Challenges of e-Mentoring Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the current pandemic scenario, the School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia had adopted an e-mentoring system to help undergraduate medical students acclimatise to new subjects, improve academic performance and decrease attrition. The authors highlight the challenges of e-mentoring, including aspects of interpersonal dynamics, slow development of relationships in e-mentoring and the requirement of specific skills in technology for useful online mentoring, are the few challenges discussed. Some possible solutions were also shared. This article is beneficial to institutions implementing or planning to implement an e-mentoring system.

Employing of Object Tracking System in Public Surveillance Cameras to Enforce Quarantine and Social Distancing Using Parallel Machine Learning Techniques

Like many countries, Jordan has resorted to lockdown in an attempt to contain the outbreak of Coronavirus (Covid-19). A set of precautions such as quarantines, isolations, and social distancing were taken in order to tackle its rapid spread of Covid-19. However, the authorities were facing a serious issue with enforcing quarantine instructions and social distancing among its people. In this paper, a social distancing mentoring system has been designed to alert the authorities if any of the citizens violated the quarantine instructions and to detect the crowds and measure their social distancing using an object tracking technique that works in real-time base. This system utilises the widespread surveillance cameras that already exist in public places and outside many residential buildings. To ensure the effectiveness of this approach, the system uses cameras deployed on the campus of Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan. The results showed the efficiency of this system in tracking people and determining the distances between them in accordance with public safety instructions. This work is the first approach to handle the classification challenges for moving objects using a shared-memory model of multicore techniques. Keywords: Covid-19, Parallel computing, Risk management, Social distancing, Tracking system.

Foreign experience of mentoring teachers working with children with disabilities

В статье рассмотрен зарубежный опыт наставничества педагогов, работающих с детьми с ОВЗ. Цель статьи заключается в том, чтобы проанализировать зарубежный опыт наставничества педагогов, работающих с детьми с ограниченными возможностями и рассмотреть потенциал его использования в рамках российской действительности. Используя методы анализа и синтеза зарубежных исследований США, Западной и Восточной Европы, авторы выделяют отличительные черты, которые характерны для модели наставничества той или иной страны. Наставничество рассматривается как форма общения между наставником и наставляемым, основанная на принципах доверия и принятия. Авторы раскрывают не только достоинства построения системы наставничества педагогов, работающих с детьми с ОВЗ, но и освещают проблемы, которые еще предстоит решить. The article considers the foreign experience of mentoring teachers working with children with disabilities. The purpose of the article is to analyze the foreign experience of mentoring teachers working with children with disabilities and to consider the potential of its use within the framework of Russian reality. Using the methods of analysis and synthesis of foreign studies of the USA, Western and Eastern Europe, the authors identify the distinctive features that are characteristic of the mentoring model of a particular country. Mentoring is considered as a form of communication between the mentor and the mentee, based on the principles of trust and acceptance. The authors reveal not only the advantages of building a mentoring system for teachers working with children with disabilities, but also highlight the problems that have yet to be solved.

Problems of formalization of the mentoring institute in healthcare and ways of solving them

Introduction. This study focuses on the formalization of the institution of mentoring in health care. The mentoring system in Russia has existed for a long time. Still, there is a particular interest in this topic since the requirements for the quality of medical care are changing, new challenges arise in the healthcare sector, and reducing staff turnover and retaining highly qualified specialists in the workplace arises. Targets and goals. The aim of the study is to clarify the need for institutional consolidation of the institution of mentoring. The tasks of the work included identifying factors motivating or demotivating medical workers to participate in the mentoring system, as well as the search for problems of formalizing the institution of mentoring. Material and methods. The author conducted a sociological study in Moscow: a mass questionnaire survey among doctors and nurses in 6 medical institutions subordinated to the Department of Health of the city of Moscow and a series of in-depth structured interviews with representatives of medical organizations in charge of mentoring in their organizations (17). Analysis of quantitative data was carried out using the construction of classification trees using the CHAID method. Results. The main issue that experts propose to spell out when formalizing mentoring is the skills and abilities. Employee willingness to become mentors varies. The study found that physicians over the age of 27 are most likely to become mentors convinced of the need to introduce and expand mentoring in the workplace. Young doctors under the age of 27 are less likely to take on the mentoring function due to a lack of confidence in their qualifications, as well as older colleagues who are dissatisfied with the working conditions in the workplace and do not consider it necessary to introduce or expand a mentoring system in their organization. Conclusion. The study showed that experts have a positive attitude to formalizing the institute of mentoring, noting that there should be a single document of a recommendatory nature.

