Teaching Endeavors Research Articles

How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching

How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching

University – government – international donor community cooperation in research, teaching and community engagement

World geo-economics of the last two decades have seriously impacted on governments’ capability to finance university teaching, research and community engagement, especially in the developing world. Over the same period however, the demands and expectations exerted on universities by government and society have increased phenomenally. To meet these demands and expectations, universities have resorted to non-traditional strategies of financing their teaching, research and community engagement endeavour. One such strategy is the university – government – international donor community cooperation in teaching, research and community engagement, where government and/or international donor community finance university teaching, research and community engagement within clear predetermined outputs such as training and development of government personnel and local community members; exposure of students to community dynamics; and production of problem-solving databased research. The article relates these insights to the Multilingual, Informatics and Development Programme (MIDP) being actualised by the University of the Free State.

Psychiatric Residents as Teachers: Development and Evaluation of a Teaching Manual

Psychiatric residents spend much time as teachers and mentors to medical students. Recently, the Canadian Medical Education Directions for Specialists (CanMEDS) roles identified the importance of this role as a scholar. Residents are now expected to develop skills to fulfill this role, one of which involves the ability to teach. However, lack of tools to facilitate the development of resident teaching skills poses a significant problem. This article describes the development and evaluation of a resident teaching manual, written by psychiatric residents for use by fellow residents, in their teaching endeavors with medical students at the University of Alberta. Residents appreciated using this manual to enhance their skills in teaching medical students. The development of, and the preliminary survey of this psychiatric resident teaching manual, is encouraging in furthering the development of future psychiatrist teachers.

Library, Information And Communication Technology Use In Teaching Non-Regular Students In Nigerian Universities

The study probed into the library and ICT facilities used in teaching of the non-regular students (part-time) of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria. Data were gathered by administering 109 copies of a structured questionnaire to respondents randomly selected. These were collated and analysed. The research work revealed that majority of the respondents do not use the library resources for teaching endeavours; and they perceived the library resources as inadequate. It was also revealed that availability and accessibility of ICT in the university is below average; and that respondents were yet to adopt ICT in their teaching endeavour, whereas,majority of them use it for other academic tasks. The study recommended among others, electrical power stability in the university, library’s display of recent accessions in the faculties and aggressive acquisition and provision of ICT and its resources use in teaching as well as a policy position on ICT in the university.

Editorial

To all of our readers, subscribers, enthusiasts, and critics: this will be my last editorial. I want to thank all of you for your support and criticisms, your comments in response to our many articles, your participation as reviewers in regard to our many, many articles. To those thousands around the world who have joined us in our myriad, disparate activities, as my final editorial, I want to thank Sharon Bennett, our new brilliant and always responsive, Executive Director. The change is refreshing. A new light shineth upon us! Despite the fact that a few short months ago she knew little or nothing about what we do, where we teach, and how we accomplish our ever increasing goals, she is now one more initiate into our ever growing fold.To John Ley ("Johnny Boy"), to Ethel Bruck (and her husband Shelly), who, despite personal problems, always comes through with promptness and her sensational knowledge of our wonderful specialty, her reliable reviewers, her recommendations for rejections/acceptance.Therefore, in closing, it has been a wonderful 30+ years. I know my successor very well and his appointment is a perfect one to carry on our increasingly good work and enlarging circulation. Marilyn and I got the chance to see many of you in San Diego and I want to thank all of you for the great honor you have bestowed upon me.I am sure the great traditions of the JOI will continue to grow and burgeon as we go on to our 60th and even more years!Dr. A. Norman Cranin began his editorial career as the first editor of Oral Implantology (the precursor to JOI) in the summer of 1970. It was the third publishing endeavor for AAID and, in Dr. Cranin's words, “the most interesting.” For the next 38-½ years, Dr. Cranin would continue the philosophy he spelled out in that edition's first editorial…“Please use this publication as a forum for your views, a center for announcements of teaching endeavors, book reviews and advancing educational programs. This is your journal. We welcome you as supporters and readers.”At its recent meeting in San Diego, the AAID Board of Trustees honored Dr. Cranin with a framed copy of that first issue together with a 2008 issue to show just how far he had brought the publication. The inscription that accompanied the framed copies summed up AAID's respect and admiration for Dr. Cranin's contribution to the Academy and implant dentistry. That message stated:“Since 1970, Dr. A Norman Cranin has been the dedicated caretaker and guiding force of the Journal of Oral Implantology. Its tone and substance have elevated the scientific reputation of the American Academy of Implant Dentistry. The AAID expresses its heartfelt thank you to Dr. Cranin for his untiring and outstanding work.”

