Relationship Education and Classroom Climate Impact on Adolescents' Standards for Partners/Relationships

The effectiveness of relationship education has been supported for youth in correcting faulty relationship beliefs and forming conflict management skills; however, there is very limited research addressing whether relationship education matters for building or modifying relationship standards for romantic partners or relationships. Furthermore, whether and how social climate could add to or moderate curriculum effects has not been considered. Using a sample of 1,808 students nested in 106 high school family and consumer science classes in a southern state, this study examined the impact of a general youth‐focused relationship education curriculum and classroom social climate on one ideal standard for relationship partners, warmth/trustworthiness, and one for romantic relationships, intimacy/loyalty. Findings revealed significant and positive curriculum main effects on both standards, while controlling for classroom context. The model for warmth/trustworthiness also showed classroom effects adding to curriculum effects. The role of classroom factors needs further consideration as curriculum effects are examined.     

Wade Into the Water: Preparing Students for Successful Quantitative Research*

Abstract: To date, family scientists have not examined the processes and outcomes of research training. In this study, we present a potential way in which the research‐practice gap is sustained by our current forms of research education, and we suggest two improvements. First, graduate and undergraduate programs should improve assessment of their research training. Second, experience with research should be integrated into undergraduate family studies programs, preferably in a capstone research experience for all students. Toward these ends, we present a model of curriculum organization and assessment data across 3 years. Assessment indicated that undergraduate students’ confidence and skills changed over the course of their education. These results suggest that graduate and undergraduate family studies programs could benefit from defining outcomes and investigating processes of research education for all students.     

Putting empirical knowledge to work: Linking research and programming on marital quality

When selecting a marriage education curriculum, educators can turn to programs that have been evaluated for effectiveness; however, few curricula have undergone such study. An alternative approach, consistent with best practices, is to ensure a research base for program content. A translation process model is offered as an initial attempt to explicate the often advocated yet seldom described research–practice linkage. This process is used to examine recent research on marital quality and provide examples of research‐based content in existing marriage education programs.     

Testing Allele Transmission of an SNP Set Using a Family‐Based Generalized Genetic Random Field Method

Family‐based association studies are commonly used in genetic research because they can be robust to population stratification (PS). Recent advances in high‐throughput genotyping technologies have produced a massive amount of genomic data in family‐based studies. However, current family‐based association tests are mainly focused on evaluating individual variants one at a time. In this article, we introduce a family‐based generalized genetic random field (FB‐GGRF) method to test the joint association between a set of autosomal SNPs (i.e., single‐nucleotide polymorphisms) and disease phenotypes. The proposed method is a natural extension of a recently developed GGRF method for population‐based case‐control studies. It models offspring genotypes conditional on parental genotypes, and, thus, is robust to PS. Through simulations, we presented that under various disease scenarios the FB‐GGRF has improved power over a commonly used family‐based sequence kernel association test (FB‐SKAT). Further, similar to GGRF, the proposed FB‐GGRF method is asymptotically well‐behaved, and does not require empirical adjustment of the type I error rates. We illustrate the proposed method using a study of congenital heart defects with family trios from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS).     

The social education curriculum for young Korean children

This paper describes the social education curriculum in Korea which is based on the assumption of the importance of social education for young children. The first kindergarten curriculum was set up by the Ministry of Education in 1969 and then revised in 1979, 1982 and 1987. This curriculum is being re-examined critically because of our definite concerns about the quality of education. The integration of social education within other curriculum areas and research on practices are discussed and the thesis proposed that the improvement of the curriculum should occur along with improvement in the quality of teacher education. Teachers need to put a strong emphasis on integrating social education in all aspects of the curriculum within existing preschool programs.     

