The impact of guided inquiry methods of teaching on the critical thinking of high school students

The objective pursued by the present study is to investigate the impact of guided inquiry and traditional methods of teaching on the critical thinking skills among second grade high school students. Given the purpose, a total of 190 second grade high school students were chosen through random, multi-step and cluster sampling methods in the form of 8 classes and placed into 8 experimental and control groups. A pre-test post-test design was administered to the control group. The demographic information was collected by a researcher –made questionnaire and the thinking skills information was determined by Watson - Glaser test. Two- factor covariance method was used for data analysis. Results showed that the guided inquiry method of teaching had significant impact (lower than 0.05) on the critical thinking skills of students in inference and conclusion subscales. The impact of gender factor on the students’ critical thinking was significant, in terms of conclusion and interpretation subscales as well. The impact of interaction between gender and teaching method was also significant in inference and interpretation subscales. Keywords: critical thinking, guided inquiry teaching method, traditional teaching method

The association between dietary inflammatory index and C-reactive protein in plasma and semen with semen quality: A cross-sectional study

Background: Infertility affects couples worldwide, with male factors being responsible for half of all cases. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between dietary inflammatory index (DII) and levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in plasma and semen with the quality of semen in infertile males. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 88 infertile men referring to Besat hospital, Tehran, Iran from December 2021-November 2022 were enrolled. A detailed questionnaire requesting information, and a 168-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire, were completed by participants. A food frequency questionnaire was used to calculate the DII. Additionally, semen and blood samples were collected from each participant for semen analysis and CRP-level assessment. Statistical analyses were performed to explore the association between DII and CRP levels with sperm quality. The correlation between DII and serum/semen CRP, besides assessing nutrients in each DII quartile group, was also explored. Results: A significant difference was observed between different DII quartiles considering sperm motility (p = 0.006) and morphology (p = 0.014). Post hoc study revealed a significant difference between the 1st and 2nd quartiles and the 1st and 4th quartiles of DII regarding sperm motility (p = 0.011, and 0.017 respectively) and a significant difference between the 1st and 2nd quartiles of DII considering sperm morphology (p = 0.009). A statistically significant inverse correlation was also observed between DII and sperm motility (p = 0.017). Carbohydrates and β-carotenes were significantly different between the 4 DII quartiles (p = 0.043 and p = 0.026, respectively). Finally, no significant correlation was observed between DII and CRP levels in blood and semen (p > 0.05). Conclusion: The findings suggested a notable correlation between DII and semen quality; however, no significant association were observed between DII and CRP levels in blood and semen. Key words: Infertility, C-reactive protein, CRP, Inflammation, Sperm

Measuring Hospital Resilience in Emergency Situations and Examining the Knowledge and Attitude of Emergency Department Staff toward Disaster Management

سابقه و هدف: بيمارستان‌ها نقش بسيار مهمي در طي شرايط بحراني و اضطرار دارند. تيم‌هاي پزشکي با ساير گروه‌هاي پاسخ دهنده به شرايط بحراني و اضطرار اولين کساني هستند که به شرايط بحراني و اضطرار رسيدگي مي‌کنند. هدف از مطالعه حاضر سنجش ميزان تاب آوري بيمارستان در برابر شرايط بحراني و اضطرار و بررسي آگاهي و نگرش کارکنان بخش اورژانس در زمينه مديريت بحران و آمادگي براي شرايط بحراني و اضطرار بود. روش بررسي: اين مطالعه مقطعي در دو بخش انجام شد. ابتدا سنجش ميزان تاب آوري بيمارستان در شرايط بحراني و اضطرار با استفاده از پرسشنامه‌اي حاوي 58 سوال انجام گرديد. سپس، سنجش آگاهي و نگرش 102 نفر از کارکنان بخش اورژانس يک بيمارستان در زمينه مديريت بحران و آمادگي براي شرايط بحراني و اضطرار صورت پذيرفت. دو پرسشنامه خود گزارشي در اختيار مشارکت کنندگان قرار گرفت که شامل سنجش آگاهي (11 سوال) و سنجش نگرش (6 سوال) بود. نتايج: يافته‌هاي سنجش ميزان تاب آوري بيمارستان در شرايط بحراني و اضطرار نشان داد که امتياز بيمارستان در حيطه‌هاي سيستم فرماندهي شرايط اضطرار، ارتباطات و همکاري، برنامه‌هاي بيمارستان براي شرايط بحراني، ذخاير شرايط اضطرار و مديريت تدارکات و توانايي ﮐﺎرﮐﻨان ﻓﻮرﯾﺖ ﻫﺎي ﭘﺰﺷﮑﯽ و اورژاﻧﺲ در حد متوسط ارزيابي شد. سطح آگاهي 18% از شاغلين در مورد مديريت بحران و آمادگي براي شرايط بحراني و اضطرار نسبتا خوب و سطح آگاهي 2% از آن ها ضعيف بود. نگرش کارکنان اورژانس در زمينه مديريت بحران مثبت ارزيابي گرديد. نتيجه گيري: با توجه به تاب آوري متوسط بيمارستان در تعدادي از حيطه‌هاي مورد مطالعه و به منظور افزايش سطح آگاهي کارکنان، تدوين و ارائه برنامه‌هاي آموزشي مرتبط با آمادگي براي شرايط بحراني و اضطرار با تاکيد بر آموزش پرسنل کليدي سبب افزايش آگاهي و مهارت پرسنل و مديريت بهتر شرايط بحراني و اضطرار مي گردد. How to cite this article: Bakhshi M, Omidi L, Omidi K, Moradi GH, Mayofpour F, Darvishi T. Measuring Hospital Resilience in Emergency Situations and Examining the Knowledge and Attitude of Emergency Department Staff toward Disaster Management . J Saf Promot Inj Prev. 2020; 8(1):37-45.Background and Objectives: Hospitals can play an important role during emergencies and disasters. Medical teams with other first-responder teams are the first ones who attend an emergency or disaster. This study aims to measure hospital resilience in emergency situations and to assess the knowledge and attitude of emergency department staff toward disaster management. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was divided into two parts. In the first, hospital disaster resilience was measured using a 58-item questionnaire. In the second part, knowledge levels and attitudes of 102 emergency department staff members towards emergency and disaster preparedness and management were assessed. Two types of self-reported questionnaires were used to assess the knowledge and attitude in hospital emergency preparedness and disaster management including knowledge test (11 items) and attitude test (6 items). Results: The scores of hospital disaster resilience for emergency command, communication and cooperation system, hospital disaster plans, emergency stockpiles and logistics management, and emergency staff domains indicate moderate levels of resilience for the domains.  Among emergency staff, 18% had fair and 2% had poor knowledge about emergency and disaster preparedness and management. The findings suggested a positive attitude of staff members toward hospital disaster preparedness and management. Conclusion: Considering the moderate levels of resilience for some domains of hospital disaster resilience and for increasing staff knowledge, disaster-training programs can lead to increased knowledge and skills of key personnel and better management of emergency and disaster. Keywords: Disaster; Hospital resilience; Knowledge; Attitude How to cite this article: Bakhshi M, Omidi L, Omidi K, Moradi GH, Mayofpour F, Darvishi T. Measuring Hospital Resilience in Emergency Situations and Examining the Knowledge and Attitude of Emergency Department Staff toward Disaster Management . J Saf Promot Inj Prev. 2020; 8(1):37-45

