Attitudinal Learning Research Articles

At sea with disability! Transformative learning in medical undergraduates voyaging with disabled sailors.

Attitudinal objectives are difficult to formulate, teach and assess; yet good attitudes are fundamental to good practice. For instance, studies highlight negative attitudes to disability in the medical student community that contrast with the self-conceptions of disabled persons. This study was designed to better understand attitudinal learning, inadequately addressed by contemporary programmes, through the application of Mezirow's 'transformative learning theory' (TLT) to a novel educational intervention. Participating students went to sea, for voyages of 5-7days, in tall ships operated by the Jubilee Sailing Trust. Each student was buddied with another sailor living with disability. Disabilities included cerebral palsy, loss of sight, loss of limbs and paraplegia. Students recorded their experiences using audio diaries, written logs, formal voyage reports and art work and in post-voyage seminars. The data were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis, and the results are considered under five themes suggested by Mezirow. Sixteen students were recruited, with four students sailing on each of four separate voyages. Each student recorded audio-diary entries, which had a total duration of between 10 and 212minutes. For seven of the 16 students, the five key elements of TLT were demonstrable, suggesting that transformative learning, as described by Mezirow, was occurring. Drawing on diverse qualitative data, insights into different aspects of this transformation areprovided. TLT can be used to characterise, and thus design, educational interventions to meet attitudinal learning objectives. Students can be helped to discover their less helpful frames of reference. In safe environments these frames can be challenged and subjected to personal and communal reflection. Drawing on audio diaries and other evidence, and in answer to critiques of contemporary medical teaching on disability, we demonstrate such transformation in students 'at sea with disability', highlighting elements that couldpotentially be transferred to the mainstream curriculum.

Learning outcomes of a MOOC designed for attitudinal change: A case study of an Animal Behavior and Welfare MOOC

This study examines the case of an Animal Behavior and Welfare MOOC that specifically targeted attitudinal change in its learners. Attitudinal learning outcomes were evaluated using an author-developed survey with questions on perceptions in the four areas of attitudinal learning: General Learning, Cognitive Learning, Affective Learning, and Behavioral Learning. The survey also examined learner goals for enrolling in the course and their perceptions of the instructional methods implemented in the course. Results showed that learners perceived positive learning outcomes across all four areas. Statistically significant differences were found in relation to perceptions of attitudinal learning based on their reason for enrolling in the MOOC and its relation to attitude formation. There were also significant differences in learners' reasons for enrollment based on whether they intended to change animal welfare related behaviors due to their MOOC experience. Learners overwhelming indicated that the instructor videos were the most impactful instructional strategy regardless of whether they had a higher perception of learning, or a lower perception. Finally, learners with higher perceptions primarily enrolled in the MOOC in order to form a viewpoint on animal welfare, while lower perception learners enrolled to earn a formal certificate of completion. Implications are discussed for instructional design for attitude change as well as for the use of MOOCs for learning regarding social topics.

Litigación oral: estrategia de enseñanza para el desarrollo de competencias argumentativas en la formación de profesores de educación secundaria

The aim of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of oral litigation as a teaching strategy for the development of argumentative skills in secondary education teacher training. It is based on the results of an exploratory case study conducted with 162 students who participated in the implementation of a strategy, with a design that took into account problem-based learning, the Toulmin argumentation model, curriculum competence approach, cognitive and situated learning, and contextual foundations of education. For the development of written and oral arguments, presenting documentary evidence was considered in the context of simulating a Litigation. To evaluate the experience, a focus group was conducted with key informants, who felt that the strategy contributed to the development of conceptual, procedural and attitudinal learning. It is concluded that the development of argumentation skills in teacher training students is key in the design of teaching strategies, the use and mobilization of the knowledge acquired, the acquisition contexts, and preferably of authentic or real application.

Using family sculpting as an experiential learning technique to develop supportive care in nursing. A contemporary issue paper

This article explores the use of family sculpting as an educative tool to achieve a better I-thou awareness of the patient's support needs from a family and social system approach. Ensuring we provide appropriate and effective opportunities for nurses to develop compassion when caring for patients facing ill health is a complex challenge that faces nurse education at all levels. The piece explores a sculpting exercise developed in nurse education which engages students' awareness of the complicated nature of peoples' social networks and through attitudinal learning, helps nurses to provide compassionate care that integrates family support.

Application of a competency model to clinical neuropsychology.

