“Fun slipping into the doctor's role”—The relationship between sonoanatomy teaching and professional identity formation before and during the Covid-19 pandemic

The various psychological dimensions of professional identity formation (PIF) are an important aspect of the study course for undergraduate medical students. Anatomical learning environments have been repeatedly shown to play a critical role in forming such an identity; however, relevance of PIF during sonoanatomical training remains underexplored. At the end of their basic anatomy studies, third-semester medical students took part in a four-day block course on anatomy and imaging. Anatomical content was revised in small groups using peer teaching and imaging methods, including one hour of hands-on sonoanatomy sessions each day. On-site sonoanatomy was identified as an excellent format to support students' transition from the pre-clinical to clinical phase as medical experts-to-be. Students enjoyed practical exercises and the clinical input, which increased their interest in the medical profession and their academic studies. This study further examined the effects of the transition into an online-only format, necessitated by the current Covid-19 pandemic. A comparison was made between the quantitative and qualitative evaluation data, and the written results of examinations of several on-site (n = 1096, mean age = 22.4 years ± 2.18), and online-only cohorts (n = 230, mean age = 22.6 years ± 2.21). The online-only transition led to a reduction of all PIF-related variables measured, losing identity-related variables, increasing students' stress levels, and reducing their long-term academic performance. Together, this study demonstrates presence of PIF in undergraduate sonoanatomy teaching, and cautions against the uncritical online-only substitution of hands-on learning environments.     

Making instruction and assessment responsive to diverse students' progress: group-administered dynamic assessment in teaching mathematics

This study entailed a 3 (instructional intervention) × 2 (assessment-type) between-subjects experimental design employing a pretest-intervention-posttest methodology. The instructional interventions were administered between subjects in three conditions: (a) dynamic instruction, (b) triarchic or theory of successful intelligence-control instruction, and (c) standard-control instruction. The assessment-type consisted between subjects of either (a) a group-administered dynamic posttest or (b) the same group-administered posttest interspersed with a control filler activity. Performance in different mathematics content areas taught in fourth grade was investigated. In total, 1,332 students and 63 classroom teachers in 24 schools across six school districts participated in the study. The results indicate the advantages of using dynamic instruction and assessment in regular classrooms while teaching mathematics, especially when the student body is highly ethnically diverse.     

Cultural concepts of giftedness

Different cultures have different conceptions of what it means to be gifted. But in identifying children as gifted, we often use only our own conception, ignoring the cultural context in which the children grew up. Such identification is inadequate and fails to do justice to the richness of the world's cultures. It also misses children who are gifted and may identify as gifted children those who are not.     

Should you show me the money? Concrete objects both hurt and help performance on mathematics problems

How do concrete objects that cue real-world knowledge affect students' performance on mathematics word problems? In Experiment 1, fourth- and sixth-grade students (N = 229) solved word problems involving money. Students in the experimental condition were given bills and coins to help them solve the problems, and students in the control condition were not. Students in the experimental condition solved fewer problems correctly. Experiment 2 tested whether this effect was due to the perceptually rich nature of the materials. Fifth-grade students (N = 79) were given: perceptually rich bills and coins, bland bills and coins, or no bills and coins. Students in the perceptually rich condition made the most errors; however, their errors were least likely to be conceptual errors. Results suggest that the use of perceptually rich concrete objects conveys both advantages and disadvantages in children's performance in school mathematics.     

3. Nico Stehr: Die Zerbrechlichkeit moderner Gesellschaften. Die Stagnation der Macht und die Chancen des Individuums

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The Woogles' bad closet party

Martina Boone is an author who lives in Herndon, VA.     

Quality Impact on Diagnostic Blood Specimen Collection Using a New Device to Relieve Venipuncture Pain

A new device called Buzzy^® has been recently presented that combines a cooling ice pack and a vibrating motor in order to relieve the venipuncture pain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of Buzzy^® use during diagnostic blood specimen collection by venipuncture for routine immunochemistry tests. Blood was collected from 100 volunteers by a single, expert phlebotomist. A vein was located on the left forearm without applying tourniquet, in order to prevent any interference from venous stasis, and blood samples were collected using a 20-G straight needle directly into 5 mL vacuum tubes with clot activator and gel separator. In sequence, external cold and vibration by Buzzy^® was applied on the right forearm—5 cm above the chosen puncture site—for 1 min before venipuncture and continued until the end of the same procedure already done in the left forearm. The panel of tests included the following: glucose, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, total protein, albumin, c-reactive protein, urea, creatinine, uric acid, alkaline phosphatase, amylase, AST, ALT, g-glutamyltransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, total bilirubin, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iron, sodium, potassium, chloride, lipase, cortisol, insulin, thyroid-stimulating hormone, total triiodothyronine, free triiodothyronine, total thyroxine, free thyroxine and haemolysis index. Clinically significant differences between samples were found only for: total protein, albumin and transferrin. The Buzzy^® can be used during diagnostic blood specimens collection by venipuncture for the majority of the routine immunochemistry tests. We only suggest avoiding this device during blood collection when protein, albumin and transferrin determinations should be performed.     

Special curricular themes for library education in Nigeria

The Nigerian society has cultural and social differences from those of people in developed countries from which educational programmes and practices have been borrowed. The differences are reflected in the peculiarities in the majority of Nigerian citizens’ need for educational and informational services in libraries. In responding to these peculiar needs of a people whose majority has had no tradition of using books, the librarian who administers their needs may require education and training which must differ in content from the conventional library programmes as currently borrowed from developed countries.

Core courses for the training of librarians who are expected to provide information which may not be recorded in print form, have been suggested for preparing these librarians for the kind of service that would sustain the interest and appreciation of their clientele in the use of libraries. The selected courses, based on the culture and structure of the people, will involve the production of literacy resources, information gathering and dissemination for non-literates, book publishing to conform with local demands and public relations activities which would ensure the social relevance of the library school programmes to the needs of the society.