Actual Skills Research Articles

Relationships between potential, attainable, and actual skill in a decadal prediction experiment

A sequence of ensemble forecasts permits the estimation of the “predictable” and “unpredictable” components of the forecasts and hence the predictability of the system. Predictability is a feature of a physical and/or mathematical system which characterizes its “ability to be predicted” as measured, for instance, by the rate at which initially close states separate. Modern climate models may be used to predict climate evolution on seasonal to decadal timescales and they may also be used to estimate predictability. The predictability in this case measures the model’s ability to predict its own evolution and, for a well behaved climate model, this may be a useful measure of the predictability of the climate system itself. Forecast skill, where forecasts are compared to observations, indicates a forecast system’s “ability to predict” the evolution of the climate system. Common measures of skill include correlation, mean square error and mean square skill score. When the model is used to predict its own evolution, rather than the evolution of the actual climate system, the same measures of skill may be used but are then predictability measures and termed measures of “potential skill”. The expectation is that the model’s skill in predicting its own evolution will be greater than its ability to predict the actual evolution of the system in the face of observational uncertainty and model deficiencies. The further expectation is that the differences between potential and actual skill can give an indication of where and to what extent there is the potential for improvement in forecast skill. Predictability studies may be undertaken with available models but it may not be immediately obvious which statistical conditions are necessary if potential skill is to be a reasonable estimate of attainable skill. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and illustrate the spatial and temporal behaviour of the predictable and unpredictable components of surface air temperature in a decadal prediction experiment and to discuss some of the implications for predictability studies and for analyzing model behaviour. Formal relationships between potential, actual, and attainable skill are developed which, however, provide only modest constraints on model results if they are to be used to infer predictability. The results of various scalings of the forecasts on potential and actual skill and their relationship are also considered. Differences in the actual and potential forecast skill between models and/or model versions can be partitioned into components associated with known statistics as a guide to forecast improvement.

Measuring the signaling value of educational degrees: secondary education systems and the internal homogeneity of educational groups

BackgroundBy providing high-quality, internationally comparable data on the cognitive skills of working-age adults, the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) offers great potential for illuminating the complex interplay of formal qualifications and skills in shaping labor market attainment as well as social inequalities more broadly. I argue that PIAAC can be used to construct direct, country-level measures of the ‘skill transparency’ or ‘signaling value’ of formal qualifications, that is, of how informative the latter are about a person's actual skills. The primary goal of the analysis is to extend previous work on skills gaps by educational attainment and map cross-national variation in the internal skills homogeneity of educational groups as a second dimension shaping the signaling value of educational degrees. I also explore whether the internal homogeneity of educational groups is related to national (secondary) education systems.MethodsI use a sample of 30,646 20-to-34-year-olds in 21 countries that participated in the first round of PIAAC. The internal homogeneity of educational groups is measured using the residual standard deviation of literacy and numeracy skills after adjusting for sex, age, and foreign-birth/foreign-language status. Residual standard deviations for the different educational groups are subjected to a factor analysis to construct a one-dimensional measure of internal homogeneity for each country. This index of internal homogeneity is then related to education system characteristics in a series of country-level regressions.ResultsThe internal homogeneity of educational groups with respect to literacy and numeracy skills varies considerably across countries and is highly correlated across both skill domains and educational groups. Educational groups tend to be more homogeneous in countries with stronger (ability-related) tracking in secondary education. In addition, there is some evidence that internal homogeneity declines when instructional resources such as computer hardware and lab equipment are distributed more unequally across schools. An unexpected finding is that internal homogeneity is negatively associated with standardization of input (e.g., curricula, textbooks).ConclusionsThe signaling value of educational degrees varies substantially across advanced economies, not only in terms of skills gaps among educational groups, but also in terms of their internal homogeneity. Some features of secondary education systems appear to be systematically related to the extent of internal homogeneity. The findings lend empirical support to so far untested assumptions about the relationship between formal qualifications and skills in cross-national research on labor market inequalities.

Lucid music – A pilot study exploring the experiences and potential of music-making in lucid dreams.

