Twenty five years of cognitive care education research: Time for a revolutionary change

This is the third study of Cognitive Care Education in New York State nursing homes using cross-sectional methods over a 25 year period. The data indicate that the Cognitive Care Education increased at statistically significant levels, albeit by evolutionary means. It is now time for “A Revolutionary Change,” for Cognitive Care Education, whereby the ideal level of 20 to 32 hours of education is provided to cognitive care providers.

Cognitive care encompasses a range of behavioral problems that require appropriate education. These might include communication difficulties, perseveration (repetition of an idea or activity), aggressive behaviors, paranoia, memory problems, and wandering (Savundranayagam & Orange, 2014). This study assessed Cognitive Care Education as the “Amount and type of education provided to cognitive care providers on how to care for the cognitively impaired including knowledge and skills to understand cognitive impairments and requisite standards to improve quality of care and life.”

It is apparent that nursing home employees are cognizant of cognitively impaired residents’ needs. However, the Cognitive Care Education providers receive on the job, is still inadequate to understand the overall needs of cognitively impaired, as indicated by our most recent research in 2016 (i.e., 3.81 hours). We recommend that at least 20 hours of Cognitive Care Education be provided to care providers, with a second recommendation that 32 hours would be ideal that follows the Alzheimer’s Association recommendation. The primary focus of the research studies here is to ensure care-providers are adequately trained to take care of the cognitively impaired.     

A history of higher and professional correspondence education in the UK

ABSTRACT

Correspondence education, or learning by post, lasted over 100 years in the UK; it had its roots in the nineteenth century, peaking in the mid-1960s. It was also widespread, numbering hundreds of thousands of enrolments, significantly increasing access to higher education. Yet it has been marginalised in accounts of British higher education. This is partly because it was largely private and for-profit and so distinct from the public education system, while the state declined to play any significant role in its oversight. Consequently, little official data concerning correspondence education has ever been available. This paper constructs an account of the history of correspondence education in the UK in terms of its development as a form of academic and professional provision, and its regulatory framework. The paper also considers the reasons for the eventual demise of the correspondence education sector following changes in teaching methods, and the impact of digital technology.     

The link: Addressing the problems of higher education through the core curriculum

Three major national reports on the status of American Higher Education have surfaced seven distinct problems common to many colleges and universities. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College anticipated these problems in 1981 and has undertaken to address them through the development of a sixty-hour, developmentally arranged general studies sequence entitledThe Link. The success ofThe Link illustrates that the core curriculum can be an effective medium for dealing with these problems when approached by faculty in a spirit of innovation and cooperation.     

Socially facilitated drinking behavior in chicks (Gallus domesticus): Relative effects of drive and stimulus mechanisms

The drinking behavior of individual chicks (n = 168) was studied in two discrimination situations when the individual was alone or with an audience of merely present (not drinking) or coacting (drinking) conspecifics. In one discrimination task, a familiar and an unfamiliar drinking tube (FU) were presented simultaneously; in the other discrimination task, two unfamiliar tubes (UU) were presented. The coacting audience received a familiar and an unfamiliar tube; their familiar tube was always unfamiliar to the subject. Subjects drank more when conspecifics were present, intake being highest in the presence of coacting conspecifics. Intake was higher in the FU discrimination than in UU. However, in the UU discrimination, individuals that were tested with coactors drank most of their total intake from the tube that was similar to the coactors’ familiar tube. In the FU task, individual subjects drank mostly from their familiar tube in each social condition. However, this effect was smaller for those tested with coacting conspecifics than for those tested with merely present conspecifics.     

Scoring a Performance-Based Assessment by Modeling the Judgments of Experts

Performance assessments typically require expert judges to individually rate each performance. This results in a limitation in the use of such assessments because the rating process may be extremely time consuming. This article describes a scoring algorithm that is based on expert judgments but requires the rating of only a sample of performances. A regression-based policy capturing procedure was implemented to model the judgment policies of experts. The data set was a seven-case performance assessment of physician patient management skills. The assessment used a computer-based simulation of the patient care environment. The results showed a substantial improvement in correspondence between scores produced using the algorithm and actual ratings, when compared to raw scores. Scores based on the algorithm were also shown to be superior to raw scores and equal to expert ratings for making pass/fail decisions which agreed with those made by an independent committee of experts     

Student pathways to understanding the global virtual teams: an ethnographic study

Based on a two-year ethnographic study of global virtual teams (GVTs) (n?=?323) in a technology-enhanced global course among six universities (i.e. U.S., China, South Korea, Germany, Israel, and India), this paper presents how and in what ways the participating students made sense of and constructed understandings about the interactive learning environment. Focusing on the student engagement, this study identified three pathways in which they negotiated and developed their respective understandings about technology, culture, and teamwork in GVTs. In each pathway, it was found that students engaged in the development process of reflecting upon problematic experiences, revolving unanticipated challenges, and establishing new ways of being, doing, and thinking. This study highlights the dynamic nature of understanding construction and provides important implications about how to implement GVTs and support students to succeed in GVTs.     

Reward magnitude and shock variables (continuity and intensity) in shuttlebox-avoidance learning

In Experiment I, eight groups of rats (n = 20) were given shuttlebox-avoidance training. Two levels of shock (.3 and 1.6 mA) were combined factorially with two levels of reward (large and small) under both continuous and discontinuous (.75 sec on and 2.00 sec off) shock. Visual situational cues were absent after a shuttle response for the large-reward condition and present for the small-reward condition. Superior performance was obtained with weak rather than strong shock under both reward conditions and with large rather than small reward only under the weak-shock condition. Continuity of shock had no differential effect on performance. Experiment II allowed the conclusion that the reward effect was attributable to a reinforcement mechanism. The data were taken as support for the effective reinforcement theory, which emphasizes the importance in avoidance learning of fear conditioned to situational cues.     

Assessing young children's social concept development

A number of questions regarding the nature of social concept development in young children were investigated in this study. In an earlier study, a social concept picture-sorting task was developed to obtain normative data on young children's social concept development. For this replication study, a larger more heterogeneous sample was used consisting of 64 kindergarten and 65 first grade public school students from lower to upper middle-class socioeconomic levels. Profile analysis was used to compare grades, sex, and racial groups. All three variables had a significant impact on performance. Significant differences in difficulty were found among the nine concepts measured. Three of the most difficult concepts (family-not family, those who protect us, and past-present) are commonly included in early childhood curriculum. These results suggest that the level of concept development needs to be considered in planning social studies curriculum and instruction for young children.