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The kindergarten program, Tools of the Mind (Tools), has been shown to improve executive functions (as assessed by laboratory measures) and academic performance. The objective here was to see if Tools can improve executive functions in the real world (in the classroom), academic outcomes not previously investigated, reduce bullying and peer ostracism, and increase teachers' and students' joy in being in the classroom. This first randomized controlled trial of Tools in Canada included 351 kindergarten children (mean age 5.2 years at entry; 51% female) in 18 public schools. Stratified randomization resulted in teachers and students in both groups being closely matched. Teachers in both groups received the same number of training hours and same funds for new materials. Outcome measures were pre and post standardized academic skill assessments and teacher online survey responses. This study replicated that Tools improves reading and shows for the first time that it improves writing (far exceeding levels the school districts had seen before), self-control and attention-regulation in the real world (e.g., time on task without supervision), reduces teacher burnout and children being ostracized or excluded, and increases the joy students and teachers experience in school. By Spring, Tools teachers were still enthusiastic about teaching; control teachers were exhausted. These results were not only better than the control group but also better than Tools teachers experienced the year before Tools. Thus, children in a kindergarten curriculum that emphasized play, improving self-regulation, working together and helping one another, and hands-on learning performed better academically, showed less bullying and peer ostracism and more kindness and helping behavior than students in more traditional classes, and teacher enthusiasm for teaching soared. Tools reduced initial disparities separating children, schools, and teachers.

Objective. To determine whether using standardized patients dressed in moulage improves pharmacy students’ ability to assess skin disorders compared to using picture-based paper cases. To determine pharmacy student preferences when learning assessment of skin disorders through these two educational methods. Methods. Faculty members investigated student assessments of drug-induced skin disorders and contact dermatitis by using picture-based paper cases compared with using standardized patients dressed in moulage in a patient assessment course. Faculty members measured student knowledge via multiple-choice questions before laboratory, immediately after laboratory, and during a final examination 3 weeks later. Student preferences were measured immediately after laboratory via survey instrument in this randomized, non-blinded, crossover design educational study. Results. No significant differences in knowledge scores related to skin disorders were found after laboratory or 3 weeks later when comparing the two educational methods. However, survey results suggested student preferences for using standardized patients dressed in moulage for drug-induced skin disorders. No significant differences were found for contact dermatitis cases. Conclusion. Using standardized patients dressed in moulage did not improve pharmacy students’ ability to assess skin disorders compared to using picture-based paper cases. Pharmacy students preferred standardized patients dressed in moulage only when learning assessment of drug-induced skin disorders.

Purpose: Fostering student’s map reading skills, specifically understanding contour lines, is a challenging area of the Physical Education curriculum. Method: 238 students in their first year of secondary education (Mage = 13.1) were randomly assigned to one of these experimental conditions in physical education classes: (a) Teaching intervention 1 (TI-1): integrating the concept of contour lines into practical sessions of acrobatic gymnastics; (b) TI-2: theoretical sessions regarding contour lines; (c) Active control (AC): reading an introductory text about topographic maps; and two passive controls (PC) without any intervention, (d) PC-1 and (e) PC-2. Results: All students, except for PC-2, improved their knowledge of contour lines. Nevertheless, performing corporal figures (in TI-1) and employing pointing and tracing gestures (in TI-2) helped students to correctly resolve a broader range of tasks. Conclusions: The results highlighted the benefits of teaching proposals that favor movement and the experience of the body.

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether the addition of educational interventions to required clinical hours promotes confidence in triage decision making among nursing students enrolled in a final capstone course. An experimental design was implemented with randomization of students (n = 14) to 1 of 3 intervention groups or the control group. The Triage Decision Making Inventory was used as a pretest-posttest. Educational strategies implemented included an Advanced Cardiac Life Support course and simulations with debriefing. Interventions were in addition to required clinical hours. A mixed analysis of variance was used to examine the 4 groups by time, with all groups exhibiting higher scores on the Triage Decision Making Inventory from the pretest to the posttest (F (3, 10) = 4.51, P = .03 (η2 = .575). Students who received both the simulations and the Advanced Cardiac Life Support course demonstrated a significant difference across time. As nursing education evolves with the integration of technology, the combination of multiple pedagogies also can enhance confidence in triage decision making among experienced and novice nurses in emergency settings.

PurposeDuring this forced down-time of COVID-19 pandemic, shift to virtual anatomy education is the solitary solution to support the learning of students. The purpose of this study was to understand the visible and invisible potential challenges being faced by the 1st year medical and dental students while attending digital anatomy classes.MethodsThe present study was conducted on 81st year medical and dental students who were admitted to their respective college in August 2019 and were willing to participate in the study. A multiple choice close-ended questionnaire regarding their opinion on virtual classes was designed and feedback was taken from the students.ResultsMajority (65%) of the students agreed that they missed their traditional anatomy learning i.e., dissection courses, face to face lectures and interaction with mentors. The students strongly felt the lack of confidence and difficulty in the topics completed without dissections, models, microscopic slides and other modalities. 83% felt lack of proper gadgets, high-band width and strong internet connections, a potential barrier in their digital learning. Lack of self-motivation was felt by 69% students.ConclusionsThe current situation of anatomy education is not intentional, and is not the long term silver bullet solution for a visual subject like anatomy. Though learners face a lot of challenges, however, a shift to online must be supported at this time of health crisis. As the digital learning may go for indefinite period, the feedback of students may be helpful for relevant and timely modifications in digital anatomy education.

