The reality of STEM education, design and technology teachers’ perceptions: a phenomenographic study.

Set within the context of STEM education this research presents preliminary findings from the initial stages of a larger research project. The tendency of STEM educators to stay within their disciplinary silos and this work explores the emergent practice of secondary age phase Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teachers, and investigates, from their perception, how best they develop knowledge and understanding of STEM; how new STEM knowledge is gained, evolves, develops and shared. Constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz 2006) underpinned an interpretivist ontology is utilised to elicit stakeholder viewpoints, and emergent findings are discussed in relation to the adoption of educational technology as a tool in the development of collaborative STEM knowledge communities. Moving beyond the boundaries of the physical workplace, findings suggest that STEM teachers engaged in this study perceive educational technology to be an effective tool to acquire and develop new STEM knowledge. Findings show that evolving from tacit knowledge, built from the participant’s day-to-day experience, ‘theories-in-use’ emerge, and knowledge is constructed socially within the context and culture it was learnt. Through physical or virtual self-organised systems, working independently of formal training, participants develop and share these ideas. Over time mutual trust evolves, and individuals develop their practice through collaborative knowledge communities. Information shared is unconfined, and learning is seemingly limitless. These professional informal networks provide STEM teachers with opportunities to create and learn new knowledge, and this method of learning has significant potential to enhance educator knowledge to support the development of a diverse STEM-literate society

Comparing Dutch Case management care models for people with dementia and their caregivers: The design of the COMPAS study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dementia care in the Netherlands is shifting from fragmented, ad hoc care to more coordinated and personalised care. Case management contributes to this shift. The linkage model and a combination of intensive case management and joint agency care models were selected based on their emerging prominence in the Netherlands. It is unclear if these different forms of case management are more effective than usual care in improving or preserving the functioning and well-being at the patient and caregiver level and at the societal cost. The objective of this article is to describe the design of a study comparing these two case management care models against usual care. Clinical and cost outcomes are investigated while care processes and the facilitators and barriers for implementation of these models are considered.</p> <p>Design</p> <p>Mixed methods include a prospective, observational, controlled, cohort study among persons with dementia and their primary informal caregiver in regions of the Netherlands with and without case management including a qualitative process evaluation. Inclusion criteria for the cohort study are: community-dwelling individuals with a dementia diagnosis who are not terminally-ill or anticipate admission to a nursing home within 6 months and with an informal caregiver who speaks fluent Dutch. Person with dementia-informal caregiver dyads are followed for two years. The primary outcome measure is the Neuropsychiatric Inventory for the people with dementia and the General Health Questionnaire for their caregivers. Secondary outcomes include: quality of life and needs assessment in both persons with dementia and caregivers, activity of daily living, competence of care, and number of crises. Costs are measured from a societal perspective using cost diaries. Process indicators measure the quality of care from the participant’s perspective. The qualitative study uses purposive sampling methods to ensure a wide variation of respondents. Semi-structured interviews with stakeholders based on the theoretical model of adaptive implementation are planned.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study provides relevant insights into care processes, description of two case management models along with clinical and economic data from persons with dementia and caregivers to clarify important differences in two case management care models compared to usual care.</p

Do Basic Psychomotor Skills Transfer Between Different Image-based Procedures?

Background - Surgical techniques that draw from multiple types of image-based procedures (IBP) are increasing, such as Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery, fusing laparoscopy and flexible endoscopy. However, little is known about the relation between psychomotor skills for performing different types of IBP. For example, do basic psychomotor colonoscopy and laparoscopy skills interact? Methods - Following a cross-over study design, 29 naïve endoscopists were trained on the Simbionix GI Mentor and the SimSurgery SEP simulators. Group C (n = 15) commenced with a laparoscopy session, followed by four colonoscopy sessions and a second laparoscopy session. Group L (n = 14) started with a colonoscopy session, followed by four laparoscopy sessions and a second colonoscopy session. Results - No significant differences were found between the performances of group L and group C in their first training sessions on either technique. With additional colonoscopy training, group C outperformed group L in the second laparoscopy training session on the camera navigation task. Conclusions - Overall, training in the basic colonoscopy tasks does not affect performance of basic laparoscopy tasks (and vice versa). However, to limited extent, training of basic psychomotor skills for colonoscopy do appear to contribute to the performance of angled laparoscope navigation tasks. Thus, training and assessment of IBP typespecific skills should focus on each type of tasks independently. Future research should further investigate the influence of psychometric abilities on the performance of IBP and the transfer of skills for physicians who are experienced in one IBP type and would like to become proficient in another type of IBP.Industrial DesignIndustrial Design Engineerin

