Innate Skills Research Articles

Strengthening Your Surgical Hand: Strengths-Based Profiling and Coaching of Surgical Trainees

Introduction As scientific and professional disciplines, medicine and surgery have a tendency to focus on deficiencies, namely what trainees do not know or are not good at doing. The philosophy of Positive Psychology and the notion of “Strengths” takes a different stance. It is an inherently positive process, seeing each trainee as an individual bringing a unique set of strengths to every situation. There is clear evidence from the commercial sector regarding improved performance and well-being when focusing on one's strengths. We were therefore keen to investigate its potential role in the global development of trainee surgeons. Methods Surgical trainees from Core Training 1 to Specialty Training 8 in one training region of the United Kingdom were invited to voluntarily undertake the online Strengthscope™ assessment tool. The computer-generated report was reviewed by an Occupational Psychologist and trainees were then invited to have a strengths-focused feedback discussion on that report, either face-to-face or via telephone. Results Thirty four surgical trainees ranging from CT1 to ST6 completed the tool and 28 undertook the voluntary feedback sessions. Decisiveness, self-improvement, efficiency, emotional control and critical thinking were common strengths identified. Less commonly represented were leading, creativity and developing others. Trainees found that the tool and feedback helped them identify their strengths and embrace them, rather than fitting the surgical mould. It further aided the recognition of strengths in-overdrive and for some trainees it helped explain difficulties they had experienced in previous jobs. It provided insight into individual motivations and character whilst also highlighting how others in the workplace might perceive them. Trainees liked the emphasis on the building up of positive attributes and utilizing innate skills and strengths. The feedback consultation from an accredited coach trained in the Strengthscope™ tool was judged by trainees to be crucial to a full understanding of the report and its potential implications. Conclusions Surgical trainees have a wide range of strengths which, if identified and focused upon, could help them to fulfil their greatest potential at work. Strengthscope™ has provided new insights into the range of skills and talents of surgical trainees and has a potential role in providing more advanced educational supervision and mentorship. For these trainees, the assessment and feedback discussion aided their personal and professional development, highlighting where their most significant strengths lay with a view to making their daily working lives more fulfilling and, hopefully, helping them excel.

Using Hooke’s law of elasticity to explicate trends and dimensions of crisis in the Niger Delta

The study draws from a corollary in the physical sciences, showing how a quantitative form could change to a qualitative form (that is water under 100°C). Likewise, the constant bombardment of the Niger Delta social formation could alter its relations of production. To this end, the study goes beyond, (i) the era of early oil exploration/expansion years and community passivity (1903-1970), (ii) Era of oil-industry “consolidation”, incipient agitations and of oil companies, (iii) Era of state command intervention and community reactive militancy to (iv) ‘fracture’. However, elastic materials, either stretched, compressed, or bent comes back to its original shape and size when the force is removed. We posit that the “proportionality limit” is exceeded in the Niger Delta and the region can never be the same using this theoretical exposition. This supports our thesis that “mindful humans under certain conditions would tend to behave like mindless atoms”. The study recommends a Cognitive Personal Development Scheme (CPDS) for development of innate skills and adaptive mechanism for youths of the area as panacea to youth restiveness Key words: Elasticity, elastic limit, socio-economic conditions, viscerogenic, plasticity, psychogenic.

Artistic productivity and creative thinking in Parkinson’s disease

Creative drive and enhanced artistic-like production may emerge in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) during dopaminergic therapy. However, it has not been described to date whether this artistic-like production results from dopaminergic drugs triggering innate skills or it could be considered as a repeated behavior possibly associated with impulse control disorders (ICDs). We investigated creative drive in a cohort of cognitively preserved patients with PD by means of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT). We also investigated a putative association between creative drive and ICDs in 36 PD patients with (PD-c) or without (PD-nc) increased artistic-like production and 36 healthy controls (HC). We considered artistic-like productivity to be enhanced if patients reported working on any form of art more than 2h per day after the introduction of dopaminergic treatment. The TTCT, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11A), the Minnesota Impulsive Disorders Interview (MIDI), and the Punding Rating Scale were applied. Mean TTCT score of PD-c was found to be similar to HC (169.4±51.6 vs. 170.2±69.7, respectively), and both PD-c and HC had significantly higher TTCT scores than patients with PD-nc (125.4±46.1 P<0.05). TTCT did not correlate with any demographic or clinical data in both PD subgroups. No correlation was found between TTCT, BIS-11A, and MIDI. Our study suggests that newly acquired artistic-like production in patients with PD is not associated with impulsivity or ICDs. Artistic-like production might represent the emerging of innate skills in a subset of predisposed patients with PD on dopaminergic therapy.

Innate Arthroscopic Skills in Medical Students and Variation in Learning Curves

Technical skill is an essential domain of surgical competence, and arthroscopic surgery requires a particularly challenging subset of technical skills. The innate ability to acquire arthroscopic skills is not fully understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the innate arthroscopic skills and learning curve patterns of medical students. Tests of two arthroscopic tasks (one shoulder and one knee task designed to represent core skills required for arthroscopic training) were conducted in a surgical skills laboratory. The performance of twenty medical students with no previous arthroscopic surgery experience was assessed as they performed thirty repetitions of each task. The primary outcome measure for each repetition was success or failure in performing the task. An individual was deemed "competent" at the conclusion of the testing if he or she achieved stabilization of the learning curve (success on all subsequent repetitions) within twenty repetitions of the task. The secondary outcome measures were objective assessments of technical dexterity (time taken to complete the task, total length of the path traveled by the subject's hands, and number of hand movements) measured with use of a validated motion analysis system. The performance on each task varied among the students. Seven students were unable to achieve competence in the shoulder task and four were unable to achieve competence in the knee task. Motion analysis demonstrated that students who achieved task competence had better objective technical dexterity and thus better innate arthroscopic ability. The total path length and the number of hand movements differed significantly between the students who did and did not become competent at the shoulder task (p < 0.05, Mann-Whitney U test). The difference in path length was also significant for students performing the knee task (p < 0.05). Variation in innate arthroscopic skill exists among future surgeons, with some individuals being unable to achieve competence in basic arthroscopic tasks despite sustained practice.

Human error rates for speaker recognition

It is commonly assumed that speaker identification by human listeners is an innate skill under certain conditions. As such, human listening tests have served as the benchmark for automatic recognition systems. In recent evaluations comparing human and machine performance on a speaker comparison task, error rates of naïve human listeners far exceed those of machines [special session on Human Assisted Speaker Recognition, IEEE ICASSP, Prague, 2011]. In this presentation, we quantify the performance of naïve listeners in a variety of challenging channel conditions and we compare these results against automatic systems and trained human listeners. The results of these experiments impact the admissibility of both forensic voice analysis and courtroom testimony by human listeners.

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN TWO SOLITUDES - A REVIEW OF DESIGN EDUCATION IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

This paper reviews the teaching of design in the Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering programmes at Carleton University. We summarize our approaches to design education and contrast them with the innate skills of students. Notably each curriculum puts increased emphasis on the facets of design that do not match the innate skills of the entering students. We conclude by discussing various aspects of design education as taught in the two programmes and potential mutual benefits to future design education planning.

