Three focus groups of service agency representatives, state administrators, and rural service providers in Georgia identified their needs for geriatrics training, and barriers to accessing training. Results underscored the need for coordinated continuing-education planning. (SK)

In 1997, Philomath (Oregon) High School acted to change a school culture that allowed older students to treat rising ninth-graders and each other disrespectfully. A 4-year journey by the school, students, and community (spurred by unfavorable asset-development scores) led to lasting collaboration and improved climate and achievement. (MLH)

Investigates pupils' perceptions of their experience with school science. Documents a range of views that pupils held about the science curriculum, aspects they found either interesting and/or valuable, and their views about its future content. Conducts 20 focus groups with 144 16-year-old students. Pupils' perspectives of school science reveal…

In 4 focus groups, 42 agribusiness representatives suggested a need to change the agriculture curriculum to allow an agriculture industry option. They emphasized the development of business skills, communication skills, teamwork, leadership, and analytical thinking. (SK)

Focus groups of 35 registered nurses in a bachelor of science in nursing program identified the following concerns: the changing health care environment, competing role demands, curriculum flexibility, computer technology, and academic advising. They desired more faculty support, better student services, and more relevance in classroom and…

Studied the feasibility and effectiveness of computer-mediated (CM) focus groups. Comparisons of 3 CM focus groups, with 8, 9, and 20 undergraduate participants and 2 face-to-face focus groups (7 and 8 undergraduates) shows that the CM environment may lessen participants' concerns about what the moderator thinks of them and reduce withholding…

Focus groups with 25 business and 18 marketing teachers and 6 business/industry representatives elicited the following opinions: the primary purpose of business/marketing education is work force preparation; dedicated faculty and administrative support are ideal features; a strong voice for vocational education is needed; and important skill areas…

A school district committee nominated more than 20 former students who they felt had been successful in high school. Extensive interviews with five graduates revealed the most important influence on success was happiness. Second was the setting of reasonable goals-small goals for younger students, more rigorous goals for older ones. Third was a…

To explore students' thoughts and feelings about career services, practitioners at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University conducted a series of 13 focus groups. This article describes the process for planning and facilitating the focus groups, presents specific findings, and reports on programs and…

Purpose: Psychological well-being, an important indicator of successful aging, may be conceptualized quite differently across cultures. Using a mixed-methods approach, we developed a measure of psychological well-being based on the indigenous expertise of Thai elders. Design and Methods: Data were collected from older people in Thailand in four…

The purpose of this research was to identify environmental factors that influence incarcerated adolescents' risk for HIV/STDs. Based on data from six gender-stratified focus groups consisting of 28 incarcerated adolescents from three detention centers in Georgia, the following salient environments emerged: schools, families, peer groups,…

We obtained perspectives on increasing access to general education from high school students who provided ongoing support to their peers with moderate or severe disabilities. Focus groups were conducted with 32 high school students without disabilities representative of students who participated in a structured service-learning peer support…

Proper cooling of foods is known to reduce spoilage and help prevent food-borne illnesses. Nonetheless, little is known about consumers' awareness of guidelines regarding appropriate refrigeration of food or their actual refrigeration practices. Focus groups of consumers of common ethnic backgrounds were designed to evaluate food safety knowledge…

Due to mounting pressure on higher education resources, interested staff in Australasian dental schools formeda collaborative network to support the effective implementation of problem-based learning (PBL). Cross-institutional teams sourced patient cases and developed and evaluated PBL packages intended to be adaptable for use across curricula and…

This paper presents a needs analysis conducted to obtain information concerning online dementia care training of healthcare workers in long-term care (LTC) facilities. The resulting information was used to guide the development of an online dementia care training program designed to facilitate the acquisition of skills and knowledge necessary for…