Novice Workers Research Articles

Dyadic simulation to prepare students for counseling transgender children and their parents

ABSTRACT Transgender individuals are at risk for discrimination, which can lead to poor mental health outcomes. Social workers are often the health professionals to provide assistance during periods of transition. Social work education programs use simulation-based learning experiences to train students to think independently and respond empathically to clients. Nineteen undergraduate social work students participated in a dyadic simulation with transgender individuals and their cisgender parents, and they received lower performance scores compared to a similar group of students engaged in a simulation with bisexual child and parent dyads. This paper presents research findings and makes recommendations for simulation preparation activities to better prepare novice social workers for direct practice with transgender children and their parents. We conducted this simulation study at a private university in the United States of America.

An approach to human motor skill training for uniform group performance

Prior research has focused on designing training approaches for novice operators to support maximum motor skill development. However, in production operations, workers must be trained to uniform performance levels to prevent ‘bottlenecks’ or work-in-process inventory accumulation. This study introduces a new approach to support assignment of training protocols to operators to achieve comparable levels of motor performance. Thirty-six participants performed a computer-based motor test. Based on performance classification results, each participant was assigned to a specific haptic virtual reality training condition. Results revealed participants identified as ‘medium’ or ‘low’ performers achieved levels of motor performance comparable to ‘high’ performers through 1-h training. Relevance to IndustryFindings can be applied to operator training in manual assembly operations, promoting a group of novice workers to achieve uniform performance levels and mitigating production bottlenecks.

Influencing lumbar posture through real-time biofeedback and its effects on the kinematics and kinetics of a repetitive lifting task

BackgroundRepetitive, flexed lumbar postures are a risk factor associated with low back injuries. Young, novice workers involved in manual handling also appear at increased risk of injury. The evidence for the effectiveness of postural biofeedback as an intervention approach is lacking, particularly for repetitive, fatiguing tasks. Research questionHow does real-time lumbosacral (LS) postural biofeedback modify the kinematics and kinetics of repetitive lifting and the risk of low back injury? MethodsThirty-four participants were randomly allocated to two groups: biofeedback (BF) and non-biofeedback (NBF). Participants repetitively lifted a 13 kg box at 10 lifts per minute for up to 20 min. Real-time biofeedback of LS posture occurred when flexion exceeded 80% maximum. Three-dimensional motion analysis and ground reaction forces enabled estimates of joint kinematics and kinetics. Rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was measured throughout. ResultsThe BF group adopted significantly less peak lumbosacral flexion (LSF) over the 20 min when compared to the NBF group, which resulted in a significant reduction in LS passive resistance forces. This was accompanied by increased peak hip and knee joint angular velocities in the BF group. Lower limb moments did not significantly differ between groups. Feedback provided to participants diminished beyond 10 min and subjective perceptions of physical exertion were lower in the BF group. SignificanceBiofeedback of lumbosacral posture enabled participants to make changes in LSF that appear beneficial in reducing the risk of low back injury during repetitive lifting. Accompanying behavioural adaptations did not negatively impact on physical exertion or lower limb joint moments. Biofeedback of LS posture offers a potential preventative and treatment adjunct to educate handlers about their lifting posture. This could be particularly important for young, inexperienced workers employed in repetitive manual handling who appear at increased risk of back injury

Interactive Learning of Assembly Processes using Digital Assistance

Abstract Due to an increasing demand for individualized products and the resulting high variability in manufacturing processes, flexibility and cognitive skills of human workers are highly important for manual assembly processes. Nowadays, novice workers are often trained by colleagues or foremen in addition to and alongside their main work. Since time is usually scarce and the procedure can be highly variable, one solution for the companies can be the introduction of digital assistance systems. Hence, the focus of this contribution is the initial learning procedure of the assembly of a new and complex product. Therefore, a user study was conducted in close cooperation with an industrial partner to compare the traditional way of training to the self-paced learning with a digital assistance system. During the execution of the user study, objective data was recorded to allow precise measurements of the individual learning progress. Furthermore, the subjective learning experience was assessed using a customized questionnaire and a standardized task load metric. The evaluation of the study results suggests that learning autonomously with a digital assistance system leads to similar performance curves as learning the process through a personal explanation.

