Professional Competence and Intuitive Decision Making: A Simulation Study in the Domain of Emergency Medicine

Intuition presents as a crucial component of professional competence for many occupations, including emergency physicians because many of their decisions have to be made quickly. When arriving at the scene of an accident, they promptly have to assess the circumstances and initiate immediate life-saving measures without opportunities for deep analyses of patients’ conditions. Therefore, spontaneous and intuitive decisions are required to solve the problem appropriately, rather than more intentional and time-consuming forms of decision-making. Yet, the efficacy of and processes underpinning these intuitive activities remain far from fully understood or clearly conceptualised. The study reported here aims at revealing the efficacy of such intuition by analysing decision-making behaviour of emergency physicians. Based on patient simulation mannequins, which can be programmed to present specified clinical situations, three groups of participants with different levels of emergency medicine expertise (n ₁  = 10 novices, n ₂  = 10 semi-experts, n ₃  = 10 experts) each addressed two different authentic problem cases. In the first simulation, time pressure was utilised to press participants to decide intuitively. In the second simulation, the participants had to legitimise their decisions without any time pressure in order to generate rational decisions. Whereas no clear difference in the participants’ performances between both cases could be identified, experts and semi-experts performed better than novices in their intuitive decision-making, thereby supporting beliefs about the efficacy of intuition. It is proposed that medical education, as well as other forms of occupational preparation, should consider theories of mental simulations in order to improve surgeons’ professional education.     

From Words to Concepts: Focusing on Word Knowledge When Teaching for Conceptual Understanding Within an Inquiry-Based Science Setting

This qualitative video study explores how two elementary school teachers taught for conceptual understanding throughout different phases of science inquiry. The teachers implemented teaching materials with a focus on learning science key concepts through the development of word knowledge. A framework for word knowledge was applied to examine the students’ level of word knowledge manifested in their talk. In this framework, highly developed knowledge of a word is conceptual knowledge. This includes understanding how the word is situated within a network of other words and ideas. The results suggest that students’ level of word knowledge develops toward conceptual knowledge when the students are required to apply the key concepts in their talk throughout all phases of inquiry. When the students become familiar with the key concepts through the initial inquiry activities, the students use the concepts as tools for furthering their conceptual understanding when they discuss their ideas and findings. However, conceptual understanding is not promoted when teachers do the talking for the students, rephrasing their responses into the correct answer or neglecting to address the students’ everyday perceptions of scientific phenomena.     

Action Learning—a learning and teaching method in the preparation programme for supervisors of midwives

Supervision of midwives is a statutory responsibility, which provides a mechanism for support and guidance to every practising midwife in the United Kingdom. To be eligible for appointment as a supervisor, midwives are required to undertake a preparation programme successfully. Because of the changing nature of the professional role and education, the level of the programme of preparation has evolved from an attendance course, to programmes delivered at diploma, degree and, more recently, Masters' level. In collaboration with clinical colleagues and the statutory authorities, the University of Hertfordshire has presented a programme of preparation at Masters' level since 1997. Revalidation in 2001 provided the opportunity to review the learning and teaching methods, and a decision was made to use Action Learning as an important component of the new programme that commenced in 2002. Alongside the normal university quality assessment mechanisms, a systematic evaluation was undertaken to explore the acceptability and perceived usefulness of Action Learning by the students of the second and third cohorts. This paper presents the findings of this evaluation.     

Critical Science and the History of Child Development's Influence on Early Education Research

Often early childhood educators who fail to frame their research or research methods in positivist traditions or theories of developmental psychology find themselves marginalized in their own field. A reason for the lack of recognition or acceptance of critical theoretical perspectives in early childhood education is the century-long domination of psychological and child development perspectives in the field of early childhood. A second reason relates to the important separate institutional histories of early and elementary education in the United States within academia. This paper explores both the disciplinary and institutional history of early childhood education in an effort to explain the continuing lack of acceptance of critical science perspectives in the field. The costs of this reliance in the past and for the future are discussed.     

How Children Regulate their Own Collaborative Learning

In this article we analyze the dialogic learning of one pair of students in order to investigate how these students cope with a collaborative learning situation in the classroom. Our aim is to substantiate the claims that not only are young students (8 year olds) capable of solving mathematical problems collaboratively, but that they also take an active role in regulating their collaborative learning activities. More specifically, our claim is that children appear to apply constructs of “mathematical level raising”, “social interaction” and “division of time” to steer their own collaborative learning and that they are rather successful in balancing these three aspects. The analysis is exploratory, but this new perspective on collaborative learning is relevant theoretically and consequential for classroom practice.     

The Pendulum as a Vehicle for Transitioning from Classical to Quantum Physics: History,Quantum Concepts,and Educational Challenges

In this article we use the pendulum as the vehicle for discussing thetransition from classical to quantum physics. Since student knowledgeof the classical pendulum can be generalized to all harmonic oscillators,we propose that a quantum analysis of the pendulum can leadstudents into the unanticipated consequences of quantum phenomenaat the atomic level. We intend to illustrate how classical deterministicphysical ideas are replaced by a point of view that contains bothdeterministic and probabilistic aspects. For example, the wave functioncontains probabilistic information but it evolves in time according toa fixed law, the Schrodinger equation. Discussion of the transition fromclassical to quantum thinking is historically grounded in the work oftwentieth-century physicists who developed quantum ideas. We seeapplication to current science in areas such as semiconductors, optics,GPS systems, and superconductivity. Our notion is that ascientifically-literatepublic should have a sense of the broad, conceptual schemes in modernphysics, as well as those associated with classical physics. We discusseducational challenges and strategies connected to including quantum theoryin a general education physics course. Our work would have otherapplications in college and secondary school settings.     

Universities need leadership,academics need management: discursive tensions and voids in the deregulation of Swedish higher education legislation

In this article, we discuss how ‘managerialist’ and ‘leaderist’ discourses (O’Reilly and Reed Public Administration 88:960–978, 2010; Organization Studies 32:1079–1101, 2011) are drawn upon in the context of the deregulation of Swedish higher education. As of 2011, there has been new legislation that frames Swedish universities as ‘autonomous’ and transfers most of the regulative responsibilities from the government level to university vice-chancellors. The aim of this article is to inquire into how tensions within and between managerialist and leaderist discourse are handled in the promotion of New Public Management reforms and the consequences thereof in terms of how leadership in the higher education sector is constructed. We analyse how these discourses are employed in the core documents leading up to the 2010 Riksdag decision to enact most of the proposed deregulations, and the subsequent evaluation undertaken by the social democratic government that took over in 2014. Based in this analysis, we suggest that the texts indeed draw upon notions of leadership and leaders as necessary for Swedish universities to survive and thrive in the future, but that the envisaged practise of this ‘strong leadership’ can either be characterised as a discursive void or described in terms of de-personalised, instrumental managerial surveillance and control.     

An Instrument for the Assessment of Cross-Curricular Skills

An instrument was constructed to assess the level of competence of students (aged 15-16) on eight cross-curricular skills. The instrument, further to be called the cross-curricular skills test (CCST), consisted of 56 multiple-choice items. In the first section cross-curricular skills are defined as general skills which can be taught and practiced in curricula for different disciplines. In the second section we describe how eight cross-curricular skills were selected for testing. We also explain why we decided to compose the test of multiple-choice items, an item-format that is not a customary one for measuring general skills. In the third section we report administration of the test to 465 students in a pilot study and 9,000 students in the main study. Quantitative data are presented concerning p -values, reliability, internal structure, and construct validity of the CCST. Qualitative data were derived from observations, thinking aloud protocols and analysis of the test content. The data warrant the claim that CCST is a valid and reliable test for cross-curricular skills. It is suitable for students of 15-16 years of age and allows administration in large samples. In the final section we discuss some limitations of the test and suggest directions for future research on assessment of cross-curricular skills.