Learning Practical Skills Research Articles

Developing supervision skills through peer learning partnership

Oslo University College, Faculty of Nursing places undergraduate students in peer learning partnerships: 3rd year students as tutors, and 1st year students as tutees during practical skill learning. A study was designed to investigate this peer learning project. One of the research questions in particular on the role of the tutors: How do 3rd year nursing students carry out their role as supervisors for 1st year students in the skills laboratory? The study had an exploratory design. Qualitative data was gathered by three members of a research team, using video recordings of the supervised sessions and focus group interviews with both 1st and 3rd year students. Data collection was repeated in 2006–2007–2008 in different groups of students. Four identified themes illustrate how the 3rd year students supervise during the performance of the procedures in the skills laboratory: ∗ Observe and guide ∗ Supportive attitude ∗ Identify with the patient ∗ Focus on theoretical knowledge The results of this study indicate that apart from enhancing practical skill learning in 1st year students, the assignment in the skill laboratory also provided an arena for developing competence in supervision in third year students.

Using an Audit of Medical Student Behavior to Inform Curriculum Change

Background: Hospitalized patients in South Africa have an HIV infection prevalence of at least 46%. Therefore, while involved in the experiential learning of practical skills, South African medical students have a high potential risk of an HIV exposure incident. Purpose: The purpose is to identify what improvements could be made to the students’ training program in an attempt to reduce the number of HIV exposure incidents. Methods: A 4-year audit of undergraduate medical students’ HIV exposure incidents was performed at a South African medical school. The existing skills training curriculum, which deals with the relevant skills, was reviewed in the light of the findings of this audit. Results: The analysis showed that not all students follow standard precautions in their clinical work, or the guidelines given to them by the faculty of what to do in the event of an incident. Conclusions: The reported behavior of students can be used to evaluate their training curriculum.

Study barriers to entrepreneurship promotion in agriculture higher education

For reaching development and employment goals of developing countries such as Iran, considering entrepreneurship promotion and supporting entrepreneurs are vital. The important role of higher education in promoting more entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviors is now widely recognized. The purpose of this study was identifying barriers to entrepreneurship promotion in agricultural higher education. A descriptive–correlation survey approach was used in this study. The population consisted of agricultural graduated students in higher education institutions of Zanjan province. The questionnaire and interview were used for data collection in this study. The researcher developed the survey instrument. Validity of the instrument was established using a panel of experts. Reliability of the instrument for various questions varied from 0.82 to 0.87. Results showed that the most important barriers to entrepreneurship promotion in agricultural higher education are: Expansion of agricultural colleges regardless of the quality of scientific, lack of fitness of educational content with the job market needs, traditional teaching methods that incompatible with the interests of students and less attention to learning practical skills. By factor analysis, factors for barriers to entrepreneurship in agricultural higher education were reduced to four main factors, named as inappropriate teaching methods, inappropriate educational content and syllabus, poor educational and laboratory equipment and inappropriate evaluation system.

Facilitating practical knowledge by using ECT

Practical skills constitute essential knowledge in occupational therapy. The knowledge is situation- and experience-based, generated from within the situation. In a particular program for educating Palestinian Occupational Therapists in Gaza, facilitating such knowledge proved to be difficult. Due to travel restrictions and an unstable political situation, teachers and students were separated. Educational communication technology (ECT) like videoconferences, internet and videos became new and necessary tools. This article is based on results from an action research project which followed the process of using flexible forms of learning and developing an internet based learning programme named Ergonet. The learning process of the students using it was examined with the aim of answering the following research question: How can flexible forms of learning be developed and used to facilitate practical knowledge in Occupational Therapy education? The development and implementation of Ergonet as a supporting device in students’ learning of practical skills is described through the experience of the teachers involved. The results indicate how rote-learning and lack of reflective and critical thinking, firmly established among Palestinian students, have been challenged and changed by the didactic use of Ergonet.

Surveillance of Cerebral Palsy in Europe: Reference and Training Manual

opened in 2005. In 2007 10 trainees from one academy’s initial intake participated in semi-structured interviews regarding their training. Although some academy methods were perceived as successful, the interviewees were unanimous in highlighting the challenge of integrating clinical and academy training. The week-in, week-out format was adversely received because of its effect upon continuity of training. The interviewees felt this caused difficulties in their learning of practical skills and in building working relationships within clinical departments. A change to 3 days of clinical and 2 days of academy training per week was instituted, leading to better integration. Some interviewees felt that additional problems with integration stemmed from the fact that different topics were covered in the clinical and academy settings during the same stage of training. These arose as trainees undertook diverse clinical attachments but were reunited for the academy programme. This was partly addressed by teaching more generic skills in the academy and could be further improved by having trainees use the e-learning in a more personalised fashion to reinforce individual clinical experience. When the two areas were well synchronised, trainees perceived a positive effect upon their learning. Skills laboratory training in ultrasound was generally praised for being realistic, well supervised and for the availability of feedback. This was reflected in the responses of some interviewees, who felt they had learned best by undertaking work that felt real and responsible. In summary, the R-ITI has increased trainee numbers and stimulated the introduction of new training methods. Addressing the integration of these methods with clinical work should lead to improved training in future.

