Latent Class Modeling with A Time-To-Event Distal Outcome: A Comparison of One,Two and Three-Step Approaches

Latent class methods can be used to identify unobserved subgroups which differ in their observed data. Researchers are often interested in outcomes for the identified subgroups and in some disciplines time-to-event outcome measures are common, e.g., overall survival in oncology. In this study Monte Carlo simulation is used to evaluate the empirical properties of latent class effect estimates on a time-to-event distal outcome using one, two and three-step approaches. Both standard and inclusive bias-corrected three-step approaches are considered. One-step latent class effect estimates are shown to be superior to the evaluated alternatives. Both the two-step approach and a standard three-step approach, where subjects are partially assigned to latent classes, produced unbiased estimates with nominal confidence interval coverage when latent classes were well separated, but not otherwise.

     

Parental substance abuse and the nature of child maltreatment.

The authors reviewed 190 randomly selected records from the case load of a large juvenile court. These records involved cases in which the state took legal custody of the children following a finding of significant child maltreatment, based on a "clear and convincing" standard of evidence. Sixty-seven percent (127/190) of these cases involved parents who were classified as substance abusers. The results of this study revealed specific associations between (a) alcohol abuse and physical maltreatment and (b) cocaine abuse and sexual maltreatment. Logistic analyses, testing for the effects of polysubstance abuse, revealed that additional forms of substance abuse failed to add significantly to the effects of alcohol in predicting physical maltreatment or cocaine in predicting sexual maltreatment.     

Fostering Teacher Educators’ Professional Development on Practice-Based Research Through Communities of Inquiry

Practice-based research and supervising students’ research has become an important task for higher vocational institutes, including the teacher education departments. However, conducting practice-based research is not always common practice for a great number of teacher educators. Therefore, professional development activities are undertaken to support teacher educators in their new role as a researcher. This paper reports on one of those activities: a community of inquiry in which teacher educators conducted a collaborative research on a shared topic derived from their practices, in order to examine teacher educators’ professional development and to identify key characteristics for setting up such a community. All participants reported developments in practice-based research skills and knowledge, and developments regarding supervising students’ research. In addition, they reported on developments in their beliefs regarding research and on the topic under research. They also reported the impact of the community on other parts of their profession. Commitment, time, teacher educators as experienced researchers and completing the research stages are identified as key characteristics.     

Using quality enhancement processes to achieve sustainable development and support for sessional staff

Abstract

Consistent with quality enhancement, we report on how we used a continuous improvement cycle to formalise and embed an academic development and support programme for our School’s sessional staff. Key factors in establishing and maintaining the programme included: local change agents supported initially by institutional project funding; School support for key academic and administrative roles; timely access to reports and tools from nationally-funded projects and sessional staff input. Reviewing our approach against national standards highlighted ongoing actions while collaboration with academic developers is critical for advancing our understanding and reviewing our approaches in our continuously changing context.     

In the Midst of Doubled Imaginaries: The Pacific Community as Diversity and as Difference

How shall we understand the signified "community" as in a Pacific Community? Conventional understanding of "community" privileges community understood as diversity, a collective of multiple identifiers of cultures and nations (as in multiculturalism or multinationalism). Postcolonialists, like Stuart Hall and Homi Bhabha, claim that such imaginary is inscribed in "democractic liberalism," suppressing, concealing, and containing the imaginary of "community as difference." In this article, the author calls upon readers to move boldly into the interspace midst these two imaginaries, and claims that though it is a site of ambiguity, ambivalence, and uncertainty, it may be a site of generative possibilities and hope for newness, a site of becoming in struggle.     

Situated Simulation-Based Learning Environment to Improve Proportional Reasoning in Nursing Students

Proportional reasoning is the basis for most medication calculation processes and is fundamental for high-quality care and patient safety. We designed a simulated Medication Mathematics (siMMath) environment to support proportional reasoning in transitioning via concreteness fading between two mediators. The first mediator is simulated nursing tools of medication preparation. The second is a ratio-table setup which is used as a goal representation, which enables one to spatially hold in place different quantities in their relative proportion. We conducted a two-part study with nursing students. Part 1 was a quasi-experimental pretest–intervention–posttest design assessing the effectiveness of learning, by evaluating four categories of medical calculation questionnaire items (solid medications, unit conversion, concentrations, infusion rates). We used the Noelting proportional reasoning test to evaluate the generalizability and abstraction of proportional reasoning. Part 1 included an experimental group (n = 96) learning with siMMath, and a comparison group (n = 73) learning with an equation-based lecture approach. Part 2 employed a case study design to characterize the learning process. The experimental group’s learning gains were significantly higher than the comparison group’s for the two most challenging categories of the medication calculation problems questionnaire, namely concentrations and infusion rates. Furthermore, the experimental group’s learning gains were significantly higher than the comparison group’s for formal operational reasoning on the Noelting test. Students who used a ratio-table setup scored significantly higher on the Noelting posttest questionnaire. Nursing students who learned with the siMMath environment overcame difficulties in proportional reasoning to the highest levels and extended this understanding to other contexts.