Hispanic physicians' tobacco intervention practices: a cross-sectional survey study

Background U.S. Hispanic physicians constitute a considerable professional collective, and they may be most suited to attend to the health education needs of the growing U.S. Hispanic population. These educational needs include tobacco use prevention and smoking cessation. However, there is a lack of information on Hispanic physicians' tobacco intervention practices, their level of awareness and use of cessation protocols, and the type of programs that would best address their tobacco training needs. The purpose of this study was to assess the tobacco intervention practices and training needs of Hispanic physicians. Methods Data was collected through a validated survey instrument among a cross-sectional sample of self-reported Hispanic physicians. Data analyses included frequencies, descriptive statistics, and factorial analyses of variance. Results The response rate was 55.5%. The majority of respondents (73.3%) were middle-age males. Less than half of respondents routinely performed the most basic intervention: asking patients about smoking status (44.4%) and advising smoking patients to quit (42.2%). Twenty-five percent assisted smoking patients by talking to them about the health risks of smoking, providing education materials or referring them to cessation programs. Only 4.4% routinely arranged follow-up visits or phone calls for smoking patients. The majority of respondents (64.4%) indicated that they prescribe cessation treatments to less than 20% of smoking patients. A few (4.4%) routinely used behavioral change techniques or programs. A minority (15.6%) indicated that they routinely ask their patients about exposure to tobacco smoke, and 6.7% assisted patients exposed to secondhand smoke in understanding the health risks associated with environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). The most frequently encountered barriers preventing respondents from intervening with patients who smoke included: time, lack of training, lack of receptivity by patients, and lack of reimbursement by third party payers. There was no significant main effect of type of physician, nor was there an interaction effect (gender by type of physician), on tobacco-related practices. Conclusion The results indicate that Hispanic physicians, similarly to U.S. physicians in general, do not meet the level of intervention recommended by health care agencies. The results presented will assist in the development of tobacco training initiatives for Hispanic physicians.

An investigation of the pica practices of pregnant women in Houston and Prairie View, Texas

Pregnant African American women are at higher risk of having a preterm delivery and/or a low birthweight infant. Many factors are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes but a food habit that deserves further study in the causal process is pica, a craving for, and ingestion of, nonnutritive substances such as laundry starch, clay, dirt, or ice. This food habit is more common in the African American population but has not been adequately studied in relation to preterm and/or low birth weight infants.^ Mothers (n = 281) with infants less than one year of age who participated in the Special Supplementary Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) at clinics in Houston and Prairie View, Texas were interviewed regarding pica practices during pregnancy, dietary practices, and some demographic indices. Hospital records were abstracted for health information on the mothers and infants, including birthweight and gestational age at birth of the infant.^ The subjects were 88.6% African American, 6.8% Hispanic, and 4.6% Caucasian. Overall prevalence of pica was 76.5%. Pica prevalence by substance(s) was as follows: ice 53.7%; ice and freezer frost 14.6%; other substances such as baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, laundry starch, and clay or dirt 8.2%; and 23.5% reported no pica. The women who reported ice/freezer frost pica had a higher percentage of illegal drug use and alcohol use during pregnancy. The women who reported other pica substances had the lowest mean educational level, highest gravidity, and a higher percentage smoked during pregnancy.^ There were no significant differences in nutrient intakes measured by the mean 24-hour dietary recalls between women who reported ice pica (n = 103) and women who denied pica (n = 50). The women who reported ice/freezer frost pica or other pica substances had more food cravings and food dislikes during pregnancy than those who reported ice pica or no pica.^ There were no differences in mean birthweight or mean gestational age at birth of infants born to mothers from the three pica groups and the no pica group but regression analyses revealed a possible relationship between pica, low maternal hemoglobin at delivery, and preterm birth. ^

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.

Improving the dependability of research in personality and social psychology: Recommendations for research and educational practice

In this article, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Task Force on Publication and Research Practices offers a brief statistical primer and recommendations for improving the dependability of research. Recommendations for research practice include (a) describing and addressing the choice of N (sample size) and consequent issues of statistical power, (b) reporting effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), (c) avoiding “questionable research practices” that can inflate the probability of Type I error, (d) making available research materials necessary to replicate reported results, (e) adhering to SPSP’s data sharing policy, (f) encouraging publication of high-quality replication studies, and (g) maintaining flexibility and openness to alternative standards and methods. Recommendations for educational practice include (a) encouraging a culture of “getting it right,” (b) teaching and encouraging transparency of data reporting, (c) improving methodological instruction, and (d) modeling sound science and supporting junior researchers who seek to “get it right.”