Professional competencies in psychology have received significant attention as education and training standards have been increasingly framed in the context of behavioral, knowledge-based, and attitudinal learning outcomes. We first review the development of the specialty of clinical neuropsychology and describe the establishment of educational and training guidelines in the specialty, including their most recent update (Hannay et al., 1998). Competency initiatives in professional psychology over the last decade are then summarized. Specialties in professional psychology have delineated education and training guidelines and are beginning to incorporate competency-based approaches to describe advanced and specialized abilities that build on generic, core, foundational and functional psychology knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Following the model of France et al., (2008), we apply the Assessment of Competency Benchmarks framework to describe specific competencies required for specialty practice in clinical neuropsychology.

Conservation Reasoning and Proposed Actions for the Protection of Threatened Plant Species: Insights From a Sample of Rural and Urban Children of Cyprus

Investigating children's beliefs and values toward threatened biodiversity can contribute to their understanding about nature and to the prevention of sociopolitical issues that may emerge when nature policy is being implemented. This study investigates children's beliefs about threats to plants, the personal values associated with conservation, and actions children consider desirable regarding the conservation of three threatened plant species of Cyprus. Photos of threatened plants were used during interviews with 60 students (30 urban and 30 rural residents) aged 10–12 years. Results showed that participants deemphasized anthropogenic threats, while attitudes of individual responsibility were prevalent. Participants proposed actions of higher effectiveness mainly when they felt that they would be able to implement them. Findings suggest that an educational policy on threatened plant conservation should adopt a social character, focusing on attitudinal development and participatory learning approaches that will enhance children's sense of ownership and efficacy.

Appreciative Inquiry: An Effective Training Alternative to Traditional Adult Learning?

While the practice of positive psychology has flourished in the last decade, critics still point to the lack of intervention-based research and empirical evidence as a shortcoming of this field. Appreciative inquiry (AI), an intervention with similar theoretical underpinnings as positive psychology, has the capacity to expand what is known about the impact of positivity in the study of organizations. AI is an intervention that uses reflective questions of positive experiences to create new opportunities. However, there is scant research on its effectiveness in real-world settings. This study extends this line of research by evaluating the effectiveness of AI as an alternative to conventional adult learning methodologies, as well as an applied example of an intervention based on positive psychology to study organizational change. Results from changes in pre- and post-assessments following three AI-based interventions, when compared to those from a control group, suggest AI can lead to significant gains in participants’ perceived attitudinal, behavioral, and cognitive learning similar to traditional adult learning methodologies. In addition, these results suggest AI interventions paired with real-world problem solving opportunities yield greater gains in participants’ perceived confidence to demonstrate positive interpersonal skills. Implications for using AI in the course of adult learning are discussed.

Disaster Planning: Using an ‘Evolving Scenario’ Approach for Pandemic Influenza with Primary Care Doctors in Training

This project adopted an 'evolving scenario' approach of an influenza pandemic to enhance factual and attitudinal learning in general practice registrars. The one-day session, held before the current outbreak, was based around a sequence of four video clips that portrayed the development and evolution of pandemic influenza through news flashes and pieces to camera. A short factual presentation was included. Small group discussions with plenary feedback followed each of these. Registrars were encouraged to consider their own feelings, what they needed as professional support at each stage, and what professional and personal issues a pandemic produced. A course structured in this way allowed participants at a training level to identify the major issues and consequences of an influenza pandemic. It was recognised that constructive preparation and planning for business continuity were possible. However, family illness and social consequences were recognised as causing a dissonance with professional practice that needs open debate.

Designing nonverbal communication for pedagogical agents: When less is more

This experimental study employed a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design to investigate the effects of type of instruction (procedural module, attitudinal module), deictic gesture (presence, absence), and facial expression (presence, absence) on student perception of pedagogical agent persona, attitude toward the content, and learning. The interaction effect between type of instruction and agent nonverbal behavior (deictic gestures and facial expression) was also investigated. A total of 236 college students learned from an animated pedagogical agent that varied by two factors: deictic gestures and facial expression within one of two instructional environments: one training them to perform tasks within a software program (procedural learning outcome); the other focusing on changing their beliefs regarding intellectual property (attitudinal learning outcome). Results indicated that the main effects of agent facial expression and gesture as well as the interaction were significant for agent perception and learning. With regard to learning, for attitudinal instruction, participants learned more when the agent’s facial expression was present but deictic gesture was absent; however, for procedural instruction, students learned more when the agent’s gestures were present. These results are discussed in light of a preliminary pedagogical agent design principle that suggests that it is most desirable to employ the one nonverbal communicative behavior that is most appropriate to the learning outcome.

