Predictors of foster parents' satisfaction and intent to continue to foster

OBJECTIVE: The United States General Accounting Office (United States General Accounting Office [USGAO], 1989) report on out-of-home care affirmed that the foster care system is in crisis. To shed light on some factors that influence retention, the study reported here asked "What factors influence the satisfaction of foster parents?" and "What factors influence the intent of licensed foster parents to continue to foster?" METHOD: A sample of 539 foster parents in eight urban counties in a large Midwestern state completed questionnaires aimed at addressing these questions. RESULTS: Some of the factors exerting the strongest influence on satisfaction were: feeling competent to handle the children who were placed; wanting to take in children who needed loving parents; no regrets about investment in foster children; foster mother's age; and agency social worker providing information and showing approval for a job well done. An example of factors exerting influence on intent to continue to foster include overall satisfaction, readiness to phone the social worker, number of foster boys in the home, being treated like one needed help oneself, and agency affiliation (private). CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to increase the supply of foster homes through recruitment is not enough. The support, training, and professional regard given to parents after they have begun the fostering task is of greater need. Based on analysis of the findings, implications for practice, programming, and policy are offered.     

Perceived employability and ability self among Finnish university students

Employability is an increasing concern for university students. Our survey set out to examine university students’ perceptions of their employability and the ways in which these perceptions relate to positions that subsequently connect students to working life: students’ self-representational position or “ability self”, and students’ life-historical positions such as chosen field of study, phase of degree and working life experience. The participants comprised a sample of students (N = 1819) from two Finnish universities, representing diverse fields of study. It was found that apart from the field of study, the perceived proximity to graduation and working life was associated with the perception of employability. Furthermore, a set of self-attributed capabilities was associated with students’ perceptions of employability, particularly extroversion, ambitious competitiveness, mental strength and the desired characteristics of a good employee; however, the attribution of academic skills showed opposing effects. It was concluded that both self-representational and live-historical positions are part of the construction of students’ optimism regarding their employability.

     

A meta-analysis of maturation-related variation in adolescent boy athletes’ adaptations to short-term resistance training

This meta-analysis investigated the maturation-related pattern of adaptations to resistance training in boy athletes. We included studies examining the effects of 4–16-week resistance training programmes in healthy boy athletes aged 10–18 years. Pooled estimates of effect size for change in strength across all studies (n = 19) were calculated using the inverse–variance random effects model for meta-analyses. Estimates were also calculated for groups based on likely biological maturity status (“before”, “during” and “after” peak height velocity). Using the standardised mean difference, resistance training increased strength across all groups (effect size = 0.98, [CI: 0.70–1.27]). Strength gains were larger during (1.11 [0.67–1.54]) and after (1.01 [0.56–1.46]) peak height velocity than before (0.5 [?0.06–1.07]). Adaptations to resistance training are greater in adolescent boys during or after peak height velocity. These findings should help coaches to optimise the timing of training programmes that are designed to improve strength in boy athletes.     

The maintenance of quality in the public sector of UK higher education

Since the establishment of the UK binary system of higher education in the mid-1960s, the Council for National Academic Awards and the public sector institutions have together evolved a distinctive system for quality maintenance.The paper has three goals: to identify the key elements in the interactions between the CNAA and its associated institutions; to sketch the shifting balance of responsibilities from the CNAA to its associated institutions; and to make some observations on course review in the public sector compared with the university sector.Central to the UK public sector is the sense, within institutions, that the responsibility for the maintenance of quality is an essentially corporate enterprise. That corporate review process has, until the present time, been conducted through the framework of a national peer review system. However, the university and the public sectors are converging in their course review processes, with individual institutions assuming greater responsibility for the quality of their courses. These changes make uncertain the continuation of the national context for course review.     

A fractal approximation algorithm for inverse initial-value problems of nonlinear differential equations

1. Introduction Initial-value problems (IVP) for the differential equations are often confronted with in many fields of science, and are particularly common in engineering. These problems are characterized by a governing differential equation and its associated initial conditions. Methods for solving direct IVP have been known for many decades in the area of differential equation. A few of the more popular methods of solution have proven to provide sufficient and even efficient mechanisms …     

Predictors of intrinsic motivation among adolescent students in physical education

This study examined the relationships among social factors, individual differences, intrinsic motivation, and effort and persistence in the physical education context using cognitive evaluation theory as a framework. Female (n = 201) and male (n = 206) high school students completed measures of motivational climate, teaching style, perceived competence, self-determination, goal orientations, and intrinsic motivation. Teachers rated the students on effort and persistence in the class activities. Hypothesized relationships among the variables were tested using structural equation modeling. Results revealed that perceived competence and goal orientations directly predicted intrinsic motivation and mediated the effects of motivational climate and teaching style on intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation directly predicted effort and persistence. Task goal orientation mediated the effects of learning climate on perceived competence and self-determination. The strongest predictors of intrinsic motivation and effort and persistence were task goal orientation perceived competence, and learning climate.     

Collaborative feedback and reflection for professional growth: preparing first-year pre-service teachers for participation in the community of practice

Teaching has been described as an emerging community of practice. Within such professional communities, the processes of reflection and collaborative dialogue, or critical transformative dialogue, are central to the maintenance and improvement of professional practice for individuals, and the field. This paper reports on the challenges experienced by a group of first-year pre-service teachers engaging in a process of reflection and critique with peers, as they participated in a program focused on the development of core practices of teaching. These pre-service teachers' responses indicated their growing understanding of the importance of engaging in ongoing critical dialogue, as part of the “unnatural” aspects of teaching. The paper concludes with a reflection on the value of feedback from the earliest stages of professional learning.     

An Analysis of Four Institutional Strategies for Staff Development

This paper describes four different approaches through which an institution can provide a programme for academic staff training and development. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach are analysed with the help of a recently developed theory which seeks to explain why some innovations are successful while others fail. This analysis may contribute towards the development of institutional strategies to ensure the survival—if not the revival—of staff development in universities in the United Kingdom.