Toward Course Content Improvement

Abstract

Learning about environmental issues, their complexity, and urgency can be overwhelming. In this article, the author suggests that positive examples offer a refreshing change from the more typical doomsday warnings or edicts for action. While acknowledging environmental realities, these stories establish a norm for seeing those realities as challenges. They hold promise in terms of helping people build more adequate models about environmental problems and about their roles in addressing them.     

The Evidence Base for Mental Health Consultation in Early Childhood Settings: A Research Synthesis Addressing Children's Behavioral Outcomes

Research Findings: Early childhood mental health consultation aims to reduce problem behaviors and improve social skills in young children primarily through changes in the classroom environment and teacher practices. We conducted a systematic review of the literature and identified 14 rigorous studies that reported on child-level outcomes. These studies had at least one of the following characteristics: publication in a peer-reviewed journal, use of a randomized control trial design, or inclusion of a comparison group. Across these studies, there was variation in the approaches to consultation, qualifications of the consultants, and intensity of the services provided. Overall, early childhood mental health consultation services were consistently associated with reductions in teacher-reported externalizing behaviors. Findings related to reductions in internalizing behaviors were mixed. Teacher ratings of prosocial behaviors were improved in the majority of the studies that reported on this domain. Practice or Policy: This research synthesis underscores the importance of documenting the specific approaches to early childhood mental health consultation that are being implemented to allow for replication of effective models. Areas for future research improvement include increasing rigor through studies that contain independent assessments of children's behaviors, isolating key components of effective consultation, and identifying consultant qualifications and characteristics that lead to child behavior changes.     

Re-imagining the traditional lecture: an action research approach to teaching student teachers to ‘do’ philosophy

Although we were required to lecture to large groups of over 170 students, the traditional lecture clashed with our commitment to teach in a way that was student-centred, relational and socially and politically transformative. In this context, and using an action research approach, we sought to turn our large-group lectures into a space that both met some of the historic aims of the lecture in passing on received knowledge, but also became a space for students to immediately engage in a process of discussion and dialogue around the concepts and ideas raised. Although the literature suggested this was not possible in groups of over a hundred, we found that our students identified that the re-imagined lecture significantly aided their learning in a number of key respects.     

“I Like That He Always Shows Who He Is”: The perceptions and experiences of siblings with a brother with autism spectrum disorder

Semi‐structured interviews were used to explore the perceptions and experiences of eight typically developing siblings in middle childhood who had a brother with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The analysis yielded five main themes: (i) siblings’ perceptions of the impact of their brother’s condition on their lives, (ii) siblings’ perceptions of the attitudes of others, (iii) siblings’ tolerance and acceptance towards their brothers, (iv) positive attitudes and experiences, and (v) siblings’ views on support for themselves and their brothers. These exploratory findings can be used to inform future larger scale studies and quantitative research. Initial implications for practice focus on issues related to enhancing the development of support services for siblings of children with ASD.     

“But a champion comes out much,much later”: A sport development case study of the 1968 U.S. Olympic team

Increasing attention has been given to the effective development of elite athletes. In this inquiry, the authors used a historical case study to ascertain the ways elite athletes were developed in a different era of sport in the United States. Using the attraction, retention, and transition frameworks, the factors that fostered the development of athletes from the 1968 Summer Olympics were drawn out through oral history interviews. In total, interviews with 59 U.S. Olympians were conducted. The results reveal how the athletes experienced supportive recruitment and retention environments, were able to manage the difficulty of developing elite talent, and encountered both challenges and opportunities transitioning through and out of elite sport. This analysis demonstrates how sport development principles are diverse in their temporal relevance and reinforce the practical implications meant to serve the modern athlete. Further, at least some sport development principles could remain constant regardless of how context and elite athlete experiences evolve in the future.     

A Masters Programme in telecommunications management – demand-based curriculum design

This paper presents a curriculum design approach for a Masters Programme in Telecommunications Management based on demand data obtained from surveying the needs of potential students of the proposed programme. Through online surveys disseminated at telecom companies in Jordan, it was possible to measure the demand for such a programme and to determine the required programme contents and specifications. The curriculum design is based on definition of programme outcomes and on using a house of quality approach (HOQ) to determine the list of courses required in the programme. Surveyed competencies are mapped to a long list of proposed courses in a HOQ in order to determine the importance of each of these courses. A final list of core and elective courses is then developed considering the contribution to programme outcomes and the academic standards.