Effects of parental perception of neighbourhood deprivation and family environment characteristics on pro-social behaviours among 4-12 year old children

Objective : To assess the effect family environment stressors (e.g. poor family functioning and parental psychological distress) and neighbourhood environment on child prosocial behaviour (CPB) and child difficulty behaviour (CDB) among 4-to-12 year old children.

Methods : Analysis of the 2006 Victorian Child Health and Wellbeing Survey (VCHWS) dataset derived from a statewide cross-sectional telephone survey, with a final total sample of 3,370 children.

Results : Only family functioning, parental psychological distress, child gender, and age were associated with CPB, explaining a total of 8% of the variance. Children from healthily functioning families and of parents without any psychological distress exhibited greater prosocial behaviours than those from poorly functioning families and of parents with mental health problems. Neighbourhood environment was not found to contribute to CPB. A total of eight variables were found to predict CDB, explaining a total of 16% of the variance. Poor family and parental psychological functioning as well as poor access to public facilities in the neighbourhood were associated with conduct problems in children.

Conclusion : Our results point to the importance of the family environment in providing a context that fosters the development of empathic, caring and responsible children; and in buffering children in exhibiting behaviour difficulties during the formative years of life. Programs aimed at promoting prosocial behaviours in children need to target stressors on the family environment.

Introducing creative language learning in Japan through educational drama

Educational Drama as a teaching and learning methodology is already widely in use and well accepted by Australian teachers and students. This paper reports on a study in which the author investigated Japanese primary school students' and teachers' responses to educational drama as a pedagogical tool in their English language classes. The participants had no prior experience of drama in education. Along with the participants' responses, the applicability of educational drama as a teaching method for the Japanese teachers is also discussed. The author, as a teacher-researcher, used action research methods for this study. It became evident that educational drama tended to motivate the Japanese students' foreign language learning of English, by providing them with an opportunity for a higher level of engagement and participation in learning. In the study, the students showed enhancement of the skills necessary for learning, including social, communication, linguistic, non-linguistic and problem-solving skills.

Getting it right in the mix : teaching social work practice skills inclusively to diverse student groups

Social work has traditionally attracted a diverse mix of students with varying levels of academic preparedness and practice skill experience. Current trends in higher education indicate the possibility of further challenges for academic staff in social work as universities seek to both widen participation from university graduates and, at the same time, prioritise practice and academic excellence among students. Drawing on reflective journal entries by the author, this paper examines the challenges that social work academics might face in teaching social work practice skills effectively to the increasingly diverse student cohorts enrolled across Bachelor and Masters of Social Work (Qualifying) degrees. The reflective process adopted in this study explores the gaps between the author’s intentions and the reality of the classroom experience. Key observations included language barriers impeding engagement with the material and cultural differences in relating to others and conceptualising practice. These problems were apparent in both the process of delivery (pedagogy) and content (curriculum). The reflective process highlighted the need for further research in order to optimally respond to the diversity in social work education.

Deliberative educational planning : including educators’ deliberations in educational policy making.

The objective of this chapter is to argue a case for the need to include teachers and professional educators in the policy making and implementation processes of the World Bank's Education Sector Strategy 2020. By drawing on evidence from the Consultation Plan, the chapter investigates how communicative practices about teachers are embedded in the discourse of the plan and how these influence the rationalisation of the policy. In doing so, the chapter will examine the relationships between social actions, systems rationalisation and life world rationalisation. Much like commercial and entrepreneurial organisations focus on the voice of the customer (VOC), that is on satisfying the stakeholders and end users in their processes, in this chapter, the voice of the teacher (VOT) is highlighted. The skills and knowledge of key stakeholders need to be leveraged and engaged in order to ensure that the policy achieves its desired aims. In order to frame this argument, notions of Habermas’ communicative action theory is used to show how policy engages in systems steering. Rather than understanding education strategy and reform as a process of engaging only government and policy makers, this chapter suggests that by engaging the practitioners and listening to the practical discourse around reform, teachers can be leaders of reforms rather than obfuscated agents.

The social side of social media : technology or collaboration?

