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This paper is a blend of my personal narrative and the practical strategies based on theoretical frameworks that I use in my work supporting young people in schools. My work is based on the powerful message from the short story the "Starfish Thrower" (Eiseley, 1979). The lesson I learned from this lovely story is that I may not be able to save the entire world, but I try to make a difference one young person at a time.

Occupational therapy (OT) educators strive to design learning experiences to enhance OT students' clinical reasoning and promote preparedness for the complexities of clinical practice. Occupational therapy programs have collaborated with the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Association and taken a novel approach to the development of interprofessional experiential learning through student-led ALS Caregiver Learning Labs (CLLs). A retrospective pre-test post-test study was completed to identify outcomes related to participation in three different ALS CLLs embedded into a master's level OT curriculum. A 6-point rating scale questionnaire was used to assess students' perception of their clinical reasoning, clinical skills, and comfort level. Improvement was noted in the level of comfort when interacting with caregivers and students' perceptions of their clinical skills and clinical reasoning improved across all questions. In addition, students completed a case study assignment to examine clinical reasoning performance. On average, post-lab scores were higher than pre-lab scores for each question, and the differences were statistically significant with the level of significance at p < 0.05. Results suggest that a CLL experience is an effective learning method to increase students' comfort level interacting with caregivers, enhance students' perception of clinical reasoning ability, and improve clinical reasoning skills. Occupational therapy students benefited from the experience at different levels of progression, delivery methods, and opportunities for interprofessional interaction. Occupational therapy programs at other institutions may benefit from embedding a CLL into the curriculum to meet the needs of the community while improving students' clinical reasoning and enhancing the ability to provide client-centered care.

Purpose: The primary objective of this study was to gauge resident and faculty sentiments surrounding a general surgery program merger between two programs, and to assess the effect on workplace morale and productivity. Secondarily, the authors sought to objectively examine the impact program expansion had on in-service training exam results and operative volumes. Methods: This was a single-center, prospective, observational study that evaluated surgical resident and faculty feedback pertaining to the merger of two regional general surgery residency programs. The survey utilized the Likert scale at merger onset and post-merger to gather responses from residents and faculty from July 2020 to August 2021. Secondary outcomes evaluated case volume and ABSITE performance pre- and post-merger. Results: A total of 27 residents and 31 faculty participated in the initial survey. The merger onset and post survey investigation found that there was increased workplace efficiency (78% onset, 96% post; p = 0.004), and increased comfort with effectively triaging patients (41% onset, 83% post; p = 0.001). Satisfaction levels regarding research infrastructure and mentorship also increased significantly (63% onset, 83% post; p = 0.03). ABSITE performance and operative volumes were not significantly changed post-merger. Conclusion: The merging of two academic programs led to feelings of increased mentorship, operative competency, and workplace efficiency among the residents. This was achieved without significant detriment to resident case volume or ABSITE performance. Our investigation also identified legitimate challenges that speak to the need for fluidity in a residency program and the constant need for continued growth and development.

COVID-19 social distancing measures forced many university courses to be offered online. The performance-based assessments originally designed for in-person learning may not work well in online environments. This study investigated students' perceptions of performance-based assessments, and their associated resources, during a course that was offered both in-person and online. The results from 312 undergraduate education students (n = 248 in-person and n = 64 online) indicated all the resources for one of the two assessments were rated statistically significantly higher by students who attended the course in-person. This indicated students who completed the course in-person had a stronger interaction with the assessment resources and rating having higher cognitive and affective skills needed to perform a similar assessment task in their future classrooms. Online students indicated some resources, such as assessment instructions and scoring rubrics, should be better explained during the course for more clarity regarding expectations.

Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) centre registration is an important aspect in promoting quality ECCE. Quality ECCE plays an important role in promoting holistic development for children. In the Malaysian context, ECCE is managed under a dichotomous system which is overseen by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development and the Ministry of Education. The ECCE registration process involves various departments, and hence, the operators need to deal with different authorities in adherence with the rules and regulations set by each authority. The objectives of this study are to explore the perceptions of the ECCE operators on the centre registration process and to investigate the challenges faced by them in the registration process. This study adopted a mixed-method research which involves 127 respondents in the survey and 53 participants in focus group interviews. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using SPSS and NVivo respectively. From the findings, the operators showed high awareness of the registration guidelines and the consequences of non-registration. They also highlighted concerns in terms of the clarity of the policy information for centre registration, as well as challenges faced in the registration process. The quantitative findings were further supported by the qualitative findings, whereby the operators revealed the challenges faced in the complex ECCE centre registration process as well as the inconsistent requirements for registration. Hence, shared responsibility and effective coordination should be further looked at, in the continuous efforts in promoting quality ECCE.

