Empathy levels of American and Bahamian Special Education graduate students and students in other majors

This study investigated the empathy of Special Education graduate students in the USA and the Bahamas, and of Counseling and Organizational Learning students. About 180 students were administered the Interpersonal Reactivity Index to assess: fantasy, perspective taking, empathetic concern, and personal distress. Significant differences existed by major and country.

Linking the ecosystem service approach to social preferences and needs in integrated coastal land use management - a planning approach

Coastal zones with their natural and societal subsystems are exposed to rapid changes and pressures on resources. Scarcity of space and impacts of climate change are prominent drivers of land use and adaptation management today. Necessary modifications to present land use management strategies and schemes influence both the structures of coastal communities and the ecosystems involved. Approaches to identify the impacts and account for (i) the linkages between social references and needs and (ii) ecosystem services in coastal zones have been largely absent. The presented method focuses on improving the inclusion of ecosystem services in planning processes and clarifies the linkages with social impacts. In this study, fourteen stakeholders in decisionmaking on land use planning in the region of Krummhörn (northwestern Germany, southern North Sea coastal region) conducted a regional participative and informal process for local planning capable to adapt to climate driven changes. It is argued that scientific and practical implications of this integrated assessment focus on multifunctional options and contribute to more sustainable practices in future land use planning. The method operationalizes the ecosystem service approach and social impact analysis and demonstrates that social demands and provision of ecosystem services are inherently connected.

Consumer protection in Turkey: law, informality and the role of the media. Monash University, Workplace and Corporate Law Research Group, Working Paper No. 21

This report is part of a University of Oxford John Fell funded collaborative project: Informality and the Media in Consumer Protection in Emerging Economies. This pilot project seeks to shed light upon consumer complaint behaviour through social media in emerging economies.

Ultrasound in undergraduate medical education: A systematic and critical review

Introduction: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) use in clinical care is growing rapidly, and advocates have recently proposed the integration of ultrasound into undergraduate medical education (UME). The evidentiary basis for this integration has not been evaluated critically or systematically. In this study, we conducted a critical and systematic review framed by the rationales enumerated by advocates of ultrasound in UME in academic publications.

Methods: This research was conducted in two phases. First, the dominant discursive rationales for the integration of ultrasound in UME were identified using techniques from Foucauldian critical discourse analysis (CDA) from an archive of 403 academic publications. We then sought empirical evidence in support of theses rationales, using a critical synthesis methodology also adapted from CDA.

Results: We identified four dominant discursive rationales, with different levels of evidentiary support. Ultrasound was not demonstrated to improve students’ understanding of anatomy. The benefit of ultrasound in teaching physical examination was inconsistent,and rests on minimal evidence. With POCUS, students’ diagnostic accuracy was improved for certain pathologies, but findings were inconsistent for others. Finally, the rationale that ultrasound training in UME will improve quality of patient care was difficult to evaluate.

Discussion: Our analysis has shown that the frequently repeated rationales for the integration of ultrasound in UME are not supported by a sufficient base of empirical research. The repetition of these dominant discursive rationales in academic publications legitimizes them and may preclude further primary research. Since the value of clinical ultrasound use by medical students remains unproven, educators must consider whether the associated financial and temporal costs are justified or whether more research is required.

Balancing Rights in Religious Education through Collaboration and Dialogue

While the right of parents to educate their children in their religious or philosophical conviction is recognised in Human Rights instruments (e.g. CoE 1952, protocol 1), educators must also attend to the right of a child to autonomy (UN 1989, Article 12.1) and the right of liberal democratic states to reproduce values of equity and freedom. This paper argues that certain forms of inter-religious dialogue and/or inter-religious collaborative learning can assist educators in balancing these rights where religion has significant influence and power over the management of schools and/or the curriculum. It is argued that in addition to the learning benefits which may result, the use of collaboration and dialogue goes some way in addressing three philosophical criticisms of religious education: first that religiously separate and religiously based education pays insufficient attention to the rights of children and, secondly, is likely to contribute to social fragmentation; and third, pupils will lack the skills to overcome prejudice or intolerance where they have no experience of others as a result of separate schooling or from a religiously narrow curriculum, and the latter may in fact support intolerant views. A rationale is developed that asserts the value of collaboration or dialogue as a pedagogical strategy that can, to some degree, mitigate potential negative outcomes from religious education. This argument is further supported with reference to a range of empirical studies.