Democracy and Religion: Theoretical and Empirical Observations on the Relationship between Christianity, Islam and Liberal Democracy

This paper addresses the issue of the compatibility of Islam and democracy from the angle of empirical democratic theory and in a broad historical and comparative perspective. This includes the argument of, and evidence for, a Christian rooting of modern democracy. On the one hand, recent data and cross-time comparisons confirm that demo cracy's roots are in countries which are culturally shaped by Christianity. Religious traditions and institutions clearly provide constraints and opportunities for liberal democracies and processes of democratisation. Within the Christian tradition, distinctions between Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and Protestantism (also within Protestantism) matter, and so do different degrees of secularisation or specific patterns of Church–State relations. Religions that contain and prescribe an holistic view of society, especially Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Islam, tend to restrict the emergence and development of liberal democracies, and civil liberties in particular. On the other hand, the inherent ‘multi-vocality’ and the changes of religious traditions (e.g. Catholicism) which, in themselves, are massively affected by political institutions, already demonstrate that there is nothing deterministic about religion's relationship to democracy. This relation is also shaped by uneven processes of secularisation and by increasing religious diversity within the West. While a first glance at the current world map of religion and democracy seems to confirm Huntington's well-known view that Islam is ‘the problem’, closer analysis shows, however, that it is not the allegedly problematic relationship between Church and State in Islamic countries or the lack of secularisation in these societies which accounts for the democratic deficit. Rather, the main reasons are found in patriarchal orders, and in geopolitical and regional factors. I suggest that research should focus on the conditions under which an antagonistic relationship between a particular (empirical) religion and democratic principles and practice can be transformed into reconciliation by institutional, doctrinal and attitudinal learning. Such learning is massively stimulated by Muslims living under conditions of functioning liberal democracies ‘in the West’.

Interactive drama: teaching aboriginal health medical education

Context and setting Approximately 100 students attended this attitudinal learning activity designed for a Year 1 undergraduate medical education course on cultural diversity. The learning activity took place in an urban community with approximately 30 000 aboriginal people. Why the idea was necessary While lip-service is often given to the proverbial 3-legged stool in medical education (attitudes, knowledge and skills), most medical teaching institutions are perched precariously on a wobbly 2 legs at best. Attitude-oriented courses are typically perceived as being ‘soft’ and unimportant compared to more science-oriented courses. Most curricula squeeze in a mere hour or so for introspection and self-reflection, leaving students unaware of the importance that their attitudes have on their clinical interaction. Learning about aboriginal people's health tends to be limited to a knowledge-focused approach. Learning must illustrate the complex interaction of cultures (aboriginal, learner's natal and medical) and then offer tools to help negotiate and bridge the complexities. This learning activity was designed to provide an opportunity for students to explore cultural perspectives, reflect on attitudes toward aboriginal people, and learn ideational frameworks through which local aboriginal people experience health care. What was done An interactive genre called Forum Theatre encouraged students to move from being passive observers to active participants within a play consisting of a series of scenarios between an aboriginal elder, her granddaughter, her doctor and a medical student. The play wove together themes of relationship, culture and conflict within a health care setting. Students observed the play once. Following this, the play was run through a second time; however, this time students were instructed to shout out ‘Stop!’ when they felt that the medical student could engage with her preceptor or aboriginal patient differently. The audience member who shouted ‘Stop!’ would then take the place of the actor in the play and attempt to mitigate the conflict scenario. Thus, the students could practise and learn from alternative interventions. The activity created space for discussion around intervention effectiveness and diversity of cultural perspectives and preferences. Key issues that arose were: accepting gifts and conflict of interest, negotiating student−preceptor disagreements, intergenerational conflict, the role of the chart, medical professionalism, racism, gaining trust, and eliciting the patient's worldview without imposing assumptions based on ethnicity. Evaluation of results and impact Following this activity, students were asked to complete a mixed qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Student feedback included: ‘It made me realise how many issues I wouldn’t have answers for.' Students expressed their particular enjoyment in being involved and participating in ‘real life examples’: ‘It was fantastic to be able to “test out” alternate approaches or tactics and see how they work.’ The play fostered exploration of vital covert and overt issues, rarely dealt with in a traditional teaching setting. It was apparent that this activity enabled students to connect mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally with the content and begin to develop an appropriate approach towards interacting with aboriginal patients.

Professional development in undergraduate medical curricula--the key to the door of a new culture?

