Examining the stability of experts’ clinical case processing: An experimental manipulation

The present study was undertaken to examine the hypothesis that the intermediate effect in clinical case recall is partly explained by experts lower motivation to write down everything they remember when asked for free recall. Medical experts and students were presented with two clinical cases, which they had to read, diagnose, and recall. Participants received an instruction before processing the cases that aimed at minimizing motivation in one condition, and enhance motivation in another. A third condition received a standard instruction, comparable to previous clinical case representation studies. The results showed that medical experts clinical case processing mode is robust and insensitive to pressure induced by a social comparison instruction. In all conditions, recall data showed an intermediate effect, indicating encapsulated processing by the expert group. Moreover, there were no differences between the conditions in diagnostic accuracy, number of summaries in recall, and study time on the cases. Although experts showed that they were affected by the instruction, their processing mode remained stable over the three conditions. Expert physicians, even under conditions of considerable pressure, process clinical cases in an encapsulated mode.Part of this report was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, Washington, April 1–5, 2001.     

荷兰初等教育监测与评估系统

为了帮助学校控制教学质量,荷兰国家教育测量研究院(Cito)为初等教育阶段开发出一套监测与评估系统。该系统包括一系列连续的国家范围内的标准化考试,对学生受教育过程中的成绩进行纵向评估。本文介绍了该系统的主要内容、教育及心理测量依据以及提供的部分成绩报告,并重点讨论了荷兰学校如何利用这些报告改进和提高教学水平。     

The relationship between student-generated learning issues and self-study in problem-based learning

A major assumption of problem-based learning (PBL) is that learning issues, generated by students while discussing a problem, are used as guides for self-directed learning activities. This assumption, though basic to PBL, has never been tested. At the University of Limburg, the Netherlands, two procedures have been developed that reflect the extent to which students are able to identify important learning issues given a particular problem, and whether subsequent, independent, learning corresponds with these learning issues. The focus of the present article will be on the relationship between the two. We have explored to what extent student-generated learning issues are a major factor influencing the nature of students' self-study, or whether other factors may be involved in decisions on what to study and how much time to spend on topics selected. First, the production of learning issues was studied and represented as the percentage of overlap between learning issues raised by students and pre-set faculty objectives for each problem. The second procedure consisted of the administration of a Topic Checklist (TOC) which purports to measure students' actual self-directed learning activities. The TOC consists of a list of topics specifying the intended course content. Students were asked to indicate on a five-point Likert scale how much time they had spent studying each topic and to what degree they had mastered that topic. Third, learning issues and TOC topics were compared directly in a qualitative sense. Comparisons between the procedures revealed that a low proportion of variance of TOC scores could be predicted from the percentage of faculty objectives identified for each problem and the direct match between learning issues and TOC scores. It is concluded that scrutinizing student-generated learning issues and topics covered during self-study may provide information about what content is covered by students in tutorial groups. The discrepancy between the results of the measurements suggests, however, that learning issues produced during group discussion are not the sole source on which students base self-study decisions. Several other factors may be involved, such as tutor guidance, content already covered in previous units, issues raised during sessions with resource persons, and the nature of the learning resources available. Therefore, the relationship between learning issues and content covered during self-study is not as straightforward as is suggested.     

Assessment in a problem-based medical curriculum

The problem-based learning curriculum differs from a conventional curriculum with regard to the cumulation of achieved knowledge. Instead of successively ordered topics, the student must learn to solve problems which are related to several topics. It is assumed that by the end of the course the student has mastered the intended goals. Comparisons of problem-based and conventional curricula regarding academic achievement show that differences between curricula-outcomes are very small, if there are any differences at all (Schmidt et al., 1987). But summative evaluation is not enough. The student and the institute are interested also in the growth of the student during the course. For this purpose a progress test is used.The aim of this paper is to describe how a problem-based curriculum is evaluated. It accents the progress test.     

