From a Vicious Circle of Anxiety to a Virtuous Circle of Learning: Experience of Teaching to a Heterogenous Clientele

A considerable body of literature suggests that significant psychological barrier and anxiety characterize the teaching and learning process in statistics. This study investigates the incidence of statistics anxiety, the extent to which it can be overcome and the factors that contribute to the process of overcoming it. Self-study and overall teaching quality, amongst others, significantly contributed to this outcome. This study identifies factors contributing to overall teaching quality. The teaching and learning process typified a highly effective communication mechanism based on an appropriate diagnosis of individual needs. This cumulative change resulted from circular causation. It is argued that given appropriate conditions the vicious circle of anxiety can be transformed into a virtuous circle of learning.

Causes and Implications of the Decline of the Economics Majors: A Focus on Australia

This paper analyses the causes and implications of declining economics major in Australia. Based on a brief review of the relevant literature and an analysis of the Australian time series data, it is found that economics continues to be less attractive to students in relative terms. Three major factors contribute to this phenomenon: less than appropriate product for an increasingly diverse clientele, the introduction of more attractive and business, commerce and industry-oriented programs such as finance, accounting and commerce, and business majors geared to the needs of the real world, and the use of less experienced teaching staff in lower undergraduate courses. It is argued that stemming the tide against the economics discipline would require a significant rethink of development of products more vocational and real world-oriented, market segmentation for different clientele types, and marshalling of more experienced and capable teaching staff for lower undergraduate levels.

Asthma management by New Zealand pharmacists: a pharmaceutical care demonstration project

Background: Pharmaceutical care services became recognized in New Zealand in the mid-1990s, albeit with limited evidence of the acceptability and effectiveness of the model. An asthma-specific pharmaceutical care service was trialled in southern New Zealand, based on a 'problem-action-outcome' method, with pharmacists adopting a patient-centred, outcome-focused approach with multidisciplinary consultation. Objective: To report on the implementation and outcomes of a specialist asthma service offered by community pharmacists. Design: Pharmacists in five pharmacies, servicing predominantly rural, established clientele, received training in the asthma service and research documentation. Ten patients per pharmacy were recruited in each year (years 1 and 2) of the study. The patients were entered into the study in cohorts of five per pharmacy twice yearly, with year 2 mirroring year 1. The phase-in design minimized the impact on the pharmacists. The patients acted as their own controls. All patients received individualized care and had approximately monthly consultations with the pharmacist, with clinical and quality of life (QoL) monitoring. Results: A total of 100 patients were recruited. On average, 4.3 medication-related problems were identified per patient; two-thirds of them were compliance-related. The most common interventions were revision of patients' asthma action plans, referral and medication counselling. Clinical outcomes included reduced bronchodilator use and improved symptom control in around two-thirds of patients. Asthma-specific QoL changes were more positive and correlated well with clinical indicators. Conclusion: Further research is warranted to integrate this service into daily practice. Clinical outcomes were generally positive and supported by QoL indicators. Characteristics of New Zealand practice and this sample of pharmacies may limit the generalizability of these findings.