The effects of short-term and long-term experiences on co-contraction of lower extremity postural control muscles during continuous, multi-directional support-surface perturbations

While reactive balance control in response to single perturbations in quiet standing is relatively well understood, some occupational environments (e.g. maritime environments) expose workers to continuous, multi-directional challenges to balance and postural control, which require workers to respond to the current perturbation, as well as anticipate coming perturbations. Investigation of muscle activation patterns during continuous, multi-directional perturbations, and the role of previous experience, is warranted to better understand postural control strategies in these types of environments. This study aimed to identify changes in co-contraction in the lower extremity postural control muscles during multi-directional support-surface perturbations as a result of short-term and long-term experience. Twenty-five participants (12 with minimal experience (novice), 13 with ≥6 months experience working in moving maritime environments (experienced)) were exposed to five 5-minute trials of continuous support-surface perturbations. Muscle activity was recorded from six muscles bilaterally. Co-contraction indices were calculated for selected muscle pairings and compared between groups and trials. Co-contraction decreased across trials, and was lower in the experienced group relative to the novice group. These findings provide insight into the influence of previous experience on muscle activation during reactive balance control, and suggest that increased co-contraction may be a potential mechanism of the increased risk of workplace fatigue, falls, and injury in novice maritime workers. The development and refinement of training programs targeting novice workers may be a potential avenue to reduce fall and injury risk in maritime environments.

From Tenuous to Tenacious: Social Justice Practice in Child Welfare

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study explores the relationship between social workers’ understanding of their professional obligation to work for social justice and their practice as child welfare workers. Twenty-five social workers with at least six months front line child welfare experience, from two Canadian provinces, were interviewed. Findings suggest that experienced workers were best able to link their understanding of social justice with their practice. In contrast novice workers, preoccupied with understanding and adhering to policy and procedures, were less able. Implications are discussed and suggestions made for better supporting new workers in aligning child welfare practice with social work’s social justice mission.

Assessing visual control activities in ceramic tile surface defect detection: an eye-tracking study

Digital cameras and image processing algorithms may be helpful in inspection and classification of ceramic tiles in a production line. However, worker's decision making capability and ability to tolerate some type of defects are the main reasons for several firms to still rely on human visual inspection. Further, it is believed that the investment and maintenance costs of the automated systems may be higher than labour costs. This study considers a ceramic tile line where workers are assigned to identify tile surface defects. Main aim is to attract attention to differences between novice and expert workers in terms of visual scanning performance and mental workload indicators that result from high concentration during visual inspection. A mobile type eye-tracker is used to record the data for duration of fixation and number of fixations to determine fatigue that arises over a period of working time. Data are analysed and it is concluded that the eye tracking systems have a potential to identify human related problems during visual inspection.

A platform for crowdsourcing the creation of representative, accurate landcover maps

Accurate landcover maps are fundamental to understanding socio-economic and environmental patterns and processes, but existing datasets contain substantial errors. Crowdsourcing map creation may substantially improve accuracy, particularly for discrete cover types, but the quality and representativeness of crowdsourced data is hard to verify. We present an open-sourced platform, DIYlandcover, that serves representative samples of high resolution imagery to an online job market, where workers delineate individual landcover features of interest. Worker mapping skill is frequently assessed, providing estimates of overall map accuracy and a basis for performance-based payments. A trial of DIYlandcover showed that novice workers delineated South African cropland with 91% accuracy, exceeding the accuracy of current generation global landcover products, while capturing important geometric data. A scaling-up assessment suggests the possibility of developing an Africa-wide vector-based dataset of croplands for $2–3 million within 1.2–3.8 years. DIYlandcover can be readily adapted to map other discrete cover types.

