ACCCN Workforce Standards for Intensive Care Nursing: Systematic and evidence review, development, and appraisal

Background: The intensive care nursing workforce plays an essential role in the achievement of positive healthcare outcomes. A growing body of evidence indicates that inadequate nurse staffing and poor skill mix are associated with negative outcomes for patients, and potentially compromises nurses’ ability to maintain the safety of those in their care. In Australia, the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (ACCCN) has previously published a position statement on intensive care staffing. There was a need for a stronger more evidence based document to support the intensive nursing workforce. Objectives: To undertake a systematic and evidence review of the evidence related to intensive care nurse staffing and quality of care, and determine evidence-based professional standards for the intensive care nursing workforce in Australia. Methods: The National Health and Medical Research Council standard for clinical practice guidelines methodology was employed. The English language literature, for the years 2000-2015 was searched. Draft standards were developed and then peer- and consumer-reviewed. Results: A total of 553 articles was retrieved from the initial searches. Following evaluation, 231 articles met the inclusion criteria and were assessed for quality using established criteria. This evidence was used as the basis for the development of ten workforce standards, and to establish the overall level of evidence in support of each standard. All draft standards and their subsections were supported multi-professionally (median score >6) and by consumers (85–100% agreement). Following minor revisions, independent appraisal using the AGREE II tool indicated that the standards were developed with a high degree of rigour. Conclusion: The ACCCN intensive care nursing nurse workforce standards are the first to be developed using a robust, evidence-based process. The standards represent the optimal nurse workforce to achieve the best patient outcomes and to maintain a sustainable intensive care nursing workforce for Australia

The Teacher: another Variable in the Use of Foreign Language Learning Strategies?

The Bologna process aims to create the European Higher Education Framework (EHEF) by making academic degree and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe. The EHEF has different implications for university students, representing a change in emphasis from ‘teaching’ to ‘learning’, from a teacher-centred approach to a student-centred approach. In the last thirty years, researchers have discussed the role of teachers and students in the language learning-teaching process. Until then, the acquisition of a foreign language was focused on the teacher’s methodology. In the 80s and 90s, a series of student-centred approaches emerged, with the aim of making students more autonomous and independent in their learning. Language learning strategies are part of the tools used to improve language learning. There are different definitions and taxonomies of language learning strategies (Chamot (2001), Cohen (1998), Oxford (1990), O'Malley (1990) and Wenden & Rubin (1987) and there have been extensive descriptive studies on the different variables affecting the use of learning strategies including gender, previous linguistic knowledge, motivation, learning styles and/or second language versus foreign language acquisition. This paper aims to explore the instructor’s conscious or unconscious influence students’ use of learning strategies. To undertake this study, a group of teachers was asked to assess the 50 strategies presented in an adapted version of the Strategies Inventory Language Learning (Oxford 1990) according to their suitability and practicality for their students. The participants were lecturers from the French and English Department at Cádiz University. The languages included in the study were English, French and German for specific and general purposes

The Effects of Aligning and Integrating English Language Proficiency and Development and Music Standards on Interactive Skills Achievement

There is an increasing number of English Language Learners (ELLs) in the United States school system. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English Language Proficiency (ELP), World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) in English Language Development (ELD), and English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies have been aligned and integrated. However, there has not yet been standards alignment and integration of ELP/D and the National Core Arts Standards (NCAS) in music. Guided by the CCSS ELP, WIDA ELD, and the Responding NCAS music standards, this experimental convergent mixed-methods research study includes qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research developed the ELP/D and Responding Music Standards Alignment Matrix, the Student Primary Language Survey in determining the subjects’ ELL status as English Language Learners (ELL, Tier 1), Dual-Mulit-Language Learners (D/MLL, Tier 2), or English Only Learners (EOL, Tier 3), and an aligned and integrated curricular unit. The quantitative research applied a paired-samples t-test, independent samples t-test, and ANCOVA to determine the significance between pre-alignment and post-alignment achievement employing the Grade Five Respond Model Cornerstone Assessment (MCA) as the data collection instrument. The paired-samples t-test indicated significant effects of a curriculum aligning ELP/D and music standards on the acquisition of interactive skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) through the responding artistic process as accessed through the MCA. This research provides music educators with tools and strategies to integrate ELP/D standards into music instruction and serves as a model for future ELP/D standards alignment across music and other arts disciplines to support ELLs

Perspectives for Electronic Books in the World Wide Web Age

While the World Wide Web (WWW or Web) is steadily expanding, electronic books (e-books) remain a niche market. In this article, it is first postulated that specialized contents and device independence can make Web-based e-books compete with paper prints; and that adaptive features that can be implemented by client-side computing are relevant for e-books, while more complex forms of adaptation requiring server-side computations are not. Then, enhancements of the WWW standards (specifically of XML, XHTML, of the style-sheet languages CSS and XSL, and of the linking language XLink) are proposed for a better support of client-side adaptation and device independent content modeling. Finally, advanced browsing functionalities desirable for e-books as well as their implementation in the WWW context are described

New Language Pairs in TectoMT

The TectoMT tree-to-tree machine translation system has been updated this year to support easier retraining for more translation directions. We use multilingual standards for morphology and syntax annotation and language-independent base rules. We include a simple, non-parametric way of combining TectoMT’s transfer model outputs

Razing the Standards: Building and Implementing a Linguistically Informed K-12 Curriculum in a Climate of Ignorance

