WorldWideScience

Sample records for level goals skills

  1. Clinical skills-related learning goals of senior medical students after performance feedback.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Anna; Chou, Calvin L; Teherani, Arianne; Hauer, Karen E

    2011-09-01

    Lifelong learning is essential for doctors to maintain competence in clinical skills. With performance feedback, learners should be able to formulate specific and achievable learning goals in areas of need. We aimed to determine: (i) the type and specificity of medical student learning goals after a required clinical performance examination; (ii) differences in goal setting among low, average and high performers, and (iii) whether low performers articulate learning goals that are concordant with their learning needs. We conducted a single-site, multi-year, descriptive comparison study. Senior medical students were given performance benchmarks, individual feedback and guidelines on learning goals; each student was subsequently instructed to write two clinical skills learning goals. Investigators coded the learning goals for specificity, categorised the goals, and performed statistical analyses to determine their concordance with student performance level (low, average or high) in data gathering (history taking and physical examination) or communication skills. All 208 students each wrote two learning goals and most (n=200, 96%) wrote two specific learning goals. Nearly two-thirds of low performers in data gathering wrote at least one learning goal that referred to history taking or physical examination; one-third wrote learning goals pertaining to the organisation of the encounter. High performers in data gathering wrote significantly more patient education goals and significantly fewer history-taking goals than average or low performers. Only 50% of low performers in communication wrote learning goals related to communication skills. Low performers in communication were significantly more likely than average or high performers to identify learning goals related to improving performance in future examinations. The provision of performance benchmarking, individual feedback and brief written guidelines helped most senior medical students in our study to write specific

  2. Career Skills Workshop: Achieving Your Goals Through Effective Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-01-01

    Physics students graduate with a huge array of transferrable skills, which are extremely useful to employers (particularly in the private sector, which is the largest employment base of physicists at all degree levels). However, the key to successfully connecting with these opportunities lies in how well graduates are able to communicate their skills and abilities to potential employers. The ability to communicate effectively is a key professional skill that serves scientists in many contexts, including interviewing for jobs, applying for grants, or speaking with law and policy makers. In this interactive workshop, Crystal Bailey (Careers Program Manager at APS) and Gregory Mack (Government Relations Specialist at APS) will lead activities to help attendees achieve their goals through better communication. Topics will include writing an effective resume, interviewing for jobs, and communicating to different audiences including Congress, among others. Light refreshments will be served.

  3. Student goal orientation in learning inquiry skills with modifiable software advisors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shimoda, Todd Adrian

    A computer support environment (SCI-WISE) for learning and doing inquiry was designed. The system incorporates software advisors that give task completion advice (eg., forming hypotheses), general purpose advice (e.g., brainstorming), or system modification advice. Advisors' knowledge includes concepts, strategies, examples, referrals to other advisors, and criteria for evaluating good products and skills. Students using SCI-WISE can select the advisors' advice type (specific, general, or hints), and when advisors give advice (anytime, alert, or ask). Students can also modify the advisors' knowledge. The system is designed partly on a theoretical framework that assumes giving students higher levels of agency will facilitate higher-level goal orientation (such as knowledge-building) and produce higher levels of competence. In two studies of sixth graders, science students took a pretest of an open-ended inquiry question and a questionnaire that measured their goal orientations. The students worked in pairs on an inquiry project about memory, using one of two versions of SCI-WISE, one modifiable and one not modifiable. After finishing the project, the students took a posttest similar to the pretest, and evaluated the system. The main hypotheses predicted that knowledge-oriented students using the modifiable version would rate the system higher, use it more effectively, and do better on the inquiry posttest than task-oriented students. The results supported many of the hypotheses generated from the theoretical framework. Knowledge-oriented students tended to rate SCI-WISE higher, use more general purpose and system development advisors, and select more general advice and hints than task-oriented students. On the posttest inquiry test, students with higher goal orientations scored higher on average, particularly when paired with another knowledge oriented student. The studies also showed that goal orientation was not correlated with grade point average. Finally, the

  4. Psychometric properties of the Global Operative Assessment of Laparoscopic Skills (GOALS) using item response theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watanabe, Yusuke; Madani, Amin; Ito, Yoichi M; Bilgic, Elif; McKendy, Katherine M; Feldman, Liane S; Fried, Gerald M; Vassiliou, Melina C

    2017-02-01

    The extent to which each item assessed using the Global Operative Assessment of Laparoscopic Skills (GOALS) contributes to the total score remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of difficulty and discriminative ability of each of the 5 GOALS items using item response theory (IRT). A total of 396 GOALS assessments for a variety of laparoscopic procedures over a 12-year time period were included. Threshold parameters of item difficulty and discrimination power were estimated for each item using IRT. The higher slope parameters seen with "bimanual dexterity" and "efficiency" are indicative of greater discriminative ability than "depth perception", "tissue handling", and "autonomy". IRT psychometric analysis indicates that the 5 GOALS items do not demonstrate uniform difficulty and discriminative power, suggesting that they should not be scored equally. "Bimanual dexterity" and "efficiency" seem to have stronger discrimination. Weighted scores based on these findings could improve the accuracy of assessing individual laparoscopic skills. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. The relationships between social goals, skills, and strategies and their effect on aggressive behavior among adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winstok, Zeev

    2009-12-01

    It is widely accepted that conflict-related goals, skills, and strategies are linked. Yet it is rarely explored how these factors relate to each other and how they jointly promote or inhibit aggressive behaviors. The aim of this study is to provide answers to these questions. Data were derived from a structured questionnaire administered to 660 male and female adolescents of an average age of 14.99 years from two urban schools in northern Israel. Findings show that goals, skills, and strategies that promote or inhibit violence are positively interrelated. Furthermore, negative association was found between violence promoting and inhibiting goals, skills, and strategies. Gender differences were also analyzed. It has been found that boys display aggressive behavior more frequently then girls. Findings also show that the rate of violence promoting goals, skills, and strategies is higher among boys than among girls, whereas that of violence inhibiting ones are higher among girls than among boys. Yet when controlling the effects of goals, skills, and strategies, girls demonstrate aggressive behavior more frequently than boys. These research findings are discussed and conceptualized within the theoretical framework of social adjustment.

  6. Psychological skills usage and the competitive anxiety response as a function of skill level in rugby union.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neil, Richard; D Mellalieu, Stephen; Hanton, Sheldon

    2006-01-01

    This study examined the intensity and direction of competitive anxiety symptoms and psychological skill usage in rugby union players of different skill levels. Elite (n=65) and nonelite (n=50) participants completed measures of competitive anxiety, self- confidence, and psychological skills. The elite group reported more facilitative interpretations of competitive anxiety symptoms, higher levels of self-confidence, lower relaxation usage, and greater imagery and self-talk use than their nonelite counterparts. The findings suggest that nonelite performers primarily use relaxation strategies to reduce anxiety intensity. In contrast, elite athletes appear to maintain intensity levels and adopt a combination of skills to interpret symptoms as facilitative to performance. Potential mechanisms for this process include the use of imagery and verbal persuasion efficacy-enhancement techniques to protect against debilitating symptom interpretations. Key PointsNonelite performers primarily use relaxation strategies to reduce anxiety intensity.Elite athletes maintain intensity levels and adopt a combination of psychological skills to interpret symptoms as facilitative.This process occurs through imagery and verbal persuasion efficacy-enhancement techniques.Nonelite performers who are debilitators should implement relaxation-based programs. However, in high activation level sports performers should reduce symptom intensity, restructure cognitions, and then raise activation states again to appropriate levels.Elite performers who are debilitators should implement cognitive restructuring techniques to interpret their anxiety as facilitative via a combination of goal setting, self-talk, and imagery.

  7. Performance goals on simulators boost resident motivation and skills laboratory attendance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stefanidis, Dimitrios; Acker, Christina E; Greene, Frederick L

    2010-01-01

    To assess the impact of setting simulator training goals on resident motivation and skills laboratory attendance. Residents followed a proficiency-based laparoscopic curriculum on the 5 Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery and 9 virtual reality tasks. Training goals consisted of the average expert performance on each task + 2 SD (mandatory) and best expert performance (optional). Residents rated the impact of the training goals on their motivation on a 20-point visual analog scale. Performance and attendance data were analyzed and correlated (Spearman's). Data are reported as medians (range). General Surgery residency program at a regional referral Academic Medical Center. General surgery residents (n = 15). During the first 5 months of the curriculum, weekly attendance rate was 51% (range, 8-96). After 153 (range, 21-412) repetitions, resident speed improved by 97% (range, 18-230), errors improved by 17% (range, 0-24), and motion efficiency by 59% (range, 26-114) compared with their baseline. Nine (60%) residents achieved proficiency in 7 (range, 3-14) and the best goals in 3.5 (range, 1-9) tasks; the other 6 residents had attendance rates motivation as 15 (range, 1-18) and setting a best goal as 13 (range, 1-18). Motivation ratings correlated positively with attendance rates, number of repetitions, performance improvement, and achievement of proficiency and best goals (r = 0.59-0.75; p motivation to participate in a simulator curriculum. While more stringent goals may potentiate this effect, they have a limited impact on senior residents. Further research is needed to investigate ways to improve skills laboratory attendance. Copyright 2010 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Goal scoring in soccer: A polar coordinate analysis of motor skills used by Lionel Messi

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta eCastañer

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Soccer research has traditionally focused on technical and tactical aspects of team play, but few studies have analyzed motor skills in individual actions, such as goal scoring. The objective of this study was to investigate how Lionel Messi, one of the world’s top soccer players, uses his motor skills and laterality in individual attacking actions resulting in a goal. We analyzed 103 goals scored by Messi between over a decade in three competitions: La Liga (n = 74, Copa del Rey (n = 8, and the UEFA Champions League (n = 21. We used an ad hoc observation instrument (OSMOS-soccer player comprising 10 criteria and 50 categories; polar coordinate analysis, a powerful data reduction technique, revealed significant associations for body part and orientation, foot contact zone, turn direction, and locomotion. No significant associations were observed for pitch area or interaction with opponents. Our analysis confirms significant associations between different aspects of motor skill use by Messi immediately before scoring, namely use of lower limbs, foot contact zones, turn direction, use of wings, and orientation of body to move towards the goal. Studies of motor skills in soccer could shed light on the qualities that make certain players unique.

  9. Relating beliefs in writing skill malleability to writing performance: The mediating role of achievement goals and self-efficacy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teresa Limpo

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available It is well established that students’ beliefs in skill malleability influence their academic performance. Specifically, thinking of ability as an incremental (vs. fixed trait is associated with better outcomes. Though this was shown across many domains, little research exists into these beliefs in the writing domain and into the mechanisms underlying their effects on writing performance. The aim of this study was twofold: to gather evidence on the validity and reliability of instruments to measure beliefs in skill malleability, achievement goals, and self-efficacy in writing; and to test a path-analytic model specifying beliefs in writing skill malleability to influence writing performance, via goals and self-efficacy. For that, 196 Portuguese students in Grades 7-8 filled in the instruments and wrote an opinion essay that was assessed for writing performance. Confirmatory factor analyses supported instruments’ validity and reliability. Path analysis revealed direct effects from beliefs in writing skill malleability to mastery goals (ß = .45; from mastery goals to self-efficacy for conventions, ideation, and self-regulation (ß = .27, .42, and .42, respectively; and from self-efficacy for self-regulation to writing performance (ß = .16; along with indirect effects from beliefs in writing skill malleability to self-efficacy for self-regulation via mastery goals (ß = .19, and from mastery goals to writing performance via self-efficacy for self-regulation (ß = .07. Overall, students’ mastery goals and self-efficacy for self-regulation seem to be key factors underlying the link between beliefs in writing skill malleability and writing performance. These findings highlight the importance of attending to motivation-related components in the teaching of writing.

  10. Evaluating the influence of goal setting on intravenous catheterization skill acquisition and transfer in a hybrid simulation training context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brydges, Ryan; Mallette, Claire; Pollex, Heather; Carnahan, Heather; Dubrowski, Adam

    2012-08-01

    Educators often simplify complex tasks by setting learning objectives that focus trainees on isolated skills rather than the holistic task. We designed 2 sets of learning objectives for intravenous catheterization using goal setting theory. We hypothesized that setting holistic goals related to technical, cognitive, and communication skills would result in superior holistic performance, whereas setting isolated goals related to technical skills would result in superior technical performance. We randomly assigned practicing health care professionals to set holistic (n = 14) or isolated (n = 15) goals. All watched an instructional video and studied a list of 9 goals specific to their group. Participants practiced independently in a hybrid simulation (standardized patient combined with an arm simulator). The first and the last practice trials were videotaped for analysis. One-week later, participants completed a transfer test in another hybrid simulation scenario. Blinded experts evaluated performance on all 3 trials using the Direct Observation of Procedural Skills tool. The holistic group scored higher than the isolated group on the holistic Direct Observation of Procedural Skills score for all 3 trials [mean (SD), 45.0 (9.16) vs. 38.4 (9.17); P = 0.01]. The isolated group did not perform better than the holistic group on the technical skills score [10.3 (2.73) vs. 11.6 (3.01); P = 0.11]. Our results suggest that asking learners to set holistic goals did not interfere with their attaining competent holistic and technical skills during hybrid simulation training. This exploratory trial provides preliminary evidence for how to consider integrating hybrid simulation into medical curricula and for the design of learning goals in simulation-based education.

  11. Developing Skills for Employability at the Secondary Level: Effective Models for Asia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jayaram, Shubha; Engmann, Michelle

    2014-01-01

    Globally, enormous gains have been made towards the goal of universal primary education, leading to increased demands for secondary education. Consequently, more youth and young adults are now entering the formal and informal labour markets from the secondary level, which makes it important to ensure that secondary schools teach skills relevant to…

  12. Effects of goal-setting skills on students’academic performance in english language in Enugu Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abe Iyabo Idowu

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available The study investigated the effectiveness of goal-setting skills among Senior Secondary II students’ academic performance in English language in Enugu Metropolis, Enugu state, Nigeria. Quasi-experimental pre-test, post- test control group design was adopted for the study. The initial sample was 147 participants (male and female Senior Secondary School II students drawn from two public schools in Enugu zone of Enugu Metropolis. The final sample for the intervention consisted of 80 participants. This sample satisfied the condition for selection from the baseline data. Two research hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data generated were analyzed using the mean, standard deviation and t-test statistical method. The findings showed that performance in English language was enhanced among participants exposed to goal-setting intervention compared to those in the control group. The study also showed that there is a significant gender difference in students’ performance with female participants recording a higher mean score than males. Parental level of education was also found to be related to performance in English Language. Based on the findings, goal-setting intervention was recommended as a strategy to enhancing students’ academic performance particularly in English Language. 

  13. Self-assessment and goal-setting is associated with an improvement in interviewing skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanley, Kathleen; Zabar, Sondra; Charap, Joseph; Nicholson, Joseph; Disney, Lindsey; Kalet, Adina; Gillespie, Colleen

    2014-01-01

    Describe the relationship between medical students' self-assessment and goal-setting (SAGS) skills and development of interviewing skills during the first-year doctoring course. 157 first-year medical students completed three two-case standardized patient (SP) interviews. After each of the first two, students viewed videotapes of their interview, completed a SAGS worksheet, and reviewed a selected tape segment in a seminar. SAGS was categorized into good and poor quality and interviewing skills were rated by trained raters. SAGS improved over time (37% good week 1 vs. 61% good week 10). Baseline SAGS and interviewing skills were not associated. Initial SAGS quality was associated with change in interviewing skills - those with poor-quality SAGS demonstrated a decrease and those with good-quality SAGS demonstrated an increase in scores by 17 weeks (ANOVA F=4.16, p=0.024). For students whose SAGS skills were good at both week 1 and 10, interviewing skills declined in weeks 1-10 and then increased significantly at week 17. For those whose SAGS remained 'poor' in weeks 1-10, interviewing skills declined in weeks 10-17. In general, the quality of students' SAGS improved over time. Poor baseline SAGS skills and failure to improve were associated with a decrease in interviewing skills at 17 weeks. For students with better SAGS, interviewing skills increased at week 17. Improvement in SAGS skills was not associated with improved interviewing skills. Understanding structured self-assessment skills helps identify student characteristics that influence progressive mastery of communication skills and therefore may inform curriculum and remediation tailoring.

  14. Helpful Entry Level Skills Checklist--Revised Manual [and] Helpful Entry Level Skill Checklist--Revised Edition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Child Development Centers of the Bluegrass, Lexington, KY.

    The Helpful Entry Level Skills Checklist was designed to assist preschool teachers in selecting functional skills that children (including children with disabilities) may need to make a successful transition into the public schools. These skills, for the most part, deal with attending, compliance, ability to follow directions, turn taking, ability…

  15. Using Achievement Goal Theory in Motor Skill Instruction: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palmer, Kara K; Chinn, Katherine M; Robinson, Leah E

    2017-12-01

    Over the past two decades, achievement goal theory (AGT) has been used as a theoretical framework to design and implement motor skill programming in young children. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the effects of AGT in motor skill interventions and programming in children aged 0-12 years. This systematic literature search was conducted using three databases: Google Scholar, PubMed, and EBSCOhost. Studies were included if they met the following four inclusion criteria: (1) had an intervention with a gross motor outcome, (2) used an intervention grounded in AGT, (3) included young children (aged 0-12 years), and (4) were written in English. Studies were rated according to methodological reporting quality. All literature searches and reporting were consistent with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) protocol. A total of 12 studies met all inclusion criteria and were included in the sample. All studies reported that AGT motor skill interventions were effective for improving motor skills in young children. Studies varied in regard to intervention groups, duration, dosage, and the personnel responsible for implementing the intervention. None of the included studies met the requirements to be considered as having high methodological quality. Based on these findings, AGT is an effective theoretical approach for designing and implementing motor skill interventions for young children.

  16. Eyes on the prize or nose to the grindstone? The effects of level of goal evaluation on mood and motivation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houser-Marko, Linda; Sheldon, Kennon M

    2008-11-01

    These studies tested the hypothesis that evaluating goal feedback in terms of a primary, longer term goal can be risky for future motivation. Study 1 was a 2 x 2 experiment in which framing level (primary goal/subgoal) and feedback valence (success/failure) were manipulated for participants during a verbal skills task. In the primary goal failure condition, there was increased negative mood and decreased positive mood and expectancy for subsequent trials, even while controlling for goal difficulty and importance. Study 2 was an 8-week study throughout which participants were asked to evaluate their progress regarding a primary goal (class grade goal) or subgoal (weekly study hours goal), and success or failure varied naturally. When progress was lacking, participants in the primary goal condition experienced the largest decreases in mood and expectancy. These results suggest that it is optimal to evaluate goal progress at the lower, subgoal level, particularly after failure feedback.

  17. Self-assessment and goal-setting is associated with an improvement in interviewing skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kathleen Hanley

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: Describe the relationship between medical students’ self-assessment and goal-setting (SAGS skills and development of interviewing skills during the first-year doctoring course. Method: 157 first-year medical students completed three two-case standardized patient (SP interviews. After each of the first two, students viewed videotapes of their interview, completed a SAGS worksheet, and reviewed a selected tape segment in a seminar. SAGS was categorized into good and poor quality and interviewing skills were rated by trained raters. Results: SAGS improved over time (37% good week 1 vs. 61% good week 10. Baseline SAGS and interviewing skills were not associated. Initial SAGS quality was associated with change in interviewing skills – those with poor-quality SAGS demonstrated a decrease and those with good-quality SAGS demonstrated an increase in scores by 17 weeks (ANOVA F=4.16, p=0.024. For students whose SAGS skills were good at both week 1 and 10, interviewing skills declined in weeks 1–10 and then increased significantly at week 17. For those whose SAGS remained ‘poor’ in weeks 1–10, interviewing skills declined in weeks 10–17. Conclusions: In general, the quality of students’ SAGS improved over time. Poor baseline SAGS skills and failure to improve were associated with a decrease in interviewing skills at 17 weeks. For students with better SAGS, interviewing skills increased at week 17. Improvement in SAGS skills was not associated with improved interviewing skills. Understanding structured self-assessment skills helps identify student characteristics that influence progressive mastery of communication skills and therefore may inform curriculum and remediation tailoring.

  18. The inadequacy of Individual Educational Program (IEP) goals for high school students with word-level reading difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catone, William V; Brady, Susan A

    2005-06-01

    This investigation analyzed goals from the Individual Educational Programs (IEPs) of 54 high school students with diagnosed reading disabilities in basic skills (decoding and/or word identification). Results showed that for 73% of the students, the IEPs written when they were in high school failed to specify any objectives regarding their acute difficulties with basic skills. IEPs from earlier points in the students' educations were also reviewed, as available. For 23 of the students, IEPs were present in the students' files for three time points: elementary school (ES), middle school (MS), and high school (HS). Another 20 students from the sample of 54 had IEPs available for two time points (HS and either MS or ES). Comparisons with the IEPs from younger years showed a pattern of decline from ES to MS to HS in the percentage of IEPs that commented on or set goals pertaining to weaknesses in decoding. These findings suggest that basic skills deficits that persist into the upper grade levels are not being sufficiently targeted for remediation, and help explain why older students frequently fail to resolve their reading problems.

  19. Validity and reliability of global operative assessment of laparoscopic skills (GOALS) in novice trainees performing a laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kramp, Kelvin H; van Det, Marc J; Hoff, Christiaan; Lamme, Bas; Veeger, Nic J G M; Pierie, Jean-Pierre E N

    2015-01-01

    Global Operative Assessment of Laparoscopic Skills (GOALS) assessment has been designed to evaluate skills in laparoscopic surgery. A longitudinal blinded study of randomized video fragments was conducted to estimate the validity and reliability of GOALS in novice trainees. In total, 10 trainees each performed 6 consecutive laparoscopic cholecystectomies. Sixty procedures were recorded on video. Video fragments of (1) opening of the peritoneum; (2) dissection of Calot's triangle and achievement of critical view of safety; and (3) dissection of the gallbladder from the liver bed were blinded, randomized, and rated by 2 consultant surgeons using GOALS. Also, a grade was given for overall competence. The correlation of GOALS with live observation Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) scores was calculated. Construct validity was estimated using the Friedman 2-way analysis of variance by ranks and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The interrater reliability was calculated using the absolute and consistency agreement 2-way random-effects model intraclass correlation coefficient. A high correlation was found between mean GOALS score (r = 0.879, p = 0.021) and mean OSATS score. The GOALS score increased significantly across the 6 procedures (p = 0.002). The trainees performed significantly better on their sixth when compared with their first cholecystectomy (p = 0.004). The consistency agreement interrater reliability was 0.37 for the mean GOALS score (p = 0.002) and 0.55 for overall competence (p < 0.001) of the 3 video fragments. The validity observed in this randomized blinded longitudinal study supports the existing evidence that GOALS is a valid tool for assessment of novice trainees. A relatively low reliability was found in this study. Copyright © 2014 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Goal Translation: How To Create a Results-Focused Organizational Culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mourier, Pierre

    2000-01-01

    Presents a model for changing human and organizational behavior. Highlights include behavioral dynamics; expectations; alignment; organizational structure; organizational culture; individual skills and training; leadership; management systems; developing corporate-level goals; communicating goals to the organization; and developing employee goals.…

  1. Literacy skills gaps: A cross-level analysis on international and intergenerational variations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Suehye

    2018-02-01

    The global agenda for sustainable development has centred lifelong learning on UNESCO's Education 2030 Framework for Action. The study described in this article aimed to examine international and intergenerational variations in literacy skills gaps within the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this purpose, the author examined the trend of literacy gaps in different countries using multilevel and multisource data from the OECD's Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning survey data from the third edition of the Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE III). In this article, particular attention is paid to exploring the specific effects of education systems on literacy skills gaps among different age groups. Key findings of this study indicate substantial intergenerational literacy gaps within countries as well as different patterns of literacy gaps across countries. Young generations generally outscore older adults in literacy skills, but feature bigger gaps when examined by gender and social origin. In addition, this study finds an interesting tendency for young generations to benefit from a system of Recognition, Validation and Accreditation (RVA) in closing literacy gaps by formal schooling at country level. This implies the potential of an RVA system for tackling educational inequality in initial schooling. The article concludes with suggestions for integrating literacy skills as a foundation of lifelong learning into national RVA frameworks and mechanisms at system level.

  2. Level of Skill Argued Students on Physics Material

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viyanti, V.; Cari, C.; Sunarno, W.; Prasetyo, Z. K.

    2017-09-01

    This study aims to analyze the prior knowledge of students to map the level of skills to argue floating and sinking material. Prior knowledge is the process of concept formation in cognitive processes spontaneously or based on student experience. The study population is high school students of class XI. The sample selection using cluster random sampling, obtained the number of sampel as many as 50 student. The research used descriptive survey method. The data were obtained through a multiple choice test both grounded and interviewed. The data analyzed refers to: alignment the concept and the activity of developing the skill of the argument. The result obtained by the average level of skill argue in terms of the prior knowladge of on “Level 2”. The data show that students have difficulty expressing simple arguments consisting of only one statement. This indicates a lack of student experience in cultivating argumentative skills in their learning. The skill level mapping argued in this study to be a reference for researchers to provide feedback measures to obtain positive change in cognitive conflict argued.

  3. Dysregulation in level of goal and action identification across psychological disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watkins, Edward

    2011-01-01

    Goals, events, and actions can be mentally represented within a hierarchical framework that ranges from more abstract to more concrete levels of identification. A more abstract level of identification involves general, superordinate, and decontextualized mental representations that convey the meaning of goals, events, and actions, “why” an action is performed, and its purpose, ends, and consequences. A more concrete level of identification involves specific and subordinate mental representations that include contextual details of goals, events, and actions, and the specific “how” details of an action. This review considers three lines of evidence for considering that dysregulation of level of goal/action identification may be a transdiagnostic process. First, there is evidence that different levels of identification have distinct functional consequences and that in non-clinical samples level of goal/action identification appears to be regulated in a flexible and adaptive way to match the level of goal/action identification to circumstances. Second, there is evidence that level of goal/action identification causally influences symptoms and processes involved in psychological disorders, including emotional response, repetitive thought, impulsivity, problem solving and procrastination. Third, there is evidence that the level of goal/action identification is biased and/or dysregulated in certain psychological disorders, with a bias towards more abstract identification for negative events in depression, GAD, PTSD, and social anxiety. PMID:20579789

  4. Guidance Oriented Acquisition of Learning Skills (Project GOALS). Final Evaluation Report, 1992-93. OREA Report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musante, Patricia

    Guidance Oriented Acquisition of Learning Skills (Project GOALS) was a federally-funded project in three Brooklyn (New York) high schools in its fourth year of operation in 1992-93. It served 312 limited-English-proficient and 57 English-proficient students through instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), native language arts (NLA) in…

  5. Teacher Assessment of Practical Skills in A-Level Chemistry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, R.; Ferguson, Carolyn M.

    1975-01-01

    Discusses a two-year assessment undertaken to evaluate the Nuffield A-Level chemistry course. Secondary teachers selected chemistry experiments for assessment purposes and assessed their students in manipulative skills, observational skills, interpretation skills, creative skills, and attitudes. (MLH)

  6. Parental management of peer relationships and early adolescents' social skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mounts, Nina S

    2011-04-01

    Despite a growing body of research on parental management of peer relationships, little is known about the relationship between parental management of peers and early adolescents' social skills or the precursors to parental management of peer relationships. The goals of this short-term longitudinal investigation were to examine the relationship between parental management of peers (consulting and guiding), conflict about peers, and adolescents' social skills (cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control) and to examine potential precursors (goals of improving peer relationships and beliefs about authority over peer relationships) to parental management of peer relationships. A predominantly White sample (71%) of 75 seventh-graders (57% female) and their primary caregivers participated in the 9-month investigation. Caregivers completed questionnaires regarding goals of improving their adolescents' peer relationships, beliefs about parental authority over peer relationships, parental management of peers, and adolescents' social skills. Adolescents completed questionnaires regarding their social skills. Path analyses suggest that a greater number of caregivers' goals of improving peer relationships and higher beliefs about parental authority over peers were related to higher levels of consulting, guiding, and conflict about peers. Higher levels of conflict about peers in conjunction with higher levels of consulting were related to lower levels of assertion and responsibility in peer relationships over time. When parents reported having a greater number of goals of improving peer relationships, adolescents reported higher levels of cooperation, assertion, empathy, and self control over time. Findings suggest that caregivers' goals and beliefs are important in predicting parental management of peer relationships and adolescents' social skills over time, and that conflict about peers undermines caregivers' efforts to be positively involved in

  7. Relationship of level of physical skills and academic achievemnts

    OpenAIRE

    Doubková, Karolína

    2010-01-01

    The thesis aims to investigate whether there is dependence between the level of physical skills and achievements in school. By means of test I will analyze the level of physical skills for pupils in lower multi-annual gymnasium. Based on the measured results I try to find and compare the level of physical skills and students academic achievemnt dependence in the first semester of that year. Subsequently I also detect, by using my pre-prepared questionnaire, the relationship of students to spo...

  8. Urban Latino children's physical activity levels and performance in interactive dance video games: effects of goal difficulty and goal specificity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Zan; Podlog, Leslie

    2012-10-01

    To examine the effects of different levels of goal specificity and difficulty on Latino children's performance and physical activity (PA) levels in an after-school program incorporating an interactive dance program (Dance Dance Revolution [DDR]; Konami Corporation). Comparison study. Rose Park Elementary School, Salt Lake City, Utah. Ninety-eight Latino children in the first through sixth grades, aged 7 to 13 years. After the pretest, the participants were randomly assigned into 1 of the following 3 goal-setting conditions: (1) easy, (2) difficult, and (3) best effort (hereinafter referred to as do-your-best goal). Participants' PA levels were measured using piezoelectric pedometers, and steps per minute were used as the outcome variable. Participants' total points for their dance on television screens were retrieved as their performance scores. These outcome variables were assessed again 8 weeks later (posttest score). The multivariate analysis of covariance yielded a significant main effect for the goal-setting condition. Follow-up tests revealed that children who set specific (easy or difficult) goals had significantly greater increased PA levels (mean scores, 10.34 for easy and 22.45 for difficult) and DDR performance (0.011 for easy and 0.67 for difficult) than those in the do-your-best group (0.83 for PA and 0.17 for performance). In addition, children's increased PA levels in the difficult-goal group were significantly higher than those in the easy-goal group. The easy- and difficult-goal groups show a significant improvement on DDR performance. The difficult- goal group also displays the highest improvement on PA levels. Strategies to enhance children's DDR performance and PA levels are discussed in relation to the extant goal-setting literature.

  9. Confidence-Based Progress-Driven Self-Generated Goals for Skill Acquisition in Developmental Robots

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hung eNgo

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available A reinforcement learning agent that autonomously explores its environment can utilize a curiosity drive to enable continual learning of skills, in the absence of any external rewards. We formulate curiosity-driven exploration, and eventual skill acquisition, as a selective sampling problem. Each environment setting provides the agent with a stream of instances. An instance is a sensory observation that, when queried, causes an outcome that the agent is trying to predict. After an instance is observed, a query condition, derived herein, tells whether its outcome is statistically known or unknown to the agent, based on the confidence interval of an online linear classifier. Upon encountering the first unknown instance, the agent "queries'' the environment to observe the outcome, which is expected to improve its confidence in the corresponding predictor. If the environment is in a setting where all instances are known, the agent generates a plan of actions to reach a new setting, where an unknown instance is likely to be encountered. The desired setting is a self-generated goal, and the plan of action, essentially a program to solve a problem, is a skill. The success of the plan depends on the quality of the agent's predictors, which are improved as mentioned above. For validation, this method is applied to both a simulated and real Katana robot arm in its "blocks-world'' environment. Results show that the proposed method generates sample-efficient curious exploration behavior, which exhibits developmental stages, continual learning, and skill acquisition, in an intrinsically-motivated playful agent.

  10. The Structure and Application of High Level Safety Goals. A Review by the MDEP Sub-committee on Safety Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2011-01-01

    One of the aims of MDEP is to work towards greater harmonisation of regulatory requirements. To achieve this aim, it is necessary that there is a degree of convergence on the safety goals that are required to be met by designers and operators. The term 'safety goals' is defined to cover all health and safety requirements which must be met: these may be deterministic rules and/or probabilistic targets. They should cover the safety of workers, public and the environment in line with the IAEA's Basic Safety Objective; encompassing safety in normal operation through to severe accidents. All regulators have safety goals, but these are expressed in many different ways and exercises in comparing them frequently are done at a very low level eg specific temperatures in the reactor vessel. The differences in the requirements from different regulators are difficult to resolve as the goals are derived using different principles and assumptions and are for a specific technology. Therefore MDEP set up a sub-committee to investigate a different approach. This approach was to start with the top level goals and to derive a structure and means of deriving lower tier goals that can be seen to be clearly related to the higher level ones. This approach has the potential to greatly assist in the process of harmonisation of regulatory requirements. The paper reviews the high level goals used in MDEP countries and the relevant work of international groups. From these it draws broad conclusions that the form of the framework should be an Hierarchical Structure of Safety Goals, incorporating an extended Defense-in-Depth approach. The basis concept is that the higher level safety goals can then developed, in a coherent and consistent manner, into lower level safety goals and targets that can be applied within the design and operation of reactors, with a clear connection between the different levels. This structured approach is technology-neutral and is sufficiently flexible that it can be

  11. Reflective teaching of medical communication skills with DiViDU: assessing the level of student reflection on recorded consultations with simulated patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hulsman, R L; Harmsen, A B; Fabriek, M

    2009-02-01

    Acquisition of effective, goal-oriented communication skills requires both practicing skills and reflective thinking. Reflection is a cyclic process of perceiving and analysing communication behaviour in terms of goals and effects and designing improved actions. Based on Korthagen's ALACT reflection model, communication training on history taking was designed. Objectives were to develop rating criteria for assessment of the students' level of reflection and to collect student evaluations of the reflective cycle components in the communication training. All second year medical students recorded a consultation with a simulated patient. In DiViDU, a web-based ICT program, students reviewed the video, identified and marked three key events, attached written reflections and provided peer-feedback. Students' written reflections were rated on four reflection categories. A reflection-level score was based on a frequency count of the number of categories used over three reflections. Students filled out an evaluation questionnaire on components of the communication training. Data were analyzed of 304 (90.6%) students. The four reflection categories Observations, Motives, Effects and Goals of behaviour were used in 7-38%. Most students phrased undirected questions for improvement (93%). The average reflection score was 2.1 (S.D. 2.0). All training components were considered instructive. Acting was preferred most. Reviewing video was considered instructive. Self-reflection was considered more difficult than providing written feedback to the reflections of peers. Reflection on communication behaviour can be systematically implemented and measured in a structured way. Reflection levels were low, probably indicating a limited notion of goal-oriented attributes of communication skills. Early introduction of critical self-reflection facilitates acceptance of an important ability for physicians for continued life-long learning and becoming mindful practitioners.

  12. Factors in the development of higher levels of reading literacy: Argumentation skills in educational practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Branković Marija

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The highest levels of reading literacy, as defined within PISA study, include the ability to use various cognitive skills, with argumentative skills being one of the most important among them. In the present study our goal was to reveal some of the factors that influence the development of argumentative skills in Serbian schools. We investigated the extent to which argumentative skills are required in PISA reading literacy tasks, as well as the specific difficulties our students have faced on these tasks, through an analysis of student performance. We also conducted an analysis of the educational practice - by doing in-depth interviews with teachers and content analysis of students' textbooks. The results revealed that: 1 Argumentations skills are an important requirement within PISA tasks; 2 Serbian students are mostly successful at basic tasks of recognizing arguments or providing arguments for the given position; they face difficulties answering the tasks which require precise formulation of relevant arguments as well as those demanding meta-cognitive skills (e.g. recognizing persuasive strategies in the given text. Their performance is particularly poor on tasks requiring the combination of information from different sources or information presented in different formats (text, tables, or graphs; 3 There is a significant gap between the requirements for argumentation skills our students usually encounter and PISA reading literacy tasks. In this paper we discuss some of the difficulties and obstacles to encouraging the development of argumentative thinking.

  13. Discussing Death, Dying, and End-of-Life Goals of Care: A Communication Skills Training Module for Oncology Nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coyle, Nessa; Manna, Ruth; Shen, Megan; Banerjee, Smita C; Penn, Stacey; Pehrson, Cassandra; Krueger, Carol A; Maloney, Erin K; Zaider, Talia; Bylund, Carma L

    2015-12-01

    Effective communication, particularly at the end of life, is an essential skill for oncology nurses, but few receive formal training in this area. The aim of this article is to adapt an end-of-life care communication skills training (CST) module, originally developed for oncologists, for oncology nurses and to evaluate participants' confidence in using the communication skills learned and their satisfaction with the module. The adapted end-of-life care module consisted of a 45-minute didactic, exemplary video and 90 minutes of small group interaction and experiential role play with a simulated patient. Using a five-point Likert-type scale, 247 inpatient oncology nurses completed pre-/post-workshop surveys rating their confidence in discussing death, dying, and end-of-life goals of care with patients, as well as overall satisfaction with the module. Nurses' confidence in discussing death, dying, and end-of-life goals of care increased significantly after attending the workshop. Nurse participants indicated satisfaction with the module by agreeing or strongly agreeing to all six items assessing satisfaction 90%-98% of the time. Nurses' CST in discussing death, dying, and end-of-life care showed feasibility, acceptability, and potential benefit at improving confidence in having end-of-life care discussions.

  14. Goal Orientation Profiles, Academic Achievement and Well-Being of Adolescents in Greece

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mastrotheodoros, S.; Talias, Michael A.; Motti-Stefanidi, Frosso

    2018-01-01

    Adolescents differ in the way they motivate themselves, and the way they choose, perceive, and approach their goals. Goal orientations have been proposed to be a significant aspect of individual differences. In general, some students aim at gaining a higher level of skills, whereas other students

  15. Sport psychological skill levels and related psychosocial factors that ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Sport psychological skill levels and related psychosocial factors that distinguish ... players' perceived ability to be psychologically well prepared for competitions. ... reference to practical implications for future sport psychological skills training

  16. 2×2 dominant achievement goal profiles in high-level swimmers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandez-Rio, Javier; Cecchini Estrada, Jose A; Mendez-Giménez, Antonio; Fernández-Garcia, Benjamín; Saavedra, Pablo

    2014-01-01

    The goal of this study was to assess achievement goal dominance, self-determined situational motivation and competence in high-level swimmers before and after three training sessions set at different working intensities (medium, sub-maximal and maximal). Nineteen athletes (males, n=9, 18.00±2.32 years; females, n=10, 16.30±2.01 years, range = 14-18) agreed to participate. They completed a questionnaire that included the Dominant Achievement Goal assessment instrument, the 2×2 Achievement Goals Questionnaire for Sport (AGQ-S), The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS) and the Competence subscale of the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise questionnaire (BPNES). Results indicated that participants overwhelmingly showed mastery-approach achievement goal dominance, and it remained stable at the conclusion of the different training sessions under all intensity levels. This profile was positively correlated to self-determined situational motivation and competence. However, swimmers' feelings of competence increased only after the medium intensity level training session. After the completion of the maximal intensity training session, swimmers' self-determined motivation was significantly lower compared to the other two training sessions, which could be caused by a temporary period of burnout. Results indicated that high-level swimmers had a distinct mastery-approach dominant achievement goal profile that was not affected by the workload of the different training sessions. They also showed high levels of self-determined situational motivation and competence. However, heavy workloads should be controlled because they can cause transitory burnout.

  17. Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching Battlefield Command Reasoning Skills

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Domeshek, Eric

    2002-01-01

    ... (ITS) for high-level battlefield command reasoning skills. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop new ITS techniques and technology for teaching skills that cannot he taught as simple methods and procedures to he followed...

  18. PSYCHOLOGICAL SKILLS USAGE AND THE COMPETITIVE ANXIETY RESPONSE AS A FUNCTION OF SKILL LEVEL IN RUGBY UNION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard Neil

    2006-09-01

    Full Text Available This study examined the intensity and direction of competitive anxiety symptoms and psychological skill usage in rugby union players of different skill levels. Elite (n=65 and nonelite (n=50 participants completed measures of competitive anxiety, self- confidence, and psychological skills. The elite group reported more facilitative interpretations of competitive anxiety symptoms, higher levels of self-confidence, lower relaxation usage, and greater imagery and self-talk use than their nonelite counterparts. The findings suggest that nonelite performers primarily use relaxation strategies to reduce anxiety intensity. In contrast, elite athletes appear to maintain intensity levels and adopt a combination of skills to interpret symptoms as facilitative to performance. Potential mechanisms for this process include the use of imagery and verbal persuasion efficacy-enhancement techniques to protect against debilitating symptom interpretations

  19. SKILLS MISMATCH OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE AT THE EUROPEAN LEVEL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hatos Roxana

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Transition from school to work is a main issue with many fields of study. Studies on transition from school to work, have highlight the importance of two categories of factors at the level of the individual formal proceedings which may affect how easy it is to graduate to integrate into the labor market: 1 so far as the educational systems are transmitting specific competences as compared with those general and 2 so far as there are direct links between employers and the education system. In this way, are reduced the costs of selection and allocation for employers. A poor articulation between educational institutions and the labor market produce a high level of unmatched competences of assimilated by formal education and competencies required of the labor market (skill mismatch (Parodi et al., 2012. The surveys with European employers reflect particular difficulties that they are experiencing in employment vacancies. Investigation on the European companies in the spring of 2013 found that 40% of the firms in the EU have difficulty in finding employees with suitable qualification (CEDEFOP-European Center for the Development of the Vocational Training, 2014. Skills mismatch is a generic term that refers to various types of imbalances between skills and competences offered and those required in the labor market. Concept has become one intensely discussed and submitted to measurement in international research on the background concerns the under-utilization human resource. Numerous opinion polls with employers come to the same unexpected conclusion - that despite high unemployment many posts can't find occupants satisfactorily prepared and identify the causes: most of them criticized the lack of skills of the candidates or the absence of skills specific to the workplace. Based on the latest studies on international databases have built a set of questions that, through secondary analysis, we tried to find answers. Questions that we try to give answer

  20. COMPARISON BETWEEN SPORT PARTICIPATION MOTIVATION AND GOAL-ORIENTATION OF YOUTH ATHLETES: THE ROLE OF PARENTS' EDUCATION LEVEL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Noshin Benar.

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available The aims of present study was to (A compare and prioritizing the main six motivations of sport participation of youth athletes, (B compare and prioritize task and ego-orientation of youth athletes, and (C the role of parents' education level and its impact on the motivation of sport participation and goal-orientation youth athletes. In the study, descriptive-analytic design was applied. For the study 376 Iranian youth athletes were singled out by cluster-random sampling. They answered to participation motivation questionnaire (PMQ and task & ego-orientation in sport questionnaire (T.E.O.S.Q. Also data about parents' education level (PEL was obtained using questions about demographic features. The findings showed that those who participated in individual sports had more motivation for status than team sports athletes and they were more ego-orientation. Also it was found that more highly educated mothers came to induce internal motivation in youth athletes using Kruskal-Wallis test, whereas more highly educated fathers came to induce both internal and external motivation to them. It seems that those athletes who participated in individual and open-skilled sports are more ego-oriented than those who participated in team and open-skilled sports. The feedbacks which are based on task orientation are probably provided, along with promotion of mothers' education level; however with promotion of fathers' education level, both of these feedbacks and those based on ego-orientation will be provided, probably for their children to participation in sport activities.

  1. Standardized patient simulation versus didactic teaching alone for improving residents' communication skills when discussing goals of care and resuscitation: A randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Downar, James; McNaughton, Nancy; Abdelhalim, Tarek; Wong, Natalie; Lapointe-Shaw, Lauren; Seccareccia, Dori; Miller, Kim; Dev, Shelly; Ridley, Julia; Lee, Christie; Richardson, Lisa; McDonald-Blumer, Heather; Knickle, Kerry

    2017-02-01

    Communication skills are important when discussing goals of care and resuscitation. Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of standardized patients for teaching medical trainees to communicate about goals of care. To determine whether standardized patient simulation offers benefit over didactic sessions alone for improving skill and comfort discussing goals of care. Single-blind, randomized, controlled trial of didactic teaching plus standardized patient simulation versus didactic teaching alone. First-year internal medicine residents. Changes in communication comfort and skill between baseline and 2 months post-training assessed using the Consultation and Relational Empathy measure. We enrolled 94 residents over a 2-year period. Both groups reported a significant improvement in comfort when discussing goals of care with patients. There was no difference in Consultation and Relational Empathy scores following the workshop ( p = 0.79). The intervention group showed a significant increase in Consultation and Relational Empathy scores post-workshop compared with pre-workshop (35.0 vs 31.7, respectively; p = 0.048), whereas there was no improvement in Consultation and Relational Empathy scores in the control group (35.6 vs 36.0; p = 0.4). However, when the results were adjusted for baseline differences in Consultation and Relational Empathy scores in a multivariable regression analysis, group assignment was not associated with an improvement in Consultation and Relational Empathy score. Improvement in comfort scores and perception of benefit were not associated with improvements in Consultation and Relational Empathy scores. Simulation training may improve communication skill and comfort more than didactic training alone, but there were important confounders in this study and further studies are needed to determine whether simulation is better than didactic training for this purpose.

  2. Improving oncology nurses' communication skills for difficult conversations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baer, Linda; Weinstein, Elizabeth

    2013-06-01

    When oncology nurses have strong communication skills, they play a pivotal role in influencing patient satisfaction, adherence to plans of care, and overall clinical outcomes. However, research studies indicate that nurses tend to keep communication with patients and families at a superficial, nontherapeutic level. Processes for teaching goals-of-care communication skills and for implementing skills into clinical practice are not clearly defined. Nurses at a large comprehensive cancer center recognized the need for help with this skill set and sought out communication experts to assist in providing the needed education. An educational project was developed to improve therapeutic communication skills in oncology nurses during goals-of-care discussions and giving bad news. The program was tailored to nurses and social workers providing care to patients in a busy, urban, academic, outpatient oncology setting. Program topics included exploring the patient's world, eliciting hopes and concerns, and dealing with conflict about goals. Sharing and discussing specific difficult questions and scenarios were encouraged throughout the program. The program was well attended and well received by oncology nurses and social workers. Participants expressed interest in the continuation of communication programs to further enhance skills.

  3. The Level of motor Skills of the First Grade Pupils

    OpenAIRE

    HEJLOVÁ, Kateřina

    2011-01-01

    The thesis focuses on motor abilities of children from birth to the age of eight years. It outlines the development of gross motor skills, fine motor skills and micromotor skills, and methods how to help children develop these particular areas. The level of motor skills is determined by method of testing in first graders from Stonařov, Pavlov, Třešť and České Budějovice.

  4. Teaching Badminton Based on Student Skill Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jianyu; Moffit, Jeff

    2009-01-01

    Badminton has been identified as a lifelong activity. It is an inexpensive sport and everyone--children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities--can reach a level of enjoyment in the game after mastering basic skills and tactics. In teaching badminton, teachers need to understand how students develop game play ability from a low level to an…

  5. Leadership Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hutchison, Cathleen; And Others

    1988-01-01

    Lists skills identified by the Leadership Development Task Force as being critical skills for a leader. Discussion focuses on information managing skills, including problem solving, decision making, setting goals and objectives; project management; and people managing skills, including interpersonal communications, conflict management, motivation,…

  6. Reflective teaching of medical communication skills with DiViDU: assessing the level of student reflection on recorded consultations with simulated patients

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hulsman, R. L.; Harmsen, A. B.; Fabriek, M.

    2009-01-01

    Acquisition of effective, goal-oriented communication skills requires both practicing skills and reflective thinking. Reflection is a cyclic process of perceiving and analysing communication behaviour in terms of goals and effects and designing improved actions. Based on Korthagen's ALACT reflection

  7. Literacy Skills Gaps: A Cross-Level Analysis on International and Intergenerational Variations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Suehye

    2018-01-01

    The global agenda for sustainable development has centred lifelong learning on UNESCO's Education 2030 Framework for Action. The study described in this article aimed to examine international and intergenerational variations in literacy skills gaps within the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this purpose, the…

  8. The Writing Skill in the Contemporary Society: The Kenyan Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okari, Florence Mokeira

    2016-01-01

    This paper is an overview of the writing skill in the lower levels of learning in the contemporary society. The following areas of writing are highlighted: the writing programme and its goals, the basic methodology for writing tasks, broad groups of writing skills, the teaching of the writing skills in pre-primary and primary schools where…

  9. Population-level associations between preschool vulnerability and grade-four basic skills.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amedeo D'Angiulli

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available This is a predictive validity study examining the extent to which developmental vulnerability at kindergarten entry (as measured by the Early Development Instrument, EDI is associated with children's basic skills in 4th grade (as measured by the Foundation Skills Assessment, FSA.Relative risk analysis was performed on a large database linking individual-level EDI ratings to the scores the same children obtained on a provincial assessment of academic skills (FSA--Foundation Skills Assessment four years later. We found that early vulnerability in kindergarten is associated with the basic skills that underlie populations of children's academic achievement in reading, writing and math, indicating that the Early Development Instrument permits to predict achievement-related skills four years in advance.The EDI can be used to predict children's educational trends at the population level and can help select early prevention and intervention programs targeting pre-school populations at minimum cost.

  10. Changes in Badminton Game Play across Developmental Skill Levels among High School Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jianyu; Liu, Wenhao

    2012-01-01

    The study examined changes in badminton game play across developmental skill levels among high school students in a physical education setting. Videotapes of badminton game play of 80 students (40 boys and 40 girls) in the four developmental skill levels (each skill level had 10 boys and 10 girls) were randomly selected from a database associated…

  11. Skill Levels of Prospective Physics Teachers on Problem Posing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cildir, Sema; Sezen, Nazan

    2011-01-01

    Problem posing is one of the topics which the educators thoroughly accentuate. Problem posing skill is defined as an introvert activity of a student's learning. In this study, skill levels of prospective physics teachers on problem posing were determined and their views on problem posing were evaluated. To this end, prospective teachers were given…

  12. Is there a second level divide in students Internet skills?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dau, Susanne; Purushothaman, Aparna

    2015-01-01

    The concept of digital divide have moved beyond physical disparities in usage and also encompasses issues impending access like human (skills) social, cultural, and psychological barriers that affect the usage of existing available technologies apart from ownership. This paper focuses on the insu......The concept of digital divide have moved beyond physical disparities in usage and also encompasses issues impending access like human (skills) social, cultural, and psychological barriers that affect the usage of existing available technologies apart from ownership. This paper focuses...... on the insufficient level of skills which students have in making the best use of available Internet technology. Varying online skills of the students in higher education from two countrywide scenarios - Denmark and India are discussed. The paper emphasizes on the reflective and conceptual issues which the students...... face to take information from the Internet that brings a second level of divide. Through a cross-national comparison the paper hopes to contribute to the literature to learn from each other´s experiences and giving insights to researchers on digital divide. The digital divide in Internet skills...

  13. Elementary School Students Perception Levels of Problem Solving Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yavuz, Günes; Yasemin, Deringöl; Arslan, Çigdem

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to reveal the perception levels of problem solving skills of elementary school students. The sample of the study is formed by totally 264 elementary students attending to 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade in a big city in Turkey. Data were collected by means of "Perception Scale for Problem Solving Skills" which…

  14. Maturity Level at University Academic Information System Linking it Goals and Business Goal Based on Cobit 4.1

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mukaromah Siti

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The development of Information Technology (IT has been mainly discussed nowadays, from the top to the lowest level of society. The application of IT help companies to solve problems and even more, the application of IT has been able to provide business strategic decisions support. Many enterprises decided to allocate large budget on IT implementation where this is in line with increasingly sophisticated expectations from IT. With the assumption that the larger budget on enterprises spent on IT application, the greater the benefits they will receive. Unfortunately, IT implementation does not always give an advantage to the company. There are times when the IT implementation does not give any benefit. This situation is called IT Productivity Paradox. The question is then how IT Productivity Paradox can be prevented. The analysis we will get the significance of the IT processes which is linked to its IT Goal. By knowing the significance of the IT processes, it can be seen which one is the significant process and which one is not to the IT Goal. If the IT process are not significant to the IT Goal, the process does not need to be improved because it has no effect to the IT Goal. This research was conducted to obtain the Maturity Level from each IT process and IT process’s significance to IT Goal. The result of this research is that IT Processes are significant to IT Goal. It can be concluded that IT Productivity Paradox was not occurred.

  15. On Social Achievement Goals: Their Relations with Peer Acceptance, Classroom Belongingness, and Perceptions of Loneliness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mouratidis, Athanasios A.; Sideridis, Georgios D.

    2009-01-01

    The authors investigated the relation between social achievement goals (A. M. Ryan & S. S. Shim, 2006) and aspects of students' socio-emotional adjustment in a sample of elementary school students. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that after controlling for levels of prosocial skills, a social development goal was positively related…

  16. Intensive skills week for military medical students increases technical proficiency, confidence, and skills to minimize negative stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mueller, Genevieve; Hunt, Bonnie; Wall, Van; Rush, Robert; Molof, Alan; Schoeff, Jonathan; Wedmore, Ian; Schmid, James; Laporta, Anthony

    2012-01-01

    The effects of stress induced cortisol on learning and memory is well documented in the literature.1-3 Memory and learning are enhanced at low levels while high levels are detrimental. Repetitive training in stressful situations enables management of the stress response4 as demonstrated by the high intensity training military members undergo to prepare for tactical situations. Appropriate management of one?s stress response is critical in the medical field, as the negative effects of stress can potentially hinder life-saving procedures and treatments. This also applies to physicians-in-training as they learn and practice triage, emergency medicine, and surgical skills prior to graduation. Rocky Vista University?s Military Medicine Honor?s Track (MMHT) held a week long high-intensity emergency medicine and surgical Intensive Skills Week (ISW), facilitated by military and university physicians, to advance students? skills and maximize training using the Human Worn Partial Surgical Task Simulator (Cut Suit). The short-term goal of the ISW was to overcome negative stress responses to increase confidence, technical and non-technical knowledge, and skill in surgery and emergency medicine in an effort to improve performance as third-year medical students. The long-term goal was to enhance performance and proficiency in residency and future medical practice. The metrics for the short-term goals were the focus of this pilot study. Results show an increase in confidence and decrease in perceived stress as well as statistically significant improvements in technical and non-technical skills and surgical instrumentation knowledge throughout the week. There is a correlative benefit to physician and non-physician military personnel, especially Special Operations Forces (SOF) medical personnel, from developing and implementing similar training programs when live tissue or cadaver models are unavailable or unfeasible. 2012.

  17. Emotional Intelligence Levels and Counselling Skills of Prospective Psychological Counsellors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Odaci, Hatice; Degerli, Fatma Irem; Bolat, Neslihan

    2017-01-01

    This research aimed to determine the correlation between emotional intelligence (EI) and counselling skills of Turkish prospective psychological counsellors and to investigate differences in both EI and counselling skills in terms of sex, previous experience of group studies, and class levels. Within a correlational pattern, the sample of the…

  18. Are general surgeons able to accurately self-assess their level of technical skills?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rizan, C; Ansell, J; Tilston, T W; Warren, N; Torkington, J

    2015-11-01

    Self-assessment is a way of improving technical capabilities without the need for trainer feedback. It can identify areas for improvement and promote professional medical development. The aim of this review was to identify whether self-assessment is an accurate form of technical skills appraisal in general surgery. The PubMed, MEDLINE(®), Embase(™) and Cochrane databases were searched for studies assessing the reliability of self-assessment of technical skills in general surgery. For each study, we recorded the skills assessed and the evaluation methods used. Common endpoints between studies were compared to provide recommendations based on the levels of evidence. Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria from 22,292 initial papers. There was no level 1 evidence published. All papers compared the correlation between self-appraisal versus an expert score but differed in the technical skills assessment and the evaluation tools used. The accuracy of self-assessment improved with increasing experience (level 2 recommendation), age (level 3 recommendation) and the use of video playback (level 3 recommendation). Accuracy was reduced by stressful learning environments (level 2 recommendation), lack of familiarity with assessment tools (level 3 recommendation) and in advanced surgical procedures (level 3 recommendation). Evidence exists to support the reliability of self-assessment of technical skills in general surgery. Several variables have been shown to affect the accuracy of self-assessment of technical skills. Future work should focus on evaluating the reliability of self-assessment during live operating procedures.

