Thematic Analysis in Qualitative Research

The popularity of qualitative methods in social science research is a well-noted and most welcomed fact. Thematic analysis, the often-used methods of qualitative research, provides concise description and interpretation in terms of themes and patterns from a data set. The application of thematic analysis requires trained expertise and should not be used in a prescriptive, linear, and inflexible manner while analyzing data. It should rather be implemented in relation to research question and data availability. To ensure its proper usage, Braun and Clarke have propounded the simplest yet effective six-step method to conduct thematic analysis. In spite of its systematic step-driven process, thematic analysis provides core skills to conduct different other forms of qualitative analysis. Thematic analysis, through its theoretical freedom, flexibility, rich and detailed yet complex analytical account has emerged as the widely used and most effective qualitative research tool in social and organizational context.

“To be relied upon and trusted”: The centrality of personal relationships to collaboration in HE, in a successful cross-team institutional change project

The change to online delivery in March 2020 provided an opportunity as well as a requirement to change the way we work in Higher Education (HE), from a traditional stance focussed on hierarchy and roles to one that embraced individual core skills and competencies. The Transformation Academy (TA), Solent University's response led by the Solent Learning and Teaching Institute (SLTI), had as its goal the preparation of 1100 modules for online delivery in September 2020, delivered via institutional cross-team collaboration to ensure success within a narrow timescale. Collaboration is by necessity situated and dialogic, and most effectively driven by an affective and trust-based connection between collaborative partners as well as to the project goal. In bringing together previously disparate and siloed teams, the TA project’s success relied upon new collaborative partners quickly forming those connections, despite the prevailing neoliberal emphasis in UK HE on performativity and pressure from senior management to complete the work within 12 weeks. Adopting a qualitative empirical research design and single, local, exploratory case study approach, data is derived from 11 semi-structured interviews with project members who collaborated with colleagues outside of their usual team structures, to explore the personal value they perceived obtaining from the TA project. Preliminary findings suggest that Learning and Teaching (L&T) collaborations in a pressured environment benefit from authenticity in emotion and interpersonal affective connections, which in turn are engendered by openness and clarity in communication, a flattened hierarchy, and a sense of ownership for all participants.

Language and Cognitive Functions in a Neurological Tumour Population: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study

<p>Complex cognitive capacities such as language and “executive function” are difficult to evaluate in neuropsychological populations due to their multifactorial nature. The current study takes a cognitively-motivated core-skills approach to their assessment. Across four investigations, these various capacities are decomposed into simpler core skills based on current cognitive theory. An undifferentiated sample of 28 neurological tumour patients is then assessed on these skills. In the first study, we assessed the “core skills” underpinning language function at three time points: pre-operative (one day prior to surgery), post-operative (within three days of surgery), and at long-term follow-up (at least three months post-surgery). This approach was sensitive at detecting impairment; indeed, almost half of the patients showed persistent long-term language deficits even at long-term follow-up. The decompositional approach also proved effective at predicting long-term outcomes. Overall, these results suggest that the subtle language deficits may be more common and more persistent than previously estimated in tumour populations. The second study examined the relationship between “core” language skills and sentence-level language processing at long-term follow up. Whilst there were few significant correlations, the results nonetheless suggest that “core skills” measures may be useful predictors of some aspects of sentence-level processing. The third study isolated and identified “core” skills that are essential for complex cognitive control more generally, and assessed these in our patient sample at long-term follow-up. Results were broadly supportive of this decompositional approach, and again, our assessments proved highly sensitive at detecting deficits in this patient sample. The fourth study examined the relationship between language processing and complex cognitive control. Specifically, we examined whether there are systems specially dedicated to the control of language, or whether control functions operate across all domains. Overall, our results were broadly consistent with the domain-specific view - that there may be functionally distinct control systems operating on verbal and nonverbal material. The results, taken together suggest that a core skills approach to neuropsychological assessment has considerable promise, and is worth exploring further in a large patient sample. This approach may also help extend our understanding of the functional organisation of language, and the broader cognitive skills necessary for linguistic operations.</p>

Language and Cognitive Functions in a Neurological Tumour Population: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study

<p>Complex cognitive capacities such as language and “executive function” are difficult to evaluate in neuropsychological populations due to their multifactorial nature. The current study takes a cognitively-motivated core-skills approach to their assessment. Across four investigations, these various capacities are decomposed into simpler core skills based on current cognitive theory. An undifferentiated sample of 28 neurological tumour patients is then assessed on these skills. In the first study, we assessed the “core skills” underpinning language function at three time points: pre-operative (one day prior to surgery), post-operative (within three days of surgery), and at long-term follow-up (at least three months post-surgery). This approach was sensitive at detecting impairment; indeed, almost half of the patients showed persistent long-term language deficits even at long-term follow-up. The decompositional approach also proved effective at predicting long-term outcomes. Overall, these results suggest that the subtle language deficits may be more common and more persistent than previously estimated in tumour populations. The second study examined the relationship between “core” language skills and sentence-level language processing at long-term follow up. Whilst there were few significant correlations, the results nonetheless suggest that “core skills” measures may be useful predictors of some aspects of sentence-level processing. The third study isolated and identified “core” skills that are essential for complex cognitive control more generally, and assessed these in our patient sample at long-term follow-up. Results were broadly supportive of this decompositional approach, and again, our assessments proved highly sensitive at detecting deficits in this patient sample. The fourth study examined the relationship between language processing and complex cognitive control. Specifically, we examined whether there are systems specially dedicated to the control of language, or whether control functions operate across all domains. Overall, our results were broadly consistent with the domain-specific view - that there may be functionally distinct control systems operating on verbal and nonverbal material. The results, taken together suggest that a core skills approach to neuropsychological assessment has considerable promise, and is worth exploring further in a large patient sample. This approach may also help extend our understanding of the functional organisation of language, and the broader cognitive skills necessary for linguistic operations.</p>

