Development Of Individual Skills Research Articles

Dialogue between disciplines at the “Third Bicocca’s Intercultural Day”: Crossing views on educational and linguistic research

The Third intercultural Day as well as the first two (in 2002 and 2004) is a conference that enabled the sharing of research that contribute to the training of the intercultural thought in education. The conference was aimed primarily to teachers, educators, students of educational sciences. The task of pedagogical reflection is to research and learn about the best practices found in various areas of knowledge, which may contribute to the training of the intercultural thinking. There is a real communicative difficulties that may occur at school between parents and teachers. This is a problem not only of language, has its origin in the different life experiences and cultures of education to which foreign parents refer to it. However, the intercultural thought in education leads to trust that the educational system can actually communicate and interact well with the multicultural society, with different languages and cultures that come with good reason inside. In education to think and act according to the principles of intercultural pedagogy means placed in a perspective of social justice, recognition of rights, development of individual skills, enhancement of the individual as different as their backgrounds.

A Tale of Two Studies: Using SelfMentoring™ to Build Teacher-Leader Confidence

Self-mentoringTM is an achiever, such as a teacher, willing to initiate and accept responsibility for selfdevelopment by devoting time to navigate within the culture of the environment in order to make the most of opportunity to strength competencies needed to enhance job performance and career progression through four stages: self-awareness, selfdevelopment, self-reflection, and self-monitoring. Self-mentoring is a sustainable practice of building leaders that is different for each individual through the identification and development of individual skills using collaborations, observations, one-oneone interactions, discussion groups, networking activities, community clusters, and other identified measures through self-mentoring. Two separate exploratory studies were conducted in a public K-12 North Carolina school involving teacher volunteers. The two yearlong qualitative studies provided four training sessions and guidance throughout the school years. Results of the study suggest that selfmentoring is a means for participants to build 1) confidence, 2) willingness to support others, and, when desired, the 3) ability to assume leadership roles, which increases sustainability.

“Student assessment in the clinical environment – what can we learn from the US experience?”

<p>Clinical legal education has a relatively short history in Australia of some thirty years. By contrast, the US has a much longer and diverse history of clinical pedagogy and has been successfully teaching and assessing students in University legal clinics for over half a century. Traditional law school teaching methodology relies heavily on the Langdellian style of lectures, tutorials and then a form of summative evaluation. Clinical pedagogy is a radical departure from this style and as such assessment of clinical students necessitates a different approach. Clinicians have a duty to offer assessment regimes which complement the clinical technique of law teaching.</p><p>This paper proceeds from the fundamental premise that there is a distinct purpose in assessing clinical students. As clinic is often only offered in the latter years of a law degree, it is the culmination of a student’s law school experience and thus seen by many students as the “testing ground” as to whether they can actually be a lawyer and what sort of lawyer they might be. The underlying objective of assessment in a clinical environment is to measure the development and progress of individual legal skills in each student enrolled in the clinic. This is not a normative measure and thus clinical assessment cannot be based upon objective standards. In this author’s view, assessment in clinic is about the development of legal, personal and ethical skills which is distinctive to the individual student – progressing students in their own personal development track.</p><p>This paper investigates the issue of student assessment in the clinical environment and provides a comparative analysis of the US and Australian clinical assessment experience and the different assessment regimes currently being utilized in the clinical environment. It investigates whether the “younger” clinical programs in Australia can learn from the US experience. It considers what, if anything, might be adapted from that jurisdiction that would be relevant and appropriate for the Australian clinical environment.</p>

Learning curves in highly skilled chess players: A test of the generality of the power law of practice

The power law of practice holds that a power function best interrelates skill performance and amount of practice. However, the law's validity and generality are moot. Some researchers argue that it is an artifact of averaging individual exponential curves while others question whether the law generalizes to complex skills and to performance measures other than response time. The present study tested the power law's generality to development over many years of a very complex cognitive skill, chess playing, with 387 skilled participants, most of whom were grandmasters. A power or logarithmic function best fit grouped data but individuals showed much variability. An exponential function usually was the worst fit to individual data. Groups differing in chess talent were compared and a power function best fit the group curve for the more talented players while a quadratic function best fit that for the less talented. After extreme amounts of practice, a logarithmic function best fit grouped data but a quadratic function best fit most individual curves. Individual variability is great and the power law or an exponential law are not the best descriptions of individual chess skill development.