Using eye-tracker to compare search patterns between experienced and novice workers for site hazard identification

The construction industry accounts for a high number of accidents. Although identifying hazards prior to commencing construction is widely employed to prevent accidents, it typically fails because of insufficient safety experience. The experience helps in training novice inspectors, although extracting and describing tacit knowledge explicitly is difficult. This study created a digital building construction site, and designed a hazard-identification experiment involving four workplaces featuring obvious and unobvious hazards (e.g., falls, collapses, and electric shocks), and an eye-tracker was used to compare the search patterns of the experienced and novice workers. The results indicated that experience assisted the experienced workers in assessing both obvious (p<0.001) and unobvious hazards (p=0.004) significantly faster than the novice workers could; however, it did not improve the accuracy with which they identified hazards, indicating that general work experience is not equivalent to safety-specific experience, and may not necessarily improve workers’ accuracy in identifying hazards. Nevertheless, the experienced workers were more confident in identifying hazards, they exhibited fewer fixations, and their scan paths for assessing hazards were more consistent. The experienced workers first assessed the high-risk targets—laborers working at heights—and subsequently assessed those working on the ground, followed by the equipment or environment. Furthermore, they typically inspected openings later than novice workers did. The search strategies identified may be incorporated into the training courses to improve the hazard awareness for novice workers.

Using the ShadowBox™ Method to Detect the ‘Investigator’ and ‘Proceduralist’ Mindsets in Frontline Social Workers

This paper describes using a modified version of the ShadowBox training method for capturing cognitive characteristics of expertise in the Child Protective Services (CPS) field. Researchers developed realistic CPS scenarios and performed a content analysis on participants’ qualitative responses to decisions, leading to the identification of the characteristics of the Investigator and Proceduralist mindsets. We then compared Investigative preferences between groups categorized based on Department Chiefs’ perceptions of expertise to compare two models of CPS expertise. Results indicated a mismatch in the two models, potentially due to the general over-emphasis of rules and procedures in CPS organizations. Future research will use the cognitive characteristics of expertise identified in this study to develop a training program for new and novice frontline social workers.

Perception of Safe Horizontal Reaching Distance Changes with Repetitive Occupational Loading in Novice Lifters

Safe work behaviours rely on accurate perceptions of injury risks, and workers who have a misperception of risk can be injured. Despite the importance of perception-action coupling, little is known about modification of those perceptions with changing physical or cognitive STATE. It is hypothesized that changing values for perceived affordances could evidence these modifications. A better understanding of how worker characteristics (e.g., level of fatigue) affect perceptions of affordance and their corresponding behaviours, may help when developing strategies for ergonomic best practices, particularly in manual material handling (MMH) activities. The aim of this study was to compare safe perceptions of affordance from workers that completed repetitive STATE loading. Seventy-five novice MMH workers (23 male; mean age = 21.43, SD = 3.24) made perceived affordances of their safest horizontal reaching distance (acceptable limit) to complete a model task. STATE loading consisted of physical or cognitive fatigue or a control. The levels of fatigue were assessed at five-minute intervals using Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) values and Multi-Fatigue Inventory (MFI) values, respectively. A significant main effect of TIME indicated a decrease of perceived safest reaching distance observed from baseline through subsequent measurements (p<.001). The magnitude of these changes did not differ significantly between groups, suggesting that general learning more than specific STATE loading may be a major contributor to modification of affordance perceptions. However, it remains important to consider TIME and STATE influences on perceptions for safe occupational handling. Novice workers’ initial perceptions of safe working affordance may put them at risk for soft tissue injury. Physical and cognitive loading similarly affect perceived safe affordances.

The Nurse Aide Conundrum in LTC

The Nurse Aide Conundrum in LTC

Messages to Social Work Education: What Makes Social Workers Continue and Cope in Child Welfare?

