Controlled before‐after study to evaluate change in evidence‐based practice of speech and language therapy students

Background

The integration of evidence‐based practice (EBP) into speech and language therapy (SLT) curricula has been increasingly encouraged in recent years.

Objectives

The study aimed to evaluate whether an educational module on EBP for undergraduate SLT students can improve their EBP competencies.

Methods

The EBP module, taught by a SLT faculty member and a librarian, was delivered over 2 months. All fourth year SLT students (trained group) and all fourth year psychology students (control group) of the University of Liège (Belgium) were asked to participate in the study. Their performance on an adapted Fresno test was measured before and after the module. In addition, the SLT students took a computer‐based searching task. They were also asked to share their perceptions towards the module.

Results

All the 47 SLT students and 57/108 psychology students took the pre‐ and post‐tests. Although both groups performed similarly at the baseline, only the trained students gained new skills and knowledge. Furthermore, 36 SLT students shared their perceptions on the module and offered suggestions on ways to improve it.

Discussion‐Conclusion

Trained students improved their EBP competencies. Nevertheless, the module could be strengthened along with better integration of EBP into clinical modules and across the curriculum.

     

Thinking Through Computing: The Power of Learning Communities

This paper describes an empirical study that investigated the knowledge that Computer Science students have about the extent of their own previous learning. The study compared self-generated estimates of performance with actual performance on a data structures quiz taken by undergraduate students in courses requiring data structures as a prerequisite. The study was contextualized and grounded within a research paradigm in Psychology called calibration of knowledge that suggests that self-knowledge across a range of disciplines is highly unreliable. Such self-knowledge is important because of its role in meta-cognition, particularly in cognitive self-regulation and monitoring, as well as in the credence that instructors give to student self-reports. Our results indicated that Computer Science student self-estimates are highly correlated with performance, more so for estimates provided after the performance than before. This high level of calibration, however, was likely the result of a number of conditions that do not always hold: that the students already had domain expertise, that the quiz had unambiguous and verifiable answers, and that students expected their estimates to be validated. When these conditions are not met, it becomes more important for students to have direct feedback about their performance so as to uncover those areas where their intuitions might mislead them. Students also had weak knowledge about their standing relative to their peers, particularly those in the lower performance quartiles, exhibiting the well known better-than-average heuristic. There was, additionally, no correlation between calibration ability and degree of liking or difficulty with the data structures material, suggesting that instructors and researchers should not treat liking or difficulty as reliable indicators of the learning that has occurred.     

Effect of physiological harvest stages on the composition of bioactive compounds in Cavendish bananas

The combined influence of maturation, ripening, and climate on the profile of bioactive compounds was studied in banana (Musa acuminata, AAA, Cavendish, cv. Grande Naine). Their bioactive compounds were determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu assay and high-performance thin layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method. The polyphenol content of bananas harvested after 400 degree days remained unchanged during ripening, while bananas harvested after 600 and 900 degree days exhibited a significant polyphenol increase. Although dopamine was the polyphenol with the highest concentration in banana peels during the green developmental stage and ripening, its kinetics differed from the total polyphenol profile. Our results showed that this matrix of choice (maturation, ripening, and climate) may allow selection of the banana (M. acuminata, AAA, Cavendish, cv. Grande Naine) status that will produce optimal concentrations of identified compounds with human health relevance.     

Effects of support on stress and burnout in school principals

Background: More than ever before, school principals are dealing with stress and burnout, resulting from increasing role demands and decreasing decision latitude and autonomy. Following the Demand–Support–Constraints model, reasons for stress and burnout can be found in the lack of social support in the environment.

Purpose: This longitudinal study investigates whether changes in social support from colleagues, supervisors and/or the broader community affect levels of principal stress and burnout.

Sample: Approximately 26% of Australia’s school principals took part (N = 3572): primary (n = 2660) and secondary (n = 912) spread across all Australian states and territories. Age ranged between 46 and 55 years, and mean leadership experience was 12 years.

Design and methods: Since stress and burnout are psychological phenomena that develop over time, a longitudinal approach was adopted. Data were collected across four waves, spread over four years, from 2011 to 2014.

Results: It was found that social support predicts decreased stress and in turn burnout in school principals, however differences were found according to the type of social support. The data provide strong evidence for a positive effect of stress on burnout (e.g. the more stress at time 2, the more burnout in principals at time 3) and partial support for indirect negative effects of social support on burnout (e.g. the more support from colleagues at time 2, the less burnout in principals at time 3). However, we also found two instances of positive effects of social support from the broader community on burnout. This suggests that the more support principals receive from the broader community, the more likely they are to show burnout symptoms. This might be explained as the ‘the downside of empathy’, where principals who are strongly supported by their community might also feel more connected to that community. When their community is struggling, they are probably struggling as well.

Conclusions: The findings highlight the positive impact the wider school community can play in providing supplementary professional support to the principal. Unbundling or repackaging the job responsibilities with an administrative team that shares the leadership of the school, could be part of the solution.     

Doctoral students’ experiences leading to completion or attrition: a matter of sense,progress and distress

A central trend in qualitative studies investigating doctoral students’ dropout is to stress the importance of students’ integration and socialisation in their working environment. Yet, few of these studies actually compared the experiences of doctoral students who completed or quit their PhD. In order to overcome this limitation and identify the factors that differentiate these two groups, the present study interviewed 21 former doctoral students: 8 completers and 13 non-completers. The results show that what best differentiates these two groups of participants is the extent to which they feel that they are moving forward, without experiencing too much distress, on a research project that makes sense to them. We assume that this set of factors is central in the dropout process. Support from doctoral peers was found to play a positive role overall but did not contribute to differentiating the two groups, presumably because peers have a limited impact on dissertation progress. Supervisors’ support was central to the participants’ stories; it is thus assumed to play a role in the process, but this role is complex and needs further investigation. These results call for a stronger consideration of the doctoral task itself when investigating the process of persistence and attrition and for a more integrated framework that considers jointly both task- and environment-related aspects.