Teaching with ignorance: Questions of social justice,empathy, and responsible community

This paper explores the limitations of empathy for the formation of community, particularly within social justice education. I begin with a discussion of the major tension within the idea of community — that it is founded at once on commonality and difference. Building in particular upon the work of Emmanuel Levinas, the paper articulates an understanding of community as a signifying encounter with difference that is not founded upon knowledge about the other, but upon a being-for and feeling-for the other. Focusing upon the explicitly educational commitment to working out forms of relationality conducive to establishing community and social justice across social differences, I ask how might teaching with ignorance, as opposed to teaching for empathy, bring us closer to the being-for others that marks our ethical engagement with other people and engenders our responsibility to the collective?     

Measuring change in professionalism attitudes during the gross anatomy course

By design or default, anatomy educators are often responsible for introducing students to medical professionalism. Although much has been said about the role of anatomical education, there are no published reports suggesting how to measure change. This study investigated what professionalism attitudes, if any, change during a gross anatomy course. Additionally, the influence of four dichotomous variables related to student identity and preparation for medical school were analyzed for their effect on professionalism attitudes. A cross‐sectional time‐one (T1; beginning of the course), time‐two (T2; end of the course) study using the Penn State College of Medicine Survey of Professionalism was conducted. A multivariate analysis of variance identified the main effects and interaction effects of categorical variables. A Mann Whitney U test verified significant differences. This study found a reprioritization of professionalism attitudes in favor of altruism (P = 0.04 with a Cohen's d = 0.26) at T2. Female students (P = 0.03, Cohen's d = 0.38) and students from a science background (P = 0.04, Cohen's d = 0.36) changed the most in favor of altruism. Interestingly, though several factors correlated with dissimilarities in professionalism values at T1, gender was the only factor to show a significant difference in professionalism attitudes at T2. This cohort of students reported a statistically significant increase in altruism and no significant decreases in other professionalism attitudes concurrent with the gross anatomy course. Anat Sci Educ 3:12–16, 2010. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists     

Incorporating radiology into medical gross anatomy: Does the use of cadaver CT scans improve students' academic performance in anatomy?

Radiological images show anatomical structures in multiple planes and may be effective for teaching anatomical spatial relationships, something that students often find difficult to master. This study tests the hypotheses that (1) the use of cadaveric computed tomography (CT) scans in the anatomy laboratory is positively associated with performance in the gross anatomy course and (2) dissection of the CT‐scanned cadaver is positively associated with performance on this course. One hundred and seventy‐nine first‐year medical students enrolled in gross anatomy at Boston University School of Medicine were provided with CT scans of four cadavers, and students were given the opportunity to choose whether or not to use these images. The hypotheses were tested using logistic regression analysis adjusting for student demographic characteristics. Students who used the CT scans were more likely to score greater than 90% as an average practical examination score (odds ratio OR 3.6; 95% CI 1.4, 9.2), final course grade (OR 2.6; 95% CI 1.01, 6.8), and on spatial anatomy examination questions (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.03, 5.6) than were students who did not use the CT scans. There were no differences in performance between students who dissected the scanned cadavers and those who dissected a different cadaver. These results demonstrate that the use of CT scans in medical gross anatomy is predictive of performance in the course and on questions requiring knowledge of anatomical spatial relationships, but it is not necessary to scan the actual cadaver dissected by each student. Anat Sci Educ 3: 56–63, 2010. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

Teaching and Learning Science for Transformative, Aesthetic Experience

Drawing from the Deweyan theory of experience (1934, 1938), the goal of teaching and learning for transformative, aesthetic experience is contrasted against teaching and learning from a cognitive, rational framework. A quasi-experimental design was used to investigate teaching and learning of fifth grade science from each perspective across an entire school year including three major units of instruction. Detailed comparisons of teaching are given and pre and post measures of interest in learning science, science identity affiliation, and efficacy beliefs are investigated. Tests of conceptual understanding before, after, and one month after instruction reveal teaching for transformative, aesthetic experience fosters more, and more enduring, learning of science concepts. Investigations of transfer also suggest students learning for transformative, aesthetic experiences learn to see the world differently and find more interest and excitement in the world outside of school.     

