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Introductory Course (introductory + course)
Selected AbstractsSharing our Experiences with Writing-for-Learning Techniques in a Large Introductory Course: The Daily MicrothemeJOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE EDUCATION, Issue 2 2002S.J. Schmidt ABSTRACT: The Daily Microtheme was an in-class, writing-for-learning assignment during which students script brief (micro) responses to selected questions (themes) pertinent to the lecture topic. The assignment maximized student-thinking time, while minimizing instructor-grading time. The questions posed were designed to help develop cognitive skills, as well as to generate class discussion, summarize lecture highlights, and capture student questions, feedback, and opinions. We observed that the assignment actively engaged the students with the course content, captured their feedback, and encouraged student attendance. The students reported that they felt the assignment was an effective tool for helping them learn the course content and the points associated with the assignment were an incentive for attending class more regularly. [source] Sharing our Experiences with Writing-for-Learning Techniques in a Large Introductory Course: The Popular Press CritiqueJOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE EDUCATION, Issue 2 2002S.J. Schmidt ABSTRACT: The Popular Press Critique was a 2-page, out of class writing-for-learning assignment. The purpose of the assignment was to help students learn how to analyze and critically evaluate the validity of published popular press articles in the context of accurate scientific research versus the demands of the mass media. The assignment included a peer evaluation component that provided feedback to the students and exposed them to the perspectives and writing styles of others. Overall, we observed that the assignment helped the students become more critical readers of popular press food science and nutrition news. The peer evaluation component encouraged the students to reflect on and improve their thinking and writing skills. The majority of students reported that they felt the assignment helped them learn how to appropriately interpret popular press articles. [source] Introductory course based on a single problem: Learning nucleic acid biochemistry from AIDS researchBIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION, Issue 6 2004Neena Grover Abstract In departure from the standard approach of using several problems to cover specific topics in a class, I use a single problem to cover the contents of the entire semester-equivalent biochemistry classes. I have developed a problem-based service-learning (PBSL) problem on HIV/AIDS to cover nucleic acid concepts that are typically taught in the second semester of a biochemistry class. Use of research articles on a specific topic allows developing problems such as one discussed here. The implementation of this problem is similar to teaching literature-based courses but is tailored to undergraduate work. Details of designing and setting up this problem, along with the pros and cons of this approach, are discussed here. [source] Comparison of Outcomes of Two Skills-teaching Methods on Lay-rescuers' Acquisition of Infant Basic Life Support SkillsACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 9 2010Itai Shavit MD ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2010; 17:979,986 © 2010 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Abstract Objectives:, The objective was to determine if lay-rescuers' acquisition of infant basic life support (BLS) skills would be better when skills teaching consisted of videotaping practice and providing feedback on performances, compared to conventional skills-teaching and feedback methods. Methods:, This pilot-exploratory, single-blind, prospective, controlled, randomized study was conducted on November 12, 2007, at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion,Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. The population under study consisted of all first-year medical students enrolled in the 2007,2008 year. BLS training is part of their mandatory introductory course in emergency medicine. Twenty-three students with previous BLS training were excluded. The remaining 71 were randomized into four and then two groups, with final allocation to an intervention and control group of 18 and 16 students, respectively. All the students participated in infant BLS classroom teaching. Those in the intervention group practiced skills acquisition independently, and four were videotaped while practicing. Tapes were reviewed by the group and feedback was provided. Controls practiced using conventional teaching and feedback methods. After 3 hours, all subjects were videotaped performing an unassisted, lone-rescuer, infant BLS resuscitation scenario. A skills assessment tool was developed. It consisted of 25 checklist items, grouped into four sections: 6 points for "categories" (with specific actions in six categories), 14 points for "scoring" (of accuracy of performance of each action), 4 points for "sequence" (of actions within a category), and 1 point for "order" of resuscitation (complete and well-sequenced