Efficient Learning Strategy Research Articles

The meaningfulness and appropriateness of using human patient simulation manikins as a teaching and learning strategy in undergraduate nursing education: a systematic review.

Review question/objective Objective The aim of this review is to identify the best available evidence on the meaningfulness and appropriateness of integrating human patient simulation manikins (HPSMs) into undergraduate nursing education. Review Questions This review will systematically examine the evidence to answer the following questions: 1. What are the perspectives and experiences of students and academics on the appropriateness and meaningfulness of the use of HPSMs in undergraduate nursing education? 2. What teaching and learning practices with HPSM are considered appropriate and meaningful by students and academics? Inclusion criteria Types of participants The review will consider studies that include undergraduate nursing students and academics who are involved in undergraduate education. Studies that consider other allied health care professionals will be excluded unless data for undergraduate nursing students are included and analysed separately. Types of intervention(s)/phenomena of interest The review will consider as phenomena of interest the experiences, values, opinions, beliefs and interpretations of undergraduate nursing students and academics using HPSM for teaching and learning purposes.

Developing Patient-Centered Care Competencies Among Prelicensure Nursing Students Using Simulation

Health care improvement requires collaboration between academia and practice to bridge gaps in nurse education and achievement of quality outcomes. Quality and Safety Education for Nurses identified six domains, including patient-centered care, that should be addressed during prelicensure education. Simulation is a recommended strategy to teach safe clinical practice; however, cost, space, and faculty resources are barriers to its use. Computer-based social simulation is less resource intensive and effective in improving critical-thinking skills. A pilot study was conducted to compare required resources and student learning outcomes for traditional versus computer-based simulation. Fifty-three baccalaureate nursing students participated in the study; 34 completed the computer-based simulation and 31 completed the traditional simulation. Group patient-centered care competency scores improved similarly (p < 0.001), although fewer faculty hours were required to administer the computer-based intervention. Findings suggest computer-based simulation is an efficient and effective learning strategy to develop patient-centered care competencies.

Pueblo: A Hybrid Pseudo-Boolean SAT Solver

This paper introduces a new hybrid method for efficiently integrating Pseudo-Boolean (PB) constraints into generic SAT solvers in order to solve PB satisfiability and optimization problems. To achieve this, we adopt the cutting-plane technique to draw inferences among PB constraints and combine it with generic implication graph analysis for conflict-induced learning. Novel features of our approach include a light-weight and efficient hybrid learning and backjumping strategy for analyzing PB constraints and CNF clauses in order to simultaneously learn both a CNF clause and a PB constraint with minimum overhead and use both to determine the backtrack level. Several techniques for handling the original and learned PB constraints are introduced. Overall, our method benefits significantly from the pruning power of the learned PB constraints, while keeping the overhead of adding them into the problem low. In this paper, we also address two other methods for solving PB problems, namely Integer Linear Programming (ILP) and pre-processing to CNF SAT, and present a thorough comparison between them and our hybrid method. Experimental comparison of our method against other hybrid approaches is also demonstrated. Additionally, we provide details of the MiniSAT-based implementation of our solver Pueblo to enable the reader to construct a similar one.

A soft relevance framework in content-based image retrieval systems

This paper presents a novel framework called fuzzy relevance feedback in interactive content-based image retrieval systems. Conventional binary labeling in relevance feedback requires crisp decisions to be made on the relevance of the retrieved images. This is restrictive as user interpretation of image similarity is imprecise and nonstationary in nature and may vary with respect to different information needs and perceptual subjectivity. It is, therefore, inadequate to model the user perception of image similarity with crisp binary logic. In view of this, we propose a soft relevance notion to integrate the users' fuzzy perception of visual contents into the framework of relevance feedback. A progressive fuzzy radial basis function network is proposed to learn the user information need by optimizing a cost function. An efficient gradient descent-based learning strategy is then employed to estimate the underlying network parameters. Experimental results based on a database of 10 000 images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Evidence of effective and efficient teaching and learning strategies in the education of rheumatologist ultrasonographers: evaluation from the 3rd BSR musculoskeletal ultrasonography course

Evidence of effective and efficient teaching and learning strategies in the education of rheumatologist ultrasonographers: evaluation from the 3rd BSR musculoskeletal ultrasonography course

