Objectives: To determine effects of the "5-4-3-2-1 Go" community social marketing campaign on obesity risk factors. Methods: We randomly assigned 524 parents of 3- to 7-year-old children to receive "5-4-3-2-1 Go" counseling or not. We surveyed parents about "5-4-3-2-1 Go!" behaviors and perceptions of children's behaviors at baseline and one year…

An assessment of a brief, but intensive modified Bully Busters universal prevention program on measures of teacher efficacy, teacher self-efficacy, teacher skills and knowledge about peer victimization, and teacher-reports of students' peer victimization was conducted with 30 elementary school teachers. Paired-samples "t" tests revealed…

This study is a comparison of AUPress with three other traditional (non-open access) Canadian university presses. The analysis is based on the rankings that are correlated with book sales on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. Statistical methods include the sampling of the sales ranking of randomly selected books from each press. The results of one-way…

Graduate students in science technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields often enter degree programs focused on research or field-based experiences. Being a teaching assistant can serve two purposes: one for financial compensation and two as preparation for teaching in a future career. The GK-12 program (Graduate Teaching Fellows in…

Numerous reports and studies have touted the benefits of school health education for over five decades and extensive public health data support an association between education levels and health outcomes. This paper recounts the "tacit" approval given to school health education historically by reviewing reports issued by various governmental and…

As clientele needs diversify, Extension educators are examining new technologies, including online tools, to deliver educational programming and resources. Using agritourism as the educational topic, the study reported here sought to evaluate participants' acceptance of online educational programming (webinars) and the effectiveness of the…

Participant perceptions of program effectiveness and impact are undoubtedly a popular focus of Extension program evaluations. However, the effects of participants' characteristics and contextual variables on program perceptions and how the resulting data can be used for program improvement are less explored in evaluation studies. Using data from…

This article focuses on three features of professional development (PD) programs that play an important role in developing leadership skills and building teachers' capacity: (1) fostering a professional learning community, (2) developing teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching, and (3) adapting PD to support local needs and interests. We…

Homelessness is a complex and layered phenomenon, but schools can be effective in reducing its educational consequences. Schools currently are not doing enough. The next step is to consider the services that are needed for students as they arrive on the school campus. Taking care of homeless children in school systems involves seven provisos:…

Keyboarding skill is an important target for adult education programs due to the ubiquity of computers in modern work environments. A previous study showed that novice typists learned key locations quickly but that fluency took a relatively long time to develop. In the present study, novice typists achieved fluent performance in nearly half the…

As our communities strive to support community change efforts for survival and vitality, the importance of social capital has become evident in leadership development. Many researchers and practitioners realize that tapping into the inherent power of relationships and social networks is crucial. This paper provides an overview of the design and…

A session that has a theme of outcomes of experiential programs in varied contexts is both exciting and pressing. The three studies in Session IV all addressed relevant issues to experiential programming and all the authors were faced with the empirical challenge of demonstrating how and/or if their programs achieve what they say they are going to…

Researchers investigated the impact that a first-year college experience course had on students' first-year grade point averages (GPAs) and retention rates. A sample of 109 first-year students enrolled in the course was compared to a sample of 326 students from the same university who had not taken the course. The goals of the experience course…

The limited use of evidence-based practices has led to increased interest in forms of professional development that improve teacher practice and student outcomes. Traditional forms of expert-centered professional development have been demonstrated to have little impact on teacher practices or student outcomes. Newer forms of learner-centered…

Regular physical activity is vital for adult individuals with intellectual disabilities. The purpose of this review was to assess critically the evidence on effectiveness of physical activity interventions for adults with intellectual disability. An electronic database search was conducted. Research was then assessed for methodological rigor, and…