Epistemic and Ontological Cognition of Occupational Therapy Students in an Entry-Level Master\u27s Program

Beliefs about knowledge and knowing, or epistemic and ontological cognition, are associated with many aspects of learning and achievement; however, little research has been done to examine the epistemic and ontological cognition of occupational therapy (OT) students. The purpose of this study is to bridge some of the gaps in the literature by:1) describing similarities and differences between entering and post-didactic students\u27 beliefs about knowledge and knowing, 2) examining domain-general and OT-specific epistemic and ontological cognition of OTstudents and the relationship between the two, and 3) determining whether there are changes in domain-general epistemological beliefs over the course of the didactic portion of an OTprogram. Fifty-four OTstudents, 21 incoming and 33 post-didactic, completed two quantitative instruments, the Epistemological Beliefs Inventory (EBI) and the modified Four-Quadrant Scale (mFQS), and two qualitative instruments, explanations of self-ratings on the mFQS and responses to four qualitative open-ended questions. The 33 post-didactic students also completed the EBI at the beginning, middle, and end of the didactic coursework. The results indicated statistically significant differences between the domain-specific ontological cognition of entering and post-didactic students, with more sophisticated stances being held by the post-didactic students. The entering students demonstrated dogmatist and skeptic perspectives, with minimal evidence of arationalist view of knowledge. Among the post-didactic students, there was evidence of primarily skeptic stances, with the emergence of rationalist views. There was little correlation between students\u27 scores on the domain-general EBIand the domain-specific mFQS. Considering the cross-sectional data, these students\u27 domain-general epistemic and ontological cognition was fairly stable, while their domain-specific ontological cognition was more changeable. On the other hand, the longitudinal findings indicated change in domain-general epistemic cognition over the course of the didactic portion of the OT program, with students demonstrating statistically significantly weaker beliefs in justification by an omniscient authority by the end of the didactic portion of the program. While causal inferences cannot be made based on the findings of this study, it is possible that intensive study in the discipline of OTcontributed to change in these students\u27 general epistemic cognition

Changes in Epistemic and Ontological Cognition of Occupational Therapy Students During Fieldwork: A Qualitative Study

The purpose of this study was to represent occupational therapy students’ perspectives of their beliefs about knowledge and knowing, or epistemic and ontological cognition (EOC), before and after their first level 2 fieldwork experience. Twenty participants from four classes of entry-level Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) students who had successfully completed 18 months of didactic coursework provided written explanations of self-ratings on the modified Four-Quadrant Scale of Ontology and Epistemology and written responses to four open-ended questions. Four major themes emerged: 1) Concrete knowledge may have a specific right or wrong answer, 2) Knowledge can change depending on the client, the situation, personal experiences, and evolving evidence, 3) Sources of knowledge and ways to justify knowledge include personal experience, clinical reasoning, authority figures, and the client, & 4) Integrating multiple sources of knowledge helps occupational therapists reason and make decisions. Students’ ontological cognition varied, depending on the specific knowledge considered. There were similarities between students’ epistemic cognition post-didactically and post-fieldwork, with differences in emphasis on specific sources of knowledge, e.g., hands-on experiences, critical reasoning, and research. Post-fieldwork, use of multiple sources of knowledge was more widespread and strongly emphasized, suggesting the fieldwork experience may have promoted beliefs about knowledge that were more consistent with the profession’s practice epistemology. Educators who guide students in recognizing, evaluating, and using critical types of knowledge and multiple sources for justification may better prepare students to successfully solve practice problems. This study provides insight into changes in students’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing after their first Level II fieldwork experience and may inform educators seeking to prepare effective practitioners

