Reflections on learning and enhancing communication skills through community engagement: a student perspective.

Students in Peninsula School of Dentistry (PSD), Plymouth, undertake community engagement projects during the first two years of their undergraduate curriculum. These projects involve interaction with a variety of specific community groups and the planning and delivery of an appropriate and meaningful oral health intervention. Many of the project outcomes are based on enhancing communication skills and encouraging students to transfer these into their patient treatment sessions. This report draws on the experience of students who undertook two specific projects to demonstrate how they feel this is achieved.

Factors affecting students' participation in the Cincinnati public schools lunch program.

This study reports high school students' attitude toward the school lunch program. Students were randomly selected to participate in a study of factors affecting school lunch participation in the Cincinnati Public Schools (N = 1,804). Using a questionnaire, students were asked their opinions, feelings, and attitudes toward the program. Results showed that the quality and variety of food offered were significant factors affecting the students' decision to participate. The length of the lunch period and the amount of time spent waiting in line also were significant factors.

Strategic group decision support systems--a guide for the unwary.

Considerable interest is currently being shown in the use of information technology to assist in improving group process, particularly those associated with strategic planning. Three major approaches are developing to provide this support, and these are described in this article. In general, articles about Group DSS are overwhelmingly favourable to the approaches, although research findings suggest that some forms of Group DSS can have deleterious effects on the quality of meetings. These research findings are discussed.