Effect of yoga techniques on academic achievement of high school chemistry students in Mysore –India

Yoga is the process of using physical exercises and mental imagery that originated in the Indian cultures more than three thousand years ago. It is the name given to a practice that helps create a union between the mind, body, and spirit. Yoga's benefits extend to persons of all faiths, ages and abilities. Yoga has so many techniques that this investigation has been used two techniques (Asana techniques and Meditation techniques) of four essential yoga categories (1.Breathing techniques 2.Asana techniques 3.Relaxation techniques 4.Meditation techniques). It is definitely true that yoga has an affect on body, mind and emotion but the main purpose of this research is recognized impact of yoga on academic achievement. This research is semi-empirical and subjects were 90 high school students in Mysore city- India. In this study, the effectiveness and efficacy of two common techniques (Yoga Asana and Meditation) have been shown on change the academic achievement of high school chemistry students. Research instruments used included academic achievement pretest and post test that was prepared by investigator and teachers. Based on the statistical analysis of ANCOVA it showed that the difference between means of experimental groups (asana and meditation) and control group on the gain scores academic achievement in chemistry is found to be significant at the 0.05 level or of confidence which indicates that students of the experimental groups and the control group differ on the gain scores of chemistry

Effectiveness of assessment patterns on academic achievement

This study aims at determining: (a) whether there is any difference between chemistry learning achievements of students taking the chemistry class with the implementation of Performance Assessment and ones joining the class without the implementation of Performance Assessment if the prior knowledge was statistically controlled, (b) Differences of scores in male and females' students after the implementation of performance assessment and traditional assessment in class. The experiment was conducted in 2 high schools in Malayer. The subjects were 92 pre-university science students (46 boys and 46 girls) that were selected from population through random, multi-step and cluster sampling methods and then randomly assign patterns to experimental group and control group. Research instruments used included academic achievement pretest and post test that was prepared by researcher and teachers. The results have provided sufficient evidence for the context validity of these two instruments. Cronbach coefficient alpha reliability of chemistry academic achievement pre test was .81 and post test was .83. Two-factor covariance analysis method (ANCOVA) was utilized for data analysis. The results showed: (a) there were significant differences on chemistry learning achievement with and without the implementation of Performance Assessment on pre-university chemistry students. (b) Based on the statistical analysis of ANCOVA of same subjects, it showed that there was a significant increase of scores of females' students to learn chemistry in classes with the implementation Performance Assessment

The development of critical thinking skills in physics and sociology curricula

The present study aims to compare the impact of guided inquiry and traditional teaching methods on critical thinking skills of second-grade high school students in physics and sociology courses. Given the purpose, a total of 190 second grade high school students were chosen through random, multi-step and cluster sampling methods in the form of 8 classes and placed into 8 experimental and control groups in physics and sociology courses. A pre-test post-test design was administered to the control group. In order to collect information about participants, two tools were employed. The demographic information was collected by a researcher-made questionnaire and the thinking skills information was determined by Watson - Glaser test. Two- factor covariance method was utilized for data analysis. Results showed that the impact of guided inquiry teaching method on the critical thinking skills of students in inference and conclusion subscales, and the effect of subject in conclusion and interpretation subscales was significan