  19. Student's Perceived Level and Teachers' Teaching Strategies of Higher Order Thinking Skills: A Study on Higher Educational Institutions in Thailand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shukla, Divya; Dungsungnoen, Aj Pattaradanai

    2016-01-01

    Higher order thinking skills (HOTS) has portrayed immense industry demand and the major goal of educational institution in imparting education is to inculcate higher order thinking skills. This compiles and mandate the institutions and instructor to develop the higher order thinking skills among students in order to prepare them for effective…

  20. Reading Processing Skills among EFL Learners in Different Proficiency Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhanapala, Kusumi Vasantha; Yamada, Jun

    2015-01-01

    This study aims to understand how EFL learners in different reading proficiency levels comprehend L2 texts, using five-component skills involving measures of (1) vocabulary knowledge, (2) drawing inferences and predictions, (3) knowledge of text structure and discourse organization, (4) identifying the main idea and summarizing skills, and (5)…

  1. CONSISTENCY IN ACCELERATION PATTERNS OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS WITH DIFFERENT SKILL LEVELS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pinar Arpinar-Avsar

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available The aims of the present study were to compare the consistency in the lower limb acceleration patterns during inside and instep kicks performed by players with different skill levels, and to investigate the correlation between subjective rating scores for skill level relative to their kicking performance and knee acceleration repeatability. Thirteen club-level male soccer players of ages between 15-16 years participated in this study. Skill levels of individual players were quantified previously by evaluating shooting performance as a numerical value ranging from 1 to 10. Further evaluations were held through tri-axial acceleration data recorded at proximal tibial tuberosity beneath each patella on the players' knees, in a procedure in which players were asked to complete four randomly ordered shooting trials of inside and instep kicks with 2-minute resting intervals. Hence, the mainstream data used in consistency calculations are in the form 4 by 1200 matrices (acceleration vs. time per subject. In order to evaluate the consistency of acceleration data, the mean of the standard deviations (mSD were calculated, and the associated Pearson-r correlation coefficients were incorporated to obtain mSD vs. skill correlations. As a result, repeatability was found to increase with skill level at z-axis acceleration for instep kicks only. However, it is possible to find the most appropriate orientation (for the two kicks for meaningful correlations using vector rotations on the 3 orthogonal acceleration data, and this study shows that, after such suitable vector rotations, positive repeatability results could also be acquired for the inside kicks.

  2. Optimizing engagement in goal pursuit with youth with physical disabilities attending life skills and transition programs: an exploratory study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smart, Eric; Aulakh, Adeeta; McDougall, Carolyn; Rigby, Patty; King, Gillian

    2017-10-01

    Identify strategies youth perceive will optimize their engagement in goal pursuit in life skills and transition programs using an engagement framework involving affective, cognitive, and behavioral components. A qualitative descriptive design was used. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven youth. The first was informed by a prior observation session, and the second occurred after the program ended and explored youths' perceptions of whether and how their engagement changed. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The analysis generated eight strategies youth considered effective. These were categorized under the three components of engagement. Affective strategies: (1) building a relationship on familiarity and reciprocity; and (2) guiding the program using youths' preferences and strengths. Cognitive strategies: (3) assisting youth to envision meaningful change; (4) utilizing youths' learning styles; and (5) promoting awareness of goal progress. Behavioral strategies: (6) ensuring youth access to a resource network; (7) providing youth multiple decision opportunities; and (8) enabling youth to showcase capabilities. Service providers together with youth are encouraged to consider the role of context and self-determination needs in order to optimize youth engagement in goal pursuit. Systematic approaches to studying engagement are necessary to learn how to maximize rehabilitation potential. Implications for Rehabilitation Service providers are encouraged to be aware of the nature of engagement strategies identified by youth. Comprehensive frameworks of engagement are essential to generate knowledge on the range of strategies service providers can use to engage clients in rehabilitation services. Strategies perceived by youth to optimize their engagement in goal pursuit in life skills and transition programs have subtle yet significant differences with strategies used in other rehabilitation settings like mental health and adult healthcare

  3. Exploring the Self-Reported ICT Skill Levels of Undergraduate Science Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jef C. Verhoeven

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Computers have taken an important place in the training of science students and in the professional life of scientists. It is often taken for granted that most students have mastered basic Information and Communication Technologies (ICT skills; however, it has been shown that not all students are equally proficient in this regard. Starting from theories of socialization and technology acceptance we report how we constructed a structural equation model (SEM to explore the variance in the basic ICT skill levels of science students. We also present the results of a test of this model with university bachelor’s science students. Basic ICT skills were measured using a new, elaborate instrument allowing students to rate their skills in detail. Our results show that science students score high on basic ICT skills and that our SEM explains a large part of the variation in the ICT skill levels of these students. The most explanatory power is coming from four variables: the perceived ease of use and the perceived usefulness of a personal computer, the anxiety for using a personal computer, and students’ belief that ICT is necessary for scientific research.

  4. Cross-curricular goals and raising the relevance of science education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Belova, Nadja; Dittmar, Johanna; Hansson, Lena

    2016-01-01

    education go beyond single contents and concepts; many challenges are tied to cross-curricular goals. Specifically, when it comes to the societal and vocational relevance of science education, many demands can only be met when we develop corresponding skills across disciplines and grade levels. This chapter...... focuses on a set of such cross-curricular goals from a chemistry education perspective, namely education for sustainability, critical media literacy, innovation competence, vocational orientation, and employability. It relates them to the idea of relevant chemistry and science education. Directions...... for research and curriculum development will be suggested that emerge from taking into account cross-curricular goals on the science curriculum more thoroughly....

  5. Development of fundamental movement skills through games and PA in preschool chldren

    OpenAIRE

    Kašparová, Alena

    2014-01-01

    Characterization work: Fundamental locomotor skills are: walking, running, jumping, crawling and throwing. Their development is influenced primarily by games and movement activities. Control over those skills guarantees proper physical development of children and also make important prerequisites for an adoption of heavier and more complex skills. The levels of fundamental locomotor skills are evaluated by the diagnostic resources. Goal and purpose:I created inspiromat of games and movement a...

  6. The impact of goal setting and goal orientation on performance during a clerkship surgical skills training program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Aimee K; Diesen, Diana L; Hogg, Deborah; Huerta, Sergio

    2016-02-01

    The purpose of this study was to integrate relevant goal-setting theory and to identify if trainees' goal orientations have an impact on the assigned goals-performance relationship. Trainees attended 1 of the 3 goal-training activities (do your best, performance, or learning goals) for knot tying (KT) and camera navigation (CN) during the 3rd-year clerkship rotation. Questionnaires and pretests and/or post-tests were completed. One twenty-seven 3rd-year medical students (age: 25 ± 2.6; 54% women) participated in the training program. Pretraining to post-training performance changes were significant for all groups on both tasks (P goals group (do your best: KTΔ = 2.14, CNΔ = 1.69; performance: KTΔ = 2.49, CNΔ = 2.24; learning: KTΔ = 3.04 CNΔ = 2.76). Correlations between goal orientations and improvement were examined, revealing a unique role of goal orientation for performance improvement. These data indicate that consideration of goal type and trainee goal orientation must be considered during curriculum development to maximize educational value. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. The Effect of Different Metacognitive Skill Levels on Preservice Chemistry Teachers' Motivation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sen, Senol

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the metacognitive skill levels and motivation of preservice chemistry teachers and to investigate the effect of different metacognitive skill levels on their motivation. The study was conducted during 2014-2015 spring semester. In this research, survey method was used to reveal the effect of different…

  8. Using Business Theory to Motivate Undergraduate Students in Goal Attainment: An Empirical Assessment and Model for High Level Motivation and Goal Attainment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Paul; Griego, Orlando V.; Stevens, Roxanne Helm

    2010-01-01

    Students at a private university in southern California took part in a study focusing on high level motivation and goal commitment. Using path analysis, this study mapped out two-paths. The first path to motivation and, therefore, goal commitment was through self-efficacy. The second path to goal commitment required a more supportive course.…

  9. The application of learning skills in an engineering programme

    OpenAIRE

    Shoemaker, Leslie

    2006-01-01

    At the Dublin Institute of Technology, an engineering programme in the School of Control Systems and Electrical Engineering has successfully incorporated a study skills module into the core curriculum. The module, titled Academic Development and Key Skills, is part of the first year of the programme and has a two-fold purpose. Primarily the goal is to assist the students with the transition from second level education to third level by teaching them a more competent learning style. This, in t...

  10. Technical and tactical skills related to performance levels in tennis: A systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolman, Nikki S; Kramer, Tamara; Elferink-Gemser, Marije T; Huijgen, Barbara C H; Visscher, Chris

    2018-06-11

    The aim of this systematic review is to provide an overview of outcome measures and instruments identified in the literature for examining technical and tactical skills in tennis related to performance levels. Such instruments can be used to identify talent or the specific skill development training needs of particular players. Searches for this review were conducted using the PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycInfo databases. Out of 733 publications identified through these searches, 40 articles were considered relevant and included in this study. They were divided into three categories: (1) technical skills, (2) tactical skills and (3) integrated technical and tactical skills. There was strong evidence that technical skills (ball velocity and to a lesser extent ball accuracy) and tactical skills (decision making, anticipation, tactical knowledge and visual search strategies) differed among players according to their performance levels. However, integrated measurement of these skills is required, because winning a point largely hinges on a tactical decision to perform a particular stroke (i.e., technical execution). Therefore, future research should focus on examining the relationship between these skills and tennis performance and on the development of integrated methods for measuring these skills.

  11. 40 CFR 141.51 - Maximum contaminant level goals for inorganic contaminants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Maximum contaminant level goals for inorganic contaminants. 141.51 Section 141.51 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL PRIMARY DRINKING WATER REGULATIONS Maximum Contaminant Level...

  12. 40 CFR 141.50 - Maximum contaminant level goals for organic contaminants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Maximum contaminant level goals for organic contaminants. 141.50 Section 141.50 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL PRIMARY DRINKING WATER REGULATIONS Maximum Contaminant Level...

  13. 40 CFR 141.52 - Maximum contaminant level goals for microbiological contaminants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Maximum contaminant level goals for microbiological contaminants. 141.52 Section 141.52 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL PRIMARY DRINKING WATER REGULATIONS Maximum Contaminant Level...

  14. Employability Skills among Students and Employers’ Perceptions: An Assessment of Levels of Employability Skills Acquired by Business Students at Ishik University

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fayeq Ali Ali

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Skills are prerequisite for managers and employees success, especially for newly graduate students. This study is to evaluate the employability skills of business students at Ishik University and to assess how employability skills are perceived by potential employers. Three sets of employability skills have been used in this study such as basic academic skills, high-order thinking, and personal qualities. A questionnaire has been developed which included above dimensions and was distributed among students in the faculty of administrative sciences and economics at Ishik University, Kurdistan Region. Respondents’ opinions were assessed using a Likert scale analysis that shows divergent opinions between two extremes of levels of agreement and disagreement. Another technique of an open-ended questionnaire was used when conducting interviews with a few of the potential employers in some private sector companies. Study focuses on the common employability skills of business graduates by evaluating the faculty of administrative sciences and economics courses. Study find out that communication skills, team working skills, computer skills, and critical thinking were among the employability skills which are expected by potential employers. The paper concludes that business graduates have developed an adequate level of employability skill through their years of academic training at business department in Ishik University. Thus, the curriculum of business department at Ishik University is adequately developed to prompt the employability skills that are sought by potential employers that every business student should acquire to stand out in the aggressively competitive job market.

  15. Reviewing the relation between the problem solving skills of school of health students and their social skill levels

    OpenAIRE

    Gül Ergün; Buket Şimşek Arslan

    2017-01-01

    This research aims at reviewing the relation between the problem solving skills of health high school students and their social skill levels.  It was planned to be descriptive. The universe of the research was composed of nursing students in the health high school. The sample was determined to be the whole of the universe. A written permission was taken from the management of the health high school regarding the research. Problem Solving Inventory and Social Skill Inventory; the form towards ...

  16. Teaching information literacy skills to sophomore-level biology majors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Leigh; Blankinship, Lisa Ann

    2015-05-01

    Many undergraduate students lack a sound understanding of information literacy. The skills that comprise information literacy are particularly important when combined with scientific writing for biology majors as they are the foundation skills necessary to complete upper-division biology course assignments, better train students for research projects, and prepare students for graduate and professional education. To help undergraduate biology students develop and practice information literacy and scientific writing skills, a series of three one-hour hands-on library sessions, discussions, and homework assignments were developed for Biological Literature, a one-credit, one-hour-per-week, required sophomore-level course. The embedded course librarian developed a learning exercise that reviewed how to conduct database and web searches, the difference between primary and secondary sources, source credibility, and how to access articles through the university's databases. Students used the skills gained in the library training sessions for later writing assignments including a formal lab report and annotated bibliography. By focusing on improving information literacy skills as well as providing practice in scientific writing, Biological Literature students are better able to meet the rigors of upper-division biology courses and communicate research findings in a more professional manner.

  17. MEASURING INSTRUMENT CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION IN ESTIMATING UNICYCLING SKILL LEVEL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivan Granić

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Riding the unicycle presupposes the knowledge of the set of elements which describe motoric skill, or just part of that set with which we could measure the level of that knowledge. Testing and evaluation of the elements is time consuming. In order to design a unique, composite measuring instrument, to facilitate the evaluation of the initial level of unicycling skill, we tested 17 recreative subjects who were learning to ride the unicycle in 15 hours of training, without any previous knowledge or experience what was measured before the beginning of the training. At the beginning and at the end of the training they were tested with the set of the 12 riding elements test that was carried out to record only successful attempts, followed by unique SLALOM test which include previously tested elements. It was found that the unique SLALOM test has good metric features and a high regression coefficient showed that the SLALOM could be used instead of the 12 elements of unicycle riding skill, and it could be used as a uniform test to evaluate learned or existing knowledge. Because of its simplicity in terms of action and simultaneous testing of more subjects, the newly constructed test could be used in evaluating the unicycling recreational level, but also for monitoring and programming transformation processes to develop the motor skills of riding of unicycle. Because of its advantages, it is desirable to include unicycling in the educational processes of learning new motor skills, which can be evaluated by the results of this research. The obtained results indicate that the unicycle should be seriously consider as a training equipment to “refresh” or expand the recreational programs, without any fear that it is just for special people. Namely, it was shown that the previously learned motor skills (skiing, roller-skating, and cycling had no effect on the results of final testing.

  18. Reaching Agreement on Advisory Goals Using a Card Sorting and a Goal Ranking Approach: A Professional Development School Inquiry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galassi, John P.; Thornton, Beryl; Sheffield, Anne; Bryan, Michael; Oliver, Joyce

    1998-01-01

    Goal card sort and ranking task was given to middle school teachers and a sample of sixth- through eighth-grade students to generate data relevant to revising goals of an advisory program. Study categories included advocacy, community, skills, invigoration, academic and administrative. Community and advocacy goals received highest student ranking,…

  19. Effects of Student Skill Level on Knowledge, Decision Making, Skill Execution and Game Performance in a Mini-Volleyball Sport Education Season

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahedero, Pilar; Calderón, Antonio; Arias-Estero, José Luis; Hastie, Peter A.; Guarino, Anthony J.

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of the paper was to examine the effects of student skill level on knowledge, decision making, skill execution and game performance in a mini-volleyball Sport Education season. Forty-eight secondary school students from two classes participated in a 12 lesson season. Knowledge, decision-making and skill execution (components of game…

  20. Examining of social skill levels of university students in terms of certain Variables

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sevim GÜLLÜ

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between certain demographic variables and social skill levels of university students. Material and Methods: There were 100 participants (n=51 female, n=49 male in the study group who were the students at the department of Sport Sciences Faculty of Istanbul University in the 2015-2016 academic year. Of the study group 28 participants were between 18-20 years old, 27 participants were between 21-23 years old, 23 participants were between 24-26 years old and 22 participants were above 27 years old. After the demographic information of the participants was formed, the Social Skill Scale was applied which was developed by Matson, Rotarory and Hessel (1983 and adopted to Turkish. In order to measure their social skill levels, the reliability analysis of that scale was done. Cronbach Alpha value is 0.777; about the subscales, the results were found as such; positive social behaviour subscale 0.924, negative social behaviour subscale 0.904. Significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Results: Gender, age, class, whether or not to play sports with a licence, education level of parents, how many years they have been doing sports, and the level of social skills and subscales of their students were not significantly different. Conclusion: As a result; the demographic variables examined within our study did not make a difference in the level of social skills of the participants.

  1. Developing a capability to classify technical skill levels within a Cyber Range

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Labuschagne, William A

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available With the increase in technology adoption, quality assurance in terms of the technical skill level of cybersecurity experts working on a task is crucial. Educating employees and ensuring that they have the necessary tools and skills required...

  2. The Effectiveness of Social Skills Training Program via Peer Tutoring on Aggression Level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    İsmail YELPAZE

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of social skills intervention program via peer tutoring on aggression level of secondary school students. The study was a semi-experimental model using experimental group with pre and post-tests. Eleven (eighth class students were selected to have skills for being peer helper. The population of this research consisted 56 secondary school students at Kahramanmaraş. In order to evaluate aggression level of students, Aggression Scale developed by Tuzgöl (1998 was used. . Additionally, a Personal Information Sheet developed by the researcher was used to record certain demographic variables. Researcher applied social skills invention program to 11 students (peer helpers for eight weeks. Later, peer helpers applied intervention program to selected 56 students as well. After application, last-test was applied to selected 56 students, again. To analyze the data collected, SPSS 15 for computer was used. Results of the research revealed that the social skill program via peer helping (peer guidance considerably decreased the level of aggression of students at secondary school students. Students’ aggression level differentiated according to their sex, but not their class levels. Results were discussed in the light of literature

  3. Resident Self-Assessment and Learning Goal Development: Evaluation of Resident-Reported Competence and Future Goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Su-Ting T; Paterniti, Debora A; Tancredi, Daniel J; Burke, Ann E; Trimm, R Franklin; Guillot, Ann; Guralnick, Susan; Mahan, John D

    2015-01-01

    To determine incidence of learning goals by competency area and to assess which goals fall into competency areas with lower self-assessment scores. Cross-sectional analysis of existing deidentified American Academy of Pediatrics' PediaLink individualized learning plan data for the academic year 2009-2010. Residents self-assessed competencies in the 6 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competency areas and wrote learning goals. Textual responses for goals were mapped to 6 ACGME competency areas, future practice, or personal attributes. Adjusted mean differences and associations were estimated using multiple linear and logistic regression. A total of 2254 residents reported 6078 goals. Residents self-assessed their systems-based practice (51.8) and medical knowledge (53.0) competencies lowest and professionalism (68.9) and interpersonal and communication skills (62.2) highest. Residents were most likely to identify goals involving medical knowledge (70.5%) and patient care (50.5%) and least likely to write goals on systems-based practice (11.0%) and professionalism (6.9%). In logistic regression analysis adjusting for postgraduate year (PGY), gender, and degree type (MD/DO), resident-reported goal area showed no association with the learner's relative self-assessment score for that competency area. In the conditional logistic regression analysis, with each learner serving as his or her own control, senior residents (PGY2/3+s) who rated themselves relatively lower in a competency area were more likely to write a learning goal in that area than were PGY1s. Senior residents appear to develop better skills and/or motivation to explicitly turn self-assessed learning gaps into learning goals, suggesting that individualized learning plans may help improve self-regulated learning during residency. Copyright © 2015 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Communication skills training: describing a new conceptual model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Richard F; Bylund, Carma L

    2008-01-01

    Current research in communication in physician-patient consultations is multidisciplinary and multimethodological. As this research has progressed, a considerable body of evidence on the best practices in physician-patient communication has been amassed. This evidence provides a foundation for communication skills training (CST) at all levels of medical education. Although the CST literature has demonstrated that communication skills can be taught, one critique of this literature is that it is not always clear which skills are being taught and whether those skills are matched with those being assessed. The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Comskil Model for CST seeks to answer those critiques by explicitly defining the important components of a consultation, based on Goals, Plans, and Actions theories and sociolinguistic theory. Sequenced guidelines as a mechanism for teaching about particular communication challenges are adapted from these other methods. The authors propose that consultation communication can be guided by an overarching goal, which is achieved through the use of a set of predetermined strategies. Strategies are common in CST; however, strategies often contain embedded communication skills. These skills can exist across strategies, and the Comskil Model seeks to make them explicit in these contexts. Separate from the skills are process tasks and cognitive appraisals that need to be addressed in teaching. The authors also describe how assessment practices foster concordance between skills taught and those assessed through careful coding of trainees' communication encounters and direct feedback.

  5. System Thinking Skills at the Elementary School Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Assaraf, Orit Ben-Zvi; Orion, Nir

    2010-01-01

    This study deals with the development of system thinking skills at the elementary school level. It addresses the question of whether elementary school students can deal with complex systems. The sample included 40 4th grade students from one school in a small town in Israel. The students studied an inquiry-based earth systems curriculum that…

  6. Employability Skills Assessment Tool Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rasul, Mohamad Sattar; Rauf, Rose Amnah Abd; Mansor, Azlin Norhaini; Puvanasvaran, A. P.

    2012-01-01

    Research nationally and internationally found that technical graduates are lacking in employability skills. As employability skills are crucial in outcome-based education, the main goal of this research is to develop an Employability Skill Assessment Tool to help students and lecturers produce competent graduates in employability skills needed by…

  7. The Effect of a Surgical Skills Course on Confidence Levels of Rural General Practitioners: An Observational Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byrd, Pippa; Ward, Olga; Hamdorf, Jeffrey

    2016-10-01

    Objective  To investigate the effect of a short surgical skills course on general practitioners' confidence levels to perform procedural skills. Design  Prospective observational study. Setting  The Clinical Evaluation and Training Centre, a practical skills-based educational facility, at The University of Western Australia. Participants  Medical practitioners who participated in these courses. Nurses, physiotherapists, and medical students were excluded. The response rate was 61% with 61 participants providing 788 responses for pre- and postcourse confidence levels regarding various surgical skills. Intervention  One- to two-day surgical skills courses consisting of presentations, demonstrations, and practical stations, facilitated by specialists. Main Outcome Measures  A two-page precourse and postcourse questionnaire was administered to medical practitioners on the day. Participants rated their confidence levels to perform skills addressed during the course on a 4-point Likert scale. Results  Of the 788 responses regarding confidence levels, 621 were rated as improved postcourse, 163 were rated as no change, and 4 were rated as lower postcourse. Seven of the courses showed a 25% median increase in confidence levels, and one course demonstrated a 50% median increase. All courses showed statistically significant results ( p  skills course resulted in a statistically significant improvement in the confidence levels of rural general practitioners to perform these skills.

  8. Attitudes and anxiety levels of medical students towards the acquisition of competencies in communication skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loureiro, Elizabete M; Severo, Milton; Bettencourt, Paulo; Ferreira, Maria A

    2011-12-01

    Results of third year medical students' attitudes and stress levels towards the acquisition of communication skills before and after a Communication and Clinical Skills Course (CCSC) at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), Portugal, are presented. 115 students attending third-year CCSC completed a demographic questionnaire, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Communication Skills Attitudes Scale and Interpersonal Behavior Survey. Significant negative correlation was found between anxiety levels and attitudes towards learning communication skills in general as well as the teaching and learning process. At the end of the Course students reported that when compared to the start, their communication skills are less sufficient. At the end of this CCSC at FMUP, students recognized its major importance and how they need to invest and improve communication skills. However, it seems important to monitor the attitudes and anxiety levels of students towards patient care and communication during the medical course and to identify ways of overcoming barriers towards learning communication skills. It is recommended that there should be a complete (transversal and vertical) integration of communication skills, including effective teaching methods, assessments, and examinations in order to be valued by the students. This would necessitate curricular changes. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Development of Speaking Skills through Activity Based Learning at the Elementary Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ul-Haq, Zahoor; Khurram, Bushra Ahmed; Bangash, Arshad Khan

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: This paper discusses an effective instructional method called "activity based learning" that can be used to develop the speaking skills of students in the elementary school level. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of activity based learning on the development of the speaking skills of low and high achievers…

  10. Progressive Tinnitus Management Level 3 Skills Education: A 5-Year Clinical Retrospective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edmonds, Catherine M; Ribbe, Cheri; Thielman, Emily J; Henry, James A

    2017-09-18

    The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether progressive tinnitus management Level 3 skills education workshops conducted at the Bay Pines and Boston Veterans Affairs hospitals result in consistent use of the presented tinnitus management strategies by patients 1-5 years after completing the workshops. In fiscal year (FY) 2015, the tinnitus workshop follow-up form was mailed to all veterans who completed the Level 3 workshops between FY 2010 and FY 2014. Data were compiled to determine which, if any, of the skills taught in the workshops were being used 1-5 years after completion of the workshops and the impact on quality-of-life indicators. All self-management skills were being utilized up to 5 years postcompletion; therapeutic sound was utilized the most. The majority of patients reported an improved ability to manage reactions to tinnitus and improved quality-of-life indicators. Over 90% of patients from both sites recommended the program to others with tinnitus. The self-management skills taught in the progressive tinnitus management Level 3 workshops are sustained over time even when limited resources prevent the full complement of workshops or the involvement of mental health services. The workshops can also be successfully implemented through remote delivery via videoconferencing (telehealth). https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5370883.

  11. Self-regulated learning of aural skills in undergraduate music courses: a case study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pablo da Silva Gusmão

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Aural Skills classes, which are required and collective, present some particular issues at the Brazilian universities, such as the diverse student’s proficiency levels, motivational issues and lack of autonomy for learning. This paper present the results of a research that investigated the relationships between the psychological constructs involved in the self- regulation of aural skills learning in Undergraduate music students. Through semi-structured interviews, the objective was to understand the interaction of the processes described in Zimmerman (2002 in the three student’s narratives. In this initial research, it was possible to see a relationship between the achievement in Aural Skill courses and the utilization of self- regulatory process, particularly goal-setting and efficient time management, as well as the lack of strategies related to the division of goals into proximal and specific sub-goals, and to the definition of self-evaluation standards. The investigation of strategies for intervention on cognitive processes involved with self-regulated learning of aural skills may help students to become more motivated and autonomous in their academic study.

  12. Level of Transformation of Motor Skills in Female Volleyball Players Influenced by Training Operators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ifet Mahmutović

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to determine the level of improvement of motor skills of female volleyball players influenced by kinesiology operators in a period of 6 months. Research was conducted on sample subject of 130 female volleyball players aged from 13±0.6 (mean±SD. Sample variables are divided in two groups: 9 variables of assessment of basic motor skills and 5 variables of assessment of situational motor skills. Analysing difference of arithmetic means between of initial and final measures of treated variables it is determined that there is statistically significant difference on the level Sig=0.001, except for variables of Jelka test which determinates speed duration of female volleyball players. Analysis of quantity changes of basic motor skills, shows that the most important projections on selected discriminative function of basic motor skills have the following variables: body lifting in 30 sec; dynamometry of a hand, hand tapping; pull-up; throwing a 1 kg ball from lying position; side defence movement; push-up on bars and situational motor skill are the variables: precision of tactic serving; consecutive bumping; wall-spikes. Comprehensive development of female volleyball players and diversity in the level of volleyball specialization of the development will depend on systematic work on treated motor skills. This program appeared to be efficient. However, it is necessary to gradually increase the demands for the female volleyball players and to put the accent on performance of acquired situational motor skills in future work.

  13. Differences on the Level of Social Skills between Freshman Computer Gamers and Non-Gamers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joseph B. Campit

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Computer games play a large role in socialization and the consequences of playing them have been a topic of debates. This observation led the researcher to conduct the study about the influence of computer games on the social skills of the BSIT first year students of Pangasinan State University, Bayambang Campus, during school year 2012-2013. This study determined the profile of the 115 BSIT first year students according to: preferred computer games and frequency of playing. It investigated the level of social skills among playing and non-playing gamers. This study used the descriptive-comparative method of research. It was found out that crossfire was the most preferred computer game played at least once a week. Computer gamers had lower social skills than non-computer gamers. Gamers have more negative social behaviors compared to non-gamers and there is a negative effect of playing computer games on the level of social skills among first year students. There is a significant difference in the level of social skills of the students when grouped according to frequency of playing computer games. Students who play computer games everyday had significantly lower social skills than who play once a week. Thus, parents and teachers should give proper guidance in the limitation of playing computer games and the choice of games. Teachers should organize seminars on the awareness of the influence and negative effects of violent computer games on social skills. And students should choose educational over violent games to enhance their knowledge and social skills.

  14. Clinical Skills Performed By Iranian Emergency Nurses: Perceived Competency Levels and Attitudes Toward Expanding Professional Roles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hassankhani, Hadi; Hasanzadeh, Firooz; Powers, Kelly A; Dadash Zadeh, Abbas; Rajaie, Rouzbeh

    2018-03-01

    Emergency nurses play an important role in the care of critically ill and injured patients, and their competency to perform clinical skills is vital to safe and effective patient care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of clinical skills performed and perceived competency levels among Iranian emergency nurses. In addition, attitudes toward expanding the professional roles of Iranian emergency nurses were also assessed. In this descriptive correlational study, 319 emergency nurses from 30 hospitals in northwest Iran participated. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used to present the findings. Overall competency of the emergency nurses was 73.31 ± 14.2, indicating a good level of perceived competence. The clinical skills most frequently performed were in the domains of organizational and workload competencies (3.43 ± 0.76), diagnostic function (3.25 ± 0.82), and the helping role (3.17 ± 0.83). A higher level of perceived competence was found for skills within these domains. Less frequently, participants performed skills within the domains of effective management of rapidly changing situations (2.70 ± 0.94) and administering and monitoring therapeutic interventions (2.60 ± 0.97); a lower perceived level of competence was noted for these clinical skills. There was a significant correlation between frequency of performing clinical skills and perceived competency level (r = 0.651, P skills. This has implications for nurse managers and educators who may consider offering more frequent experiential and educational opportunities to emergency nurses. Expansion of nurses' roles could also result in increased experience in clinical skills and higher levels of competency. Research is needed to investigate nurses' clinical competence using direct and observed measures. Copyright © 2017 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Process-oriented guided inquiry learning strategy enhances students' higher level thinking skills in a pharmaceutical sciences course.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soltis, Robert; Verlinden, Nathan; Kruger, Nicholas; Carroll, Ailey; Trumbo, Tiffany

    2015-02-17

    To determine if the process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) teaching strategy improves student performance and engages higher-level thinking skills of first-year pharmacy students in an Introduction to Pharmaceutical Sciences course. Overall examination scores and scores on questions categorized as requiring either higher-level or lower-level thinking skills were compared in the same course taught over 3 years using traditional lecture methods vs the POGIL strategy. Student perceptions of the latter teaching strategy were also evaluated. Overall mean examination scores increased significantly when POGIL was implemented. Performance on questions requiring higher-level thinking skills was significantly higher, whereas performance on questions requiring lower-level thinking skills was unchanged when the POGIL strategy was used. Student feedback on use of this teaching strategy was positive. The use of the POGIL strategy increased student overall performance on examinations, improved higher-level thinking skills, and provided an interactive class setting.

  16. National-Level Wetland Policy Specificity and Goals Vary According to Political and Economic Indicators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peimer, Alex W.; Krzywicka, Adrianna E.; Cohen, Dora B.; Van den Bosch, Kyle; Buxton, Valerie L.; Stevenson, Natalie A.; Matthews, Jeffrey W.

    2017-01-01

    Growing recognition of the importance of wetlands to human and ecosystem well-being has led countries worldwide to implement wetland protection policies. Different countries have taken different approaches to wetland protection by implementing various policies, including territorial exclusion, market-based offsetting, and incentive programs for land users. Our objective was to describe the relationship between components of national-level wetland protection policies and national characteristics, including natural resource, economic, social, and political factors. We compiled data on the wetland policies of all 193 countries recognized by the U.N. and described the relationships among wetland policy goals and wetland protection mechanisms using non-metric multidimensional scaling. The first non-metric multidimensional scaling axis strongly correlated with whether a country had a wetland-specific environmental policy in place. Adoption of a comprehensive, wetland-specific policy was positively associated with degree of democracy and a commitment to establishing protected areas. The second non-metric multidimensional scaling axis defined a continuum of policy goals and mechanisms by which wetlands are protected, with goals to protect wetland ecosystem services on one end of the spectrum and goals to protect biodiversity on the other. Goals for protecting ecosystem services were frequently cited in policy documents of countries with agriculture-based economies, whereas goals associated with wetland biodiversity tended to be associated with tourism-based economies. We argue that the components of a country's wetland policies reflect national-level resource and economic characteristics. Understanding the relationship between the type of wetland policy countries adopt and national-level characteristics is critical for international efforts to protect wetlands.

  17. Critical Sociological Thinking and Higher-Level Thinking: A Study of Sociologists' Teaching Goals and Assignments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kane, Danielle; Otto, Kristin

    2018-01-01

    We argue that the literature on critical thinking in sociology has conflated two different skill sets: critical sociological thinking and higher-level thinking. To begin to examine how sociologists weigh and cultivate these skill sets, we interviewed 20 sociology instructors and conducted a content analysis of 26 assignments. We found that while…

  18. Achievement goals, social goals, and motivational regulations in physical education settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cecchini Estrada, José A; González González-Mesa, Carmen; Méndez-Giménez, Antonio; Fernández-Río, Javier

    2011-02-01

    This study examined the relationship between achievement and social goals, and explored how both goals affect students' level of informed self-determination in Physical Education. Participants were 395 high school students. Three scales were used to assess achievement, social goals, and motivation. Several hierarchical regression analyses revealed that mastery-approach goals were the greatest contributors to the individuals' levels of self-determination. Achievement and social goals were found to be separate predictors of students' levels of self-determination, and this highlights the importance of separating mastery and performance goals into avoidance and approach profiles. Girls reported significantly higher values than boys on responsibility, relationship, and mastery-avoidance goals, whereas boys scored higher on performance-approach goals. Researchers could use achievement and social goals to study students' motivation and achievement in Physical Education settings.

  19. ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL OF TEACHING SKILLS IN THE CONCLUSION PROFORDEMS ITSON AND IMPACT ON SOCIETY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erika Nallely López-Lugo

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The Teacher Training Program of Higher Education Media (PROFORDEMS, aims to contribute to the educational profile in skills development. This study aims to determine the level of achievement reached graduates considered teachers regarding teaching skills training process to conclude the paragraph after performing the analysis of as it impacts on society. The method was quantitative, applied for UN compound instrument teaching skills and attributes, with Likert scale Establishing the four levels of Tobon, 76 graduate teachers of the seventh generation of the Technological Institute of Sonora, of which Were Significantly of the headquarters of Navojoa and Obregón, Navojoa Being 47 with the participation of 20 women and 27 men, regarding Obregon Participants were 17 women and 12 men. Were the results satisfactory, over 65% of graduates found in the teachers considered autonomous and strategic levels, competition four is the one that obtained the lowest percentage. To conclude that the PROFORMDES contributes to teaching skills.

  20. Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning Strategy Enhances Students’ Higher Level Thinking Skills in a Pharmaceutical Sciences Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verlinden, Nathan; Kruger, Nicholas; Carroll, Ailey; Trumbo, Tiffany

    2015-01-01

    Objective. To determine if the process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) teaching strategy improves student performance and engages higher-level thinking skills of first-year pharmacy students in an Introduction to Pharmaceutical Sciences course. Design. Overall examination scores and scores on questions categorized as requiring either higher-level or lower-level thinking skills were compared in the same course taught over 3 years using traditional lecture methods vs the POGIL strategy. Student perceptions of the latter teaching strategy were also evaluated. Assessment. Overall mean examination scores increased significantly when POGIL was implemented. Performance on questions requiring higher-level thinking skills was significantly higher, whereas performance on questions requiring lower-level thinking skills was unchanged when the POGIL strategy was used. Student feedback on use of this teaching strategy was positive. Conclusion. The use of the POGIL strategy increased student overall performance on examinations, improved higher-level thinking skills, and provided an interactive class setting. PMID:25741027

  1. An interview study of how clinical teachers develop skills to attend to different level learners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, H Carrie; Fogh, Shannon; Kobashi, Brent; Teherani, Arianne; Ten Cate, Olle; O'Sullivan, Patricia

    2016-06-01

    One clinical teaching challenge is the engagement of learners at different levels. Faculty development offerings mostly address general strategies applicable to all learners. This study examined how clinical faculty members develop the skills to work with different level learners. We conducted semi-structured interviews with medical school faculty members identified as excellent clinical teachers teaching multiple levels of learners. They discussed how they developed their approach to teaching different level learners and how their teaching evolved over time. We performed thematic analysis of the interview transcripts using open and axial coding. We interviewed 19 faculty members and identified three themes related to development of teaching practices: teacher agency and work-based learning of teaching strategies, developmental trajectory of clinical teachers, and interplay between clinical confidence and teaching skills. Faculty members were proactive in using on-the-job experiences to develop their teaching practices. Their teaching practices followed a developmental trajectory towards learner centeredness, and this evolution was associated with the development of clinical skills and confidence. Learning skills to teach multi-level learners requires workplace learning. Faculty development should include workplace learning opportunities and use a developmental approach that accounts for the trajectory of teaching as well as clinical skills attainment.

  2. The comparison of social skill levels of team sports athletes and individual sport athletes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fatma Çepikkurt

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Aim: The study is to compare the level of social skills scores of undergraduate students at Mersin University School of Physical Education and Sports according to sport types, gender and class levels. Material and Methods: To test the main hypothesis, a total of 112 student- athletes (47 female and 65 male, performing individual and team sports from the Mersin University School of Physical Education and Sports were involved in this study. Data were collected by ‘Social Skills Inventory” developed by Riggio (1986, 1989 and adapted to Turkish by Yüksel (1998. Results: T -test results showed that the mean scores of 6 sub-dimensions of social skills scale does not change with regard to types of sports. But, there were significant differences of mean scores of social control changes with respect to gender and this score was higher for female athletes compared to male counterparts. Moreover, the results of Kruskal Wallis Analysis indicated that there was a significant difference in all sub dimensions except emotional awareness subscale compared to class level. First year students had the highest scores in terms of emotional expressivity, emotional control, social expressivity, social awareness, and social control. Conclusion: It could be stated that women are more successful in social skills, although the level of social skills of student-athletes does not differ according to sport.

  3. Urban Big Data and Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ali Kharrazi

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Cities are perhaps one of the most challenging and yet enabling arenas for sustainable development goals. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs emphasize the need to monitor each goal through objective targets and indicators based on common denominators in the ability of countries to collect and maintain relevant standardized data. While this approach is aimed at harmonizing the SDGs at the national level, it presents unique challenges and opportunities for the development of innovative urban-level metrics through big data innovations. In this article, we make the case for advancing more innovative targets and indicators relevant to the SDGs through the emergence of urban big data. We believe that urban policy-makers are faced with unique opportunities to develop, experiment, and advance big data practices relevant to sustainable development. This can be achieved by situating the application of big data innovations through developing mayoral institutions for the governance of urban big data, advancing the culture and common skill sets for applying urban big data, and investing in specialized research and education programs.

  4. Achievement Goals and their Underlying Goal Motivation: Does it Matter Why Sport Participants Pursue their Goals?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick Gaudreau

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This study examined whether the good or bad outcomes associated with mastery-approach (MAP and performance-approach (PAP goals depend on the extent to which they are motivated by autonomous or controlled motivation. A sample of 515 undergraduate students who participated in sport completed measures of achievement goals, motivation of achievement goals, perceived goal attainment, sport satisfaction, and both positive and negative affect. Results of moderated regression analyses revealed that the positive relations of both MAP and PAP goals with perceived goal attainment were stronger for athletes pursuing these goals with high level of autonomous goal motivation. Also, the positive relations between PAP goals and both sport satisfaction and positive affect were stronger at high levels of autonomous goal motivation and controlled goal motivation. The shape of all these significant interactions was consistent with tenets of Self-Determination Theory as controlled goal motivation was negatively associated with positive affect and sport satisfaction and positively associated with negative affect. Overall, these findings demonstrated the importance of considering goal motivation in order to better understand the conditions under which achievement goals are associated with better experiential and performance outcomes in the lives of sport participants.

  5. Career Management and Employee Motivation in Low Skilled, Low Margin Environments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salman, S; Khan, A

    2014-01-01

    Career management enhances the level of motivation, resilience, awareness and the direction of employees' careers goals relative to the existing job opportunities within and outside an organisation. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate how a low-skilled company environment can use career management as a tool for employee motivation. While using Company A (Food company) as its case study organisation, the research utilises an interpretivism philosophy, deductive research approach, case study research strategy, and random sampling method. Primary data is collected by way of interviews and questionnaires and analysed using coding method. The study establishes that Company A has a robust employee career management programme. This programme is based on both short-term and long-term goals and aims to meet both individual employees' and organisation-wide goals. Specifically, the study establishes that Company A employee career management programme helps employees to make wise career decisions, become aware of available career opportunities, set career goals, execute career goals, explore their careers, and experience career progression. The findings have implications for employee motivation in other low skilled work environments

  6. Improving Argumentation through Goal Instructions in Asynchronous Online Discussions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prudchenko, Yekaterina

    2014-01-01

    Argumentation incorporated into class discussions can improve students' problem solving skills and enhance their epistemic and conceptual understanding. Research indicates students sometimes need scaffolding such as goal instructions to improve their argumentation skills. This study examined the effectiveness of different types of goal…

  7. Daily Living Skills at Your Fingertips. Daily Living Skills for 0-4 Level Adult Basic Education Students. Curriculum and Teacher Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greene, Margret

    A curriculum and teacher guide are provided for a program to teach daily living skills to 0-4 level adult basic education students. The guide presents a method of instruction and lists the materials provided. Teaching plans (content outlines) are provided for these areas: cooking, housekeeping, laundry, leisure skills, and medication awareness. A…

  8. A Goal for Nursing Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marcinkiw, Karen L.

    2003-01-01

    Culturally competent nurses enable clients to feel respected, valued, and motivated to achieve health goals. A model for nursing education should develop cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills; provide cultural immersion experiences; and foster the desire to work with diverse clients. (Contains 48 references.) (SK)

  9. Muscle utilization patterns vary by skill levels of the practitioners across specific yoga poses (asanas).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ni, Meng; Mooney, Kiersten; Balachandran, Anoop; Richards, Luca; Harriell, Kysha; Signorile, Joseph F

    2014-08-01

    To compare muscle activation patterns in 14 dominant side muscles during different yoga poses across three skill levels. Mixed repeated-measures descriptive study. University neuromuscular research laboratory, Miami, US. A group of 36 yoga practitioners (9 M/27 F; mean ± SD, 31.6 ± 12.6 years) with at least 3 months yoga practice experience. Each of the 11 surya namaskar poses A and B was performed separately for 15s and the surface electromyography for 14 muscles were recorded. Normalized root mean square of the electromyographic signal (NrmsEMG) for 14 muscles (5 upper body, 4 trunk, 5 lower body). There were significant main effects of pose for all fourteen muscles except middle trapezius (p<.02) and of skill level for the vastus medialis; p=.027). A significant skill level × pose interaction existed for five muscles (pectoralis major sternal head, anterior deltoid, medial deltoid, upper rectus abdominis and gastrocnemius lateralis; p<.05). Post hoc analyses using Bonferroni comparisons indicated that different poses activated specific muscle groups; however, this varied by skill level. Our results indicate that different poses can produce specific muscle activation patterns which may vary due to practitioners' skill levels. This information can be used in designing rehabilitation and training programs and for cuing during yoga training. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. [Low level auditory skills compared to writing skills in school children attending third and fourth grade: evidence for the rapid auditory processing deficit theory?].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ptok, M; Meisen, R

    2008-01-01

    The rapid auditory processing defi-cit theory holds that impaired reading/writing skills are not caused exclusively by a cognitive deficit specific to representation and processing of speech sounds but arise due to sensory, mainly auditory, deficits. To further explore this theory we compared different measures of auditory low level skills to writing skills in school children. prospective study. School children attending third and fourth grade. just noticeable differences for intensity and frequency (JNDI, JNDF), gap detection (GD) monaural and binaural temporal order judgement (TOJb and TOJm); grade in writing, language and mathematics. correlation analysis. No relevant correlation was found between any auditory low level processing variable and writing skills. These data do not support the rapid auditory processing deficit theory.

  11. Neurosurgical Skills Assessment: Measuring Technical Proficiency in Neurosurgery Residents Through Intraoperative Video Evaluations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarkiss, Christopher A; Philemond, Steven; Lee, James; Sobotka, Stanislaw; Holloway, Terrell D; Moore, Maximillian M; Costa, Anthony B; Gordon, Errol L; Bederson, Joshua B

    2016-05-01

    Although technical skills are fundamental in neurosurgery, there is little agreement on how to describe, measure, or compare skills among surgeons. The primary goal of this study was to develop a quantitative grading scale for technical surgical performance that distinguishes operator skill when graded by domain experts (residents, attendings, and nonsurgeons). Scores provided by raters should be highly reliable with respect to scores from other observers. Neurosurgery residents were fitted with a head-mounted video camera while performing craniotomies under attending supervision. Seven videos, 1 from each postgraduate year (PGY) level (1-7), were anonymized and scored by 16 attendings, 8 residents, and 7 nonsurgeons using a grading scale. Seven skills were graded: incision, efficiency of instrument use, cauterization, tissue handling, drilling/craniotomy, confidence, and training level. A strong correlation was found between skills score and PGY year (P Technical skills of neurosurgery residents recorded during craniotomy can be measured with high interrater reliability. Surgeons and nonsurgeons alike readily distinguish different skill levels. This type of assessment could be used to coach residents, to track performance over time, and potentially to compare skill levels. Developing an objective tool to evaluate surgical performance would be useful in several areas of neurosurgery education. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Analysis of Skills Requirement for Entry-Level Programmer/Analysts in Fortune 500 Corporations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Choong Kwon; Han, Hyo-Joo

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents the most up-to-date skill requirements for programmer/analyst, one of the most demanded entry-level job titles in the Information Systems (IS) field. In the past, several researchers studied job skills for IS professionals, but few have focused especially on "programmer/analyst." The authors conducted an extensive empirical…

  13. A Group Motor Skills Program for Children with Coordination Difficulties: Effect on Fundamental Movement Skills and Physical Activity Participation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kane, Kyra J; Staples, Kerri L

    2016-01-01

    Children with coordination difficulties are at risk of low levels of physical activity (PA) participation. This intervention examined the effects of a multidisciplinary program that emphasized parent participation on motor skill performance and PA. Ten boys (5-7 years) completed a group program consisting of conditioning exercises and activities designed to address child-selected goals. Motor proficiency and PA participation were assessed before and after the program using the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2) and triaxial accelerometers, respectively. Rating scales captured child and parent perceptions of performance for each child's goals. TGMD-2 subtest raw scores, age equivalent and percentile scores improved, along with parent ratings of their child's performance. Six children reported skill improvements. On average, moderate to vigorous PA improved by 10 min per day although these gains were not significant. Time spent in sedentary activities was unchanged. None of the children met the Canadian PA and sedentary behaviour guidelines. The results support effectiveness of a group program to improve gross motor performance and levels of PA in children with coordination difficulties. Gains in both of these domains also have the potential to impact quality of life and reduce health risks associated with inactivity.

  14. Examination of group cohesiveness levels and goal orientations of basketball players

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ötkan Can Çavin

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This research intends to examine goal orientation and group cohesiveness levels of basketball players. 243 mature players who play in the leagues of Turkish Basketball Federation in 2016- 2017 season participated the study. “Task and Ego Orientation in Sports” and “Group Cohesiveness” questionnaires are used in study. While frequency, arithmetic mean and standard deviation is used for the analysis of data, T-Test, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA and Post-Hoc test statistics (Tukey HSD are used for independent samples. Depending on the variables of gender and educational background of players, a significant difference is identified in sub-dimension of Task Attraction of Group and a low-level negatively significant difference is identified between Ego Orientation in terms of age and sportive age. Significant differences are identified between the Perception of Team Success and sub-dimensions of Social Integration of Group and Social Attraction of Group. No statistically significant difference can be found for the variable of time spent in team in terms of group cohesiveness and goal orientation.

  15. Leveraging strengths to reach your goals: a skills-building workshop for women in dentistry and other professions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albino, Judith E

    2015-05-01

    This skills-building workshop at the 5(th) American Dental Education Association (ADEA) International Women's Leadership Conference engaged participants in a series of structured experiences designed to support learning about personal leadership strengths and areas for development, as well as setting and attaining leadership goals. The session was introduced with a brief reflective exercise focused on developing statements of personal goals for professional growth. An Appreciative Inquiry process then was used to explore participants' areas of strength, examining both self-perceptions and the perceptions of others who listened to their descriptions of "peak experiences" in work settings. The next part of the program utilized a Johari Window exercise to clarify the extent to which participants' self-perceived strengths and others' perceptions were shared, making those strengths visible to the world at large or hidden from the general view of others. This exercise allowed further exploration of individual competencies and characteristics and provided an opportunity for participants to visualize the potential for development in new areas. Finally, two very different peer coaching strategies were employed to expand on participants' learning. The experience proved to be a lively, socially engaging, and personally meaningful one for participants, whatever the stage of their careers or their country of origin.

  16. Mental skill levels of South African male student field hockey players ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Mental skill levels of South African male student field hockey players in different playing positions. ... African Journal for Physical Activity and Health Sciences ... The positional results were compared by means of effect sizes (expressed as ...

  17. The Relation Between Skill Levels and the Cyclical Variability of Employment, Hours, and Wages

    OpenAIRE

    Michael P. Keane; Eswar S Prasad

    1993-01-01

    This paper uses micro data to examine differences in the cyclical variability of employment, hours, and wages for skilled and unskilled workers. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we find that, at the aggregate level, skilled and unskilled workers are subject to essentially the same degree of cyclical variation in wages. That is, relative offer wage differentials between skilled and unskilled workers are acyclical. However, we do find important differences in the patterns of employment and hour...

  18. Assessing Business Student Thinking Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Gerald F.

    2014-01-01

    The development of student thinking skills is a major goal of business education. As with other such goals, student outcomes assessment must be undertaken to measure goal achievement. Thinking is difficult to teach; it is also difficult to assess. The purpose of this article is to improve management educators' understanding of student thinking…

  19. Attitude and skill levels of graduate health professionals in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gebreegziabher Gebremedhn E

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Endale Gebreegziabher Gebremedhn,1 Gebremedhn Berhe Gebregergs,2 Bernard Bradley Anderson,3,† Vidhya Nagaratnam1 1Department of Anaesthesia, School of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, 2Department of Public Health, Bahir Dar College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, 3Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia †Dr Bernard Bradley Anderson passed away on January 2, 2014 Background: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR is an emergency procedure used to treat victims following cardiopulmonary arrest. Graduate health professionals at the University of Gondar Teaching Hospital manage many trauma and critically ill patients. The chance of survival after cardiopulmonary arrest may be increased with sufficient attitude and skill levels. The study aimed to assess the attitude and skill levels of graduate health professionals in performing CPR.Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from May 1 to 30, 2013, at the University of Gondar Teaching Hospital. The mean attitude and skill scores were compared for sex, original residence, and department of the participants using Student’s t-test and analysis of variance (Scheffe’s test. P-values <0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.Results: Of the 506 graduates, 461 were included in this study with a response rate of 91.1%. The mean attitude scores of nurse, interns, health officer, midwifery, anesthesia, and psychiatric nursing graduates were 1.15 (standard deviation [SD] =1.67, 8.21 (SD =1.24, 7.2 (SD =1.49, 6.69 (SD =1.83, 8.19 (SD =1.77, and 7.29 (SD =2.01, respectively, and the mean skill scores were 2.34 (SD =1.95, 3.77 (SD =1.58, 1.18 (SD =1.52, 2.16 (SD =1.93, 3.88 (SD =1.36, and 1.21 (SD =1.77, respectively.Conclusion and recommendations: Attitude and skill level of graduate health professionals with regard

  20. Planning for Me! Setting Personal Goals. [Second Edition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevens, Paul

    This book is designed to help the individual acquire skills in life planning. Part 1 focuses on achieving the most from use of the book. It discusses personal responsibility, personal goals, and possible uses of the book. Part 2 contains the procedures to follow. It begins by listing benefits from setting goals. Exercises that follow assess…

  1. Soft skill appraisal for dentistry: a tool for positive practice management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jawale, Bhushan Arun; Bendgude, Vikas; Husain, Nadeem; Thosar, Nilima; Tandon, Piyush

    2011-11-01

    Soft skills adoption is a learning experience for every practitioner and every academician. Author has expressed his opinion for success through educational and real values of soft skill. Soft skills behavior of individual and institution help in achieving desirable goals in general and specialty practices. Author also focused on some realistic soft skill methods for improvisation of practices for all doctor. These skills indulge positive energy in human relationship for working in symbiosis and explore infinite capabilities at institutional and doctoral level. Here, some optimistic suggestions are given for improving dental practices and academic fulfillments. These soft skills help to organize, plan and manage, and track changes during the course of the growing dental practices. However, understanding of the soft skills in practice management, its simplicity and complexity and also, its contributing factors, helps practitioners to understand the dynamic, social and complex contexts of practices. It is really helpful to all practitioners to grow their practices using soft skills.

  2. "Is There a Second Level Divide in Student’s Internet Skills?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Purushothaman, Aparna; Dau, Susanne

    2015-01-01

    The concept of a digital divide has moved beyond only physical disparities in technology usage and now also encompasses issues impeding access such as human social, cultural, and psychological barriers that affect the usage of existing available technologies. This paper focuses on students......’ insufficient skill levels in making the best use of available Internet technology, discussing students in higher education in scenarios in Denmark and India. The paper emphasizes the reflective and conceptual issues which the students face in retrieving information from the Internet, which result in a second......-level divide. Through a cross-national comparison, the paper hopes to contribute to the literature through experiences of students in the two countries, providing researchers with insights into the digital divide. This divide in Internet skills is illuminated from different perspectives in the context of two...

  3. The Critical Care Communication project: improving fellows' communication skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnold, Robert M; Back, Anthony L; Barnato, Amber E; Prendergast, Thomas J; Emlet, Lillian L; Karpov, Irina; White, Patrick H; Nelson, Judith E

    2015-04-01

    The aim of this study was to develop an evidence-based communication skills training workshop to improve the communication skills of critical care fellows. Pulmonary and critical care fellows (N = 38) participated in a 3-day communication skills workshop between 2008 and 2010 involving brief didactic talks, faculty demonstration of skills, and faculty-supervised small group skills practice sessions with simulated families. Skills included the following: giving bad news, achieving consensus on goals of therapy, and discussing the limitations of life-sustaining treatment. Participants rated their skill levels in a pre-post survey in 11 core communication tasks using a 5-point Likert scale. Of 38 fellows, 36 (95%) completed all 3 days of the workshop. We compared pre and post scores using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Overall, self-rated skills increased for all 11 tasks. In analyses by participant, 95% reported improvement in at least 1 skill; with improvement in a median of 10 of 11 skills. Ninety-two percent rated the course as either very good/excellent, and 80% recommended that it be mandatory for future fellows. This 3-day communication skills training program increased critical care fellows' self-reported family meeting communication skills. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. What's Working: Program Factors Influencing California Community College Basic Skills Mathematics Students' Advancement to Transfer Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fiero, Diane M.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine which basic skills program factors were exhibited by successful basic skills programs that helped students advance to transfer-level mathematics. This study specifically examined California community college basic skills programs that assist students who place in mathematics courses 2 levels…

  5. Influence of the Level of the Development of Skills on Labour Potential, its Implementation and Choice of Work Position

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kseniya Aleksandrovna Ustinova

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with the sociological assessment of the skills level and identification of its influence on some aspects of labour activity: the realization of labour potential, choice of the scope of activity, position and occupation. It suggests an approach based on the subjective evaluation of the population as an instrument of the skills level assessment. The received results are compared with the indirect estimates allowing to characterize some particular components of labour potential which are similar to the considered skills. A specific feature of the research is not only the determination of the professional sphere, occupation and position on the skills level, but also the accounting of the reverse effect. The methodological tools including the methods for the assessment of skills level, labour potential and extent of its implementation in a labour activity have been approved in the Vologda region. The study revealed that, at the present time, the most developed skills are the teamwork, communication and mutual understanding while the least developed ones are the initiative and creativity as well as ability to be retrained and readiness to increase the professional level. It shows that the employees of socially oriented spheres and also the representatives of state structures have more developed skills. At the same time, the development of innovative skills not only leads to the growth of labour potential, but also creates conditions for the employment in workplaces with higher skills requirements. The paper shows that higher skills level along with higher skills requirements leads to more complete implementation of cumulative potential in the labour activity. The received results can be used by regional authorities for the development of the analytical system of labour market, the development of labour force and the labour potential of the population.