categories). Two blinded expert raters were given a workshop on the use of the scoring tool. They further refined it to increase scoring consistency. The main outcome of the study was defined as evidence of better skills acquisition in overall skills in the four sections and in the specific skills sets for actions in any individual category. Data analysis consisted of descriptive statistics. Results:, Means and mean percentages were greater in the intervention group in all four sections compared to controls: categories (5.72 [95.33%] and 4.69 [92.66%]), scoring (10.57 [75.50%] and 7.41 [43.59%]), sequence (2.28 [57.00%] and 1.66 [41.50%]), and order of resuscitation (0.96 [96.00%] and 0.19 [19.00%]). The means and mean percentages of the actions (skill sets) in the intervention group were also larger than those of controls in five out of six categories: assessing responsiveness (1.69 [84.50%] and 1.13 [56.50%]), breathing technique (1.69 [93.00%] and 1.13 [47.20%]), chest compression technique (3.19 [77.50%] and 1.84 [46.00%]), activating emergency medical services (EMS) (3.00 [100.00%] and 2.81 [84.50%]), and resuming cardiopulmonary resuscitation (0.97 [97.00%] and 0.47 [47.00%]). These results demonstrate better performance in the intervention group. Conclusions:, The use of videotaped practice and feedback for the acquisition of overall infant BLS skills and of specific skill sets is effective. Observation and participation in the feedback and assessment of nonexperts attempting infant BLS skills appeared to improve the ability of this group of students to perform the task. [source] Teaching undergraduate econometrics with GRETLJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS, Issue 7 2006J. Wilson Mixon Jr This paper reviews GRETL, a software package for econometrics. Mainly it discusses GRETL's merits as an aid in teaching undergraduate econometrics. This discussion is in two parts. First one author, an instructor, reviews the teaching of undergraduate econometrics with GRETL. Then the second author, a student, discusses the experience of being introduced to GRETL as part of the introductory course and of putting it to work as part of his employment. The paper briefly discusses GRETL as a research tool. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Effects of experimenting with physical and virtual manipulatives on students' conceptual understanding in heat and temperatureJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 9 2008Zacharias C. Zacharia Abstract This study aimed to investigate the comparative value of experimenting with physical manipulatives (PM) in a sequential combination with virtual manipulatives (VM), with the use of PM preceding the use of VM, and of experimenting with PM alone, with respect to changes in students' conceptual understanding in the domain of heat and temperature. A pre,post-comparison study design was used which involved 62 undergraduate students that attended an introductory course in physics. The participants were randomly assigned to one experimental and one control group. Both groups used the same inquiry-oriented curriculum materials. Participants in the control group used PM to conduct the experiments, whereas, participants in the experimental group used first PM and then VM. VM differed from PM in that it could provide the possibility of faster manipulation, whereas, it retained any other features and interactions of the study's subject domain identical to the PM condition. Conceptual tests were administered to assess students' understanding before, during, and after the study's treatments. Results indicated that experimenting with the combination of PM and VM enhanced students' conceptual understanding more than experimenting with PM alone. The use of VM was identified as the cause of this differentiation. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 1021,1035, 2008 [source] Communication skills knowledge, understanding and OSCE performance in medical trainees: a multivariate prospective study using structural equation modellingMEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 9 2002G M Humphris Aim, To test the stability of medical student communication skills over a period of 17 months as exhibited by performance in objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) and to determine the strength of prediction of these skills by initial levels of knowledge and understanding. Design, This is a prospective study using a 2-wave cohort. Participants, Medical undergraduates (n = 383) from 2 years intake (1996 and 1997) were followed through the first 3 years of a medical curriculum. Procedure, The study procedure involved the objective structured video examination (OSVE) conducted at formative and summative examinations during the first year. Two OSCE measures were employed: expert examiners and simulated patients completed the Liverpool Communication Skills Assessment Scale (LCSAS) and the Global Simulated Patient Rating Scale (GSPRS), respectively. The OSCE data were collected at Level 1 and 17 months later at Level 2 examinations. Results, The measurement model followed prediction. A causal model using latent variables was fitted with Level 2 OSCE performance regressed on Level 1 