The value of haptic feedback in conventional and robot-assisted minimal invasive surgery and virtual reality training: a current review

BACKGROUND: Virtual reality (VR) as surgical training tool has become a state-of-the-art technique in training and teaching skills for minimally invasive surgery (MIS). Although intuitively appealing, the true benefits of haptic (VR training) platforms are unknown. Many questions about haptic feedback in the different areas of surgical skills (training) need to be answered before adding costly haptic feedback in VR simulation for MIS training. This study was designed to review the current status and value of haptic feedback in conventional and robot-assisted MIS and training by using virtual reality simulation. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was undertaken using PubMed and MEDLINE. The following search terms were used: Haptic feedback OR Haptics OR Force feedback AND/OR Minimal Invasive Surgery AND/OR Minimal Access Surgery AND/OR Robotics AND/OR Robotic Surgery AND/OR Endoscopic Surgery AND/OR Virtual Reality AND/OR Simulation OR Surgical Training/Education. RESULTS: The results were assessed according to level of evidence as reflected by the Oxford Centre of Evidence-based Medicine Levels of Evidence. CONCLUSIONS: In the current literature, no firm consensus exists on the importance of haptic feedback in performing minimally invasive surgery. Although the majority of the results show positive assessment of the benefits of force feedback, results are ambivalent and not unanimous on the subject. Benefits are least disputed when related to surgery using robotics, because there is no haptic feedback in currently used robotics. The addition of haptics is believed to reduce surgical errors resulting from a lack of it, especially in knot tying. Little research has been performed in the area of robot-assisted endoscopic surgical training, but results seem promising. Concerning VR training, results indicate that haptic feedback is important during the early phase of psychomotor skill acquisitio

Informal caregiver burden in middle-income countries Results from Memory Centers in Lima - Peru

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate caregiver burden based on Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) and depression in caregivers on the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Methods: Literate individuals, 18 years or older, who spoke Spanish as their native language were included. Demographic characteristics: Age, sex, education, relationship to person with dementia, length of time caregiving, other sources of help for caring, impact on the household economy, family support, and perception of impaired health; and Clinical data on care-recipients: type of dementia, time since diagnosis, treatment, and Global Deterioration Scale (GDS); the ZBI and BDI-II. Descriptive and analytical statistics were employed to assess caregiver burden and predictors of higher burden in caregivers. Results: A total of 92 informal caregivers were evaluated. Regarding care-recipients, 75% were 69 years old or over, 75% had at least one year since diagnosis, 73.9% had Alzheimer’s disease, 84.8% received treatment, 75% scored 5 or over on the GDS. For caregivers, 75% were 55.5 years old or over, predominantly female (81.5%), married (83.7%), the spouse of care-recipients (60.87%), had at least 10 years of education (75.0%) and one year of caregiving (75%), reduced entertainment time (90.2%) and self-perception of impaired health (83.7%). Median score on the ZBI was 37.5 (minimum value = 3; and maximum value = 74). The coefficient of BDI was 1.38 (p-value <0.001). Conclusion: This sample of Peruvian informal caregivers showed elevated ZBI values. Self-perception of worsened health, repercussion on the family economy and time caregiving were the main determinants of ZBI, although only BDI was a consistent predictor of ZBI

Family burden and social network in schizophrenia vs. physical diseases: preliminary results from an Italian national study

OBJECTIVE: To compare burden and social network in families of patients with schizophrenia or physical diseases. METHOD: A total of 709 relatives of patients with schizophrenia and 646 relatives of patients with physical diseases were recruited in 169 specialized units located in 30 randomly selected Italian geographical areas. RESULTS: In both groups, the consequences of caregiving most frequently reported as present were constraints in social activities, negative effects on family life and a feeling of loss. Objective burden was similar in the two groups, while subjective burden was higher in schizophrenia. Social support was lower among relatives of patients with schizophrenia than among those of the other group. CONCLUSION: These results highlight the need to provide families of those with long-term diseases with supportive interventions, aiming to: i) manage relatives' psychological reactions to patient's illness; ii) provide information on patient's disease; iii) reinforce relatives' social network, especially in the case of schizophrenia