  6. Redesigning a course to help students achieve higher-order cognitive thinking skills: from goals and mechanics to student outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casagrand, Janet; Semsar, Katharine

    2017-06-01

    Here we describe a 4-yr course reform and its outcomes. The upper-division neurophysiology course gradually transformed from a traditional lecture in 2004 to a more student-centered course in 2008, through the addition of evidence-based active learning practices, such as deliberate problem-solving practice on homework and peer learning structures, both inside and outside of class. Due to the incremental nature of the reforms and absence of pre-reform learning assessments, we needed a way to retrospectively assess the effectiveness of our efforts. To do this, we first looked at performance on 12 conserved exam questions. Students performed significantly higher post-reform on questions requiring lower-level cognitive skills and those requiring higher-level cognitive skills. Furthermore, student performance on conserved questions was higher post-reform in both the top and bottom quartiles of students, although lower-quartile student performance did not improve until after the first exam. To examine student learning more broadly, we also used Bloom's taxonomy to quantify a significant increase in the Bloom's level of exams, with students performing equally well post-reform on exams that had over twice as many questions at higher cognitive skill levels. Finally, we believe that four factors provided critical contributions to the success of the course reform, including: transformation efforts across multiple course components, alignment between formative and evaluative course materials, student buy-in to course instruction, and instructional support. This reform demonstrates both the effectiveness of incorporating student-centered, active learning into our course, and the utility of using Bloom's level as a metric to assess course reform. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

  7. Improvements in Health Behaviors, Eating Self-Efficacy, and Goal-Setting Skills Following Participation in Wellness Coaching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Matthew M; Bradley, Karleah L; Jenkins, Sarah M; Mettler, Emily A; Larson, Brent G; Preston, Heather R; Liesinger, Juliette T; Werneburg, Brooke L; Hagen, Philip T; Harris, Ann M; Riley, Beth A; Olsen, Kerry D; Vickers Douglas, Kristin S

    2016-07-01

    Purpose . This project examined potential changes in health behaviors following wellness coaching. Design . In a single cohort study design, wellness coaching participants were recruited in 2011, data were collected through July 2012, and were analyzed through December 2013. Items in the study questionnaire used requested information about 11 health behaviors, self-efficacy for eating, and goal-setting skills. Setting . Worksite wellness center. Participants . One-hundred employee wellness center members with an average age of 42 years; 90% were female and most were overweight or obese. Intervention . Twelve weeks of in-person, one-on-one wellness coaching. Method . Participants completed study questionnaires when they started wellness coaching (baseline), after 12 weeks of wellness coaching, and at a 3-month follow-up. Results . From baseline to week 12, these 100 wellness coaching participants improved their self-reported health behaviors (11 domains, 0- to 10-point scale) from an average of 6.4 to 7.7 (p coaching.

  8. Accuracy of Skill Performance in the Basketball Free Throw Shooting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Igawa Shoji

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study were to investigates how timing of shot of skilled player and assess performance accuracy of free throw shooting. Ten college students participated in this study (5 skilled players, and 5 naïve participants aged 18-23 years. They performed free throw shooting at 10 times. Shooting seen was recorded three cameras and analyzed shooting successful rate, off-target distance (the distance between the basketball through point and the center of the goal and shot timing. Shot timing was not significant difference. Shooting successful rate of skilled players was higher than unskilled players. Offtarget distance of skilled players was significant smaller than naive player. Consequently, skilled player is possible to aim at the center of the goal and shooting near the center of goal.

  9. Effect of Cycling Skills on Bicycle Safety and Comfort Associated with Bicycle Infrastructure and Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-08-31

    This study seeks to improve the methodology for determining the relationship between cycling dynamic performance and roadway environment characteristics across different bicyclists' skill levels. To achieve the goal of this study, an Instrumented Pro...

  10. Innovative Training Experience for Advancing Entry Level, Mid-Skilled and Professional Level URM Participation in the Geosciences Workforce

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okoro, M. H.; Johnson, A.

    2015-12-01

    The representation of URMs in the U.S. Geosciences workforce remains proportionally low compared to their representation in the general population (Bureau of Labor Sta.s.cs, 2014). Employment in this and related industries is projected to grow 32% by 2030 for minority workers (Gillula and Fullenbaum, 2014), corresponding to an additional 48,000 jobs expected to be filled by minorities (National Research Council, 2014). However, there is a shortage of employees with proper training in the hard sciences (Holeywell, 2014; Ganzglass, 2011), as well as craft skills (Hoover and Duncan, 2013), both important for middle skill employment. Industry recognizes the need for developing and retaining a diverse workforce, therefore we hightlight a program to serve as a potential vanguard initative for developing an innovative training experience for URM and underserved middle skilled workers with essential knowledge, experience and skills necessary to meet the demands of the Geosciences industry's growing need for a safe, productive and diverse workforce. Objectives are for participants to achieve the following: understanding of geosciences workforce trends and associated available opportunities; mastery of key environmental, health and safety topics; improvements in decision making skills and preparedness for responding to potential environmental, health and safety related situations; and engagement in one-on-one coaching sessions focused on resume writing, job interviewing and key "soft skills" (including conflict resolution, problem solving and critical observation, representing 3 major skills that entry- level workers typically lack.

  11. Analysis of chemistry textbook content and national science education standards in terms of air quality-related learning goals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naughton, Wendy

    In this study's Phase One, representatives of nine municipal agencies involved in air quality education were interviewed and interview transcripts were analyzed for themes related to what citizens need to know or be able to do regarding air quality concerns. Based on these themes, eight air quality Learning Goal Sets were generated and validated via peer and member checks. In Phase Two, six college-level, liberal-arts chemistry textbooks and the National Science Education Standards (NSES) were analyzed for congruence with Phase One learning goals. Major categories of desired citizen understandings highlighted in agency interviews concerned air pollution sources, impact, detection, and transport. Identified cognitive skills focused on information-gathering and -evaluating skills, enabling informed decision-making. A content match was found between textbooks and air quality learning goals, but most textbooks fail to address learning goals that remediate citizen misconceptions and inabilities---particularly those with a "personal experience" focus. A partial match between NSES and air quality learning goals was attributed to differing foci: Researcher-derived learning goals deal specifically with air quality, while NSES focus is on "fundamental science concepts," not "many science topics." Analysis of findings within a situated cognition framework suggests implications for instruction and NSES revision.

  12. Goal-directed behaviour and instrumental devaluation: a neural system-level computational model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francesco Mannella

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Devaluation is the key experimental paradigm used to demonstrate the presence of instrumental behaviours guided by goals in mammals. We propose a neural system-level computational model to address the question of which brain mechanisms allow the current value of rewards to control instrumental actions. The model pivots on and shows the computational soundness of the hypothesis for which the internal representation of instrumental manipulanda (e.g., levers activate the representation of rewards (or `action-outcomes', e.g. foods while attributing to them a value which depends on the current internal state of the animal (e.g., satiation for some but not all foods. The model also proposes an initial hypothesis of the integrated system of key brain components supporting this process and allowing the recalled outcomes to bias action selection: (a the sub-system formed by the basolateral amygdala and insular cortex acquiring the manipulanda-outcomes associations and attributing the current value to the outcomes; (b the three basal ganglia-cortical loops selecting respectively goals, associative sensory representations, and actions; (c the cortico-cortical and striato-nigro-striatal neural pathways supporting the selection, and selection learning, of actions based on habits and goals. The model reproduces and integrates the results of different devaluation experiments carried out with control rats and rats with pre- and post-training lesions of the basolateral amygdala, the nucleus accumbens core, the prelimbic cortex, and the dorso-medial striatum. The results support the soundness of the hypotheses of the model and show its capacity to integrate, at the system-level, the operations of the key brain structures underlying devaluation. Based on its hypotheses and predictions, the model also represents an operational framework to support the design and analysis of new experiments on the motivational aspects of goal-directed behaviour.

  13. 25 CFR 36.10 - Standard I-Philosophy and goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Standard I-Philosophy and goals. 36.10 Section 36.10... § 36.10 Standard I—Philosophy and goals. (a) Each school shall develop a written mission statement and philosophy of education that addresses the accumulation of knowledge and development of skills, interests...

  14. Effects of gross motor function and manual function levels on performance-based ADL motor skills of children with spastic cerebral palsy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Myoung-Ok

    2017-02-01

    [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to determine effects of Gross Motor Function Classification System and Manual Ability Classification System levels on performance-based motor skills of children with spastic cerebral palsy. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-three children with cerebral palsy were included. The Assessment of Motor and Process Skills was used to evaluate performance-based motor skills in daily life. Gross motor function was assessed using Gross Motor Function Classification Systems, and manual function was measured using the Manual Ability Classification System. [Results] Motor skills in daily activities were significantly different on Gross Motor Function Classification System level and Manual Ability Classification System level. According to the results of multiple regression analysis, children categorized as Gross Motor Function Classification System level III scored lower in terms of performance based motor skills than Gross Motor Function Classification System level I children. Also, when analyzed with respect to Manual Ability Classification System level, level II was lower than level I, and level III was lower than level II in terms of performance based motor skills. [Conclusion] The results of this study indicate that performance-based motor skills differ among children categorized based on Gross Motor Function Classification System and Manual Ability Classification System levels of cerebral palsy.

  15. Enhancing clinical skills education: University of Virginia School of Medicine's Clerkship Clinical Skills Workshop Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corbett, Eugene C; Payne, Nancy J; Bradley, Elizabeth B; Maughan, Karen L; Heald, Evan B; Wang, Xin Qun

    2007-07-01

    In 1993, the University of Virginia School of Medicine began a clinical skills workshop program in an effort to improve the preparation of all clerkship students to participate in clinical care. This program involved the teaching of selected basic clinical skills by interested faculty to small groups of third-year medical students. Over the past 14 years, the number of workshops has increased from 11 to 31, and they now involve clerkship faculty from family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics. Workshops include a variety of common skills from the communication, physical examination, and clinical test and procedure domains such as pediatric phone triage, shoulder examination, ECG interpretation, and suturing. Workshop sessions allow students to practice skills on each other, with standardized patients, or with models, with the goal of improving competence and confidence in the performance of basic clinical skills. Students receive direct feedback from faculty on their skill performance. The style and content of these workshops are guided by an explicit set of educational criteria.A formal evaluation process ensures that faculty receive regular feedback from student evaluation comments so that adherence to workshop criteria is continuously reinforced. Student evaluations confirm that these workshops meet their skill-learning needs. Preliminary outcome measures suggest that workshop teaching can be linked to student assessment data and may improve students' skill performance. This program represents a work-in-progress toward the goal of providing a more comprehensive and developmental clinical skills curriculum in the school of medicine.

  16. Effects of two distinct group motor skill interventions in psychological and motor skills of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: A pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caçola, Priscila; Romero, Michael; Ibana, Melvin; Chuang, Jennifer

    2016-01-01

    Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have an increased risk for mental health difficulties. The present pilot study aimed to determine whether distinct group intervention programs improved several psychological variables (anxiety; adequacy and predilection for physical activity; participation, preferences, and enjoyment for activities) and motor skills from the perspective of a child with DCD as well as parental perceptions of motor skills, rate of function, and strengths and difficulties. Eleven children participated in Program A and thirteen in Program B. Both involved 10 sessions of 1 h each. Program A focused on task-oriented activities in a large group involving motor skill training and collaboration and cooperation among children, while Program B was composed of three groups with a direct goal-oriented approach for training of skills chosen by the children. Results indicated that children improved motor skills after both programs, but showed distinct results in regards to other variables - after Program A, children showed higher anxiety and lower levels of enjoyment, even though parents detected an improvement in rate of function and a decrease in peer problems. With Program B, children decreased anxiety levels, and parents noted a higher control of movement of their children. Regardless of the group approach, children were able to improve motor skills. However, it is possible that the differences between groups may have influenced parents' perception of their children's motor and psychological skills, as well as children's perception of anxiety. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Disparity in Frontal Lobe Connectivity on a Complex Bimanual Motor Task Aids in Classification of Operator Skill Level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andreu-Perez, Javier; Leff, Daniel Richard; Shetty, Kunal; Darzi, Ara; Yang, Guang-Zhong

    2016-06-01

    Objective metrics of technical performance (e.g., dexterity, time, and path length) are insufficient to fully characterize operator skill level, which may be encoded deep within neural function. Unlike reports that capture plasticity across days or weeks, this articles studies long-term plasticity in functional connectivity that occurs over years of professional task practice. Optical neuroimaging data are acquired from professional surgeons of varying experience on a complex bimanual coordination task with the aim of investigating learning-related disparity in frontal lobe functional connectivity that arises as a consequence of motor skill level. The results suggest that prefrontal and premotor seed connectivity is more critical during naïve versus expert performance. Given learning-related differences in connectivity, a least-squares support vector machine with a radial basis function kernel is employed to evaluate skill level using connectivity data. The results demonstrate discrimination of operator skill level with accuracy ≥0.82 and Multiclass Matthew's Correlation Coefficient ≥0.70. Furthermore, these indices are improved when local (i.e., within-region) rather than inter-regional (i.e., between-region) frontal connectivity is considered (p = 0.002). The results suggest that it is possible to classify operator skill level with good accuracy from functional connectivity data, upon which objective assessment and neurofeedback may be used to improve operator performance during technical skill training.

  18. Writing Self-Efficacy and Written Communication Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mascle, Deanna DeBrine

    2013-01-01

    Writing is an essential professional skill. The goal of writing instruction in business communication classes is to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to successfully meet future writing challenges. However, many writers struggle to transfer skills and knowledge from one context to another. The primary reason for this struggle is that…

  19. Effects of Goal Line Feedback on Level, Slope, and Stability of Performance within Curriculum-Based Measurement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuchs, Lynn S.; And Others

    1991-01-01

    Nineteen special educators implemented Curriculum-Based Measurement with a total of 36 learning-disabled math pupils in grades 2-8 to examine the effects of goal line feedback. Results indicated comparable levels and slopes of student performance across treatment conditions, although goal line feedback was associated with greater performance…

  20. The attenuating effect of role overload on relationships linking self-efficacy and goal level to work performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Steven P; Jones, Eli; Leigh, Thomas W

    2005-09-01

    The reported research examines the moderating effects of role overload on the antecedents and consequences of self-efficacy and personal goal level in a longitudinal study conducted in an industrial selling context. The results indicate that role overload moderates the antecedent effect of perceived organizational resources on self-efficacy beliefs. They also show that role overload moderates the direct effects of both self-efficacy and goal level on performance, such that these relationships are positive when role overload is low but not significant when role overload is high. Further, the results reveal a pattern of moderated mediation, in which goal level mediates the indirect effect of self-efficacy on performance when role overload is low but not when it is high. Implications for theory and managerial practice are discussed. Copyright 2005 APA, all rights reserved.

  1. Comparing levels of physical ability and basketball skills of girls in Prague and outsider of Prague

    OpenAIRE

    Tesaříková, Linda

    2017-01-01

    The diploma thesis comparing the level of physical abilities and basketball skills of girls in basketball and basketball outfits in Prague and abroad outlines a short history of both world and Czech basketball, the current organization of basketball in the Czech Republic, age specificities of children aged 11, stage of sports training in basketball, Ability. The practical part deals with the question of the level of motor skills of girls at the age of 11, the question of the level of basketba...

  2. Can goal-free problems facilitating students' flexible thinking?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maulidya, Sity Rahmy; Hasanah, Rusi Ulfa; Retnowati, Endah

    2017-08-01

    Problem solving is the key of doing and also learning mathematics. It takes also the fundamental role of developing mathematical knowledge. Responding to the current reform movement in mathematics, students are expected to learn to be a flexible thinker. The ability to think flexible is challenged by the globalisation, hence influence mathematics education. A flexible thinking includes ability to apply knowledge in different contexts rather than simply use it in similar context when it is studied. Arguably problem solving activities can contribute to the development of the ability to apply skills to unfamiliar situations. Accordingly, an appropriate classroom instructional strategy must be developed. A cognitive load theory suggests that by reducing extraneous cognitive load during learning could enhance transfer learning. A goal-free problem strategy that is developed based in cognitive load theory have been showed to be effective for transfer learning. This strategy enables students to learn a large numbers of problem solving moves from a mathematics problem. The instruction in a goal-free problem directs students to `calculate as many solution as you can' rather than to calculate a single given goal. Many experiment research evident goal-free problem enhance learning. This literature review will discuss evidence goal-free problem facilitate students to solve problems flexibly and thus enhance their problem solving skills, including how its implication in the classroom.

  3. Cross-curricular goals and raising the relevance of science education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Belova, Nadja; Dittmar, Johanna; Hansson, Lena

    2017-01-01

    ‘Relevance’ is one of the most commonly used terms when it comes to reforms in science education. The term is used in manifold ways. It can be understood – among other things – as meeting an interest, fulfilling needs or contributing to intellectual development. Many components of relevant science...... education go beyond single contents and concepts; many challenges are tied to cross-curricular goals. Specifically, when it comes to the societal and vocational relevance of science education, many demands can only be met when we develop corresponding skills across disciplines and grade levels. This chapter...... focuses on a set of such cross-curricular goals from a chemistry education perspective, namely, education for sustainability, critical media literacy, innovation competence, vocational orientation and employability. It relates them to the idea of relevant chemistry and science education. Directions...

  4. Soft skills, hard skills, and individual innovativeness

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hendarman, Achmad Fajar; Cantner, Uwe

    2018-01-01

    of Indonesian firms from different industries are used from an online survey on manager and worker perceptions related to individual innovation performance on the one hand and individual skills on the other hand. The results show that soft skills and hard skills are significantly and positively associated...... with individual level innovativeness. However, no complementarity (positive interaction effect) is found between soft skills and hard skills....

  5. Methods to Find the Number of Latent Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beheshti, Behzad; Desmarais, Michel C.; Naceur, Rhouma

    2012-01-01

    Identifying the skills that determine the success or failure to exercises and question items is a difficult task. Multiple skills may be involved at various degree of importance, and skills may overlap and correlate. In an effort towards the goal of finding the skills behind a set of items, we investigate two techniques to determine the number of…

  6. [Doctor patient communication: which skills are effective?].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Philippa; Gómez, Gricelda; Kurtz, Suzanne; Vargas, Alex

    2010-08-01

    Effective Communication Skills form part of what is being a good doctor. There is a solid evidence base that defines the components of effective communication. This article offers a practical conceptual framework to improve physician patient communication to a professional level of competence. There are six goals that physicians and patients work to achieve through their communication with each other. These are to construct a relationship, structure an interview, start the interview, gather information, explain, plan and close the interview. The outcomes that can be improved with an effective communication and the "first principles" of communication are described. A brief look at the historical context that has influenced our thinking about communication in health care is carried out. Finally, the Calgary Cambridge Guide, an approach for delineating and organizing the specific skills required of an effective communication with patients is described. It is clear from the literature that better communication skills improve patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes.

  7. Students' level of skillfulness and use of the internet in selected ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study examined level of skillfulness and the use of the Internet for learning among secondary school students in Lagos State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research method was adopted for the study. A sample of 450 students was randomly selected from the three secondary schools. One intact arm was selected from ...

  8. ASSESSMENT OF PROFESSIONAL SKILLS OF STUDENTS IN IT-BASED CONTROLLED EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF A UNIVERSITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evgeiy Nikolaevich Boyarov

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available The article looks at the problem of estimating professional skills of students, the process of their building and assessing their level in IT-based controlled educational environment of a university. The author presents research findings of professional skills level of future educational professionals in the field of Life Safety[1] based on their academic results.Goal: to develop and show by experiments efficiency of building professional skills of students in IT-based controlled educational environment of a university.Results: increasing the level of professional skills in IT-based controlled educational environment of a university.Scope of application of results: field of higher professional education.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-7-1[1] Life Safety or Fundamentals of Health and Safety is a secondary school subject, which involves teaching basic rules of how to act in dangerous situations in everyday life (natural disasters, fires, terrorist attacks, etc., provide first aid, etc.

  9. Influence of riders' skill on plasma cortisol levels of horses walking on forest and field trekking courses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ono, Ayaka; Matsuura, Akihiro; Yamazaki, Yumi; Sakai, Wakako; Watanabe, Kentaro; Nakanowatari, Toshihiko; Kobayashi, Hiroshi; Irimajiri, Mami; Hodate, Koichi

    2017-10-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of rider's skill on the plasma cortisol levels of trekking horses on two courses, walking on field and forest courses (about 4.5 to 5.1 km each). Three riders of different skills did horse trekking (HT) in a tandem line under a fixed order: advanced-leading, beginner-second and intermediate-last. A total of six horses were used and they experienced all positions in both courses; a total of 12 experiments were done. Blood samples were obtained before HT, immediately after and 2 h after HT. As a control, additional blood samples were obtained from the same horses on non-riding days. Irrespective of the course and the rider's skill, the cortisol level before HT was higher than that of control (P stress of trekking horse was not sufficient to disturb the circadian rhythm of the cortisol level, irrespective of the course and the rider's skill. © 2017 Japanese Society of Animal Science.

  10. Optimal skill distribution under convex skill costs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tin Cheuk Leung

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper studies optimal distribution of skills in an optimal income tax framework with convex skill constraints. The problem is cast as a social planning problem where a redistributive planner chooses how to distribute a given amount of aggregate skills across people. We find that optimal skill distribution is either perfectly equal or perfectly unequal, but an interior level of skill inequality is never optimal.

  11. Goal-Directed and Goal-Less Imitation in Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wild, Kelly S.; Poliakoff, Ellen; Jerrison, Andrew; Gowen, Emma

    2012-01-01

    To investigate how people with Autism are affected by the presence of goals during imitation, we conducted a study to measure movement kinematics and eye movements during the imitation of goal-directed and goal-less hand movements. Our results showed that a control group imitated changes in movement kinematics and increased the level that they…

  12. Four Weeks of Goal-Directed Learning in Primary Physical Education Classes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Platvoet, Sebastiaan W. J.; Elferink-Gemser, Marije T.; Kannekens, Rianne; de Niet, Mark; Visscher, Chris

    Relatively little is known about how practice relates to children's improvement in gross motor skill performance. The aim of this study is to determine to what extent 6- and 7-year-old children improve their gross motor skill performance in a four-week period, in which goal-directed learning is

  13. Children's high-level writing skills: development of planning and revising and their contribution to writing quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Limpo, Teresa; Alves, Rui A; Fidalgo, Raquel

    2014-06-01

    It is well established that the activity of producing a text is a complex one involving three main cognitive processes: Planning, translating, and revising. Although these processes are crucial in skilled writing, beginning and developing writers seem to struggle with them, mainly with planning and revising. To trace the development of the high-level writing processes of planning and revising, from Grades 4 to 9, and to examine whether these skills predict writing quality in younger and older students (Grades 4-6 vs. 7-9), after controlling for gender, school achievement, age, handwriting fluency, spelling, and text structure. Participants were 381 students from Grades 4 to 9 (age 9-15). Students were asked to plan and write a story and to revise another story by detecting and correcting mechanical and substantive errors. From Grades 4 to 9, we found a growing trend in students' ability to plan and revise despite the observed decreases and stationary periods from Grades 4 to 5 and 6 to 7. Moreover, whereas younger students' planning and revising skills made no contribution to the quality of their writing, in older students, these high-level skills contributed to writing quality above and beyond control predictors. The findings of this study seem to indicate that besides the increase in planning and revising, these skills are not fully operational in school-age children. Indeed, given the contribution of these high-level skills to older students' writing, supplementary instruction and practice should be provided from early on. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

  14. Level of Soft Skill in the Implementation of Work-Based Learning among Community College Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ali Azita Binti

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The issue of graduate unemployment often crops up in the mass media; and more often than not, the discussions have centred on the failure of tertiary educational institutions to churn out quality graduates. Thus, the method of work-based learning (WBL is seen as a way to improve the soft skills of the graduates. The study was conducted using quantitative research survey; the design of the study used an adapted questionnaire as an instrument. Data were analysed using Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS version 20. The respondents consisted of 97 students who attended WBL programmes at a community college. Descriptive statistics was used to extract data from the questionnaires for the calculation of mean. The findings reveal that the level of soft skills among community college students was high, and they include these abilities: communication skills, problem-solving skills, learning and information management, professional ethics skills and leadership skills.

  15. Upcycling Secondary Physical Education: The Journey to Creating Goal-Oriented Courses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nye, Susan; Williams, Jacqueline

    2017-01-01

    The ultimate goal of a quality physical education program is to develop physically literate individuals who demonstrate skill competencies, apply knowledge, demonstrate health-enhancing behaviors, exhibit prosocial behaviors, and recognize the value of physical activity for a lifetime. The development and implementation of goal-oriented physical…

  16. Technical Insight of the High Level Safety Goal for the NPPs Built in China’S Thirteenth Five-Year Period (2016-2020)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shi, G.; Zhan, W.; Mei, Q.; Sun, D., E-mail: shi@snerdi.com.cn [Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute, SNPTC Shanghai (China)

    2014-10-15

    The “Nuclear Safety Planning” has been published in Oct. 2012 in China, which stipulates the safety goals for the NPPs which will be built in the future. As for the NPPs which will be built in China's Thirteenth Five-Year (2016-2020) and later, the high level safety goal is described as “the possibility of the large radioactive release should be practically eliminated by design”. A thorough investigation has been performed at SNERDI to explore the technical insights of this high level safety goal by using MEDP hierarchical safety goal approach. The definition of large release is proposed accordingly, DID requirements and probabilistic requirements are derived from this high level safety goal. (author)

  17. Reading Comprehension, Working Memory and Higher-Level Language Skills in Children with SLI and/or Dyslexia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Anita M.-Y.; Ho, Connie S.-H.; Au, Terry K.-F.; McBride, Catherine; Ng, Ashley K.-H.; Yip, Lesley P.-W.; Lam, Catherine C.-C.

    2017-01-01

    This study examined (1) whether working memory and higher-level languages skills--inferencing and comprehension monitoring--accounted for individual differences among Chinese children in Chinese reading comprehension, after controlling for age, Chinese word reading and oral language skills, and (2) whether children with specific language…

  18. Outdoor Leadership Skills: A Program Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shooter, Wynn; Sibthorp, Jim; Paisley, Karen

    2009-01-01

    Successful hiring, training, and pairing or grouping of staff requires administrators to consider the relationship between their programs' goals and the specific outdoor leadership skills of individual leaders. Authors have divided outdoor leadership skills into a three-category structure, and models of outdoor leadership have focused on skills…

  19. Identification of Determinants of Sports Skill Level in Badminton Players Using the Multiple Regression Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaworski Janusz

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Purpose. The aim of the study was to evaluate somatic and functional determinants of sports skill level in badminton players at three consecutive stages of training. Methods. The study examined 96 badminton players aged 11 to 19 years. The scope of the study included somatic characteristics, physical abilities and neurosensory abilities. Thirty nine variables were analysed in each athlete. Coefficients of multiple determination were used to evaluate the effect of structural and functional parameters on sports skill level in badminton players. Results. In the group of younger cadets, quality and effectiveness of playing were mostly determined by the level of physical abilities. In the group of cadets, the most important determinants were physical abilities, followed by somatic characteristics. In this group, coordination abilities were also important. In juniors, the most pronounced was a set of the variables that reflect physical abilities. Conclusions. Models of determination of sports skill level are most noticeable in the group of cadets. In all three groups of badminton players, the dominant effect on the quality of playing is due to a set of the variables that determine physical abilities.

  20. Use of relaxation skills in differentially skilled athletes.

    OpenAIRE

    Kudlackova, K.; Eccles, D. W.; Dieffenbach, K.

    2013-01-01

    Objectives: To examine the use of relaxation skills by differentially skilled athletes in relation to the deliberate practice framework. Design: Differentially skilled athletes completed a survey about their use of relaxation skills. Method: 150 athletes representing three skill levels (recreational, college, and professional) completed the deliberate relaxation for sport survey, which assessed relaxation on three deliberate practice dimensions (relevancy, concentration, and ...

  1. Hard evidence on soft skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heckman, James J; Kautz, Tim

    2012-08-01

    This paper summarizes recent evidence on what achievement tests measure; how achievement tests relate to other measures of "cognitive ability" like IQ and grades; the important skills that achievement tests miss or mismeasure, and how much these skills matter in life. Achievement tests miss, or perhaps more accurately, do not adequately capture, soft skills -personality traits, goals, motivations, and preferences that are valued in the labor market, in school, and in many other domains. The larger message of this paper is that soft skills predict success in life, that they causally produce that success, and that programs that enhance soft skills have an important place in an effective portfolio of public policies.

  2. Just the facts? Introductory undergraduate biology courses focus on low-level cognitive skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Momsen, Jennifer L; Long, Tammy M; Wyse, Sara A; Ebert-May, Diane

    2010-01-01

    Introductory biology courses are widely criticized for overemphasizing details and rote memorization of facts. Data to support such claims, however, are surprisingly scarce. We sought to determine whether this claim was evidence-based. To do so we quantified the cognitive level of learning targeted by faculty in introductory-level biology courses. We used Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives to assign cognitive learning levels to course goals as articulated on syllabi and individual items on high-stakes assessments (i.e., exams and quizzes). Our investigation revealed the following: 1) assessment items overwhelmingly targeted lower cognitive levels, 2) the cognitive level of articulated course goals was not predictive of the cognitive level of assessment items, and 3) there was no influence of course size or institution type on the cognitive levels of assessments. These results support the claim that introductory biology courses emphasize facts more than higher-order thinking.

  3. Learning in Out-of-Class Experiences: The Importance of Professional Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hund, Alycia M.; Bueno, Daisy

    2015-01-01

    Our goal was to document professional skills and attitudes gained via out-of-class teaching and research experiences during the undergraduate years. Qualitative analysis of reflection papers revealed that students noted gains in professional skills, communication skills, interpersonal skills, and intrapersonal skills. Importantly, students also…

  4. Skill level, Cognitive Ability, Unemployment and Welfare

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Birthe

    2004-01-01

    -biasedtechnological shocks increase unemployment, this may explain why themarket it-self cannot respond to this by making it sufficiently attractiveto acquire skills. Consequently, the trade-off in-between subsidizing educationand thereby reducing unemployment and optimizing welfare maybe eliminated. We analyse this issue...... in a simple educational model andnext in a search equilibrium model including a skill choice decision.Keywords: Education, subsidies, efficiency, unemployment.JEL codes: I20, J64....

  5. Impasse-driven tutoring for reactive skill acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hill, Randall W., Jr.; Johnson, W. Lewis

    1993-01-01

    We are interested in developing effective performance-oriented training for the operation of systems that are used for monitor and control purposes. We have focused on one such system, the communications Link Monitor and Control (LMC) system used in NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), which is a worldwide system for navigating, tracking and communicating with unmanned interplanetary spacecraft. The tasks in this domain are procedural in nature and require reactive, goal-oriented skills; we have previously described a cognitive model for problem solving that accounts for both novice and expert levels of behavior as well as how skill is acquired. Our cognitive modeling work in this task domain led us to make a number of predictions about tutoring that have influenced the design of the system described in this paper.

  6. Stress management skills, neuroimmune processes and fatigue levels in persons with chronic fatigue syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lattie, Emily G; Antoni, Michael H; Fletcher, Mary Ann; Penedo, Frank; Czaja, Sara; Lopez, Corina; Perdomo, Dolores; Sala, Andreina; Nair, Sankaran; Fu, Shih Hua; Klimas, Nancy

    2012-08-01

    Stressors and emotional distress responses impact chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) symptoms, including fatigue. Having better stress management skills might mitigate fatigue by decreasing emotional distress. Because CFS patients comprise a heterogeneous population, we hypothesized that the role of stress management skills in decreasing fatigue may be most pronounced in the subgroup manifesting the greatest neuroimmune dysfunction. In total, 117 individuals with CFS provided blood and saliva samples, and self-report measures of emotional distress, perceived stress management skills (PSMS), and fatigue. Plasma interleukin-1-beta (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and diurnal salivary cortisol were analyzed. We examined relations among PSMS, emotional distress, and fatigue in CFS patients who did and did not evidence neuroimmune abnormalities. Having greater PSMS related to less fatigue (p=.019) and emotional distress (pfatigue levels most strongly in CFS patients in the top tercile of IL-6, and emotional distress mediated the relationship between PSMS and fatigue most strongly in patients with the greatest circulating levels of IL-6 and a greater inflammatory (IL-6):anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokine ratio. CFS patients having greater PSMS show less emotional distress and fatigue, and the influence of stress management skills on distress and fatigue appear greatest among patients who have elevated IL-6 levels. These findings support the need for research examining the impact of stress management interventions in subgroups of CFS patients showing neuroimmune dysfunction. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Student Self-Assessment Practices: The Role of Gender, School Level and Goal Orientation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Zi

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the key demographic variables of gender, school level and goal orientation on students' self-assessment practices, including self-directed feedback seeking (SDFS) and self-reflection (SR). A total of 8843 Hong Kong students were surveyed, ranging from Primary 4 to Secondary 6. The results…

  8. Relationship between Lifelong Learning Levels and Information Literacy Skills in Teacher Candidates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solmaz, Dilek Yaliz

    2017-01-01

    This study aims to examine the relationship between lifelong learning levels and information literacy skills in teacher candidates. The research group consists of 127 physical education and sports teacher candidates. Data were collected by means of "Lifelong Learning Scale (LLL)" and "Information Literacy Scale". In the data…

  9. Implementing Organizational Skills in the Classroom

    OpenAIRE

    Debora, Marisi

    2015-01-01

    This article presents the writer's experience in the classroom in implementing the organizational skills. The article also discuss the reason for teaching organizational skills in the classroom, materials needed for the teaching and the implementation of the organizational skills in the classroom. The materials can be adjusted to the availability in the class and the students' own stationery. The two stages of implementation later build the students' independence which is the goal of teaching...

  10. Effects of Botulinum Toxin-A and Goal-Directed Physiotherapy in Children with Cerebral Palsy GMFCS Levels I & II.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Löwing, Kristina; Thews, Karin; Haglund-Åkerlind, Yvonne; Gutierrez-Farewik, Elena M

    2017-08-01

    To evaluate short and long-term effects of botulinum toxin-A combined with goal-directed physiotherapy in children with cerebral palsy (CP). A consecutive selection of 40 children, ages 4-12 years, diagnosed with unilateral or bilateral CP, and classified in GMFCS levels I-II. During the 24 months, 9 children received one BoNT-A injection, 10 children two injections, 11 children three injections, and 10 children received four injections. 3D gait analysis, goal-attainment scaling, and body function assessments were performed before and at 3, 12, and 24 months after initial injections. A significant but clinically small long-term improvement in gait was observed. Plantarflexor spasticity was reduced after three months and remained stable, while passive ankle dorsiflexion increased after 3 months but decreased slightly after 12 months. Goal-attainment gradually increased, reached the highest levels at 12 months, and levels were maintained at 24 months. The treatments' positive effect on spasticity reduction was identified, but did not relate to improvement in gait or goal-attainment. No long-term positive change in passive ankle dorsiflexion was observed. Goal attainment was achieved in all except four children. The clinical significance of the improved gait is unclear. Further studies are recommended to identify predictors for positive treatment outcome.

  11. “Lost in translation”. Soft skills development in European countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Cinque

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The world of work is changing profoundly, at a time when the global economy is not creating a sufficient number of jobs. Many documents issued by the EU and various researches, carried out by companies and human resources experts, point out that the so-called “soft” skills are closely connected with employability, particularly for young people entering the labour market. At present, EU countries have different methodologies and approaches to the teaching and assessment of soft skills. Another obstacle is represented by the absence of a common language. There are different ways of naming ‘soft skills’, different definitions of them, different manners of classifying and clustering them. The article explores some classifications of soft skills and presents a collection of best practices and methods for teaching and learning them at University level, taking into account different perspectives and basing on the results of two European projects focused on this topic. The final goal is to provide an analysis aimed at the identification of the most important soft skills needed for a successful transition from University education to the labour market. The analysis includes a brief chronological excursus on relevant studies on the subject, a review of current literature on employability skills, quantitative (surveys and qualitative (focus groups researches from Europe and Third Countries, identifying the range of soft skills relevant for newly graduates. The aim of this overview is to enhance understanding of soft skills and to indicate key areas for soft skill development at University level.

  12. Growth goals, maturity, and well-being.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauer, Jack J; McAdams, Dan P

    2004-01-01

    In 2 studies (125 college students and 51 adults), 2 forms of growth goals (exploratory and intrinsic) were compared with 2 forms of personality development (social-cognitive maturity and social-emotional well-being). Participants whose narratives of major life goals emphasized conceptual exploration were especially likely to have high levels of maturity (measured as ego development; J. Loevinger, 1976), whereas those whose goals emphasized intrinsic interests (K. M. Sheldon & T. Kasser, 1995) were especially likely to have high levels of well-being. Participants who had coherent hierarchies of growth goals on the levels of major life goals and everyday goals were especially likely to have high levels of personality development. Finally, growth goals accounted for some relationships between age and personality development. Growth goals are discussed in terms of intentional self-development and specific developmental paths. (c) 2003 APA

  13. Skill qualifications in pediatric minimally invasive surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iwanaka, Tadashi; Morikawa, Yasuhide; Yamataka, Atsuyuki; Nio, Masaki; Segawa, Osamu; Kawashima, Hiroshi; Sato, Masahito; Terakura, Hirotsugu; Take, Hiroshi; Hirose, Ryuichiro; Yagi, Makoto

    2011-07-01

    In 2006, The Japanese Society of Pediatric Endoscopic Surgeons devised a plan to develop a pediatric endoscopic surgical skill qualification (ESSQ) system. This system is controlled by The Japan Society for Endoscopic Surgery. The standard requirement for skills qualification is the ability of each applicant to complete common types of laparoscopic surgery. The main goal of the system is to decrease complications of laparoscopic surgery by evaluating the surgical skills of each applicant and subsequently certify surgeons with adequate skills to perform laparoscopic operations safely. A committee of pediatric ESSQ created a checklist to assess the applicant's laparoscopic surgical skills. Skills are assessed in a double-blinded fashion by evaluating an unedited video recording of a fundoplication for pediatric gastroesophageal reflux disease. The initial pediatric ESSQ system was started in 2008. In 2008 and 2009, respectively, 9 out of 17 (53%) and 6 out of 12 (50%) applicants were certified as expert pediatric laparoscopic surgeons. Our ultimate goal is to provide safe and appropriate pediatric minimally invasive procedures and to avoid severe complications. To prove the predictive validity of this system, a survey of the outcomes of operations performed by certified pediatric surgeons is required.

  14. The relationship between self-regulation skills and academic success in students with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaljača Svetlana

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Students with intellectual disabilities (ID have considerable difficulties in adjusting to the requirements of the academic environment. The major risk factors are: cognition deficiency, insufficiently developed adaptive skills, lower levels of self-regulation of behavior, and social and functional incompetence. The goal of this research was to establish the relationship among self-regulation skills, the level of intellectual disability, academic success, and sex in students with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities. The sample included 131 students with mild and moderate ID, of both sexes, between 8 and 24 years of age. Self-Control Rating Scale (SCRS was used to assess the level of self-regulation skills. Academic success of students was expressed as the average grade at the end of the school year. A considerable interrelation was found between the level of adoption of self-regulation skills, the level of intellectual development and general academic success in students with ID. Significant influence of the participants' sex on the quality of self-regulation was found only in participants with moderate ID. Female participants had better achievements than male participants.

  15. Varying levels of difficulty index of skills-test items randomly selected by examinees on the Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koh, Bongyeun; Hong, Sunggi; Kim, Soon-Sim; Hyun, Jin-Sook; Baek, Milye; Moon, Jundong; Kwon, Hayran; Kim, Gyoungyong; Min, Seonggi; Kang, Gu-Hyun

    2016-01-01

    The goal of this study was to characterize the difficulty index of the items in the skills test components of the class I and II Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination (KEMTLE), which requires examinees to select items randomly. The results of 1,309 class I KEMTLE examinations and 1,801 class II KEMTLE examinations in 2013 were subjected to analysis. Items from the basic and advanced skills test sections of the KEMTLE were compared to determine whether some were significantly more difficult than others. In the class I KEMTLE, all 4 of the items on the basic skills test showed significant variation in difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as 4 of the 5 items on the advanced skills test (P<0.05). In the class II KEMTLE, 4 of the 5 items on the basic skills test showed significantly different difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as all 3 of the advanced skills test items (P<0.01). In the skills test components of the class I and II KEMTLE, the procedure in which examinees randomly select questions should be revised to require examinees to respond to a set of fixed items in order to improve the reliability of the national licensing examination.

  16. Varying levels of difficulty index of skills-test items randomly selected by examinees on the Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bongyeun Koh

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: The goal of this study was to characterize the difficulty index of the items in the skills test components of the class I and II Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination (KEMTLE, which requires examinees to select items randomly. Methods: The results of 1,309 class I KEMTLE examinations and 1,801 class II KEMTLE examinations in 2013 were subjected to analysis. Items from the basic and advanced skills test sections of the KEMTLE were compared to determine whether some were significantly more difficult than others. Results: In the class I KEMTLE, all 4 of the items on the basic skills test showed significant variation in difficulty index (P<0.01, as well as 4 of the 5 items on the advanced skills test (P<0.05. In the class II KEMTLE, 4 of the 5 items on the basic skills test showed significantly different difficulty index (P<0.01, as well as all 3 of the advanced skills test items (P<0.01. Conclusion: In the skills test components of the class I and II KEMTLE, the procedure in which examinees randomly select questions should be revised to require examinees to respond to a set of fixed items in order to improve the reliability of the national licensing examination.

  17. Internet skill levels increase, but gaps widen: a longitudinal cross-sectional analysis (2010–2013) among the Dutch population

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Deursen, Alexander Johannes Aloysius Maria; van Dijk, Johannes A.G.M.

    2015-01-01

    In the current contribution, we investigated how (1) the levels of operational, formal, information, and strategic internet skills changed between 2010 and 2013, and how (2) the observed skill patterns differ across gender, age, and education. All internet skills are measured among representative

  18. Movement skills proficiency and physical activity: a case for Engaging and Coaching for Health (EACH)-Child.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ziviani, Jenny; Poulsen, Anne; Hansen, Carla

    2009-08-01

    Supporting children's participation in health-enhancing physical activities is an important occupational goal for therapists. Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are thought to underpin and enable many activity options. This study had two goals: first, to examine the relationship between fundamental movement skills (FMS) and physical activity, and second, to use this and existing evidence to inform strategies whereby children's motivation for and engagement in physical activity can be supported. A cross-sectional investigation of 124 children, aged 6-12 years, was undertaken. FMS were assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC) and physical activity by pedometer step counts. A weak but significant association was found between weekend physical activity and balance skills for girls. Correlations between physical activity and ball skills or manual dexterity were not significant for either gender, however, having age appropriate ball skills did result in greater but not significant levels of physical activity for all children when grouped together. Findings from this study question the magnitude of the relationship between children's FMS and physical activity as measured by pedometers. If the goal of health enhancement through physical activity engagement is to be realised, it is proposed that community, occupation-based approaches may offer more potential than skills-based interventions at increasing activity participation. The concept of Engaging and Coaching for Health (EACH)-Child is introduced to this end. Occupational therapists are encouraged to work collaboratively with school and community organisations to assist children to find the physical activities that best accommodate their interests, abilities and offer opportunities for lifelong engagement.

  19. Neural modularity helps organisms evolve to learn new skills without forgetting old skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellefsen, Kai Olav; Mouret, Jean-Baptiste; Clune, Jeff

    2015-04-01

    A long-standing goal in artificial intelligence is creating agents that can learn a variety of different skills for different problems. In the artificial intelligence subfield of neural networks, a barrier to that goal is that when agents learn a new skill they typically do so by losing previously acquired skills, a problem called catastrophic forgetting. That occurs because, to learn the new task, neural learning algorithms change connections that encode previously acquired skills. How networks are organized critically affects their learning dynamics. In this paper, we test whether catastrophic forgetting can be reduced by evolving modular neural networks. Modularity intuitively should reduce learning interference between tasks by separating functionality into physically distinct modules in which learning can be selectively turned on or off. Modularity can further improve learning by having a reinforcement learning module separate from sensory processing modules, allowing learning to happen only in response to a positive or negative reward. In this paper, learning takes place via neuromodulation, which allows agents to selectively change the rate of learning for each neural connection based on environmental stimuli (e.g. to alter learning in specific locations based on the task at hand). To produce modularity, we evolve neural networks with a cost for neural connections. We show that this connection cost technique causes modularity, confirming a previous result, and that such sparsely connected, modular networks have higher overall performance because they learn new skills faster while retaining old skills more and because they have a separate reinforcement learning module. Our results suggest (1) that encouraging modularity in neural networks may help us overcome the long-standing barrier of networks that cannot learn new skills without forgetting old ones, and (2) that one benefit of the modularity ubiquitous in the brains of natural animals might be to

  20. Neural modularity helps organisms evolve to learn new skills without forgetting old skills.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kai Olav Ellefsen

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available A long-standing goal in artificial intelligence is creating agents that can learn a variety of different skills for different problems. In the artificial intelligence subfield of neural networks, a barrier to that goal is that when agents learn a new skill they typically do so by losing previously acquired skills, a problem called catastrophic forgetting. That occurs because, to learn the new task, neural learning algorithms change connections that encode previously acquired skills. How networks are organized critically affects their learning dynamics. In this paper, we test whether catastrophic forgetting can be reduced by evolving modular neural networks. Modularity intuitively should reduce learning interference between tasks by separating functionality into physically distinct modules in which learning can be selectively turned on or off. Modularity can further improve learning by having a reinforcement learning module separate from sensory processing modules, allowing learning to happen only in response to a positive or negative reward. In this paper, learning takes place via neuromodulation, which allows agents to selectively change the rate of learning for each neural connection based on environmental stimuli (e.g. to alter learning in specific locations based on the task at hand. To produce modularity, we evolve neural networks with a cost for neural connections. We show that this connection cost technique causes modularity, confirming a previous result, and that such sparsely connected, modular networks have higher overall performance because they learn new skills faster while retaining old skills more and because they have a separate reinforcement learning module. Our results suggest (1 that encouraging modularity in neural networks may help us overcome the long-standing barrier of networks that cannot learn new skills without forgetting old ones, and (2 that one benefit of the modularity ubiquitous in the brains of natural animals

  1. Neural Modularity Helps Organisms Evolve to Learn New Skills without Forgetting Old Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellefsen, Kai Olav; Mouret, Jean-Baptiste; Clune, Jeff

    2015-01-01

    A long-standing goal in artificial intelligence is creating agents that can learn a variety of different skills for different problems. In the artificial intelligence subfield of neural networks, a barrier to that goal is that when agents learn a new skill they typically do so by losing previously acquired skills, a problem called catastrophic forgetting. That occurs because, to learn the new task, neural learning algorithms change connections that encode previously acquired skills. How networks are organized critically affects their learning dynamics. In this paper, we test whether catastrophic forgetting can be reduced by evolving modular neural networks. Modularity intuitively should reduce learning interference between tasks by separating functionality into physically distinct modules in which learning can be selectively turned on or off. Modularity can further improve learning by having a reinforcement learning module separate from sensory processing modules, allowing learning to happen only in response to a positive or negative reward. In this paper, learning takes place via neuromodulation, which allows agents to selectively change the rate of learning for each neural connection based on environmental stimuli (e.g. to alter learning in specific locations based on the task at hand). To produce modularity, we evolve neural networks with a cost for neural connections. We show that this connection cost technique causes modularity, confirming a previous result, and that such sparsely connected, modular networks have higher overall performance because they learn new skills faster while retaining old skills more and because they have a separate reinforcement learning module. Our results suggest (1) that encouraging modularity in neural networks may help us overcome the long-standing barrier of networks that cannot learn new skills without forgetting old ones, and (2) that one benefit of the modularity ubiquitous in the brains of natural animals might be to

  2. Teachers' Professional Goal Orientations: Importance for Further Training and Sick Leave

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nitsche, Sebastian; Dickhauser, Oliver; Fasching, Michaela S.; Dresel, Markus

    2013-01-01

    The present study examined the relevance of teachers' individual goal orientations for the attendance of further training and sick leave in the teaching profession. Regression analysis indicated a positive effect of learning goal orientation (i.e., the desire to improve one's teaching skills and knowledge) along with a negative effect of work…

  3. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOAL-ORIENTATIONS AND SPORT COMMITMENT AMONG ATHLETES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Noshin Benar.

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of present study was exploring of relationship between goal-orientations and sport commitment among athletes and comparison of goal-orientations and sport commitment and their constructs based on gender and type of sports. Participants were 108 Iranian athlete (40 female and 68 male, who responded to Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (T.E.O.S.Q and Sport Commitment Model (SCM questionnaire. Data were analyzed by Pearson's correlation coefficient, Independent-Samples t-test, and One-way ANOVA at P=0.05. The findings indicated that there were positively and significantly association between constructs, including sport enjoyment, personal investment, social constraints, involvement opportunities, and social support, whereas, involvement alternatives and task-orientation had negatively and significantly association with sport commitment. Also, team and open-skilled sport athletes had sport commitment and ego-orientation more than individual and closed-skilled sport athletes. As well as, female's athletes had sport enjoyment and social support more than male's athletes. It is possible that task-oriented players are elite and expert athletes, because extend and develop their fundamental skills in one's sport by their task-orientate characteristic, and probably these players with these characteristics tendency to turnover until experience more situations. Thus, these players had a less sport commitment than amateur athletes. Also, gender and type of sport differences can be results of individual differences and nature of sports skills. Implications for goal-orientations and sport commitment and their impacts on athletes as well as future research directions are further discussed.

  4. Learning Skills; Review and Domain Chart.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, N. Cecil; Thompson, Faith E.

    A major goal of the elementary and secondary schools is to help each person become an efficient and autonomous learner. Outlined in this report are skills abstracted from the literature on such topics as verbal learning, problem solving, study habits, and behavior modification. The learner-oriented skills are presented so that they may be…

  5. Language Skills and Level of Experience among Arabic-Speaking Healthcare Interpreters in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Itani, Nada; Khalil, Mohammad; Sodemann, Morten

    2017-01-01

    services has recently been discussed by politicians and the media. The present explorative study investigated the sociodemographic characteristics, level of experience and linguistic skills of Arabic-speaking healthcare interpreters in Denmark. Method: Snowball sampling (including social media) was used...

  6. Softball: Special Olympics Sports Skills Instructional Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Special Olympics, Inc., Washington, DC.

    One of seven instructional units on Special Olympics Sports Skills Instructional Programs, this guide presents suggestions for coaching softball for mentally retarded persons. An overview section provides information on teaching suggestions, followed by a list of program goals, objectives, and benefits. Sports skill assessments measure athletes'…

  7. University Students’ Web 2.0 Technologies Usage, Skill Levels and Educational Usage

    OpenAIRE

    Baran, Bahar; Ata, Figen

    2013-01-01

    This study aims to find out university students’ use of Web 2.0 technologies in terms of frequencies, skill levels and educational use and to understand whether or not these variables differ for gender, foreign language levels, computer ownership and the Internet connection duration. Accessible population of this study is the entire Dokuz Eylul University students. In the sample, the researchers collected data from 2776 university students of the university. In the context of the study, blog,...

  8. Skill mismatch and skill use in developed countries: Evidence from the PIAAC study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Allen, J.P.; Levels, M.; van der Velden, R.K.W.

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we develop and test a new set of measures of skill mismatches, based on data on skill levels and skill use in the domains of literacy and numeracy from the PIAAC project. The measures we develop represent the extent of skill use relative to one’s own skill level. We test the measures

  9. A critical assessment of the perceptions of graduates regarding their generic skills level: an exploratory study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elroy Eugene Smith

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available This article outlines the perceptions of potential Business Management graduates regarding their generic skills level.  To achieve the aim of this article, a literature study and empirical research were undertaken.  A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 205 potential Business Management graduates at a tertiary institution. To investigate the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, thirteen null-hypotheses were tested.  The results revealed some significant relationships between these variables.  Seven predetermined generic skills factors, namely basic, communication, management, environmental awareness, intellectual, self and career management as well as interpersonal skills, were identified and empirically tested in this article.  Skills development should take place within an overall framework providing for the coordination and progression of skills development from first to final year of study.  Future curricula development should specifically focus on developing those skills lacking most by potential graduates as identified in this article.

  10. Bridging Theory and Practice: Developing Lower-Level Skills in L2 Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kato, Shigeo

    2012-01-01

    Studies on L2 reading have provided extensive evidence for the significant contribution of lower-level processing skills in learning to read and the critical impact on the overall development of L2 reading of more accurate and fluent connections between three sub-lexical components: phonology, orthography and semantics. The broad consensus among…

  11. Mindful movement and skilled attention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Dav; Schumann, Frank; Mostofsky, Stewart H.

    2015-01-01

    Bodily movement has long been employed as a foundation for cultivating mental skills such as attention, self-control or mindfulness, with recent studies documenting the positive impacts of mindful movement training, such as yoga and tai chi. A parallel “mind-body connection” has also been observed in many developmental disorders. We elaborate a spectrum of mindfulness by considering ADHD, in which deficient motor control correlates with impaired (disinhibited) behavioral control contributing to defining features of excessive distractibility and impulsivity. These data provide evidence for an important axis of variation for wellbeing, in which skillful cognitive control covaries with a capacity for skillful movement. We review empirical and theoretical literature on attention, cognitive control, mind wandering, mindfulness and skill learning, endorsing a model of skilled attention in which motor plans, attention, and executive goals are seen as mutually co-defining aspects of skilled behavior that are linked by reciprocal inhibitory and excitatory connections. Thus, any movement training should engage “higher-order” inhibition and selection and develop a repertoire of rehearsed procedures that coordinate goals, attention and motor plans. However, we propose that mindful movement practice may improve the functional quality of rehearsed procedures, cultivating a transferrable skill of attention. We adopt Langer’s spectrum of mindful learning that spans from “mindlessness” to engagement with the details of the present task and contrast this with the mental attitudes cultivated in standard mindfulness meditation. We particularly follow Feldenkrais’ suggestion that mindful learning of skills for organizing the body in movement might transfer to other forms of mental activity. The results of mindful movement training should be observed in multiple complementary measures, and may have tremendous potential benefit for individuals with ADHD and other

  12. Mindful Movement and Skilled Attention

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dav eClark

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Bodily movement has long been employed as a foundation for cultivating mental skills such as attention, self-control or mindfulness, with recent studies documenting the positive impacts of mindful movement training, such as yoga and tai chi. A parallel mind-body connection has also been observed in many developmental disorders. We elaborate a spectrum of mindfulness by considering ADHD, in which deficient motor control correlates with impaired (disinhibited behavioral control contributing to defining features of excessive distractibility and impulsivity. These data provide evidence for an important axis of variation for wellbeing, in which skillful cognitive control covaries with a capacity for skillful movement. We review empirical and theoretical literature on attention, cognitive control, mind wandering, mindfulness and skill learning, endorsing a model of skilled attention in which motor plans, attention, and executive goals are seen as mutually co-defining aspects of skilled behavior that are linked by reciprocal inhibitory and excitatory connections. Thus, any movement training should engage higher-order inhibition and selection and develop a repertoire of rehearsed procedures that coordinate goals, attention and motor plans. However, we propose that mindful movement practice may improve the functional quality of rehearsed procedures, cultivating a transferrable skill of attention. We adopt Langer’s spectrum of mindful learning that spans from mindlessness to engagement with the details of the present task and contrast this with the mental attitudes cultivated in standard mindfulness meditation. We particularly follow Feldenkrais’ suggestion that mindful learning of skills for organizing the body in movement might transfer to other forms of mental activity. The results of mindful movement training should be observed in multiple complementary measures, and may have tremendous potential benefit for individuals with ADHD and other

  13. Player Skill Decomposition in Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas

    OpenAIRE

    Chen, Zhengxing; Sun, Yizhou; El-nasr, Magy Seif; Nguyen, Truong-Huy D.