Student engagement and learning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a new undergraduate one-term double module called management practice and skills – which sought to change the learning environment for the new intake of undergraduate students based on constructivist ideas aimed at creating a high level of student engagement. Design/methodology/approach – Action research focusing on the evaluation stage of the first cycle of an intervention. The intervention is described in a case study explaining the features of the new module combined with the statistical analysis of the hard data collected on the first cohort of students taking the module using mainly correlation techniques. Findings – The module design did achieve to a great extent the objective of catering to all learning styles and personalities within the cohort. The results from the first cohort established the elusive nature of the concept of student engagement and the challenge in measuring it quantitatively. Research limitations/implications – This is an evaluation of one case example of the application of constructivist ideas in teaching and hence can make no claim to generalisability. The quantitative measure of student engagement was developed for this study – hence it needs to be applied in other situations and tested for credibility. The student data did not include any measures of their views on the module. The collection of their levels of satisfaction at the end of the module and again after two more years at university would offer a richer view of student engagement. Practical implications – This type of module makes high demands on the teaching staff. It requires, for example – design effort, tutors with both business and teaching experience, administration of the logistics, expertise in handling moodle. The role of the moodle virtual learning environment is key to delivering the module and to collecting much of the data. Social implications – The module design explicitly aims to foster students’ social interaction and create a community of learning among them. It supports students’ personal development, development of individual business and team working skills as well as relevant management theory. Originality/value – The paper describes an unusual application of constructivist concepts to teaching in a business degree and the development of an innovative and distinctive approach to the creation of a quantitative measure of student engagement.

Razões organizacionais para a expatriação: um estudo empírico em empresas portuguesas

Este estudo explora as razões que levam as empresas portuguesas a utilizar expatriados. Foram estudadas 8 empresas localizadas em Portugal. Destas empresas, 7 são sedes do grupo internacional e 1 empresa é filial de uma multinacional sedeada na Alemanha, envolvendo um total de 16 entrevistas a responsáveis organizacionais pela gestão de expatriados. Foi seguida uma metodologia de tipo qualitativo com recurso a entrevistas semi-estruturadas para recolha de informação e utilizada a análise de conteúdo temática para o tratamento dos dados. Os resultados sugerem que as razões que levam as empresas a expatriar colaboradores estão ligadas às necessidades do negócio, ao controlo das suas operações internacionais, à exportação da cultura da sede para as filiais, à representação institucional da sede nos países estrangeiros, ao desenvolvimento de competências individuais. Concluímos que as empresas localizadas em Portugal parecem desenvolver uma estratégia de Gestão Internacional de Recursos Humanos (GIRH) segundo uma abordagem etnocêntrica, característica de empresas em estádios recentes de internacionalização.

Origen, desarrollo y declive de las competencias individuales en tiempos de incertidumbre

In the course of the globalization processes of the past three decades, the focus on skill-based education and training has become a strong educational and laborpolicy tool in which conceptual, evaluative and economic precepts are emphasized above and beyond fundamentals of a multidisciplinary, educational and social nature. The purpose of this article is to broaden awareness of this situation and its repercussions on the nature and development of individual skills. The methodological strategy, which is highly qualitative, was structured on an analysis and discussion of three closely related core topics: a) the conceptual framework of skills; b) skills and standardized systems (from third parties); and c) the development of skills (starting with the individual himself). It is noted that, far from encouraging learning throughout life, inducement of the skill-based training approach can discourage it, besides to being ineffective and quite costly. Contributions are made to the theory of skills, based on their origin and development as biological, psychological and socially integrated constructs that provide elements to improve policies for education and training beyond the conventional conceptual frameworks in this field.

