Effects of an Educational Film About Body Donors on Students' Empathy and Anxiety Levels in Gross Anatomy

While most German anatomy institutes provide only limited information about body donors and their lives, students have expressed a desire to learn more about these individuals, especially about their motivations to donate their bodies for the sake of medical education. In order to gratify this wish, as well as to further humanize body donors, an educational film was compiled, and a study designed to capture the film's effects on medical students. This is the first study using standardized, validated psychological tools to evaluate the impact of an educational film about body donors on students’ empathy and psychological stress levels. The study followed a longitudinal, controlled, and cluster randomized design, including 77 (48 females/29 males) participants who watched the video either before, midway, or after the dissection course. Questionnaires were completed at four points in time applying the Jefferson Scale for Empathy (JSPE-S) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) to measure empathy. Psychological stress levels were recorded by the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Overall, students recommended the film to be shown to all students (median 6.0; maximum on the six-point Likert scale). Viewing the film revealed no significant changes between study groups or over time in JSPE-S sum scores. All groups demonstrated a significant reduction of BSI values before the dissection course actually started and increased values during the course, but both developments appeared not to be associated with the intervention. Overall, the educational film did not correlate with any negative effects on students’ empathy and psychological stress levels, and it was strongly approved of by students, as it provided more humanizing personal information about body donors without violating their anonymity.     

Robuste Indizes für Projection Pursuit

Zusammenfassung.   Die moderne und hoch komplexe Fertigung, z.B. in der Halbleiterindustrie, erfordert für die dabei anfallenden Messdaten der Anlagen- bzw. Prozessparameter multivariate Analysemethoden. Eine dieser m?glichen Analysemethoden ist Projection Pursuit (PP). Dieses Verfahren ist durch geschickte Wahl des so genannten Projektionsindex in der Lage, verschiedenste Datencharakteristika zu detektieren und diese auf anschauliche Weise zu visualisieren. Bei den Projektionsindizes handelt es sich um Funktionen, die eine Projektion auf unterschiedliche Merkmale hin bewerten und dabei jeder Projektion einen Funktionswert zuweisen. Dieser Funktionswert spiegelt die Aussagekraft der Projektion (in Abh?ngigkeit vom verwendeten Index) wider. Die Auswahl bzw. der Aufbau dieser Indizes ist hierbei von entscheidender Bedeutung. Alle hier vorgestellten Indizes zeichnen sich vor allem durch ihren robusten Charakter gegenüber durch Ausrei?er kontaminierte Daten, wie sie in realen Datenszenarien vorkommen, aus. Die durch Anwendung dieser Indizes gewonnenen Einblicke in die komplexe Struktur der Daten erm?glichen es, hochdimensionale Parameterabweichungen und komplexe Zusammenh?nge innerhalb der Daten zu finden. Eingegangen am 11. Februar 2002 / Angenommen am 14. Mai 2002     

Dynamische Probleml?sekompetenz

This article is about the importance and validity of dynamic problem solving (DPS) in predicting technical problem solving performances. In addition to DPS, fluid intelligence and technical knowledge were included in the study. Assessing DPS and fluid intelligence simultaneously also allowed for testing the empirical distinction between both constructs. Results are based on data of a sample of car mechatronics (n?=?129) and electronics technicians (n?=?88) and showed that DPS and fluid intelligence were empirically separable. In the first sample (electronics technicians) DPS explained technical problem solving performance best, although fluid intelligence showed incremental validity too. In the second sample (car mechatronics) fluid intelligence was weakly related to the criterion whereas DPS was not at all. When technical knowledge was added to the prediction, both DPS and fluid intelligence did not predict technical problem solving performance. However, in the sample of the electronics technicians fluid intelligence indirectly affected the criterion through technical knowledge. A discussion of the somewhat contradictory results, the different results patterns in the two samples and a theoretical explanation of the results are provided.     

Wer liegt am Ende der Grundschulzeit vorn?

The number of students enrolled in private schools has been growing continuously in the past years, especially in elementary schools. There is a variety of reasons for this development. Among other expectations, parents anticipate a superior education for their children and hope for bigger academic success. However, empirical results on the effectiveness of private schools are inconsistent and ambiguous, partly because many studies used cross-sectional data. Longitudinal studies investigating the development of elementary school students are especially lacking.The present study compares academic achievement gains of students enrolled in public schools to students who learned in the so-called BIP-creativity elementary schools. BIP schools are private schools that aim to promote the development of the talent, intelligence and personality of their students. This study investigates the development of students in mathematics, reading and orthography over a 4-years period.As the group of BIP-students is selected in terms of their socio-economic background, analyses were run in two ways. First, multilevel analyses controlling for student and class characteristics were performed. Second, a Propensity Score Matching based on school enrollment data was used in order to select a comparable group of students from public schools. Each BIP-student was matched to a student from the public schools that had a comparable socio-economic background and similar cognitive characteristics. Neither multilevel analyses nor mean comparisons of the matched samples could reveal any differences between the two groups of students in the three domains of academic achievement at the end of fourth grade.     

