Learning with excitement: bridging school and after-school worlds and project-based learning

A bridging typology captures a range of ways that after-school programs connect children's diverse worlds and support project-based learning.     

Multicultural supervision: lessons learned about an ongoing struggle

This article examines the experiences of seven diverse therapists in a supervision course as they wrestled with the real-world application of multicultural supervision. Existing literature on multicultural supervision does not address the difficulties that arise in addressing multicultural issues in the context of the supervision relationship. The experiences of six supervisory candidates and one mentoring supervisor in addressing multicultural issues in supervision are explored. Guidelines for conversations regarding multicultural issues are provided.     

Project Northland in Croatia: results and lessons learned

As part of an international public health partnership formed in 2001 we assessed the impact of Project Northland in Croatia--an adolescent alcohol school-based prevention intervention implemented in Split--on students. The curriculum was implemented in 13 randomly selected schools with another 13 schools serving as controls. The evaluation included quantitative and qualitative methods, using pre/post-tests to compare intervention and controls and follow-up focus groups with parents and teachers. Quantitative data showed the intervention was more successful in changing attitudes in the first two years, but had less impact on older students. Qualitative data suggest benefits from the program overall. Given the intervention was successful in the earlier grades it should be initiated earlier to have a greater impact. Challenges and lessons learned are offered.     

Disseminating science-based prevention: lessons learned from CSAP's CAPTs

A wide variety of prevention approaches that reduce substance use and associated problems have been developed and tested. But successes have been limited in promoting the use of these scientific advances by the policy makers, practitioners, and concerned citizens. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's six regional Centers for the Application of Prevention Technologies (CSAP's CAPTs) are a major mechanism by which CSAP brings research to practice. This article synthesizes the issues that the CAPTs have faced, the solutions they have developed, and conclusions concerning the work that still needs to be done to increase the application of science-based approaches to prevention. These discussions highlight the particular importance of addressing issues related to the larger systems in which prevention programs and strategies operate.     

Changing attitudes about self-injury prevention management: lessons learned

In the behavioral health environment, nurses often use continuous staff monitoring and, at times, physical restraints, to manage the severity of patients' self-injury. Both options put staff in control, are the most restrictive in nature, and can be financially draining on the hospital's budget. This can result in negative reactions by both patients and staff. It is important to develop a program that will empower patients to control their behavior and allow staff to be aware of their perceptions and attitudes toward patients who self-injure. This article describes the leadership initiative that drove the development, training, and implementation of a self-injury prevention project and the lessons learned by staff.     

Corporate philanthropy in South Africa: lessons for local development initiatives

Beginning in the late 1970s, US multi-nationals and South African business both supported local development initiatives in Soweto. Comparison of two of these projects reveals significant differences in approach and effectiveness. American businesses supported a secondary school, Pace, which experienced critical problems related to organisational difficulties unforeseen by the donors. South African business supported an educational centre, the Funda Centre, which developed more gradually and was more deeply rooted in the community. Examination of these two cases produces some lessons that can be of use to other donors giving support to local development initiatives. This research was supported by a grant from the Aspen Nonprofit Sector Research Fund.     

Context-driven gero-infusion: lessons learned from a curriculum development institute cohort

This article describes and compares the successes and challenges experienced by three social work programs in the United States working to infuse geriatric competencies into foundation Master of Social Work (MSW) courses, including field education. Adhering to the Planned Change Model each project utilized a range of approaches and strategies that emerged in each setting’s unique organizational and community context. This article examines and analyzes three context-driven accounts of curricular infusion for gerontological social work and lessons learned in this effort to establish gerontology as part of the implicit curriculum in social work programs in universities diverse in mission, size, programming priorities, and student population. Given the experiences of these programs, following the Planned Change Model, maintaining the context as being central to the process, anticipating common challenges, and preparing to engage strategies to overcome challenges are offered as recommendations for successful infusion and sustainment of the efforts.     