Role of metacognitive processes in developing learning strategies

Within the context of effects that findings in the domain of cognitive psychology produce on the improvement of learning process in teaching, the results for examinations on student learning strategies and some of their implications were analyzed. Diverse methods for the operationalization of strategies, both cognitive and metacognitive, applied by students are featured. It is demonstrated that engagement of metacognitive processes is of crucial importance, firstly for developing efficient learning strategies and then for achieving better quality outcomes of educational process. Metacognition is treated in some studies as a process parallel to cognition and accordingly, distinction is made between cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies. But metacognitive processes are also often treated as intrinsic factors acting in the process of developing and using cognitive strategies in learning and they determine features and quality of those strategies and their effects. Some prospects for further intervening trends in the process of teaching are presented using the findings. It is emphasized that influence exerted by social environment i.e. school setting where the process of learning is going on can not be disregarded.

Accounting Education Through an Online-Supported Virtual Learning Environment

A shift in emphasis from teaching to learning in the UK higher education sector has resulted in universities considering more efficient learning and teaching strategies. This has included embracing and adopting new technologies, such as the Internet, as an aid to more effective learning and teaching for the student and the teacher. This strategy has not yet been pedagogically proven, however, it is one that many higher education institutions are currently pursuing, or are seriously considering. This article considers the effectiveness of Web-based learning and teaching on a second year unit of a BA (Hons) Accounting degree, and appraises whether it could provide the appropriate medium to create an efficient and robust learning environment for accounting students. The study was implemented as a result of a successful collaborative bid to the university’s Learning and Teaching Development Fund, which consisted of staff from Academic Services and the School. Changes in the learning styles (Honey and Mumford, 1992) of students were evaluated and it is suggested that an integrated virtual learning environment, as discussed in this article, could engender a move to more autonomous learning by students.

Compreendendo relações entre estratégias de aprendizagem e a ansiedade de alunos do ensino fundamental de Campinas

Pesquisas sugerem que um bom desempenho escolar envolve o uso eficiente de estratégias de aprendizagem e o controle de variáveis psicológicas do aluno. Tendo como base teórica a Psicologia Cognitiva baseada na Teoria do Processamento da Informação, este estudo verificou relações entre o uso de estratégias de aprendizagem e a ansiedade de 155 alunos do ensino fundamental de uma escola pública de Campinas. Utilizou-se como instrumentos para a coleta de dados uma entrevista estruturada sobre estratégias de aprendizagem e uma escala de ansiedade. De modo geral, os resultados parecem indicar que a ansiedade pode tanto favorecer, quanto interferir no uso adequado de estratégias de aprendizagem. Os dados são discutidos em termos de suas implicações educacionais e direções para futuras pesquisas sobre essa temática são apresentadas.

Assessment of Memory Skills in Illiterates: Strategy Differences or Test Artifact?

Previous studies have reported that illiterates perform more poorly than literates on a variety of neuropsychological measures. We investigated the hypothesis that putative memory deficits in illiterates are an artifact of the assessment tools used rather than a reflection of an ‘underdeveloped’ ability. In order to accomplish this, we designed two tests, a word list learning test and an object learning test. The illiterate group performed more poorly than semiliterate and literate groups on most variables of the word list learning test, but only on delayed recall and semantic clustering on the object learning test. Our findings suggest that poor memory performance among illiterates can be attributed both to the nature of the task, as well as to the use of different cognitive mechanisms to recall learned information. Presumably, formal education may enhance the innate ability of learning through training individuals in efficient learning and retrieval strategies. We emphasize the importance of developing and using ecologically valid neuropsychological tests to assess illiterate individuals.

PAC learning of probability distributions over a discrete domain

We investigate learning of classes of distributions over a discrete domain in a PAC context. We introduce two paradigms of PAC learning, namely absolute PAC learning, which is independent of the representation of the class of hypotheses, and PAC learning wrt the indexes, which heavily depends on such representations. We characterize non-computable learnability in both contexts. Then we investigate efficient learning strategies which are simulated by a polynomial-time Turing machine. One strategy is the frequentist one. According to this strategy, the learner conjectures a hypothesis which is as close as possible to the distribution given by the frequency relative to the examples. We characterize the classes of distributions which are absolutely PAC learnable by means of this strategy, and we relate frequentist learning wrt the indexes to the NP=RP problem. Finally, we present another strategy for learning wrt the indexes, namely learning by tests.

