Knowledge Acquisition Development Research Articles

Effectiveness of simulation-based case studies on knowledge acquisition and clinical judgment in undergraduate nursing students

BackgroundThe development of clinical judgment and nursing knowledge are essential in nursing. However, new graduate nurses do not possess the knowledge and clinical judgment needed to provide safe nursing care. Therefore, nurse educators must find ways to promote the development of clinical judgment and knowledge in nursing students. ObjectivesTo examine the effectiveness of simulation-based case studies as a classroom teaching strategy versus traditional lecture on the development of knowledge acquisition and clinical judgment in undergraduate nursing students. DesignQuasi-experimental two-group, pretest-posttest study. SettingThe study was conducted at a public university in the South-Central region of the United States. ParticipantsA total of 120 students enrolled in a medical-surgical course over two semesters. MethodsStudents in the control group (n = 54) attended a traditional lecture while students in the experimental group (n = 66) participated in simulation-based case studies. A knowledge quiz and the Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric were completed before and after exposure to the teaching strategy. Data were analyzed using independent samples t-tests. ResultsThere was a significant increase in the knowledge quiz scores found in the experimental group. However, there was not a significant difference found in clinical judgment scores in the experimental group. There was a significant increase in knowledge and clinical judgment scores in both groups. ConclusionBoth attendance in traditional lecture and participation in simulation-based case studies in the classroom are effective in increasing knowledge and clinical judgment scores in undergraduate nursing students.

Knowledge acquisition development in failure diagnosis analysis as an interactive approach

Safety and reliability analysis is an important issue to prevent an event which may to occurrence of catastrophic accident in process industries. In this context, conventional safety and reliability assessment technique like as fault tree analysis have been widely used in this regards; however, they still suffer in subjective uncertainty processing and dynamic structure representation which are important in risk assessment procedure. In this paper, a new framework based on 2-tuple intuitionistic fuzzy numbers and Bayesian network mechanism is proposed to evaluate system reliability, to deal with mentioned drawbacks, and to recognize the most critical system components which affects the system reliability. The reliability and safety guarantee of such system in the aspect of continuity operations and enhancing the safety of operators and vehicle drivers are crucial. The results revealed that the proposed model could be useful for diagnosing the systems’ faults compared with listing approaches of safety and reliability analysis.

Social capital and the identification of valuable knowledge for knowledge acquisition: a case study

Immunostep is a biotechnological company which has developed an external knowledge acquisition strategy based on the utilisation of its social capital and its capability to recognise and assimilate valuable new knowledge for the improvement of its innovation capabilities. The main advantages that social capital management provide to this company are: (1) the development of strong and close ties with other firms and institutions for the purposes of knowledge exchange (development of structural social capital), (2) the achievement of a high reliability in its business relationships (development of relational social capital), and (3) the establishment of compatible objectives and shared cultural values with a number of external agents (development of cognitive social capital). In turn, this case study shows that the way social capital is strategically managed by a firm is an essential aspect for the successful development of knowledge acquisition. Moreover, the success of the integration and use of the knowledge acquired depends strongly on the firm's capability to correctly identify, assess, and anticipate the potential value of such external knowledge.

Concepts and Folk Theories

Human cognition is characterized by enormous variability and structured by universal psychological constraints. The focus of this chapter is on the development of knowledge acquisition because it provides important insight into how the mind interprets new information and constructs new ways of understanding. We propose that mental content can be productively approached by examining the intuitive causal explanatory "theories" that people construct to explain, interpret, and intervene on the world around them, including theories of mind, of biology, or of physics. A substantial amount of research in cognitive developmental psychology supports the integral role of intuitive theories in human learning and provides evidence that they structure, constrain, and guide the development of human cognition.