Integrating Teaching and Research at the Post‐doctoral level: The Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) Program

The Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) program presents post‐doctoral fellows with a unique experience that combines research and teaching in preparation for positions in academia. FIRST fellows participate in a traditional, mentored research setting at a consortium institution (Emory, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the Atlanta University Center), and as AUC teachers – at Spelman or Morehouse Colleges, or Clark Atlanta University. The complementation of these two critical aspects of academic life allows fellows to be trained in teaching pedagogies and techniques, and to gain hands‐on mentored experiences in the classroom, while balancing the demands of a research program. By receiving comprehensive feedback about their teaching, fellows can improve their teaching skills during their time in the program, setting them up for successful teaching jobs in the future. Fellows also participate in workshops and seminars, as well as continue to publish their research and present their work at national meetings. Of the 52 fellows that have completed the program, 65% have obtained jobs at a diversity of academic institutions, and continue to be active and innovative in both their research and teaching endeavors. Furthermore, FIRST fellows have exhibited success obtaining extramural funding (80%) at four times the rate of other NIH grant applicants.Funded by: NIH, NIGMH K12‐GM00680‐06

Promoting Deep Learning: A Teaching, Learning and Assessment Endeavour

The need for social workers to develop expertise in critical reflection is now a dominant theme in the literature. How this expertise is achieved, however, remains under‐explored in an environment increasingly focused on outcomes, evidence of performance and teachers' preoccupations with curriculum content and assessment. Students' understanding of critical reflection and how, if at all, their social work education assists in developing this capacity, continue to be under‐represented. Applying a ‘deep‐learning’ framework, this article outlines an attempt to engage final year social work students in a teaching, learning and assessment exchange that promotes critical reflexivity. It presents the thinking behind the evolution of a unit focused on social work in public welfare and health settings. Using their final assessment exercise in which they are asked to review their learning, it then offers students' responses to that unit. In particular, the paper highlights the personalised practice visions offered by students as they seek to locate themselves, personally and professionally, before making the identity‐challenging transition from student to qualified practitioner.

Endoscopic Septoplasty: Revisitation of the Technique, Indications, and Outcomes

Septoplasty is a well-described surgical technique for management of nasal airway obstruction (NAO) and improved access for endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). The advances in endoscopic techniques have facilitated endoscopic septoplasty (ES). The purpose of this study was to review the surgical technique, indications, and outcomes for ES. A retrospective review was conducted to identify patients undergoing ES between 1998 and 2005 at a tertiary care medical center. Demographic data, operative indications, adjunctive procedures, symptom outcome, and complications were recorded. One hundred sixteen patients with a mean age of 47 years were identified. The male/female ratio was 1.2:1 and mean follow-up period was 13 months. Indications for ES included NAO (64.6%), access (34.5%), and facial pain (0.9%). The most common concomitant diagnoses included chronic rhinosinusitis (67.2%), allergic rhinitis (55.2%), sinonasal polyposis (34.5%), and turbinate hypertrophy (25.9%). Concomitant procedures performed included ESS (81.9%), turbinate reduction (44.8%), and rhinoplasty (4.3%). Among patients who underwent primary ES for NAO, 70% achieved resolution and 20% reported improvement of their nasal obstruction. Complications included transient dental pain/hypesthesia (4.3%), asymptomatic septal perforation (3.4%), synechiae formation (2.6%), epistaxis (0.9%), and septal hematoma (0.9%). Complication rates were similar for ES alone versus ES in conjunction with ESS. ES represents a viable alternative to traditional headlight septoplasty with acceptable outcomes and complications. ES allows for enhanced visualization of the septal deviation with more focused flap dissection and resection of the offending cartilage and bone. Furthermore, the technique facilitates teaching endeavors through use of video monitors.

