The role of expert searching in the Family Physicians' Inquiries Network (FPIN).

OBJECTIVE: This article describes the contributions of medical librarians, as members of the Family Physicians' Inquiries Network (FPIN), to the creation of a database of clinical questions and answers that allows family physicians to practice evidence-based medicine using high-quality information at the point of care. The medical librarians have contributed their evidence-based search expertise and knowledge of information systems that support the processes and output of the consortium. METHODS: Since its inception, librarians have been included as valued members of the FPIN community. FPIN recognizes the search expertise of librarians, and each FPIN librarian must meet qualifications demonstrating appropriate experience and training in evidence-based medicine. The consortium works collaboratively to produce the Clinical Inquiries series published in family medicine publications. RESULTS: Over 170 Clinical Inquiries have appeared in Journal of Family Practice (JFP) and American Family Physician (AFP). Surveys have shown that this series has become the most widely read part of the JFP Website. As a result, FPIN has formalized specific librarian roles that have helped build the organizational infrastructure. CONCLUSIONS: All of the activities of the consortium are highly collaborative, and the librarian community reflects that. The FPIN librarians are valuable and equal contributors to the process of creating, updating, and maintaining high-quality clinical information for practicing primary care physicians. Of particular value is the skill of expert searching that the librarians bring to FPIN's products.     

Unemployment,Apprenticeships and Training: does it pay to stay on at school?

Data from the National Child Development Study are used to compare the progress up to age 23 of young people who reached 16 in March 1974 and who left full time education at 16, 17 or 18. Later leavers had higher unemployment rates on first entering the labour market because of rising national unemployment, but in the long term had a clear advantage. More significantly, those who left at 17 or 18 with qualifications no better than those of minimum age leavers suffered no long term disadvantage in comparison with the latter, despite their loss of potential work experience, and some groups had lower unemployment rates in the long term than minimum age leavers with equally good qualifications. Apprenticeships were more common among later leavers than expected, and later leavers compared favourably with early leavers in terms of other forms of in‐work training. It is concluded that the ‘non‐academic sixth’ could have a useful role alongside YTS.     

Does context matter? Explicit print instruction during reading varies in its influence by child and classroom factors

This study examined preschool teachers’ (n = 59) explicit print instruction during shared reading and considered whether the benefits of this practice to children's learning (n = 379) varied as a function of the classroom environment and children's developmental characteristics. Measures of explicit print instruction and the classroom environment (global classroom quality, literacy environment) were obtained by aggregating observations taken across the 30 weeks of the study. Child outcomes were measured as spring print knowledge performance, controlling for fall. Child developmental characteristics were measured directly (language ability) and indirectly (attentional skills) in fall and winter, respectively. Findings showed that explicit print instruction contributed to children's learning, but its benefits decreased as the quality of the classroom and children's attentional skills increased. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Observing the coach-created motivational environment across training and competition in youth sport

Adopting an integrated achievement goal (Nicholls, J. G. (1989). The competitive ethos and democratic education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.) and self-determination theory (Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227–268. doi:10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01) perspective as proffered by Duda, J. L. (2013). (The conceptual and empirical foundations of empowering coaching^TM: Setting the stage for the PAPA project. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 11, 311–318. doi:10.1080/1612197X.2013.839414), the aim of the current study was to observe empowering and disempowering features of the multidimensional motivational coaching environment in training and competition in youth sport. Seventeen grass-roots soccer coaches were observed and rated in training and competitive settings using the multidimensional motivational climate observation system (MMCOS; Smith, N., Tessier, D., Tzioumakis, Y., Quested, E., Appleton, P., Sarrazin, P., … Duda, J. L. (2015). Development and validation of the multidimensional motivational climate observation system (MMCOS). Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 37, 4–22. doi:10.1123/jsep.2014-0059). In line with our hypotheses, coaches created different motivational environments in the two contexts. More specifically, coaches were observed to create a less empowering and more disempowering environment in competition compared to in training. The observed differences were underpinned by distinctive motivational strategies used by coaches in the two contexts. Findings have implications for the assessment of the coach-created motivational environment and the promotion of quality motivation for young athletes taking part in grass-roots-level sport.     

Social Influences on False Belief Access: Specific Sibling Influences or General Apprenticeship?

