Stability of repeated student evaluations of teaching in the second preclinical year of a medical curriculum

The second preclinical year of the medical curriculum at the Medical Faculty of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland includes nine multidisciplinary organ-system-oriented modules consisting of lectures and problem-based-learning tutorials. This study reports the experience accumulated with the evaluation of lectures during the academic years 1998–1999 and 1999–2000. The ratings of the different modules were highly variable, indicating the ability of students to have a critical view on the teaching and the teachers. There was a close to very close correlation between the ratings obtained during the two study years. The high discriminative capacity of students in evaluating the teaching and the teachers was also supported by their critical point of view expressed in free comments. Our observations stress therefore the reliability of teaching evaluations systematically performed by medical students.     

Preventive Conservation on Demand: Developing Tools and Learning Resources for the Next Generation of Collections Professionals

ABSTRACT

The modern learning environment is evolving at a rapid pace. Technology can help developers of preventive conservation tools and learning resources for collections professionals to increase their impact and reach. However, it is crucial to keep the needs of users, and gaps in skills and knowledge at the forefront. This article examines preventive conservation tools and resources developed by the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) and ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) over the past 30 years. In light of the results from a recent survey and research in the learning and development field, a set of orientations for future tool development are highlighted; these tools must be: need driven, user centered, emulating everyday experiences, social and informal, concise, mobile friendly, curated and open access.     

Verbal Aggression,Race, and Sex on Reality TV: Is This Really the Way It Is?

This content analysis examines verbal aggression, race, and gender presented in a composite week of popular reality TV programming on cable and broadcast television. Results show that African Americans were found to be overrepresented and depicted disproportionately as more verbally aggressive and more likely to be victims of verbal aggression than other races/ethnicities. African American women were more likely than men to be involved in verbal aggression, both as aggressor and victim. The results are discussed in terms of the potential effects of exposure to verbal aggression and the accompanying contextual factors found in reality TV programming.     

Designing computer-based learning contents: influence of digital zoom on attention

In the present study, we investigated the role of digital zoom as a tool for directing attention while looking at visual learning material. In particular, we analyzed whether minimal digital zoom functions similarly to a rhetorical device by cueing mental zooming of attention accordingly. Participants were presented either static film clips, film clips with minimal zoom-ins, or film clips with minimal zoom-outs while eye movements were recorded. We hypothesized that minimal zoom-ins should lead to more gaze coherence, to longer dwell times as an indicator of more elaborative processing, and to fewer transitions as an indicator of less mental integration. Zoom-outs, on the other hand, were expected to have opposite effects. Results showed that zoom-ins increase gaze coherence and dwell times on the center parts of the depictions while decreasing transitions of pictorial elements from the center and the context areas. In contrast, patterns of results from zoom-outs and static presentations were similar to a large degree, indicating that zoom-ins and zoom-outs do not operate in a complementary fashion. Theoretical and practical implications of the present results are discussed.     

The issue at a glance

The issue at a glance     

Impact of Fewer Questions per Section on SAT I Scores

The impact of allowing more time for each question on the SAT I: Reasoning Test scores was estimated by embedding sections with a reduced number of questions into the standard 30-minute equating section of two national test administrations. Thus, for example, questions were deleted from a verbal section that contained 35 questions to produce forms that contained 27 or 23 questions. Scores on the 23-question section could then be compared to scores on the same 23 questions when they were embedded in a section that contained 27 or 35 questions. Similarly, questions were deleted from a 25-question math section to form sections of 20 and 17 questions. Allowing more time per question had a minimal impact on verbal scores, producing gains of less than 10 points on the 200–800 SAT scale. Gains for the math score were less than 30 points. High-scoring students tended to benefit more than lower-scoring students, with extra time creating no increase in scores for students with SAT scores of 400 or lower. Ethnic/racial and gender differences were neither increased nor reduced with extra time.     

The Faithful Citizen: Popular Christian Media and Gendered Civic Identities

Seargent S. Prentiss: Whig Orator of the Old South. By Dallas C. Dickey. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1945; pp. ix + 422. $4.00.

The English Language in American Education. The Report of a Special Committee. Prepared for the Modern Language Association of America by Thomas Clark Pollock with the cooperation of William Clyde de Vane and Robert E. Spiller. New York: Commission on Trends in Education, Modern Language Association, 1945; pp. 31. $0.25.

Your Voice: Applied Science of Vocal Art, Singing and Speaking. By Douglas Stanley. New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1945; pp. xiii + 306. $4.50.

The Complete Acted Play. By Allen Craf ton and Jessica Royer. New York: F. S. Crofts and Co., 1943; pp. 385.

Selected Speeches and Statements of General of the Army George C. Marshall. Edited by Major H. A. De Weerd. Washington: The Infantry Journal, 1945; pp. xiii + 257. $2.75.

Teacher in America. By Jacques Barzun. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1945; pp. 321. $3.00.

General Education in a Free Society. Report of the Harvard Committee. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1945; pp. 267. $2.00.

Essentials of English for Latin Americans. By Dominic P. Rotunda, Willard M. Smith, Evaline Uhl Wright of The English Language Institute, Mills College. Berkeley: The Gillick Press, 1945; pp. 247. $2.00.

Jefferson and the Press. By Frank L. Mott. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1943; pp. 65. $1.00.

The Patterning of Listener Attitudes toward Radio Broadcasts. By John Gray Peatman and Tore Hallonquist. Applied Psychology Monographs, No. 4. Stanford University, California; Stanford University Press, 1945; pp. 58. Paper, $1.00; cloth, $1.75.

Studies of Teachers’ Classroom Personalities. I. Dominative and Socially Integrative Behavior of Kindergarten Teachers. By Harold H. Anderson and Helen M; Brewer, with foreword by H. F. Jones. Applied Psychology Monograph, No. 6. Stanford University, California: Stanford University Press, 1945; pp. 157. $2.00.     

A developmental approach to the risk of a first recurrence in child protective services

The objective of this study is to estimate the risk of a first recurrence over a five-year period following initial child protective services (CPS) intervention and identify the characteristics associated with the risk of recurrence for three different age groups. Recurrence is defined as the first substantiated report within the observation period after initial services have ended. The study involved a cohort of 25,897 Quebec children who received postinvestigation services for the first time and whose cases were closed between 2005 and 2009. Survival analysis was used to estimate the five-year risk of recurrence and Cox regression to model the risk of recurrence for three age groups. The covariates introduced into the regression analyses were characteristics of the child and initial services. The risk of recurrence in the five years following termination of initial CPS services was 36% for the entire cohort and varied depending on the child's age at the time of case closure. Children aged 6–11 when their cases were closed had the highest risk of recurrence. Although Aboriginal descent and prior CPS investigations have a consistent effect on the risk of recurrence in all three age groups, the effects of other covariates, such as out-of-home placement and court involvement, vary or are even reversed, depending on the child's age. These findings highlight the need to adopt a differential approach that takes into account the child's age, both in the provision of protective services and in research involving the population receiving such services.