Difficulty in seeking information about health care quality and costs: The field of dreams fallacy

While government agencies and health organizations have increased efforts to provide online information about health care quality and costs, we know little about whether individuals seek out or understand this information. Using results from a Louisiana telephone survey (N = 1030), we examine intent to use a website devoted to information about health care quality and costs and self-reported difficulty in finding this information. Intent to use a website is driven primarily by prior Internet use while difficulty in learning about health care quality is associated with greater choice in health care providers and dissatisfaction with current care.     

Re-engineering the multiple choice question exam for social work

The aim of this study is to devise a multiple choice question (MCQ) exam that provides students with opportunities to engage in a deep approach to learning. Multiple choice assessment is largely unused in social work degree courses in the UK because of associations with techniques such as guessing and rote learning, which do not correspond with deep approaches to learning. Strategies used to enhance opportunities for a deep approach to learning within the MCQ exam used in this study included certainty-based marking (CBM), enhancing the use of formative feedback and giving students responsibility for devising the MCQs. Results show that students use similar levels of deep learning when they completed a MCQ exam compared to those students who completed an essay exam. The deep learning approach for the MCQ exam was, however, less when compared to a different module that used an essay assignment. There is an increasing pressure on Higher Education to provide more robust assessment practices, and findings in this study suggest it may be time for social work tutors to reconsider the role of the MCQ format within the existing range of assessment tools.     

挑战、机遇与选择--论经济全球化与国家主权的博弈

20世纪90年代以来经济全球化浪潮席卷全球.经济全球化一方面对国家主权概念提出了严峻的挑战,导致了国家主权特别是发展中国家主权的弱化;另一方面又为民族国家强化国家主权和职能提供了契机.面对经济全球化,主权国家尤其是发展中国家应积极参与,从容应对,加快政府职能转变和制度创新,树立新的国家主权观.     

文学世界中的道德冲突

道德是维系社会生活的重要力量,每一个人由于身份、角色的多样性,由此衍生不同的道德责任和道德义务。当个体处于不同的道德情境中,往往陷入道德冲突。梳理中国百年文学史,借助对文学作品中广泛的道德冲突现象分析,理解道德对共同生活的意义和价值。     

试析编辑基本规律与编辑活动

编辑基本规律贯穿于包括编辑选择的编辑活动的始终。编辑活动的主体是编辑人员,客体是以书稿、文稿为中心的编辑对象,编辑主体与编辑客体之间的矛盾是经常的、普遍的。解决这一矛盾的途径,只有选择和加工。     

奥斯威辛的罪与罚--《苏菲的选择》中的原罪观解读

美国小说家威廉·斯泰隆的小说《苏菲的选择》是大屠杀文学的经典之作。斯泰隆将他的问题意识扎根于基督教神学之中,通过波兰女子苏菲在克拉科夫、奥斯威辛和纽约布鲁克林的生活遭遇重新诠释了基督教的原罪观念。斯泰隆的诠释不再只停留在对纳粹暴行的谴责上,转而关注于每个人原初的罪恶,由原初自由的丧失所导致的罪恶之境。这种诠释不仅改变了传统意义上对大屠杀经验的反思,更为身处绝望之境的人们指明救赎的方向。     

Warum werden Arbeiterkinder vom Studium an Universitäten abgelenkt? Eine empirische Überprüfung der „Ablenkungsthese“ von Müller und Pollak (2007) und ihrer Erweiterung durch Hillmert und Jacob (2003)

Why are the working- class children diverted from universities? In spite of the educational expansion, the decline of inequalities of educational opportunities in schools, and the institutional reforms in vocational training and university education, the access to tertiary education at university remains still remarkably unequal across social classes. In accordance with the ?diversion thesis‘ suggested by Müller and Pollak and extended by Hillmert and Jacob working class children are lead away from the direct path to university to non-academic education institutions because of both the impact of institutional structures of the educational systems on individuals‘ educational choices and the attractiveness of alternative education and training in non-academic areas. In order to investigate how does the diversion work the mechanisms of socially selective educational choices have to be analyzed from the perspective of rational action theory. For the empirical test of the theoretical approach data about school-leaves with the ?Abitur‘ (high school degree) in the East Germany federal state Saxony are employed. Subjective evaluation of the former educational performance, the expectation to be successful at university and the subjectively expected costs are the mechanisms mainly responsible that working class children more likely choose the vocational training than education at university. In particular, the subjectively expected success at university has the greatest impact on working class children‘s educational choices leading them away from the university.     

Problem-Solving and Decision-Making as Central Processes of Family Life:

No abstract available for this article.     

Value of Statistical Life and Cause of Accident: A Choice Experiment

The purpose of this study is to compare the value of statistical life (VSL) estimates for traffic, drowning, and fire accidents. Using a choice experiment in a mail survey of 5,000 Swedish respondents we estimated the willingness to pay for risk reductions in the three accidents. In the experiment respondents were asked a series of questions, whether they would choose risk reducing investments where type of accident, cost of the investment, the risk reduction acquired, and the baseline risk varied between questions. The VSLs for fire and drowning accidents were found to be about 1/3 lower than that for traffic accidents. Although respondents worry more about traffic accidents, this alone cannot explain the difference in VSL estimates. The difference between fire and drowning accidents was not found to be statistically significant.     

Building a Faith-Based Human Service Agency

Abstract

Interest in faith-based organizations has increased substantially since the Bush administration made them a priority in the presidential campaign of 2000 and established a special office in the White House to promote their involvement in government supported human services. The primary goal of this initiative is to encourage faith-based organizations, usually understood to mean congregations, to engage their members in supporting services to those most in need. While most research on faith-based organizations is limited to the past decade or two, very little is known about how they operate. This case study of Community Ministries of Rockville, Maryland (CMR) is designed to address this issue. CMR differs from most faith-based organizations in that it neither represents a single congregation nor the traditional faith-related social service agency like Catholic, Jewish, or Lutheran Social Services. The case study features the twenty-five year history of the Executive Director of a faith-based human service organization supported by twenty congregations. It concludes with the identification of major challenges and lessons learned.