Women Leaders as Negotiators: An Assessment of Power: As an Interpreter of Emotions, Performance, and Results at the Bargaining Table

The main aim of this research paper is an exploration and recognition of negotiation as a leadership skill in the hands of women and how women take up negotiation differently than men. The paper addresses accounts of female leadership using the example of a large U.S. organization, which is considered a pioneer in its inclusiveness policies. The research methodology is based on a qualitative approach, which includes the use of interviews in the working environment of the target group of eight women individuals aged 41 to 57 (members of the prominent female pool - partners/leaders at the above organization), a global leader in professional services. The results show that negotiation skills can serve as a most effective means to women at the bargaining table on the path to leadership and help them unleash their hidden power. It also suggests that women differ in their negotiating approaches. The research implies that emotions and the ways in which women can learn to better use their emotional intelligence skills at the bargaining table can decrease the negative backlash phenomenon. The paper concludes that gender is an important factor on the path to power and the exercise of leadership. Negotiation is an imperative skill for women leaders to possess and to constantly improve. Recent research evidence suggests that the application of aggressive masculine ways in organizations and economies so far has proven unsustainable given the size of today’s globalized economic crisis. Helping women pursue their new roles as leaders, by making improved use of their principled way of thinking during negotiations and innate emotional intelligence skills can have long-term positive results for their organizations and eventually, economies and societies. Men who desire more work-life balance in their lives can help in sustaining results too. The results indicate an opportunity for policy makers and governments to create policies that will encourage women to remain a strong part of the talent pool developing into future leaders.

The Social Change Model as Pedagogy: Examining Undergraduate Leadership Growth

Understanding whether leadership can be learned is important as many colleges and universities attempt to develop future leaders through a variety of programmatic efforts. Historic leadership research argues leadership is an innate skill. While contemporary leadership research tends to argue that leadership can be learned. The purpose of this paper is to examine student leadership skill development during a leadership course at a regional, mid-western university. This project explored the effects on undergraduate students after a 16-week, for-credit academic course based on the Social Change Model of Leadership (SCM). This project was completed using a quasi-experimental design between two non-equivalent groups. Participants completed the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale as a pre/post-test. The findings suggested that student SCM skill-based knowledge did improve compared to students who did not receive the intervention and subsequently that post-industrial leadership skills associated with the SCM can be learned in a structured, academic course.

Teresa Huguet-Termes, Jon Arrizabalaga and Harold J. Cook (eds), Health and Medicine in Hapsburg Spain: Agents, Practices, Representations, Medical History Supplement No. 29 (London: The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 2009), pp. vi + 158, £35.00/€40.00/$60.00, hardback, ISBN: 978-0-85484-128-8.

Anyone wishing to take the pulse (so to speak) of the history of early modern Spanish medicine would do well to start with this slim but valuable book. Its half-dozen essays provide a well-rounded sample of recent work in a field that, as Harold Cook stresses in his introduction, still remains largely unnoticed in the English-reading world. Maria Luz Lopez Terrada opens the collection by reviewing the efforts of various institutions to police the health sector in sixteenth-century Valencia. She highlights the lively diversity of this marketplace, and suggests that competition and confusion among different authorities – city and viceregal governments, guilds, and the Protomedicato, or special royal tribunal – wound up encouraging medical pluralism. That one of the physicians whom King Philip II (1556–98) named Protomedico proved to be a committed Paracelsian leads appropriately to the next chapter, Mar Rey Bueno’s overview of alchemical activities in Philip’s court. She argues that, while the King showed little interest in the occult (unlike his relative Rudolf II), he was certainly willing to employ such chemists for their skills in distilling waters and devising other remedies. From this markedly therapeutic (and Lullian) alchemy one moves on to witches, or rather, the saludadores or folk healers, whose many attributes included the ability to detect witches, along with other innate skills, such as the power to cure rabies with their saliva. Maria Tausiet has unearthed numerous intriguing references to these ambiguous figures, who, not surprisingly, were often accused of practising the same sort of black magic they claimed to offer protection against. Teresa Huguet-Termes then focuses on efforts to reorganise the medical sector of Madrid following its designation as capital of the Hispanic empire in 1561. While the runaway growth of the city’s population predictably frustrated these reforms, she joins a larger historiographic consensus in finding little to distinguish Counter-Reformation initiatives in public healthcare from those which prevailed in the Protestant north. Monica Bolufer also keeps the broader European picture in mind while tracing the changing representations of women within a series of texts which ranged from Juan Huarte de San Juan’s best selling The Examination of Wits of 1575, to the enlightened cleric Benito Feijoo’s essay ‘The Defence of Women’, published in 1726. She discerns a few important shifts amid underlying continuity in views of women within learned culture, and suggests that Iberian discourse on sexual difference evolved closely in tandem with medical writing outside the peninsula. Jon Arrizabalaga closes the volume with a portrait of Rodrigo de Castro (c.1546–1627), a Portuguese physician of Jewish background who re-converted to the faith of his ancestors after moving to Hamburg. There he achieved prominence for two publications, a handbook on female diseases and a weighty guide to medical ethics. Arrizabalaga places particular emphasis on the latter, which he sees as marking an important step forward in the self-consciousness of the higher ranks of the healing profession, while it defended Jewish (as well as Islamic and Scholastic) contributions to the long-term development of medical knowledge. The reader of these essays will come away with a strong sense, not only of the dynamism that characterises the small but energetic community of historians of medicine and science in Spain, but also of how, thanks to their efforts, many old cliches are now biting the dust. One certainly bids them well. At the same time, the sympathetic observer may wish that they had taken a few more risks in their analysis, which is heavily outweighed by description. Sacrificing any of the rich empirical detail that is so often found in early modern Spanish documentation would obviously be a mistake. But leavening that detail with a sharper and more sustained analytical effort would help attract greater attention to a sphere of historical research that – as this volume clearly demonstrates – deserves to be much better known.