Analyzing Different Types of Moderated Method Effects in Confirmatory Factor Models for Structurally Different Methods

An extension of two confirmatory factor models for multitrait-multimethod measurement designs with structurally different methods to the analysis of latent interaction effects is presented: the nonlinear latent difference (NL-LD) model and the nonlinear correlated trait–correlated method-minus-one (NL-CTC[M – 1]) model. Both models are compared with regard to (a) the psychometric definition of the latent variables, (b) the capabilities of explaining latent method effects, and (c) the analysis of latent interaction effects. Using the latent moderated structural equation approach, we show how moderated method effects can be examined in the NL-CTC(M – 1) model. This fine-grained analysis of method effects is not feasible using the classical NL-LD model. We propose an extended version of the NL-LD model, which recovers the results of the NL-CTC(M – 1) model. The different versions of the nonlinear multimethod models are illustrated using real data from a multirater study. Finally, the advantages and challenges of incorporating latent interaction effects in complex CFA–MTMM models are discussed.     

Some Recent Developments in Teacher Education in Mathematics and Science: A Review and Commentary

Teacher preparation in science and mathematics will be best served, says the author of this roundup, by improvements both in the pedagogy and content of the undergraduate science and mathematics courses required of future teachers and in the reform of required science and mathematics methods courses. In a review of the history and politics of teacher education, the author underscores the twin goals of achieving program coherence and higher standards. She compares the place of mathematics education in mathematics departments with that of science education in science departments and recommends the replacement of bare bones methods courses with those combining pedagogy and content. Included is a selective bibliography.     

Corporal punishment and children's externalizing problems: A cross-sectional study of Tanzanian primary school aged children

The adverse effect of harsh corporal punishment on mental health and psychosocial functioning in children has been repeatedly suggested by studies in industrialized countries. Nevertheless, corporal punishment has remained common practice not only in many homes, but is also regularly practiced in schools, particularly in low-income countries, as a measure to maintain discipline. Proponents of corporal punishment have argued that the differences in culture and industrial development might also be reflected in a positive relationship between the use of corporal punishment and improving behavioral problems in low-income nations. In the present study we assessed the occurrence of corporal punishment at home and in school in Tanzanian primary school students. We also examined the association between corporal punishment and externalizing problems. The 409 children (52% boys) from grade 2 to 7 had a mean age of 10.49 (SD = 1.89) years. Nearly all children had experienced corporal punishment at some point during their lifetime both in family and school contexts. Half of the respondents reported having experienced corporal punishment within the last year from a family member. A multiple sequential regression analysis revealed that corporal punishment by parents or by caregivers was positively related to children's externalizing problems. The present study provides evidence that Tanzanian children of primary school age are frequently exposed to extreme levels of corporal punishment, with detrimental consequences for externalizing behavior. Our findings emphasize the need to inform parents, teachers and governmental organizations, especially in low-income countries, about the adverse consequences of using corporal punishment be it at home or at school.     

Prospective elementary teachers’ development of fraction language for defining the whole

This article examines the ways in which prospective elementary teachers’ develop an understanding of language use for defining the whole throughout a 9-day rational number unit. Student work samples and classroom conversations are used to illustrate their difficulties and growth with defining the whole and corresponding language use for describing fractional amounts. The results indicate that three mathematical ideas became taken-as-shared by the class. The first was that fractions depend on a group or whole. The second included defining an of what. The third was developing language in terms of what the denominator represents. Difficulties prospective teachers had conceptualizing language included distinguishing among the phrases of a, of one, of the, and of each. Implications for mathematics education courses and future research studies are also discussed.     

In-class examinations in college-level science: New theory,new practice

Every faculty member knows that exams drive student behavior. Testing and grading are part of every course, but generally of lesser importance to faculty members than course content itself. Recently, instructional methods and pedagogy. But as issues of grade inflation, student attrition, accountability, and authentic assessment grow in importance, we see some interesting innovations in testing methods and some interesting innovations. The authors are publishing a collection of some of these as described in their own words, by faculty themselves. Two questions underlie the study: 1) why is it so difficult to change tests and testing traditions in college-level science and 2) will the enormous efforts underway to reform pedagogy and curriculum in these disciplines have any lasting effect if testing does not have a prominent place on the reform agenda?