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Educational Institutions (educational + institution)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	29%
Education	29%
Humanities and Social Sciences	19%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	16%
2 Other Domains	7%

Selected Abstracts

Partnership Between an Educational Institution and a Healthcare Agency,Lessons Learned: Part I

NURSING FORUM, Issue 3 2009
Loucine M. Huckabay RN
PURPOSE., The purpose of this paper is to provide a model of a partnership program between a major educational institution and a large community medical center that has become a win,win situation for both, which enabled the former to double its undergraduate nursing (BSN) program when it was on the verge of reducing enrollments by 33% because of repeated financial cuts, and a healthcare agency (HCA) to find a creative way of hiring BSN-educated registered nurses in perpetuity, thus reducing their $2 million a month recruitment expenses. PROCESS., This was a 5-year, $15 million partnership between California State University, Long Beach, School of Nursing and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center/Miller Children's Hospital. The HCA contributed the $10 million in funds and in in-kind contributions in the form of facilities and adjunct clinical professors, and the university contributed the $5 million, all in in-kind contribution by doubling the lecture classes without additional cost. The project started in the spring of 2004. CONCLUSION., To date, eight groups have graduated from this program for a total of 288 additional BSN graduates. Retention rate has been a minimum of 95%. Over 95% of the graduates have been hired by the participating HCA. Indeed, it has been a win,win situation for both. [source]

The Quality of Education, Educational Institutions, and Cross-Country Differences in Human Capital Accumulation

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2005
SHAWN D. KNABB
ABSTRACT Cross-country studies of education and economic prosperity often reach conflicting results when using growth rates as the measure of economic development. However, growth rates lack persistence over time and may not accurately measure long-term economic success over relatively short economic horizons. To overcome this potential specification problem, we estimate the relationship between key education variables and the capital to physical labor ratio. Using both cross-sectional and panel specifications, we find that both the primary-pupil,teacher ratio and decentralized education finance are associated with a larger capital to physical labor ratio. The relationship between human capital and expenditures, private education, and test scores are less robust. [source]

The UK Research Assessment Exercise: Performance Measurement and Resource Allocation

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 1 2010
Jane Broadbent
This paper is a personal reflection on the nature and implications of research assessment in the UK. It reflects on the extent to which the dual functions of performance measurement and resource allocation interact. It provides a description of the 2001 and 2008 Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) in the United Kingdom (UK). It also refers to the developments undertaken at the time of writing to develop the successor exercise , the Research Excellence Framework (REF). The paper illustrates the changes that have taken place over time in order to address perceived weaknesses in the structures of the RAE that have led to particular types of game playing. The RAE is a form of management control that has achieved its success by the alignment of individual and institutional interests. Success in the RAE produces both financial and reputational gains for Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) that they are willing to pay for. Hence, the RAE has provided financial gains for academics who can deliver success. The peer-evaluation process in the UK research assessment is a key characteristic of the UK approach. While this is seen as expensive, it has maintained the legitimacy of the RAE. The accounting and finance academic community has engaged with the exercise and retained some control over the assessment process. A question is raised as to whether UK accounting and finance is likely to be subsumed in larger Business School submissions in the future. [source]

International health electives: thematic results of student and professional interviews

MEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 7 2010
Andrew Petrosoniak
Medical Education 2010: 44: 683,689 Objectives, The purpose of this study was to explore the complexities (including harms and benefits) of international health electives (IHEs) involving medical trainees. This exploration contributes to the ongoing debate about the goals and implications of IHEs for medical trainees. Methods, This qualitative study used anonymous, one-to-one, semi-structured interviews. All participants had previous international health experiences. Between September 2007 and March 2008, we interviewed a convenience sample of health care professionals (n = 10) and medical trainees (n = 10). Using a modified grounded theory methodology, we carried out cycles of data analysis in conjunction with data collection in an iterative and constant comparison process. The study's thematic structure was finalised when theme saturation was achieved. Results, Participants described IHEs in both negative and positive terms. IHEs were described as unsustained short-term contributions that lacked clear educational objectives and failed to address local community needs. Ethical dilemmas were described as IHE challenges. Participants reflected that many IHEs included aspects of medical tourism and the majority of participants described the IHE in negative terms. However, a few participants acknowledged the benefits of the IHE. Specifically, it was seen as an introduction to a career in global health and as a potential foundation for more sustainable projects with positive host community impacts. Finally, despite similar understandings among participants, self-awareness of medical tourism was low. Conclusions, International health electives may include potential harms and benefits for both the trainee and the host community. Educational institutions should encourage and support structured IHEs for trainee participation. We recommend that faculties of medicine and global health educators establish pre-departure training courses for trainees and that IHE opportunities have sufficient structures in place to mitigate the negative effects of medical tourism. We also recommend that trainees be provided with opportunities to conduct self-reflection and critically assess their IHE experiences. [source]

Educational institutions: Supporting working-class learning

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT & CONTINUING EDUCATION, Issue 106 2005
Griff Foley
Asserting that the working class has a distinctive learning style, this chapter argues for a supportive, challenging, and class-conscious pedagogy. [source]

Pre-school staffs' attitudes toward foods in relation to the pedagogic meal

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 2 2006
Hanna Sepp
Abstract The aim of this study, with the pedagogic meal in focus, was to identify pre-school staff members' attitudes to the role of food and meals as part of daily activities at pre-school. Interviews were carried out at 12 pre-schools and a total of 34 pre-school staff participated. The staff revealed strong opinions as well as ambivalence towards how food and meals should best be integrated into their daily work and pedagogic activities. The pre-school staffs' lack of or insufficient education and knowledge regarding food and nutrition resulted in an ambivalent and uncertain situation with respect to how they should see themselves as teachers in the meal situation. Nevertheless, most of the staff had a clear perception of what it meant to practice a pedagogic meal. It meant helping and encouraging the children to help themselves and serving as an adult model for the children at table, though this pedagogic activity was uncommon. While the staff were satisfied with the pre-schools' role of catering for the children, they expressed concern about or even mistrust towards the children's parents. Despite, or perhaps due to, their inadequate knowledge about food and nutrition and the lack of specific aims for the pedagogic meal, they assumed that the public sector was a better educational institution regarding foods and a better guarantor for children's food habits and dietary intake. As the teachers' identities have changed over the past years they have not yet found a solid ground for determining how food and meals could be integrated into their everyday work as pre-school teachers and childminders. [source]

Students' ideals for nursing older people in practice

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OLDER PEOPLE NURSING, Issue 2 2006
Erica S. Alabaster MSc
Aim., Drawing on research exploring nursing students' experiences of working with older people, this paper aims to demonstrate how context and culture can impact on the realization of their ideals. Background., The principles underpinning individualized and person-centred approaches to care resonate with those focal to gerontologic nursing. Restrictive contexts of care and pervasive workplace cultures render nurses unable to deliver care in accord with these. Design and method., This interpretive study was informed by phenomenological,hermeneutic theory. A purposive sample (n = 10) was recruited from a single educational institution. Data were generated in two phases using loosely structured interviews and supplementary activity. Themes explicating their experiences were identified via systematized detailed analysis and issues pertaining to nursing students' orientation towards older people cut across these. Findings and discussion., Students perceived that older people were prone to depersonalization and marginalization, so sought to show respect by coming to know individuals, form human connections with them and personalize care accordingly. Giving respect, promoting personhood, asserting reciprocal identity and maintaining dignity were prominent features of this but were often frustrated by practices and cultures encountered in mainstream settings. Conclusions., Nursing students' approaches to older people are contextual and reflect elements of person-centred ideology. Their attempts upholding their ideals are liable to be subverted by workplace norms. Preparatory education should address these, assist students to learn how to attend to personhood in restrictive environments and offer targeted placements in age-specific and non-acute services. Relevance to clinical practice., Demographic trends mean that working with older people has increased significance for nurses in most settings. Person-centredness is seen as beneficial for older people but contemporary service imperatives and enduring practices are inhibitory, preventing entrants to nursing from developing related skills. [source]

Partnership Between an Educational Institution and a Healthcare Agency,Lessons Learned: Part I

Framing Rape: An Examination of Public Relations Strategies in the Duke University Lacrosse Case

COMMUNICATION, CULTURE & CRITIQUE, Issue 2 2008
Barbara Barnett
In Spring 2006, three White Duke University lacrosse players were charged with raping a Black female student from nearby North Carolina Central University at an off-campus party. Reports of the alleged crime captured news media attention, prompting a public relations campaign by Duke to maintain its image as an elite educational institution and an academic powerhouse. During the 15 months the charges were pending, the university framed its discussion in terms of reason versus emotion, with the university positioning itself as a calm voice amid diatribe and as a victim of unfair and untrue media reports. The charges ultimately were dropped. Although Duke was adept at speaking about its own integrity, it did little to discuss larger issues at play, such as sexual objectification of women, the risks of sexual violence on college campuses, and the perceptions of privilege in U.S. college athletics. In sum, Duke faced a public relations challenge that involved allegations of rape but spent little time actually discussing rape. [source]

The Puzzle of Museum Educational Practice: A Comment on Rounds and Falk

CURATOR THE MUSEUM JOURNAL, Issue 2 2006
Daniel Spock
The mandate that museums place education at the center of their public service role has had the effect of framing a new set of questions and,inevitably,problems. If museums have primary value to society as educational institutions, what kind of learning actually happens in them? Jay Rounds and John Falk, writing at the leading edge of this inquiry, explore curiosity, motivation and self-identity as paramount considerations for the special type of learning museums promote. Their analyses present interesting challenges for the museum practitioner, who may observe that people find the pursuit of curiosity pleasurable and value it more highly than knowledge acquisition. The practitioner may conclude that museums have a calling: They stand for the value of curiosity for its own sake, and for that reason will never wear out their welcome. [source]

Rethinking civic education in the age of biotechnology

EDUCATIONAL THEORY, Issue 1 2005
Huey-li Li
In this paper, I first examine the three justifications most often provided for differentiating, discounting, or even disclaiming the present generation's moral responsibility to future generations. I then discuss ideological critiques of, and educational solutions to, the complicity of formal educational institutions in propagating these justifications. Finally, I inquire into the ethical postulates by which prefigurative democratic civic and citizenship education could facilitate civic engagement in deliberating about intergenerational relations. I argue that, by challenging such hegemonic cultural values as atomistic individualism, contractual social relations, the pursuit of progress, and the sharp division between ethics and epistemology, prefigurative civic education serves as the first step toward egalitarian intergenerational relations. [source]

The work of women teachers in primary literacy education: knowing and doing

ENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 2 2007
Barbara Comber
Abstract This paper provides a retrospective account of three decades of my work as a literacy educator and researcher. Taking key insights from feminist sociologist, Dorothy Smith, including women's standpoint, the everyday world as problematic, institutional capture, a sociology for the people, I revisit my research on literacy, poverty and schooling. I argue that understanding better the effects of what we do in educational institutions, through collaborative research with teachers, can lead us to generate positive alternative equity-driven practices. [source]

Extent and Nature of Sexual Harassment in the Fashion Retail Workplace: 10 Years Later

FAMILY & CONSUMER SCIENCES RESEARCH JOURNAL, Issue 1 2005
Catherine Amoroso Leslie
Sexual harassment continues to be a pervasive and costly problem for businesses, government, and educational institutions. In the past 15 years, workplace sexual harassment has become prominent in the public consciousness. In fashion retailing, an industry with a large number of young, unmarried female employees and relatively large power differentials between organizational levels, sexual harassment is an important issue. The purpose of this study was to replicate Workman's 1993 article "Extent and Nature of Sexual Harassment in the Fashion Retail Workplace." The same instrument was administered to 144 female clothing and textile students at a large state university. One hundred six participants (73.6%) had experienced at least one incident of sexual harassing behavior. This was consistent with Workman's finding of 73.5%. In the majority of the variables tested, very little had changed between 1993 and 2003. [source]

