Search results

The contemporary focus on high fidelity implementation of research-based practices often creates tensions for educators who seek to balance fidelity with needed flexibility as they strive to improve learner outcomes. In an effort to improve how decisions are made such that flexibility is achieved while fidelity to core components is maintained, this chapter begins with a discussion of the role of fidelity in research and practice. Particular attention is given to current conceptualizations of fidelity that may help inform theoretically and empirically driven adaptations to research-based practices. Specifically, we describe adaptations based on the instructional context for implementation and the characteristics of the individual learners. A framework for adapting research-based practices is then presented with relevant examples from research designed to optimize learner responsiveness without sacrificing fidelity to core components. The chapter ends with implications and future directions for research and practice.

Changes in the traditional values, institutional context, and choice of change programs are currently shaping the postmodern science and practice of organization development (OD). These changes manifest themselves in powerful new value orientations, intervention frameworks, and practices that challenge OD's long-held beliefs in ethical and justice-based treatment. In this effort, traditional and new paradigm ethical dilemmas are explored, as well as their relationship to four postmodern practices and five emergent intervention techniques. Components of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice are explained relative to change management programs generally, and to emergent techniques specifically. Published case illustrations are used to depict new paradigm ethical dilemmas and opportunities to create a “just change.”

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to introduce MEDIA PROTECT, a multi-modal intervention for parents and teachers with six components preventing problematic, and in the long run addictive, use of screen media by children; second, to present results of a formative evaluation of the teacher training, an important component of the intervention.

In presenting the intervention, the authors used a common framework to describe complex interventions systematically. For the evaluation, participants were recruited from German schools and kindergarten for a cluster-controlled trial. As part of a formative evaluation, the participants completed written questionnaires to determine the importance of different components of the intervention in addition to their overall satisfaction. Additional qualitative interviews with teachers were conducted.

The authors recruited n=50 kindergartens and n=9 schools; n=30 received the intervention. N=222 teachers participated in the training and n=192 completed the questionnaire (86 per cent). Seven qualitative interviews were conducted. Participants exhibited high levels of overall satisfaction with the training, considered it moderately to highly relevant to their work, and exhibited varying satisfaction levels with different components and multipliers. The qualitative data support these findings.

Few interventions to date have pursued a universal approach to the prevention of problematic screen media use. This evaluation of MEDIA PROTECT is the most recent study in Germany, which involves a complex programme through which teachers are taught ways to promote the age-adequate use of screen media in the family, parents are provided with guidance and healthy leisure time activities for children are fostered.

The purpose of this paper is to review the effectiveness of social marketing interventions in influencing individual behaviour and bringing about environmental and policy‐level changes in relation to alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs and physical activity. Social marketing is the use of marketing concepts in programmes designed to influence the voluntary behaviour of target audiences in order to improve health and society.

The paper is a review of systematic reviews and primary studies using pre‐specified search and inclusion criteria. Social marketing interventions were defined as those which adopted specified social marketing principles in their development and implementation.

The paper finds that a total of 54 interventions met the inclusion criteria. There was evidence that interventions adopting social marketing principles could be effective across a range of behaviours, with a range of target groups, in different settings, and can influence policy and professional practice as well as individuals.

As this was a systematic paper, the quality of included studies was reasonable and many were RCTs. However, many of the multi‐component studies reported overall results only and research designs did not allow for the efficacy of different components to be compared. When reviewing social marketing effectiveness it is important not to rely solely on the “label” as social marketing is often misrepresented; there is a need for social marketers to clearly define their approach.

The paper shows that social marketing can form an effective framework for behaviour change interventions and can provide a useful “toolkit” for organisations that are trying to change health behaviours.

The research described in this paper represents one of the few systematic examinations of social marketing effectiveness and is based on a clear definition of “social marketing”. It highlights both social marketing's potential to achieve change in different behavioural contexts and its ability to work at individual, environmental and wider policy levels.

Recent research suggests that multi-component and contextualized interventions are a good option for the treatment of children with ADHD. The primary goal of the present investigation was to examine the efficacy of a multi-component psychosocial intervention involving children, with ADHD, their parents and their teachers. Forty-two children with ADHD were distributed in two groups: one with 27 children who received the intervention (experimental group) and the other with 15 children who received no intervention (control group). The effects of the intervention program were evaluated in three basic developmental areas: school learning, emotional adjustment and social adjustment. Once the intervention was over, the learning problems of children with ADHD who participated in the intervention were significantly reduced, based on the observations of both parents and teachers. Furthermore, social adjustment of the treated group improved significantly at the posttest evaluation. In contrast, in the group of children with ADHD who did not receive treatment, the learning and social problems remained stable.

Many youth with a disability would like to work but encounter challenges finding employment. Vocational interventions can help youth with disabilities gain employment skills and jobs. In this chapter, we assess: (1) how vocational programs for youth with physical disabilities influence employment-related skills and outcomes; and (2) the common components of vocational programs for these youth.

Our research team conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature with six major databases: Medline, PsychInfo, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Embase. Publications selected for inclusion met the following criteria: (1) peer-reviewed journal article, dissertation, or conference paper, published between 1990 and January 2014; (2) addresses vocational program or intervention for youth with physical disabilities; and (3) sample includes at least 50% youth (aged 15–25) with an acquired or congenital physical disability.