From Boring to Board Game: The Effect of a Serious Game on Key Learning Outcomes

Serious games incorporate learning objectives in the context of competitive games with rules. These types of games have been incorporated in education as well as therapeutic contexts. This study examined the effectiveness of a modification of the game “Snakes and Ladders,” for reviewing and learning qualitative research concepts. Using the Game-based Evaluation Model (GEM), the researchers also measured learning indicators such as interest and enjoyment, perceived competence, effort and importance, and value/usefulness. Thirty-eight Master of Occupational Therapy students completed a 25-question multiple choice pretest to measure knowledge of qualitative research concepts before playing the game. A 25-question multiple choice posttest was administered five days later to measure the students’ knowledge retention. A seven-point Likert-type Learning Indicators Questionnaire (LIQ) based on the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory was also administered following the posttest. A dependent t-test revealed a statistically significant increase in mean scores on the posttest [t(37) = 4.86, p \u3c .001; medium to large effect size (d = .79)]. All mean scores on the LIQ subscales were well above the median score of 3.5 on the 7-point scale. These results suggest that not only was the game effective for reviewing qualitative research concepts but that it also successfully incorporated motivational features that can influence learning in general. The particular game described in this study can be used with various content and incorporated in either an educational or therapeutic context

Wild Profusions: An Ode to Academic Hair

With the intention of expanding educational conversations through playful encounters, we braid curricular intensities inspired by wild profusions, written in our academic hair and offered as expressions of life writing. Through our hairatives, we share discomforts and provocations that are the stories of our scholarly identities, rooted in the body-word nexus as affective attunements. Through our entanglements, we map our networks of relations and invite curricular conductivity concerning how and why hair is formative in the context of the academy. Living on the precarious margins of stories, we share our narratives within the folds of educational theory to passionately and poetically render our richly textured events as the moments of knowledge creation. In this way, our hair serves as an artistic configuration, where we are manifest in “situated inquiry about the truth that it locally actualises”, to borrow from Badiou (2005), opening what may be described as an “eventual rupture” of our scholarly truths (p. 12). Our ruminations are the imaginaries of academics, or simply living intensities. We intend to crack open from the inside that which is “a reality concealed behind appearances” in an attempt to reconfigure “a different regime of perception and signification” (Rancière, 2009, pp. 48, 49)

Do Beliefs about Knowledge Predict Occupational Therapy Students’ Critical Thinking? A Longitudinal Correlational Study

Beliefs about knowledge and knowing, or epistemic and ontological cognition (EOC), are potential influences on critical thinking, yet little research exploring these relationships has been published in educational literature or in occupational therapy (OT). This study examined the association between domain-general and OT-specific EOC and critical thinking in OT students. The Epistemological Beliefs Inventory, modified Four-Quadrant Scale, and Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal were administered to a convenience sample of 102 OT students, before and after the didactic portion of an OT program. Results of logistic regression indicated that only the general belief in an omniscient authority as a source of knowledge was a statistically significant predictor of critical thinking, both before and after the didactic portion of the program. These findings partially support the hypothesis that EOC and critical thinking are related. Domain-general EOC and OT-specific ontological cognition also became more sophisticated over time, but OT-specific epistemic cognition and critical thinking did not change significantly

A systematic review of observational studies comparing direct oral anticoagulants with vitamin K antagonists for stroke prevention in older people with atrial fibrillation

