A study of student participation and nonparticipation in prelecture electronic surveys

Student nonparticipation in electronic surveys represents a challenge to educators as it may impact significantly on the implementation or evaluation of the associated teaching activities. We here study the student evaluation of a pedagogical project consisting of prelecture online polling followed by linked revision lectures. This investigation involves studying the responses from 43 undergraduate students following a course in accounting at a British university. With regard to the students' views on the use of prelecture polling, our study shows that there are no statistically significant differences between those who did not participate in the online polling and those who did. Both groups of students were generally positive about the use of (1) polling results in structuring the revision lecture, (2) online survey in helping them prepare for the examination and (3) online polling as a teaching platform in other courses. Our findings therefore suggest that prelecture electronic surveys can help engage students with follow‐up lectures, including those who did not participate in the prelecture survey.     

A prospective study of pedometer-determined physical activity and physical self-perceptions in children

There have been limited prospective studies investigating physical activity and physical self-perceptions in children. In this investigation, mean steps/day did not significantly change from late elementary to junior high for either boys or girls; however; boys accumulated more steps both at baseline and follow-up. Physical self-perception measures were significantly related to changes in steps/day and accounted for 21% (15% adjusted) of the variance after controlling for demographic/biological variables, R2 change = .21, adjusted R2 change = .15, F (5,88) = 4.66, p < .001. Sport competence emerged as the most important predictor t (88) = -3.76, p < .001, and was inversely related to physical activity change. The lack of opportunities to participate in sport activities normally found at the onset of adolescence may help explain this unexpected result.     

Water-repellent and biocide treatments: Assessment of the potential combinations

It is a common practice to use several chemical products during restoration projects of monuments or sculptures. However, care must be taken when combining the products to avoid a misuse. For example, it is well-known that applying a biocide on stone before a water-repellent leads to a diminishment of the hydrophobic effect of the treatment. But the application of biocide after a water-repellent treatment has been poorly analysed, although studies have proven that the stone looses its hydrophobicity after the application of the biocide. Henceforth, this study investigates the effects of biocide application on a water-repellent film and focuses on the possibilities to restore the efficiency of the previous water-repellent treatment (after the application of the biocide). At first, the tests were performed on glass slides to understand the mechanisms, with the subsequent results revealing that the biocide product deposits on the water-repellent film. Then, the study focuses on determining methods to remove the remains of biocide on limestone samples, previously treated with a water-repellent. The water-repellent used in the study is an alkylpolysiloxane, Rhodorsil H224 from Rhodia.     

The prevalence and risk indicators of symptoms of common mental disorders among current and former Dutch elite athletes

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence and comorbidity of symptoms of common mental disorders (distress, anxiety/depression, sleep disturbance, eating disorders, adverse alcohol use) among current and former Dutch elite athletes, and to explore the inference between potential risk indicators (severe injury, surgery, life events, sport career dissatisfaction, social support) and the outcomes measures under investigation. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted on baseline questionnaires from an ongoing prospective cohort study among 203 current and 282 former elite Dutch athletes (response rate: 28% among current athletes and 95% among former athletes). Based on validated scales, an electronic questionnaire was set up and distributed. Prevalence (4-week) ranged from 6% for adverse alcohol use to 45% for anxiety/depression among current elite athletes, and from 18% for distress to 29% for anxiety/depression among former elite athletes. A higher number of past severe injuries, higher number of past surgeries, higher number of recent life events, higher level of career dissatisfaction and lower level of social support were related to the occurrence of symptoms of common mental disorders among both current and former elite athletes. On average, the 4-week prevalence of common mental disorders as shown in our study among current and former Dutch elite athletes were similar to the ones found among athletes from other sports disciplines and does compare with the lifetime prevalence estimates in the general population of the Netherlands.     

Developing national attainment measures: A study of irish experience

Recent experience of test development in Ireland, a country which had no tradition of formal standardised testing, is drawn on, in order to highlight a number of practical and measurement problems that future test developers in other countries may experience. The paper focuses on a number of issues that have received relatively little attention in the literature. The practical problems which are examined include the identification of the objectives of the school curriculum, the production of test materials and the selection of appropriate samples of schools for standardisation purposes. The measurement or psychometric problems relate to curricular and statistical characteristics of individual test items, a test ceiling effect caused by some pupils answering all or almost all of the test items correctly and the lack of test sophistication among pupils and teachers. It is pointed out that a number of conventional procedures for developing norm-referenced measures of pupil attainment may prove somewhat less than successful in countries or educational systems with common curricula.