Curriculum Integration: The Use Of Technology To Support Learning

Our understanding of how people learn is continually changing. Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences revolutionized the field education, because it accounts for a broader range of human potential in children and adults and suggests that individuals learn in a multitude of ways. Gardner’s theory suggests there are a variety of possibilities to facilitate learning. People with heightened verbal, linguistic skills are often referred to as word smart. Verbal, linguistic students learn best through the comprehension of language which includes speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Students with verbal linguistic intelligences can easily access information through worldwide databases and computer networks. Any subject content can be enhanced, enriched, and updated from a variety of easily accessed sources which allow students to master the use of technology to access and share information. Students with logical mathematical intelligence are individuals who are number smart and have innate skills which involve logical, problem solving abilities, creative and manipulative skills, and are adept visual learners. Educators can enhance logical-mathematical intelligence through challenging and innovative multimedia technology. With innovative multimedia technology, students learn at all levels and effectively gain knowledge through a variety of different software programs that offer immediate feedback. Learners with visual-spatial intelligence are aesthetically oriented and may have a greater capacity for learning certain sciences like anatomy or topology. They are skillful when it comes to visualization and memory, but may be challenged with auditory memory. Learning for visual-spatial students takes place all at once, with large chunks of information grasped in intuitive leaps. Many people have an innate kinesthetic ability, as well as a natural sense of how their body should react in physical situations. Students with bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence learn best through tactile learning experiences. Bodily-kinesthetic proficiency can be enhanced for students through the use of the whole body to express ideas and feelings. Gardner proposed that musical intelligence almost parallels linguistic intelligence. The person with interpersonal is able to collaborate, understand and work effectively with others. They are aware of their interactions with others and usually take notice of and react to the feelings of others. The interpersonal learner learns best in group situations and structured class settings. Learners with intrapersonal intelligence have accurate self-understanding and are skilled in problem-solving. There is a multitude of different ways to integrate technology into our classrooms and all should focus on learning theory and educational practices. The use of technology should not occur without thinking about how people learn best. To actively engage diverse learners in higher education, the instructor should have a good understanding of the overall nature and purpose of the group, as well as the ability to interact well within the learner’s unique world. The instructor must also be able to structure learning activities to meet their learning needs. The use of Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, coupled with an understanding of how effective technology can enhance the learning community, can meet the diverse learning needs of all students.