Have a safe journey.

In the modern era of reliable communication systems and relatively safe modes of transport the wish - “have a safe journey” still has relevance. The article by Venkategowda in this issue of the journal[1] shows that even short journeys inside the hospital are commonly eventful. Prior publications in India have addressed related issues in neonates from distant places to hospital, and a high mortality associated with transfer has been reported.[2] Patients are older and sicker; there is more need for imaging studies, and hence transport to and from intensive care unit (ICU) has increased. In mechanically ventilated patients, transport out of ICU for diagnostic purposes is common; transfer rates up to 52% have been reported[3] and have been associated with increasing risks of ventilator associated pneumonia. The current article reports an unexpected event (UE) rate of one for every four patient transfers and some patients had more than one UE. Most UEs were of a minor nature and none were life threatening. A similar larger exercise has been reported from Australian ICUs from the years 1993 to 1999.[4] The strength of this study was that incident reports were in an anonymous fashion, which could have led to greater capture of all events. An attempt was also made in the study to classify the factors contributing to the errors as system-based and human-based errors. The message of the current study would have been strengthened if the cause of the UE's could have been apportioned to training, protocol violation, procedural skill, and communication issues. Medical training in India and elsewhere has, for too long, paid undue emphasis on individual skill development in diagnostic and procedural tasks. It is assumed that with the acquisition of these skills, high quality processes and good outcomes will naturally follow. The “watch one, do one, and teach one” motto[5] in residency training has not been replaced with formal assessment and supervised training in complex simulated ICU conditions. All of this has acquired increasing relevance due to the complexity of cases, and increasing number of patients requiring intensive care and its associated procedures. An ICU patient may require 178 individual tasks per day each of which is prone to error.[6] Safety and quality in medicine has been shown to improve after following principles first adopted in aircraft engineering. The checklist approach has been documented to improve outcomes in intensive care.[6] For a checklist approach to work, baseline data has to be captured. The current study is a first step in the acquisition of data with respect to the safety of intrahospital transport in ICU patients. Larger studies of anonymous reports with standard formats of error classification will aid in the development of efficient protocols and benchmarks for the safe transport of ICU patients.

In the tangle of identity: Within and without democracy and education


 The paper reconstructs John Dewey’s idea of democracy. Dewey’s idea highlights the fact that the concept of democracy needs to be reinterpreted ethically in today’s globalised world. The basic problem of globalised economic and technological tendencies is that they open up the virtual meeting of subcultures more and more. This works against the traditional validity of communal habits and replaces cornerstones of identity construction one could rely on as a member of a community in the past.
 Dewey’s theory of education and society offers a useful response to such changes. It posits the openness of democracy as the measure of individual development: in open democracies real possibilities of communal life open up for the individual without limiting it by the habits of closed communities. The application of Dewey’s model of democracy in a postmodern context highlights the importance of education. Education should focus on social effects of intersubjectivity, in other words, education should maximize the development of individual skills in order to match it by the multiple perspectives of democracy on the level of social organization.

(GbL #2) Constructive Simulation as a Collaborative Learning Tool in Education and Training of Crisis Staff

