Autonomy Capacity Research Articles

Increase in dental hygienists’ competency and self-directed capacity after capstone-designed class on community dental hygiene

Objectives: This study aimed to verify the effect on students’ competency and self-directed capacity after a capstone-designed teaching method with community dental hygiene class. Methods: The study participants were 34 dental hygiene students taking a 4-year community dental hygiene course at a university located in City C. The research tool consisted of 52 questions on major competency and 20 questions on self-directed capacity. Results: After the capstone design class, overall dental hygienists’ competency increased (p<0.05), and competencies of clinical dental hygiene and community health promotion showed a high increase (p<0.001). As a result of analyzing the increase in dental hygienists’ competency according to self-directed learning ability, the group with low self-directed capacity showed high improvement in clinical dental hygiene competency and community oral health promotion competency. Conclusions: This study confirmed that the capstone-designed community dental hygiene class improved students’ competency and self-directed capacity, and suggests that it is an excellent teaching method for training competencies required for future society.

Integrating circular economy into STEM education: A promising pathway toward circular citizenship development

The young generation is expected to address current development challenges. The main challenge of sustainable development is the problem of waste management and recycling. To promote long-term sustainability, it is crucial to equip youth with contemporary knowledge and skills and to change their daily habits. The Circular Economy (CE) has become a key concept in responding to unsustainable resource use and waste management globally. At the same time, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education is an innovative teaching approach to promote learners’ capacity for self-direction, problem-solving, collaboration, and management. This paper argues the role of STEM education in connecting science with society, the benefits of teaching CE in promoting sustainable consumption and production behaviors, and the potential integration of CE into STEM education through real-world context inquiry and real-world problem-solving. It also presents the case of Vietnam, where integration of STEM education and CE in secondary schools is crucial for a CE toward sustainable development. Questionnaire surveys with 873 secondary school teachers and semi-structured interviews with 54 were conducted during the integrated STEM professional trainings. The aims were to examine teachers’ perspectives on the relevance of STEM education and CE to sustainable development and their behaviors toward integrating CE concepts into daily STEM teaching activities. The findings showed a high perception of STEM teachers on the relevance of CE with STEM teaching, the Vietnam context, its interestingness, and the importance of integrating CE into STEM education. Surveyed teachers have also voluntarily integrated development issues and CE principles into STEM teaching. Including CE in STEM education in secondary education offers a promising opportunity to foster more profound societal change toward sustainable development, which contributes to SDG4 — equitable and quality education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles and SDG 12.5 — reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse.

The role of local agriculture in the new natural resource economy (NNRE) for rural economic development

AbstractRural communities have faced significant socio-economic challenges for the past several decades due to structural shifts and changing social expectations regarding the management, production of, and markets for natural resources, including production agriculture. The New Natural Resource Economy (NNRE) is an economic development approach to the use of natural resources, including agriculture, in ways that can build healthy environments and healthy, resilient local economies (Hibbard and Lurie, 2013). A major attribute of the NNRE is its focus on very small businesses, the predominant business type in rural settings. Emerging trends, such as regional food networks (RFNs) that connect food producers to consumers within a state or local region, may provide opportunities for rural communities to diversify and expand local businesses around the use of natural resources, thereby helping to restore greater capacity for self-direction and adding to local community vitality. Thus, we address whether RFNs in rural Oregon counties display characteristics of an NNRE development strategy through the relationships between agricultural producers and consumers that support very small agricultural enterprises. Based on analysis of Oregon producer survey data from 2016 in the more rural resource-dependent Oregon counties, we find that the RFN producer survey respondents are indeed very small businesses engaged in small-scale, multifunctional agriculture. They are motivated by economic, social, and environmental concerns as they contribute to the economic activity in their communities. We also surveyed Oregon consumers, finding that although consumer survey respondents in the same region are not primarily driven to buy local based on environmental considerations, they are nonetheless interested in supporting agriculture and local businesses. The demand for local products can create a virtuous cycle contributing to the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the community. Given appropriate policy and program support, there is fertile ground to create new opportunities to generate farm income and acquire food within the NNRE healthy environment-healthy economy paradigm for rural economic development.

