Understanding Of Basic Concepts Research Articles

Teamwork: a concept analysis

This paper is a report of an analysis of the concept of teamwork. Teamwork is seen as an important facilitator in delivering quality healthcare services internationally. However, research studies of teamwork in health care are criticized for lacking a basic conceptual understanding of what this concept represents. A universal definition for healthcare settings and professionals is missing from published literature. Walker and Avant's approach was used to guide this concept analysis. Literature searches used bibliographic databases (Medline, CINAHL, Web of Science, Proquest CSA), internet search engines (GoogleScholar), and hand searches. Literature published between 1976 and 2006 was reviewed but only material in English was included. Based on the analysis undertaken, teamwork is proposed as a dynamic process involving two or more healthcare professionals with complementary backgrounds and skills, sharing common health goals and exercising concerted physical and mental effort in assessing, planning, or evaluating patient care. This is accomplished through interdependent collaboration, open communication and shared decision-making, and generates value-added patient, organizational and staff outcomes. Praising the value of teamwork without a common understanding of what this concept represents endangers both research into this way of working and its effective utilization in practice. The proposed definition helps reconcile discrepancies between how this concept is understood by nurses and doctors, as well as allied health professionals. A common understanding can facilitate communication in educational, research and clinical settings and is imperative for improving clarity and validity of future research.

The Americans with Disabilities Act in The Classroom: Key Concepts

INTRODUCTION It’s been almost 18 years since the American with Disabilities Act (known as the “ADA”) became law. Most people in the workplace are very familiar with its concepts, if not always its details. In the educational setting, the ADA has become much more familiar over the years and many students know that it applies in the classroom as well as in the workplace. So what is essential to know for those who train the professionals of tomorrow? This article will explore the key concepts of the ADA and how to analyze and apply them in an educational institution. The ADA requires that a “qualified individual” with a “disability” (defined as a “substantial impairment of a major life activity”) who is otherwise able to perform the “essential functions” of a student (or a job), must receive “reasonable accommodations” to assist him or her, unless such accommodations would pose an “undue hardship” to the employer or the institution. In an educational context, this means accommodations are required unless the proposed accommodations would fundamentally alter the educational experience. Several years ago, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (which handles all employment disability claims before a trip to court is permitted) released data showing that the most commonly claimed disability was low back pain. But as the courts have “matured” in interpreting the ADA, it’s become clear that it had now better be a significant pain in the back to support a finding of disability. However, many ailments do qualify by their very nature, including diabetes, cancer, severe depression, epilepsy, and paralysis. Even a history of a disability or a perception of a disability can support an ADA claim. In the educational context, learning disabilities have proved to be a substantial subset of student ADA complaints. Some of these are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, processing deficits, dyslexia, sequencing disorders, visual perception disorders, and gross and fine motor skill impairments. Although some faculty members may resist recognizing learning disabilities as “real” disabilities, they can be substantial obstacles to success in the classroom or training site. Courts have recognized them as covered by the ADA. Now, here’s a test situation: Ashley Adams is a student in your class. After doing well on the first test, she pulls a “D” on the second one, and lately seems to have difficulty understanding basic concepts as evidenced by her participation in class discussions. One Friday, she asks to see you after class and confides that she has a learning disability and needs accommodations. She proceeds to tick them off:

The effects of students' cognitive styles on conceptual understandings and problem‐solving skills in introductory mechanics

The purpose of this study was to determine if there are relationship among freshmen students' Field depended or field independent (FD/FI) cognitive style, conceptual understandings, and problem solving skills in mechanics. The sample consisted of 213 freshmen (female = 111, male = 102; age range 17–21) who were enrolled in an introductory physics course required for science education prospective teachers. Data collection was done during the fall semesters in three successive years. At the beginning of each semester the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and the Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) were administered to assess students' initial understanding of basic concepts in mechanics and FD/FI tendency of students, respectively. After completion of the course, the FCI and the Mechanics Base Line Test (MBT) were administered. The results indicated that students conceptual understanding were not statistically related to their FD/FI cognitive styles for both pre and post results. However, their problem‐solving skills were statistically related to their FD/FI cognitive style. The findings of the present and previous studies are compared, and the possible effects of the present studies on previous studies on teaching, learning and assessment for introductory mechanics are discussed.

