Using 'Generic Abilities' to Foster Professionalism in a Post-Professional Program

Introduction To be successful in a profession, persons must have mastery of professional affective behaviors in addition to that profession’s core knowledge base. Health care delivery is more than just developing a good plan of care. The effective health care provider also will have good interpersonal and communication skills, have a commitment to learning, act professionally and responsibly, and have abilities in problem solving and critical thinking. But, these behaviors and characteristics are not taught directly in a professional program. This presentation will demonstrate how these ‘generic abilities’ have been incorporated in a post-professional program and how they can be used in other professional health care, professional development, and leadership programs. [See PDF for complete abstract]

Patient satisfaction and nursing staff work satisfaction in an urban public teaching hospital

This study examined the level of patient satisfaction and nursing staff work satisfaction at an urban public hospital in the Southwestern United States. The primary objectives of this study were to determine: (1) the level of overall patient satisfaction and satisfaction with specific dimensions of hospital care; (2) the differences in patient satisfaction according to demographic characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, and education completed) and predispositional factors (perceived health status, perceived level of pain, prior contact with the hospital, and hospital image) and the relative importance of each variable on patient satisfaction; (3) the level of overall work satisfaction and satisfaction with specific dimensions of work experienced by the medical/surgical nursing staff; (4) the differences in work satisfaction experienced by the nursing staff based on demographic variables (age, gender, ethnicity, and marital status) and professional factors (education completed, staff position, the number of years employed with the hospital, and number of years employed in nursing) and the relative importance of each variable on work satisfaction; and (5) to determine the effect of the nursing work milieu on patient and staff satisfaction.^ The study findings showed that patients experienced a moderate to low level of satisfaction with the dimensions of hospital care (admission process, daily care, information, nursing care, physician care, other hospital staff, living arrangements, and overall care). Of the eight dimensions of care, patients reported a relatively positive level of satisfaction (75 percent or better) with only one dimension: physician care. Ethnicity, perceived health status, and hospital image were significantly related to patient satisfaction. Hispanic patients, those who were in good health, and those who felt the hospital had a good image in their community were most satisfied with hospital care. Patients also reported areas of hospital care that needed the most improvement. Responses included: rude staff, better nursing care, and better communication.^ Findings from the nursing satisfaction survey indicated a low level of satisfaction with the dimensions of work (autonomy, pay, professional status, interaction, task requirements, and organizational policies). Only one dimension of work, professional status, received a mean satisfaction score in the positive range. Additionally, staff members were unanimously dissatisfied with their salaries. Frequently mentioned work-related problems reported by the staff included: staffing shortages, heavy patient loads. and excessive paperwork.^ The nursing milieu appeared to have had a significant effect on the satisfaction levels of patients nursing staff employees. The nursing staff were often short staffed, which increased the patient-to-nurse ratio. Consequently, patients did not receive the amount of attention and care they expected from the nursing staff. Crowded patient rooms allowed for little personal space and privacy. Dissatisfaction with living conditions served to influence patients' attitudes and satisfaction levels. These frustrations were often directed toward their primary caregivers, the nursing staff. Consequently, the nursing milieu appeared to directly affect and influence the satisfaction levels of both patients and staff. (Abstract shortened by UMI). ^

Multiprofessional collaboration in teaching practices in all-day-schools in Switzerland

Multiprofessional collaboration in settings of extended education has been an important research topic in the past 40 years and has been discussed as a means to improve educational achievement, foster professional development, and support teachers in their everyday work. Several recent studies in multiprofessional settings found that collaboration practices often remain on a student-centered, time-limited, and superficial level of exchange, whereas higher forms of collaboration are very rare (Dizinger, Fussangel, Kasper, 2011). Furthermore there exists an obvious research gap on collaboration in Swiss all-day schools (Jutzi&Thomann, 2012). In this study we analyzed practices of multiprofessional collaboration in school-based and community-based extracurricular activities of all-day schools in Switzerland. The aim of this qualitative study of 10 all-day schools was to answer the following questions: (a) What forms of collaboration (informal/formal) are used between the different professionals? and (b) Are there different types of all-day schools with regard to distinctive and consistent types of collaboration? We conducted 18 problem-centered interviews (with the principals/heads of the all-day schools) and 10 focus group discussions (teams). In the process of data evaluation, we applied the method of qualitative content analysis. The results show that multiprofessional collabo ration is taking place in all of the all-day schools examined in the study. However, the collaborative practices differ in their level of intensity, design, and purpose.

Learning processes in student teaching: Analyses from a study using learning diaries

The present study seeks to obtain deeper insight into the learning processes in practical training in primary teacher education in Upper Austria. Based on the offer-and-use model of instruction, 230 diary entries of 46 student teachers (28 students in their third semester, 18 students in their fifth semester) were analysed with legard to the learning topics, learning sourcesJ and Ìealning processes involved in practical training. The results show a variety of learning forms, ranging from the unreflective imitation of school mentors' practices to active knowledge construction. In addition, they illustrate that the available learning offers were suboptimally utilized by stuclent teachers who failed to work systernatically and continuously on their professional development.

