Evaluating Gifted Programs

Program evaluation is one of the few areas in gifted education that considers the coherence among gifted education program components across the K-12 spectrum. It increases the visibility of the gifted program while acknowledging the fluidity of change in a given context and engages individuals in influencing the nature and degree of changes that can occur within their system. Two key questions in the gifted field are: To what degree do these programs make a difference in the lives of gifted children? How do we know they are working? Program evaluation is a solid and necessary step in answering these questions. Program evaluation is necessary to drive gifted program improvement. This chapter provides the rationale and literature review on gifted program evaluation as well as research-based protocols for facilitating gifted program evaluations and the commensurate processes for ensuring quality, transparency, and comprehensiveness.

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis on impact of e-learning in biochemistry in phase-I medical undergraduates

Background: The concept of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis is to identify advantages, limitations, opportunities, and dangers of e-learning scaffolds in medical education detailed in the field of biochemistry, based upon the perception of stakeholders. It is used to assist faculties in initiating meaningful change in a program and to use the data for program improvement. The aim of the study is to identify, the strength, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities of e-learning of biochemistry to MBBS first-year students.Methods: This educational intervention study was based on an online course, and was conducted at department of biochemistry, L. N. Medical College, Bhopal. 150 students, aged from 18 to 21 years, admitted to the MBBS phase-I, were recruited as a group I and faculties of biochemistry as group II to achieve the objectives of the study. The predesigned open questionnaire was administered to record their perception on e-learning classes.Results: The students and facilitator considered that the online teaching learning is easily accessible and flexibility of time but it also impart feeling of loneliness and unsuitable for skill development program. Though it gives an opportunity of accessibility for higher education for every-one in a very cost effective manner and allow them to balance between their education and job.Conclusions: The online learning is a flexible and assessable teaching learning method but its effectiveness remains subject of discussion. Hence further studies on large scale are required to justify it.

Evaluation of a Program to Reduce Home Environment Risks for Children with Asthma Residing in Urban Areas

Pediatric asthma morbidity is often linked to challenges including poor housing quality, inability to access proper medical care, lack of medications, and poor adherence to medical regimens. Such factors also propagate known disparities, by race and income, in asthma-related outcomes. Multimodal home visits have an established evidence base in support of their use to improve such outcomes. The Collaboration to Lessen Environmental Asthma Risks (CLEAR) is a partnership between the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the local health department which carries out home visits to provide healthy homes education and write orders for remediation should code violations and environmental asthma triggers be identified. To assess the strengths and weaknesses of the program, we obtained qualitative feedback from health professionals and mothers of children recently hospitalized with asthma using key informant interviews. Health professionals viewed the program as a positive support system for families and highlighted the potential benefit of education on home asthma triggers and connecting families with services for home improvements. Mothers report working to correct asthma triggers in the home based on the education they received during the course of their child’s recent illness. Some mothers indicated mistrust of the health department staff completing home visits, indicating a further need for research to identify the sources of this mistrust. Overall, the interviews provided insights into successful areas of the program and areas for program improvement.

EVALUATION OF TEACHING SKILL PRACTICE PROGRAMS, IN THE STATE UNIVERSITY EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTION JAKARTA

The purpose of this study is to describe the Program Practice Skills Teaching (PKM/ Praktik Keterampilan Mengajar) in semester 106, at the Educational Development Institute State University of Jakarta. The evaluation model used in this study is a formative and summative evaluation model developed by Michele Shriven. Formative evaluation is carried out during the program to provide information to the program leader as program improvement materials. While the summative evaluation is done at the end of the program. This research use evaluation analysis with qualitative and quantitative approach. How to collect data on this evaluation research is using techniques observation, questionnaires, interviews, and documentation. The results showed that in the formative evaluation, it can be seen that in general the process of Program PKM was by existing guidelines. So can be maintained the existence of the PKM Program. While the results of the summative evaluation showed that the PKM Program, in the high category, is based on the value of the minimum PKM Program participants B provided by the teacher mentor and lecturer mentor of the final exam.

