Flow experience and positive affect during hypermedia learning

In this study positive affective states, experienced by users of a one-hour learning program, in a hypermedia learning environment were assessed. It was expected that a positive mood would occur during learning that would be correlated with high training/learning success. Furthermore, the experience of flow was used to indicate whether the challenges and skills were balanced. The results showed that the users of the training program were put into a positive mood. About a quarter of the users experienced flow. Positive moods were associated with higher training success and positive affect was correlated with total knowledge and content knowledge. An association between flow and training success was not observed. The perceived probability of success did not influence learning but a high perceived probability of success was considered as comparably more pleasant than a low perceived probability of success. The results are discussed in the context of self-directed learning.     

Non-Didactic, a Culture of Peace, and “Some Cat from Brazil”: A Case Study of Negotiating a Dialogic Curriculum with Incarcerated Girls

HIPP Indy is a collaborative effort between the Indiana Department of Correction, the Peace Learning Center, and program facilitators in pursuit of implementing curriculum in peace education, conflict resolution, and self-efficacy with incarcerated, juvenile girls. The Center for Urban and Multicultural Education embarked on a program to partner a reservice teaching candidate with an urban social justice initiative in the hopes of reciprocal benefits for all involved. This study represents both qualitative data from multiple partners in designing and implementing the project, as well as the reflections of the participant-observer and co-author. The authors purport that listening to the stories of the diverse individuals involved in making the program possible offers an opportunity to understand curriculum in-the-making and the complexity of collaborative work. Revealed in this collaboration are new insights into the complexities of working with incarcerated students, attempts at creating a dialogic curriculum, and the ways in which academic discourse (i.e. Freirean praxis) gets translated into practical community-based, social justice work.     

OTseeker helps library and allied health professionals to find quality evidence efficiently

Background: Research is essential for evidence‐based practice yet many health professionals do not have enough time to find research. Studies relevant to occupational therapists can be particularly difficult to find. Most search engines are broad and return a large number of irrelevant articles. Occupational Therapy Systematic Evaluation of Evidence (OTseeker) is an occupational therapy database available at http://www.otseeker.com . Developed by Australian occupational therapists, the resource aims to increase access to research and support clinical decision making. This discipline‐specific database contains pre‐appraised information from a variety of sources and decreases the time required to locate best evidence. Objectives: The aims of this paper are to: (i) describe how health librarians can use OTseeker to help allied health students, researchers and practitioners, particularly in occupational therapy, to find quality evidence; (ii) provide a teaching resource for health librarians based around the OTseeker evidence database; and (iii) highlight new features contained on the OTseeker database. Methods: A case study is provided which focuses on searching for evidence on the effectiveness of upper limb rehabilitation after stroke using OTseeker. Conclusion: This paper may increase the knowledge, skills and competencies of health librarians, helping them to access evidence‐based databases, and educate other professionals.     

Australian occupational therapists' use of an online evidence-based practice database (OTseeker)

INTRODUCTION: Online databases can support the implementation of evidence-based practice by providing easy access to research. OTseeker (http://www.otseeker.com), an electronic evidence database, was introduced in 2003 to assist occupational therapists to locate and interpret research. OBJECTIVES: This study explored Australian occupational therapists' use and perceptions of OTseeker and its impact on their knowledge and practice. METHODS: A postal survey questionnaire was distributed to two samples: (i) a proportionate random sample of 400 occupational therapists from all states and territories of Australia, and (ii) a random sample of occupational therapists working in 95 facilities in two Australian states (Queensland and New South Wales). RESULTS: The questionnaire was completed by 213 participants. While most participants (85.9%) had heard of OTseeker, only 103 (56.6%) had accessed it, with lack of time being the main reason for non-use. Of the 103 participants who had accessed OTseeker, 68.9% had done so infrequently, 63.1% agreed that it had increased their knowledge and 13.6% had changed their practice after accessing information on OTseeker. CONCLUSION: Despite OTseeker being developed to provide occupational therapists with easy access to research, lack of time was the main reason why over half of the participants in this study had not accessed it. This exploratory research suggests, however, that there is potential for the database to influence occupational therapists' knowledge and practice about treatment efficacy through access to the research literature.     

