Achieving high quality and long‐lasting matches in youth mentoring programmes: a case study of 4Results mentoring

Mentoring programmes show significant promise for enhancing the well‐being of youth with complex needs. Research indicates that high quality mentoring, although difficult to achieve, positively impacts youth development across behavioural, social, emotional and academic domains. The difficulty of sustaining long‐term matches between mentors and youth, however, remains an important concern for the field of mentoring, as foreshortened matches can be harmful to youth. The 4Results mentoring programme has been identified as a Promising Practice through the Washington State Inventory of child‐serving behavioural and mental health programmes and has developed a unique infrastructure to support critical programme values such as match longevity. In 7 years, the programme has successfully retained 98% of mentors for at least 1 year with an average match length of 3.7 years. The following article describes the programme's guiding philosophy and approach to recruiting and training mentors in the context of existing best practices research.     

Adapting an evidence-based model to retain adolescent study participants in longitudinal research

Maintaining contact with and collecting outcome data from adolescent study participants can present a significant challenge for researchers conducting longitudinal studies. Establishing an organized and effective protocol for participant follow-up is crucial to reduce attrition and maintain high retention rates. This paper describes our methods in using and adapting the evidence-based Engagement, Verification, Maintenance, and Confirmation (EVMC) model to follow up with adolescents 6 and 12 months after implementation of a health program. It extends previous research by focusing on two key modifications to the model: (1) the central role of cell phones and texting to maintain contact with study participants throughout the EVMC process and, (2) use of responsive two-way communication between staff and participants and flexible administration modes and methods in the confirmation phase to ensure that busy teens not only respond to contacts, but also complete data collection. These strategies have resulted in high overall retention rates (87–91%) with adolescent study participants at each follow-up data collection point without the utilization of other, more involved tracking measures. The methods and findings presented may be valuable for other researchers with limited resources planning for or engaged in collecting follow-up outcome data from adolescents enrolled in longitudinal studies.     

基于STEM教育重塑学前儿童科学教育旨归

源起于美国并在全球逐渐被重视、甚至作为教育发展战略的STEM教育,其根本目标是培养具有跨学科知识素养和真实问题解决能力的未来公民。基于学科融通的问题解决意识驱动,学生从生活中最真实的感兴趣的问题出发,运用多学科经验主动参与式地学习。而我国学前儿童科学教育在反思长期教育实践中重知识讲解传授、重形式轻操作、成人绝对主导等问题后也逐渐明晰了儿童自发探究基础上教师指导的探究教学取向。本文基于STEM教育目的、理念及核心特征重构我国学前儿童科学教育的价值取向及其组织与实施。     

美沙酮维持治疗者的社会网络特征与维持状况的研究

目的：了解受艾滋病和社会歧视双重威胁的美沙酮维持治疗者的社会网络的构成、特征．并探讨其与维持状况之间的关系。方法：以方便抽样方式获得样本并以结构式访问收集资料，对进入无锡市美沙酮维持治疗门诊的277名吸毒者进行社会流行病学调查；采用SPSS与质性研究方法进行分析。结果：该人群普遍感到社会歧视的存在，其社会交往和社会支持网络仅限于父母、家人、朋友等非正式群体；与社会间互动的缺失以及吸毒者的标签化导致社会支持网络中的正式群体在其治疗、维持及社会救助中未起到主要作用。结论：美沙酮维持治疗者社会网络的特征将影响维持治疗的效果．加强该人群与正式社会网络的互动对恢复其家庭和社会功能具有重要意义。     

Sustaining transitions from welfare to work: the perceptions of employers and employment service providers

Successive Australian Governments have sought to improve the capacity of the employment service system to build jobseekers' skills and capabilities and to promote transitions from income support to paid work. Yet despite these efforts, many jobseekers experience only short periods of employment, moving repeatedly between joblessness and positions with low skill requirements, low pay and few or fluctuating hours. This article explores ways to achieve more sustained transitions from welfare to work for disadvantaged jobseekers. We draw on data from a qualitative study of employment service providers who assisted jobseekers into work and the managers in the organisations that employed them. These informants' perspectives underline the importance of improving the quality of jobs that require low levels of skills and experience and demonstrate some ways employers and employment services can better work together and provide more enduring and effective forms of support.     

TREATING CLIENTS FAIRLY

The equitable distribution of maintenance, or care, services derives principally from the decision-making activities of the line workers in a service program. When program rules and guidelines are relatively general and awards are specific, workers develop functions which relate client need to program benefit. However, among counties and offices within a county, these functions may differ, resulting in inequitable service awards to clients. An empirical study of the In-home Supportive Services program in California reveals office distributive functions and determines the consistency with which workers follow them. Through factor analysis and linear regression, the distributive rules are made explicit so that workers can determine how they may be unintentionally treating clients unfairly.     

The relationship between HRM practices and organizational commitment of knowledge workers. Facts obtained from Swiss SMEs

This paper explores the effects of human resource management (HRM) practices in Swiss small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). More specifically, the main objective of this study is to assess the impacts of HRM practices developed in Swiss SMEs upon the commitment of knowledge workers. Using data from a survey of over 198 knowledge workers, this study shows the importance of looking closer at HRM practices and, furthermore, to really investigate the impacts of the different HRM practices on employees' commitment. Results show, for example, that organizational support, procedural justice and the reputation of the organization may clearly influence knowledge workers' commitment, whereas other HRM practices such as involvement in decision-making, skills management or even the degree of satisfaction with pay do not have any impact on knowledge workers' commitment.     

Routes to Part‐Time Management in UK Service Sector Organizations: Implications for Women’s Skills,Flexibility and Progression

This article examines the implications of part‐time working for mothers, particularly with regards to their occupational mobility and acquisition of skills, in UK service sector organizations following the implementation of the Part‐time Workers’ Directive in 2000. Through qualitative interviews with women and their managers in five hospitality workplaces, this article explores whether part‐time workers are potentially the ‘losers’ in the ‘winner‐takes‐all’ approach to career development. Discussions focus upon the extent to which part‐time workers can access career paths or, alternatively, whether part‐time management positions are the reserve of highly skilled women who are able to negotiate reduced hours after obtaining a management position full time. In conclusion, this article distinguishes between two forms of working‐time flexibility, which are named optimal and restrictive. The implications of these alternative types of flexibility, in terms of access to skill acquisition and occupational mobility, are then addressed.     

The racial politics of STEM education in the USA: interrogations and explorations

ABSTRACT

This special issue brings together a mix of early-career, mid, and senior scholars to critically examine current realities of, and boldly imagine future possibilities for, STEM education in the lives of racially minoritized children in the United States. Given the implicit and sometimes explicit aspirations of STEM education to be a counteracting force against racialized injustice, how do students and communities of color experience and make sense of STEM reforms/initiatives? By examining a broad range of STEM contexts including mathematics, computer science, science and environmental science education, and through a diversity of methodological approaches, this special issue aims to contribute to a scholarly conversation about how racialized power intersects with the larger themes and foci of STEM education. In our introduction, we both highlight broad themes of the issue, and offer possible directions for future research at the intersections of race, power, and STEM.     

教師應該允許有多大的自主性(英文)

本文涉及教師自主性的問题,包括教師應否有自主性,應有多大的自主性。作者探討了教師自主性在课堂及學習過程中發揮的正面影響。教師的自主性與他的满足感乃至流動性都有直接的關係。本文還對學校行政人員在教師自主性上扮演的角色也作了回顧,闡明了行政人员經常出於各種考慮傾向於限制教師的自主性。此外,也探討了規範化测試對於教師自主性的影響。