Harnessing the internet as a virtual lab

Using the internet for education has become mainstreamed. It has become normal and unexceptional. There is a wide spectrum of areas in which the net is being used. Some academics focus on the cognitive model of web design for e-learning, some on classroom assessment and some on web-based education characteristics and problems. However, there is a lack of comprehensive documentation of how the net can be used as a virtual lab itself. Two important criteria in educational good practises are: (1) plenty of learning by doing; and (2) abundant feedback to learners to keep them informed how they are getting on. In these two criteria, the net provides a giant open-access 'virtual lab' for learners. The goal of this paper is to present a comprehensive internet research study, Sig-Ad-Exp, to inspire the readers in using the internet for innovating their teaching and research endeavours.

Do Your Patients Understand?

Despite teaching endeavors, nurses are constantly faced with patients who do not understand how to manage their healthcare. This problem has come to the forefront of healthcare issues. As a society, there is concern that despite medical advances, progress with healthcare may be in jeopardy because the skills needed by patients to manage their care are insufficient. This issue is affected by many factors. One of the most prominent factors is the lack of patient health literacy skill assessment. One of the first and most basic parts of the nursing process is to assess the patient. To teach patients, we must identify their learning needs, but the assessment cannot stop there. Nurses need to know patients' health literacy skills so that they can teach them in the best manner possible. This article provides specific information on health literacy assessment tools and the skills needed by nurses to use these tools. Each nurse must decide what tools will work for his or her patients, so that in the end, each patient will understand how to manage his or her healthcare.

Preparing educators in rural Hawai’i: Student reflections on technology-mediated programs

Technology-mediated delivery strategies have recently proved successful for the University of Hawai’i-Manoa’s College of Education. The success of these strategies is manifested by programs enrolled to capacity, the financial stability of these programs and the establishment of a consistent schedule of offerings. It is, however, clearly a challenge for students to become comfortable with technology-mediated instruction. Hawai’i students have risen to the challenge, expressing appreciation for support structures such as a technology orientation and troubleshooting support. Based on students’ reflections, they view the challenge of increasing their own technology literacy as one that benefits their future teaching endeavors.

Enriching Global Marketing Education with Virtual Classrooms an Effectiveness Study

Global marketing education is embedded in an increasingly global high-tech business environment. Business practices and marketing education are strongly influenced by these developments. New technologies are successfully implemented in university curricula to improve the effectiveness of teaching and the cooperation between universities in management teaching. This paper deals with the usage and effectiveness of virtual classrooms in the global marketing curriculum and empirically investigates the antecedents of successful teaching in such an environment. The investigation is based on case teaching endeavors connecting up to three university classrooms in various countries. All together, some 90 students participated in the joint teaching sessions. The study presented was conducted in four countries (China, France, Spain and Austria) over a one-year period. The results of the research indicates that instructor empathy and classroom interaction have the highest impact on teaching effectiveness in the virtual classroom.

Curriculum considerations for enhancing baccalaureate learning for international students.

International students studying nursing in the United States present unique teaching opportunities and challenges. Student language, culture, and academic expectations are major factors for faculty to consider in delivering international education. An RN to BSN program provides baccalaureate completion study for registered nurses residing in Israel. Students can choose to complete the final semester in the United States. Israeli nursing students demonstrate a strong collectivistic orientation to their academic work. Issues related to English language fluency and academic paper preparation were identified. Success in international teaching endeavors is facilitated when faculty carefully evaluate course materials and assignments. Clarity of language, cultural expectations, and availability of academic resources are important considerations for promoting student success.

Teaching adolescent medicine in the office setting.

Despite recent educational improvements in adolescent medicine, challenges remain. Residents in pediatrics are required to have a 1-month block rotation in adolescent medicine, and residents in family medicine and internal medicine are strongly encouraged to receive training in adolescent health issues. Meeting the educational challenges for all of these residents can be a daunting task but can be accomplished with proper curricular development, utilization of learner-centered materials, and effective planning of the clinical education program. A significant amount of adolescent teaching occurs in the ambulatory setting. Clinical preceptors should be familiar with teaching approaches such as the 1-minute preceptor and should regularly reflect on their own teaching styles and skills. Proper learner feedback is crucial to any clinical teaching endeavor.