    2017-01-01

    Successful analysis of player skills in video games has important impacts on the process of enhancing player experience without undermining their continuous skill development. Moreover, player skill analysis becomes more intriguing in team-based video games because such form of study can help discover useful factors in effective team formation. In this paper, we consider the problem of skill decomposition in MOBA (MultiPlayer Online Battle Arena) games, with the goal to understand what player...

  14. Higher Order Thinking Skills among Secondary School Students in Science Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saido, Gulistan Mohammed; Siraj, Saedah; Bin Nordin, Abu Bakar; Al Amedy, Omed Saadallah

    2015-01-01

    A central goal of science education is to help students to develop their higher order thinking skills to enable them to face the challenges of daily life. Enhancing students' higher order thinking skills is the main goal of the Kurdish Science Curriculum in the Iraqi-Kurdistan region. This study aimed at assessing 7th grade students' higher order…

  15. Provider Tools for Advance Care Planning and Goals of Care Discussions: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myers, Jeff; Cosby, Roxanne; Gzik, Danusia; Harle, Ingrid; Harrold, Deb; Incardona, Nadia; Walton, Tara

    2018-01-01

    Advance care planning and goals of care discussions involve the exploration of what is most important to a person, including their values and beliefs in preparation for health-care decision-making. Advance care planning conversations focus on planning for future health care, ensuring that an incapable person's wishes are known and can guide the person's substitute decision maker for future decision-making. Goals of care discussions focus on preparing for current decision-making by ensuring the person's goals guide this process. To provide evidence regarding tools and/or practices available for use by health-care providers to effectively facilitate advance care planning conversations and/or goals of care discussions. A systematic review was conducted focusing on guidelines, randomized trials, comparative studies, and noncomparative studies. Databases searched included MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the proceedings of the International Advance Care Planning Conference and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Palliative Care Symposium. Although several studies report positive findings, there is a lack of consistent patient outcome evidence to support any one clinical tool for use in advance care planning or goals of care discussions. Effective advance care planning conversations at both the population and the individual level require provider education and communication skill development, standardized and accessible documentation, quality improvement initiatives, and system-wide coordination to impact the population level. There is a need for research focused on goals of care discussions, to clarify the purpose and expected outcomes of these discussions, and to clearly differentiate goals of care from advance care planning.

  16. Integration of a Skill-based Collaborative Mobile Robot in a Smart Cyber-Physical Environment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Rasmus Eckholdt; Hansen, Emil Blixt; Cerny, David

    2017-01-01

    The goal of this paper is to investigate the benefits of integrating collaborative robotic manipulators with autonomous mobile platforms for flexible part feeding processes in an Industry 4.0 production facility. The paper presents Little Helper 6 (LH6), consisting of a MiR100, UR5, a Robotiq 3......-Finger Gripper and a task level software framework, called Skill Based System (SBS). The preliminary experiments performed with LH6, demonstrate that the capabilities of skill-based programming, 3D QR based calibration, part feeding, mapping and dynamic collision avoidance are successfully executed...

  17. Defining and Assessing Team Skills of Business and Accountancy Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alghalith, Nabil; Blum, Michael; Medlock, Amanda; Weber, Sandy

    2004-01-01

    The objectives of the project are (1) to define the skills necessary for students to work effectively with others to achieve common goals, and (2) to develop an assessment instrument to measure student progress toward achieving these skills. The defined skill set will form a basis for common expectations related to team skills that will be shared…

  18. The validity of parental reports on motor skills performance level in preschool children: a comparison with a standardized motor test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zysset, Annina E; Kakebeeke, Tanja H; Messerli-Bürgy, Nadine; Meyer, Andrea H; Stülb, Kerstin; Leeger-Aschmann, Claudia S; Schmutz, Einat A; Arhab, Amar; Ferrazzini, Valentina; Kriemler, Susi; Munsch, Simone; Puder, Jardena J; Jenni, Oskar G

    2018-05-01

    Motor skills are interrelated with essential domains of childhood such as cognitive and social development. Thus, the evaluation of motor skills and the identification of atypical or delayed motor development is crucial in pediatric practice (e.g., during well-child visits). Parental reports on motor skills may serve as possible indicators to decide whether further assessment of a child is necessary or not. We compared parental reports on fundamental motor skills performance level (e.g., hopping, throwing), based on questions frequently asked in pediatric practice, with a standardized motor test in 389 children (46.5% girls/53.5% boys, M age = 3.8 years, SD = 0.5, range 3.0-5.0 years) from the Swiss Preschoolers' Health Study (SPLASHY). Motor skills were examined using the Zurich Neuromotor Assessment 3-5 (ZNA3-5), and parents filled in an online questionnaire on fundamental motor skills performance level. The results showed that the answers from the parental report correlated only weakly with the objectively assessed motor skills (r = .225, p skills would be desirable, the parent's report used in this study was not a valid indicator for children's fundamental motor skills. Thus, we may recommend to objectively examine motor skills in clinical practice and not to exclusively rely on parental report. What is Known: • Early assessment of motor skills in preschool children is important because motor skills are essential for the engagement in social activities and the development of cognitive abilities. Atypical or delayed motor development can be an indicator for different developmental needs or disorders. • Pediatricians frequently ask parents about the motor competences of their child during well-child visits. What is New: • The parental report on fundamental motor skills performance level used in this study was not a reliable indicator for describing motor development in the preschool age. • Standardized examinations of motor skills are

  19. Kodak Skills Enhancement Program. U.S. Department of Education National Workplace Literacy Project. Final Report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beaudin, Bart P.

    The Kodak Skills Enhancement program was a workplace literacy project funded through the U.S. Department of Education's National Workplace Literacy Program. The project goals were as follows: (1) establish a positive climate within the Kodak corporate environment to ensure program effectiveness by garnering support at all levels; (2) determine the…

  20. An Integrated Skills Approach Using Feature Movies in EFL at Tertiary Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuncay, Hidayet

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents the results of a case study based on an integrated skills approach using feature movies (DVDs) in EFL syllabi at the tertiary level. 100 students took part in the study and the data was collected through a three - section survey questionnaire: demographic items, 18 likert scale questions and an open-ended question. The data…

  1. Employers' Perception of Graduates with Entry-Level Technical Skills from Construction Industry Programs in Ghana and Nigeria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Acheampong, Philip

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this comparative study was to identify the technical skills and abilities needed by prospective employees of construction industries in Ghana and Nigeria. Potential employees were defined here as recent graduates of construction industry programs with entry-level technical skills. The continuous growth in and expansion of these two…

  2. Crowd-sourced assessment of surgical skills in cricothyrotomy procedure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aghdasi, Nava; Bly, Randall; White, Lee W; Hannaford, Blake; Moe, Kris; Lendvay, Thomas S

    2015-06-15

    Objective assessment of surgical skills is resource intensive and requires valuable time of expert surgeons. The goal of this study was to assess the ability of a large group of laypersons using a crowd-sourcing tool to grade a surgical procedure (cricothyrotomy) performed on a simulator. The grading included an assessment of the entire procedure by completing an objective assessment of technical skills survey. Two groups of graders were recruited as follows: (1) Amazon Mechanical Turk users and (2) three expert surgeons from University of Washington Department of Otolaryngology. Graders were presented with a video of participants performing the procedure on the simulator and were asked to grade the video using the objective assessment of technical skills questions. Mechanical Turk users were paid $0.50 for each completed survey. It took 10 h to obtain all responses from 30 Mechanical Turk users for 26 training participants (26 videos/tasks), whereas it took 60 d for three expert surgeons to complete the same 26 tasks. The assessment of surgical performance by a group (n = 30) of laypersons matched the assessment by a group (n = 3) of expert surgeons with a good level of agreement determined by Cronbach alpha coefficient = 0.83. We found crowd sourcing was an efficient, accurate, and inexpensive method for skills assessment with a good level of agreement to experts' grading. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Internet Addiction Levels and Problem-Solving Skills in the Teaching Profession: An Investigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ibili, Emin

    2017-01-01

    In this research, the relationship between Internet addiction levels among teaching candidates and their problem-solving aptitude and self-efficacy perceptions towards the teaching profession was investigated. In addition, the effects of gender, department, Internet use and sporting habits on the Internet addiction, problem-solving skills and…

  4. Shining lights and bad apples : The effect of goal setting on group performance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Curseu, P.L.; Janssen, S.E.A.; Meeus, M.T.H.

    2014-01-01

    Management education programs increasingly use group work as a tool for developing teamwork knowledge and skills. A critical factor identified in prior research to influence group performance in student groups is goal-setting. We test in a sample of 37 groups the effect of group goal configurations

  5. 21st Century leadership skills for learning networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Basten, Floor; Evers, Arnoud; Geijsel, Femke; Vermeulen, Marjan

    2018-01-01

    Ultimate goal: to prepare pupils for a life in a society that requires 21st century skills and actions Immediate focus: teachers and principals develop 21st century skills in the practice of their work → together with researchers principals co-create tools to support teacher learning.

  6. Using multi-level Bayesian lesion-symptom mapping to probe the body-part-specificity of gesture imitation skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Achilles, Elisabeth I S; Weiss, Peter H; Fink, Gereon R; Binder, Ellen; Price, Cathy J; Hope, Thomas M H

    2017-11-01

    Past attempts to identify the neural substrates of hand and finger imitation skills in the left hemisphere of the brain have yielded inconsistent results. Here, we analyse those associations in a large sample of 257 left hemisphere stroke patients. By introducing novel Bayesian methods, we characterise lesion symptom associations at three levels: the voxel-level, the single-region level (using anatomically defined regions), and the region-pair level. The results are inconsistent across those three levels and we argue that each level of analysis makes assumptions which constrain the results it can produce. Regardless of the inconsistencies across levels, and contrary to past studies which implicated differential neural substrates for hand and finger imitation, we find no consistent voxels or regions, where damage affects one imitation skill and not the other, at any of the three analysis levels. Our novel Bayesian approach indicates that any apparent differences appear to be driven by an increased sensitivity of hand imitation skills to lesions that also impair finger imitation. In our analyses, the results of the highest level of analysis (region-pairs) emphasise a role of the primary somatosensory and motor cortices, and the occipital lobe in imitation. We argue that this emphasis supports an account of both imitation tasks based on direct sensor-motor connections, which throws doubt on past accounts which imply the need for an intermediate (e.g. body-part-coding) system of representation. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Don't You Want to Do Better? Implementing a Goal-Setting Intervention in an Afterschool Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hallenbeck, Amy; Fleming, David

    2011-01-01

    Goal setting is not an innate skill. Adults who are successful at reaching their goals have learned to set realistic goals and to plan to attain them. Afterschool programs, because they have latitude in their curricular offerings and program elements, can provide strong backdrops for goal-setting initiatives. While studies have shown that goal…

  8. Computational Psychometrics for the Measurement of Collaborative Problem Solving Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polyak, Stephen T.; von Davier, Alina A.; Peterschmidt, Kurt

    2017-01-01

    This paper describes a psychometrically-based approach to the measurement of collaborative problem solving skills, by mining and classifying behavioral data both in real-time and in post-game analyses. The data were collected from a sample of middle school children who interacted with a game-like, online simulation of collaborative problem solving tasks. In this simulation, a user is required to collaborate with a virtual agent to solve a series of tasks within a first-person maze environment. The tasks were developed following the psychometric principles of Evidence Centered Design (ECD) and are aligned with the Holistic Framework developed by ACT. The analyses presented in this paper are an application of an emerging discipline called computational psychometrics which is growing out of traditional psychometrics and incorporates techniques from educational data mining, machine learning and other computer/cognitive science fields. In the real-time analysis, our aim was to start with limited knowledge of skill mastery, and then demonstrate a form of continuous Bayesian evidence tracing that updates sub-skill level probabilities as new conversation flow event evidence is presented. This is performed using Bayes' rule and conversation item conditional probability tables. The items are polytomous and each response option has been tagged with a skill at a performance level. In our post-game analysis, our goal was to discover unique gameplay profiles by performing a cluster analysis of user's sub-skill performance scores based on their patterns of selected dialog responses. PMID:29238314

  9. Computational Psychometrics for the Measurement of Collaborative Problem Solving Skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen T. Polyak

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes a psychometrically-based approach to the measurement of collaborative problem solving skills, by mining and classifying behavioral data both in real-time and in post-game analyses. The data were collected from a sample of middle school children who interacted with a game-like, online simulation of collaborative problem solving tasks. In this simulation, a user is required to collaborate with a virtual agent to solve a series of tasks within a first-person maze environment. The tasks were developed following the psychometric principles of Evidence Centered Design (ECD and are aligned with the Holistic Framework developed by ACT. The analyses presented in this paper are an application of an emerging discipline called computational psychometrics which is growing out of traditional psychometrics and incorporates techniques from educational data mining, machine learning and other computer/cognitive science fields. In the real-time analysis, our aim was to start with limited knowledge of skill mastery, and then demonstrate a form of continuous Bayesian evidence tracing that updates sub-skill level probabilities as new conversation flow event evidence is presented. This is performed using Bayes' rule and conversation item conditional probability tables. The items are polytomous and each response option has been tagged with a skill at a performance level. In our post-game analysis, our goal was to discover unique gameplay profiles by performing a cluster analysis of user's sub-skill performance scores based on their patterns of selected dialog responses.

  10. Computational Psychometrics for the Measurement of Collaborative Problem Solving Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polyak, Stephen T; von Davier, Alina A; Peterschmidt, Kurt

    2017-01-01

    This paper describes a psychometrically-based approach to the measurement of collaborative problem solving skills, by mining and classifying behavioral data both in real-time and in post-game analyses. The data were collected from a sample of middle school children who interacted with a game-like, online simulation of collaborative problem solving tasks. In this simulation, a user is required to collaborate with a virtual agent to solve a series of tasks within a first-person maze environment. The tasks were developed following the psychometric principles of Evidence Centered Design (ECD) and are aligned with the Holistic Framework developed by ACT. The analyses presented in this paper are an application of an emerging discipline called computational psychometrics which is growing out of traditional psychometrics and incorporates techniques from educational data mining, machine learning and other computer/cognitive science fields. In the real-time analysis, our aim was to start with limited knowledge of skill mastery, and then demonstrate a form of continuous Bayesian evidence tracing that updates sub-skill level probabilities as new conversation flow event evidence is presented. This is performed using Bayes' rule and conversation item conditional probability tables. The items are polytomous and each response option has been tagged with a skill at a performance level. In our post-game analysis, our goal was to discover unique gameplay profiles by performing a cluster analysis of user's sub-skill performance scores based on their patterns of selected dialog responses.

  11. Evaluating Managerial Skills for Business Education in a ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This will go a long way in determining whether Business Education is still relevant in accomplishing its goals such as provision of managerial skills for economic sustainability. Based on the above, the researchers thought it reasonable to evaluate the managerial skills acquired through Business Education in present day ...

  12. Mathematics Education: Student Terminal Goals, Program Goals, and Behavioral Objectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mesa Public Schools, AZ.

    Behavioral objectives are listed for the primary, intermediate and junior high mathematics curriculum in the Mesa Public Schools (Arizona). Lists of specific objectives are given by level for sets, symbol recognition, number operations, mathematical structures, measurement and problem solving skills. (JP)

  13. Teachers’ goal orientation profiles and participation in professional development activities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kunst, E.M.; van Woerkom, M.; Poell, R.F.

    2018-01-01

    Participation in professional development activities is important for teachers to continuously improve their knowledge and skills. However, teachers differ in their attitude towards learning activities. This paper examined how different goal orientation profiles are related to participation in

  14. Relating Language and Music Skills in Young Children: A First Approach to Systemize and Compare Distinct Competencies on Different Levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohrdes, Caroline; Grolig, Lorenz; Schroeder, Sascha

    2016-01-01

    Children in transition from kindergarten to school develop fundamental skills important for the acquisition of reading and writing. Previous research pointed toward substantial correlations between specific language- and music-related competencies as well as positive transfer effects from music on pre-literacy skills. However, until now the relationship between diverse music and language competencies remains unclear. In the present study, we used a comprehensive approach to clarify the relationships between a broad variety of language and music skills on different levels, not only between but also within domains. In order to do so, we selected representative language- and music-related competencies and systematically compared the performance of N = 44 5- to 7-year-old children with a control group of N = 20 young adults aged from 20 to 30. Competencies were organized in distinct levels according to varying units of vowels/sounds, words or syllables/short melodic or rhythmic phrases, syntax/harmony and context of a whole story/song to test for their interrelatedness within each domain. Following this, we conducted systematic correlation analyses between the competencies of both domains. Overall, selected competencies appeared to be appropriate for the measurement of language and music skills in young children with reference to comprehension, difficulty and a developmental perspective. In line with a hierarchical model of skill acquisition, performance on lower levels was predictive for the performance on higher levels within domains. Moreover, correlations between domains were stronger for competencies reflecting a similar level of cognitive processing, as expected. In conclusion, a systematic comparison of various competencies on distinct levels according to varying units turned out to be appropriate regarding comparability and interrelatedness. Results are discussed with regard to similarities and differences in the development of language and music skills as well

  15. Relating language and music skills in young children: a first approach to systemize and compare distinct competencies on different levels

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Caroline Cohrdes

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Children in transition from kindergarten to school develop fundamental skills important for the acquisition of reading and writing. Previous research pointed towards substantial correlations between specific language- and music-related competencies as well as positive transfer effects from music on pre-literacy skills. However, until now the relationship between diverse music and language competencies remains unclear. In the present study we used a comprehensive approach to clarify the relationships between a broad variety of language and music skills on different levels, not only between but also within domains. In order to do so, we selected representative language- and music-related competencies and systematically compared the performance of N = 44 5- to 7-year-old children with a control group of N = 20 young adults aged from 20 to 30. Competencies were organized in distinct levels according to varying units of vowels/sounds, words or syllables/short melodic or rhythmic phrases, syntax/harmony and context of a whole story/song to test for their interrelatedness within each domain. Following this, we conducted systematic correlation analyses between the competencies of both domains. Overall, selected competencies appeared to be appropriate for the measurement of language and music skills in young children with reference to comprehension, difficulty and a developmental perspective. In line with a hierarchical model of skill acquisition, performance on lower levels was predictive for the performance on higher levels within domains. Moreover, correlations between domains were stronger for competencies reflecting a similar level of cognitive processing, as expected. In conclusion, a systematic comparison of various competencies on distinct levels according to varying units turned out to be appropriate regarding comparability and interrelatedness. Results are discussed with regard to similarities and differences in the development of language and

  16. Understanding students' motivation in project work: a 2 x 2 achievement goal approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Woon Chia; Wang, C K John; Tan, Oon Seng; Ee, Jessie; Koh, Caroline

    2009-03-01

    The project work (PW) initiative was launched in 2000 by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, to encourage application of knowledge across disciplines, and to develop thinking, communication, collaboration, and metacognitive skills. Although PW has been introduced for a few years, few studies have examined the motivation of students in PW, especially with the use of the recently proposed 2 x 2 achievement goal framework. To use a cluster analytic approach to identify students' achievement goal profiles at an intra-individual level, and to examine their links to various psychological characteristics and perceived outcomes in PW. Participants were 491 Secondary 2 students (mean age = 13.78, SD = 0.77) from two government coeducational schools. Cluster analysis was performed to identify distinct subgroups of students with similar achievement goal profiles. One-way MANOVAs, followed by post hoc Tukey HSD tests for pairwise comparisons were used to determine whether there was any significant difference amongst clusters in terms of the psychological characteristics and perceived outcomes in PW. Four distinct clusters of students were identified. The cluster with high achievement goals and the cluster with moderately high goals had the most positive psychological characteristics and perceived outcomes. In contrast, the cluster with very low scores for all four achievement goals had the most maladaptive profile. The study provides support for the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework, and demonstrates that multiple goals can operate simultaneously. However, it highlights the need for cross-cultural studies to look into the approach-avoidance dimension in the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework.

  17. I and C maintenance training simulators meeting the goals of nuclear plant training

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shilmover, S. Jr.

    1987-01-01

    An instructor's overall goal in I and C training is to impart as much skill and knowledge as possible about the operation, tune up and troubleshooting of a piece of equipment. Through the use of a training simulator, the instructor has the actual equipment to demonstrate the principles he is trying to make. A student's goal in training is to improve his skills by learning as much as possible about the equipment he will be responsible for. When a simulator is used, a student gets hands-on time with the equipment where normal and abnormal conditions can be demonstrated. The students may be asked to perform job-related tasks and be evaluated on their performance. An employer's goal is to get personnel who can quickly fit into their work force. When training is performed using simulators, the employee receives the knowledge and hands-on skills necessary to quickly fit into the work force. The employee also gains confidence in working with the equipment. Another advantage for the employer is that training can be performed without shutting down the plant equipment. The employer thus can use the trained employees sooner and mainstream them into the work force

  18. Mirror Visual Feedback Training Improves Intermanual Transfer in a Sport-Specific Task: A Comparison between Different Skill Levels

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fabian Steinberg

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Mirror training therapy is a promising tool to initiate neural plasticity and facilitate the recovery process of motor skills after diseases such as stroke or hemiparesis by improving the intermanual transfer of fine motor skills in healthy people as well as in patients. This study evaluated whether these augmented performance improvements by mirror visual feedback (MVF could be used for learning a sport-specific skill and if the effects are modulated by skill level. A sample of 39 young, healthy, and experienced basketball and handball players and 41 novices performed a stationary basketball dribble task at a mirror box in a standing position and received either MVF or direct feedback. After four training days using only the right hand, performance of both hands improved from pre- to posttest measurements. Only the left hand (untrained performance of the experienced participants receiving MVF was more pronounced than for the control group. This indicates that intermanual motor transfer can be improved by MVF in a sport-specific task. However, this effect cannot be generalized to motor learning per se since it is modulated by individuals’ skill level, a factor that might be considered in mirror therapy research.

  19. Empowerment of Metacognitive Skills through Development of Instructional Materials on the Topic of Hydrolysis and Buffer Solutions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Azizah, U.; Nasrudin, H.

    2018-01-01

    Metacognitive skills are one of the high-level thinking skills that pre-service teachers need in chemistry problem-solving. Metacognitive skills that empowered in learning focuses on how pre-service teachers participate in designing what was to be learned, monitor the progress of learning outcomes, and assess what has been learned in solving problems. The purpose of this research was (1) describe how pre-service teachers empowering metacognitive skills using developed instructional materials, and (2) describe the pre-service teacher’s response to the learning process. The research involved 22 pre-service teachers in Chemistry Education Program Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia. The design of this research was a pre-experimental research with One Group Pretest-Posttest Design. The data of the research was analyzed by quantitative descriptive. The result of the research that: (1) performance of metacognitive skills pre-service teachers have high and very high criteria in learning chemistry on each indicator includes goal setting, identify the known knowledge, determining the learning strategies, monitoring the relevance of knowledge which has been owned with learning strategies are used, monitoring the achievement of the goal in the making conclusions, and evaluating the process and outcomes of thinking, and (2) most of the pre-service teachers are willing to join to this teaching-learning activity.

  20. Evaluation of Students' Mathematical Problem Solving Skills in Relation to Their Reading Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Özsoy, Gökhan; Kuruyer, Hayriye Gül; Çakiroglu, Ahmet

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of the current study is to investigate the correlation between students' reading levels and mathematical problem solving skills. The present study was conducted in line with a qualitative research method, i.e., the phenomenological method. The study group of the current research is composed of six third grade students with different…

  1. Steps for arm and trunk actions of overhead forehand stroke used in badminton games across skill levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jianyu; Liu, Wenhao; Moffit, Jeffrey

    2009-08-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine arm and trunk actions in overhead forehand strokes used in badminton games across skill levels. The participants were 80 students (40 boys, 40 girls) who were randomly selected from video recordings of 300 students ages 16 to 19 years. The videotaped performances of overhead forehand strokes were coded based on three steps of arm action (elbow flexion, elbow and humeral flexion, and upward backswing) and three steps of trunk action (no trunk action, forward-backward movement, and trunk rotation). Students across the four skill levels exhibited different patterns of arm and trunk actions. Students at advanced levels used more mature arm and trunk actions.

  2. Explaining and inducing savant skills: privileged access to lower level, less-processed information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snyder, Allan

    2009-01-01

    I argue that savant skills are latent in us all. My hypothesis is that savants have privileged access to lower level, less-processed information, before it is packaged into holistic concepts and meaningful labels. Owing to a failure in top-down inhibition, they can tap into information that exists in all of our brains, but is normally beyond conscious awareness. This suggests why savant skills might arise spontaneously in otherwise normal people, and why such skills might be artificially induced by low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. It also suggests why autistic savants are atypically literal with a tendency to concentrate more on the parts than on the whole and why this offers advantages for particular classes of problem solving, such as those that necessitate breaking cognitive mindsets. A strategy of building from the parts to the whole could form the basis for the so-called autistic genius. Unlike the healthy mind, which has inbuilt expectations of the world (internal order), the autistic mind must simplify the world by adopting strict routines (external order). PMID:19528023

  3. Social Cognitive Career Theory and the Goal of Becoming a Certified Public Accountant

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schoenfeld, Jerry; Segal, Gerry; Borgia, Dan

    2017-01-01

    A primary goal for professors in academia is to facilitate the career success of their students by providing them with the necessary subject knowledge, skills, experience, and confidence. In this paper, we propose the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) model as a useful tool to explain how accounting students' career interests, goals, and…

  4. Comparative study of goal contents and goal characteristics between medical and business students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Soowon; Kim, Ji Eun; Lee, Jun-Young; Shin, Jongho

    2016-03-01

    Medical and business are one of the most popular majors among students, and both fields require intensive training to reach certain level of expertise. During the development of professionalism, goal can become a crucial role in psychological impetus. The purpose of this study is to compare goal contents, goal characteristics, and effect of goal characteristics on student's major satisfaction between medical and business. A total of 193 undergraduate students (97 medical students, 96 business students) answered survey questions including goal contents, goal characteristics (goal autonomy, goal attainability, social value of goal) and satisfaction on their majors. Qualitative analysis of goal contents and quantitative analysis of goal characteristics, and their effects on student major satisfaction were performed. Goal content analysis showed percentage of social concern goal was higher in medical students (25.8%) than business students (6.3%), whereas percentage of wealth goal was higher business students (24.0%) than medical students (3.1%). Among goal characteristics, goal attainability and social value of goal were higher in medical students than business students. In both groups, social value of goal was significantly predict major satisfaction. Goal contents and goal characteristics are different between medical and business students. Curriculum and educational interventions that concerning students' goal and developing programs to enhance students' social value of goal is necessary.

  5. Students Do Not Need High-Level Skills in Today's Job Market

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bracey, Gerald W.

    2006-01-01

    In this article, the author discusses the "high-skills hoax"--the notion that everyone must have high skills to be employable. While he recognizes the civil rights issue in the debate--everyone should have the opportunity to develop the skills to land a high-paying job--the law of supply and demand dictates that more high-skilled workers would…

  6. Skills Decay in Military Medical Training: A Meta-synthesis of Research Outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linde, Amber S; Caridha, Jona; Kunkler, Kevin J

    2018-01-01

    In fiscal year 2012, the Medical Simulation and Information Sciences Research Program released two Skills Decay (SD) research program announcements (PAs) under the Medical Readiness Initiative entitled "Medical Practice Initiative Breadth of Medical Practice & Disease Frequency Exposure (MPI-BMP)" and the "Medical Practice Initiative Procedural Skill Decay and Maintenance (MPI-PSD)." The Office of Naval Research also released a PA entitled "Medical Modeling and Simulation (MM&S) for Military Training and Education." A total investment of $12 M was made. This article provides a meta-synthesis of the Skills Decay research conducted under these efforts. The MSIRRP Medical Simulation Portfolio collected, reviewed, and analyzed the final reports of the Skills Decay research efforts from the three PAs. This paper provides a meta-synthesis of the outcomes of those studies. Focus of this study was to determine if the anticipated goals of the Skills Decay PAs were met as well as to provide a summary of lessons learned to the research community. Fourteen research questions posed by the PAs were structured into four main goals: (1) Skills Decay identification, (2) creation/validity of Skills Decay tools and feasibility and viability of data extraction project, (3) refreshment training to prevent or alleviate Skills Decay project, and (4) Skills Decay education content. Using a combination of training styles, choosing variables known to have Skills Decay predication value, and developing better ways of mining available data that can, in turn, provide feedback to training needs, it is possible for accurate Skills Decay models to be developed. These technologies have the ability not only capture the learner's reaction during the simulation, but to capture the simulation outcomes to predict a medical professional's level of experience and background. Lessons learned from the investments made by the government are extremely important in order to ensure that the outcomes of the

  7. Social Problem-Solving Skills of Children in Terms of Maternal Acceptance-Rejection Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tepeli, Kezban; Yilmaz, Elif

    2013-01-01

    This study was conducted to find an answer to the question of "Do social problem-solving skills of 5-6 years old children differentiate depending on the levels of maternal acceptance rejection?" The participants of the study included 359 5-6 years old children and their mothers. Wally Social Problem-Solving Test and PARQ (Parental…

  8. THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX: DETERMINING STUDENTS’ LEVEL OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Afifah Fadhlullah

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the level of critical thinking skills adapted from The Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (CCTTX by Ennis and Milan (1985 among final year diploma students from the Faculty of Business Management, UiTM Melaka taking the course of Office Administration and Introduction to Critical Thinking. This paper aims to encourage students to become critical thinkers and to provide lecturers with the best approach to develop students’ critical thinking skills at tertiary level. Findings have shown that their critical thinking ability ranged from low to moderate level. Thus, strategies of teaching and learning which stresses on student-centered learning must be adopted to stimulate student’s thinking by encouraging critical and creative thinking and the construction of new knowledge. 61 students taking Diploma in Office Management and Technology were chosen as samples of this study. The data was collected through observation and classroom based activities namely debates, discussions, article analysis, problem-solving situations and case studies.

  9. "Let's Pick Him!" : Ratings of Skill Level on the Basis of In-Game Playing Behaviour in Bantam League Junior Ice Hockey

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tromp, E. J. Yvonne; Pepping, Gert-Jan; Lyons, Jim; Elferink-Gemser, Marije T.; Visscher, Chris

    2013-01-01

    Rating a player's skill level is an essential task for coaches to select the players with greatest potential to reach the top and to further be able to adjust the training program to the skill level of the player in order to most optimally facilitate the player's learning and performance. However,

  10. Learning and remembering strategies of novice and advanced jazz dancers for skill level appropriate dance routines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poon, P P; Rodgers, W M

    2000-06-01

    This study examined the influence of the challenge level of to-be-learned stimulus on learning strategies in novice and advanced dancers. In Study 1, skill-level appropriate dance routines were developed for novice and advanced jazz dancers. In Study 2, 8 novice and 9 advanced female jazz dancers attempted to learn and remember the two routines in mixed model factorial design, with one between-participants factor: skill level (novice or advanced) and two within-participants factors: routine (easy or difficult) and performance (immediate or delayed). Participants were interviewed regarding the strategies used to learn and remember the routines. Results indicated that advanced performers used atypical learning strategies for insufficiently challenging stimuli, which may reflect characteristics of the stimuli rather than the performer. The qualitative data indicate a clear preference of novice and advanced performers for spatial compatibility of stimuli and response.

  11. Energy-Based Metrics for Arthroscopic Skills Assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poursartip, Behnaz; LeBel, Marie-Eve; McCracken, Laura C; Escoto, Abelardo; Patel, Rajni V; Naish, Michael D; Trejos, Ana Luisa

    2017-08-05

    Minimally invasive skills assessment methods are essential in developing efficient surgical simulators and implementing consistent skills evaluation. Although numerous methods have been investigated in the literature, there is still a need to further improve the accuracy of surgical skills assessment. Energy expenditure can be an indication of motor skills proficiency. The goals of this study are to develop objective metrics based on energy expenditure, normalize these metrics, and investigate classifying trainees using these metrics. To this end, different forms of energy consisting of mechanical energy and work were considered and their values were divided by the related value of an ideal performance to develop normalized metrics. These metrics were used as inputs for various machine learning algorithms including support vector machines (SVM) and neural networks (NNs) for classification. The accuracy of the combination of the normalized energy-based metrics with these classifiers was evaluated through a leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. The proposed method was validated using 26 subjects at two experience levels (novices and experts) in three arthroscopic tasks. The results showed that there are statistically significant differences between novices and experts for almost all of the normalized energy-based metrics. The accuracy of classification using SVM and NN methods was between 70% and 95% for the various tasks. The results show that the normalized energy-based metrics and their combination with SVM and NN classifiers are capable of providing accurate classification of trainees. The assessment method proposed in this study can enhance surgical training by providing appropriate feedback to trainees about their level of expertise and can be used in the evaluation of proficiency.

  12. Assessing Faculty Beliefs about the Importance of Various Marketing Job Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hyman, Michael R.; Hu, Jing

    2005-01-01

    The need to improve the professional skills of those with marketing degrees has spurred surveys of current students, alumni, practitioners, and faculty about the importance of various professional skills; however, previous surveys of marketing faculty have focused only on computer skills. To address this limitation, the goals of this study were…

  13. Self-Development: The Nine Basic Skills for Business Success.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dobbins, Richard; Pettman, Barrie O.

    1997-01-01

    Business skills described are as follows: think creatively, set goals, implement a winning business strategy, implement a winning marketing strategy, be excellent at selling, negotiate better deals, give leadership, understand financial implications, and manage time well. A bibliography contains 90 references categorized by the nine skills. (SK)

  14. Neuropsychology and the relearning of motor skills following stroke

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hochstenbach, J; Mulder, T

    Regaining independent mobility is one of the most important goals in physical therapy with patients suffering from the consequences of stroke. Both physical therapy and occupational therapy are learning processes in which the patient has to remaster old skills or has to learn novel skills. It is

  15. Fine and gross motor skills: The effects on skill-focused dual-tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raisbeck, Louisa D; Diekfuss, Jed A

    2015-10-01

    Dual-task methodology often directs participants' attention towards a gross motor skill involved in the execution of a skill, but researchers have not investigated the comparative effects of attention on fine motor skill tasks. Furthermore, there is limited information about participants' subjective perception of workload with respect to task performance. To examine this, the current study administered the NASA-Task Load Index following a simulated shooting dual-task. The task required participants to stand 15 feet from a projector screen which depicted virtual targets and fire a modified Glock 17 handgun equipped with an infrared laser. Participants performed the primary shooting task alone (control), or were also instructed to focus their attention on a gross motor skill relevant to task execution (gross skill-focused) and a fine motor skill relevant to task execution (fine skill-focused). Results revealed that workload was significantly greater during the fine skill-focused task for both skill levels, but performance was only affected for the lesser-skilled participants. Shooting performance for the lesser-skilled participants was greater during the gross skill-focused condition compared to the fine skill-focused condition. Correlational analyses also demonstrated a significant negative relationship between shooting performance and workload during the gross skill-focused task for the higher-skilled participants. A discussion of the relationship between skill type, workload, skill level, and performance in dual-task paradigms is presented. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Tying knots: an activity theory analysis of student learning goals in clinical education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larsen, Douglas P; Wesevich, Austin; Lichtenfeld, Jana; Artino, Antony R; Brydges, Ryan; Varpio, Lara

    2017-07-01

    Learning goal programmes are often created to help students develop self-regulated learning skills; however, these programmes do not necessarily consider the social contexts surrounding learning goals or how they fit into daily educational practice. We investigated a high-frequency learning goal programme in which students generated and shared weekly learning goals with their clinical teams in core Year 3 clerkships. Our study explores: (i) how learning goals were incorporated into the clinical work, and (ii) the factors that influenced the use of students' learning goals in work-based learning. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 students and 14 supervisors (attending physicians and residents) sampled from all participating core clerkships. Interviews were coded for emerging themes. Using cultural historical activity theory and knotworking as theoretical lenses, we developed a model of the factors that influenced students' learning goal usage in a work-based learning context. Students and supervisors often faced the challenge of reconciling contradictions that arose when the desired outcomes of student skill development, grading and patient care were not aligned. Learning goals could function as tools for developing new ways of acting that overcame those contradictions by facilitating collaborative effort between students and their supervisors. However, for new collaborations to take place, both students and supervisors had to engage with the goals, and the necessary patients needed to be present. When any one part of the system did not converge around the learning goals, the impact of the learning goals programme was limited. Learning goals are potentially powerful tools to mediate interactions between students, supervisors and patients, and to reconcile contradictions in work-based learning environments. Learning goals provide a means to develop not only learners, but also learning systems. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the

  17. Interactive Distance Learning and Job Support Strategies for Soft Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, J. Olin; And Others

    1996-01-01

    Discusses the development of soft skills such as management and sales or collaborative problem solving through the use of interactive distance education. Highlights include performance support, including interpersonal skills; long-term cognitive restructuring; and linking training to organizational goals. (Author/LRW)

  18. Raise Your Child's Social IQ: Stepping Stones to People Skills for Kids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Cathi

    Noting that children with poor peer relationships are at risk for later problems and that social skills can improve with coaching, this book shows parents how they can teach their children a variety of social skills. The book is divided into 10 chapters, each addressing a particular skill or set of skills. Each chapter includes goals that equip…

  19. Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals at University Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albareda-Tiana, Silvia; Vidal-Raméntol, Salvador; Fernández-Morilla, Mónica

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this case study is to explore the principles and practices of sustainable development (SD) in the university curriculum. Design/methodology/approach: To explore the principles linked with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the learning and teaching practices in sustainability at the International University of…

  20. When big brother is watching: goal orientation shapes reactions to electronic monitoring during online training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Aaron M; Foster Thompson, Lori; Rudolph, Jane V; Whelan, Thomas J; Behrend, Tara S; Gissel, Amanda L

    2013-07-01

    Web-based training is frequently used by organizations as a convenient and low-cost way to teach employees new knowledge and skills. As web-based training is typically unproctored, employees may be held accountable to the organization by computer software that monitors their behaviors. The current study examines how the introduction of electronic performance monitoring may provoke negative emotional reactions and decrease learning among certain types of e-learners. Through motivated action theory and trait activation theory, we examine the role of performance goal orientation when e-learners are exposed to asynchronous and synchronous monitoring. We show that some e-learners are more susceptible than others to evaluation apprehension when they perceive their activities are being monitored electronically. Specifically, e-learners higher in avoid performance goal orientation exhibited increased evaluation apprehension if they believed asynchronous monitoring was present, and they showed decreased skill attainment as a result. E-learners higher on prove performance goal orientation showed greater evaluation apprehension if they believed real-time monitoring was occurring, resulting in decreased skill attainment. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

  1. Developing 21st Century Process Skills through Project Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoo, Jeong-Ju; MacDonald, Nora M.

    2014-01-01

    The goal of this paper is to illustrate how the promotion of 21st Century process skills can be used to enhance student learning and workplace skill development: thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communication, leadership, and management. As an illustrative case, fashion merchandising and design students conducted research for a…

  2. Transforming Spatial Reasoning Skills in the Upper-Level Undergraduate Geoscience Classroom Through Curricular Materials Informed by Cognitive Science Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ormand, C. J.; Shipley, T. F.; Dutrow, B. L.; Goodwin, L. B.; Hickson, T. A.; Tikoff, B.; Atit, K.; Gagnier, K. M.; Resnick, I.

    2014-12-01

    Spatial visualization is an essential skill in the STEM disciplines, including the geosciences. Undergraduate students, including geoscience majors in upper-level courses, bring a wide range of spatial skill levels to the classroom. Students with weak spatial skills may be unable to understand fundamental concepts and to solve geological problems with a spatial component. However, spatial thinking skills are malleable. As a group of geoscience faculty members and cognitive psychologists, we have developed a set of curricular materials for Mineralogy, Sedimentology & Stratigraphy, and Structural Geology courses. These materials are designed to improve students' spatial skills, and in particular to improve students' abilities to reason about spatially complex 3D geological concepts and problems. Teaching spatial thinking in the context of discipline-based exercises has the potential to transform undergraduate STEM education by removing one significant barrier to success in the STEM disciplines. The curricular materials we have developed are based on several promising teaching strategies that have emerged from cognitive science research on spatial thinking. These strategies include predictive sketching, making visual comparisons, gesturing, and the use of analogy. We have conducted a three-year study of the efficacy of these materials in strengthening the spatial skills of students in upper-level geoscience courses at three universities. Our methodology relies on a pre- and post-test study design, with several tests of spatial thinking skills administered at the beginning and end of each semester. In 2011-2012, we used a "business as usual" approach to gather baseline data, measuring how much students' spatial thinking skills improved in response to the existing curricula. In the two subsequent years we have incorporated our new curricular materials, which can be found on the project website: http://serc.carleton.edu/spatialworkbook/activities.html Structural Geology

  3. Quantitative HTGR safety and forced outage goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Houghton, W.J.; Parme, L.L.; Silady, F.A.

    1985-05-01

    A key step in the successful implementation of the integrated approach is the definition of the overall plant-level goals. To be effective, the goals should provide clear statements of what is to be achieved by the plant. This can be contrasted to the current practice of providing design-prescriptive criteria which implicitly address some higher-level objective but restrict the designer's flexibility. Furthermore, the goals should be quantifiable in such a way that satisfaction of the goal can be measured. In the discussion presented, two such plant-level goals adopted for the HTGR and addressing the impact of unscheduled occurrences are described. 1 fig

  4. Skills Matter: Further Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. OECD Skills Studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kankaraš, Miloš; Montt, Guillermo; Paccagnella, Marco; Quintini, Glenda; Thorn, William

    2016-01-01

    In the wake of the technological revolution that began in the last decades of the 20th century, labour market demand for information-processing and other high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills is growing substantially. The "Survey of Adult Skills," a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult…

  5. Workplace skills and the skills gaps related to employee critical thinking ability and science education curriculum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexander, William A.

    In recent years, business and industry have been vocal critics of education. Critics complain the American workforce, particularly young people, are deficient in workplace skills. A survey of 500 randomly selected Ohio businesses was used to determine opinions of respondents related to workplace skills gaps, rising skill levels, and level and type of critical thinking used on the job by all employees and entry-level employees. Four of 18 science outcomes promoted by the Ohio Department of Education had an application in business and these required critical-thinking skills to complete. These four formed the foundation in the survey because they provided a connection between thinking skills required on the Ohio 12 th Grade Proficiency Test and those required on the job. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to identify correlation between responses. The alpha level was p ≤ .05. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to identify significant (p ≤ .05) relationships between variables as represented by responses. In addition, one version of the Science Section of the Ohio 12th Grade Proficiency Test was analyzed for use of critical thinking using the SCAN's critical-thinking attributes as a standard. There were several findings related to workplace skills and critical thinking. Only 17.1% of respondents indicated dissatisfaction with the basic academic skill level of their employees. A majority (71.1%) of responding businesses perceived a lack of work ethic as more important than deficient academic skills. Only 17.1% of respondents reported the skill level of their entry-level employees was rising. Approximately 1/3 of responding businesses required no critical thinking at all from their entry-level employees. Small businesses were significantly more likely to require higher levels of critical thinking from their entry level employees than larger businesses. Employers who reported rising skill levels in entry-level employees required all of

  6. Interest level in 2-year-olds with autism spectrum disorder predicts rate of verbal, nonverbal, and adaptive skill acquisition

    OpenAIRE

    Klintwall, Lars; Macari, Suzanne; Eikeseth, Svein; Chawarska, Katarzyna

    2014-01-01

    Recent studies have suggested that skill acquisition rates for children with autism spectrum disorders receiving early interventions can be predicted by child motivation. We examined whether level of interest during an Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule assessment at 2 years predicts subsequent rates of verbal, nonverbal, and adaptive skill acquisition to the age of 3 years. A total of 70 toddlers with autism spectrum disorder, mean age of 21.9 months, were scored using Interest Level Sco...

  7. Antecedent and Concurrent Psychosocial Skills That Support High Levels of Achievement within Talent Domains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olszewski-Kubilius, Paula; Subotnik, Rena F.; Worrell, Frank C.

    2015-01-01

    Motivation and emotional regulation are important for the sustained focused study and practice required for high levels of achievement and creative productivity in adulthood. Using the talent development model proposed by the authors as a framework, the authors discuss several important psychosocial skills based on the psychological research…

  8. Cross-Country Variation in Adult Skills Inequality: Why Are Skill Levels and Opportunities so Unequal in Anglophone Countries?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Green, Andy; Green, Francis; Pensiero, Nicola

    2015-01-01

    This article examines cross-country variations in adult skills inequality and asks why skills in Anglophone countries are so unequal. Drawing on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's recent Survey of Adult Skills and other surveys, it investigates the differences across countries and country groups in inequality in both…

  9. Quality and Equality: Basic Skill Requirements at the University Level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guskin, Alan E.; Greenebaum, Ben

    1979-01-01

    The University of Wisconsin-Parkside's comprehensive collegiate skills program is described from proposal to implementation. Junior year students must demonstrate competence in: writing, reading, mathematics, research paper writing, and library skills. (MLW)

  10. Prediction of habitual physical activity level and weight status from fundamental movement skill level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bryant, Elizabeth Sarah; James, Rob S; Birch, Samantha Louise; Duncan, Mike

    2014-01-01

    Fundamental movement skills (FMS) have been assessed in children in order to investigate the issues of the low proportion of children who meet physical activity (PA) guidelines and rising levels of obesity. The aim of this research was to identify whether previous or current FMS level is a better predictor of PA levels and weight status in children. In January 2012 (year 1), 281 children were recruited from one primary school in the West Midlands, UK. Children performed eight FMS three times, which were videoed and assessed using a subjective checklist. Sprint speed and jump height were measured objectively. Height and mass were measured to calculate the body mass index to determine the weight status. Skinfold calliper readings were used to calculate body fat percentage. One year later, in January 2013, all these tests were repeated on the same children, with the additional collection of PA data via the use of pedometers. Following multiple linear regression, it was identified that prior mastery in FMS was a better predictor of current PA, whereas current FMS was a better predictor of current weight status. Overall, FMS mastery is needed in childhood to be able to participate in PA and maintain a healthy weight status.

  11. Comparing of goal setting strategy with group education method to increase physical activity level: A randomized trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiryaee, Nasrin; Siadat, Zahra Dana; Zamani, Ahmadreza; Taleban, Roya

    2015-10-01

    Designing an intervention to increase physical activity is important to be based on the health care settings resources and be acceptable by the subject group. This study was designed to assess and compare the effect of the goal setting strategy with a group education method on increasing the physical activity of mothers of children aged 1 to 5. Mothers who had at least one child of 1-5 years were randomized into two groups. The effect of 1) goal-setting strategy and 2) group education method on increasing physical activity was assessed and compared 1 month and 3 months after the intervention. Also, the weight, height, body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumference, and well-being were compared between the two groups before and after the intervention. Physical activity level increased significantly after the intervention in the goal-setting group and it was significantly different between the two groups after intervention (P goal-setting group after the intervention. In the group education method, only the well-being score improved significantly (P goal-setting strategy to boost physical activity, improving the state of well-being and decreasing BMI, waist, and hip circumference.

  12. The development and validation of measures to assess cooking skills and food skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lavelle, Fiona; McGowan, Laura; Hollywood, Lynsey; Surgenor, Dawn; McCloat, Amanda; Mooney, Elaine; Caraher, Martin; Raats, Monique; Dean, Moira

    2017-09-02

    With the increase use of convenience food and eating outside the home environment being linked to the obesity epidemic, the need to assess and monitor individuals cooking and food skills is key to help intervene where necessary to promote the usage of these skills. Therefore, this research aimed to develop and validate a measure for cooking skills and one for food skills, that are clearly described, relatable, user-friendly, suitable for different types of studies, and applicable across all sociodemographic levels. Two measures were developed in light of the literature and expert opinion and piloted for clarity and ease of use. Following this, four studies were undertaken across different cohorts (including a sample of students, both 'Food preparation novices' and 'Experienced food preparers', and a nationally representative sample) to assess temporal stability, psychometrics, internal consistency reliability and construct validity of both measures. Analysis included T-tests, Pearson's correlations, factor analysis, and Cronbach's alphas, with a significance level of 0.05. Both measures were found to have a significant level of temporal stability (P cooking skills confidence measure ranged from 0.78 to 0.93 across all cohorts. The food skills confidence measure's Cronbach's alpha's ranged from 0.85 to 0.94. The two measures also showed a high discriminate validity as there were significant differences (P cooking skills confidence and P cooking skills confidence measure and the food skills confidence measure have been shown to have a very satisfactory reliability, validity and are consistent over time. Their user-friendly applicability make both measures highly suitable for large scale cross-sectional, longitudinal and intervention studies to assess or monitor cooking and food skills levels and confidence.

  13. Now Enhancing Working Skills: The ``NEWS`` Program. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kuiper, A. [Merex Corp. (United States)

    1995-01-23

    In October of 1992, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Merex Corporation began a pilot basic skills program to enhance workers` skills. The program, known as the NEWS (Now Enhancing Working Skills) Program, was implemented by the Training and Development Group of the Human Resources Division. A group of 106 employees known as Radiological Control Technicians (RCTs) from ESH-1 (Environmental, Safety, and Health) were targeted to take mandated DOE (Department of Energy) training. The main goal of the LANL/Merex partnership was to help RCTs prepare for mandated DOE Rad Con training and job performance by improving their information processing and math skills. A second goal of this project was to use the information from this small group to make some predictions about the Laboratory as a whole. This final report contains the description and an appendix for the ``NEWS`` program. The topics in this report include Merex class descriptions, test score results for the MAT, the WAT, the TABE, and Challenge test, a follow-up survey to Merex IPS and math training, student feedback statistics for skills programs, and lessons learned from the program.

  14. Skills in clinical communication: Are we correctly assessing them at undergraduate level?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alberto Zamora Cervantes

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Communicating with the patient in clinical practice refers to the way in which the doctor and the patient interact both verbally and nonverbally, in order to achieve a shared understanding of problems and solutions. Traditional learning and assessment systems are overwhelmed when it comes to addressing the complex and multi-dimensional problems of professional practice. Problem Based Learning (PBL has been put forward as an alternative to the mere reproduction of knowledge and pre-established patterns, enabling students to develop their own learning strategies to overcome problems in their future professional practice. The challenge is to determine how to assess the acquisition of clinical communication skills. The authors have recommended a summative assessment of clinical communication skills based on the combination of different methods. It highlights the importance of feedback-based formative assessment. This raises the need to develop and validate assessment scales in clinical communication at an undergraduate level. Based on this work, the authors put forward a "fanned out" assessment in terms of clinical communication skills in Medicine degrees, with the use of different instruments in a "spiraled" manner, where the greater the contact with clinical practice in the various degree and integral courses, the greater difficulty experienced, with the participation of all the stakeholders involved (self, hetero and peer assessment without precluding the involvement of patients (real or simulated in the design of assessment instruments.

  15. A Preliminary Investigation of General and Technique-specific Assessments for the Evaluation of Laparoscopic Technical Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vergis, Ashley; Steigerwald, Sarah

    2017-10-07

    Background  Both general and technique-specific assessments of technical skill have been validated in surgical education. The purpose of this study was to assess the correlation between the objective structured assessment of technical skills (OSATS) and the global operative assessment of laparoscopic skills (GOALS) rating scales using a high-fidelity porcine laparoscopic cholecystectomy model. Methods Post-graduate year-one general surgery and urology residents (n=14) performed a live laparoscopic porcine cholecystectomy. Trained surgeons rated their performance using OSATS and GOALS assessment scales. Results Pearson's correlation coefficient between OSATS and GOALS was 0.96 for overall scores. It ranged from 0.78 - 0.89 for domains that overlapped between the two scales. Conclusion There is a very high correlation between OSATS and GOALS. This implies that they likely measure similar constructs and that either may be used for summative-type assessments of trainee skill. However, further investigation is needed to determine if technique-specific assessments may provide more useful feedback in formative evaluation.

  16. Association of gender and specialty interest with video-gaming, three-dimensional spatial analysis, and entry-level laparoscopic skills in third-year veterinary students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bragg, Heather R; Towle Millard, Heather A; Millard, Ralph P; Constable, Peter D; Freeman, Lyn J

    2016-06-15

    OBJECTIVE To determine whether gender or interest in pursuing specialty certification in internal medicine or surgery was associated with video-gaming, 3-D spatial analysis, or entry-level laparoscopic skills in third-year veterinary students. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SAMPLE A convenience sample of 68 (42 female and 26 male) third-year veterinary students. PROCEDURES Participants completed a survey asking about their interest in pursuing specialty certification in internal medicine or surgery. Subsequently, participants' entry-level laparoscopic skills were assessed with 3 procedures performed in box trainers, their video-gaming skills were tested with 3 video games, and their 3-D spatial analysis skills were evaluated with the Purdue University Visualization of Rotations Spatial Test. Scores were assigned for laparoscopic, video-gaming, and 3-D spatial analysis skills. RESULTS Significantly more female than male students were interested in pursuing specialty certification in internal medicine (23/42 vs 7/26), and significantly more male than female students were interested in pursuing specialty certification in surgery (19/26 vs 19/42). Males had significantly higher video-gaming skills scores than did females, but spatial analysis and laparoscopic skills scores did not differ between males and females. Students interested in pursuing specialty certification in surgery had higher video-gaming and spatial analysis skills scores than did students interested in pursuing specialty certification in internal medicine, but laparoscopic skills scores did not differ between these 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE For this group of students, neither gender nor interest in specialty certification in internal medicine versus surgery was associated with entry-level laparoscopy skills.

  17. Soft skills and their progress by students FM VŠE

    OpenAIRE

    Jedounová, Lucie

    2009-01-01

    In theoretic part of bachelor I define term soft skills, point out their importance generally for human, specially for students (graduates) as future job candidates and describe constituent soft skills. The goal of practical part this work is map situation in soft skills by students 1st and 3rd year bachelor, attendance study and find out, if they have during their study ample opportunity for progress soft skills and if they feel improvement at the end 3rd year in this sphere.

  18. Intimate partner violence influence on deliveries assisted by skilled health personnel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Refaat, Amany

    2013-01-01

    Millennium Development Goal 5 calls for increasing proportions of deliveries assisted by skilled health personnel to reduce maternal mortality. This study aims to identifying the implication of exposure to intimate partner violence on these proportions. This study used domestic violence modules data of Demographic and Health Surveys of six countries from 2005 to 2007. Proportions of assisted deliveries were examined by sociodemographic characteristics and exposure to intimate partner violence in the studied countries. Influence on the proportion was examined against exposure to intimate partner violence through odds ratio and 95% of logistic regression analysis after controlling for women age, residence (urban/rural), household wealth level, economic level of country, educational level and working status of women and their husbands/partners. Data sets of 18,507 participants over 20 years of age showed that almost three-quarters (73%) of women had deliveries assisted by skilled health personnel. One-third of the women were ever exposed to intimate partner violence (37%) and 9% of them to the severe level. Exposure to intimate partner violence statistically significantly lowered this proportion to 69% (odds ratio: 0.73; 95% confidence interval: 0.67-0.78) meanwhile severe violence lowered it to 65% (odds ratio 0.64; 95% confidence interval: 0.58-0.72). When running multiple regression analysis, exposure to intimate partner violence retained its statistically significant decreasing influence on proportions and was not biased by the other stronger socioeconomic characteristics. Intimate partner violence has an independent influence on reducing assisted deliveries by skilled health personnel. Programs working for increasing proportions of assisted deliveries by skilled health personnel are recommended to integrate protection women from violence.