Multi-grade teaching practices in Austrian and Finnish primary schools

This article describes the teaching strategies used in multi-grade classes in five small rural primary schools in Austria and Finland on the basis of the content analysis of transcribed teacher interviews. Two main types of strategies were identified: practices that (1) aim to reduce or (2) capitalize on students’ heterogeneity. The results illustrate how differently multi-grade teaching can be realized and how it can effectively support individual student learning. The findings are discussed with regard to teacher education with the intention of increasing the awareness of the professional skills required in high-quality teaching practices in multi-grade teaching.

Multigrade teaching in primary education as a promising pedagogy for teacher education in Austria and Finland

This chapter focuses on teaching practices used in multigrade classes and the importance of them being incorporated in teacher education as promising pedagogies for future use. Multigrade classes - defined as classes in which two or more grades are taught together - are common worldwide. Hence, there is a need for teacher candidates to become familiar with how to teach in split grade classrooms. However, research on multigrade teaching as well as its development in teacher education studies has been neglected, even though multigrade teachers need special skills to organize instruction in their heterogeneous classrooms. We argue that in successful multigrade teaching practices, the heterogeneity of students is taken into account and cultivated. Based on content analysis of teacher interviews conducted in Austrian and Finnish primary schools, we recommend teaching practices such as spiral curricula, working plans, and peer learning as promising teacher education pedagogies for future multigrade class teaching. We also suggest that the professional skills required in high-quality teaching practices in multigrade teaching should be further studied by researchers and educators.

An International Professional Development Collaboration in Literacy Education

An International Professional Development Collaboration in Literacy Education is a report of an international professional development project in Guatemala designed to improve literacy instructional practices and thereby raise student achievement in reading and writing. The opportunity for coaching Guatemalan teachers in teaching literacy strategies and skills provides data for this participatory action research study. This research is intended to contribute to cross-cultural understanding by graduate and undergraduate students in literacy, improved pedagogical techniques, international outreach in developing countries, and student academic success worldwide.

The development of professor's professional knowledge in Psychology

This work belongs to the Project "Teaching and learning Psychology: a study of the educational practice in professors and beginners". It is part of an investigation program developed in the context of the subject "Didactic and Practical Planning of Psychology teaching" in which we have been working since 1998. This subject is also considered as the final stage of the formative itinerary for Psychology s professors. The reached results show the incidence that the beliefs and professors' representations have in the teaching processes. By getting into the studies centered in the educational knowledge we guide the inquiry around the development of the professor's professional knowledge and particularly the development of their formation. Our proposal contemplates a formation device which incorporates the observation, reflection, evaluation and self-evaluation of the practice in order to facilitate the reconstruction, significance and re-significance of the teaching and learning processes by giving relevance to the development of the teacher professional knowledge. The analysis of teaching practices process reveals that the mediations that cross the knowledge in the being taught instances are constituted in reflections axes. This involves the future professor's relationship with the knowledge and their projection in the construction of the professional identity.

Family diversity in social exclusion situations. Results and reflections on research, teaching and knowledge transfer activities

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the configurations of the families that live in contexts of social exclusion; provide conceptualizations of their operation mode; highlight the formative effects that neighborhood interdisciplinary practices with such families produce in the just graduated psychologists, included on the Extension Program. We wish to contribute to produce systematic knowledge that can account for such family configurations as potential receiver of integration policies. We are also interested on transferring the approach to diversity in the training of young professionals, in order not to be regarded as a deviation from ideal models, but as an expression of different strategies built by members of a community, to resolve children breeding and to bear their existences. This work is the result about reflections on productions inside a research fellowship: The complexities that takes the breeding in families who lives in a social exclusion situation; researches about breeding, carried out from signature Developmental Psychology II, and from de interdisciplinary work with psychologically assisted families in twelve suburbs of the city of La Plata (University Extension Program "Free Legal Offices" (Convention between Law and Social Sciences and Psychology Faculties, U.N.L.P.). From a qualitative methodology and an interdisciplinary participation, the results have arrive at the characterization and proposed conceptualizations of the included families and at the same time determine the benefits that brings with the work that articulates research and extension activities for the training of advanced students and young graduates.

The development of the psychologist's professional knowledge : A study of graduated in the U.N.L.P., their insert in the educational field

Los estudios sobre la formación de profesores en psicología nos fueron situando en el proceso de construcción del conocimiento profesional tanto en profesores como en psicólogos que ejercen la docencia, visualizando el papel que en él asumen los conocimientos construidos en los ámbitos académico y profesional y la relación entre ambos.