PHYSIOLOGICAL VOCAL WARMING UP PROGRAM IN RELIGIOUS SINGERS

Purpose: To analyze the effectiveness of a physiological vocal warm-up program focused on religious singers. Method: longitudinal study involving 39 subjects male and female, aged at least 18 and at most 50, the participants underwent an evaluation vocal pre-warm-up and vocal post-warm-up, results being compared to both evaluations. The evaluation was applied questionnaire vocal habits and symptoms, acoustic analysis and auditory perceptual analysis. The study was conducted in Catholic Churches of Várzea Grande City in the state Mato Grosso. Results: They said participants to use the corner of a median of 87.3 months with weekly frequency of 2.4 times per week. However, 89.7% of the singers reported not warm up the voice before the corner and not desaquecerem 94.9% after the corner. In inadequate vocal habits most said talking aplenty. Already in vocal symptoms the three most prevalent were: voice worse in the morning (59.0%), loss of treble (54.4%) and hoarseness constant (51.3%). After application of vocal warm-up program improvement was observed in vocal self assessment and auditory perceptual analysis. There was also a significant increase in the fundamental frequency of the sustained vowel, but for the singing voice there was no change in acoustic parameters analyzed. Conclusion: The vocal heating program was effective with positive changes in voice adjustments, providing a more comfortable voice output this being noticed by singers themselves.

Insight into the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Multi-lifestyle Dementia Risk Intervention

Lifestyle interventions based on behaviour change principles may provide a useful mechanism in reducing dementia risk amongst older adults, however intervention acceptability remains relatively unexplored. We assessed the feasibility and acceptability of BRAIN BOOTCAMP, an Australian initiative aiming to improve dementia literary and reduce dementia risk by delivering a brain health box addressing multiple lifestyle factors through education, physical prompts and an individualised brain health profile. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with participants (N=94) at completion of the program (3-months) using a theoretical sampling approach to select a range of participants with varying brain health scores, age, gender, education and locality. Interview topics included participants’ overall experience and suggestions for program improvement. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Participants were mostly female (79%), with a mean age of 72.6 years (SD=5.4), from an English-speaking background (89.4%) and resided in metropolitan areas (76.6%). Participants positively perceived the program, resulting in high usability and acceptability. Valuable aspects included building dementia awareness in an innovative way, and having re-assessments which identified areas for personal improvement. Participants further discussed how the program prompted lifestyle change, including setting goals (e.g., physical activity) and facilitated a general awareness of their brain health. Suggested improvements included shorter surveys, regular check-ins, and specific tailoring of the program to be more inclusive for older adults with varying levels of health. Our study demonstrated that a simple, innovative program could be a promising medium for delivering comprehensive educational resources and induce lifestyle change for older adults.

Expansion of a Web-Based Platform to Support Caregivers in California Using CareNav

About one in five Americans is engaged in providing care to a family member. Caregivers (unpaid family members or friends) support older adults and persons with disability with a variety of conditions, including challenges in physical, cognitive, and mental health. In California, 4.5 million family caregivers are assisting individuals over the age of 18. The CA Department of Health Care Services funds 11 Caregiver Resource Centers (CRC) to support caregivers and, in 2019, provided support to expand information technology services through adoption of a statewide online assessment platform and client portal, CareNav™, to serve as a client record and referral tool. CareNav™ facilitates collection of consistent state-wide data that can inform program improvement and policy. This study evaluated the implementation process from the perspective of 35 CRC team members in guided focus group discussions. CRC staff identified several potential benefits to adopting CareNav™, including ease of client access and convenience, the ability to aggregate data to inform planning and policy, and a streamlined process for resource sharing. Challenges included customizing site-specific data needs, as well as concerns about equitable access to internet services. Ongoing evaluation will focus on validation and visualization of data, and translation of data into actionable information to improve quality and reach.

Collaborative governance in increasing the competitiveness of Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through the Jakpreneur program

Based on the 2016 Economic Census, the number of businesses in DKI Jakarta has reached more than one million businesses, or 98.78%. The potential of MSMEs is able to reduce the unemployment rate and can drive the wheels of the Indonesian economy and DKI Jakarta specifically. However, in the current conditions, MSMEs in DKI Jakarta still have many limitations in terms of management and empowerment. Therefore, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government created the JakPreneur Program to help MSMEs advance to class to be competitive and maintain their business. The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government embraces stakeholders to collaborate in developing the JakPreneur Program. The purpose of this study is to describe precisely the process and form of collaboration through the approach of collaborative governance in the JakPreneur Program and provide recommendations for program improvement. This study used a post-positivist approach with a qualitative method through interviews and literature study. The results of this study indicate that the collaboration process takes place effectively between the relevant stakeholders. The collaboration formed in this context is represented by implementing a number of activities from the P1-P7 stages of the JakPreneur program.