Whether you are responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating peer and prevention programs or simply an outside consultant or evaluator, this book will be an essential guide for your work. This user-friendly training manual provides a blueprint of a step-by-step approach to setting-up an evaluation program that guides you through the planning, development, implementation, data collection, and organization stages, and then communicating the results to others. The authors establish a rationale for program evaluation, explaining how it differs from research, and discuss ways to align the vision, mission, and goals of a program. They then describe several approaches to evaluation and methods for successfully collecting and analyzing data. Methods for reporting the results are also considered and numerous forms and charts are provided to assist with and illustrate the organization, evaluation, and reporting of data. An accompanying CD contains guidelines, handouts, and forms that can be reproduced for your own use in evaluation.
Evaluation of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Programs offers conceptual and methodological frameworks for the six phases of health program evaluation: · introduction to evaluation · models of evaluation planning · efficacy and effectiveness evaluation · measurement and analysis evaluation · process and qualitative evaluation · cost analysis and basic economic evaluation By presenting these concepts through case studies, this text offers an innovative and didactic model for measuring health impact and health outcomes, then extending these measurements to establish an evidence base for future practice. This central competency in health promotion will be of use to graduate and post-graduate students in public and population health programs, plus health program practitioners working at the intervention forefront.
All across the United States, individuals, families, communities, and health care systems are struggling to cope with substance use, misuse, and substance use disorders. Substance misuse and substance use disorders have devastating effects, disrupt the future plans of too many young people, and all too often, end lives prematurely and tragically. Substance misuse is a major public health challenge and a priority for our nation to address. The effects of substance use are cumulative and costly for our society, placing burdens on workplaces, the health care system, families, states, and communities. The Report discusses opportunities to bring substance use disorder treatment and mainstream health care systems into alignment so that they can address a person's overall health, rather than a substance misuse or a physical health condition alone or in isolation. It also provides suggestions and recommendations for action that everyone-individuals, families, community leaders, law enforcement, health care professionals, policymakers, and researchers-can take to prevent substance misuse and reduce its consequences.
Learners complain that they do not get enough feedback, and educators resent that although they put considerable time into generating feedback, students take little notice of it. Both parties agree that it is very important. Feedback in Higher and Professional Education explores what needs to be done to make feedback more effective. It examines the problem of feedback and suggests that there is a lack of clarity and shared meaning about what it is and what constitutes doing it well. It argues that new ways of thinking about feedback are needed. There has been considerable development in research on feedback in recent years, but surprisingly little awareness of what needs to be done to improve it and good ideas are not translated into action. The book provides a multi-disciplinary and international account of the role of feedback in higher and professional education. It challenges three conventional assumptions about feedback in learning: That feedback constitutes one-way flow of information from a knowledgeable person to a less knowledgeable person. That the job of feedback is complete with the imparting of performance-related information. That a generic model of best-practice feedback can be applied to all learners and all learning situations It seeking a new approach to feedback, it proposes that it is necessary to recognise that learners need to be much more actively involved in seeking, generating and using feedback. Rather than it being something they are subjected to, it must be an activity that they drive.
The Encyclopedia of Adolescence breaks new ground as an important central resource for the study of adolescence. Comprehensive in breath and textbook in depth, the Encyclopedia of Adolescence – with entries presented in easy-to-access A to Z format – serves as a reference repository of knowledge in the field as well as a frequently updated conduit of new knowledge long before such information trickles down from research to standard textbooks. By making full use of Springer’s print and online flexibility, the Encyclopedia is at the forefront of efforts to advance the field by pushing and creating new boundaries and areas of study that further our understanding of adolescents and their place in society. Substantively, the Encyclopedia draws from four major areas of research relating to adolescence. The first broad area includes research relating to "Self, Identity and Development in Adolescence". This area covers research relating to identity, from early adolescence through emerging adulthood; basic aspects of development (e.g., biological, cognitive, social); and foundational developmental theories. In addition, this area focuses on various types of identity: gender, sexual, civic, moral, political, racial, spiritual, religious, and so forth. The second broad area centers on "Adolescents’ Social and Personal Relationships". This area of research examines the nature and influence of a variety of important relationships, including family, peer, friends, sexual and romantic as well as significant nonparental adults. The third area examines "Adolescents in Social Institutions". This area of research centers on the influence and nature of important institutions that serve as the socializing contexts for adolescents. These major institutions include schools, religious groups, justice systems, medical fields, cultural contexts, media, legal systems, economic structures, and youth organizations. "Adolescent Mental Health" constitutes the last major area of research. This broad area of research focuses on the wide variety of human thoughts, actions, and behaviors relating to mental health, from psychopathology to thriving. Major topic examples include deviance, violence, crime, pathology (DSM), normalcy, risk, victimization, disabilities, flow, and positive youth development.
This three volume work presents the Office of Technology's assessment of the physical, emotional, and behavioral health status of contemporary American adolescents, including those living in poverty, racial and ethnic minority groups, Native Americans, and rural adolescents. Specific topics covered are identifying risk and protective factors for adolescent health problems, evaluating options in the organization of health services and technologies available to adolescents, assessing options in the conduct of national health surveys to improve collection of adolescent health statistics, and identifying gaps in research on the health and behavior of adolescents.
"A wonderful tool for administrators and teachers that offers child-centered resources and ideas to help our learners succeed, thereby making our classrooms more effective. I especially love the sample behavior reports, progress monitoring charts, and the self-monitoring chart. Helping students see that they are responsible for their actions and making them partners in their education are effective practices." —Megan M. Allen, Fourth-Grade Teacher Cleveland Elementary School, Tampa, FL Prevention is the key to a successful school behavior plan! In today′s increasingly diverse PreK–12 classrooms, problem behaviors can often interrupt instructional time and disrupt learning. Designed for 21st-century school leaders, administrators, behavior specialists, and classroom teachers, this research-based guide offers specific strategies and plans for preventing problem behavior at both the classroom and school level. Based on the premise that early response to problems can lead to better outcomes for students, the book′s content is framed around four essential areas: foundations, intervention, collaboration, and evaluation. Within these areas, this accessible guide features: The latest information on the science and practice of prevention Reasons why conflict resolution, peer mediation, and bully-proofing are essential to prevention Effective practices for teaching social skills to young children Proven techniques for implementing schoolwide positive behavior support Tools for using individual behavior plans to prevent problems Ideas for home-school and community partnerships and culturally responsible teaching Critical strategies for monitoring student progress and evaluating prevention practices New, updated chapters, including information on preschool behavior support and RTI This valuable resource provides all the tools and strategies school leaders and teachers need to keep children focused on learning.
Suicide is a highly complex and multifaceted phenomenon, with many contributing and facilitating factors and variables. However, given its being one of the most severe human behaviors, an obvious focus would be to identify the underlying psychological mechanisms and processes that may lead to suicidal ideation and behavior. This eBook is dedicated to studies exploring various approaches to the psychology of suicidal behavior as well as of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). The purpose of this eBook is to shed light on in-depth examinations of the current knowledge and empirical data regarding models, theories, and specific dimensions and variables that may help us increase the psychological understanding of suicidal phenomena. The specific goal is to identify particular psychological characteristics that may be used to develop prevention and intervention methods and programs. We believe that this eBook can contribute to the understanding of this behavior and help to develop specific tools, therapeutic guidelines, and programs that may help reduce the number of suicides occurring annually. This eBook is dedicated to our dearest friend, Dafni Assaf, who was one of the greatest leaders of the suicide prevention program in Israel.
The understanding of how to reduce risk factors for mental disorders has expanded remarkably as a result of recent scientific advances. This study, mandated by Congress, reviews those advances in the context of current research and provides a targeted definition of prevention and a conceptual framework that emphasizes risk reduction. Highlighting opportunities for and barriers to interventions, the book draws on successful models for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, injuries, and smoking. In addition, it reviews the risk factors associated with Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, alcohol abuse and dependence, depressive disorders, and conduct disorders and evaluates current illustrative prevention programs. The models and examination provide a framework for the design, application, and evaluation of interventions intended to prevent mental disorders and the transfer of knowledge about prevention from research to clinical practice. The book presents a focused research agenda, with recommendations on how to develop effective intervention programs, create a cadre of prevention researchers, and improve coordination among federal agencies.