Knowledge, Skill, and the Inculcation of the Anthropologist: Reflections on Learning to Sew in the Field

AbstractThis article explores employment as a mode of participant observation, by analyzing the complex relationship between skill acquisition, embodiment, and anthropological analysis. It highlights the importance of thinking critically about the body, including the ethnographer's own body in the field. I describe working in a garment factory and learning to sew as part of my doctoral research on the garment industry in Trinidad, West Indies. I argue that disciplining the body into a particular craft is also a process of incorporating (or “taking into the body”) the ideologies of work that structure skill's meaning and practice. By describing my own difficulties “disembodying” what I learned in the field (in order to intellectualize the experience) I show how learning practical skills and enacting them everyday can be both a vigorous and perilous form of ethnographic research.

Problem based practical courses (PBPC) induce self-directed structured learning of practical skills

Problem based practical courses (PBPC) induce self-directed structured learning of practical skills

Learning Computer Networking on Open Paravirtual Laboratories

Learning practical information communication technology skills such as network configuration and security planning requires hands-on experience with a number of different devices which may be unavailable or too costly to provide, especially for institutions under tight budget constraints. This paper describes how a specific open software technology, paravirtualization, can be used to set up open source virtual networking labs (VNLs) easily and at virtually no cost. The paper highlights how paravirtual labs can be adopted jointly by partner organizations, e.g., when the institution hosting the virtual lab provides hands-on training and students' skill evaluation as a service to partner institutions overseas. A practical VNL implementation, the open virtual lab (OVL), is used to describe the added value that open source VNLs can give to e-Learning frameworks, achieving a level of students' performance comparable or better than the one obtained when students directly interact with physical networking equipment.

Remote Laboratory NetLab for Effective Teaching of 1st Year Engineering Students

Practical skills are important attributes of every engineering graduate. The Internet has provided tertiary education with the opportunity to develop innovative learning environments. The teaching and learning of practical skills has gained a new dimension with the emergence of remote laboratories. The rapidly growing number of remote laboratories (RL) worldwide is the evidence that the educational community has recognized their potential to develop into a creative, flexible, engaging, and student-cantered learning environment. Even a brief review of the existing RLs shows a large diversity in their structure, design and implementation. However, not many researchers disclose how their RLs are integrated within their curricula. Therefore, an important question still remains to be answered: how to optimize the design of RLs and their integration in a course curriculum for the best learning outcomes? This problem is particularly important when RLs are used in teaching 1st year students who have limited technical knowledge and practical experience in using real equipment. In this paper we would like to share our experiences with NetLab, an RL developed at the University of South Australia (UniSA) for teaching 1st year engineering students and make recommendations for improvements in teaching practices based on it.

Forest School and its impacts on young children: Case studies in Britain

As Forest School has become more widespread throughout Britain an understanding is needed of its impact. This paper outlines a two-phase evaluation project undertaken in Wales and England from 2002 to 2005. The evaluation was undertaken through a partnership between Forest Research and the New Economics Foundation. A methodology was developed to explore the impacts of Forest School on children and this was then used to track changes in 24 children at three case study areas over an 8-month period. The research highlights that children can benefit in a range of ways. Six themes emerged from the data of the positive impacts on children in terms of confidence, social skills, language and communication, motivation and concentration, physical skills and knowledge and understanding. Two further themes highlight the wider impacts of Forest School on teachers, parents, and the extended family. Contact with the natural environment can be limited for children and young people in contemporary society due to concerns about safety outdoors and issues of risk and liability. Forest School provides an important opportunity for children to gain access to and become familiar with woodlands on a regular basis, while learning academic and practical skills. The constructivist theory of learning seems to be particularly suited to the Forest School approach as children make meaning from their direct experiences. The participatory action research approach taken in this study promoted reflective practice amongst the stakeholders involved and provided them with a sense of ownership of the study, as well as an opportunity to learn from each other.

Clinical rotation in pathology: description of a case based approach

Background: The implementation of a system based, integrated curriculum at the Faculty of Health Sciences of Stellenbosch University, Western Cape, South Africa, resulted in less contact time for the pathology...

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VIDEO-BASED EDUCATION ON GAINING PRACTICAL LEARNING SKILLS IN COMPARISON WITH DEMONSTRATING METHOD'S EFFECTIVENESS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Background: This research was done in the year 2002 in order to compare the effectiveness of video-based education with demonstrating method on gaining practical learning skills. The importance of practical skill learning especially in the branches of medical sciences, the existing contrasts in the effectiveness of educational methods and the advantages of using some methods in learning, facility, rate and expenditure made us think about it as an important subject. Materials and methods: The research was experimentally done on 40 students of Nursing and Obstetrics education. The samples were randomly divided into 2 groups depending on their educational branch. The pre-test was done in the form of written and short-answer tests in the recognizing domination in order to measure the participants’ knowledge, also in the form of a checklist in the psychological domination to measure their skills. Each group was thought one skill by the routine method, demonstration, and another skill by the video-based education method. The skills were changing a wound dressing and washing the hands in the surgical way. The post-tests, similar to the pretests, were done 24 hours afterwards and the results were judged statistically. Results: The total learning rates in demonstrating method were more than the video-based method (P 0.068). The learning rate in the psychological domination in hand washing using demonstrating method was 16.85±1.5 while using video-based method was 15.94±1.4 (P 0.831). The learning rate in the psychological domination in changing a wound dressing using demonstrating method was 16.87±1.3 while using video-based method was 16.12±1(P < 0.036). Conclusions: The routine educational method, demonstration is more effective in practical learning skills in comparison with the video-based education method especially in the psychological domination. It is therefore recommended to apply this method and also to do researches in other skills and in other educational university branches. Key words: VIDEO-BASED EDUCATION, DEMONSTRATION, LEARNING AND TEACHING

Is learning basic care skills affected by parental participation in care? Part 2

Denise Beach concludes the report of her research into the impact of parental involvement in care on nurses’ learning of practical skills

A qualitative study of women's views about how health professionals communicate about infant feeding.

OBJECTIVE: To look at how communication by health professionals about infant feeding is perceived by first time mothers. DESIGN: Qualitative semi-structured interviews early in pregnancy and 6-10 weeks after birth. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Twenty-one white, low income women expecting their first baby were interviewed mostly at home, often with their partner or a relative. RESULTS: The personal and practical aspects of infant feeding which were important to women were seldom discussed in detail in ante-natal interviews. In post-natal interviews women described how words alone encouraging them to breastfeed were insufficient. Apprenticeship style learning of practical skills was valued, particularly time patiently spent watching them feed their baby. Women preferred to be shown skills rather than be told how to do them. Some felt pressure to breastfeed and bottle feeding mothers on post-natal wards felt neglected in comparison. Women preferred their own decision-making to be facilitated rather than being advised what to do. Some women experienced distress exposing their breasts and being touched by health professionals. Continuity of care and forming a personal relationship with a health professional who could reassure them were key factors associated with satisfaction with infant feeding communication. CONCLUSIONS: The infant feeding goal for many women is a contented, thriving baby. In contrast, women perceive that the goal for health professionals is the continuation of breastfeeding. These differing goals can give rise to dissatisfaction with communication which is often seen as 'breastfeeding centred' rather than 'woman centred.' Words alone offering support for breastfeeding were often inadequate and women valued practical demonstrations and being shown how to feed their baby. Spending time with a caring midwife with whom the woman had developed a personal, continuing relationship was highly valued. Women were keen to maintain ownership, control and responsibility for their own decision-making about infant feeding.

Stress og trygghet — Viktige faktorer ved læring av praktiske ferdigheter i sykepleiehøgskolens øvingslaboratorier

his article presents and discusses the results of a study where the focus is on the characteristics of learning in the skillslaboratory, and on how the learning of practical skills take place. The ...

Changing conceptions of practical skill and skill acquisition in nursing education.

The learning of practical skill in nursing is not a priority of nursing education today. This is a result of a narrow and mechanistic concept of practical skill and its acquisition in nursing education. This paper reviews these conceptions as they have been developed in major textbooks for nurse teachers and in research articles on skill teaching, learning and evaluation over the past 50 years. Nursing research must move out of the laboratory and into the clinical setting in order to incorporate the typical aspects of practical skill learning in nursing. Future challenges in this kind of research are discussed.

Learning objectives in training residents in general surgery in Kuwait.

An opinion survey of a five-year postgraduate training programme in general surgery was conducted using a questionnaire. The residents who responded indicated that the use of learning objectives needed to be given greater emphasis. They felt that learning objectives should be more clearly defined and be communicated with the learners and the instructors at an early stage in the programme. While the opportunity for learning theoretical concepts in surgery was rated as a strong feature of the programme, learning practical skills, it was pointed out, needed augmenting.

Different intake procedures: The influence on treatment start and treatment response—A quasi-experimental study

Two hundred Norwegian substance abusers who consecutively applied for treatment in a hierarchical therapeutic community were divided into two different groups according to intake procedures: the intake group (IG) and the nonintake group (No-IG). Using a prospective design, we found that beginners in the program were more often infected with human immunodeficiency virus and that they used amphetamine more frequently and alcohol less frequently than nonbeginners. The type of intake procedure did not influence the percentage of those who started in the program, but it increased the number of clients who completed Phase 1, the 1-year inpatient phase of the program. Twice as many clients in the IG completed Phase 1 compared to those in the No-IG. From a clinical point of view, we conclude that the IG procedure should be offered to all applicants but that the model should be developed more as a role induction strategy, in which learning practical coping skills to adjust to the treatment program is essential.

Learning and teaching others practical evaluation skills: Learning practical evaluation “on the job”

Learning and teaching others practical evaluation skills: Learning practical evaluation “on the job”

Learning and Teaching others Practical Evaluation Skills

Learning and Teaching others Practical Evaluation Skills