Whole Course Work in Higher Education Teaching

ABSTRACT Teaching, as whole course work rather than sessional performance, is identified as an under‐articulated area of educational studies. Utilising five first hand accounts from the author's own practice, five reflections are entered into. Each serves to bring out a different aspect of the whole course experience likely to be shared by teacher and student. Unifying these reflections is an attempt to place teaching and learning endeavours within a broad process of cultural transmission, where cultural theory may apply. This is attempted through an exploration of concepts of nurturance, narrative making, writerly and readerly texts, myths and discourse formation, informed by ideas from Sartre, her, Bakhtin, Murray, Polanyi, Barthes and Gergen. A summary suggests that whole course work of HE justifies its own discourse, and might be related to the expressivist versus instrumental debate initiated by Herder, but revivified in recent times by Charles Taylor. It is suggested that his clarification of modem sensibilities among writers and artists be extended to higher education teachers.

Kathleen Mears Lecture: Twentieth Century EEG Technology for the 21st Century: Considering our Future by Examining our Past

AUTHOR'S NOTE.The following is a synopsis of a lecture given in memory of Kathleen Mears before the annual meeting of the American Society of Electroneurodiagnostic Technologists. Kathy was an esteemed colleague as well as a friend to all END Technologists. One of her very many contributions to electroneurodiagnostic technology and to technologists was her dedication to education. Working closely with her on committees and boards, I was always impressed how Kathy never compromised on her stand that even the most advanced ideas in clinical neurophysiological technology are based in a few very basic principles. Further, she taught that an understanding of these basic principles allows for creativity and sets the path for a technologist's expertise. She maintained this idea throughout her professional career and in her teaching endeavors. This was the basis of her leadership. It is to her realization of this ideal that this paper and lecture are dedicated.

The Roles of Bilingual Special Educators in Creating Inclusive Classrooms

One group of students whose unique needs present a challenge to educators seeking to create inclusive general education classrooms is learners who are learning english as a second language. The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to distill from the literature of bilingual special education, bilingual education, and special education a description of the roles of bilingual special educators in cooperative teaching endeavors designed to educate second language learners in general education classrooms; and (b) to offer the observations of a bilingual special educator who worked as part of a cooperative teaching team.

Functioning and well-being of patients in a consultation-liaison psychiatry clinic

Outpatient consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatry clinics are valuable settings for research and teaching endeavors. However, little is known about psychiatric symptoms and health status of persons treated in such settings. In this study, 80 persons seen in an outpatient C-L psychiatry clinic were compared with 100 persons seen in a mood disorder clinic on a variety of self-report instruments. Outpatient C-L clinic patients were found to have significantly poorer health status than mood clinic patients on the following domains as measured by the RAND instrument: general health perception, pain, physical functioning, and role functioning due to physical problems. Both groups had poor role functioning due to emotional problems and poor social functioning. The groups did not differ in depressive symptoms but C-L patients were significantly less anxious. Thus, it appears that patients in an outpatient C-L setting not only have significant medical comorbidity, as expected, but have levels of psychiatric distress comparable to that seen in a traditional psychiatry outpatient setting. These findings indicate that such a clinic is a fertile area for research and training in the diagnosis and treatment of persons with comorbid physical and mental disorders.

Principles and Approaches to Pharmacoeconomics: The Perspective of Higher Education

The emergence of pharmacoeconomics as a vital and evolving discipline presents a unique challenge and opportunity to researchers in university settings. Although pharmacoeconomics offers the academician a fertile area for research, teaching, and service endeavors, several barriers exist which impact growth in this area. These include the ability of higher education to respond rapidly to funding opportunities, the lack of trained individuals to develop research programs, competition with other entities for these scarce human resources, problematic collaborative relationships with these same organizations, and the ability to initiate and conduct research in an unbiased arena. This paper outlines opportunities available to academic pharmacoeconomic researchers, challenges which may inhibit the maturation of this discipline, and potential strategies for addressing these challenges.

The challenge of teaching the elderly cardiac patient.

Half of Americans aged 65 and older suffer from some form of cardiovascular problem. This fact necessitates attention to an adequate program of patient education during the hospital course, in order for the patient or the significant other to assume responsibility for home care after discharge. Consideration should be given to providing a complete and effective means of assessing the patient so that a teaching plan to meet specific needs can be formulated. Objectives must be set, with the patient included in this part of the process. Once teaching has been completed, there should be evaluation to determine whether the education goals were met. Only when the geriatric patient is regarded as a unique individual can the nurse-instructor hope to be successful with teaching endeavors.