In a lucid dream, the dreamer knows that he or she is dreaming and can thus deliberately carry out actions. The original goal of this study was to investigate musical practice in lucid dreams and its possible effects as well as the quality of the experiences. A total of 5 musicians were interviewed about their lucid dreams in which they had played instruments and sung. However, the interviewees were more interested in pleasure and inspiration than in actual practice and skill improvement. Therefore, the results provide more general information than planned. It could be shown that singing and playing musical instruments mostly work well in lucid dreams. Lucid music dreams were often accompanied by positive emotions and led to several positive effects in waking life, like facilitated guitar playing and enhanced confidence. Two interviewees especially enjoyed improvising solo in lucid dreams. The participants also emphasized the creative and inspirational potential of lucid music dreams, which is worth further investigation. Combining previous research on athletic practice in lucid dreams and the clues obtained from this study, it is likely that musicians could use lucid dreams to improve their skills. Future studies should further explore the potential of lucid music dreams for both creativity and perfor- mance in waking life.

Using Gagne's Theory and Peyton's Four-Step Approach to Teach Inferior Alveolar Nerve Block Injection

Developing skills in performing inferior alveolar nerve block injection is an essential element of the dentistry undergraduate curriculum. As a dental faculty staff member working in the conservative dentistry department, I provide preclinical and clinical teaching for dental students. This study presents a lesson plan for this injection technique using a combination of Gagne's nine events of instruction and Peyton's four-step approach. Gagne's nine events of instruction identified the mental conditions of learning that are necessary for effective learning when adult students are presented with various stimuli. This model is based on the nine instructional events used during a teaching session. These are gaining attention, defining learning objectives, stimulating recall of prerequisite learning, presenting the stimulus material, providing learning guidance, practice, providing feedback, assessing the performance, and enhancing retention and transfer. Peyton's four-step approach is a model for teaching practical skills. These are demonstration, deconstruction, explanation, and performance. Each step in this lesson plan is carefully arranged with relevant activities to suit learners with various learning styles using Gagne's theory, while Peyton's approach is incorporated to teach the actual skill. This lesson plan is particularly relevant for tutors designing injection techniques teaching for undergraduate dental and medical students and fresh graduates. In all, this lesson plan also serves as a template on which many other practical skill teachings can be subsequently modeled. The flexible adoption of Gagne's nine events of instruction in combination with other instructional models such as Peyton's approach facilitates the planning of effective clinical teaching sessions.

How Well Can Family Childcare Providers Report on Preschoolers' Motor Skill Competence?

Assessing children's movement skill competence objectively is resource and time intensive. Family childcare providers (FCCPs) are with young children for most of a normal weekday and may have an understanding of their motor skill competence. This study examined how well FCCPs can report on preschoolers' motor skills. Seventy-eight 3-5 year olds (53.1% girls) from 26 FCCPs participated. The Test of Gross Motor Development-2 assessed actual motor skill competence and a survey assessed preschoolers' motor competence as reported by FCCPs. Bivariate correlations examined associations between actual and FCCPs' proxy-report of preschoolers' motor skill competence. Regression models tested the predictive power of FCCPs' proxy-report on actual preschoolers' motor skill competence, accounting for age and sex. There were moderate significant correlations for locomotion (r = .30), object control (r = .38), and overall motor skill competence (r = .36). The regression models showed proxy report was statistically associated with preschoolers' object control skills (β = .78, p = .011) and overall motor skills (β = .72, p = .022), but not locomotor skills (β = .52, p = .084). FCCPs' proxy-report of preschoolers' motor skill competence explained 20.9, and 20.1% of preschoolers' variance in object control, and overall motor skill competence, respectively after adjusting for biological sex and age (increasing). FCCPs may be used as an alternative source of information in reporting young children's actual motor skill competence, at least for the object control domain. There is an opportunity for education of FCCPs regarding children's locomotor skill development.