The Changing University: Meeting a Need and Needing to Change

HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2000
Peter Jarvis
This paper returns to the logic of industrialisation thesis of the 1960s and asks whether higher education can respond to the new infrastructures of global society. Its thesis is that capitalism has generated new global infrastructures (the control of capital empowered by information technology) and that these driving forces have generated changes in knowledge, higher education, research and learning. Higher education is a typical superstructural institution, functional to the infrastructure , but it is finding problems in responding rapidly to the greater demands of the knowledge-based society of advanced capitalism. It has to change but perhaps it is unable to change sufficiently rapidly, and so the infrastructure is beginning to generate its own educational institutions. More significantly, it would have to be non-functional to the infrastructure if it were to meet some of the human needs. [source]

The Development of a Conceptual Framework for the Design, Delivery, and Assessment of a Typical Management Accounting Syllabus

ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 2 2009
Philippus L. Wessels
ABSTRACT This article identifies common issues relating to management accounting education in order to determine whether using a competency-based approach would assist educators in the design, delivery, and assessment of syllabi at educational institutions. A conceptual framework is developed and discussed with regard to the critical success factors methodology to design syllabi that assist educators in attaining the main outcomes in the delivery and assessment of the curriculum. This framework is applied to a typical management accounting curriculum to demonstrate how this approach will enable educators to design, deliver, and assess their syllabi in line with the critical outcomes required. In following this approach, lecturers would constantly have to focus on the knowledge and issues that are relevant and critical for students to understand and apply in order to achieve the aim of the syllabi. [source]

The WHO's action plan for oral health

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DENTAL HYGIENE, Issue 1 2009
S Monajem
Abstract:, The oral health action plan, recommended for adoption to the Sixtieth World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization in January 2007, included many of the necessary components. Had fissure sealants been added to the list of prevention methods and the roles of dental educational institutions and hygiene community better clarified, the action plan would have made a more viable and realistic package for the ministries and their directors of national programmes receiving the support of the World Health Organization and partners. Sealants remain under-utilized, few dental hygienists are integrated in the primary oral health team and fewer dental graduates have had service-learning experiences , all contradictory to the evidence in the literature. Translating research findings into public health action programmes is one of the recommendations made in the action plan and one way we can begin this is by implementing sealant programmes in ,Health Promoting Schools' that are WHO's brain child and borne of the wisdom of using schools as ,platforms' for the promotion and delivery of health care to the community. [source]

Higher education: marketing in a quasi-commercial service industry

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 2 2003
Mari Brookes
The UK Government is promoting widening participation and asking universities to develop their student intake of 18,30 year-olds by 50 per cent by 2010. The financing of these changes is encouraging a marketing emphasis shift, as funding is reduced and alternative revenue methods sought. Traditional marketing of charitable educational institutions sought to ensure sufficient student enrolments for solely government-funded core activities. Further marketing is now seen in quasi-commercial activities. This paper investigates the need for a further marketing approach to satisfy these government policy changes. Using the comparative method, the paper looks at the complexity of the issues around US and UK higher education and their revenue value conflicts, marketing perspectives and, finally, the differences in perspectives and expectations between commerce and education. As the matter is current and ongoing, the main form of collecting evidence is through personal interview and recent media releases. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications [source]

Improving international nurse training: an American,Italian case study

INTERNATIONAL NURSING REVIEW, Issue 2 2006
H. F. W. Dubois msc
Background:, Institutionalized international nurse training organized by national educational institutions is a relatively new phenomenon. This, descriptive case study examines an early example of an American,Italian initiative of such training, in order to stimulate future international education of nurses. Aim:, To find out what factors have to be taken into account to improve training and what its potential effects are in exchange and also in the context of nurse migration. Method:, A questionnaire was sent to the 85 nurses who all participated in this particular international programme (response rate: 30.6%). Findings:, The collected data indicate that personalized and well-aimed training, preparatory language courses, predeparture exposure of nurses to the culture of the host country and well-prepared welcomes are among the most important ways to improve this programme. Implications for practice:, While the specific circumstances and cultures involved in this particular case study should not be ignored, these factors might also be applied to maximize the positive effects of nurse-migration. Two-way learning is among the positive effects of such an international training experience. Motivational and team-building effects can result in enhanced quality of care and a more efficient allocation of resources. However, the mind-opening effect seems to be the most important learning experience. Therefore, regardless of whether one system is considered better or worse than another, experiencing a different way of nursing/education is considered the most important, enriching element of an international learning experience. The effects of this experience could include avoiding cultural imposition in the increased cultural diversity of nursing in the country of origin. [source]

