Hours Of Classroom Instruction Research Articles

34 Swine Breeding Herd Practicum Winternship

Abstract Approximately 70% of Animal Science students at Mizzou enroll without large animal experience, and commercial swine production exposure is very low (1-3%). As such, few consider careers in the swine industry. Winter break is 4 or 5 weeks long, allowing more than enough family time. An opportunity for full-time employment for students for 1-2 weeks over winter break on commercial sow units was arranged for 1 or 2 students each of 2 years. Host farms reported students were ‘shell shocked’ for the first 3 or 4 d, finding the scope of production overwhelming. A more formal program was designed to introduce students to modern swine breeding herd management, combining academic and field training over a period of several months. Eligible students have at least sophomore standing, can demonstrate a sincere interest in learning about careers in commercial pork production, and are able to commute to farms within 2 hr of campus. Cooperating farms provide hands-on experience on a modern commercial sow farm, help arrange housing, and pay students nominally during the winter break portion. Students are interviewed, and those selected to participate (n = up to 6) sign a code of conduct and participation agreement. In the fall semester they attend 8 hours of classroom instruction covering: gilt development; isolation/acclimation and biosecurity; reproductive anatomy/physiology; detection and synchronization of estrus; artificial insemination; pregnancy diagnosis; farrowing room preparation; induction of farrowing; obstetrical intervention; colostrum management; d 1 pig care; feeding and handling sows and piglets; careers. Interspersed on weekends during fall semester are 3 weekend days shadowing/working in pairs on commercial farms within 1.5 hours of campus. This training prepares them for ‘full time employment’ on a breeding farm, and students work for 1 or 2 weeks over the winter break on commercial sow units. Upon completion of the full-time employment phase, students prepare a written summary of their experience, upon which the majority of their grade rests.

The effects of pbl-based data science education program using app inventor on elementary students' computational thinking and creativity improvement

This study is to investigate the effect of PBL-based Data Science Education Program using App Inventor on Computational Thinking and Creativity of elementary students. Based on the results of the pre-requisite analysis by Rossett’s demand analysis model, PBL-based Data Science Education program was designed according to the procedure of ‘ADDIE model’ which is 42 hours of classroom instruction for elementary student. As a result of the Paired t-test, it was proved that the Computational Thinking was statistically significantly improved in the post-test. In addition, as a result of the Paired t-test and Wilcoxon’s signed rank test, it was found that the sub-factors of Creativity were ‘Originality’, ‘Elavoration’, ‘Closure’, ‘Average’, and ‘Index’. Therefore, it was confirmed that the PBL-based Data Science Education Program using App Inventor is effective in improving Computational Thinking and Creativity of elementary student.

Examining Preservice Teachers’ Questioning and Feedback

This study examined the questioning styles of preservice teachers along with the frequency and types of feedback provided according to students’ responses. This was a pre-experimental design study with a one-group pre-post-test design. The questioning ways of 13 preservice teachers who taught in two public primary schools in Ankara, Turkey was investigated. The study data were obtained by the video recording of 26 hours of classroom instruction. Moreover, chi-square analysis was conducted to determine relationships between wait time, cognitive level and type of question. According to the results, it was determined that preservice teachers, both before and after training, preferred to use redirecting questions more frequently than creating new questions. It was also observed that preservice teachers frequently asked questions which measured lower level cognitive competencies and that there was an increase for all types of response feedback following the training. However, there was no relationship found between the types of feedback provided and the cognitive levels of the questions asked. The possible reasons for these results might be over-crowded classrooms, focusing on grammar instruction more than reading and writing, and/or inexperience among the preservice teachers to deliver lessons that include high quality questioning and effective feedback.