This article examines the positive elements which make social workers continue their career with a focus on statutory child welfare. Such analysis is needed, as existing research tends to highlight stress, exhaustion and career break-up issues. The empirical data consist of focus groups of 28 social workers and a questionnaire addressed to 56 professionals in child welfare in two Finnish urban municipalities. The focus groups were targeted at novice, expert and veteran social workers. The analysis presents organisational, person-related and client-work-related positive elements from the point of view of social workers. The results highlight that social work in child welfare may be experienced as being rewarding and professionally challenging. The positive elements vary among novice, expert and veteran social workers, with the latter especially viewing their work as independent expert work with major opportunities to make a change in children's lives. Commitment to care of children is one of the key motivating factors. The study suggests that social work education should recognise that the subjective motivation to do social work may change during one's career and that social work may be simultaneously both stressful and rewarding. Students should learn how to balance these aspects of their work.

Lifting strategies of expert and novice workers during a repetitive palletizing task

Thirty manual material handlers (15 experts and 15 novices) were invited to perform series of box transfers under conditions similar to those of large distribution centers. The objective of the present study was to verify whether multiple box transfers leading to fatigue would also lead to differences between expert and novice workers in joint motions and in back loading variables (L5/S1 moments). The task consisted in transferring 24 15-kg boxes from one pallet to another (4 layers of boxes; 6 boxes/layer: 3 in the front row, 3 in the back) at a self-determined pace and then at an imposed pace of 9 lifts/min for a total of 240 lifts. The underlying idea was to set a challenging task that would force the experts to use their skills. Full-body 3D kinematic data were collected as well as external foot forces. A dynamic 3D linked segment model was used to estimate the net moments at L5/S1. The results clearly show that the experts bent their lumbar spine less (10° less) and were closer (4 cm) to the box than novice workers. Knee flexions were similar in both groups except when the box was lifted from ground level (expert ≈ 71°, novice ≈ 48°). The peak resultant moment was not statistically different (expert = 168 Nm, novice = 184 Nm) although experts had lower values on average than novices when lifting heights (and deposit heights) of the boxes increased. Therefore, experts differed from novice workers mostly in the posture-related variables. These differences are especially important to consider when the box is located on the ground, as the back posture and back loading are then at their greatest magnitude and could have a major impact on the distribution of internal forces on the spine.

What's on Their Minds? The South African Child Welfare Academic Agenda from 2001 to 2010

Social work teaching and research is assumed to impact significantly on practice, readying students for employment and investigating areas relevant to practice. In South Africa, the historic divergence between the academic agenda and population needs is significant. In a context of transformation towards developmental social welfare, this paper investigates the extent to which tertiary education as well as research agendas match what South African child welfare practitioners have identified as priorities in the field. In a study examining trends and drivers in South African child welfare, it was found that the curriculum was largely being informed by the same trends that shaped practice. However, the research agenda differed markedly from the issues concerning practitioners. Also, practitioners thought that new graduates were ill-equipped to deal with practice demands in resource-poor and transforming (post-apartheid) environments. It is recommended that South African academics and practitioners ensure that child welfare curricula, academic enquiry and practice demands overlap more closely in order to better prepare novice social workers and provide leading research. With globalization and the increased need to respond to diverse populations, it becomes critical that social work education is reviewed both in the north and south to ensure its relevance for practice.

Biomechanical differences between expert and novice workers in a manual material handling task

The objective was to verify whether the methods were safer and more efficient when used by expert handlers than by novice handlers. Altogether, 15 expert and 15 novice handlers were recruited. Their task was to transfer four boxes from a conveyor to a hand trolley. Different characteristics of the load and lifting heights were modified to achieve a larger variety of methods by the participants. The results show that the net moments at the L5/S1 joint were not significantly different (p > 0.05) for the two groups. However, compared with the novices, the experts bent their lumbar region less (experts 54° (SD 11°); novices 66° (SD 15°)) but bent their knees more (experts approx. 72° (SD approx. 30°); novices approx. 53° (SD approx. 33°), which brought them closer to the box. The handler's posture therefore seems to be a major aspect that should be paid specific attention, mainly when there is maximum back loading. Statement of Relevance: The findings of this research will be useful for improving manual material handling training programmes. Most biomechanical research is based on novice workers and adding information about the approach used by expert handlers in performing their tasks will help provide new avenues for reducing the risk of injury caused by this demanding physical task.