Acknowledging communication: a milieu-therapeutic approach in mental health care

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 6 2008
Solfrid Vatne
Abstract Title.,Acknowledging communication: a milieu-therapeutic approach in mental health care Aim., This paper is a report of a study to develop milieu therapists' acknowledging communication in their relationships with patients. Background., Gunderson's therapeutic processes in milieu therapy have come into use in a broad range of mental health contexts in many countries. Research in nursing indicates that validation needs a more concrete development for use in clinical work. Methods., Schibbye's theory, ,Intersubjective relational understanding', formed the theoretical foundation for a participatory action research project in 2004,2005. The data comprised the researcher's process notes written during participation in the group of group leaders every second week over a period of 18 months, clinical narratives presented by participants in the same group, and eight qualitative interviews of members of the reflection group. Findings., The core concept in acknowledging communication, mutuality, was described as inter-subjective sharing of feelings and beliefs in a respectful way. Participants presented their process of development as a movement from knowing what was best for the patient (acknowledging patients as competent persons, a milieu-therapy culture based on conformity), to appreciating diversity and stubborn talk, to reflective wondering questions. Misunderstanding of acknowledgement occurred, for instance, in the form of always being supportive and affirmative towards patients. Conclusion., The concrete approaches in acknowledging communication presented in this article could be a fruitful basis for educating in and developing milieu therapy, both for nursing and in a multi-professional approach in clinical practice and educational institutions. Future research should focus on broader development of various areas of acknowledging communication in practice, and should also include patients' experiences of such approaches. [source]

Perspectives on professional values among nurses in Taiwan

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 10 2009
Fu-Jin Shih
Aim., The purpose of this study was to identify the most important contemporary professional nursing values for nursing clinicians and educators in Taiwan. Background., Nursing values are constructed by members of political and social systems, including professional nursing organisations and educational institutions. Nurses' personal value systems shape the development of these professional values. An understanding of nurses' perceptions of professional values will enable the profession to examine consistencies with those reflected in existing and emerging educational and practice environments. Design., A qualitative descriptive study was conducted using the focus-group discussion method. Methods., A purposive sample of 300 registered nurses in Taiwan, consisting of 270 nursing clinicians and 30 faculty members, participated in 22 focus-group interviews. Data were analysed using a systematic process of content analysis. Results., Six prominent values related to professional nursing were identified: (a) caring for clients with a humanistic spirit; (b) providing professionally competent and holistic care; (c) fostering growth and discovering the meaning of life; (d) experiencing the ,give-and-take' of caring for others; (e) receiving fair compensation; and (f) raising the public's awareness of health promotion. Four background contexts framed the way participants viewed the appropriation of these values: (a) appraising nursing values through multiple perspectives; (b) acquiring nursing values through self-realisation; (c) recognising nursing values through professional competency and humanistic concerns and (d) fulfilling nursing values through coexisting self-actualisation. A conceptual framework was developed to represent this phenomenon. Conclusion., The most important professional nursing values according to the perspectives of nurses in Taiwan were identified. These values reflect benefits to society, to nurses themselves and to the interdisciplinary team. Relevance to clinical practice., Nurses' awareness of their own values and of how these values influence their behaviour is an essential component of humanistic nursing care. Nursing educators need to develop better strategies for reflection and integration of both personal and professional philosophies and values. [source]

A computer-assisted test design and diagnosis system for use by classroom teachers

JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 6 2005
Q. He
Abstract Computer-assisted assessment (CAA) has become increasingly important in education in recent years. A variety of computer software systems have been developed to help assess the performance of students at various levels. However, such systems are primarily designed to provide objective assessment of students and analysis of test items, and focus has been mainly placed on higher and further education. Although there are commercial professional systems available for use by primary and secondary educational institutions, such systems are generally expensive and require skilled expertise to operate. In view of the rapid progress made in the use of computer-based assessment for primary and secondary students by education authorities here in the UK and elsewhere, there is a need to develop systems which are economic and easy to use and can provide the necessary information that can help teachers improve students' performance. This paper presents the development of a software system that provides a range of functions including generating items and building item banks, designing tests, conducting tests on computers and analysing test results. Specifically, the system can generate information on the performance of students and test items that can be easily used to identify curriculum areas where students are under performing. A case study based on data collected from five secondary schools in Hong Kong involved in the Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre's Middle Years Information System Project, Durham University, UK, has been undertaken to demonstrate the use of the system for diagnostic and performance analysis. [source]