Persian in Use: An Elementary Textbook of Language and Culture

Persian in Use: An Elementary Textbook of Language and Culture

Clinical utility of PA anatomy education

The University of Toledo Physician Assistant Studies (UT PA) program matriculated its first class in 1996. Students are drawn primarily from Ohio and Michigan and the typical graduating class performs well on the Physician Assistant National Certification Examination. UT PA students that graduated between 2006–2010 (N=145) had a first‐time mean pass rate of 97.8% (± 2.0) compared to the national mean of 93.0% (± 1.0). The UT PA human anatomy course is a traditional medical gross anatomy and neuroanatomy course taught by Anatomy faculty in the College of Medicine. It consists of 120 hours of classroom instruction that include lectures and labs. In addition to providing a broad foundation in human anatomy, this course emphasizes the practical application that anatomical knowledge has in the clinical setting. The goal of this study is to understand the value of this anatomy education for recent UT PA graduates. Recent UT PA graduates will be surveyed to assess their level of appreciation, usefulness, and applicability of the anatomy education they received and the specific anatomical subjects they have found to be most useful. The data will be sorted by the clinical specialty of the responders. This information will be used to evaluate the current course and revise it accordingly to better fit the needs of our future graduating students.

Needs assessment of ophthalmology education for primary care physicians in training: comparison with the International Council of Ophthalmology recommendations

Background:This cross-sectional survey assessed the adequacy of ophthalmology teaching in undergraduate medical education and evaluated the comfort level of family medicine residents in diagnosing and managing common ophthalmic conditions.Methods:Postgraduate year 1 and 2 family medicine residents at the University of Western Ontario were recruited for this study. The main outcome measures were hours of classroom and clinic-based instruction on ophthalmology during undergraduate medical education, and the comfort level in ophthalmic clinical skills and managing various ophthalmic conditions.Results:In total, 54 (33.3%) of 162 family medicine residents responded to the survey. Residents reported an average of 27.1 ± 35.1 hours and 39.8 ± 47.1 hours of classroom and clinical ophthalmology instruction, respectively. However, most residents (80%) responded as feeling only “somewhat comfortable” or “not at all comfortable” in assessing and managing common ophthalmic conditions, including ocular emergencies, such as acute angle closure glaucoma and ocular chemical burn. A positive correlation was seen between overall comfort level and hours of classroom instruction (P < 0.05).Conclusion:The number of hours of ophthalmology training received by family medicine residents during medical school meets the International Council of Ophthalmology Task Force recommendations. However, family medicine residents appear to be uncomfortable in handling treatable but potentially sight-threatening ocular conditions. Standardizing the undergraduate medical education ophthalmology curriculum and increasing hours of ophthalmology training during postgraduate family medicine residency may be useful in bridging this gap in knowledge.

Cutting-edge Discussions of Management, Policy, and Program Issues in Emergency Care

Cutting-edge Discussions of Management, Policy, and Program Issues in Emergency Care

Blending classroom instruction with online homework: A study of student perceptions of computer-assisted L2 learning

AbstractThis study investigates the impact of an online workbook on the attitudes of 245 second language (L2) Spanish learners toward this pedagogical tool over two consecutive semesters. The treatment consisted of four hours of classroom instruction and one set of online homework per week, during two consecutive semesters. Students' attitudes toward the electronic workbook were measured by means of a survey administered after eight months of exposure to the workbook. The qualitative data of the survey was compared to quantitative data from two different language assessment tests. The results of these tests indicated a significant increase in grammar scores. These results are consonant with the positive findings of student perceptions about the online workbook obtained in this and previous studies, emphasizing its benefits in terms of accessibility to the material, user-friendliness, and instant error feedback. More importantly, most students praised the usefulness of the online workbook for language learning, particularly in the areas of grammar and vocabulary acquisition. Despite participants' mostly positive attitudes, the survey also revealed some negative aspects of the use of the online workbook, such as the amount of time needed to complete the online exercises. This paper addresses these issues, and provides suggestions to overcome this type of problem.