Making health care better for all: Learning for the equality and diversity section of the RCGP curriculum

The equality, diversity and inclusion part of the RCGP curriculum can seem daunting to both trainers and AiTs. Do not panic! This article will show you how the core skills of a good GP acquired during training can help to reduce health inequalities, empower your patients and reduce misunderstanding. It will also show you how you can learn about this aspect of the curriculum and build on it in practice.

An evaluation of language in brain tumour patients using a new cognitive-motivated testing protocol

<p>In patients undergoing tumour resection surgery, assessment of language is vital, given its crucial role in everyday social functioning. However, despite the unique neuropathological mechanisms in tumours, current literature presents variable results regarding language capabilities in this population. In this thesis we have developed a new neuropsychological test battery, the Brief Language Assessment for Surgical Tumours (BLAST), to specifically evaluate language in brain tumour patients. The BLAST adopts a core skills approach, which identifies and examines 11 core cognitive skills that have been derived based on current cognitive and psycholinguistic theories, and are required for everyday language processing. In this study, we administered the BLAST to a cohort of 40 undifferentiated tumour surgery patients, both pre and postoperatively. Also tested were 60 healthy controls categorised into three age groups (18-29, 30-50 and 51+years). We examined various aspects of overall test performance in order to evaluate: 1) the overall sensitivity of the test battery at detecting abnormalities in this population; 2) selectivity: the relative incidence of impairments across the various subtests; and 3) their sensitivity to change following surgery. We also explored the effects of lesion localisation and other lesion characteristics (malignancy, oedema and volume) on test performance. Following this, we then used participants' test performance to create operationalised measures of our 11 core cognitive skills, and evaluated these measures in a similar way to the basic test scores. Finally, we used Voxel-Based Lesion Symptom Mapping to determine the specific anatomical predictors for each core cognitive skill score. When investigating overall task performance, we found that 94% of preoperative patients and 90% of postoperative patients were impaired in at least one task within the BLAST. Also, 65% and 68% of patients had impaired scores on at least one core skill preoperatively and postoperatively respectively. It was also found that the core skills measures were effective at discriminating amongst different neurological profiles. Specifically, patients with a left posterior tumour had significantly lower scores than other groups on measures of accessing semantic knowledge, lexical selection and phonological encoding, either pre or postoperatively, or both. Conversely, patients with a left frontal tumour had significantly lower scores on measures of articulatory motor planning and verb retrieval. Our Voxel-Lesion-Symptom-Mapping analysis corroborated these findings. Lesions within the left superior temporal lobe significantly predicted lows scores in accessing semantic knowledge, lexical selection and phonological encoding. Conversely, lesions within the left inferior, as well as the superior posterior frontal lobe, significantly predicted low scores on goal-driven response selection, articulatory-motor planning and verb retrieval. We conclude that a core skills approach may be a more effective means of assessing language in tumour populations than more conventional tools that emphasise overall task performance. Such derived measures are sensitive to impairments in this population, and are less likely to be confounded by nonlinguistic impairments that can impact significantly on overall task scores. They may also be useful in guiding postoperative rehabilitation. Further, the scores derived here are associated with quite specific neural substrates, making them potentially useful in guiding surgery and reducing postoperative linguistic deficits. Finally, we conclude that the investigation of tumour populations can also provide unique theoretical insights into language processing and its neural underpinnings in its own right.</p>

An evaluation of language in brain tumour patients using a new cognitive-motivated testing protocol

