Current status of cadaver sources in Turkey and a wake‐up call for Turkish anatomists

Persisting difficulties in body procurement in Turkey led to the acquisition of donated, unclaimed, autopsied, and imported bodies regulated under current legislature. Yet, no study had investigated the extent of the on‐going cadaver problem. This study was aimed to outline cadaver sources in anatomy departments and their effectiveness by means of an online survey. Additionally, official websites of each department were investigated regarding any information on body donation. Unclaimed cadavers (84.8%) were the major source for anatomy departments, followed by donated (50%) and imported cadavers (39.1%). Foundation‐based medical faculties were more likely to import cadavers (P = 0.008). There was a moderate increase (r_s = 0.567; P = 0.018) in donation registrations to our department after 2000. The departments in cities with significantly higher City‐Based Gross Domestic Product measures (US$9,900 vs. US$16,772, P = 0.041), frequencies for mid‐ or high‐school graduates (30.4% vs. 31.3%, P = 0.041), and frequencies for under‐ or post‐graduates (13.1% vs. 15.8%, P = 0.24) had managed to use donated cadavers. Anatomy departments’ major reasons for using unclaimed cadavers were education (45.9%), unclaimed cadavers being the only source (24.3%), and receiving inadequate donations (21.6%). Nine out of seventy‐four departments (12.2%) provided information regarding body donation on their websites. Body procurement remains as a serious problem in Turkey and it is apparent that current legislature does not provide a sufficient cadaver inflow. Similarly, anatomy departments’ effectiveness in public awareness of body donation and support in the National Body Donation Campaign seems questionable. Anat Sci Educ 11: 155–165. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Improving near‐peer teaching quality in anatomy by educating teaching assistants: An example from Sweden

Peer‐assisted learning has gained momentum in a variety of disciplines, including medical education. In Gothenburg, Sweden, medical students who have finished their compulsory anatomy courses have the option of working as teaching assistants (TAs). Teaching assistants provide small group teaching sessions as a complement to lectures given by faculty. Previously, TAs were left to handle the role as junior teachers by themselves, but since 2011, a continuation course in anatomy has been developed with the aim of providing the TAs better anatomy knowledge and guidance for teaching. The course was designed to comprise 7.5 ECTS credits (equivalent to 5 weeks of full‐time studies), and today all TAs are required to take this course before undertaking their own teaching responsibilities. This study aims to compare course evaluations of TA teaching before and after the introduction of the anatomy continuation course, in order to understand how students perceived teaching performed by self‐learned versus trained TAs. The results of this study demonstrate that there was a trend towards better teaching performed by trained TAs. The variability in rankings decreased significantly after the introduction of the continuation course. This was mainly due to an improvement among the TAs with the lowest levels of performance. In addition to comparing student rankings, TAs were interviewed regarding their experiences and perceptions within the continuation course. The course was generally positively regarded. The TAs described a sense of cohesion and appreciation since the institute invested in a course dedicated specifically for them. Anat Sci Educ 11: 403–409. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.     

Powerful Actor and Hesitant Institutionalization: The State in the History of Turkish Football

We examine the validity of the assumptions of the new institutional theory about the state over the history of national football league as an institutional field in Turkey. The state is not out of the field, on the contrary, at the centre of the field, and is not an ordinary actor but the most important one although the intensity of the state’s impact changes from time to time. Sometimes, the state founds the football clubs and administrates them directly, decides who will be the champion; and sometimes, authorizes the regulative agency and gives autonomy. However, despite the state’s coercive power on the ground, the Turkish football field is still far from being fully institutionalized with its fluctuating structure.     

