Exploring e-readers to support clinical medical education: two case studies

Question:

Can e-readers loaded with medical textbooks and other relevant material benefit medical students, residents, and preceptors in clinical settings?

Settings:

The settings are North Carolina community clinics served by Duke University Medical Center and St. Joseph''s Hospital in Bryan, Texas, and Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas.

Methods:

Duke University: Twenty second-year medical students and fourteen family medicine clerkship preceptors used Kindle e-readers in clinics during eight months of rotations. Students and preceptors provided feedback through an anonymous online survey. Texas A&M University: Nine fourth-year medical students in an elective compared medical textbooks in print, online, and on a Kindle. Six residents at a local hospital completed an anonymous online survey after a three-week loan of a Kindle loaded with medical textbooks.

Results:

The e-reader''s major advantages in clinical settings are portability and searchability. The selected e-reader''s limitations include connection speed, navigation, and display. User preferences varied, but online resources were preferred. Participants suggested additional uses for Kindles in medical education.

Conclusions:

The selected e-reader''s limitations may be resolved with further development of the device. Investigation of other e-readers is needed. Criteria for evaluating e-readers in clinical settings should include portability, searchability, speed, navigation, and display. Research comparing e-readers and mobile devices in clinical education is also warranted.     

How do foreign firms patent in emerging economies with weak appropriability regimes? Archetypes and motives

Foreign firms patent in emerging economies with weak appropriability regimes at an increasing rate. This phenomenon constitutes a paradox since in such a setting foreign firms should have weak incentives to patent. In an attempt to resolve this paradox, we conducted an inductive analysis of 11 foreign firms that patent in such a setting, using the case of China as our empirical context. We identify four archetypes of foreign firms and three key antecedents the interaction of which determines which archetype a firm can be subsumed under.Our study complements the developed-economy focus of the extant appropriation literature by adding an international perspective. We extend previous econometric studies by identifying salient factors on the firm level that determine the extent to which a foreign firm patents in emerging economies with a weak appropriability regime, highlighting that the extent of a firm's motivation to maintain its freedom to operate can supersede imitability concerns. We also comment on the practical implications of these contributions for managers of foreign firms. Highlighting a structural conflict of interest between foreign firms from developed economies and the development goals of an emerging economy, we point to the generalizability of our results to a wide range of other emerging economies worldwide.     

Gender and Ethnicity Among Community College Students: The Relationship Between Adlerian Themes

This study explored the relationship between Adlerian themes, gender, and ethnicity. Results indicate significant differences between Hispanic and Caucasian (non-Hispanic) community college students in Belonging and Social Interest as measured by the BASIS-A. Differences between males and females in Going Along and Wanting Recognition are also explored. The findings are discussed in relation to college students, teaching, and classroom climates.     

Growth Mixture Models Outperform Simpler Clustering Algorithms When Detecting Longitudinal Heterogeneity,Even With Small Sample Sizes

The expansion in the number of people entering higher education has resulted in a substantial increase in the proportion of students enrolling in nontraditional modes, such as part-time study. This study examined the question of whether part-time study curtails the development of the types of intellectual capabilities needed for a knowledge-based economy, because the students would have markedly less exposure to a stimulating campus environment than their full-time counterparts. Graduates from discrete full- and part-time programs from 1 university in Hong Kong completed a survey seeking perceptions of the nurturing of a range of capabilities, together with measures of teacher-student relationships and type of teaching experienced. Two hypotheses were tested by structural equation modeling: (a) the same mechanism for capability development operated for full- and part-time modes and (b) the principal element of the mechanism was the nature of teaching and the quality of teacher-student interaction. Hypothesis 1 was supported because configural invariance between hypothesized models for capability development between the 2 modes was found. Hypothesis 2 was also supported because the models showed that the principal influence on capability development came from teaching for understanding, through promoting active learning experiences and the degree and quality of teacher-student interaction.     

International Mobility and Social Capital in the Academic Field

Minerva - The relationship between the international mobility of academic researchers and social capital is complex. On the one hand, the literature suggests that social capital facilitates the...     

Eighth IHPST Group International Conference,Leeds, July 15–18, 2005

Announcement

Eighth IHPST Group International Conference, Leeds, July 15–18, 2005     

Foreign Language Attainment of Children/Adolescents with Poor Literacy Skills: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Educational Psychology Review - This systematic review investigated how successful children/adolescents with poor literacy skills learn a foreign language compared with their peers with typical...     

Evaluating item response theory linking and model fit for data from PISA 2000–2012

ABSTRACT

Based on concerns about the item response theory (IRT) linking approach used in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) until 2012 as well as the desire to include new, more complex, interactive items with the introduction of computer-based assessments, alternative IRT linking methods were implemented in the 2015 PISA round. The new linking method represents a concurrent calibration using all available data, enabling us to find item parameters that maximize fit across all groups and allowing us to investigate measurement invariance across groups. Apart from the Rasch model that historically has been used in PISA operational analyses, we compared our method against more general IRT models that can incorporate item-by-country interactions. The results suggest that our proposed method holds promise not only to provide a strong linkage across countries and cycles but also to serve as a tool for investigating measurement invariance.     

The Lamer Social Competence in Preschool (LSCIP) Scale: Structural Validity in a Large Norwegian Community Sample

There is an increasing emphasis on the importance of social competence for children's development, well-being, and learning. Thus age- and context-appropriate measures are needed. This study addresses the structural validity of the Lamer Social Competence in Preschool (LSCIP) scale, developed to accommodate the Nordic model of early childhood pedagogy. The authors specify the theoretical basis for a bi-factor model of social competence. This model is tested in a large (n?=?1157), community based sample of Norwegian children, including teacher- (at age 2, 3, and 4), mother- (at age 4), and father- (at age 3) reports. A model with a main factor for social competence, and three bi-factors fit data across ages and reporters, with factorial, but not strong, invariance over time.     

Psychometric defensibility of the Intervention Selection Profile‐Social Skills (ISP‐SS) with students at risk for behavioral concerns

The purpose of the current study was to examine the validity and diagnostic accuracy of the Intervention Selection Profile—Social Skills (ISP‐SS), a brief social skills assessment tool intended for use with students in need of Tier 2 intervention. Participants included 160 elementary and middle school students who had been identified through universal screening as at risk for behavioral concerns. Teacher participants ( n = 71) rated each of these students using both the ISP‐SS and the Social Skills Improvement System—Rating Scales (SSiS‐RS), with the latter measure serving as the criterion within validity and diagnostic accuracy analyses. Confirmatory factor analysis supported ISP‐SS structural validity, indicating ISP‐SS items broadly conformed to a single “Social Skills” factor. Follow‐up analyses suggested ISP‐SS broad scale scores demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability, with hierarchical omega coefficient equal to 0.86. Correlational analyses supported the concurrent validity of ISP‐SS items, finding each ISP‐SS item to be moderately or highly related to its corresponding SSiS‐RS subscale. Finally, analyses indicated three of the seven ISP‐SS items that demonstrated sufficient diagnostic accuracy; however, findings suggest additional revisions are needed if the ISP‐SS is to be appropriate for use in schools. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.