Service users’ involvement in social work education: focus on social change projects

ABSTRACT

This article presents and analyzes four projects focusing on diverse forms of service users’ involvement in social work training and research in different countries (Israel, Italy, Slovenia and UK). It highlights the value of service user involvement (SUI) to specific social change objectives and to social work education. The conceptual framework focused on the Standpoint Theory, while methodologically participatory action research was applied, and evaluation measures were developed. Key findings, facilitators and limitations to the involvement, students’ views of it and similarities and differences among the four projects are outlined. The challenges embedded in introducing and sustaining social change objectives in a co-production framework within social work education are identified, alongside the added value of meeting them. The differentiated impact the projects had on students is highlighted as well as their significance for health and social care providers were relevant. It is encouraging that in each project SUI was positively valued. The projects indicate the wide range of SUI in the content and format of social work education, as well as its applicability cross-culturally to a range of key issues pertaining to both training and research in social work.     

Tactical and operational planning of express intra-city package services

In this paper, we focus on routing and load planning associated with the tactical and operational planning of an express intra-city courier service provider that receives a large number of shipments on a daily basis and is committed to delivering them to their destinations given a short service guarantee. Tactical planning relies on high-level aggregated demand rates over long time periods and takes the form of a multi-commodity service network design where the goal is to identify one path per commodity while maximizing consolidation opportunities in the network. Commodities are transported on their paths by means of a series of continuously operating vehicle cycles, where the structure and number of such cycles are determined concurrently with commodity path assignment decisions in a mixed integer programming. A second model is designed to refine the time allocation along different segments of a commodity path allowing a potential reduction in the number of vehicles required to meet the service guarantee. In operational planning, the focus is narrowed down to a shorter time period, and the baseline plan obtained from the tactical planning phase is adjusted to better fit potential deviations in observed demand patterns compared to the aggregate patterns. Through an extensive computational study designed on the topology of a major US city, we observe that the plans designed at the tactical level guarantee high service levels, which are improved at the operational level by customizing the plan to the special characteristic of a day of operation.     

数据采掘技术与信息服务

以信息服务为目的,较详细的介绍了数据采掘技术的过程、方法及工具,并对信息服务的流程、现代化手段和发展方向以及CIO在信息服务中的地位作用等作了简单的论述。     

Build–operate–transfer (BOT): an emerging entry mode for service offshoring

Build–operate–transfer (BOT) is a well-established solution used in the engineering and construction industries for building different types of infrastructure (e.g. railways, highways, power plants). In recent years, BOT has increasingly been adopted by companies in the service industry as a mode for entering foreign markets. BOT in service offshoring (SO) is characterised by a number of significant peculiarities (e.g. different numbers of involved parties, fee methods, lengths of the concession period), which may call into question the possibility of extending existing findings that relate to infrastructure projects. The aims of this work are as follows: to collect and systematise existing knowledge on engineering and construction BOT projects; to highlight – through an exploratory case study – how these results could be applied to BOT in SO; and to shed light on the factors affecting the choice between different entry modes (including BOT).     

Social Work Education's Role in Addressing People and a Planet at Risk

As the nature of the earth's ecological crisis becomes increasingly dire and impossible to ignore and as global concern continues to increase, social work, with its investment in issues of justice and its commitment to a person-in-environment perspective, needs to more aggressively evaluate its place in this crisis. This paper presents a study designed to explore US social work students' attitudes, interests in, and practices related to the environment, as well as their perceptions of the place for environmental issues in the social work curriculum. This study's findings suggest that social work students' attitudes toward the environment are generally consonant with those of the US population, and that there is strong interest in enhancing the amount and scope of exposure to environmental issues in the social work curriculum. A sizable majority of all social work students surveyed view environmental justice as an important aspect of social justice and a viable area of concern for social workers, and they expressed an interest in seeing more content on environmental justice in social work education. Suggestions for integrating this content into the curriculum via inter- and trans-disciplinary, and service-learning approaches are discussed.     

大学生志愿服务参与意愿模型与激励机制的调查

在当前利益多元化的现实背景下,大学生参与志愿服务有了更深层次的动机和多维的目标诉求,大学生对志愿活动拥有较高热情的同时参与的持久性却很低,其参与活动动机除受到志愿者个体的影响外,家庭和高校两大外在因素的影响尤为显著。因此,应完善志愿者激励机制,理性构建志愿者服务活动的内部和外部激励机制,以促进志愿者活动的规范化、制度化和长足发展。     

战后初期菲律宾政府对日媾和政策论说

战后菲律宾的对日媾和政策主要包括赔偿与安全两个方面,主张严惩日本。当美国对日政策转变之后,美菲间在对日媾和问题上分歧重重。但由于菲律宾对美国的依附关系,其对日媾和政策主要受美国主导,而美国亦将菲律宾作为其阵营内重要成员而重视其意见,这决定了菲律宾在遵循美国媾和框架的前提下可对之进行微调。最终在美国的协调下,菲律宾签订了《旧金山和约》,后来菲日间又签订了的赔偿条约。媾和问题的解决对战后的菲日两国均产生了重要影响。     

Service Learning and The Compass Trail

Students used a compass trail to show how they could perform service to their school. When students performed service learning, they completed a real task that was needed for a grateful audience conjoined with academic content in the lesson. Students worked on the school grounds and used content from their regular curriculum while looking for real-life connections to academic applications. Students became involved in real projects that they found meaningful while making contributions to the community. Students learned about geographic tools and used those tools to accomplish their service projects. The students realized that the experience was real from their preparations, through the execution of the project, and the formative evaluation.     

河北省服务业发展政策分析

随着工业化水平的提高,服务业在国民经济和社会发展中的地位日益突出。河北省一贯重视服务业的发展,采取了一系列行之有效的政策措施。但是,发展中的问题依然存在。本文对近年来河北省服务业发展政策及其成效进行了梳理,在此基础上,通过分析服务业发展中依然存在的突出问题,对如何推进河北省服务业进一步发展提出了政策性建议。     

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Expectations,Perceptions, and Difference‐Scores Generated by the IS‐Adapted SERVQUAL Instrument

This article describes the results of a study assessing the psychometric properties of the expectations and perceptions‐of‐performance instruments and the difference‐score data contained within the information systems (IS)‐Adapted SERVQUAL measurement paradigm. The central claim of this study is: In order for rational inferences to be made about service expectations, service performance perceptions, or the gap between them, each of the two instruments must exhibit reasonable psychometric properties in isolation before difference‐scores are taken. Analysis of data from a field study (N= 401) through structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques produces empirical evidence indicating that both of the instruments exhibit low psychometric quality and yet the difference‐scores exhibit “psychometric inflation.” That is, the quality of the difference‐score data is in many ways apparently superior to the raw data from both instruments. Negative conclusions are reached as to the efficacy of either individual instrument and, thus, the full IS‐Adapted SERVQUAL paradigm. Questions and prospects for further research in this important area of service quality measurement/management are presented, and a potentially rich future for IS service quality is outlined. It is strongly suggested that future IS service quality research be based on development of a new instrument, grounded in attributes endemic to IS services and developed using the best available development techniques.