Introduction Modern armies have significantly changed their missions during last decades. Help in natural and man-made disasters such as floods, earthquakes, fires, nuclear and chemical accidents and pollutions gained the importance. These complex tasks involve many organizations and social groups in affected areas: governmental and non-governmental institutions, emergency services, rescue teams, voluntary groups, and people from local communities. They have different skills and knowledge and use different procedures in operations. For their education, collaborative learning in joint teams with subject matter experts in constructive simulations is recognized as beneficial. The use of different exercise methods together with a novel pedagogical approach is needed for providing the desired learning outcomes. These are the issues the research presented in this paper dealt with. Training in a real field and in real weather conditions is costly and timely. Resources are also available only to a limited extent. In addition, performing complex tasks requires a high level of skills and knowledge, which should be gained through practicing and repetition. However, real conditions do not allow for or make it almost impossible to repeat a simulation or its part. Therefore, educational goals are sometimes not fully met (Roman & Brown, 2008). Computer simulations improve spatial learning and perceptual skills of learners (Lindgren & Schwartz, 2009) and provide additional quality to learning process mainly based on textual and verbal interaction. Teachers have full control of a computer simulation. This means that they can start, stop, examine or restart a simulation at any time, which is not possible in a real situation (Holland, 1998). Simulation can be performed in a virtual environment, which allows for learners' high engagement. Interactivity, time constraints, and competitive nature motivate learners to use all their skills and knowledge in dealing with the concrete tasks and finding solutions for problems they are faced with. There are different categorizations of simulation systems (Sulistio, Yeo, & Buyya, 2004). In military training and education, there is a commonly used classification based on the complexity, used methodology and level of objectives (Hodson, 2009): * Live simulations--realistic environment, soldiers and equipment, but without live ammunition; * Virtual simulations--development of individual and/or team skills in complex virtual environments such as aircraft, battle ship, submarine and similar combat system simulators or urban area simulators designed for learning specific case-driven culture and language skills; * Constructive simulations--the most complex and designed for training and education of staff and commanders of joint forces (e.g., brigade, division). Joint forces means that officers from different branches and services (such as engineers, artillery, infantry, armored, reconnaissance, medical, transport, communication, and many other types) are involved in a simulation. In other words, there are several expert teams in many different domains that have to act as a whole. They need to learn from each other and to adapt their specific working procedures according to new tasks and organization. Constructive simulations are recognized in military environments as a way in which a complex training and education can be performed in effective (enriched quality) and efficient (cost reducing) manner. During a simulation, teams of approximately 20 to 30 people face the problems given through a scenario. By analyzing the overall situation (spatial and time context, available resources, and critical targets), they try to find (alternative) solutions, evaluate them, and make decisions. Finally, they implement their decisions, track effects, and make changes and corrections in order to improve the results. All of the activities mentioned above represent the parts of the process of collaborative learning, performed through joint efforts of team members. …

Heart Rate Responses and Technical-Tactical Aspects of Official 5-A-Side Youth Soccer Matches Played on Clay and Artificial Turf

Using a randomized crossover design, this study aimed to compare the heart rate (HR) responses and match analysis parameters (i.e., type of action; the number of players involved in an action; the number of passes performed in a collective action; precision of the shots; lost balls; ball interceptions; dribblings; and tackles) of official 5-a-side youth male soccer matches played over 2 pitch surface (i.e., clay vs. artificial turf) conditions. Twenty-two young male soccer players (age 8.3 ± 0.4 years) engaged in 2 consecutive 15-minute periods in each experimental condition. During the match, 53% of HR responses exceeded 85% of the individual HR(peak). No difference emerged between both pitch surfaces and match periods for HR and match analysis indicators. The two 15-minute periods resulted in being appropriate for 8-year-old players, in resembling the intensity of play and the intermittent nature of adult soccer. The similar HR responses and technical-tactical patterns observed on the 2 surfaces indicate that youth match play is not affected by differences in pitch surface. To support the development of individual and team skills of young soccer players, coaches are advised to prioritize game knowledge based on divergent thinking and experience, rather than traditional teaching based on instructions.