Iconicity, or the resemblance between form and meaning, is often ascribed to a special status and contrasted with default assumptions of arbitrariness in spoken language. But does iconicity in spoken language have a special status when it comes to learnability? A simple way to gauge learnability is to see how well something is retrieved from memory. We can further contrast this with guessability, to see (1) whether the ease of guessing the meanings of ideophones outperforms the rate at which they are remembered; and (2) how willing participants' are to reassess what they were taught in a prior task--a novel contribution of this study. We replicate prior guessing and memory tasks using ideophones and adjectives from Japanese, Korean, and Igbo. Our results show that although native Cantonese speakers guessed ideophone meanings above chance level, they memorized both ideophones and adjectives with comparable accuracy. However, response time data show that participants took significantly longer to respond correctly to adjective--meaning pairs--indicating a discrepancy in a cognitive effort that favored the recognition of ideophones. In a follow-up reassessment task, participants who were taught foil translations were more likely to choose the true translations for ideophones rather than adjectives. By comparing the findings from our guessing and memory tasks, we conclude that iconicity is more accessible if a task requires participants to actively seek out sound-meaning associations.

Challenges exist in respect of people with intellectual disabilities who, with the increasing life expectancy, have a growing risk of age-related degenerative conditions. Changes in bone health are associated with increasing age and the bone health of people who have intellectual disabilities is well documented in the literature as being poor in comparison to the general population. A heel scan clinic was set up in an intellectual disability service as a service improvement initiative. There were 12 females and 17 males scanned using a heel scanner. Only 3 (10.3%) people with intellectual disabilities were in the normal bone mineral density (BMD) range. Peripheral BMD screening for people has been shown to provide important information about the bone health of people with intellectual disabilities which has prompted further treatment by general practitioners and has the potential to provide an accessible way to obtain information on the bone health of people with intellectual disabilities.

Teaching presence facilitates students' social and cognitive presence in online courses. Instructor interaction in discussion forums, a widely adopted instructional strategy, establishes teaching presence but research on the optimal frequency and content of instructor interaction in discussion is underdeveloped. This research evaluated 1625 instructor posts in 36 graduate-level courses in education to determine their impact on students' perceptions of the quality of the instructor and course, students' perceptions of their learning, and students' actual achievement. Findings suggest the frequency of instructor interaction in discussion has no effect on student outcomes, but posts that are instructional improve students' perceptions of their learning, and posts that are conversational improve students' perceptions of instructor and course quality, and their actual academic achievement. Implications for instructors and policymakers are addressed.

Despite changing demographics in the U.S., many private nonprofit Christian colleges have been unable to recruit and retain racially diverse students, and most are experiencing declining undergraduate enrollments. The strategic plan at these institutions undoubtedly contains two directives: to increase enrollment of racially diverse students and to attract new students through online and hybrid programs. Since 2008, almost all Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) member institutions have added distance learning options. Little research has been conducted to determine whether expanded access to education has influenced a change in enrollment of racially diverse students. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) national database has tracked online enrollment for less than a decade and does not require institutions to report on the racial diversity of students enrolled online. This lack of data requires researchers to look for relationships between online options and overall institutional racial diversity. Using exploratory correlational analysis that controlled for state population racial diversity, this research revealed statistically significant, but weak relationships between the number of online-only and hybrid students enrolled at an institution and the percentage of minority students enrolled. Findings suggest increased enrollment in hybrid programs and online graduate programs at CCCU institutions are related to a higher percentage of racially diverse students, and Black or African American students, in particular. The addition of online courses and fully online programs may provide an opportunity for private nonprofit Christian colleges to close the educational attainment achievement gap between White and minority students, and in turn, participate in God's redemptive work in the world.