High Stakes Testing and the Structure of the Mind: A Reply to Randall Curren

JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 1 2006
ANDREW DAVIS
,High stakes testing' is to be understood as testing with serious consequences for students, their teachers and their educational institutions. It plays a central role in holding teachers and educational institutions to account. In a recent article Randall Curren seeks to refute a number of philosophical arguments developed in my The Limits of Educational Assessment against the legitimacy of high stakes testing. In this reply I contend that some of the arguments he identifies are not mine, and that others survive his critique. [source]

Stereotypes and Moral Oversight in Conflict Resolution: What Are We Teaching?

JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 4 2002
J. Harvey
I examine some common trends in ,conflict management skills', particularly those focused on practical results, and argue that they involve some moral problems, like the reliance on offensive stereotypes, the censorship of moral language, the promotion of distorted relationships, and sometimes the suppression of basic rights and obligations that constitute non,consequentialist moral constraints on human interactions (including dispute resolution). Since these approaches now appear in educational institutions, they are sending dangerous messages to those least able to critically assess them, messages that denigrate the language, reflection, and interactions on which the moral life depends, thus undermining the possibility of moral education in the most fundamental sense of the phrase. [source]

Investigating Smoker's Profile: The Role of Psychosocial Characteristics and the Effectiveness of Tobacco Policy Tools

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
Elena Raptou
This article investigates smoker's profile by addressing the determinants of cigarette demand and providing a circumstantial exposition of the psychosocial characteristics that differentiate smoking patterns. At the same time, the impact of tobacco control policies on smoking rates and their effectiveness on decreasing cigarette consumption are also analyzed. Consumers are distinguished in four smoking groups in concurrence to smoking status, and dichotomous indicators are constructed to describe tobacco control policies, psychosocial, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics. The empirical analysis estimates an ordered probit model with sample selectivity. The results indicate the absence of selectivity bias for cigarette consumption; hence, the subsample of smokers comprises a random independent sample and smoking participation and cigarette consumption form distinct stages of smoking behavior. Most of the psychosocial factors are found to be statistically significant in the econometric analysis, implying the main determinants of smoking behavior. In addition, total smoking bans in workplaces and educational institutions comprise efficient policy tools for decreasing cigarette demand, while partial smoking restrictions are accrued to be ineffective in reducing smoking participation. [source]

Charity, Philanthropy, Public Service, or Enterprise: What Are the Big Questions of Nonprofit Management Today?

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 3 2007
Roger A. Lohmann
"Nonprofit sector" issues, both in public discourse and pedagogy, are too narrowly cast as problems confronting public-serving nonprofits and grant-making foundations. Consisting also of membership organizations, educational institutions, and political pressure groups, the sector constitutes a major force in society which, in its interactive entirety, might better be termed a "social economy." This social economy both influences and is shaped by public administration, and it is now very much under public scrutiny. The author raises seminal questions that challenge the mission, management, and resources of this critical sector of society. [source]

In situ remediation of MTBE utilizing ozone

REMEDIATION, Issue 1 2002
Jeffrey C. Dey
There has been a great deal of focus on methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) over the past few years by local, state, and federal government, industry, public stakeholders, the environmental services market, and educational institutions. This focus is, in large part, the result of the widespread detection of MTBE in groundwater and surface waters across the United States. The presence of MTBE in groundwater has been attributed primarily to the release from underground storage tank (UST) systems at gasoline service stations. MTBE's physical and chemical properties are different than other constituents of gasoline that have traditionally been cause for concern [benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX)]. This difference in properties is why MTBE migrates differently in the subsurface environment and exhibits different constraints relative to mitigation and remediation of MTBE once it has been released to subsurface soils and groundwater. Resource Control Corporation (RCC) has accomplished the remediation of MTBE from subsurface soil and groundwater at multiple sites using ozone. RCC has successfully applied ozone at several sites with different lithologies, geochemistry, and concentrations of constituents of concern. This article presents results from several projects utilizing in situ chemical oxidation with ozone. On these projects MTBE concentrations in groundwater were reduced to remedial objectives usually sooner than anticipated. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Health care improvement and continuing interprofessional education: Continuing interprofessional development to improve patient outcomes