Does Youth Relationship Education Continue to Work After a High School Class? A Longitudinal Study*

Abstract: Connections: Relationships and Marriage (Connections) is a high school marriage education curriculum designed to teach students how to develop healthy relationships and marriages. This study evaluated the effectiveness of this curriculum over 4‐years postintervention with a matched set of 72 high school students who were in either the Connections group or a control group. Findings suggest that although most of the immediate impacts of the curriculum fade within 4 years after the curriculum, the Connections group shows an increase in self‐esteem, a decrease in dating and relationship violence, and an increase in family cohesion over 4 years. Implications for further development of such curricula are discussed as well as implications for practitioners.     

Development of a preparenthood education model for Korean adolescents

The purpose of this study was to investigate the needs of Korean adolescents regarding preparenthood education and to suggest a curriculum model based on the results. The subjects were 800 high school boys and girls, 935 parents, and 545 teachers of the students. The research instrument was a questionnaire of 40 items on 4 topics, on a 5-point Likert scale. The topics were understanding of adolescence and sex education, family and home in modern society, parent's role and responsibility, and understanding the child and child-rearing. Data were analyzed with f-tests, F-tests, and Scheffe tests. The results showed a great need for preparenthood education for adolescents among the three groups, but boys expressed moreneeds than girls. Based on the results, principles of curriculum development were presented and a model was constructed.     

The Impact of Relationship Education on Adolescents of Diverse Backgrounds

Abstract: Adolescent‐focused marriage education is a relatively uncharted research area. Using a quasi‐experimental design, this study examined the effectiveness of an adapted version of the curriculum entitled, Love U2: Increasing Your Relationship Smarts with an economically, geographically, and racially diverse sample of 340 high school students. Findings suggest that participants showed increases in 5 dimensions of their relationship knowledge, including their ability to identify unhealthy relationship patterns. Participants also had more realistic beliefs about relationships/marriages and reported lower levels of verbal aggression use at postprogram compared to controls. Moreover, these findings existed across race, household income, and family structure type, with all participating students benefiting in similar ways. Implications for future programming and research are discussed.     

Theory‐informed nutrition education curriculum Tools For Feeling Good promotes healthy eating patterns among fifth grade pupils: cross‐sectional study

Background

The eating patterns of school‐aged children rarely meet recommendations: meal frequency is irregular and the consumption of vegetables is lower and sugar‐sweetened products higher than recommended. Although school is an excellent arena for nutrition education to support pupils eating patterns, teachers usually lack efficient tools. The present study aimed to develop a curriculum for nutrition education to be used by teachers and to examine its efficacy in the school environment with respect to the eating patterns of pupils.

Methods

The curriculum was developed in collaboration with school teachers using self‐determination theory as a theoretical standpoint. The Health at Every Size concept and sensory‐based food education were utilised in the curriculum. Self‐reported questionnaires were used to assess the feasibility and impact of the curriculum. Fourteen teachers implemented the curriculum during 2012–2013 with 194 pupils aged 10–13 years (fifth and sixth grades). The control schools included 140 pupils of the same age not following the curriculum.

Results

The teachers reported that the curriculum was easy to integrate in the school environment. The fifth graders improved their breakfast frequency, increased their consumption of vegetables and reduced their consumption of ice cream, sweets and sugar‐sweetened drinks. No improvement was found in the fifth graders at the control schools. In the sixth graders, no dietary changes were detected in the intervention or control schools.

Conclusions

The pupils in the fifth grade appeared to comprise a responsive target group for nutrition education at schools. The curriculum offers a promising approach for developing healthy eating patterns among fifth graders. Collaboration with teachers in developing the curriculum likely enhanced its feasibility and teacher commitment for implementation.

     

Perceptions of sex education for young people in Lesotho

This study aimed to identify the views of young people, parents and teachers concerning sex education in Lesotho. It was conducted at a time when the national government was considering the introduction of Population and Family Life Education, which includes sex education, into the national school curriculum. Forty‐six focus group discussions were held with young people (10), parents (30) and teachers (6) to identify current sources of sex education and views of the proposed introduction of school‐based sex education in Lesotho. Findings show the limited and problematic sources of sex education for adolescents in Lesotho. They also highlight broad support for the introduction of sex education in the national school curriculum among young people, parents and teachers. Of key importance for the development of a sex education curriculum is the balance between providing young people with information and developing their skills in sexual empowerment and negotiating sexual pressure. The use of pupil‐centred interactive pedagogies was seen as essential. Teachers, however, highlighted the need for training in the delivery of sex education, which includes instruction on course materials, teaching methodologies and developing sensitivity to teaching sexual issues to young people.     