A Framework of Safety Training Based on Augmented Reality and Cloud Computing Platform in Mines

As the harsh environment of mines and complicated production processes may easily cause safety production accidents, safety training becomes one of the important ways to reduce personal injuries and property damages. Safety training and education have formed a set of standardized system in the mining enterprises, however, there are still many problems in the operation process of safety training. In order to solve these issues, Augmented Reality (AR) could be used in the traditional safety training based on the comparative analysis of the differences between traditional training and augmented reality-based training. A novel safety training framework is proposed based on AR and Cloud Computing (CC) platform. This framework chooses marker-based AR technology as the research method combined with CC platform for its multiple functions, large-scale and high reliability. Several modules are designed in this framework, which includes mine basic knowledge, equipment cognitive module, intelligent maintenance module, standardized operation module, remote help module, collaborative work module, capability assessment module as well as other functional modules. This framework also achieves the functions such as user registration and login, role management, safety knowledge production training, practical training and periodic assessment functions based on augmented reality. The basic knowledge of mines module is a comprehensive class which contains all the training classes and the regulations to enhance knowledge standard of workers. The equipment cognitive module aims to enhance the employee's mastery of the device. The standardized operation module and intelligent maintenance module utilizes the marker-based AR to improve the technical proficiency of actual practices and skills. The ability assessment module can judge the worker’s quality of his work in mines. The background management module is designed for the system administrators to maintain the system and data on cloud platform. In this safety training system, the equipment profile, operating procedures and other training knowledge can be displayed in a more intuitive form. And the abstract training concepts are visualized and interactive. This safety training system can merge the training with the actual operation to improving training efficiency. In this way, it can break through the limitation of safety training methods, time, location, etc. in the traditional safety training. Moreover, it can increase employees understanding of theoretical knowledge and proficiency in operational skills. The AR and CC based training system can not only be used in mines, but also can be designed according to different needs of the corresponding system. It would have significant influence of practice and application to the universities, enterprises, government departments and other fields.

A skills perspective on the adoption and use of mobile money services in Uganda

Adoption rates of mobile financial services within sub-Saharan Africa still appear to be below par. The 2016 Groupe Spéciale Mobile Association report shows that over 60 per cent of the adult population in sub- Saharan Africa do not use mobile financial services. We investigate how cognitive resources, namely, mobile phone skills and English literacy, influence the use of mobile financial services. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 208 individuals from an urban location in Central Uganda. We measure actual mobile phone skill using a newly developed scale. The results show that a marginal increase in mobile phone skills has a strong effect on the odds of adopting mobile money, but a less strong effect on the extent to which the functionalities of the mobile money application are used. On the other hand, English literacy has no influence on both adoption and the magnitude of services individuals use.

Talk Around Digital Texts

Digital, web-based texts as a resource for the classroom present new ways of making meaning as learners draw on a wide range of communicative resources such as gaze and gesture to access and read them. This study employed a multimodal interaction analysis framework to examine an English language class of Japanese university students explaining online video stories face-to-face in a university in Japan. The findings identified a gap in the digital literacy skills the teacher assumed the learners possessed and the actual digital literacy skills required for successful completion of the classroom activity. The findings challenge the assumption that young learners are ‘digital natives', being capable of using technology for the specific purposes required in the class task. Implications for the planning and implementation of digital media for talk in language classroom tasks are discussed.

Seasonal streamflow forecasts for Europe – Part I: Hindcast verification with pseudo- and real observations

Abstract. Seasonal predictions of river flow can be exploited among others to optimise hydropower energy generation, navigability of rivers and irrigation management to decrease crop yield losses. This paper is the first of two papers dealing with a physical model-based system built to produce probabilistic seasonal hydrological forecasts, applied here to Europe. This paper presents the development of the system and the evaluation of its skill. The variable infiltration capacity (VIC) hydrological model is forced with bias-corrected output of ECMWF's seasonal forecast system 4. For the assessment of skill, we analysed hindcasts (1981–2010) against a reference run, in which VIC was forced by gridded meteorological observations. The reference run was also used to generate initial hydrological conditions for the hindcasts. The skill in run-off and discharge hindcasts is analysed with monthly temporal resolution, up to 7 months of lead time, for the entire annual cycle. Using the reference run output as pseudo-observations and taking the correlation coefficient as metric, hot spots of significant theoretical skill in discharge and run-off were identified in Fennoscandia (from January to October), the southern part of the Mediterranean (from June to August), Poland, northern Germany, Romania and Bulgaria (mainly from November to January), western France (from December to May) and the eastern side of Great Britain (January to April). Generally, the skill decreases with increasing lead time, except in spring in regions with snow-rich winters. In some areas some skill persists even at the longest lead times (7 months). Theoretical skill was compared to actual skill as determined with real discharge observations from 747 stations. Actual skill is generally substantially less than theoretical skill. This effect is stronger for small basins than for large basins. Qualitatively, the use of different skill metrics (correlation coefficient; relative operating characteristics, ROC, area; and ranked probability skill score, RPSS) leads to broadly similar spatio-temporal patterns of skill, but the level of skill decreases, and the area of skill shrinks, in the following order: correlation coefficient; ROC area below-normal (BN) tercile; ROC area above-normal (AN) tercile; ranked probability skill score; and, finally, ROC near-normal (NN) tercile.