Internet na promoção da saúde: um instrumento para o desenvolvimento de habilidades pessoais e sociais

O desenvolvimento de habilidades pessoais e sociais, no sentido da aquisição de maior controle e maior poder de decisão (Empowerment), é considerado estratégia de fundamental importância na promoção da saúde. O acesso à informação é uma das bases para tal. Muito vem sendo dito e escrito sobre o imenso potencial da internet, estudos apontam-na como um instrumento especial para obtenção de informação e de capacitação, tanto individual, quanto comunitária. Este texto se apoia na literatura científica nacional e internacional sobre promoção da saúde, informação e saúde na internet e divisão/exclusão digital, com o objetivo de discutir a possibilidade de utilização da rede como recurso em projetos voltados para a promoção da saúde, apontando pontos positivos e possíveis barreiras, com destaque para a questão da divisão/exclusão digital de boa parte da população brasileira. Os autores consideram que a internet pode vir a ser uma grande aliada na construção de projetos de promoção da saúde. No entanto, no desenvolvimento desses projetos, é fundamental considerar os potenciais riscos e compreender que as estratégias e programas na área da promoção da saúde precisam se adaptar às necessidades e possibilidades de cada local e levar em conta as diferenças sociais, culturais e econômicas.

أثر التنمية الذاتية للفرد المسلم في ضوء التربية الإسلامية (The Impact of Self-Development of Individual Muslim in the Light of Islamic Education)

This research highlights the various aspects of self-development and its impact on the Muslim individual in light of Islamic Education. It first introduces the concept and characteristics of self-development in Islam, and explains how Islam is concerned with special type of development through naming some of its aspects and inferences made from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Such a development however, relates to the effective viewing of experience, and to the statements of the means assigned to Muslims to achieve self-development. This paper also discusses the impacts affecting the individual through self-development. This research uses curriculum indicatives based on the Qur'an and Sunnah that are related to self-development. The results include self-development which embraces development of individual skills and abilities in various fields. It targets a higher goal of changing for the better, and the need to achieve self-development for society in general, particularly those in a position of authority and responsibility. This research also shows that complementary aspects of self-development in Islam are many; they include faith and worship, science, morality, productivity and physical well-being.

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership in Educational Context

Currently, the main problem of education is the irrelevance of the teaching methods and styles with the demands necessary to produce modern specialists. Emotionally intelligent leadership which is based on the study of the emotional reason is an effective approach to solve the problem. Nevertheless, the current method calls for the development of certain professional individual and social skills of the instructors.

Communicating actionable nutrition messages: challenges and opportunities

As long as health communications have existed in the USA, Americans have faced the task of sorting the agenda of the source from the advice it provides. That task has become more complicated as advances in the science of nutrition and the technology used to present it have heightened the complexity of nutrition communications. Getting consumers to adopt a healthier diet has been a protracted undertaking with limited successes along the way. The obesity epidemic has added urgency to this discourse: not only do we need to eat better, but most of us also need to eat less. This paper reviews the dynamics that have made the communication of accurate and actionable health behaviour information an ongoing challenge, and outlines strategies for moving ahead. It considers the interplay of four sets of factors: the evolutionary nature of the science on which recommendations are based; the many sources of communication about that science; the agendas or motivations of each source; and finally the multifaceted nature of consumers, the recipients of these communications. Communication alone has not been, and will not be, sufficient for consumers to adopt the behavioural changes endorsed by experts. Broad environmental interventions coupled with individual skills development will need to be part of the process. Ultimately, it is the consumer who decides what is for dinner. Media literacy will play a critical role in building consumer efficacy in sorting fact from fiction in order to select food for a healthful diet.

Health promotion capacity building in South Africa

Health promotion in South Africa is in its early stages and while there is some institutional development and capacity building for managers, there has been relative disregard and lack of attention of the wider health promotion workforce who carry out community-based health promotion activities. This article describes one regional education and training programme for health promoters as well as the limited available evidence on the impact of the project on learners and organizations. Marked differences before and after the implementation of the training activities were reported in relation to behaviour change communication and project planning, in addition to self-reported positive change in knowledge, confidence and a high level of participant satisfaction. Investment in individual skills development needs to be accompanied by wider workforce development with organizational/institutional development and recognised competencies frameworks.

