Fostering empathy in undergraduate health science majors through the reconciliation of objectivity and subjectivity: An integrated approach

The demand for empathetic health care practitioners requires an academic curriculum suited to that need. Here we describe a series of integrated activities that were designed to foster empathy in undergraduate health science majors. By combining content and pedagogical approaches from the humanities and sciences, we asked students to reconcile objective and subjective modes of understanding the human body as a learning object. Preliminary evaluations of student behavior, written student responses, and survey results are offered as support for our conclusion that the integration of a humanities perspective into the Anatomy classroom at University of Minnesota Rochester can facilitate the process of developing student empathy through the reconciliation of objective and subjective modes. Furthermore, students were able to apply this understanding to images on the page or screen, to living human learning objects and human cadavers. Although to claim that these activities in themselves can stymie the stasis/decline of empathy that health science students report would be patently false, we conclude that similar approaches could offer an avenue by which other educators might develop similar activities that, in aggregate, might have a lasting effect from the undergraduate through the graduate level of training in the health sciences. Anat Sci Educ. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

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.     

Changing What Is Taught: Hearing the Voices of the Underrepresented

A major challenge facing institutions today is determining the role of multiculturalism in the curriculum. Institutions that decide to incorporate multicultural perspectives into the general education curriculum will face a long and complex process. In 1991, policy makers at Florida State University made the decision to require all students to take multicultural courses to fulfill general education requirements. This article provides insight into the challenges that institutional policy makers face as they seek to change the curriculum to include the voices of those previously underrepresented.     

A tribute to sharron smith humenick: 1937-2006

The purpose of this article is to honor Dr. Sharron S. Humenick, a long-time advocate of normal childbirth and Lamaze International, for her many accomplishments, her vigorous commitment to promoting the benefits of normal birth, and her passionate and diligent efforts in encouraging ongoing, evidence-based research that underscores the importance of a satisfying, normal-birth experience for women and their families. Dr. Humenick was a trailblazer in life and also became an exceptional guide in demonstrating how to cope with a terminal illness and dying. Through her numerous colleagues and friends in the United States and other countries, Dr. Humenick's legacy will live on in worldwide efforts to improve the childbirth experience for women and their families.     

Revisiting five decades of educational technology research: A content and authorship analysis of the British Journal of Educational Technology

Reflecting on 50 years of educational technology research, a content and authorship analysis was conducted of 1777 research article titles and abstracts, published in the British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET) from 1970 to Issue 3, 2018. A text-mining tool (Leximancer) was used to identify key concepts and themes emerging throughout each of the five decades, which were then compared to those found in a previous analysis of Computers & Education, as well as the most cited BJET publications in each decade. The framework of West and Rich (2012) was then used to provide guidance on BJET’s rigour, impact and prestige. Common themes in BJET throughout the past 50 years have included the evolution of teaching and learning in distance education, the emergence of instructional design, misunderstanding between practitioners and learning designers, issues of pre and in-service teacher education and technology uptake by educators and students, including the confidence to do so, the technology skills of educators and students, as well as a lack of institutional support to provide space and time for training and integration to occur. The authorship analysis revealed an encouraging increase in international identity over time, with 60% of articles in BJET published by an author outside of the UK over the past 50 years, and 79% in the past decade. Despite this, contributions from South America, the Middle East and Africa are vastly underrepresented, and authors from these regions need further support from the field. Suggested future research areas include finding alternative models of educator professional development, further exploration of the role of theory and policy, as well as the rise of co-authorship and collaborative research.     

Language and Culture in Literacy Instruction: Where Have They Gone?

An important, yet either often missing or under emphasized realization in both federal and state standards for literacy is that literacy is primarily a language process and culture is a reflection of language. As such, language and culture must be retained as essential components upon which reading instruction is based. Our nation and our states truly want individuals who can use literacy to learn and to enhance their quality of life as well as the quality of life of those around them. This article looks at essential considerations that must be given to the role of language and culture in literacy instruction.     

Connecting learning to the world beyond the classroom through collaborative philosophical inquiry

This study explored the impact of facilitating collaborative philosophical inquiry (CPI), in the tradition of “Philosophy for Children,” on connectedness pedagogies. The study employed an experimental design that included 59 primary teachers in 2 groups. The experimental group received an intervention that comprised training in CPI and the comparison group received training in Thinking Tools (graphic organisers), a subset of the CPI training. Lessons were coded on four variables of connectedness pedagogies, across the two groups, at three time-points. Teacher interviews were conducted to gather participants’ perspectives. Between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) on particular measures of pedagogy revealed that CPI significantly broadened teachers’ pedagogical repertoires, in ways that included drawing on students’ background knowledge and preparing a problem-based curriculum which connects students to the world beyond the classroom.