Increasing physical literacy in youth: A two-week Sport for Development program for children aged 6-10

PROSPECTS - Regular physical activity significantly improves health outcomes, yet rates of childhood physical activity remain alarmingly low. Physical literacy has been identified as the...     

Evaluating the efficacy of a teacher-guided comprehension-oriented learning strategy intervention among students in Grade 4

This study examined the effects of a teacher-led learning-strategy intervention program on fourth-grade students’ reported use and perceived effectiveness of rehearsal and comprehension-oriented learning strategies. During 18 program units, teachers taught about learning and various learning strategies, including visualisation, elaboration and categorisation. Strategies were practised in math, language and science classes. Participants were comprised of 82 fourth-grade students in the intervention group and 387 fourth-grade students in the control group. Students’ reported use and perceived effectiveness of learning strategies were assessed before and at least 4 months after intervention using a web-based word-memorisation task and associated reflection questions. The intervention group tended to use more comprehension-oriented learning strategies in post-tests, and the intervention group also showed an increase in perceived effectiveness of comprehension-oriented learning strategies. Still, rehearsal was evaluated as the most effective strategy in both the control group and the intervention group. Explanations for these findings and possible future directions are discussed.

     

Developing a standardized comprehensive health survey for use with deaf adults

THERE IS LIMITED INFORMATION on how communication barriers impact on the health of deaf individuals. The present article describes the development of a standardized interview tool to collect health-related information from deaf adults via face-to-face interviews in American Sign Language (ASL). Questions were selected largely from existing standardized questionnaires. Key steps in standardizing the instrument included the creation of an ASL gloss version of the survey and extensive interviewer training. The instrument was pilot-tested and revised prior to implementation. There were 139 questions on the final instrument. A total of 203 interviews were conducted between November 2002 and March 2003. A standardized interview survey administered in ASL proved an effective and well-accepted means of collecting health-related information from a diverse sample of deaf individuals. Several challenges were encountered throughout the process, and the resulting lessons will be useful to future research efforts.     

Teaching Future Teachers: A Model Workshop for Doctoral Education

Doctoral student training has become focused in recent years on acquiring subject-area knowledge and research skills, rather than on teaching. This shift often leaves aspiring junior faculty feeling unprepared to address the demanding pedagogical requirements of the professoriate. In the area of social work, few programs contain a structured, required program of study that addresses issues unique to teaching in a school of social work. This article outlines a doctoral teaching workshop as a model framework for social work doctoral programs. Suggestions are provided for ways to incorporate such an effort into current social work doctoral education.     

Using 9-1-1 call data and the space–time permutation scan statistic for emergency event detection

During medium to large-scale emergency events such as fires or earthquakes, emergency response teams must be deployed to the location of the event in a timely fashion. Information gathered from 9-1-1 call makers is useful for this, but is not always accurate. In this paper, we show how the space–time permutation scan statistic can be used to detect the presence and location of such events by monitoring the overall spatiotemporal pattern of 9-1-1 emergency calls instead. In an analysis of collected 9-1-1 call data, top detected clusters were found to correlate with emergency events as reported on the news, showing the algorithm's usefulness for automatically estimating their location and temporal extent. We show how the detection procedure works in cases where the emergency event generates a small but statistically significant increase in the number of 9-1-1 calls, as well as cases where events must be detected against a large background activity of 9-1-1 calls. We discuss the possible adoption of the proposed algorithm within the next generation digital government framework.     

New Resources for Childbirth Educators and Parents

In this column, reviewers offer perspectives and comments on a variety of new media resources for childbirth educators and expectant and new parents. The books, CDs, DVDs, and kits reviewed in this issue''s column include the following topics: the birth experiences of mothers who survived childhood sexual abuse; lively teaching techniques and ideas to help energize and enhance childbirth education classes; breastfeeding in the workplace; expectant fathers; perspectives on motherhood; unique, helpful tools for childbirth educators to use in designing their class content, addressing the stages of labor, and discussing planned cesarean birth; exercises for pregnant women on bedrest; and a compilation of presentations featured at Birthing the Future''s international symposiums.     

CD‐ROM Technology for Education and Support of Site Supervisors

The authors discuss the creation and evaluation of a CD‐ROM to train and support prepracticum, practicum, and internship site supervisors in a master's‐level counselor education program. The authors, from a small, rural, southwestern college, created and distributed a CD‐ROM containing video and document resources for this purpose. Small focus groups were then conducted to gather data to measure the CD‐ROM's effectiveness. Data showed strong support for the use of CD‐ROM technology in providing training of site supervisors. Recommendations are offered to improve future versions of the CD‐ROM.