Rapid, transient expression of fluorescent fusion proteins in tobacco plants and generation of stably transformed plants

Expression and tracking of fluorescent fusion proteins has revolutionized our understanding of basic concepts in cell biology. The protocol presented here has underpinned much of the in vivo results highlighting the dynamic nature of the plant secretory pathway. Transient transformation of tobacco leaf epidermal cells is a relatively fast technique to assess expression of genes of interest. These cells can be used to generate stable plant lines using a more time-consuming, cell culture technique. Transient expression takes from 2 to 4 days whereas stable lines are generated after approximately 2 to 4 months.

Analysis of molecular genetics content in Spanish secondary school textbooks

The treatment of molecular biology in thirty-four Spanish high school biology textbooks has been analysed using a check-list made up of twenty-three items. The study showed a tendency to confuse the genetic code with genetic information. The treatment of DNA transcription, regulation of gene expression and translation were presented as masses of factual information without necessarily facilitating the acquisition of an understanding of the main concepts. The biological meaning of terms such as ‘translation’, ‘codified proteins’ or ‘regulation of gene expression’ were particularly unclear and poorly related to awider understanding of cell biology. In conclusion, our data showed the need to improve text books by placing a greater emphasis on the understanding of basic concepts, rather than concentrating on factual detail, and by placing molecular biology in a broader context of cell and whole-organism biology.

Aspects of a Theory of Music Therapy

A theory of music therapy ought to take its departure from an understanding of the nature and role of music. The role of music in therapy is not necessarily different from the role of music in the life of man in general. It is, however, through their translation of their practical work into a language of theory, that music therapists often seem to professionalize their field to the extent that the role of music in therapy appears remote from our daily uses of music. This short presentation attempts to summarize some basic problems in translating the practice of music therapy into a coherent theory. Such a project makes it necessary to clarify our relation to theories within the philosophy of science in order to get a clear understanding of basic concepts in our field such as “sickness”, “therapy”, and “music”. In defining these concepts we will have to consider man as a biological, personal, and social being. Some conclusive paradigms are presented which suggest the role of music in therapy – as in life – to be promoting “initiative”, “expression”, and “clarification.”

Business in the media: a pedagogical approach to understanding basic business concepts

This paper describes an unusual course offered recently at a regional university in the Southern US. The course discussed in this paper was different for a number of reasons; these include the fact that the course was team-taught (a new concept in this institution, although not new to more established universities), the course dealt with the psychology of perceptions (specifically how business is perceived through popular media), and the format of the course used a variety of media (predominantly film, but also software, television and popular fiction) to investigate how perceptions are created and manipulated and the justifications for these manipulations. This paper discusses the development of the course, the selection of the various media used to present the course, and concludes with the student responses to the course.

One Point of View: The Missing Ingredients In Corporate Innovation

Venture capitalist Howard Anderson recently decried the failure of large companies to capitalize on their inventions (Technology Review, May, 2004, pp. 56-59). Causes? Slowness, timidity and incentive problems. Big just can't get it right. Only entrepreneurs really attack markets, changing the world while big companies defend positions with outdated products. So says Anderson. Yet who are those entrepreneurs? Typically, they are people who left (or were ejected from) large companies. OK, for a moment in the late '90s, universities couldn't keep students from diving into entrepreneuring. Still, most high-tech entrepreneurs are people with corporate experience. The issue isn't company size. The problem is not with big alone and has not been solved by small companies. The problem is both bigger and more insidious. Lack of Vision Companies large and small lack both a vision of innovation (the sum of invention plus commercialization) for the company and an innovation vision for every product. The problem isn't lack of invention, but perceiving invention as the goal. And it isn't lack of commercialization, but seeing commercialization as tasks to do. Anderson names the overall problem execution, yet that focuses on skills. If we understood innovation, we would adjust our skills. Sit in on a typical big-company project review. Most management expects and most staff knows no better than to focus on the project-technology, staffing, resources, processes, etc. Where is value to the customer? Missing, right down to basic conceptual understanding of value. Likewise, sit in on a typical entrepreneur's plan review. You will find detail on technology, team credentials and financials, plus a half-page afterthought marketing plan. Where are the specific needs to meet? Preferences to design in? Value to deliver? Not just missing-not even conceived! Clearly I overstate. Counter-examples include P&G, Gore, EBay, and Google. Still, companies big and small invent just fine. Their problem is innovation . . . Reduction of an idea to in use, for the first time anywhere, that creates compelling value for customers. (For product in use also read business in service, process in application, and more.) We're Trained That Way Why this narrow-mindedness? Because we are trained that way. Engineering schools teach engineering, not finance, distribution or marketing. They graduate narrowly-focused experts. Business schools teach business, not science, engineering or manufacturing. They graduate narrowly-focused experts. Each is taught that theirs is the true core expertise needed by the world. Neither is taught respect for the other. Then companies hire engineers to do engineering and marketers to do marketing. Not to serve customers with new products, not to create wealth for the company, but to engineer particular products (on one side) and to launch and sell products (on the other side). Worse, engineers are never taught strategy, and school graduates get at most one course. So we wind up with tactical experts with no inclination to see the big picture. And no expertise to create the big picture if they were so inclined. For the same reason, we wind up with managers, not leaders-with people who often see strategy as an esoteric waste that diverts resources from the real job. The Tactical Culture So knows how to run, but not how to win races. We have a tactical culture of invention and a tactical culture of marketing, but not a strategic culture of innovation. We manage discrete functions instead of leading integrated systems. A few years ago, I integrated two research studies into a book, Technology and the Agents of Change (Market Engineering Press, 1999). …

