Implementation and evaluation of linked parenting models in a large urban child welfare system

During the past decade, there have been increased efforts to implement evidence-based practices into child welfare systems to improve outcomes for children in foster care and their families. In this paper, the implementation and evaluation of a policy-driven large system-initiated reform is described. Over 250 caseworkers and supervisors were trained and supported to implement two evidence-based parent focused interventions in five private agencies serving over 2,000 children and families. At the request of child welfare system leaders, a third intervention was developed and implemented to train the social work workforce to use evidence-based principles in everyday interactions with caregivers (including foster, relative, adoptive, and biological parents). In this paper, we describe the policy context and the targeted outcomes of the reform. We discuss the theory of the interventions and the logistics of how they were linked to create consistency and synergy. Training and ongoing consultation strategies used are described as are some of the barriers and opportunities that arose during the implementation. The strategy for creating a path to sustainability is also discussed. The reform effort was evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative methods; the evaluation design, research questions and preliminary results are provided.     

科技服务业结构优化模式与广东的实践

结构优化是科技服务业发展的核心。从科技服务业内涵界定出发,借鉴国内外加速科技服务业发展的经验,从系统内部结构和外部动力观察,分析技术创新驱动、新兴服务业带动和创新平台支撑模式的机理,并以广东为例探讨科技服务业结构优化的实践。     

科技期刊注重科技伦理评估的做法及实例分析

【目的】促进科技期刊的正确导向,提升科技期刊对科技伦理的重视程度,加强普通科技期刊进行科技伦理评估的力度。【方法】 阐述了科技期刊重视科技伦理评估的道德意义,提出了科技伦理评估的具体做法。【结果】 发现通过消除伪科技伦理谣言、关注国际科技伦理的热点、刊发前瞻性科技伦理专业论文、结合新闻热点约稿、解疑释惑等方法是科技期刊实现科技论文评估的具体途径。【结果】 科技期刊论文的科技伦理评估还在起步阶段,需要进一步完善伦理委员会的审查、监督体系,提高作者和编辑的科技伦理学意识等等。     

Actions and Updates on the Standards and Best Practices Front

Four standards and best practices recently released or currently underway at the National Information Standards Organization were presented: Knowledge Bases and Related Tools, Presentation and Identification of E-Journals, Open Discovery Initiative, and Open Access Metadata Indicators. Basics outlining the creation work and deliverables were shared for each project. Applicability of these standards and best practices for different stakeholders of the information community were discussed.     

高等教育国际化:大学生国际能力测评及影响因素实证研究

经济全球化和高等教育国际化对当前大学毕业生提出了新的要求,即具备"国际能力"。依据课题组开发的国际能力测评量表,对北京地区8所院校的大学生进行了抽样测评。研究发现:(1)大学生国际能力表现平平,国际能力的三个维度的平均水平有明显差异;(2)大学生国际能力在学生个人特征和家庭背景等方面存在差异,对学生国际能力有显著影响;(3)在控制了个体特质和家庭背景等方面的变量后,国际能力受到学生的国际化活动参与度变量的显著影响。     

Connecting Forensics and Assessment in the Twenty-First Century

A major feature of education in the twenty-first century is assessment. Forensic educators should heighten the importance of learning outcomes and utilize assessment efforts to directly measure how forensic programs develop educational foundations for students. This article focuses on the use of tournaments and noncompetitive educational outcomes, such as engagement within academic communities, service-learning, and the promotion of the value of forensics, to connect the educational benefits of the activity to help define the mission of forensics in the twenty-first century.     

Collaboration and Education: Engaging High School Students With EAC-CPF Research

The Special Collections Research Center at Johns Hopkins University received a Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Collections grant from March 2013 to March 2014 for processing the archives of the Roland Park Company. The grant included partnerships between the Archives and Technical Services to create a Best Practices for EAC-CPF records, as well as a local high school history class to complete the required research. Rather than simplify International Standard Archival Authority Record For Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families and EAC-CPF for the students, project staff distilled them into discrete, easy-to-understand tasks that allowed for the production of controlled data in a high school environment.     

Motivation and transfer in professional training: A meta-analysis of the moderating effects of knowledge type, instruction, and assessment conditions

This meta-analysis (148 studies, k = 197, N = 31,718) examined the relationship between motivation and transfer in professional training. For this purpose, motivation was conceptualized in the following nine dimensions: motivation to learn, motivation to transfer, pre- and post-training self-efficacy, mastery orientation, performance orientation, avoidance orientation, expectancy, and instrumentality. Population correlation estimates ranged between −0.11 and 0.52. Three moderator effects were estimated. First, correlations were higher when the training focused on declarative and self-regulatory, rather than on procedural, knowledge. Second, learner-centered environments tended to show greater numbers of positive correlations than did knowledge-centered environments. Third, when compared with external, supervisory, or peer assessment, self-assessment of transfer produced upwardly biased population estimates irrespective of the transfer criterion. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of training effectiveness and their significance for the practice of training evaluation.     

From pre-service to practicing teacher: considering the stability of personal and classroom mastery and performance goals

Research shows that personal and classroom goals are important for pre-service and practicing teachers’ personal and professional outcomes; however, no research has examined changes to these types of motivation across the transition from student to teacher. This study followed pre-service teachers (n?=?47) into practise and assessed changes in self-reported personal and classroom goals using surveys and focus groups. Correlations, repeated measures analysis of covariance and reliable change indices were used to assess stability/change in the quantitative data. Qualitative data were analysed for themes and largely supported the quantitative results. The results showed that teachers were at least as personally oriented towards mastery-approach in their practice as they were during their pre-service education but less personally performance focused. In terms of classroom goals, performance practices increased whereas mastery practices decreased, particularly for secondary school teachers. Although practicing teachers are personally mastery-oriented in their teaching, their intentions to establish classroom mastery goals appear difficult to enact in practice.     

Fostering Social and Emotional Skills for Well-Being and Social Progress

Children need a balanced set of cognitive, social and emotional capabilities to adapt to today's demanding, changing and unpredictable world. OECD countries and partner economies recognise the importance on the holistic development of individuals. However, there are big gaps between stakeholders' knowledge, expectations and practices on how to foster such skills. This paper presents evidence on the importance of social and emotional skills; on how policy makers and schools are currently enhancing and monitoring such skills; and, on the existing gaps between knowledge, expectations and practices to mobilise these skills. The paper concludes by pointing ways in which education stakeholders can do more to better develop and mobilise the skills that drive individual's well-being and social progress. The paper draws on findings and frameworks that are being published in a full OECD report entitled ‘Skills for Social Progress: the Power of Social and Emotional Skills’ in the first half of 2015.