The relationship between higher education curricular variables and human flight performance in a preliminary flying training program

The ability of the United States Air Force (USAF) to sustain a high level of operational ability and readiness is dependent on the proficiency and expertise of its pilots. Recruitment, education, training, and retention of its pilot force are crucial factors in the USAF's attainment of its operational mission: defense of this nation and its allies. Failure of a student pilot during a training program does not only represent a loss of costly training expenditures to the American public, but often consists of loss of human life, aircraft, and property. This research focused on the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps' (AFROTC) selection method for student pilots for the light aircraft training (LATR) program. The LATR program is an intense 16 day flight training program that precedes the Air Force's undergraduate pilot training (UPT) program. The study subjects were 265 AFROTC cadets in the LATR program. A variety of independent variables from each subject's higher education curricular background as well as results of preselection tests, participation in varsity athletics, prior flying experience and gender were evaluated against subsequent performance in LATR. Performance was measured by a quantitative performance score developed by this researcher based on 28 graded training factors as well as overall pass or fail of the LATR program. Study results showed participation in university varsity athletics was very significantly and positively related to performance in the LATR program, followed by prior flying experience and to a very slight degree portions of the Air Force Officers Qualifying Test. Not significantly related to success in the LATR program were independent variables such as grade point average, scholastic aptitude test scores, academic major, gender and the AFROTC selection and ranking system.

Evaluation of a One-Day Meditech Magic Training Program for Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses in a long term care program

Background: An evaluation was completed on the One-Day Meditech Magic Training Program for Registered Nurses (RNs) and Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) developed for the Long Term Care (LTC) Program. Methods: Both a literature review and consultation with stakeholders were completed to determine possible evaluation methods, expected outcomes, and ways to measure the effectiveness of the education program. A pretest/posttest design and questionnaire were chosen as the evaluation tools for this project. Results: No significant difference was found between the pretest and posttest total scores indicating that learners retained information from the orientation session (Z = -1.820, p = 0.069). Additional Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank tests were performed on the individual sections of the tests and revealed a significant decrease in the posttest scores for entering a Diagnostic Imaging requisition (Z = -1.975, p = 0.048). No other significant findings were present. Questionnaires were also analyzed revealing that most participants were pleased with the Meditech documentation education they received and did not indicate barriers that would affect electronic documentation. Conclusions: Further testing is required to ensure reliability and validity of the evaluation tools. Finally, caution is needed due to a small sample size. However, problematic documentation tasks were identified during the evaluation, and as a result both the training session and support materials will be improved as a result of this project.

A Group-Enhanced Sprint Interval Training Program for Amateur Athletes

Sprint interval training (SIT) can elicit improvements in aerobic and anaerobic capacity. While variations in SIT protocols have been investigated, the influence of social processes cannot be overlooked. As research supports the use of groups to influence individual cognitions and behaviours, the current project assessed the effectiveness of a group-based intervention with participants conducting SIT. Specifically, 53 amateur athletes (age, 21.9 ± 2.9 years; 53% females) took part in a 4-week training program (3 sessions per week, 30-s “all-out” efforts with 4 min active recovery, repeated 4–6 times per session), and were assigned to “true group”, aggregate, or individual conditions. Results indicated no significant differences between groups for the physiological measures. With regards to training improvements from baseline for all participants— regardless of condition — significant main effects for time were identified for maximal oxygen uptake (2.5–2.8 mL·kg−1·min−1, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.03), time-trial performance (14–32 s, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.37), and anaerobic power (1.1–1.7 k·h−1, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.66). With regards to the psychological measures, significant main effects between groups were found for motivation (p = 0.033, η2 = 0.13), task self-efficacy (p = 0.018, η2 = 0.15), and scheduling self-efficacy (p = 0.003, η2 = 0.22). The true group experienced greater improvements in motivation than the individual condition, but the aggregate and individual conditions demonstrated greater increases in task and scheduling self-efficacy. Though the SIT paradigm employed induced training improvements similar to previous work, the group intervention was not able to further these improvements

Five-year review of an international clinical research-training program

The exponential increase in clinical research has profoundly changed medical sciences. Evidence that has accumulated in the past three decades from clinical trials has led to the proposal that clinical care should not be based solely on clinical expertise and patient values, and should integrate robust data from systematic research. As a consequence, clinical research has become more complex and methods have become more rigorous, and evidence is usually not easily translated into clinical practice. Therefore, the instruction of clinical research methods for scientists and clinicians must adapt to this new reality. To address this challenge, a global distance-learning clinical research-training program was developed, based on collaborative learning, the pedagogical goal of which was to develop critical thinking skills in clinical research. We describe and analyze the challenges and possible solutions of this course after 5 years of experience (2008-2012) with this program. Through evaluation by students and faculty, we identified and reviewed the following challenges of our program: 1) student engagement and motivation, 2) impact of heterogeneous audience on learning, 3) learning in large groups, 4) enhancing group learning, 5) enhancing social presence, 6) dropouts, 7) quality control, and 8) course management. We discuss these issues and potential alternatives with regard to our research and background.

Assessment of faculty training program for the use of e-learning platforms: analysis of current use

5th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (Barcelona, Spain. 1-3 July, 2013)

Aerobic performance and morphological modifications after a 4 month physical activity training program in elderly women

Research clearly shows that physical activity (PA) is an important factor to develop and maintain good health and adequate body functions in older people. In this context, the purpose of this study was to determine aerobic performance and morphological modifications after a 4 month physical activity program (PAP) in elderly. METHODS Forty subjects divided in two groups (control, n=20; and experimental, n=20) were evaluated twice, at the beginning and after a 4-month-activity program period. This program called “+ age + health” consists of 3 week sessions of one hour each, based on walking and aerobic exercises. The control group had, at its first evaluation, the followings characteristics: average body mass 68kg±15, 28±5 BMI, 37%±5 body fat, 2.2kg±0.4 bone mass, 42%±9 lean body mass and did 129 repetitions ± 46 on a 2-Minute Step Test (2MST). The assessment of anthropometric and morphological variables was measured through an electrical bioimpedance scale (TANITA - BC 545). Aerobic endurance was evaluated from a 2MST.RESULTS In the control group only the percentage of body fat changed significantly, and increased over time. In the experimental group we found a positive relationship between PAP and the majority of morphological variables. The percentage of variation changed in: body fat (-4.3%±7.6, p=0.014), bone mass (2.4%±3.1, p=0.004) and 2MST (33.6%±63.1, p=0.023). In the remaining variables there were no significant modifications. The significant modification in 2MST after the activity period means that the aerobic performance can be improved in elderly, and attenuates the negative effects of age. Moreover, the benefits of PAP can be seen by positive alterations registered in lean body mass and in the percentage of body fat.

A communication partner training program: Assessing conversational behaviors and attitudes towards communication in Persons with Aphasia and their Communication Partners

This study examined the conversational behaviors of eleven dyads consisting of a person with aphasia (PWA) and their familiar communication partner (CP), and investigated changes in behaviors as a result of attending a communication partner-training program CPT). Attitudes about communication were examined and related to conversational behaviors observed pre- and post- training. Results indicated that CPs and PWA used significantly more facilitating behaviors than barrier behaviors, although most dyads experienced some barriers. A comparison of pre-and post-CPT conversations revealed a significant interaction between time and type of behavior, with the increase in the number of facilitators approaching significance. Overall, persons with aphasia and their conversational partners expressed positive attitudes about communication. There were no significant correlations between scores on attitude surveys and behaviors pre or post-training. This study demonstrated that these dyads employed facilitative conversational behaviors even before CPT, and that facilitative behaviors can increase after a one-day training workshop.

Effects of an in-service training program using the routines-based interview

The focus of this study is an in-service training program rooted in routines-based early intervention and designed to improve the quality of goals and objectives on individualized plans. Participants were local intervention team members and other professionals who worked closely with each team. This training program involved a small number of trainees per group, providing multiple learning experiences across time and various opportunities for self-assessment and monitoring. We investigated (a) the perceptions of the participants about the strengths and weaknesses of the training program, (b) medium-term outcomes of the training with a comparison group, (c) and variables associated with the quality of goals and objectives. This study involved training more than 200 professionals, and results support the effectiveness of the program in improving the quality of goals and objectives, showing the importance of the routines-based interview in producing that improvement.

READY FOR KINDERGARTEN: A TRAINING PROGRAM DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE PARENT-CHILD CONVERSATION DURING THE PRESCHOOL YEARS

Many children in the United States begin kindergarten unprepared to converse in the academic language surrounding instruction, putting them at greater risk for later language and reading difficulties. Importantly, correlational research has shown there are certain experiences prior to kindergarten that foster the oral language skills needed to understand and produce academic language. The focus of this dissertation was on increasing one of these experiences: parent-child conversations about abstract and non-present concepts, known as decontextualized language (DL). Decontextualized language involves talking about non-present concepts such as events that happened in the past or future, or abstract discussions such as providing explanations or defining unknown words. As caregivers’ decontextualized language input to children aged three to five is consistently correlated with kindergarten oral language skills and later reading achievement, it is surprising no experimental research has been done to establish this relation causally. The study described in this dissertation filled this literature gap by designing, implementing, and evaluating a decontextualized language training program for parents of 4-year-old children (N=30). After obtaining an initial measure of decontextualized language, parents were randomly assigned to a control condition or training condition, the latter of which educated parents about decontextualized language and why it is important. All parents then audio-recorded four mealtime conversations over the next month, which were transcribed and reliably coded for decontextualized language. Results indicated that trained parents boosted their DL from roughly 17 percent of their total utterances at baseline to approximately 50 percent by the mid-point of the study, and remained at these boosted levels throughout the duration of the study. Children’s DL was also boosted by similar margins, but no improvement in children’s oral language skills was observed, measured prior to, and one month following training. Further, exploratory analyses pointed to parents’ initial use of DL and their theories of the malleability of intelligence (i.e., growth mindsets) as moderators of training gains. Altogether, these findings are a first step in establishing DL as a viable strategy for giving children the oral language skills needed to begin kindergarten ready to succeed in the classroom.