Mexican Educators Survey on Anatomical Sciences Education and a Review of World Tendencies

Anatomical sciences curricula have been under constant reform over the years, with many countries having to reduce course hours while trying to preserve laboratory time. In Mexico, schools have historically been autonomous and unregulated, and data regarding structure and methods are still lacking. A national survey was sent by the Mexican Society of Anatomy to 110 anatomical sciences educators. The questionnaire consisted of 50 items (open and multiple choice) for gross anatomy, microscopic anatomy, neuroanatomy, and embryology courses in medical schools across Mexico. A clinical approach was the most common course approach in all disciplines. Contact course hours and laboratory hours were higher in Mexican anatomy education compared to other countries, with the highest reported contact hours for embryology (133.4 ± 44.1) and histology (125 ± 33.2). There were similar contact hours to other countries for gross anatomy (228.5 ± 60.5). Neuroanatomy course hours (43.9 ± 13.1) were less than reported by the United States and similar to Saudi Arabia and higher than the United Kingdom. Dissection and microscopy with histological slides predominate as the most common laboratory activities. Traditional methods prevail in most of the courses in Mexico and only a few educators have implemented innovative and technological tools. Implementation of new methods, approaches, and curricular changes are needed to enhance anatomical sciences education in Mexico.     

Impact of a sustained Cooperative Learning intervention on student motivation

Background: Cooperative Learning has been recently defined as a true pedagogical model. Moreover, in a recent review Casey and Goodyear reported that it can help physical education promote the four basic learning outcomes: physical, cognitive, social and affective.

Purpose: The main goal was to investigate the impact of a sustained Cooperative Learning intervention on student motivation. The second goal was to assess students’ perceptions of the Cooperative Learning class climate. Finally, the third goal was to explore students’ feelings and thoughts after experiencing Cooperative Learning in physical education for an extended period of time.

Participants and settings: 249 students (grades 8–11) and 4 teachers enrolled in 4 different high schools agreed to participate. Each school administration allocated several class groups to each teacher based on its necessities. Therefore, intact physical education classes played a part in this research project. They were randomly distributed into an experimental group with 137 students (mean age 13.91?±?1.76 years), which experienced 3 consecutive cooperative learning units, and a comparison group with 112 students (mean age 13.41?±?1.25 years), which experienced a traditional teaching approach during the same length of time.

Research design: A pre-test, post-test, quasi-experimental, comparison group design was followed.

Data collection: Prior to and at the end of the intervention programme, all participating students were asked to complete a questionnaire, which included the Perceived Locus of Causality Scale and the subscale ‘Cooperative Learning’ of the Perceived Motivational Climate Questionnaire. At post-test, participants in the experimental group were also asked to: ‘Describe your feelings, your thoughts and your ideas on the three Cooperative Learning units that you just experienced in physical education’.

Data analysis: Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS 22.0, while MAXQDA 11 was used to assist with qualitative data management.

Findings: Quantitative data showed an increase in intrinsic motivation and identified regulation only in the experimental group. This group also increased its perceptions of a Cooperative Learning class climate. Qualitative data analysis of the students’ responses after experiencing Cooperative Learning on a sustained basis produced five major themes: cooperation, relatedness, enjoyment, novelty and disappointment. All these findings are in line with Vallerand's hierarchical model of motivation, where social factors (i.e. Cooperative Learning) influence psychological mediators (i.e. relatedness), which mediate over the different types of motivation (i.e. intrinsic motivation) and finally lead to different outcomes (i.e. enjoyment).

Conclusion: Cooperative Learning applied on a sustained basis can increase the most self-determined types of motivation, intrinsic motivation and identified regulation, in secondary education students. Students’ perceptions after experiencing Cooperative Learning for a long period of time reflected four positive ideas: cooperation, relatedness, enjoyment and novelty and a negative one: disappointment. Both the positive and the negative ideas should be considered when implementing Cooperative Learning in physical education, because students experience them.     

Enhancing consent forms to support participant decision making in multimodal learning data research

Advances in the field of multimodal learning analytics (MMLA) research is often accomplished by actively exploring new technologies and techniques related to the collection and analysis of data. Exploration of ethical principles and procedures for governing the use of new technologies and techniques, however, is not as readily pursued. As collected data grow in complexity and invasiveness, potentially, a growing need is arising to scrutinize ethical aspects of MMLA research. In our study, we introduce an informed consent comprehension test for educational technology research and assess the effects of enhancing MMLA consent forms on comprehension of informed consent and on rates of enrollment in a MMLA study. One form is written from a researcher perspective and the other from a participant perspective. Results of the study involving first-year undergraduate students suggest that the overall level of comprehension did not differ between conditions. Yet, the participant-oriented consent form resulted in significantly lower rates of enrollment. Implications for MMLA researchers are discussed.     

Understanding crowdsourcing projects: A systematic review of tendencies,workflow, and quality management

Crowdsourcing is a powerful method that leverages human intelligence to solve problems in the medical, linguistics, machine learning, and in a considerable number of other fields of study. This systematic review aims to understand how crowdsourcing projects are designed and executed in the state-of-the-art, considering the following dimensions: Task execution, quality management, and platform usage. Our results summarized trends of the important aspects of a crowdsourcing project, such as crowd and task types, crowdsourcing platforms, and activities used to manage the quality; we also addressed functions and limitations in traditional crowdsourcing platforms, the definition of a crowdsourcing workflow, and the lack of standardization when developing a crowdsourcing project. As future works, we wish to design a conceptual model that represents the important elements of a crowdsourcing project and their relationships, also, we wish to do further researchers focusing on how the quality mechanisms listed in this work should be used in crowdsourcing projects to get reliable results.     

