Evaluating Virtual Patient Interaction Fidelity With Advanced Communication Skills Learners

Previous research in educational medical simulation has drawn attention to the interplay between a simulation’s fidelity and its educational effectiveness. As virtual patients (VPs) are increasingly used in medical simulations for education purposes, a focus on the relationship between virtual patients’ fidelity and educational effectiveness should also be investigated. In this paper, we contribute to this investigation by evaluating the use of a virtual patient selection interface (in which learners interact with a virtual patient via a set of pre-defined choices) with advanced medical communication skills learners. To this end, we integrated virtual patient interviews into a graduate-level course for speech-language therapists over the course of 2 years. In the first cohort, students interacted with three VPs using only a chat interface. In the second cohort, students used both a chat interface and a selection interface to interact with the VPs. Our results suggest that these advanced learners view the selection interfaces as more appropriate for novice learners and that their communication behavior was not significantly affected by using the selection interface. Based on these results, we suggest that selection interfaces may be more appropriate for novice communication skills learners, but for applications in which selection interfaces are to be used with advanced learners, additional design research may be needed to best target these interfaces to advanced learners.

Constructing Culturally-Authentic Differentiated Access Points Using the Content Imperatives

The need to create culturally authentic and specific learning experiences is a call to action that all teachers must answer. Current definitions of differentiation either avoid or exclude topics of culture and race. These definitions are incomplete and must be expanded if the needs, interests, abilities, and cultural assets of gifted learners are to be addressed in a classroom. Under this expanded definition, differentiation strategies must be culturally authentic and purposefully integrated into the opportunities provided to gifted learners. It is incumbent upon teachers to reorient differentiation strategies they employ with gifted and advanced learners, so they become culturally authentic and contextually relevant. This chapter provides the reorientation of one differentiation strategy: the content imperatives. This chapter (1) defines the content imperatives, (2) demonstrates how they can be used as the catalyst for honoring the funds of knowledge that students bring into any learning experience, and (3) creates culturally-authentic access points into content for all learners.

The Home and Community Connections Model

A major myth of gifted education is the idea that gifted and advanced learners should already possess the knowledge and skills necessary to engage in rigorous learning experiences. This myth reinforces the underrepresentation of historically marginalized groups in gifted programs, as the institution does not value or recognize how they demonstrate knowledge. This chapter addresses that misconception by constructing differentiated learning experiences using students' home and community pedagogies. The Home and Community Connections Model authentically responds to the strengths, talents, and interests of each learner by purposefully designing classroom opportunities that value these areas. This chapter defines the prompts of the Home and Community Connections Model and demonstrates how they can be integrated into classroom instruction. The activation and recognition of potential through students' home and community assets create the access points for equitable educational experiences that challenge deficit-minded beliefs and misconceptions.

The Effects of Flipped Learning Approaches in Anatomy Class

Pedagogical innovations applying flipped learning models are being applied in nursing education. The aim of this study was to verify the effects of the flipped learning approach in an anatomy class among undergraduate nursing students. This was a non-randomized controlled study. Of 154 nursing students enrolled in an anatomy class in South Korea, 79 were in the lecture-based group and 75 were in the flipped learning group. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. Problem solving ability and self-leadership improved significantly in the flipped learning group after the intervention but decreased in the lecture-based group. There was no difference in critical thinking between the flipped learning and control groups. The participants in the flipped learning group were more satisfied with the class than those in the lecture-based group. Flipped learning facilitates interactive activities that support the needs of advanced learners and provide more opportunities to develop problem-solving abilities and self-leadership.

Effects of L1 Transfer Are Profound, Yet Native-Like Processing Strategy Is Attainable: Evidence From Advanced Learners’ Production of Complex L2 Chinese Structures

English as a verb-medial language has a short-before-long preference, whereas Korean and Japanese as verb-final languages show a long-before-short preference. In second language (L2) research, little is known regarding how L1 processing strategies affect the ultimate attainment of target structures. Existing work has shown that native speakers of Chinese strongly prefer to utter demonstrative-classifier (DCL) phrases first in subject-extracted relatives (DCL-SR-N) and DCLs second in object-extracted relatives (OR-DCL-N). But it remains unknown whether L2 learners with typologically different language backgrounds are able to acquire native-like strategies, and how they deviate from native speakers or even among themselves. Using a phrase-assembly task, we investigated advanced L2-Chinese learners whose L1s were English, Korean, and Japanese, because English lacks individual classifiers and has postnominal relative clause (RC), whereas Korean and Japanese have individual classifiers and prenominal RCs. Results showed that the English and Korean groups deviated from the native controls’ asymmetric pattern, but the Japanese group approximated native-like performance. Furthermore, compared to the English group, the Korean and Japanese groups favored the DCL-second configuration in SRs and ORs. No differences were found between the Korean and Japanese groups. Overall, our findings suggest that L1 processing strategies play an overarching role in L2 acquisition of asymmetric positioning of DCLs in Chinese RCs.