Learning with Web Tools, Simulations, and Other Technologies in Science Classrooms

This position paper proposes the enhancement of teacher and student learning in science classrooms by tapping the enormous potential of information communication and technologies (ICTs) as cognitive tools for engaging students in scientific inquiry. This paper serves to challenge teacher-held assumptions about students learning science ‘from technology’ with a framework and examples of students learning science ‘with technology’. Whereas a high percentage of students are finding their way in using ICTs outside of school, for the most part they currently are not doing so inside of school in ways that they find meaningful and relevant to their lives. Instead, the pedagogical approaches that are most often experienced are out-of-step with how students use ICTs outside of schools and are not supportive of learning framed by constructivism. Here we describe a theoretical and pedagogical foundation for better connecting the two worlds of students’ lives: life in school and life outside of school. This position paper is in response to the changing landscape of students’ lives. The position is transformative in nature because it proposes the use of cyber-enabled resources for cultivating and leveraging students new literacy skills by learning ‘with technology’ to enhance science learning.     

Governing indigenous recreation at a distance: a critical analysis of an after school active health intervention

Within the Canadian context, the physical activity levels of children and youth in the after school time period has become a source of public health concern. We argue that this concern is informed by broader public health crises, in particular the ‘global obesity epidemic’ and the closely related ‘global pandemic of physical inactivity', and that these so-called ‘crises’ operate as part of a discursive regime that serves to justify after school interventions aimed at increasing the physical activity practices of children and youth. Although the objectives of such interventions are seemingly well intentioned, we suggest that such interventions nonetheless harbor difficult to discern, but potentially pernicious consequences, for the communities in which they are implemented. We focus our attention on the place-specific effects of one Public Health Agency of Canada-funded after school physical activity intervention – After the School Bell Rings (ASBR) – that was implemented in the mostly Indigenous, northern community of Placid, Manitoba. Based on a critical analysis of the ASBR program itself, along with interviews and focus groups with children, parents and recreation providers (n?=?10) from the community of Placid, we contend that the ASBR serves to govern Indigenous recreation at a distance. We argue that when implemented in the place-specific context of Placid, the ASBR functions as part of a broader governmental assemblage composed of loosely connected discourses, institutions, socio-structural conditions and individuals that, when assembled, ultimately serve to govern geographically and culturally distinct communities. We conclude by suggesting that the objectives of broad-based health interventions, such as the goal of increasing after school physical activity levels, should not be universally implemented across diverse locales, but need to account for the diverse, place-specific priorities and needs of the communities into which they are implemented.     

Customer participation and new product performance: Towards the understanding of the mechanisms and key contingencies

In a study of 243 firms of varying sizes across 14 different industries, we investigate the effect of customer participation on new product development performance. We confirm that overall customer participation is positively related to new product development performance and that the effect is mediated by innovativeness. We also demonstrate that these effects are contingent upon absorptive capacity of the firm in question such that firms with high absorptive capacity stand to gain more from engaging their customers in new product development than firms with low absorptive capacity, especially at the later stages of the NPD process. The results are robust to alternative estimation techniques, measures employed to operationalize key concepts, and the industrial makeup of the sample. Post hoc analyses provide non-trivial managerial implications for the decision makers at the firm level.     

The role of pelvis-thorax coupling in controlling within-golf club swing speed

Pelvis-thorax coordination has been recognised to be associated with swing speed. Increasing angular separation between the pelvis and thorax has been thought to initiate the stretch shortening cycle and lead to increased clubhead speed. The purpose of this study was to determine whether pelvis-thorax coupling played a significant role in regulating clubhead speed, in a group of low-handicap golfers (mean handicap = 4.1). Sixteen participants played shots to target distances determined based on their typical 5- and 6-iron shot distances. Half the difference between median 5- and 6-iron distance for each participant was used to create three swing effort conditions: “minus”, “norm”, and “plus”. Ten shots were played under each swing effort condition using both the 5-iron and 6-iron, resulting in six shot categories and 60 shots per participant. No significant differences were found for X-factor for club or swing effort. X-factor stretch showed significant differences for club and swing effort. Continuous relative phase (CRP) results mainly showed evidence of the stretch shortening cycle in the downswing and that it was more pronounced late in the downswing as swing effort increased. Substantial inter-individual CRP variability demonstrated the need for individual analyses when investigating coordination in the golf swing.