A noisy signal: To what extent are Hadza hunting reputations predictive of actual hunting skills?

This work was supported by Robinson College Cambridge, the Leakey Foundation, the Smuts Memorial Fund, the Ruggles-Gates Fund of the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Cambridge Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Cambridge Centre for African Studies, the Anthony Wilkin Fund and the Ridgeway-Venn Fund.

A comparison of parent report and actual motor competence in young children.

Parent proxy reports are well used in occupational therapy, yet historically parent report instruments of motor skill have not required parents to report on the same motor skills that their children are assessed on. The aim was to examine how well a parent report of children's fundamental movement skill (FMS) was associated with children's actual FMS. A sample of 100 children aged 7-9years from Melbourne, Australia, were recruited. Parents/guardians completed proxy report (parent version of the 'Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence' (PMSC)) and children's actual motor skills were assessed ('Test of Gross Motor Development' 3rd edition (TGMD-3)). Data were first analysed using Pearson's correlation coefficients and then hierarchical linear stepwise regression was conducted with actual skill as the outcome variable in each model. The PMSC-Parent (r=0.36, P<0.001) was moderately associated with children's actual skill. After age and sex adjustment, the PMSC-Parent explained 11.4% of variance in total skills. Parent report of their children's object control scores (PMSC object control scale) was significantly associated with children's actual object control (B=0.36, P<0.001) and explained 11.3% of the variance. Parent report of children's locomotion scores (PMSC locomotion scale) was associated with children's actual locomotor skills (B=0.27, P=0.007) and explained 6.2% of the variance. Parents are able to report to some degree on their children's FMS competency, in particular, their object control competence. Parent proxy report of FMS may help inform occupational therapists to identify children with low FMS competency to develop interventions targeting FMS.

Integrated framework for hands-on cybersecurity training: CyTrONE

Hands-on cybersecurity education and training activities are critical given that cyberattacks occur nowadays on an ever-increasing scale. Only such practical activities can ensure that trainees will acquire the actual skills necessary to promptly deal with security incidents in real-life situations. However, current programs rely significantly on the manual setup and configuration of the learning and/or training environments used, which is a tedious, inefficient and error-prone approach.In this paper, we present an integrated cybersecurity training framework, named CyTrONE, that we designed and implemented to address such shortcomings by automating the training content generation and environment setup tasks. After we discuss the architecture and implementation of the framework, we demonstrate the framework effectiveness by evaluating it from both functionality and performance perspectives. Our results show that CyTrONE is well-suited for actual training activities in terms of features, usability and execution performance.

Previous work experience and age do not affect final semester nursing student self-efficacy in communication skills

BackgroundWith the continuing increase in the older population, being able to communicate with the elderly is one of the many important skills in caring for older people. Therefore, student nurses need support during education to be prepared with the necessary communication skills to meet these demands. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to describe the development of communication skills during nursing education. DesignA quantitative descriptive and comparative study. SettingsThe nursing programme at a university in an urban area of Sweden. ParticipantsStudent nurses in the first and third year in a nursing programme in Sweden in 2015. MethodsData were collected with a self-efficacy questionnaire and analysed with descriptive and comparative statistics. ResultsThe student nurses in the final semester had a higher self-rated ability to communicate with older people than students in the second semester of the education year. There was also a difference in self efficacy between students with or without former experience of health care work or work in care with older persons in the second semester. However, these differences were not seen in the final semester. The age of the students did not affect the self-efficacy rate in either semester. ConclusionsStudent nurses in the present study scored themselves relatively highly, while student nurses in previous studies expressed a need for more communication skills training. Further studies with observations of student nurses' actual communicative skills in clinical and simulations settings are needed, to pinpoint weak spots and targets for such an education.