  19. Assessing the Discipline: Aligning Curricular Structures and Student Learning with Disciplinary Goals in Political Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Desmond, Katie

    2010-01-01

    Four identifiable disciplinary goals can be discerned from the development of political science as a discipline. These goals indicate that political science students will (1) attain knowledge about political systems (national and international); (2) gain an understanding of how politics works; (3) develop critical thinking skills; and, (4) learn…

  20. Comparison of the goals and MISTELS scores for the evaluation of surgeons on training benches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolf, Rémi; Medici, Maud; Fiard, Gaëlle; Long, Jean-Alexandre; Moreau-Gaudry, Alexandre; Cinquin, Philippe; Voros, Sandrine

    2018-01-01

    Evaluation of surgical technical abilities is a major issue in minimally invasive surgery. Devices such as training benches offer specific scores to evaluate surgeons but cannot transfer in the operating room (OR). A contrario, several scores measure performance in the OR, but have not been evaluated on training benches. Our aim was to demonstrate that the GOALS score, which can effectively grade in the OR the abilities involved in laparoscopy, can be used for evaluation on a laparoscopic testbench (MISTELS). This could lead to training systems that can identify more precisely the skills that have been acquired or must still be worked on. 32 volunteers (surgeons, residents and medical students) performed the 5 tasks of the MISTELS training bench and were simultaneously video-recorded. Their performance was evaluated with the MISTELS score and with the GOALS score based on the review of the recording by two experienced, blinded laparoscopic surgeons. The concurrent validity of the GOALS score was assessed using Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients with the MISTELS score. The construct validity of the GOALS score was assessed with k-means clustering and accuracy rates. Lastly, abilities explored by each MISTELS task were identified with multiple linear regression. GOALS and MISTELS scores are strongly correlated (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.85 and Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.82 for the overall score). The GOALS score proves to be valid for construction for the tasks of the training bench, with a better accuracy rate between groups of level after k-means clustering, when compared to the original MISTELS score (accuracy rates, respectively, 0.75 and 0.56). GOALS score is well suited for the evaluation of the performance of surgeons of different levels during the completion of the tasks of the MISTELS training bench.

  1. Comparing Three Models of Achievement Goals: Goal Orientations, Goal Standards, and Goal Complexes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Senko, Corwin; Tropiano, Katie L.

    2016-01-01

    Achievement goal theory (Dweck, 1986) initially characterized mastery goals and performance goals as opposites in a good-bad dualism of student motivation. A later revision (Harackiewicz, Barron, & Elliot, 1998) contended that both goals can provide benefits and be pursued together. Perhaps both frameworks are correct: Their contrasting views…

  2. Supporting learning skills in visual art classes: The benefits of teacher awareness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helen Arov

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available This study focused on middle school art teachers supporting the development of students learning skills, specifically their awareness of the framework of learning skills. It also looked at the relations between the teaching practices teachers use for supporting learning skills and students' learning motivation in art classes. The study combined qualitative and quantitative research methods. The class observations and interviews were conducted with ten Estonian middle school art teachers. One hundred and forty-eight students from the observed classes filled out the learning motivation questionnaire about their interest and achievement goals in visual arts. The study draws attention to the importance of teachers being aware of and valuing learning skills alongside subject specific knowledge, as it could enhance students autonomous motivation and support adaptive goal setting.

  3. Teachers' Goal Orientation Profiles and Participation in Professional Development Activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kunst, Eva M.; van Woerkom, Marianne; Poell, Rob F.

    2018-01-01

    Participation in professional development activities is important for teachers to continuously improve their knowledge and skills. However, teachers differ in their attitude towards learning activities. This paper examined how different goal orientation profiles are related to participation in professional development activities (acquiring…

  4. Physical activity levels and motor skills of 5 th to 7 th grade students ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The physical activity (PA) and motor skill levels (MS) (flexibility, balance, speed, sit-up, hand grip strength, standing long jump) were determined for 5th to 7th grade students from central schools in Nigde Province, Turkey according to age and gender and to investigate the relationships. PAL was determined by means of ...

  5. Exploring students’ adaptive reasoning skills and van Hiele levels of geometric thinking: a case study in geometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rizki, H. T. N.; Frentika, D.; Wijaya, A.

    2018-03-01

    This study aims to explore junior high school students’ adaptive reasoning and the Van Hiele level of geometric thinking. The present study was a quasi-experiment with the non-equivalent control group design. The participants of the study were 34 seventh graders and 35 eighth graders in the experiment classes and 34 seventh graders and 34 eighth graders in the control classes. The students in the experiment classes learned geometry under the circumstances of a Knisley mathematical learning. The data were analyzed quantitatively by using inferential statistics. The results of data analysis show an improvement of adaptive reasoning skills both in the grade seven and grade eight. An improvement was also found for the Van Hiele level of geometric thinking. These results indicate the positive impact of Knisley learning model on students’ adaptive reasoning skills and Van Hiele level of geometric thinking.

  6. Effect of communication skill training using group psychoeducation method on the stress level of psychiatry ward nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghazavi, Zahra; Lohrasbi, Fatemeh; Mehrabi, Tayebeh

    2010-12-01

    Nursing is a dynamic and supportive job, with the main role of taking care of patients. Maintaining appropriate communication of the nurse with the patients is particularly known as the main core of care in mental health. However, in spite of the importance of providing communication, one of the main sources of stress in nurses of psychiatry wards is communication with the patients. Some important reasons for inappropriate relationship between the nurse and patient can be lack of necessary skills to communicate with patients because of insufficient training. Although training communication skills is an important part of the education of medical and paramedical students, in recent studies it has been demonstrated that the communication skills learned in theoretical courses would not necessarily be transferred to clinical settings, and proving training in clinical settings is a must. The present study was carried out to determine the effect of training communication skills using psychoeducation method on the stress level of nurses of psychiatry wards in 2010. This is a quasi-experimental study. The participants were 45 nurses; 23 and 22 in the experiment and control groups, respectively, working in psychiatry wards of Noor and Farabi hospitals, Isfahan, Iran. The sampling was carried out by the census method, and then the participants were randomly assigned to the two groups of experiment and control, using random number table. The two groups filled out the demographic data form and also the questionnaire on nurses' occupational stress, designed by the researcher. The questionnaire was filled out three times; before, immediately after, and one month after the training. Training of communication skills was carried out using group psychoeducation method, in six sessions, each lasted for 1.5 hours. The training sessions of the experiment group were held in Farabi Hospital. The findings indicated that before the intervention, the members of the two groups had a high

  7. Does Context, Practice or Competition Affect Female Athletes’ Achievement Goal Dominance, Goal Pursuit, Burnout and Motivation?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernández-Rio Javier

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The goal of this study was to assess the effects of two different achievement sport contexts, practice and competition, on the motivational profile of professional/semi-professional athletes. Forty-eight Spanish national/international-level female athletes (basketball = 18; handball = 12; soccer = 11; volleyball = 7, mean age 25.14 ± 3.43 years, agreed to participate in the study. They completed a questionnaire, prior and after training and competition, to assess achievement goals, achievement goal dominance, goal pursuit, motivational climate, motivation, burnout and perceived recovery-exertion. Data analyses revealed that, both in practice and competition, these team-sport athletes overwhelmingly showed a strong mastery-approach achievement goal in dominance as well as in pursuit. A significant finding was that this group of national/international-level, professional/semi-professional athletes not only adopted a mastery-approach achievement goal, but they also actively pursued it. It is also remarkable that this profile remained stable at post-tests, even after a painful defeat in competition, which produced a significant negative effect on the athletes’ burnout (emotional and physical exhaustion and devaluation of sport participation and self-determined motivation. As expected, the difference between total recovery and perceived exertion significantly increased after practice and competition. National/international-level team-sport professional/semi-professional female athletes held and pursue stable mastery-approach goal dominance.

  8. A Conceptual Model for the Design and Delivery of Explicit Thinking Skills Instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kassem, Cherrie L.

    2005-01-01

    Developing student thinking skills is an important goal for most educators. However, due to time constraints and weighty content standards, thinking skills instruction is often embedded in subject matter, implicit and incidental. For best results, thinking skills instruction requires a systematic design and explicit teaching strategies. The…

  9. Determinants of Internet skills, use and outcomes : A systematic review of the second- and third-level digital divide

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Scheerder, Anique; van Deursen, Alexander; van Dijk, Jan

    2017-01-01

    Recently, several digital divide scholars suggested that a shift is needed from a focus on binary Internet access (first-level digital divide) and Internet skills and use (second-level digital divide) to a third-level digital divide in which the tangible outcomes of Internet use are highlighted. A

  10. Acquiring Psychomotor Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Padelford, Harold E.

    1984-01-01

    The author discusses levels of psychomotor skill acquisition: perceiving, motivating, imitating, performing, adapting, and innovating. How these skills interact and how they affect the learner's ability to learn are examined. (CT)

  11. The effects of hand gestures on verbal recall as a function of high- and low-verbal-skill levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frick-Horbury, Donna

    2002-04-01

    The author examined the effects of cueing for verbal recall with the accompanying self-generated hand gestures as a function of verbal skill. There were 36 participants, half with low SAT verbal scores and half with high SAT verbal scores. Half of the participants of each verbal-skill level were cued for recall with their own gestures, and the remaining half was given a free-recall test. Cueing with self-generated gestures aided the low-verbal-skill participants so that their retrieval rate equaled that of the high-verbal-skill participants and their loss of recall over a 2-week period was minimal. This effect was stable for both concrete and abstract words. The findings support the hypothesis that gestures serve as an auxiliary code for memory retrieval.

  12. Hispanics' SAT Scores: The Influences of Level of Parental Education, Performance-Avoidance Goals, and Knowledge about Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hannon, Brenda

    2015-01-01

    This study uncovers which learning (epistemic belief of learning), socioeconomic background (level of parental education, family income) or social-personality factors (performance-avoidance goals, test anxiety) mitigate the ethnic gap in SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) scores. Measures assessing achievement motivation, test anxiety, socioeconomic…

  13. Psychological "gel" to bind individuals' goal pursuit: gratitude facilitates goal contagion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Lile; Tong, Eddie M W; Lee, Li Neng

    2014-08-01

    Past research demonstrates that gratitude affects individuals' self-regulation of behavior primarily through engendering a prosocial tendency. Based on theories proposing that gratitude plays an unique role in fostering communal relationship (e.g., Algoe, 2012), we propose that gratitude can have an incidental effect in facilitating goal contagion: automatically inferring and adopting the goal implied by a social other's behavior. This hypothesis is supported in 3 studies. In Study 1, after being exposed to the behaviors of a social target that implied either a cooperative or a competitive goal, individuals adopted the respective goal and behaved accordingly in a Resource Dilemma Task. This occurred, however, only when they were feeling gratitude and not when they were feeling joy or a neutral mood. In Study 2, after being exposed to a social target's behavior that implied the goal to make money, people feeling gratitude, as compared to those feeling pride or a neutral mood, strove for a future opportunity to earn money. Study 3 further demonstrated that individuals' goal striving behavior was mediated by a heightened level of goal activation. Finally, it was found that gratitude facilitated goal contagion only when the social target was a member of participants' own social group. Through this mechanism, gratitude, thus, seems to bind one's self-regulation with those of social others. Theoretical and practical implications of this new perspective are discussed.

  14. An iterative method for tri-level quadratic fractional programming problems using fuzzy goal programming approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kassa, Semu Mitiku; Tsegay, Teklay Hailay

    2017-08-01

    Tri-level optimization problems are optimization problems with three nested hierarchical structures, where in most cases conflicting objectives are set at each level of hierarchy. Such problems are common in management, engineering designs and in decision making situations in general, and are known to be strongly NP-hard. Existing solution methods lack universality in solving these types of problems. In this paper, we investigate a tri-level programming problem with quadratic fractional objective functions at each of the three levels. A solution algorithm has been proposed by applying fuzzy goal programming approach and by reformulating the fractional constraints to equivalent but non-fractional non-linear constraints. Based on the transformed formulation, an iterative procedure is developed that can yield a satisfactory solution to the tri-level problem. The numerical results on various illustrative examples demonstrated that the proposed algorithm is very much promising and it can also be used to solve larger-sized as well as n-level problems of similar structure.

  15. Analysis of Relations between Spatiotemporal Movement Regulation and Performance of Discrete Actions Reveals Functionality in Skilled Climbing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orth, Dominic; Kerr, Graham; Davids, Keith; Seifert, Ludovic

    2017-01-01

    In this review of research on climbing expertise, we focus on different measures of climbing performance, including spatiotemporal measures related to fluency and activity states (i.e., discrete actions), adopted by climbers for achieving overall performance goals of getting to the end of a route efficiently and safely. Currently, a broad range of variables have been reported, however, many of these fail to capture how climbers adapt to a route whilst climbing. We argue that spatiotemporal measures should be considered concurrently with evaluation of activity states (such as reaching or exploring) in order gain a more comprehensive picture of how climbers successfully adapt to a route. Spatial and temporal movement measures taken at the hip are a traditional means of assessing efficiency of climbing behaviors. More recently, performatory and exploratory actions of the limbs have been used in combination with spatiotemporal indicators, highlighting the influence of limb states on climbing efficiency and skill transfer. However, only a few studies have attempted to combine spatiotemporal and activity state measures taken during route climbing. This review brings together existing approaches for observing climbing skill at performance outcome (i.e., spatiotemporal assessments) and process (i.e., limb activity states) levels of analysis. Skill level is associated with a spatially efficient route progression and lower levels of immobility. However, more difficult hold architecture designs require significantly greater mobility and more complex movement patterning to maintain performance. Different forms of functional, or goal-supportive, movement variability, including active recovery and hold exploration, have been implicated as important adaptations to physiological and environmental dynamics that emerge during the act of climbing. Indeed, recently it has also been shown that, when climbing on new routes, efficient exploration can improve the transfer of skill. This

  16. MOTIVATION: Goals and Goal Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stratton, Richard K.

    2005-01-01

    Goal setting has great impact on a team's performance. Goals enable a team to synchronize their efforts to achieve success. In this article, the author talks about goals and goal setting. This articles complements Domain 5--Teaching and Communication (p.14) and discusses one of the benchmarks listed therein: "Teach the goal setting process and…

  17. Effect of Kolb's Experiential Learning Strategy on Enhancing Pedagogical Skills of Pre-Service Teachers of Secondary School Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reshmad'sa, Laveena; Vijayakumari, S. N.

    2017-01-01

    This study aimed at investigating the effect of Kolb's Experiential Learning Strategy on enhancing the pedagogical skills of pre-service teachers of secondary school level. Kolb's Experiential Learning is a method of acquiring knowledge, skills, and experiences by creating situation to gain first hand experiences. According to Kolb optimal…

  18. Movement symmetry and asymmetry of goal shots in female football ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study examined the phenomenon of symmetrical skills in goal shot technique in female football players, of nine video recorded matches. The recording was taken during the 2nd Under 19 female football World Cup in 2004 and the 6th European female Championships of female seniors in 2005. The study comprised ...

  19. Effect of skill level on recall of visually presented patterns of musical notes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalakoski, Virpi

    2007-04-01

    Expertise effects in music were studied in a new task: the construction of mental representations from separate fragments. Groups of expert musicians and non-musicians were asked to recall note patterns presented visually note by note. Skill-level, musical well-formedness of the note patterns and presentation mode were varied. The musicians recalled note patterns better than the non-musicians, even though the presentation was visual and successive. Furthermore, only musicians' performance was affected by musical well-formedness of the note patterns when visual gestalt properties, verbal rehearsability, and familiarity of the stimuli were controlled. Musicians were also able to use letter names referring to notes as efficiently as visual notes, which indicates that the better recall of musicians cannot be explained by perceptual visual chunking. These results and the effect of skill level on the distribution of recall errors indicate that the ability to chunk incoming information into meaningful units does not require that complete familiar patterns are accessible to encoding processes, yet previous knowledge stored in long-term memory affects representation construction in working memory. The present method offers a new reliable tool, and its implications to the research on construction of representations and musical imagery are discussed.

  20. Evidence for skill level differences in the thought processes of golfers during high and low pressure situations.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amy Elizabeth Whitehead

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Two studies examined differences in the cognition of golfers with differing levels of expertise in high and low pressure situations. In study 1, six high skill and six low skill golfers performed six holes of golf, while verbalizing their thoughts using Think Aloud (TA protocol. Higher skilled golfers’ cognitive processes centered more on planning in comparison to lower skilled golfers. Study 2 investigated whether thought processes of golfers changed in response to competitive pressure. Eight high skill and eight moderate skilled golfers, completed a practice round and a competition round whilst verbalizing thoughts using TA. To create pressure in the competition condition, participants were instructed that monetary prizes would be awarded to the top three performers and scores of all golfers would be published in a league table in the club house. When performing under competitive pressure, it was found that higher skilled golfers were more likely to verbalize technical rules compared to practice conditions, especially during putting performance. This shift in cognition toward more technical aspects of motor performance was strongly related to scores on the Decision Specific Reinvestment Scale, suggesting individuals with a higher propensity for reinvestment show the largest changes in cognition under pressure. From a practical perspective, TA can aid a player, coach or sport psychologist by allowing thought processes to be identified and investigate a performer’s thoughts when faced with the pressure of a competition.

  1. Pengaruh Goal Setting terhadap Performance : Tinjauan Teoritis

    OpenAIRE

    Ginting, Surya Dharma; Ariani, D. Wahyu

    2004-01-01

    This article is the conceptual view of goal setting theory and effects of goal setting on individual performance. Goal setting is recognized, and is a major theory of work motivation. Difficult goals have consistently been shown to lead to higher levels of performance than easy goals. If there is no commitment, a goal can have no motivational effect. Goals are central to current treatments of work motivation, and goal commitment is a necessary condition for difficult goals to result in higher...

  2. LEVEL OF SELF-RESPECT AND ASSERTIVENESS SKILLS AND TEACHERS’ EDUCATIONAL COMPETENCES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Romanowska-Tolloczko

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: determining of self-respect level and assertiveness of teachers. Verification of whether there is a relationship between the measured trait and the correlation of educational competence. Material and methods: the study used three tools: Polish adaptation of SES M.Rosenberg's Self Esteem Scale, a questionnaire to determine the levels of assertiveness - P.Majewicz's Scale "I and others" and a questionnaire to examine the professional competence of teachers by A.Romanowska-Tołłoczko. The study examined 275 primary school teachers of different subjects. Results: after the statement of the research’s results in the field of self-respect and assertiveness, it turns out that there is some regularity in relation to the level of the studied traits. People with high self-respect also receive higher scores assertive skills compared with those of average and low self-respect. This pattern is seen in all groups of teachers. Conclusions: although the observed differences are not great and statistically significant, they show some evidence of the occurrence trend of interdependence in a range of predispositions. Moreover, a positive correlation between the level of self-respect and assertiveness and parental perception of their competence was noted.

  3. Universal Skills and Competencies for Geoscientists

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mosher, S.

    2015-12-01

    Geoscience students worldwide face a changing future workforce, but all geoscience work has universal cross-cutting skills and competencies that are critical for success. A recent Geoscience Employers Workshop, and employers' input on the "Future of Undergraduate Geoscience Education" survey, identified three major areas. Geoscience work requires spatial and temporal (3D & 4D) thinking, understanding that the Earth is a system of interacting parts and processes, and geoscience reasoning and synthesis. Thus, students need to be able to solve problems in the context of an open and dynamic system, recognizing that most geoscience problems have no clear, unambiguous answers. Students must learn to manage uncertainty, work by analogy and inference, and make predations with limited data. Being able to visualize and solve problems in 3D, incorporate the element of time, and understand scale is critical. Additionally students must learn how to tackle problems using real data, including understand the problems' context, identify appropriate questions to ask, and determine how to proceed. Geoscience work requires integration of quantitative, technical, and computational skills and the ability to be intellectually flexible in applying skills to new situations. Students need experience using high-level math and computational methods to solve geoscience problems, including probability and statistics to understand risk. Increasingly important is the ability to use "Big Data", GIS, visualization and modeling tools. Employers also agree a strong field component in geoscience education is important. Success as a geoscientist also requires non-technical skills. Because most work environments involve working on projects with a diverse team, students need experience with project management in team settings, including goal setting, conflict resolution, time management and being both leader and follower. Written and verbal scientific communication, as well as public speaking and

  4. Predicting race performance in triathlon: the role of perfectionism, achievement goals, and personal goal setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stoeber, Joachim; Uphill, Mark A; Hotham, Sarah

    2009-04-01

    The question of how perfectionism affects performance is highly debated. Because empirical studies examining perfectionism and competitive sport performance are missing, the present research investigated how perfectionism affected race performance and what role athletes' goals played in this relationship in two prospective studies with competitive triathletes (Study 1: N = 112; Study 2: N = 321). Regression analyses showed that perfectionistic personal standards, high performance-approach goals, low performance-avoidance goals, and high personal goals predicted race performance beyond athletes' performance level. Moreover, the contrast between performance-avoidance and performance-approach goals mediated the relationship between perfectionistic personal standards and performance, whereas personal goal setting mediated the relationship between performance-approach goals and performance. The findings indicate that perfectionistic personal standards do not undermine competitive performance, but are associated with goals that help athletes achieve their best possible performance.

  5. The Relationship between Maternal Acceptance-Rejection Levels and Preschoolers' Social Competence and Emotion Regulation Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bayindir, Dilan; Güven, Gülçin; Sezer, Türker; Aksin-Yavuz, Ezgi; Yilmaz, Elif

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between maternal acceptance-rejection levels and preschool children's social competence and emotion regulation skills. The study group of the research, which was designed in survey method, consisted of 303 voluntary mother-child dyad. The participant children were attending a preschool…

  6. Intimate partner violence influence on deliveries assisted by skilled health personnel

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amany Refaat

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Millennium Development Goal 5 calls for increasing proportions of deliveries assisted by skilled health personnel to reduce maternal mortality. This study aims to identifying the implication of exposure to intimate partner violence on these proportions. Methodology: This study used domestic violence modules data of Demographic and Health Surveys of six countries from 2005 to 2007. Proportions of assisted deliveries were examined by sociodemographic characteristics and exposure to intimate partner violence in the studied countries. Influence on the proportion was examined against exposure to intimate partner violence through odds ratio and 95% of logistic regression analysis after controlling for women age, residence (urban/rural, household wealth level, economic level of country, educational level and working status of women and their husbands/partners. Results: Data sets of 18,507 participants over 20 years of age showed that almost three-quarters (73% of women had deliveries assisted by skilled health personnel. One-third of the women were ever exposed to intimate partner violence (37% and 9% of them to the severe level. Exposure to intimate partner violence statistically significantly lowered this proportion to 69% (odds ratio: 0.73; 95% confidence interval: 0.67–0.78 meanwhile severe violence lowered it to 65% (odds ratio 0.64; 95% confidence interval: 0.58–0.72. When running multiple regression analysis, exposure to intimate partner violence retained its statistically significant decreasing influence on proportions and was not biased by the other stronger socioeconomic characteristics. Conclusion and recommendations: Intimate partner violence has an independent influence on reducing assisted deliveries by skilled health personnel. Programs working for increasing proportions of assisted deliveries by skilled health personnel are recommended to integrate protection women from violence.

  7. Recognizing potential barriers to setting and achieving effective rehabilitation goals for patients with persistent pain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Stephen G

    2016-07-01

    Although the process of goal setting in rehabilitation of individuals with persistent pain is considered a fundamental and requisite skill, it is frequently reported as a challenging element of clinical practice. Factors which may contribute to the complexity of goal setting include the potential for unrecognized shifts in cognitive function, psychological comorbidities, and the social context of both providers and patients. This review aims to describe factors which may confound the process of setting and achieving collaborative rehabilitation goals using a biopsychosocial framework and to provide recommendations to enhance goal setting effectiveness.

  8. Comparing of goal setting strategy with group education method to increase physical activity level: A randomized trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nasrin Jiryaee

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Designing an intervention to increase physical activity is important to be based on the health care settings resources and be acceptable by the subject group. This study was designed to assess and compare the effect of the goal setting strategy with a group education method on increasing the physical activity of mothers of children aged 1 to 5. Materials and Methods: Mothers who had at least one child of 1-5 years were randomized into two groups. The effect of 1 goal-setting strategy and 2 group education method on increasing physical activity was assessed and compared 1 month and 3 months after the intervention. Also, the weight, height, body mass index (BMI, waist and hip circumference, and well-being were compared between the two groups before and after the intervention. Results: Physical activity level increased significantly after the intervention in the goal-setting group and it was significantly different between the two groups after intervention (P < 0.05. BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, and well-being score were significantly different in the goal-setting group after the intervention. In the group education method, only the well-being score improved significantly (P < 0.05. Conclusion: Our study presented the effects of using the goal-setting strategy to boost physical activity, improving the state of well-being and decreasing BMI, waist, and hip circumference.

  9. Undergraduate Skills Laboratories at Sonoma State University

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gill, Amandeep; Zack, K.; Mills, H.; Cunningham, B.; Jackowski, S.

    2014-01-01

    Due to the current economic climate, funding sources for many laboratory courses have been cut from university budgets. However, it is still necessary for undergraduates to master laboratory skills to be prepared and competitive applicants when entering the professional world and/or graduate school. In this context, student-led programs may be able to compensate for this lack of formal instruction and reinforce concepts from lecture by applying research techniques to develop hands-on comprehension. The Sonoma State University Chapter of Society of Physics Students has established a peer-led skills lab to teach research techniques in the fields of astronomy and physics. The goal is to alleviate the pressures of both independently learning and efficiently applying techniques to junior and senior-level research projects. These skill labs are especially valuable for nontraditional students who, due to work or family duties, may not get a chance to fully commit to research projects. For example, a topic such as Arduino programming has a multitude of applications in both astronomy and physics, but is not taught in traditional university courses. Although some programming and electronics skills are taught in (separate) classes, they are usually not applied to actual research projects, which combined expertise is needed. For example, in astronomy, there are many situations involving programming telescopes and taking data with electronic cameras. Often students will carry out research using these tools but when something goes wrong, the students will not have the skills to trouble shoot and fix the system. Another astronomical topic to be taught in the skills labs is the analysis of astronomical data, including running remote telescopes, analyzing photometric variability, and understanding the concepts of star magnitudes, flat fields, and biases. These workshops provide a setting in which the student teacher may strengthen his or her understanding of the topic by presenting

  10. Evaluating Impact Of Communication Skills Training On Level Of Job Stress Among Nursing Personnel Working At Rehabilitation Centers In Cities: Ray- Tehran- Shemiranat

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sh. Rhezaii

    2006-05-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Today, work related stress has become a common and costly problem in work places that most of studies in the last 30 decades have engaged in this problem. Several reports indicate that the occupations such as nursing which have high psychological job demands and low decision latitude are very stressful. This stress can cause harmful physical and psychological effects on nurses’ health. On the other hand, job stress may result in high rates of injury, tardiness and absenteeism at work place and reduced productivity and organizational commitment leading to low quality of nursing care. Numerous studies suggested that learning new activities and skills such as communication skills is one of the best strategies against job stress .The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of communication Skills training in reducing work stress level among nursing personnel in rehabilitation centers. Materials and Methods: The quasi- experimental design was conducted. A sample of 48 nursing personnel participated in the study. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two experimental or control groups. Subjects in experimental group participated in a 7- hour’s workshop, all subjects were pre and post tested (one month later for job stress and communication skills with the Karasek’s Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ and communication skills test. Results: Results revealed the following: (1 subjects in both groups after pretest were the middle level of stress and communication skills. (2 After training the experimental group scored higher on the rating of communication skills than control group and had successfully maintained their improvements for 4 weeks. (3 After training the experimental group showed lower level of stress than control group and had successfully maintained their improvements for 4 weeks. Conclusion: As a result of this research communication skills training could reduce level of stress among nursing personnel

  11. People-, Process- and Goal-Focused Leadership Behaviour: An Empirical Study in a Global Company

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thanh Ha-Vikstrom

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This study explores the focus of leadership behaviours that perceived and experienced by leaders in a multinational company. By using triangulation method including questionnaires, in-depth interviews and observations, we analyse the data collected from twenty managers across organisational levels. The results reveal the patterns of managerial behaviour in three key focus areas for success: people, process and goal. Directors and general managers are more people-focused than line managers, who in turn tend to be more process-focused. The research findings bridge the gap in the field and initiate a new normative leadership behaviour model (people-, process and goal-focused, which can be used to directly support leaders in enhancing their leadership skills as well as for recruitment or promotion purposes. The model can be utilized as an aid to organisations when developing training programs to support leaders in different types of organisations (for-profit or non-profit to focus their development efforts on organizational success.

  12. Systemic consultation and goal setting

    OpenAIRE

    Carr, Alan

    1993-01-01

    Over two decades of empirical research conducted within a positivist framework has shown that goal setting is a particularly useful method for influencing task performance in occupational and industrial contexts. The conditions under which goal setting is maximally effective are now clearly established. These include situations where there is a high level of acceptance and commitment, where goals are specific and challenging, where the task is relatively simple rather than ...

  13. Executive Function Buffers the Association between Early Math and Later Academic Skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew D. Ribner

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Extensive evidence has suggested that early academic skills are a robust indicator of later academic achievement; however, there is mixed evidence of the effectiveness of intervention on academic skills in early years to improve later outcomes. As such, it is clear there are other contributing factors to the development of academic skills. The present study tests the role of executive function (EF (a construct made up of skills complicit in the achievement of goal-directed tasks in predicting 5th grade math and reading ability above and beyond math and reading ability prior to school entry, and net of other cognitive covariates including processing speed, vocabulary, and IQ. Using a longitudinal dataset of N = 1292 participants representative of rural areas in two distinctive geographical parts of the United States, the present investigation finds EF at age 5 strongly predicts 5th grade academic skills, as do cognitive covariates. Additionally, investigation of an interaction between early math ability and EF reveals the magnitude of the association between early math and later math varies as a function of early EF, such that participants who have high levels of EF can “catch up” to peers who perform better on assessments of early math ability. These results suggest EF is pivotal to the development of academic skills throughout elementary school. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.

  14. Communication skills training in surgical residency: a needs assessment and metacognition analysis of a difficult conversation objective structured clinical examination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Falcone, John L; Claxton, René N; Marshall, Gary T

    2014-01-01

    The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) can be used to evaluate the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Core Competencies of Professionalism and Interpersonal and Communication Skills. The aim of this study was to describe general surgery resident performance on a "difficult conversation" OSCE. In this prospective study, junior and senior residents participated in a 2-station OSCE. Junior stations involved discussing operative risks and benefits and breaking bad news. Senior stations involved discussing goals of care and discussing transition to comfort measures only status. Residents completed post-OSCE checklist and Likert-based self-evaluations of experience, comfort, and confidence. Trained standardized patients (SPs) evaluated residents using communication skill-based checklists and Likert-based assessments. Pearson correlation coefficients were determined between self-assessment and SP assessment. Mann-Whitney U tests were conducted between junior and senior resident variables, using α = 0.05. There were 27 junior residents (age 28.1 ± 1.9 years [29.6% female]) and 27 senior residents (age 32.1 ± 2.5 years [26.9% female]). The correlation of self-assessment and SP assessment of overall communication skills by junior residents was -0.32 on the risks and benefits case and 0.07 on the breaking bad news case. The correlation of self-assessment and SP assessment of overall communication skills by senior residents was 0.30 on the goals of care case and 0.26 on the comfort measures only case. SP assessments showed that junior residents had higher overall communication skills than senior residents (p = 0.03). Senior residents perceived that having difficult conversations was more level appropriate (p skills are correlated, and that skills-based training is needed across all residency levels. This well-received method may be used to observe, document, and provide resident feedback for these important skills. © 2014 Published by

  15. Mastering the soft skills in the implementation of work based learning among community college students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, Azita Binti; Islamiah Rosli, Doria; Sujadi, Imam; Usodo, Budi; Adie Perdana, Fengky

    2017-01-01

    Emphasizing the aspects of soft skills among students is an important element to produce graduates who are competitive when facing any situations in the workplace. Various efforts have been taken by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) to improve the education system in Malaysia. Learning methods were introduced to ensure the education systems achieve the educational goals and to produce individuals who are well-balanced with spiritually, emotionally and physically. However, the issue of unemployment among graduates often being spoken in the community and it was regarded as a failure of educational institutions to produce quality graduates. Thus, the method of Work-Based Learning (WBL) was seen as a way to improve the soft skills among the graduates. The study was conducted using quantitative research survey as the design of the study used a questionnaire that was adapted as an instrument. Data were analysed using Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0. The respondents were consisted of 97 students who attended WBL programs at the community college. Data were obtained from questionnaires using descriptive statistics for the calculation of the mean and one-way ANOVA test. The findings of the level of soft skills among community colleges were high where the communication skills obtained (mean = 4.1218), critical and problem solving skills (mean = 4.0946), teamwork skills (mean = 4.2297), learning and information management (mean = 4.1219), entrepreneurial skills (mean = 4.0240), professional ethics and moral (mean = 3.9410) and leadership skills (mean = 4.2104). The findings also showed the differences in term of communication skills among the community colleges. This study was significant to the community colleges to identify the level of soft skills among students who performed WBL methods in order to reduce the number of unemployment.

  16. [Examination of relationship between level of hearing and written language skills in 10-14-year-old hearing impaired children].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turğut, Nedim; Karlıdağ, Turgut; Başar, Figen; Yalçın, Şinasi; Kaygusuz, İrfan; Keleş, Erol; Birkent, Ömer Faruk

    2015-01-01

    This study aims to review the relationship between written language skills and factors which are thought to affect this skill such as mean hearing loss, duration of auditory deprivation, speech discrimination score, and pre-school education attendance and socioeconomic status of hearing impaired children who attend 4th-7th grades in primary school in inclusive environment. The study included 25 hearing impaired children (14 males, 11 females; mean age 11.4±1.4 years; range 10 to 14 years) (study group) and 20 children (9 males, 11 females; mean age 11.5±1.3 years; range 10 to 14 years) (control group) with normal hearing in the same age group and studying in the same class. Study group was separated into two subgroups as group 1a and group 1b since some of the children with hearing disability used hearing aid while some used cochlear implant. Intragroup comparisons and relational screening were performed for those who use hearing aids and cochlear implants. Intergroup comparisons were performed to evaluate the effect of the parameters on written language skills. Written expression skill level of children with hearing disability was significantly lower than their normal hearing peers (p=0.001). A significant relationship was detected between written language skills and mean hearing loss (p=0.048), duration of auditory deprivation (p=0.021), speech discrimination score (p=0.014), and preschool attendance (p=0.005), when it comes to socioeconomic status we were not able to find any significant relationship (p=0.636). It can be said that hearing loss affects written language skills negatively and hearing impaired individuals develop low-level written language skills compared to their normal hearing peers.

  17. Effects of gross motor function and manual function levels on performance-based ADL motor skills of children with spastic cerebral palsy

    OpenAIRE

    Park, Myoung-Ok

    2017-01-01

    [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to determine effects of Gross Motor Function Classification System and Manual Ability Classification System levels on performance-based motor skills of children with spastic cerebral palsy. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-three children with cerebral palsy were included. The Assessment of Motor and Process Skills was used to evaluate performance-based motor skills in daily life. Gross motor function was assessed using Gross Motor Function Classification S...

  18. Psychosocial support and resilience building among health workers in Sierra Leone: interrelations between coping skills, stress levels, and interpersonal relationships.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vesel, Linda; Waller, Kathryn; Dowden, Justine; Fotso, Jean Christophe

    2015-01-01

    In low- and middle-income countries, a shortage of properly trained, supervised, motivated and equitably distributed health workers often hinder the delivery of lifesaving interventions. Various health workforce bottlenecks can be addressed by tackling well-being and interpersonal relationships of health workers with their colleagues and clients. This paper uses data from the Helping Health Workers Cope (HHWC) project in a rural district of Sierra Leone to achieve three objectives. First, we describe the effect of counseling and psychosocial training on coping skills, stress levels, and provider-provider and provider-client relationships. Second, we examine whether a change in coping skills is associated with a change in relationships. Finally, we qualitatively identify key ways through which the uptake of coping skills is linked to a change in relationships. The HHWC project was implemented from February 2012 to June 2013 in Kono district in the Eastern province of Sierra Leone, with the neighboring district of Tonkolili selected as the control site. The evaluation followed a mixed-methods approach, which included a quantitative survey, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with health workers and clients. Mean values of the variables of interest were compared across sub-populations, and correlation analyses were performed between changes in coping skills, stress levels, and changes in relationships. Overall, the results demonstrate that the HHWC intervention had a positive effect on coping skills, stress levels and provider-provider and provider-client relationships. Furthermore, associations were observed between changes in coping skills and changes in relationships as well as changes in stress management skills and changes in relationships. Psychosocial education can have major impacts on health worker well-being and the quality of health care delivery. Integrating psychosocial counseling and training interventions into health worker pre-service and

  19. Linguistic skills of adult native speakers, as a function of age and level of education

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mulder, K.; Hulstijn, J.H.

    2011-01-01

    This study assessed, in a sample of 98 adult native speakers of Dutch, how their lexical skills and their speaking proficiency varied as a function of their age and level of education and profession (EP). Participants, categorized in terms of their age (18-35, 36-50, and 51-76 years old) and the

  20. Cultivating strategic thinking skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shirey, Maria R

    2012-06-01

    This department highlights change management strategies that may be successful in strategically planning and executing organizational change initiatives. With the goal of presenting practical approaches helpful to nurse leaders advancing organizational change, content includes evidence-based projects, tools, and resources that mobilize and sustain organizational change initiatives. In this article, the author presents an overview of strategic leadership and offers approaches for cultivating strategic thinking skills.

  1. Wellness and illness self-management skills in community corrections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, Patricia J; Ramaswamy, Megha; Chen, Hsiang-Feng; Denny, Donald

    2015-02-01

    Community corrections provide a readjustment venue for re-entry between incarceration and home for inmates in the US corrections system. Our goal was to determine how self-management skills, an important predictor of re-entry success, varied by demographic and risk factors. In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed responses of 675 clients from 57 community corrections programs run by the regional division of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. A self-administered survey collected data on self-management skills, demographics, and risk factors; significant associations were applied in four regression models: the overall self-management score and three self-management subscales: coping skills, goals, and drug use. Over one-quarter (27.2%/146) of participants had a mental health history. White race, no mental health history and high school education were associated with better overall self-management scores; mental health history and drug use in the past year were associated with lower coping scores; female gender and high school education were associated with better self-management goals; female gender was associated with better self-management drug use scores. Self-management programs may need to be individualized for different groups of clients. Lower scores for those with less education suggest an area for targeted, nurse-led interventions.

  2. Delivering high-level food industry skills for future food security through Advanced Training Partnerships

    OpenAIRE

    Frazier, Richard A.

    2013-01-01

    The UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s Advanced Training Partnerships initiative represents a significant investment in the provision of high-level skills for the UK food industry sector to address global food security from farm to fork. This paper summarises the background, aims and scope of the Advanced Training Partnerships, their development so far, and offers a view on future directions and evaluation of impact.

  3. Three-dimensional motion tracking correlates with skill level in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arnold, Sif H.; Svendsen, Morten Bo Søndergaard; Konge, Lars

    2015-01-01

    untrained medical students) were tested using a virtual reality simulator. A motion sensor was used to collect data regarding the distance between the hands, and height and movement of the scope hand. Test characteristics between groups were explored using Kruskal-Wallis H and Man-Whitney U exact tests......Background and study aim: Feedback is an essential part of training in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Virtual reality simulators provide limited feedback, focusing only on visual recognition with no feedback on the procedural part of training. Motion tracking identifies patterns of movement......, and this study aimed to explore the correlation between skill level and operator movement using an objective automated tool. Methods: In this medical education study, 37 operators (12 senior doctors who performed endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, 13 doctors with varying levels of experience, and 12...

  4. Engineering design skills coverage in K-12 engineering program curriculum materials in the USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chabalengula, Vivien M.; Mumba, Frackson

    2017-11-01

    The current K-12 Science Education framework and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in the United States emphasise the integration of engineering design in science instruction to promote scientific literacy and engineering design skills among students. As such, many engineering education programmes have developed curriculum materials that are being used in K-12 settings. However, little is known about the nature and extent to which engineering design skills outlined in NGSS are addressed in these K-12 engineering education programme curriculum materials. We analysed nine K-12 engineering education programmes for the nature and extent of engineering design skills coverage. Results show that developing possible solutions and actual designing of prototypes were the highly covered engineering design skills; specification of clear goals, criteria, and constraints received medium coverage; defining and identifying an engineering problem; optimising the design solution; and demonstrating how a prototype works, and making iterations to improve designs were lowly covered. These trends were similar across grade levels and across discipline-specific curriculum materials. These results have implications on engineering design-integrated science teaching and learning in K-12 settings.

  5. Goal pursuit, goal adjustment, and affective well-being following lower limb amputation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coffey, Laura; Gallagher, Pamela; Desmond, Deirdre; Ryall, Nicola

    2014-05-01

    This study examined the relationships between tenacious goal pursuit (TGP), flexible goal adjustment (FGA), and affective well-being in a sample of individuals with lower limb amputations. Cross-sectional, quantitative. Ninety-eight patients recently admitted to a primary prosthetic rehabilitation programme completed measures of TGP, FGA, positive affect, and negative affect. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that TGP and FGA accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in both positive and negative affect, controlling for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. TGP was significantly positively associated with positive affect, while FGA was significantly negatively associated with negative affect. Moderated regression analyses indicated that the beneficial effect of FGA on negative affect was strongest at high levels of amputation-related pain intensity and low levels of TGP. TGP and FGA appear to influence subjective well-being in different ways, with TGP promoting the experience of positive affect and FGA buffering against negative affect. TGP and FGA may prove useful in identifying individuals at risk of poor affective outcomes following lower limb amputation and represent important targets for intervention in this patient group. What is already known on this subject? The loss of a limb has a significant impact on several important life domains. Although some individuals experience emotional distress following amputation, the majority adjust well to their limb loss, with some achieving positive change or growth as a result of their experiences. Theories of self-regulation propose that disruptions in goal attainment have negative affective consequences. The physical, social, and psychological upheaval caused by limb loss is likely to threaten the attainment of valued goals, which may leave individuals vulnerable to negative psychosocial outcomes if they do not regulate their goals in response to these challenges. According to the dual

  6. The Master's Thesis: An Opportunity for Fostering Presentation Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arias, Manuel; Pando, Pablo; Rodríguez, Alberto; Miaja, Pablo F.; Vázquez, Aitor; Fernández, Marcos; Lamar, Diego G.

    2014-01-01

    Presentation skills, such as oral expression and public speaking, have normally been relegated to the background in engineering degree programs. In recent years, however, the labor market has specifically demanded these kinds of skills in engineers. Accordingly, new engineering degrees, adapted to the goals of the Bologna Declaration or ABET…

  7. Development and validation of the goal content for exercise questionnaire.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sebire, Simon J; Standage, Martyn; Vansteenkiste, Maarten

    2008-08-01

    Self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) proposes that intrinsic, relative to extrinsic, goal content is a critical predictor of the quality of an individual's behavior and psychological well-being. Through three studies, we developed and psychometrically tested a measure of intrinsic and extrinsic goal content in the exercise context: the Goal Content for Exercise Questionnaire (GCEQ). In adults, exploratory (N = 354; Study 1) and confirmatory factor analyses (N = 312; Study 2) supported a 20-item solution consisting of 5 lower order factors (i.e., social affiliation, health management, skill development, image and social recognition) that could be subsumed within a 2-factor higher order structure (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic). Evidence for external validity, temporal stability, gender invariance, and internal consistency of the GCEQ was found. An independent sample (N = 475; Study 3) provided further support for the lower order structure of the GCEQ and some support for the higher order structure. The GCEQ was supported as a measure of exercise-based goal content, which may help understand how intrinsic and extrinsic goals can motivate exercise behavior.

  8. Skilled attendance at delivery; how skilled are institutional birth attendants? : An explorative study on birth attendants at Bansang Hospital, The Gambia

    OpenAIRE

    Kreyberg, Ina; Helsingen, Lise Mørkved

    2010-01-01

    Abstract Background: As reflected in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDG 5), reducing maternal mortality represents an important area of concern. The common causes of maternal deaths may be preventable and treatable by having access to emergency obstetric care (EmOC), including skilled birth attendance (SBA), when needed. Measuring the presence of a birth attendant has been the main focus until now, not their skills and qualifications, and by this we cannot presuppose ...

  9. Teaching Soft Skills Employers Need

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellis, Maureen; Kisling, Eric; Hackworth, Robbie G.

    2014-01-01

    This study identifies the soft skills community colleges teach in an office technology course and determines whether the skills taught are congruent with the soft skills employers require in today's entry-level office work. A qualitative content analysis of a community college office technology soft skills course was performed using 23 soft skills…

  10. Academic Self-Handicapping and Achievement Goals: A Further Examination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Midgley, Carol; Urdan, Tim

    2001-01-01

    This study extends previous research on the relations among students' personal achievement goals, perceptions of the classroom goal structure, and reports of the use of self-handicapping strategies. Surveys, specific to the math domain, were given to 484 7th-grade students in nine middle schools. Personal performance-avoid goals positively predicted handicapping, whereas personal performance-approach goals did not. Personal task goals negatively predicted handicapping. Perceptions of a performance goal structure positively predicted handicapping, and perceptions of a task goal structure negatively predicted handicapping, independent of personal goals. Median splits used to examine multiple goal profiles revealed that students high in performance-avoid goals used handicapping more than did those low in performance-avoid goals regardless of the level of task goals. Students low in performance-avoid goals and high in task goals handicapped less than those low in both goals. Level of performance-approach goals had little effect on the relation between task goals and handicapping. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

  11. Analysis of the study skills of undergraduate pharmacy students of the University of Zambia School of Medicine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christian Chinyere Ezeala

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available It aimed to compare the study skills of two groups of undergraduate pharmacy students in the School of Medicine, University of Zambia using the Study Skills Assessment Questionnaire (SSAQ, with the goal of analysing students’ study skills and identifying factors that affect study skills. A questionnaire was distributed to 67 participants from both programs using stratified random sampling. Completed questionnaires were rated according to participants study skill. The total scores and scores within subscales were analysed and compared quantitatively. Questionnaires were distributed to 37 students in the regular program, and to 30 students in the parallel program. The response rate was 100%. Students had moderate to good study skills: 22 respondents (32.8% showed good study skills, while 45 respondents (67.2% were found to have moderate study skills. Students in the parallel program demonstrated significantly better study skills (mean SSAQ score, 185.4±14.5, particularly in time management and writing, than the students in the regular program (mean SSAQ score 175±25.4; P<0.05. No significant differences were found according to age, gender, residential or marital status, or level of study. The students in the parallel program had better time management and writing skills, probably due to their prior work experience. The more intensive training to students in regular program is needed in improving time management and writing skills.

  12. Prenatal exposure to low-level methylmercury alters the child's fine motor skills at the age of 18 months.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prpić, Igor; Milardović, Ana; Vlašić-Cicvarić, Inge; Špiric, Zdravko; Radić Nišević, Jelena; Vukelić, Petar; Snoj Tratnik, Janja; Mazej, Darja; Horvat, Milena

    2017-01-01

    To compare motor, cognitive and language characteristics in children aged 18 months who were prenatally exposed to low-level methyl-mercury (MeHg), and to analyze the eventual differences in these characteristics in relation to cord blood THg concentration. The total number of 205 child-mother pairs was included in the study, and total cord blood mercury was measured in 198 of them. Out of the 198 already measured samples, 47 of them have also been tested for methyl-mercury in cord blood. Data regarding the 47 samples of MeHg levels has been used for calculating the correlation between cord blood THg and cord blood MeHg. MeHg and THg showed a significant correlation (r=0.95, pmotor, cognitive and language skills were conducted on 168 children using The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (BSID-III). Regarding the cord blood THg concentration, 135 children were divided in 4 quartile groups. Their neurodevelopmental characteristics have been compared. The cord blood THg concentration median and inter-quartile range was 2.98ng/g (1.41-5.61ng/g). There was a negative correlation between cord blood THg concentration and fine motor skills (rho=-0.22, p=0.01). It is evident that children grouped in 2nd ,3rd and 4th quartile had statistically significant lower fine motor skills assessment related to those grouped in 1st quartile (2nd quartile -1.24, p=0.03; 3rd quartile -1.28, p=0.03; 4th quartile -1.45, p=0.01). The differences in fine motor skills assessments between children in 2nd and 3rd and 3rd and 4th quartile were not statistically significant. Intrauterine exposure to low-level THg (MeHg) is associated with alterations in fine motor skills at the age of 18 months. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  13. Interpersonal stress, performance level, and parental support : A Longitudinal study among highly skilled young soccer players

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Yperen, N.W.

    1995-01-01

    This study of 65 highly skilled young male soccer players (mean age = 16.6 years) employed a 7-month longitudinal design to examine the causal relationship between performance level and interpersonal stress within the team. Particular attention was paid to the moderating effect of parental support.

  14. The role of visual skills and its impact on skill performance of cricket ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The aim of this study was to determine the role and the impact of a visual skills training programme on the skills performance of cricket players, and whether visual training programmes are beneficial to competitive sports performance. Highly skilled cricket players (n=13) who were actively participating at a provincial level of ...

  15. The Level of Difficulty and Discrimination Power of the Basic Knowledge and Skills Examination (EXHCOBA.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eduardo Backhoff Escudero

    2000-05-01

    Full Text Available The Basic Knowledge and Skills Examination (EXHCOBA is one of the few great-scale examinations in Mexico which has been publishing its psychometric parameters.  In this paper we describe the  item analysis results, regarding the exam’s difficulty level and discrimination power.  Results show that most of the items have a medium difficulty and a high discrimination power.  They also reveal that the mathematics items have better discrimination power levels than the ones which belong to social science.

  16. Goal-setting in clinical medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bradley, E H; Bogardus, S T; Tinetti, M E; Inouye, S K

    1999-07-01

    The process of setting goals for medical care in the context of chronic disease has received little attention in the medical literature, despite the importance of goal-setting in the achievement of desired outcomes. Using qualitative research methods, this paper develops a theory of goal-setting in the care of patients with dementia. The theory posits several propositions. First, goals are generated from embedded values but are distinct from values. Goals vary based on specific circumstances and alternatives whereas values are person-specific and relatively stable in the face of changing circumstances. Second, goals are hierarchical in nature, with complex mappings between general and specific goals. Third, there are a number of factors that modify the goal-setting process, by affecting the generation of goals from values or the translation of general goals to specific goals. Modifying factors related to individuals include their degree of risk-taking, perceived self-efficacy, and acceptance of the disease. Disease factors that modify the goal-setting process include the urgency and irreversibility of the medical condition. Pertinent characteristics of the patient-family-clinician interaction include the level of participation, control, and trust among patients, family members, and clinicians. The research suggests that the goal-setting process in clinical medicine is complex, and the potential for disagreements regarding goals substantial. The nature of the goal-setting process suggests that explicit discussion of goals for care may be necessary to promote effective patient-family-clinician communication and adequate care planning.

  17. Insights on skilled attendance at birth in Malawi - the findings of a ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Increasing the number of women who access skilled attendance at birth is the goal of many developing countries including Malawi. The Skilled Attendance for Everyone (SAFE) international research programme coordinated by the Dugald Baird Centre for research on Women\\'s Health at the University of Aberdeen, ...

  18. Goal Setting, Values of Binus, dan Pembelajaran Character Building di Binus University

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yustinus Suhardi Ruman

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Character Building Education in this era has become concerning by so many institutions of education. Institution of education is not only preparing the student to have knowledge or become smart, cleaver, but also preparing them to become good person. Of course, there are so many definitions about good person. But in this paper, author means  that the good person is they who are not only having soft skill like communication skills, leadership skills, team work skills, initiative & enterprise skills, organization skills, problem solving and ethical decisions making skills. All these skills are very important for every people on this era. It is difficult to think about people will gain a success without mastering these skill. According to author, all the skills above, although important, they are not enough. All the skills must be built on certain values.  In this context both hard skills and soft skills should be based on certain values. As an institution of education, Binus University has certain values. They consist of trust in God, farsighted, freedom to innovate, embrace diversity and tenacious focus. The attitude and behavior of all binusian has to reveal these values. Character Building learning on this point is not only coaching the student in mastering the soft skill above, but also to internalize the values of Binus. So, Values of Binus will inspire all binusian. This paper explains the position of character building learning as a goal setting to internalize the values of binus. To describe the position of character building learning, author uses the concept social action of Talcott Parson. 

  19. Reaching Into the Unknown: Actions, Goal Hierarchies, and Explorative Agency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Davood G. Gozli

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Action is widely characterized as possessing a teleological dimension. The dominant way of describing goal-directed action and agency is in terms of exploitation, i.e., pursuing pre-specified goals using existing strategies. Recent theoretical developments emphasize the place of exploration, i.e., discovering new goals or acquiring new strategies. The exploitation-exploration distinction poses questions with regard to goals and agency: Should exploration, as some authors have suggested, be regarded as acting without a goal? We argue that recognizing the hierarchical nature of goals is crucial in distinguishing the two kinds of activity, because this recognition prevents the claim that exploration is goal-free, while allowing for a homogeneous account of both exploitative and explorative actions. An action typically causes relatively low-level/proximal (i.e., sensorimotor, immediate and relatively high-level/distal (i.e., in the environment, at a wider timescale outcomes. In exploitation, one relies on existing associations between low- and high-level states, whereas in exploration one does not have the ability or intention to control high-level/distal states. We argue that explorative action entails the capacity to exercise control within the low-level/proximal states, which enables the pursuit of indeterminate goals at the higher levels of a goal hierarchy, and the possibility of acquiring new goals and reorganization of goal hierarchies. We consider how the dominant models of agency might accommodate this capacity for explorative action.

  20. Retention of Mastoidectomy Skills After Virtual Reality Simulation Training

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Steven Arild Wuyts; Konge, Lars; Cayé-Thomasen, Per

    2016-01-01

    IMPORTANCE: The ultimate goal of surgical training is consolidated skills with a consistently high performance. However, surgical skills are heterogeneously retained and depend on a variety of factors, including the task, cognitive demands, and organization of practice. Virtual reality (VR......) simulation is increasingly being used in surgical skills training, including temporal bone surgery, but there is a gap in knowledge on the retention of mastoidectomy skills after VR simulation training. OBJECTIVES: To determine the retention of mastoidectomy skills after VR simulation training...... with distributed and massed practice and to investigate participants' cognitive load during retention procedures. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A prospective 3-month follow-up study of a VR simulation trial was conducted from February 6 to September 19, 2014, at an academic teaching hospital among 36 medical...

  1. Evaluating the effectiveness of e-learning for soft skills training

    OpenAIRE

    PESSO, Manon

    2015-01-01

    Thanks to the development of Internet technologies, e-learning platforms became a widespread tool to provide training on both hard and soft skills in a cost-effective way. However, the debate is still ongoing about the efficiency of soft skill e-learning. The goal of this dissertation is thus to evaluate the efficiency of e-learning for soft skills training by studying the case of a French regional bank’s e-learning system. To do this, I analysed the literature on learning, e-learning and tra...

  2. The Role of Grit in College Student Health Care Management Skills and Health-Related Quality of Life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharkey, Christina M; Bakula, Dana M; Gamwell, Kaitlyn L; Mullins, Alexandria J; Chaney, John M; Mullins, Larry L

    2017-10-01

    To examine the relationship of grit, an intrapersonal characteristic defined by perseverance and passion for long-term goals, to health care management skills and adolescent and young adult (AYA) health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Higher levels of grit were expected to relate to greater health care management skills and HRQoL, and skills were predicted to mediate the relationship between grit and HRQoL. Four hundred seventy undergraduates (Mdnage=19, interquartile range = 2) completed online questionnaires, including the short Grit Scale, Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire, and 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36) (HRQoL). Higher grit related to greater health care management skills (R2=0.15 p.05). This preliminary investigation illustrates the role of grit in AYA health, suggesting that it may be a target for interventions aimed at improving skills and HRQoL outcomes. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

  3. Human Value And Soft Skill In Diploma Level Architectural Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr. Sarita Dash

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In todays economic scenario the rising incomes and expectations in the wake of rapid urbanization has created a crying need for creation of value concept in the appropriate climate which will encourage emergence of good human-beings a band of worthy as well as socially responsible professionals and will eventually lead to the creation of a good society. So this paper has been designed to look at the present status of Architectural Education at Diploma level in a dynamic society. To meet the demands of the changing needs of the changing society the future architectural education should address some pertinent issues regarding soft skills which has been discussed in this paper. A little measure has been taken to explain that the innovations and practices in architectural education will impose new demands on the teachers who are mainly responsible for the rectification of the foundation at root level to cultivate the human values as a part of their teachings. The paper has also talked about the outcome of evaluation that necessitates the change in education to express the qualitative significance to human consciousness.