Illustrating Electric Circuit Concepts with the Glitter Circuit

Many beginning physics students have a harder time understanding basic concepts of electric circuits than understanding basic mechanics concepts. This is likely due to the fact that we cannot see electric charge carriers (electrons) move through an electric wire. It is thus the responsibility of the physics instructor to introduce his/her students to a variety of electric circuit models that will enable those students encountering circuits for the first time to come up with their own coherent mental picture of current flow in an electric circuit. Electric circuit analogs might prove helpful in this endeavor.

Economics of clinical nephrology practice

Economics of clinical nephrology practice

Science Trainee Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge and its Influence on Physics Teaching

This study examined Malaysian science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of selected physics concepts. The two components of PCK investigated were (i) knowledge of students' understanding, conceptions and misconceptions of topics, and (ii) knowledge of strategies and representations for teaching particular topics. The participants were 12 trainee teachers from various academic science backgrounds attending a one-year postgraduate teacher-training course. They were interviewed on selected basic concepts in physics that are found in the Malaysian Integrated Science curriculum for lower secondary level. The findings showed that trainee teachers' PCK for promoting conceptual understanding is limited. They lacked the ability to transform their understanding of basic concepts in physics required to teach lower secondary school science pupils. The trainees' level of content knowledge affected their awareness of pupils' likely misconceptions. Consequently, the trainees were unable to employ the appropriate teaching strategies required to explain the scientific ideas. This study provides some pedagogical implications for the training of science teachers.

An Inventory for Alternate Conceptions among First-Semester General Chemistry Students

This manuscript (i) presents the Chemical Concepts Inventory (CCI), an inventory that faculty can use to judge for themselves the extent of several common alternate conceptions among their students; (ii) demonstrates that students come to general chemistry with a variety of the alternate conceptions described in the chemical and science education research literature; and (iii) shows that a traditional general chemistry course results in only modest improvements in understanding of basic concepts. The incorrect concepts include inappropriate ideas about atoms and molecules, microscopic behavior, heat and temperature, chemical formulas, gases, and other qualitative concepts—concepts that form the foundation of several topics of first-semester college chemistry.The inventory is a multiple choice instrument composed of one- and two-tiered nonmathematical questions based on alternate conceptions reported in the science education literature. Administration of the inventory before the first semester of a two-semester general chemistry course for science and engineering majors confirmed that students hold many alternate conceptions in diverse areas of chemistry prior to the course. An administration of the inventory at the beginning of the second semester indicated that these students retained many of their alternate conceptions through a semester of instruction.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Principles, Methods, and Techniques

