Providing opportunities for student self-assessment: the impact on the acquisition of psychomotor skills in occupational therapy students

The Occupational Therapy department at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa is responsible for ensuring students achieve psychomotor skill proficiency, as it is an essential component of health care practice. The aim of this study was to determine whether the introduction of opportunities to afford self-evaluation better prepared students for psychomotor skill performance during clinical fieldwork. A quantitative analytical longitudinal design was used with a sample of second-year BSc occupational therapy students from 2007–2010. Self-assessment opportunities were introduced to students in 2009, enabling the comparisons of students’ performance based on Fitts and Posner’s motor skills learning theory. The results indicated that the pre-intervention group demonstrated poor psychomotor skill ability compared to the intervention group, concluding that students require deliberate opportunities to practice self-evaluation skills in their early years of study.     

日本大阪都市圈居民的年龄、居住位置与家庭生命周期对小汽车使用与保有的影响

研究目的：探究城市居民小汽车交通行为变化的原因有多少来自人口统计特性的变化,有多少来自城市结构的改变。 创新要点：考虑家庭成员的生活任务分工以及家庭资源的分配等对每个家庭成员出行方式的影响,构建基于家庭生命周期的小汽车出行行为模型,为控制小汽车出行对策的研究提供准确依据。 研究方法：采用调查与统计理论,掌握居民的出行行为特征;基于经济计量学建模方法,构建居民小汽车出行行为联立方程模型。重要结论：城市结构关系的改变在抵消了人口统计特性的变化对小汽车交通产生的负面影响之后,小汽车交通总体呈上升趋势。     

The peer‐review process in English‐language advertising journals: a survey of US academics

This study examined the views of advertising academics regarding the peer‐review process in English‐language advertising journals. Three issues were examined. First, how do advertising academics assess the peer‐review process in advertising journals on the following dimensions: fairness, anonymity (truly double‐blind), timeliness, and effectiveness in improving the quality of research? Second, how do they perceive the ethicality of review process behaviors? Third, what steps do they suggest for improving the quality or integrity of the peer‐review process? Data was collected through a survey of US‐based advertising academics. The findings reveal that advertising academics believe that, for the most part, advertising journals are succeeding at fairness, protecting anonymity, improving the research of submitters, and avoiding ethical infractions in the review process. However, advertising academics would like to see improvements in timeliness as well as in incentives and guidelines provided to participants in the peer‐review process.     

Stress Reduction and Mood Enhancement in Four Exercise Modes: Swimming,Body Conditioning,Hatha Yoga,and Fencing

Abstract

The influence of exercise mode and practice qualities on the stress reduction benefits of exercise was examined. College students in swimming, body conditioning, hatha yoga, fencing, exercise, and lecture-control classes completed the Profile of Mood States and the State Anxiety Inventory before and after class on three occasions. Swimmers had unusually positive initial moods and reported less tension and confusion after swimming only on the first day of testing. Participants in yoga, an anaerobic activity that satisfied three of the four mode requirements, were significantly less anxious, tense, depressed, angry, fatigued, and confused after class than before on all three occasions. Supporting the importance of the four mode characteristics, participants in the exercise control activity of fencing reported improvements only in vigor. A possible influence of practice conditions was observed when members of the body conditioning class reported significant increases in fatigue, but no other mood changes. Results of this study supported the possibility that exercise mode and practice requirements in the proposed taxonomy moderate the stress reduction benefits.