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Understanding the role of teaching presence in students' learning can help improve online teaching. This study explored the effects of online teaching presence on students' cognitive conflict and engagement by analyzing three rounds of a course taught with different levels of teaching presence. The participants were 132 students enrolled across the three rounds. Content and lag sequential analysis were used to explore the effects of teaching presence on students' cognitive conflict and learning engagement. The results show that design and facilitation can engage students in reflection and involve them in cognitive conflicts and cognitive engagement (p <.001). Moreover, timely facilitation and direct instruction had no significant effect on students' responses to cognitive conflict. These results illuminate the impact of teaching presence on students' learning engagement through cognitive conflict and provide instructors with practical guidance for online teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in how students and teachers understand online teaching presence play a key role in teaching design. To explore how students and teachers perceive teaching presence, this study surveyed 1,041 students and 18 teachers who participated in an online course at a Chinese university. The analysis found students' perceived teaching presence was significantly lower than the teachers', particularly in terms of facilitating discourse (p <.001). Regarding the perceived importance of the five dimensions of teaching presence (Wang et al., 2019), students perceived facilitating discourse to be more important than direct instruction, while the opposite was found to be true for teachers. The divergence creates a challenge for teachers in engaging students in learning. The results indicate that teachers could pay more attention to the following dimensions to improve students' learning experience: making macro-level comments on courses, designing instructional methods, providing formative feedback for homework and discussions, and making full use of technological tools in teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviewed are 31 studies that evaluated recidivism rates from juvenile drug treatment courts relative to a random-assignment or convenience comparison group. Recidivism was defined as re-referral, new charges, or re-arrest. Mean effect sizes and confidence intervals are provided for the three recidivism assessment time frames most often used by researchers (e.g., recidivism occurring “during the drug court program”; “during, plus post-program”; and “post-program only”). Characteristics of youths and programs that were hypothesized to correlate with the size of effect (e.g., gender and ethnic proportions of program participants, methodological quality of studies) were examined in an attempt to account for variation in effect sizes across studies. The average premature termination rate from drug court programs, as a face-valid indicator of typical program effectiveness, is also reported. The results, based on significantly more studies than past reviews, show that juvenile drug court treatment program youths, relative to controls, had slightly more gains than short-term, pre-to-post-program assessments. Results are compared to adult drug court outcomes, and program and participant correlates of effect size are discussed. Suggestions for further research into possible improvements of programs are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the small-group, learner-led discussion process in synchronous discussions. Transcripts from online chats and face-to-face discussions were analyzed within the context of the Community of Inquiry framework to examine the relationship of teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence to one another and for evidence of changes in frequency of teaching, social, and cognitive presence over time. Findings suggest that social presence and cognitive presence are highly positively correlated and that teaching presence and social presence are moderately positively correlated in learner-led synchronous environments. The frequency of teaching, social, and cognitive presence did not change over time for either group. Findings also indicate that neither the group meeting online nor the group meeting face-to-face attained high levels of cognitive presence integration or resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore changes in satisfaction with perceived knowledge gained as a function of learner satisfaction with course structure, learner satisfaction with interaction, and technical expertise in a variety of distance learning environments. Using Moore's (1993) theory of transactional distance as a conceptual framework, the researchers obtained data from learners in six courses that varied by course format, structure, and opportunities for interaction. Results indicated that learner satisfaction with the course structure-activities, assignments, and instructor guidance and encouragement-led to greater satisfaction with perceived knowledge gained. Interaction was highly correlated with structure. Interactions initiated by the learners contributed to their satisfaction with perceived knowledge gained. Technical expertise had no effect on satisfaction with perceived knowledge gained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Street is educational software based on latent semantic analysis (LSA), a computer method for representing the content of texts. The classroom trial described here demonstrates the power of LSA to support an educational goal by providing automatic feedback on the content of students' summaries. Summary Street provides this feedback in an easy-to-grasp, graphic display that helps students to improve their writing across multiple cycles of writing and revision on their own before receiving a teacher's final evaluation. The software thus has the potential to provide students