challenges likely to be encountered based on literature in the field and the authors' 6 years of experience in developing and maintaining an outcome program at a center specializing in the treatment of maltreated children. RESULTS: The development of an outcome programs requires careful measurement selection, early and ongoing staff-involvement, support from higher management, a well-developed data base and client tracking system, a coordinator and support staff, clinical utility, planning for fiscal impact, and flexibility to contend with challenges. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our experience, the plethora of clinically rich and administratively useful information derived from an outcome program far outweighs the challenges and costs of establishing and maintaining an outcome program.     

Evaluating MBA-Program Admissions Criteria: The Relationship Between Pre-MBA Work Experience and Post-MBA Career Outcomes

It has become common practice among U.S. business schools to require potential students to have substantial work experience before admission to MBA programs. Yet, the benefits of this selection criterion have not been fully articulated nor empirically examined. This article explores the relationships between years of pre-MBA work experience and post-MBA career outcomes. Specifically, we examine the effects of prior work experience on cash compensation, career satisfaction, number of promotions, and individuals' propensity to stay with their first post-MBA employer. Results indicate that previous work experience is not significantly related to graduates' tenure in their first post-MBA position. Furthermore, counter to conventional wisdom, MBAs without prior work experience were more satisfied, had received more promotions, and earned more cash compensation than some of their more experienced counterparts. The implications of these findings for those responsible for admissions in graduate professional schools and for corporate recruiters are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.     

Creative Arts Personal Pedagogy vs Marketised Higher Education: A battle between values

The ongoing marketisation of higher education in England can be understood both conceptually – in terms of its ideological commitment to competition and accountability; and practically – in terms of the way that it has altered higher education structurally in a variety of ways. Methods of standardisation and quantification offer validation and reward to institutions through criteria aligned with marketised principles, leading to institutions shaping their operations to suit these forms of justification. Historically, many arts subjects have operated conceptually and organisationally outside the traditional higher education paradigm, and pedagogic approaches and values that are attributable to this subject area could clash with marketised understandings of education, which are becoming more prevalent and influential. This article presents analysis of reflections from creative arts educational practitioners working within higher education institutions in England on explorations of an ontology of the creative arts, as well as experiences of the marketisation process. A series of values relating to the concept of ‘the personal’, inherent to the creative arts are discussed and an exploration of how these principles clash with the priorities of the marketised educational economy are articulated. The values and principles that are inherent to educators and practitioners working in the creative arts are competing with ‘marketised’ motives imposed on them by the institutions in which they work.     

Life adjustments of college freshmen with and without learning disabilities

This paper reports the results of a study comparing college freshmen with learning disabilities (LD) and freshmen with no learning disabilities (NLD). Four data collections over one academic year were completed on a total of 72 students (LDn=39; NLDn=33). Results of the study indicated differences between groups in their initial choice of living accommodations and in the changes made over the year: the overall trend was for students with LD to become more dependent on their families, while students with NLD were becoming less dependent on their families. With regard to academics, students with LD reported spending significantly less time in study and course preparation, as well as greater pessimism about success in coursework. Despite their pessimism, the actual GPA attainment of students with LD was similar to that of NLD peers. Whereas both groups initially predicted it would be easy to adjust to the academic and social nature of college, students with learning disabilities ultimately reported being dissatisfied with the social climate on campus. No differences were found between LD and NLD students regarding their motivation for attending college, or their plans for final degree attainment.     

Diurnal patterning of eight activities in 14 species of muroid rodents

The diurnal patterning of locomotion, stereotypy, grooming, eating, drinking, sleeping, postural readjustment, and inactivity was studied in 14 species of muroid rodents in the laboratory using a visual observation technique.Microtus canicaudus, M. montanus, M. ochrogaster, andM. pennsylvanicus exhibited acyclic activity patterns, whilePeromyscus eremicus,P. gossypinus, P. leucopus, P. maniculatus bairdi, P. polionotus, Calomys callosus, Mus musculus, andOnychomys leucogaster displayed nocturnality in their behavioral patterning.Rhabdomys pumilio exhibited crepuscular activities andNeofiber alleni displayed a complex pattern of nocturnality. Species differed in total amount of time spent per day for all activities but eating. The acyclicity ofMicrotus species appears to be related to high metabolic rates and a semifossorial life-style.     

What makes for effective feedback: staff and student perspectives

Since the early 2010s the literature has shifted to view feedback as a process that students do where they make sense of information about work they have done, and use it to improve the quality of their subsequent work. In this view, effective feedback needs to demonstrate effects. However, it is unclear if educators and students share this understanding of feedback. This paper reports a qualitative investigation of what educators and students think the purpose of feedback is, and what they think makes feedback effective. We administered a survey on feedback that was completed by 406 staff and 4514 students from two Australian universities. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on data from a sample of 323 staff with assessment responsibilities and 400 students. Staff and students largely thought the purpose of feedback was improvement. With respect to what makes feedback effective, staff mostly discussed feedback design matters like timing, modalities and connected tasks. In contrast, students mostly wrote that high-quality feedback comments make feedback effective – especially comments that are usable, detailed, considerate of affect and personalised to the student’s own work. This study may assist researchers, educators and academic developers in refocusing their efforts in improving feedback.     

Conditions that enable effective feedback

ABSTRACT

Despite an increasing focus on assessment feedback, educators continue to find that simply replicating an effective feedback practice from one context does not guarantee success in the next. There is a growing recognition that the contextual factors surrounding successful practices need to be considered. This article reports on a large-scale mixed methods project and proposes 12 conditions that enable successful feedback in higher education. The conditions were distilled from seven rich case studies through multiple stages of thematic analysis, case comparison and reliability checking. The conditions were also evaluated by surveying senior leaders of Australian universities. These conditions highlight the importance of carefully designing feedback processes, along with the need for addressing capacity and culture for feedback. This helps to explain why there are such variances in effective feedback across contexts, and offers insight into how it may be achieved.