University dropout is a growing problem with considerable academic, social and economic consequences. Conclusions and limitations of previous studies highlight the difficulty of analyzing the phenomenon from a broad perspective and with bigger data sets. This paper proposes a new, machine-learning based method, able to examine the problem using a holistic approach. Advantages of this method include the lack of strong distribution hypothesis, the capacity for handling bigger data sets and the interpretability of the results. Results are consistent with previous research, showing the influence of personal and contextual variables and the importance of academic performance in the first year, but other factors are also highlighted with this model, such as the importance of dedication (part or full time), and the vulnerability of the students with respect to their age. Additionally, a comprehensive graphic output is included to make it easier to interpret the discovered rules.

Limited exposure to surgeons early on in medical school may adversely impact students’ clerkship experiences and professional development. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study investigates a perceived discrepancy between surgical and nonsurgical instructors in our institution’s preclinical curriculum. The demographics of preclinical faculty were assessed before and after a curricular reform. Semi-structured interviews with 13 surgical faculty explored barriers and facilitators to surgeon involvement. Responses were inductively coded and thematically analyzed. Surgeons’ contributions to preclinical instruction fell from 10% to 5% across the curriculum reform. Barriers both leading to and reinforced by surgeons’ limited involvement relate to surgeon, medical school, and student factors. Participants proposed three solutions to barriers in each domain. Surgeons provide a minority of our preclinical instruction and may be disproportionately impacted by reform efforts. Deliberate efforts are necessary to increase opportunities for surgeons to engage with preclinical medical students. •Surgeons provide less than 10% of our medical school’s preclinical instruction.•Curriculum reforms may disproportionately decrease surgeon involvement.•Barriers to teaching frequently outweigh facilitators in multiple domains.•Deliberate efforts are necessary to address those barriers.

Data from 44 societies are used to explore sex segregation by field of study. Contrary to accounts linking socioeconomic modernization to a \"degendering\" of public-sphere institutions, sex typing of curricular fields is stronger in more economically developed contexts. The authors argue that two cultural forces combine in advanced industrial societies to create a new sort of sex segregation regime. The first is gender-essentialist ideology, which has proven to be extremely resilient even in the most liberal-egalitarian of contexts; the second is self-expressive value systems, which create opportunities and incentives for the expression of \"gendered selves.\" Multivariate analyses suggest that structural features of postindustrial labor markets and modern educational systems support the cultivation, realization, and display of gender-specific curricular affinities.

Evidence-based nursing (EBN) has been an important training mechanism for improving the quality of clinical care. At present, the pedagogy focuses on the application of e-learning and team-based learning to enhance learners' engagement and learning effectiveness. This study applied the flipped classroom approach to conduct evidence-based nursing (EBN) teaching. The aim of this study is to elevate the learning effectiveness of the flipped classroom group to the traditional teaching group in terms of knowledge and self-efficacy in practice. A pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group with a quasi-experimental quantitative design. The study recruited 151 nurses, of whom 75 were in the control group and 76 were in the experimental group. During the EBN course, the control group received training via traditional pedagogy while the experimental group engaged the flipped classroom approach. The learning effectiveness of EBN knowledge and self-efficacy in practice were evaluated across the three time points: pre-course, post-course, and one month after the course. In both group the scores of the EBN knowledge and self-efficacy in practice improved after training. The scores of the experimental group increased significantly than in the control group. However, the scores declined in both groups one month after the course. Even so, the experimental group's score of self-efficacy in practice was still higher than that of the control group. The implementation of the flipped classroom approach and team-based learning effectively enhanced the learners EBN knowledge accumulation and self-efficacy in practice. The research results can be used as an important reference for improving clinical nursing teaching quality.

Enhancing evidence-based practice and improving locally driven research begins with fostering the research skills of undergraduate students in the medical and health sciences. Research as a core component of undergraduate curricula can be facilitated or constrained by various programmatic and institutional factors, including that of choice. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) provides a framework for understanding the influence of choice on student motivation to engage in research. This study aimed to document the enablers and constraints of undergraduate research at a South African Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) and to explore how the presence or absence of choice influenced students' engagement with research in this context. An exploratory descriptive design was adopted. Undergraduate students who had conducted research and undergraduate programme staff were recruited through purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed. Findings were interpreted using SDT, focusing on how choice at various levels affects motivation and influences research experiences. Many of the programmatic and institutional enablers and constraints-such as time and supervisory availability-were consistent with those previously identified in the literature, regardless of whether research was compulsory or elective. Choice itself seemed to operate as both an enabler and a constraint, highlighting the complexity of choice as an influence on student motivation. SDT provided insight into how programmatic and institutional factors-and in particular choice-supported or suppressed students' needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, thereby influencing their motivation to engage in research. While programmatic and institutional factors may enable or constrain undergraduate research, individual-level factors such as the influence of choice on students' motivation play a critical role. The implication for curriculum development is that research engagement might be enhanced if levels of choice are structured into the curriculum such that students' needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are met.