Learning About Teams by Participating in Teams

As the work of academic health centers becomes increasingly oriented toward teams and collaboration, professional development in effective team skills becomes increasingly important. The authors sought to determine whether a transdisciplinary program for enhancing teamwork was effective in educating individual team members to translate lessons into productive outcomes of their own institutions' teams. Between 2006 and 2008, the authors used the Learning in Teams model of collaborative team development to design and implement two applications of a national professional development program for members of academic organizations' teams. The purpose of the program was to foster individual skill development in collaborative teamwork. Using pre/post surveys to determine changes in team functioning over the course of the program, the authors evaluated participants' perceptions of the effectiveness of their professional development programs' learning teams and of their home institutions' teams. They analyzed narrative reports of participants' institutional teams' progress for elements including team task management, member dynamics, and institutional outcomes. Pre/post self-assessments of team performance and participants' progress reports on their home teams revealed enhancement of team skills, including clarifying team charge, exploring team purpose, and evaluating team process. Program participants improved their team skills and enhanced productivity of their institutions' teams. The Learning in Teams model can support individual team skills development, enhance institutional team performance in academic health centers, and provide a basis for research in team skills development and team process improvement. It can be adapted to various programs to enhance skills in teamwork.

Defining milestones toward competency in mastoidectomy using a skills assessment paradigm

To establish milestones toward achievement of surgical competency by using an objective assessment tool designed to measure the development of mastoidectomy skills in the operating room (OR). Prospective longitudinal validation study. Fifty-six evaluations were conducted in the OR on nine otolaryngology residents from PGY (postgraduate year) 2 to PGY 5 over a period of 3 years. Technical performance was measured over time using a task-based checklist developed for assessment of mastoidectomy skills. Three sets of technical milestones represented achievement of competency for progressively more complicated procedural steps: the first set was achieved after a mean of 6 +/- 4.3 cases, the second set after 9 +/- 6.7 cases (range of mean = 8-10 cases), and the third set after 13 +/- 6.4 cases (range of mean = 12-14 cases). The acquisition of mastoidectomy skills can be integrated into surgical teaching in the OR, and this approach yields information that can aid individual skill development and program improvement. The identification of milestones in particular can help establish training benchmarks toward achievement of competency and in identifying trainees in need of remediation.

Lekcja języka obcego z uczniem niepełnosprawnym miejscem badań metodą indywidualnych przypadków

The article presents preliminary results of research conducted during English language classes, with the case study method, among pupils with intellectual disability attending a primary special needs school. The research was meant to help answer the questions related to the possibility of incorporating foreign language teaching in the comprehensive process of their rehabilitation, and especially the development of individual cognitive skills as well as the mother tongue command. The article emphasizes the advantages of research based on a case study which enables the researcher to apply the principle of individualization and the treatment of every pupil as a subject no matter what the developmental barriers may be.

Competências relevantes para a efetividade do processo decisório em defesa aérea

Este artigo investiga o impacto das competências consideradas essenciais para o desempenho das atividades de defesa aérea sobre a efetividade do processo decisório. Como principais referenciais teóricos, foram utilizados os estudos de Simon (1970; 1987) sobre o processo decisório e o modelo de competências por setor de Gramigna (2002). Na pesquisa de campo, utilizou-se a triangulação de dados: entrevistas, análise documental, observações e questionário, por meio do qual levantou-se a percepção dos profissionais que desempenham as funções em estudo. Os dados foram analisados através de análise fatorial exploratória e análise de regressão linear múltipla. Os resultados da pesquisa realizada para este artigo contribuem para o estabelecimento de programas voltados ao desenvolvimento de competências individuais específicas, com impacto direto nas competências essenciais da organização. Os achados deste artigo servem também aos gestores militares como subsídio para decisões relativas à alocação de pessoal e formação de equipes, visando distribuir de forma mais racional os indivíduos, aliando suas competências aos interesses organizacionais, tal seja, alinhando as práticas de gestão de pessoas à estratégia organizacional.