Introduction to Populating a Website with API Data

This lesson introduces a way to populate a website with data obtained from another website via an Application Programming Interface (API). Using some simple programming, it provides strategies for customizing the presentation of that data, providing flexible and generalizable skills.

Thinking about critical thinking: An industry perspective

There has been a drive towards enhancing the critical thinking (CT) skills development of students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, both in Australia and internationally. One debate among CT theorists centres on whether CT comprises a set of generalizable skills or is content- and context-dependent. While previous studies have considered CT skills development and its assessment in pharmacy courses, there appears to have been limited scholarly research within the pharmaceutical sciences discipline. In seeking to address this, it is vital to understand how companies conceptualize CT and its use by Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences graduates. This research identifies five major categories used to conceptualize CT in the companies interviewed: being systematic, having strong business sense, considering multiple solutions, considering implications and identifying problems and potential solutions. The study finds that, while these skills are dependent on the business context, they may be generalizable across a range of industries.

Examining Residents' Strategic Mindfulness During Self-Regulated Learning of a Simulated Procedural Skill

ABSTRACT Simulation-based training is currently embedded in most health professions education curricula. Without evidence for how trainees think about their simulation-based learning, some training techniques may not support trainees' learning strategies.Background This study explored how residents think about and self-regulate learning during a lumbar puncture (LP) training session using a simulator.Objective In 2010, 20 of 45 postgraduate year 1 internal medicine residents attended a mandatory procedural skills training boot camp. Independently, residents practiced the entire LP skill on a part-task trainer using a clinical LP tray and proper sterile technique. We interviewed participants regarding how they thought about and monitored their learning processes, and then we conducted a thematic analysis of the interview data.Methods The analysis suggested that participants considered what they could and could not learn from the simulator; they developed their self-confidence by familiarizing themselves with the LP equipment and repeating the LP algorithmic steps. Participants articulated an idiosyncratic model of learning they used to interpret the challenges and successes they experienced. Participants reported focusing on obtaining cerebrospinal fluid and memorizing the “routine” version of the LP procedure. They did not report much thinking about their learning strategies (eg, self-questioning).Results During simulation-based training, residents described assigning greater weight to achieving procedural outcomes and tended to think that the simulated task provided them with routine, generalizable skills. Over this typical 1-hour session, trainees did not appear to consider their strategic mindfulness (ie, awareness and use of learning strategies).Conclusions

Workplace learning and the metacognitive functions of routines

In the face of research that shows that workplace knowledge and learning are highly contextual, calls for the teaching of generalizable skills for the workplace have been widespread. While the authors reject the usefulness of teaching generalizable skills, they believe that there are commonalities in workplace knowledge that can be taught. These commonalities are related to metacognition rather than simple cognition, and the approach in this paper is to explore the potential of metacognitive instruction for workplace learning. Specifically, the concept of routines is used to develop an instructional theory derived from the inherent metacognitive functions of routines themselves. The paper draws upon contemporary cognitive theory and on recent research on workplace learning, and it builds on studies the authors have conducted on learning in the workplace and on the observation of routines at work.