scholarly journals Cultivating Water Literacy in STEM Education: Undergraduates’ Socio-Scientific Reasoning about Socio-Hydrologic Issues

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2857
Author(s):  
David C. Owens ◽  
Destini N. Petitt ◽  
Diane Lally ◽  
Cory T. Forbes
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Stem Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
Reasoning Skills ◽  
Water Literacy

Water-literate individuals effectively reason about the hydrologic concepts that underlie socio-hydrological issues (SHI), but functional water literacy also requires concomitant reasoning about the societal, non-hydrological aspects of SHI. Therefore, this study explored the potential for the socio-scientific reasoning construct (SSR), which includes consideration of the complexity of issues, the perspectives of stakeholders involved, the need for ongoing inquiry, skepticism about information sources, and the affordances of science toward the resolution of the issue, to aid undergraduates in acquiring such reasoning skills. In this fixed, embedded mixed methods study (N = 91), we found SHI to hold great potential as meaningful contexts for the development of water literacy, and that SSR is a viable and useful construct for better understanding undergraduates’ reasoning about the hydrological and non-hydrological aspects of SHI. The breadth of reasoning sources to which participants referred and the depth of the SSR they exhibited in justifying those sources varied within and between the dimensions of SSR. A number of participants’ SSR was highly limited. Implications for operationalizing, measuring, and describing undergraduate students’ SSR, as well as for supporting its development for use in research and the classroom, are discussed.

scholarly journals ESSENTIAL LEADERSHIP DOMAINS AND STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE LEADERSHIP SKILLS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS: A MIXED METHODS STUDY

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 1791-96
Author(s):  
Syed Muslim Abbas ◽  
Abid Ashar
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
National Level ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
Framework Analysis ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Medical Undergraduate

Objective: To explore medical undergraduate students’ perceptions pertaining to the key domains of leadership and highlight strategies to enhance leadership skills in undergraduate studies. Study Design: Mixed methods study. Place and Duration of Study: Fatima Memorial Hospital College of Medicine & Dentistry, Lahore, from Sep to Oct 2019. Methodology: A total of 207 medical students were recruited from the first and final year by purposive sampling to fill out a structured questionnaire. Three focus group discussions were conducted comprising of twelve students in each group. All focus groups were audio-recorded, anonymized and transcribed verbatim before the analysis by framework analysis technique. Results: Total fifty percent of the first-year students were of the view that ensuring patient safety was an important component of the leadership domain of improving services whereas only 11% responded as critically evaluating as a component of this domain. The themes that emerged pertaining to the strategies to enhance leadership skills included increasing awareness, role models depicting change, cultural challenges, and supplementing existing practices. Conclusions: The validated essential domains of leadership and its associated competencies should be streamlined strategically and prioritized in accordance with the level of training of the undergraduate medical students. A multicentre study is suggested to gather data at the national level which could inform further development of inclusion of leadership domains within undergraduate MBBS curriculum.

Do Sociology Courses Make More Empathetic Students? A Mixed-Methods Study of Empathy Change in Undergraduates

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 284-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Rockwell ◽  
Chris M. Vidmar ◽  
Penny Harvey ◽  
Leanna Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
Student Surveys ◽  
Introductory Sociology ◽  
Empathy Development

Assessing course goals is often challenging; assessing an abstract goal, like empathy, can be especially so. For many instructors, empathy is central to sociological thinking. As such, fostering empathy in students is a common course goal. In this article, we report the initial findings of a semester-long assessment of empathy change in undergraduate students ( N = 619). We employ a mixed-methods research design that utilizes qualitative instructor data to determine independent instructor-level variables and student surveys to measure student empathy change. We compare empathy change between students enrolled in introductory sociology classes to students not enrolled in sociology classes and test which student and instructor variables predict empathy change. We find that students taking sociology classes have positive empathy change compared to those who do not. We interpret these findings as evidence that study of sociology promotes empathy development and discuss implications for the classroom and further research.

scholarly journals The Dispositions, Abilities and Behaviours (Dab) Framework for Profiling Learners’ Sustainability Competencies in Higher Education

