Impact of Anatomy Boot Camp on Students in a Medical Gross Anatomy Course

Lincoln Memorial University‐DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU‐DCOM) offers an optional three‐week summer Anatomy Boot Camp course (ABC) to facilitate students' transition into medical school and promote retention of anatomy subject matter. The pre‐matriculation program is a supplemental instruction course that utilizes a small group learning format. Boot camp instruction is led by teaching assistants and two anatomy professors. Enrollees gain early exposure to Medical Gross Anatomy (MGA) course subject matter, which is taught in the fall semester, and learn study skills necessary to excel in medical school. No grade is assigned for the course, therefore participants can study without the fear of potentially affecting grades. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the LMU‐DCOM ABC course using data from four consecutive summers. Independent two‐sample t‐tests were used to compare ABC to non‐ABC students for the following variables: incoming grade point average (GPA) and Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®) scores, MGA written and laboratory practical examination grades, and final MGA course grade. Additionally, a 26‐question survey was administered to 2012–2014 boot camp participants. There were no significant differences in incoming GPA and MCAT scores. However, boot campers scored significantly higher on the first two lecture and laboratory examinations (P < 0.05) for each year of the study. Thereafter scores varied less, suggesting a faster head start for boot camp participants. Mean MGA final grade was on average 3% higher for the boot camp cohort. The survey feedback supports that the ABC course assists with the academic and social transition into medical school. Anat Sci Educ 10: 215–223. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

Cognitive deficits in reading disability and attention deficit disorder

This paper presents data from three studies (a cross-sectional study of school-referred children, a test-retest study of subtypes of reading disabilities, and a study of a large, random sample of first graders) that focus on specifying the cognitive deficits associated with reading difficulties and separating them from those associated with attentional deficits. The cognitive deficits associated with difficulty in reading were consistent across samples, developmental levels, definitions, and subtypes of reading disabilities. With IQ, age, and sex controlled for, poor readers were significantly impaired on measures of naming and phonological awareness. The effects of attentional deficits were more variable and complex but were clearly separate from the reading disability effects.     

BOOK REVIEWS

The Politics of Education in the Local Community. Robert S. Cahill and Stephen P. Hencley, Editors.
The Political Power and Educational Decision-Making. By Ralph B. Kimbrough.     

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence for Gestational Age Effects in Healthy Preterm and Fullterm Infants Studied Two Weeks after Expected Due Date

We investigated the effects of gestational age at birth on behavioral and electrophysiological measures of 135 medically healthy infants, studied at 42 weeks postconception, and stratified into 3 groups--early-born preterms, 26-32 weeks (n = 55); middle-group preterms, 33-37 weeks (n = 43); and fullterms, 38-41 weeks (n = 37). Subjects were studied behaviorally with the Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior (APIB) and electrophysiologically with brain electrical activity mapping (BEAM). Fullterms showed significantly better behavioral function than both preterm groups. Less difference was found between the preterm groups. EEG spectral and photic evoked response were of significantly less amplitude for the preterms than the fullterms. Path analysis showed gestational age effects on behavioral (3 of 6) and electrophysiological (13 of 17) variables due to postnatal complications. We conclude that some differences attributable to gestational age at birth are explained by the cumulative effect of minor but unavoidable complications associated with premature birth. We speculate that remaining effects may result from developmentally inappropriate sensorimotor stimulation consequent to the premature experience of an extrauterine environment.     

Acceptance of self,acceptance of others,and preferred teaching approach

One hundred and eighty-one teacher training students sat three attitude measuring instruments to investigate the relationships between attitudes to self, attitudes to others and attitudes to educational practices. Clinical studies within the ambit of Rogerian psychotherapy suggest that a relationship between self and other attitudes should be positive. Substantial and statistically significant positive correlations, in the order of p<0.01, emerged consistently in this study between attitudes to self and attitudes to a range of others and to progressive child centred educational practices. Self acceptance level would seem to be an index of attitudes to a wide range of others. This relationship provides a principle of utmost importance for human relationships since the application of psychological processes to enhance the self concept should facilitate as a corollary a decrease in interpersonal tensions and inter group conflict. This relationship is of particular consequence in the teaching context since teaching is a sharing of self with others. The results of the study suggest that those with low self acceptance prefer (p<0.01) to avoid close encounters with pupils and prefer a more traditional formal teaching style.     

Children's attitudes towards disability: A review and analysis of the literature

A first step towards the design and implementation of a successful mainstreaming program requires a careful examination of two key issues. First, what are children's attitudes towards disability, and second, what are the critical elements involved in facilitating attitude change? This paper examines the current research literature on children's attitudes towards disability and programs aimed at attitude change. The review culminates in a synthesis of the key themes and issues involved and provides a foundation for further study.     

Acceptance of lack of closure: is it an index of advanced reasoning?

Lunzer reported data suggestive of a stage of cognitive development manifest between 9 and 11 years of age characterized by the ability to avoid drawing premature inferences when faced with ambiguity (i.e., accept lack of closure [ALC]). The present study sought to test this hypothesis. Inference tasks emphasizing ALC, memory, and hypothetico-deductive reasoning were administered to 67 males and 74 females (5-12 years in age). Although use of ALC increased with age, considerable use was evidenced on a simple task among 7-8-year-olds. On tasks hypothesized to place increasing demands on working memory, longer tasks were found to be more difficult. Marked improvement due to memory aids suggested that task difficulty results from limitations in working memory as predicted by Pascual-Leone's theory. Tasks requiring hypothetico-deductive reasoning were found to be most difficult. Performance was related to subject's spontaneous use of ALC. Lack of appropriate strategies was hypothesized to prevent solution rather than lack of logical competence. In conclusion, the relationship of ALC to age appears to be mediated by memory development rather than logical development.     

Compliance and Comprehension in Very Young Toddlers

We studied the relation of compliance with comprehension in 30 toddlers, 10 each at 12–13, 14–16, and 17–18 months of age. Requests, using preselected words, were made to children in the context of a naturalistic and pleasant play situation in a quasilaboratory setting. Detailed coding systems were used to define comprehension, compliance, and patterns of compliance-comprehension, noncompliance-comprehension, compliance-noncomprehension, and noncompliance-noncomprehension at each age period. Findings indicated significant shifts in the categories of compliance-comprehension and noncompliance-noncomprehension across the 3 ages, with the most striking change occurring between 14–16 and 17–18 months. Implications of the data are discussed.