Enhancing the health of medical students : outcomes of an integrated mindfulness and lifestyle program

Medical students experience various stresses and many poor health behaviours. Previous studies consistently show that student wellbeing is at its lowest pre-exam. Little core-curriculum is traditionally dedicated to providing self-care skills for medical students. This paper describes the development, implementation and outcomes of the Health Enhancement Program (HEP) at Monash University. It comprises mindfulness and ESSENCE lifestyle programs, is experientially-based, and integrates with biomedical sciences, clinical skills and assessment. This study measured the program’s impact on medical student psychological distress and quality of life. A cohort study performed on the 2006 first-year intake measured effects of the HEP on various markers of wellbeing. Instruments used were the depression, anxiety and hostility subscales of the Symptom Checklist-90-R incorporating the Global Severity Index (GSI) and the WHO Quality of Life (WHOQOL) questionnaire. Pre-course data (T1) was gathered mid-semester and post-course data (T2) corresponded with pre-exam week. To examine differences between T1 and T2 repeated measures ANOVA was used for the GSI and two separate repeated measures MANOVAs were used to examine changes in the subscales of the SCL-90-R and the WHOQOL-BREF. Follow-up t-tests were conducted to examine differences between individual subscales. A total of 148 of an eligible 270 students returned data at T1 and T2 giving a response rate of 55%. 90.5% of students reported personally applying the mindfulness practices. Improved student wellbeing was noted on all measures and reached statistical significance for the depression (mean T1 = 0.91, T2 = 0.78; p = 0.01) and hostility (0.62, 0.49; 0.03) subscales and the GSI (0.73, 0.64; 0.02) of the SCL-90, but not the anxiety subscale (0.62, 0.54; 0.11). Statistically significant results were also found for the psychological domain (62.42, 65.62; p < 0.001) but not the physical domain (69.11, 70.90; p = 0.07) of the WHOQOL. This study is the first to demonstrate an overall improvement in medical student wellbeing during the pre-exam period suggesting that the common decline in wellbeing is avoidable. Although the findings of this study indicate the potential for improving student wellbeing at the same time as meeting important learning objectives, the limitations in study design due to the current duration of follow-up and lack of a control group means that the data should be interpreted with caution. Future research should be directed at determining the contribution of individual program components, long-term outcomes, and impacts on future attitudes and clinical practice.

Students' perception of an online marketing subject : a qualitative approach

Extant literature supports the growing importance of offering flexible modes of learning delivery in order to meet the needs of a diverse student cohort. The increased use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has lead to an enriched learning experience, but has also posed a number of constraints and challenges for students. Although there is an abundance of research regarding students’ perceptions, attitudes and satisfaction with the online learning environment, most of this is taken from the perspective of the distance education student. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine these issues from the perspective of a mixed cohort of students (both on and off campus), who are required to complete a core, undergraduate marketing unit exclusively online.

What influences accounting students' attitude towards accounting as a profession?

Several issues have been linked with the choice of an accounting major, and more specifically choice of accounting as a career path, including perceptions of the professional attributes required of accountants. The present study addresses two main themes: undergraduate students’ perceptions of the accounting profession and influences on decision to major in accounting. The study is motivated by the prior research of Marriott and Marriott (2003) that indicated exposure to accounting studies has a negative effect on attitudes towards the profession.

The results show that students’ perceptions of the profession related to work activities and prestige of the profession. Further analysis examining the influences on choice of an accounting major revealed three major factors: intrinsic interest in the content of accounting courses, influences of parents and friends together with perceptions of job status of accounting related to career advancement and salary. When compared with the Marriott and Marriott (2003) study, the present study showed students had more positive attitudes to studying accounting. There were however significant differences between local and international students in attitudes to the accounting profession.

Learning from a distance : the experience of remote students

While there has been research into the provision of ‘distance’ and ‘off-campus’ education, both in relation to technology and to curriculum, little attention has been given to the experiences of students studying in geographically remote locations, where the remoteness has been an aspect of investigation. This study aimed to investigate the experiences of such students, and to suggest strategies to support them. The students recruited for this project were undergraduate and postgraduate students from remote locations around Australia who had studied at Deakin University between 2003 through 2007. They were interviewed by telephone. The three key issues identified by participants were a sense of isolation, the attitudes and knowledge of the teaching staff; and students’ knowledge and use of learning technologies.

Making it real : pre-service music teacher education students ideas about artists-in-schools

Globally teacher educators try to prepare culturally inclusive students in an ever-crowded curriculum It is difficult to give students in-depth experiences of other musics and their cultural contexts. In schools, teachers are also faced with the. same challenges. This shortfall may be met by artists-in-schools programs. This paper focuses on the perceptions of pre-service music educators concerning artists-in- schools programs. The study builds on ongoing research (2003-2008), Intercultural attitudes of preservice music education students, between Deakin and Monash universities. Australia only the 2008 interviews (analysed using interpretative Phenomenological Analysis) are discussed. The paper reports only on one aspect that underpins artists-in-schools programs — the importance of authentic practice. Although international studies have, provided insights into artists-in—schools programs little attention has been paid to pre-service specialist music teacher understandings of such programs. It is imperative to know the attitudes that our teachers carry with theta into their future professional engagement The findings of this study provide insight into the need br artists-in-schools programs and the ways in which teachers can link theory to practice, fill in omissions in their own knowledge, skills and understandings. and also heighten student understandings of multicultural musics.

The moral reasoning abilities of Australian and Malaysian accounting students : a comparative analysis

If national culture is a significant determinant of ethical attitudes, it is not unreasonable to expect ethical decision-making to be influenced by one's culture. However, problems arise when the notion of right differs from one culture to another. The question addressed in this paper is whether the moral reasoning abilities of Australian and Malaysian accounting students in their final year of study differ because of their cultural upbringing. This study uses primary data collected from 34 final year accounting students (12 Australian and 22 Malaysian) enrolled in an Australian degree program. The test scores collected at the beginning and end of the academic year indicate that culture and other explanatory variables do not have an affect on students' moral judgment. The findings in this study suggest that culture as an independent variable does not influence the way accounting students analyse and resolve ethical dilemmas.

Social identities and law students' writing

This paper argues that social identities, discursively speaking, consist of ‘positions’ that are individuated by distinctive linguistic features. These include distinctive patterns of representation indicated by clause structure and type, a set of priorities for attending to what is important indicated by thematic structure, and an orientation to the represented world and to self as indicated by modality, propositional attitudes and tense. A social identity comprises an array of these often contradictory ‘positions’ associated with a social or professional role. A person’s identity is constituted dynamically by the way they ‘reconcile’ the various positions that make up the social identity, and also, as Archer and Ivanic argue, by the way they reconcile a social with a personal or autobiographical identity. It is argued that this process of reconciliation gives clues about identity formation in the traces it leaves in grammatical texture.

This paper uses a simulated letter of advice to a client written by a group of first year law students to explore the discursive construction of social or professional identity. This letter is poorly written and full of grammatical mistakes and infelicities. It is argued that the mistakes provide a linguistic trace of the students’ struggle to reconcile the conflicting roles and positions they occupy as authors of the letter. In particular the students’ problems result from a struggle to reconcile their multiple positions as: students writing for assessment by a tutor about a legal problem, as a simulated firm of solicitors advising to a client, and as potential litigators anticipating the future course of events in their simulated moot court appearance.

Female university students' perceptions of a sexual assault when victim and perpetrator gender are varied

This study examines the general impressions and blame attributions of Trinidadian university students in cases of sexual assault. Participants were 132 female students from the University of the West Indies, Faculty of Social Sciences. Each respondent read one of four sexual assault scenarios, in which victim and perpetrator gender were varied. Participants' impressions of the incident, opinions about each party's behaviour, blame attributions, attitudes about reporting the incident to the police, desired outcome, and their reasons for these were then assessed. Consistent with Burt's rape myth theory, the qualitative and quantitative results showed a tendency for participants to attribute an internal locus of control to female victims, and to blame them more than males. Although same sex events evoked significantly more emotional and disgust-related reactions, these reactions did not translate into different seriousness scores, or different ideas about whether the victim should report the incident to the police. Although respondents showed an ability to separate their initial reactions from their attitudes about the legal status of the event, many of the response patterns indicated gender role biases on the part of these future professionals.

The learning experience of nursing students in a clinical setting

Analysed the experiences of nine baccalaureate degree nursing students in their final year of a School of Nursing in a small provincial acute hospital setting in New Zealand. The findings draw attention to the factors influencing the nursing student's learning experience, and create an awareness for favourable change.

Business ethics and accounting students : Australia, South Asia and East Asia

Recent corporate collapses around the world show that there are no national boundaries for these occurrences. Australian corporate collapses including HIH Insurance, One.Tel, Ansett Australia and Harris Scarfe have raised public expectations of investigation of the causes of collapses (Mirshekary, Yaftian & Cross, 2005). The main reason for the collapse of HIH was mismanagement, with an emphasis more on the directors’ personal qualities such as integrity, honesty and morality rather than tougher legislation and rules. Accounting students are our future business leaders. The teaching of ethics in the classroom to multicultural groups of students provides an opportunity to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, and to increase interaction and debate around different approaches to ethics among students from different countries.
This study uses previous literature to explain the attitudes of accounting students towards academic and business/accounting ethics at an Australian university which is a multi-campus institution undertaking programs and activities at regional, national, international levels and by distance education.
This study reports the results of cross-cultural investigations of students’ ethical perceptions on moral values, academic and accounting/business vignettes, given that all students share the same learning opportunities, knowledge of ethics and interaction with their peers and lecturers. The results indicate no significant differences in responses between the students from Australia, South Asia and East Asia.

Attitudes towards the accounting profession : an Australian perspective

Purpose – This paper aims to examine undergraduate students’ attitudes towards the accounting profession, including accounting as a career, as a discipline, as a profession and perceptions of the work activities of accountants.

Design/methodology/approach – The data set used in this paper was collected via questionnaires. The present study compares several aspects of a prior study of Marriott and Marriott using the Accounting Attitude Scale developed by Nelson.

Findings – Overall, the paper supports the view that exposure to accounting at university does not enhance positive attitudes about accounting as a discipline, but reinforces rule-memorisation, and lack of involvement with conceptual skills or judgement.

Research limitations/implications – The paper only examines students’ attitudes at one point in time and does not attempt to identify whether students’ attitudes change over the period of their study. The paper can only speculate as to why there is a difference between local and international students’ attitude towards the accounting profession. Third, the questionnaire is only administered at one institution. There is a scope to extend this study across institutions as well as conduct a longitudinal study. In order to validate the findings, further research via in-depth interviews with students may help determine the factors that influence students’ attitudes.

Originality/value – The results from this paper are expected to contribute to the body of research by providing accounting educators with insights into how the curriculum may influence students’ attitudes towards the profession, together with implications as to how the profession should be promoted to undergraduate students.

Students' and teachers' use of ICT in primary mathematics

This paper reports on the findings of a research project that investigated the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Primary mathematics in an urban and rural network. Surveys and semi structured interviews were held to obtain insight into teachers’ and students’ perceptions and attitudes towards the usage of ICT in the teaching and learning of mathematics. The presentation will highlight the findings and include a discussion on the types of ICT that students use in and out of school to learn mathematics.

Music teaching is more than telling : attitudes and beliefs of Australian pre-service teachers

Pre-service teachers’ views are often confronted at tertiary level in regards to theories of teaching and learning which can through discussion and reflection change their perceptions and their understanding of classroom practice. Tertiary educators are challenged to develop positive attitudes and beliefs about education to their pre-service students if music education is to be valued in all educational settings. Drawing on educational perspectives on teaching, this article investigates the myriad of influences that shape pre-service teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about music teaching and learning. Between 2005-2009 final year music teacher education students from Deakin University and Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) participated in a research project entitled Intercultural attitudes of pre-service music education students. This article draws on the 2008 cohort interpersonal and affective attributes regarding what they thought makes a good teacher and how they would see themselves as future music teachers. Whilst the findings provide important insights into Australian pre-service teachers they also hold similar significance for teacher education in general. I contend that continued research with our students can only help us as tertiary educators to prepare our students to be effective teachers.

Student attitudes toward professional practices in science

There has been anecdotal evidence that students from various cultures have different perspectives toward professional practices, including (1) how to use quotations, (2) occupational health and safety and (3) recording data, but there has been a lack of hard evidence to either confirm or contradict this belief. This paper presents a snapshot of student attitudes toward professional practices in Australia. The survey group consisted of students enrolled in an undergraduate 1st year, 2nd semester, chemistry subject. Students generally agreed that they should paraphrase and should cite sources of information. However, there was confusion about the use of extensive quotations and occupational health and safety. There was no significant difference in the responses by the country of secondary schooling or family background, but were some significant differences by the respondents’ age, number of years in university and by the discipline area of study.

Student attitudes and aspirations towards science

Research on student attitudes and aspirations towards science has been an increasing focus of concern in the past decade. Much of this is driven by a growing concern about students’ lack of interest in the further study of science in advanced societies. Because attitude to science is a multifaceted construct, the chapter first reviews research into attitudes in order to develop principles for its meaningful measurement. We then explore the main features of student responses to science and examine the common assertion that there is a negative downward trend as many have suggested. Recent research clearly shows a negative correlation between a country’s developmental index and student attitudes to science. The effects of gender, teacher quality and pre-adolescent experience on student attitudes and aspirations towards science are examined in some detail, as well as a number of other factors in attempting to understand the complex pathways and choices that students make throughout their schooling about the study of STEM subjects. The construct of identity is used to make sense of the variety of attitudes and aspirations of students towards science, with particular emphasis on gender and youth in post-industrial societies. Finally, the role of enrichment experiences in science is examined, as a real and potential influence on student engagement with science.