A Randomized, Controlled Trial to Teach Middle School Children to Recognize Stroke and Call 911

Underutilization of acute stroke therapy is driven by delay to hospital arrival. We present the primary results of a pilot, randomized, controlled trial to encourage calling 911 for witnessed stroke among middle school children and their parents. This project occurred in Corpus Christi, an urban Texas community of 325,000. Three intervention and 3 control schools were randomly selected. The intervention contained 12 hours of classroom instruction divided among sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Parents were educated indirectly through homework assignments. Two-sample t tests were used to compare pretest and posttest responses. Domain 1 test questions involved stroke pathophysiology. Intervention students improved from 29% to 34% correct; control students changed from 28% to 25%. Domain 2 test questions involved stroke symptom knowledge. Intervention school students changed from 28% correct to 43%; control school students answered 25% correctly on the pretest and 29% on the posttest. Domain 3 test questions involved what to do for witnessed stroke. Intervention school students answered 36% of questions correctly on the pretest and 54% correctly on the posttest, whereas control students changed from 32% correct to 34%. A comparison of change in the mean proportion correct over time between intervention and control students was P<0.001 for each of the 3 individual domains. A poor parental response rate impaired the ability to assess parental improvement. A scientific, theory-based, educational intervention can potentially improve intent to call 911 for stroke among middle school children. A different mechanism is needed to effectively diffuse the curriculum to parents.

Hawaii Psychiatrists Await Prescribing-Bill Veto Decision

Hawaii Psychiatrists Await Prescribing-Bill Veto Decision

Using Theater to Teach Clinical Empathy: A Pilot Study

Clinical empathy, a critical skill for the doctor-patient relationship, is infrequently taught in graduate medical education. No study has tested if clinical empathy can be taught effectively. To assess whether medicine residents can learn clinical empathy techniques from theater professors. A controlled trial of a clinical empathy curriculum taught and assessed by 4 theater professors. Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, a large urban university and health system. Twenty Internal Medicine residents: 14 in the intervention group, 6 in the control group. Six hours of classroom instruction and workshop time with professors of theater. Scores derived from an instrument with 6 subscores designed to measure empathy in real-time patient encounters. Baseline comparisons were made using two-sample T tests. A mixed-effects analysis of variance model was applied to test for significance between the control and intervention groups. The intervention group demonstrated significant improvement (p < or = .011) across all 6 subscores between pre-intervention and post-intervention observations. Compared to the control group, the intervention group had better posttest scores in 5 of 6 subscores (p < or = .01). The study was neither randomized nor blinded. Collaborative efforts between the departments of theater and medicine are effective in teaching clinical empathy techniques.

Hawaii Prescribing Bill Advances Despite Reduced Training Standards

Hawaii Prescribing Bill Advances Despite Reduced Training Standards

CALL on hold: The delayed benefits of an online workbook on L2 vocabulary learning

This study examines the effects of an online workbook and a paper workbook on L2 vocabulary acquisition. Participants consisted of 549 L2 learners of Spanish enrolled in a large language program at an American state university. The participants received 4 hours of classroom instruction per week and worked with an online or a paper workbook once a week during two semesters. They also completed a screening test and four vocabulary tests: two during the first semester and two during the second semester. The results showed no significant differences between the online and the paper workbook groups after one semester of instructional treatment. However, the online workbook group proved better than the paper workbook group in the second semester. These findings confirm results of previous studies on the beneficial role of CALL on L2 vocabulary acquisition, and they point to the pedagogical advantages of online workbooks for large language programs as long as enough length of exposure to the online environment is allotted.

Evaluating the effectiveness of teacher training in Applied Behaviour Analysis

Interventions for children with autism based upon Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) has been repeatedly shown to be related both to educational gains and to reductions in challenging behaviours. However, to date, comprehensive training in ABA for teachers and others have been limited. Over 7 months, 11 teachers undertook 90 hours of classroom instruction and supervision in ABA. Each teacher conducted a comprehensive functional assessment and designed a behaviour support plan targeting one behaviour for one child with an autistic disorder. Target behaviours included aggression, non-compliance and specific educational skills. Teachers recorded observational data for the target behaviour for both baseline and intervention sessions. Support plans produced an average 80 percent change in frequency of occurrence of target behaviours. Questionnaires completed by parents and teachers at the end of the course indicated a beneficial effect for the children and the educational environment. The potential benefits of teacher implemented behavioural intervention are discussed.

A Ceiling Effect in Traditional Classroom Foreign Language Instruction: Data from Russian

This article compares previous language gain studies in foreign languages with new data on language gain in the instructed second language acquisition of Russian. The acquisition of listening, reading, speaking, and writing proficiency shows a significant correlation not only with hours of classroom instruction in immersion and nonimmersion settings, but also with grammatical competence. The data suggest that there is a ceiling effect in traditional classroom foreign language instruction.

