Development of a Curriculum for Long-Term Care Nurses to Improve Recognition of Depression in Dementia

There is increasing recognition of the severe consequences of depression in long-term care residents with dementia. Most health care providers are unprepared to recognize and to manage the complexity of depression in dementia. Targeted educational initiatives in nursing homes are needed to address this growing problem. This paper describes the development of competencies, learning objectives, and learning outcomes for a curriculum on depression in dementia for nurses working in nursing home settings. This work provides the foundation for a curriculum to improve learning for nurses and, ultimately, to advance health care outcomes for residents with cooccurring depression and dementia.     

Title IV‐E Programs: Preparing MSW Students for Public Child Welfare Practice

This article investigates the perceived quality and skill outcomes of Title IV‐E MSW training programs at four universities from the perspective of their graduates. It also sought to identify necessary program supports, expectations of graduates as they began child welfare employment, and pre‐employment factors related to retention. The vast majority of MSWs agreed that their education was high quality and prepared them well for child welfare practice. The skills rated highest were establishing client rapport, case management, the development of a professional identity, and time management and assessment skills. The most consistent pre‐employment predictors of whether they stayed past their stipend commitment period were their commitment to the public child welfare (PCW) agency and their commitment to child welfare practice. Implications for program design are discussed.     

Social Activism in Elementary Science Education: A science,technology, and society approach to teach global warming

As part of a large‐scale instructional intervention research, this study examined elementary students’ science knowledge and awareness of social activism with regard to an increased greenhouse effect and global warming. The study involved fifth‐grade students from five elementary schools of varying demographic makeup in a large urban school district in the United States. The study was based on the analysis of students’ responses to a writing prompt addressing an increased greenhouse effect and global warming at the beginning of and at the completion of instruction over the school year. The results indicate that students with adequate science knowledge tended to express activism more frequently, and that their expression of activism increased as they gained better science knowledge after the instruction. The results highlight the importance of effective instruction of this contemporary and controversial issue with K‐12 students, so that they come to be aware of this societal problem, take action in solving the problem, and become socially responsible youth and adults.     

Critiquing the school community: a qualitative study of children's conceptualizations of their school 1

Schools are traditionally seen as responsible for the educational outcomes of our children. However, schools also play an important role in the development of aspects such as self‐efficacy, participation, competence and self‐determination. As schools are often run as societies rather than communities, they offer little opportunity for these attributes (self‐efficacy, participation, competence and self‐determination) to develop. Forty‐six children aged from nine to 12 years were interviewed to ascertain their conceptualizations of the school community. The children define their school in terms of people, places for activities and interaction, a place for safety, cooperation, influence and functionality. The responses closely align to the adult conceptualizations of sense of community as purported by McMillan and Chavis (1986 McMillan, D.W. and Chavis, D.M. 1986. Sense of community: a definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology, 14: 6–23. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Implications of this research suggest that children can and should have an integral role in designing a curriculum and systems relevant to the school context if we are at all concerned with their psychological wellness.     

BACKGROUND AND TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN JEWISH SCHOOLS: CURRENT STATUS AND LEVERS FOR CHANGE

Abstract

This paper presents a secondary analysis of data from a survey of teachers in the Jewish schools of three communities. Previous findings had shown that only 19% of teachers have professional training in both Jewish content areas and in the field of education, and despite incomplete professional backgrounds, little professional growth was required of teachers. What can be done to enhance and expand professional growth activities for teachers in Jewish schools? Analyses reported in this paper examine three possible “levers” for changing standards for professional growth: state licensing requirements for pre‐schools, state requirements for continuing education among professionally‐trained teachers, and community incentives for training of supplementary school teachers. Results indicate that pre‐school teachers in state‐licensed pre‐schools and supplementary school teachers who were paid for meeting a professional growth standard reported that they were required to attend more in‐service workshops, compared to other teachers who were not subject to these conditions. In addition, standards for the quantity of in‐service were higher among teachers who have stronger Judaic backgrounds and who are committed to a career in Jewish education.     

Rethinking role play in the Reception class

How to monitor and raise standards of educational attainment generally were issues addressed by the British Government in 1988 when the National Curriculum was introduced into all state‐funded primary schools in England and Wales: ‘There is every reason for optimism that in providing a sound, sufficiently detailed framework over the next decade the National Curriculum will give children and teachers much needed help in achieving higher standards.’ This paper assesses the value of looking closely at successive reading scores of cohorts of children in order to monitor reading attainments over time. The reading attainments of seven cohorts of Year 2 children from five randomly selected primary schools within one local education authority (LEA) (N = 1,329) are analysed to see if standards of literacy have changed since the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1989. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were used in this cross‐sectional study. The reading attainments of each of the seven cohorts of Year 2 children, as measured by the are presented. Headteacher perceptions of the effects of the National Curriculum on the teaching and learning of reading in their schools were collected through interviews. Examination of the means of the standardized comprehension scores for each cohort reveals no statistically significant differences in attainment between any two cohorts. It was noted that the distribution of the reading scores was skewed towards underachievement in all seven cohorts. The relative stability in reading attainments contrasts with the aspiration that the introduction of the National Curriculum would raise standards. Headteachers saw this stability as the result of key stage 1 teachers working at an intense rate to safeguard the teaching and learning of reading against the pressures exerted by the introduction of the National Curriculum and assessment procedures.     

The penalty throw in water polo: A cinematographic analysis

Three‐dimensional (3‐D) high‐speed cinematography was used to record the penalty throw in water polo by six elite male (M) and six elite female (F) players. The direct linear transformation technique (DLT) was used in the 3‐D space reconstruction from 2‐D images recorded via laterally placed phase‐locked cameras operating at 200 Hz. Five of the twelve subjects lifted the ball from underneath at the start of the throw whilst the remaining subjects opted for a rotation lift. As the ball was brought behind the head the females used very little hip and shoulder rotation compared to the male players so that four of the six female subjects were square on to the target at the rear point. At the completion of the backswing the wrist was flexed to a similar angle (M‐162°; F‐158°); the elbow angle showed significantly greater flexion for females (85°) than males (107°).

During the forward swing, from rear point to release, the wrist joint of the female players flexed from a rear point angle of 158° to 148° at release. The wrist movement for male subjects was different from the females in that it flexed from 162° to 147°, 0.10 s prior to release and then extended to 159° at palmar release before again flexing to 156° at release. The amount of elbow extension during the forward swing was 48° for both groups; however, the females actually released the ball with the forearm vertical (89°) compared to the male forearm angle of 78°. Maximum angular velocity of the wrist and elbow occurred at release for 9 of the 12 subjects. Both the wrist and elbow joints (F‐148°; M‐156° at wrist and F‐126°; M‐148° at elbow) demonstrated greater flexion at release in female subjects, compared with males. Maximum linear endpoint velocities for the forearm and hand segments occurred at ball release resulting in mean ball velocities of 19.1 m s ^‐1 and 14.7 m s^{‐ 1} for male and female subjects respectively.