<p>In patients undergoing tumour resection surgery, assessment of language is vital, given its crucial role in everyday social functioning. However, despite the unique neuropathological mechanisms in tumours, current literature presents variable results regarding language capabilities in this population. In this thesis we have developed a new neuropsychological test battery, the Brief Language Assessment for Surgical Tumours (BLAST), to specifically evaluate language in brain tumour patients. The BLAST adopts a core skills approach, which identifies and examines 11 core cognitive skills that have been derived based on current cognitive and psycholinguistic theories, and are required for everyday language processing. In this study, we administered the BLAST to a cohort of 40 undifferentiated tumour surgery patients, both pre and postoperatively. Also tested were 60 healthy controls categorised into three age groups (18-29, 30-50 and 51+years). We examined various aspects of overall test performance in order to evaluate: 1) the overall sensitivity of the test battery at detecting abnormalities in this population; 2) selectivity: the relative incidence of impairments across the various subtests; and 3) their sensitivity to change following surgery. We also explored the effects of lesion localisation and other lesion characteristics (malignancy, oedema and volume) on test performance. Following this, we then used participants' test performance to create operationalised measures of our 11 core cognitive skills, and evaluated these measures in a similar way to the basic test scores. Finally, we used Voxel-Based Lesion Symptom Mapping to determine the specific anatomical predictors for each core cognitive skill score. When investigating overall task performance, we found that 94% of preoperative patients and 90% of postoperative patients were impaired in at least one task within the BLAST. Also, 65% and 68% of patients had impaired scores on at least one core skill preoperatively and postoperatively respectively. It was also found that the core skills measures were effective at discriminating amongst different neurological profiles. Specifically, patients with a left posterior tumour had significantly lower scores than other groups on measures of accessing semantic knowledge, lexical selection and phonological encoding, either pre or postoperatively, or both. Conversely, patients with a left frontal tumour had significantly lower scores on measures of articulatory motor planning and verb retrieval. Our Voxel-Lesion-Symptom-Mapping analysis corroborated these findings. Lesions within the left superior temporal lobe significantly predicted lows scores in accessing semantic knowledge, lexical selection and phonological encoding. Conversely, lesions within the left inferior, as well as the superior posterior frontal lobe, significantly predicted low scores on goal-driven response selection, articulatory-motor planning and verb retrieval. We conclude that a core skills approach may be a more effective means of assessing language in tumour populations than more conventional tools that emphasise overall task performance. Such derived measures are sensitive to impairments in this population, and are less likely to be confounded by nonlinguistic impairments that can impact significantly on overall task scores. They may also be useful in guiding postoperative rehabilitation. Further, the scores derived here are associated with quite specific neural substrates, making them potentially useful in guiding surgery and reducing postoperative linguistic deficits. Finally, we conclude that the investigation of tumour populations can also provide unique theoretical insights into language processing and its neural underpinnings in its own right.</p>

Energizing scholarly activity in a regional medical campus

Implication Statement Medical education is increasingly delivered at distributed sites away from Academic Health Sciences Centres. The Council of Ontario Faculties of Medicine recommends schools develop resources and metrics to foster regional campus scholarly activity. Opportunities for distributed program trainees must support learning core skills in research and critical appraisal to comply with medical school accreditation standards and to develop their interests and skills in scholarly work for their future medical careers. We describe a scholarly activity program that is a template for distributed campuses or regional teaching sites seeking to increase learner and faculty engagement and research productivity.

Transversal Skills for the Implementation of Competence Approach during a Music Pedagogy Process at Primary School

Expertise-based (competence) approach is one of the approaches in pedagogy which in the 21st century can be applied to develop important value-based knowledge, skills and habits. Transversal skills help learners to use knowledge in a real-life context, be ready to take on responsibility for their own learning, constituting a complex achievement, and strengthening the link between knowledge and personal experience. These skills can be acquired by purposefully integrating them with the core skills in all subjects, music including. Transversal skills include such components as: cooperation, creative and entrepreneurial ability, civic participation, critical thinking and problem solving, digital literacy, and self-guided learning skills. It is essential to bring the above-mentioned skills into focus in music pedagogy – to substantiate them theoretically and give a practical guidance how they can be seen in a pedagogical reality and develop them within the frame of music teaching in primary school. Research aim: to describe and substantiate how to enhance the development of transversal skills by applying competence approach during a music pedagogy process at primary school. Materials and methods: this paper will provide the analysis of theoretical literature and education documents on the competence approach, examine possibilities of developing transversal skills in music at Music Primary School. Theoretical findings will be brought into foreground in connection with the pedagogical experience obtained while teaching at Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music and giving music lessons in general education institutions.

Family Medicine Clerkship Assessment Analysis: Application and Implications

Introduction: Clerkship assessment structures should consist of a systematic process that includes information from exam and assignment data to legitimize student grades and achievement. Analyzing student performance across assessments, rather than on a single assignment, provides a more accurate picture to identify academically at-risk students. This paper presents the development and implications of a structured approach to assessment analysis for the Family Medicine Clerkship at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. Methods: The assessment analysis included a table presenting the distribution of all assessment performance results for 166 clerkship students from April 2018 to June 2019. A correlation table showed linear relationships between performance on all graded activities. We conducted a Pearson analysis (r), coefficient of determination (r2), multiple regression analysis, and reliability of performance analysis. Results: Performance on one assessment—the core skills quiz—yielded a statistically significant correlation (r=.409, r2= .16, P&lt;.001) with the final clerkship grade. The reliability of performance analyses showed low performers (&lt;-1.7 SD), had both a low mean quiz score (59.6) and final grade (83). Top performers (&gt;-1.7 SD) had both a high mean quiz score (88.5) and final grade (99.6). This was confirmed by multiple regression analysis. Conclusion: The assessment analysis revealed a strong linear relationship between the core skills quiz and final grade; this relationship did not exist for other assignments. In response to the assessment analysis, the clerkship adjusted the grading weight of its assignments to reflect their utility in differentiating academic performance and implemented faculty development regarding grading for multiple assignments.