Culture, Communication and Safety: Lessons from the Airline Industry

Communication is a critical component of effective teamwork and both are essential elements in providing high quality of care to patients. Yet, communication is not an innate skill but a process influenced by internal (personal/cultural values) as well as external (professional roles and hierarchies) factors. To provide illustrative cases, themes and tools for improving communication. Literature review and consensus opinion based on extensive experience. Professional autonomy should be de-emphasized. Tools such as SBAR and simulation are important in communication and teamwork. Tools designed to improve communication and safety in the aviation industry may have applicability to the pediatric intensive care unit.

Returns to bilingualism in the nursing labor market—Demand or ability?

This paper empirically examines the source of the returns to bilingual registered nurses (RNs) in the United States. Bilingual RNs are found to earn higher wages than monolingual nurses. A direct measure of fluency in a language other than English is used to examine the source of the bilingual wage premium. Two avenues for the premium are examined, (1) a response to demand for bilingual workers and (2) a response to accounting for a portion of innate ability and skills that would otherwise have been unobserved by the employer. Regressing interactions of various language regions and fluency indicators provides limited evidence for the premium arising from an increase in demand for bilinguals. The majority of the premium is due to accounting for levels of skill and ability that would otherwise be unknown.

The Smithsonian Institution's exhibit fossil preparation lab Volunteer Training Programme. Part I: Design and recruitment

The Smithsonian Institution, through a grant from the Smithsonian Women's Committee, implemented a programme during the fall and winter of 2008 to teach the basics of mechanical fossil preparation, moulding and casting to individuals seeking to work as volunteer preparators in the National Museum of Natural History's exhibit preparation lab, called FossiLab. Four outside preparators were contracted to conduct the instruction; two instructors taught two five-day sessions on molding and casting and two other instructors taught two six-day sessions on preparation. The Department of Paleobiology's (Paleobiology) curatorial staff instructed the groups in paleobotanical preparation and microfossil processing and picking. All instruction took place in FossiLab during public hours. Registration for the programme was conducted via the department's web page where a detailed description of the work and the lab familiarized prospective students with the type of work they would be performing. They were also asked a series of selfevaluative questions in an attempt to filter out those who might not have the innate motor skills or temperament needed for the job. Those who were confident in their decision to volunteer were interviewed in FossiLab, and the majority of those then registered for the programme. Twenty nine people, some new and some experienced, were trained. FossiLab is now staffed each day by as many as six volunteer preparators who perform a variety of tasks for Paleobiology. The number of weekly person-hours has tripled since the training. Continued, focused training on individual projects is carried on by the Vertebrate Paleontology Preparation Laboratory staff. Eighteen hours of videotape was recorded during the training and will be edited and made available via DVD and the internet.

Using simulation for interventional radiology training

Debate on the existence of innate skills has all but evaporated in the light of evidence that it is only the hours spent in deliberate practice that correlate with even the most elite levels of expertise. A range of simple to advanced technologies stands to address some of the many challenges to effective training of 21st century, procedural medicine. Simulation could train and assess behaviours remotely from patients, in complete safety, reducing the risks of inexperienced trainees learning critical tasks in patients while contributing to certification and revalidation. Understanding the strengths and limitations of these devices, determining and improving their effectiveness and identifying their roles, as well as those of individuals and teams, represents a cornerstone of successful adoption into the interventional radiology curriculum. This requires a simulation strategy that includes standards for simulator documentation.