The fifth Holocaust Dialogue Interactive Group session: lessons to be learned

This article describes the fifth Holocaust Dialogue Group meeting between descendants of both victims and perpetrators. This process began in 1994 and has continued into 1999. It is held in conjunction with the annual International Association of Family Therapy Conference. Those in attendance report that this process has facilitated their catharsis regarding long-repressed issues and feelings of shame and guilt, enabled them to ask probing questions of relatives, and contributed to a profoundly desired healing. Repetitive themes that have emerged in the sessions are highlighted.     

Globalisation and gender training for the media: challenges and lessons learned

This article discusses the experiences of the author in developing gender training for media professionals. The media has been known to be a key institutional player in holding governments and other institutions accountable for adhering to the democratic ideals of transparency, accountability, and good governance. Likewise, this article discusses the experience of Inter Press Service (IPS), a global information and communication service that aims to report more competently on gender issues. During the implementation of the IPS, several steps were taken: 1) examination of gender roles and responsibilities; 2) creation of gender-responsive editorial and employment policies towards better practices; 3) provision of training and seminars. In the same manner, there have been several challenges faced by media during gender training: the need to understand the basics, and the move from awareness-raising to provision of professional tools. To conclude, several lessons were learned during the course of its implementation: 1) the significance of policy as the initial step in mainstreaming; 2) training as the key to change; 3) the difficulty of practicing what has been learned; 4) monitoring; and 5) the importance of new partnerships.     

Marketable job skills for high school students: what we learned from an evaluation of After School Matters

This article summarizes findings from an experimental evaluation of After School Matters (ASM), a paid, apprenticeship-based, after-school program in Chicago for high school students. Analysis of quantitative data from a mock job interview revealed that ASM participants did not demonstrate more marketable job skills than youth in the control group. Qualitative data suggested that the nature of interpersonal interactions and the degree of professional orientation in apprenticeships contributed to variation in marketable job skills across apprenticeships. The article considers the perspective of human resource professionals who participated in the evaluation and describes an interviewing skills curriculum developed in response to the evaluation findings.     

Surveying a Chicago public housing development: methodological challenges and lessons learned

During the winter and spring of 2003, the Survey Research Laboratory conducted a survey of residents of the Ida Wells and Madden Park housing developments on Chicago's near-south side. This article reviews existing research findings on using indigenous interviewers and reports the findings about the benefits and challenges of using residents as interviewers versus drawing from a regular pool of interviewers. Specifically, the authors talk about the challenges faced in using indigenous interviewers and then look at some data quality indicators among these two groups of interviewers, including cooperation rates, item nonresponse, and differences in responses to sensitive questions.     

Coalitions on mental health and aging: lessons learned for policy and practice

Elders with mental health needs have been poorly served. Private and government agencies have given this issue a low priority, which is reflected in service delivery and funding. Coalitions have developed in states around the country and have engaged in a variety of tasks, including training techniques and collaborative efforts to advocate successfully for appropriate services. While accomplishments vary, the coalitions should continue their work, and others should organize in order to reach the goal of having accessible and appropriate elder mental health services.     

Teaching economics across cultures: challenges and lessons learned in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

Nine years of experience teaching economics in the Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan provides knowledge on the nuances and challenges of teaching economics across cultures. Particular categories and difficulties are presented with some examples of how to address them. Conclusions and findings are used to form general guiding principles for teaching economics in the increasingly diverse US classroom. The principles offered in the paper are valuable to English speakers providing economic teaching and training in post-Soviet nations and, more broadly, to anyone teaching economics across cultures. Finally, suggestions based these principles are offered to encourage all professors of economics to carefully consider language, illustrations, diversity of views regarding economics and the multi-cultural nature of university classrooms to better relate to students and be more effective teachers.     