Service Loyalty: An Integrative Model and Examination across Service Contexts

Marketing academics and practitioners generally agree that customer loyalty is vital to business success. There is less agreement on the factors that determine customer loyalty, particularly in service contexts. Research on the determinants of service loyalty has taken three distinct paths: 1) quality/value/satisfaction; 2) relationship quality; and, 3) relational benefits. In this research, the authors coalesce these paths to derive a model that links dimensions of customer loyalty (cognitive, affective, intention, and behavioral) with a system of determinants. The model is tested with data from varied services (airlines, banks, beauty salons, hospitals, hotels, and mobile telephone) and 3,500 customers in China. Results are consistent across contexts and support a multidimensional view of customer loyalty. Key loyalty determinants are customer satisfaction, commitment, service fairness, service quality, trust, and a construct new to service loyalty models—commercial friendship. The research contributes to the literature by providing a more complete, integrated view of customer loyalty and its determinants in services contexts.

Citizenship education, national identity and political trust: The case of Sweden

The challenging effects of globalization upon the nation-state have been a recurrent theme in the social science discourse since the 1990’s. Nationally organized education is also seen as challenged by new demands originating from globalization. In this article it is argued that ‘nation-state’ and ‘national identity’ are highly relevant concepts when discussing a citizenship education that seeks to develop a civic ethos with, potentially, a global reach. It is further argued that the understanding of such an ethos would benefit significantly from incorporating the role of political trust since trust has been identified as a main feature of the social capital that makes democracy work. Three themes are brought together: national identity and identification, the importance for democracy of political trust and the challenges citizenship education face when carried out in a national context but intended to manage issues that go far beyond the reach of the nation-state. The importance of citizenship education is discussed using recent research on the Swedish citizenship education classroom.

Evaluation of online higher education: learning, interaction and technology

The work presents a theoretical framework for the evaluation of e-Teaching that aims at positioning the online activities designed and developed by the teacher as to the Learning, Interaction and Technology Dimensions. The theoretical research that underlies the study was developed reflecting current thinking on the promotion of quality of teaching and of the integration of information and communication tools into the curriculum in Higher Education (HE), i.e., bearing in mind some European guidelines and policies on this subject. This way, an answer was sought to be given to one of the aims put forward in this study, namely to contribute towards the development of a conceptual framework to support research on evaluation of e-teaching in the context of HE. Based on the theoretical research carried out, an evaluation tool (SCAI) was designed, which integrates the two questionnaires developed to collect the teachers' and the students' perceptions regarding the development of e-activities. Consequently, an empirical study was structured and carried out, allowing SCAI tool to be tested and validated in real cases. From the comparison of the theoretical framework established and the analysis of the data obtained, we found that the differences in teaching should be valued and seen as assets by HE institutions rather than annihilated in a globalizing perspective.

Präsenzunterricht, Fernunterricht: Die Suche nach dem optimalen Mix

Bei der Beurteilung von Projekten des Swiss Virtual Campus (SVC; Virtueller Campus Schweiz, Campus Virtuel Suisse, Campus Virtuale Svizzero), eines Programms des Bundes zur Förderung der neuen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien in der Hochschullehre, gilt es auch auf den optimalen Mix von Präsenzunterricht und Fernunterricht zu achten. Welche Arten von Szenarien sind vorstellbar, und wie beeinflusst die Art des Szenarios die optimale Verteilung von Präsenz- und Fernunterricht? Welche technischen Hilfsmittel sind für welches Szenario sinnvoll? Der Swiss Virtual Campus ist grundsätzlich nicht als Online-Universität geplant und nicht auf Fernstudien ausgerichtet. Es ist jedoch denkbar, dass manche Projekte des Swiss Virtual Campus künftig den Weg in Fernstudienangebote finden werden, obwohl sie nicht dafür konzipiert wurden. Einige Projekte von Fachhochschulen wurden bereits als Fernstudium konzipiert. In gewissen Aspekten funktionieren sie nach anderen Regeln als für Präsenzunterricht konzipierte Kurse.(DIPF/Orig.)

Summit between West Chester University, Pennsylvania, USA and Universidad Nacional, Heredia Costa Rica. Global Library Literacy Initiative: An Intercultural Learning Experience

 This document describes the experience of academic cooperation between professionals in the field of library science, both from West Chester University (WCU), and the National University (UNA) of Costa Rica. The event took place at West Chester University during the week May 4th to May 8th, 2009. The objectives of this revolved around the exchange of ideas and interests in the academic and cultural relations between the two universities. In addition, it unveiled several services and procedures in the handling of information and highlighted the importance of promoting the exchange of students from both institutions. Finally, this article highlights the schedule of activities to integrate international and intercultural perspective in various areas related to the teaching-learning process, the contribution of university libraries on student success and techniques of information dissemination.