A Bayesian prediction approach to robust speech recognition and online environmental learning

A robust speech recognizer is developed to tackle the inevitable mismatch between training and testing environments. Because the realistic environments are uncertain and nonstationary, it is necessary to characterize the uncertainty of speech hidden Markov models (HMMs) for recognition and trace the uncertainty incrementally to catch the newest environmental statistics. In this paper, we develop a new Bayesian predictive classification (BPC) for robust decision and online environmental learning. The BPC decision is adequately established by modeling the uncertainties of both the HMM mean vector and precision matrix using a conjugate prior density. The frame-based predictive distributions using multivariate t distributions and approximate Gaussian distributions are herein exploited. After the recognition, the prior density is pooled with the likelihood of the current test sentence to generate the reproducible prior density. The hyperparameters of the prior density are accordingly adjusted to meet the newest environments and apply for the recognition of upcoming data. As a result, an efficient online unsupervised learning strategy is developed for HMM-based speech recognition without needing adaptation data. In the experiments, the proposed approach is significantly better than conventional plug-in maximum a posteriori (MAP) decision on the recognition of connected Chinese digits in hands-free car environments. This approach is economical in computation.

Paired-associate learning in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as a function of hyperactivity-impulsivity and oppositional defiant disorder.

A paired-associate learning (PAL) test was administered to 22 community volunteers without disruptive disorders and 197 children (7.5-13.5 years-old) presenting with the inattentive and combined subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) either in combination with or without oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Participants were screened for learning disorders. In comparison to non-ADHD participants, children with ADHD achieved worse PAL and made errors rated as more acoustically and less semantically similar to the correct paired associates. These deficits were not related to hyperactivity-impulsivity or comorbid ODD. These results suggest that ADHD children are less competent at PAL and use less efficient learning strategies than their non-ADHD peers.

Field dependence–independence and strategic learning

Cognitive style may influence the acquisition and application of efficient learning strategies. Among the dimensions of cognitive style identified to date, field dependence–independence (FDI) has been shown to be particularly important, given the wide diversity and transcendence of its educational implications. In particular, the characteristics demonstrated by extreme field dependent and independent subjects in different intellectual tasks lead to differential preferences expected of them in the use of learning strategies. These, in turn, could correspond to differences in the efficiency of use of strategies. In this chapter a review of the studies carried out to date about this subject is offered.

Organizational Chunking and Postquestions in Facilitating Student Ability to Profit from Visualized Instruction

This experiment was designed to examine the instructional effectiveness and efficiency of organizational chunking and batched postquestions within the framework of an information-processing approach to learning and memory. The coding processes utilized by the content organization employed both encoding and retrieval aids to facilitate the acquisition, retention, and retrieval of the information to be learned. Major findings indicate that the chunked treatment resulted in a more efficient learning strategy than the conventional treatment; however, the chunked and conventional treatment, as different encoding strategies, did not produce significant differences in achievement on the performance task. Additionally, students receiving the intervening postquestion strategy took significantly less time in completing the performance measure than did those students who received the non-intervening postquestion treatment.

Macro and Micro Methodology in TESL

Two interdependent views of what goes on in a classroom can be distinguished in order to understand how we set up an efficient learning and teaching strategy in the classroom. A macro view would look at the characteristic behavior of learners, teachers, instructional materials, and so on. A micro view would look at the material being learned, the way it was presented, and the responses of the learner. Macro methodology is an overall plan for the roles to be played by learners, teachers, instructional materials, and the classroom as they interact with each other to form the most efficient learning and teaching context for the acquisition of communication skills by each learner in the classroom. Micro methodology is an overall plan for the presentation of new language material to learners, the practice of that new language content, and of previously presented language material by learners, and the use of acquired language material as communication skill by learners. While macro and micro methodology are interdependent aspects of a total learning and teaching strategy, they are not only derived from different sets of assumptions, but have differing consequences for the establishment of an effective stategy. Both macro and micro methodology are aspects of the orderly presentation of language material.