Hands-on Interactions Research Articles

Adapting to Change: Challenges and Opportunities of Hairdressing Students in A National Secondary Technical School

Students faced significant challenges in acquiring practical hairdressing skills as schools transitioned to distance or blended learning. The findings revealed two themes: transitional challenges and beneficial effects. Challenges during the transition include adjustments, drawback, financial constraints, feeling of inadequacy and limited equipment. The shift from modular to face-to-face learning introduced issues like time management struggles and dissatisfaction with the modular approach. These issues lead to more concerns about academic setbacks and motivation upon the transition to face-to-face classes called new normal. Moreover, financial constraints due posed a challenge. Despite these hurdles, participants found the transition beneficial as they appreciate the enriched learning, hands-on interactions, and engagement in extracurricular activities. The new normal was recognized for its practical engagement, facilitating networking, and attracting clients which led to improving communication skills and creating job and entrepreneurial opportunities. The study's findings strongly support the notion that hairdressing students thrive and excel when immersed in a hands-on, face-to-face learning environment. This suggests the need for further research to better improve their experiences and skill development.

Describing Engagement in the Collegiate Concert Band Rehearsal

The purpose of this multiple case study was to investigate engagement in the collegiate concert band setting. Research questions were: (1) How do collegiate band students describe their engagement in large ensemble rehearsals? (2) How do collegiate band directors describe engagement in large ensemble rehearsals? and (3) What does rehearsal engagement look like in action? Cross-case analysis suggested that student engagement is related to personal/temporal factors, the repertoire and instructional strategies, and interpersonal factors among students and between the student and director. Directors spoke of the responsibility and pressure they felt to encourage independence and the challenges of establishing a collaborative, agentic environment. Observation field notes reflected variety in body language, liveliness, and hands-on interactions and technology distractions.

Advancing IR in Underserved Regions: Interventional Radiology Simulation Near and Far.

Simulation facilitates learning by imitating real-world systems or processes utilizing educational tools and models. Various fields, including business, aviation, and education use simulation for training. In healthcare, simulation provides trainees opportunities to develop procedural skills in a safe environment, building their understanding through hands-on interactions and experiences rather than passive didactics. Simulation is classified into low, medium, and high fidelity, based on how closely it mimics real-life experience. Its use in education is a valuable adjunct to instructional support and training with multiple potential benefits. Interventional radiology (IR) trainees can build technical and clinical proficiency prior to working directly on a patient. Simulation promotes experiential learning, constructivist learning, and student centeredness, thus giving students control over their learning and knowledge acquisition. More recently, the creative use of remote simulation has augmented traditional virtual didactic lectures, thereby further engaging international learners and enhancing remote collaboration. Despite the challenges to implementation, the addition of simulation in IR education is proving invaluable to supporting trainees and physicians in underserved regions.

Learning from the outsiders-within: wearing the niqab in Swedish teacher profession and training

ABSTRACT This article discusses how the politics of the niqab manifests in educational settings by drawing on interviews with niqabi Swedish teachers and teachers-in-training. Participants contested dominant discourse on niqabi wearers as ‘unassimilated’ and out-of-place in multicultural education. They built on their marginal positions as outsiders-within education to affirm children’s cultural identities and religious rights neglected by mainstream educators. Contrary to the preconception that the niqab “hides teachers’ face”, participants wore the niqab up when alone with children and introduced it to pupils in intimate and hands-on interactions. Suggestively, through unfolding pupil-teacher relationships, children gained a child-centric view of the niqabi teachers, to which adults in the public space are exempt. Participants were arbitrarily included in Muslim and mainstream schools as individual educators saw fit, illustrating lack of institutional rights in the schools and universities participants attended.

Losing Connection: Experiences of Virtual Pregnancy and Postpartum Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The rapid uptake of telehealth for perinatal care during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to mixed evidence as to its effectiveness, with limited research demonstrating satisfaction and appropriateness for communities at risk for poor birth outcomes. The purpose of this article is to describe the experiences of virtual care during pregnancy and postpartum among a diverse group of pregnant/birthing people in Washington State during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a thematic analysis study exploring experiences of care during the COVID-19 pandemic for 15 pregnant and birthing people in Washington State. This secondary analysis utilized data specific to experiences receiving care via telehealth. Three dominant themes were identified: loss of connection and relationships with providers; need for hands-on interactions for reassurance; and virtual care is good for some things but not all-desire for immediate, accessible care when appropriate. The majority of participants felt that it was subpar to in-person care due to a lack of connection and the inability to receive necessary tests and hands-on reassurance. Our study findings encourage very judicious use of virtual care for communities that are at high risk for birth disparities to avoid impacting relationship building between patient and provider.