Language study in K‐12 settings should provide a platform for children to develop an awareness of language and its nature; their natural curiosity is well-documented. But in the context of the standards movement, standards set for “the language arts” in the schools neither encourage nor engender such development. Although not alone in such a disciplinary decline—in both general knowledge and the failure to distinguish between ideology and understanding (see, e.g., Battistella 2010)—the news from linguistics seems bleaker. As Mark Liberman noted in his 2007 LSA address, “The current state of ignorance about language among intellectuals is historically unprecedented, functionally maladaptive, and contrary to human nature.” But even with some efforts to bring the study of language into K-12 classrooms, the nature of the language arts curriculum in schools continues to be defined by standards typically reflecting neither knowledge of, or interest in treating language as an object of inquiry, or in building on the small successes that linguists have had toward this end, working both with children and their K‐12 teachers. And insofar the voices behind the Common Core Standards (http://www.corestandards.org/), are deemed “the language arts experts,” the result is predictable: a set of standards that defines the territory of language as fundamentally usage conventions and vocabulary. And it is such standards that determine how programs are funded and how teachers are prepared. The National Governors’ Association (NGA) Common Core Standards are, moreover, not the first encounter we’ve had with impoverished treatments of language. In the past, however, we have largely ignored the collective poverty of such standards and have considered the creation of test items and the testing enterprise in general as “noise,” confident that our own respective research programs and the teaching we do at colleges and universities were independent of and unscathed by such pursuits. But in fact, we do need to take the standards seriously and respond to them. This LiSC sponsored session provides a collective linguistic educational manifesto of sorts, and thus a serious, explicit, and systematic response to the gauntlet the recently approved standards present. While there have been curricular initiatives in the direction of well‐designed programs that would provide young children with the opportunity to develop an informed and rational disposition toward language, there has been little public discussion of either the full design or implementation of such curriculum, from a range of perspectives. The range of presenters’ work in this session does this, addressing curriculum both for K-12 classrooms—providing the foundation for sustained inquiry about language—and for teachers preparing for, or already in such classrooms, so that they can encourage, as well as respond, to children’s curiosity and inquiry: a desirable outcome in any discipline. Importantly, we welcome critical voices and experiences from both Great Britain and Australia. The session also seeks to engender discussion about the issues raised and the possibility for collaborative and sustained responses

Content Complexity in High School English: An Analysis of Common Core State Standards and Past Massachusetts Curriculum

There has been much debate about having standardized curricula content standards for all. Some have criticized state curriculum content standards for varying in quality by state. The purpose of this study was to compare content complexity as it appears within the high school English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the former state standards of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework (2001), in Grades 9–12. Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) was the framework through which the analysis for this study was conducted. Webb described four levels of DOK as they apply to English language arts specific to reading and writing. DOK levels increase in cognitive complexity as tasks that students are required to complete move from Level 1 to 4. The level of cognition, according to the research within this study, required to reach higher order levels of thinking are DOK Levels 3 and 4. This includes, but is not limited to, exhibiting deep knowledge of subject matter, providing support for student thinking, writing with purpose for an intended audience, and performing complex analyses in reading or writing. State standards that do not exhibit a high level of content complexity may contribute to the stifling of high-order thinking, which is why it is essential to ensure that state standards promote critical thinking. This study was a qualitative content analysis which utilized Mayring’s step model to develop a procedure for reviewing the two sets of state standards. Additionally, the coding team utilized an independent method of coding standards (i.e. double-rater read-behind) to ensure greater internal reliability. Such a procedure was utilized in similar studie

A Meta-Model-Based Approach for Specification of Graphical Representations

Meta-models are widely used for the specification of the international structure of graph modelling languages, and well-established standards (e.g. MOF) exist for this. For the graphical representation there is not the same agreement and no related standards. This paper presents a new meta-langauge for an independent specification of graphical representations. A diagram from the domain-specific language Service is used as a running example to show how this meta-model-based approach is appropriate for specifying the graphical representation in a precise way, but still on a high level of abstraction

Business English Teaching for Students Not Majoring English

Radical changes in various spheres of social interaction are the result of integration processes taking place in the world today. In education the challenging tasks were set in terms of greater mobility for students, more effective communication, better access to information, reaching deeper mutualunderstanding. According to IELTS standards language proficiency level B2 (independent user) is the target one for graduate students

Content Complexity in High School English: An Analysis of Common Core State Standards and Past Massachusetts Curriculum

There has been much debate about having standardized curricula content standards for all. Some have criticized state curriculum content standards for varying in quality by state. The purpose of this study was to compare content complexity as it appears within the high school English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the former state standards of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework (2001), in Grades 9–12. Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) was the framework through which the analysis for this study was conducted. Webb described four levels of DOK as they apply to English language arts specific to reading and writing. DOK levels increase in cognitive complexity as tasks that students are required to complete move from Level 1 to 4. The level of cognition, according to the research within this study, required to reach higher order levels of thinking are DOK Levels 3 and 4. This includes, but is not limited to, exhibiting deep knowledge of subject matter, providing support for student thinking, writing with purpose for an intended audience, and performing complex analyses in reading or writing. State standards that do not exhibit a high level of content complexity may contribute to the stifling of high-order thinking, which is why it is essential to ensure that state standards promote critical thinking. This study was a qualitative content analysis which utilized Mayring’s step model to develop a procedure for reviewing the two sets of state standards. Additionally, the coding team utilized an independent method of coding standards (i.e. double-rater read-behind) to ensure greater internal reliability. Such a procedure was utilized in similar studie