A Written Knowledge Test for Postgraduate Medical Students: Reliability in Relation to Different Educational Goals

ABSTRACT

The use of written knowledge tests in (medical) education is widespread. Only few of them are thoroughly validated. Usually, validity studies are restricted to establishing ‘face‐validity’, the apparent similarity between test‐material and real life problems. Reliability studies are usually restricted to estimation of the coefficient alpha, representing the reproducibility of rank‐ordering of students at repeated test administration. This study addresses reliability from a broader perspective, using generalizability theory. The approach enables faculty to gain insight into the suitability of the test to serve different educational goals.

A written knowledge test was examined, applied in postgraduate training for general practice in the Netherlands. Test‐reliability was approached from different perspectives: the norm‐oriented perspective, aiming at rank‐ordering (groups of) students, the domain‐oriented perspective, aiming at determining the absolute score level of (groups of) students and the decision‐oriented perspective, aiming at taking pass‐fail decisions.

Reliability estimates differed for the different perspectives. The implication of the results and feasible options to increase reliability are discussed.     

Meeting International Society for Technology in Education Competencies with a Problem-Based Learning Video Framework

Meeting International Society for Technology in Education competencies creates a challenge for teachers. The authors provide a problem-based video framework that guides teachers in enhancing 21st century skills to meet those competencies. To keep the focus on the content, the authors suggest teaching the technology skills only at the point the students need to use them. An example is provided on how the problem-based video framework was applied in a higher education setting. The benefits and challenges for using video within a problem-based learning context are discussed.     

Internal and external influences on vocabulary development in preschool children

Competency in society's lingua franca plays a major role in the emergence of social disparities within education. Therefore, the present longitudinal study investigates vocabulary development and its predictors in preschool years. We focus on whether internal (phonological working memory) and external variables (preschool and home learning environment) have different impacts depending on parental native language. The study considers 547 children from 97 German preschools. Children's vocabulary was assessed at the ages of 3, 4, and 5 years. Latent growth curve models show that non-native German language children are characterized by reduced vocabulary at first assessment and lower progress compared to monolingual peers. Phonological working memory has a strong impact on all children's initial vocabulary but also on vocabulary growth in those whose parents speak German as an additional language. The effects of preschool and home learning environment are comparatively smaller.     

Implementation Effects of a Program for the Training of Coaching Skills with School Principals∗

In this study, the implementation effects of a program for the training of coaching skills to Dutch primary school principals are described. Coaching is a form of in‐class support intended to provide teachers with feedback on their own functioning, and thereby to stimulate self‐reflection and self‐analysis in order to improve instructional effectiveness. To assist school principals in their attempts to coach teachers, a training program was designed and evaluated. Based on the pre‐ and post‐training ratings of coaching conferences, a significant treatment effect was found for the coaching skills concerned with the development of autonomy (empowerment), feedback, and agreement on classroom observational goals. The pre‐ and post‐training ratings from the coached teachers themselves showed a significant treatment effect for the coaching skills concerned with the development of improvement plans. Although the training provided for the school principals was directed at the coaching functions of consulting and confronting, the majority of the school principals conducted coaching conferences that emphasized predominantly the function of consulting.

     

Finding Out How They Find It Out: An empirical analysis of inquiry learners’ need for support

Inquiry learning environments increasingly incorporate modelling facilities for students to articulate their research hypotheses and (acquired) domain knowledge. This study compared performance success and scientific reasoning of university students with high prior knowledge (n = 11), students from senior high‐school (n = 10), and junior high‐school (n = 10) with intermediate and low prior knowledge, respectively, in order to reveal domain novices’ need for support in such environments. Results indicated that the scientific reasoning of both groups of high‐school students was comparable to that of the experts. As high‐school students achieved significantly lower performance success scores, their expert‐like behaviour was rather ineffective; qualitative analyses substantiated this conclusion. Based on these findings, implications for supporting domain novices in inquiry learning environments are advanced.     

Intra-abdominal pressures during activity in women using an intra-vaginal pressure transducer

Abstract

Strenuous physical activity has been linked to pelvic floor disorders in women. Using a novel wireless intra-vaginal pressure transducer, intra-abdominal pressure was measured during diverse activities in a laboratory. Fifty-seven women performed a prescribed protocol using the intra-vaginal pressure transducer. We calculated maximal, area under the curve and first moment of the area intra-abdominal pressure for each activity. Planned comparisons of pressure were made between levels of walking and cycling and between activities with reported high pressure in the literature. Findings indicate variability in intra-abdominal pressure amongst individuals doing the same activity, especially in activities that required regulation of effort. There were statistically significant differences in maximal pressure between levels of walking, cycling and high pressure activities. Results for area under the curve and first moment of the area were not always consistent with maximal pressure. Coughing had the highest maximal pressure, but had lower area under the curve and first moment of the area compared to most activities. Our data reflect novel findings of maximal, area under the curve and first moment of the area measures of intra-abdominal pressure, which may have clinical relevance for how physical activity relates to pelvic floor dysfunction.     

How Do Children Socially Learn from Narrative Fiction: Getting the Lesson,Simulating Social Worlds,or Dialogic Inquiry?

Educational Psychology Review - Educators read narrative fiction with children not only to promote their literacy skills, but also to support their sociomoral development. However, different...     

Correction to: How Do Children Socially Learn from Narrative Fiction: Getting the Lesson,Simulating Social Worlds,or Dialogic Inquiry?

Educational Psychology Review -     

Design of mixed H2-dissipative observers with stochastic resilience for discrete-time nonlinear systems

A linear matrix inequality based mixed H₂-dissipative type state observer design approach is presented for smooth discrete time nonlinear systems with finite energy disturbances. This observer is designed to maintain H₂ type estimation error performance together with either H_∞ or a passivity type disturbance reduction performance in case of randomly varying perturbations in its gain. A linear matrix inequality is used at each time instant to find the time-varying gain of the observer. Simulation studies are included to explore the performance in comparison to the extended Kalman filter and a previously proposed constant gain observer counterpart.