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ANALYSIS OF THE LEARNING-STYLE PREFERENCES OF ENTRY-LEVEL, UPPER-DIVISION UNDERGRADUATE/GRADUATE STUDENTS IN ALLIED HEALTH IDENTIFIED WITH ANALYTIC AND GLOBAL FORMAT LEARNING-STYLE ASSESSMENTS
Get PDFThe purpose of this researcher was to identify learning styles of undergraduate and graduate students in allied health and to examine correlations among identified learning-style scores and students’ gender, ethnicity, and age. The goals were to compare learning-style preferences and provide students, faculty, staff, and administrators with empirical information on student learning. One hundred and fifty-four ethnically diverse students participated in the study. The Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS) (Dunn & Dunn, & Price, 1996) and Building Excellence (BE) (Rundle & Dunn, 2000) were completed by a sample of 87 students. Correlation analyses confirmed relationships between student learning-styles identified with the PEPS and BE (p\u3c.001). The elements evidenced large effect sizes: (a) sound, (b) light, (c) temperature, (d) intake, (e) time of day/early morning, (f) time of day/afternoon, (g) time of day/late afternoon, (h) time of day/evening, (i) afternoon/late afternoon, and (j) afternoon/evening (p .001). Medium effect sizes: (a) design/seating, (b) peer-team/small group-team, (c) time of day/late morning, (d) mobility, (e) auditory, and (f) tactile/tactile and/or kinesthetic preferences. Small effect sizes: (a) structure, (b) self-pair/alone, and (c) varied/variety. Students demonstrated an inclination for BE elements: Visual Picture, Visual Text, Tactile Kinesthetic, Verbal Kinesthetic, and Analytic over Global Processing. Preference for Structure were identified with the PEPS. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc tests using Tukey’s HSD procedures revealed learning-style characteristics among students. Asian/Pacific Islanders evidenced greater tendencies toward Responsibility/Conformity. Gender related learning-style included female preferences for Auditory learning and male preferences for cooler Temperature, Mobility, Small group and Team learning. The follow-up revealed age related learning-style differences on Structure, Intake, Afternoon, Mobility, Auditory, Seating, and Early Morning. Learners (age 20-39) preferred Auditory and Early Morning over learners (age 40 and over) that preferred Structure, Intake, Afternoon, and Mobility. The findings supported the diversity of learning-style tendencies among students. A follow-up qualitive assessment revealed students’ preference for the globally formatted, computer-based learning-style instrument due to time-of-day flexibility, descriptive feedback, and immediacy of the feedback. This research may allow allied-health educators to modify instructional techniques to meet varied student needs. Students may be empowered to modify self-study approaches based on individual learning-style preferences
DEVELOPMENTAL REGULATION OF APOPTOSIS IN ZEBRAFISH OOCYTES, 64-CELL STAGE BLASTOMERES, AND GERM-RING STAGE EMBRYOS
Get PDFThe zebrafish early embryo acquires a general capability for apoptosis as a consequence of passage through the maternal-zygotic transition, the time that marks the beginning of zygotic transcription and the degradation of inherited maternal factors. We describe in detail the origin and regulation of the programmed cell death machinery found in the zebrafish early embryo. To elicit an apoptotic response from zebrafish early embryos, gastrulating germ-ring stage embryos were chronically exposed to the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide. Chronic exposure of germ-ring stage embryos to cycloheximide resulted in the rapid activation of an apoptotic response by the embryos, which was evident by the presence of extensive DNA fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and caspase-3 activation. Zebrafish eggs synchronously die if attempted fertilization is unsuccessful. The lack of fertilization results in the elimination of the eggs through apoptosis within eight hours, a time equivalent to mid-gastrulation in fertilized control embryos. The presence of extensive cytoplasmic fragmentation and the activation of caspase-3 by the egg provides evidence that the death is apoptotic. In addition, if 64-cell stage embryos are chronically exposed to cycloheximide, the embryo enters cell cycle arrest, and fails to undergo classical apoptosis, yet dies via a caspase-3 mediated type of secondary necrosis within five hours, a time equivalent to mid-gastrulation in control embryos. The data reported here generate support for the hypothesis that the zebrafish egg is supplied with the machinery for apoptosis prior to fertilization, and that if fertilization occurs, the formation of the zygote state activates an inhibition of the apoptotic machinery that persists until mid-gastrulation. These maternal inhibitors are effective at preventing classical apoptosis until the embryo reaches the maternal-zygotic transition. Once the maternal-zygotic transition begins, the embryo regains the ability to undergo classical apoptosis as demonstrated by the apoptotic death of germ-ring stage embryos upon exposure to cycloheximide. These results lead us to believe that post-maternal-zygotic transition embryos have the capability to initiate activation of the apoptotic response without the need for de novo protein synthesis. Taken together, our data reveal an elaborate mechanism of cell suicide, which has its roots in the unfertilized egg
