Knowledge Cartography: Software tools and mapping techniques

Knowledge Cartography is the discipline of mapping intellectual landscapes.The focus of this book is on the process by which manually crafting interactive, hypertextual maps clarifies one’s own understanding, as well as communicating it.The authors see mapping software as a set of visual tools for reading and writing in a networked age. In an information ocean, the primary challenge is to find meaningful patterns around which we can weave plausible narratives. Maps of concepts, discussions and arguments make the connections between ideas tangible and disputable. With 17 chapters from the leading researchers and practitioners, the reader will find the current state–of-the-art in the field. Part 1 focuses on educational applications in schools and universities, before Part 2 turns to applications in professional communitie

Patient safety competencies in undergraduate nursing students: a rapid evidence assessment

Aims To identify patient safety competencies, and determine the clinical learning environments that facilitate the development of patient safety competencies in nursing students. Background Patient safety in nursing education is of key importance for health professional environments, settings, and care systems. To be effective, safe nursing practice requires a good integration between increasing knowledge and the different clinical practice settings. Nurse educators have the responsibility to develop effective learning processes and ensure patient safety. Design Rapid Evidence Assessment. Data Sources MEDLINE, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and ERIC were searched, yielding 500 citations published between 1 January 2004 - 30 September 2014. Review Methods Following the Rapid Evidence Assessment process, 17 studies were included in this review. Hawker's (2002) quality assessment tool was used to assess the quality of the selected studies. Results Undergraduate nursing students need to develop competencies to ensure patient safety. The quality of the pedagogical atmosphere in the clinical setting has an important impact on the students’ overall level of competence. Active student engagement in clinical processes stimulates their critical reasoning, improves interpersonal communication, and facilitates adequate supervision and feedback. Conclusion Few studies describe the nursing students’ patient safety competencies and exactly what they need to learn. In addition, studies describe only briefly which clinical learning environments facilitate the development of patient safety competencies in nursing students. Further research is needed to identify additional pedagogical strategies and the specific characteristics of the clinical learning environments that encourage the development of nursing students’ patient safety competencies

Developing Digital Competences. Work learn trajectories in Italian School System

The work based learning is the core European dispositions on educational and training issue and a pillar of the Europe 2020 strategy (EUCOM 2009/C119/02). Therefore, the educational system has to increase the quality of standards and learning results in order to response adequately to competence needs and to permit the successful entrance of the youth in the world of work. The SWA is a coherent reaction. Indeed, the current literature lead to reflect on the SWA as a new prospective of school and world of work relationship (Arlotti and Barberis 2015), and as a resolution for the skills mismatch (Caputo and Capecchi 2016; Froy, Giguere, Hofer, 2009; A. Green, Hasluck, Hogarth, Reynolds, 2003). In a context which needs a different school that provides different types of skills, it is desirable that a policy instrument such as the SWA – became mandatory by the reform “La Buona Scuola” (Law 107/2015) – is included in the scientific debate, especially for its potential to contribute to renewal of the school system. Many authors encourage the scientific debate regarding the question to clarify the peculiar characteristics of the SWA model in Italy and to begin effective reflection on its revolutionary impact for the school system. According to Tino and Fideli (2015), the SWA is a process, not only as an experience, a fundamental methodology to promote the knowledge of the world of work and the development of competences (professional and citizenship) thanks to the interconnection between formal-informal learning and creative combination process between theory and practice