  4. Teaching basic lung isolation skills on human anatomy simulator: attainment and retention of lung isolation skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Latif, Rana K; VanHorne, Edgar M; Kandadai, Sunitha Kanchi; Bautista, Alexander F; Neamtu, Aurel; Wadhwa, Anupama; Carter, Mary B; Ziegler, Craig H; Memon, Mohammed Faisal; Akça, Ozan

    2016-01-20

    Lung isolation skills, such as correct insertion of double lumen endobronchial tube and bronchial blocker, are essential in anesthesia training; however, how to teach novices these skills is underexplored. Our aims were to determine (1) if novices can be trained to a basic proficiency level of lung isolation skills, (2) whether video-didactic and simulation-based trainings are comparable in teaching lung isolation basic skills, and (3) whether novice learners' lung isolation skills decay over time without practice. First, five board certified anesthesiologist with experience of more than 100 successful lung isolations were tested on Human Airway Anatomy Simulator (HAAS) to establish Expert proficiency skill level. Thirty senior medical students, who were naive to bronchoscopy and lung isolation techniques (Novice) were randomized to video-didactic and simulation-based trainings to learn lung isolation skills. Before and after training, Novices' performances were scored for correct placement using pass/fail scoring and a 5-point Global Rating Scale (GRS); and time of insertion was recorded. Fourteen novices were retested 2 months later to assess skill decay. Experts' and novices' double lumen endobronchial tube and bronchial blocker passing rates showed similar success rates after training (P >0.99). There were no differences between the video-didactic and simulation-based methods. Novices' time of insertion decayed within 2 months without practice. Novices could be trained to basic skill proficiency level of lung isolation. Video-didactic and simulation-based methods we utilized were found equally successful in training novices for lung isolation skills. Acquired skills partially decayed without practice.

  5. Fostering inclusive, sustainable economic growth and "green" skills development in learning cities through partnerships

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pavlova, Margarita

    2018-05-01

    One of the requirements of building a learning city is working to ensure its sustainable development. In 2014, UNESCO developed a framework of the key features of learning cities, at the centre of which there are six pillars or "building blocks" which support sustainable development. This article focuses on the third of these pillars, "effective learning for and in the workplace". The author analyses a number of conditions to address this aspect in the context of "green restructuring" which is geared towards facilitating the sustainable development of learning cities. She argues that, at the conceptual level, an understanding of the nature of "green skills" (what they are) and the reasons for "green skills gaps" (why they exist) are essential for the processes of effective learning and strategy planning in sustainable city development. The specific focus of this article is at the policy level: the conceptualisation of partnerships between technical and vocational education and training (TVET) providers, industry, government and other stakeholders with the aim of fostering the production, dissemination and usage of knowledge for the purpose of sustainable economic development and the "greening" of skills. The author proposes a new model, based on the quintuple helix approach to innovation combined with a policy goals orientation framework to theorise the ways in which learning cities can foster sustainable economic growth through green skills development.

  6. The effect of anger management levels and communication skills of Emergency Department staff on being exposed to violence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yildiz Das, Gozde; Aydin Avci, Ilknur

    2015-02-01

    To determine the effect of anger management levels and communication skills of emergency department staff on their frequency of being exposed to violence. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey between 11 April and 15 October 2013 by using a questionnaire including descriptive features, anger management scale, and communication skills scale applied to 283 health personnel working in children and adult emergency department clinics. Statistically significant differences were found between the health workers' ages and their anger control levels, marital status and anger-in and anger control levels, working position and anger-in levels, and between anger-in, anger-out and anger control levels based on their level of education. Statistically significant differences were also found between age and communication levels based on the personnel's working position. Statistically significant difference between the anger-in subscale of health personnel based on their state of being exposed to violence was found (78.4% of the health workers had been exposed to violence). In the in-service programs of institutions, there should be trainings conducted about anger management and effective communication techniques so that the health personnel can be aware of their own feelings and express anger in a suitable way

  7. The effect of anger management levels and communication skills of Emergency Department staff on being exposed to violence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    GozdeYildiz Das

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Aim To determine the effect of anger management levels and communication skills of emergency department staff on their frequency of being exposed to violence. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey between 11 April and 15 October 2013 by using a questionnaire including descriptive features, anger management scale, and communication skills scale applied to 283 health personnel working in children and adult emergency department clinics. Results Statistically significant differences were found between the health workers’ ages and their anger control levels, marital status and anger-in and anger control levels, working position and anger-in levels, and between anger-in, anger-out and anger control levels based on their level of education. Statistically significant differences were also found between age and communication levels based on the personnel’s working position. Statistically significant difference between the anger-in subscale of health personnel based on their state of being exposed to violence was found (78.4% of the health workers had been exposed to violence. Conclusion In the in-service programs of institutions, there should be trainings conducted about anger management and effective communication techniques so that the health personnel can be aware of their own feelings and express anger in a suitable way.

  8. Differences in self-regulatory skills among talented athletes: the significance of competitive level and type of sport.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jonker, Laura; Elferink-Gemser, Marije T; Visscher, Chris

    2010-06-01

    Research has shown that talented athletes outscore their mainstream peers on the basis of self-regulation. Although valuable, this does not tell us more about the distinction between good athletes and the best, which is a prerequisite in talent development. Therefore, we examined the self-regulatory skills of 222 male and female talented athletes aged 12-16 years as a function of competitive sport level (junior international or junior national athletes) and type of sport (individual or team sports). Multivariate analyses of covariance in combination with a discriminant function analysis revealed that "reflection" distinguishes between athletes at the highest levels of excellence. Furthermore, athletes playing individual sports had higher scores on "planning" and "effort" than team sport athletes, highlighting the importance of differences between types of sport. In conclusion, we emphasize the importance of reflection as a self-regulatory skill. Reflection facilitates the development of sport-specific characteristics, which may vary by type of sport. This means that an advanced sense of reflection may help talented athletes to acquire desirable characteristics during their "talent" years to ultimately reach adult elite levels of competition.

  9. Immobilization of defense high-level waste: an assessment of technological strategies and potential regulatory goals. Volume I

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1979-06-01

    An investigation was made of the high-level radioactive waste immobilization technology programs in the U.S. and Europe, and of the associated regulatory programs and waste management perspectives in the countries studied. Purpose was to assess the ability of those programs to satisfy DOE waste management needs and U.S. regulatory requirements. This volume includes: introduction, immobilization strategies in the context of waste isolation program needs, high-level waste management as an integrated system, regulatory goals, engineered-barrier characteristics, barrier technology, high-level waste disposal programs, analysis of HLW immobilization technology in the context of policy and regulatory requirements, and waste immobilization program option

  10. Framework of Assessment for the Evaluation of Thinking Skills of Tertiary Level Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chan Swee Heng

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available In the 21st century, students are required to master thinking skills in order to deal with many situations that arise in the tertiary environment which later would translate into the workplace. Nowadays, thinking skills play a vital role in tertiary education. To provide an approach for teachers, this paper identifies a 4-step model that can be implemented in test design with reference to Bloom’s Taxonomy for thinking skills. This model illustrates a feasible procedure of test construction built upon existing resource. The procedures can easily be applied to different fields of study. It provides an appropriate way for teachers who may want to add more ideas to their repertoire skills in addressing the learning of HOT (higher-order thinking skills. Keywords: thinking skills, Bloom’s Taxonomy, 4-step model

  11. Reactive Goal Decomposition Hierarchies for On-Board Autonomy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartmann, L.

    2002-01-01

    As our experience grows, space missions and systems are expected to address ever more complex and demanding requirements with fewer resources (e.g., mass, power, budget). One approach to accommodating these higher expectations is to increase the level of autonomy to improve the capabilities and robustness of on- board systems and to simplify operations. The goal decomposition hierarchies described here provide a simple but powerful form of goal-directed behavior that is relatively easy to implement for space systems. A goal corresponds to a state or condition that an operator of the space system would like to bring about. In the system described here goals are decomposed into simpler subgoals until the subgoals are simple enough to execute directly. For each goal there is an activation condition and a set of decompositions. The decompositions correspond to different ways of achieving the higher level goal. Each decomposition contains a gating condition and a set of subgoals to be "executed" sequentially or in parallel. The gating conditions are evaluated in order and for the first one that is true, the corresponding decomposition is executed in order to achieve the higher level goal. The activation condition specifies global conditions (i.e., for all decompositions of the goal) that need to hold in order for the goal to be achieved. In real-time, parameters and state information are passed between goals and subgoals in the decomposition; a termination indication (success, failure, degree) is passed up when a decomposition finishes executing. The lowest level decompositions include servo control loops and finite state machines for generating control signals and sequencing i/o. Semaphores and shared memory are used to synchronize and coordinate decompositions that execute in parallel. The goal decomposition hierarchy is reactive in that the generated behavior is sensitive to the real-time state of the system and the environment. That is, the system is able to react

  12. A study of psychomotor skills in minimally invasive surgery: what differentiates expert and nonexpert performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofstad, Erlend Fagertun; Våpenstad, Cecilie; Chmarra, Magdalena Karolina; Langø, Thomas; Kuhry, Esther; Mårvik, Ronald

    2013-03-01

    A high level of psychomotor skills is required to perform minimally invasive surgery (MIS) safely. To assure high quality of skills, it is important to be able to measure and assess these skills. For that, it is necessary to determine aspects that indicate the difference between performances at various levels of proficiency. Measurement and assessment of skills in MIS are best done in an automatic and objective way. The goal of this study was to investigate a set of nine motion-related metrics for their relevance to assess psychomotor skills in MIS during the performance of a labyrinth task. Thirty-two surgeons and medical students were divided into three groups according to their level of experience in MIS; experts (>500 MIS procedures), intermediates (31-500 MIS), and novices (no experience in MIS). The participants performed the labyrinth task in the D-box Basic simulator (D-Box Medical, Lier, Norway). The task required bimanual maneuvering and threading a needle through a labyrinth of 10 holes. Nine motion-related metrics were used to assess the MIS skills of each participant. Experts (n = 7) and intermediates (n = 14) performed significantly better than the novices (n = 11) in terms of time and parameters measuring the amount of instrument movement. The experts had significantly better bimanual dexterity, which indicated that they made more simultaneous movements of the two instruments compared to the intermediates and novices. The experts also performed the task with a shorter instrument path length with the nondominant hand than the intermediates. The surgeon's performance in MIS can be distinguished from a novice by metrics such as time and path length. An experienced surgeon in MIS can be differentiated from a less experienced one by the higher ability to control the instrument in the nondominant hand and the higher degree of simultaneous (coordinated) movements of the two instruments.

  13. Clinical skills required of ophthalmic nurse practitioners in tertiary level public hospitals in the Western Cape Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    U. Kyriacos

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Background: South Africa has a 32-year history of training ophthalmic nurse practitioners (ONPs. The role and required skills and competencies of ONPs are not well documented in the international literature and are also absent from South African publications, including South African Nursing Council publications. Aim: This study aims to inform curriculum development and human resource planning by reporting on the clinical skills expected of ONPs by members of multidisciplinary ophthalmology teams. Method: A limited survey was undertaken in the ophthalmology wards and outpatient departments of three tertiary level hospitals in the Western Cape Province. A researcher-designed structured self-completion questionnaire was distributed to 30 ophthalmology practitioners: doctors, nurses and technicians. Respondents were asked to indicate the expected clinical skills of ONPs. Findings: All questionnaires were completed. All respondents favoured ONPs taking histories and performing emergency eye irrigations. There was less support for more complex procedures, such as B-scans. One-third of respondents did not expect ONPs to have skills in eight key areas, including examination of the anterior chamber angle for glaucoma. No statistically significant differences were found between responses of doctors and nurses, with one exception: more nurses (15/18 than doctors (4/10 had confidence in the ONP undertaking basic eye examinations for ocular motility (Fisher‘s exact test, P = 0 .035. Conclusion: In the study settings, ONPs are not using their specialist skills to the full. Not all practitioners were receptive to ONPs using the skills that they had acquired during their postgraduate diploma, threatening the educational effectiveness of this initiative.

  14. Cognitive Skill, Skill Demands of Jobs, and Earnings among Young European American, African American, and Mexican American Workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farkas, George; And Others

    1997-01-01

    Analyses of National Longitudinal Survey data indicate that cognitive skill level affects access to high-skill occupations and earnings. Lower cognitive skill levels for African Americans and U.S.-born Mexican Americans explain a substantial proportion of income differences between these groups and European Americans but not the gender gap in pay…

  15. Occupational Needs and Goals of Survivors of Domestic Violence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Javaherian-Dysinger, Heather; Krpalek, Dragana; Huecker, Esther; Hewitt, Liane; Cabrera, Michelle; Brown, Canique; Francis, Jason; Rogers, Katie; Server, Sage

    2016-01-01

    This study's purpose was to describe the occupational needs and goals of women residing in a domestic violence shelter and their self-perceived changes in satisfaction and occupational performance. Using a retrospective design, data from 68 occupational therapy evaluations from two domestic violence shelter settings were examined. Data were analyzed by coding problem areas and occupational goals and calculating frequencies for these variables. Where data were available, we also analyzed changes in pre- and postscores for self-perceived satisfaction and occupational performance (n = 25). The most common problem areas were leisure, education, work, child rearing, and health management. The most common goals were in the areas of education, work, health management, child rearing, and home management. Retrospective pre- and postchange scores in performance and satisfaction for 25 women were statistically significant. Findings provide direction for, and highlight the importance of occupational therapy services within domestic violence shelters as women regain their life skills.

  16. An analysis of budgetary goals impacting organizational performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cheok MUI YEE

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This study proposes a conceptual review of how budgetary goals impact organizational performance. The aim of this study is to get a better understanding of the direct and indirect relationship between the organization’s decision-making process and operational performances. Setting the budget particularly influences subordinates’ budget goal levels and motivations (i.e., budget goal acceptance and budget goal commitment, which ultimately enhances the organization’s performance. To test these relationships, data were collected using the three perspectives approach: budgetary goal, budgetary participation and budgetary evaluation. The study provided evidence that perception of fairness mediates the relation between the levels of budget participation and goal commitment, whereas goal commitment mediates the relation between fairness perceptions and performance. At the end of the article, there are some implications for SMEs industries and some suggestions for future studies.

  17. PENDIDIKAN ANAK USIA DINI BERBASIS LIFE SKILLS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dyah Nugrahani

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract To achieve the goal of teaching learning, a proper method, as an instrument, plays an important role in serving the teaching learning materials. The education of pre-school is aimed to develop the life skill, which covers attitude, knowledge, creativity, and skill. The teaching learning methode that forms the child?óÔé¼Ôäós character has to be turned back to the curriculum. It should remain concerning in the phase of the development and character of child who like playing, singing, dan moving. Finally, the teaching learning methode must be addressed in shaping academic, social, personal intellegence, and child?óÔé¼Ôäós creativity. Key words: a proper method, pre-school, life skills

  18. Goal setting practice in chronic low back pain. What is current practice and is it affected by beliefs and attitudes?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Tania; Refshauge, Kathryn; McAuley, James; Hübscher, Markus; Goodall, Stephen; Smith, Lorraine

    2018-01-18

    Goal setting, led by the patient, is promising as an effective treatment for the management of chronic low back pain (CLBP); however, little is known about current practice. The aims of the study were to explore (1) current goal setting practice in CLBP among physiotherapists; (2) perceived barriers to goal setting in CLBP; and (3) relationship between clinician's attitudes and beliefs and goal setting practice. A cross-sectional observational survey. The majority of respondents used goal setting with the main aim of facilitating self-management. The greatest number of goals were set with 50% therapist/50% patient involvement. The most common perceived barriers to goal setting related to time constraints and lack of skill and confidence. A higher biomedical score for treatment orientation of the therapist was associated with a lower patient involvement score. Goal setting is common practice for CLBP and is perceived as a high priority. It is more often a collaboration between therapist and patient rather than patient-led with treatment orientation of the physiotherapist a predictor of patient involvement. Education of healthcare professionals needs to include better understanding of chronic pain to orient them away from a biomedical treatment approach, as well as to enhance skills in facilitating patient involvement in goal setting.

  19. Communication & Negotiation Skills Workshop for Women I

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-03-01

    This workshop is designed to provide women physics students and postdocs with the professional skills they need to effectively perform research, including: negotiating a position in academia, industry or at a national lab, interacting positively on teams and with a mentor or advisor, thinking tactically, articulating goals, enhancing their personal presence, and developing alliances. We will discuss negotiation strategies and tactics that are useful for achieving professional goals. This is a highly interactive workshop where participants are invited to bring examples of difficult professional situations to discuss.

  20. Communication & Negotiation Skills Workshop for Women II

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-03-01

    This workshop is designed to provide women physics students and postdocs with the professional skills they need to effectively perform research, including: negotiating a position in academia, industry or at a national lab, interacting positively on teams and with a mentor or advisor, thinking tactically, articulating goals, enhancing their personal presence, and developing alliances. We will discuss negotiation strategies and tactics that are useful for achieving professional goals. This is a highly interactive workshop where participants are invited to bring examples of difficult professional situations to discuss.

  1. PENINGKATAN SOFT SKILLS SISWA SMP MELALUI PEMBELAJARAN GENERATIF

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    La Moma

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstrak: Soft skills merupakan faktor yang turut menunjang kesuksesan siswa belajar matematika. Perlu ada upaya untuk menerapkan suatu model pembelajaran yang dapat memicu peningkatan soft skills siswa dalam matematika. Penelitian ini menerapkan model pembelajaran generatif sebagai alternatif pembelajaran yang diperkirakan akan memicu peningkatan ketiga kemampuan tersebut. Tujuan penelitian untuk mengetahui seberapa besar kontribusi penerapan model tersebut terhadap peningkatan kemampuan soft skills pada level sekolah (tinggi, sedang dan rendah. Penelitian menerapkan desain kuasi eksperimen. Sampel terdiri atas 191 orang siswa kelas VIII pada tiga SMP Negeri di Kota Yogyakarta yang mewakili level sekolah. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan teknik tes (pretes dan postes, sedang analisis data menggunakan statistik uji-t dan anova dua jalur. Dari hasil analisis data ditemukan bahwa (1 ada perbedaan pencapaian, peningkatan soft skills siswa antara kelas eksperimen dan kelas kontrol; (2 tidak terdapat interaksi antara pembelajaran dan level sekolah terhadap peningkatan soft skills. Kata Kunci: kemampuan soft skills, pembelajaran generatif THE ENHANCEMENT OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS SOFT SKILLS THROUGH GENERATIVE LEARNING Abstract: Soft skills are factors that support students success in learning mathematics. The importance of the students soft skills, unfortunately, are not in line with at the students abilities in these competence. Therefore, we have to implemented a learning model that is expected to lead development soft skills of the students in mathematics. Generative learning model is applied in this study as an alternative learning is predicted to stimulate development soft skills of the students. This study is aimed at determining the contribution of generative learning model of the enhancement of soft skills for difference school levels (high, medium, low.This study is quasi-experimental research involving 191 students of eight

  2. An exploration of contextual dimensions impacting goals of care conversations in postgraduate medical education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roze des Ordons, Amanda L; Lockyer, Jocelyn; Hartwick, Michael; Sarti, Aimee; Ajjawi, Rola

    2016-03-21

    Postgraduate medical trainees are not well prepared difficult conversations about goals of care with patients and families in the acute care clinical setting. While contextual nuances within the workplace can impact communication, research to date has largely focused on individual communication skills. Our objective was to explore contextual factors that influence conversations between trainees and patients/families about goals of care in the acute care setting. We conducted an exploratory qualitative study involving five focus groups with Internal Medicine trainees (n = 20) and a series of interviews with clinical faculty (n = 11) within a single Canadian centre. Thematic framework analysis was applied to categorize the data and identify themes and subthemes. Challenges and factors enabling goals of care conversations emerged within individual, interpersonal and system dimensions. Challenges included inadequate preparation for these conversations, disconnection between trainees, faculty and patients, policies around documentation, the structure of postgraduate medical education, and resource limitations; these challenges led to missed opportunities, uncertainty and emotional distress. Enabling factors were awareness of the importance of goals of care conversations, support in these discussions, collaboration with colleagues, and educational initiatives enabling skill development; these factors have resulted in learning, appreciation, and an established foundation for future educational initiatives. Contextual factors impact how postgraduate medical trainees communicate with patients/families about goals of care. Attention to individual, interpersonal and system-related factors will be important in designing educational programs that help trainees develop the capacities needed for challenging conversations.

  3. Box- or Virtual-Reality Trainer: Which Tool Results in Better Transfer of Laparoscopic Basic Skills?-A Prospective Randomized Trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brinkmann, Christian; Fritz, Mathias; Pankratius, Ulrich; Bahde, Ralf; Neumann, Philipp; Schlueter, Steffen; Senninger, Norbert; Rijcken, Emile

    Simulation training improves laparoscopic performance. Laparoscopic basic skills can be learned in simulators as box- or virtual-reality (VR) trainers. However, there is no clear recommendation for either box or VR trainers as the most appropriate tool for the transfer of acquired laparoscopic basic skills into a surgical procedure. Both training tools were compared, using validated and well-established curricula in the acquirement of basic skills, in a prospective randomized trial in a 5-day structured laparoscopic training course. Participants completed either a box- or VR-trainer curriculum and then applied the learned skills performing an ex situ laparoscopic cholecystectomy on a pig liver. The performance was recorded on video and evaluated offline by 4 blinded observers using the Global Operative Assessment of Laparoscopic Skills (GOALS) score. Learning curves of the various exercises included in the training course were compared and the improvement in each exercise was analyzed. Surgical Skills Lab of the Department of General and Visceral Surgery, University Hospital Muenster. Surgical novices without prior surgical experience (medical students, n = 36). Posttraining evaluation showed significant improvement compared with baseline in both groups, indicating acquisition of laparoscopic basic skills. Learning curves showed almost the same progression with no significant differences. In simulated laparoscopic cholecystectomy, total GOALS score was significantly higher for the box-trained group than the VR-trained group (box: 15.31 ± 3.61 vs. VR: 12.92 ± 3.06; p = 0.039; Hedge׳s g* = 0.699), indicating higher technical skill levels. Despite both systems having advantages and disadvantages, they can both be used for simulation training for laparoscopic skills. In the setting with 2 structured, validated and almost identical curricula, the box-trained group appears to be superior in the better transfer of basic skills into an experimental but structured

  4. Determinants of Skilled Birth Attendance in the Northern Parts of Ghana

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kwamena Sekyi Dickson

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. An integral part of the Sustainable Development Goal three is to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services which include skilled delivery by the year 2030. We examined the determinants of skilled delivery among women in the Northern part of Ghana. Methods. The paper made use of data from the Demographic and Health Survey. Women from the Northern part of Ghana were included in the analysis. Bivariate descriptive analyses coupled with binary logistic regression estimation technique were used to analyse the data. Results. Region of residence, age, household wealth, education, distance to a health facility, religion, parity, partner’s education, and getting money for treatment were identified as the determinants of skilled delivery. While the probability of having a skilled delivery was higher in the Upper East Region, it was lower in the Northern and Upper West Regions compared to the Brong Ahafo Region. Conclusion. Our findings call for more attention from the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health in addressing the skilled delivery gaps among women particularly in the Northern and Upper West Regions in ensuring attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal target related to reproductive health care accessibility for all by the year 2030.

  5. Preschool children's social understanding: a pilot study of goals and strategies during conflict situations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kazura, Kerry; Flanders, Rachel

    2007-10-01

    This pilot study tested a new enactive measure of social information-processing skills and investigated whether preschool children's goals were related to their strategies during hypothetical conflict situations. Children (13 boys, 12 girls) ages 3 to 6 years (three 3-yr.-olds, three 4-yr.-olds, 11 5-yr.-olds, and eight 6-yr.-olds) engaged in a puppet interview of six hypothetical situations. Significant correlations were found between goals and strategies of the adapted version of Chung and Asher's Children's Conflict Resolution Measure, suggesting that preschool children who endorsed friendship goals tended to select more prosocial strategies (.41). Children who endorsed more retaliation goals tended to select more hostile strategies (.67) but fewer prosocial strategies (-.41), and children who endorsed more avoidance goals tended to select more adult-seeking strategies (.45).

  6. Academic goals and learning quality in higher education students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valle, Antonio; Núñez, José C; Cabanach, Ramón G; González-Pienda, Julio A; Rodríguez, Susana; Rosário, Pedro; Muñoz-Cadavid, María A; Cerezo, Rebeca

    2009-05-01

    In this paper, the relations between academic goals and various indicators that define the quality of the learning process are analyzed. The purpose was to determine to what extent high, moderate, or low levels of academic goals were positively or negatively related to effort regulation, the value assigned to academic tasks, meta-cognitive self-regulation, self-efficacy, beliefs about learning control, and management of time and study environment. The investigation was carried out with a sample of 632 university students (70% female and 30% male) and mean age of 21.22 (SD=2.2).The results show that learning goals, or task orientation, are positively related to all the indictors of learning quality considered herein. Although for other kinds of goals-work-avoidance goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals-significant relations were not found with all the indicators, there was a similar tendency of significant results in all cases; the higher the levels of these goals, the lower the levels of the indicators of learning quality.

  7. Analysis of Relations between Spatiotemporal Movement Regulation and Performance of Discrete Actions Reveals Functionality in Skilled Climbing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dominic Orth

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available In this review of research on climbing expertise, we focus on different measures of climbing performance, including spatiotemporal measures related to fluency and activity states (i.e., discrete actions, adopted by climbers for achieving overall performance goals of getting to the end of a route efficiently and safely. Currently, a broad range of variables have been reported, however, many of these fail to capture how climbers adapt to a route whilst climbing. We argue that spatiotemporal measures should be considered concurrently with evaluation of activity states (such as reaching or exploring in order gain a more comprehensive picture of how climbers successfully adapt to a route. Spatial and temporal movement measures taken at the hip are a traditional means of assessing efficiency of climbing behaviors. More recently, performatory and exploratory actions of the limbs have been used in combination with spatiotemporal indicators, highlighting the influence of limb states on climbing efficiency and skill transfer. However, only a few studies have attempted to combine spatiotemporal and activity state measures taken during route climbing. This review brings together existing approaches for observing climbing skill at performance outcome (i.e., spatiotemporal assessments and process (i.e., limb activity states levels of analysis. Skill level is associated with a spatially efficient route progression and lower levels of immobility. However, more difficult hold architecture designs require significantly greater mobility and more complex movement patterning to maintain performance. Different forms of functional, or goal-supportive, movement variability, including active recovery and hold exploration, have been implicated as important adaptations to physiological and environmental dynamics that emerge during the act of climbing. Indeed, recently it has also been shown that, when climbing on new routes, efficient exploration can improve the transfer

  8. Facilitating Self-Regulated Learning Skills and Achievement with a Strategic Content Learning Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heller, Monica L.; Marchant, Gregory J.

    2015-01-01

    Whether out of financial concerns for student retention or altruistic goals involving facilitating successful learning, efforts are being made to ensure college student success beyond chance independent study skills. Students often lack effective self-regulatory skills and study strategies necessary for success in college. With guidance through…

  9. Do Perceptions of Competence Mediate The Relationship Between Fundamental Motor Skill Proficiency and Physical Activity Levels of Children in Kindergarten?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crane, Jeff R; Naylor, Patti J; Cook, Ryan; Temple, Viviene A

    2015-07-01

    Perceptions of competence mediate the relationship between motor skill proficiency and physical activity among older children and adolescents. This study examined kindergarten children's perceptions of physical competence as a mediator of the relationship between motor skill proficiency as a predictor variable and physical activity levels as the outcome variable; and also with physical activity as a predictor and motor skill proficiency as the outcome. Participants were 116 children (mean age = 5 years 7 months, 58% boys) from 10 schools. Motor skills were measured using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 and physical activity was monitored through accelerometry. Perceptions of physical competence were measured using The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children, and the relationships between these variables were examined using a model of mediation. The direct path between object control skills and moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was significant and object control skills predicted perceived physical competence. However, perceived competence did not mediate the relationship between object control skills and MVPA. The significant relationship between motor proficiency and perceptions of competence did not in turn influence kindergarten children's participation in physical activity. These findings support concepts of developmental differences in the structure of the self-perception system.

  10. Communication and Pragmatic Skills in Foreign Language Classes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olda Xhepa BALLIU

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper tries to analyze the importance and the relationship between communication and pragmatic skills in foreign language classes. Philosophers and linguists have dealt with language, analyzing it from the psychological viewpoint. Communication in L1 or L2 is related and it depends on the science of pragmatics. While communicating, interlocutors interact impacted by the context, the situation, the receiver, the sender, by using the formal or the informal language according to the circumstances. For this reason, we try, in this paper, to make a thorough description of the relationship between communication and pragmatics. Students need to master pragmatic skills in order to communicate. If Italian students or foreign language students have developed pragmatic skills in the native language, this will help them learning a foreign language. The goal of the foreign language teacher is to help students achieve communication skills. The pragmatic and communication skills can be practiced through communication activities like in L1 for speech acts are practiced in communication.

  11. Decomposing Cross-Country Differences in Skills:

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Albæk, Karsten; Rosdahl, Anders

    2017-01-01

    This paper performs multivariate analysis of skill differences in the Nordic countries as assessed by OECD’s PIACC survey of adults aged 16-65. We decompose the differences in average skills between Finland and each of the three Scandinavian countries into a component that is due to different skill...... levels in subgroups of the population and a component that is due to differences in the composition of subgroups. The decompositions show that the high Finnish average skill level compared to the three Scandinavian countries can be attributed the low share of immigrants in Finland and to high scores...... among Finns with high school and less than high school education. The Finnish average score is pulled substantially downwards as a consequence of the low numeracy skill level among older Finns, which is consistent with an increase in the quantity or quality of Finnish education over time, relative...

  12. Coding Bootcamps : Building Future-Proof Skills through Rapid Skills Training

    OpenAIRE

    World Bank

    2017-01-01

    This report studies coding bootcamps. A new kind of rapid skills training program for the digital age. Coding bootcamps are typically short-term (three to six months), intensive and applied training courses provided by a third party that crowdsources the demand for low-skills tech talent. Coding bootcamps aim at low-entry level tech employability (for example, junior developer), providing a ...

  13. Phase II Final Report on an Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching Battlefield Command Reasoning Skills

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Domeshek, Eric

    2004-01-01

    ... (ITS) for Teaching Battlefield Command Reasoning Skills. The ultimate goal of this research program is to develop new ITS techniques and technology for teaching skills that cannot be taught as simple methods and procedures to be followed...

  14. Enhancement and assessment of students’ systems thinking skills by application of systemic synthesis questions in the organic chemistry course

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hrin Tamara N.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Many studies in the field of science education have emphasized the fact that systems thinking is a very important higher-order thinking skill which should be fostered during classes. However, more attention has been dedicated to the different ways of systems thinking skills assessment, and less to their enhancement. Taking this into consideration, the goal of our study was not only to validate secondary school students’ systems thinking skills, but also to help students in the complex process of their development. With this goal, new instructional and assessment tools - systemic synthesis questions [SSynQs], were constructed, and an experiment with one experimental (E and one control (C group was conducted during organic chemistry classes. Namely, the instructional teaching/learning method for both E and C groups was the same in processing the new contents, but different on classes for the revision of the selected organic chemistry contents. The results showed that students exposed to the new instructional method (E group achieved higher performance scores on three different types of systems thinking than students from the C group, who were taught by the traditional method. The greatest difference between the groups was found in the most complex dimension of systems thinking construct - in the II level of procedural systems thinking. Along with this dimension, structural systems thinking and I level of procedural systems thinking were also observed. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179010

  15. Level of Immersion in Virtual Environments Impacts the Ability to Assess and Teach Social Skills in Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bugnariu, Nicoleta L.

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Virtual environments (VEs) may be useful for delivering social skills interventions to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Immersive VEs provide opportunities for individuals with ASD to learn and practice skills in a controlled replicable setting. However, not all VEs are delivered using the same technology, and the level of immersion differs across settings. We group studies into low-, moderate-, and high-immersion categories by examining five aspects of immersion. In doing so, we draw conclusions regarding the influence of this technical manipulation on the efficacy of VEs as a tool for assessing and teaching social skills. We also highlight ways in which future studies can advance our understanding of how manipulating aspects of immersion may impact intervention success. PMID:26919157

  16. Skills core

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawson, Laura

    Constantly changing technology and increasing competition mean that private companies are aggressively seeking new employees with high levels of technological literacy, good judgment, and communication and team-building skills. Industry also needs workers educated in science, math, engineering, and technology. But which of these skills are most important? Researchers at Indian River Community College at Fort Pierce, Fla., will attempt to answer that question with an NSF grant of nearly $1 million.

  17. A Systems Approach to Scaffold Communication Skills Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Er, Nelson L.

    2008-01-01

    Objectives To implement a communication skills development (CSD) system and evaluate its effectiveness in a clinical communications course. Design Students conducted baseline interviews and wrote SOAP notes, and based on faculty, patient, self- and peer assessments, set goals for improvement of their communication skills. Students participated in various activities to scaffold their learning, several of which took place in a web-based environment to enhance access and function for both students and faculty members. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed. Assessment Students' communication skills improved as evidenced by assessment scores. Student and faculty comments offered additional evidence of the effectiveness of standardized patient interviews, learning strategies, and assessment methods. Conclusion The CSD system effectively integrated various types of learning activities and feedback processes. The use of scaffolding strategies appeared to enhance the development of students' communication skills. PMID:18483601

  18. The Skills Framework for the Information Age: Engaging Stakeholders in Curriculum Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Konsky, Brian R.; Miller, Charlynn; Jones, Asheley

    2016-01-01

    This paper reports on a research project, examining the role of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) curriculum design and management. A goal was to investigate how SFIA informs a top-down approach to curriculum design, beginning with a set of skills that define a particular career…

  19. Engagement and Skill Development in Biology Students through Analysis of Art

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milkova, Liliana; Crossman, Colette; Wiles, Stephanie; Allen, Taylor

    2013-01-01

    An activity involving analysis of art in biology courses was designed with the goals of piquing undergraduates’ curiosity, broadening the ways in which college students meaningfully engage with course content and concepts, and developing aspects of students’ higher-level thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. To meet these learning outcomes, the activity had three key components: preparatory readings, firsthand visual analysis of art during a visit to an art museum, and communication of the analysis. Following a presentation on the methodology of visual analysis, students worked in small groups to examine through the disciplinary lens of biology a selection of approximately 12 original artworks related in some manner to love. The groups then developed and presented for class members a mini-exhibition of several pieces addressing one of two questions: 1) whether portrayals of love in art align with the growing understanding of the biology of love or 2) whether the bodily experience of love is universal or, alternatively, is culturally influenced, as is the experience of depression. Evaluation of quantitative and qualitative assessment data revealed that the assignment engaged students, supported development of higher-level thinking skills, and prompted meaningful engagement with course material. PMID:24297295

  20. Engagement and skill development in biology students through analysis of art.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milkova, Liliana; Crossman, Colette; Wiles, Stephanie; Allen, Taylor

    2013-01-01

    An activity involving analysis of art in biology courses was designed with the goals of piquing undergraduates' curiosity, broadening the ways in which college students meaningfully engage with course content and concepts, and developing aspects of students' higher-level thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. To meet these learning outcomes, the activity had three key components: preparatory readings, first-hand visual analysis of art during a visit to an art museum, and communication of the analysis. Following a presentation on the methodology of visual analysis, students worked in small groups to examine through the disciplinary lens of biology a selection of approximately 12 original artworks related in some manner to love. The groups then developed and presented for class members a mini-exhibition of several pieces addressing one of two questions: 1) whether portrayals of love in art align with the growing understanding of the biology of love or 2) whether the bodily experience of love is universal or, alternatively, is culturally influenced, as is the experience of depression. Evaluation of quantitative and qualitative assessment data revealed that the assignment engaged students, supported development of higher-level thinking skills, and prompted meaningful engagement with course material.

  1. An Integrative Approach to Developing Organisational Capabilities and Individual Skills

    OpenAIRE

    Murnane, Sinéad; Thornley, Clare

    2017-01-01

    The tightly coupled relationship between organisational capability and the skills and competences of the individuals working in that organisation has long been recognised in both the academic literature and by the practitioner community. Simply improving individuals’ skills and hoping that the organisation’s capability automatically improves in tandem is not sufficient, however. This relationship is non-trivial and needs to be actively managed, meaning that people need to have shared goals ...

  2. Perfecting social skills a guide to interpersonal behavior development

    CERN Document Server

    Eisler, Richard M

    1980-01-01

    That man is a social being is almost axiomatic. Our interpersonal relation­ ships can be sources of the most rewarding or the most painful of human experiences. To a large measure our accomplishments in life depend on the facility with which we interact with others-our social skill. The acquisition of social skills is, of course, a natural part of the overall socialization process. However, in many instances it becomes necessary or desirable to develop further an individual's social facilities. Such skill development is the topic of this book. Two major goals were kept in mind in the writing of this book. The first was to provide a conceptual framework within which to view social skills. Such a framework allows one to understand why it is important to develop social skills, and the effects that such skill development should have. If the reader has a thorough understanding of the concept of social skills and their development, it becomes possible to make appropriate innovations and adaptions to his or her own...

  3. Ageing and skills

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Desjardins, Richard; Warnke, Arne Jonas

    The relationship between ageing and skills is becoming an important policy issue, not least in the context of population ageing. Data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will potentially add considerably to the understanding of the relationship between...... ageing and foundation skills. In particular, the fact that data from the 1994-1998 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) and the 2003-2007 Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey (ALL) will be linked with PIAAC offers a unique opportunity to examine trends over time at the cohort level for a wide range...... of countries. Specifically, repeated measures will enable an analysis of whether there is skill gain and skill loss over the lifespan of cohorts and overtime between cohorts. This is especially important because age-skill profiles observed on the basis of a single cross-section are difficult to interpret...

  4. The level of physical and social skills after completion of the training program for children aged 9-11

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucie Francová

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Objective: The objective of the study was to determine changes in physical and social indicators in participants of a table tennis training program lasting 10 months. Physical and social indicators were compared within two different research groups. Methods: Two research groups were created. The first one comprised beginners with intellectual disabilities and the reference group was created by non-disabled participants. Altogether 15 participants, aged 9-11, were included in each group. A pre-test was introduced at the beginning of the study and was followed by a post-test 10 months later. Physical parameters were evaluated with the help of individual skills tests designed for table tennis. The area of social indicators was determined according to the Scales for Assessing Coping Skills by Whelan and Speake (1979. Results: As far as physical indicators (e.g. individual skills used in table tennis are concerned, individuals with intellectual disabilities improved by 24.5%. The improvement of non-disabled population reached 11%. Positive changes in social indicators, which include self-help socio-educational issues and interpersonal skills, were seen in individuals with intellectual disabilities - the improvement reached 7%; whereas the improvement in non-disabled participants was only 2%. The obtained results were evaluated separately for each group, due to the default level in pre-tests. Having compared the two groups we learnt that individuals with intellectual disabilities reached on average 63% of the non-disabled participants. Conclusions: The training programme has brought positive changes into the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities in all of the studied parameters, social and physical skills included. In accord with our comparative findings it has been recommended to reduce sport demands to the observed level. Also, a number, of methodological skills required for table tennis, has been modified in accordance with our

  5. Self-reflection, growth goals, and academic outcomes: A qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Travers, Cheryl J; Morisano, Dominique; Locke, Edwin A

    2015-06-01

    Goal-setting theory continues to be among the most popular and influential theories of motivation and performance, although there have been limited academic applications relative to applications in other domains, such as organizational psychology. This paper summarizes existing quantitative research and then employs a qualitative approach to exploring academic growth via an in-depth reflective growth goal-setting methodology. The study focuses on 92 UK final-year students enrolled in an elective advanced interpersonal skills and personal development module, with self-reflection and growth goal setting at its core. Qualitative data in the form of regular reflective written diary entries and qualitative questionnaires were collected from students during, on completion of, and 6 months following the personal growth goal-setting programme. About 20% of students' self-set growth goals directly related to academic growth and performance; students reported that these had a strong impact on their achievement both during and following the reflective programme. Growth goals that were indirectly related to achievement (e.g., stress management) appeared to positively impact academic growth and other outcomes (e.g., well-being). A follow-up survey revealed that growth goal setting continued to impact academic growth factors (e.g., self-efficacy, academic performance) beyond the reflective programme itself. Academic growth can result from both academically direct and indirect growth goals, and growth goal setting appears to be aided by the process of simultaneous growth reflection. The implications for promoting academic growth via this unique learning and development approach are discussed. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

  6. Empowering Learners to Choose the Difficulty Level of Problems Based on Their Learning Needs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janet Mannheimer Zydney

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available Research has found that increasing learner control offers several benefits, including increased motivation, attitude, and learning. The goal of the present study was to determine how prior math achievement influences students' selection of the difficulty level of problems within Math Pursuits, a hypermedia learning program. Math Pursuits was designed to help children understand mathematics by discovering how it relates to the world around them. The program presented each learner with an adjustable level of challenge, along with the necessary scaffolding to support success. The researchers hypothesized that students with lower math skills would choose to start with a lower difficultly level; whereas, students with higher math skills would begin the program by choosing a question with a higher level of difficulty. Results supported these hypotheses. This research also examined the motivational framework guiding students' selection of problem difficulty.

  7. The future of practical skills in undergraduate medical education - an explorative Delphi-Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dannenberg, Katja Anne; Stroben, Fabian; Schröder, Therese; Thomas, Anke; Hautz, Wolf E

    2016-01-01

    64% of young medical professionals in Germany do not feel adequately prepared for the practical requirements of the medical profession. The goal of "outcome-orientated training" is to structure medical curricula based on the skills needed when entering the workforce after completing undergraduate medical education, and thus to bridge the gap between the skills graduates have attained and those necessary for a career in the medical profession. Outcome frameworks (OFs) are used for this purpose. In preparation for developing the National Competence-Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives for Medicine (NKLM) - the German OF - the "Consensus Statement of Practical Skills in Undergraduate Medical Education" (which structures the teaching and acquisition of practical skills in Germany and which strongly influenced the "Clinical-Practical Skills" chapter of the NKLM) was published in 2011. It is not uncommon for at least a decade to elapse between the definition and implementation of an OF and the students' graduation, which can further increase the gap between necessary and acquired skills. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to posit theses for future development in healthcare and to apply these theses to a current OF. Partially structured interviews with experts were used to generate theses pertaining to general, future development in healthcare. These theses were assessed by physician experts based on the likelihood of implementation by the year 2025. The 288 learning goals of the consensus statement were assessed for their relevance for medical education in the interim. 11 theses were generated for the development of medicine, and these theses were assessed and discussed by 738 experts. These theses include the increase in diseases associated with old age, the increasing significance of interprofessional cooperation, and the growing prevalence of telemedicine applications. Of the 288 learning goals of the consensus statement, 231 of the goals were assessed as relevant

  8. Transformational and transactional leadership skills for mental health teams.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corrigan, P W; Garman, A N

    1999-08-01

    Many treatments for persons with severe mental illness are provided by mental health teams. Team members work better when led by effective leaders. Research conducted by organizational psychologists, and validated on mental health teams, have identified a variety of skills that are useful for these leaders. Bass (1990, 1997) identified two sets of especially important skills related to transformational and transactional leadership. Leaders using transformational skills help team members to view their work from more elevated perspectives and develop innovative ways to deal with work-related problems. Skills related to transformational leadership promote inspiration, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, participative decision making, and elective delegation. Mental health and rehabilitation teams must not only develop creative and innovative programs, they must maintain them over time as a series of leader-team member transactions. Transactional leadership skills include goal-setting, feedback, and reinforcement strategies which help team members maintain effective programs.

  9. Analyzing the Effects of Iranian EFL Textbooks on Developing Learners' Life Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khosravani, Mahboobeh; Khosravani, Mahmood; Khorashadyzadeh, Abbas

    2014-01-01

    Education is not an end, but a means to an end. The ultimate goal of education is to prepare students for their future life. Regarding this fact, English language classes and textbooks can be used as tools for improving learners' life skills. Meanwhile, informative textbooks with rich socio-cultural constructs that foster learners' life skills are…

  10. Reproductive goals and family planning attitudes in Pakistan: a couple-level analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahmood, N

    1998-01-01

    This paper examined reproductive goals and family planning attitudes at the couple level in Pakistan. Data were based on the responses of the 1260 matched couples in the 1990-91 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey. The questions integrated in the interview were on desired fertility, family size ideas, son preference, and family planning attitude. Findings of the analysis showed that about 60% of the couples have given similar responses (agreeing either positively or negatively) to several fertility-related questions, whereas the remaining 40% differ in their attitudes. This divergence may partly be of the environmental factors such as spouse rural background, lack of education, and minimal communication between spouses. This implies that a couple's joint approval, discussion of family planning, and husband's desire for no more children have the strongest effect on promoting contraceptive use. Thus, it is concluded that the role of couple agreement is important in promoting the use of family planning, and men should be made equal targets of such programs in Pakistan.

  11. A Study on the Application of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB Model on Rational Drug Use Behavior among Second-Level Hospital Outpatients in Anhui, China.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cheng Bian

    Full Text Available The high prevalence of risky irrational drug use behaviors mean that outpatients face high risks of drug resistance and even death. This study represents the first application of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB model on rational drug use behavior among second-level hospital outpatients from three prefecture-level cities in Anhui, China. Using the IMB model, our study examined predictors of rational drug use behavior and determined the associations between the model constructs.This study was conducted with a sample of 1,214 outpatients aged 18 years and older in Anhui second-level hospitals and applied the structural equation model (SEM to test predictive relations among the IMB model variables related to rational drug use behavior.Age, information and motivation had significant direct effects on rational drug use behavior. Behavioral skills as an intermediate variable also significantly predicted more rational drug use behavior. Female gender, higher educational level, more information and more motivation predicted more behavioral skills. In addition, there were significant indirect impacts on rational drug use behavior mediated through behavioral skills.The IMB-based model explained the relationships between the constructs and rational drug use behavior of outpatients in detail, and it suggests that future interventions among second-level hospital outpatients should consider demographic characteristics and should focus on improving motivation and behavioral skills in addition to the publicity of knowledge.

  12. A Study on the Application of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) Model on Rational Drug Use Behavior among Second-Level Hospital Outpatients in Anhui, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bian, Cheng; Xu, Shuman; Wang, Heng; Li, Niannian; Wu, Jingya; Zhao, Yunwu; Li, Peng; Lu, Hua

    2015-01-01

    The high prevalence of risky irrational drug use behaviors mean that outpatients face high risks of drug resistance and even death. This study represents the first application of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model on rational drug use behavior among second-level hospital outpatients from three prefecture-level cities in Anhui, China. Using the IMB model, our study examined predictors of rational drug use behavior and determined the associations between the model constructs. This study was conducted with a sample of 1,214 outpatients aged 18 years and older in Anhui second-level hospitals and applied the structural equation model (SEM) to test predictive relations among the IMB model variables related to rational drug use behavior. Age, information and motivation had significant direct effects on rational drug use behavior. Behavioral skills as an intermediate variable also significantly predicted more rational drug use behavior. Female gender, higher educational level, more information and more motivation predicted more behavioral skills. In addition, there were significant indirect impacts on rational drug use behavior mediated through behavioral skills. The IMB-based model explained the relationships between the constructs and rational drug use behavior of outpatients in detail, and it suggests that future interventions among second-level hospital outpatients should consider demographic characteristics and should focus on improving motivation and behavioral skills in addition to the publicity of knowledge.

  13. Neuroplasticity-based Cognitive and Linguistic Skills Training Improves Reading and Writing Skills in College Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beth eRogowsky

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available This study reports an evaluation of the effect of computer-based cognitive and linguistic training on college students’ reading and writing skills. The computer-based training included a series of increasingly challenging software programs that were designed to strengthen students’ foundational cognitive skills (memory, attention span, processing speed, and sequencing in the context of listening and higher level reading tasks. Twenty-five college students (12 native English language; 13 English Second Language who demonstrated poor writing skills participated in the training group. The training group received daily training during the spring semester (11 weeks with the Fast ForWord Literacy (FFW-L and upper levels of the Fast ForWord Reading series (Levels 3, 4 and 5. The comparison group (n=28 selected from the general college population did not receive training. Both the training and comparison groups attended the same university. All students took the Gates MacGinitie Reading Test (GMRT and the Oral and Written Language Scales (OWLS Written Expression Scale at the beginning (Time 1 and end (Time 2 of the spring college semester. Results from this study showed that the training group made a statistically greater improvement from Time 1 to Time 2 in both their reading skills and their writing skills than the comparison group. The group who received training began with statistically lower writing skills before training, but exceeded the writing skills of the comparison group after training.

  14. Spatial Skill Profile of Mathematics Pre-Service Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Putri, R. O. E.

    2018-01-01

    This study is aimed to investigate the spatial intelligence of mathematics pre-service teachers and find the best instructional strategy that facilitates this aspect. Data were collected from 35 mathematics pre-service teachers. The Purdue Spatial Visualization Test (PSVT) was used to identify the spatial skill of mathematics pre-service teachers. Statistical analysis indicate that more than 50% of the participants possessed spatial skill in intermediate level, whereas the other were in high and low level of spatial skill. The result also shows that there is a positive correlation between spatial skill and mathematics ability, especially in geometrical problem solving. High spatial skill students tend to have better mathematical performance compare to those in two other levels. Furthermore, qualitative analysis reveals that most students have difficulty in manipulating geometrical objects mentally. This problem mostly appears in intermediate and low-level spatial skill students. The observation revealed that 3-D geometrical figures is the best method that can overcome the mentally manipulation problem and develop the spatial visualization. Computer application can also be used to improve students’ spatial skill.

  15. An application to estimate the cyber-risk detection skill of mobile device users

    OpenAIRE

    Schaff, Guillaume; Harpes, Carlo; Martin, Romain; Junger, Marianne; Berntzen, Lasse; Böhm, Stephan

    2013-01-01

    According to experts’ predictions, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers) will replace the widespread personal computer by 2017 for personal and work tasks (emergence of BYOD). In parallel, the expert community has observed an increase of cyber-attacks against mobile devices. Mobile device users are increasingly required to develop new skills to manage their equipment correctly. Towards this goal, the 21st Century Skills framework redefines the essential knowledge and skills, which pe...

  16. Skill gap analysis and training needs in Indian aerospace industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Premkumar Balaraman

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: The main objective of the paper is on assessing the global aerospace industry as well as Indian scenario, and attempts to assess the skill gaps and training needs of Indian aerospace industry.  Design/methodology/approach: The study is qualitative in nature, and employs wide array of qualitative tools which includes desktop study, focus group interviews and secondary sources of information. Around 10 focus groups were used in the study, with each focus group having a minimum of 6 members of experts in the aerospace and allied industries. The study evolved into a 2 staged one, with the first study elucidating the growing importance and potential of aerospace industry, justifying the significance to take forward the second part of the study. And the second study specifically focuses on skill gaps and training needs. Findings and Originality/value: The Study yields varied results on existing generic expectations of aerospace industry, specific needs of aerospace industry, identification of aerospace job categories unique to aerospace industry, key issues of training in Indian scenario and recommendations. The paper in summary reflects the current scenario of aerospace industry potentials for India and its likely impact on skills gap and training needs. Practical implications: Skills gap is a significant gap between an organization’s current capabilities and the skills it needs to achieve its goals. As a number of Global forecasts project, India as an emerging aviation market, the skill gaps in this sector is predicted to be huge and necessitates the study on assessing the skill gaps and its allied training needs. Originality/value: The Study is highly original and first one of its kind in reflecting the current situation of the skills gap and training needs in Indian Aerospace industry. The focus group interviews were conducted with the experts at various levels in the industyr without any bias yielding valid and realtime data for the

  17. A mediation analysis of achievement motives, goals, learning strategies, and academic achievement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diseth, Age; Kobbeltvedt, Therese

    2010-12-01

    Previous research is inconclusive regarding antecedents and consequences of achievement goals, and there is a need for more research in order to examine the joint effects of different types of motives and learning strategies as predictors of academic achievement. To investigate the relationship between achievement motives, achievement goals, learning strategies (deep, surface, and strategic), and academic achievement in a hierarchical model. Participants were 229 undergraduate students (mean age: 21.2 years) of psychology and economics at the University of Bergen, Norway. Variables were measured by means of items from the Achievement Motives Scale (AMS), the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students, and an achievement goal scale. Correlation analysis showed that academic achievement (examination grade) was positively correlated with performance-approach goal, mastery goal, and strategic learning strategies, and negatively correlated with performance-avoidance goal and surface learning strategy. A path analysis (structural equation model) showed that achievement goals were mediators between achievement motives and learning strategies, and that strategic learning strategies mediated the relationship between achievement goals and academic achievement. This study integrated previous findings from several studies and provided new evidence on the direct and indirect effects of different types of motives and learning strategies as predictors of academic achievement.

  18. Promoting the teaching of critical thinking skills through faculty development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Behar-Horenstein, Linda S; Schneider-Mitchell, Gail; Graff, Randy

    2009-06-01

    Practical and effective faculty development programs are vital to individual and institutional success. However, there is little evidence that program outcomes result in instructional changes. The purpose of this study was to determine if and how faculty development would enhance participants' use of critical thinking skills in instruction. Seven faculty members from the University of Florida College of Dentistry and one faculty member from another health science college participated in six weekly two-hour faculty development sessions in spring 2007 that focused on enhancing critical thinking skills in instruction. Kaufman's and Rachal's principles of andragogy (adult learning) were used to design the sessions. Participants used learning journals to respond to four instructor-assigned prompts and provided one presentation to peers. With the use of qualitative methods, eight themes emerged across the learning journals: teaching goals, critical thinking, awareness of learners, planned instructional change, teaching efficacy, self-doubt, external challenges, and changes made. Five of eight participants incorporated critical thinking skills into their presentations at a mean level of 2.4 or higher on a 5-point scale using Paul and Elder's behavioral definition of critical thinking skills. Faculty development opportunities that cause participants to reason through learning journals, peer presentations, and group discussion demonstrated the incorporation of critical thinking concepts in 63 percent of this cohort group's presentations, suggesting that if evidence-based pedagogies are followed, instructional changes can result from faculty development.

  19. Can video games be used to predict or improve laparoscopic skills?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenberg, Bradley H; Landsittel, Douglas; Averch, Timothy D

    2005-04-01

    Performance of laparoscopic surgery requires adequate hand-eye coordination. Video games are an effective way to judge one's hand-eye coordination, and practicing these games may improve one's skills. Our goal was to see if there is a correlation between skill in video games and skill in laparoscopy. Also, we hoped to demonstrate that practicing video games can improve one's laparoscopic skills. Eleven medical students (nine male, two female) volunteered to participate. On day 1, each student played three commercially available video games (Top Spin, XSN Sports; Project Gotham Racing 2, Bizarre Creations; and Amped 2, XSN Sports) for 30 minutes on an X-box (Microsoft, Seattle, WA) and was judged both objectively and subjectively. Next, the students performed four laparoscopic tasks (object transfer, tracing a figure-of-eight, suture placement, and knot-tying) in a swine model and were assessed for time to complete the task, number of errors committed, and hand-eye coordination. The students were then randomized to control (group A) or "training" (i.e., video game practicing; group B) arms. Two weeks later, all students repeated the laparoscopic skills laboratory and were reassessed. Spearman correlation coefficients demonstrated a significant relation between many of the parameters, particularly time to complete each task and hand-eye coordination at the different games. There was a weaker association between video game performance and both laparoscopic errors committed and hand-eye coordination. Group B subjects did not improve significantly over those in group A in any measure (P >0.05 for all). Video game aptitude appears to predict the level of laparoscopic skill in the novice surgeon. In this study, practicing video games did not improve one's laparoscopic skill significantly, but a larger study with more practice time could prove games to be helpful.

  20. S.E.A.L.S.+PLUS Self-Esteem and Life Skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patricia A. Dawson

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available S.E.A.L.S.+PLUS is an activity book and CD-ROM featuring over 75 reproducible self-esteem and mental wellness lessons for youth ages 12-18. Topics include segments on Goal Setting, Stress Management, Health Awareness, Anger Management, Communication Skills and more. Youth professionals will appreciate this well designed, interactive resource as they engage youth in positive skill development.

