Promoting Environments that Measure Outcomes: Partnerships for Change

This paper describes the development of the PrEMO© (Promoting Environments that Measure Outcomes) program. PrEMO© is an innovative model promoting evidence-based practice (EBP) while developing capacity and quality of Level II fieldwork placements. The PrEMO© program is described from initiation to completion, including development of site-specific learning objectives, the twelve week schedule and the role of faculty mentorship. Occupational therapy (OT) students, and university OT program faculty including academic fieldwork coordinators, partner with fieldwork educators at the site to implement EBP using a data-driven decision making (DDDM) process to guide the development of evidence-based practices. PrEMO© appears to be a useful strategy for building Level II fieldwork capacity and enhancing student and fieldwork educators’ knowledge and skills about EBP and outcome measurement in routine OT practice

Student level II fieldwork failure: strategies for intervention.

OBJECTIVE: This report describes how common student communicative and behavioral characteristics that appear to predict the existence of potential problems during Level II fieldwork were identified in order to develop and implement preventative interventions during the academic curriculum at New York University (NYU). RECORD REVIEW: A record review of NYU professional-level occupational therapy students from 1986 to 1995 was completed to identify common factors among students who performed well academically but failed clinical fieldwork. Eight communicative and behavioral characteristics were identified: (a) rigidity of thinking, (b) discomfort with the ambiguity that accompanies clinical reasoning, (c) lack of psychological insight, (d) difficulty interpreting feedback, (e) externalization of responsibility, (f) difficulty learning from mistakes, (g) discomfort with the physical handling of patients, and (h) dependence on external measures for self-esteem. INTERVENTION: On the basis of the identified characteristics, five intervention strategies were adopted: (a) academic seminars that address professional behavior and interpersonal skills, (b) faculty feedback to students regarding problematic behaviors, (c) clinician and senior student counseling with identified students, (d) student remediation programs consisting of community service, and (e) student learning contracts based on specific behavioral objectives. These strategies were administered before Level II fieldwork to 10 students in the 1996 class who exhibited the characteristics indicative of potential fieldwork failure. OUTCOME: Of the 10 students in the 1996 class, 7 passed fieldwork without further difficulty, two failed fieldwork midterm assessments but went on to achieve passing final evaluations, and one failed the final fieldwork assessment but passed an additional third fieldwork experience. The class of 1996, which was the first to receive formal intervention designed to decrease fieldwork failure, demonstrated lower fieldwork failure rates than did all other classes in the past 10 years

Examining Occupational Therapy Students’ Responses to Integrative Seminars

The integrative seminar is an innovative teaching-learning approach that focuses on active learning and peer collaboration, characteristics that align with millennial learners’ preferences. The use of integrative seminars has been reported by various health professions with positive outcomes. Course feedback survey data from the first cohort of occupational therapy students who participated in a new four-course integrative seminar series were analyzed. Findings suggest that the format of the courses was engaging for the learners. The students particularly valued the small class; the opportunities for peer collaboration; and the variety of active learning opportunities, including simulations. The students also indicated that the seminars helped them to integrate and apply their learning across the curriculum. In another survey completed near the end of their Level II fieldwork rotations, the students indicated that the seminars contributed to their readiness for fieldwork as well as to the development of their critical thinking, interpersonal skills, and professional identity. The findings from this analysis support the potential value of integrative seminars in occupational therapy education

Adding generic contextual capabilities to wearable computers

Context-awareness has an increasingly important role to play in the development of wearable computing systems. In order to better define this role we have identified four generic contextual capabilities: sensing, adaptation, resource discovery, and augmentation. A prototype application has been constructed to explore how some of these capabilities could be deployed in a wearable system designed to aid an ecologist's observations of giraffe in a Kenyan game reserve. However, despite the benefits of context-awareness demonstrated in this prototype, widespread innovation of these capabilities is currently stifled by the difficulty in obtaining the contextual data. To remedy this situation the Contextual Information Service (CIS) is introduced. Installed on the user's wearable computer, the CIS provides a common point of access for clients to obtain, manipulate and model contextual information independently of the underlying plethora of data formats and sensor interface mechanisms

Chinese agriculture technology demonstration centres in Southern Africa: The new business of development

Chinese aid in the African agriculture sector is one of the enduring forms of involvement on the continent. The launching of Agriculture Technology Demonstration Centres (ATDCs) in 2006 marked a new intensive phase in agricultural aid, which seeks to find sustainability through public-private partnerships and to promote Chinese commercial pursuits. Based on in-depth fieldwork in Mozambique and South Africa, this paper provides a critical analysis of ATDCs practices. As per the three key objectives of the ATDC - technology transfer, business development, and sustainability -, the authors find three major results. First, the agro-technology transfer proves to be beneficial but at a very localized level. Second, Chinese agribusiness companies have been introduced to the host countries through the platform of the ATDC, and are partially fulfilling the commercial aim of the project. Third, the long-standing problem of aid unsustainability remains a major concern with the newly launched ATDC project. The deficiency of policy design and lack of effective bilateral interactions are identified as the main reasons for the problems experienced. (Résumé d'auteur

Linking multiple representations in exploring iterations: does change in technology change students' conjectures?

This study investigates changes in conjectures of four typical students when they are using different kinds of technologies, particularly in relation to their preferences for representations and the way they express their conjectures in understanding the concept and properties of iteration. The first stage of the research was conducted using pen and paper (PP) with graphical calculator (GC) in a classroom while the second stage used PP with graphical software (GS) in a laboratory. The findings suggest, with important caveats, that different technologies significantly influence the students' preferences for representations. Also, this study shows that students' conjectures can be an effective unit of analysis in researching students' understanding of iteration and preferences for representations