One of the most pressing requirements for contemporary medical education is to develop a framework for theory and practice of professional development which results in the attainment of professional competencies suitably robust for a lifetime's practice. The proposed content of a professional development curriculum may be reasonably straightforward to establish from policy documents and public expectations, but the process of achieving the desired outcomes is more complex, because professional development is largely based on attitudinal learning. Attitudes are at the interface between the personal and public psyche, relying more on individual experience and the accumulated impact of social and cultural interpretations than on propositional knowledge, and are therefore less amenable to factual or didactic teaching. The purpose of this discussion paper is to develop thinking on the conceptual frameworks which need to underpin curriculum decision-making for professional development, especially in undergraduate medical training where models of good practice are less well-established. It brings together work from educational, sociological and psychological perspectives to elucidate the key principles which are most likely to result in acquisition of desirable professional attributes. The literature suggests that successful professional development needs to be based on explicit values, which are repeatedly demonstrated in the learning environment, and modelled by senior colleagues and tutors; that the curriculum should incorporate a clear model of emotional as well as cognitive development; should be a major component of summative assessment; and needs to include formative mentorship at all stages of training.

Teaching and Learning with SimCity 2000

This paper introduces SimCity 2000, a popular computer simulation model, as a tool for teaching urban geography concepts. Situated within a more traditional class format, this software can enhance computer literacy, geographical knowledge, and critical skills. The dynamism and visual refinement of the software add to the entertainment value of attempting to effectively guide a city's development. These strengths of the program also facilitate learning about the complex, dynamic, and interrelated nature of urban problems. Students are highly motivated to use the software because of its game-like aspects, yet after using the program they report attitudinal learning in the form of a greater appreciation of the role of urban planners, designers, and policy-makers. Instructors should consider how to accommodate different levels of previous experience with the software, particularly in relation to a gender-based dichotomy that is indicated by this study. In addition, instructors should consider how to respond to the more critical response of students who have a stronger background in geography and urban studies.

Attitudinal Learning in Medical Education

Attitudinal Learning in Medical Education

A Trend of European Medical Education for Attitudinal Learning

A Trend of European Medical Education for Attitudinal Learning

Can medical students acquire patient centered attitudes at medical schools?

Progress in psychosomatic medicine will largely depend on the kind of attitudinal learning that takes place at medical schools. What can be achieved by a patient-centered training programme emphasizing attitudinal learning? In a research programme 350 students were introduced to principles of patient-centered medicine in so-called peer groups on history taking ('Anamnesegruppen'). By the end of group work, students exhibited more realistic and less defensive expectations towards the patients and felt more confident about their peers' support. The interviewing skills had improved. The training scheme appeals to approximately 20% of the students. It has been adopted by various other places in the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland. Basic institutional aids became apparent: access to patients, supervision, regional meetings. It is assumed that students learn how to link role performance with personal self-awareness, how to trust and be accepted, how to face the faculty. Four overlapping stages basic to the learning process (exposing, reflecting, acting, progressing) are discussed. It is concluded that in medical schools patient-oriented attitudinal learning is possible. Peer learning seems to be decisive. Interdisciplinary research into peer learning is recommended.

The effectiveness of programmed instruction for attitudinal learning

The effectiveness of programmed instruction for attitudinal learning

The effectiveness of programmed instruction for attitudinal learning

NSPI JournalVolume 18, Issue 8 p. 19-21 Article The effectiveness of programmed instruction for attitudinal learning Margaret E. Bell, Margaret E. Bell University of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.Search for more papers by this authorJohn P. Dolly, John P. Dolly University of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.Search for more papers by this authorTerry Helsley, Terry Helsley University of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.Search for more papers by this author Margaret E. Bell, Margaret E. Bell University of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.Search for more papers by this authorJohn P. Dolly, John P. Dolly University of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.Search for more papers by this authorTerry Helsley, Terry Helsley University of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.Search for more papers by this author First published: October 1979 https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.4180180811AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume18, Issue8October 1979Pages 19-21 RelatedInformation

Effects of a Visually-Oriented Introductory Psychology Course

AbstractThe hypothesis under investigation was that cognitive and attitudinal learning of introductory psychology students could be increased by a course plan emphasizing visual perception and visual production of psychological concepts. Pre- and post-content were measured by multiple-choice questions; a semantic differential was used to measure pre- and post-attitudes. Content mastery showed no significant differential between groups; a positive shift in attitude occurred in the experimental group but was not statistically significant. One result was production by the experimental group of a multi-media, 5-screen film production called Introduction to Psychology, which has become part of the instructional program of the department1.

Controlling classical conditioning with sentence structure.

64 Ss were randomly assigned to one of two learning strategies for associating visually presented male names with orally presented evaluative words. The contiguity treatment produced attitude changes in the direction of the associated evaluative words. The negative statement treatment stopped the conditioning effect and in two cases significantly reversed the direction of attitude change. It was concluded that sentence structure can dramatically alter the role that contiguity plays in verbal attitudinal learning.