Using focus groups to guide development of a public health Web site

This paper explores a project funded through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine to enhance effective use of the Internet by public health professionals. The processes and outcome of an effort to develop a statewide Web site for public health professionals are described. A series of focus groups was conducted as a preliminary data-gathering tool to evaluate the information needs of the target population. Results of the focus group provided a valuable framework upon which to build a successful schema for Web site development.     

Breaking the Cycle: Future Faculty Begin Teaching with Learner-Centered Strategies after Professional Development

The availability of reliable evidence for teaching practices after professional development is limited across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, making the identification of professional development “best practices” and effective models for change difficult. We aimed to determine the extent to which postdoctoral fellows (i.e., future biology faculty) believed in and implemented evidence-based pedagogies after completion of a 2-yr professional development program, Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching (FIRST IV). Postdocs (PDs) attended a 2-yr training program during which they completed self-report assessments of their beliefs about teaching and gains in pedagogical knowledge and experience, and they provided copies of class assessments and video recordings of their teaching. The PDs reported greater use of learner-centered compared with teacher-centered strategies. These data were consistent with the results of expert reviews of teaching videos. The majority of PDs (86%) received video ratings that documented active engagement of students and implementation of learner-centered classrooms. Despite practice of higher-level cognition in class sessions, the items used by the PDs on their assessments of learning focused on lower-level cognitive skills. We attributed the high success of the FIRST IV program to our focus on inexperienced teachers, an iterative process of teaching practice and reflection, and development of and teaching a full course.     

Factors Associated with Teenagers’ Willingness to Volunteer with Elderly Persons: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors associated with teenagers’ willingness to volunteer with elderly persons using an expanded model of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Participants consisted of 258 ninth-grade students at a large high school in the northern part of Israel. Participants completed a structured questionnaire consisting of 52 items, which examined their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, past behavior, personal identity, and perceived moral obligation. Their willingness to volunteer with elderly persons was assessed using six vignettes, varying in the severity of the elderly person's health and functional conditions described. Additionally, the students’ sociodemographic variables were examined. Overall, students’ willingness to volunteer with elderly persons was low; however, it increased when the elderly person in the vignette was described as relatively healthy. Statistically significant relationships were found between willingness to volunteer and personal identity, as well as between willingness to volunteer and attitudes toward volunteering with elderly persons. A statistically significant but moderate relationship was found between willingness to volunteer and subjective norms. Multiple regression analyses showed that attitudes, subjective norms, and personal identity were the main predictors of willingness to volunteer with elderly persons, explaining 58% of the variance. The expanded model of the Theory of Planned Behavior provided an appropriate framework for understanding the factors associated with teenagers’ willingness to volunteer with elderly persons. Our findings stress the need to develop educational intervention programs regarding gerontologically-related subjects and to disseminate them among the population in general, and among youth in particular.     

Fostering mathematical modelling competency of South African engineering students: which influence does the teaching design have?

Educational Studies in Mathematics - This paper reports on empirical results about the influence of two different teaching designs on the development of tertiary students’ modelling...     

Reducing adolescents' involvement with relational aggression: Evaluating the effectiveness of the Creating A Safe School (CASS) intervention

This study examined the effectiveness of a comprehensive, school‐based intervention program, Creating A Safe School (CASS; The Ophelia Project) designed to reduce relational aggression (RA) and relational victimization (RV). Sixth‐grade students (N = 406) were surveyed before and after the intervention. Program effects were tested using a repeated‐measures design. Results revealed significant reductions in RA and RV among students who reported initially high levels of involvement. Findings also showed that decreasing approval of RA accounted for a significant amount of variance in changes in RA between pre‐ and posttest. These results provide initial evidence of the effectiveness of the CASS intervention model in reducing RA among early adolescents. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.