The development of professor's professional knowledge in Psychology

This work belongs to the Project "Teaching and learning Psychology: a study of the educational practice in professors and beginners". It is part of an investigation program developed in the context of the subject "Didactic and Practical Planning of Psychology teaching" in which we have been working since 1998. This subject is also considered as the final stage of the formative itinerary for Psychology s professors. The reached results show the incidence that the beliefs and professors' representations have in the teaching processes. By getting into the studies centered in the educational knowledge we guide the inquiry around the development of the professor's professional knowledge and particularly the development of their formation. Our proposal contemplates a formation device which incorporates the observation, reflection, evaluation and self-evaluation of the practice in order to facilitate the reconstruction, significance and re-significance of the teaching and learning processes by giving relevance to the development of the teacher professional knowledge. The analysis of teaching practices process reveals that the mediations that cross the knowledge in the being taught instances are constituted in reflections axes. This involves the future professor's relationship with the knowledge and their projection in the construction of the professional identity.

Family diversity in social exclusion situations. Results and reflections on research, teaching and knowledge transfer activities

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the configurations of the families that live in contexts of social exclusion; provide conceptualizations of their operation mode; highlight the formative effects that neighborhood interdisciplinary practices with such families produce in the just graduated psychologists, included on the Extension Program. We wish to contribute to produce systematic knowledge that can account for such family configurations as potential receiver of integration policies. We are also interested on transferring the approach to diversity in the training of young professionals, in order not to be regarded as a deviation from ideal models, but as an expression of different strategies built by members of a community, to resolve children breeding and to bear their existences. This work is the result about reflections on productions inside a research fellowship: The complexities that takes the breeding in families who lives in a social exclusion situation; researches about breeding, carried out from signature Developmental Psychology II, and from de interdisciplinary work with psychologically assisted families in twelve suburbs of the city of La Plata (University Extension Program "Free Legal Offices" (Convention between Law and Social Sciences and Psychology Faculties, U.N.L.P.). From a qualitative methodology and an interdisciplinary participation, the results have arrive at the characterization and proposed conceptualizations of the included families and at the same time determine the benefits that brings with the work that articulates research and extension activities for the training of advanced students and young graduates.

The development of the psychologist's professional knowledge : A study of graduated in the U.N.L.P., their insert in the educational field

Los estudios sobre la formación de profesores en psicología nos fueron situando en el proceso de construcción del conocimiento profesional tanto en profesores como en psicólogos que ejercen la docencia, visualizando el papel que en él asumen los conocimientos construidos en los ámbitos académico y profesional y la relación entre ambos.

The development of professor's professional knowledge in Psychology

This work belongs to the Project "Teaching and learning Psychology: a study of the educational practice in professors and beginners". It is part of an investigation program developed in the context of the subject "Didactic and Practical Planning of Psychology teaching" in which we have been working since 1998. This subject is also considered as the final stage of the formative itinerary for Psychology s professors. The reached results show the incidence that the beliefs and professors' representations have in the teaching processes. By getting into the studies centered in the educational knowledge we guide the inquiry around the development of the professor's professional knowledge and particularly the development of their formation. Our proposal contemplates a formation device which incorporates the observation, reflection, evaluation and self-evaluation of the practice in order to facilitate the reconstruction, significance and re-significance of the teaching and learning processes by giving relevance to the development of the teacher professional knowledge. The analysis of teaching practices process reveals that the mediations that cross the knowledge in the being taught instances are constituted in reflections axes. This involves the future professor's relationship with the knowledge and their projection in the construction of the professional identity.

Family diversity in social exclusion situations. Results and reflections on research, teaching and knowledge transfer activities

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the configurations of the families that live in contexts of social exclusion; provide conceptualizations of their operation mode; highlight the formative effects that neighborhood interdisciplinary practices with such families produce in the just graduated psychologists, included on the Extension Program. We wish to contribute to produce systematic knowledge that can account for such family configurations as potential receiver of integration policies. We are also interested on transferring the approach to diversity in the training of young professionals, in order not to be regarded as a deviation from ideal models, but as an expression of different strategies built by members of a community, to resolve children breeding and to bear their existences. This work is the result about reflections on productions inside a research fellowship: The complexities that takes the breeding in families who lives in a social exclusion situation; researches about breeding, carried out from signature Developmental Psychology II, and from de interdisciplinary work with psychologically assisted families in twelve suburbs of the city of La Plata (University Extension Program "Free Legal Offices" (Convention between Law and Social Sciences and Psychology Faculties, U.N.L.P.). From a qualitative methodology and an interdisciplinary participation, the results have arrive at the characterization and proposed conceptualizations of the included families and at the same time determine the benefits that brings with the work that articulates research and extension activities for the training of advanced students and young graduates.