A homogeneous group of persons with learning disabilities: adults with severe learning disabilities in vocational rehabilitation

The results of a comprehensive psychoeducational assessment of adults having learning disabilities (LD) and participating in vocational rehabilitation are presented. The subjects were found to have low-average general intelligence; lower verbal than performance IQs; attention, reasoning, and auditory memory deficits; academic achievement at the fourth-/fifth-grade level; language problems; and low self-esteem. These results were contrasted with other studies of adults with LD in vocational rehabilitation, and all studies on this population reported similar findings. A comparison of studies of adults with LD who were clients of vocational rehabilitation with those in college or employed and with those who had been labeled as learning disabled in childhood indicated that the adults with LD in vocational rehabilitation seem to constitute a homogeneous group of persons with severe deficits. The need to subtype learning disabilities by severity and criteria for making such determinations are proposed.     

An examination of the relationship between athlete leadership and cohesion using social network analysis

Two studies investigated the structure of different athlete leadership networks and its relationship to cohesion using social network analysis. In Study 1, we examined the relationship between a general leadership quality network and task and social cohesion as measured by the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ). In Study 2, we investigated the leadership networks for four different athlete leadership roles (task, motivational, social and external) and their association with task and social cohesion networks. In Study 1, the results demonstrated that the general leadership quality network was positively related to task and social cohesion. The results from Study 2 indicated positive correlations between the four leadership networks and task and social cohesion networks. Further, the motivational leadership network emerged as the strongest predictor of the task cohesion network, while the social leadership network was the strongest predictor of the social cohesion network. The results complement a growing body of research indicating that athlete leadership has a positive association with cohesion.     

Motor Skill Performance by Low SES Preschool and Typically Developing Children on the PDMS-2

The purpose of this study was to compare the motor skill performance of preschool children from low socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds to their age matched typically developing peers using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 (PDMS-2). Sixty-eight children (34 low SES and 34 typically developing; ages 3–5) performed the PDMS-2. Standard scores from each subtest (i.e., stationary, locomotion, object manipulation, grasping, and visual-motor integration) and three quotient scores were calculated for the children identified as low SES and typically developing children. A MANOVA was used to analyze the PDMS-2 standard score and quotient score differences between the children identified as low SES and the typically developing children. All preschool children identified as low SES scored at average or lower on total motor quotient scores. Specifically, 88.2 % of children identified as low SES were classified as average, and 11.8 % of children were in the below average performance category. The MANOVA analysis showed that children identified as low SES scored significantly lower than the typically developing children on the visual-motor integration subtest, F(1,64) = 7.232, p = .009; locomotion subtest, F(1,64) = 11.449, p = .001; and TMQ, F(1,64) = 4.732, p = .033. Children identified as low SES were significantly delayed in both fine and gross motor skill areas when compared to their typically developing age and gender matched peers. Researchers are recommended to provide comprehensive assessments for preschool children and to include motor tasks when designing early intervention programs.     

Genetics and Neuroscience in Dyslexia: Perspectives for Education and Remediation

ABSTRACT— Our understanding of the causes of a developmental disorder like dyslexia has received recent input from both neuroscience and genetics. The discovery of 4 candidate genes for dyslexia and the identification of neuronal networks engaged when children read and spell are the basis for introducing this knowledge into education. However, the input from educational practitioners as well as empirical knowledge from research on learning also contribute significantly to our understanding of how children acquire the basic skills for learning to read and spell. It is imperative to merge the knowledge acquired from research in the fields of neuroscience, genetics, and empirical education, as well as to understand how the learning brain and instruction interact. Doing so can be seen as a major step in attaining an optimal approach for teaching, reading, and spelling and for finding the best suited and most effective treatment concepts for dyslexic children and adolescents.     

纳粹统治下的德国物理学会

1933年到1945年的德国物理学会的历史并不能完全涵盖希特勒统治下的物理学史,但它确实也反映了在第三帝国期间物理学家工作和生活的许多重要方面.