Some recent studies have found a relation between the number of siblings 3–4-year-old children have and their performance on false belief tasks. 2 experiments reported here examine a variety of factors in children's social environments, including daily contact with peers and adults as well as the numbers of their siblings, on a battery of false belief tests. In Experiment 1, 82 preschoolers were studied in Rethymnon, Crete, in order to obtain a range of extended kin available as a resource for the child. In Experiment 2, 75 Cypriot preschoolers were studied in Nicosia in order to examine the influences of each child's daily social contacts, as measured by maternal questionnaire. Logistic regression revealed that the factors which account for most of the predicted variance on the theory of mind tests were ( a ) the number of adult kin available (Experiment 1) or adults interacted with daily (Experiment 2), ( b ) the child's age, ( c ) the number of older siblings a child has, and ( d ) the number of older children interacted with daily. The results suggested that theory of mind is not simply passed from one sibling to another in a process of social influence. It seems more likely that a variety of knowledgeable members of her or his culture influence the apprentice theoretician of mind.     

The role of outdoor recreation in family enrichment

The family is the fundamental unit in society and perhaps the oldest and most important of all human institutions. Several studies have indicated a positive correlation between strong, successful families and family participation in outdoor recreational activities. This paper addresses the role of structured outdoor recreation programming in family enrichment. Findings from two studies based in the United States are presented: one on the effect of a one-day family outdoor adventure program on parental and child perceptions of family functioning and the other from a qualitative inquiry into the meaning of family residential camping experiences. The first study collected both quantitative and qualitative data from 24 families who participated in an 8-hour outdoor adventure program. The second study utilized structured interviews with 11 families participating in a residential camp experience. Findings from both studies demonstrate that structured outdoor family recreation programming has a strong positive relationship with family strength. Furthermore, findings indicate that the type of outdoor adventure activities being used in the treatment of dysfunctional and maladaptive families is also effective in providing family enrichment experiences.     

Primary Teachers' thinking about the English National Curriculum for science: Autobiographies,warrants, and autonomy

Primary teachers, whether or not they have a specialized background in science, hold the key to understanding how science is presently working in primary schools. This paper examines their confidence and identity as science teachers in tandem with their views on the English National Curriculum and the warrants they give for those views. Data for this study were collected by in‐depth interviews of a small sample of primary teachers, setting their views in the context of their science‐related life histories. These are presented in three ways—by biographical sketches illuminating their self‐image as science teachers; by analysis of their views on the curriculum; and by analysis of the types of knowledge they used as warrants for their views. Analysis showed that their professional self‐image and their ‘science autobiographies’ were mutually validating. Where science teaching had become embedded into their perception of themselves as teachers, their critiques of the science curriculum and their desire for autonomy in its teaching could be shown to be consistent with their values © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 1043–1056, 2000     

When Marketisation Does Not Improve Schooling: the case of Macau

For centuries Macau has experienced extended market principles for schooling, with very limited state intervention in education, and only a recent history of regarding schooling as a public good. This paper suggests that laissez‐faire market principles have failed to provide high quality schooling in Macau and that considerable state intervention is required to ensure that education develops as a public good in Macau. The case is made for a ‘mixed economy’ of public and private providers of schooling as a public good in Macau, thereby building on the existing extensive private provision that exists there, with attention still needing to be given to quality control and increased governmental support. A state‐regulated market might be more effective than a genuinely open market. The case of Macau is used to demonstrate that public goods and private services are neither polar opposites nor mutually exclusive. The greater involvement of the state in education in Macau, with the impending handback of Macau to China in 1999, might be problematic if it becomes too intrusive and repressive, although there are indications from Macau's immediate neighbours in China's regions that China itself is moving towards marketisation, diversification of providers of education, decentralisation of administration, and increasing privatisation. This may facilitate integration and harmonisation. Macau's situation of a small state in transition to re‐incorporation is compared to the situation of other former colonies, and an agenda for reform is suggested.     

How Accurate Is Peer Grading?

Previously we showed that weekly, written, timed, and peer-graded practice exams help increase student performance on written exams and decrease failure rates in an introductory biology course. Here we analyze the accuracy of peer grading, based on a comparison of student scores to those assigned by a professional grader. When students graded practice exams by themselves, they were significantly easier graders than a professional; overall, students awarded ≈25% more points than the professional did. This difference represented ≈1.33 points on a 10-point exercise, or 0.27 points on each of the five 2-point questions posed. When students graded practice exams as a group of four, the same student-expert difference occurred. The student-professional gap was wider for questions that demanded higher-order versus lower-order cognitive skills. Thus, students not only have a harder time answering questions on the upper levels of Bloom's taxonomy, they have a harder time grading them. Our results suggest that peer grading may be accurate enough for low-risk assessments in introductory biology. Peer grading can help relieve the burden on instructional staff posed by grading written answers-making it possible to add practice opportunities that increase student performance on actual exams.