The association of thinking styles with research agendas among academics in the social sciences

Research agendas are understudied, despite being key to academic knowledge creation. The literature suggests that the ways that academics determine their research agendas are conditioned by individual, organisational and environmental characteristics. This study explores the cognitive aspects of academics' research agendas in the social sciences by using a theory on thinking styles as an analytical framework. The results suggest that the research agendas of academics in the social sciences are significantly associated with their thinking styles. These findings aid understanding of how academics set their research agendas. This study also represents an important landmark in research on thinking styles, focusing on academic research work as a potential venue for further studies. The findings are relevant for policymakers, research funding agencies, university administrators and academics because they have implications for academic research development processes, outcomes, and for research and academic identity socialisation during doctoral studies.     

Swirling Students: Articulation Between A Major Community College District and a State-Supported Research University

As the country experiences a recession and institutions of higher education increase tuition to compensate for diminishing state support, the transferability of credits among and between institutions is essential to students seeking to earn a baccalaureate degree. Students, parents, and taxpayers cannot afford to pay twice for the same courses or for additional courses. In this environment, articulation becomes a very important issue, particularly when research has shown that a significant number of students enroll in more than one institution on their path to a degree. The focus of this article is the swirling students between the Maricopa Community Colleges and Arizona State University. Swirling students, also a national phenomenon, encounter a number of challenges that institutions need to address. The history of articulation agreements in Arizona was explored to provide insight into the transfer model available to students enrolled at the Maricopa Community Colleges and Arizona State University. The data revealed that the extent of student swirl is greater than initially anticipated and transcends beyond lower division coursework into the senior year. After considering the findings and conclusions based on the data, this article concludes that transparent institutional intentionality is imperative to effective articulation agreements that accommodate student swirl.     

Quantity of Group Child Care,Behavior Problems,and Prosocial Behaviors: A Study with Portuguese Preschoolers

Research Findings: Data from a national sample of Portuguese preschool centers were used to examine the relationship between age of start and number of hours in child care and levels of externalizing and prosocial behaviors with peers. Participants were both parents and teachers of 543 children (mean age = 4.5 years, 50.6% girls). Children started child care between 3 and 64 months and were attending child care 1–9 hr per day. The child care centers’ classrooms had adult–child ratios between 5 and 8.7 and group sizes between 15 and 26 children. Externalizing and prosocial behavior with peers was assessed with the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale–Short Form completed by the 3 adult informants. Control variables included family sociodemographics and education level, maternal parenting style assessed with the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, and maternal stress assessed with the Parenting Experiences questionnaire. Practice or Policy: Both the number of hours per week in child care and an earlier start of center-based child care had modest but significant associations with dimensional scores from teachers’ reports of externalizing behavior but not with mothers’ or fathers’ reports, suggesting that externalizing behavior with peers could be regarded as context specific to peer relationships in group child care. There was no evidence that the quantity of exposure to child care per se could be a substantial risk factor for severe levels of externalizing behavior. Prosocial behavior with peers was not significantly associated with the number of hours in child care or with the age of entry into group child care.     

Am I That Talented? The experiences of gifted individuals from diverse educational backgrounds at the postsecondary level

The experiences of gifted students at the postsecondary level have not been studied widely. The goal of the present study was to explore and describe gifted students’ perceptions of their first year after high school regarding experiences of success and failure. Two focus groups were conducted with 12 students (8 males, 4 females) from different educational backgrounds, who had participated in a university-based enrichment program, to discuss topics related to their academic and socio-emotional experiences at a postsecondary level. Many students who attended vocational high schools experienced high levels of discomfort with their academic preparedness to face postsecondary education. Other initial problems were adapting socially to a new environment and perceiving themselves as “less” gifted than their peers. However, after these initial adjustment problems, students revealed high perseverance to face difficulties and a strong motivation for continuing the academic path they had outlined for themselves. Conducting longitudinal research and rethinking college services offered for gifted students are some of the implications discussed in this study.     

Students’ self-grading,professor’s grading and negotiated final grading at three university programmes: analysis of reliability and grade difference ranges and tendencies

This study was undertaken at three teacher education programmes and was designed to determine the following within each programme: (1) the reliability correlations among students’ self‐grade (SSG), the grade granted by the professor (PG) and the negotiated final grade (NFG); (2) the range and frequency of grade differences between SSG and PG; and (3) the tendency of the negotiation on NFG as compared to SSG (i.e. NFG > SSG or NFG < SSG), when SSG was not equal to PG. The samples were made up of three professors and their corresponding student groups (students, n = 100, 34 and 53, respectively), each in a different teacher education programme. The results show that there was a high reliability correlation among SSG, PG and NFG in all three programmes. Furthermore, in these programmes, the grade differences were never higher than 1.5 on a scale of 0 to 10 points; in fact, agreement between DDG and PG was reached 96%, 35.29% and 43.39% of the time), and, when disagreement emerged, it was mainly within a minimum range of 0.1 to 0.5 points. As for the tendency of NFG versus SSG in each programme, slightly higher percentages were obtained for NFG > SSG in Programmes B and C, whereas the opposite (NFG < SSG) was true in Programme A; overall, however, it could be said that both tendencies balanced each other out, being the total percentages in each programme 0%, 41% and 30% for NFG > SSG; and 4%, 23% and 26%, for NFG < SSG, respectively.