Using Common Factors Outcome Research to Guide a Strength Based Counseling Approach with Nursing Home Residents

Lambert and Bergin (1994) indicated there have been more than 40 years of empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of psychotherapy and counseling. Luborsky, McClellan, Woody, O'Brien and Auerbach (1985) and later comprehensive reviews (Lambert & Bergin, 1994; Miller, Taylor, & West, 1980; Stubbs & Bozarth, 1994), highlighted the conclusion that studies comparing differences between specific therapy approaches found little significant differences in outcome. Meta-analytic studies (Wampold, Mondin, Moody, Stich, Benson, & Ahn, 1997) confirmed this conclusion, but it is still not accepted as a fact about psychotherapy (Tallman & Bohart, 2003). In contrast, the available evidence on common factors present in diverse counseling models makes different therapy approaches equally effective. Hubble, Duncan, and Miller (2003), citing Lambert (1992), identified four common factors accounting for improvement in therapy: 1) 40% due to the clients' strengths, supportive environmental elements and chance events; 2) 30% due to relationship factors; 3) 15% due to placebo, hope and expectancy, both the client and therapists' belief in the counseling; and 4) 15% due to model/technique factors. Based on Lambert's (1992) research Tallman and Bohart Lambert and Bergin (1994) indicated there have been more than 40 years of empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of psychotherapy and counseling. Luborsky, McClellan, Woody, O'Brien and Auerbach (1985) and later comprehensive reviews (Lambert & Bergin, 1994; Miller, Taylor, & West, 1980; Stubbs & Bozarth, 1994), highlighted the conclusion that studies comparing differences between specific therapy approaches found little significant differences in outcome. Meta-analytic studies (Wampold, Mondin, Moody, Stich, Benson, & Ahn, 1997) confirmed this conclusion, but it is still not accepted as a fact about psychotherapy (Tallman & Bohart, 2003). In contrast, the available evidence on common factors present in diverse counseling models makes different therapy approaches equally effective. Hubble, Duncan, and Miller (2003), citing Lambert (1992), identified four common factors accounting for improvement in therapy: 1) 40% due to the clients' strengths, supportive environmental elements and chance events; 2) 30% due to relationship factors; 3) 15% due to placebo, hope and expectancy, both the client and therapists' belief in the counseling; and 4) 15% due to model/ technique factors. Based on Lambert's (1992) research Tallman and Bohart (2003) reviewed many studies investigating clients' influence in making therapy work. The experts concluded the client's capacity for self healing was the most powerful factor. The positive view of humans has been emphasized in counseling since the establishment of the profession. The works of Carl Rogers (1951, 1957) during the last half century supported focusing on the clients' strengths, especially the capacity for self-direction. Recently, this positive strength based approach has been emphasized by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) and Synder and Lopez (2002). With this research evidence the authors of this article concluded that the common factors of client strengths, the therapeutic relationship, hope and expectancy, and model techniques could be used as a guide in maximizing the strengths of nursing home residents. The Aging Population In 1900, persons 65 years of age represented only 4% (3 million) of people in the country (Wilmouth & Longino, 2006). Currently the approximate number of older United States' residents is 35 million, and by 2030 the number is projected to be approximately 70 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). The census bureau predicts one in nine baby boomers will survive into their late 90's (Crowley, 1999). Unfortunately, a number of these older persons become impaired and require care the family is unable to provide, and which ne cessitates nursing home placement. …

Developing Lifelong Learning Skills through Self‐Directed Learning in the Gross Anatomy Laboratory using Narrated Digital Slideshows