This is a visually stimulating book. Like Dr Sprawl’s other books, Magnetic Resonance Imaging is full of great illustrations that convey a tremendous amount of information in manageable form. However, this book takes the concept of great illustrations one step further by using a device called a “mind map.” The concept of “mind mapping” has been a hot topic in educational circles in recent years (Buzan T, Buzan B. The mind map book. New York, NY: Dutton, 1996; Margulies N. Mapping inner space learning. Tucson, Ariz: Zephyr, 1991). It is based on the idea that most humans have far better pictorial memory than textual memory. Also, most of us feel more confident in our knowledge if we can construct relationships between ideas. A mind map is a diagram that shows these relationships. In this book, mind maps appear at the end of each chapter. Clever use of recurring icons is made in these maps to represent concepts like precession and radio-frequency signals. This device aids readers in transferring knowledge from one context to another as they work their way through multistep processes such as image acquisition. Many educators believe that the understanding of basic concepts should be emphasized before equations are shown. This book is an impressive attempt to solidify basic concepts without using equations. For example, no Larmor equation is given. Instead, a table of “Larmor frequencies” in a magnetic field strength of 1 T is given. There are no equations for exponential decay of the magnetic resonance (MR) signal, no footnotes, no references, and no problems to solve at the ends of the chapters. This is a concise, uninterrupted, nonmathematical, textual explanation with lots of “ah ha! I get it now” illustrations knitted together by mind maps. Given the format, it is amazing how many advanced concepts this book covers. The topics include diffusionweighted imaging, MR angiography, and half Fourier imaging, in addition to the basics of precession, chemical shift, and two-dimensional Fourier transform image reconstruction. There should be no disagreement with the statement that this book is definitely for those who do not need to acquire an in-depth technical or mathematical knowledge of MR imaging. It is certainly appropriate as a general introduction for technologists. However, I suggest that it is also suitable as a first step for those who will eventually need more technical knowledge (eg, radiology residents). I will definitely lend my copy to residents who are struggling with concepts such as k space and two-dimensional Fourier transform, for example. In any case, those who teach MR principles at any level will find the illustrations in this book to be great source material for lectures. In summary, I think that this book will be helpful to many students at many levels. Some instructors who have not been involved with undergraduate education for a long time may be put off by the lack of “traditional textbook” structure. To them, I recommend going to a university bookstore and looking up introductory texts for the sciences. Textbooks have changed over the decades, and the people we are teaching at the present time learned basic science from books that are structured more like this one than the traditional textbooks from which we learned years ago. To be sure, physics and engineering courses for science majors use texts (and notes, software, and Web sites) with as many equations as ever. No one starts out learning about science and engineering at the graduate level. This book helps with that big first step.

Psychotherapy and chaos theory: The metaphoric relationship between psychodynamic therapy and chaos theory.

This article explores potential benefits and problems in applying chaos theory in psychotherapy through an examination of previous attempts to integrate chaos theory into psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy. First a discussion provides an understanding of basic concepts in chaos theory and reviews applications in psychoanalysis. Second, problems in such applications are scrutinized. Finally, the discussion speculates on a general tendency in the literature in psychotherapy and counseling to resort to mathematical analogies, arguing that this attraction may produce an erroneous metaphor, and gives reasons both for the attraction and its danger.

First-year university students’ problems in understanding basic concepts of plant reproduction

This paper describes two inter-related studies which investigated the ideas held by students entering first-year biology courses at university. The first was an in-depth naturalistic investigation probing the conceptual difficulties of first-year College of Science students over a three-year period. The second was a study of the ideas held by 187 first-year General Biology students about basic genetics concepts essential for understanding plant life cycles. Three problem areas were identified: the extent of rote learning of the life-histories of individual organisms and other related concepts, terminology-related problems; and conceptual problems such as the idea that in plants, as in animals, meiosis results directly in the formation of gametes. Particularly evident was the confusion generated by concepts involving single and paired structures at several stages of the reproductive cycle, including the division of chromosomes into chromatids, pairing of homologous chromosomes, haploid and diploid cells, and the concept of chromosome number. The importance of reviewing fundamental concepts and correcting erroneous ideas before teaching new work is emphasised within the context of educational theories of learning

THE GOLDEN PROPORTION AND ITS USE IN THE AESTHETIC DESIGN OF BRIDGES.

The old debate between architects and engineers about the appearance of structures, and especially the aesthetics of bridges, has been revived during recent years. This paper examines this subject, and suggests that pleasing designs can be obtained, using only a good understanding of basic concepts, especially the 'golden proportion', together with common sense and cooperation between the disciplines of architecture and engineering. Both visual and engineering understanding need to be combined through the whole design process. Proportion, especially when based on the 'golden proportion' whose value is approximately 0.618, plays an essential part in human perception and aesthetics. The golden proportion was used by the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Japanese. Appealing works of art, architecture, and engineering are produced, not by blind application of rules of proportion, but by the intelligent and calculated use of proportions with creative judgement. There are several distinctions between geometry and aesthetics to be noted. Aesthetic appreciation also depends on light and shade, colour and texture, form and function, shape and setting. By examining how these issues have been addressed in some recent bridge design projects, the paper shows that their considerations with good proportioning can be very effective.

