Competencies in Geriatric Nursing: Empirical Evidence from a Computer-Based Large-Scale Assessment Calibration Study

Valid and reliable standardized assessment of nursing competencies is needed to monitor the quality of vocational education and training (VET) in nursing and evaluate learning outcomes for care work trainees with increasingly heterogeneous learning backgrounds. To date, however, the modeling of professional competencies has not yet evolved into procedures that would meet large-scale assessment (LSA) standards in VET. To empirically test a proposed structural model for client-directed nursing competence and to estimate psychometric properties of a newly developed video- and computer-based test (CBT) to inform subsequent LSA in nursing VET, 402 final-year nursing students from 24 German schools responded to a 77 item CBT. Multi-dimensional IRT modeling was employed to test the subdomain structure and estimate students’ competencies in geriatric nursing. The standardized CBT measures nursing students’ client-directed care competence with acceptable precision (WLE?=?0.76) and does so across the whole range of observed proficiency levels. Structural validity was supported by substantive contributions of test items from all proposed process-oriented subdomains, practice field scenarios, as well as items with and without reference to emotional demands. However, it was not possible to empirically separate the diagnostic, practical or communicative subdomains, probably reflecting parallel, recursive and hierarchical care processes in complex care situations. On average, students in our sample attained 45 % of the maximum test score so it is a demanding assessment of nursing competence. An extensively piloted, valid and reliable CBT is suggested to assess nursing students’ client-directed care competencies at the end of the third year of the VET program.     

University students’ emotions,life-satisfaction and study commitment: a self-determination theoretical perspective

Based on self-determination theory, this study seeks to explore whether a study environment that provides relevant conditions for students’ basic psychological need-satisfaction can lead to more positive and less negative emotional experiences. It also addresses the question of how emotions experienced in the university context are related to students’ overall life-satisfaction and study commitment. German students in teacher education programmes (N = 792) participated in the study by completing questionnaires. The results (estimated by path-modelling) reveal that students’ emotions can be predicted by a variety of environmental conditions associated with different basic psychological needs. Altogether, the model is able to explain 28.5% of the variance in positive emotions and 39.6% in negative emotions. The strongest predictor of students’ positive and negative emotions was the perceived relevance of the study material, a factor related to the need for autonomy. This perceived relevance also had a direct impact on study commitment. Furthermore, positive relationships with peers proved to be of importance for positive and negative emotions as well as for overall life-satisfaction. As expected, emotions at university predicted life-satisfaction and study commitment, with a particularly strong association between positive emotions and study commitment. The results point to the necessity to support study conditions that facilitate the fulfilment of students’ basic psychological needs in order to ensure students’ emotional well-being and enhance study commitment.     

Impact of teacher competencies on student emotions: A multi-method approach

As a consequence of international educational studies like TIMSS and PISA, quality of instruction has become a central topic in the discussion between educators, researchers, and policymakers. Teacher competencies are preconditions for instructional quality.This study focuses on the impact of perceived teacher competencies on student well-being and anxiety in physics instruction. Student emotions are one important aspect of the educational process and supposed preconditions of sustainable learning processes. In the study, we combine both qualitative and quantitative methods using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. In total, 431 students from 16 classes participated in this study: 24 students and eight physics teachers were participants of the qualitative study. Each teacher taught two classes, and therefore a comparison of the ratings of each teacher by students of two different classes was possible.The results of our study confirm the assumption that perceived teacher competencies have an impact on student emotions. Analysis of the qualitative data supports the quantitative results and demonstrates the importance of teacher competencies for student emotions. By comparing qualitative and quantitative results, we demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Consequently, we suggest a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.     

Recommendations for effective university study based on students’ point of view

This research examined what university students recommend for effective university study and whether their recommendations differ by gender, faculty or study programme degree. The research was based on 985 questionnaires. The following words were most commonly used in advice for freshmen: Go, Lectures, Learn, Continuously, Be, Prepare, Information, Have, Do, Materials. The fundamental advice seems to be: to go to lectures, to have needed materials and information and to learn and prepare continuously. Some stated recommendations react to the development of information and communication technologies and the massive usage of the Internet (such as obtaining a laptop and a cell phone or setting up a Facebook profile). Quite a lot of advice was connected with health, such as to sleep enough, to eat regularly, to not smoke, to relax and to restrict alcohol consumption. The recommendations gained in this survey were categorised by thematic similarities to characteristics, knowledge, skills, behaviour and background. The findings highlight the fact that given recommendations for effective study differ by the respondent’s gender and faculty. Women concentrated more on recommendations on how to behave and men mentioned more often what personality characteristics are important for effective university study. Students of the Faculty of Multimedia Communications highlighted the necessity of creativity and practical experience more often than others.     

Twitter as a tool for citizen engagement: An empirical study of the Andalusian municipalities

This paper provides a general overview of the way local governments use Twitter as a communication tool to engage with their citizens. More concretely, it tries to identify factors associated with both the channel activity and citizen engagement, to understand the relationship between media type and citizen engagement and to analyse whether different content generated different levels of engagement. A sample of the 29 most populated Andalusian local governments is examined. The results show that the majority of Andalusian local governments have an official corporate Twitter account with certain level of activity. There is no, however, a significant relationship between the population of a municipality and its citizen's engagement, and there is a significant negative relationship between audience and engagement and between activity and engagement. The findings of the study also show the particular media and content types generate higher engagement than others. This paper contributes to the literature on social media and has practical implications for local governments.     

Enhancing environmental educators' evaluation competencies: insights from an examination of the effectiveness of the My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant (MEERA) website

To conduct evaluations that can benefit individual programs as well as the field as a whole, environmental educators must have the necessary evaluation competencies. This exploratory study was conducted to determine to what extent a self‐directed learning resource entitled My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant (MEERA) can enhance environmental educators' evaluation competencies. The multiple case studies relied on data from eight environmental educators with limited evaluation experience who used MEERA to evaluate one of their programs. Results suggest that MEERA can (1) increase environmental educators' perceived evaluation competencies, (2) help environmental educators produce quality evaluation outputs, and (3) foster their use of evaluation results. Perceived benefits of using MEERA included obtaining evidence of program success, insights into how to improve programs, and alternative ways of thinking about programs. Perceived challenges included varying difficulties with evaluation tasks such as prioritizing evaluation questions and designing data collection instruments and, in line with this, desiring personal expert assistance for context‐specific advice and reassurance. This research contributes to expanding understanding of how to enhance environmental educators' evaluation competencies and practices.     

The effect of mindfulness on extinction and behavioral resurgence

In the present experiments, we investigated the effects of mindfulness on behavioral extinction and resurgence. Participants received instrumental training; either they received FI training (Experiment 1), or they were trained to emit high rates and low rates of response via exposure to a multiple VR yoked-VI schedule prior to exposure to a multiple FI FI schedule in order to alter their rates of responding learned during Experiment 2. Participants were then exposed to either a focused- (mindfulness) or an unfocused-attention induction task. All participants were finally exposed to an extinction schedule in order to determine whether a mindfulness induction task presented immediately prior to extinction training affected extinction (Experiment 1) and behavioral resurgence (Experiment 2). During the extinction phase, the rates of responding were higher in the control group than in the mindfulness group, indicating that the mindfulness group was more sensitive to the contingencies and, thus, their prior performance extinguished more readily (Experiment 1). Moreover, rates of response in the extinction components less precisely reflected previous training in the mindfulness group, suggesting less resurgence of past behaviors after the mindfulness induction (Experiment 2).     

Geometric algebra for the High School Program

Summary Plane affine geometry is developed from four axioms, up to the construction of a field (in general non-commutative), introduction of coordinates and derivation of equations for lines. The development is intended to be intelligible and rewarding to better high school students.     

Intergenerational exchange: undergraduate researchers’ learning and listening enhanced through older adults’ entertainment preferences

The purpose of this qualitative study was to provide an intergenerational exchange as undergraduate students taking an introductory Psychology of Aging course, interviewed and watched films with older adult participants (N = 13) residing in an assisted living community. The undergraduate researchers (N = 10) conducted and transcribed interviews, wrote about their perceptions of interviews and film viewing with older adults, and their instructor interviewed assisted living staff (N = 2) creating an assessment of participants, researchers, and staff. Researchers listened and learned from older adult’s words, thereby improving researchers’ understanding that older adults preferred in-person discussions over film viewing. Researchers learned from older adults’ words, as they began to understand that sexual content in today’s films may reduce entertainment viewing for youth and older adults. Older adults described television remotes and phones with frustration and researchers felt angst for their frustration. Findings suggested understanding and meaning for participants and researchers in this service learning intergenerational exchange generated through undergraduate research.