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Zusammenfassung Aufgrund neuerer Erfahrungen in Irland, einem Lande, das keine Tradition formalen standardisierten Testens besitzt, stellt der Verfasser eine Anzahl praktischer und psychometrischer Probleme heraus, denen wahrscheinlich auch zukünftige Testentwickler in anderen Ländern begegnen werden. Im Vordergrund steht eine Reihe von Fragen, die in der einschlägigen Literatur bisher wenig Beachtung gefunden haben. Zu den untersuchten praktischen Problemen gehören die Identifizierung der Schulcurriculumsziele, die Herstellung von Testmaterialien und die Auswahl geeigneter Samples von Schulen zum Zwecke der Standardisierung. Die Messungsoder psychometrischen Probleme betreffen curriculare und statistische Merkmale der einzelnen Testfragen, eine Art Höchstgrenze der Tests, die erreicht wird, wenn mehrere Schüler alle oder fast alle Fragen richtig beantworten, sowie mangelnde Gewandtheit von Schülern und Lehrern im Umgang mit Testfragen. Ferner wird darauf hingewiesen, dass sich verschiedene gebräuchliche Verfahren zur Entwicklung von normbezogenen Massstäben für Schülerleistungen in Ländern oder Bildungssystemen mit einheitlichen Curricula als wenig erfolgreich erweisen dürften.

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Résumé Une expérience a été menée récemment sur le développement des tests en Irlande — un pays qui n'a aucune tradition de standardisation formelle en ce domaine — pour mettre en évidence un certain nombre de problèmes d'ordre pratique et d'évaluation que pourraient rencontrer les futurs utilisateurs de tests dans d'autres pays. L'article est centré sur un certain nombre de questions auxquelles, jusqu'à présent, la littérature spécialisée n'a accordé que peu d'attention. Les problèmes pratiques examinés comprennent l'identification des objectifs du curriculum scolaire, la production des matériels de test et la sélection des échantillons appropriés d'écoles en vue d'une standardisation. L'évaluation ou les problèmes psychométriques se rapportent aux caractéristiques curriculaires et statistiques des questions du test individuel, à un test à effet plafonnant causé par le fait que presque tous les élèves répondent correctement à tous, ou presque tous les items du test, et à un manque d'habitude aux tests tant chez les élèves que chez les enseignants. L'auteur de l'article souligne qu'un grand nombre de procédés conventionnels pour développer les mesures normatives des acquisitions de l'élève peuvent se révéler quelque peu décevants dans des pays, ou dans des systèmes d'éducation, ayant des curricula communs.

     

A model for using a concept inventory as a tool for students' assessment and faculty professional development

This essay describes how the use of a concept inventory has enhanced professional development and curriculum reform efforts of a faculty teaching community. The Host Pathogen Interactions (HPI) teaching team is composed of research and teaching faculty with expertise in HPI who share the goal of improving the learning experience of students in nine linked undergraduate microbiology courses. To support evidence-based curriculum reform, we administered our HPI Concept Inventory as a pre- and postsurvey to approximately 400 students each year since 2006. The resulting data include student scores as well as their open-ended explanations for distractor choices. The data have enabled us to address curriculum reform goals of 1) reconciling student learning with our expectations, 2) correlating student learning with background variables, 3) understanding student learning across institutions, 4) measuring the effect of teaching techniques on student learning, and 5) demonstrating how our courses collectively form a learning progression. The analysis of the concept inventory data has anchored and deepened the team's discussions of student learning. Reading and discussing students' responses revealed the gap between our understanding and the students' understanding. We provide evidence to support the concept inventory as a tool for assessing student understanding of HPI concepts and faculty development.     

Impact ‘fingerprints’ and preliminary implications for an ‘intelligent mouthguard’ head impact dosimeter

An in vivo head impact dosimeter, termed the ??intelligent mouthguard??, is under development at the Cleveland Clinic. The intelligent mouthguard facilitates correlation of acute and accumulative impact dosage with injury risk. As part of intelligent mouthguard dosimetry development for boxing and mixed martial arts participants, head and neck impact dosage was quantified in the laboratory for seven (7) punch types. Impact dosage data for punches were collected, which generated unique ??fingerprints?? for use with the intelligent mouthguard computational algorithm. Additional calculations were made on parameters based on each punch ??fingerprint?? and injury risk. Each of the punches had a unique ??fingerprint??. The hook imparted the most severe impact dosage, with the cross and oblique hook inducing the next most severe impact dosages, respectively. The impact dosage ??fingerprints?? determined here will be used to identify punch types during intelligent mouthguard human trials in 2012. Intelligent mouthguard dosimetry will be available soon for other contact sports (American Football, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse) to monitor head?Cneck impact dosage for correlation to acute or accumulative injury risk.