Use of an audience response system during peer teaching among physical therapy students in human gross anatomy: Perceptions of peer teachers and students

An audience response system (ARS) has become popular among educators in medicine and the health professions because of the system's ability to engage listeners during a lecture presentation. No one has described the usefulness of ARS technology during planned nonlecture peer teaching sessions in gross anatomy instruction for health professionals. The unique feature of each peer teaching session was a nongraded 12–15 item ARS quiz assembled by six second‐year doctor of physical therapy (DPT) students and purposely placed at the beginning of the review session for those first‐year DPT students in attendance. This study used a ten‐item questionnaire and a five‐point Likert scale in addition to three open ended questions to survey perceptions of both first‐year and second‐year DPT students about the usefulness of ARS technology implemented during weekly interactive peer teaching sessions during a semester course in Anatomy for Physical Therapists. First‐year students overwhelmingly acknowledged the ARS system permitted each student to self‐assess his/her preparedness for a quiz or examination and compare his/her performance with that of classmates. Peer teachers recognized an ARS quiz provided them an opportunity to: (1) estimate first‐year students' level of understanding of anatomical concepts; and (2) effectively prepare first‐year students for their weekly quizzes and future examinations. On the basis of the mutual benefits derived by both students/tutees and teachers/tutors, physical therapist educators may wish to consider using ARS technology to enhance teaching methods for a class in gross human anatomy. Anat Sci Educ 2: 286–293, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Part-Time Faculty Involvement in Decision-Making

Drawing from a survey of 1,239 part-time community college faculty, this analysis investigates their views about being involved in departmental and campus-wide decision-making. The adjuncts had somewhat of a voice in instructional decisions pertaining to their area of expertise, but virtually no involvement in personnel or broader organizational matters. In all domains, they expressed desire to have a stronger voice. However, they also noted barriers to inclusion of part-time faculty in decision-making, including schedule constraints, compensation, and respect from their full-time counterparts.     

Globalization and Internationalization: the Implications on the Mental Health Field in Bhutan

Globalization and internationalization are terms growing in prevalence in the mental health professional field with increasing interactions between nations and cultures around the world. After a broad review, we define globalization as the continual process of interactions between cultures with the dominant culture influencing local cultures towards integration. Internationalization, on the other hand, we define as a partnership between cultures focused on mutual development and in which the local individuals and communities are empowered to make decisions about how best to meet their needs. In our analysis, we specifically examine the recently modernized country of Bhutan as a nation greatly influenced by both processes. More research is needed to further the knowledge within the internationalization literature and to ethically develop the mental health profession in Bhutan.     

Financing universal primary education: An analysis of official development assistance in fragile states

At existing rates of progress, fragile states represent those countries most at-risk of failing to achieve universal primary education. It is estimated that around a third of the world's out of school children live in countries where the state faces severe development challenges instigated and perpetuated by weak institutional capacity, poor governance, political instability, or the legacy effects of past conflict. Typically, fragile states have the most difficulty in mobilising domestic resources to finance national education strategies and, consequently, rely heavily on other sources of educational investment. This paper examines the provision of development aid within a group of 52 low-income countries, and concludes that despite the international commitment to universal primary education, the prevailing attitude of selectively allocating aid to ‘good performers’ has led to education in fragile states being sidelined by the development community.     

Interaction of Imposter Phenomenon and Research Self-Efficacy on Scholarly Productivity

Research self-efficacy, imposter phenomenon, and scholarly productivity were explored among a sample of 247 counselor educators. In most cases, feeling like an imposter hindered scholarly productivity; however, the interaction of a moderate to frequent amount of imposter feelings with high research self-efficacy increased scholarly productivity.     

Comparison of ratings by mothers and teachers on preschool children using the vineland social maturity scale

Comparison of informants' ratings of 20 preschool children on the VSMS showed no significant correlations between either the social quotients or the rankings by mothers and daycare center teachers. Of significance, however, was the difference between the means of the two groups, the mothers consistently reporting the social quotients of the children to be higher than did the teachers.     

Preschool intellectual assessment with the ammons quick test

The Quick Test, Form 1 (QT) and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Form L-M (SB) were administered to 70 preschool children. A low significant correlation of.36 for the MA scores and.39 for the IQ scores were found. However, the mean IQ achieved on the QT was 73 which is at the borderline intellectual level, while the mean IQ achieved on the SB was 111, which falls in the bright-normal range of intelligence. This 38-point difference is highly significant. These findings raise serious doubt about the validity of the QT for the intellectual estimation of preschool children with above average functioning. Further research with a group that also includes children of below average intelligence is indicated.     

Young bilinguals’ voices: reflecting on being experts and becoming literate

This article provides findings about how the construction of literacy practices mediated the positive identity development of first-grade bilinguals in an inquiry-based setting over an academic year. Utilizing a sociocultural approach and a Positive Discourse Analysis lens, the researcher reports findings from an exemplary primary classroom that facilitated positive identity development among young bilinguals as they simultaneously developed language, literacy, and content knowledge.     

Blended Perspectives: A Global Vision for High-Quality Early Childhood Education

What are the attributes of a high-quality early childhood education program worldwide? An group of experienced early childhood educators that represent diverse international backgrounds attempts to respond to this question by examining six dimensions of quality set forth by the Association for Childhood Education International: (1) philosophies and goals, (2) high-quality physical environments, (3) developmentally appropriate and effective pedagogy and curriculum, (4) attention to basic and special needs, (5) respect for families and communities, (6) professionally prepared teachers and staff, and (7) rigorous program evaluation. The article concludes with an annotated list of references, both in professional publications and online, that examine early childhood education from an international perspective.     

Embodying the least-adult role

The aim of this article is to emphasise physicality and embodiment in child-centred research, fieldwork and intellectual activity. It will argue that research is not a separate form of action, placing the researcher in a position of epistemological privilege, but an embodied capacity developed through practical activity. This will be explored through an examination of the ‘least-adult’ positionality. Drawing from a large ethnographic study of primary schools in Dublin, Ireland, this article contends that the body must be put at the centre of the research process. I introduce the conceptualisation of the ‘passive’ and ‘active’ body, as key components for the relational context of fieldwork. Moreover, through an engagement with phenomenology, it is argued here that knowledge production is an embodied capacity developed through a sensuous relationship with the field.