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frida Besong ◽  
Charlotte Holland
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Higher Education Institution ◽  
Limited Availability ◽  
Good Potential

Abstract The concepts of sustainability and sustainability competence are controversial, complex, difficult to define and measure, and have varied meanings for different people and practices. Given the complex nature of sustainability, there is limited availability of paradigmatic frameworks to guide educators in assessing sustainability competencies. This paper introduces the Dispositions, Abilities and Behaviours (DAB) framework, which influenced the design of an intervention in 2013-2014 that profiled sustainability competencies among final year undergraduate students in a higher education institution. The results of the mixed methods study indicate that the DAB framework has good potential as a guide to educators or researchers in understanding and profiling sustainability- related abilities, attitudes and actions (areas of performance) of cohorts of students within higher education settings.

scholarly journals Health Care Providers’ Trusted Sources for Information About COVID-19 Vaccines: Mixed Methods Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eden Brauer ◽  
Kristen Choi ◽  
John Chang ◽  
Yi Luo ◽  
Bruno Lewin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Advanced Practice ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Vaccine Information

BACKGROUND Information and opinions shared by health care providers can affect patient vaccination decisions, but little is known about who health care providers themselves trust for information in the context of new COVID-19 vaccines. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to investigate which sources of information about COVID-19 vaccines are trusted by health care providers and how they communicate this information to patients. METHODS This mixed methods study involved a one-time, web-based survey of health care providers and qualitative interviews with a subset of survey respondents. Health care providers (physicians, advanced practice providers, pharmacists, nurses) were recruited from an integrated health system in Southern California using voluntary response sampling, with follow-up interviews with providers who either accepted or declined a COVID-19 vaccine. The outcome was the type of information sources that respondents reported trusting for information about COVID-19 vaccines. Bivariate tests were used to compare trusted information sources by provider type; thematic analysis was used to explore perspectives about vaccine information and communicating with patients about vaccines. RESULTS The survey was completed by 2948 providers, of whom 91% (n=2683) responded that they had received ≥1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The most frequently trusted source of COVID-19 vaccine information was government agencies (n=2513, 84.2%); the least frequently trusted source was social media (n=691, 9.5%). More physicians trusted government agencies (n=1226, 93%) than nurses (n=927, 78%) or pharmacists (n=203, 78%; <i>P</i>&lt;.001), and more physicians trusted their employer (n=1115, 84%) than advanced practice providers (n=95, 67%) and nurses (n=759, 64%; <i>P</i>=.002). Qualitative themes (n=32 participants) about trusted sources of COVID-19 vaccine information were identified: processing new COVID-19 information in a health care work context likened to a “war zone” during the pandemic and communicating information to patients. Some providers were hesitant to recommend vaccines to pregnant people and groups they perceived to be at low risk for COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS Physicians have stronger trust in government sources and their employers for information about COVID-19 vaccines compared with nurses, pharmacists, and advanced practice providers. Strategies such as role modeling, tailored messaging, or talking points with standard language may help providers to communicate accurate COVID-19 vaccine information to patients, and these strategies may also be used with providers with lower levels of trust in reputable information sources.

Narrative Gerontology in Practice: Students’ Experiences With Conducting Autoethnography

2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-434
Author(s):  
Othelia E. Lee ◽  
Laneshia Conner ◽  
Boyd Davis
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Older Adult ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Mixed Methods Study ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Emerging Themes ◽  
The Life Course

This study examines the benefits of introducing autoethnographic writing as part of an ageism intervention to familiarize students with the life course. In this mixed-methods study, 186 graduate and undergraduate students conducted interviews with a grandparent or older adult and subsequently assumed the identity of the grandparent to write introductions of themselves as if they were that grandparent, using “I” statements in an online discussion forum. Most assumed grandparents were women (78.0%), and White (63.8%) with an average age of 77.3 ( SD = 12.3). Emerging themes were categorized into three levels: structural, familial, and individual. The number of times a certain theme was mentioned was counted and major themes were analyzed. Findings indicated how autoethnographic reflections can promote student examination of self-awareness, cultural heritages, and personal growth. This technique is encouraging as an educational ageism intervention and warrants further adaptation and testing.

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