Public and user participation in public service delivery: tensions in policy and practice

Social-scientific analysis of public-participation initiatives has proliferated in recent years. This review article discusses some key aspects of recent work. Firstly, it analyses some of the justifications put forward for public participation, drawing attention to differences and overlaps between rationales premised on democratic representation/representativeness and those based on more technocratic ideas about the knowledge that the public can offer. Secondly, it considers certain tensions in policy discourses on participation, focusing in particular on policy relating to the National Health Service and other British public services. Thirdly, it examines the challenges of putting a coherent vision for public participation into practice, noting the impediments that derive from the often-competing ideas about the remit of participation held by different groups of stakeholders. Finally, it analyses the gap between policy and practice, and the consequences of this for the prospects for the enactment of active citizenship through participation initiatives.

AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF USER ONLINE SECURITY BEHAVIOR: EVIDENCE FROM A UNIVERSITY

The ever-increasing number and severity of cybersecurity breaches makes it vital to understand the factors that make organizations vulnerable. Since humans are considered the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain of an organization, this study evaluates users’ individual differences (demographic factors, risk-taking preferences, decision-making styles and personality traits) to understand online security behavior. This thesis studies four different yet tightly related online security behaviors that influence organizational cybersecurity: device securement, password generation, proactive awareness and updating. A survey (N=369) of students, faculty and staff in a large mid-Atlantic U.S. public university identifies individual characteristics that relate to online security behavior and characterizes the higher-risk individuals that pose threats to the university’s cybersecurity. Based on these findings and insights from interviews with phishing victims, the study concludes with recommendations to help similat organizations increase end-user cybersecurity compliance and mitigate the risks caused by humans in the organizational cybersecurity chain.

Towards modern municipal sports and recreation management in Costa Rica

Sports and recreation management is addressed here using a model that combines the policies and methodologies applied in the Costa Rican context as a result of a concern to identify the real needs in the sports, recreation, and health promotion fields through the different manifestations of human movement.  This approach has been developed during eight years of work in the Costa Rican Sports and Recreation Institute (Instituto Costarricense del Deporte y la Recreación-ICODER) together with different Costa Rican communities, both rural and urban, and local organizations, such as Comprehensive Development Community Associations, Sports and Recreation Community Boards (CCDR), Municipal Mayorships, and NGOs, among others.  This article particularly takes into consideration the experience of the CCDRs as entities that have been given the responsibility by the Costa Rican Government to promote and manage municipal sports and recreation services with a convenient offering that would meet the needs of users or customers.  In this way, this article is aimed at answering the question on how Boards should conduct an efficient management in a way that they also meet the needs of public users or customers in the municipalities of the country, by proposing a management model that serves as an additional instrument to improving the already existing services managed by the aforementioned entities.  This study presents a model of Costa Rican management structured with the theoretical elements that currently define the organization and planning of sports and recreation as a service.

Effect of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Nutrition Education on Nutrition and Health Outcomes of HIV+ Individuals

Factors associated with and barriers to participation in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the effect participation has on food security, nutrition status, disease status and quality of life was investigated in a cross-sectional study including 175 HIV infected individuals. In addition, the effect of a targeted nutrition education on nutrition knowledge, readiness to dietary behavior change, nutrition status, disease status and quality of life was also investigated among a subset of the population (N = 45) in a randomized clinical control trial. SNAP participation rate was 70.3%, similar to the State of Florida and national participation rates. SNAP participation was positively and independently associated with being born in the US (P < 0.001), having monthly income less than $1000 (P = 0.006), and receiving antiretroviral treatment (P < 0.001). Participation barriers include denial of participation by program, recent incarceration, living in a shelter where participation is not allowed and unawareness of eligibility status. In regression analyses, SNAP participation was not significantly associated with improved food security, nutrition status, disease status and health related quality of life (HRQOL). Over half (56%) of the population experienced food insecurity and had inadequate intakes of half of the nutrients assessed. Illicit drug, alcohol and cigarette use were high in this population (31%, 55% and 63% respectively), and affected food security, nutrients intake, disease status and HRQOL. The nutrition education intervention resulted in a trend towards improvements nutrition knowledge, self-efficacy, and readiness to change without impacting nutrition status, disease state and quality of life. Food insecurity and other nutrition related issues, with implications for treatment, management and cost of HIV disease, continue to plague infected individuals living in poverty. More resources, including food and nutrition programs, specifically targeted towards this population are needed to address these issues.

Knowledge management education:five Ws and one H

This panel will discuss key aspects of knowledge management (KM) education in response to challenges posed by the necessity to improve KM as a discipline and an established professional field. Through panelists' thought-provoking presentations and interactions with the audience, the discussion will address KM education from the starting why, what, who, where and when perspectives to the end result and understanding of how to approach KM education in the future.