Lessons learned: structuring knowledge codification and abstraction to provide meaningful information for learning

Purpose – To increase the spread and reuse of lessons learned (LLs), the purpose of this paper is to develop a standardised information structure to facilitate concise capture of the critical elements needed to engage secondary learners and help them apply lessons to their contexts. Design/methodology/approach – Three workshops with industry practitioners, an analysis of over 60 actual lessons from private and public sector organisations and seven practitioner interviews provided evidence of actual practice. Design science was used to develop a repeatable/consistent information model of LL content/structure. Workshop analysis and theory provided the coding template. Situation theory and normative analysis were used to define the knowledge and rule logic to standardise fields. Findings – Comparing evidence from practice against theoretical prescriptions in the literature highlighted important enhancements to the standard LL model. These were a consistent/concise rule and context structure, appropriate emotional language, reuse and control criteria to ensure lessons were transferrable and reusable in new situations. Research limitations/implications – Findings are based on a limited sample. Long-term benefits of standardisation and use need further research. A larger sample/longitudinal usage study is planned. Practical implications – The implementation of the LL structure was well-received in one government user site and other industry user sites are pending. Practitioners validated the design logic for improving capture and reuse of lessons to render themeasily translatable to a new learner’s context. Originality/value – The new LL structure is uniquely grounded in user needs, developed from existing best practice and is an original application of normative and situation theory to provide consistent rule logic for context/content structure

Exploring the construct validity of the Patient Perception Measure-Osteopathy (PPM-O) using classical test theory and Rasch analysis

Evaluation of patients’ experience of their osteopathic treatment has recently been investigated leading to the development of the Patient Perception Measure – Osteopathy (PPM-O). The aim of the study was to investigate the construct validity of the PPM-O. Patients presenting to osteopathy student-led teaching clinics at two Australian universities were asked to complete two questionnaires after their treatment: a demographic questionnaire and the PPM-O. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch analysis were used to investigate the construct validity of the PPM-O. Data from the present study did not fit the a-priori 6-domain structure in the CFA. Modifications to the 6-domain model were then made based on the CFA results, and this analysis identified two factors: 1) Education & Information (9 items); and 2) Cognition & Fatigue (6 items). These two factors were Rasch analysed individually. Two items were removed from the Cognition & Fatigue factor during the analysis. The two factors independently were unidimensional. The study produced a 2-factor, 13-item questionnaire that assesses the patients’ perception of their osteopathic treatment using the items from a previous questionnaire. The results of the current study provide evidence for the construct validity of the PPM-O and the small number of items makes it feasible to implement into both clinical and research settings. Further research is now required to establish the measures’ validity in a variety of patient populations

Sensations Experienced and Patients’ Perceptions of Osteopathy in the Cranial Field Treatment

Osteopathy in the cranial field is an approach used by manual and physical therapists. However, there is minimal information in the literature about patient experiences of this treatment. The present study was undertaken to explore patients’ experiences of osteopathy in the cranial field. Patients completed the Patient Perception Measure–Osteopathy in the Cranial Field and identified sensations they experienced during treatment. Additional measures of anxiety, depression, Satisfaction With Life, and Meaningfulness of Daily Activity were completed. The Patient Perception Measure–Osteopathy in the Cranial Field was internally consistent (Cronbach’s α = .85). The most frequently experienced sensations of osteopathy in the cranial field patients were “relaxed,” “releasing,” and “unwinding.” Satisfaction With Life and Meaningfulness of Daily Activity were positively associated with Patient Perception Measure–Osteopathy in the Cranial Field scores. Negative associations were observed between the Patient Perception Measure–Osteopathy in the Cranial Field and depression. Psychometric properties of the Patient Perception Measure–Osteopathy in the Cranial Field require further testing. The observed associations of Satisfaction With Life and depression with patients’ perceptions of osteopathy in the cranial field treatment needs to be tested in larger clinical manual therapy cohorts. </jats:p

A quality of life measure for limb lymphoedema (LYMQOL)

Background: This paper describes the validation of a 'condition-specific' quality of life (QoL) assessment tool for lymphoedema of the limbs (LYMQOL). Aims: To ascertain whether the tool could accurately assess QoL in this patient group. Methods: Face and content validity were assessed by patient questionnaires; criterion validity by comparison with European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire - Core 30 questions (EORTC QLQ-C30); internal validity by Cronbach's Alpha and split half-testing of each domain; reliability by the test-retest method; construct validity by comparing LYMQOL score with initial limb volume and responsiveness by measuring changes in score following treatment. Results: The tool was validated in a total of 209 patients. Face, content, criterion and interval validity were supported. However, there was no correlation between initial limb volume and LYMQOL score (construct validity), a finding which is similar to that from other studies. The validation of responsiveness was limited by the small numbers of responses at three and six months after the initial assessment. Conclusions: LYMQOL is a validated condition-specific QoL assessment tool which can be used for lymphoedema of the limbs both in clinical assessment and as an outcome measure

