Search

This study developed and evaluated a culturally tailored video guided by the health belief model to improve Chinese women's low rate of mammography use. Focus-group discussions and an advisory board meeting guided the video development. A 17-min video, including a soap opera and physician-recommendation segment, was made in Chinese languages. A pretest/posttest pilot was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the video in changing knowledge, beliefs, and screening intentions among Chinese women (age [greater than or equal] 40) who were nonadherent to current National Cancer Institute's mammography guidelines (n = 52). The results showed that the video significantly increased these women's screening intentions, knowledge, perceived risk for breast cancer, and perceived benefits of mammography. Chinese immigrant women were less likely to hold an Eastern view of health care and report barriers to screening after viewing the video. This video might have the potential to increase adherence to mammography screening in Chinese women. (Contains 3 tables.)

This study examines Indonesian students' understanding of conservation of matter, balancing of equations and stoichiometry. Eight hundred and sixty-seven Grade 12 students from 22 schools across four different cities in two developed provinces in Indonesia participated in the study. Nineteen teachers also participated in order to validate the 25-question survey used with all students. Significant differences in student success in answering specific questions occurred when comparing high-achievement and low-achievement schools. However, in general, student understanding of this fundamental principle in chemistry was low. The study found that the average score for all students on the survey was 41%. The findings suggest that students are most successful in solving problems used by teachers and textbooks that are algorithmic-based (i.e., stoichiometry). As there were no strong positive correlations between student performance on conceptual questions and algorithmic questions, we suggest that further research should focus on teaching practices and curricula that support the development of the students' conceptual understanding. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)

This study characterizes how learning and teaching differs as the responsibility for choosing curriculum goals and the strategies to reach those goals shifts between teacher and the students. Three different pedagogical approaches were used with 125 seventh-grade and eighth-grade students. All three curricula focus on electromagnetism, and were taught by two teachers in different schools over a two-week period. When students had control over the strategies employed to reach goals, their engagement stayed high. All three curricula advanced student understanding to some degree; however, large and significant gains were seen only for the pedagogy in which teachers set the specific learning goals and students had control over how to achieve them. Microdevelopment, a principle by which short-term learning recapitulates the stages seen in long-term developmental growth, is found to be a useful framework for curriculum development and for analyzing changes in student understanding. In general, initial "tinkering" activities are best followed by attempts at representing phenomena, only then to be followed by abstract conceptualization. On balance, we find that students benefit most from freedom to control the procedures that they generate in response to well-structured goals presented by the teacher. (Contains 6 figures, 5 tables and 5 notes.)

Students learn important concepts and ways of thinking by building on their own actions and experiences. In much of higher education, the primacy of textbooks and the lectures that accompany them are inconsistent with the nature of student learning. Some students manage to learn despite the problems from this emphasis, but educators can do much better. Good teachers can shift the chemistry of their classes to build on the dynamics of the learning process and use texts and lectures from their discipline as supports for learning instead of having textbooks and lectures dominate the curriculum. This article offers an approach from cognitive science intended to help educators facilitate active student learning using these traditional disciplinary materials. The dynamic skill theory described in this article provides tools and concepts for analyzing how students move at diverse rates along various pathways as they learn a subject. This contrasts with the linear view of education that is assumed by most textbooks and lectures and that is prominent in our society, which expects progress to move in a linear and upward fashion. Texts as well as instructors must face the dynamic nature of learning. Students progress at different rates, along different pathways, and their rates and pathways vary with changes in context, support, and motivation. (Contains 7 notes and 1 resource.)

Explores the tension between passive and active learning among master's degree students working on their teaching certificate in science. Emphasizes the developmental nature of learning and that constructionist pedagogies need to be clearly integrated in university courses, especially those focused on teaching. (EV)

Experiments with exercises that are distinguished from those employed with elite students by reducing competition and increasing cooperation through the use of tests against nature, large dynamic ranges in performance, initial prototype designs, and alternative methods of recording and presenting results. Finds that formulating easily understood goals helps engage students in fascinatingly creative processes. (Contains 33 references.) (Author/YDS)

Background Serum protein reflects albumin and globulin levels, both of which can be altered in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The implications of a high globulin fraction in IBD are unknown. We hypothesized that a high globulin fraction may function independently of albumin as a biomarker of disease severity in IBD patients over a multiyear period. Methods This was an observational study from a prospective IBD registry of a tertiary care center. High globulin fraction was defined as an elevated globulin level >4 g/dL. Data collected included patient demographics, medication exposures, quality-of-life scores, disease activity, emergency department visits, telephone calls, hospitalizations, and IBD-related surgeries over a 4-year period. Comparisons between patients with a high globulin fraction and those without were performed using Pearson's chi-squared, Student's and Mann-Whitney tests. Multivariate analyses were used to assess the relationship between high globulin fraction and healthcare utilization. Results A total of 1767 IBD patients with a 4-year follow up were included: 53.5% female, mean age 48.4±15.1 years, and 65.4% with Crohn's disease. Of these patients, 446 (25.2%) presented with elevated globulin fraction. Patients with a high globulin fraction were more likely to be hospitalized during the study period. This result remained significant after multivariate analysis for both Crohn's disease patients and those with ulcerative colitis. Conclusion A high globulin fraction is independently associated with greater disease severity and healthcare utilization in IBD patients, and may function as a routinely available biomarker of a more severe future disease trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives  To analyze the relationship between preoperative and intraoperative auditory brain stem response (ABR) characteristics and hearing outcomes in patients with vestibular schwannomas (VS) undergoing hearing preservation (HP) surgery via a middle cranial fossa (MCF) approach. Design  Prospective study. Setting  Academic tertiary skull base referral center. Methods  Pre- and postoperative pure-tone average (PTA) and word recognition score (WRS) were examined. Intraoperative ABR wave III latency, wave V latency, and amplitude were recorded. HP was defined as postoperative WRS ≥50%. Participants  Adult patients with VS and WRS ≥50% who underwent MCF tumor resection between November 2017 and September 2019. Main Outcome Measures  Postoperative hearing outcomes. Results  Sixty patients were included. Mean tumor size was 9.2 mm (range, 3–17). HP rates were 56.7% for the cohort and 69.7% for tumors <10 mm. A complete loss of wave V was associated with an 82.9% increase in postoperative PTA (p  < 0.001) and 97.2% decrease in WRS (p  < 0.001), whereas a diminished wave V was correlated with 62.7% increase in PTA (p  < 0.001) and 55.7% decrease in WRS (p  = 0.006). A diminished or absent wave V, but not increased wave III/V latency or decreased wave V amplitude, was correlated with a decline in postoperative hearing class (r  = 0.735, p  < 0.001). Receiver-operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that a stable wave V has the highest accuracy in predicting HP (sensitivity of 82.6%, specificity of 84.8%). Conclusion  Of the examined preoperative and intraoperative ABR characteristics, a stable wave V intraoperatively was the strongest predictor of HP after MCF resection of VS. Level of Evidence  Level III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]