Professionals or technicians? Teacher preparation programs and occupational understandings

Teacher preparation is a mechanism of occupational socialization, a process by which novice workers learn the norms and values of the occupation. Traditional education programs housed in schools of education support the ideology of a professional teacher with norms that include a strong pedagogical knowledge base and a gradual induction to the field. Alternative training programs, conversely, are field based with a strong technical emphasis on content and skills. The primary question of this research, therefore, is do the differing modes of entry socialize novice teachers into different occupational understandings? To address the question I interview 49 beginning teachers in one labor market, 26 alternatively certified and 23 traditionally certified, to explore occupational understandings by preparation program. The initial socialization process was weak for both groups, and neither expressed a strong professional or technical identity, indicating the differences between preparation programs is overstated in the literature. All teachers expressed a strong classroom focus and supported the idea of learning through experience, although there were some key differences in the role of peer groups and pedagogical theory. Overall, the definition of a professional teacher presented by teachers themselves is a fluid, rather than concrete, ideal.

Superstars and Mediocrities: Market Failure in the Discovery of Talent1

A basic problem facing most labor markets is that workers can neither commit to long-term wage contracts nor can they self …nance the costs of production. I study the eects of these imperfections when talent is industry-speci…c, it can only be revealed on the job, and once learned becomes public information. I show that …rms bid exces- sively for the pool of incumbent workers at the expense of trying out new talent. The workforce is then plagued with an unfavorable selection of individuals: there are too many mediocre workers, whose talent is not high enough to justify them crowding out novice workers with lower expected talent but with more upside potential. The result is an ine¢ ciently low level of output coupled with higher wages for known high talents. This problem is most severe where information about talent is initially very imprecise and the complementary costs of production are high. I argue that high incomes in pro- fessions such as entertainment, management, and entrepreneurship, may be explained by the nature of the talent revelation process, rather than by an underlying scarcity of talent. (JEL D30, J31, J6, M5)

2203 作業者の技能と教育を考慮した動的作業計画 : 機械学習を用いた作業配分ルールの決定(OS2-2 スケジューリングII)

This paper deals with a scheduling method of manual work in consideration of On-the-Job Training (OJT). As of skillful works such as maintenance works of trains and airplanes, workers have to learn many kinds of works with OJT. While processing time of novice workers is longer than that of experts, the time will be reduced with repeating OJT. Therefore, OJT is important to keep skill level and long-term work efficiency of the organization. It is very difficult to balance between working efficiency and OJT. In this paper, the authors propose to optimize the work dispatching rule by using genetic algorithm(GA) in order to achieve a balance between the two factors.

2101 作業者の技能と教育を考慮した動的作業計画 : 習熟忘却曲線モデルを用いた作業配分(OS2-1 計画手法)

This paper deals with a simulation-based scheduling method of manual work in consideration of learning by On-the-Job Training (OJT). As of skillful work such as maintenance work of trains and airplanes, workers have to leam many kinds of work with OJT While processing time of novice workers is longer than that of experts, the time will be reduced with repeating OJT. Therefore, OJT is important to keep skill level and long-term work efficiency of the organization. In order to schedule in consideration of OJT, the scheduler must incorporate a management function of workers to trace work experience changing dynamically. In this paper, a simulation method that uses a worker model and an agent-based mechanism is proposed to derive the optimal OJT strategy toward long term performance. And, the effectiveness of this model is discussed.