Embodying science: the role of the body in supporting young children’s meaning making

ABSTRACT Primary school science emphasises hands-on interactions, but little is known about how the sensorimotor experiences these interactions provide shape children’s science ideas. Early interactions with science need to be engaging as these shape children’s developing attitudes towards science and themselves as science learners; however, these activities need to go beyond engagement to set children up with the resources they need to develop and deepen their learning. Findings demonstrate that designing science activities and the discourse they are situated within through an embodied lens can support children’s meaning making by providing them with sensorimotor experiences to draw upon, valuing their lived experiences and being open to their multiple modes of communication. Such body-based activities offer alternative routes into learning which are playful, engaging, and dynamic, whilst making concrete connections between children’s interactions and the development of complex science ideas.

Supporting child–group interactions with hands-off museum exhibit

Abstract Technology can be used to augment visitors’ experience with a museum exhibit and provide museum visitors with means of interacting with otherwise hands-off exhibits. However, introducing technology to support interactivity has the likelihood of usurping users’ attention from the exhibit or diminishing interactions with other visitors. Our approach to this problem involves supporting hands-on interactions for groups visiting a pollinator garden—a science museum exhibit containing fragile species where touching is discouraged. Through interviews with museum experts and docents, we elicited design goals that we then enfolded into an Android application that leverages visual recognition to support interactions with the exhibit. We tested our application in-situ with 65 children in three groups and subsequently propose and describe design approaches that uses the ethos of scaling to support different number of users and leveling to varied cognitive levels. We conclude by recommending reusable designs guidelines to support interactions within other evolving and hands-off contexts.

Enablers and barriers to the implementation of socially assistive humanoid robots in health and social care: a systematic review

ObjectivesSocially assistive humanoid robots are considered a promising technology to tackle the challenges in health and social care posed by the growth of the ageing population. The purpose of our...

Planning a lab lesson on the law of thermal conduction with learning by preparing to teach design

Lab activities have been innovated and progressed to fulfill the purpose that students need to experience physics concepts through hands-on and minds-on interactions. However, student-centered and conceptual activities in physics labs are challenged with time and material constraints that degrades the merits of the learning environment. This study adopts a pedagogical design, “learning by preparing to teach”, to address the challenges with conducting a satisfactory number of activities in physics labs and therefore promoting student hands-on and minds-on experiences with the activities. Eight activities covering the conceptual variables of thermal conduction in a two-hour lab session were studied by freshmen students at a university. To implement the pedagogical design, the students were arranged into the learning and teaching groups that paved way to a lab design that student was first learners and then teachers. Lab activities were configured that each group studied a certain set of activities. Upon completing the activities, members of the learning groups were designated to the teaching groups in which students cooperated to achieve conceptual objectives of the lab. The results showed that a usual lab duration becomes effective to cover numerous activities.

Facilitation of movement: New perspectives provide expanded insights to guide clinical practice

ABSTRACT Hands-on therapeutic interactions are essential to neurological physiotherapy. Facilitation of movement is a particular aspect of such interactions that potentiates self-initiation of movement. This process involves interactions between the physiotherapist and the patient through three integrated phases: (1) “make movement possible;” (2) “make movement necessary;” and (3) “let movement happen,” in which communicative aspects are considered important. The purpose of this paper is to explore a theoretical foundation for this approach by utilizing an extended framework. Dynamic systems theory clarifies the physiotherapist’s handling as the adjusted manipulation of the patient’s constraints upon movement complemented by tailoring of the specific attributes of the task and environment; however, this theory provides inadequate coverage of the involved communicative aspects. Phenomenology, which perceives the body as the center of experience and expression, offers a path to understanding such hands-on interactions as a form of communication. Enactive theory clarifies these physical interactions of the physiotherapist and the patient as essential in co-construction of meaning that evolves as an interactive and dynamic process within a specific context. This extended framework, in which neuro- and movement sciences are integrated, provides an appropriate theoretical anchoring of facilitation of movement that is beneficial for guiding clinical practice and training.