  1. Goals? What goals? Europeans to hear more about the world's millennium development goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bianchi, S.

    2005-01-01

    The European Union (EU) is quickly becoming the front-runner of development aid to regions in Africa and other developing countries. However, over three-quarters of EU citizens are unaware of development efforts being made on the part of the Union to Third World countries, according to a public opinion poll released by Eurobarometer. In light of the low awareness of the EU's development agenda and the United Nations's Millennium Development Goals, the EU Humanitarian Aid and Development Commission has employed a campaign to raise the level of awareness among the EU's 460 million citizens

  2. Defining safety goals. 2. Basic Consideration on Defining Safety Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hakata, T.

    2001-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to develop basic safety goals that are rational and consistent for all nuclear facilities, including nuclear power plants and fuel cycle facilities. Basic safety goals (risk limits) by an index of radiation dose are discussed, which are based on health effects of detriment and fatality and risk levels presumably accepted by society. The contents of this paper are the personal opinions of the author. The desirable structure of safety goals is assumed to be 'basic safety goals plus specific safety goals (or supplemental safety goals) for each sort of facility, which reflects their characteristics'. The requisites of the basic safety goals must include (a) rational bases (scientific and social), (b) comprehensiveness (common to all sorts of nuclear facilities covering from normal to accidental conditions), and (c) applicability. To meet the requirements, the basic safety goals might have to be a risk profile expression by an index of radiation dose. The societal rationality is consideration of absolute risk levels (10 -6 or 10 -7 /yr) and/or relative risk factors (such as 0.1% of U.S. safety goals) that the general public accepts as tolerable. The following quantitative objectives are adopted in this study for protection of average individuals in the vicinity of a nuclear facility: 1. The additive annual radiation dose during normal operation must be -4 /yr (health detriment), 2x10 -6 /yr (latent cancer and severe hereditary effects), and 10 -7 /yr (acute fatality) from the statistics in Japan. The radiation effects on human beings are determined by recommendations of UNSCEAR (Ref. 1) and ICRP. The health effects considered are non-severe stochastic health detriment, i.e., detectable opacities of lens of eye (threshold 5 0.5 to 2 Sv), depression of hematopoiesis of bone marrow (0.5 Sv), and depression of reproductive capability (temporary sterility of testes ) (0.15 Sv). The LD 50/60 of acute fatality is ∼4 Sv, and fatalities by latent

  3. Anchor effects in decision making can be reduced by the interaction between goal monitoring and the level of the decision maker's executive functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schiebener, Johannes; Wegmann, Elisa; Pawlikowski, Mirko; Brand, Matthias

    2012-11-01

    Models of decision making postulate that interactions between contextual conditions and characteristics of the decision maker determine decision-making performance. We tested this assumption by using a possible positive contextual influence (goals) and a possible negative contextual influence (anchor) in a risky decision-making task (Game of Dice Task, GDT). In this task, making advantageous choices is well known to be closely related to a specific decision maker variable: the individual level of executive functions. One hundred subjects played the GDT in one of four conditions: with self-set goal for final balance (n = 25), with presentation of an anchor (a fictitious Top 10 list, showing high gains of other participants; n = 25), with anchor and goal definition (n = 25), and with neither anchor nor goal setting (n = 25). Subjects in the conditions with anchor made more risky decisions irrespective of the negative feedback, but this anchor effect was influenced by goal monitoring and moderated by the level of the subjects' executive functions. The findings imply that impacts of situational influences on decision making as they frequently occur in real life depend upon the individual's cognitive abilities. Anchor effects can be overcome by subjects with good cognitive abilities.

  4. Plyometric Training Improves Sprinting, Jumping and Throwing Capacities of High Level Female Volleyball Players Better Than Skill-Based Conditioning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gjinovci, Bahri; Idrizovic, Kemal; Uljevic, Ognjen; Sekulic, Damir

    2017-01-01

    There is an evident lack of studies on the effectiveness of plyometric- and skill-based-conditioning in volleyball. This study aimed to evaluate effects of 12-week plyometric- and volleyball-skill-based training on specific conditioning abilities in female volleyball players. The sample included 41 high-level female volleyball players (21.8 ± 2.1 years of age; 1.76 ± 0.06 cm; 60.8 ± 7.0 kg), who participated in plyometric- (n = 21), or skill-based-conditioning-program (n = 20). Both programs were performed twice per week. Participants were tested on body-height, body-mass (BM), countermovement jump (CMJ), standing broad jump (SBJ), medicine ball throw, (MBT) and 20-m sprint (S20M). All tests were assessed at the study baseline (pre-) and at the end of the 12-week programs (post-testing). Two-way ANOVA for repeated measurements showed significant (pvolleyball players. Future studies should evaluate differential program effects in less experienced and younger players. Key points Plyometric- and skill-based-conditioning resulted in improvements in jumping and throwing capacities, but plyometric training additionally induced positive changes in anthropometrics and sprint-capacity The changes induced by plyometric training were larger in magnitude than those achieved by skill-based conditioning. The higher intensity together with possibility of more accurate adjustment of training load in plyometric training are probably the most important determinant of such differential influence. It is likely that the skill-based conditioning program did not result in changes of higher magnitude because of the players’ familiarity with volleyball-related skills. PMID:29238253

  5. The impact of the SAGE & THYME foundation level workshop on factors influencing communication skills in health care professionals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connolly, Michael; Thomas, Joanne M; Orford, Julie A; Schofield, Nicola; Whiteside, Sigrid; Morris, Julie; Heaven, Cathy

    2014-01-01

    The "SAGE & THYME Foundation Level Workshop" delivers evidence-based communication skills training to 30 health care workers in 3 hours. It teaches a structured approach (the SAGE & THYME model) to discuss patient/carer concerns. The aim of this study was to determine whether the workshop had a positive outcome on factors that influence communication skills. The study had a pragmatic, mixed methods design. Workshops were run in an acute hospital. One hundred seventy health care workers completed questionnaires pre- and post-workshop; 141 were sent follow-up questionnaires at 2 weeks and 2 months; and 9 were filmed talking to a simulated patient pre- and post-workshop. From pre- to post-workshop, there was a significant increase in knowledge (p communication skills knowledge, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy of hospital health care workers who are predominantly white, female, nursing, or nonclinical staff. This suggests that the workshop may have a positive impact on some factors influencing communication skills in this group. © 2014 The Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions, the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education, and the Council on Continuing Medical Education, Association for Hospital Medical Education.

  6. Understanding the Home Math Environment and Its Role in Predicting Parent Report of Children's Math Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hart, Sara A; Ganley, Colleen M; Purpura, David J

    2016-01-01

    There is a growing literature concerning the role of the home math environment in children's math development. In this study, we examined the relation between these constructs by specifically addressing three goals. The first goal was to identify the measurement structure of the home math environment through a series of confirmatory factor analyses. The second goal was to examine the role of the home math environment in predicting parent report of children's math skills. The third goal was to test a series of potential alternative explanations for the relation between the home math environment and parent report of children's skills, specifically the direct and indirect role of household income, parent math anxiety, and parent math ability as measured by their approximate number system performance. A final sample of 339 parents of children aged 3 through 8 drawn from Mechanical Turk answered a questionnaire online. The best fitting model of the home math environment was a bifactor model with a general factor representing the general home math environment, and three specific factors representing the direct numeracy environment, the indirect numeracy environment, and the spatial environment. When examining the association of the home math environment factors to parent report of child skills, the general home math environment factor and the spatial environment were the only significant predictors. Parents who reported doing more general math activities in the home reported having children with higher math skills, whereas parents who reported doing more spatial activities reported having children with lower math skills.

  7. Understanding the Home Math Environment and Its Role in Predicting Parent Report of Children's Math Skills.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sara A Hart

    Full Text Available There is a growing literature concerning the role of the home math environment in children's math development. In this study, we examined the relation between these constructs by specifically addressing three goals. The first goal was to identify the measurement structure of the home math environment through a series of confirmatory factor analyses. The second goal was to examine the role of the home math environment in predicting parent report of children's math skills. The third goal was to test a series of potential alternative explanations for the relation between the home math environment and parent report of children's skills, specifically the direct and indirect role of household income, parent math anxiety, and parent math ability as measured by their approximate number system performance. A final sample of 339 parents of children aged 3 through 8 drawn from Mechanical Turk answered a questionnaire online. The best fitting model of the home math environment was a bifactor model with a general factor representing the general home math environment, and three specific factors representing the direct numeracy environment, the indirect numeracy environment, and the spatial environment. When examining the association of the home math environment factors to parent report of child skills, the general home math environment factor and the spatial environment were the only significant predictors. Parents who reported doing more general math activities in the home reported having children with higher math skills, whereas parents who reported doing more spatial activities reported having children with lower math skills.

  8. Assessing Teamwork in Undergraduate Education: A Measurement Tool to Evaluate Individual Teamwork Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Britton, Emily; Simper, Natalie; Leger, Andrew; Stephenson, Jenn

    2017-01-01

    Effective teamwork skills are essential for success in an increasingly team-based workplace. However, research suggests that there is often confusion concerning how teamwork is measured and assessed, making it difficult to develop these skills in undergraduate curricula. The goal of the present study was to develop a sustainable tool for assessing…

  9. Expectations of Graduate Communication Skills in Professional Veterinary Practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haldane, Sarah; Hinchcliff, Kenneth; Mansell, Peter; Baik, Chi

    Good communication skills are an important entry-level attribute of graduates of professional degrees. The inclusion of communication training within the curriculum can be problematic, particularly in programs with a high content load, such as veterinary science. This study examined the differences between the perceptions of students and qualified veterinarians with regards to the entry-level communication skills required of new graduates in clinical practice. Surveys were distributed to students in each of the four year levels of the veterinary science degree at the University of Melbourne and to recent graduates and experienced veterinarians registered in Victoria, Australia. Respondents were asked to rank the relative importance of six different skill sets: knowledge base; medical and technical skills; surgical skills; verbal communication and interpersonal skills; written communication skills; and critical thinking and problem solving. They were then asked to rate the importance of specific communication skills for new graduate veterinarians. Veterinarians and students ranked verbal communication and interpersonal skills as the most important skill set for an entry-level veterinarian. Veterinarians considered many new graduates to be deficient in these skills. Students often felt they lacked confidence in this area. This has important implications for veterinary educators in terms of managing the expectations of students and improving the delivery of communication skills courses within the veterinary curriculum.

  10. Coping skills of olympic developmental soccer athletes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyers, M C; Stewart, C C; Laurent, C M; Leunes, A D; Bourgeois, A E

    2008-12-01

    Athletes at Olympic Developmental Program (ODP) camps experience unusually high levels of expectations and inherent mental and physical challenges within such a short span of time. With the increasing emphasis on talent development, there has been consensus by the ODP staff to more clearly define present levels of coping skills, in order to enhance athletic prediction, maximize training efforts, identify the predisposition to injury, and focus on areas pertinent to successful performance. This study examined athletic and pain coping skills of U. S. ODP soccer athletes not previously investigated. Following written informed consent, 70 males completed the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory and the Sports Inventory for Pain. Data were analyzed by competitive level (U-14, U-15), and skill position (goalkeeper/defense, midfield/foward). MANOVA indicated a significant main effect across competitive level (Wilks' Lambda F(12,57) = 2.27; p = 0.02; n-beta = 0.915) but no significant effect by skill position (Wilks' Lambda F(12,57) = 0.931; p = 0.523; n-beta = 0.457). Post hoc analyses indicated that U-15 athletes scored significantly higher in concentration (p = 0.01) and body awareness (p = 0.03), but lower in avoidance (p = 0.01) than U-14 competitors. In conclusion, older, more experienced athletes revealed more positive athletic and pain coping skills than younger, less experienced athletes, although athletes in skill positions requiring spontaneous decision-making skills and split-second adjustment in a constantly changing sport environment (forwards, midfielders) did not exhibit more positive athletic and pain coping skills than those positions requiring reaction and protection (defenders, goalkeepers).

  11. Randomized clinical trial of cognitive behavioral social skills training for schizophrenia: improvement in functioning and experiential negative symptoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Granholm, Eric; Holden, Jason; Link, Peter C; McQuaid, John R

    2014-12-01

    Identifying treatments to improve functioning and reduce negative symptoms in consumers with schizophrenia is of high public health significance. In this randomized clinical trial, participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (N = 149) were randomly assigned to cognitive behavioral social skills training (CBSST) or an active goal-focused supportive contact (GFSC) control condition. CBSST combined cognitive behavior therapy with social skills training and problem-solving training to improve functioning and negative symptoms. GFSC was weekly supportive group therapy focused on setting and achieving functioning goals. Blind raters assessed functioning (primary outcome: Independent Living Skills Survey [ILSS]), CBSST skill knowledge, positive and negative symptoms, depression, and defeatist performance attitudes. In mixed-effects regression models in intent-to-treat analyses, CBSST skill knowledge, functioning, amotivation/asociality negative symptoms, and defeatist performance attitudes improved significantly more in CBSST relative to GFSC. In both treatment groups, comparable improvements were also found for positive symptoms and a performance-based measure of social competence. The results suggest CBSST is an effective treatment to improve functioning and experiential negative symptoms in consumers with schizophrenia, and both CBSST and supportive group therapy actively focused on setting and achieving functioning goals can improve social competence and reduce positive symptoms.

  12. Goal motives and multiple-goal striving in sport and academia: A person-centered investigation of goal motives and inter-goal relations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Healy, Laura C; Ntoumanis, Nikos; Duda, Joan L

    2016-12-01

    This investigation extended the goal striving literature by examining motives for two goals being pursued simultaneously. Grounded in self-determination theory, we examined how student-athletes' motives for their sporting and academic goals were associated with inter-goal facilitation and interference. Cross-sectional survey. UK university student-athletes (n=204) identified their most important sporting and academic goals. They then rated their extrinsic, introjected, identified and intrinsic motives for these goals and completed questionnaires assessing inter-goal facilitation and interference. Using a person-centered approach via latent profile analysis, we identified three distinct profiles of goal motives. Auxiliary analyses showed that the profile with high identified motives for both goals reported greater inter-goal facilitation. Extending the previous literature, the findings demonstrate the benefits of autonomous motives when simultaneously pursing goals in sport and academia. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  13. Safety goals for nuclear power

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fischhoff, B.

    1984-02-01

    The key policy question in managing hazardous technologies is often some variant of How safe is safe enough. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recently broached this topic by adopting safety goals defining acceptable risk levels for nuclear power plants. These goals are analyzed here with a general theory of standard setting (Fischhoff, 1983) which asks: (1) Are standards an appropriate policy tool in this case. (2) Can the Commission's safety philosophy be defended. (3) Do the operational goals capture that philosophy. The anlaysis shows the safety goals proposal to be sophisticated in some respects, incomplete in others. More generally, it points to difficulties with the concept of acceptable risk and any attempt to build policy instruments around it. Although focused on the NRC's safety goals, the present analysis is a prototype of what can be learned by similarly detailed consideration of other standards, not only for nuclear power but also for other hazardous technologies, as well as for issues unrelated to safety

  14. Analysis of the study skills of undergraduate pharmacy students of the University of Zambia School of Medicine

    OpenAIRE

    Ezeala, Christian Chinyere; Siyanga, Nalucha

    2015-01-01

    It aimed to compare the study skills of two groups of undergraduate pharmacy students in the School of Medicine, University of Zambia using the Study Skills Assessment Questionnaire (SSAQ), with the goal of analysing students’ study skills and identifying factors that affect study skills. A questionnaire was distributed to 67 participants from both programs using stratified random sampling. Completed questionnaires were rated according to participants study skill. The total scores and scores ...

  15. Socio-demographic determinants of skilled birth attendant at delivery in rural southern Ghana.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manyeh, Alfred Kwesi; Akpakli, David Etsey; Kukula, Vida; Ekey, Rosemond Akepene; Narh-Bana, Solomon; Adjei, Alexander; Gyapong, Margaret

    2017-07-11

    Maternal mortality is the subject of the United Nations' fifth Millennium Development Goal, which is to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters from 1990 to 2015. The giant strides made by western countries in dropping of their maternal mortality ratio were due to the recognition given to skilled attendants at delivery. In Ghana, nine in ten mothers receive antenatal care from a health professional whereas only 59 and 68% of deliveries are assisted by skilled personnel in 2008 and 2010 respectively. This study therefore examines the determinants of skilled birth attendant at delivery in rural southern Ghana. This study comprises of 1874 women of reproductive age who had given birth 2 years prior to the study whose information were extracted from the Dodowa Health and Demographic Surveillance System. The univariable and multivariable associations between exposure variables (risk factors) and skilled birth attendant at delivery were explored using logistic regression. Out of a total of 1874 study participants, 98.29% of them receive antenatal care services during pregnancy and only 68.89% were assisted by skilled person at their last delivery prior to the survey. The result shows a remarkable influence of maternal age, level of education, parity, socioeconomic status and antenatal care attendance on skilled attendants at delivery. Although 69% of women in the study had skilled birth attendants at delivery, women from poorest households, higher parity, uneducated, and not attending antenatal care and younger women were more likely to deliver without a skilled birth attendants at delivery. Future intervention in the study area to bridge the gap between the poor and least poor women, improve maternal health and promote the use of skilled birth at delivery is recommended.

  16. Ice Skating: Special Olympics Sports Skills Instructional Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Special Olympics, Inc., Washington, DC.

    One of seven booklets on Special Olympics Sports Skills Instructional Programs, this guide presents teaching suggestions for ice skating coaches working with mentally retarded persons. An overview section introduces the sport and considers ideas for effective teaching. Goals, objectives, and benefits are considered along with information on…

  17. Research of hands' strength and endurance indications of arm sport athletes having different levels of skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L.V. Podrigalo

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Purpose : comparative study of indicators of hands’ strength and endurance at athletes of arm sport of different skill levels. Material : the study involved 50 athletes. Athletes were divided into two groups: 1 - 15 athletes with high skill levels (age 25,25 ± 0,62 years and 2 - 35 athletes and fans of mass categories (age 22,21 ± 0,35 years. Results : it is shown that the results of carpal dynamometry right and left hands were significantly higher in group 1 (respectively: 60,50 ± 0,91 kg and 53,75 ± 0,83 kg against 52,35 ± 0,51 kg and 48 53 ± 0,46 kg. Strength endurance was significantly higher in group 2 (respectively: 32,97 ± 0,61 sec 33,09 ± 0,62 sec against 23,78 ± 0,85 sec and 24,66 ± 0,78 sec. Found that carpal dynamometry has a maximum contribution to the system (in group 1 for the right hand - 18.17, for the left - 23.50, in group 2 - 7.44 and 7.10. Correlation coefficients dynamometry in group 1 were significantly higher. Strength endurance had almost no connection with the study of reliable performance. Conclusions : it is proved that the level of carpal dynamometry is an important informative and adequate criterion. This indicator is characterized by a maximum contribution backbone.

  18. Deaf college students' mathematical skills relative to morphological knowledge, reading level, and language proficiency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, Ronald R; Gaustad, Martha G

    2007-01-01

    This study of deaf college students examined specific relationships between their mathematics performance and their assessed skills in reading, language, and English morphology. Simple regression analyses showed that deaf college students' language proficiency scores, reading grade level, and morphological knowledge regarding word segmentation and meaning were all significantly correlated with both the ACT Mathematics Subtest and National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) Mathematics Placement Test scores. Multiple regression analyses identified the best combination from among these potential independent predictors of students' performance on both the ACT and NTID mathematics tests. Additionally, the participating deaf students' grades in their college mathematics courses were significantly and positively associated with their reading grade level and their knowledge of morphological components of words.

  19. Anticipated emotions and effort allocation in weight goal striving.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nelissen, Rob M A; de Vet, Emely; Zeelenberg, Marcel

    2011-02-01

    This study aimed to investigate the influence of anticipated emotions on preventive health behaviour if specified at the level of behavioural outcomes. Consistent with predictions from a recently developed model of goal pursuit, we hypothesized that the impact of emotions on effort levels depended on the perceived proximity to the goal. Participants with weight-loss intentions were randomly selected from an Internet panel and completed questionnaires at three points in time, baseline (T1; N= 725), 2 weeks later at T2 (N= 582) and again 2 months later at T3 (N= 528). Questionnaires assessed anticipated emotions (at T1) and experienced emotions (at T2) towards goal attainment and non-attainment. Goal proximity, goal desirability, and effort levels in striving for weight loss were assessed at both T1 and T2. Current and target weights were reported at all three assessments. In line with predictions, we found that negative anticipated emotions towards goal non-attainment resulted in increased effort but only if people perceived themselves in close proximity to their goal. Effort, in turn, predicted weight loss and goal achievement. The current data bear important practical implications as they identify anticipated emotions as targets of behaviour change interventions aimed to stimulate effort in striving for broad, health-related goals like weight loss. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

  20. The assessment of practical skills

    OpenAIRE

    Reiss, M. J.; Abrahams, I.

    2015-01-01

    Major changes are currently afoot as to how practical work will be assessed in high status examinations (GCSEs for 16 year-olds and ‘A’ levels for 18 year-olds) in England. We explore here how practical skills might best be assessed in school science and introduce two terms: direct assessment of practical skills (DAPS) and indirect assessment of practical skills (IAPS). We conclude that both the direct and indirect assessment of practical skills have their place in effective assessment of sch...

  1. Corporate social responsibility and mental health: the Premier League football Imagine Your Goals programme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Henderson, Claire; O'Hara, Stefanie; Thornicroft, Graham; Webber, Martin

    2014-08-01

    Football is increasingly used to facilitate recovery in mental health services, often in partnership with football clubs. However, few clubs have made mental health part of their corporate social responsibility programmes until recently. We report the impact on participants of the 'Imagine Your Goals' programme, run by 16 Premier League football clubs in conjunction with England's Time to Change programme to reduce mental health-related stigma and discrimination. Mixed methods evaluation used pre/post measures of well-being, access to social capital, focus groups held early on and towards the end of the two-year programmes, and questionnaires for coaching staff. There were no significant changes to participants' mental well-being scores between baseline and follow-up, nor to the total number of social resources accessible through their networks. However, there was a statistically significant increase at follow-up in the mean score of the personal skills subscale of the Resource Generator-UK. Participants' individual skills were also higher at follow-up. Qualitative data showed programmes had largely met participants' expectations in terms of socializing, providing structure and improving fitness levels, exceeded expectations in relationships with coaching staff and additional activities, but did not always meet them in improving football skills. Participants varied in their knowledge of exit opportunities, depending on which club's programme they attended. A minority of clubs reported difficulties in recruitment and concerns about planning for the future of the projects. Football clubs and the charitable foundations they set up can successfully deliver programmes to people with mental health problems which improve access to personal skills social capital and have other potential benefits.

  2. Expectations and outcome skills of a generalist health care administrator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, V B; Taylor, L C

    1990-01-01

    The question of the degree of technical versus managerial competence to be found in future graduates from health administration programs is not easily resolved. In the HIMSS 1988 survey of CIOs the attributes needed for success are listed in descending rank order as follows: leadership ability, vision/imagination, knowledge of hospital systems, business acumen, decisiveness, and technical competence. CIOs ranked technical competence as less important than other attributes associated with general management success. The expectations for attitudes, knowledge, and skills presented in this article support the greater importance of management abilities relative to pure technical competence. However, it is vital that an appropriate level of technical knowledge and skill be maintained to enable future alumni of health administration programs to function effectively as administrators. Depending on their role in a health care organization, greater or lesser technical knowledge may be needed. Those pursuing a career path toward CIO must, of necessity, have greater technical knowledge and skill. We have discussed necessary and expected attitudes, knowledge, and skills that will be needed by the generalist health administration graduate in the future. It will be important to develop and maintain an attitude that MIS is a strategic tool, that health care technology is a corporate asset, and that information is power. Graduates must recognize the necessity of maintaining and enhancing their knowledge and skills through continuing education. The knowledge base of MIS education should focus on determining information needs to support strategic goals, understanding of general systems theory, principles of systems analysis, design, implementation and maintenance, awareness and exposure to standard application software, and an awareness of external sources of data.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

  3. 76 FR 30177 - Proposed collection; comment request; Web-Based Skills Training for SBIRT (Screening Brief...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-05-24

    ... skills training and resources for busy PCPs. The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health Proposed collection; comment request; Web-Based Skills Training for SBIRT (Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment...

  4. The association between pre-treatment occupational skill level and mood and symptom burden in early-stage, postmenopausal breast cancer survivors during the first year of anastrozole therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nugent, Bethany D; Sereika, Susan M; Rosenzweig, Margaret; McCue, Michael; Merriman, John D; Bender, Catherine M

    2016-08-01

    Previous research has explored occupational activity of breast cancer survivors but has not examined the influence of occupational level on symptoms prospectively. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between occupational classification and changes in mood and symptom burden for postmenopausal breast cancer survivors during the first year of anastrozole therapy. This was an exploratory secondary analysis in 49 postmenopausal women receiving anastrozole therapy for early-stage breast cancer. Participants reported their occupation at baseline and completed self-report questionnaires measuring mood and symptom burden at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Occupation was classified according to four major skill levels delineated by the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). Breast cancer survivors employed at occupational skill levels 1 through 3 reported significantly higher depressive symptoms, fatigue, and total symptoms on average than those employed at ISCO skill level 4. After adjusting for multiple comparisons, this pattern remained for the musculoskeletal, vasomotor, and gastrointestinal symptom subscales. Breast cancer survivors employed at lower skill levels (i.e., ISCO 1-3) reported poorer mood and greater symptom burden than breast cancer survivors employed at a higher skill level (i.e., ISCO 4). Assessing baseline occupation of occupationally active breast cancer survivors may improve understanding of the association between types of occupations and mood and symptom trajectories and may inform development of interventions to mitigate symptom severity in order to help breast cancer survivors maintain optimal occupational function and adherence to therapy.

  5. Applying living lab methodology to enhance skills in innovation

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Herselman, M

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available and which is also inline with the South African medium term strategic framework and the millennium goals of the Department of Science and Technology. Evidence of how the living lab methodology can enhance innovation skills was made clear during various...

  6. What Skills Should Students of Undergraduate Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Programs Have upon Graduation?

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Harold B.; Benore, Marilee A.; Sumter, Takita F.; Caldwell, Benjamin D.; Bell, Ellis

    2013-01-01

    Biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) students should demonstrate proficiency in the foundational concepts of the discipline and possess the skills needed to practice as professionals. To ascertain the skills that should be required, groups of BMB educators met in several focused workshops to discuss the expectations with the ultimate goal of…

  7. Investigating the Relationship between Pre-School Teachers’ Problem Solving Skills andTheir Epistemological Beliefs, Creativity Levels and Thinking Styles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamdenur Uzunoğlu

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to investigate whether the epistemological beliefs, creativity levels and thinking styles of pre-school teachers are significant predictors of their problem solving skills and in accordance with this purpose, a correlational survey design was used. The sample of this study consists of 155 pre school teachers working in Isparta in the school year 2011-2012. As data collection tools, “Problem Solving Inventory”, “Epistemological Beliefs Scale, “How Creative Are You?” and lastly, “Thinking Styles Inventory” were used. Data were analyzed by stepwise multiple regression analysis. In this study, it has been found that problem solving skills of the teachers are a significant predictor of preschool teachers’ perceptions of their creativity levels positively and perceptions of their conventional thinking styles negatively in the belief that learning depends on ability.

  8. Reading, writing, and phonological processing skills of adolescents with 10 or more years of cochlear implant experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geers, Ann E; Hayes, Heather

    2011-02-01

    This study had three goals: (1) to document the literacy skills of deaf adolescents who received cochlear implants (CIs) as preschoolers; (2) to examine reading growth from elementary grades to high school; (3) to assess the contribution of early literacy levels and phonological processing skills, among other factors, to literacy levels in high school. A battery of reading, spelling, expository writing, and phonological processing assessments were administered to 112 high school (CI-HS) students, ages 15.5 to 18.5 yrs, who had participated in a reading assessment battery in early elementary grades (CI-E), ages 8.0 to 9.9 yrs. The CI-HS students' performance was compared with either a control group of hearing peers (N = 46) or hearing norms provided by the assessment developer. Many of the CI-HS students (47 to 66%) performed within or above the average range for hearing peers on reading tests. When compared with their CI-E performance, good early readers were also good readers in high school. Importantly, the majority of CI-HS students maintained their reading levels over time compared with hearing peers, indicating that the gap in performance was, at the very least, not widening for most students. Written expression and phonological processing tasks posed a great deal of difficulty for the CI-HS students. They were poorer spellers, poorer expository writers, and displayed poorer phonological knowledge than hearing age-mates. Phonological processing skills were a critical predictor of high school literacy skills (reading, spelling, and expository writing), accounting for 39% of variance remaining after controlling for child, family, and implant characteristics. Many children who receive CIs as preschoolers achieve age-appropriate literacy levels as adolescents. However, significant delays in spelling and written expression are evident compared with hearing peers. For children with CIs, the development of phonological processing skills is not just important for

  9. Generalizable Skills in Individualized Vocational Program Planning for Special Needs Students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stodden, Robert A.; Boone, Rosalie

    1986-01-01

    The authors address planning issues and suggest methods of interagency cooperation, integration of generalizable skills in individualized educational planning/programming, developing goals and objectives, and using student assessment and evaluation information. (CT)

  10. A History of Critical Thinking as an Educational Goal in Graduate Theological Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Florence, D. Christopher

    2014-01-01

    The development of critical thinking skills among learners is a common educational goal across graduate theological schools. The purpose of this article is to provide a survey of some of the primary historical influences of the critical thinking movement in higher education in the United States and the movement's impact on graduate…

  11. Understanding the Home Math Environment and Its Role in Predicting Parent Report of Children’s Math Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ganley, Colleen M.; Purpura, David J.

    2016-01-01

    There is a growing literature concerning the role of the home math environment in children’s math development. In this study, we examined the relation between these constructs by specifically addressing three goals. The first goal was to identify the measurement structure of the home math environment through a series of confirmatory factor analyses. The second goal was to examine the role of the home math environment in predicting parent report of children’s math skills. The third goal was to test a series of potential alternative explanations for the relation between the home math environment and parent report of children’s skills, specifically the direct and indirect role of household income, parent math anxiety, and parent math ability as measured by their approximate number system performance. A final sample of 339 parents of children aged 3 through 8 drawn from Mechanical Turk answered a questionnaire online. The best fitting model of the home math environment was a bifactor model with a general factor representing the general home math environment, and three specific factors representing the direct numeracy environment, the indirect numeracy environment, and the spatial environment. When examining the association of the home math environment factors to parent report of child skills, the general home math environment factor and the spatial environment were the only significant predictors. Parents who reported doing more general math activities in the home reported having children with higher math skills, whereas parents who reported doing more spatial activities reported having children with lower math skills. PMID:28005925

  12. The Analysis of the Relationship between Communication Skills and the Establishment of Clark's Management Network among Sport Managers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rasool NAZARI

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between communication skills and the establishment of Clark's Management Network among sport managers. This applied research is a kind of correlational – survey study. Statistical population consist ed of 140 sport managers working for sport organizations in Isfahan Province, which have been selected by stratified random sampling. Measurement tools included two questionnaires of Communication Skill (91% and Establishment of Clark's Management Network (87%. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods applied for statistical analysis using SPSS software. Results show that there is a relationship between communication skills and the establishment of Clark's Management Network among sport managers. I n addition, the feedback component has greater contribution to prediction of Clark's management network (p 0.05. In general, it can acknowledge that the communication skills are effective in the establishment of Clark's management network and cause to i mprove the management process of sport organizations' managers and to achieve to the organizational goals with high level of productivity.

  13. Enhancing Systems-Thinking Skills with Modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hung, Woei

    2008-01-01

    Systems thinking is an essential cognitive skill that enables individuals to develop an integrative understanding of a given subject at the conceptual and systemic level. Yet, systems thinking is not usually an innate skill. Helping students develop systems-thinking skills warrants attention from educators. This paper describes a study examining…

  14. From Communication Skills to Skillful Communication: A Longitudinal Integrated Curriculum for Critical Care Medicine Fellows.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roze des Ordons, Amanda L; Doig, Christopher J; Couillard, Philippe; Lord, Jason

    2017-04-01

    Communication with patients and families in critical care medicine (CCM) can be complex and challenging. A longitudinal curricular model integrating multiple techniques within classroom and clinical milieus may facilitate skillful communication across diverse settings. In 2014-2015, the authors developed and implemented a curriculum for CCM fellows at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, to promote the longitudinal development of skillful communication. A departmental needs assessment informed curriculum development. Five 4-hour classroom sessions were developed: basic communication principles, family meetings about goals and transitions of care, discussing patient safety incidents, addressing conflict, and offering organ donation. Teaching methods-including instructor-led presentations incorporating a consistent framework for approaching challenging conversations, simulation and clinical practice, and feedback from peers, trained facilitators, family members, and clinicians-supported integration of skills into the clinical setting and longitudinal development of skillful communication. Seven fellows participated during the first year of the curriculum. CCM fellows engaged enthusiastically in the program, commented that the framework provided was helpful, and highly valued the opportunity to practice challenging communication scenarios, learn from observing their peers, and receive immediate feedback. More detailed accounts of fellows', patients', and family members' experiences will be obtained to guide curricular development. The curriculum will be expanded to involve other members of the multidisciplinary intensive care unit team, and faculty education initiatives will be offered to enhance the quality of the feedback provided. The impact of the curriculum on initial skill development, retention, and progression will be assessed.

  15. Predicting Growth in Word Level Reading Skills in Children With Developmental Dyslexia Using an Object Rhyming Functional Neuroimaging Task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farris, Emily A; Ring, Jeremiah; Black, Jeffrey; Lyon, G Reid; Odegard, Timothy N

    2016-04-01

    An object rhyming task that does not require text reading and is suitable for younger children was used to predict gains in word level reading skills following an intensive 2-year reading intervention for children with developmental dyslexia. The task evoked activation in bilateral inferior frontal regions. Growth in untimed pseudoword reading was associated with increased pre-intervention activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus, and growth in timed word reading was associated with pre-intervention activation of the left and right inferior frontal gyri. These analyses help identify pre-intervention factors that facilitate reading skill improvements in children with developmental dyslexia.

  16. NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 55: Career goals and educational preparation of aerospace engineering and science students: An international perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinelli, Thomas E.; Kennedy, John M.; Barclay, Rebecca O.

    1995-01-01

    Results are presented of a survey of aerospace engineering and science students conducted in India, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The similarities and differences among aerospace engineering and science students from the five countries are examined in the context of two general aspects of educational experience. First, the extent to which students differ regarding the factors that led to the choice of a career in aerospace, their current levels of satisfaction with that choice, and career-related goals and objectives is considered. Second, the importance of certain communications/information-use skills for professional use is examined, as well as the frequency of use and importance of specific information sources and products to meet students' educational needs. Overall, the students who participated in this research remain relatively happy with the choice of a career in aerospace engineering, despite pessimism in some quarters about the future of the industry. Regardless of national identity, aerospace engineering and science students appear to share a similar vision of the profession in terms of their career goals and aspirations. The data also indicate that aerospace engineering and science students are well aware of the importance of communications/information-use skills to professional success and that competency in these skills will help them to be productive members of their profession. Collectively, all of the students appear to use and value similar information sources and products, although some differences appear by country.

  17. Relationship between Female Pre University Students' Critical Thinking Skills and Their Mental Health

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Maroofi

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Introduction & Objective: Critical thinking is simply defined as ability for analysis and evaluation of information. Today, this skill is considered as an undeniable necessity for social life. So fostering critical thinking ability is one of the basic goals of different levels of education from primary school to higher education. Each conscious behavior is related to the theoretical and intellectual foundation and origin. Therefore, the quality and types of thought play an important role in human mental health. This research studies the relationship between female pre-university students' critical thinking skills and their mental health in the academic year 2009-2010 in Hamadan city. Materials & Methods: This study is a cross sectional research and our method is based on correlation. Using random multiple stages clustering method, we selected 331 students as statistical sample. The data gathering instruments are two standard questionnaires: California form b critical thinking questionnaire and 28-question Goldberg and Hilier general health questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistic indexes such as frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation and inferential tests such as Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. Results: Research findings show that the average point of students' critical thinking skills is (6.51 out of 34 and their average point of mental health is (31.52 .About 61 persons(18.4 percent have not any psychological disorder, about 270 person (81.6 percent seemed to have psychological disorder symptoms. There are negative and significant differences between critical thinking skills and disorder in mental health. Multiple regression analysis show that: there is negative and significant differences between critical analysis and deductive rational skills with psychological disorder symptoms, that is when students' critical thinking skills increases, the psychological disorder symptoms decrease

  18. Integrated learning through student goal development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, Deborah; Tschannen, Dana; Caylor, Shandra

    2013-09-01

    New strategies are emerging to promote structure and increase learning in the clinical setting. Nursing faculty designed a mechanism by which integrative learning and situated coaching could occur more readily in the clinical setting. The Clinical Goals Initiative was implemented for sophomore-, junior-, and senior-level students in their clinical practicums. Students developed weekly goals reflecting three domains of professional nursing practice. Goals were shared with faculty and staff nurse mentors at the beginning of the clinical day to help guide students and mentors with planning for learning experiences. After 6 weeks, faculty and students were surveyed to evaluate project effectiveness. Faculty indicated that goal development facilitated clinical learning by providing more student engagement, direction, and focus. Students reported that goal development allowed them to optimize clinical learning opportunities and track their growth and progress. Faculty and students indicated the goals promoted student self-learning, autonomy, and student communication with nurse mentors and faculty. Copyright 2013, SLACK Incorporated.

  19. Communication skills training for dialysis decision-making and end-of-life care in nephrology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schell, Jane O; Green, Jamie A; Tulsky, James A; Arnold, Robert M

    2013-04-01

    Nephrology fellows often face difficult conversations about dialysis initiation or withdrawal but are frequently unprepared for these discussions. Despite evidence that communication skills are teachable, few fellowship programs include such training. A communication skills workshop for nephrology fellows (NephroTalk) focused on delivering bad news and helping patients define care goals, including end-of-life preferences. This 4-hour workshop, held in October and November 2011, included didactics and practice sessions with standardized patients. Participants were nephrology fellows at Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh (n=22). Pre- and post-workshop surveys evaluated efficacy of the curriculum and measured changes in perceived preparedness on the basis on workshop training. Overall, 14% of fellows were white and 50% were male. Less than one-third (6 of 22) reported prior palliative care training. Survey response rate varied between 86% and 100%. Only 36% (8 of 22) and 38% (8 of 21) of respondents had received structured training in discussions for dialysis initiation or withdrawal. Respondents (19 of 19) felt that communication skills were important to being a "great nephrologist." Mean level of preparedness as measured with a five-point Likert scale significantly increased for all skills (range, 0.5-1.14; Pdecision-making and end-of-life care.

  20. Assessing time-management skills in terms of age, gender, and anxiety levels: a study on nursing and midwifery students in Turkey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaya, Hatice; Kaya, Nurten; Palloş, Aylin Öztürk; Küçük, Leyla

    2012-09-01

    The success of university students depends on their ability to utilize time properly and completely. Students are required to learn to manage time so that they are able to apply the same degree of efficiency in the profession they choose after completing their education. This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted to determine nursing and midwifery students' time management skills in terms of their age, gender, and anxiety levels. The study population consisted of 1002 students, of which 584 students were selected for sampling. A Student Information Form, Time Management Inventory, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were used to collect data. Among the students, 89.9% were female, and the average age was 20.58 years (SD = 2.10). The average score of the Time Management Inventory was 87.79 (SD = 11.78), the mean score of the State Anxiety Inventory was 40.11 (SD = 10.84), and that of the Trait Anxiety Inventory was 43.95 (SD = 7.98). Nursing and midwifery students' time management skills are at mid-level point. Female students were able to manage time better than male students and the time management skills of the students decreased as the anxiety level increased. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Children's theories of intelligence: beliefs, goals, and motivation in the elementary years.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kinlaw, C Ryan; Kurtz-Costes, Beth

    2007-07-01

    The authors tested a developmental model of children's theories about intelligence in kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade children by using paper-and-pencil maze tasks. Older children were more likely than younger children to espouse learning goals (e.g., that they preferred difficult mazes to improve their skill), and less likely to espouse performance goals (e.g., that they preferred easy mazes to be successful). Children in all 3 age groups reported stronger beliefs in the malleability of intelligence than the stability of intelligence. In general, the results supported the authors' hypotheses about developmental change in children's theory-like conceptions of intelligence: Beliefs, goals, and motivation were related in expected ways for second and fourth graders more than for kindergartners. The authors discussed contextual influences on children's beliefs and the development of children's conceptualizations of intelligence.

  2. Fine motor skills in children with Down syndrome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Memišević Haris

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Fine motor skills are very important for children's overall functioning. Their development is necessary for many everyday activities such as dressing, feeding, holding objects, etc. Moreover, fine motor skills are also correlated to the children's academic success at school. Recent research suggests a close relationship between motor skills and intelligence. Given the relative paucity of literature on fine motor skills in different etiological groups of children with intellectual disability (ID, we examined these skills in children with Down syndrome. The sample for this study comprised 90 children with ID, aged 7-15, who were divided in three etiological groups: 1. Down syndrome, 2. Organic/other genetic cause of ID and 3. Unknown etiology of ID. Fine motor skills were assessed by the Purdue Pegboard Test. The results of this study indicate that children with Down syndrome did not differ statistically significantly from the other two etiological groups. On the other hand, children with unknown etiology of ID performed statistically better than children with organic/other genetic cause of ID. An additional goal was to examine fine motor skills in children with Down syndrome in relation to the child's sex. There were no statistically significant differences in fine motor skills between girls and boys with Down syndrome. It is important to provide children with Down syndrome, and all other children with ID, with early (rehabilitation programs for the improvement of their fine motor skills. Special educators and rehabilitators should play a crucial role in the assessment and in creating programs for the development of these skills.

  3. A Bayesian Developmental Approach to Robotic Goal-Based Imitation Learning.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Jae-Yoon Chung

    Full Text Available A fundamental challenge in robotics today is building robots that can learn new skills by observing humans and imitating human actions. We propose a new Bayesian approach to robotic learning by imitation inspired by the developmental hypothesis that children use self-experience to bootstrap the process of intention recognition and goal-based imitation. Our approach allows an autonomous agent to: (i learn probabilistic models of actions through self-discovery and experience, (ii utilize these learned models for inferring the goals of human actions, and (iii perform goal-based imitation for robotic learning and human-robot collaboration. Such an approach allows a robot to leverage its increasing repertoire of learned behaviors to interpret increasingly complex human actions and use the inferred goals for imitation, even when the robot has very different actuators from humans. We demonstrate our approach using two different scenarios: (i a simulated robot that learns human-like gaze following behavior, and (ii a robot that learns to imitate human actions in a tabletop organization task. In both cases, the agent learns a probabilistic model of its own actions, and uses this model for goal inference and goal-based imitation. We also show that the robotic agent can use its probabilistic model to seek human assistance when it recognizes that its inferred actions are too uncertain, risky, or impossible to perform, thereby opening the door to human-robot collaboration.

  4. Goal orientation as a motivation model and self-confidence among tennis players of different levels of success

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lepir Duško

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The goal of this research was to determine differences between the successful and less successful tennis players regarding their goal orientation and self-confidence, as well as to examine the correlation between these two psychological constructs. Active male tennis players (N=40, ranked on the senior list of the Tennis Federation of Austria, age 18 to 26, filled in the TEOSQ-D1 questionnaire (Würth, Alfermann and Saborowski, 1999, and CSI questionnaire (Vealey, 1986, just before the national senior championship of Austria. After categorising a 'successful tennis player' as one ranked in top 100 (N=20, and a 'less successful' one as ranked outside top 100 (N=20, analyses of their differences concerning goal orientation and self-confidence were conducted by means of the T-test, but no statistically significant differences were found for any scale. Pearson's coefficient for the entire sample showed that task orientation correlate significantly with the sport confidence trait (r= 0,451; Sig.= 0,05, and to a certain extent with sport-confidence as a state (r= 0,387; Sig.= 0,092, but that correlation is not statistically significant at the level Sig.< 0,05. For the result/ego scale orientation, there were no significant correlations with sporting-confidence. Guidelines for future research are based on the development of a more adequate system for evaluation of success in sport, and also on increasing of sample size. This could be very helpful for making more reliable conclusions about the influence of goal orientation preference on sport-confidence and sport success, which could justify the utilization of this psychological construct for practical purposes.

  5. Language-specific skills in intercultural healthcare communication: Comparing perceived preparedness and skills in nurses' first and second languages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gasiorek, Jessica; van de Poel, Kris

    2018-02-01

    Interactions between people from different cultures are becoming increasingly commonplace in contemporary healthcare settings. To date, most research evaluating cross-cultural preparedness has assumed that medical professionals are speaking their first language (L1). However, as healthcare workers are increasingly mobile and patient populations are increasingly diverse, more and more interactions are likely to occur in a professional's non-native language (L2). This study assessed and compared nurses' perceived cross-cultural preparedness and skillfulness in their interactions with patients from other cultures when speaking both their L1 and L2. The goal of this project was to inform the creation of a communication skills training program. Nurses reported their perceived cross-cultural preparedness and skillfulness (scales adapted from Park et al., 2009) in their L1 and L2 via an online questionnaire. This questionnaire was distributed among nurses working in Vienna, Austria, through the Vienna Hospital Association (VHA). Nurses and nurses-in-training working in VHA hospitals participated. Most participants who provided demographic information were currently nurses (n=179) with an average of 16.88years (SD=11.50) of professional experience (range: 0-40); n=40 were nurses-in-training with an average of 2.13years (SD=0.88) of experience (range: 1-5). Descriptive statistics for each cross-cultural preparedness and skillfulness (in each language) are reported; comparisons between L1 and L2 responses were also conducted. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify predictors of preparedness and L1/L2 skillfulness. Nurses reported feeling significantly less confident in their skills when working in an L2, across a range of culture-related issues. Having had previous communication skills training predicted (better) self-reported L2 skillfulness, although it did not predict L1 skillfulness. These results indicate that there is a language-specific component to cross

  6. Fundamental motor skill proficiency is necessary for children's motor activity inclusion

    OpenAIRE

    Barela, José Angelo

    2013-01-01

    Motor development is influenced by many factors such as practice and appropriate instruction, provided by teachers, even in preschool and elementary school. The goal of this paper was to discuss the misconception that maturation underlies children's motor skill development and to show that physical education, even in early years of our school system, is critical to promote proficiency and enrolment of children's in later motor activities. Motor skill development, as a curricular focus, has be...

  7. The Attitude of the College Students to Entrepreneurial Skills Development in the Subject E-Commerce

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beránek, Ladislav

    2015-01-01

    One of the main goals of many educational courses at various colleges, especially those which focus on applied economics and management, is the development of students' entrepreneurship skills. It is usually accomplished through various project-oriented tasks. The development of the students' entrepreneurship skills is also the primary objective…

  8. Training of leadership skills in medical education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiesewetter, Jan; Schmidt-Huber, Marion; Netzel, Janine; Krohn, Alexandra C; Angstwurm, Matthias; Fischer, Martin R

    2013-01-01

    Effective team performance is essential in the delivery of high-quality health-care. Leadership skills therefore are an important part of physicians' everyday clinical life. To date, the development of leadership skills are underrepresented in medical curricula. Appropriate training methods for equipping doctors with these leadership skills are highly desirable. The review aims to summarize the findings in the current literature regarding training in leadership skills in medicine and tries to integrate the findings to guide future research and training development. The PubMED, ERIC, and PsycArticles, PsycINFO, PSYNDEX and Academic search complete of EBSCOhost were searched for training of leadership skills in medicine in German and English. Relevant articles were identified and findings were integrated and consolidated regarding the leadership principles, target group of training and number of participants, temporal resources of the training, training content and methods, the evaluation design and trainings effects. Eight studies met all inclusion criteria and no exclusion criteria. The range of training programs is very broad and leadership skill components are diverse. Training designs implied theoretical reflections of leadership phenomena as well as discussions of case studies from practice. The duration of training ranged from several hours to years. Reactions of participants to trainings were positive, yet no behavioral changes through training were examined. More research is needed to understand the factors critical to success in the development of leadership skills in medical education and to adapt goal-oriented training methods. Requirements analysis might help to gain knowledge about the nature of leadership skills in medicine. The authors propose a stronger focus on behavioral training methods like simulation-based training for leadership skills in medical education.

  9. Influence of Goal Contents on Exercise Addiction: Analysing the Mediating Effect of Passion for Exercise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sicilia, Álvaro; Alcaraz-Ibáñez, Manuel; Lirola, María-Jesús; Burgueño, Rafael

    2017-10-01

    Based on the self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 1985, 2000), the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exercise goal contents on exercise addiction, taking into account the mediating effects of passion for exercise. A total of 384 university students (284 men and 100 women; M age = 20.31, SD = 3.10) completed a questionnaire that measured exercise frequency and intensity, exercise goal contents (e.g. intrinsic: social affiliation, health management, skill development; extrinsic: image and social recognition), passion for exercise (e.g. harmonious and obsessive), and exercise addiction. After controlling the exercise frequency and intensity effects, results showed that goal contents did not directly predict exercise addiction. However, mediation analysis showed that goal contents predicted addiction through passion for exercise. These results support a motivational sequence in which extrinsic versus intrinsic goals influence exercise addiction because such goals are positively associated with obsessive passion for exercise and negatively associated with harmonious passion.

  10. Influence of Goal Contents on Exercise Addiction: Analysing the Mediating Effect of Passion for Exercise

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sicilia Álvaro

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Based on the self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 1985, 2000, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exercise goal contents on exercise addiction, taking into account the mediating effects of passion for exercise. A total of 384 university students (284 men and 100 women; Mage = 20.31, SD = 3.10 completed a questionnaire that measured exercise frequency and intensity, exercise goal contents (e.g. intrinsic: social affiliation, health management, skill development; extrinsic: image and social recognition, passion for exercise (e.g. harmonious and obsessive, and exercise addiction. After controlling the exercise frequency and intensity effects, results showed that goal contents did not directly predict exercise addiction. However, mediation analysis showed that goal contents predicted addiction through passion for exercise. These results support a motivational sequence in which extrinsic versus intrinsic goals influence exercise addiction because such goals are positively associated with obsessive passion for exercise and negatively associated with harmonious passion.

  11. Self-care and mobility skills in children with cerebral palsy, related to their manual ability and gross motor function classifications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Öhrvall, Ann-Marie; Eliasson, Ann-Christin; Löwing, Kristina; Ödman, Pia; Krumlinde-Sundholm, Lena

    2010-11-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the acquisition of self-care and mobility skills in children with cerebral palsy (CP) in relation to their manual ability and gross motor function. Data from the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) self-care and mobility functional skill scales, the Manual Ability Classification System (MACS), and the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) were collected from 195 children with CP (73 females, 122 males; mean age 8 y 1 mo; SD 3 y 11 mo; range 3-15 y); 51% had spastic bilateral CP, 36% spastic unilateral CP, 8% dyskinetic CP, and 3% ataxic CP. The percentage of children classified as MACS levels I to V was 28%, 34%, 17%, 7%, and 14% respectively, and classified as GMFCS levels I to V was 46%, 16%, 15%, 11%, and 12% respectively. Children classified as MACS and GMFCS levels I or II scored higher than children in MACS and GMFCS levels III to V on both the self-care and mobility domains of the PEDI, with significant differences between all classification levels (pskills (66%) and that GMFCS was the strongest predictor of mobility skills (76%). A strong correlation between age and self-care ability was found among children classified as MACS level I or II and between age and mobility among children classified as GMFCS level I. Many of these children achieved independence, but at a later age than typically developing children. Children at other MACS and GMFCS levels demonstrated minimal progress with age. Knowledge of a child's MACS and GMFCS level can be useful when discussing expectations of, and goals for, the development of functional skills. © The Authors. Journal compilation © Mac Keith Press 2010.

  12. Using self-regulation theory to examine patient goals, barriers, and facilitators for taking medication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kucukarslan, Suzan N; Thomas, Sheena; Bazzi, Abraham; Virant-Young, Deborah

    2009-12-01

    : Self-regulation theory predicts that patient behavior is determined by the patient's assessment of his/her condition (illness presentation) and related health goals. Patients will adapt their behavior to achieve those goals. However, there are multiple levels of goals. In such cases, those lower-level goals (health goals) that are strongly correlated with higher-level goals (i.e. quality of life [QOL]) are more likely to drive patient behavior. Medication non-compliance is a health behavior that challenges healthcare practitioners. Thus, the primary aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between the lower-level goals for taking medication with higher-level goals. This paper also identifies patient-perceived barriers and facilitators toward achieving goals as they may relate to patients' illness representation. : To identify lower- and higher-level goals associated with medication use for chronic conditions. To determine if there is a relationship between higher-level (global) goals and lower-level (health-related) goals. To identify patient-perceived facilitators and barriers to achieving those goals. : This was a prospective, observational study using a mailed survey. The setting was a US Midwestern state-wide survey. Participants were patients living in the community with hypertension, heart disease, diabetes mellitus, or arthritis, and taking prescription medication for any one of those conditions. The main outcome measures were lower- and higher-level goals related to medication use. The survey asked the participants if they had achieved their goals and to identify factors that may pose as barriers or facilitators to achieving them. Pearson correlation was used to test the relationship between the lower- and higher-level goals at p goals existed (p = 0.03). Preventing future health problems was the most important lower-level goal for almost half of the respondents. Approximately 43% of the respondents said 'improving or maintaining quality of

  13. Improving listening skills of tertiary level students for effective ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Listening is essential to the leaming process. Students in tertiary institutions of learning need to acquire effective listening and note-taking skiils in order to benefit from lectures. This paper focused on factors militating against effective listening during lectures such as poor rate of presentation, poor communication skills, ...

  14. Skilled Trades to University Student: Luck or Courage?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watt, Bonnie

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine participants' experiences as they transitioned from the skilled trade labor workforce to the school teaching profession. Their goal was to work in the secondary school system as certificated teachers. Design/methodology/approach: The study examined interview data from a 2014 to 2015 evaluation study…

  15. Graduates' Competence on Employability Skills and Job Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abas, Maripaz C.; Imam, Ombra A.

    2016-01-01

    One critical measure of success in workplaces is an employee's ability to use competently the knowledge, skills and values that match the needs of his job, satisfy the demands of his employer, and contribute to the overall achievement of institutional goals. An explanatory-correlational research design was used to determine the extent of…

  16. Academic communications skills: Where to from here? | Mukhuba ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Academic communication skills or academic literacies have been, since their inception after the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, been aimed at assisting to achieve the broader goals of a restorative democracy that seeks make felt change in a new society. One is these is ensuring that higher education is ...

  17. Attitudes towards transferable skills in medical undergraduates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whittle, S R; Eaton, D G

    2001-02-01

    Changes to the style of medical teaching will place a greater responsibility on individual medical students to manage their own learning, highlighting the need for students to develop good so-called 'transferable' skills at an early stage in their undergraduate career. To assess the attitudes of first year undergraduates towards transferable skills, and investigate the gender difference in these attitudes. To assess the contribution of their first year course to skills development. First year students, enrolled on a traditional-style course. A questionnaire asking the students to consider: (a) the importance of named transferable skills for medicine; (b) their own ability in these areas; and (c) the influence of their first year course. All students, irrespective of gender, regarded transferable skills as very important to medicine, rating organizational skills and self-learning skills as most important. Overall, students have a high level of confidence in their own skills. Male students rated their overall level of skills more highly than women. In particular they rated their information handling, managing self-learning and technical skills more highly. Students feel that their first year course has enhanced their skills in most areas. Our results suggest that students will feel equipped to succeed in a learning system which places the onus on them to take responsibility for their own learning. They clearly believe that they have the necessary skills for independent learning. The study highlights the need to enhance students' self-evaluation skills.

