Contemplating a Constructivist Stance for Active Learning within Music Education

This article examines constructivist philosophies for learning with an emphasis on student-centered environments in education and the active involvement of students in learning as they relate new understanding to what they already know and refine previous skills in terms of newly acquired proficiencies. Active learning is explored from a constructivist perspective in which students adopt an analytic approach to questioning and problem solving. Through these processes, students extend their current understanding and emerge as independent musicians, actively engaged in their work as singers, players, composers, improvisers, and listeners. This approach is contrasted with student involvement in hands-on activities in which the focus is on the actions needed to fulfill a given task and limited awareness is devoted to the thinking required to complete the work. I examine the implications of this approach for educational practice and call on policymakers to re-envision music education with attention to engaged learning as perceived within constructivist ways of knowing.     

A practical framework for ethics assessment in wildlife management decision-making

Wildlife professionals lack a framework and process for incorporating ethical considerations in a systematic and transparent way, along with ecological and social science, to support wildlife management decision-making. We provide such a framework and process based on 3 of the major theoretical branches ethicists have developed in Western culture: consequentialist moral theory, which focuses on consequences and outcomes; principle- and rule-based approaches that deal with what is considered right or wrong; and virtue ethical theory, which considers factors such as character, virtue, and aesthetics. The framework can be used to anticipate the ethical consequences of alternative courses of action or taking no action. If wildlife professionals use this framework as an assessment tool to provide input into decision-making, resulting decisions will be more transparent, better understood by stakeholders, and more consistent with public trust responsibilities.     

Benefits of teaching medical students how to communicate with patients having serious illness: comparison of two approaches to experiential, skill-based, and self-reflective learning

Innovative approaches are needed to teach medical students effective and compassionate communication with seriously ill patients. We describe two such educational experiences in the Yale Medical School curriculum for third-year medical students: 1) Communicating Difficult News Workshop and 2) Ward-Based End-of-Life Care Assignment. These two programs address educational needs to teach important clinical communication and assessment skills to medical students that previously were not consistently or explicitly addressed in the curriculum. The two learning programs share a number of educational approaches driven by the learning objectives, the students' development, and clinical realities. Common educational features include: experiential learning, the Biopsychosocial Model, patient-centered communication, integration into clinical clerkships, structured skill-based learning, self-reflection, and self-care. These shared features - as well as some differences - are explored in this paper in order to illustrate key issues in designing and implementing medical student education in these areas.     

Undergraduate geriatric education through community service learning

doi: 10.1111/j.1741‐2358.2010.00444.x Undergraduate geriatric education through community service learning Introduction: Despite the exponential growth of the elderly population worldwide, geriatric education has been a formal component of only a few dental schools’ curricula. Objective: To describe the geriatric community service learning (CSL) component of the professionalism and community service (PACS) module, and to explore a CSL project carried out by a group of first year dental students at a long‐term care facility. Methods: A literature review was performed to present and describe the CSL component of the PACS module. Students’ personal reflections were used to illustrate some of the joys and challenges of experiencing a long‐term care facility environment. Results: The newly developed PACS module combines community service learning with the long‐term care experience. Students develop, apply and evaluate an educational health promotion activity in a long‐term care facility. Conclusions: The PACS module has encouraged students to acquire comprehensive knowledge and awareness of the needs and dynamics of a long‐term care as they collaboratively interacted with personnel from the facility to develop their projects. The authors would like to engage other schools in discussing the need to integrate community‐based geriatric education into their dental curricula.     

转化医学与生物样本库现状

转化医学(translational medicine)是近10年来国际生物医学领域出现的新概念和重点研究方向,其为一种倡导实验室与临床研究双向转化的模式,而这种模式的核心意义之一便体现在协作与资源共享方面。这便促使生物样本库成为了转化医学的战略资源。本文在分析发达国家促进转化医学发展政策的同时分析了生物样本库建设的现状、趋势和问题,旨在为我国制定转化医学发展战略,建设生物样本库,促进转化医学发展提供参考。     

个体量化健康教育对高血压患者自我护理依从性影响分析

目的:探讨个体量化健康教育对高血压患者自我护理的依从性的影响。方法:选取我院心内科高血压患者2000例,应用前瞻性研究方法,采用随机抽样的方法将研究对象分为普通组与对照组,每组1000例患者。对普通组患者实施常规健康教育,对照组实施健康教育计划,进行个体量化健康教育。对两组患者自我护理行为的依从性进行比较。结果:实施个体量化健康教育的对照组患者自我护理依从性行为高于普通组患者,P<0.05,有差异。结论:实施个体量化健康教育可以提高患者自我护理依从性,对患者的康复有积极的促进作用。     

产超广谱β- 内酰胺酶肺炎克雷伯菌感染调查及耐药性分析

目的:探讨我院产超广谱β-内酰胺酶(ESBLs)肺炎克雷伯菌阳性率及耐药性的变化,以指导临床合理应用抗生素。方法:对我院自2009年1月至2011年8月住院患儿送检的各类标本中分离得到的肺炎克雷伯菌413株进行ESBLs筛选和确证。结果:共分离得到413株肺炎克雷伯菌,其中产ESBLs的菌株共204株,占49.39%,且有逐年上升趋势。ESBLs阳性菌株对头孢他啶、头孢噻吩、头孢噻肟、阿莫西林耐药程度最为严重,耐药率为100%;对美洛培南、亚胺培南、哌拉西林/他唑巴坦、阿米卡星、环丙沙星高度敏感,敏感率为90.2%～100%。结论:产ESBLs的肺炎克雷伯菌已成为主要耐药菌,应加强耐药监测,重点监管并指导临床合理应用抗生素。     

三维一体教育改善农村产褥期妇女膳食营养与生活行为 效果分析

目的:评价三维一体宣教对妇女产褥期营养保健知识认知、饮食行为的干预效果.方法:针对影响产褥期妇女膳食营养与健康的主要因素,提出妇幼保健机构指导下的“产妇-家庭-社区”三维一体膳食营养干预策略.选择某农村孕晚期妇女作为研究对象,随机分为干预组和对照组,两组均接受基本常规的孕产妇卫生保健知识宣传,对干预组对象进行专门的三维一体营养保健知识宣教.结果:干预组对象营养保健知识的知晓率显著高于对照组,干预组对象奶类、鱼类、蔬菜、水果的每日摄入量显著高于对照组,干预组蛋类的摄入量是194.51g/天显著低于对照组的298.2g/天(P＜0.05).干预组完全母乳喂养的比例是74.4％,显著高于对照组的59.5％(P＜0.05).房间每天通风的发生率干预组是67.8％,明显高于对照组的54.3％(P＜0.05).结论:推广三维一体营养保健知识宣教,多途径、针对性强的宣教方法能有效提高妇女营养保健知识水平,并改善其产褥期饮食、行为及健康状况.     

A review of methods for characterizing the environmental consequences of actions in life cycle assessment

Understanding the environmental consequences of actions is becoming increasingly important in the field of industrial ecology in general, and in life cycle assessment (LCA) more specifically. However, a consensus on how to operationalize this idea has not been reached. A variety of methods have been proposed and applied to case studies that cover various aspects of consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA). Previous reviews of the topic have focused on the broad agenda of CLCA and how different modeling frameworks fit into its goals. However, explicit examination of the spectrum of methods and their application to the different facets of CLCA are lacking. Here, we provide a detailed review of methods that have been used to construct models of the environmental consequences of actions in CLCA. First, we cover the following structural modeling approaches: (a) economic equilibrium models, (b) system dynamics models, (c) technology choice models, and (d) agent‐based models. We provide a detailed review of particular applications of each model in the CLCA domain. The advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed, and their relationships with CLCA are clarified. From this, we are able to map these models onto the established aspects of CLCA. We learn that structural models alone are not sufficient to quantify the uncertainty distributions of underlying parameters in CLCA, which are essential components of a robust analysis of consequences. To address this, we provide a brief introduction to a counterfactual‐based causal inference approach to parameter identification and uncertainty analysis that is emerging in the CLCA literature. We recommend that one potential research path forward is the establishment of feedback loops between empirical estimates and structural models.