Analogical Reasoning: A Process for Fostering Learning Transfer from the Classroom to Clinical Practice

In 2001, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a committee of physicians and health policy experts charged to improve the health of the United States by the National Academy of Science, identified a gap in the area of education of health care practitioners as one of the reasons for medical error. However, one of the most common instructional methods in medical education to promote transfer and problem solving is examination of a single patient case (Shine, 2002), a pedagogical practice shown to be ineffective (Gentner, Loewenstein & Thompson, 2003; Norman et al., 2007). Therefore, adult learners in health care may be ill-equipped through traditional classroom instructional strategies to not only transfer what they have learned in the classroom (Norman, et al., 2007; Weeks, Lyne & Torrance, 2001), but may also lack problem solving skills needed to address novel clinical problems (Battles & Shea, 2001; Shine, 2002). To address the transfer gap between the classroom and clinical environment, a literature review was undertaken. A key finding was use of multiple case examples with instructor cueing (prompting or provision of hints) was superior to use of single case examples alone for fostering transfer of learning. Based on empirical evidence and literature review findings, the authors propose a theoretical model, propositions, and implications for clinical practice for use by educators to foster transfer of learning from the classroom to the clinical practice setting

Effect of Cueing on Learning Transfer Among Pre-professional Undergraduate Healthcare Students Engaged in a Case-based Analogical Reasoning Exercise

To examine the extent of transfer of cued versus non-cued pre- professional healthcare undergraduates engaged in a case-based analogical reasoning exercise. Independent t-test analysis and effect size was calculated to assess transfer between cued and non-cued participants (N = 192). Cued participants (n = 98, M = 2.30, SD = .89) demonstrated significantly more transfer (t (175.91) = 2.65; p = .009; CI95 = (.10, 0.68); d = .39) than non-cued participants (n = 94, M = 1.9, SD = 1.14). Learning transfer improves among pre- professional undergraduates when cued during a case-based analogical reasoning experience

Leadership Characteristics and Team Outcomes in the Development of a Marketing Web Page

Team structures are changing under the pressures of e-commerce and globalization. Today teams have to manage the challenges of working across functional boundaries, such as marketing and web development. In such an environment, research in the disciplines of management and psychology have found that shared leadership among team members may be superior to traditional leadership by a single team member, but this notion has not been tested in the contexts of marketing and web development. This paper presents the results of an empirical study showing that teams with shared leadership exhibited better performance and greater member satisfaction than teams with clear leaders. In addition, no relationship was found between the education, experience, Internet self-efficacy, or personal style of leaders and team outcomes of structure, performance, or satisfaction. This research suggests that the superiority of shared leadership found in the areas of management and psychology is applicable to teams in technical areas, such as web development and marketing. The reported study confirms previous research and applies it in an under-research context, marketing web page development

The Impact of Information Systems on End User Performance: Examining the Effects of Cognitive Style Using Learning Curves in an Electronic Medical Record Implementation

This study examines the relationship between cognitive style (adaptors versus innovators) and the learning curve when implementing new information technology. Kirton’s proposition that adaptors and innovators find equally creative ways of solving problems based on cognitive preferences was tested using a longitudinal case study. Test subjects were paramedics from a large metropolitan area. Cognitive style of the paramedics was determined, along with their individual learning curve when transitioning from a paper medical record to an electronic medical record. Results indicate Kirton’s proposition of equal performance between adaptors and innovators was only supported during stable periods. There was no statistically significant difference between adaptors and innovators either before implementation of the new system or post-stabilization. However, following system implementation, adaptors and innovators differed significantly with regard to their initial change in task completion times, pattern of learning, and the number of days required to reach stabilization