A remote VR operation system for a fully mechanised coal-mining face using real-time data and collaborative network technology

ABSTRACTIn a fully mechanised coal-mining face, the means to train machine operators are inadequate. A remote virtual reality (VR) operation system for a fully mechanised coal-mining face using real-time data and collaborative network technology is presented in this study. The overall framework and key technologies are introduced. The system comprises three mechanical components, a LAN component based on NetworkView and RPC, access to real-time data and multifunctional human–computer interaction. The proposed system solves existing operational problems, such as training on a single PC, the lack of interactive means, poor user immersion and differences between training and actual conditions. Underground operators or students can be trained using the approaches of multi-role and virtual collaboration. Finally, front- and rear-drum drivers operated the system using the centralised control centre, the shearer remote controller and the virtual panel. The proposed method can improve the actual skills of workers and effectively reduce the risk of underground mining accidents.

At the intersection of ambition, realism and capability allows for strategy to be successful in a digital era

With an ever-changing market environment, converging industries are constantly trying to compete innovatively using commercial and scientific acumen to create advantage. Previously, successful strategy employed a set of robust steps which now need to change so that these firms can ensure their ability to be competitive. In this day and age, strategy now involves balancing a desired end goal, a recognition of the actual skills and having digital lens to overlay any and all recommendations. Using technology as an enabler, firms can ensure that its goals and its people are in the best possible position to deliver.

Proficiency-based preparation significantly improves FES certification performance.

The Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (FES) certification has recently been mandated by the American Board of Surgery but best methods for preparing for the exam are lacking. Our previous work demonstrated a 40% pass rate for PGY5 residents in our program. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a proficiency-based skills and cognitive curriculum for FES certification. Residents who agreed to participate (n = 15) underwent an orientation session, followed by skills pre-testing using three previously described models (Trus, Operation targeting task, and Kyoto) as well as the actual FES skills exam (vouchers provided by the FES committee). Participants then trained to proficiency on all three models for the skills curriculum and completed the FES online didactic material for the cognitive curriculum. Finally, participants post-tested on the models and took the actual FES certification exam. Values are mean ± SD; p < 0.05 was considered significant. Of 15 residents who participated, 8 (53%) passed the FES skills exam at baseline. Participants required 2.7 ± 1.3h to achieve proficiency on the models and approximately 3h to complete the cognitive curriculum. At post-test, 14 (93%, vs. pre-test 53%, p = 0.041) passed the FES skills exam. 14 (93%) passed the FES cognitive exam and 13/15 (87%) passed both the skills and cognitive exam and achieved FES certification. Our traditional clinical endoscopy curricula were not sufficient for senior residents to pass the FES exam. Implementation of a proficiency-based flexible endoscopy curriculum using bench-top models and the FES online materials was feasible and effective for the majority of learners. Importantly, with a modest amount of additional training, 87% of our trainees were able to pass the FES examination, which represents a significant improvement for our program. We expect that additional refinements of this curriculum may yield even better results for preparing future residents for the FES examination.

Integrating professional and academic knowledge: the link between researchers skills and innovation culture

Approaches to innovation have been thoroughly studied in the last decades. It’s well understood that an organizations’ culture is among the crucial factors for success and renewal of organizations. Yet culture is made by people and their attitudes. Innovation culture requires skills and competence by employees which are presumably beyond the traditional basic knowledge taught at undergraduate, graduate and post graduate level. This is even more evident for university graduates who’re mainly finding professional careers in the private sector who has special requirements to employees. Graduates’ skills are strongly influenced by curricula and the cultural values and norms outside curricula transferred by universities to students. But frequently these skills are designed by universities without profound knowledge of the actual skills required. At the same time organizations acting as potential graduates employers value researcher skills and competencies differently from how these are perceived. The paper suggests that understanding the professional and universal skills of researchers perceived and needed is one element of innovation culture. Thereby the skills in discussion go beyond purely academic skills only; instead it is proposed that skills which increase the absorptive capacity of companies are crucial for implementing effective productive innovation management.