Bicultural Competence and its Impact on Team Effectiveness

This paper develops the concept of bicultural competence and explores its impact on multicultural team effectiveness. Biculturals are individuals who have deeply internalized two cultural schemas. A cultural schema is a set of knowledge about values, norms, and beliefs for a given culture. Biculturals are an increasing workforce demographic, and hence a growing part of multicultural teams. Their innate skills that result from being bicultural may help solve central problems in multicultural teams, including managing conflicts and boundary spanning across cultures. Specifically, this paper defines bicultural competence, determines its antecedents, specifies its impact on the two main roles bicultural individuals play in teams, and explores their impact on multicultural team effectiveness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Tres posibles sentidos del arte en la escuela

A partir de lo observado en algunas instituciones educativas de la ciudad de La Plata1, se intenta reflexionar sobre tres posibles sentidos con los que se construyen las nociones de arte y de educación artística en la escuela y analizar su relación con lo que ocurre en las clases de la asignatura Plástica. Las representaciones que en este artículo se eligen analizar son, en primer lugar, el arte como expresión de un mundo interior oculto que espera la oportunidad de emerger, como una capacidad innata: el alumno talentoso es el que puede producir una imagen naturalista; el arte no es motivo de enseñanza-aprendizaje. La segunda representación elegida es la que considera al arte como aplicación de clasificaciones teóricas sobre la forma, el color y la composición como conceptos universales, verdaderos, incuestionables; al docente, como contenedor de la información, que da clases generalmente expositivas, y a los alumnos como productores de imágenes que den respuesta a lo explicado. La tercera y última es la concepción del arte como lenguaje, es decir, como construcción de imágenes y como parte de un proceso de producción que incluye etapas investigativas, productivas y reflexivas. El marco teórico es el producido en la posmodernidad, con aportes de la semiosis social, dando entrada a las nociones de lenguaje, texto e intertexto, elección que deja afuera muchas otras posibles. La educación artística toma en cuenta los saberes previos del alumno, sus zonas de interés, y a partir de allí amplía hacia otros textos artísticos. Además se preocupa por enseñar operaciones de artisticidad que forman parte de las preocupaciones del arte actual, y se toman en cuenta producciones pasadas y presentes y de distintas sociedades.

Instigation and development of gifted in school

In present time is very important to discover gifted individuals, particularly pupils, in order to help and support them in every way. Gifted pupils often faced problems in his schooling, such as a lack of understanding, insufficient teaching contents, impossibility to fully express its exceptionality.The family, preschool institution, all kind of school, parent, educators, teachers, pedagogy, psychologists, logoped, experts of different profiles and vocation, are the first to recognize innate abilities, skills and talent as well as overall individual powers. They have a special importance in this field. Theirs role is permanent, immeasurable, and irreplaceable on all levels. Thus we can show the gifted that we care about them and the pupil could use properly its own talent for the welfare of the whole society.

Knowledge, skills and competence in spatial planning

As a result of scientific and technical progress, as well as the increasing complexity of social processes, there is a need for interdisciplinarity of knowledge, skills and competencies for individuals working in spatial planning. The process of spatial planning requires professional and scientific knowledge from various fields, some more artisti cally oriented and others related to sociology, engineering and technical studies, and economic and legal studies. Individuals must add to the knowledge obtained during the formal education process with new skills and competences to successfully perform their work. We conducted a survey among experts responsible for spatial planning in Slovenia, with the purpose of recognising these new skills and competences and determining their importance. The results of the survey offer insight into the various fields that experts should be familiar with, their specific com petences, innate versus learned skills, and problems they

Gain versus pain from status and ambition: Effects on growth and inequality

To shed light on growth, distribution and the relationship between the two, we develop an endogenous growth model with heterogeneous individuals who care about social status. Individuals’ heterogeneity stems from two sources: their innate skills and their degree of ambition. While the willingness of individuals to accumulate wealth depends on whether they experience gain or pain from loss of status, we show that ambition of individuals plays an important role regarding growth and distribution: ambition can inhibit or foster accumulation of wealth, then in turn growth. In such a context, though we show that growth can be positively or negatively correlated with inequality, the case of a positive correlation between the two appears to be the most plausible.

Editorial: Thinking and Learning in the Geosciences

"Editorial: Thinking and Learning in the Geosciences." Journal of Geoscience Education, 57(4), pp. 222–223