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education has identified self‐directed learning as a critical process in developing lifelong learning skills. Gross anatomy laboratories present an opportunity to incorporate self‐directed learning. The goal of this study was to develop a technology based, self‐directed learning opportunity that could be assessed by instructors. It was conducted in a medical gross anatomy course of about 40 students divided into nine groups, each working with an individual donor. Alternating dissections were used and only half of each group was present for each dissection. At the dissection students were tasked with creating a checklist of structures and required to take digital photographs on an iPad. Outside class, checklists and images were uploaded to a digital application, VoiceThread. VoiceThread allowed students to create narrated slideshows of the dissection, highlighting structures or issues of significance. All students had access to all slideshows through the online learning management system. Groups were graded both for completion of their narrated slideshows, and for their comments on other students' slideshows. VoiceThread slideshows were viewed by the researcher and scored using a rubric to analyze their content, accuracy, and presentation style. Students were also surveyed about their use of VoiceThread and its impact in the gross anatomy laboratory. Early results show that students were able to use VoiceThread in a self‐directed capacity. Students also indicated narrated videos and checklists provided an incentive for lab preparation and were an additional learning tool. This study provides an example of how instructors can incorporate and document self‐directed learning opportunities in the gross anatomy laboratory.

Issues and developments on the consumer recovery construct

The consumer recovery model has had increasing influence on mental health practices in the United States, Western Europe, and several other countries. However, adoption of the model has reflected political decisions rather than empirical evidence of the validity of the model or its value for treatment services. The recovery construct is poorly defined, and until recently there has been no reliable and valid measure with which to base a research program. We have developed an empirical measure that is well-suited for both research and clinical applications: the Maryland Assessment of Recovery in Serious Mental Ill-ness (MARS). We briefly describe the MARS and present preliminary data demonstrating that recovery is not a simple by-product of traditional outcome do-mains, but seems to be a distinct construct that may have important implications for understanding consumers with serious mental illness and for evaluating the outcome of treatment programs.

Preparing Students for Lifelong Learning: A Review of Instructional Features and Teaching Methodologies

Lifelong learning is intentional learning that people engage in throughout their lives for personal and professional fulfillment and to improve the quality of their lives. In today's climate of continual change and innovation, lifelong learning is a critical educational goal. In order to prepare people for lifelong learning, educational opportunities must develop their capacity for self-direction, metacognitive awareness, and disposition toward lifelong learning. Several instructional features facilitate the development of metacognitive and self-directed learning skills, and the disposition to lifelong learning: (1) student autonomy, responsibility, and intentionality; (2) intrinsically motivating learning activities; (3) enculturation; (4) discourse and collaboration among learners; and (5) reflection. This article describes and presents examples of how three teaching methodologies—problem-based learning, intentional learning environments, and cognitive apprenticeship—employ these instructional features.

Agency and conformity in school-based teacher training

Concern has been expressed that the current climate in schools militates against trainee teachers’ self-directed development. This article explores the issue of trainees’ capacity for self-direction through the analysis of interviews with 32 trainees, investigating their perceived proactive social strategies. Three proactive strategies were identified: ‘tactical compliance’, personalising advice, and seeking out opportunities to exercise control. It is argued that these strategies are indicative of trainees’ drive to establish a personal teaching identity through self-directed development and the creation of individual development agendas. The article concludes by emphasising the importance of the development of proactive social skills in beginning teachers.

Freedom to act in new ways: The application of Moreno's spontaneity theory and role theory to psychological coaching

Moreno's concepts of role and spontaneity offer a useful methodology for psychological coaching. A central principle in Moreno's approach is that strengthening spontaneity and creativity through free-flowing enactment of a person's core concerns can produce the conditions that generate new and constructive responses to problematic situations. A coach, trained in Moreno's approach, can apply the concepts of role and spontaneity to promote and develop healthy functioning by helping clients access their capacity for self-direction, experimentation, self-review and purposeful action. This paper presents the principles of role-training and illustrates its application in an individual coaching context.