Exploring challenges and lessons learned in cross-cultural environmental education research

The field of environmental education (EE) has been criticized for scarcity of research findings that can be used to compare the approaches and outcomes of various interventions and contexts. This is particularly problematic for EE programs that are implemented across multi-cultural settings because very little academic attention has been devoted to cross-cultural EE research methods. Intending to address this gap, we set out to develop and pilot a pre/post survey in Costa Rica that could help us investigate the impacts of a bird-focused curriculum on Latin American children’s knowledge, attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors toward birds and the natural world. This article describes the challenges encountered and subsequent adaptations made throughout our ongoing, iterative survey development process, in order to appropriately address language, sociocultural context, audience, and research-to-practice tensions. We present key lessons learned, including the importance of having strong local partners, the need to create a realistic research timetable that accounts for unique challenges involved in undertaking cross-cultural EE research, and the limitations of quantitative methods in this sort of research.     

Changing the culture of alcohol abuse on campus: lessons learned from secondhand smoke

Alcohol abuse is the single greatest public health hazard on American college and university campuses, but the culture of abusive alcohol consumption continues to be highly resistant to change. The author argues that secondhand smoke campaigns can be used as models to change the culture of alcohol abuse on campus. He proposes the implementation of "secondhand alcohol" campaigns and describes their essential components and advantages.     

Contemporary options for longitudinal follow-up: lessons learned from a cohort of urban adolescents

This study reports efforts to locate and survey participants in Project Northland Chicago (PNC), a longitudinal, group-randomized trial of an alcohol preventive intervention for racial/ethnic minority, urban, early-adolescents, 3-4 years following the end of the intervention. Data were collected annually among students from 6th-8th grade and then at age 17-18. Tracking procedures were used to maintain contact with participants and data collection consisted of three phases: (1) Internet- and mail-based surveys; (2) in-school survey administration; and (3) courier service delivery. Contact was lost with 11% of this urban cohort from the end of the PNC intervention activities through these longterm follow-up efforts, as indicated by returned locating postcards. Fifty-three percent of the cohort responded to the survey, the majority completing in Phase 1 of our data collection. Additional school-based and courier-delivery efforts increased our response rate by 11.5%. Costs per completed survey were $118 in Phase 1, $166 in Phase 2, and $440 in Phase 3. This study illustrates that it is possible to track and follow-up a high-risk cohort as they progress through adolescence, even with minimal efforts in intervening years. Lessons learned from this study may inform future efforts to track and collect longitudinal data among high-risk populations.     

Bridging between academia and the workplace: lessons learned about translational research on work-family balance

ABSTRACT

Balancing work and family is a continuous and growing challenge, requiring carefully chosen coping strategies. In spite of the growing amount of research on work-family balance, successful, long term solutions are still not readily available to most workers who are trying to cope with the tensions involved in fulfilling both work and family roles. One possible explanation for this lack of translation of research findings in applied settings may lie in how we do work-family research. The present research note presents translational research as a solution to bridge academia and the workplace. More specifically, it shares our experience of a participatory approach to translational research that was adopted in an interdisciplinary research project on work-family balancing strategies. The main objective of this research note is to provide an example of how translational research was carried out in this kind of community-initiated study, and how this approach can facilitate short-term, concrete applications of the knowledge gained from and with the research partners.     

The PALS parenting support programme: lessons learned from the evaluation of processes and outcomes

Although there has recently been a rise in parenting support programmes within the UK, only a minority of these programmes have benefited from evaluation of either outcomes or processes. This paper describes the development of the PALS programme (Parents Altogether Lending Support), reporting both on its effectiveness in improving parents' interactions with their children and on the lessons that were learned about embedding such a programme within the local community. Over the 18‐month period of the programme, a total of 17 courses were run, with 75 parents and carers (primarily mothers) participating in the programme overall. Evaluation results indicated that participants enjoyed the course and found it beneficial, particularly in terms of altering their own actions in specific ways that were able to promote better behaviour on the part of their children. Participants also valued the opportunity to share their experiences with other parents. The key lesson identified in regard to the development of parenting programmes concerned the need for the community to feel a sense of ownership for the initiative. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.