An Experimental Study on the Effects of Environmental Education in China

In recent years, collaborative governance has been used as an innovative approach by government, NGOs, and business for consensus building in the process of policy making and service delivery (Ansell and Gash, 2008, Brown et al., 2006). However, little has been written on the psychological aspects of collaborative governance. What are the antecedents of collaborative decisions? To what extent and in what ways can NGOs’ advocacy impact community residents’ opinions? For example, in the field of environmental protection, the conflict between environmental conservation and economic development has been a key issue, which presents a fundamental challenge to the formation of collaborative environmental governance. Environmental NGOs have used educational approaches to influence key stakeholders; but it remains an intriguing issue as in what ways and to what extent their educational efforts have impacted these stakeholders. To answer these questions, we explored the attitudinal antecedents of collaborative governance by conducting an experimental study on the effects of environmental education in rural China. Specifically, we focus on two types of environmental education programs: Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainability (ESD). While EE focuses on providing scientific education in raising environmental awareness, ESD incorporates economic, social, and environmental factors to bring about solutions to achieve sustainability. We found that ESD is more effective in stimulating attitudinal changes towards environmental conservation, and EE is more powerful in generating a hidden effect: the anti-development attitude, among participants in China. We also studied the moderating effects of economic pressure, place attachment, and we found that being poor and being nonlocal may strengthen a participant’s likelihood to develop attitudinal changes towards economic development. Overall, our research contributes to a better understanding of the psychological aspects of collaborative governance, and it calls a more balanced approach in environmental education

Toward an Integrative Understanding of Information Technology Training Research across Information Systems and Human-Computer Interaction: A Comprehensive Review

Researchers investigating issues in the domain of training and human-computer interaction share a common interest in ensuring that users are skilled in the use of Information Technologies (IT). When users have the necessary skills, they can utilize IT productively and also have a pleasant human-to-computer interaction. Over the past three decades, Information System (IS) researchers have made considerable efforts in identifying the most effective ways to develop users’ IT skills. However, at this point in time, there are many changes taking place in the IT environment and organizations find it challenging to keep their employees trained and updated on IT skills. Hence, it is important for the IS community to respond by taking the lead in identifying and conducting research that can help organizations effectively address these challenges. We take the first step in conducting a comprehensive review of training research published in major IS and HCI journals over the past three decades so as to synthesize IT training research, provide an integrative understanding of findings, and propose directions for future research. Our study indicates that while IS research on training has made steady progress in advancing our understanding of alternative IT training methods and cognitive learning processes, it also has several shortcomings. Past research has: a) focused primarily on the training program without sufficient attention to activities prior to and after the program, b) used a small set of theoretical foundations, and c) focused on a few topics and on single-user systems rather than integrated enterprise systems. Critical issues such as improving user motivations prior to training, transfer of training skills to the workplace, assessment of training, and supporting user learning that occurs after training have not been given adequate attention. We identify several research opportunities by tapping into relatively unexplored theories and urge researchers to continue research to address the gaps identified in this comprehensive review as well as to develop innovative methods to help employees learn through newer channels, such as e-learning and social media

Enhancing Analysts’ Mental Models for Improving Requirements Elicitation: A Two-stage Theoretical Framework and Empirical Results

Research has extensively documented the importance of accurate system requirements in avoiding project delays, cost overruns, and system malfunctions. Requirement elicitation (RE) is a critical step in determining system requirements. While much research on RE has emerged, a deeper understanding of three aspects could help significantly improve RE: 1) insights about the role and impacts of support tools in the RE process, 2) the impact of using support tools in multiple stages of the RE process, and 3) a clear focus on the multiplicity of perspectives in assessing RE outcomes. To understand how using support tools could improve RE, we rely on the theoretical lens of mental models (MM) to develop a dynamic conceptual model and argue that analysts form mental models (MMs) of the system during RE and these MMs impact their outcome performance. We posit that one can enhance analysts’ MMs by using a knowledge-based repository (KBR) of components and services embodying domain knowledge specific to the target application during two key stages of RE, which results in improved RE outcomes. We measured the RE outcomes from user and analyst perspectives. The knowledge-based component repository we used in this research (which we developed in collaboration with a multi-national company) focused on insurance claim processing. The repository served as the support tool in RE in a multi-period lab experiment with multiple teams of analysts. The results supported the conceptualized model and showed the significant impacts of such tools in supporting analysts and their performance outcomes at two stages of RE. This work makes multiple contributions: it offers a theoretical framework for understanding and enhancing the RE process, develops measures for analysts’ mental models and RE performance outcomes, and shows the process by which one can improve analysts’ RE performance through access to a KBR of components at two key stages of the RE process