Linda Dusenbury, William B. Hansen, Julia Jackson‐Newsom, Donna S. Pittman, Cicely V. Wilson, Kathleen Nelson‐Simley, Chris Ringwalt, Melinda Pankratz and Steven M. Giles
The purpose of this paper is to describe the topics covered by coaches assisting teachers implementing a research‐based drug prevention program and explore how coaching affects…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the topics covered by coaches assisting teachers implementing a research‐based drug prevention program and explore how coaching affects student outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The All Stars drug prevention curriculum is implemented by 16 urban teachers who received four coaching sessions. Two coaches participated. Coaches are interviewed by investigators to assess topics covered. Students completed pre‐test‐post‐test measures of mediators and substance use behaviours.
Findings
The average teacher is coached on 11.7 different topics, out of a total of 23 topics. Coaching topics most heavily emphasized include: introduction and wrap up; time management; general classroom management; teacher's movement around the class; asking open‐ended questions; using students' questions, comments and examples to make desired points; general preparation; engaging high‐risk youth; reading from the curriculum; implementing activities correctly; focusing on objectives and goals; maintaining a focus on the task; and improving depth of understanding. Seven coaching topics are found to relate to changes in student mediators and behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The current study is exploratory. Future research should explore how teachers develop the particular skills required by prevention programs and how coaches can assist them.
Practical implications
Five levels of skill development are postulated, which coaches may address: fundamental teaching skills, mechanics of program delivery, development of an interactive teaching style, effective response to student input, and effective tailoring and adaptation.
Originality/value
The paper is one of a very few studies that explores how coaching impacts outcomes in substance abuse prevention.
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Keywords
William B. Hansen, Melinda M. Pankratz, Linda Dusenbury, Steven M. Giles, Dana C. Bishop, Jordan Albritton, Lauren P. Albritton and Joann Strack
To be effective, evidence‐based programs should be delivered as prescribed. This suggests that adaptations that deviate from intervention goals may limit a program's…
Abstract
Purpose
To be effective, evidence‐based programs should be delivered as prescribed. This suggests that adaptations that deviate from intervention goals may limit a program's effectiveness. This study aims to examine the impact that number and quality of adaptations have on substance use outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors examined 306 video recordings of teachers delivering “All Stars”, a middle school drug prevention program. Multiple observers coded each recording, noting the number and type of adaptation each teacher made. Each adaptation was given a valence rating. Adaptations that were deleterious to program goals received negative valence ratings; positive ratings were given for adaptations that were likely to facilitate achievement of program goals; neutral ratings were given to adaptations that were expected to have neither a positive nor negative impact on program goals.
Findings
All teachers made adaptations. Teachers were consistent across time in the types of adaptations they made, suggesting each teacher has a personalized style of adapting. Those who made few adaptations, and whose average adaptation was rated as being positive had a higher percentage of students who remained non‐drug users. In contrast, teachers who made many adaptations, whether their average valence rating was positive, neutral or negative, failed to have as many students remain non‐drug users. Measures of fidelity, including quality of delivery and teacher understanding, were related to valence of adaptations, with better performance related to making positive adaptations.
Practical implications
Through training and supervision, teachers should be guided and encouraged to follow programs directions, making few adaptations and ensuring that adaptations that are made advance the goals of intervention. Programs should define acceptable and unacceptable ways they may be adapted.
Originality/value
This study provides significant evidence about the challenges that face disseminated evidence‐based programs.
Details
Keywords
William B. Hansen and Linda Dusenbury
All Stars Core is a school‐based drug abuse prevention program for 11 to 14 year olds from the United States. It focuses on five qualities that protect children from drug use…
Abstract
All Stars Core is a school‐based drug abuse prevention program for 11 to 14 year olds from the United States. It focuses on five qualities that protect children from drug use: viewing drug use as uncommon and unacceptable to the peer group (norms); viewing drug use as interfering with future goals; commitment to avoid drug use; positive attention from parents; and feeling accepted at school. All Star Plus was recently developed with the goal of expanding the Core program to include the development of three competencies: goal setting, decision making, and skills to resist peer pressure resistance. Students either received All Stars Core, All Stars Plus, or were assigned to the non‐treated control group. Both programs outperformed the control group; however, All Stars Plus was more effective in preventing drug use than All Stars Core. All Stars Plus was found to reduce alcohol use, drunkenness, cigarette smoking, marijuana use, and inhalant use. The Plus program appeared to have achieved these outcomes by improving norms, increasing persistence in pursuing goals, and by increasing attention from parents.
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Angel Cantu, Laura Hill and Linda Becker
The aims of this study were to determine (1) the degree to which an evidence‐based intervention (EBI) delivered outside the context of a research trial remained faithful to the…
Abstract
The aims of this study were to determine (1) the degree to which an evidence‐based intervention (EBI) delivered outside the context of a research trial remained faithful to the content and design of the programme as intended and as reported in experimental trials of the same programme, and (2) whether implementation quality affected programme outcomes. We report results of an observational study of 11 sites involved in the statewide dissemination of a popular family‐focused prevention programme, the Strengthening Families Programme for Parents and Youth 10‐14. We found numerous differences between the community‐based implementations we observed and researcher‐driven implementations of the same programme, but variability in programme delivery and adherence to content were unrelated to programme outcomes. We conclude that short‐term outcomes of well‐designed EBIs delivered by well‐trained facilitators may be robust to minor changes in delivery and content. However, the effects of implementation quality on longer‐term outcomes are unknown.
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The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related…
Abstract
The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the eighteenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1991. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.
Craig R. Carter, Lutz Kaufmann and Alex Michel
The purpose of this paper is to review and integrate the extensive literature base which examines judgment and decision‐making biases, to introduce this literature to the field of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review and integrate the extensive literature base which examines judgment and decision‐making biases, to introduce this literature to the field of supply management, to create a valid, mutually exclusive, and exhaustive taxonomy of decision biases that can affect supply managers, and to provide guidance for future research and applications of this taxonomy.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a qualitative cluster analysis, combined with a Q‐sort methodology, to develop a taxonomy of decision biases.
Findings
A mutually exclusive, and exhaustive taxonomy of nine decision biases is developed through a qualitative cluster analysis. The Q‐sort methodology provides initial confirmation of the reliability and validity of the cluster analysis results. The findings, along with numerous examples provided in the text, suggest that supply management decisions are vulnerable to the described biases.
Originality/value
This paper provides a comprehensive review of the judgment and decision bias literature, and creates a logical and manageable taxonomy of biases which can impact supply management decision making. The introduction and organization of this vast extant literature base provides a contrasting perspective to much of the existing supply management research, which has incorporated the assumption of the rational agent, or what is known in the economics literature as homo economicus. In addition, the authors describe the use of qualitative cluster analysis and the Q‐sort methodology, techniques which have been used rarely if at all in within the field of supply chain management.