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.

Design and evaluation of an educational platform for implementing and testing bilateral control algorithms

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a new platform created in order to improve the learning experience of bilateral control algorithms in teleoperation. This experimental platform, developed at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, is used by the students of the Master on Automation and Robotics in the practices of the subject called “Telerobotics and Teleoperation”. The main objective is to easily implement different control architectures in the developed platform and evaluate them under different conditions to better understand the main advantages and drawbacks of each control scheme. So, the student’s tasks are focused on adjusting the control parameters of the predefined controllers and designing new ones to analyze the changes in the behavior of the whole system. A description of the subject, main topics and the platform constructed are detailed in the paper. Furthermore, the methodology followed in the practices and the bilateral control algorithms are presented. Finally, the results obtained in the experiments with students are also shown.

Best practices for school leaders: Implementation of a profesional competence model for school management in Chile

In Chile, during the last three decades there has been a strong decentralization process whose main objective has been to improve the management of schools through the transfer of responsibilities and resources of education and thus improve the outcome of learning, reducing equity gaps between schools and territories. This is how, there has been an evolution of school principals¿ professional profile from an administrative to a management approach, in which principals have become project managers of educational projects. From a competence model for school leaders, based on IPMA guidelines, the present article presents an analysis of best practices for school management, allowing to generate a link between competencies and school management, from the perspective of project management. Results showed that the different competence elements, have relative weights according to the different practice fields, and that this analysis can be considered as a strategic element in educational project planning and development.

Best practices for school leaders: implementation of a professional competence model for school management in Chile

In Chile, during the last three decades there has been a strong decentralization process whose main objective has been to improve the management of schools through the transfer of responsibilities and resources of education and thus improve the outcome of learning, reducing equity gaps between schools and territories. This is how, there has been an evolution of school principals¿ professional profile from an administrative to a management approach, in which principals have become project managers of educational projects. From a competence model for school leaders, based on IPMA guidelines, the present article presents an analysis of best practices for school management, allowing to generate a link between competencies and school management, from the perspective of project management. Results showed that the different competence elements, have relative weights according to the different practice fields, and that this analysis can be considered as a strategic element in educational project planning and development.

Research-action Methodology between Computer Science and Educational Psychology: a Multidisciplinary Approach

Computer science studies possess a strong multidisciplinary aptitude since most graduates do their professional work outside of a computing environment, in close collaboration with professionals from many different areas. However, the training offered in computer science studies lacks that multidisciplinary factor, focusing more on purely technical aspects. In this paper we present a novel experience where computer studies and educational psychology find a common ground and realistic working through laboratory practices. Specifically, the work enables students of computer science education the development of diagnosis support systems, with artificial intelligence techniques, which could then be used for future educational psychologists. The applications developed by computer science students are the creation of a model for the diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), sometimes also commonly called the autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The complexity of this diagnosis, not only by the exclusive characteristics of every person who suffers from it, but also by the large numbers of variables involved in it, requires very strong and close interdisciplinary participation. This work demonstrates that it is possible to intervene in a curricular perspective, in the university, to promote the development of interpersonal skills. What can be shown, in this way, is a methodology for interdisciplinary practices design and a guide for monitoring and evaluation. The results are very encouraging since we obtained significant differences in academic achievement between students who attended a course using the new methodology and those who did not use it.

Teachers’ Use of Inclusive Practices in Spain

The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which teachers use inclusive practices to respond to students’ special needs in their classrooms and to determine whether grade level taught, training, and availability of resources and support affect the implementation of these practices. A research survey was designed for this purpose with the participation of a representative sample of 336 general education teachers (68 kindergarten, 133 elementary, and 135 secondary education teachers) in the province of Alicante, Spain. Findings reflected a moderate use of inclusive practices, with teachers more frequently implementing general adaptations rather than substantial ones. Statistically significant differences in use of inclusive practices were found as a function of the grade level taught, training received, and availability of material resources. Results are discussed in terms of their implication for teacher education reform and training programs.

Comprehensive school health education programs : innovative practices and issues in setting standards.

"FIRST 93-7006"--P. [4] of cover.

Early childhood education for the handicapped : recommended procedures and practices /

Mode of access: Internet.

Influence apart from Adoption: How Interaction between Programming and Scientific Practices Shapes Modes of Inquiry in Four Oceanography Teams

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Evaluating an Educational Module for Training Predoctoral Dental Students in Pediatric Dentistry

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06