Case‐based Learning: Educating Future Human Service Managers

Using teaching cases in professional education programs has gained increased attention in the past several decades. While the use of teaching cases has been an important part of social work education, the majority of current casebooks focus on micro or direct practice issues and settings. Over the past forty years only four major casebooks have focused exclusively on the macro practice of social work. This analysis of case‐based learning is divided into the following components: 1) the search for practice wisdom emerging from analyzing cases within the context of management knowledge and skills, 2) case discussion in the classroom, including student and instructor preparation, case selection and integration into the course, case debriefing, student‐designed cases, and conceptual frameworks for teaching management, 3) a conclusion that identifies the benefits and limitations of case‐based learning.     

Training and mentoring: Family child care providers’ use of linguistic inputs in conversations with children

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of two professional development models in increasing family child care providers’ frequency of linguistic inputs in conversations with young children. The first professional development model consisted of a 10-h in-service training focused on supporting early language development. The second included the same 10-h in-service training program and mentoring. Providers and children at 48 family child care programs participated in this study. The family child care programs were randomly assigned to one of the two professional development models (i.e., training or training with mentoring) or to a control group. Audio recordings of the language environment were collected prior to the in-service training, at the completion of the in-service training, and at the completion of the mentoring. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the average increase in the frequency of providers’ use of linguistic inputs over three observations, conducted before training, immediately at the end of training, and 6 weeks after training. Results indicate that both forms of professional development increased linguistically stimulating inputs as compared to the control group. The professional development model including mentoring support was related to greater increases in providers’ use of informational talk and teaching utterances over in-service training without mentoring.     

Writing instruction in first grade: an observational study

As schools work to meet the ambitious Common Core State Standards in writing in the US, instructional approaches are likely to be examined (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). However, there is little research on the current state of instruction. This study was designed to provide a comprehensive analysis of first-grade writing instruction across 13 schools in one state in the US. Daylong observations were conducted four times during the year in 50 first-grade classrooms. Using a time-sampled, observational protocol, observers coded multiple dimensions of instruction, including grouping, instructional focus, teacher instructional activity, and student writing activity. Results revealed that writing was taught for less than 30 min a day on average, and instruction in skills or process writing was common. Most instruction was organized in whole-class settings with teachers either presenting information or asking students questions. Variability in the amount and focus of writing instruction and in student writing activity was examined at the classroom and school levels. A small number of classrooms and schools were identified with distinctive patterns in their approach to instruction and writing activity. Several moderate relationships were found between the writing instructional focus and the nature of student writing. These findings suggest that first-grade writing instruction is inconsistent across classrooms and schools and point to instructional implications for teachers and schools in the US.     

Socioeconomic resources in medicine: review of the literature

In this era of intense competition in medicine, it is essential for health sciences librarians to keep abreast of the new and varied socioeconomic influences in the medical environment. A list of socioeconomic resources is provided to help meet this objective. A citation analysis of the Socioeconomic Bibliographic Information (SIB) database was used as a selection criterion. An annotated list of ninety journals, newspapers, and newsletters is included, which provides title of publication, publisher, cost, index information, and special characteristics. In addition, publishers and associations that provide socioeconomic information are listed, and an annotated list of standard statistical resource books is given.     

The Relationship Between Security of Attachment and the Development of a Personal Premise System of Relationships and Expectations for Peer Interaction

Block (1984) postulated that children develop a personal premise system concerning the nature of relationships from the kind of responsiveness, balance, and control they experience when interacting with the caregiver and the caregiver's degree of accessibility during caregiver-child interactions. Block's theory was used in this review to discuss how children's personal premise systems or models of relationships develop through the process of attachment to the caregiver, and how, as children establish more extensive social relationships, this premise system becomes a more generalized model of self and others which shapes all interactions with others including peer relationships during early and middle childhood. The review also suggests continuity in the organization of behavior, for just as the nature of the early personal premise system is shaped by caregiver responsiveness, control, consistency, and availability, so the quality of ties youngsters form with their peers seems also to be shaped by the tone of children's responsiveness to peers, the degree and kind of control youngsters exert in peer interactions, the consistency of behaviors with peers, and children's emotional and physical availability to peers.     

Analogy in persuasion: Translator's dictionary or art?

Rhetorical and communication scholars have long asserted the significance of analogy in persuasion. A variety of persuasive roles have been stipulated for analogies. These accounts are inconsistent, so individual explanations are either inaccurate or incomplete. This essay aims to refine understandings of analogy by reviewing, critiquing, and synthesizing several classical and contemporary rhetorical analyses, a cognitive model of analogy processing, and dual‐process theories of persuasion. The synthesis, which is presented in an integrated set of propositions, offers a systematic view of the potential suasory roles of explanatory and expressive analogies. Suggestions for testing the propositions are discussed as well.     

A theater intervention to promote communication and disclosure of suicidal ideation

Young adults from Montana have a higher rate of suicide than their national counterparts. There is a clear need for targeted interventions to address this disparity. The authors evaluate a community-based, narrative theater project designed to increase awareness and use of suicide-prevention resources among eastern Montana youth. As a first step, seven group interviews with Montana young adults (n?=?27) were conducted to identify current perceptions about suicide and suicide prevention. Interviews were conducted before and after subjects were exposed to a community-based theater production about suicide. Emergent thematic categories were organized using the four main constructs of the extended parallel process model. After the performance, participants expressed increased awareness of prevention resources; perceived susceptibility to the threat of suicide and depression; and self-efficacy for accessing help and assisting others. There were mixed results for perceived response efficacy. Implications and recommendations for intervention development are discussed.     

Exploring relatedness to field of study as an indicator of student retention

Currently, tertiary education student retention is an important concern for universities. Prior research suggests that course completion depends on a number of factors, many of which are recalcitrant to intervention. This paper explores one factor: student relatedness to their chosen course and profession, as evidenced within two education courses. The analysis of survey and focus group data from first year, semester one students has found that the respondents relate to their course and their profession more idealistically than pragmatically. We suggest that relative unawareness of the realities of teaching might retain students in the early years, only to cause attrition when harsher realities of classrooms set in during the later years of their course. Two possible interventions are considered: post‐structurally‐derived critical reflection and peer mentoring in the hope that they will facilitate a blend of idealism and pragmatism that will sustain students to course completion and entry into their profession.