THE JOURNAL OF CONTINUING EDUCATION IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS, Issue 2 2009
C Psychol, Dip Psych, FBPsS, FHEA, PGCert (THE), Peter M. Wilcock BSc
Abstract Health care improvement and continuing professional education must be better understood if we are to promote continuous service improvement through interprofessional learning in the workplace. We propose that situating interprofessional working, interprofessional learning, work-based learning, and service improvement within a framework of social learning theory creates a continuum between work-based interprofessional learning and service improvement in which each is integral to the other. This continuum provides a framework for continuing interprofessional development that enables service improvement in the workplace to serve as a vehicle through which individual professionals and teams can continually enhance patient care through working and learning together. The root of this lies in understanding that undertaking improvement and learning about improvement are co-dependent and that health care professionals must recognize their responsibility to improve as well as complete their everyday work. We believe that significant opportunities exist for health care commissioners, service providers, and educational institutions to work together to promote continuing interprofessional development in the workplace to enhance patient outcomes, and we outline some of the opportunities we believe exist. [source]

Language Ideology: The Case of Spanish in Departments of Foreign Languages

ANTHROPOLOGY & EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2003
Guadalupe Valdés
In this article we investigate language ideology in a department of Spanish. We are concerned with examining the acquisition and transmission of linguistic culture in departments of foreign languages within university settings and the ways in which views about non-English languages that are part of the American cultural dialogue are maintained and nurtured by educational institutions. Using long-term participant-observation data and focused interviews, we contend that foreign language departments in U.S. colleges and universities, although involved in a nonhegemonic practice,that is, in the teaching of non-English languages,are nevertheless working in concert with deeply held American ideologies about bilingualism and monolingualism. [source]

Electronic doors to education: study of high school website accessibility in Iowa,

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 1 2003
David Klein M.A.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities in all aspects of daily life, including education, work, and access to places of public accommodations. Increasingly, these antidiscrimination laws are used by persons with disabilities to ensure equal access to e-commerce, and to private and public Internet websites. To help assess the impact of the anti-discrimination mandate for educational communities, this study examined 157 website home pages of Iowa public high schools (52% of high schools in Iowa) in terms of their electronic accessibility for persons with disabilities. We predicted that accessibility problems would limit students and others in obtaining information from the web pages as well as limiting ability to navigate to other web pages. Findings show that although many web pages examined included information in accessible formats, none of the home pages met World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards for accessibility. The most frequent accessibility problem was lack of alternative text (ALT tags) for graphics. Technical sophistication built into pages was found to reduce accessibility. Implications are discussed for schools and educational institutions, and for laws, policies, and procedures on website accessibility. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Virtual education in universities: a technological imperative

BRITISH JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, Issue 5 2001
John O'Donoghue
Many educational journals have debated the issue of the "virtual university". As technology is improving and evolving, such "virtuality" becomes a reality. The forecasts are that, in the not too distant future, it will be possible for courses to be completed solely by the use of the World Wide Web or Internet. These "virtual classrooms" will take the place of the solid buildings where students currently attend lectures, at set times in set rooms. The information will be gathered at the student's convenience and assignments will be handed in via this medium. There is potentially an advantage for everyone involved, from the reduced building resource costs to the availability of teaching support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Whilst many of these studies identify the benefits of technology in education there are dissenting voices from many other quarters. However there are also arguments identifying the disadvantages to the technology based delivery systems proposed. Either way, there are going to be radical changes in the methods which students will use to tackle the workload involved in studying towards a degree. This paper will explore both sides of the argument. The main contention of this paper is that technology undoubtedly will offer many benefits for the learner, however, the pitfalls need careful consideration in the design of the learning environment. This paper uses examples from educational institutions across different cultures. [source]