  18. Evaluation of Medication-related Self-care Skills in Patients With Cystic Fibrosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Kelsey Lackey; John, Barnabas; Condren, Michelle; Carter, Sandra M

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: As the life expectancy of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) increases, the focus on ensuring success with medication therapies is increasingly important. The ability of patients to autonomously manage medications and related therapies is poorly described in the literature. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this project was to assess the level of medication-related knowledge and self-care skills in patients with CF. METHODS: This project took place in a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation accredited affiliate center. Eighty-nine patients between the ages of 6 and 60 were eligible to participate based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Pharmacists administered a 16-item questionnaire and detailed medication history during clinic visits from January through May 2014. RESULTS: Forty-five patients 6 to 41 years old participated in the study. The skills most often performed independently were preparing nebulizer treatments (85%) and telling someone if they feel their medicines are causing a problem (89%). Skills least often performed were carrying a medication list (82%) and bringing a medication list to appointments (76%). In respondents 21 years of age and older, less than 75% of respondents were involved with obtaining financial resources, maintaining equipment, carrying a medication list, or rinsing their mouth after using inhaled medicines. Participants were able to provide drug name, dose, and frequency of use for pancreatic enzymes and azithromycin 37% and 24% of the time, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In the population surveyed, many medication-related skills had not been acquired by early adulthood. Assessing and providing education for medication-related self-care skills at all ages are needed.

  19. Changes in the level of motor skills of football players "Flisak" Złotoria club after the period of special preparation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Łukasz Pabianek

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available The main objective of the study was to analyze and assess the changes in motor skill level of football players after the period of special preparation. This goal was accomplished by discussing theoretical information on the above issues as well as the results of a study conducted jointly with a group of 54 trainers at Flisak Złotoria Club (18 football players aged 11-12, 13-17 and over 17 years. In the course of the research it was shown that the football training at Flisak Złotoria in the special subperiod contributed to a slight improvement in general level and special fitness. Irregularities have been observed in young men's swing and seniors' swing, but due to the marginal nature of negative changes they should not cause a negative assessment of the quality of training in the examined club (though an in-depth analysis of training programs is required for the preparatory period. It also seems reasonable to look for solutions that will increase the efficiency of special fitness training. There was no constant correlation between the age of the respondents and the results of the training. In the course of the research conducted among youngsters, juniors and seniors, it was stated above all that the special preparation sub-period had a very limited but positive impact on the overall fitness level of football players, as confirmed by the improvement in the average scores obtained in 7 out of 9 Exercises. The fact that, as the empirical data show, the marginal reduction of the Seniors' speed over short distances (a decrease of the average running time of 15 meters by 0.21% and the youthfulness (decrease of the length of the jump by 0.99 %.

  20. Patients' perceptions of their roles in goal setting in a spinal cord injury regional rehabilitation program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Draaistra, Harriett; Singh, Mina D; Ireland, Sandra; Harper, Theresa

    2012-01-01

    Goal setting is a common practice in rehabilitation, yet there is a paucity of literature exploring patients' perceptions of their roles in this process. This study was conducted using a qualitative descriptive methodology to explore patients' perceptions of their roles in setting goals in a spinal cord injury regional rehabilitation program. Imogene King's theory of goal attainment was used to frame the study. Data were collected through interviews and analyzed using a content analysis. The results revealed four themes: Visioning, Redefining, Brainstorming, and Rebuilding Participants (n = 13) envisioned their roles as setting an overarching priority goal, defining detailed rehabilitation goals, sharing knowledge with the team, and rebuilding skills to attain goals. Implications for nursing practice include the need to understand patients' experiences and perceptions, share knowledge, and support effective communication to promote collaborative goal setting. A need to enhance health professionals' education to fully understand factors influencing patients' abilities to set rehabilitation goals, and future research in methods to promote patients' engagement in goal setting was also clearly indicated.

  1. Career Development Skills, Outcomes, and Hope among College Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sung, Yoonhee; Turner, Sherri L.; Kaewchinda, Marid

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the utility of the Integrative Contextual Model of Career Development (ICM) to describe the career development behavior of college students was examined. Second, relationships among educational and career development skills (career exploration, person-environment fit, goal setting,…

  2. Soft Skills in Pedagogical Practices with Different Curriculum for Engineering Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohamad, M. M.; Yee, M. H.; Tee, T. K.; Mukhtar, M. Ibrahim; Ahmad, A.

    2017-08-01

    The rapid growth of the economy in Malaysia is a benchmark for the country’s progress. The demand for skilled worker has started to increase from year to year resulted in the implementation of reforms and necessary skills will be applied to each of the graduates who will step into the nature of work. Therefore, a study was conducted to identify the level of soft skills among students in higher education institutions. The study was conducted at the Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and involved 302 samples of final year students from Faculty of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. There are several types of soft skills have been viewed on the students such as creative thinking skills, teamwork skills, communication skills, decision-making skills, interpersonal skills and leadership skills. The analysis results show that all of the soft skills are on the high level. Furthermore, the results of ANOVA showed a significant difference in soft skills mastery among Civil Engineering students and Mechanical Engineering students. As a conclusion, the overall level of soft skills mastery among Faculty of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering students is on the high level. The soft skills elements are very important in order to produce skills workers that suitable with the industry.

  3. Relationships between Early Child Factors and School Readiness Skills in Young Children with Hearing Loss

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harrington, Marjorie; DesJardin, Jean L.; Shea, Lynn C.

    2010-01-01

    The goal of this longitudinal study is to examine the relationships between early child factors (i.e., age at identification, enrollment in early intervention, oral language skills) and school readiness skills (i.e., conceptual knowledge) in a group of young children with hearing loss (HL). Standardized language, cognition, and conceptual…

  4. Mirroring "meaningful" actions: sensorimotor learning modulates imitation of goal-directed actions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catmur, Caroline; Heyes, Cecilia

    2017-06-19

    Imitation is important in the development of social and technological skills throughout the lifespan. Experiments investigating the acquisition and modulation of imitation (and of its proposed neural substrate, the mirror neuron system) have produced evidence that the capacity for imitation depends on associative learning in which connections are formed between sensory and motor representations of actions. However, evidence that the development of imitation depends on associative learning has been found only for non-goal-directed actions. One reason for the lack of research on goal-directed actions is that imitation of such actions is commonly confounded with the tendency to respond in a spatially compatible manner. However, since the most prominent account of mirror neuron function, and hence of imitation, suggests that these cells encode goal-directed actions, it is important to establish whether sensorimotor learning can also modulate imitation of goal-directed actions. Experiment 1 demonstrated that imitation of goal-directed grasping can be measured while controlling for spatial compatibility, and Experiment 2 showed that this imitation effect can be modulated by sensorimotor training. Together these data support the hypothesis that the capacity for behavioural imitation, and the properties of the mirror neuron system, are constructed in the course of development through associative learning.

  5. The Effects of Using Concept Mapping for Improving Advanced Level Biology Students' Lower- and Higher-Order Cognitive Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bramwell-Lalor, Sharon; Rainford, Marcia

    2014-01-01

    This paper reports on teachers' use of concept mapping as an alternative assessment strategy in advanced level biology classes and its effects on students' cognitive skills on selected biology concepts. Using a mixed methods approach, the study employed a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design involving 156 students and 8 teachers from…

  6. A New Approach of an Intelligent E-Learning System Based on Learners' Skill Level and Learners' Success Rate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohamed, Hafidi; Lamia, Mahnane

    2015-01-01

    Learners usually meet cognitive overload and disorientation problems when using e-learning system. At present, most of the studies in e-learning either concentrate on the technological aspect or focus on adapting learner's interests or browsing behaviors, while, learner's skill level and learners' success rate is usually neglected. In this paper,…

  7. Pairing Learners by Companionship: Effects on Motor Skill Performance and Comfort Levels in the Reciprocal Style of Teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chatoupis, Constantine

    2015-01-01

    Mosston and Ashworth's (2008) reciprocal style of teaching gives learners the opportunity to work in pairs to support each other's learning (one practices a task and the other gives feedback). The effects of pairing learners by companionship (friend and nonacquaintance) on 8-year-old children's motor skill performance and comfort levels were…

  8. Development of perceived competence, tactical skills, motivation, technical skills, and speed and agility in young soccer players.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forsman, Hannele; Gråstén, Arto; Blomqvist, Minna; Davids, Keith; Liukkonen, Jarmo; Konttinen, Niilo

    2016-07-01

    The objective of this 1-year, longitudinal study was to examine the development of perceived competence, tactical skills, motivation, technical skills, and speed and agility characteristics of young Finnish soccer players. We also examined associations between latent growth models of perceived competence and other recorded variables. Participants were 288 competitive male soccer players ranging from 12 to 14 years (12.7 ± 0.6) from 16 soccer clubs. Players completed the self-assessments of perceived competence, tactical skills, and motivation, and participated in technical, and speed and agility tests. Results of this study showed that players' levels of perceived competence, tactical skills, motivation, technical skills, and speed and agility characteristics remained relatively high and stable across the period of 1 year. Positive relationships were found between these levels and changes in perceived competence and motivation, and levels of perceived competence and speed and agility characteristics. Together these results illustrate the multi-dimensional nature of talent development processes in soccer. Moreover, it seems crucial in coaching to support the development of perceived competence and motivation in young soccer players and that it might be even more important in later maturing players.

  9. Integrating Problem-Based Learning and Simulation: Effects on Student Motivation and Life Skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roh, Young Sook; Kim, Sang Suk

    2015-07-01

    Previous research has suggested that a teaching strategy integrating problem-based learning and simulation may be superior to traditional lecture. The purpose of this study was to assess learner motivation and life skills before and after taking a course involving problem-based learning and simulation. The design used repeated measures with a convenience sample of 83 second-year nursing students who completed the integrated course. Data from a self-administered questionnaire measuring learner motivation and life skills were collected at pretest, post-problem-based learning, and post-simulation time points. Repeated-measures analysis of variance determined that the mean scores for total learner motivation (F=6.62, P=.003), communication (F=8.27, Plearning (F=4.45, P=.016) differed significantly between time points. Post hoc tests using the Bonferroni correction revealed that total learner motivation and total life skills significantly increased both from pretest to postsimulation and from post-problem-based learning test to postsimulation test. Subscales of learner motivation and life skills, intrinsic goal orientation, self-efficacy for learning and performance, problem-solving skills, and self-directed learning skills significantly increased both from pretest to postsimulation test and from post-problem-based learning test to post-simulation test. The results demonstrate that an integrating problem-based learning and simulation course elicits significant improvement in learner motivation and life skills. Simulation plus problem-based learning is more effective than problem-based learning alone at increasing intrinsic goal orientation, task value, self-efficacy for learning and performance, problem solving, and self-directed learning.

  10. The contribution of goal specificity to goal achievement in collaborative goal setting for the management of asthma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Lorraine; Alles, Chehani; Lemay, Kate; Reddel, Helen; Saini, Bandana; Bosnic-Anticevich, Sinthia; Emmerton, Lynne; Stewart, Kay; Burton, Debbie; Krass, Ines; Armour, Carol

    2013-01-01

    Goal setting was investigated as part of an implementation trial of an asthma management service (PAMS) conducted in 96 Australian community pharmacies. Patients and pharmacists identified asthma-related issues of concern to the patient and collaboratively set goals to address these. Although goal setting is commonly integrated into disease state management interventions, the nature of goals, and their contribution to goal attainment and health outcomes are not well understood. To identify and describe: 1) goals set collaboratively between adult patients with asthma and their pharmacist, 2) goal specificity and goal achievement, and 3) describe the relationships between specificity, achievement, asthma control and asthma-related quality of life. Measures of goal specificity, and goal achievement were developed and applied to patient data records. Goals set were thematically analyzed into goal domains. Proportions of goals set, goals achieved and their specificity were calculated. Correlational and regression analyses were undertaken to determine the relationships between goal specificity, goal achievement, asthma control and asthma-related quality of life. Data were drawn from 498 patient records. Findings showed that patients set a wide range and number of asthma-related goals (N = 1787) and the majority (93%) were either achieved or being working toward by the end of the study. Goal achievement was positively associated with specific and moderately specific goals, but not non-specific goals. However, on closer inspection, an inconsistent pattern of relationships emerged as a function of goal domain. Findings also showed that goal setting was associated with end-of-study asthma control but not to asthma-related quality of life. Pharmacists can help patients to set achievable and specific asthma management goals, and these have the potential to directly impact health outcomes such as asthma control. Goal specificity appears to be an important feature in the

  11. Preoperative learning goals set by surgical residents and faculty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pernar, Luise I M; Breen, Elizabeth; Ashley, Stanley W; Peyre, Sarah E

    2011-09-01

    The operating room (OR) remains the main teaching venue for surgical trainees. The OR is considered a pure-discovery learning environment; the downsides of this can be putatively overcome when faculty and trainee arrive at a shared understanding of learning. This study aimed to better understand preoperative learning goals to identify areas of commonalities and potential barrier to intraoperative teaching. Brief, structured preoperative interviews were conducted outside the OR with the resident and faculty member who were scheduled to operate together. Answers were analyzed and grouped using grounded theory. Twenty-seven resident-faculty pairs were interviewed. Nine residents (33.3%) were junior (PGY 1 and 2) and 18 (66.7%) were senior (PGY 3 through 5). Learning goal categories that emerged from the response analysis were anatomy, basic and advanced surgical skills, general and specific procedural tasks, technical autonomy, and pre-, intra-, and postoperative considerations. Residents articulated fewer learning goals than faculty (1.5 versus 2.4; P = 0.024). The most frequently identified learning goal by both groups was one classifiable under general procedural tasks; the greatest divergence was seen regarding perioperative considerations, which were identified frequently by faculty members but rarely by residents. Faculty articulate significantly more learning goals for the residents they will operate with than residents articulate for themselves. Our data suggest that residents and faculty align on some learning goals for the OR but residents tend to be more limited, focusing predominantly on technical aspects of the operation. Faculty members tend to hold a broader view of the learning potential of the OR. These discrepancies may present barriers to effective intraoperative teaching. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Citizen-making: the role of national goals for socializing children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bond, Michael Harris; Lun, Vivian Miu-Chi

    2014-03-01

    The ecological, political, religious and economic constraints and opportunities characterizing a nation crystallize to set the agenda for socializing children, its future citizens. Parented accordingly, members of those nations would come to adopt the values, beliefs, skills and attitudes that constitute the requisite human capital to sustain that nation. This study reports on the profiling of 55 nations by two dimensions of the socialization goals for children extracted from the World Values Survey, viz., Self-directedness versus Other-directedness, and Civility versus Practicality. An affluent, less corrupt and more gender-equal society is associated with greater focus on Self-directedness and Civility. Both dimensions show convergent and discriminant validities in their correlation with nation-level psychosocial variables such as citizen subjective well-being, values, beliefs, pace of life and trust of out-groups. These dimensions are also shown to connect a nation's ecological construct to the outcomes of its citizens, adding a psychological-developmental perspective to examine nation-building and cultural transmission. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Knowledge and Skills Transfer between MBA and Workplace

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prince, Melvin; Burns, David; Lu, Xinyi; Winsor, Robert

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: This paper aims to use goal-setting theory to explain the transfer of knowledge and skills between master of business administration (MBA) and the workplace. Design/methodology/approach: Data were obtained by an online survey of MBA students enrolled in at four US graduate business schools. These were a public and private institution in…

  14. Evaluation of Listening Skill of ELT Textbook at Secondary School Level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mumtaz Ahmed

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Textbook evaluation means development of textbook that is based on rigorous research. In Pakistan text books are designed on communicative language teaching which focuses on communication. Morley (1991 has asserted that listening has a critical role in communication and in language acquisition because the better the students understand, the better they will be able to speak. In our text books, listening practices (text and activities are missing, and listening plays a secondary role as compared to speaking, as it is part of oral work that are dialogues and role play, neglecting that during conversation in English our students face hurdles in quick thinking and accurate predicting because of ignoring listening skill which help in learning sound, rhythm, intonation, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammatical details. The researchers’ intention here is to put different views on importance of listening skill and to evaluate English Text Books prescribed in Punjab government school whether they contain listening material, corresponding activities and related audio video material in text books. Keywords: Evaluation, listening skill, ELT, textbook, Punjab Textbook Board (PTB

  15. Lecturers, librarians and students in collaboration – A way of achieving complex educational goals in information literacy in three programmes at Lund University

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cajsa Andersson

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available A key factor in achieving educational goals is collaboration between lecturers at faculty and departmental level, and librarians. Experience has shown that generic skills should be integrated into courses. For example, exercises in information searching, criticism of sources of information and group work will only be meaningful if they are clearly related to the students' subject of study. This is a challenging logistical problem in large groups of students. In the spring of 2009, we started working on the introduction and integration of generic skills using two variations of a model. The experience gained from these initial attempts has been applied in the introduction of first-year university students. To date (autumn term 2012, almost 900 students starting programmes in Engineering Physics, Environmental Engineering, and Industrial Management and Engineering, have taken part in a compulsory introductory course.

  16. Developing Oral Language Skills in Middle School English Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, Douglas; Frey, Nancy

    2018-01-01

    Oral language development can help English learners develop academic proficiency with the English language. In this investigation, at one middle school, teachers focused on improving oral language skills. Using a formative experiment process, the teachers developed an intervention to accomplish their pedagogical goal and then tracked data to see…

  17. Customer service skills for survival.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McAtee, L F

    1999-11-01

    As APICS practitioners, we all must share a common goal. How can we contribute to our company's success? Success can be measured in positive terms of market share, growth, profitability, return on investment, or some combination thereof. Each company must establish its own definition of success. For the purposes of this article, success will be equated to one word that we can all readily identify with: survival. What skills do we need to survive in the marketplace of the next millennium?

  18. Agricultural Production. Level 1. Level 2. Level 3. Support Materials for Agricultural Training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Batman, Kangan; Gadd, Nick; Lucas, Michele

    This publication contains the three communication skills units of the three levels of Support Materials for Agricultural Training (SMAT) in agricultural production: Level 1 (starting), 2 (continuing), and 3 (completing). The units are designed to help the learner improve his or her written and spoken communication skills needed to deal with…

  19. Get a taste of your goals: promoting motive-goal congruence through affect-focus goal fantasy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Job, Veronika; Brandstätter, Veronika

    2009-10-01

    Studies show that motive-goal congruence is an important predictor of well-being (Baumann, Kaschel, & Kuhl, 2005; Brunstein, Schultheiss, & Grässmann, 1998). However, little is known about the factors that promote congruence between implicit motives and goals. Relying on McClelland's (1985) concept of implicit motives and the theory of fantasy realization (Oettingen, 1999), we postulated that goal fantasies focusing on motive-specific affective incentives promote motive-congruent goal setting. This hypothesis was tested in 3 experimental studies. In Study 1 (n=46) and Study 2 (n=48), participants were asked to select goals in a hypothetical scenario. In Study 3 (n=179), they rated their commitment to personal goals for their actual life situation. The results of all 3 studies supported our hypothesis that participants who focus on motive-specific affective incentives in their goal fantasies set their goals in line with their corresponding implicit motive dispositions.

  20. Life goal attainment in the adaptation process after acquired brain injury: the influence of self-efficacy and of flexibility and tenacity in goal pursuit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brands, Ingrid; Stapert, Sven; Köhler, Sebastian; Wade, Derick; van Heugten, Caroline

    2015-06-01

    To investigate attainment of important life goals and to examine whether self-efficacy, tenacity in goal pursuit and flexibility in goal adjustment contribute to adaptation by affecting levels of emotional distress and quality of life in patients with newly acquired brain injury. Data were collected from a prospective clinical cohort study of 148 patients assessed after discharge home (mean time since injury = 15 weeks) and one year later. At follow-up, attainment of life goals (set at baseline) and satisfaction with attainment was scored (10-point scale) and patients were asked how they adjusted unattained goals. Emotional distress was measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), quality of life with the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire (LiSat-9), self-efficacy with the TBI Self-efficacy Questionnaire (SEsx) and tenacity and flexibility with the Assimilative/Accommodative Coping Questionnaire (AACQ). Random effects regression analyses and structural equation modelling were used. In total, only 13 % of initial life goals were achieved in one year. Patients who maintained efforts to reach their original goals had higher average levels of tenacity, but did not differ in level of self-efficacy compared with patients that disengaged. Patients with higher self-efficacy were more successful in attaining important life goals, which correlated with higher quality of life. Patients with higher self-efficacy, higher tenacity in goal pursuit, and higher flexibility in goal adjustment were less emotionally distressed, again correlating with higher quality of life. To optimise adaptation it seems appropriate to promote self-efficacy and both tenacity and flexibility during rehabilitation treatment. © The Author(s) 2014.

  1. Communication skills of heads of departments: verbal, listening, and feedback skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamidi, Yadollah; Barati, Majid

    2011-11-04

    Managers' communication skills are one of the most important topics in educational sector of universities of medical sciences and may have considerable effect on faculty members and employees. This study was per-formed to determine the level of communication skills (verbal, listening, feed-back) of the heads of department of faculties and its relation with some demo-graphic variables. This cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2009 to January 2010. We enrolled all of the heads of departments (N=60) in Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, western Iran. The participants received a self-administered 24-item questionnaire in Likert format (six general items and 18 items related to communication skills). Data were analyzed with SPSS software using Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests. The average scores of verbal, listening and feedback communication were 22.5, 16.1 and 21.1, respectively. Accordingly, 78.3% of participants in verbal communication, 16.7% in listening communication and 73.3% in feedback communication had high status. There were significant differences between the average score of listening skills and age (P=0.013) as well as gender (P=0.042). In addition, there was a significant statistical difference between verbal skills and gender (P=0.021). The overall communication skills of more than half of the heads of departments were moderate. This needs designing some programs for improving department managers' communication skills.

  2. Comparison of Loneliness and Social Skill Levels of Children with Specific Learning Disabilities in Terms of Participation in Sports

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Atike Yılmaz

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This study was conducted in order to compare loneliness and social skill levels of children with specific learning disabilities in terms of participation in sports. For this study, a screening model was used. The study group was composed of 56 children who were aged between 7 and 14 years and diagnosed with a specific learning disability (30 boys and 26 girls. “Personal Information Form”, “Children’s Loneliness Scale”, “Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY” were used in this study. For the data processes and data analyses, SPSS 22 was used. According to the test of normality, non-parametric tests were employed for those data that did not follow a normal distribution and the correlations among variables were tested with correlation analysis at p < 0.05 while differences among variables were tested with Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests at p < 0.05. According to the findings obtained in this study, there were no significant differences in terms of sex, the number of family members and the number of brothers and sisters while there were significant correlations in terms of age, sports status, MESSY-subscales and loneliness. In sum, it may be concluded that sports played a positive role in social skill and loneliness levels among children with specific learning disabilities.

  3. Specifying content and mechanisms of change in interventions to change professionals’ practice: an illustration from the Good Goals study in occupational therapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kolehmainen Niina

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background It is widely agreed that interventions to change professionals’ practice need to be clearly specified. This involves (1 selecting and defining the intervention techniques, (2 operationalising the techniques and deciding their delivery, and (3 formulating hypotheses about the mechanisms through which the techniques are thought to result in change. Descriptions of methods to achieve these objectives are limited. This paper reports methods and illustrates outputs from a study to meet these objectives, specifically from the Good Goals study to improve occupational therapists’ caseload management practice. Methods (1 Behaviour change techniques were identified and selected from an existing matrix that maps techniques to determinants. An existing coding manual was used to define the techniques. (2 A team of occupational therapists generated context-relevant, acceptable modes of delivery for the techniques; these data were compared and contrasted with previously collected data, literature on caseload management, and the aims of the intervention. (3 Hypotheses about the mechanisms of change were formulated by drawing on the matrix and on theories of behaviour change. Results (1 Eight behaviour change techniques were selected: goal specified; self-monitoring; contract; graded tasks; increasing skills (problem solving, decision making, goal setting; coping skills; rehearsal of relevant skills; social processes of encouragement, support, and pressure; demonstration by others; and feedback. (2 A range of modes of delivery were generated (e.g., graded tasks’ consisting of series of clinical cases and situations that become increasingly difficult. Conditions for acceptable delivery were identified (e.g., ‘self-monitoring’ was acceptable only if delivered at team level. The modes of delivery were specified as face-to-face training, task sheets, group tasks, DVDs, and team-based weekly meetings. (3 The eight techniques were

  4. Specifying content and mechanisms of change in interventions to change professionals' practice: an illustration from the Good Goals study in occupational therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolehmainen, Niina; Francis, Jill J

    2012-10-18

    It is widely agreed that interventions to change professionals' practice need to be clearly specified. This involves (1) selecting and defining the intervention techniques, (2) operationalising the techniques and deciding their delivery, and (3) formulating hypotheses about the mechanisms through which the techniques are thought to result in change. Descriptions of methods to achieve these objectives are limited. This paper reports methods and illustrates outputs from a study to meet these objectives, specifically from the Good Goals study to improve occupational therapists' caseload management practice. (1) Behaviour change techniques were identified and selected from an existing matrix that maps techniques to determinants. An existing coding manual was used to define the techniques. (2) A team of occupational therapists generated context-relevant, acceptable modes of delivery for the techniques; these data were compared and contrasted with previously collected data, literature on caseload management, and the aims of the intervention. (3) Hypotheses about the mechanisms of change were formulated by drawing on the matrix and on theories of behaviour change. (1) Eight behaviour change techniques were selected: goal specified; self-monitoring; contract; graded tasks; increasing skills (problem solving, decision making, goal setting); coping skills; rehearsal of relevant skills; social processes of encouragement, support, and pressure; demonstration by others; and feedback. (2) A range of modes of delivery were generated (e.g., graded tasks' consisting of series of clinical cases and situations that become increasingly difficult). Conditions for acceptable delivery were identified (e.g., 'self-monitoring' was acceptable only if delivered at team level). The modes of delivery were specified as face-to-face training, task sheets, group tasks, DVDs, and team-based weekly meetings. (3) The eight techniques were hypothesized to target caseload management practice through

  5. The importance of integumentary knowledge and skill in physical therapist entry-level education: are they prepared for practice?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibbs, Karen A; Furney, Steven R

    2013-01-01

    Physical therapist practice is grounded in patient management principles encompassing all body systems and focuses on prevention, education, and functional outcomes. As such, management of the integumentary system crosses all practice settings, emphasizing the importance that basic integumentary content be adequately addressed during entry-level education. The purpose of this qualitative study was to compare the self-reported integumentary knowledge and skill of recent graduates to profession-determined expectations for education. Participants were 7 licensed physical therapists experienced in wound management. Semi-structured interview data were recorded, transcribed, and coded. A matrix compiling professional expectations for integumentary education was utilized to identify topics as absent, covered only briefly, or covered only during clinical rotations. Compression, vascular screening, infection, factors impacting healing, modalities, dressings, wound measurements, topicals, and sutures/staples were among the most commonly reported areas of deficiency. While integumentary care makes up a small percentage of physical therapy practice, it is a significant part of a comprehensively educated therapist. This study found participants did not perceive themselves to have received the minimum entry-level integumentary knowledge and skill deemed necessary by the profession. Study results are supported by current literature and demonstrate the need for integumentary curriculum review in entry-level programs.

  6. Training of Leadership Skills in Medical Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiesewetter, Jan; Schmidt-Huber, Marion; Netzel, Janine; Krohn, Alexandra C.; Angstwurm, Matthias; Fischer, Martin R.

    2013-01-01

    Background: Effective team performance is essential in the delivery of high-quality health-care. Leadership skills therefore are an important part of physicians’ everyday clinical life. To date, the development of leadership skills are underrepresented in medical curricula. Appropriate training methods for equipping doctors with these leadership skills are highly desirable. Objective: The review aims to summarize the findings in the current literature regarding training in leadership skills in medicine and tries to integrate the findings to guide future research and training development. Method: The PubMED, ERIC, and PsycArticles, PsycINFO, PSYNDEX and Academic search complete of EBSCOhost were searched for training of leadership skills in medicine in German and English. Relevant articles were identified and findings were integrated and consolidated regarding the leadership principles, target group of training and number of participants, temporal resources of the training, training content and methods, the evaluation design and trainings effects. Results: Eight studies met all inclusion criteria and no exclusion criteria. The range of training programs is very broad and leadership skill components are diverse. Training designs implied theoretical reflections of leadership phenomena as well as discussions of case studies from practice. The duration of training ranged from several hours to years. Reactions of participants to trainings were positive, yet no behavioral changes through training were examined. Conclusions: More research is needed to understand the factors critical to success in the development of leadership skills in medical education and to adapt goal-oriented training methods. Requirements analysis might help to gain knowledge about the nature of leadership skills in medicine. The authors propose a stronger focus on behavioral training methods like simulation-based training for leadership skills in medical education. PMID:24282452

  7. Effectiveness of competitive activity of high class hockey players accounting a level of their self-esteem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mikhnov A.P.

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Purpose : study the effect of increasing the level of self-esteem on the efficiency of competitive activity of high class players. Material : the study involved sixteen athletes (Atlanta, Moscow region. - Continental Hockey League. Results : it was found that the application of special training self-esteem increases the level of implementation of technical and tactical action games. Number of goals increased by 8.92%, assists - 21.5%, the total number of shots on goal - to 20.02%. Conclusions : it is recommended specialized program correction level of self-esteem from 10 separate studies. Classes have different target setting: habit forming positive attitudes towards themselves, develop skills of active life position, securing high self-esteem. The program is used for two weeks in the preparatory period of training.

  8. Network conditioning under conflicting goals: Accident causation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jouse, W.C.

    1992-01-01

    Networks based on the Barto-Sutton architecture (BSA) of neural-like elements have an information-processing structure that is analogous to the cognitive structure of a human. Given a set of explicitly stated rules of conduct, such networks develop a set of skills that is capable of satisfying the rules. In this sense, the network acts as a translator of rules into skill-based behavior. The BSA acquires its skills through casual, correlation-based scheduling. Stated briefly, it first constructs an internal representation, or model, of the rules of conduct, and then uses the model to correct deficiencies in its skill. It learns in a manner that closely resembles classical conditioning, shifting the onset of signals associated with unconditioned stimuli forward in time to coincide with the onset of conditioning stimuli. The low-level positive reinforcement the network receives from enhancing its operational efficiency is immediate and direct. In the absence of countervailing influences, this continuous pressure is sufficient to discount the recollection of past failures and leads to accidents with a predictable regularity

  9. Selfish goals serve more fundamental social and biological goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becker, D Vaughn; Kenrick, Douglas T

    2014-04-01

    Proximate selfish goals reflect the machinations of more fundamental goals such as self-protection and reproduction. Evolutionary life history theory allows us to make predictions about which goals are prioritized over others, which stimuli release which goals, and how the stages of cognitive processing are selectively influenced to better achieve the aims of those goals.

  10. Skills and Competencies Set Forth by Bologna Process in Higher Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Firdevs GÜNEŞ

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Scientific and technological advances of today, force the universities to train more qualified individuals. That needs to increase the quality of educational programs and practices, and requires constant updating in universities. So within the framework of the “Bologna Process” higher education programs have been started to be updated in our country. These studies, carried out to develop the skills and competencies of students' knowledge with student-centered educational approach. Besides a variety of knowledge and skills, ability to work independently and assume responsibility, learning, communication and social competence skills, such as domain specific competencies and professional competence is intended to gain to the students. This approach needs to teaching cognitive (logical, intuitive and creative thinking and practical (manual skills, methods, materials, tools to use skills, that is to say language, mental, social and emotional skills in higher education. Teaching of skills is different from teaching of the information in methods and practice. Therefore the universities should be developed for the assessment of teaching and coaching skills. Otherwise, the rote teaching of information will inevitably grow and achieving the goals of higher education will be difficult.

  11. ANALYSIS OF STUDENT CREATIVE THINKING SKILLS IN SOLVING PROBLEM PATTERN NUMBERS WITH PARTITION TECHNIQUES BASED ON METACOGNITION SKILLS

    OpenAIRE

    Nila Herawati1, Dafik 2,3 & I Made Tirta4

    2018-01-01

    High-order thinking or Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS) is one of the most needed thinking skills in a person's life. Creative thinking is the highest level of thinking skills. Creative thinking skills in students have the characteristics of fluency (fluency), flexibility (flexibility), elaboration and originality (originality). Metacognition is the ability of one's thinking in using strategies to produce problem solving in their learning. This ability helps students get personal feedback a...

  12. Interest Level in 2-Year-Olds with Autism Spectrum Disorder Predicts Rate of Verbal, Nonverbal, and Adaptive Skill Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klintwall, Lars; Macari, Suzanne; Eikeseth, Svein; Chawarska, Katarzyna

    2015-01-01

    Recent studies have suggested that skill acquisition rates for children with autism spectrum disorders receiving early interventions can be predicted by child motivation. We examined whether level of interest during an Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule assessment at 2?years predicts subsequent rates of verbal, nonverbal, and adaptive skill…

  13. Dimensions of Discourse Level Oral Language Skills and Their Relation to Reading Comprehension and Written Composition: An Exploratory Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Park, Cheahyung; Park, Younghee

    2015-01-01

    We examined the relations of discourse-level oral language skills [i.e., listening comprehension, and oral retell and production of narrative texts (oral retell and production hereafter)] to reading comprehension and written composition. Korean-speaking first grade students (N = 97) were assessed on listening comprehension, oral retell and…

  14. Validating a Methodology for Establishing a Criteria and Proficiency Levels in Surgical Skills Simulators

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Heinrichs, LeRoy; Lukoff, Brian; Youngblood, Patricia; Dev, Parvati; Shavelson, Richard

    2006-01-01

    .... To establish training criteria, we have assessed the performance of 18 experienced laparoscopic surgeons basic technical surgical skills of recorded electronically in 26 basic skills modules selected...

  15. The role of observational research in improving faculty lecturing skills: A qualitative study in an Italian dental school.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Visioli, Sonia; Lodi, Giovanni; Carrassi, Antonio; Zannini, Lucia

    2009-08-01

    This pilot study is based on observational research of lecturing skills during the annual Oral Medicine course at the Milan Dentistry School. Our goals were to explore how teachers exhibited desirable lecturing skills, to observe how their attitudes and lecturing skills affected students' attention and thereby learning, and to provide feedback. We prepared a structured observational grid divided into four categories: explaining, questioning, visual aids, and lecturer attitude. The grid was filled in by a participant, nonactive researcher. Two main types of lecture were observed: "traditional" and "interactive". Both of these can result in a high level of attention among students. Among the categories, only "lecturer attitude" appeared to affect student attention. In particular, the skills of "speaking aloud" and "sustaining verbal communication with vocal inflection" appeared to have the greatest impact on lecturer attitude. The data were then presented blindly to the five lecturers, who were able to identify their own lesson. Our grid proved to be a valid instrument although it was very expensive. When integrated with other strategies for improving lecturing, such as student scoring, peer evaluation, and microteaching, observational research can be a cost-effective method to stimulate guided reflection and to improve the lecturing skills of faculty members.

  16. The results of STEM education methods for enhancing critical thinking and problem solving skill in physics the 10th grade level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soros, P.; Ponkham, K.; Ekkapim, S.

    2018-01-01

    This research aimed to: 1) compare the critical think and problem solving skills before and after learning using STEM Education plan, 2) compare student achievement before and after learning about force and laws of motion using STEM Education plan, and 3) the satisfaction of learning by using STEM Education. The sample used were 37 students from grade 10 at Borabu School, Borabu District, Mahasarakham Province, semester 2, Academic year 2016. Tools used in this study consist of: 1) STEM Education plan about the force and laws of motion for grade 10 students of 1 schemes with total of 14 hours, 2) The test of critical think and problem solving skills with multiple-choice type of 5 options and 2 option of 30 items, 3) achievement test on force and laws of motion with multiple-choice of 4 options of 30 items, 4) satisfaction learning with 5 Rating Scale of 20 items. The statistics used in data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation, and t-test (Dependent). The results showed that 1) The student with learning using STEM Education plan have score of critical think and problem solving skills on post-test higher than pre-test with statistically significant level .01. 2) The student with learning using STEM Education plan have achievement score on post-test higher than pre-test with statistically significant level of .01. 3) The student'level of satisfaction toward the learning by using STEM Education plan was at a high level (X ¯ = 4.51, S.D=0.56).

  17. Employees' Political Skill and Job Performance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zettler, Ingo; Lang, Jonas W.B.

    2015-01-01

    skill received higher job performance ratings compared to those with lower and higher levels, respectively. In addition, the nature of the relationships between employees and their raters was found to moderate this curvilinear effect. Specifically, besides the fact that employees who had close working......During the past decade, the construct of political skill has attracted a lot of attention. In particular, its relation to job performance has been examined. With regard to this link, it is typically proposed that political skill affects job performance in a positive linear manner. However......, in this article it is suggested that intermediate levels of employees' political skill yield the highest job performance, implying that this association is in fact represented by an inverted U-shape. Findings from two field studies (N = 178, N = 115 employee-supervisor-colleague triads) that incorporated...

  18. A new approach in measuring graduate employability skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zakaria, Mohd Hafiz; Yatim, Bidin; Ismail, Suzilah

    2014-06-01

    Globalization makes graduate recruitment for an organization becomes more complex because employers believe that a holistic workforce is the key success of an organization. Currently, although graduates are said to possess specific skills but they still lack of employability skills, and this lead to increment of training cost either by government or even employers. Therefore, graduate level of employability skills should be evaluated before entering work market. In this study, a valid and reliable instrument embedding a new approach of measuring employability skills was developed using Situational Judgment Test (SJT). The instrument comprises of twelve (12) items measuring communication skill, professional ethics and morality, entrepreneurial skill, critical thinking in problem solving and personal quality. Instrument's validity was achieved through expert opinion and the reliability (in terms of stability) was based on the Chi-Square for homogeneity test. Generally, the instrument is beneficial to graduates, employers, government agencies, university, and workforce recruitment agencies when evaluating the level of employability skills.

  19. The Influence of Motor Skills on Measurement Accuracy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brychta, Petr; Sadílek, Marek; Brychta, Josef

    2016-10-01

    This innovative study trying to do interdisciplinary interface at first view different ways fields: kinantropology and mechanical engineering. A motor skill is described as an action which involves the movement of muscles in a body. Gross motor skills permit functions as a running, jumping, walking, punching, lifting and throwing a ball, maintaining a body balance, coordinating etc. Fine motor skills captures smaller neuromuscular actions, such as holding an object between the thumb and a finger. In mechanical inspection, the accuracy of measurement is most important aspect. The accuracy of measurement to some extent is also dependent upon the sense of sight or sense of touch associated with fine motor skills. It is therefore clear that the level of motor skills will affect the precision and accuracy of measurement in metrology. Aim of this study is literature review to find out fine motor skills level of individuals and determine the potential effect of different fine motor skill performance on precision and accuracy of mechanical engineering measuring.

  20. Optimalisasi Persalinan Non-institusional Untuk Menurunkan Angka Kematian Ibu Era Millenium Development Goals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ucke S. Sastrawinata

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available The Millennium Development Goals are goals that must be achieved in 2015 as a responds to world development challenges. MDGs in maternal healthcare were measured by indicators such as maternal mortality ratios and percentage of births attended by skilled birth attendants (SBA. This article focuses on very good programs in Indonesia but still not being done perfectly because Indonesia's MMR is still the highest among south east asian countries. National MMR is declining over decades, but in several provinces MMR still high. Deliveries by SBA proportion show promising trends although with low system support and skill monitoring support. Most of deliveries were non-institutional, several aspects known to play important roles were psychological, families, and economics aspects. Efforts on lowering maternal mortality in Indonesia actually are combinations between SBA, emergency obstetric care, and emergency referral system. Interventions can be done by SBA at home whileworking, with an adequate support from community system, emergency referral system, and improvement of contraception access. Non-institutional delivery optimalization with des SIAGA and GSI (Safe Motherhood Activities which had 5 components; Funding System, Transportation System, Blood Donor System, Information System, and partnership in midwives and traditional birth attendant (TBA.

  1. Internet skills, sources of support, and benefiting from internet use

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Deursen, Alexander Johannes Aloysius Maria; Courtois, Cédric; van Dijk, Johannes A.G.M.

    2014-01-01

    This study added communication Internet skills to an existing skill framework of operational, formal, information, and strategic skills. The study investigated how people deal with inadequate skill levels by identifying support sources. Furthermore, we investigated which of the Internet skills

  2. The Impact of Communication Skills Training on Cardiology Fellows' and Attending Physicians' Perceived Comfort with Difficult Conversations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berlacher, Kathryn; Arnold, Robert M; Reitschuler-Cross, Eva; Teuteberg, Jeffrey; Teuteberg, Winifred

    2017-07-01

    Cardiologists need to decide which treatments are appropriate for seriously ill patients and whether they align with patient goals. Reconciling medical options with patients' wishes requires skilled communication. Although there is evidence that communication is teachable, few cardiologists receive formal training. To demonstrate that providing communication skills training to cardiologists is feasible and improves their perceived preparedness (PP) for leading difficult conversations. CardioTalk is a workshop to improve communication through short didactic sessions followed by interactions with standardized patients. Competencies include giving bad news, defining goals of care, responding to emotion, supporting religious beliefs, and withdrawing therapies. Settings/Subjects: First year cardiology fellows, heart failure fellows, and cardiac intensive care unit attendings. Surveys evaluated the curriculum's efficacy and learners' PP before and after the workshop. Eight cardiology attendings and 20 cardiology fellows participated. Eighty-nine percent reported having any prior education in communication. Fellows reported more prior education than attendings (100% vs. 62.5%, p = 0.017). Level of PP improved in all competencies for all learners. Ninety-six percent of respondents would recommend the training to peers. All attendings felt that it should be required for cardiologists in the cardiac intensive care unit and reported improved preparedness to teach communication to learners. All learners improved in levels of PP in communication competencies. CardioTalk is the first described training program that prepares cardiologists for the challenges they face when having conversations with seriously ill patients.

  3. The interaction between dietary and life goals: using goal systems theory to explore healthy diet and life goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner-McGrievy, Gabrielle M; Wright, Julie A; Migneault, Jeffrey P; Quintiliani, Lisa; Friedman, Robert H

    2014-01-01

    Objective : To examine the types of life and dietary goals individuals report and how these goal domains interact as framed by goal systems theory. Methods : This work is a cross-sectional survey study. Measures included the incidence of common life and dietary goals and how these goals interact with and facilitate each other. Results : The results of a quantitative survey ( n  = 46 participants), which was informed by two focus groups ( n  = 17 participants), showed that participants are trying to achieve several different life (e.g. achieving financial success) and dietary goals (e.g. eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking more water, and losing weight) and that these two types of goals interact to both facilitate and conflict with each other. Having a life goal of exercising was significantly associated with healthy eating goals when compared with other life goals ( p 's goals may be linked and help to facilitate one another. Being in the maintenance phase with the goal of healthy eating was associated with participants feeling like they were more successful in their other non-diet-related health goals ( p  goals can facilitate success in achieving other goals. Conclusions : Life goals can have an impact on a person's ability to achieve and maintain dietary and other health goals. Health educators may help to facilitate long-term behavior change by examining a person's life goals as well as dietary goals.

  4. Relationships between cooperation and goal orientation among male professional and semi-professional team athletes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lameiras, João; Almeida, Pedro L; Garcia-Mas, Alexandre

    2014-12-01

    In team sports, athletes' goals may focus on the task (enhancing performance, developing better skills, etc.) or on ego (being better than the others, achieving superiority, etc.). This study investigated the relationships between athletes' goal orientation and their tendency to cooperate with teammates and coaches. 158 professional men (M age = 24.1 yr., SD = 4.6) who played on various sport teams participated in this study. Goal orientation was measured with the Portuguese version of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, and cooperation was measured with the Questionário de Cooperação Desportiva. Cooperation was positively correlated with task orientation, and negatively correlated with ego orientation. Overall, the findings support that in sports, directing the players' focus on task may promote prosocial behavior.

  5. FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENT SKILLS OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN NORTHWEST ENGLAND.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foulkes, J D; Knowles, Z; Fairclough, S J; Stratton, G; O'Dwyer, M; Ridgers, N D; Foweather, L

    2015-08-01

    This cross-sectional study examined fundamental movement skill competency among deprived preschool children in Northwest England and explored sex differences. A total of 168 preschool children (ages 3-5 yr.) were included in the study. Twelve skills were assessed using the Children's Activity and Movement in Preschool Motor Skills Protocol and video analysis. Sex differences were explored at the subtest, skill, and component levels. Overall competence was found to be low among both sexes, although it was higher for locomotor skills than for object-control skills. Similar patterns were observed at the component level. Boys had significantly better object-control skills than girls, with greater competence observed for the kick and overarm throw, while girls were more competent at the run, hop, and gallop. The findings of low competency suggest that developmentally appropriate interventions should be implemented in preschool settings to promote movement skills, with targeted activities for boys and girls.

  6. The savant syndrome: intellectual impairment and exceptional skill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, L K

    1999-01-01

    Occasionally, people with developmental disability display skills at a level inconsistent with their general intellectual functioning, so-called "savant" behavior. Studies of savant behavior are reviewed to determine their relevance to notions about the importance of general intellective functions in the development of exceptional skill. It is concluded that (a) the skill exhibited by savants shares many characteristics with that in people without disability, (b) the skill is usually accompanied by normative levels of performance on at least some subtests of standardized measures of cognitive achievement, and (c) it is unclear whether savants have distinctive cognitive strengths or motivational dispositions, though their relative prevalence among people with certain kinds of disability suggests predisposing constraints. The author proposes that these skills typically reflect highly elaborated preconceptual representational systems.

  7. Skill-Biased Technological Change in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj; Rose Skaksen, Jan

    2003-01-01

    Skill-Biased Technological Change in Denmark:A Disaggregate Perspective@*In this paper, we provide an industry-level analysis of skill-biased technological change(SBTC) in Denmark over the last two decades. The analysis shows that SBTC has variedconsiderably across industries, and traditionally...... large Danish industries have experiencedrelatively less SBTC. This may partly explain why wage inequality between skilled and lessskilled has risen less in Denmark than in other countries. We also find that SBTC has beenconcentrated in already skill-intensive industries. This contains important...... information aboutfuture labour requirements, as the relative importance of these industries must be expectedto grow, thereby reinforcing the shift in demand for skilled labour.JEL Classification: J24, J31, L6Keywords: skill-biased technological change, Danish industries...

  8. Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP) - Safety Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vaughan, G.J.

    2011-01-01

    One of the aims of the NEA's Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP) is to work towards greater harmonisation of regulatory requirements. To achieve this aim, it is necessary that there is a degree of convergence on the safety goals that are required to be met by designers and operators. The term 'safety goals' is defined to cover all health and safety requirements which must be met: these may be deterministic rules and/or probabilistic targets. They should cover the safety of workers, public and the environment in line with the IAEA's Basic Safety Objective; encompassing safety in normal operation through to severe accidents. MDEP is also interested in how its work can be extended to future reactors, which may use significantly different technology to the almost ubiquitous LWRs used today and in the next generation, building on the close co-operation within MDEP between the regulators who are currently engaged in constructing or carrying out design reviews on new designs. For two designs this work has involved several regulators sharing their safety assessments and in some cases issuing statements on issues that need to be addressed. Work is also progressing towards joint regulatory position statements on specific assessment areas. Harmonisation of safety goals will enhance the cooperation between regulators as further developments in design and technology occur. All regulators have safety goals, but these are expressed in many different ways and exercises in comparing them frequently are done at a very low level eg specific temperatures in the reactor vessel of a specific reactor type. The differences in the requirements from different regulators are difficult to resolve as the goals are derived using different principles and assumptions and are often for a specific technology. Therefore a different approach is being investigated, starting with the top-level safety goals and try to derive a structure and means of deriving lower tier

  9. Personality and social skills in human-dog interaction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meyer, Iben Helene Coakley

    developing a social tool set that makes it very successful in interacting and communicating with humans. Human evolution has similarly resulted in the development of complex social cognition in humans. This enables humans to form bonded relationships, besides pair-bonding, and it seems that humans are also...... of this thesis was to attain a better understanding of some of the factors related to the inter-action between humans and dogs. This aim was addressed by focusing on dog personality and hu-man social skills in relation to human-dog interaction. Two studies investigated dog personality and how it a) affects...... the relationship with the owner, and b) is affected by human breeding goals. Two studies investigated how human social skills affect the communication and interaction between hu-man and dog. As part of these studies it was also investigated how experience with dogs interacts with human social skills, perception...

  10. Safety goals for commercial nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roe, J.W.

    1988-01-01

    In its official policy statement on safety goals for the operation of nuclear power plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) set two qualitative goals, supported by two quantitative objectives. These goals are that (1) individual members of the public should be provided a level of protection from the consequences of nuclear power plant operation such that individuals bear no significant additional risk to life and health; and (2) societal risks to life and health from nuclear power plant operation should be comparable to or less than the risks of generating electricity by viable competing technologies and should not be a significant addition to other societal risks. As an alternative, this study proposes four quantitative safety goals for nuclear power plants. It begins with an analysis of the NRC's safety-goal development process, a key portion of which was devoted to delineating criteria for evaluating goal-development methods. Based on this analysis, recommendations for revision of the NRC's basic benchmarks for goal development are proposed. Using the revised criteria, NRC safety goals are evaluated, and the alternative safety goals are proposed. To further support these recommendations, both the NRC's goals and the proposed goals are compared with the results of three major probabilistic risk assessment studies. Finally, the potential impact of these recommendations on nuclear safety is described

  11. Towards an Integrated Model for Developing Sustainable Assessment Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fastre, Greet M. J.; van der Klink, Marcel R.; Sluijsmans, Dominique; van Merrienboer, Jeroen J. G.

    2013-01-01

    One of the goals of current education is to ensure that graduates can act as independent lifelong learners. Graduates need to be able to assess their own learning and interpret assessment results. The central question in this article is how to acquire sustainable assessment skills, enabling students to assess their performance and learning…

  12. Does Manipulating Stereotype Threat Condition Change Performance Goal State

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simmons, Cecil Max

    2010-01-01

    This study tested whether the Stereotype Threat effect is mediated by achievement goals, in particular performance-avoidance goals. Threat level was altered before a difficult math test to observe how the endorsement by females of various achievement goal dimensions was affected. 222 people (96 females) in a pre-calculus class at a Mid-Western…

  13. Tackling Millennium Development Goals (MDGs 4 and 5: the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS approach in Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shafiu Mohammed

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Developing countries are devising various strategies and mechanisms to accelerate their speed towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs by 2015. In Nigeria, different approaches have been used to address the tackling of health-related MDGs. One creative approach has been the implementation of the NHIS Maternal and Child Health (NHIS-MCH Project. The project aims to speed up the achievement of MDGs 4 and 5 (reducing child mortality and improving maternal health in the country. Little is known about the NHISMCH Project’s design and health insurance coverage activities. Project planning and monitoring could be hampered by lack of technical and managerial skills of health insurance most especially at middle and local levels. Challenging debates continue to emanate on the project’s sustainability.

  14. Tackling Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5: The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Approach in Nigeria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammed, Shafiu; Dong, Hengjin

    2012-03-07

    Developing countries are devising various strategies and mechanisms to accelerate their speed towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. In Nigeria, different approaches have been used to address the tackling of health-related MDGs. One creative approach has been the implementation of the NHIS Maternal and Child Health (NHIS-MCH) Project. The project aims to speed up the achievement of MDGs 4 and 5 (reducing child mortality and improving maternal health) in the country. Little is known about the NHIS-MCH Project's design and health insurance coverage activities. Project planning and monitoring could be hampered by lack of technical and managerial skills of health insurance most especially at middle and local levels. Challenging debates continue to emanate on the project's sustainability.

  15. Analysis of Workforce Skills in High School Graduates: Self Report of High School Seniors in Northwest Ohio

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jason A. Hedrick

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Analysis of workforce competencies at the conclusion of high school graduation are discussed in this paper. Researchers sampled over 875 graduating seniors from 16 high schools within six counties throughout Northwestern Ohio. Results highlight future career and educational goals of these young people and a self-report of skills based on the SCANS competencies and basic foundation skills. When evaluating Foundation Skills of Personal Qualities, Basic Skills, and Thinking Skills, students indicated highest ratings in Personal Qualities and overall lowest ratings in Basic Skills. A series of five Workforce Competencies were also evaluated, including Using Resources, Using Information, Using Technology, Interpersonal Skills, and Working in Systems. Highest ratings for Competencies were reported in Interpersonal Skills and lowest in Using Resources.

  16. Transfer of Life Skills in Sport-Based Youth Development Programs: A Conceptual Framework Bridging Learning to Application

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobs, Jennifer M.; Wright, Paul M.

    2018-01-01

    Research has demonstrated that many quality sport-based youth development programs promote life skill acquisition (e.g., leadership, self-control) with the ultimate goal of facilitating positive outcomes in youth participants' social and academic environments. Researchers call this "transfer of life skills" (i.e., the idea that physical,…

  17. Self-confidence of medical students in performing clinical skills acquired during their surgical rotation. Assessing clinical skills education in Kuwait.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karim, Jumanah A; Marwan, Yousef A; Dawas, Ahmed M; Akhtar, Saeed

    2012-12-01

    To assess the self-confidence of clinical years` medical students in performing clinical skills/procedures. A cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2011 at the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Health Sciences Center, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait. A questionnaire was used to collect data from students who had completed their surgical rotation of their first clinical year. The students reported their level of self-confidence in performing specific skills/procedures related to that rotation. Data were presented using frequencies and percentages. A total score of confidence was calculated for each student. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to assess the association between the students` sociodemographic characteristics and confidence score. Of the 122 students invited to participate in the study, only 15 (12.3%) declined to comply. Most students reported high confidence level (more than 75%) in performing 7 of the 13 history taking/physical examination skills, and 2 of the 39 diagnostic/treatment procedure skills. The highest confidence level was in performing abdominal examination, while the lowest level was in care of Jackson-Pratt drain site and emptying the drain bulb. The total confidence score was significantly higher among males (p=0.021), and students with higher monthly income (p=0.002). Medical students appeared to have poor self-confidence in performing clinical skills/procedures. Curriculum planners should explore potential reasons, and methods for the improvement of confidence level among medical students in performing skills/procedures they were expected to learn during their surgical rotation.

  18. The Effectiveness of Social Skills Training on Reducing Autistic Children's Behavioral Problems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Tahan

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of social skills training on reducing the behavioral problems of children with autism and pseudo-experimental. The statistical population of all autistic children is Mashhad. In this research, a goal-based sampling method is used. 30 children were selected from among children with autism and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (15 people and control (n = 15. The Shelli & Sorkab Communication Skills Questionnaire (2004 and Rutter's Behavioral Disorder (1964 Then, independent variable, ie social skills training (ten sessions 60 minutes, was performed on the experimental group, while no intervention was performed on the control group. After collecting data, the data were analyzed using covariance analysis. The results showed that social skills training has a positive and significant effect on reducing the behavioral problems of communication skills improvement in autistic children. Conclusion: Social skills training is a suitable method for reducing behavioral problems and improving communication skills in autistic children. These results can be used by psychologists and counselors.

  19. The correlation between achievement goals, learning strategies, and motivation in medical students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Sun; Hur, Yera; Park, Joo Hyun

    2014-03-01

    The purpose of this study is to investigate the pursuit of achievement goals in medical students and to assess the relationship between achievement goals, learning strategy, and motivation. Two hundred seventy freshman and sophomore premedical students and sophomore medical school students participated in this study, which used the Achievement Goals Scale and the Self-Regulated Learning Strategy Questionnaire. The achievement goals of medical students were oriented toward moderate performance approach levels, slightly high performance avoidance levels, and high mastery goals. About 40% of the students were high or low in all three achievement goals. The most successful adaptive learners in the areas of learning strategies, motivation, and school achievement were students from group 6, who scored high in both performance approach and mastery goals but low in performance avoidance goals. And goal achievement are related to the academic self-efficacy, learning strategies, and motivation in medical students. In the context of academic achievement, mastery goals and performance approach goals are adaptive goals.

  20. Framework of Assessment for the Evaluation of Thinking Skills of Tertiary Level Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heng, Chan Swee; Ziguang, Yan

    2015-01-01

    In the 21st century, students are required to master thinking skills in order to deal with many situations that arise in the tertiary environment which later would translate into the workplace. Nowadays, thinking skills play a vital role in tertiary education. To provide an approach for teachers, this paper identifies a 4-step model that can be…