Effectiveness of Conceptual Change Text-oriented Instruction on Students’ Understanding of Energy in Chemical Reactions

The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of conceptual change text instruction (CCT) in the context of energy in chemical reactions. The subjects of the study were 60, 10th grade students at a high school, who were in two different classes and taught by the same teacher. One of the classes was randomly selected as the experimental group in which CCT instruction was applied, and the other as the control group in which traditional teaching method was used. The data were obtained through the use of Energy Concept Test (ECT), the Attitude Scale towards Chemistry (ASC) and Science Process Skill Test (SPST). In order to find out the effect of the conceptual change text on students’ learning of energy concept, independent sample t-tests, ANCOVA (analysis of covariance) and ANOVA (analysis of variance) were used. Results revealed that there was a statistically significant mean difference between the experimental and control group in terms of students’ ECT total mean scores; however, there was no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control group in terms of students’ attitude towards chemistry. These findings suggest that conceptual change text instruction enhances the understanding and achievement.     

Some problems encountered by disabled students at the University of Oslo – whose responsibility?

ABSTRACT

A survey was undertaken among students at the University of Oslo in order to include their comments in a recommendation that was being prepared to elucidate the disabled students' situation in the future. Students were requested to write shorter or longer comments concerning their day as a disabled student, in order to expose barriers, weaknesses in the organization of services and other concerns. They were also requested to make recommendations as to improvements. The students’ answers indicated that they encountered several practical problems in their education, including a lack of understanding and cooperation from administrators, faculty staff and lecturers, a lack of adaptive aids and other resources and inaccessibility of grounds and buildings. Students made recommendations to improve the delivery of services. On the background of the information given by the students, the paper reflects on the issue of higher education's responsibility in relation to adjustments. The Reform‐94 within upper secondary education makes the issue of responsibility even more current.     

Mobile and Information Literacy Perceptions and Skills of Library and Information Sciences and Humanities Students From Bulgaria and Turkey

Welcome to the Global Postcards column! We are so excited to bring you news and projects from around the world. In this column, our contributors from Bulgaria and Turkey bring us a comparative study of mobile and information literacy among students at two universities in those countries. In addition to presenting perceptions of students around these literacy concepts, their research project also highlights growing trends in the use of distance education and web-based study materials. Thanks to the contributors for this issue, and please keep the submissions coming!

If you would like to send a submission, please contact either of the column's co-editors: Jacqueline Solis, jsolis@email.unc.edu, and Robin Kear, rlk25@pitt.edu.     

Institute notes

International Review of Education -     

On the influence of the architecture of poly(ethylene glycol)-based thermoresponsive polymers on cell adhesion

Thermoresponsive polymer surface coatings are a promising tool for cell culture applications. They allow for a mild way of cell detachment that preserves the activity of membrane proteins—a prerequisite for reliable cell analysis. To enlarge the application range of these coatings to cells with different adhesion properties, we synthesized various novel poly(ethylene glycol)-based thermoresponsive polymers and describe how (i) their chemical structure and (ii) their surface density affect their efficiency. In order to quantify the influence of both factors, the time for cell spreading and rounding efficiency were observed. As a result, efficiency of cell rounding, which is closely correlated to cell detachment, is less affected by both factors than the time needed for cell spreading. This time can effectively be adjusted by the molecular architecture which includes the length of the polymer backbone and the side chains. Based on this work, recommendations are given for future optimization of functionality of thermoresponsive polymer coatings for cell culture applications.     

Missionary girl power: saving the ‘Third World’ one girl at a time

Deborah Ellis’s The Breadwinner is a popular young adult novel about Muslim girls. In this paper, we offer an analysis of the representation of Muslim girls and women in the book as well as responses from undergraduate students enrolled in a children’s literature course to these constructions. Building on the work of postcolonial feminism (specifically the concept of paternalistic care) and critical pedagogy (the role of popular cultural texts as education), we argue that The Breadwinner, and similar historical fictions aimed at youth, wittingly or unwittingly focus on the real and/or imagined plight of ‘other’ girls/women. These representations build upon a care ethic central to the project and history of schooling in the West that in turn results in the stabilisation of colonial relations of domination between white women/girls and colonised women/girls.