Perceptions of Mentors and Mentees towards the Mentoring System at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre

Mentoring is a relationship between mentors and mentees focused on the career success and advancement of mentees. It is crucial to review and evaluate the mentoring system in place in any given institution to identify potential issues. This study aimed to ascertain the perception of mentors and mentees towards mentoring system at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). This cross-sectional study involved 382 UKMMC medical students from Year-2 to Year-5, and 35 UKMMC lecturers. Data were collected by sending validated questionnaires through Google Forms to all 819 students via the Facebook groups of UKM medical students. The questionnaires for mentors were distributed to all 78 lecturers through their respective emails. Both mentors and mentees showed positive perceptions towards the mentoring system with a total score of 110/144 (76%) and 51/64 (80%), respectively. Year-2 and Year-3 mentees showed higher perception compared to Year-4. Mentees supervised under pre-clinical mentors and female mentors had higher perceptions compared to clinical mentors and male mentors. Respondents reported suggestions for improving the content and structure of the mentoring system, the need for additional training of mentors (especially on how to approach the mentees), retaining the same mentors and mentees pairing throughout the mentees’ education, and reviewing the assessment method. The study findings may help further in improving the mentoring system of UKMMC. Mentoring is a challenging task. Medical schools must assign mentoring due importance in regular training for all levels of mentors by welltrained trainers. The implementation of awards and incentives for institutional mentors may motivate them further.

A Chinese perspective on the actual and preferred sources of coaching knowledge

Efforts to improve coaching effectiveness require an understanding of the common sources of coaches’ knowledge acquisition. Sports coaches utilise multiple learning sources, yet limited direct evidence elucidates the manner in which Chinese coaches learn to coach and the evolution of their learning sources throughout their careers’ development. This research examines the actual and preferred sources of coaching knowledge for Chinese coaches and analyses changes in learning sources from Junior to Senior level coaches. One hundred coaches from China, including 60 Junior coaches, 23 Intermediate coaches and 17 Senior coaches, completed an online questionnaire. The survey results indicated that coaches acquire knowledge from formal, informal and non-formal learning situations. However, formal coach education (coach education programmes) is the most important source of knowledge acquisition for all coaches. Furthermore, as coaches develop, the sources to acquire knowledge will gradually change from athletic experience to interaction with other coaches. Based on these findings, we suggest that national sport governing bodies build more comprehensive coach education systems by establishing a scientific mentoring system and organising regular coach-themed clinics, seminars, meetings and so on. Future research is needed to examine how coaches in China’s dominant programmes learn to coach and how this learning is practically applied.

School Leaders’ Opinions, Attitudes, and Performative Actions Toward Teacher Absenteeism in Kenya

The research examined school leaders’ opinions, attitudes, and performative actions toward teacher absenteeism. Existing research has primarily focused on interventions implemented by the Teachers’ Service Commission to curb teacher absenteeism, and yet since leaders are the main agents and their actions are context bound, their actual actions and insights should be accounted for when addressing absenteeism. Our study finds that though teacher absenteeism has been reduced, disheartening challenges persist. The authors recommend continuous monitoring and establishing a mentoring system.

A Peer-Mentoring System as a Nontraditional Approach to STEM CUREs

At Saint Michael’s College, the challenge of quality mentoring inherent in CUREs is addressed using near-peer mentoring. Near-peer mentoring is when an individual completes a course and then serves as a mentor in subsequent iterations (McKenna and Williams 2017). In an undergraduate institution, this can be as simple as a third- or fourth-year student working with a second-year student. Through a CURE developed for a Molecular Genetics lab course, a widely adoptable model has been created.