This paper discusses how course design may draw upon social media in order to teach students appropriate skills for a network society in the context of team-work based learning. The emphasis is not upon web 2.0 and social media as inherently suited to providing educational solutions, but upon the ways in which they can be adapted by course designers within the framework of explicit learning objectives. More specifically, we provide a case study of how the use of social media in a blended or wholly-online learning environment provides affordances for team-based collaborative learning, especially when incorporated within a course design that encourages independent, self-directed and authentic learning. This paper argues we need to assess the social aspects of social media, rather than upon the technological, that is, avoid the fetishisation of 'apps,' through the creation of assessment that alternately foregrounds a critical appraisal of web 2.0 technologies and places onus upon the students to develop, with guidance, teamwork skills and processes. We provide an example of how it is possible to integrate web 2.0 technologies into their learning processes and assessment, in order to teach about the realities of collaborating with others in small teams in a work environment increasingly mediated by the Internet. In order to achieve these learning outcomes, course design needs to balance scaffolding with the need to place the imperative for learning specific content and skills upon the students, the latter through the provision of assessment outcomes and resources that the students need to work towards together.

Writing skills for social workers

Book review of: Writing Skills for Social Workers, by Karen Healy & Joan Mulholland, 2009

"The university didn't actually tell us this is what you have to do": Social inclusion through embedding of academic skills in first year professional courses

This paper presents findings from a mixed methods project investigating first year social work students' perceived role in academic skills and thier development.  Students expressed the perception that academic skill requirements and how they would be assessed should be made explicit, and idenfied a stigma associated with accessing study support services.  The aper concluses that an intentional design strategy, such as embedding academic skills into the curriculum, helps bridge the different expectations between academics and students and hence constitutes a socially inclusive strategy to teaching professional courses sucha s social work, within higher education.  Recommendations to enhance the succes and sustainability of such an initiative in the current higher educacion environment are offered.

A qualitative study of the infant feeding beliefs and behaviours of mothers with low educational attainment

BACKGROUND: Infancy is an important period for the promotion of healthy eating, diet and weight. However little is known about how best to engage caregivers of infants in healthy eating programs. This is particularly true for caregivers, infants and children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds who experience greater rates of overweight and obesity yet are more challenging to reach in health programs. Behaviour change interventions targeting parent-infant feeding interactions are more likely to be effective if assumptions about what needs to change for the target behaviours to occur are identified. As such we explored the precursors of key obesity promoting infant feeding practices in mothers with low educational attainment.

METHODS: One-on-one semi-structured telephone interviews were developed around the Capability Opportunity Motivation Behaviour (COM-B) framework and applied to parental feeding practices associated with infant excess or healthy weight gain. The target behaviours and their competing alternatives were (a) initiating breastfeeding/formula feeding, (b) prolonging breastfeeding/replacing breast milk with formula, (c) best practice formula preparation/sub-optimal formula preparation, (d) delaying the introduction of solid foods until around six months of age/introducing solids earlier than four months of age, and (e) introducing healthy first foods/introducing unhealthy first foods, and (f) feeding to appetite/use of non-nutritive (i.e., feeding for reasons other than hunger) feeding. The participants' education level was used as the indicator of socioeconomic disadvantage. Two researchers independently undertook thematic analysis.

RESULTS: Participants were 29 mothers of infants aged 2-11 months. The COM-B elements of Social and Environmental Opportunity, Psychological Capability, and Reflective Motivation were the key elements identified as determinants of a mother's likelihood to adopt the healthy target behaviours although the relative importance of each of the COM-B factors varied with each of the target feeding behaviours.

CONCLUSIONS: Interventions targeting healthy infant feeding practices should be tailored to the unique factors that may influence mothers' various feeding practices, taking into account motivational and social influences.

Digital equity: a social justice issue for staff, not just students

It can be forgotten that it is not simply students who face the challenges of digital equity in higher education. Staff can also face digital challenges, and employment at an institution is not necessarily a safety net to protect staff from the digital divide. This paper attempts to give this voice to this issue. The digital equity challenges that they may face can range from internet accessibility, diversity in skills, or access to the required equipment and software, including necessary upgrades. This process is, however, is compounded when staff are geographically dispersed from the institution, disconnected by time, or where access to technology and Internet connectivity varies greatly between the institution’s sites. Much of these issues can be beyond the control and capacity of staff to alter. However, in terms of a staff-led approach to address such issues and empower others, a robust professional development program on digital technology is but one means to help stem the digital divide between staff ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’.