Self‐organisation,integration and curriculum in the complex world of medical education

Context The world of medical education is more complex than ever and there seems to be no end in sight. Complexity science is particularly relevant as medical education embraces a movement towards more authentic curricula focusing on integration, interactive small‐group learning, and early and sustained clinical and community experiences. Discussion A medical school as a whole, and the expression of its curriculum through the interactions, exchanges and learning that take place within and outside of it, is a complex system. Complexity science, a derivative of the natural sciences, is the study of the dynamics, conditions and consequences of interactions. It addresses the nature of the conditions favourable to change and transformation (learning). Conclusions The core process of complexity, self‐organisation, requires a system that is open and far from equilibrium, with ill‐defined boundaries and a large number of non‐linear interactions involving short‐loop feedback. In such a system, knowledge does not exist objectively ‘out there’; rather, it exists as a result of the exchange between participants, an action that becomes knowing. Understanding is placed between participants rather than being contained in one or the other. Knowledge is not constructed separately in the mind of the knower, but, rather, it emerges; it is co‐created during the exchange in an authentic recursive transactive process. Learning and knowing become adaptive responses to continuously evolving circumstances. An approach to curriculum based on self‐organisation is characterised as rich, recursive, relational and rigorous and it illuminates how a curriculum can be understood as a complex adaptive system. The perspective of complexity applied to medical education broadens and enriches research questions relevant to health professions education. It focuses our attention onto how we are together as human beings. How we respond to and frame the issues of learning and understanding that challenge contemporary medicine and, by extension, medical education, in a complex and rapidly changing world can have profound effects on the preparedness of tomorrow’s health professionals and their impact on society. Medical Education 2010: 44 : 20–30     

中小学营养教育的问题与对策

我国中小学营养教育存在宣传和法律保障不到位、课堂教学薄弱、教育效果不佳、师资和课程资源缺乏等突出问题。目前主要解决对策为营造教育氛围、完善学校立法、研制教学大纲、完善教育评估体系、开展教育教学研究、研究师资培养和培训模式、开发利用课程资源。     

An Interactive Web‐Based Program for Stepfamilies: Development and Evaluation of Efficacy

This study evaluated the efficacy of a family life education program for stepfamilies that is self‐administered, interactive, and web‐based. The program uses behavior‐modeling videos to demonstrate effective couple, parenting, and stepparenting practices. A diverse sample of 300 parents/stepparents of a child aged 11–15 years were randomized into either treatment or delayed‐access control groups. Findings suggest that participation in the stepfamily education program positively influenced several key areas of parenting and family functioning at postprogram and follow‐up. No gender differences were noted in the findings.     

General practice in the curriculum in Slovenia

Specific education in primary care in Slovenia developed in 1966, when vocational training for general practitioners was introduced. However, general practice never gained academic acceptance and was not introduced as a separate subject at undergraduate level. With the reform of medical education in Slovenia starting in 1987, family medicine was finally introduced as a specific subject in the final year. The new curriculum introduced a strong emphasis on practice-based teaching and in 1995 the first university department of family medicine was formally established. This article reports the first evaluation of the programme, based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of questionnaires, from students and the general practitioners who were their tutors. The programme was very well accepted by the students, who enjoyed working independently in a friendly environment where their tutors were more facilitators than teachers. The main problem is recognition of tutors by the medical and educational establishment, which will motivate tutors to perform additional educational tasks in the future.     

