Children’s recall and motivation for an environmental education video with supporting pedagogical materials

This study examined recall (Rcl) differences of high, average and low achieving fifth-grade elementary students (72) for an environmental education video with supporting pedagogical materials. In addition, it assessed the motivational level of all students. Recall assessment was carried out one-week and twenty-weeks after intervention. Main findings suggest comparative Rcl results for all achievers and high motivation for the designed video and pedagogical materials. Implications for future research and for an integrative materials’ design approach are presented.     

Learning Studios for Introductory Accounting

Although originally designed for science courses, learning studios have been introduced at over 100 college campuses in a variety of disciplines. Our study focuses on the differences between classrooms designed as lecture spaces versus classrooms designed as learning studios. The impetus is the growing number of learning studios and proponents’ claim of better collaboration and learning within them. Given the substantial cost of a learning studio and greater demand at the authors’ university than supply, we questioned whether the university administration should be encouraged to build more. Learning studios are classrooms in which the seating arrangement places the students in a face‐to‐face orientation with one another. Our study measures the differences between learning studios and traditional classrooms both quantitatively and qualitatively. The learning studio did not result in higher retention rates (the percentage of students completing the course during the semester) or significant differences in total points earned by students in a learning studio compared to a traditional classroom. When examined by gender, however, a significant difference in total points is apparent. For all students in the study, the ability to interact with other students as well as the instructor was greater in the learning studio.     

On the teachings of George Grant

One of Canada’s greatest public intellectuals, George Grant (1918–1988) studied history as an undergraduate, focusing on concepts and themes rather than minutiae. That same intellectual disposition surfaced later at Oxford, where he had gone on a Rhodes scholarship to study law. Returning to Oxford after the war, he left law to study theology, earning extra money by writing historical articles on Canada for Chambers’ Encyclopedia. Even after becoming the most prominent Canadian philosopher of his time, Grant maintained he always thought like an historian. Reactivating the historical thinking of George Grant can encourage ‘becoming historical’.     

Development and Effectiveness of an Educational Card Game as Supplementary Material in Understanding Selected Topics in Biology

The complex concepts and vocabulary of biology classes discourage many students. In this study, a pretest–posttest model was used to test the effectiveness of an educational card game in reinforcing biological concepts in comparison with traditional teaching methods. The subjects of this study were two biology classes at Bulacan State University–Sarmiento Campus. Both classes received conventional instruction; however, the experimental group''s instruction was supplemented with the card game, while the control group''s instruction was reinforced with traditional exercises and assignments. The score increases from pretest to posttest showed that both methods effectively reinforced biological concepts, but a t test showed that the card game is more effective than traditional teaching methods. Additionally, students from the experimental group evaluated the card game using five criteria: goals, design, organization, playability, and usefulness. The students rated the material very satisfactory.     

Exploring the validity of assessment in anatomy: Do images influence cognitive processes used in answering extended matching questions?

Assessment is an important aspect of medical education because it tests students' competence and motivates them to study. Various assessment methods, with and without images, are used in the study of anatomy. In this study, we investigated the use of extended matching questions (EMQs). To gain insight into the influence of images on the validity of test items, we focused on students' cognitive processes while they answered questions with and without images. Seventeen first‐year medical students answered EMQs about gross anatomy, combined with either labeled images or answer lists, while thinking aloud. The participants' verbal reports were transcribed verbatim and then coded. Initial codes were based on a task analysis and were adapted into final codes during the coding process. Results showed that students used more cues from EMQs with images and visualized more often in EMQs with answer lists. Ready knowledge and verbal reasoning were used equally often in both conditions. In conclusion, EMQs with and without images elicit different results in this think aloud experiment, indicating different cognitive processes. They seem to measure different skills, making them valid for different testing purposes. The take‐home message for anatomy teachers is that questions without images seem to test the quality of students' mental images while questions with images test their ability to interpret visual information. It makes sense to use both response formats in tests. Using images from clinical practice instead of anatomical drawings will help to improve test validity. Anat Sci Educ 7: 107–116. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Determination of clinically relevant content for a musculoskeletal anatomy curriculum for physical medicine and rehabilitation residents

To address the need for more clinical anatomy training in residency education, many postgraduate programs have implemented structured anatomy courses into their curriculum. Consensus often does not exist on specific content and level of detail of the content that should be included in such curricula. This article describes the use of the Delphi method to identify clinically relevant content to incorporate in a musculoskeletal anatomy curriculum for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) residents. A two round modified Delphi involving PM&R experts was used to establish the curricular content. The anatomical structures and clinical conditions presented to the expert group were compiled using multiple sources: clinical musculoskeletal anatomy cases from the PM&R residency program at the University of Toronto; consultation with PM&R experts; and textbooks. In each round, experts rated the importance of each curricular item to PM&R residency education using a five‐point Likert scale. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was used to determine consensus at the end of each round and agreement scores were used as an outcome measure to determine the content to include in the curriculum. The overall internal consistency in both rounds was 0.99. A total of 37 physiatrists from across Canada participated and the overall response rate over two rounds was 97%. The initial curricular list consisted of 361 items. After the second iteration, the list was reduced by 44%. By using a national consensus method we were able to objectively determine the relevant anatomical structures and clinical musculoskeletal conditions important in daily PM&R practice. Anat Sci Educ 7: 135–143. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Journal author rights and self‐archiving: the case of Spanish journals

Open access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. The lack of clarity of publisher permissions for archiving in OA repositories affects the adoption of the green OA route. This paper explores editorial policies and self‐archiving conditions in 1,615 Spanish scholarly journals. 48% are published by university and research institutions, 25% by associations/societies, and 17% by commercial publishers; social sciences and humanities (SSH) accounted for 67% of the journals (44.5% and 22.5%, respectively) followed by health sciences (20%); 71% offered gratis access immediately after publication, and 11% after an embargo; 31% provided some mention of author rights. Self‐archiving was specifically allowed by 65% of the journals; 52% were classified as ROMEO‐blue, 12% as green and 15% as white, and 21% could not be classified; 21%, mostly in SSH, used some type of Creative Commons license.