Overseas Field Placement: An Educational Experiment

This paper describes an educational experiment with the placement of second-year students in field settings in the United Kingdom. The practicum assignments were in a rural area of Northern Scotland and in London. The paper also includes a preliminary analysis of the educational goals and the unique personal and professional gains for faculty and students.     

The relationship between explicit and implicit learning processes and probable pathological gambling

This paper reports the findings of a study of explicit and implicit learning and gambling with non-problem (n = 107), sub-clinical problem gamblers (n = 13), and probable pathological gamblers (n = 46). Two probability learning tasks modeled after gambling games and an artificial grammar task were used to explore how people learn patterns. In each of the two probability learning tasks, the outcome of the game was biased during the first part (learning phase) of the task. The results showed that many of the participants in the experimental conditions learned the bias and gradually unlearned the bias during the extinction phase of the study. Probable pathological gamblers showed less retention of the bias during two probability tasks and repeated the same errors during the artificial grammar task suggesting that they emphasize explicit learning strategies rather than implicit learning strategies. The results are consistent with the idea that pathological gamblers are more likely to utilize explicit rules than implicit rules.     

‘Setting the captive free’: Thomas perronet thompson,british radicalism and the west indies, 1820s–1860s

This article explores the aims and agitation of British radicals who interested themselves in the West Indies during the early and mid nineteenth century. It analyses debates about slavery, race, empire, free trade, sugar and the conduct of those who hold power at home and in the West Indian colonies, using lines of inquiry suggested by the conduct, speeches and writings of Thomas Perronet Thompson, the radical MP and political economist who devoted much of his public career to colonial and particularly West Indian matters. Thompson can be taken to represent a body of opinion that wanted significant changes in the economic and constitutional relationship between Britain and the West Indies, and he was no less committed to a radical reform of the political, economic and social make up of the colonies themselves. Radicals frequently disagreed with each other on the West Indies, however, and Thompson's role in these disputes also reveals a great deal about the context within which the aforementioned debates proceeded.     

Supervision and mentoring in child and family social work: The role of the first-line manager in the implementation of the post-qualifying framework

This article examines how the support needs of candidates undertaking CCETSW's Post-qualifying awards may impact on traditional supervision as provided to child and family social workers. Based on pilot research which underpinned the University of Leicester's 'Post Graduate Certificate in Supervision and Mentorship (Child Care) by Distance Learning', this article describes how a small sample of social workers, first-line managers, staff development officers and senior managers, view the functions of supervision in their agencies, and what they think about the involvement of line managers in the process of mentoring and assessing staff working towards further qualifications. It is suggested that there may be difficulties associated with line managers acting as mentors, such as conflict of interest, lack of objectivity and inadequate preparation and training, but that such difficulties should not obscure the potential benefits. A key benefit involves line managers having an opportunity to refocus on the developmental and supportive aspects of supervision that may have been eroded over recent years in favour of a narrower, more managerial approach. The article concludes that, although the implementation of the PQ framework presents many challenges in relation to the role of the first-line manager, it has the potential to create work-place cultures of a more developmental and professional nature, which ultimately works to the advantage of those who use social work services.     

Why Do They Leave? Factors Associated With Job Termination Among Personal Assistant Workers in Home Care

Recruiting and retaining an adequate number of personal support workers in home care is both challenging and essential to allowing elders to age in place. A mixed-method, longitudinal study examined turnover in a sample of 261 personal support workers in Maine; 70 workers (26.8%) left their employment in the first year of the study. Logistic regression analysis indicated that younger age and lack of health insurance were significant predictors of turnover. Analysis of telephone interviews revealed three overarching themes related to termination: job not worthwhile, personal reasons, and burnout. Implications of study findings for gerontological social workers are outlined.     

Depressive symptoms of caregiving women in midlife: the role of physical health

This research examined the relationships between providing assistance to aging family members, caregivers' age, caregivers' perceptions of their physical health, and caregivers' depressive symptoms. Several alternative hypotheses were examined. Longitudinal data from 1,898 women from the 1992 and 2000 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were used. Results indicate a reciprocal relationship between depression and physical health. These processes were examined using a path analysis. Although the evidence only supported one of the hypotheses, this study clearly demonstrated the importance of physical health for the psychological well-being of women in midlife.     

Women's Occupational Trends in the Irish Economy: Moving towards High‐skilled Occupations or Evidence of Deskilling?

In recent years the increased participation of women in the Irish labour market and in tertiary education would appear to have placed them in an advantageous position to make use of the expanded opportunities in knowledge‐based occupations. Using occupational data from the 1996 and 2006 census this article examines the experience of women in high‐ and low‐skilled occupations. The data indicate that women are over‐represented in high‐skilled occupations relative to their overall participation rate in the labour force but there is also an increase in the proportion of women in low‐skilled occupations. The employment of women in high‐skilled occupations is substantially weaker in the private sector than the public sector. Public sector employment, we argue, is a crucial factor in the increased participation of women in high‐skilled occupations.     

Interview with martyn sloman

This interview, with one of the key advisors to the UK's Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, presents a wide ranging view of the changes in the field of learning, training and development over the past twenty years. It notes the shift from the top down interventions that characterised training, to processes within the domain of the learner. It outlines the biggest challenges going forward including the ever-widening range of stakeholders involved in delivering the human resource agenda and the changing shape of the people and development profession itself.