Explaining Human Freedom and Dignity Mechanistically

Mechanistic explanation is the dominant approach to explanation in the life sciences, but it has been challenged as incompatible with a conception of humans as agents whose capacity for self-direction endows them with freedom and dignity. We argue that the mechanical philosophy, properly construed, has sufficient resources to explain how such characteristics can arise in a material world. Biological mechanisms must be regarded as active, not only reactive, and as organized so as to maintain themselves far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Notions from systems biology make key contributions, particularly Ganti's chemoton, Ruiz-Mirazo and Moreno's basic autonomy, and Barandiaran and Moreno's adaptive autonomous agents. The reconstrual is then extended to mental life by conceiving of cognitive mechanisms as control components in inherently active systems, as illustrated in models offered by Randall Beer and Cees van Leeuwen.

Chief Residency

Chief Residency

The Dialectics of Leisure and Development for Women and Men in Mid-life: An Interpretive Study

According to Neulinger (1982) and Shaw (1984), leisure is an important aspect of the quality of life. While not perhaps in total agreement as to the defining dimensions of leisure, they and others (e.g., Coleman & Iso-Ahola, 1993; Cutler-Riddick & Stewart, 1994; Jeffres & Dobos, 1993) believe that the experience of leisure enhances and reflects the quality of life or well-being of both the individual and the society of which she or he is a part. Hence, in recent years a number of studies have examined individuals' perceptions of leisure (Bialeschki & Michener, 1994; Freysinger & Flannery, 1992; Henderson & Bialeschki, 1991; Henderson & Rannells, 1988; Samdahl, 1988; Shank, 1987; Shaw, 1985; Wearing, 1990). Some of this recent research has been interpretive in design, exploring with adults the meanings they attach to leisure in relation to life as a whole. Much of the recent research has also focused on women's experiences of and the impact of gender on leisure. However, most of the research on leisure meaning has not situated the meaning of leisure within a developmental or life course context. That is, the participants in these studies have been studied as individuals or women and men but not as adult individuals and adult women and men. To do so is important as age holds not only biological but also psychological, socio-cultural, and historical meaning. Certainly it is important to locate leisure within the gendered, racialized, class-ified self-concepts of individuals and structure of society. However, it is also important to situate leisure within the context of age as personally experienced and socio-culturally defined. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of leisure among women and men in the years of life defined as middle adulthood.LITERATURE REVIEWThe Relevance of AgeSome maintain that chronological age is central to understanding human behavior because it is indicative of physical and psychological maturation, socio-cultural expectations, and/or opportunity structures. At the same time, others assert that age itself is increasingly irrelevant or meaningless in understanding human practices (Giele, 1980; Maddox, 1987; McGuigan, 1980). For example, existing stage theories of age-related psychological and social development have been shown to be invalid for many because of the exclusivity of populations studied to generate such theory (Gilligan, 1983; Rossi, 1980). As research has included the voices of heretofore unheard peoples, beliefs about the importance and meaning of age and theories of development are questioned. At the same time, technological and social changes have rendered age less relevant because such changes have allowed, facilitated and often required flexibility and multiple pathways across the course of life. That is, notions of adult development are social constructions influenced by economic structures, political ideologies, and historical change, both demographic (lengthening of the lifespan) and socio-economic (technological development). As an example of the social construction of age, Giele (1982) contends that theories of psychological stages of development are less apt to apply to working class individuals. In reviewing research on adult development she notes that whereas middle-class individuals report change in sense of self and distinct stages of psychological functioning, working-class adults are less likely to report or exhibit such change and stages. She attributes this difference to differences in the complexity of the occupations and everyday lives of working class and middle class adults. That is, the environments of middle-class adults allow and demand differentiation and growth while those of working class adults allow few opportunities for and may actually impede growth.(1) However, Giele also maintains that age is less important regardless of social class both because of the complexity of modern society (which requires age-crossover) and the individual's capacity for self-direction and choice. …

Problem-based Learning in the Development of an Occupational Therapy Curriculum, Part 2: The BSc at the London School of Occupational Therapy