Audiotape feedback for essays in distance education

Students who were required to write three short essays for a university level course on photochemistry at the Open university of the Netherlands received either audio-cassette or written feedback on their essays. The students receiving the audio feedback described their experience as personal, enjoyable, complete and clear. Those receiving written feedback described their experience as adequate. The amount of time spent by instructors supplying the feedback differed minimally (X_audio=53 minutes per student; X_written=49 minutes) with the major difference lying in the amount of time spent in preparation. This difference, possibly attributable to novelty with audio as a mode for feedback, was not significant. The amount communicated to the students with audio feedback (per instructor) was significantly greater than the amount communicated with written feedback. There was no difference in the final grades for the two groups of students.Paul A. Kirschner received his Masters in Educational Psychology from the State University of Amsterdam. He has worked as educational technologist at the Open university of the Netherlands since 1983, primarily with the faculties of Natural Sciences and Engineering. Henk van den Brink received his Masters in Educational Psychology from the State University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has worked at the Open university of the Netherlands since 1984 as an educational technologist, primarily with the Faculty of Economics. Marthie Meester received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the State University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She has worked since 1983 at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Open university of the Netherlands as course team chair for a number of undergraduate and graduate level chemistry courses.     

A Palestinian prominent educator’s predicament: Khalil Sakakini’s ambivalence and inner contradictions towards Jews and Zionists during the British Mandate 1920–1948

British rule over Palestine between 1920 and 1948 was a vibrant and fateful period in the modern history of the country in all arenas (political, economic, societal, demographic and cultural), one of the most active of which in Palestinian society at the time was education. Many Palestinian educators assumed their role as freedom fighters, agents of Arab nationalism and defenders of the homeland. These educators saw the British and the Zionists as bitter enemies to be resisted and expelled, though some had a distinctly progressive humanistic vision that allowed them to view the collective enemy as worthy human beings. This complex reality created many internal contradictions and difficulties among these humanistic educators, led by prominent Palestinian educator Khalil al-Sakakini (1878–1953). This article attempts to describe and understand Sakakini’s contradictions and internal conflicts and how he dealt with these internal contradictions and distinguished between Jews and Zionists.     

Looking for a balance between internal and external evaluation of school quality: evaluation of the SVI model

This article describes the results of a study into the utility of the SVI model, a model in which internal and external evaluation are balanced. The model consists of three phases: school self‐evaluation, visitation and inspection. Under the guidance of school consultants, 27 Dutch primary schools have built up two years of experience with the SVI model. The results show that the school leaders developed a positive attitude towards school self‐evaluation and visitation. They found that both self‐evaluation and visitation have improved their insight into the quality of the school. However, a content analysis of the school self‐evaluation reports shows that the school self‐evaluations are often of low quality. For example, it appeared that most of the self‐evaluation reports do not provide answers to questions the schools have formulated at the beginning of the self‐evaluation. Moreover, the teams of critical friends and the inspectors concluded that the school self‐evaluations do have many shortcomings. Based on these results, we conclude that school self‐evaluation is a very difficult task for most schools. It is therefore crucial that schools receive external support and that they build up experience with school self‐evaluations over a period of years.     

Does the extent of problem familiarity influence students’ learning in problem-based learning?

This study investigated the relationship between problem familiarity and students’ learning in a problem-based course. Problem familiarity in this study refers to the extent to which a problem fits with students’ prior knowledge and experiences. As part of regular course work, 172 students were given two problems on different occasions. These problems varied in the extent of problem familiarity. Students’ report of their learning activities and tutor’s assessment of the students’ learning were collected at the end of the problems. Results showed that both the students and tutors found the familiar problem to be better for learning. However, some elements of unfamiliarity may not be all that bad. For instance, unfamiliarity may result in more questioning, thinking and reasoning. However, this did not contribute to significant difference in terms of overall critical reasoning. Results also indicated a need to closely examine students’ critical reasoning (in terms of evaluating multiple perspectives) and students’ collaborative learning (in terms of brainstorming and discussion) when given familiar/unfamiliar problems.     

Swimming

Abstract

The effect on drag of a Speedo Fast‐skin suit compared to a conventional suit was studied in 13 subjects (6 males, 7 females) swimming at different velocities between 1.0 and 2.0 m?s^‐1. The active drag force was directly measured during front crawl swimming using a system of underwater push‐off pads instrumented with a force transducer (MAD system). For a range of swimming speeds (1.1, 1.3, 1.5 and 1.7 m?s^‐1), drag values were estimated. On a group level, a statistically non‐significant drag reduction effect of 2% was observed for the Fast‐skin suit (p = 0.31). Therefore, the 7.5% reduction in drag claimed by the swimwear manufacturer was not corroborated.