OSCE and OSVE marks. Expert and simulated patient OSCE data were fitted separately and combined to determine strength of model fit according to professional and patient opinion of student skills. The overall fit of the models was acceptable. Communication skills performance showed a high level of stability. Some negative effect of cognitive factors on future skills performance was found. Conclusion, Early development of communication skills shows stable performance following an introductory course. Knowledge of communication skills has a small but significant influence on performance, depending on the time of testing. New assessments of cognitive factors are required to include both tacit and explicit knowledge. [source] Prompting in CALL: A Longitudinal Study of Learner UptakeMODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 2 2010TRUDE HEIFT This research presents a longitudinal study of learner uptake in a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) environment. Over the course of 3 semesters, 10 second language learners of German at a Canadian university used an online, parser-based CALL program that, for the purpose of this research, provided 2 different types of feedback of varying degrees of specificity: Metalinguistic explanations (ME) and metalinguistic clues (MC). Results indicate that feedback specificity affects learner uptake in different ways. Cross-sectionally, the study reveals significant differences in learner uptake for the 2 more advanced courses, German 103 and 201, whereas for the introductory course, German 102, no significant difference for the 2 feedback types and their effect on learner uptake was found. Results of the longitudinal data indicate that there is a significant increase in learner uptake from German 102 to 201 for the error-specific feedback (ME), whereas learner uptake for the generic feedback type (MC) varies insignificantly across the 3 courses. Finally, the study shows a significant impact of the 2 feedback types on learner uptake independent of error type (grammar and spelling). [source] Inquiry-based learning: an instructional alternative for occupational therapy educationOCCUPATIONAL THERAPY INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2001Graduate Programs Coordinator with the Centre for Health Promotion Studies, Professor Helen M. Madill Professor Abstract An inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach was used as the model of instruction in one of three sections offered annually to large introductory occupational therapy classes in a Canadian university during 1994/5, 1995/6, 1996/7. Students' final grades in this pre-entry course form part of the grade point average on which admission to the BSc OT programme is based. The IBL model was employed to (1) increase the amount of student-directed learning, (2) increase the amount of independent problem-solving, (3) increase student,instructor interaction within the learning situation, and (4) reduce the number of in-class hours for students. This study is an evaluation of whether students from the IBL sections would subsequently do as well as those from other sections in selected junior professional courses. Students from the three IBL sections (n=47) were peer matched to students who had completed other sections of the introductory course, but were part of the same admission cohort (n=68). Their grades in three junior professional courses were compared at the end of their first year in the BSc OT programme. Results indicated that students from the IBL sections did at least as well as those from other sections where a different instructional approach was used, and those from the IBL sections in 1994/5 and 1996/7 each did significantly better on two of the junior professional courses used as the outcome measure: therapeutic occupation and assessment and evaluation techniques. Students reported that the IBL experience stimulated them to learn more about the field, helped them develop problem-solving skills in relation to occupational therapy, and enabled them to learn more about career opportunities in occupational therapy. Mature students were more positive about the IBL approach than students in their first year of university. Copyright © 2001 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] Using advanced problems in introductory courses: Some sample problems and why they workBIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION, Issue 2 2006Deborah Mowshowitz Abstract This article presents several typical problems used in an introductory course in molecular biology and discusses why the problems are effective at increasing learning. [source] JTruss: A CAD-oriented educational open-source software for static analysis of truss-type structuresCOMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION, Issue 4 2008Francesco Romeo Abstract A CAD-oriented software (JTruss) for the static analysis of planar and spatial truss-type structures is presented. Developed for educational purposes, JTruss is part of an open-source project and is characterised by complete accessibility (i.e. platform independent) and high software compatibility. CAD methodologies are employed to implement commands for handling graphic models. A student friendly graphical interface, tailored mainly for structural mechanics introductory courses in engineering and architecture programs, is conceived. Accordingly, the standard sequence involved in the software design, namely pre-processing, processing and post-processing, is implemented aiming to improve the structural behaviour interpretation. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 16: 280,288, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae20150 [source] Past-president's address: is geography (the discipline) sustainable without geography (the subject)?THE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 2 2009CHRIS SHARPE géographie universitaire; géographie populaire; noyau disciplinaire; géographie régionale; disciplinocide We commonly define geography as the ,integrative' discipline, but there is more rhetoric than reality in the notion that our discipline has a coherent view of the world. Academic geography is dominated by increasingly esoteric topical specialties, and too often practiced as if it didn't exist outside the universities. By ignoring the popular conception of what geography is, we foster a dangerous opposition between geography as a popular subject and geography as a discipline. I argue that the survival of the discipline requires a collective rediscovery of a common core, which could be built around ,regional' geography,not the outmoded capes, bays and main export regional geography of the past, but one informed by modern theory, and attending to causal structures rooted in current realities. Our introductory courses are the best place to demonstrate a renewed commitment to a holistic geography grounded in an understanding of the world. Eclectic, curiosity-driven research is also essential to the survival of the discipline, but disciplinary diversity is a strength only if it is grounded in an identifiable core. Excessive pluralism and intellectual arrogance may lead to ,disciplinocide'. Les discours du président sortant: la géographie (la discipline) est-elle viable à long terme sans la géographie (le sujet)? Il faut reconnaître en effet que la géographie est une discipline , intégrative ,, mais l'idée que notre discipline porte un regard cohérent sur le monde tient plus de la rhétorique que de la réalité. La géographie universitaire aborde de plus en plus des domaines d'études ésotériques et la profession s'exerce généralement à l'écart du monde non universitaire en faisant fi de la conception populaire de la géographie. Le danger est que nous contribuions à mettre en opposition le sujet populaire et la discipline de la géographie. Il est soutenu que la pérennité de la discipline passe par une redécouverte collégiale d'une base commune qui pourrait se fonder sur la géographie , régionale ,.Celle-ci ne se pencherait pas sur les sujets dépassés tels que les caps, les baies ou les exportations principales, mais plutôt sur la théorie moderne en s'attelant aux structures de causalité qui correspondent aux réalités contemporaines. Les cours de base que nous proposons sont l'endroit par excellence pour manifester notre engagement renouvelé envers une géographie holistique fondée sur une compréhension du monde. Des travaux de recherche éclectiques et dictés par la curiosité sont garants de la pérennité de la discipline, mais la diversité de celle-ci constitue un atout seulement si elle est fondée sur un noyau bien établi. Un pluralisme abusif et une prétention intellectuelle pourraient conduire à un , disciplinocide ,. [source] Epidemiology: Theory, study design, and planning for educationTHE JOURNAL OF CONTINUING EDUCATION IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS, Issue 3 2000PhD Assistant Professor, Shelley A. Harris MSc Abstract Many health professionals have received formal training in epidemiology; however, much of it has been limited to introductory courses at the undergraduate level. Further, continuing education for health professionals has focused historically on substantive rather than methodologic issues in epidemiology. A methodologic focus is recommended to improve continuing education for the health of the public. It is crucial to equip educators and health professionals with the necessary tools or resources to understand study design, conduct research, analyze and interpret data, and critically evaluate published research. Thus, in this article, a general overview of epidemiologic study design and some of the most common methodologic issues are presented. Issues such as confounding, effect modification, measurement error, and power and sample size are highlighted. A broader recognition of these issues by educators and health professionals may ultimately help to improve public health by facilitating effective educational interventions, proper study design, analysis, interpretation, and application of epidemiologic research. [source] Using advanced problems in introductory courses: Some sample problems and why they workBIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION, Issue 2 2006Deborah Mowshowitz Abstract This article presents several typical problems used in an introductory course in molecular biology and discusses why the problems are effective at increasing learning. [source] | ||||||||||||||||