Part 1 of this article* defined the process of and rationale for problem-based learning (problem-focused education). Part 2 describes the new BSc(Hons) programme in occupational therapy at the West London Institute, which is designed around a series of true-life problems encountered by people who have been referred for occupational therapy. It was developed following experience of problem-focused education in the diploma course. Problems are presented to students in a special sequence, within units of study, graded to promote understanding and critical evaluation of the process of occupational therapy. There is an accent on fieldwork reasoning, and on the accumulation of usable knowledge required for each case. The capacity for self-direction for lifelong learning is promoted. The curriculum is intended to be motivating, exciting, relevant and challenging for students and staff. Evaluations of the diploma course have been positive, and the outcomes of this new degree are being monitored to ensure standards and to ascertain more clearly the educational value of fieldwork problems.

The purpose-process gap in health promotion [corrected

In the development of health promotion theory to date insufficient attention has been paid to the question 'What is the end to which health promotion is directed?' A distinction can be made between purpose (end) and process (means to end) and if no clear account of purpose exists to illuminate how process contributions relate to its achievement, then health promotion's claim to be a practical discipline is weak. Although 'well-being' is frequently cited as the essence of health promotion, a view of 'well-being' which goes much beyond the intuitive has yet to emerge. Retention of 'well-being' as purpose requires a specific account which allows health promotion's claim to practicality to be clearly demonstrated. In discussing the form such an account would need to take, purely hedonistic conceptions of 'well-being' are discounted and the development of an 'objective' account, in which 'capacity for self direction' would form the key focus, is suggested.

To be or not to be a psychiatric chief resident. Factors in selection.

The issues involved in selecting a psychiatric chief resident have been examined. Problems associated with this position include poorly defined objectives and role; lack of training for the job; a marginal position at the interface of groups that at times are in conflict, leading to situations of divided loyalties and unrealistic performance expectations. Qualities seen as desirable in a chief resident have been discussed. In addition to the usual personal qualities which command respect these include organizing ability, leadership potential, mediation skills, the capacity for self direction and humour. Factors which make the position attractive and factors relevant to appropriate evaluation are considered. To improve the performance and job satisfaction of chief residents, the following points are suggested: The expectations related to the position should be clarified in terms of specific objectives when the candidate is selected or elected. Whom he reports to and whom he works for should be clear. Before, or soon after, assuming office the chief resident should have exposure to teaching or supervision in group dynamics, consultation skills and mental health administration.

Capacity for self-direction.

Capacity for self-direction.

The internal organization of computer models of cognitive behavior.

If computer programs are to serve as useful models of cognitive behavior, their creators cannot avoid coming to grips with the necessity for establishing an internal organization for their model which implements the higher level cognitive behavior associated with the human capacity for self-direction, autocriticism, and adaptation. A hierarchy of “contexter” routines is proposed which will perform these higher level functions within a computer model. It is conceptually important to separate those functions represented by the contexters from those routines which perform the operations resulting in both overt and covert behavior. The hierarchy of contexter routines would function parallel to and control the operational routines in a model. The ability to model the hierarchy of contexters rests fundamentally upon developing a scheme by which behavior can be described and providing a means by which computer routines can utilize such descriptive information. Implementation of such a computer model requires the solving of some formidable conceptual and technical problems.

Congressional Control of the Public Service

Since the English Revolution of 1688, it has been a part of the Anglo-American tradition that elected representative assemblies control the policies and acts of the executive branch of the government. This doctrine was firmly embedded in the American state and federal constitutions. With some wartime reservations, it has been universally accepted throughout our country. At the present time, however, there is an uneasy feeling that practice does not square with theory. There is even a suspicion that practice contradicts theory—that a vast body of officials has in fact escaped the possibility of control by the people's representatives.The trends of the last half-century have certainly complicated the problem of congressional authority over administration. This has occurred in part because administration has made impressive gains in effective organization and operation, while relatively Congress has stood still. Within the administrative system there has developed a capacity for self-direction which might well challenge the dominance of Congress, if Congress continues to be the laggard partner in the governmental team.