1,720,999 research outputs found
Impact of Spacing of Practice on Learning Brand Name and Generic Drugs
Full text linkObjective. To test the impact of schedules of retrieval practice on learning brand and generic namedrug information in a self-paced course.Methods. Students completed weekly quizzes on brand and generic name conversions for 100 commonlyprescribed drugs. Each student completed part of the drug list on a schedule of equal, expanding,or contracting spacing, one practice (massed) or study only in a partial block design.Results. On measures of long-term retention, the contracting spacing schedule led to superior retention(67%) compared to the massed practice (50%) and study-only condition (46%); contracting practicealso was significantly higher than expanding practice (58%,) or equal practice (59%). Overall performancedecreased by almost 50% (final exam 95%, long-term retention 55%) over a 6-week period.Conclusion. A contracting spacing schedule was the most effective schedule of practice, and allspacing schedules were superior to massed practice or study-only conditions.Doctor of Pharmac
Stabilized Access to Marginal Knowledge in the Health Professional Classroom
Full text linkGraduate-level education in the health sciences builds from and is dependent upon knowledge supplied by prerequisite coursework. Such previously learned information may be stored well in memory without being readily accessible for application to facilitate new learning. Stored, but not retrievable information is termed “marginal knowledge”; psychology laboratory research has demonstrated that multiple-choice questions can be used to stabilize access to or “reactivate” marginal knowledge, even without feedback. Our study assessed whether this phenomenon was reproducible in an authentic classroom setting. One hundred and forty-five student pharmacists enrolled in the first-year Pharmacy Bridging Course (PBC) participated in this study, first completing a pre-course assessment comprising fill-in-the-blank questions about material covered in undergraduate prerequisites, but not to be covered in PBC. Students were then randomized to one of two groups to study three of the six lowest performance topics per the pre-assessment. After one week of PBC, students completed an interim assessment including study questions provided as fill-in-the-blank and then in multiple-choice format, without feedback. At the completion of PBC two weeks later, students repeated the pre-course assessment as a final exam. The interim multiple-choice test conferred better final exam performance on questions that students did not answer correctly on the pre-test, relative to the control condition (i.e., not taking the interim test; d = 1.03). In addition, the benefit of an interim multiple-choice question was significantly greater when students answered it correctly relative to incorrectly (d = 0.54). Interestingly, even incorrect responses on the interim test conferred a performance advantage over not taking the interim test (d = 0.61). Our study provides initial data to support that a multiple-choice test (even without feedback) in a genuine health professional classroom can produce a sufficient stimulus to stabilize marginal knowledge as demonstrated by improved retrieval of previously assessed material. We also know that this effect persists for at least two weeks as evidenced by the final exam performance; tracking this effect over longer follow-up periods provides an opportunity for further investigation.Doctor of Pharmac
Investigating the Relationship between Burnout and Personality in Pharmacy Students
Full text linkIntroduction: To investigate the relationship between student’s personality traits, academic expectations, burnout, and engagement in student pharmacists
Methods: A 48-question survey was administered to students in the didactic portion of the curriculum. The survey consists of questions from the Maslach Scale for Burnout, the Utrecht scale for Engagement, the Five Factor Personality, and demographics.
Results: Fifty Doctors of Pharmacy Students participated in the survey. Burnout was negatively correlated with extroversion and conscientiousness. Engagement was positively correlated with conscientiousness.
Conclusion: This study was a start for finding internal correlations for burnout in pharmacy students. Due to the small sample size, further research is needed. Proper research and results will help school programs better understand and help students with burnout.Doctor of Pharmac
The Impact of Access to Recorded Lectures on Cognitive Load and Retention
Full text linkAn increasing number of courses within health science education allow students to access recorded lectures after class. The ability to save information, such as recorded lectures, could have benefits on students’ cognitive load. If cognitive load can be preserved during class, it may have learning benefits. However, knowledge of access to saved information may also reduce note taking, which can be important in the learning and encoding process. This study aims to elucidate the impact of access to recorded lectures on cognitive load and performance during restudy. Seventy-eight participants were recruited and divided into two groups: access to recorded lecture and no access to recorded lecture. Participants viewed four lectures. For the first two lectures (i.e. the early lecture material), they were told whether they would or would not have access to the recorded lectures prior to their test one week later. They then watched an additional two videos (i.e. the late lecture material), for which they were told they would not have access to in the future. They were tested on all four lectures immediately after watching the videos and then tested again one week later. The primary outcome was test performance on the material contained in the second set of lectures following immediate testing. It was hypothesized that if participants were granted access to recordings of the early lecture material, they would have more cognitive resources (i.e. memory, attention) to devote to the late lecture material, resulting in better test performance on the content from the second set of videos. Performance did not differ when participants were told they have access to the lecture material. One week later, rewatching videos did improve performance (d~0.7). Participants in the no access condition forgot less information (d=0.42) over time compared to the access group (d=0.53) even though the access group wrote more notes. These finding suggest that there is no preservation of cognitive load when learners have knowledge of recorded lectures. Although test performance did not differ between the groups, the Access group had larger effect sizes for loss of material, suggesting that when participants knew they would not have access, they engaged in a stronger encoding during the learning phase. Participants who had diagrams in their notes performed better overall.Doctor of Pharmac
The Effect of Specificity and Presentation of Learning Objectives on Assessment Performance and Expectations
Full text linkObjective: The purpose of this study was to assess how best to use learning objectives to communicate educational goals to students and make their learning more successful and efficient.
Methods: Nine topics within a course were randomized to either have specific or vague learning objective phrasing; the learning objectives were then actively or passively presented in class. Phrasing specificity was manipulated through choice of verbs and specificity of the assessment. Presentation of learning objectives consisted of degree of explanation during the beginning of the lesson, explicit tying of learning objectives to activities, and summaries of learning objectives at the end of the lesson. For performance, students were quizzed on the topic at minimum 24 hours after each class. For efficiency measures, students were asked how long they studied for the quiz and their degree of expectation for the assessment questions. A survey was conducted at the end of the course to capture general preferences about learning objectives.
Results: When learning objectives were actively or passively presented, there was no difference in student performance or studying time. However, students performed better on the quizzes when they were provided with learning objectives that were specific versus vague. We found students were more likely to expect a quiz question when provided with specific learning objectives.
Conclusions: As opposed to vague, specific learning objectives can increase successful learning. Instructors can promote successful completion of educational goals when students are given a clearer statement about what the goals are in the form of a learning objective.Doctor of Pharmac
Gentamicin Pharmacokinetics in Asphyxiated Neonates: Does Cooling Further Reduce Clearance?
No full textThis study aims to contrast gentamicin pharmacokinetic parameters (e.g., volume of distribution, clearance, and half-life) in asphyxiated neonates with or without hypothermia to a non-asphyxiated control group in order to determine if special dosing adjustments are needed in this patient population.Doctor of Pharmac
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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