Of the 4,588 studies identified in our search, 8 met the inclusion criteria. In six of the studies, the majority of participants gained paid or unpaid employment after participating in a vocational program. Five studies showed improved knowledge and perceptions of employment. Most studies showed improvements in at least one vocational outcome such as knowledge about job searching, job interviews, advocating for workplace adaptations, and how to access services and supports. Common intervention components included: experiential learning, mentorship, and family involvement. Most programs took place in the community or rehabilitation centers that varied in length and were delivered by a variety of professionals. Most programs had a combination of group and individual components.

There is some evidence to suggest that vocational programs can influence employment outcomes for youth with physical disabilities. However, further research is needed with more rigorous and longitudinal designs.

The purpose of this paper is to map and identify evidence for effective components of combined school and family alcohol education interventions. The paper describes current practice, evaluative evidence of its effects, and highlights specific elements of school and family linked education associated with effective prevention or reduction of alcohol misuse by young people aged 11-18 years.

This paper takes the form of a systematic review.

The review found evidence of small positive effects for interventions delivered over short and longer term duration and low and higher levels of direct contact with students and families. Family-based elements that correlated with positive effects were targeting information and skills development, family communications, and stricter parental attitudes to alcohol misuse. School-based components which involved life skills and social norms approaches were associated with reductions in risky behaviours. Weaker evidence indicated that peer-led programmes, external delivery agents and linkages of school-based components to community-level change may strengthen combined school and family intervention programmes.

The heterogeneity of the studies precluded the option to perform meta-analysis.

There is a need for more focused use of planning and evaluation tools, and especially more explicit articulation of behaviours and/or behavioural determinants targeted; the methods that will be employed and the conceptual basis for the programme design could contribute to deeper understanding amongst the intervention community of how and why impact is or is not achieved.

Few studies provide information on the concepts, assumptions or change objectives that shape programme design. The potential benefits of combining school and family education interventions warrants further exploration.

The authors believe this is the first review to systematically examine objectives, design and impact of combined school and family alcohol education interventions.

This paper aims to present the process evaluation for a two‐year (2008‐2010) participatory action research project focusing on home‐school partnership in health learning, undertaken within the Schools for Health in Europe (SHE) in Eastern Finland.

Two intervention schools and two control schools (grade 5 pupils, parents, and selected school personnel) participated in a study. Process evaluation data were collected from intervention schools after 10 months of participation, by interviewing two classroom teachers and three families. In addition, program documents and relevant statistics were collected from schools during the intervention.

Teachers' opinions on the development process varied from more concrete expectations (School A teacher) to overall satisfaction to implementation (School B teacher). Parents believed that their children would benefit from the project later in life. The context and differences of the school environments were likely to affect the development process at the school level.

This paper demonstrates a process evaluation in two schools and, therefore, limits the generalizability of the findings.

The process evaluation was an essential part of this intervention study and may provide a useful structure and an example for process evaluation for future school‐based health intervention studies.

This study highlights the importance of planning the process evaluation structure before the start of the intervention, brings out the relevance of systematically assessing the process while it is ongoing, and illustrates process evaluation in an action research project.

Obesity in children and adolescents is a significant public health concern. The World Health Organization Health Promoting Schools (HPS) framework promotes good nutrition and physical activity in school settings. While HPS is embraced globally, effective implementation and sustainable programmes are a continued challenge. This paper aims to report on the characteristics of current school interventions based on HPS and implementation barriers and enablers.

A literature search identified peer-reviewed studies of school health interventions reflective of the HPS framework focusing on obesity prevention. Studies from all countries were included, if conducted in primary and/or secondary schools; included a sufficient amount of qualitative implementation or process evaluation data to draw conclusions regarding key barriers and enablers to implementation; and were published in English.

Nine interventions (n = 9) from seven countries were included. Most were implemented in primary schools and focused on specific grade levels. Engaging parents, the home environment, teacher time constraints, fun interventions, student participation, teacher training, integration with the curriculum and stakeholder engagement all emerged as strong implementation themes. Teachers as role models, establishing community partnerships and policy support also emerged as common themes.

Future interventions may benefit from enhancing teacher and parent health promotion. Partnerships with initiatives focusing on environmental sustainability may simultaneously benefit human and planetary health while strengthening stakeholder engagement opportunities and consistent messaging throughout the community. More comprehensive evaluation data are needed, in particular, for long-term HPS initiatives.

This chapter presents a quantitative and qualitative review of research on the use of behavioral self-management (BSM) procedures with adolescents with learning disabilities or behavioral disorders (LD/BD). These procedures included self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-reinforcement, self-instruction, and packages containing two or more BSM techniques. Twenty studies published from 1981 to 2002 were identified and analyzed. The analysis centered on a series of questions addressing overall effectiveness of the procedures, whether BSM produced socially valid changes, where the changes occurred (i.e. special education or general education setting), whether maintenance and generalization of the target behavior(s) occurred, and if students began to use BSM procedures on their own. Results showed a mean percentage of nonoverlapping data (PND) of 80 indicating that BSM procedures are, overall, an effective approach to behavior change. It also appears that in some instances, these changes are socially valid in that the performance of students with LD/BD can be improved to the level of nondisabled peers. Interventions consisting of a combination of self-management procedures appear to be the most effective, however self-monitoring alone has similar impact. BSM also appears to be effective with a wide variety of behaviors, albeit with relatively discrete behaviors (versus more complex chains of behaviors used in strategic problem-solving). While there is some evidence that target behaviors were generalized and maintained, many of the studies reviewed did not measure it. Also of concern was the apparent lack of student involvement in selecting target behaviors, goal setting, forms of recording etc as well as the fact that no study measured student ability to apply BSM procedures after intervention. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.