LEARNING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM: THE UNDERGRADUATE GERONTOLOGY INTERNSHIP

This article describes an undergraduate gerontology internship program that provides an intermediary level of involvement between a service-learning activity and a pre-professional graduate school internship, presents a case study of a student's learning experience, and suggests a teaching and learning structure that may be scaffolded to fit individual student needs and goals. A humanistic teaching orientation is discussed as a method to facilitate learning and a deeper understanding of internship experiences.     

Young,talented and injured: Injury perceptions,experiences and consequences in adolescent elite athletes

Even though injury is common in elite sports, there is still a lack of knowledge of young athletes’ injury perception both during and after injury. The aim of this mixed-method study was, therefore, to explore, in-depth, data on injury consequences and adolescent elite athletes’ perceptions and experience of injury. Three hundred and forty adolescent elite athletes (age range 15–19), from 16 different sports, were bi-weekly monitored over 52 weeks using a valid questionnaire. Twenty athletes from the same cohort were interviewed in focus groups about injury experience and perceptions. The results show that the average bi-weekly prevalence of injury was 38.7% (95% CI 37.3–40.1), with 30.0% (n?=?102) of the athletes injured for more than half of all reporting times. An overarching theme from the focus groups highlighted the risk among young athletes of a loss of identity while injured. The findings support several suggestions that may improve the rehabilitation process and enhance rehabilitation outcomes: (a) provide clear pathways to the medical team, (b) recognize the identity loss, (c) involve the injured athletes with the rest of the teammates and (d) educate athletes about how to interpret pain signals. Future research should explore and evaluate the effectiveness and generalization of such interventions.     

A customer-active paradigm for industrial product idea generation

New product need assessment and idea generation methodologies, developed and used successfully in the consumer product arena, are seldom used to aid in the design of new industrial products. It is suggested that the ‘fault’ lies in large part with the ‘manufacturer-active’ paradigm underlying these methodologies, which prescribes that the product manufacturer has the role of assessing customer needs and developing a responsive product idea. A new ‘customer-active’ paradigm is proposed in which the customer develops the new product idea and takes the initiative to transfer it to an interested manufacturer.The hypothesis that the customer-active paradigm offers a better fit to industrial product idea generation practice than does the manufacturer-active paradigm is tested against the available empirical data (eight studies are reviewed) and found supported. Speculative reasoning is then offered in support of the notion that the customeractive paradigm provides a good fit to the inherent requirements of industrial product idea generation as well as to current practice. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Small‐Sample Equating Using a Synthetic Linking Function

This study addressed the sampling error and linking bias that occur with small samples in a nonequivalent groups anchor test design. We proposed a linking method called the synthetic function, which is a weighted average of the identity function and a traditional equating function (in this case, the chained linear equating function). Specifically, we compared the synthetic, identity, and chained linear functions for various‐sized samples from two types of national assessments. One design used a highly reliable test and an external anchor, and the other used a relatively low‐reliability test and an internal anchor. The results from each of these methods were compared to the criterion equating function derived from the total samples with respect to linking bias and error. The study indicated that the synthetic functions might be a better choice than the chained linear equating method when samples are not large and, as a result, unrepresentative.     

Reading ‘the Whole of World History’: An Investigation into Benjamin and Colportage

This essay charts the evolution of colportage in Walter Benjamin's body of writing. Originally referring to a form of popular literature peddled by travelling salesmen, Benjamin morphed the term into the ‘colportage phenomenon of space’, where he endowed it with a more abstract connotation referring to a form of embodied perception that could bridge distinctions between near and far and past and present, giving one access to ‘the whole of world history’. By holding a magnifying glass to this term, this essay elucidates the relevance of colportage in its historical context and unpacks its manifestations in Benjamin's essays, with iterations that often confuse boundaries between the material and the phenomenological. This essay further clarifies how Benjamin's handling of colportage exists alongside his studies of surrealism and his explorations into experience in modernity.     

How the Public Views the Swiss Higher Institutes

This article presents the results of a public opinion survey of the so-called higher institutes in Switzerland, specifically, of two kinds of higher education institutions, the cantonal universities and the Federal polytechnic schools. Conducted in 2000, this survey was the first national survey of its kind to be undertaken in Switzerland. As could be expected given the diversity of Switzerland, there were variations in the results according to linguistic region, the German-speaking population favouring a Humboldtian conception of the University, the French- and Italian-speaking population, a more Napoleonic, service-oriented orientation. There were variations as to education, those not having studied in a higher education institution of the kind being surveyed being more critical than those who had studied in one. All in all, the Swiss have a very utilitarian view of their higher institutes.