Enhancing Scientific Literacy Through the Use of Information Technology in Introductory Geoscience Classes

As technology exerts an ever greater influence in our daily lives, the importance of a sound and contemporary understanding of science becomes critical. Introductory geology classes have traditionally focused on potential majors and in doing so have fallen short in helping all students develop a common understanding of basic concepts and how they integrate with those of other disciplines. In restructuring our own introductory classes around a multi-disciplinary approach based on specific and relevant thematic topics, we have concentrated on providing a level of closure so that the non-major students learn concepts, gain knowledge, and concentrate their energies on the ongoing processes that shape our planet. We have used constructivist methods in the course and feel that they are particularly well suited to topics such as earthquakes and volcanoes for which a number of exciting and stimulating Internet resources are currently available on the World-Wide Web. Advances in information technology allow students to observe and visualize phenomena in real-time, to retrieve and manipulate data, and to construct meaning and understanding. Curricular flexibility is critically important as it permits classes to respond to current and ongoing events in a timely and efficient fashion.

FISH in whole-mount Drosophila embryos. RNA: activation of a transcriptional locus, DNA: gene architecture and expression

Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry,PO Box 2841, 37018 Goettingen, GermanySubmitted 24 July 1996, accepted 8 October 1996Abstract. Using examples of hybridization both to RNA and to DNA sequences wedemonstrate that whole-mountDrosophila embryos are excellent objects with which tostudy questions about nuclear structure and function by combining FISH and confocallaser scanning microscopy. A fluorescently labelled 29-base oligonucleotide was usedto probe transcription at a locus known to be strongly induced upon heat shock. Thetranscript from this locus apparently serves to stabilize and protect nuclear proteinswhich may be needed for nuclear processes after heat or chemical stress. We found thatless than 5% of the protein is colocalized with the transcript under normal growthconditions, but more than 50% is sequestered by the transcript during heat shock. DNAprobes to genes in the bithorax complex were used to examine the relationship betweenhomologous pairing and gene expression in late stage gastrulating embryos. Analysis ofthe disposition of probes cloned in P1 vectors in embryos from mid-blastodermthroughout gastrulation allowed us to conclude that polarized nuclear organizationbreaks down after the blastoderm stage. Homologous pairing of the bithorax complexgenes proceeds during gastrulation so that at the time of germ band retraction the twoalleles are always in close proximity independent of expression of the gene or theregion along the anterior–posterior axis of the body. Finally, we demonstrate thatsmaller DNA targets can be visualized in whole mount embryos by enhancement of theFISH signal by tyramide-fluorophore deposition.Keywords: hnRNP-K, 93D locus, omega-n transcript, bithorax complex, homologouspairing, confocal laser scanning microscopy1. IntroductionMost problems in developmental biology can only beunderstood in the context of the whole animal whichprovides the stage whereon the actors, gradients ofactivators and repressors, or signal molecules and receptors,perform their choreographed and complex interplay.Dissolution of the organism into its single cells destroysthe entire program of events, disrupts the intercellularsignalling and may reset the biological clock to an entirelynew situation. Thus, whether one is defining a phenotypeor determining complex gene expression patterns, theobservation of the entire organism or at least wholeorgan systems is essential. Almost 10 years ago thereplacement of radioactive labels [1,2] by non-radioactivenucleotide derivatives, such as digoxigenin (DIG), biotin orfluorochromes [3–6], revolutionized the detection of mRNAin tissues and cells. Subsequently, Tautz and Pfeifle [7]introduced methods to simultaneously permeabilize and fixwhole Drosophila embryos so that the localization of thetranscripts could be observed in whole organisms. Thistechnique was quickly adapted to embryos from Xenopus,sea urchin and other organisms [8,9]. The result was animprovement in resolution of non-radioactive probes formRNA localization, compared with the radioactive labelmethod. This improvement enabled whole animal labelling,compared with sectioning, and the ability to simultaneouslydetect protein expression by immunochemistry. Thesetechniques have produced important data which contributeto the present understanding of basic concepts in

Numeracy and common sense: Real‐world engineering

Whether you are dealing with computers or dealing with life, numbers matter—and you need some level of numeracy to deal with numbers effectively. Numeracy, or numerical literacy, does not mean remembering all your college calculus or being able to define every statistical term from memory. It does mean understanding basic concepts, being able to do on‐the‐spot approximations, and learning how to spot likely errors and deliberate distortions. While you need numeracy to work with personal computers and their output, you need it more in everyday life and library work. Common‐sense mathematical understanding is critical in these times of hype and suspect numbers.

MAXIMIZING THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES OF CLASS

ABSTRACT Writing in a content area is believed to move students from rote learning to an active role promoting student responsibility in their educational development. Writing in the mathematics classroom supports a better understanding of basic concepts, promotes various techniques believed to be conducive to mathematical learning: increased communication, accommodation of diverse learning styles, individualized and prescriptive instruction, and self-assessment of knowledge. All of the above parallel current mathematics reform.