THE DEVELOPMENTAL TOOLKIT: A PLAY-BASED LEARNING TOOL

Abstract BACKGROUND Learning child development is complex. Recent paediatric and family medicine graduates reported feeling unprepared to identify and manage children with developmental and behavioural concerns (Comley et al 2008). As part of current developmental education at our centre, residents are trained to assess child development by integrating their pre-rotation knowledge about development with parental report and a general physical examination. This approach lacks hands-on training required to understand and learn the complexities of child development. To address this gap, our study team created the “Developmental Toolkit (Toolkit),” a non-standardized developmental teaching tool comprising specific toys and activities. OBJECTIVES The primary objective of this study was to explore how the toolkit may influence the teaching and learning of child development. Through the lens of reflective practice, this study sought to also explore residents’ learning of development in the context of a play-based toolkit. DESIGN/METHODS Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, paediatric and family medicine residents from two academic centres were interviewed after they used the toolkit as part of their interactions. Physician supervisors were also interviewed to determine the use of the toolkit as a teaching tool. RESULTS We recruited 10 residents to ensure saturation of data. Residents felt positively about their experience with the toolkit and its ease of use. They all agreed the toolkit enabled them to assess a child’s developmental skills in a short period of time. One paediatric resident found it “really useful; it was a more objective way for me to see what skills and milestones they [the child] were at. I think it was quite useful to correlate it with what mom was saying.” The residents’ supervisors all felt the toolkit allowed residents to more critically consider a child’s development and diagnosis in the context of the child’s environment. Furthermore, through the lens of reflective practice,the use of the toolkit revealed additional competencies in child development. These included: 1) maintaining a positive mood with the child; 2) getting a sense of the parent’s mood; 3) identifying when a child may have reached their limits during an interaction; and 4) critiquing previous assumptions about child development. CONCLUSION The toolkit is an innovative tool that may enhance paediatric and family medicine residents’ understanding of child development by enabling hands-on interactions and observations with children. Further exploration of how the toolkit may be enabling reflective practice and its implications on adaptive expertise need to be explored.

Tea, talk and technology: patient and public involvement to improve connected health \u2018wearables\u2019 research in dementia

Plain English summaryThere are a growing number of mobile phones, watches and electronic devices which can be worn on the body to track aspects of health and well-being, such as daily steps, sleep and exercise. Dementia researchers think that these devices could potentially be used as part of future research projects, for example to help spot changes in daily activity that may signal the early symptoms of dementia. We asked a range of older people, including people living with dementia and their carers, to participate in interactive discussions about how future participants might find using these devices as part of research projects. We also invited volunteers to borrow a range of devices to test at home, giving them further insights. Discussions revealed that people were generally supportive of this type of research, provided they gave informed consent and that devices were discreet, comfortable and easy to use. They also valued technical support and regular feedback on study progress to encourage ongoing participation. These findings were used to develop a pool of devices for researchers, with computer software and written guidance to help plan, design and support studies. Our work shows that when given the right opportunities, people who are affected by dementia can provide valuable insights that can enhance the design, delivery and quality of future research.BackgroundIncreasingly, researchers are recognising the potential for connected health devices, including smartphones and smartwatches, to generate high resolution data about patterns of daily activity and health outcomes. One aim of the Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) project is to provide researchers with a secure means to collect, collate and link data generated by such devices, thereby accelerating this type of research in the field of dementia. We aimed to involve members of the public in discussions about the acceptability and feasibility of different devices and research designs to inform the development of a device pool, software platform and written guidance to support future studies.MethodsOver 30 people attended a series of interactive workshops, drop-in sessions and meetings in Greater Manchester. This included people living with dementia and cognitive impairments, carers and people without memory problems. Discussions were tailored to suit different audiences and focused on the feasibility and acceptability of a range of different wearable devices and research designs. We also invited volunteers to borrow a device to test at home, enabling further insights from hands-on interactions with devices.ResultsDiscussions revealed that people were supportive of connected health dementia research in principle, provided they gave informed consent and that devices were discreet, comfortable and easy to use. Moreover, they recommended technical support and regular feedback on study progress to encourage ongoing participation.ConclusionBy using a range of discussion-based and practical activities, we found it was feasible to involve people affected by dementia and use their insights to shape the development of a software platform and device pool to support future connected health dementia research. We recommend that researchers planning such studies in future pay adequate attention to designing suitable participant information, technical support and mechanisms of providing study progress updates to support sustained engagement from participants.