The DREEM, part 2: psychometric properties in an osteopathic student population

Background The Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) is widely used to assess the educational environment in health professional education programs. A number of authors have identified issues with the psychometric properties of the DREEM. Part 1 of this series of papers presented the quantitative data obtained from the DREEM in the context of an Australian osteopathy program. The present study used both classical test theory and item response theory to investigate the DREEM psychometric properties in an osteopathy student population. Methods Students in the osteopathy program at Victoria University (Melbourne, Australia) were invited to complete the DREEM and a demographic questionnaire at the end of the 2013 teaching year (October 2013). Data were analysed using both classical test theory (confirmatory factor analysis) and item response theory (Rasch analysis). Results Confirmatory factor analysis did not demonstrate model fit for the original 5-factor DREEM subscale structure. Rasch analysis failed to identify a unidimensional model fit for the 50-item scale, however model fit was achieved for each of the 5 subscales independently. A 12-item version of the DREEM was developed that demonstrated good fit to the Rasch model, however, there may be an issue with the targeting of this scale given the mean item-person location being greater than 1. Conclusions Given that the full 50-item scale is not unidimensional; those using the DREEM should avoid calculating a total score for the scale. The 12-item ‘short-form’ of the DREEM warrants further investigation as does the subscale structure. To confirm the reliability of the DREEM, as a measure to evaluate the appropriateness of the educational environment of health professionals, further work is required to establish the psychometric properties of the DREEM, with a range of student populations

Joint Attention and Word Learning in Ngas-Speaking Toddlers in Nigeria

This study examines infants’ joint attention behavior and language development in a rural village in Nigeria. Participants included eight younger (1;0 to 1;5, M age=1;2) and eight older toddlers (1;7 to 2;7, M age=2; 1). Joint attention behaviors in social interaction contexts were recorded and coded at two time points six months apart. Analyses revealed that these toddlers were producing more high-level joint attention behaviors than less complex behaviors. In addition, the quality and quantity of behaviors produced by these Nigerian children was similar to those found in other cultures. In analyses of children’s noun and verb comprehension and production (in relation to the number of nouns or verbs on a parental checklist), parents reported proportionally more verbs than nouns, perhaps because Ngas has some linguistic characteristics that are similar to languages in which a noun bias is not seen (e.g. Mandarin Chinese). An examination of the interrelations of joint attention and language development revealed that joint attention behaviors were related to both noun and verb development at different times. The set of results is important for understanding the emergence of joint attention in traditional cultures, the comprehension and production of nouns and verbs given the specific linguistic properties of a language and the importance that early social contexts may have for language development

The forgotten flies:The importance of non-syrphid Diptera as pollinators

Bees, hoverflies and butterflies are taxa frequently studied as pollinators in agricultural and conservation contexts. Although there are many records of non-syrphid Diptera visiting flowers, they are generally not regarded as important pollinators. We use data from 30 pollen-transport networks and 71 pollinator-visitation networks to compare the importance of various flower-visiting taxa as pollen-vectors. We specifically compare non-syrphid Diptera and Syrphidae to determine whether neglect of the former in the literature is justified. We found no significant difference in pollen-loads between the syrphid and non-syrphid Diptera. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the level of specialization between the two groups in the pollen-transport networks, though the Syrphidae had significantly greater visitation evenness. Flower visitation data from 33 farms showed that non-syrphid Diptera made up the majority of the flower-visiting Diptera in the agricultural studies (on average 82% abundance and 73% species richness), and we estimate that non-syrphid Diptera carry 84% of total pollen carried by farmland Diptera. As important pollinators, such as bees, have suffered serious declines, it would be prudent to improve our understanding of the role of non-syrphid Diptera as pollinators

The impact of the invasive alien plant, impatiens glandulifera, on pollen transfer networks

Biological invasions are a threat to the maintenance of ecological processes, including pollination. Plant-flower visitor networks are traditionally used as a surrogated for pollination at the community level, despite they do not represent the pollination process, which takes place at the stigma of plants where pollen grains are deposited. Here we investigated whether the invasion of the alien plant Impatiens glandulifera (Balsaminaceae) affects pollen transfer at the community level. We asked whether more alien pollen is deposited on the stigmas of plants on invaded sites, whether deposition is affected by stigma type (dry, semidry and wet) and whether the invasion of I. glandulifera changes the structure of the resulting pollen transfer networks. We sampled stigmas of plants on 10 sites invaded by I. glandulifera (hereafter, balsam) and 10 non-invaded control sites. All 20 networks had interactions with balsam pollen, although significantly more balsam pollen was found on plants with dry stigmas in invaded areas. Balsam pollen deposition was restricted to a small subset of plant species, which is surprising because pollinators are known to carry high loads of balsam pollen. Balsam invasion did not affect the loading of native pollen, nor did it affect pollen transfer network properties; networks were modular and poorly nested, both of which are likely to be related to the specificity of pollen transfer interactions. Our results indicate that pollination networks become more specialized when moving from the flower visitation to the level of pollen transfer networks. Therefore, caution is needed when inferring pollination from patterns of insect visitation or insect pollen loads as the relationship between these and pollen deposition is not straightforward. © 2015 Emer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited