ePortfolio as a tool for reflexivity and skills' communication : learn how to communicate skills

This paper aims to present an ePortfolio project led for two years in a multilingual and interdisciplinary Master's program in public discourse and communication analysis offered by the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). Globally, the project - named Learn to communicate skills - offers a reflection about academic skills and their transferability to the professional world. More precisely, the aim of the project is to make students aware of the importance of reflexive learning to make their skills transferable to other contexts.

Horisontaalisen hankintayhteistyön motiivit ja menestystekijät julkisissa hankinnoissa

Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää, mitkä ovathorisontaalisen hankintayhteistyön motiiveja ja menestystekijöitä. Tutkielmassatarkastellaan motiiveja ja menestystekijöitä tieteellisten julkaisujen ja empiirisen osan materiaalin perusteella. Tutkielmassa hyödynnetään kvalitatiivisia tutkimusmenetelmiä ja case-tutkimusta. Tutkielman teoriaosa luo pohjan empiirisen osan tutkimukselle, jossa analysoidaan valtion hankintayhteistyötä. Empiirisen osan materiaali on koottu haastattelujen ja valtion hankintastrategioiden sisältöjen analysoinnin perusteella. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että tuotteiden ja palveluiden standardointi, tehokkuuden tavoittelu, neuvotteluvoiman ja hankintaosaamisen kasvaminen sekä volyymietujen ja kustannus- ja resurssisäästöjen tavoittelu ovat horisontaalisen hankintayhteistyön motiiveja. Menestystekijöiksi nousevat luottamus, sitoutuminen, vuorovaikutus, joustavuus sekä strategian kokonaisvaltainen toteutus. Valtion hankinnoissa sekä motiivien että menestystekijöidenmerkitykset on havaittu suhteellisen hyvin. Analyysissä nousi kuitenkin esille muutamia tekijöitä, joihin tulisi kiinnittää enemmän huomiota. Tällaisia tekijöitä ovat etenkin hankintaosaaminen ja sitoutuminen. Lisäksi havaittiin, että valtion hankintojen yhteydessä hankintayhteistyötä tehdään liian vähän ja potentiaalia hankintayhteistyön tehostamiseen olisi. Valtion tulisi tehostaa horisontaalista hankintayhteistyötä ja lisätä hankintojen keskittämistä.

Working alliance in communication skills training for oncology clinicians: A controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of communication skills training (CST) on working alliance and to identify specific communicational elements related to working alliance. METHODS: Pre- and post-training simulated patient interviews (6-month interval) of oncology physicians and nurses (N=56) who benefited from CST were compared to two simulated patient interviews with a 6-month interval of oncology physicians and nurses (N=57) who did not benefit from CST. The patient-clinician interaction was analyzed by means of the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). Alliance was measured by the Working Alliance Inventory - Short Revised Form. RESULTS: While working alliance did not improve with CST, generalized linear mixed effect models demonstrated that the quality of verbal communication was related to alliance. Positive talk and psychosocial counseling fostered alliance whereas negative talk, biomedical information and patient's questions diminished alliance. CONCLUSION: Patient-clinician alliance is related to specific verbal communication behaviors. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Working alliance is a key element of patient-physician communication which deserves further investigation as a new marker and efficacy criterion of CST outcome.

Let's share perspectives! Mentalistic skills involved in cooperation = ¿A tu Izquierda o a la Mía? Habilidades Mentalistas Implicadas en la Cooperación

Previous research has found a link between theory of mind and cooperation. The aim of this study is to deepen into this relationship, to identify which theory of mind skills are more related to the cooperative capacity on a referential communication task. A total of 50 children from first and fifth grade completed a battery of theory of mind tasks, and also a cooperative task where children worked in pairs to build block models. Each pair was composed by a builder and a guide, who gave instructions to his partner about how to build a replica of the model. The results show a significant relationship between the theory of mind skills and cooperation. Specifically, we found that the second-order false-belief task was the variable most related to cooperation after controlling the effect of age. In addition, we observed that the mentalist skills were more important for cooperation in the builders than in the guides. Finally, we discuss the findings of this study and make suggestions for the future

Improving Information Problem Solving skills in Secondary Education through embedded instruction

This empirical study consists in an investigation of the effects, on the development of Information Problem Solving (IPS) skills, of a long-term embedded, structured and supported instruction in Secondary Education. Forty secondary students of 7th and 8th grades (13–15 years old) participated in the 2-year IPS instruction designed in this study. Twenty of them participated in the IPS instruction, and the remaining twenty were the control group. All the students were pre- and post-tested in their regular classrooms, and their IPS process and performance were logged by means of screen capture software, to warrant their ecological validity. The IPS constituent skills, the web search sub-skills and the answers given by each participant were analyzed. The main findings of our study suggested that experimental students showed a more expert pattern than the control students regarding the constituent skill ‘defining the problem’ and the following two web search sub-skills: ‘search terms’ typed in a search engine, and ‘selected results’ from a SERP. In addition, scores of task performance were statistically better in experimental students than in control group students. The paper contributes to the discussion of how well-designed and well-embedded scaffolds could be designed in instructional programs in order to guarantee the development and efficiency of the students’ IPS skills by using net information better and participating fully in the global knowledge society.

Promoting Metacognitive Skills in a CSCL environment: implications for instructional and technology design

This paper aims to better understand the development of students’ learning processes when participating actively in a specific Computer Supported Collaborative Learning system called KnowCat. To this end, a longitudinal case study was designed, in which eighteen university students took part in a 12-month (two semesters) learning project. During this time period, the students followed an instructional process, using some elements of KnowCat (KnowCat key features) design to support and improve their interaction processes, especially peer learning processes. Our research involved both supervising the students’ collaborative learning processes throughout the learning project and focusing our analysis on the qualitative evolution of the students’ interaction processes and on the development of metacognitive learning processes. The results of the current research reveal that the instructional application of the CSCL-KnowCat system may favour and improve the development of the students’ metacognitive learning processes. Additionally, the implications of the design of computer supported collaborative learning networks and pedagogical issues are discussed in this paper.

Entrepreneurial skills and over-education five years later. A comparison between Spain and the Netherlands

[cat] El fenòmen de la sobre-educació és freqüent i persistent a molts països. En aquest article estudiem el paper de les habilitats emprenedores en evitar la sobre-educació a la primera feina, i en sortir d’una situació de sobre-educació cinc anys després. Comparem els resultats d’Espanya i Holanda, dos països que difereixen en el seu sistema educatiu i mercat de treball. Els resultats mostren que les habilitats emprenedores ajuden a evitar i/o sortir de la sobre-educació només a Espanya, on el sistema educatiu és més flexible i menys vinculat amb el mercat de treball. En general, els nostres resultats recolzen les polítiques que promocionen el desenvolupament d’habilitats emprenedores al sistema educatiu espanyol.

Entrepreneurial skills and over-education five years later. A comparison between Spain and the Netherlands

[cat] El fenòmen de la sobre-educació és freqüent i persistent a molts països. En aquest article estudiem el paper de les habilitats emprenedores en evitar la sobre-educació a la primera feina, i en sortir d’una situació de sobre-educació cinc anys després. Comparem els resultats d’Espanya i Holanda, dos països que difereixen en el seu sistema educatiu i mercat de treball. Els resultats mostren que les habilitats emprenedores ajuden a evitar i/o sortir de la sobre-educació només a Espanya, on el sistema educatiu és més flexible i menys vinculat amb el mercat de treball. En general, els nostres resultats recolzen les polítiques que promocionen el desenvolupament d’habilitats emprenedores al sistema educatiu espanyol.

Structural Brain Connectivity in School-Age Preterm Infants Provides Evidence for Impaired Networks Relevant for Higher Order Cognitive Skills and Social Cognition.

Extreme prematurity and pregnancy conditions leading to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) affect thousands of newborns every year and increase their risk for poor higher order cognitive and social skills at school age. However, little is known about the brain structural basis of these disabilities. To compare the structural integrity of neural circuits between prematurely born controls and children born extreme preterm (EP) or with IUGR at school age, long-ranging and short-ranging connections were noninvasively mapped across cortical hemispheres by connection matrices derived from diffusion tensor tractography. Brain connectivity was modeled along fiber bundles connecting 83 brain regions by a weighted characterization of structural connectivity (SC). EP and IUGR subjects, when compared with controls, had decreased fractional anisotropy-weighted SC (FAw-SC) of cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop connections while cortico-cortical association connections showed both decreased and increased FAw-SC. FAw-SC strength of these connections was associated with poorer socio-cognitive performance in both EP and IUGR children.

Los enfoques de aprendizaje en estudiantes universitarios Catalanes mediante el approaches and study skills inventory for students (ASSIST) = Learning Approaches of Catalan University Students Measured with the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST)

The aim of this study is to measure the psychometric properties of a Catalan translation of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST), and to analyse the different learning styles used by university students, considering the influence of gender and type of studies. The instrument was administered to 834 students at the University of Girona. The results showed that most students interviewed had a deep approach to learning, although the analysis by gender showed that females tended to use a more strategic approach, while males used a deep approach predominantly. As to whether the type of studies influenced learning styles, a prevalence of deep approach was found among Science and Technology students, while a more strategic approach was found among Humanities and Education students

Overeducation, skills and wage penalty: Evidence for Spain using PIAAC data

The literature on educational mismatches finds that overeducated workers suffer a wage penalty compared with properly educated workers with the same level of education. Recent literature also suggests that individuals’ skill heterogeneity could explain wage differences between overeducated and properly matched workers. The hypothesis is that overeducated workers earn less due to their lower competences and skills in relative terms. However, that hypothesis has been rarely tested due to data limitations on individuals’ skills. The aim of this paper is to test the individuals’ skill heterogeneity theory in Spain using microdata from PIAAC, because it is one of the developed countries supporting the highest overeducation rates and where its adult population holds the lowest level of skills among a set of developed countries. Our hypothesis is that the wage penalty of overeducation in Spain is explained by the lower skill level of overeducated workers. The obtained evidence confirms this hypothesis but only to a certain extent as skills only explain partially the wage penalty of overeducation.