University-Industry Co-Operation to Promote Industrial Relevance in the Field Instrumentation Component of Control Education

In every manufacturing process field instruments establish the foundation for control. As a result, field instrumentation is an integral part of the control curriculum for engineering disciplines that support process manufacturing. In the Chemical Engineering curriculum most of the hands-on interactions with field instruments occur in the Unit Operations (UO) laboratory. In order to make these interactions industrially relevant, dialogue and active engagement with industry are essential. In this paper we present eight features of our co-operation with industry that have significantly expanded the breadth of the UO laboratory experiences for the Chemical Engineering students and faculty. In addition to providing financial help for state-of-the-art field instruments, our industrial partners have also shared technical resources and know-how that have enabled us to integrate the technology into the curriculum in an industrially relevant way. The most notable elements that distinguish our UO laboratory are the large number of installed field instruments (173), the distributed control system (DSC), the asset management system (AMS), and the high level of active interaction with field instruments. The end result is that our students are developing a marketable skill set directly applicable to the industrial practice of control. Our faculty are benefitting from the co-operation with industry as well by being provided with various opportunities for professional development.

Circuits Kit K–12 Outreach: Impact of Circuit Element Representation and Student Gender

Outreach to K-12 schools is important for attracting students to electrical engineering. Circuits kits provide K-12 students hands-on interactions with electrical circuits. The goal of this experimental study was to investigate the effects of two types of electrical circuit element representations on the self-reported perceptions of the outreach activity and learning of elementary and high school students. In the abstract representation type, the circuit elements were marked with the standard engineering symbols. In the concrete representation type, the circuit elements, such as batteries and light bulbs, were familiar to the students. Perceived student enjoyment, understanding, and cognitive load were assessed through surveys. Student learning was measured with a post-test. The impacts of student gender and developmental level were also analyzed. Results indicate that for elementary school students, the concrete representation led to higher understanding ratings and lower cognitive load ratings than the abstract representation, while there was no difference in student learning between the two representation conditions. For high school students, there were no significant differences in student perceptions or learning between the two representation conditions. However, male high school students gave significantly higher interest and understanding ratings as well as lower cognitive load ratings than their female counterparts, even though there was no significant difference in student learning between the genders. Elementary school students reported higher enjoyment for the circuits kit activity and higher cognitive load than the high school students.

A Predental School Experience to Expose Potential Applicants to Dental School and the Dental Profession

In June 2000, during a period of declining applications to dental school both locally and nationally, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-New Jersey Dental School (NJDS) initiated the Gateway to Dentistry (GTD) program. Its overall goal was to increase applications from qualified applicants interested in the health professions but uncertain of dentistry as their ultimate choice. Participants learned about dental school and the profession during a two-week internship that provided hands-on experiences; exposure to various disciplines and career options within dentistry; a glimpse of student life through interactions with a dental student mentor; an understanding of the application process; and individualized assistance in educational and career planning. As the overall applicant pool increased nationally and at NJDS, the program proved valuable in attracting a diverse and highly qualified student body. The program is currently offered twice per year to thirty students per session from a pool of approximately 300 applicants from throughout the country. Close to 40 percent of the program participants have been accepted to NJDS, and one-fourth of current incoming classes are GTD participants. Program participants' evaluations have been consistently positive, citing the value of hands-on activities and interactions with enthusiastic faculty volunteers.

In-service and pre-service teachers' perceptions of a web-based, case-based learning environment

Understanding teachers' perceptions of a web-based, case-based learning environment provides insight into the effective development and deployment of such conditions for preparing educators. CaseNET–a web-based, case-method teaching environment for professional educators–serves as both a source of information as well as a space for inservice and preservice teachers to interact with one another and to contemplate current educational issues as they relate to real-world teaching. A qualitative analysis of over 400 participants was conducted and results provided. Participants perceived CaseNETas an opportunity to engage in professional development via exploration, reflection, collaboration, and hands-on interactions with authentic teaching tasks. Results suggest that the combination of cases and technology provides a valued opportunity to engage developing teachers in professional behaviors.