Integrating Geographic Information Systems into the Secondary Curricula

The integration of GIS into the secondary curriculum can aid student learning of geography. Through a partnership between a local high school and our university, high school students received nine hours of classroom instruction and field-based training on GIS and GPS to complete a mapping project. Upon completion, a test based on seven geography core curriculum units was administered to these students and to a group of university students who did not receive GIS training. Results of the test revealed that high school students significantly outperformed the university students, suggesting that GIS does aid in the learning of geographic principles.

A Language and Cultural Practicum Course in Nanjing: Maximizing the Students’ Use of Chinese

This paper examines an experience-based language course operating in the field during an intensive language training program in Nanjing, China, during the summer of 1999. The objectives are to report on the design success of our “language and cultural practicum” course, and thereby address best practices and challenges of experience-based language learning. In addition to four hours of classroom instruction each morning, students participated in an afternoon practicum course in which they were required to go off campus and interact with the Chinese community at large and gather specific information for specific assignments. Assets of the practicum course were its flexibility of design, allowing for student self-design of exercises, efficiency in tracking the students’ whereabouts and structuring of their time, and production of an overall synergy of language learning by consciously exercising spoken skills in the field, reinforced with written practice in a daily journal write-up, capped off by a daily presentation during the evening debriefing class.

Disabling myth or writing for the world: the secondary schools language project in the Eastern Province, South Africa

The majority of learners in South African schools are black, and they learn through English as a second language (L2). This contrasts with white students who learn through their first language (L1), English or Afrikaans. Most black students in South Africa are multilingual, and new developments in the curriculum promise to value this achievement. Even now, young black students display considerable competence in their written English when they use electronic links to communicate with fellow students and adults worldwide. Computers motivate students as writers and language learners. One of the many disabling myths that threatens to impede progress towards equity in educational outcomes in South Africa is the myth that teachers of writing in historically black schools will wait a very long time for the technologies of word processing and e‐mail to be available to them. In the Eastern Province many schools have no telephones or electricity. The ANC Government is struggling to meet basic needs quickly and computers could then be used to promote equity among learners. In this study, students had only limited access to keyboard and e‐mail facilities, yet the enthusiasm and concentration computers generated meant that they could leapfrog many hours of classroom instruction.

Preservice Teachers Construct a View on Multicultural Education: Using Banks' Levels of Integration of Ethnic Content to Measure Change

This study examines the use of concept maps to assess learners' prior knowledge, and changes in their knowledge, as a result of fifteen hours of classroom instruction in multicultural education during the students' enrollment in an undergraduate teacher preparation program. Bank's Levels of Integration of Ethnic Content were used to measure change. Sample concept maps are analyzed. The findings of this study are not surprising yet they communicate strong implications for preservice teachers, teacher education, and K-12 schools. Our students came to us with prior knowledge and the change in that knowledge was conspicuous. It was significant that Banks' Levels of Integration of Ethnic Content, which were used as a framework in the instruction of the course, can serve to measure change in learning in students of multicultural education.

Status of Nutrition Education in Ohio Elementary Schools

Many foods and nutrition programs have been developed for elementary schools but have had minimal impact on children's eating behaviors. We assessed the status of nutrition education in Ohio elementary schools during the 1992–93 school year to identify intervention targets and potentially effective strategies for increasing the effectiveness of school-based foods and nutrition programs. A questionnaire was developed and mailed to a 1.6% sample of Ohio elementary school teachers, and a 53% response rate was obtained. Most respondents believed that elementary schools should provide children with foods and nutrition instruction but two-thirds taught this subject during only one-quarter of the school year, providing a total of up to 15 hours of classroom instruction. Previous teaching in nutrition emerged as an important factor in the decision to teach foods and nutrition. Although they are willing to collaborate with school foodservice personnel, teachers have no clear conviction regarding the responsibility of a specific group of people for providing leadership in this field. If school–based foods and nutrition programs are to be strengthened, the activities of teachers and school foodservice personnel will need to be coordinated.