Topological Data Analysis with Applications

The continued and dramatic rise in the size of data sets has meant that new methods are required to model and analyze them. This timely account introduces topological data analysis (TDA), a method for modeling data by geometric objects, namely graphs and their higher-dimensional versions: simplicial complexes. The authors outline the necessary background material on topology and data philosophy for newcomers, while more complex concepts are highlighted for advanced learners. The book covers all the main TDA techniques, including persistent homology, cohomology, and Mapper. The final section focuses on the diverse applications of TDA, examining a number of case studies drawn from monitoring the progression of infectious diseases to the study of motion capture data. Mathematicians moving into data science, as well as data scientists or computer scientists seeking to understand this new area, will appreciate this self-contained resource which explains the underlying technology and how it can be used.

Investigating song-based language teaching and its effect on lexical learning

<p>The present thesis addresses the following question: Can popular songs as they are currently used in second and foreign language classrooms benefit lexical learning? Lexical learning is defined as the acquisition of new vocabulary as well as the consolidation and further elaboration of familiar words and phrases. To answer this research question, three methodologically distinct studies are reported. In the first study an international questionnaire explored teacher cognitions as well as actual teaching practices involving songs. The responses of 568 informants in 41 countries indicate that a majority of respondents believe in the usefulness of songs for language learning and that many respondents utilize songs in class for clearly defined pedagogical purposes, including vocabulary learning. The questionnaire also elicited information from the respondents about the way they incorporate songs in lessons, including details about how often a song is played and what types of form- and meaning-focused activities are used to engage learners with the lyrics of a song. The second study investigated the lexical characteristics of teacher-selected songs and the vocabulary learning opportunities they afford. For this purpose, a corpus of 635 songs used for ESL/EFL purposes, comprising 177,384 tokens, was compiled and analysed. Results indicate that teacher-selected songs are short, repetitive and relatively undemanding as far as lexis is concerned compared to other authentic text genres. Knowledge of the 4000 most frequent word families of English provides 98% coverage of the running words in this song corpus. Little difference was found in terms of the overall vocabulary demands between songs intended for use with beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. The third study investigates whether participating in a song-based lesson results in higher verbatim text retention compared to a lesson based on a poem or a prose text. For the sake of ecological validity, the procedures and the materials used in the classroom intervention study were informed by the findings of the teacher questionnaire (study one) and the song corpus analysis (study two). Results indicate that a song-based language lesson but also a poem-based lesson result in significantly higher recognition and cued recall of verbatim text than a lesson based on a prose text. In response to the overall question, this thesis provides evidence that songs as they currently tend to be used by language teachers around the world indeed benefit certain aspects of lexical learning, perhaps in particular the entrenchment in memory of already (half-)familiar words in association with their phraseological patterning. It is argued that, while certain structural characteristics of songs (and poems) have the potential of rendering text (and the lexis therein) memorable, it is the way that songs tend to be exploited in the classroom that capitalizes on this mnemonic potential.</p>

Investigating song-based language teaching and its effect on lexical learning

<p>The present thesis addresses the following question: Can popular songs as they are currently used in second and foreign language classrooms benefit lexical learning? Lexical learning is defined as the acquisition of new vocabulary as well as the consolidation and further elaboration of familiar words and phrases. To answer this research question, three methodologically distinct studies are reported. In the first study an international questionnaire explored teacher cognitions as well as actual teaching practices involving songs. The responses of 568 informants in 41 countries indicate that a majority of respondents believe in the usefulness of songs for language learning and that many respondents utilize songs in class for clearly defined pedagogical purposes, including vocabulary learning. The questionnaire also elicited information from the respondents about the way they incorporate songs in lessons, including details about how often a song is played and what types of form- and meaning-focused activities are used to engage learners with the lyrics of a song. The second study investigated the lexical characteristics of teacher-selected songs and the vocabulary learning opportunities they afford. For this purpose, a corpus of 635 songs used for ESL/EFL purposes, comprising 177,384 tokens, was compiled and analysed. Results indicate that teacher-selected songs are short, repetitive and relatively undemanding as far as lexis is concerned compared to other authentic text genres. Knowledge of the 4000 most frequent word families of English provides 98% coverage of the running words in this song corpus. Little difference was found in terms of the overall vocabulary demands between songs intended for use with beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. The third study investigates whether participating in a song-based lesson results in higher verbatim text retention compared to a lesson based on a poem or a prose text. For the sake of ecological validity, the procedures and the materials used in the classroom intervention study were informed by the findings of the teacher questionnaire (study one) and the song corpus analysis (study two). Results indicate that a song-based language lesson but also a poem-based lesson result in significantly higher recognition and cued recall of verbatim text than a lesson based on a prose text. In response to the overall question, this thesis provides evidence that songs as they currently tend to be used by language teachers around the world indeed benefit certain aspects of lexical learning, perhaps in particular the entrenchment in memory of already (half-)familiar words in association with their phraseological patterning. It is argued that, while certain structural characteristics of songs (and poems) have the potential of rendering text (and the lexis therein) memorable, it is the way that songs tend to be exploited in the classroom that capitalizes on this mnemonic potential.</p>