Family Coaching: An Emerging Family Science Field

Although there is a rich history of collaboration and distinction among family practitioners, to remain progressive, the domains of family practice must continue to evolve based on the current practices of family professionals. Recently, family coaching (FC) has captured the professional attention of practitioners as another collaborative yet distinct field in family science. FC seeks to foster the achievement of family‐identified goals through a process‐driven relationship between a family and professional coach. In this article, the authors introduce FC and explore it as an extension to the domains of family practice model. In addition, the authors offer results from a nationwide sample of family practitioners (N = 180) regarding their experiences and opinions of FC to further substantiate the field's progression.     

Ethik in der medizinischen Aus- und Weiterbildung

Ethics education is a topic of growing importance in the medical curriculum. Medical ethics can be defined as the skilled professional discourse on moral issues in patient care, medical research and the health-care system. Ethical competence comprises conscientiousness and the ability to give reasons for intuitive moral convictions. In the curriculum, course content and didactic approaches should be aimed at all levels (cognitive, affective, practical), as discussed in this paper. Case based seminars are the gold standard of ethics education. The teacher's responsibility is rooted in their character as role models during case discussions. Ethics education should continue throughout the curriculum. In Germany the compulsory subject "history, theory, ethics of medicine" is predominant in the curriculum, but courses vary greatly between different universities. Further research is needed in the fields of adequate assessment formats and evaluation of final outcomes of ethics education. Interprofessional ethics education (undergraduate and postgraduate) is a major challenge for the future, especially since services for clinical ethics consultation and moral case deliberation are becoming more established in German hospitals.     

Differences in curriculum emphasis in US undergraduate and generalist residency education programmes

OBJECTIVES: Little attention has been paid to the differential emphasis undergraduate and graduate medical education programmes place on the broad competencies that will be needed for practice in an increasingly managed health care environment. The purpose of this study was to determine differences in emphasis that undergraduate and primary care graduate medical education programmes are currently placing on 33 broad practice competencies, compared with the emphasis they ideally would like to give them, and the barriers they perceive to curriculum change. DESIGN: Subjects were surveyed by mailed questionnaire. A reminder postcard and follow-up mailing were sent to non-respondents. SETTING: US allopathic medical schools. SUBJECTS: Academic deans identified by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and generalist (family medicine, internal medicine, paediatrics and obstetrics-gynaecology) residency programme directors identified by the American Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). RESULTS: Findings revealed that residency programmes placed greater emphasis on the study's broad curriculum topics than did undergraduate medical education programmes. Statistically significant differences were found in current emphasis for 12 topics and ideal emphasis for six topics. Both groups identified an already crowded curriculum and inadequate funding as the top two barriers to curriculum change. CONCLUSIONS: The differences in curriculum emphases and perceived barriers to curriculum change most probably reflect the different realities of undergraduate and graduate medical education programmes, i.e. academics vs. a focus on immediate practice realities.     

Anatomy Instruction in Medical Schools: Connecting the Past and the Future

Anatomy curriculum has changed dramatically around the world since the 1960s. These changes include the reduction of course hours, the abandonment of cadaver dissection, the use of problem-based learning, application of other teaching modalities such as prosected specimens, models, radiographic images, computer simulations, and the introduction of humanity and death education. This article discusses the controversies in anatomy curriculum in Western countries, including the rationale for those changes, and the opinions of the objections.     

Family Capital: How First‐Generation Higher Education Students Break the Intergenerational Cycle

Individuals who attain a higher education, whereas both their parents did not, embody the realization of social mobility. They are referred to as first‐generation higher education students. Previous analyses had often portrayed them as succeeding despite their family background. This research suggests that although they face many challenges, their families are often facilitators of their success. In‐depth, semistructured interviews were used to collect data from Israeli first‐generation students (N= 50). We employed a grounded theory approach, and our analysis reveals that breaking the intergenerational cycle of educational level inheritance involves day‐to‐day family life that prioritizes education through nonmaterial resources. We conceptualized this investment of nonmaterial resources as family capital. A better understanding of this role is valuable for designing efficient policy.