Improving Ethical Knowledge and Sensemaking from Cases through Elaborative Interrogation and Outcome Valence

The case-based approach to learning is popular among many applied fields. However, results of case-based education vary widely on case content and case presentation. This study examined two aspects of case-based education—outcome valence and case elaboration methods—in a two-day case-based Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) ethics education program. Results suggest that outcome information is an integral part of a quality case. Furthermore, valence consistent outcomes may have certain advantages over mixed valence outcome information. Finally, students enjoy and excel working with case material, and the use of elaborative interrogation techniques can significantly improve internally-focused ethical sensemaking strategies associated with personal biases, constraints, and emotions.     

Improving Social Work Students' Understanding of Health and Social Justice Knowledge through the Implementation of Service Learning at a Free Community Health Clinic

Service learning is a teaching strategy that involves engaging in a mutually beneficial partnership between a community and students in the classroom. Social work education and service learning share core values of service and social justice and, when unified, can offer students unique opportunities to engage in meaningful application of knowledge and skills in a real-world setting. This article provides an exemplar describing the unique student learning outcomes that resulted from a service learning partnership between graduate-level social work students in a diversity course and a community health clinic serving Latino immigrants and Burmese refugees.     

Effect of the sample on the posterior probability in bayesian analysis

This paper examines Bayesian posterior probabilities as a function of selected elements within the set of data, x, when the prior distribution is assumed fixed. The posterior probabilities considered here are those of the parameter vector lying in a subset of the total parameter space. The theorems of this paper provide insight into the effect of elements within x on this posterior probability. These results have applications, for example, in the study of the impact of outliers within the data and in the isolation of misspecified parameters in a model.     

Music and the Social Studies

The author examined the way students enrolled in the Introductory Human Geography course at Kansas State University described their hometowns using the location theme of geography. Participants completed this task as a required take-home assignment. Because the majority of students were from Kansas, the author presents results from locations of Kansas hometowns in this article. Students seemed to prefer to use relative location rather than absolute location to describe their hometowns. Realizing that expressing relative location only in one way may not be sufficient, students described relative location in numerous ways. In doing so, students provided interesting information and new insights about the place theme of geography. They also analyzed how absolute and relative location are subject to change over time. Through this assignment, students realized the importance of location and the significance of interactions of places of different sizes.     

Psychometric Validation of the Gambling Passion Scale (GPS) in an English-speaking University Sample

The Gambling Passion Scale (GPS) is a recently developed research instrument for assessing individuals' passion for gambling. Because the psychometric properties of the GPS have only previously been examined in French Canadians, the aim of this study was to replicate previous psychometric findings in an English-speaking university sample. Participants (female: n = 58; male: n = 89) were drawn from a university campus based on self-reported experience with gambling indexed by scores on the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS). The two-factor structure reported by Rousseau et al. (Journal of Gambling Studies, 18(1), pp. 45–66, 2002) was largely replicated in this sample, as were relationships between ‘obsessive passion’ and negative consequences stemming from gambling. These results support the validity of the GPS as a measure of gambling passion in English-speaking university gamblers and its potential to contribute to understanding problem gambling.     

Examining the relationship between gender and drug-using behaviors in adolescents: the use of diagnostic assessments and biochemical analyses of urine samples

The present study examined the relationship between gender and drug-use among adolescents using diagnostic assessments and biochemical analyses of urine samples. The data were collected in the context of a referral and assessment program for adolescents suspected of using drugs, using the Adolescent Substance Battery [1]. A six-month random sample of 20 percent of adolescents assessed for drug use were targeted for biochemical assay. Compliance for urine delivery was relatively high at 91 percent. Urine samples were quantitatively screened for pharmaceuticals using a standard thin-layer chromatography (TLC) technique [2]. Statistical significance was found in the relationship between gender and marijuana use (p < .05). This study confirms that gender and drug-using behaviors among adolescents need additional research and evaluation.     

Achieving proficiency in various specialized literacies

The primary purpose of this article is to share conceptualizations of selected specialized literacies, such as scientific, health and technological literacy, that are moving from boundaried work environments to the world at large, Secondly, We relate those conceptualiztions to the attributes of the adult literate reader that are necessary for world in general. The final goal is to develop preliminary guidelines for the specialist to use with the general public when communicating ideas from the specialized environment.