Correlation between Self-Efficacy Perception and Teaching Performance: The Case of Mexican Preschool and Primary School Teachers

Self-efficacy (SE) is a key factor of the teaching-learning process success. While literature on SE and its dimensions is rich in the field of education, still there is a lack of studies aiming to explore teachers’ SE in contrast with their actual teaching skills and their characteristics. For this reason, this study aims to respond to the following research questions: are there differences between perceived SE and actual teaching performance in preschool and primary school teachers? Which sources of SE can be considered as significant predictors of teachers’ SE? This work employs a quantitative approach based on the observational method. Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale and classroom observation frameworks were used to collect data from a sample of 24 teachers. Results show that there are high inconsistencies between self-judgments and actual teaching performance (p > .05). Experienced and medium experienced teachers show higher scores than novice teachers in several dimensions of SE (p .05). Resource support is found as the only significant predictor of SE in our sample of teachers (p < .001; p2 = .733). Our research suggests that teachers may have a distorted perception of their in-class performance, which could drive to lower quality of the teaching-learning process. Therefore, in the future, professional training programs should focus on promoting a more realistic understanding and awareness of teachers’ actions in the classroom as the first step of any intervention aiming to increase teaching quality.

Comparative Analysis of Professional Training of Future Specialists in Physical Therapy in Higher Educational Establishments of Ukraine and Europe

AbstractThe article presents comparative analysis of the structure and content of future specialists in physical therapy training in higher educational establishments of Ukraine and leading European countries. Having analyzed official websites and educational documentation of the leading European colleges of higher education regarding professional training of future specialists in physical therapy, we have defined common and distinctive features of structural and content components of the process. Within the framework of the research, it has been found that in educational systems of Italy, Spain, Norway, Greece, Finland, Sweden, and Norway training of future specialists in physical therapy is primarily focused on the concept of continuous education and is variant, practice-oriented, related to the profession of a physical therapeutist at most. The research has revealed certain components in the structure and content of professional training of future specialists in physical therapy in higher educational establishments of Ukraine and leading European countries. These components can be used in structure-oriented content of educational process in Ukrainian higher educational establishments. Namely, these include: shift of the vector of educational process to practice-oriented education via increasing academic hours for improvement of professional competence of future specialists in physical therapy under conditions of actual professional activity, acquiring knowledge and skills necessary for professional activity. Relying on the results of the comparative analysis we have made a conclusion that positive experience in training of future specialists in physical therapy in higher educational establishments of Ukraine and leading European countries will allow to define the trend of developing professional training in domestic higher educational establishments.

Psychological Expertise Required for Advising in Language Learning: Theories and Practical Skills for Japanese EFL Learners’ Trait Anxiety and Perfectionism

This study aims to introduce the psychological expertise required for advising in language learning (ALL) both in theoretical and practical aspects, focusing on two psychological factors that could frequently cause problems in language learning (i.e., trait anxiety and perfectionism). The first section explains theoretical aspects and, based on its explanations and the results of case studies on Japanese EFL learners, the second section suggests practical skills to deal with the problems caused by those two factors. Although previous language learning studies have focused mainly on state anxiety, the theoretical aspect emphasizes the importance of trait anxiety in ALL, and three kinds of actual skills are suggested: (1) setting a clear framework, (2) applying beneficial aspects of trait anxiety, and (3) viewing trait anxiety objectively. As for perfectionism, the theoretical explanation identifies areas some ALL advisors might easily misunderstand, and two kinds of practical skills are introduced: (1) balancing positive and negative perfectionism and (2) applying the principles of cognitive behavior therapy. Lastly, but most importantly, since advisors are not necessarily trained psychological counselors, they have to be careful about how they use psychological expertise. To avoid erroneous decisions, it is important to maintain client-consultant relationships with veteran ALL advisors or certified psychological counselors.