with extensive writing practice without increasing the teacher's workload. In classroom trials 6th-grade students not only wrote better summaries when receiving content-based feedback from Summary Street, but also spent more than twice as long engaged in the writing task. Specifically, their summaries were characterized by a more balanced coverage of the content than summaries composed without this feedback. Greater improvement in content scores was observed with texts that were difficult to summarize. Classroom implementation of Summary Street is discussed, including suggestions for instructional activities beyond summary writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through computational analysis of natural language responses, this exploratory study considered problems related to the assessment of adolescent moral identity. The matched sample was composed of 15 care exemplar and 15 comparison adolescents from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse urban neighborhoods. Participants were given a semi-structured interview based on a well-known study of adolescent moral identity (Hart & Fegley, 1995). Interview questions were designed to elicit representations of self and other. Participant responses were analyzed with the use of a computational language program. Findings indicated that care exemplar adolescents integrated parent and peer representations into actual selves. Contrary to expectations, care exemplar actual selves did not significantly incorporate the ideal self-representation. Implications for findings related to moral identity socialization and the efficacy of the computational methodology are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study that investigated how doctoral students in a private distance education institution maintained a high level of persistence with a distant academic community and developed academic support during their second year of study. Information on the academic midlife stage and mentoring; Factors related to the success of distance learning academic programs; Information on mentoring and the virtual campus.

In Ohio, there has been a recent but concerted effort from the state health department down through the local health departments to complete community health assessment studies for the prioritization and delivery of health services in their respective communities. At the same time, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations has been actively encouraging hospitals to assess targeted communities prior to the delivery of community-based services. In a changing health care system that demands greater emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention, new alliances are born of necessity, with collaborative products and benefits to all involved. A local health department and a community hospital in south central Ohio that was jointly owned by the city and county, in consultation with a neighboring state university, embarked on a 1 1/2-year study to define, prioritize, and plan service delivery for the community through Health Watch 2000. Six priority health areas based on national health objectives were determined along with subsequent health planning recommendations, leading to the ultimate goal of healthy people in healthy communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examined the prevalence of bulimia in female junior high and high school students residing in an agricultural community within a large, rural catchment area. We conducted follow-up interviews with subgroups of clinical and control participants screened for bulimia by self-report measures. Corroborating interview data showed that the overall prevalence of bulimia was greater than 1.7%. Sole reliance on established cutoff scores from the Bulimia Test suggests estimates of about 2 % for female junior high school students and 4% for female high school students. Although bulimia appears to be somewhat more common in high school, few differences between female junior high and high school students were found in the prevalence of extreme dieting behaviors (e.g., self-induced vomiting). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study summarizes and integrates controlled outcome studies that have specifically assessed the effects Of adult companionship as a primary treatment strategy for children. The relation between treatment and method factors and the size of treatment effects is also examined. It is concluded that the typical child engaged in companionship therapy is only minimally improved relative to untreated control children. Although companionship therapy factors do not by themselves seem to have a significant impact on the typical child, a number of variables are outlined that may contribute to enhanced effects for some children. The implications of this body of research for understanding the therapeutic effects of relationship factors as such are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Member perceptions of male and female group leaders who served as consultants in Tavistock study groups or trainers in T-groups were studied by questionnaire report. The general premise that reactions to male and female leaders would vary as a function of social context and consequent leader style was confirmed. Three of five leader dimensions showed effects of interaction between leader gender and type of group. Differences, however, were not in the expected direction. Female T-group trainers were perceived as least competent and least potent, and male trainers were most positively valued. Consistent with expectations, T-group trainers were seen as more emotional and supportive. These findings are related to prior clinical and research reports of generally negative reactions to female group leaders and to theoretical propositions concerning the basis for such reactions in culturally predominant socialization experiences in western European and North American societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]