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) were introduced in 2009 as an alternative to warfarin. Randomised controlled trials found direct oral anticoagulants to be as safe and effective as warfarin for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF). However, older people were underrepresented in these studies and there is uncertainty as to which treatment offers the best risk/benefit ratio1,2. The aim of this systematic review was to compare the effectiveness and safety of DOACs to vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in people ≥75 years with AF when treated in routine clinical practice. Studies were included in the systematic review if they used an observational study design, compared a DOAC to a VKA and presented data for an outcome of interest in participants ≥75 years old with AF. An exhaustive search was undertaken: Medline, EMBASE, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched from 01.01.09 to 03.01.18. Pharmaceutical companies were contacted to request unpublished data; reference lists were screened; foreign language articles were translated. Abstracts, editorials and letters were excluded as they did not include sufficient methodology information. The Newcastle‐Ottawa scale was used to assess studies for risk of bias. The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42018081696). Ethical approval is not required for reviews.Database searches returned 12,330 original articles. Articles were screened for inclusion and 23 studies were included in the review. The majority (n = 11) of studies were conducted in the USA and Canada, Asia (n = 6), Europe (n = 5), and New Zealand (n = 1). No studies were identified from the UK. The most studied DOAC was dabigatran (n = 21), followed by rivaroxaban (n = 12) and apixaban (n = 7). Generally, the included studies were rated highly with over half scoring 7 or above. Seven studies scored 6, one study scored 5 and three studies scored 4 or below.Effectiveness and safety outcomes: Ischaemic stroke: The majority of studies (6/9) found no significant difference between DOACs and VKAs, two found a decreased risk and one an increased risk with DOACs.Major bleeding: Most studies (8/12) found no significant difference between the groups, three found a decreased risk and one an increased risk with DOACs.Intracranial haemorrhage: Six studies reported that DOACs significantly decreased the risk, whereas five studies reported no significant difference.Gastrointestinal bleeding: Seven studies reported an increased risk with DOACs and two found no significant difference.This review found no difference in effectiveness between DOACs and VKAs but variable safety outcomes in those aged ≥75. However, the findings were limited by the low numbers of older people in the included studies and the low quality scores of those involving only the over 75s. The strength of this study was the broad search strategy; the main limitation was the reliance on published results as access to individual participant data was not available. The majority of studies did not report event rates so effect sizes could not be recalculated. This review has highlighted the need for high quality research investigating the comparative safety and effectiveness of DOACs in older people. It supports further work to examine this question

Student Self-Efficacy Levels for Performing Clinical Skills Learned Virtually During a Pandemic

The purpose of this study was to explore student self-efficacy for performance of clinical skills learned virtually, the effectiveness of teaching clinical skills online, the relationships between students’ feelings of self-efficacy and the performance of clinical skills, and the students’ perspectives of learning clinical skills virtually. This is a one-group mixed methods study that included twenty-one Master of Occupational Therapy students. Self-efficacy was measured using the Learning Self-Efficacy Scale (L-SES), performance was measured using an instructor-created rubric, and qualitative data was collected using open-ended questions. Students presented with higher levels of self-efficacy for range of motion (ROM) than manual muscle testing (MMT). For MMT, self-efficacy ratings in the Affective Domain were statistically significantly higher than those in the Cognitive and Psychomotor Domains. There were no relationships between L-SES scores and the physical competency exam score. Common themes identified were factors that increased self-efficacy and factors that decreased self-efficacy. This study provides foundational evidence supporting the use of multi-media resources to teach clinical skills virtually and supports online instruction as an effective method for teaching clinical skills and for promoting sufficient self-efficacy for performance of clinical skills

Entry-level Occupational Therapy Students’ Beliefs about Knowledge and Knowing: Findings from Three Masters Level Programs in the US

One of the expected outcomes of higher education for all entry-level occupational therapy (OT) students is to develop the capacity to think critically and engage in complex clinical reasoning. Beliefs about the justification of knowledge (epistemic cognition) and the nature of knowledge (ontological cognition) underlie the ability to develop sophisticated ways of thinking. There is a scarcity of research specific to occupational therapy students in the literature related to epistemic and ontological cognition. Based on a discussion prompted during an AOTA Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) workshop in 2014, OT faculty members from three entry-level occupational therapy programs initiated a longitudinal SoTL project designed to assess the epistemic and ontological beliefs of their respective student cohorts and compare results cross-institutionally. The Epistemic Beliefs Inventory (EBI), a modified Four-Quadrant Scale (mFQS), and 4 open-ended questions were used to assess student views at the beginning and end of a period of didactic learning in each occupational therapy program. Results suggest changes in student views may be based on the context and curriculum of the OT program in which they were enrolled. The findings associated with this SoTL project have implications for OT educators who want to help their students develop more mature views about knowledge in preparation for the metacognitive demands of clinical practice

Spectroscopic probe for in vivo measurement of raman signals

An optical probe is disclosed which is suitable for rapidly measuring Raman spectra in vivo. The probe is designed to minimize interfering Raman and fluorescence signals generated within the probe itself. In addition, the probe design is compact, making it particularly suited for use in confined spaces such as body cavities. In one embodiment, the probe is employed to detect tissue abnormalities such as cervical cancers and precancers.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste