Understanding the Development of a Hybrid Practice of Inquiry-Based Science Instruction and Language Development: A Case Study of One Teacher's Journey through Reflections on Classroom Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capitelli, Sarah; Hooper, Paula; Rankin, Lynn; Austin, Marilyn; Caven, Gennifer

2016-01-01

This qualitative case study looks closely at an elementary teacher who participated in professional development experiences that helped her develop a hybrid practice of using inquiry-based science to teach both science content and English language development (ELD) to her students, many of whom are English language learners (ELLs). This case study…

A Case Study to Explore Rigorous Teaching and Testing Practices to Narrow the Achievement Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isler, Tesha

2012-01-01

The problem examined in this study: Does the majority of teachers use rigorous teaching and testing practices? The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore the classroom techniques of six effective teachers who use rigorous teaching and testing practices. The hypothesis for this study is that the examination of the…

Patterns of Practice: Case Studies of Early Childhood Education & Family Engagement in Community Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobson, Linda; Rollins, S. Kwesi; Brown, Janet; Naviasky, Heather

2016-01-01

This "Patterns of Practice: Case Studies of Early Childhood Education & Family Engagement in Community Schools" report updates the community school case studies through a description of ongoing developments in Cincinnati, OH; Evansville, IN; Multnomah County, OR; and Tulsa, OK and adds to that knowledge base of early learning and…

Preparation and Support for Part-Time Teachers in Higher Education: Case Studies of Departmental Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forster, Fred, Comp.; Thompson, Sheila, Comp.

This publication presents 14 departmental case studies of the preparation and support provided to part-time teachers in Scottish institutions of higher education. The case studies are grouped in four sections according to the category of part-time staff involved: practicing professionals (professional teaching assistants, lawyers, artists, and…

Exploring ESL Teacher Beliefs and Classroom Practices of CLT: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rahman, Mohammad Mosiur; Singh, Manjet Kaur Mehar; Pandian, Ambigapathy

2018-01-01

This paper presents a case study that investigated and compared the stated beliefs and observed classroom practices relating to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) of two ESL teachers. The findings of the study revealed that both the teachers hold similar complex beliefs that mostly contradict the philosophy of CLT. The practices were not in…

Exploring Teacher Beliefs and Classroom Practices through Reflective Practice: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrell, Thomas S. C.; Ives, Jessica

2015-01-01

This article presents a case study that explored and reflected on the relationship between the stated beliefs and observed classroom practices of one second language reading teacher. The findings of this study revealed that this particular teacher holds complex beliefs about teaching reading that were evident to some extent in many of his…

Experiences of practice facilitators working on the Improved Delivery of Cardiovascular Care project: Retrospective case study.

PubMed

Liddy, Clare; Rowan, Margo; Valiquette-Tessier, Sophie-Claire; Drosinis, Paul; Crowe, Lois; Hogg, William

2018-01-01

To examine the barriers to and facilitators of practice facilitation experienced by participants in the Improving Delivery of Cardiovascular Care (IDOCC) project. Case studies of practice facilitators' narrative reports. Eastern Ontario. Primary care practices that participated in the IDOCC project. Cases were identified by calculating sum scores in order to determine practices' performance relative to their peers. Two case exemplars were selected that scored within ± 1 SD of the total mean score, and a qualitative analysis of practice facilitators' narrative reports was conducted using a 5-factor implementation framework to identify barriers and facilitators. Narratives were divided into 3 phases: planning, implementation, and sustainability. Barriers and facilitators fluctuated over the intervention's 3 phases. Site A reported more barriers (n = 47) than facilitators (n = 38), while site B reported a roughly equal number of barriers (n = 144) and facilitators (n = 136). In both sites, the most common barriers involved organizational and provider factors and the most common facilitators were associated with innovation and structural factors. Both practices encountered various barriers and facilitators throughout the IDOCC's 3 phases. The case studies reveal the complex interactions of these factors over time, and provide insight into the implementation of practice facilitation programs. Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Patient-Centered Medical Home Undergraduate Internship, Benefits to a Practice Manager: Case Study.

PubMed

Sasnett, Bonita; Harris, Susie T; White, Shelly

Health services management interns become practice facilitators for primary care clinics interested in pursuing patient-centered recognition for their practice. This experience establishes a collaborative relationship between the university and clinic practices where students apply their academic training to a system of documentation to improve the quality of patient care delivery. The case study presents the process undertaken, benefits, challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations for intern, practice mangers, and educators. The practice manager benefits as interns become Patient-Centered Medical Home facilitators and assist practice managers in the recognition process.

The mediating effect of context variation in mixed practice for transfer of basic science.

PubMed

Kulasegaram, Kulamakan; Min, Cynthia; Howey, Elizabeth; Neville, Alan; Woods, Nicole; Dore, Kelly; Norman, Geoffrey

2015-10-01

Applying a previously learned concept to a novel problem is an important but difficult process called transfer. Practicing multiple concepts together (mixed practice mode) has been shown superior to practicing concepts separately (blocked practice mode) for transfer. This study examined the effect of single and multiple practice contexts for both mixed and blocked practice modalities on transfer performance. We looked at performance on near transfer (familiar contexts) cases and far transfer (unfamiliar contexts) cases. First year psychology students (n = 42) learned three physiological concepts in a 2 × 2 factorial study (one or two practice contexts and blocked or mixed practice). Each concept was practiced with two clinical cases; practice context was defined as the number of organ systems used (one system per concept vs. two systems). In blocked practice, two practice cases followed each concept; in mixed practice, students learned all concepts before seeing six practice cases. Transfer testing consisted of correctly classifying and explaining 15 clinical cases involving near and far transfer. The outcome was ratings of quality of explanations on a 0-3 scale. The repeated measures analysis showed a significant near versus far by organ system interaction [F(1,38) = 3.4, p < 0.002] with practice with a single context showing lower far transfer scores than near transfer [0.58 (0.37)-0.83 (0.37)] compared to the two contexts which had similar far and near transfer scores [1.19 (0.50)-1.01 (0.38)]. Practicing with two organ contexts had a significant benefit for far transfer regardless of mixed or blocked practice; the single context mixed practice group had the lowest far transfer performance; this was a large effect size (Cohen's d = 0.81). Using only one practice context during practice significantly lowers performance even with the usually superior mixed practice mode. Novices should be exposed to multiple contexts and mixed practice to facilitate transfer.

Examining the Sustainability of Research-Based Practices in Rural Elementary Schools after Program Funding Ends: A Case Study of Four First Grade Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jay, Sandy

2011-01-01

This paper describes a qualitative case study designed to investigate research-based practices as a contemporary phenomenon within the real-life context of schools. Selected first grade teacher perceptions of research based practices and sustainability of research-based practices in rural, low-income schools that are no longer receiving funding…

A Case Study of Best Practices of Implementing a One-to-One Technology Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ackley, Stacy

2017-01-01

The purpose of this case study was to describe the experiences of rural school district leaders who implemented and have sustained a one-to-one technology program at the secondary level so to provide school districts considering one-to-one implementation knowledge of best practices. This study was a qualitative, bounded case study that used a…

Understanding general practice: a conceptual framework developed from case studies in the UK NHS.

PubMed

Checkland, Kath

2007-01-01

General practice in the UK is undergoing a period of rapid and profound change. Traditionally, research into the effects of change on general practice has tended to regard GPs as individuals or as members of a professional group. To understand the impact of change, general practices should also be considered as organisations. To use the organisational studies literature to build a conceptual framework of general practice organisations, and to test and develop this empirically using case studies of change in practice. This study used the implementation of National Service Frameworks (NSFs) and the new General Medical Services (GMS) contract as incidents of change. In-depth, qualitative case studies. The design was iterative: each case study was followed by a review of the theoretical ideas. The final conceptual framework was the result of the dynamic interplay between theory and empirical evidence. Five general practices in England, selected using purposeful sampling. Semi-structured interviews with all clinical and managerial personnel in each practice, participant and nonparticipant observation, and examination of documents. A conceptual framework was developed that can be used to understand how and why practices respond to change. This framework enabled understanding of observed reactions to the introduction of NSFs and the new GMS contract. Important factors for generating responses to change included the story that the practice members told about their practice, beliefs about what counted as legitimate work, the role played by the manager, and previous experiences of change. Viewing general practices as small organisations has generated insights into factors that influence responses to change. Change tends to occur from the bottom up and is determined by beliefs about organisational reality. The conceptual framework suggests some questions that can be asked of practices to explain this internal reality.

A case study of effective practice in mathematics teaching and learning informed by Valsiner's zone theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geiger, Vince; Anderson, Judy; Hurrell, Derek

2017-02-01

The characteristics that typify an effective teacher of mathematics and the environments that support effective teaching practices have been a long-term focus of educational research. In this article we report on an aspect of a larger study that investigated `best practice' in mathematics teaching and learning across all Australian states and territories. A case study from one Australian state was developed from data collected via classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with school leaders and teachers and analysed using Valsiner's zone theory. A finding of the study is that `successful' practice is strongly tied to school context and the cultural practices that have been developed by school leaders and teachers to optimise student learning opportunities. We illustrate such an alignment of school culture and practice through a vignette based on a case of one `successful' school.

Introducing a Compendium of Psychological Literacy Case Studies: Reflections on Psychological Literacy in Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Jacqui; Hulme, Julie

2015-01-01

This article introduces a set of case studies that were submitted to us following requests in psychology conferences and publications, and through professional networks. The full versions of the case studies make up the first version of a Psychological Literacy Compendium of Practice that is available online at www.psychologicalliteracy.com. The…

Ballet as Somatic Practice: A Case Study Exploring the Integration of Somatic Practices in Ballet Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berg, Tanya

2017-01-01

This case study explores one teacher's integration of Alexander Technique and the work of neuromuscular retrainer Irene Dowd in ballet pedagogy to establish a somatic approach to teaching, learning, and performing ballet technique. This case study highlights the teacher's unique teaching method called IMAGE TECH for dancers (ITD) and offers…

Innovation in government : workforce practices.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-01-01

A review of the literature on innovation within government provides detailed case studies on innovative practices adopted by transportation agencies across the U.S. These case studies focus on operational innovations adopted by transportation agencie...

The Best Practices for School Transformation: A Multiple-Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waheed, Zarina; Hussin, Sufean; Bin Megat Daud, Megat Ahmad Kamaluddin

2018-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the best practices of school leaders, teachers, pupils, parents and the community in selected transformed schools in Selangor, Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative multiple-case study explores the best practices in two selected transformed schools through in-depth interviews,…

The role of production and teamwork practices in construction safety: a cognitive model and an empirical case study.

PubMed

Mitropoulos, Panagiotis Takis; Cupido, Gerardo

2009-01-01

In construction, the challenge for researchers and practitioners is to develop work systems (production processes and teams) that can achieve high productivity and high safety at the same time. However, construction accident causation models ignore the role of work practices and teamwork. This study investigates the mechanisms by which production and teamwork practices affect the likelihood of accidents. The paper synthesizes a new model for construction safety based on the cognitive perspective (Fuller's Task-Demand-Capability Interface model, 2005) and then presents an exploratory case study. The case study investigates and compares the work practices of two residential framing crews: a 'High Reliability Crew' (HRC)--that is, a crew with exceptional productivity and safety over several years, and an average performing crew from the same company. The model explains how the production and teamwork practices generate the work situations that workers face (the task demands) and affect the workers ability to cope (capabilities). The case study indicates that the work practices of the HRC directly influence the task demands and match them with the applied capabilities. These practices were guided by the 'principle' of avoiding errors and rework and included work planning and preparation, work distribution, managing the production pressures, and quality and behavior monitoring. The Task Demand-Capability model links construction research to a cognitive model of accident causation and provides a new way to conceptualize safety as an emergent property of the production practices and teamwork processes. The empirical evidence indicates that the crews' work practices and team processes strongly affect the task demands, the applied capabilities, and the match between demands and capabilities. The proposed model and the exploratory case study will guide further discovery of work practices and teamwork processes that can increase both productivity and safety in construction operations. Such understanding will enable training of construction foremen and crews in these practices to systematically develop high reliability crews.

Doing Case Study Research: A Practical Guide for Beginning Researchers. Third Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hancock, Dawson R.; Algozzine, Bob

2016-01-01

Reflecting recent knowledge and developments in the field, this very practical, easy-to-use guide emphasizes learning how to do case study research--from the first step of deciding whether a case study is the way to go to the last step of verifying and confirming findings before disseminating them. The authors show students how to determine an…

How Teacher Selection Practices in a High-Resource, Low-Need Suburban School District Compare with Best Practice Research: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pease, Adam Steven

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop best practice standards for hiring public school teachers. This standard was developed from the available literature on recruiting, screening, selecting, and hiring high-quality teachers. The targeted and actual hiring processes of a case study district were compared to this teacher hiring standard.…

Innovation and Integration: Case Studies of Effective Teacher Practices in the Use of Handheld Computers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chavez, Raymond Anthony

2010-01-01

Previous research conducted on the use of handheld computers in K-12 education has focused on how handheld computer use affects student motivation, engagement, and productivity. These four case studies sought to identify effective teacher practices in the integration of handhelds into the curriculum and the factors that affect those practices. The…

Social and Emotional Learning: A Case Study of the Practices and Systems within a Caring Middle School Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffman, Carla Ruth Clawson

2017-01-01

This qualitative single case study examined the connections between social-emotional learning and academic achievement in adolescents. Questions that formed the foundation for research include the background of how one middle school developed social and emotional practices for their student population, the ways in which those practices are…

Investigation of under-ascertainment in epidemiological studies based in general practice.

PubMed

Sethi, D; Wheeler, J; Rodrigues, L C; Fox, S; Roderick, P

1999-02-01

One of the aims of the Study of Infectious Intestinal Disease (IID) in England is to estimate the incidence of IID presenting to general practice. This sub-study aims to estimate and correct the degree of under-ascertainment in the national study. Cases of presumed IID which presented to general practice in the national study had been ascertained by their GP. In 26 general practices, cases with computerized diagnoses suggestive of IID were identified retrospectively. Cases which fulfilled the case definition of IID and should have been ascertained to the coordinating centre but were not, represented the under-ascertainment. Logistic regression modelling was used to identify independent factors which influenced under-ascertainment. The records of 2021 patients were examined, 1514 were eligible and should have been ascertained but only 974 (64%) were. There was variation in ascertainment between the practices (30% to 93%). Patient-related factors independently associated with ascertainment were: i) vomiting only as opposed to diarrhoea with and without vomiting (OR 0.37) and ii) consultation in the surgery as opposed to at home (OR 2.18). Practice-related factors independently associated with ascertainment were: i) participation in the enumeration study component (OR 1.78), ii) a larger number of partners (OR 0.3 for 7-8 partners); iii) rural location (OR 2.27) and iv) previous research experience (OR 1.92). Predicted ascertainment percentages were calculated according to practice characteristics. Under-ascertainment of IID was substantial (36%) and non-random and had to be corrected. Practice characteristics influencing variation in ascertainment were identified and a multivariate model developed to identify adjustment factors which could be applied to individual practices. Researchers need to be aware of factors which influence ascertainment in acute epidemiological studies based in general practice.

Understanding the Development of a Hybrid Practice of Inquiry-Based Science Instruction and Language Development: A Case Study of One Teacher's Journey Through Reflections on Classroom Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Capitelli, Sarah; Hooper, Paula; Rankin, Lynn; Austin, Marilyn; Caven, Gennifer

2016-04-01

This qualitative case study looks closely at an elementary teacher who participated in professional development experiences that helped her develop a hybrid practice of using inquiry-based science to teach both science content and English language development (ELD) to her students, many of whom are English language learners (ELLs). This case study examines the teacher's reflections on her teaching and her students' learning as she engaged her students in science learning and supported their developing language skills. It explicates the professional learning experiences that supported the development of this hybrid practice. Closely examining the pedagogical practice and reflections of a teacher who is developing an inquiry-based approach to both science learning and language development can provide insights into how teachers come to integrate their professional development experiences with their classroom expertise in order to create a hybrid inquiry-based science ELD practice. This qualitative case study contributes to the emerging scholarship on the development of teacher practice of inquiry-based science instruction as a vehicle for both science instruction and ELD for ELLs. This study demonstrates how an effective teaching practice that supports both the science and language learning of students can develop from ongoing professional learning experiences that are grounded in current perspectives about language development and that immerse teachers in an inquiry-based approach to learning and instruction. Additionally, this case study also underscores the important role that professional learning opportunities can play in supporting teachers in developing a deeper understanding of the affordances that inquiry-based science can provide for language development.

MBA: Is the Traditional Model Doomed?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lataif, Louis E.; And Others

1992-01-01

Presents 13 commentaries on a previously published case study about the value of a Master's of Business Administration to employers today. Critiques center on the case study method, theory-practice gap, and value of practical experience and include international perspectives. (SK)

Understanding general practice: a conceptual framework developed from case studies in the UK NHS

PubMed Central

Checkland, Kath

2007-01-01

Background General practice in the UK is undergoing a period of rapid and profound change. Traditionally, research into the effects of change on general practice has tended to regard GPs as individuals or as members of a professional group. To understand the impact of change, general practices should also be considered as organisations. Aim To use the organisational studies literature to build a conceptual framework of general practice organisations, and to test and develop this empirically using case studies of change in practice. This study used the implementation of National Service Frameworks (NSFs) and the new General Medical Services (GMS) contract as incidents of change. Design of study In-depth, qualitative case studies. The design was iterative: each case study was followed by a review of the theoretical ideas. The final conceptual framework was the result of the dynamic interplay between theory and empirical evidence. Setting Five general practices in England, selected using purposeful sampling. Method Semi-structured interviews with all clinical and managerial personnel in each practice, participant and non-participant observation, and examination of documents. Results A conceptual framework was developed that can be used to understand how and why practices respond to change. This framework enabled understanding of observed reactions to the introduction of NSFs and the new GMS contract. Important factors for generating responses to change included the story that the practice members told about their practice, beliefs about what counted as legitimate work, the role played by the manager, and previous experiences of change. Conclusion Viewing general practices as small organisations has generated insights into factors that influence responses to change. Change tends to occur from the bottom up and is determined by beliefs about organisational reality. The conceptual framework suggests some questions that can be asked of practices to explain this internal reality. PMID:17244426

Small Data, Online Learning and Assessment Practices in Higher Education: A Case Study of Failure?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Cate; Wilson, Anna; Drew, Valerie; Thompson, Terrie Lynn

2017-01-01

In this paper, we present an in-depth case study of a single student who failed an online module which formed part of a master's programme in Professional Education and Leadership. We use this case study to examine assessment practices in higher education in the online environment. In taking this approach, we go against the current predilection…

LGB-Affirmative Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Social Anxiety: A Case Study Applying Evidence-Based Practice Principles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Kate; Hope, Debra A.

2010-01-01

Guided by the American Psychological Association's principles of evidence-based practice, this article reviews a single-case treatment outcome study whereby a client characteristic, sexual identity, was integrated into the assessment and treatment of social anxiety symptoms. The case involved a young adult European-American male who presented to a…

Design-Grounded Assessment: A Framework and a Case Study of Web 2.0 Practices in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ching, Yu-Hui; Hsu, Yu-Chang

2011-01-01

This paper synthesis's three theoretical perspectives, including sociocultural theory, distributed cognition, and situated cognition, into a framework to guide the design and assessment of Web 2.0 practices in higher education. In addition, this paper presents a case study of Web 2.0 practices. Thirty-seven online graduate students participated in…

The influence of flexible management practices on the sharing of experiential knowledge in the workplace: a case study of food service helpers.

PubMed

Ledoux, Elise; Cloutier, Esther; Fournier, Pierre-Sébastien

2012-01-01

Previous studies have shown that the job knowledge and prudent knowledge of experienced workers constitute a wealth that needs to be shared in workplaces to promote worker integration, job retention and occupational health and safety. It appears, however, that certain management practices undermine this knowledge sharing process. This case study of food service helpers in institutional food service departments is part of a research project aimed at comparing the impact of different work organization methods on knowledge sharing in the workplace on the basis of case studies carried out in several organizations. The results of this case study reveal that by destabilizing and weakening the work teams, flexible management practices create an environment that is not conducive to experiential knowledge sharing.

How to get the most out of your orthopaedic fellowship: thinking about practice-based learning.

PubMed

Templeman, David

2012-09-01

Practice-based learning and improvement is an important skill set to develop during an orthopaedic trauma fellowship and is 1 of the 6 core competencies stated by the ACGME. The review of clinic cases is best done using a few simple models to develop a structured approach for studying cases. Three common sense and easy-to-use strategies to improve clinical practice are as follows: performing each case three times, studying the 4 quadrants of patient outcomes, and the application of the Pareto 80/20 rule. These principles help to develop a structured approach for analyzing and thinking about practice-based experiences.

Case-based learning facilitates critical thinking in undergraduate nutrition education: students describe the big picture.

PubMed

Harman, Tara; Bertrand, Brenda; Greer, Annette; Pettus, Arianna; Jennings, Jill; Wall-Bassett, Elizabeth; Babatunde, Oyinlola Toyin

2015-03-01

The vision of dietetics professions is based on interdependent education, credentialing, and practice. Case-based learning is a method of problem-based learning that is designed to heighten higher-order thinking. Case-based learning can assist students to connect education and specialized practice while developing professional skills for entry-level practice in nutrition and dietetics. This study examined student perspectives of their learning after immersion into case-based learning in nutrition courses. The theoretical frameworks of phenomenology and Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives triangulated the design of this qualitative study. Data were drawn from 426 written responses and three focus group discussions among 85 students from three upper-level undergraduate nutrition courses. Coding served to deconstruct the essence of respondent meaning given to case-based learning as a learning method. The analysis of the coding was the constructive stage that led to configuration of themes and theoretical practice pathways about student learning. Four leading themes emerged. Story or Scenario represents the ways that students described case-based learning, changes in student thought processes to accommodate case-based learning are illustrated in Method of Learning, higher cognitive learning that was achieved from case-based learning is represented in Problem Solving, and Future Practice details how students explained perceived professional competency gains from case-based learning. The skills that students acquired are consistent with those identified as essential to professional practice. In addition, the common concept of Big Picture was iterated throughout the themes and demonstrated that case-based learning prepares students for multifaceted problems that they are likely to encounter in professional practice. Copyright © 2015 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Case Study of the Institutionalization of Service-Learning at a Baptist College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Long, Jody Thomas

2013-01-01

This qualitative study, utilizing the case study method, sought to address the issues associated with the lack of institutionalization of service-learning practices on college campus by describing the institutionalization of service-learning practices at a Baptist-affiliated college. The study describes the development and institutionalization of…

Describing Elementary Teachers' Operative Systems: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dotger, Sharon; McQuitty, Vicki

2014-01-01

This case study introduces the notion of an operative system to describe elementary teachers' knowledge and practice. Drawing from complex systems theory, the operative system is defined as the network of knowledge and practices that constituted teachers' work within a lesson study cycle. Data were gathered throughout a lesson study cycle in which…

Effects of Coaching on Instructional Practices: A Comparative Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlson, Rosie M.

2017-01-01

This comparative case study analyzed two styles of coaching, team and individual, and the perceived impact each style has on instructional practices. This study was conducted in two elementary schools that are part of the same charter organization in California. The study identified the challenges and benefits of each style through interviews with…

Distributed Leadership in Elementary Schools: An Exploratory Multiple Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valdez, Vidal

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore distributed leadership and how leadership practices are actualized in three selected schools in Southern California. This qualitative, multiple case study used survey research and interviews to assess how distributed leadership was practiced in three selected elementary schools located within one school…

An Illustrative Case Study of the Heuristic Practices of a High-Performing Research Department: Toward Building a Model Applicable in the Context of Large Urban Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munoz, Marco A.; Rodosky, Robert J.

2011-01-01

This case study provides an illustration of the heuristic practices of a high-performing research department, which in turn, will help build much needed models applicable in the context of large urban districts. This case study examines the accountability, planning, evaluation, testing, and research functions of a research department in a large…

The "Critical Friend" Role in Fostering Reflective Practices and Developing Staff Cohesion: A Case Study in a New Secondary School, New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Noeline; Adam, Amina

2015-01-01

This exploratory case study, arising from a longitudinal project into the establishment of a new secondary school in New Zealand, examines reflective practice through critical friend roles among staff. The paper describes, through the lens of Bourdieu's logic of practice, the implementation of a critical friendship approach linked to the school…

Following a natural experiment of guideline adaptation and early implementation: a mixed-methods study of facilitation

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Facilitation is emerging as an important strategy in the uptake of evidence. However, it is not entirely clear from a practical perspective how facilitation occurs to help move research evidence into nursing practice. The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, also known as the 'Partnership,' is a Pan-Canadian initiative supporting knowledge translation activity for improved care through guideline use. In this case-series study, five self-identified groups volunteered to use a systematic methodology to adapt existing clinical practice guidelines for Canadian use. With 'Partnership' support, local and external facilitators provided assistance for groups to begin the process by adapting the guidelines and planning for implementation. Methods To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the nature of facilitation, we conducted a mixed-methods study. Specifically, we examined the role and skills of individuals actively engaged in facilitation as well as the actual facilitation activities occurring within the 'Partnership.' The study was driven by and builds upon a focused literature review published in 2010 that examined facilitation as a role and process in achieving evidence-based practice in nursing. An audit tool outlining 46 discrete facilitation activities based on results of this review was used to examine the facilitation noted in the documents (emails, meeting minutes, field notes) of three nursing-related cases participating in the 'Partnership' case-series study. To further examine the concept, six facilitators were interviewed about their practical experiences. The case-audit data were analyzed through a simple content analysis and triangulated with participant responses from the focus group interview to understand what occurred as these cases undertook guideline adaptation. Results The analysis of the three cases revealed that almost all of the 46 discrete, practical facilitation activities from the literature were evidenced. Additionally, case documents exposed five other facilitation-related activities, and a combination of external and local facilitation was apparent. Individuals who were involved in the case or group adapting the guideline(s) also performed facilitation activities, both formally and informally, in conjunction with or in addition to appointed external and local facilitators. Conclusions Facilitation of evidence-based practice is a multifaceted process and a team effort. Communication and relationship-building are key components. The practical aspects of facilitation explicated in this study validate what has been previously noted in the literature and expand what is known about facilitation process and activity. PMID:22309743

Practical Considerations Informing Teachers' Technology Integration Decisions: The Case of Tablet PCs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pareja Roblin, Natalie; Tondeur, Jo; Voogt, Joke; Bruggeman, Bram; Mathieu, Griet; van Braak, Johan

2018-01-01

The unique characteristics of tablet PCs promise important benefits for education. Yet, little is known about the rationale underlying teachers' decisions concerning their educational uses within the constraints of daily classroom practice. The current multiple case study investigated the practical considerations informing nine secondary school…

Physical Activity Promotion in General Practices of Barcelona: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puig Ribera, Anna; McKenna, Jim; Riddoch, Chris

2006-01-01

This case study aimed to generate explanations for the lack of integration of physical activity (PA) promotion in general practices of Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia. This explanatory study adopted a qualitative approach, based on three techniques; focus groups (n = 3), semi-structured (n = 25) and short individual interviews (n = 5). These…

Case Study on Codeswitching in a Japanese-English Bilingual Family

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Numadate, Jenny

2008-01-01

This paper showcases a case study documenting the intended and actual language practices of a Japanese-English bicultural family. The study focuses on a family consisting of a Japanese father, Australian mother, son and daughter living in Japan. The parents were interviewed by questionnaire to determine their intended language practices. The…

A Case Study of Classroom Management Practices and the Influence on Classroom Disruptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rusk, Robert Brian

2016-01-01

This qualitative case study explored how the classroom management practices of sampled teachers in a private school in central Oregon influenced classroom disruptions. Through the study, the researcher was able to provide insight on the differences in specific classroom management processes between teachers who had a high number of Positive…

Curriculum Change and Self-Governing Agreements: A Yukon First Nation Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewthwaite, Brian Ellis; Owen, Thomas; Doiron, Ashley

2015-01-01

Recent developments in Canada's Yukon Territory draw attention to how political changes have potential for accelerating practices in education that are responsive to Indigenous Peoples' cultural knowledge systems and practices. In this study, through the use of case study methodology, an account of the changes that have occurred in one First…

Teachers' Practices of Inquiry When Teaching Investigations: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dudu, Washington T.; Vhurumuku, Elaosi

2012-01-01

Teacher practices are essential for supporting learners in scientific inquiry practices of framing research questions, designing and conducting investigations, collecting data, and drawing conclusions. This study examines instructional practices of two Grade 11 Physical Science teachers engaged in teaching practical investigations. Data were…

How do strategic decisions and operative practices affect operating room productivity?

PubMed

Peltokorpi, Antti

2011-12-01

Surgical operating rooms are cost-intensive parts of health service production. Managing operating units efficiently is essential when hospitals and healthcare systems aim to maximize health outcomes with limited resources. Previous research about operating room management has focused on studying the effect of management practices and decisions on efficiency by utilizing mainly modeling approach or before-after analysis in single hospital case. The purpose of this research is to analyze the synergic effect of strategic decisions and operative management practices on operating room productivity and to use a multiple case study method enabling statistical hypothesis testing with empirical data. 11 hypotheses that propose connections between the use of strategic and operative practices and productivity were tested in a multi-hospital study that included 26 units. The results indicate that operative practices, such as personnel management, case scheduling and performance measurement, affect productivity more remarkably than do strategic decisions that relate to, e.g., units' size, scope or academic status. Units with different strategic positions should apply different operative practices: Focused hospital units benefit most from sophisticated case scheduling and parallel processing whereas central and ambulatory units should apply flexible working hours, incentives and multi-skilled personnel. Operating units should be more active in applying management practices which are adequate for their strategic orientation.

Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments: Four Case Studies of Water Utility Practices (2011 Final)

EPA Science Inventory

EPA has released the final report titled, Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments: Four Case Studies of Water Utility Practices. This report was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment's Global Climate Research Staff in the Office of Research and D...

Hospitals as complex adaptive systems: A case study of factors influencing priority setting practices at the hospital level in Kenya.

PubMed

Barasa, Edwine W; Molyneux, Sassy; English, Mike; Cleary, Susan

2017-02-01

There is a dearth of literature on priority setting and resource allocation (PSRA) practices in hospitals, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Using a case study approach, we examined PSRA practices in 2 public hospitals in coastal Kenya. We collected data through a combination of in-depth interviews of national level policy makers, hospital managers, and frontline practitioners in the case study hospitals (n = 72), review of documents such as hospital plans and budgets, minutes of meetings and accounting records, and non-participant observations of PSRA practices in case study hospitals over a period of 7 months. In this paper, we apply complex adaptive system (CAS) theory to examine the factors that influence PSRA practices. We found that PSRA practices in the case hospitals were influenced by, 1) inadequate financing level and poorly designed financing arrangements, 2) limited hospital autonomy and decision space, and 3) inadequate management and leadership capacity in the hospital. The case study hospitals exhibited properties of complex adaptive systems (CASs) that exist in a dynamic state with multiple interacting agents. Weaknesses in system 'hardware' (resource scarcity) and 'software' (including PSRA guidelines that reduced hospitals decision space, and poor leadership skills) led to the emergence of undesired properties. The capacity of hospitals to set priorities should be improved across these interacting aspects of the hospital organizational system. Interventions should however recognize that hospitals are CAS. Rather than rectifying isolated aspects of the system, they should endeavor to create conditions for productive emergence. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

School Technology Leadership: Artifacts in Systems of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dexter, Sara

2011-01-01

A cross-case analysis of five case studies of team-based technology leadership in middle schools with laptop programs identifies systems of practice that organize teams' distributed leadership. These cases suggest that successfully implementing a complex improvement effort warrants a team-based leadership approach, especially for an improvement…

Longitudinal study of infectious intestinal disease in the UK (IID2 study): incidence in the community and presenting to general practice

PubMed Central

Rodrigues, Laura C; Viviani, Laura; Dodds, Julie P; Evans, Meirion R; Hunter, Paul R; Gray, Jim J; Letley, Louise H; Rait, Greta; Tompkins, David S; O'Brien, Sarah J

2011-01-01

Objectives To estimate, overall and by organism, the incidence of infectious intestinal disease (IID) in the community, presenting to general practice (GP) and reported to national surveillance. Design Prospective, community cohort study and prospective study of GP presentation conducted between April 2008 and August 2009. Setting Eighty-eight GPs across the UK recruited from the Medical Research Council General Practice Research Framework and the Primary Care Research Networks. Participants 6836 participants registered with the 88 participating practices in the community study; 991 patients with UK-acquired IID presenting to one of 37 practices taking part in the GP presentation study. Main outcome measures IID rates in the community, presenting to GP and reported to national surveillance, overall and by organism; annual IID cases and GP consultations by organism. Results The overall rate of IID in the community was 274 cases per 1000 person-years (95% CI 254 to 296); the rate of GP consultations was 17.7 per 1000 person-years (95% CI 14.4 to 21.8). There were 147 community cases and 10 GP consultations for every case reported to national surveillance. Norovirus was the most common organism, with incidence rates of 47 community cases per 1000 person-years and 2.1 GP consultations per 1000 person-years. Campylobacter was the most common bacterial pathogen, with a rate of 9.3 cases per 1000 person-years in the community, and 1.3 GP consultations per 1000 person-years. We estimate that there are up to 17 million sporadic, community cases of IID and 1 million GP consultations annually in the UK. Of these, norovirus accounts for 3 million cases and 130 000 GP consultations, and Campylobacter is responsible for 500 000 cases and 80 000 GP consultations. Conclusions IID poses a substantial community and healthcare burden in the UK. Control efforts must focus particularly on reducing the burden due to Campylobacter and enteric viruses. PMID:21708822

Tangled paths: Three experienced teachers' growth in understanding during an extended science community of practice professional development effort

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, Nancy Melamed

This qualitative investigation extends the study of teacher learning within a reform-based community of practice model of professional development. This long-term, multiple case study examined three experienced teachers' transformations in thinking about science instruction. Data were collected during the three years of the Guided Inquiry supporting Multiple Literacies research project, designed to develop instructional practices informed by a socio-cultural, inquiry-based orientation. Data sources included: transcripts of semi-structured interviews collected at strategic points, the teacher's journals, initial application information, and teachers' written case studies. Using an interpretive case study approach, tenets of the teachers' orientations were identified through a recursive process. Results are organized to reflect two principles that were integral to the design of the professional development community. The first principle describes changes in teachers' orientations about the goals and characteristics of science instruction in the elementary grades. The second describes changes about teachers' knowledge about themselves as learners and the influence of this knowledge on their thinking about science instruction and student learning. Illustrative findings indicate that: (a) it is possible for teachers' language regarding conceptions of their practice to change with only superficial change in their orientations, (b) teachers can hold dualistic ways of thinking about their practice, (c) in some cases, teachers use a significant amount of autobiography about their own learning to explain their practice; over time, this was replaced with warrants using the language that developed within the professional development community, and (d) long-term case studies revealed differences in orientations that emerged and were refined over time. These findings provide strong support for communities of practice as a model of professional development and hold implications for advancing teacher learning.

Issues of Noncompliance. NCABR 2017 | Science Inventory ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This presentation is a case study to be presented at an animal welfare conference. The purpose of the case study is to allow other animal welfare professionals a chance to work through and discuss an potential noncompliance situation. It is for practice, and to encourage people to learn from each other. Members of oversight organizations will be present to offer their perspectives on the case study as well. The purpose of this case study is to help educate other members of the animal welfare profession. This presentation is a case study to be presented at an animal welfare conference. The purpose of the case study is to allow other animal welfare professionals a chance to work through and discuss an potential noncompliance situation. It is for practice, and to encourage people to learn from each other.

Conducting an Introductory Biology Course in an Active Learning Classroom: A Case Study of an Experienced Faculty Member

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Langley, David; Guzey, S. Selcen

2014-01-01

A case study is described that examines the beliefs and practices of a university instructor who teaches regularly in an active learning classroom. His perspective provides insights into the pedagogical practices that drive his success in these learning spaces.

A Qualitative Case Study Exploring Best Practices for Accommodating Students with Written Expressive Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samuels, Cecelia

2013-01-01

A qualitative case study was conducted to explore best practices for accommodating elementary, middle, and high school students with written expressive disorders. Students with disorders of written expression experience significant impairments in writing for their age, intelligence, and educational experience. Accommodations are crucial…

Identity Statuses in Upper-Division Physics Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irving, Paul W.; Sayre, Eleanor C.

2016-01-01

We use the theories of identity statuses and communities of practice to describe three different case studies of students finding their paths through undergraduate physics and developing a physics subject-specific identity. Each case study demonstrates a unique path that reinforces the link between the theories of communities of practice and…

Using Performance Analysis for Training in an Organization Implementing ISO-9000 Manufacturing Practices: A Case Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kunneman, Dale E.; Sleezer, Catherine M.

2000-01-01

This case study examines the application of the Performance Analysis for Training (PAT) Model in an organization that was implementing ISO-9000 (International Standards Organization) processes for manufacturing practices. Discusses the interaction of organization characteristics, decision maker characteristics, and analyst characteristics to…

Multiple Images, Common Threads. Case Studies of Good Practice in Adult Community Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bradshaw, Delia

This document presents 10 case studies of adult community education programs (ACE) in the state of Victoria, Australia, in the mid 1990s, that were identified as exemplifying the following principles of good practice in ACE: expansiveness, integration, responsiveness, innovation, belonging, explicitness, autonomy, accessibility, synthesis, and…

Co-Teaching: The Importance of Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Greg

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative case study was to determine the impact co-teaching professional development has had on teacher attitude and classroom practices in a secondary, middle school setting. Methodology: This qualitative case study design included the use of best practice checklists and personal interviews. Educators from a middle…

Implementation of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) of Mathematics Teachers in Teaching Practice: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maryono; Sutawidjaja, Akbar; Subanji; Irawati, Santi

2017-01-01

This study aims to describe the implementation of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of mathematics teachers in the teaching practice of the material system of linear equations of two variables (SLETV). The approach used is a qualitative case study. The main instrument is the researchers themselves and the supporting instruments is a vignette…

Informal Music Making in Studio Music Instruction: A Canadian Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brook, Julia; Upitis, Rena; Varela, Wynnpaul

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of how one classically trained musician adapted his pedagogical practices to accommodate the needs and interests of his students. A case-study methodology was employed to explore the perceptions and practices of this teacher, and data were collected over a two-year period through…

Prevalence of methicillin-resistant staphylococci in canine pyoderma cases in primary care veterinary practices in Canada: A preliminary study.

PubMed

Joffe, Daniel; Goulding, Fiona; Langelier, Ken; Magyar, Gabor; McCurdy, Les; Milstein, Moe; Nielsen, Kia; Villemaire, Stephanie

2015-10-01

Pyoderma in dogs is most commonly caused by Staphylococcus spp., and significant emergence of methicillin resistance in staphylococcal pyoderma has been reported. This preliminary study of the prevalence of methicillin resistance in canine pyoderma cases in Canadian primary care veterinary practices revealed that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus spp. were present in 12.1% of 149 staphylococcal positive skin culture cases.

Management Design Theories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pries-Heje, Jan; Baskerville, Richard L.

This paper elaborates a design science approach for management planning anchored to the concept of a management design theory. Unlike the notions of design theories arising from information systems, management design theories can appear as a system of technological rules, much as a system of hypotheses or propositions can embody scientific theories. The paper illus trates this form of management design theories with three grounded cases. These grounded cases include a software process improvement study, a user involvement study, and an organizational change study. Collectively these studies demonstrate how design theories founded on technological rules can not only improve the design of information systems, but that these concepts have great practical value for improving the framing of strategic organi zational design decisions about such systems. Each case is either grounded in an empirical sense, that is to say, actual practice, or it is grounded to practices described extensively in the practical literature. Such design theories will help managers more easily approach complex, strategic decisions.

The School Superintendent: Theory, Practice, and Cases. Second Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kowalski, Theodore J.

2005-01-01

Now in its Second Edition, "The School Superintendent: Theory, Practice, and Cases," provides reflective summaries, pertinent questions, and case studies at the end of each chapter to encourage the reader to engage in reflection by linking content with personal experiences. The text provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the school…

Impoverishment of practice: analysis of effects of economic discourses in home care case management practice.

PubMed

Ceci, Christine

2006-03-01

Home care is a health sector under increasing pressure. Demand is often said to be outstripping capacity, with constant change and retrenchment distinguishing features of the current context. This paper takes a reading of the current conditions of home care using data gathered during a field study of home care case management practices conducted in 2004. As economic discourses become increasingly influential in determining responses to client situations, case managers (and their managers) find themselves with limited capacity to exercise control over their practices. A growing gap between professionally influenced discourses--those presumably intended to guide practice--and organizational priorities creates a dissonance for case managers as the political-ethical dimensions of their practices are displaced by budget "realities." For front-line workers, such displacement cannot be sustained in their face-to-face encounters with clients, leading to a growing sense of frustration and powerlessness among these highly skilled practitioners.

Enhancing the hermeneutic single-case efficacy design: Bridging the research-practice gap.

PubMed

Wall, Jessie M; Kwee, Janelle L; Hu, Monica; McDonald, Marvin J

2017-09-01

Systematic case study designs are emerging as alternative paradigm strategies for psychotherapy and social science research. Through enhanced sensitivity to context, these designs examine idiographic profiles of causal processes. We specifically advocate the use of the hermeneutic single-case efficacy design (HSCED). HSCED has recently been used to investigate the efficacy of an existing therapy with a new population (Observed and Experiential Integration for athlete performance barriers) and an emerging therapy (Lifespan Integration Therapy). We describe innovations in HSCED that were implemented for these studies. These developments include (a) integrating psychotherapists as case developers, (b) incorporating multiple cases in one investigation, and (c) tailoring the repertoire of assessment tools. These extensions strategically incorporated principles of contextual paradigms in HSCED, thus complementing single-case designs that neglect idiographic contexts. We discuss recommendations for using HSCED in practice-based research, highlighting its potential as a bridge to address the research-practice gap.

Different paths to high-quality care: three archetypes of top-performing practice sites.

PubMed

Feifer, Chris; Nemeth, Lynne; Nietert, Paul J; Wessell, Andrea M; Jenkins, Ruth G; Roylance, Loraine; Ornstein, Steven M

2007-01-01

Primary care practices use different approaches in their quest for high-quality care. Previous work in the Practice Partner Research Network (PPRNet) found that improved outcomes are associated with strategies to prioritize performance, involve staff, redesign elements of the delivery system, make patients active partners in guideline adherence, and use tools embedded in the electronic medical record. The aim of this study was to examine variations in the adoption of improvements among sites achieving the best outcomes. This study used an observational case study design. A practice-level measure of adherence to clinical guidelines was used to identify the highest performing practices in a network of internal and family medicine practices participating in a national demonstration project. We analyzed qualitative and quantitative information derived from project documents, field notes, and evaluation questionnaires to develop and compare case studies. Nine cases are described. All use many of the same improvement strategies. Differences in the way improvements are organized define 3 distinct archetypes: the Technophiles, the Motivated Team, and the Care Enterprise. There is no single approach that explains the superior performance of high-performing practices, though each has adopted variations of PPRNet's improvement model. Practices will vary in their path to high-quality care. The archetypes could prove to be a useful guide to other practices selecting an overall quality improvement approach.

Practices of Management Development: A Malaysian Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Law, Kian Aun

2008-01-01

This paper deals with a case study of Management Development (MD) practices at Malaysian Assurance Alliance (MAA). The aim of this research is to investigate how a large Malaysian insurance corporation developed and integrated MD initiatives with current organizational needs and tasks. Attempts were made to map and categorize the MD initiatives…

Epistemological Syncretism in a Biology Classroom: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, William D.; Park, Soonhye

2011-01-01

In teaching science, the beliefs of teachers may come into conflict and inhibit the implementation of reformed teaching practice. An experienced biology teacher, Mr. Hobbs, was found to have two different sets of epistemological beliefs while his classroom practice was predominantly teacher-centered. A case study was then performed in order to…

A Case Study Examination of Best Practices of Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akopoff, Tanya M.

2010-01-01

A current trend in education is that small teacher groups, called professional learning communities (PLC), are being advocated as a tool to help teachers reach struggling students. Educators planning to use PLC as an intervention strategy can benefit from research-based information about PLC best practices. This multiple case study addressed the…

The Practice of Generative Governance: A Case Study Exploring Board Learning in Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beck, Debra L. B.

2009-01-01

This case study drew upon theories of practice--specifically, situated and sociocultural learning theories--to describe how learning occurs in the routine activities of preparing for, and participating in, nonprofit board meetings. This research had a two-fold purpose: to understand nonprofit board learning within the context of their primary…

Successful Mathematics Lessons in Remote Communities: A Case Study of Balargo

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jorgensen, Robyn

2015-01-01

This paper describes the lesson practices at one very remote school that has been highly successful in numeracy. Drawing on a significant body of diverse research that promotes quality teaching and learning, this case study describes the features of the practice that have been implemented across the school. Teachers' voices provide both…

Learning "Rules" of Practice within the Context of the Practicum Triad: A Case Study of Learning to Teach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chalies, Sebastien; Escalie, Guillaume; Stefano, Bertone; Clarke, Anthony

2012-01-01

This case study sought to determine the professional development circumstances in which a preservice teacher learned rules of practice (Wittgenstein, 1996) on practicum while interacting with a cooperating teacher and university supervisor. Borrowing from a theoretical conceptualization of teacher professional development based on the postulates…

Creating Significant Learning Experiences through Civic Engagement: Practical Strategies for Community- Engaged Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trudeau, Dan; Kruse, Tina P.

2014-01-01

This article examines two case studies that describe different ways of working with community partners to create civic engagement experiences in undergraduate education. Analysis of the case studies yields guidance about practical decisions involved in planning, designing, and executing pedagogy that uses engagement to generate what Fink calls…

Researching Language Teacher Cognition and Practice: International Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnard, Roger, Ed.; Burns, Anne, Ed.

2012-01-01

This book presents a novel approach to discussing how to research language teacher cognition and practice. An introductory chapter by the editors and an overview of the research field by Simon Borg precede eight case studies written by new researchers, each of which focuses on one approach to collecting data. These approaches range from…

Supporting English Language Learners in the Science Classroom through Critical Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alegria, Adelina

2014-01-01

This article presents an exploratory case study of a teacher's knowledge, understanding, and practice of critical pedagogy in a sheltered instruction high school biology classroom. This case study relied on the use of fieldnotes, videotape recordings, interviews, and transcripts to showcase the practices and activities taking place in the…

Recognising and Validating Outcomes of Non-Accredited Learning: A Practical Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenwood, Maggie, Ed.; Hayes, Amanda, Ed.; Turner, Cheryl, Ed.; Vorhaus, John, Ed.

A group of adult educators in England conducted seven case studies to identify strategies for recognizing adult students' learning progress in nonaccredited programs. The case studies identified the following elements of good practice in the process of recording and validating achievement: (1) initial identification of learning objectives; (2)…

Changing Mindsets: A Case Study of a Community of Practice between Charter and Traditional Public School Leaders in the School Leaders Network

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ponce, Manuel N., Jr.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the essential elements of a community of practice intended to increase communication and collaboration between traditional public and charter school leaders. Members of the Los Angeles Cohort of the School Leaders Network participated in this study. This case study triangulated observation, interview, and…

Using case study within a sequential explanatory design to evaluate the impact of specialist and advanced practice roles on clinical outcomes: the SCAPE study.

PubMed

Lalor, Joan G; Casey, Dympna; Elliott, Naomi; Coyne, Imelda; Comiskey, Catherine; Higgins, Agnes; Murphy, Kathy; Devane, Declan; Begley, Cecily

2013-04-08

The role of the clinical nurse/midwife specialist and advanced nurse/midwife practitioner is complex not least because of the diversity in how the roles are operationalised across health settings and within multidisciplinary teams. This aim of this paper is to use The SCAPE Study: Specialist Clinical and Advanced Practitioner Evaluation in Ireland to illustrate how case study was used to strengthen a Sequential Explanatory Design. In Phase 1, clinicians identified indicators of specialist and advanced practice which were then used to guide the instrumental case study design which formed the second phase of the larger study. Phase 2 used matched case studies to evaluate the effectiveness of specialist and advanced practitioners on clinical outcomes for service users. Data were collected through observation, documentary analysis, and interviews. Observations were made of 23 Clinical Specialists or Advanced Practitioners, and 23 matched clinicians in similar matched non-postholding sites, while they delivered care. Forty-one service users, 41 clinicians, and 23 Directors of Nursing or Midwifery were interviewed, and 279 service users completed a survey based on the components of CS and AP practice identified in Phase 1. A coding framework, and the generation of cross tabulation matrices in NVivo, was used to make explicit how the outcome measures were confirmed and validated from multiple sources. This strengthened the potential to examine single cases that seemed 'different', and allowed for cases to be redefined. Phase 3 involved interviews with policy-makers to set the findings in context. Case study is a powerful research strategy to use within sequential explanatory mixed method designs, and adds completeness to the exploration of complex issues in clinical practice. The design is flexible, allowing the use of multiple data collection methods from both qualitative and quantitative paradigms. Multiple approaches to data collection are needed to evaluate the impact of complex roles and interventions in health care outcomes and service delivery. Case study design is an appropriate methodology to use when study outcomes relate to clinical practice.

Do as We Do and Not as We Say: Teacher Educators Supporting Student Teachers to Learn on Teaching Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chambers, Fiona C.; Armour, Kathleen M.

2011-01-01

This paper reports data from a larger study into the ways in which Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students engaged in professional learning during teaching practice (TP) in Ireland. The study comprised one umbrella case study of Greendale University, schools and PETE students that consisted of five individual cases: tetrads of PETE…

A Collective Case Study of the Influence of Teachers' Beliefs and Knowledge on Error-Handling Practices during Class Discussion of Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bray, Wendy S.

2011-01-01

This collective case study examines the influence of 4 third-grade teachers' beliefs and knowledge on their error-handling practices during class discussion of mathematics. Study findings suggest that, although teachers' ways of handling student errors during class discussion of mathematics are clearly linked to both teacher beliefs and teacher…

Teaching Excellence and Innovative Practices: A Case Study of National Awardee Teachers of India

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sengupta, Aparajita; Tyagi, Harish Kumar

2016-01-01

Aim: The study intended to identify the contributions of the National awardee teachers to the teaching learning process through their teaching excellence and innovative practices which can act as exemplary model for the entire teaching community. Method: Attempts has been made to carry out a qualitative study where two selected cases are based on…

A Case Study of E-Tutors' Teaching Practice: Does Technology Drive Pedagogy?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chuang, Hsueh-Hua

2013-01-01

This article presents a case study of e-tutoring teaching practice during a 20-week e-tutoring program aimed at improving the English proficiency of targeted students. The study revealed what and why certain online tools were used by e-tutors and investigated how different technological proficiency and face-to-face (f2f) teaching experience shaped…

The Social Integration of Employees with Disabilities in the Workplace: An Explanatory Case Study of Supervisors' Current Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Angotta, Jill E.

2013-01-01

This study is an exploratory case study on supervisors' and front line managers' current practices towards the promotion of the socialization of employees with disabilities with their non-disabled peers. The researcher interviewed eight participants, four men and four women, purposefully selected from Connecticut and Indiana in person or over the…

Integrating Vocational and General Education: A Rudolf Steiner School. Case Study of the Hibernia School, Herne, Federal Republic of Germany. UIE Case Studies 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rist, Georg; Schneider, Peter

This study describes and analyzes the Hibernia School where the aim of curriculum articulation in its essential vertical and horizontal dimensions has been successfully converted into actual practice. (Curriculum articulation means the equal representation and integration of three major components--artistic, practical, and academic learning.)…

Exploring Strategies of Teaching and Classroom Practices in Response to Challenges of Inclusion in a Thai School: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaur, Amrita; Noman, Mohammad; Awang-Hashim, Rosna

2016-01-01

The shift from special schools towards inclusive education is becoming increasingly prevalent across education systems around the world. However, the challenges this shift brings remain critical for developing nations where there is a huge chasm between policies and practices. This study used instrumental case study design to examine how a general…

Insights into Inclusive Education through a Small Finnish Case Study of an Inclusive School Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarr, Jane Mary; Tsokova, Diana; Takkunen, Ulla-Maija

2012-01-01

This study seeks to present data and discussion arising from a case study of a school in Finland renowned for its practice in the inclusion of learners with additional support requirements due to cognitive and physical disabilities. It aims to establish how the school staff understand their practice with inclusion through day-to-day professional…

Multilingual Language and Literacy Practices and Social Identities in Sunni Madrassahs in Mauritius: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owodally, Ambarin Mooznah Auleear

2011-01-01

This study analyzes the connections among multilingual language practices, multilingual literacy practices, and social identities in two Sunni madrassahs in Mauritius. The study is framed by sociolinguistic and poststructuralist perspectives on language and identity, and social practice views of literacy. Data collection and analysis involved…

Women, microcredit and family planning practices: a case study from rural Ghana.

PubMed

Norwood, Carolette

2011-01-01

This paper examines the influence of informal banking club participation on family planning practices in rural Ghana. Research from Asia suggests that family planning practices are improved by club participation. This study examines this thesis in an African context, using rural Ghana as a case study. A sample of 204 women (19 years and older) was drawn from Abokobi village, Ghana. Multivariate analyses of direct, mediating and moderating effects of women’s demographic background characteristics, membership status and length, and women’s empowerment status as predictors of family planning practices are assessed. Findings suggest that club membership and membership length is not associated with family planning practices; however, age, education level, number of children and empowerment status are.

Maintenance and Safety Practices of Escalator in Commercial Buildings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Afida Isnaini Janipha, Nurul; Nur Aina Syed Alwee, Sharifah; Ariff, Raihan Mohd; Ismail, Faridah

2018-02-01

The escalator is very crucial to transport a person from one place to another. Nevertheless, there are many cases recorded the accidents in relation to escalator. These may occur due to lack of maintenance which leads to systems breakdown, poor safety practices, wear and tear, users’ negligence and others. Thus, proper maintenance systems need to be improvised to prevent and reduce escalator accident in future. This research was aimed to determine the escalator maintenance activities and safety practices in a commercial building. Three case studies were selected within Selangor area. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for collecting data from these three case studies. To achieve the aim of this research, the study was carried out on the maintenance activities, safety practices and cost related to escalator maintenance. As one of the important means of access in building, it is very crucial to increase effectiveness of escalator particularly in commercial building. It is expected that readers will get clear information on the maintenance activities and safety practices of escalator in commercial building.

Leadership Effectiveness and Instructional Supervision: The Case of the Failing Twin

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bloom, Collette Madeleine

2011-01-01

This case study examines the leadership practices of an effective versus an ineffective elementary school principal. The background of this case involves two fourth grade teachers, each teaching one of a set of identical twins. Discrepancies in teaching and grading practices result in one twin failing. The decision-making choices of the principal…

Successful IT Start-Ups' HRD Practices: Four Cases in South Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Yonjoo; McLean, Gary N.

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify South Korea's successful IT start-ups' HRD practices to determine whether there are steps that must be taken to maintain their HRD expertise for continued growth. Design/methodology/approach: A case study approach employing four fast-growing IT start-up cases was undertaken based on semi-structured…

Challenging evidence-based decision-making: a hypothetical case study about return to work.

PubMed

Aas, Randi W; Alexanderson, Kristina

2012-03-01

A hypothetical case study about return to work was used to explore the process of translating research into practice. The method involved constructing a case study derived from the characteristics of a typical, sick-listed employee with non-specific low back pain in Norway. Next, the five-step evidence-based process, including the Patient, Intervention, Co-Interventions and Outcome framework (PICO), was applied to the case study. An inductive analysis produced 10 technical and more fundamental challenges to incorporate research into intervention decisions for an individual with comorbidity. A more dynamic, interactive approach to the evidence-based practice process is proposed. It is recommended that this plus the 10 challenges are validated with real life cases, as the hypothetical case study may not be replicable. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Financial viability, benefits and challenges of employing a nurse practitioner in general practice.

PubMed

Helms, Christopher; Crookes, Jo; Bailey, David

2015-04-01

This case study examines the financial viability, benefits and challenges of employing a primary healthcare (PHC) nurse practitioner (NP) in a bulk-billing healthcare cooperative in the Australian Capital Territory. There are few empirical case reports in the Australian literature that demonstrate financial sustainability of this type of healthcare professional in primary healthcare. This case study demonstrates that the costs of employing a PHC-NP in general practice are offset by direct and indirect Medicare billings generated by the PHC-NP, resulting in a cost-neutral healthcare practitioner. The success of this model relies on bidirectional collaborative working relationships amongst general practitioners and NPs. PHC-NPs should have a generalist scope of practice and specialist expertise in order to maximise their utility within the general practice environment.

Personalizing and Contextualizing Multimedia Case Methods in University-based Teacher Education: An Important Modification for Promoting Technological Design in School Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bencze, Larry; Hewitt, Jim; Pedretti, Erminia

2009-01-01

Results of various studies suggest that multimedia ‘case methods’ (activities associated with case documentaries) have many benefits in university-based teacher education contexts. They can, for example, help to ‘bridge the gap’ between perspectives and practices held by academic teacher educators and those held by student-teachers - who may adhere to perspectives and practices commonly supported in schools. On the other hand, some studies, along with theoretical arguments, suggest that there are limits to the effectiveness of multimedia case methods - because, for example, they can never fully represent realities of teaching and learning in schools. Furthermore, often missing from multimedia case methods is the student-teacher in the role of teacher. To address these concerns, we modified an existing multimedia case method by associating it with a special practice teaching situation in a school context. Qualitative data analyzed using constant comparative methods suggest that student-teachers engaged in this modified multimedia case method developed relatively deep commitments to encouraging students to conduct technology design projects - a non-traditional practice in school science. Factors that appeared to influence development of this motivation included student-teachers’ pre-instructional perspectives about science and the personalization and contextualization inherent to the modified multimedia case method.

Communicating with scientific graphics: A descriptive inquiry into non-ideal normativity.

PubMed

Sheredos, Benjamin

2017-06-01

Scientists' graphical practices have recently become a target of inquiry in the philosophy of science, and in the cognitive sciences. Here I supplement our understanding of graphical practices via a case study of how researchers crafted the graphics for scientific publication in the field of circadian biology. The case highlights social aspects of graphical production which have gone understudied - especially concerning the negotiation of publication. I argue that it also supports a challenge to the claim that empirically-informed "cognitive design principles" offer an apt understanding of the norms of success which govern good scientific graphic design to communicate data and hypotheses to other experts. In this respect, the case-study also illustrates how "descriptive" studies of scientific practice can connect with normative issues in philosophy of science, thereby addressing a central concern in recent discussions of practice-oriented philosophy of science. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Case management: developing practice through action research.

PubMed

Smith, Annetta; Mackay, Seonaid; McCulloch, Kathleen

2013-09-01

This article is a report of an action research study carried out with community nurses to help develop case management within their practice. Using action research principles, nurses reviewed and analysed their current practice and developed recommendations for further embedding case management as a means of supporting patients with complex care needs in their own homes. Findings indicate that a number of factors can influence the community nurse's ability to implement case management. These factors include approaches to case finding, availability of resources and interprofessional working. Important considerations for nurses were the influence of the context of care, the geographical location and the health needs of the local patient population, which meant that case management may need to be adapted to meet local circumstances.

The Complexities of Practical Work in Physics Teaching: A Case Study of Three Secondary Schools in Sierra Leone.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keister, Jonathan N.

The purpose of this study was to document and analyze teachers' and students' activities during physics practicals in order to gain critical insights into why students did not acquire the expected practical skills and how theory and practice interacted in the context of teaching for the practical examination in physics. The study involves three…

Case study of an anxious child with extensive caries treated in general dental practice: financial viability under the terms of the UK National Health Service.

PubMed

Shelley, A; Mackie, I

2001-10-01

This case study describes the management of Callum, an anxious 7-year-old boy with extensive caries. Callum's dental care was carried out in a general dental practice in the North of England under the terms of the National Health Service. A preventive programme was carried out in conjunction with the restorative philosophy according to guidelines published by the Dental Practice Board in 1997.

Best Practices for Evaluating the Capability of Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) Techniques for Damage Characterization (Post-Print)

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-02-10

a wide range of part, environmental and damage conditions. Best practices of using models are presented for both an eddy current NDE sizing and...to assess the reliability of NDE and SHM characterization capability. Best practices of using models are presented for both an eddy current NDE... EDDY CURRENT NDE CASE STUDY An eddy current crack sizing case study is presented to highlight examples of some of these complex characteristics of

Shaping the Right to Education for Roma Children: A Case Study of Present Practices in Ghent, Belgium

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hemelsoet, Elias

2015-01-01

Western European cities are increasingly confronted with Roma immigrants. Societal changes associated with this phenomenon create new challenges for schools. Using a case study, this article sheds light on present practices that shape the right to education for Roma children. Three principal success factors are distinguished: boundary-blurring…

An Ethnographic-Case Study of Beliefs, Context Factors, and Practices of Teachers Integrating Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Angers, Julie; Machtmes, Krisanna

2005-01-01

This ethnographic-case study explored the beliefs, context factors, and practices of three middle school exemplary teachers that led to a technology-enriched curriculum. Findings suggest that these middle school teachers believe technology is a tool that adds value to lessons and to students learning and motivation. Due to a personal interest in…

Project-Based Learning in Education: Integrating Business Needs and Student Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Yonjoo; Brown, Catherine

2013-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this case study was to investigate how project-based learning (PBL) is being practiced in Columbus Signature Academy (CSA), a high school located in Columbus, Indiana, USA. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used the case study method to provide qualitative details about CSA's use of PBL that is being practiced in a…

Effective Practices in Continuing Professional Development: Lessons from Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Earley, Peter; Porritt, Vivienne

2009-01-01

This book presents case studies of schools' journeys towards effective CPD practice as part of a TDA national project. It tells the story of the goals set and achieved, and the challenges and successes along the way. Each case study makes specific reference to the nine factors or approaches to CPD identified in the book as underpinning effective…

Distance Learning Engineering Students Languish under Project-Based Learning, but Thrive in Case Studies and Practical Workshops

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swart, Arthur James

2016-01-01

The International Engineering Alliance lists 12 important graduate attributes that students must demonstrate during their higher educational career. One of these important graduate attributes is the ability to solve problems, which can be demonstrated by the use of project-based learning, case studies, and practical workshops. The purpose of this…

Relational Underpinnings and Professionality--A Case Study of a Teacher's Practices Involving Students with Experiences of School Failure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frelin, Anneli

2015-01-01

Relational features of the educational environment, such as positive teacher-student relationships, are important for students' academic success. This case study explores the relational practices of a teacher who negotiates educational relationships with students who have a history of school failure. "Gunilla", a secondary school teacher…

STEAM Enacted: A Case Study of a Middle School Teacher Implementing STEAM Instructional Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herro, Danielle; Quigley, Cassie

2016-01-01

This paper examines the implementation practices of a 6th grade middle school teacher enacting STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) teaching in his classroom after participating in a 45-hour STEAM professional development. Case study is used to detail the process, successes, and challenges. Project-based learning, technology…

Translanguaging Practices at a Bilingual University: A Case Study of a Science Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazak, Catherine M.; Herbas-Donoso, Claudia

2015-01-01

The objective of this ethnographic case study is to describe in detail one professor's translanguaging practices in an undergraduate science course at an officially bilingual university. The data-set is comprised of ethnographic field notes of 11 observed classes, audio recordings of those classes, an interview with the professor, and artifacts…

Case study and case-based research in emergency nursing and care: Theoretical foundations and practical application in paramedic pre-hospital clinical judgment and decision-making of patients with mental illness.

PubMed

Shaban, Ramon Z; Considine, Julie; Fry, Margaret; Curtis, Kate

2017-02-01

Generating knowledge through quality research is fundamental to the advancement of professional practice in emergency nursing and care. There are multiple paradigms, designs and methods available to researchers to respond to challenges in clinical practice. Systematic reviews, randomised control trials and other forms of experimental research are deemed the gold standard of evidence, but there are comparatively few such trials in emergency care. In some instances it is not possible or appropriate to undertake experimental research. When exploring new or emerging problems where there is limited evidence available, non-experimental methods are required and appropriate. This paper provides the theoretical foundations and an exemplar of the use of case study and case-based research to explore a new and emerging problem in the context of emergency care. It examines pre-hospital clinical judgement and decision-making of mental illness by paramedics. Using an exemplar the paper explores the theoretical foundations and conceptual frameworks of case study, it explains how cases are defined and the role researcher in this form of inquiry, it details important principles and the procedures for data gathering and analysis, and it demonstrates techniques to enhance trustworthiness and credibility of the research. Moreover, it provides theoretically and practical insights into using case study in emergency care. Copyright © 2017 College of Emergency Nursing Australasia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Utilizing a 'systems' approach to improve the management of waste from healthcare facilities: best practice case studies from England and Wales.

PubMed

Tudor, Terry L; Woolridge, Anne C; Bates, Margaret P; Phillips, Paul S; Butler, Sharon; Jones, Keith

2008-06-01

Changes in environmental legislation and standards governing healthcare waste, such as the Hazardous Waste Regulations are expected to have a significant impact on healthcare waste quantities and costs in England and Wales. This paper presents findings from two award winning case study organizations, the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust and the Cornwall NHS Trust on 'systems' they have employed for minimizing waste. The results suggest the need for the development and implementation of a holistic range of systems in order to develop best practice, including waste minimization strategies, key performance indicators, and staff training and awareness. The implications for the sharing of best practice from the two case studies are also discussed.

Beyond Clinical Case Studies in Psychoanalysis: A Review of Psychoanalytic Empirical Single Case Studies Published in ISI-Ranked Journals.

PubMed

Meganck, Reitske; Inslegers, Ruth; Krivzov, Juri; Notaerts, Liza

2017-01-01

Single case studies are at the origin of both theory development and research in the field of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. While clinical case studies are the hallmark of psychoanalytic theory and practice, their scientific value has been strongly criticized. To address problems with the subjective bias of retrospective therapist reports and uncontrollability of clinical case studies, systematic approaches to investigate psychotherapy process and outcome at the level of the single case have been developed. Such empirical case studies are also able to bridge the famous gap between academic research and clinical practice as they provide clinically relevant insights into how psychotherapy works. This study presents a review of psychoanalytic empirical case studies published in ISI-ranked journals and maps the characteristics of the study, therapist, patient en therapies that are investigated. Empirical case studies increased in quantity and quality (amount of information and systematization) over time. While future studies could pay more attention to providing contextual information on therapist characteristics and informed consent considerations, the available literature provides a basis to conduct meta-studies of single cases and as such contribute to knowledge aggregation.

Beyond Clinical Case Studies in Psychoanalysis: A Review of Psychoanalytic Empirical Single Case Studies Published in ISI-Ranked Journals

PubMed Central

Meganck, Reitske; Inslegers, Ruth; Krivzov, Juri; Notaerts, Liza

2017-01-01

Single case studies are at the origin of both theory development and research in the field of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. While clinical case studies are the hallmark of psychoanalytic theory and practice, their scientific value has been strongly criticized. To address problems with the subjective bias of retrospective therapist reports and uncontrollability of clinical case studies, systematic approaches to investigate psychotherapy process and outcome at the level of the single case have been developed. Such empirical case studies are also able to bridge the famous gap between academic research and clinical practice as they provide clinically relevant insights into how psychotherapy works. This study presents a review of psychoanalytic empirical case studies published in ISI-ranked journals and maps the characteristics of the study, therapist, patient en therapies that are investigated. Empirical case studies increased in quantity and quality (amount of information and systematization) over time. While future studies could pay more attention to providing contextual information on therapist characteristics and informed consent considerations, the available literature provides a basis to conduct meta-studies of single cases and as such contribute to knowledge aggregation. PMID:29046660

A Case Study of a Male School Principal's Leadership Practices: An Exploration of Emotion & the Ethic of Care

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Myers, Edward L.

2013-01-01

This qualitative single-site case study examined the philosophy, decisions, and behaviors of a particular male school principal who subscribed to a form of care-based leadership practice. A Pennsylvania high school principal with a distinct leadership philosophy centered on the ethic of care was chosen to participate in this study. The purpose of…

Pivots - A Bottom-Up Approach to Enhance Resilience

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-01

similar to a business incubator) to provide entrepreneurs with tools and resources to withstand disaster. Case studies and best practices identify...Salve Regina University, 2013 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN SECURITY STUDIES ...business incubator) to provide entrepreneurs with tools and resources to withstand disaster. Case studies and best practices identify and inform models of

"The Eyes of the Power Company": Workplace Information Practices of a Vault Inspector

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veinot, Tiffany C.

2007-01-01

To date, LIS studies of workplace information practices have primarily focused on occupations that require a university education, and, consequently, little is known about the information practices of blue-collar workers. This study uses a qualitative case study approach to examine the workplace information practices of a blue-collar worker--a…

Finite-data-size study on practical universal blind quantum computation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Qiang; Li, Qiong

2018-07-01

The universal blind quantum computation with weak coherent pulses protocol is a practical scheme to allow a client to delegate a computation to a remote server while the computation hidden. However, in the practical protocol, a finite data size will influence the preparation efficiency in the remote blind qubit state preparation (RBSP). In this paper, a modified RBSP protocol with two decoy states is studied in the finite data size. The issue of its statistical fluctuations is analyzed thoroughly. The theoretical analysis and simulation results show that two-decoy-state case with statistical fluctuation is closer to the asymptotic case than the one-decoy-state case with statistical fluctuation. Particularly, the two-decoy-state protocol can achieve a longer communication distance than the one-decoy-state case in this statistical fluctuation situation.

Determinants in the development of advanced nursing practice: a case study of primary-care settings in Hong Kong.

PubMed

Twinn, Sheila; Thompson, David R; Lopez, Violeta; Lee, Diana T F; Shiu, Ann T Y

2005-01-01

Different factors have been shown to influence the development of models of advanced nursing practice (ANP) in primary-care settings. Although ANP is being developed in hospitals in Hong Kong, China, it remains undeveloped in primary care and little is known about the factors determining the development of such a model. The aims of the present study were to investigate the contribution of different models of nursing practice to the care provided in primary-care settings in Hong Kong, and to examine the determinants influencing the development of a model of ANP in such settings. A multiple case study design was selected using both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Sampling methods reflected the population groups and stage of the case study. Sampling included a total population of 41 nurses from whom a secondary volunteer sample was drawn for face-to-face interviews. In each case study, a convenience sample of 70 patients were recruited, from whom 10 were selected purposively for a semi-structured telephone interview. An opportunistic sample of healthcare professionals was also selected. The within-case and cross-case analysis demonstrated four major determinants influencing the development of ANP: (1) current models of nursing practice; (2) the use of skills mix; (3) the perceived contribution of ANP to patient care; and (4) patients' expectations of care. The level of autonomy of individual nurses was considered particularly important. These determinants were used to develop a model of ANP for a primary-care setting. In conclusion, although the findings highlight the complexity determining the development and implementation of ANP in primary care, the proposed model suggests that definitions of advanced practice are appropriate to a range of practice models and cultural settings. However, the findings highlight the importance of assessing the effectiveness of such models in terms of cost and long-term patient outcomes.

Online Learning and Teaching with Technology: Case Studies, Experience and Practice. Case Studies of Teaching in Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, David, Ed.; Walker, Rob, Ed.; Webb, Graham, Ed.

This book contains case studies that look at using technology in a wide range of situations, from fully online courses to more traditional face-to-face settings. The case studies deal with issues related to student interaction, teaching and assessment, planning and development, and policy. The following case studies are included: (1) "Flame…

Find a Physician from the Society for Vascular Medicine

MedlinePlus

... by SVM_tweets About SVM Event Calendar Practice Tools Case Study Education Journal Scientific Sessions Website FAQ Copyright © ... Choosing Wisely DVT Toolkit A-Fib Decision Making Tool Job Bank Case Study Current Case Case Archive Submission Guidelines Education ...

A case study on modeling and independent practice cycles in teaching beginning science inquiry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadeghpour-Kramer, Margaret Ann Plattenberger

With increasing pressure to produce high standardized test scores, school systems will be looking for the surest ways to increase scores. Decision makers uninformed about the value of inquiry science may recommend more direct teaching methods and curricula in the hope that students will more quickly accumulate factual information for high test scores. This researcher and other proponents of inquiry science suggest that the best preparation for any test is the ability to use all available information and problem solving skills to think through to a solution. This study proposes to test the theory that inquiry problem solving skills need to be modeled and practiced in increasingly independent situations to be learned. Students tend to copy what they have been led to believe is correct, and to avoid continued copying, their skills must be applied in new situations requiring independent practice and improvement. This study follows ten sixth grade students, selected for maximum variation, as they participate in a series of five cycles of modeling and practicing inquiry science investigations as part of an ongoing unit on water quality. The cycles were designed to make the students increasingly independent in their use of inquiry. The results showed that all ten students made significant progress from copying teacher modeling in investigation #1 towards independent inquiry, with nine of the ten achieving acceptable to good beginning independent inquiry in investigation #5. Each case was analyzed independently using such case study methodology as pattern matching, case study protocols, and theoretical propositions. Constant comparison and other case study methods were used in a cross-case analysis. Eight cases confirmed a matching set of propositions and the hypothesis, in literal replication, and the other two cases confirmed a set of propositions and the hypothesis through theoretical replication. The study suggests to educators that repeated cycles of modeling and increasingly independent practice serve three purposes; first to develop independent inquiry skills by providing multiple opportunities with intermittent modeling, second to repeat the modeling initially in very similar situations and then encourage transfer to new situations, and third to provide repeated modeling for those students who do not grasp the concepts as quickly as do their classmates.

Unusual masturbatory practice as an etiological factor in the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction in young men.

PubMed

Bronner, Gila; Ben-Zion, Itzhak Z

2014-07-01

Masturbation is a common sexual activity among people of all ages throughout life. It has been traditionally prohibited and judged as immoral and sinful by several religions. Although it is no longer perceived as a negative behavior, masturbation is often omitted in the diagnostic inquiry of patients with sexual problems. The aims of this study are to increase the awareness of clinicians to the importance of including questions regarding masturbatory habits in the process of sexual history taking, to analyze cases of male sexual dysfunction (SD) associated with unusual masturbatory practices, and to propose a practical tool for clinicians to diagnose and manage such problems. A clinical study of four cases that include a range of unusual masturbatory practices by young males who applied for sex therapy is described. An intervention plan involving specific questions in case history taking was devised. It was based on detailed understanding of each patient's masturbatory practice and its manifestation in his SD. Effects of identifying and altering masturbatory practices on sexual function. The four men described unusual and awkward masturbatory practices, each of which was associated with different kinds of SD. The unlearning of the masturbatory practices contributed notably to improvement of their sexual function. The four cases in this study indicate that the detailed questioning of masturbatory habits is crucial for a thorough assessment and adequate treatment of sexual problems in men. We propose specific questions on masturbatory behavior as well as a diagnostic and therapeutic flowchart for physicians and sex therapists to address those problems. © 2014 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

Collaborating for care: initial experience of embedded case managers across five medical homes.

PubMed

Treadwell, Janet; Giardino, Angelo

2014-01-01

The purpose of this intervention was to answer the following question: Does an embedded nurse case manager from a health plan performing embedded care coordination and supporting a quality improvement project impact medical home service use, role satisfaction, and per member per month expense? The setting for this study was primary care medical home practices with a minimum of 1,000 lives, contracted with a health plan delivering Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance coverage. Five medical home practice sites were selected for the intervention. The study began with case manager training and project permission in 5 medical homes, followed by implementation of care coordination with health plan clients. The nurse case manager performed care coordination functions for clients and initiated a Lean Six Sigma quality improvement project at the medical home site. The analysis strategy was to compare each medical home with itself before and after the intervention, as well as to obtain satisfaction information from medical home staff and care coordinators. Reductions in expense, as demonstrated by decreased per member per month claim cost, admissions per thousand, and reduced variation in days per thousand, were documented. Quality projects attained significant improvements in 4 out of 5 sites, and practice staff as well as case managers described satisfaction with the embedded nurse case manager role. These findings support medical homes as being an effective delivery model of the Affordable Care Act. Case managers who practice in primary care sites can make a significant difference in patient outcomes and practice efficiencies. Embedded case managers have the ability to impact the population being served through modeling and supporting interprofessional relationships and case management expertise. Use of motivational interviewing, assessment skills, advocacy, and joint care planning engage patients in their own care, whereas quality initiatives bring efficiencies and effectiveness to overall operations. There is need for research to be conducted across a larger number of practice sites and diverse populations to substantiate the effect of embedded case management in medical home.

How are evidence and knowledge used in orthopaedic decision-making? Three comparative case studies of different approaches to implementation of clinical guidance in practice.

PubMed

Grove, Amy; Clarke, Aileen; Currie, Graeme

2018-05-31

The uptake and use of clinical guidelines is often insufficient to change clinical behaviour and reduce variation in practice. As a consequence of diverse organisational contexts, the simple provision of guidelines cannot ensure fidelity or guarantee their use when making decisions. Implementation research in surgery has focused on understanding what evidence exists for clinical practice decisions but limits understanding to the technical, educational and accessibility issues. This research aims to identify where, when and how evidence and knowledge are used in orthopaedic decision-making and how variation in these factors contributes to different approaches to implementation of clinical guidance in practice. We used in-depth case studies to examine guideline implementation in real-life surgical practice. We conducted comparative case studies in three English National Health Service hospitals over a 12-month period. Each in-depth case study consisted of a mix of qualitative methods including interviews, observations and document analysis. Data included field notes from observations of day-to-day practice, 64 interviews with NHS surgeons and staff and the collection of 121 supplementary documents. Case studies identified 17 sources of knowledge and evidence which influenced clinical decisions in elective orthopaedic surgery. A comparative analysis across cases revealed that each hospital had distinct approaches to decision-making. Decision-making is described as occurring as a result of how 17 types of knowledge and evidence were privileged and of how they interacted and changed in context. Guideline implementation was contingent and mediated through four distinct contextual levels. Implementation could be assessed for individual surgeons, groups of surgeons or the organisation as a whole, but it could also differ between these levels. Differences in how evidence and knowledge were used contributed to variations in practice from guidelines. A range of complex and competing sources of evidence and knowledge exists which influence the working practices of healthcare professionals. The dynamic selection, combination and use of each type of knowledge and evidence influence the implementation and use of clinical guidance in practice. Clinical guidelines are a fundamental part of practice, but represent only one type of evidence influencing clinical decisions. In the orthopaedic speciality, other distinct sources of evidence and knowledge are selected and used which impact on how guidelines are implemented. New approaches to guideline implementation need to appreciate and incorporate this diverse range of knowledge and evidence which influences clinical decisions and to take account of the changing contexts in which decisions are made.

Practicing Technology Implementation: The Case of an Enterprise System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Awazu, Yukika

2013-01-01

Drawing on four theories of practice--Communities of Practice (CoP), Bourdieu's theory of practice, Pickering's mangle of practice, and Actor Network Theory (ANT), the study provides an in-depth understanding about technology implementation practice. Analysis of an Enterprise System implementation project in a software manufacturing…

Problems of Practice: Canadian Cases in Leadership and Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pollock, Katina; Ryan, James

2013-01-01

One way to support aspiring and current administrators is through the use of case study teaching (Barnes, Christensen, & Hansen, 1994). Using case studies as a teaching and learning tool helps bring real-life situations into principal preparation and support programs. Case study approaches provide students with time to interrogate contemporary…

Safety management by walking around (SMBWA): a safety intervention program based on both peer and manager participation.

PubMed

Luria, Gil; Morag, Ido

2012-03-01

"Management by walking around" (MBWA) is a practice that has aroused much interest in management science and practice. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate adaptation of this practice to safety management. We describe a three-year long case study that collected empirical data in which a modified MBWA was practiced in order to improve safety in a semiconductor fabrication facility. The main modification involved integrating an information system with the MBWA in order to create a practice that would generate safety leadership development and an organizational safety learning mechanism, while promoting employee safety participation. The results of the case study demonstrate that the SMBWA practice facilitated thousands of tours in which safety leadership behaviors were practiced by managers and by employees (employees performed five times as many tours as managers). The information system collected information about safety behaviors and safety conditions that could not otherwise be obtained. Thus, this study presents a new organizational safety practice SMBWA, and demonstrates the ways in which SMBWA may improve safety in organizations. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nursery cultural practices to achieve targets: A case study in western larch irrigation

Treesearch

Anthony S. Davis; Robert F. Keefe

2011-01-01

Nursery cultural practices are used to help growers achieve pre-determined size and physiological targets for seedlings. In that regard, irrigation is used to accelerate or slow growth and as a trigger for changing growth phase. In a case study highlighting the effects of irrigation on seedling development, western larch (Larix occidentalis Nutt.) seedlings were grown...

Breaking Bread and Breaking Boundaries: A Case Study on Increasing Organizational Learning Opportunities and Fostering Communities of Practice through Sharing Meals in an Academic Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watland, Kathleen Hanold; Hallenbeck, Stephen M.; Kresse, William J.

2008-01-01

Organizations are increasingly interested in creating learning opportunities for their employees. This article explores and describes how a university planned to increase employee interactions and organizational learning opportunities by fostering emergence of communities of practice. In this case study, Saint Xavier University offered an academic…

Instructional Strategies and Best Practices for Improving the Achievement Gap in Mathematics: An Exploratory Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lord, Joey

2017-01-01

This qualitative exploratory case study focused on the achievement gap in mathematics that exists in one urban North Carolina middle school and the strategies used by school personnel to narrow this gap. The goal of this research was to determine effective instructional strategies and best practices used to engage students in learning that will…

Teacher Perceptions and Self-Reported Practices of Education for Sustainability in the Early Years of Primary School: An Australian Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lasen, Michelle; Skamp, Keith; Simoncini, Kym

2017-01-01

This Australian case study provides a snapshot of Education for Sustainability (EfS) practice of early years teachers in the school sector (Preparatory to Year 3), during the first phase of implementation of the Australian national curriculum. Interviews with teachers, located in government, Catholic and independent schools, were conducted by…

Environmental Impact Assessment: Teaching the Principles and Practices by Means of a Role-Playing Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crittenden, Barry D.; England, Richard

2005-01-01

The principles and practices of environmental impact assessment are best taught to chemical engineering undergraduate students by means of a role­-playing case study. Many suitable examples are available from public sources. The planning appeal process has been selected so as to introduce an adversarial style involving cross-­examination on…

Building Self-Directed Teachers: A Case Study of Teachers' Perspectives of the Effects of Cognitive Coaching on Professional Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bjerken, Kevin S.

2013-01-01

This case study of a single school district aims to identify teachers' perceptions of how their professional practices have been affected after four years of receiving Cognitive Coaching. Cognitive Coaching was used in participants' professional development as a part of an Alternative Teacher Professional Pay System and included three…

Case Studies of the Development of Science Teachers' Practices of Socio-Scientific Issue (SSI)-Based Teaching through a Professional Development Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pitiporntapin, Sasithep; Srisakuna, Suchada

2017-01-01

This research aimed to assess three case studies of in-service science teachers regarding their practices of socio-scientific issue (SSI)-based teaching as they participated in a specially developed professional development (PD) program. Data were collected throughout the PD program from group discussions, observations, interviews, and the review…

A Case Study of Factors Leading to Student Success in an Accelerated Licensed Practical Nurse to Associate Degree Nursing Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Sherry T.

2012-01-01

This case study attempted to discover and comprehend the relationship of students and contributing factors of success, of one Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) to Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) program, to formulate an understanding of which contributing factors are most beneficial to enable students to persist to graduation and/or successfully…

Teachers' Perspectives of Research-Based Instructional Strategies and Implementation to Promote Literacy Skills for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Collection of Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinto, Prasopsuk Y.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this collection of multiple case studies was to examine teachers' perspectives and practices to determine whether instructional strategies implemented in their classrooms to promote literacy skills for students with autism spectrum disorders were described as research-based practices. Although extensive research has been conducted…

Prolepsis, Syncretism, and Synergy in Early Language and Literacy Practices: A Case Study of Family Language Policy in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ren, Li; Hu, Guangwei

2013-01-01

This article reports a case study of two Chinese-English bilingual families in Singapore and illustrates the importance of incorporating two hitherto disconnected fields of research--family language policy and family literacy practices--to an understanding of early language and literacy acquisition in the familial milieu. Specifically, this work…

Teacher Leaders' Perceptions and Practice of Student Assessment Reform in Hong Kong: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Wai-Ming

2015-01-01

This paper reports a case study of four project schools in the primary school context of Hong Kong. It has investigated how teachers who were assigned subject panel head's and curriculum leader's roles perceived the student assessment reform and how they experimented with new assessment strategies in the school policy and classroom practice. The…

Seeding Writing Project Principles and Practices in a School Community: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Locke, Terry; Kato, Helen

2014-01-01

This article reports on a small-scale case study involving all English teachers of junior classes in a rural high school in New Zealand. The Head of English had been involved in Writing Project professional learning, designed in accordance with principles and practices that can be found in a number of countries, especially the United States. The…

Promising Practices: A Case Study of One Fifth Grade Class as They Grew as Writers, Prepared, and Performed on the State Essay Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewinski, Kimberly E.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this case study is to document the ways in which fifth-grade students in a historically, low-performing school learned to write from a teacher who did not emphasize test-taking processes. The study demonstrates how these instructional practices in a writing workshop context positively affected the student performance on a statewide…

Leadership Practices that Enhance Reading Achievement for African American Males: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dawson, Dawnay Ardrean

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine leadership practices that lead to improving academic achievement for African American males. Specifically, this study examined cultural insensitivity and its impact on educating African American male students in reading. The study utilized several techniques to determine what practices educators used to…

Paradise nearly Gained. Volume 2: Case Studies of Impact and Diversity for Frontline Management Initiative Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barratt-Pugh, Llandis; Soutar, Geoffrey N.

This document presents the case studies from a multi-phase study of the impact of Australia's Frontline Management Initiative (FMI), which provides a framework for competency-based development of frontline managers in Australian enterprises. Nineteen organizational case studies and one individual case study of the FMI's impacts are included. The…

Adjusting for case mix and social class in examining variation in home visits between practices.

PubMed

Sullivan, Caoimhe O; Omar, Rumana Z; Forrest, Christopher B; Majeed, Azeem

2004-08-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether adjusting for clinical case mix and social class explains more of the variation in home visits between general practices than adjusting for age and sex alone. The setting was 60 general practices in England and Wales taking part in the 1 year Fourth National Morbidity Survey. The participants comprised 349 505 patients who were registered with one of the participating general practices for at least 180 days, and who had at least one consultation during the period. The outcome measure is whether or not a patient received a home visit in that year. A clinical case mix category (morbidity class) based on 1 year's diagnostic information was assigned to each patient using the Johns Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACG) Case Mix System. The social class measure was derived from occupation and employment status and is similar to that of the 1991 UK census. Variations in home visits between practices were examined using multilevel logistic regression models. The variability between practices before and after adjusting for clinical case mix and social class was estimated using the intracluster correlation coefficient (ICC). The overall percentage of patients receiving a home visit over the 1 year study period was 17%, and this varied from 7 to 31% across the 60 practices. The percentage of the total variation in home visits attributable to differences between practices was 2.5% [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.4-3.2%] after adjusting for age and sex. This reduced to 1.6% (95% CI 1.1-2.4%) after taking into account morbidity class. The results were similar when social class was included instead of morbidity class. Morbidity and social class together reduced variation in home visits between practices to 1.5% (95% CI 1.1-2.2%). Age, sex, social class and clinical case mix are strong determinants of home visits in the UK. Adjusting for morbidity and social class results in a small improvement in explaining the variability in home visits between practices compared with adjusting for age and sex alone. There is far more variation between patients within practices; however, it is not straightforward to examine the factors influencing this variation. In addition to morbidity and social class, there could also be other unmeasured factors such as varying patient demand for home visits, disability or differences in GP home visiting practice style that could influence the large within-practice variability observed in this study.

The influence of the structure and culture of medical group practices on prescription drug errors.

PubMed

Kralewski, John E; Dowd, Bryan E; Heaton, Alan; Kaissi, Amer

2005-08-01

This project was designed to identify the magnitude of prescription drug errors in medical group practices and to explore the influence of the practice structure and culture on those error rates. Seventy-eight practices serving an upper Midwest managed care (Care Plus) plan during 2001 were included in the study. Using Care Plus claims data, prescription drug error rates were calculated at the enrollee level and then were aggregated to the group practice that each enrollee selected to provide and manage their care. Practice structure and culture data were obtained from surveys of the practices. Data were analyzed using multivariate regression. Both the culture and the structure of these group practices appear to influence prescription drug error rates. Seeing more patients per clinic hour, more prescriptions per patient, and being cared for in a rural clinic were all strongly associated with more errors. Conversely, having a case manager program is strongly related to fewer errors in all of our analyses. The culture of the practices clearly influences error rates, but the findings are mixed. Practices with cohesive cultures have lower error rates but, contrary to our hypothesis, cultures that value physician autonomy and individuality also have lower error rates than those with a more organizational orientation. Our study supports the contention that there are a substantial number of prescription drug errors in the ambulatory care sector. Even by the strictest definition, there were about 13 errors per 100 prescriptions for Care Plus patients in these group practices during 2001. Our study demonstrates that the structure of medical group practices influences prescription drug error rates. In some cases, this appears to be a direct relationship, such as the effects of having a case manager program on fewer drug errors, but in other cases the effect appears to be indirect through the improvement of drug prescribing practices. An important aspect of this study is that it provides insights into the relationships of the structure and culture of medical group practices and prescription drug errors and provides direction for future research. Research focused on the factors influencing the high error rates in rural areas and how the interaction of practice structural and cultural attributes influence error rates would add important insights into our findings. For medical practice directors, our data show that they should focus on patient care coordination to reduce errors.

Essential activities and knowledge domains of case management: new insights from the CCMC role and functions study.

PubMed

Tahan, Hussein

2006-01-01

The Commission for Case Manager Certification (CCMC) defines case management (CM) as "a collaborative process that assesses, plans, implements, coordinates, monitors, and evaluates the options and services required to meet an individual's health needs. [Case management] uses communication and available resources to promote quality, cost-effective outcomes." The practice of CM spans the entire health-care spectrum, including pre-acute, acute, and post-acute settings, and the involvement of varied care providers, such as nurses, social workers, rehabilitation counselors, physicians, and other allied health professionals. So what does it mean to practice as a case manager? What roles and job functions are performed and what knowledge is required of a professional in the field for effective practice? These highly relevant questions reflect the thinking of the CCMC commissioners when the latest Case Manager Role and Functions study was undertaken. The primary purpose of this research, which is conducted every 5 years by the CCMC, is to capture the current state of CM practice. This type of in-depth research is required to support an evidence-based certification examination such as the one offered by CCMC-the certified case manager (CCM) credential. Moreover, as the first and largest nationally accredited organization to certify US case managers, the CCMC recognizes its responsibility to undertake and promote scientifically conducted research in the field of CM.

Evidence-Based Advances in Reptile Medicine.

PubMed

Mitchell, Mark A; Perry, Sean M

2017-09-01

Evidence-based medicine allows veterinarians to practice high-quality medicine, because the basis for all decision making is quantitative, objective, and reproducible. Case reports and case series are limited in their scope and application. Cross-sectional studies, likewise, cannot provide answers to specific variable testing with a temporal application. It is essential for the reptile specialty to expand into case-control studies, cohort studies, and experimental/intervention studies. Unfortunately, much of the reptile literature remains limited to descriptive studies. This article reviews current evidence-based topics in reptile medicine and shares how everyone practicing in the field can contribute to improving this specialty. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Case of Three Karen Refugee Women and Their Children: Literacy Practices in a Family Literacy Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quadros, Sabrina; Sarroub, Loukia K.

2016-01-01

The lack of research about the Karen, one of 135 ethnic groups from Myanmar limits literacy educators charged with educating this refugee population in public schools. In this case study the authors explore the literacy practices of Karen families when at school and in their homes and within an ESL family literacy program. The case of these…

Optimal case-control matching in practice.

PubMed

Cologne, J B; Shibata, Y

1995-05-01

We illustrate modern matching techniques and discuss practical issues in defining the closeness of matching for retrospective case-control designs (in which the pool of subjects already exists when the study commences). We empirically compare matching on a balancing score, analogous to the propensity score for treated/control matching, with matching on a weighted distance measure. Although both methods in principle produce balance between cases and controls in the marginal distributions of the matching covariates, the weighted distance measure provides better balance in practice because the balancing score can be poorly estimated. We emphasize the use of optimal matching based on efficient network algorithms. An illustration is based on the design of a case-control study of hepatitis B virus infection as a possible confounder and/or effect modifier of radiation-related primary liver cancer in atomic bomb survivors.

Best Practices for Port Operations

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This page provides links to best practice resources for port authorities, terminal operators and fleet owners, drayage truckers, and rail and locomotives as well as a link to case studies on best practice.

Description and evaluation of an initiative to develop advanced practice nurses in mainland China.

PubMed

Wong, Frances Kam Yuet; Peng, Gangyi; Kan, Eva C; Li, Yajie; Lau, Ada T; Zhang, Liying; Leung, Annie F; Liu, Xueqin; Leung, Vilna O; Chen, Weiju; Li, Ming

2010-05-01

This paper describes an initiative to develop Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) in mainland China and evaluation of the outcomes of the described programme. The pioneer project was an APN postgraduate programme involving 38 students conducted in Guangzhou, China during 2004-2005. Data related to curriculum content and process, student performance, self-reported competence and programme effects were collected. Quantitative data such as demographic data, student performance were analysed using descriptive statistics and the pre and post self-reported practice of competence was compared using chi-square test. Qualitative data such as case reports and interviews were examined using thematic analyses. Reflective journals and case studies revealed the attributes of APNs in managing clinical cases at advanced level, applying theory into practice and exercising evidence-based practice. The relatively modest self-reported practice of competence suggested that the graduates were novice APNs and needed continued development after the completion of the programme. This study reports the experience of an initiative in China and suggests a useful curriculum framework for educating APNs. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Case Studies in Exercise and Sport Sciences: A Powerful Tool to Bridge the Science-Practice Gap.

PubMed

Halperin, Israel

2018-03-27

Despite the progress made by the scientific exercise community in collaborating and communicating with non-scientist coaches, there is room for improvement. Coaches find research difficult to understand, feel that their interests are not being addressed by exercise research, and rely on peer-discussion to further their coaching knowledge base while consuming little peer-reviewed articles. One useful strategy to bridge the science-practice gap is with case-studies. In addition to furthering our understanding of the physiology, psychology, and training schedules of elite athletes, case studies can serve 1) as a useful communication channel with coaches if presented as narratives and 2) to establish and strengthen relationships between scientists and coaches leading to fruitful research collaborations. The purpose of this invited commentary is to discuss these two less-recognized benefits of case-studies, and propose a way to incorporate case-studies more frequently alongside group-based studies.

Case Studies in Exercise and Sport Sciences: A Powerful Tool to Bridge the Science-Practice Gap.

PubMed

Halperin, Israel

2018-06-21

Despite the progress made by the scientific exercise community in collaborating and communicating with nonscientist coaches, there is room for improvement. Coaches find research difficult to understand, feel that their interests are not being addressed by exercise research, and rely on peer discussion to further their coaching knowledge base while consuming few peer-reviewed articles. One useful strategy to bridge the science-practice gap is with case studies. In addition to furthering our understanding of the physiology, psychology, and training schedules of elite athletes, case studies can serve (1) as a useful communication channel with coaches if presented as narratives and (2) to establish and strengthen relationships between scientists and coaches, leading to fruitful research collaborations. The purpose of this invited commentary is to discuss these 2 less-recognized benefits of case studies and propose a way to incorporate case studies more frequently alongside group-based studies.

Modern Scientific Literacy: A Case Study of Multiliteracies and Scientific Practices in a Fifth Grade Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allison, Elizabeth; Goldston, M. Jenice

2018-01-01

This study investigates the convergence of multiliteracies and scientific practices in a fifth grade classroom. As students' lives become increasingly multimodal, diverse, and globalized, the traditional notions of literacy must be revisited (New London Group 1996). With the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013a) in many states, either in their entirety or in adapted forms, it becomes useful to explore the interconnectedness multiliteracies and scientific practices and the resulting implications for scientific literacy. The case study included a fifth grade classroom, including the students and teacher. In order to create a rich description of the cases involved, data were collected and triangulated through teacher interviews, student interviews and focus groups, and classroom observations. Findings reveal that as science activities were enriched with multiliteracies and scientific practices, students were engaged in developing skills and knowledge central to being scientifically literate. Furthermore, this study establishes that characteristics of scientific literacy, by its intent and purpose, are a form of multiliteracies in elementary classrooms. Therefore, the teaching and learning of science and its practices for scientific literacy are in turn reinforcing the development of broader multiliteracies.

Aural Image in Practice: A Multicase Analysis of Instrumental Practice in Middle School Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oare, Steve

2016-01-01

This multiple case study examined six adolescent band students engaged in self-directed practice. The students' practice sessions were videotaped. Students provided verbal reports during their practice and again retrospectively while reviewing their video immediately after practice. Students were asked to discuss their choice of practice…

Referral Rates of Senior Family Practice Residents in an Ambulatory Care Clinic.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawler, Frank H.

1987-01-01

A study of patterns in second- and third-year family practice residents' requests for referrals found higher rates for the senior students, suggesting possible differences in approach to case management, lack of experience in referral among younger students, and differences in case mix. (MSE)

Riding the Lines and Overwriting in the Margins: Affect and Multimodal Literacy Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenters, Kimberly

2016-01-01

This case study examines the multimodal literacy practices of 11-year-old Nigel as he plays with assemblages of people, objects, and practices in his storywriting. The study asks "How does following the seemingly off-task multimodal literacy practices of one pre-adolescent youth across his home-community-school terrain provide insight into…

An Exploratory Case Study of One Early Career Teacher's Evolving Teaching Practice in Northern Canada

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray-Orr, Anne; Mitton-Kukner, Jennifer

2017-01-01

This paper focuses upon the case of one early career teacher, Don, a participant in a longitudinal study examining the transfer of learning about literacy practices from pre-service teacher education to the classrooms of secondary content area teachers. We followed Don from his B. Ed. program into his first two years of teaching in an Indigenous…

An academic practice's transition to the business of medicine in the community. A case study.

PubMed

Griffin, S L; Schryver, D L

2000-01-01

This case study highlights the problems confronting a clinical practice corporation affiliated with a major medical school, and the business realizations it made in the acquisition of a community-based clinic. Launching a financially viable enterprise requires careful planning, determination of formal goals and expectations, an appropriate mix of physicians and services, a specific marketing campaign and community support.

Undergraduate Social Work Students: Learning Interviewing Skills in a Hybrid Practice Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barclay, Barbara

2012-01-01

This action research case study explored undergraduate social work students' perceived learning of interviewing skills in a hybrid environment course delivery. The single case study consisted of 19 students enrolled in a practice course blending web-based and face-to-face (f2f) meetings (4 of 15 f2f) within a large urban college. As part of…

Significant Learning Experiences and Ignatian Pedagogy: A Case Study of Curricula, Academic Practices, and Graduate Outcomes in Jesuit Universities' Honors Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pampel, Robert

2017-01-01

This qualitative, multisite case study used Dee Fink's taxonomy of significant learning as a lens through which to examine the curricular structure, academic practices, and graduate outcomes for honors programs at Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. Special attention was given to the distinctive quality of Ignatian pedagogy and…

A Case Study of Using an Online Community of Practice for Teachers' Professional Development at a Secondary School in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Qiyun; Lu, Zhiping

2012-01-01

In this case study, an online community was designed at a secondary school in China for the teachers to prepare their lessons collectively, reflect on their teaching practices, collect comments from peers, and share resources. A survey was administered to the teachers to investigate their perceptions on the online community for their professional…

The Practice of Academic Freedom in Classroom Speech in U.S. Catholic Higher Education: A Case Study with Suggestions Concerning Religious Mission

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Richard M.

2011-01-01

This article reports a case study of seventeen faculty leaders teaching at a Catholic university who responded to a questionnaire concerning academic freedom and its practice in classroom speech. Situating the responses within a heuristic model, this article offers a portrait that provides insight into how these faculty leaders define academic…

[The Jena Anxiety Monitoring List (JAMoL) - a tool for the evidence-based treatment of panic disorder with or without agoraphobia in primary care].

PubMed

Hiller, Thomas Stephan; Freytag, Antje; Breitbart, Jörg; Teismann, Tobias; Schöne, Elisabeth; Blank, Wolfgang; Schelle, Mercedes; Vollmar, Horst Christian; Margraf, Jürgen; Gensichen, Jochen

2018-04-01

Behavior therapy-oriented methods are recommended for treating anxiety disorders in primary care. The treatment of patients with long-term conditions can be improved by case management and structured clinical monitoring. The present paper describes the rationale, design and application of the 'Jena Anxiety Monitoring List' (JAMoL), a monitoring tool for the treatment of patients with panic disorder, with or without agoraphobia, in primary care. JAMoL's design was based on established clinical measures, the rationale of exposure-based anxiety treatment, and research on family practice-based case management. After piloting, the JAMoL was used in the clinical study 'Jena-PARADISE' (ISRCTN64669297), where non-physician practice staff monitored patients with panic disorder by telephone. Using semi-structured interviews in concomitant studies, study participants were asked about the instrument's functionality. The JAMoL assesses the severity of anxiety symptoms (6 items) as well as the patient's adherence to therapy (4 items) and fosters the case management-related information exchange (3 items). An integrated traffic light scheme facilitates the evaluation of monitoring results. Within the clinical study, non-physician practice staff carried out a total of 1,525 JAMoL-supported monitoring calls on 177 patients from 30 primary care practices (median calls per patient: 10 [interquartile range, 9-10]). Qualitative analyses revealed that most practice teams and patients rated the JAMoL as a practicable and treatment-relevant tool. The JAMoL enables primary care practice teams to continuously monitor anxiety symptoms and treatment adherence in patients with panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. Within the behavior therapy-oriented treatment program 'Jena-PARADISE', the JAMoL constitutes an important case management tool. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Practice Theory: Viewing Leadership as Leading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilkinson, Jane; Kemmis, Stephen

2015-01-01

Inspired by Theodore Schatzki's "societist" approach--in which he advocates a notion of "site ontologies"--in this article, we outline our theory of practice architectures (a theory about what practices are composed of) and ecologies of practices (how practices relate to one another). Drawing on case studies of four Australian…

Epistemological Syncretism in a Biology Classroom: A Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bennett, William D.; Park, Soonhye

2011-02-01

In teaching science, the beliefs of teachers may come into conflict and inhibit the implementation of reformed teaching practice. An experienced biology teacher, Mr. Hobbs, was found to have two different sets of epistemological beliefs while his classroom practice was predominantly teacher-centered. A case study was then performed in order to investigate the underlying issues that contributed to his classroom practice. Data sources included preliminary and follow-up interviews and classroom observations. Data analysis indicated that factors that prevented the epistemological conflict from reaching a resolution included Mr. Hobbs' beliefs about learning, contextual teaching factors, personal experiences as a student, and views of the nature of science. The findings from this case indicate that science teachers possess complex belief systems that are not immediately obvious to either the teacher or science teacher educators, and science teacher educators need to address teacher beliefs when they encourage teachers to implement reformed teaching practices.

Joint Forces Command - Operation United Assistance Case Study: Lessons and Best Practices

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-01

additional and prioritized computers and access in the operations center for these mission requirements are essential. 127 JFC-OUA CASE STUDY Issue...this publication is welcomed and highly encouraged. Joint Forces Command – Operation United Assistance Case Study JFC-OUA CASE STUDY iii Foreword...Based on information drawn from various sources including after action reports, lessons learned, case studies , umbrella-week visits, and key-leader

Evaluation of Viewpoints of Health Care Professionals on the Role of Ethics Committees and Hospitals in the Resolution of Clinical Ethical Dilemmas Based on Practice Environment.

PubMed

Marcus, Brian S; Carlson, Jestin N; Hegde, Gajanan G; Shang, Jennifer; Venkat, Arvind

2016-03-01

We sought to evaluate whether health care professionals' viewpoints differed on the role of ethics committees and hospitals in the resolution of clinical ethical dilemmas based on practice location. We conducted a survey study from December 21, 2013 to March 15, 2014 of health care professionals at six hospitals (one tertiary care academic medical center, three large community hospitals and two small community hospitals). The survey consisted of eight clinical ethics cases followed by statements on whether there was a role for the ethics committee or hospital in their resolution, what that role might be and case specific queries. Respondents used a 5-point Likert scale to express their degree of agreement with the premises posed. We used the ANOVA test to evaluate whether respondent views significantly varied based on practice location. 240 health care professionals (108-tertiary care center, 92-large community hospitals, 40-small community hospitals) completed the survey (response rate: 63.6 %). Only three individual queries of 32 showed any significant response variations across practice locations. Overall, viewpoints did not vary across practice locations within question categories on whether the ethics committee or hospital had a role in case resolution, what that role might be and case specific queries. In this multicenter survey study, the viewpoints of health care professionals on the role of ethics committees or hospitals in the resolution of clinical ethics cases varied little based on practice location.

Interesting Practitioners in Training in Empirically Supported Treatments: Research Reviews versus Case Studies

PubMed Central

Stewart, Rebecca E.; Chambless, Dianne L.

2010-01-01

It has been repeatedly demonstrated that clinicians rely more on clinical judgment than on research findings. We hypothesized that psychologists in practice might be more open to adopting empirically supported treatments (ESTs) if outcome results were presented with a case study. Psychologists in private practice (N = 742) were randomly assigned to receive a research review of data from randomized controlled trials of cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) and medication for bulimia, a case study of CBT for a fictional patient with bulimia, or both. Results indicated that the inclusion of case examples renders ESTs more compelling and interests clinicians in gaining training. Despite these participants’ training in statistics, the inclusion of the statistical information had no influence on attitudes or training willingness beyond that of the anecdotal case information. PMID:19899142

Caught between a rock and a hard place: An intrinsic single case study of nurse researchers' experiences of the presence of a nursing research culture in clinical practice.

PubMed

Berthelsen, Connie Bøttcher; Hølge-Hazelton, Bibi

2018-04-01

To explore how nurse researchers in clinical positions experience the presence of a nursing research culture in clinical practice. Higher demands in the hospitals for increasing the quality of patient care engender a higher demand for the skills of health professionals and evidence-based practice. However, the utilisation of nursing research in clinical practice is still limited. Intrinsic single case study design underlined by a constructivist perspective. Data were produced through a focus group interview with seven nurse researchers employed in clinical practice in two university hospitals in Zealand, Denmark, to capture the intrinsic aspects of the concept of nursing research culture in the context of clinical practice. A thematic analysis was conducted based on Braun and Clarke's theoretical guideline. "Caught between a rock and a hard place" was constructed as the main theme describing how nurse researchers in clinical positions experience the presence of a nursing research culture in clinical practice. The main theme was supported by three subthemes: Minimal academic tradition affects nursing research; Minimal recognition from physicians affects nursing research; and Moving towards a research culture. The nurse researchers in this study did not experience the presence of a nursing research culture in clinical practice, however; they called for more attention on removing barriers against research utilisation, promotion of applied research and interdisciplinary research collaboration, and passionate management support. The results of this case study show the pressure which nurse researchers employed in clinical practice are exposed to, and give examples on how to accommodate the further development of a nursing research culture in clinical practice. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Defining principles for good practice: using case studies to inform health systems action on health inequalities.

PubMed

Simpson, Sarah; Kelly, Michael P; Morgan, Antony

2013-02-01

This paper presents work using case studies as a source of data to see if we could extrapolate from the specific to the general particularly with regard to understanding what constitutes effective practice in taking action on SDHI and as a way of enabling policy makers to make better use of knowledge within the case studies and as a way of better understanding what works, in what context and why. Case studies are important to evaluators in that they are relatively straightforward to undertake and because those involved in implementing an intervention are usually keen to profile the intervention. A checklist described in this paper will enable policy advisers and evaluators to quickly review a case study and right away see if it contains enough information to assist in the development of policy options for reducing socially determined health inequalities. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A rehabilitation program based on music practice for patients with unilateral spatial neglect: a single-case study.

PubMed

Guilbert, Alma; Clément, Sylvain; Moroni, Christine

2017-02-01

Two major limitations of unilateral spatial neglect (USN) rehabilitation methods are actually reported: a lack of long-term efficiency and a lack of generalization to daily life. The aim of our case study was to underline how a multisensory method-music practice-could avoid these limitations. Mrs BV suffered from a chronic severe USN. She had rehabilitation sessions of music practice over 8 weeks. An improvement of her USN was found on paper-pencil tests but also in daily activities. Benefits subsisted 4 months after rehabilitation. Music practice seemed to avoid the major limitations of USN rehabilitations and could represent a promising tool.

Study on Case Teaching of Financial Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Che, Zhenghong; Che, Zhengmei

2011-01-01

Case teaching is an efficient teaching method of management. It plays an important role to enhance the students' ability to practice the theory. However, case teaching of financial management has not achieved the expected results. The paper aims to study the importance, characteristics and corresponding methods of case teaching method of financial…

Rural transit ITS best practices

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2003-03-01

The overall objective of this Best Practices in Rural Transit ITS project was to identify operational best practices and related technology for applying ITS to rural transit. The project team assembled information gathered through case studies to pro...

Teachers' Knowledge Development and Change: Untangling Beliefs and Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theriot, Shirley; Tice, Kathleen C.

2009-01-01

Through a case-study approach, the authors focus on understanding the complexity of teachers' knowledge development, particularly as it pertains to teachers' beliefs about literacy development and their teaching practices in literacy. Participants of the study are middle-school teachers who shared their beliefs and practices through (1) a…

Reflective practice: a framework for case manager development.

PubMed

Brubakken, Karen; Grant, Sara; Johnson, Mary K; Kollauf, Cynthia

2011-01-01

The role of a nurse case manager (NCM) incorporates practice that is built upon knowledge gained in other roles as well as components unique to case management. The concept of reflective practice was used in creating a framework to recognize the developmental stages that occur within community based case management practice. The formation of this framework and its uses are described in this article. The practice setting is a community based case management department in a large midwestern metropolitan health care system with Magnet recognition. Advanced practice nurses provide care for clients with chronic health conditions. Twenty-four narratives were used to identify behaviors of community based case managers and to distinguish stages of practice. The behaviors of advanced practice found within the narratives were labeled and analyzed for similarities. Related behaviors were grouped and descriptor statements were written. These statements grouped into 3 domains of practice: relationship/partnership, coordination/collaboration, and clinical knowledge/decision making. The statements in each domain showed practice variations from competent to expert, and 3 stages were determined. Reliability and validity of the framework involved analysis of additional narratives. The reflective practice process, used for monthly case review presentations, provides opportunity for professional development and group learning focused on improving case manager practice. The framework is also being used in orientation as new case managers acclimate to the role. Reflective writing has unveiled the richness and depth of nurse case manager practice. The depth of knowledge and skills involved in community-based case management is captured within this reflective practice framework. This framework provides a format for describing community based case manager practice development over the course of time and has been used as a tool for orientation and peer review.

A Community of Practice Approach to Delivering Research Support Services in a Post-92 Higher Education Institution: A Reflective Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coombs, Jenny; Thomas, Mandy; Rush, Nathan; Martin, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

The need for research support in U.K. universities is growing at a fast pace and a number of different professional and academic units within universities are involved in the process. This case study takes place in a post-92 higher education institution and discusses the benefit of utilizing a cross-university Community of Practice (CoP) approach…

Teamwork, Discourses and Literacy. A Case Study of Workers' Resistance to the Introduction of New Workplace Practices. Research Report No. 4.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Black, Stephen

The role of workplace literacy and numeracy education in the introduction of new workplace practices was examined in a case study of a local council in New South Wales, Australia. Two researchers worked over a 6-week period to interview the manager, 2 team leaders, and 15 team members involved in the introduction of competitive maintenance and…

"I Made Her Realise that I Could Be There for Her, that I Could Support Her": Child Protection Practices with Women in Domestic Violence Cases

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lapierre, Simon; Cote, Isabelle

2011-01-01

This article presents findings from a study that investigated child protection policies and practices, and focuses on data gathered in a child protection agency located in Quebec, Canada. This research project draws upon a qualitative case-study methodology, involving a documentary analysis of both national and local child protection policies, as…

Learning on Zoo Field Trips: The Interaction of the Agendas and Practices of Students, Teachers, and Zoo Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davidson, Susan Kay; Passmore, Cynthia; Anderson, David

2010-01-01

This paper reports on the findings of a case study that investigated the interaction of the agendas and practices of students, teachers, and zoo educators during a class field trip to a zoo. The study reports on findings of the analysis of two case classes of students and their perceptions of their learning experiences during the field trip. The…

Participation in Science Practices while Working in a Multimedia Case-Based Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Hosun; Lundeberg, Mary A.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate how two female students participated in science practices as they worked in a multimedia case-based environment: interpreting simulated results, reading and writing multiple texts, role-playing, and Internet conferencing. Using discourse analysis, the following data were analyzed: students' published…

Professionalism in Residency Training

PubMed Central

Gronowski, Ann M.; McGill, Mitchell R.

2016-01-01

Professionalism is one of the most important competencies for physicians but is also the most difficult to teach, assess, and manage. To better understand professionalism in pathology, we surveyed practicing pathologists and pathology residents and fellows in training. We identified 12 key desirable attributes of professionalism. In addition, 8 case scenarios highlighting unprofessional behavior were presented, and results between pathologists in practice and in training were compared. No significant differences between attending pathologists and residents were identified in how these cases should be managed. Our study demonstrated remarkable concordance between practicing pathologists and residents as to what constitutes professionalism and how to manage unprofessional behavior. Our case-based approach can be a useful technique to teach professionalism to both pathologists in practice and in training. PMID:28725778

[Case management process identified from experience of nurse case managers].

PubMed

Park, Eun-Jun; Kim, Chunmi

2008-12-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a substantive theory of case management (CM) practice by investigating the experience of nurse case managers caring for Medical Aid enrollees in Korea. A total of 12 nurses were interviewed regarding their own experience in CM practice. Data were recorded and analyzed using grounded theory. Empowerment was the core category of CM for Medical Aid enrollees. The case managers engaged in five phases as follows, phase of inquiring in advance, building a relationship with the client, giving the client critical mind, facilitating positive changes in the client's use of healthcare services, and maintaining relationship bonds. These phases moved gradually and were circular if necessary. Also, they were accelerated or slowed depending on factors including clients' characteristics, case managers' competency level, families' support level, and availability of community resources. This study helps understand what CM practice is and how nurses are performing this innovative CM role. It is recommended that nurse leaders and policy makers integrate empowerment as a core category and the five critical CM phases into future CM programs.

Mapping the Context and Practice of Training, Development and HRD in European Call Centres

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garavan, Thomas N.; Wilson, John P.; Cross, Christine; Carbery, Ronan

2008-01-01

Purpose: Utilising data from 18 in-depth case studies, this study seeks to explore training, development and human resource development (HRD) practices in European call centres. It aims to argue that the complexity and diversity of training, development and HRD practices is best understood by studying the multilayered contexts within which call…

Evaluating Best Practices for Video Tutorials: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weeks, Thomas; Putnam Davis, Jennifer

2017-01-01

This article will explore one library's experience creating best practices for the creation of video tutorials. First, a literature review establishes the best practices other creators have used. Then, the authors apply these best practices to the creation of their first video tutorial. Finally, they evaluate the usefulness of each practice in…

Alternatives to the face-to-face consultation in general practice: focused ethnographic case study.

PubMed

Atherton, Helen; Brant, Heather; Ziebland, Sue; Bikker, Annemieke; Campbell, John; Gibson, Andy; McKinstry, Brian; Porqueddu, Tania; Salisbury, Chris

2018-04-01

NHS policy encourages general practices to introduce alternatives to the face-to-face consultation, such as telephone, email, e-consultation systems, or internet video. Most have been slow to adopt these, citing concerns about workload. This project builds on previous research by focusing on the experiences of patients and practitioners who have used one or more of these alternatives. To understand how, under what conditions, for which patients, and in what ways, alternatives to face-to-face consultations present benefits and challenges to patients and practitioners in general practice. Focused ethnographic case studies took place in eight UK general practices between June 2015 and March 2016. Non-participant observation, informal conversations with staff, and semi-structured interviews with staff and patients were conducted. Practice documents and protocols were reviewed. Data were analysed through charting and the 'one sheet of paper' mind-map method to identify the line of argument in each thematic report. Case study practices had different rationales for offering alternatives to the face-to-face consultation. Beliefs varied about which patients and health issues were suitable. Co-workers were often unaware of each other's practice; for example, practice policies for use of e-consultations systems with patients were not known about or followed. Patients reported benefits including convenience and access. Staff and some patients regarded the face-to-face consultation as the ideal. Experience of implementing alternatives to the face-to-face consultation suggests that changes in patient access and staff workload may be both modest and gradual. Practices planning to implement them should consider carefully their reasons for doing so and involve the whole practice team. © British Journal of General Practice 2018.

Corporate Energy Conservation Program for Alcoa North American Extrusions: Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) Aluminum BestPractices Management Case Study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

U.S. Department of Energy

2001-08-06

This case study is the latest in a series on industrial firms who are implementing energy efficient technologies and system improvements into their manufacturing processes. The case studies document the activities, savings, and lessons learned on these projects.

Work Sharing Case Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarthy, Maureen E.; And Others

Designed to provide private sector employers with the practical information necessary to select and then to design and implement work sharing arrangements, this book presents case studies of some 36 work sharing programs. Topics covered in the case studies include the circumstances leading to adoption of the program, details of compensation and…

Case Studies for Educational Leadership: Solving Administrative Dilemmas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Midlock, Stephen F.

2010-01-01

"Case Studies for Educational Leadership" gives educational leadership students an opportunity to project themselves into real-life administrative situations and prepare for their future positions in the field. Each case study contained in this practical first edition book asks students to analyze complex problems, consider the moral ramifications…

Safe clinical practice for patients hospitalised in a suicidal crisis: a study protocol for a qualitative case study

PubMed Central

Berg, Siv Hilde; Rørtveit, Kristine; Walby, Fredrik A; Aase, Karina

2017-01-01

Introduction Suicide prevention in psychiatric care is arguably complex and incompletely understood as a patient safety issue. A resilient healthcare approach provides perspectives through which to understand this complexity by understanding everyday clinical practice. By including suicidal patients and healthcare professionals as sources of knowledge, a deeper understanding of what constitutes safe clinical practice can be achieved. Methods This planned study aims to adopt the perspective of resilient healthcare to provide a deeper understanding of safe clinical practice for suicidal patients in psychiatric inpatient care. It will describe the experienced components and conditions of safe clinical practice and the experienced practice of patient safety. The study will apply a descriptive case study approach consisting of qualitative semistructured interviews and focus groups. The data sources are hospitalised patients in a suicidal crisis and healthcare professionals in clinical practice. Ethics and dissemination This study was approved by the Regional Ethics Committee (2016/34). The results will be disseminated through scientific articles, a PhD dissertation, and national and international conferences. These findings can generate knowledge to be integrated into the practice of safety for suicidal inpatients in Norway and to improve the feasibility of patient safety measures. Theoretical generalisations can be drawn regarding safe clinical practice by taking into account the experiences of patients and healthcare professionals. Thus, this study can inform the conceptual development of safe clinical practice for suicidal patients. PMID:28132001

A Framework for Analysis of Case Studies of Reading Lessons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlisle, Joanne F.; Kelcey, Ben; Rosaen, Cheryl; Phelps, Geoffrey; Vereb, Anita

2013-01-01

This paper focuses on the development and study of a framework to provide direction and guidance for practicing teachers in using a web-based case studies program for professional development in early reading; the program is called Case Studies Reading Lessons (CSRL). The framework directs and guides teachers' analysis of reading instruction by…

The Budget Process in Parks and Recreation. A Case Study Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelsey, Craig; Gray, Howard

This case study manual, designed for undergraduate or graduate students studying the area of parks and recreation fiscal management, considers the practical, critical skills of budgeting techniques. The manual deals with the most common budgeting styles in a step-by-step approach with case study exercises. Each chapter includes an introduction to…

Determinants of HMO success: the case of Complete Health.

PubMed

Widra, L S; Fottler, M D

1992-01-01

The health maintenance organization (HMO) industry has experienced a variety of difficulties and criticisms in recent years. Various hybrid models have been proposed to alleviate these problems. This article presents an in-depth case study of factors associated with the success of one such hybrid: an individual practice association (IPA)-model HMO affiliated with an academic health center. The major success factors identified include the plan design/structure, the strategic orientation/practices, and the stakeholder management orientation practices.

Why do we pay? A national survey of investigators and IRB chairpersons

PubMed Central

Ripley, Elizabeth; Macrina, Francis; Markowitz, Monika; Gennings, Chris

2011-01-01

The principle that payment to participants should not be undue or coercive is the consensus of international and national guidelines and ethical debates; however, what this means in practice is unclear. This study determined the attitudes and practices of IRB chairpersons and investigators regarding participant payment. One thousand six hundred investigators and 1900 IRB chairpersons received an invitation to participate in a web-based survey. Four hundred and fifty-five investigators (28.3%) and 395 IRB chairpersons (18.6%) responded. The survey was designed to gather considerations that govern payment determination and practical application of these considerations in hypothetical case studies. The survey asked best answer, multiple choice, and open text questions. Short hypothetical case scenarios where presented, and participants were asked to rate factors in the study that might impact payment and then determine their recommended payment. A predictive model was developed for each case to determine factors which affected payment. Although compensation was the primary reason given to justify payment by both investigators and IRB chairpersons, the cases suggested that, in practice, payment is often guided by incentive, as shown by the impact of anticipated difficulty recruiting, inconvenience, and risk in determining payment. Payment models varied by type of study. Ranges for recommended payments by both groups for different types of procedures and studies are presented. PMID:20831420

Ethical dilemmas among nurses as they transition to hospital case management: implications for organizational ethics, part II.

PubMed

O'Donnell, Lolita T

2007-01-01

The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of ethical concerns by clinical nurses as they transitioned into their new role in hospital case management. Through this study, an attempt was made to explore experiences of ethical concerns and identify the implications for organizational ethics. In this study, nurse case managers practicing in the acute care setting, military, not-for-profit community, and teaching hospitals were interviewed. The majority of the nurse case manager participants were engaged in hospital discharge planning and utilization review activities. An interpretive phenomenological approach was used to identify the themes inherent in ethical concerns and articulate them within the context of hospital nurse case management. Fifteen participants were interviewed to obtain a qualitative description of the nurse case managers' lived experiences of ethical dilemmas and how they were resolved. Nurse case managers' perceptions of solutions/options to resolve such ethical dilemmas were explored. As nurses transition into the expanded role of case management in the present healthcare delivery system, they frequently face situations demanding ethical choices and judgments to accommodate diverse patient interests and needs. These ethical decisions required in daily practice of case management represent ethical dilemmas to nurses. The insights derived from the analysis of the interviews have implications for nursing practice, education, policy, ethics, and research; recommendations for organizations employing nurse case managers in terms of recruitment, orientation, training, and continued need for educational support are identified. 1. The clinical decisions required in daily practice of case management represented challenges to the nurses. This highlights the critical role of adequate educational orientation to case management for beginning case managers. 2. Nurse case managers should be cognizant of the "disconnect" that could occur between their obligations to the organizations that employ them and the healthcare needs of the patients that they advocate for. 3. Aside from the importance of linking patient care outcomes with accountability, nurse case managers may need to advocate for policy change and system reform.

The Influence of Occupational Socialization on Novice Teachers' Practical Knowledge, Confidence and Teaching in Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romar, Jan-Erik; Frisk, Alexandra

2017-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to examine the influence of occupational socialization on three novice physical education teachers' practical knowledge, confidence in teaching content and enacted pedagogical practices. This study involved three novice teachers who taught in Finnish primary schools. Data sources included…

Developing Tools for Research on School Leadership Development: An Illustrative Case of a Computer Simulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Showanasai, Parinya; Lu, Jiafang; Hallinger, Philip

2013-01-01

Purpose: The extant literature on school leadership development is dominated by conceptual analysis, descriptive studies of current practice, critiques of current practice, and prescriptions for better ways to approach practice. Relatively few studies have examined impact of leadership development using experimental methods, among which even fewer…

Effective Leadership Practices Exercised by Elementary Principals in Turnaround Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tietjen, Jill Deanne

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify effective leadership practices, processes, and strategies utilized by elementary school principals in low-achieving schools as well as to discuss and identify leadership practices as they emerged in the literature. Qualitative methods in the form of case studies of three elementary school principals…

Democratic Schooling in Norway: Implications for Leadership in Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moller, Jorunn

2006-01-01

This article explores the meaning of an education based on democratic values and the implications for school leadership in practice. Based on findings from a case study in a Norwegian upper secondary school, the study describes democratic school leadership in practice, with particular attention to the distribution of power and leadership in the…

Service-Learning and Emergent Communities of Practice: A Teacher Education Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaschak, Jennifer Cutsforth; Letwinsky, Karim Medico

2015-01-01

This study investigates the unexpected emergence of a community of practice in a middle level mathematics and science methods course. The authors describe how preservice teacher participation in a collaborative, project-based service-learning experience resulted in the formation of a community of practice characterized by teamwork, meaningful…

A Mathematics Teacher's Practice in a Technological Environment: A Case Study Analysis Using Two Complementary Theories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tabach, Michal

2011-01-01

Integrating technology in school mathematics has become more and more common. The teacher is a key person in integrating technology into everyday practice. To understand teacher practice in a technological environment, this study proposes using two theoretical perspectives: the theory of technological pedagogical content knowledge to analyze…

How One Science Teacher Redefines a Science Teaching Practice around a Theme: A Case Study in the Context of Educational Reform in Quebec

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barma, Sylvie; Bader, Barbara

2013-01-01

In the context of an education reform in Quebec, this case study illustrates how a science teacher's practice was redefined with nine classes over a period of four months on a specific, integrative theme inspired by issues of daily life in an attempt to increase her students' motivation and to better make sense of some scientific concepts…

A Case Study Examining the Influence of Black Greek Letter Fraternal Presence, Policies, and Practices on African American Male Student Success at a Predominantly White Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singleton, Stanley Duane

2010-01-01

This qualitative case study was conducted at a mid-sized university in the southeastern United States to determine if a nexus existed among BGLF presence, policies, and practices at a PWI that influences the student success of African American males. This research focused on the analysis of two direct associations--the association between the BGLF…

Evaluation and perceived results of moral case deliberation: A mixed methods study.

PubMed

Janssens, Rien M J P A; van Zadelhoff, Ezra; van Loo, Ger; Widdershoven, Guy A M; Molewijk, Bert A C

2015-12-01

Moral case deliberation is increasingly becoming part of various Dutch healthcare organizations. Although some evaluation studies of moral case deliberation have been carried out, research into the results of moral case deliberation within aged care is scarce. How did participants evaluate moral case deliberation? What has moral case deliberation brought to them? What has moral case deliberation contributed to care practice? Should moral case deliberation be further implemented and, if so, how? Quantitative analysis of a questionnaire study among participants of moral case deliberation, both caregivers and team leaders. Qualitative analysis of written answers to open questions, interview study and focus group meetings among caregivers and team leaders. Caregivers and team leaders in a large organization for aged care in the Netherlands. A total of 61 moral case deliberation sessions, carried out on 16 care locations belonging to the organization, were evaluated and perceived results were assessed. Participants gave informed consent and anonymity was guaranteed. In the Netherlands, the law does not prescribe independent ethical review by an Institutional Review Board for this kind of research among healthcare professionals. Moral case deliberation was evaluated positively by the participants. Content and atmosphere of moral case deliberation received high scores, while organizational issues regarding the moral case deliberation sessions scored lower and merit further attention. Respondents indicated that moral case deliberation has the potential to contribute to care practice as relationships among team members improve, more openness is experienced and more understanding for different perspectives is fostered. If moral case deliberation is to be successfully implemented, top-down approaches should go hand in hand with bottom-up approaches. The relevance of moral case deliberation for care practice received wide acknowledgement from the respondents. It can contribute to the team's cohesion as mutual understanding for one another's views is fostered. If implemented well, moral case deliberation has the potential to improve care, according to the respondents. © The Author(s) 2014.

Counteracting Educational Injustice with Applied Critical Leadership: Culturally Responsive Practices Promoting Sustainable Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santamaría, Lorri J.; Santamaría, Andrés P.

2015-01-01

This contribution considers educational leadership practice to promote and sustain diversity. Comparative case studies are presented featuring educational leaders in the United States and New Zealand who counter injustice in their practice. The leaders' leadership practices responsive to the diversity presented in their schools offer…

Best Leadership Practices for High-Poverty Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyman, Linda L.; Villani, Christine J.

2004-01-01

This book presents both the practice and theory of best leadership practices in high-poverty schools. Authors Linda Lyman and Christine Villani take a unique approach by inviting readers into two high-poverty elementary schools where they will experience, through in-depth case studies, how two extraordinary principals model and practice their…

Identifying Inconsistencies and Reporting Deficits in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (TMB) Case Reports Authored by TMB Practitioners: a TMB-Adapted CAse REport (CARE) Guidelines Audit Through 2014.

PubMed

Munk, Niki; Shue, Sarah; Freeland, Emilee; Ralston, Rick; Boulanger, Karen T

2016-09-01

Case reports are a fundamental tool through which therapeutic massage and bodywork (TMB) practitioners can inform research and impact their field by detailing the presentation, treatment, and follow-up of a single individual encountered in practice. Inconsistencies in case reporting limit their impact as fundamental sources of clinical evidence. Using the TMB-adapted CAse REport (CARE) guidelines, the current study sought to provide a rich description regarding the reporting quality of TMB practitioner authored TMB case reports in the literature. 1) Systematic identification of published, peer-reviewed TMB case reports authored by TMB practitioners following PRISMA recommendations; 2) audit development based on TMB-adapted CARE guidelines; 3) audit implementation; and 4) descriptive analysis of audit scores. Our search identified 977 articles and 35 met study inclusion criteria. On average, TMB case reports included approximately 58% of the total items identified as necessary by the TMB-adapted CARE guidelines. Introduction sections of case reports had the best item reporting (80% on average), while Case Presentation (54%) and Results (52%) sections scored moderately overall, with only 20% of necessary Practitioner Description items included on average. Audit scores revealed inconsistent abstract reporting and few audited case reports including client race (20%), perspective (26%), and occupation/activities (40%); practitioner practice setting (12%), training (12%), scope-of-practice (29%), and credentialing (20%); adverse events or lack thereof (17%); and some aspect of informed consent (34%). Treatment descriptor item reporting varied from high to low. Various implications of concern are discussed. The current audit and descriptive analysis highlight several reporting inconsistencies in TMB case reports prior to 2015. Reporting guidelines for case reports are important if standards for, and impact of, TMB case reports are desired. Adherence to reporting specifications outlined by the TMB-adapted CARE guidelines could improve the impact and usability of TMB case reports in research, education, and practice.

Identifying Inconsistencies and Reporting Deficits in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (TMB) Case Reports Authored by TMB Practitioners: a TMB-Adapted CAse REport (CARE) Guidelines Audit Through 2014†

PubMed Central

Munk, Niki; Shue, Sarah; Freeland, Emilee; Ralston, Rick; Boulanger, Karen T.

2016-01-01

Introduction Case reports are a fundamental tool through which therapeutic massage and bodywork (TMB) practitioners can inform research and impact their field by detailing the presentation, treatment, and follow-up of a single individual encountered in practice. Inconsistencies in case reporting limit their impact as fundamental sources of clinical evidence. Using the TMB-adapted CAse REport (CARE) guidelines, the current study sought to provide a rich description regarding the reporting quality of TMB practitioner authored TMB case reports in the literature. Methods 1) Systematic identification of published, peer-reviewed TMB case reports authored by TMB practitioners following PRISMA recommendations; 2) audit development based on TMB-adapted CARE guidelines; 3) audit implementation; and 4) descriptive analysis of audit scores. Results Our search identified 977 articles and 35 met study inclusion criteria. On average, TMB case reports included approximately 58% of the total items identified as necessary by the TMB-adapted CARE guidelines. Introduction sections of case reports had the best item reporting (80% on average), while Case Presentation (54%) and Results (52%) sections scored moderately overall, with only 20% of necessary Practitioner Description items included on average. Audit scores revealed inconsistent abstract reporting and few audited case reports including client race (20%), perspective (26%), and occupation/activities (40%); practitioner practice setting (12%), training (12%), scope-of-practice (29%), and credentialing (20%); adverse events or lack thereof (17%); and some aspect of informed consent (34%). Treatment descriptor item reporting varied from high to low. Various implications of concern are discussed. Conclusion The current audit and descriptive analysis highlight several reporting inconsistencies in TMB case reports prior to 2015. Reporting guidelines for case reports are important if standards for, and impact of, TMB case reports are desired. Adherence to reporting specifications outlined by the TMB-adapted CARE guidelines could improve the impact and usability of TMB case reports in research, education, and practice. PMID:27648108

Ethical dilemmas among nurses as they transition to hospital case management: implications for organizational ethics, part I.

PubMed

O'Donnell, Lolita T

2007-01-01

To describe the experiences of ethical concerns by clinical nurses as they transitioned into their new role in hospital case management. Through this study, an attempt was made to explore experiences of ethical concerns and identify the implications for organizational ethics. In this study, nurse case managers practicing in the acute hospital setting, military, not-for-profit community, and teaching hospitals were interviewed. The majority of the nurse case manager participants were engaged in hospital discharge planning and utilization review activities. An interpretive phenomenological approach was used to identify the themes inherent in ethical concerns and articulate them within the context of hospital nurse case management. Fifteen participants were interviewed to obtain a qualitative description of the nurse case managers' lived experiences of ethical dilemmas and how they were resolved. Nurse case managers' perceptions of solutions/options to resolve such ethical dilemmas were explored. As nurses transition into the expanded role of case management in the present healthcare delivery system, they frequently face situations demanding ethical choices and judgments to accommodate diverse patient interests and needs. These ethical decisions required in daily practice in case management represent ethical dilemmas to nurses. The insights derived from the analysis of the interviews have implications for nursing practice, education, policy, ethics, and research; recommendations for organizations employing nurse case managers in terms of recruitment, orientation, training, and continued need for educational support are identified. 1. The clinical decisions required in daily practice of case management represented challenges to the nurses. This highlights the critical role of adequate educational orientation to case management for beginning case managers. 2. Nurse case managers should be cognizant of the "disconnect" that could occur between their obligations to the organizations that employ them and the healthcare needs of the patients that they advocate for. 3. Aside from the importance of linking patient care outcomes with accountability, nurse case managers may need to advocate for policy change and system reform.

Nursing sans frontières: a three year case study of multi-state registration to support nursing practice using information technology.

PubMed

Clark, Robyn A; Yallop, Julie; Wickett, Di; Krum, Henry; Tonkin, Andrew; Stewart, Simon

2006-01-01

To highlight the registration issues for nurses who wish to practice nationally, particularly those practicing within the telehealth sector. As part of a national clinical research study, applications were made to every state and territory for mutual recognition of nursing registration and fee waiver for telenursing cross border practice for a period of three years. These processes are described using a case study approach. The aim of this case study was to achieve registration in every state and territory of Australia without paying multiple fees by using mutual recognition provisions and the cross-border fee waiver policy of the nurse regulatory authorities in order to practice telenursing. Mutual recognition and fee waiver for cross-border practice was granted unconditionally in two states: Victoria (Vic) and Tasmania (Tas), and one territory: the Northern Territory (NT). The remainder of the Australian states and territories would only grant temporary registration for the period of the project or not at all, due to policy restrictions or nurse regulatory authority (NRA) Board decisions. As a consequence of gaining fee waiver the annual cost of registration was a maximum of dollars 145 per annum as opposed to the potential dollars 959 for initial registration and dollars 625 for annual renewal. Having eight individual nurses Acts and NRAs for a population of 265,000 nurses would clearly indicate a case for over regulation in this country. The structure of regulation of nursing in Australia is a barrier to the changing and evolving role of nurses in the 21st century and a significant factor when considering workforce planning.

"To Be a Scientist Sometimes You Have to Break Down Stuff about Animals": Examining the Normative Scientific Practices of a Summer Herpetological Program for Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Catherine Marie

2016-01-01

When studying informal science programs, researchers often overlook the opportunities enabled and constrained in each program and the practices reinforced for participants. In this case study, I examined the normative scientific practices reinforced in one-week-long "Herpetology" (the study of reptiles and amphibians) program for…

Experiential Learning and Its Role in Training and Improved Practice in High Level Sports Officiating

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grover, Kenda S.

2014-01-01

This qualitative study investigated how high level sports officials engage in experiential learning to improve their practice. Adult learning occurs in formal, nonformal and informal environments, and in some cases it is difficult to differentiate between these settings. In the case of cycling officials, learning begins in a nonformal environment…

Clinical Practice as Natural Laboratory for Psychotherapy Research: A Guide to Case-Based Time-Series Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borckardt, Jeffrey J.; Nash, Michael R.; Murphy, Martin D.; Moore, Mark; Shaw, Darlene; O'Neil, Patrick

2008-01-01

Both researchers and practitioners need to know more about how laboratory treatment protocols translate to real-world practice settings and how clinical innovations can be systematically tested and communicated to a skeptical scientific community. The single-case time-series study is well suited to opening a productive discourse between practice…

Tensions Teaching Science for Equity: Lessons Learned from the Case of Ms. Dawson

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braaten, Melissa; Sheth, Manali

2017-01-01

When teachers engage in forms of science teaching that disrupt the status quo of typical school science practices, they often experience dilemmas as problems of practice that are difficult--or even impossible--to solve. This instrumental case study examines one teacher's efforts to teach science for equity across two contexts: a public middle…

Connecting the Space between Design and Research: Explorations in Participatory Research Supervision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caldwell, Glenda Amayo; Osborne, Lindy; Mewburn, Inger; Nottingham, Anitra

2016-01-01

In this article we offer a single case study using an action research method for gathering and analysing data offering insights valuable to both design and research supervision practice. We do not attempt to generalise from this single case, but offer it as an instance that can improve our understanding of research supervision practice. We…

Adult Literacy Practices in Rural Families and Communities. Research into Practice Series No. 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bull, Geoff; Anstey, Michele

This booklet, which was written for literacy educators in Australia, examines selected research on adult literacy practices in rural families and communities and the implications of that research for adult literacy practice. The booklet begins with a discussion of literacy as social practice. The role of case studies in identifying factors…

Recruiting primary care practices for practice-based research: a case study of a group-randomized study (TRANSLATE CKD) recruitment process.

PubMed

Loskutova, Natalia Y; Smail, Craig; Ajayi, Kemi; Pace, Wilson D; Fox, Chester H

2018-01-16

We assessed the challenging process of recruiting primary care practices in a practice-based research study. In this descriptive case study of recruitment data collected for a large practice-based study (TRANSLATE CKD), 48 single or multiple-site health care organizations in the USA with a total of 114 practices were invited to participate. We collected quantitative and qualitative measures of recruitment process and outcomes for the first 25 practices recruited. Information about 13 additional practices is not provided due to staff transitions and limited data collection resources. Initial outreach was made to 114 practices (from 48 organizations, 41% small); 52 (45%) practices responded with interest. Practices enrolled in the study (n = 25) represented 22% of the total outreach number, or 48% of those initially interested. Average time to enroll was 71 calendar days (range 11-107). There was no difference in the number of days practices remained under recruitment, based on enrolled versus not enrolled (44.8 ± 30.4 versus 46.8 ± 25.4 days, P = 0.86) or by the organization size, i.e. large versus small (defined by having ≤4 distinct practices; 52 ± 23.6 versus 43.6 ± 27.8 days; P = 0.46). The most common recruitment barriers were administrative, e.g. lack of perceived direct organizational benefit, and were more prominent among large organizations. Despite the general belief that the research topic, invitation method, and interest in research may facilitate practice recruitment, our results suggest that most of the recruitment challenges represent managerial challenges. Future research projects may need to consider relevant methodologies from businesses administration and marketing fields. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Alternatives to the face-to-face consultation in general practice: focused ethnographic case study

PubMed Central

Atherton, Helen; Brant, Heather; Ziebland, Sue; Bikker, Annemieke; Campbell, John; Gibson, Andy; McKinstry, Brian; Porqueddu, Tania; Salisbury, Chris

2018-01-01

Background NHS policy encourages general practices to introduce alternatives to the face-to-face consultation, such as telephone, email, e-consultation systems, or internet video. Most have been slow to adopt these, citing concerns about workload. This project builds on previous research by focusing on the experiences of patients and practitioners who have used one or more of these alternatives. Aim To understand how, under what conditions, for which patients, and in what ways, alternatives to face-to-face consultations present benefits and challenges to patients and practitioners in general practice. Design and setting Focused ethnographic case studies took place in eight UK general practices between June 2015 and March 2016. Method Non-participant observation, informal conversations with staff, and semi-structured interviews with staff and patients were conducted. Practice documents and protocols were reviewed. Data were analysed through charting and the ‘one sheet of paper’ mind-map method to identify the line of argument in each thematic report. Results Case study practices had different rationales for offering alternatives to the face-to-face consultation. Beliefs varied about which patients and health issues were suitable. Co-workers were often unaware of each other’s practice; for example, practice policies for use of e-consultations systems with patients were not known about or followed. Patients reported benefits including convenience and access. Staff and some patients regarded the face-to-face consultation as the ideal. Conclusion Experience of implementing alternatives to the face-to-face consultation suggests that changes in patient access and staff workload may be both modest and gradual. Practices planning to implement them should consider carefully their reasons for doing so and involve the whole practice team. PMID:29378697

The sharing of self in geriatric clinical practice: case report and analysis.

PubMed

Nowak, K B; Wandel, J C

1998-01-01

We relate a case history that involved the therapeutic sharing of self with an elderly patient. The potential usefulness of this kind of intervention is discussed in light of the literature on self-disclosure and the use of self in clinical practice. We discuss how these concepts might relate to other well-described phenomena in geriatric nursing, including reminiscence, life review, loneliness, and storytelling. Recommendations for use in clinical practice and for qualitative studies are given.

Management of agricultural soils for greenhouse gas mitigation: Learning from a case study in NE Spain.

PubMed

Sánchez, B; Iglesias, A; McVittie, A; Álvaro-Fuentes, J; Ingram, J; Mills, J; Lesschen, J P; Kuikman, P J

2016-04-01

A portfolio of agricultural practices is now available that can contribute to reaching European mitigation targets. Among them, the management of agricultural soils has a large potential for reducing GHG emissions or sequestering carbon. Many of the practices are based on well tested agronomic and technical know-how, with proven benefits for farmers and the environment. A suite of practices has to be used since none of the practices can provide a unique solution. However, there are limitations in the process of policy development: (a) agricultural activities are based on biological processes and thus, these practices are location specific and climate, soils and crops determine their agronomic potential; (b) since agriculture sustains rural communities, the costs and potential for implementation have also to be regionally evaluated and (c) the aggregated regional potential of the combination of practices has to be defined in order to inform abatement targets. We believe that, when implementing mitigation practices, three questions are important: Are they cost-effective for farmers? Do they reduce GHG emissions? What policies favour their implementation? This study addressed these questions in three sequential steps. First, mapping the use of representative soil management practices in the European regions to provide a spatial context to upscale the local results. Second, using a Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) in a Mediterranean case study (NE Spain) for ranking soil management practices in terms of their cost-effectiveness. Finally, using a wedge approach of the practices as a complementary tool to link science to mitigation policy. A set of soil management practices was found to be financially attractive for Mediterranean farmers, which in turn could achieve significant abatements (e.g., 1.34 MtCO2e in the case study region). The quantitative analysis was completed by a discussion of potential farming and policy choices to shape realistic mitigation policy at European regional level. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Establishing Computer-Assisted Instruction to Teach Academics to Students with Autism as an Evidence-Based Practice.

PubMed

Root, Jenny R; Stevenson, Bradley S; Davis, Luann Ley; Geddes-Hall, Jennifer; Test, David W

2017-02-01

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) is growing in popularity and has demonstrated positive effects for students with disabilities, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this review, criteria for group experimental and single case studies were used to determine quality (Horner et al., Exceptional Children 71:165-179, 2005; Gersten et al., Exceptional Children 71:149-164, 2005; National Technical Assistance Center on Transition Center 2015). Included studies of high and adequate quality were further analyzed in terms of content, context, and specific instructional practices. Based on the NTACT criteria, this systematic review has established CAI as an evidence-based practice for teaching academics to students with ASD with support from 10 single-case and two group design studies of high or adequate quality. Suggestions for future research and implications for practice are discussed.

Alcoa North American Extrusions Implements Energy Use Assessments at Multiple Facilities: Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) BestPractices Aluminum Assessment Case Study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

U.S. Department of Energy

2001-08-05

This case study is the latest in a series on industrial firms who are implementing energy efficient technologies and system improvements into their manufacturing processes. The case studies document the activities, savings, and lessons learned on these projects.

Evaluation of Core Vocabulary Intervention for Treatment of Inconsistent Phonological Disorder: Three Treatment Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McIntosh, Beth; Dodd, Barbara

2009-01-01

Children with unintelligible speech differ in severity, underlying deficit, type of surface error patterns and response to treatment. Detailed treatment case studies, evaluating specific intervention protocols for particular diagnostic groups, can identify best practice for children with speech disorder. Three treatment case studies evaluated the…

An Instrumental Case Study of Administrative Smart Practices for Fully Online Programs and Degrees

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregory, Charles V.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this instrumental case study was to explore administrators' responses to significant administrative challenges of fully online programs and degrees. The case was a single public community college located in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Plains Region. In this study Bardach's (1994) method to identify and…

Complexity, Representation and Practice: Case Study as Method and Methodology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miles, Rebecca

2015-01-01

While case study is considered a common approach to examining specific and particular examples in research disciplines such as law, medicine and psychology, in the social sciences case study is often treated as a lesser, flawed or undemanding methodology which is less valid, reliable or theoretically rigorous than other methodologies. Building on…

Analyzing the Teaching of Professional Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moss, Pamela A.

2011-01-01

Background/Context: Based on their case studies of preparation for professional practice in the clergy, teaching, and clinical psychology, Grossman and colleagues (2009) identified three key concepts for analyzing and comparing practice in professional education--representations, decomposition, and approximations--to support professional educators…

Ares Launch Vehicles Lean Practices Case Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doreswamy, Rajiv, N.; Self, Timothy A.

2008-01-01

This viewgraph presentation describes test strategies and lean philisophies and practices that are applied to Ares Launch Vehicles. The topics include: 1) Testing strategy; 2) Lean Practices in Ares I-X; 3) Lean Practices Applied to Ares I-X Schedule; 4) Lean Event Results; 5) Lean, Six Sigma, and Kaizen Practices in the Ares Projects Office; 6) Lean and Kaizen Success Stories; and 7) Ares Six Sigma Practices.

Removal of biofilm from contact lens storage cases.

PubMed

Wu, Yvonne T; Zhu, Hua; Willcox, Mark; Stapleton, Fiona

2010-12-01

Lens case hygiene practices are important in maintaining safe contact lens wear. However, the effectiveness of various lens case cleaning practices have not been evaluated and compared. This in vitro study aimed to evaluate and compare the efficacy of cleaning practices that are most commonly carried out by lens wearers and recommended by practitioners. Pseudomonas aeruginosa 122, Serratia marcescens ATCC 13880, and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 were the challenge bacteria for biofilm formation on unused lens cases from two different manufacturers. After establishment of the biofilm, each lens case was subjected to one of the six cleaning regimens: "rinsed," "rubbed and rinsed," "air-dried," "soaked in a multipurpose contact lens solution," "tissue-wiped," and "lids recapped." The level of residual biofilm was quantified at the end of each cleaning regimen. The efficacy of each cleaning regimen was then compared. Mechanical rubbing and wiping of lens cases were the most effective cleaning regimen tested in reducing biofilm. Soaking lenses in disinfecting solution for 6 hours removed the majority of biofilm from lens cases. Rinsing lens cases alone provided only minimal efficacy in reducing biofilm. Air-drying or recapping the cases with the lid without any other additional cleaning methods were the least efficient at removing biofilm. Based on this study, digital rubbing and rinsing and/or wiping the lens cases with tissue is recommended. Air-drying or recapping the lens case lids after use without any additional cleaning methods should be discouraged with non-antimicrobial lens cases.

SOMWeb: a semantic web-based system for supporting collaboration of distributed medical communities of practice.

PubMed

Falkman, Göran; Gustafsson, Marie; Jontell, Mats; Torgersson, Olof

2008-08-26

Information technology (IT) support for remote collaboration of geographically distributed communities of practice (CoP) in health care must deal with a number of sociotechnical aspects of communication within the community. In the mid-1990s, participants of the Swedish Oral Medicine Network (SOMNet) began discussing patient cases in telephone conferences. The cases were distributed prior to the conferences using PowerPoint and email. For the technical support of online CoP, Semantic Web technologies can potentially fulfill needs of knowledge reuse, data exchange, and reasoning based on ontologies. However, more research is needed on the use of Semantic Web technologies in practice. The objectives of this research were to (1) study the communication of distributed health care professionals in oral medicine; (2) apply Semantic Web technologies to describe community data and oral medicine knowledge; (3) develop an online CoP, Swedish Oral Medicine Web (SOMWeb), centered on user-contributed case descriptions and meetings; and (4) evaluate SOMWeb and study how work practices change with IT support. Based on Java, and using the Web Ontology Language and Resource Description Framework for handling community data and oral medicine knowledge, SOMWeb was developed using a user-centered and iterative approach. For studying the work practices and evaluating the system, a mixed-method approach of interviews, observations, and a questionnaire was used. By May 2008, there were 90 registered users of SOMWeb, 93 cases had been added, and 18 meetings had utilized the system. The introduction of SOMWeb has improved the structure of meetings and their discussions, and a tenfold increase in the number of participants has been observed. Users submit cases to seek advice on diagnosis or treatment, to show an unusual case, or to create discussion. Identified barriers to submitting cases are lack of time, concern about whether the case is interesting enough, and showing gaps in one's own knowledge. Three levels of member participation are discernable: a core group that contributes most cases and most meeting feedback; an active group that participates often but only sometimes contribute cases and feedback; and a large peripheral group that seldom or never contribute cases or feedback. SOMWeb is beneficial for individual clinicians as well as for the SOMNet community. The system provides an opportunity for its members to share both high quality clinical practice knowledge and external evidence related to complex oral medicine cases. The foundation in Semantic Web technologies enables formalization and structuring of case data that can be used for further reasoning and research. Main success factors are the long history of collaboration between different disciplines, the user-centered development approach, the existence of a "champion" within the field, and nontechnical community aspects already being in place.

SOMWeb: A Semantic Web-Based System for Supporting Collaboration of Distributed Medical Communities of Practice

PubMed Central

Gustafsson, Marie; Jontell, Mats; Torgersson, Olof

2008-01-01

Background Information technology (IT) support for remote collaboration of geographically distributed communities of practice (CoP) in health care must deal with a number of sociotechnical aspects of communication within the community. In the mid-1990s, participants of the Swedish Oral Medicine Network (SOMNet) began discussing patient cases in telephone conferences. The cases were distributed prior to the conferences using PowerPoint and email. For the technical support of online CoP, Semantic Web technologies can potentially fulfill needs of knowledge reuse, data exchange, and reasoning based on ontologies. However, more research is needed on the use of Semantic Web technologies in practice. Objectives The objectives of this research were to (1) study the communication of distributed health care professionals in oral medicine; (2) apply Semantic Web technologies to describe community data and oral medicine knowledge; (3) develop an online CoP, Swedish Oral Medicine Web (SOMWeb), centered on user-contributed case descriptions and meetings; and (4) evaluate SOMWeb and study how work practices change with IT support. Methods Based on Java, and using the Web Ontology Language and Resource Description Framework for handling community data and oral medicine knowledge, SOMWeb was developed using a user-centered and iterative approach. For studying the work practices and evaluating the system, a mixed-method approach of interviews, observations, and a questionnaire was used. Results By May 2008, there were 90 registered users of SOMWeb, 93 cases had been added, and 18 meetings had utilized the system. The introduction of SOMWeb has improved the structure of meetings and their discussions, and a tenfold increase in the number of participants has been observed. Users submit cases to seek advice on diagnosis or treatment, to show an unusual case, or to create discussion. Identified barriers to submitting cases are lack of time, concern about whether the case is interesting enough, and showing gaps in one’s own knowledge. Three levels of member participation are discernable: a core group that contributes most cases and most meeting feedback; an active group that participates often but only sometimes contribute cases and feedback; and a large peripheral group that seldom or never contribute cases or feedback. Conclusions SOMWeb is beneficial for individual clinicians as well as for the SOMNet community. The system provides an opportunity for its members to share both high quality clinical practice knowledge and external evidence related to complex oral medicine cases. The foundation in Semantic Web technologies enables formalization and structuring of case data that can be used for further reasoning and research. Main success factors are the long history of collaboration between different disciplines, the user-centered development approach, the existence of a “champion” within the field, and nontechnical community aspects already being in place. PMID:18725355

Ensuring the availability of the nursing workforce through philanthropy: a case study.

PubMed

Bolton, Linda Burnes; Swanson, Jane; Zamora, Elizabeth

2014-01-01

The Institute of Medicine report on the Future of Nursing identified the need to increase the preparation of nurses, create pathways for nurses to lead as partners to improve health by promoting interprofessional education and practice, and to remove barriers to full practice of nurses across the continuum. This case study shares the experience of large systems and their creativity using philanthropy in their quest to ensure the availability of a qualified nursing workforce.

Enhancing the quality of case studies in health services research.

PubMed Central

Yin, R K

1999-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To provide guidance on improving the quality of case studies in health services research. DATA SOURCES: Secondary data, drawing from previous case study research. RESEARCH DESIGN: Guidance is provided to two audiences: potential case study investigators (eight items) and reviewers of case study proposals (four additional items). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The guidance demonstrates that many operational steps can be undertaken to improve the quality of case studies. These steps have been a hallmark of high-quality case studies in related fields but have not necessarily been practiced in health services research. CONCLUSIONS: Given higher-quality case studies, the case study method can become a valuable tool for health services research. Images Figure 3 PMID:10591280

Euthanasia for people with psychiatric disorders or dementia in Belgium: analysis of officially reported cases.

PubMed

Dierickx, Sigrid; Deliens, Luc; Cohen, Joachim; Chambaere, Kenneth

2017-06-23

Euthanasia for people who are not terminally ill, such as those suffering from psychiatric disorders or dementia, is legal in Belgium under strict conditions but remains a controversial practice. As yet, the prevalence of euthanasia for people with psychiatric disorders or dementia has not been studied and little is known about the characteristics of the practice. This study aims to report on the trends in prevalence and number of euthanasia cases with a psychiatric disorder or dementia diagnosis in Belgium and demographic, clinical and decision-making characteristics of these cases. We analysed the anonymous databases of euthanasia cases reported to the Federal Control and Evaluation Committee Euthanasia from the implementation of the euthanasia law in Belgium in 2002 until the end of 2013. The databases we received provided the information on all euthanasia cases as registered by the Committee from the official registration forms. Only those with one or more psychiatric disorders or dementia and no physical disease were included in the analysis. We identified 179 reported euthanasia cases with a psychiatric disorder or dementia as the sole diagnosis. These consisted of mood disorders (N = 83), dementia (N = 62), other psychiatric disorders (N = 22) and mood disorders accompanied by another psychiatric disorder (N = 12). The proportion of euthanasia cases with a psychiatric disorder or dementia diagnosis was 0.5% of all cases reported in the period 2002-2007, increasing from 2008 onwards to 3.0% of all cases reported in 2013. The increase in the absolute number of cases is particularly evident in cases with a mood disorder diagnosis. The majority of cases concerned women (58.1% in dementia to 77.1% in mood disorders). All cases were judged to have met the legal requirements by the Committee. While euthanasia on the grounds of unbearable suffering caused by a psychiatric disorder or dementia remains a comparatively limited practice in Belgium, its prevalence has risen since 2008. If, as this study suggests, people with psychiatric conditions or dementia are increasingly seeking access to euthanasia, the development of practice guidelines is all the more desirable if physicians are to respond adequately to these highly delicate requests.

A Set of Descriptive Case Studies of Four Dance Faculty Members' Pedagogical Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sims, Meredith; Erwin, Heather

2012-01-01

Dance faculty members come from a variety of backgrounds, which lead to varied knowledge bases and varied teaching practices. More information is needed about the current pedagogical practices of higher education dance faculty. This study sought to provide a description of four faculty members' pedagogical approaches to a dance technique class in…

Knowledge Systems, Health Care Teams, and Clinical Practice: A Study of Successful Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olson, Curtis A.; Tooman, Tricia R.; Alvarado, Carla J.

2010-01-01

Clinical teams are of growing importance to healthcare delivery, but little is known about how teams learn and change their clinical practice. We examined how teams in three US hospitals succeeded in making significant practice improvements in the area of antimicrobial resistance. This was a qualitative cross-case study employing Soft Knowledge…

Staff and Student Perceptions of English Language Policies and Practices in "International" Universities: A UK Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkins, Jennifer; Wingate, Ursula

2015-01-01

This article presents a small qualitative study which aimed to gain an understanding of how lecturers and international students perceive the English language policies and practices at their institutions. The findings show that most participants perceive current policies and practices as unfair. However, there were discrepancies in lecturers' and…

Secondary Teachers' Conceptions and Practices of Assessment Models: The Case for Mathematics Teachers in Jordan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al Duwairi, Ahmed

2013-01-01

This study aimed at investigating the extent to which secondary schools mathematics teachers practice to assessment models in their mathematics teaching and learning. Definitely, the study aimed at answering the following questions: (1) To what extent do secondary schools mathematics teachers practice each of the assessment models in their…

Socio-Spatial Practices in a Finnish Daycare Group for One- to Three-Year-Olds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutanen, Niina

2012-01-01

This qualitative case study approaches early childhood education and care practices from a socio-spatial point of view. One Finnish daycare group for one- to three-year-olds participated in the study. The ethnographic observations from the practices are analyzed together with the ECE practitioners' audio-recorded team meetings and video-elicited…

Changes in High School Chemistry Teacher Beliefs and Practice after a Professional Development Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spraker, Ralph Everett, Jr.

2010-01-01

This study proposed that when professional development modeled the inquiry-approach and provided time for peer-observed enactment and reflection, it would produce change in in-service chemistry teachers' beliefs and practices. Case study methodology was used to collect a variety of in-depth data on teachers' beliefs and practice including…

Curriculum and Assessment Policies and Practices in a Day Treatment Center in North Carolina

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferrell, Kimberly Ann

2013-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to describe current instructional policies and practices in a one-day treatment center in North Carolina for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The following research questions guided the study: (1) What are the curriculum policies, practices, and philosophies of day…

A Case Study of Effective Practice in Mathematics Teaching and Learning Informed by Valsiner's Zone Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geiger, Vince; Anderson, Judy; Hurrell, Derek

2017-01-01

The characteristics that typify an effective teacher of mathematics and the environments that support effective teaching practices have been a long-term focus of educational research. In this article we report on an aspect of a larger study that investigated "best practice" in mathematics teaching and learning across all Australian…

[Advance euthanasia directives in dementia rarely carried out. Qualitative study in physicians and patients].

PubMed

Rurup, Mette L; Pasman, H R W Roeline; Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Bregje D

2010-01-01

To study how advance euthanasia directives (AEDs) in dementia are viewed in practice in the Netherlands. Qualitative study. In-depth interviews on nine patients with the patients themselves and/or partners and their physicians. The patients were included from a cohort of people with an AED. All interviews were done in 2006. Cases were included with different diagnoses and at different stages of dementia. Interviewed patients and their relatives had very high expectations of the feasibility of the AED. Interviewed physicians often thought of AEDs as aids in starting up a dialogue about medical decisions at the end of life, but they did not always do this in practice. Most physicians were open to adhering to AEDs in exceptional cases, on condition that the patient obviously suffered, and that communication with the patient to some extent was possible. In this study two cases were found in which adhering to the AED was seriously considered. In one case, fear of legal consequences was the only reason the physician had not adhered to the AED, while it seemed all the requirements of due care could be met. Euthanasia was not carried out in the other patient either. Several physicians mentioned the need for more detailed practical guidelines for the use of AEDs for dementia. Patients had too high expectations of AEDs. It seemed that in exceptional cases the requirements for due care for euthanasia can be met in patients with dementia with an AED. It seems advisable that more detailed practical guidelines for the use of AEDs in cases of dementia be drawn up, as a first step to more clarity for patients and physicians.

Safe clinical practice for patients hospitalised in a suicidal crisis: a study protocol for a qualitative case study.

PubMed

Berg, Siv Hilde; Rørtveit, Kristine; Walby, Fredrik A; Aase, Karina

2017-01-27

Suicide prevention in psychiatric care is arguably complex and incompletely understood as a patient safety issue. A resilient healthcare approach provides perspectives through which to understand this complexity by understanding everyday clinical practice. By including suicidal patients and healthcare professionals as sources of knowledge, a deeper understanding of what constitutes safe clinical practice can be achieved. This planned study aims to adopt the perspective of resilient healthcare to provide a deeper understanding of safe clinical practice for suicidal patients in psychiatric inpatient care. It will describe the experienced components and conditions of safe clinical practice and the experienced practice of patient safety. The study will apply a descriptive case study approach consisting of qualitative semistructured interviews and focus groups. The data sources are hospitalised patients in a suicidal crisis and healthcare professionals in clinical practice. This study was approved by the Regional Ethics Committee (2016/34). The results will be disseminated through scientific articles, a PhD dissertation, and national and international conferences. These findings can generate knowledge to be integrated into the practice of safety for suicidal inpatients in Norway and to improve the feasibility of patient safety measures. Theoretical generalisations can be drawn regarding safe clinical practice by taking into account the experiences of patients and healthcare professionals. Thus, this study can inform the conceptual development of safe clinical practice for suicidal patients. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

A Case Study of a Parent's Educational Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coldron, John; Boulton, Pam

1999-01-01

Examines a parent's ("Sarah") educational practice and provides a description of her family. Focuses on how Sarah began her educational practice before her children were born, her conception of education and educational success, how she makes decisions in a context of uncertainty, and the role of emotions in her educational practice. (CMK)

"Keeping SCORE": Reflective Practice through Classroom Observations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrell, Thomas S. C.

2011-01-01

Reflective practice means that teachers must subject their own teaching beliefs and practices to critical examination. One way of facilitating reflective practice in ESL teachers is to encourage them to engage in classroom observations as part of their professional development. This paper reports on a case study of a short series of classroom…

Social marketing's unique contribution to mental health stigma reduction and HIV testing: two case studies.

PubMed

Thackeray, Rosemary; Keller, Heidi; Heilbronner, Jennifer Messenger; Dellinger, Laura K Lee

2011-03-01

Since its inception in 2005, articles in Health Promotion Practice's social marketing department have focused on describing social marketing's unique contributions and the application of each to the practice of health promotion. This article provides a brief review of six unique features (marketing mix, consumer orientation, segmentation, exchange, competition, and continuous monitoring) and then presents two case studies-one on reducing stigma related to mental health and the other a large-scale campaign focused on increasing HIV testing among African American youth. The two successful case studies show that social marketing principles can be applied to a wide variety of topics among various population groups.

Leadership for Excellence: A Case Study of Leadership Practices of School Superintendents Serving Four Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient School Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willert, Klint Walter

2013-01-01

This purpose of this study was to examine and understand the leadership practices of four individuals who were serving in the capacity of superintendent leading to or at the time of their respective districts receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The study explored how certain leadership practices transcended the four identified…

Pre-operative patient teaching in an acute care ward in Hong Kong: a case study.

PubMed

Lee, David S; Chien, W T

2002-10-01

Many nurses have acknowledged that adequate pre-operative teaching can alleviate patients' anxiety, increase patient participation in their own care, and minimize post-operative complications. However, the organization and degree to which pre-operative patient teachingfeatured in nurses' practice varies in different acute care settings. A case study design was used to explore the practice of pre-operative teaching in a surgical ward of an acute general hospital in Hong Kong. Seventeen registered nurses working on the ward were interviewed and observed in order to explore how they conduct a pre-operative teaching program and the difficulties encountered by them in carrying out pre-operative teaching on this acute care setting. Thefindings of this study indicate that pre-operative teaching workshops are organized and conducted by nursesfrom the operating theatre, in the day surgery center. Ward nurses were not actively involved in this pre-operative teaching. The results of this study present some similarities to a study with the similar design in Australia. There are also issues unique to the Hong Kong context. This case study was to review Hong Kong nurses' current practices of pre-operative teaching and to understand the cultural, conceptual and managementfactors influencing the practice in pre-operative teaching.

Does High-Level Intellectual Performance Depend on Practice Alone? Debunking the Polgar Sisters Case

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Robert W.

2011-01-01

The famous Polgar sisters started chess very young, undertook extensive study, and two became grandmasters. This case often is cited as decisive evidence that practice alone is key in development of expertise, that innate talent is unimportant or non-existent, and that almost anyone can become a grandmaster. But on close examination these claims…

Linking Theory to Practice in Learning Technology Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunn, Cathy; Steel, Caroline

2012-01-01

We present a case to reposition theory so that it plays a pivotal role in learning technology research and helps to build an ecology of learning. To support the case, we present a critique of current practice based on a review of articles published in two leading international journals from 2005 to 2010. Our study reveals that theory features only…

Unpacking the Nature and Practices of Inclusive Education: The Case of Two Schools in Hyderabad, India

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sawhney, Sonia

2015-01-01

This paper reports insights into the nature and practices of inclusive schools in India using a case study methodology. Being a signatory of the Salamanca Statement, the Government of India has undertaken to implement an inclusive system of education in schools. An initial survey conducted to identify sample inclusive schools showed that inclusive…

Another Link in the Chain: State Policies and Practices for Case Management and Environmental Investigation for Lead-Poisoned Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guthrie, Anne M.; McLaine, Pat

Policy and practice for screening children for lead poisoning have dominated the dialogue about the health care system's role in lead poisoning prevention, with little attention directed to how the health care system responds to a lead-poisoned child once identified. This report details a study of the case management and environmental…

"Another Link in the Chain" Update: State Policies and Practices for Case Management and Environmental Investigation for Lead-Poisoned Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLaine, Pat; Gaitens, Joanna

This report details a national survey, conducted in 2000, to document changes since 1998 in policies and practices for case management and environmental investigation for lead poisoned children; the study also investigated the impact of the previous national survey in precipitating change. Participating in the survey were program directors or…

Systems Thinking Tools for Improving Evidence-Based Practice: A Cross-Case Analysis of Two High School Leadership Teams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kensler, Lisa A. W.; Reames, Ellen; Murray, John; Patrick, Lynne

2012-01-01

Teachers and administrators have access to large volumes of data but research suggests that they lack the skills to use data effectively for continuous school improvement. This study involved a cross-case analysis of two high school leadership teams' early stages of evidence-based practice development; differing forms of external support were…

A qualitative study of GP, nurse and practice manager views on using targeted case-finding to identify patients with COPD in primary care.

PubMed

Summers, Rachael H; Sharmeen, Taniya; Lippiett, Kate; Gillett, Kate; Astles, Carla; Vu, Linh; Stafford-Watson, Mark; Bruton, Anne; Thomas, Mike; Wilkinson, Tom

2017-08-29

'Finding the missing millions' with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease became part of the Department of Health strategy for England in 2010. Targeted case-finding within primary care is one potential pro-active strategy, but currently little is known about the views of healthcare professionals on this approach. In this study, 36 healthcare professionals (12 GPs, 14 nurses, and 10 practice managers) from 34 UK practices participated in semi-structured telephone interviews about targeted case-finding. Interviews followed an interview guide, were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, coded and analysed using 'Framework Approach'. Most of those interviewed practiced opportunistic case-finding. The main perceived barriers to wider case-finding programmes were the resource implications associated with running such programmes and identifying more chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Financial incentives, support from specialist clinicians, and comprehensive guidance were viewed as facilitators. While targeted case-finding is conceptually accepted by primary care staff, scepticism surrounding (1) the value of identifying those with mild disease and (2) the availability of effective targeted case-finding methods, may lead some to favour an opportunistic approach. Key concerns were a lack of unequivocal evidence for the relative benefits vs. disadvantages of diagnosing patients earlier, and resource constraints in an already over-burdened system. Barriers to practical implementation of case-finding studies may be addressed with financial, human and educational resources, such as additional staff to undertake searches and perform spirometry tests, and practical and educational support from specialist teams. SUPPORT NEEDED TO IDENTIFY THOSE UNDIAGNOSED: Additional staff and resources would facilitate targeted searches for patients showing symptoms of early-stage chronic lung disease. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) costs the UK economy billions of pounds each year, yet disparate symptoms mean patients aren't always diagnosed in the early, treatable stages of the disease. Recent guidelines suggest introducing 'targeted case-finding', where symptomatic patients with known risk factors are identified and approached for testing by doctors. Rachael Summers and colleagues at the University of Southampton analyzed the opinions of healthcare professionals on implementing targeted case-finding in primary care. While most of the 36 professionals interviewed agreed that diagnosing COPD earlier had clear benefits, concerns were raised regarding negative patient responses and increased stress for patients, alongside the added strain on already stretched resources. Employing independent staff and enhancing resources may facilitate such a program.

General practice performance in referral for suspected cancer: influence of number of cases and case-mix on publicly reported data.

PubMed

Murchie, P; Chowdhury, A; Smith, S; Campbell, N C; Lee, A J; Linden, D; Burton, C D

2015-05-26

Publicly available data show variation in GPs' use of urgent suspected cancer (USC) referral pathways. We investigated whether this could be due to small numbers of cancer cases and random case-mix, rather than due to true variation in performance. We analysed individual GP practice USC referral detection rates (proportion of the practice's cancer cases that are detected via USC) and conversion rates (proportion of the practice's USC referrals that prove to be cancer) in routinely collected data from GP practices in all of England (over 4 years) and northeast Scotland (over 7 years). We explored the effect of pooling data. We then modelled the effects of adding random case-mix to practice variation. Correlations between practice detection rate and conversion rate became less positive when data were aggregated over several years. Adding random case-mix to between-practice variation indicated that the median proportion of poorly performing practices correctly identified after 25 cancer cases were examined was 20% (IQR 17 to 24) and after 100 cases was 44% (IQR 40 to 47). Much apparent variation in GPs' use of suspected cancer referral pathways can be attributed to random case-mix. The methods currently used to assess the quality of GP-suspected cancer referral performance, and to compare individual practices, are misleading. These should no longer be used, and more appropriate and robust methods should be developed.

Studying Scale-Up and Spread as Social Practice: Theoretical Introduction and Empirical Case Study

PubMed Central

Shaw, Sara; Wherton, Joseph; Hughes, Gemma; Greenhalgh, Trisha

2017-01-01

Background Health and care technologies often succeed on a small scale but fail to achieve widespread use (scale-up) or become routine practice in other settings (spread). One reason for this is under-theorization of the process of scale-up and spread, for which a potentially fruitful theoretical approach is to consider the adoption and use of technologies as social practices. Objective This study aimed to use an in-depth case study of assisted living to explore the feasibility and usefulness of a social practice approach to explaining the scale-up of an assisted-living technology across a local system of health and social care. Methods This was an individual case study of the implementation of a Global Positioning System (GPS) “geo-fence” for a person living with dementia, nested in a much wider program of ethnographic research and organizational case study of technology implementation across health and social care (Studies in Co-creating Assisted Living Solutions [SCALS] in the United Kingdom). A layered sociological analysis included micro-level data on the index case, meso-level data on the organization, and macro-level data on the wider social, technological, economic, and political context. Data (interviews, ethnographic notes, and documents) were analyzed and synthesized using structuration theory. Results A social practice lens enabled the uptake of the GPS technology to be studied in the context of what human actors found salient, meaningful, ethical, legal, materially possible, and professionally or culturally appropriate in particular social situations. Data extracts were used to illustrate three exemplar findings. First, professional practice is (and probably always will be) oriented not to “implementing technologies” but to providing excellent, ethical care to sick and vulnerable individuals. Second, in order to “work,” health and care technologies rely heavily on human relationships and situated knowledge. Third, such technologies do not just need to be adopted by individuals; they need to be incorporated into personal habits and collaborative routines (both lay and professional). Conclusions Health and care technologies need to be embedded within sociotechnical networks and made to work through situated knowledge, personal habits, and collaborative routines. A technology that “works” for one individual in a particular set of circumstances is unlikely to work in the same way for another in a different set of circumstances. We recommend the further study of social practices and the application of co-design principles. However, our findings suggest that even if this occurs, the scale-up and spread of many health and care technologies will be neither rapid nor smooth. PMID:28687532

Assessing the uptake of persistent identifiers by research infrastructure users

PubMed Central

Maull, Keith E.

2017-01-01

Significant progress has been made in the past few years in the development of recommendations, policies, and procedures for creating and promoting citations to data sets, software, and other research infrastructures like computing facilities. Open questions remain, however, about the extent to which referencing practices of authors of scholarly publications are changing in ways desired by these initiatives. This paper uses four focused case studies to evaluate whether research infrastructures are being increasingly identified and referenced in the research literature via persistent citable identifiers. The findings of the case studies show that references to such resources are increasing, but that the patterns of these increases are variable. In addition, the study suggests that citation practices for data sets may change more slowly than citation practices for software and research facilities, due to the inertia of existing practices for referencing the use of data. Similarly, existing practices for acknowledging computing support may slow the adoption of formal citations for computing resources. PMID:28394907

Prostate Brachytherapy Case Volumes by Academic and Nonacademic Practices: Implications for Future Residency Training

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Orio, Peter F., E-mail: PORIO@lroc.harvard.edu; Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Nguyen, Paul L.

Purpose: The use of prostate brachytherapy has continued to decline in the United States. We examined the national practice patterns of both academic and nonacademic practices performing prostate brachytherapy by case volume per year to further characterize the decline and postulate the effect this trend might have on training the next generation of residents. Methods and Materials: Men diagnosed with prostate cancer who had undergone radiation therapy in 2004 to 2012 were identified. The annual brachytherapy case volume at each facility was determined and further categorized into ≤12 cases per year (ie, an average of ≤1 cases per month), 13more » to 52 cases per year, and ≥53 cases per year (ie, an average of ≥1 cases per week) in academic practices versus nonacademic practices. Results: In 2004 to 2012, academic practices performing an average of ≤1 brachytherapy cases per month increased from 56.4% to 73.7%. In nonacademic practices, this percentage increased from 60.2% to 77.4% (P<.0001 for both). Practices performing an average of ≥1 cases per week decreased among both academic practices (from 6.7% to 1.5%) and nonacademic practices (from 4.5% to 2.7%). Conclusions: Both academic and nonacademic radiation oncology practices have demonstrated a significant reduction in the use of prostate brachytherapy from 2004 to 2012. With the case volume continuing to decline, it is unclear whether we are prepared to train the next generation of residents in this critical modality.« less

[Responsibility due to medication errors in France: a study based on SHAM insurance data].

PubMed

Theissen, A; Orban, J-C; Fuz, F; Guerin, J-P; Flavin, P; Albertini, S; Maricic, S; Saquet, D; Niccolai, P

2015-03-01

The safe medication practices at the hospital constitute a major public health problem. Drug supply chain is a complex process, potentially source of errors and damages for the patient. SHAM insurances are the biggest French provider of medical liability insurances and a relevant source of data on the health care complications. The main objective of the study was to analyze the type and cause of medication errors declared to SHAM and having led to a conviction by a court. We did a retrospective study on insurance claims provided by SHAM insurances with a medication error and leading to a condemnation over a 6-year period (between 2005 and 2010). Thirty-one cases were analysed, 21 for scheduled activity and 10 for emergency activity. Consequences of claims were mostly serious (12 deaths, 14 serious complications, 5 simple complications). The types of medication errors were a drug monitoring error (11 cases), an administration error (5 cases), an overdose (6 cases), an allergy (4 cases), a contraindication (3 cases) and an omission (2 cases). Intravenous route of administration was involved in 19 of 31 cases (61%). The causes identified by the court expert were an error related to service organization (11), an error related to medical practice (11) or nursing practice (13). Only one claim was due to the hospital pharmacy. The claim related to drug supply chain is infrequent but potentially serious. These data should help strengthen quality approach in risk management. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Health visiting assessment--unpacking critical attributes in health visitor needs assessment practice: a case study.

PubMed

Appleton, Jane V; Cowley, Sarah

2008-02-01

Assessment of family health need is a central feature of health visiting practice in which a range of skills, knowledge and judgements are used. These assessments are pivotal in uncovering need, safeguarding children and in determining levels of health intervention to be offered to children and their families by the health visiting service in the UK. The central focus of this paper is to outline the critical attributes of the basic principles that underpin health visiting assessment practice that emerged as part of a case study enquiry. A case study design informed by a constructivist methodology was used to examine health visitors' professional judgements and use of formal guidelines in identifying health needs and prioritising families requiring extra health visiting support. The main study was conducted in three community Trust case sites in England, UK, with pilot work being undertaken in a fourth site. Fifteen health visitors participated in the main study and data were collected during 56 observed home visits to families receiving extra health visiting support. Separate in-depth interviews were conducted with the health visitors, pre- and post-home contacts, while 53 client interviews also took place. The analysis suggests that there are certain fundamental elements associated with the majority of health visitor assessments and these have been termed assessment principles. These characteristics are integral to, and provide the basis upon which health visitors' assessments are conducted and professional judgement is formed. They reflect the basic principles of health visiting assessment practice, which exist despite the constraints and realities of the practice context and can be differentiated from the activity centred methods of assessment processes.

Homeland Security Collaboration: Catch Phrase or Preeminent Organizational Construct?

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-01

collaborative effort? C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This research project utilized a modified case study methodology. The traditional case study method ...discussing the research method , offering smart practices and culminate with findings and recommendations. Chapter II Homeland Security Collaboration...41 Centers for Regional Excellence, “Building Models.” 16 Chapter III Research Methodology:  Modified Case Study Method is

Perspectives on Distance Education. Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Selected Case Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tait, Alan, Ed.

This publication consists of a set of case studies of quality assurance practices in distance teaching universities. The case studies are particularly relevant at a time when universities in many parts of the world, both new and established distance teaching universities, are placing great emphasis on reviewing and revising what they do in…

The Use of Business Case Studies in Business German Classes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schutte, Lilith

The use of business case studies, defined as sophisticated models that present practical business problems and theoretical guidelines that can be used to solve the problems, is discussed. It is suggested that the main advantages of case studies are that they are usually more interesting to read than theoretical materials and they encourage student…

The Case Study Method: Guidelines, Practices, and Applications for Vocational Education. Research and Development Series No. 189.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spirer, Janet E.

In comparison with traditional experimental design, which is concerned with what happened, a case study approach is more appropriate for answering the question of why or how something happened. As an alternative complementary-vocational-education-evaluation approach, the case study attempts to describe and analyze some program in comprehensive…

Epistemology as Ethics in Research and Policy: The Use of Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, John; Lukes, Dominik

2008-01-01

This article examines the ethnographic case study in education in the context of policy making with particular emphasis on the practice of research and policy making. The central claim of the article is that it is impossible to establish a transcendental epistemology of the case study on instrumental rationality. Instead it argues for the notion…

Teaching with the Case Study Method to Promote Active Learning in a Small Molecule Crystallography Course for Chemistry Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Michael G.; Powers, Tamara M.; Zheng, Shao-Liang

2016-01-01

Implementing the case study method in a practical X-ray crystallography course designed for graduate or upper-level undergraduate chemistry students is described. Compared with a traditional lecture format, assigning small groups of students to examine literature case studies encourages more active engagement with the course material and…

Teacher-Student Interactions: Four Case Studies of Gender in Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Kathryn; Nicaise, Virginia

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to better understand gender interactions between teachers and students in high school physical education. Gender interactions were explored in relation to the theory of reflective practice. Interview data were examined as four case studies using individual and cross-case inductive analysis. Two common themes emerged: (a)…

A Case Study of Certified Support Staff Members' Perceptions of Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byrd, Tresseler S.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the perceptions of certified support staff at a Georgia middle school, focusing on their opinions of Professional Learning Communities (PLC), the roles they played in PLCs and the effect PLCs had on their professional practices. This descriptive case study utilized open-ended interviews,…

Social Case-work in General Practice: An Alternative Approach

PubMed Central

Ratoff, L.; Pearson, Barbara

1970-01-01

During a two-year period a senior case-worker was seconded by a voluntary family case-work agency, the Liverpool Personal Service Society, to work with three general practitioners. The commonest reasons for referral of the 157 new patients to the social worker over this study period were extreme poverty; housing, matrimonial, and psychiatric problems; and problems of fatherless families. The successful and valuable co-operation between the general practitioners, case-worker, and various specialist professional and financial services of the Society have proved that a professional social worker has an important role in the general-practice team. PMID:5420213

Customer-Focused Business Practice Adoption: A Comparison of Private and Public Sector Implementations

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-03-01

Narratives Phenomenologies Ethnographies Grounded Theory Case Studies Mixed Methods Sequential Concurrent Transformative Creswell... ethnographies , grounded theory studies and case studies (Creswell, 2003:18). The methods used in qualitative study provide the framework for...Definition Grounded theory provides a structured

Transforming Professional Learning into Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin, Iclal; Yildirim, Ali

2016-01-01

In this qualitative case study, we explored how ten EFL teachers who attended an in-service staff development programme subsequently integrated professional learning into their classroom practice, and which staff development practices were effective in this process. We triangulated data from interviews, observations, and document analysis. The…

A survey of current practices for genomic sequencing test interpretation and reporting processes in US laboratories.

PubMed

O'Daniel, Julianne M; McLaughlin, Heather M; Amendola, Laura M; Bale, Sherri J; Berg, Jonathan S; Bick, David; Bowling, Kevin M; Chao, Elizabeth C; Chung, Wendy K; Conlin, Laura K; Cooper, Gregory M; Das, Soma; Deignan, Joshua L; Dorschner, Michael O; Evans, James P; Ghazani, Arezou A; Goddard, Katrina A; Gornick, Michele; Farwell Hagman, Kelly D; Hambuch, Tina; Hegde, Madhuri; Hindorff, Lucia A; Holm, Ingrid A; Jarvik, Gail P; Knight Johnson, Amy; Mighion, Lindsey; Morra, Massimo; Plon, Sharon E; Punj, Sumit; Richards, C Sue; Santani, Avni; Shirts, Brian H; Spinner, Nancy B; Tang, Sha; Weck, Karen E; Wolf, Susan M; Yang, Yaping; Rehm, Heidi L

2017-05-01

While the diagnostic success of genomic sequencing expands, the complexity of this testing should not be overlooked. Numerous laboratory processes are required to support the identification, interpretation, and reporting of clinically significant variants. This study aimed to examine the workflow and reporting procedures among US laboratories to highlight shared practices and identify areas in need of standardization. Surveys and follow-up interviews were conducted with laboratories offering exome and/or genome sequencing to support a research program or for routine clinical services. The 73-item survey elicited multiple choice and free-text responses that were later clarified with phone interviews. Twenty-one laboratories participated. Practices highly concordant across all groups included consent documentation, multiperson case review, and enabling patient opt-out of incidental or secondary findings analysis. Noted divergence included use of phenotypic data to inform case analysis and interpretation and reporting of case-specific quality metrics and methods. Few laboratory policies detailed procedures for data reanalysis, data sharing, or patient access to data. This study provides an overview of practices and policies of experienced exome and genome sequencing laboratories. The results enable broader consideration of which practices are becoming standard approaches, where divergence remains, and areas of development in best practice guidelines that may be helpful.Genet Med advance online publication 03 Novemeber 2016.

Practice as a Marketing Tool: Four Case Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Duncan

1995-01-01

Discusses the experiences of four librarians who adopted marketing strategies to improve their practice and their institution's services, and examines the role of marketing in today's information society. (AEF)

Forty-Five Years of Civil Litigation Against Canadian Psychiatrists: An Empirical Pilot Study

PubMed Central

Luther, Glen; Gutheil, Thomas G.

2016-01-01

Objectives: To extract the themes pertaining to prudent psychiatric practice from written court judgments in Canada. Methods: We searched the medical and legal literature for cases involving civil litigation against Canadian psychiatrist and reviewed all available written judgments. We completed a thematic analysis of the civil actions against psychiatrists as conveyed by those written court judgments. We classified the cases according to the disposal status and the essential lessons from the decisions on standard of care and practice by Canadian psychiatrists. Results: Forty such cases were identified as involving psychiatrists over a 45-year period. A subgroup included those dealing with limitation periods and disclosure applications. Thirty of the 40 cases (75%) were decided in favour of the defendant psychiatrists, including 2 dismissed for running over the limitation period. The cases that actually went to trial suggest that documentation and obtaining second opinions are protective against claims of negligence. Inpatient cases resulting in successful litigation against psychiatrists involved fatal outcomes, but not all fatal outcomes led to successful litigation. Conclusions: The key lessons from these cases are the importance and relevance of regular best clinical practices, such as documentation, obtaining second opinions, following guidelines, and balancing competencies in the expert and manager or advocate roles. Incorporating these practices should allay concerns about litigation against psychiatrists. PMID:27253702

Forty-Five Years of Civil Litigation Against Canadian Psychiatrists: An Empirical Pilot Study.

PubMed

Mela, Mansfield; Luther, Glen; Gutheil, Thomas G

2016-02-01

To extract the themes pertaining to prudent psychiatric practice from written court judgments in Canada. We searched the medical and legal literature for cases involving civil litigation against Canadian psychiatrist and reviewed all available written judgments. We completed a thematic analysis of the civil actions against psychiatrists as conveyed by those written court judgments. We classified the cases according to the disposal status and the essential lessons from the decisions on standard of care and practice by Canadian psychiatrists. Forty such cases were identified as involving psychiatrists over a 45-year period. A subgroup included those dealing with limitation periods and disclosure applications. Thirty of the 40 cases (75%) were decided in favour of the defendant psychiatrists, including 2 dismissed for running over the limitation period. The cases that actually went to trial suggest that documentation and obtaining second opinions are protective against claims of negligence. Inpatient cases resulting in successful litigation against psychiatrists involved fatal outcomes, but not all fatal outcomes led to successful litigation. The key lessons from these cases are the importance and relevance of regular best clinical practices, such as documentation, obtaining second opinions, following guidelines, and balancing competencies in the expert and manager or advocate roles. Incorporating these practices should allay concerns about litigation against psychiatrists. © The Author(s) 2015.

Cultural differences affecting euthanasia practice in Belgium: one law but different attitudes and practices in Flanders and Wallonia.

PubMed

Cohen, Joachim; Van Wesemael, Yanna; Smets, Tinne; Bilsen, Johan; Deliens, Luc

2012-09-01

Since 2002, Belgium has had a national law legalising euthanasia. The law prescribes several substantive due care requirements and two procedural due care requirements, i.e. consultation with an independent physician and reporting of euthanasia to a Federal Control Committee. A large discrepancy in reporting rates between the Dutch-speaking (Flanders) and the French-speaking (Wallonia) parts of Belgium has led to speculation about cultural differences affecting the practice of euthanasia in both regions. Using Belgian data from the European Values Study conducted in 2008 among a representative sample of the general public and data from a large-scale mail questionnaire survey on euthanasia of 480 physicians from Flanders and 305 from Wallonia (conducted in 2009), this study presents empirical evidence of differences between both regions in attitudes towards and practice of euthanasia. Acceptance of euthanasia by the general population was found to be slightly higher in Flanders than in Wallonia. Compared with their Flemish counterparts, Walloon physicians held more negative attitudes towards performing euthanasia and towards the reporting obligation, less often labelled hypothetical cases correctly as euthanasia, and less often defined a case of euthanasia having to be reported. A higher proportion of Flemish physicians had received a euthanasia request since the introduction of the law. In cases of a euthanasia request, Walloon physicians consulted less often with an independent physician. Requests were more often granted in Flanders than in Wallonia (51% vs 38%), and performed euthanasia cases were more often reported (73% vs 58%). The study points out some significant differences between Flanders and Wallonia in practice, knowledge and attitudes regarding euthanasia and its legal requirements which are likely to explain the discrepancy between Wallonia and Flanders in the number of euthanasia cases reported. Cultural factors seem to play an important role in the practice of (legal) euthanasia and the extent to which legal safeguards are followed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Benchmarking Customer Service Practices of Air Cargo Carriers: A Case Study Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-09-01

customer toll free hotlines, comment and complaint analysis, and consumer advisory panels (Zemke and Schaaf, 1989:31-34). The correct use of any or all of... customer service criteria. The research also provides a host of customer service criteria that the researchers find important to most consumers . Bhote...AD-A285 014 DTIC ELECI’E SEP 2 9 1994 kOF4 * BENCHMARKING CUSTOMER SERVICE -, PRACTICES OF AIR CARGO CARRIERS: A CASE STUDY APPROACH THESIS Patrick D

PR Students, Teachers Welcome Corporate Case Study Packages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Broom, Glen M.; Ferguson-De Thorne, Mary Ann

1978-01-01

Reports on an actual public relations problem that was used to introduce students to the practice of corporate public relations. Shows both positive and negative reaction to use of the case study in college classes. (RL)

Musculoskeletal training: are GP trainees exposed to the right case mix for independent practice?

PubMed

Goff, Iain; Wise, Elspeth Mary; Coady, David; Walker, David

2016-02-01

Musculoskeletal conditions are common in general practice, but clinicians express poor self confidence in dealing with them. Training in general practice relies on clinical exposure to a range of presentations in order to gain competence. It has been suggested that trainees are exposed to a different case mix from qualified general practices (GPs), due to seeing more minor illness and less chronic disease and that this may be responsible in part for their subsequent lack of confidence. The aims of this study were to analyse the case mix of musculoskeletal conditions encountered by general practice trainees and to compare this to the overall population consulting behaviour. This is a prospective observational study. Thirteen general practices in North East England were recruited. Musculoskeletal disorders encountered by 13 GP trainees (7 junior and 6 senior) were prospectively recorded using a handheld diary. Disorders were classified according to working diagnosis or body region if diagnosis was unclear. Musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders comprised 17 % of consultations, and the distribution of diagnoses of these was in proportion to epidemiological studies of MSK disorders in the UK as they present in primary care. Back pain was the most frequent label with 141 (29 %) consultations with a further 43 (9 %) for neck pain. Inflammatory arthritis accounted for the same number 43 (9 %). Individual joint problems were 115 (24 %) with knee being most common. A specific diagnosis was more likely to be applied when symptoms were more distal and less likely when axial. Trainees are exposed to the same spectrum of MSK disorders as are present in the population as a whole. Case mix does not appear to be a significant factor in low confidence levels in dealing with MSK disorders.

Putting conflict management into practice: a nursing case study.

PubMed

Vivar, Cristina García

2006-04-01

This paper is intended to put knowledge in conflict management into practice through reflecting on a nursing case study. Nursing organizations are particularly vulnerable to conflict as the context of nurses' work may be difficult and stressful. Power conflict is argued to be an important source of tension within nursing units. Learning to manage conflict at an early stage is therefore crucial to the effective functioning of nursing organizations. A nursing case study that illustrates power conflict in an oncology nursing unit is displayed and reflection on conflict management from the case is provided. There is no appropriate or inappropriate strategy to deal with conflict. However, detecting initial symptoms of conflict and adopting the most effective behaviour to conflict resolution is essential in nursing units. Further nursing education in conflict management for staff nurses and nurse managers is greatly needed.

Using a social entrepreneurial approach to enhance the financial and social value of health care organizations.

PubMed

Liu, Sandra S; Lu, Jui-Fen Rachel; Guo, Kristina L

2014-01-01

In this study, a conceptual framework was developed to show that social entrepreneurial practices can be effectively translated to meet the social needs in health care. We used a theory-in-use case study approach that encompasses postulation of a working taxonomy from literature scanning and a deliberation of the taxonomy through triangulation of multilevel data of a case study conducted in a Taiwan-based hospital system. Specifically, we demonstrated that a nonprofit organization can adopt business principles that emphasize both financial and social value. We tested our model and found comprehensive accountability across departments throughout the case hospital system, and this led to sustainable and continual growth of the organization. Through social entrepreneurial practices, we established that both financial value creation and fulfilling the social mission for the case hospital system can be achieved.

Best Technology Practices of Conflict Resolution Specialists: A Case Study of Online Dispute Resolution at United States Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Law, Kimberli Marie

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to remedy the paucity of knowledge about higher education's conflict resolution practice of online dispute resolution by providing an in-depth description of mediator and instructor online practices. Telephone interviews were used as the primary data collection method. Eleven interview questions were relied upon to…

Investigating the Practices of Assessment Methods in Amharic Language Writing Skill Context: The Case of Selected Higher Education in Ethiopia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tesfay, Hailay

2017-01-01

This study aims to investigate Ethiopian higher education Amharic language writing skills instructors' practices of Assessment Methods in writing skill context. It was also intended to look for their viewpoints about the practicality of implementing Assessment Methods in Amharic writing courses. In order to achieve the goals of this study,…

How Marketing Practices Affect Education: A Comparative Case Study of Canada, the United States and Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eaton, Sarah Elaine; Goddard, J. Tim

2007-01-01

This paper examines the theory and practice of the commercialization of education in Canada, using comparative examples from the United States and Australia. Critical theory provides the framework for the study. From the broad focus of business practice, the examination is narrowed down to marketing, and even further to branding, at all levels,…

School Leadership Practice and Preparation: Comparative Perspectives on Organizational Learning (OL), Instructional Leadership (IL) and Culturally Responsive Practices (CRP)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ylimaki, Rose; Jacobson, Stephen

2013-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to utilize successful leadership practices drawn from seven nations to improve leadership preparation. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a case study approach to gain a contextualized understanding of successful leadership across seven nations. Data sources primarily featured interviews with principals,…

Practically Speaking: Community College Practices That Help (Re)define Student Success. A Practitioner Primer. Spring 2014

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Darla; Rodriguez-Kiino, Diane; Scharper, Alice; Karandjeff, Kelley; Chaplot, Priyadarshini; Schiorring, Eva

2014-01-01

This primer introduces 23 practices designed to support students inside and outside of the classroom and increase their community college success. These case studies illustrate the five themes for effective student support that emerged from Student Support (Re)defined--a multi-year study performed by the Research and Planning Group for California…

Literacy in Its Place. An Investigation of Literacy Practices in Urban and Rural Communities. Overview & Interpretations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edith Cowan Univ., Perth (Australia).

This document consists of an overview and five papers examining the findings of a comparative analysis of literacy practices in urban and rural Australian communities. The study included case studies of 23 families in 6 communities and documentation of the literacy practices within the 9 schools attended by the children of those families.…

Communities of Practice as a Technical Assistance Strategy: A Single-Case Study of State Systems Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linehan, Patrice Cunniff

2010-01-01

This study examined how one state approached the integration of policy and practice by forming communities of practice (CoP), defined as groups of people who share a set of problems and interact regularly to solve them (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). Policymakers have created strategies known as technical assistance (TA) to bridge the…

Beyond Talking about Books: Implications of the Reading Comprehension Instruction and Pedagogical Beliefs of a Special Educator Perceived as Effective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feiker Hollenbeck, Amy R.

2013-01-01

This investigation extends the study of the reading comprehension practices used with students with learning disabilities (LD) via a case study, exploring the beliefs and practices in reading comprehension of "Wendy," a cross-categorical special educator nominated as effective in her work with sixth-grade students. Wendy's practices serve as a…

Teachers' Beliefs on Foreign Language Teaching Practices in Early Phases of Primary Education: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caner, Mustafa; Subasi, Gonca; Kara, Selma

2010-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine whether teacher beliefs would play a role in their actual practices while teaching target language in early phases of primary education, principally, in kindergarten and first grades in a state school. As it is a very broad research area, the researchers exclusively analyzed teaching practices and teaching…

Professional Development on an International Scale: Council of Europe--Pestalozzi Programme Virtual Community of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mompoint Gaillard, Pascale; Rajic, Višnja

2014-01-01

Communities of practice as organisations of learning have developed different forms as: task-based, practice-based or knowledge based communities (Barab et al., 2004). The paper presents a case study of a successful community of practice developed under the umbrella of Council of Europe Pestalozzi programme for teacher development. The programme…

What Is "Good" Mentoring? Understanding Mentoring Practices of Teacher Induction through Case Studies of Finland and Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pennanen, Matti; Bristol, Laurette; Wilkinson, Jane; Heikkinen, Hannu L. T.

2016-01-01

Mentoring is a practice widely utilised to support new teachers. However, in locally formed systems, the practice of mentoring is conditioned by traditions and arrangements specific to the site. To understand "good" mentoring, these local arrangements cannot be ignored. In this article, the theory of practice architectures is employed to…

Meaningful Learning from Practice: Web-Based Video in Professional Preparation Programmes in University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Admiraal, Wilfried

2014-01-01

Web-based video is one of the technologies which can support meaningful learning from practice--in addition to practical benefits such as accessibility of practices, flexibility in updating information, and incorporating video into multimedia resources. A multiple case study was set up on the use of a web-based video learning environment in two…

Introducing Reflexivity to Evaluation Practice: An In-Depth Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Draanen, Jenna

2017-01-01

There is currently a paucity of literature in the field of evaluation regarding the practice of reflection and reflexivity and a lack of available tools to guide this practice--yet using a reflexive model can enhance evaluation practice. This paper focuses on the methods and results of a reflexive inquiry that was conducted during a participatory…

Education for Effective Case Management Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dickerson, Pamela S.; Mansfield, Jerry A.

2003-01-01

Managed care organization employees (n=115) attended case management training that included case studies, problem solving and communication skills, and focus on internal capability. Three-month follow-up showed that case managers now ask more questions, have more confidence, mentor new employees, and work with greater accuracy. (SK)

The Interactive Whiteboard: A Transitional Technology Supporting Diverse Teaching Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winzenried, Arthur; Dalgarno, Barney; Tinkler, Jacqueline

2010-01-01

This article describes the findings of a qualitative study investigating teacher perspectives on the impact of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) on their classroom teaching practice, using intensive case studies focusing on six primary and secondary teachers from two rural schools. The study found that all teachers were enthusiastic, had seen…

TargetCOPD: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial of targeted case finding for COPD versus routine practice in primary care: protocol.

PubMed

Jordan, Rachel E; Adab, Peymané; Jowett, Sue; Marsh, Jen L; Riley, Richard D; Enocson, Alexandra; Miller, Martin R; Cooper, Brendan G; Turner, Alice M; Ayres, Jon G; Cheng, Kar Keung; Jolly, Kate; Stockley, Robert A; Greenfield, Sheila; Siebert, Stanley; Daley, Amanda; Fitzmaurice, David A

2014-10-04

Many people with clinically significant chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remain undiagnosed worldwide. There are a number of small studies which have examined possible methods of case finding through primary care, but no large RCTs that have adequately assessed the most cost-effective approach. In this study, using a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) in 56 general practices in the West Midlands, we plan to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a Targeted approach to case finding for COPD compared with routine practice. Using an individual patient RCT nested in the Targeted arm, we plan also to compare the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Active case finding using a postal questionnaire (with supplementary opportunistic questionnaires), and Opportunistic-only case finding during routine surgery consultations.All ever-smoking patients aged 40-79 years, without a current diagnosis of COPD and registered with participating practices will be eligible. Patients in the Targeted arm who report positive respiratory symptoms (chronic cough or phlegm, wheeze or dyspnoea) using a brief questionnaire will be invited for further spirometric assessment to ascertain whether they have COPD or not. Post-bronchodilator spirometry will be conducted to ATS standards using an Easy One spirometer by trained research assistants.The primary outcomes will be new cases of COPD and cost per new case identified, comparing targeted case finding with routine care, and two types of targeted case finding (active versus opportunistic). A multilevel logistic regression model will be used to model the probability of detecting a new case of COPD for each treatment arm, with clustering of patients (by practice and household) accounted for using a multi-level structure.A trial-based analysis will be undertaken using costs and outcomes collected during the trial. Secondary outcomes include the feasibility, efficiency, long-term cost-effectiveness, patient and primary care staff views of each approach. This will be the largest RCT of its kind, and should inform how best to identify undiagnosed patients with COPD in the UK and other similar healthcare systems. Sensitivity analyses will help local policy-makers decide which sub-groups of the population to target first. Current controlled trials ISRCTN14930255.

Should measures of patient experience in primary care be adjusted for case mix? Evidence from the English General Practice Patient Survey

PubMed Central

Paddison, Charlotte; Elliott, Marc; Parker, Richard; Staetsky, Laura; Lyratzopoulos, Georgios; Campbell, John L

2012-01-01

Objectives Uncertainties exist about when and how best to adjust performance measures for case mix. Our aims are to quantify the impact of case-mix adjustment on practice-level scores in a national survey of patient experience, to identify why and when it may be useful to adjust for case mix, and to discuss unresolved policy issues regarding the use of case-mix adjustment in performance measurement in health care. Design/setting Secondary analysis of the 2009 English General Practice Patient Survey. Responses from 2 163 456 patients registered with 8267 primary care practices. Linear mixed effects models were used with practice included as a random effect and five case-mix variables (gender, age, race/ethnicity, deprivation, and self-reported health) as fixed effects. Main outcome measures Primary outcome was the impact of case-mix adjustment on practice-level means (adjusted minus unadjusted) and changes in practice percentile ranks for questions measuring patient experience in three domains of primary care: access; interpersonal care; anticipatory care planning, and overall satisfaction with primary care services. Results Depending on the survey measure selected, case-mix adjustment changed the rank of between 0.4% and 29.8% of practices by more than 10 percentile points. Adjusting for case-mix resulted in large increases in score for a small number of practices and small decreases in score for a larger number of practices. Practices with younger patients, more ethnic minority patients and patients living in more socio-economically deprived areas were more likely to gain from case-mix adjustment. Age and race/ethnicity were the most influential adjustors. Conclusions While its effect is modest for most practices, case-mix adjustment corrects significant underestimation of scores for a small proportion of practices serving vulnerable patients and may reduce the risk that providers would ‘cream-skim’ by not enrolling patients from vulnerable socio-demographic groups. PMID:22626735

Should measures of patient experience in primary care be adjusted for case mix? Evidence from the English General Practice Patient Survey.

PubMed

Paddison, Charlotte; Elliott, Marc; Parker, Richard; Staetsky, Laura; Lyratzopoulos, Georgios; Campbell, John L; Roland, Martin

2012-08-01

Uncertainties exist about when and how best to adjust performance measures for case mix. Our aims are to quantify the impact of case-mix adjustment on practice-level scores in a national survey of patient experience, to identify why and when it may be useful to adjust for case mix, and to discuss unresolved policy issues regarding the use of case-mix adjustment in performance measurement in health care. Secondary analysis of the 2009 English General Practice Patient Survey. Responses from 2 163 456 patients registered with 8267 primary care practices. Linear mixed effects models were used with practice included as a random effect and five case-mix variables (gender, age, race/ethnicity, deprivation, and self-reported health) as fixed effects. Primary outcome was the impact of case-mix adjustment on practice-level means (adjusted minus unadjusted) and changes in practice percentile ranks for questions measuring patient experience in three domains of primary care: access; interpersonal care; anticipatory care planning, and overall satisfaction with primary care services. Depending on the survey measure selected, case-mix adjustment changed the rank of between 0.4% and 29.8% of practices by more than 10 percentile points. Adjusting for case-mix resulted in large increases in score for a small number of practices and small decreases in score for a larger number of practices. Practices with younger patients, more ethnic minority patients and patients living in more socio-economically deprived areas were more likely to gain from case-mix adjustment. Age and race/ethnicity were the most influential adjustors. While its effect is modest for most practices, case-mix adjustment corrects significant underestimation of scores for a small proportion of practices serving vulnerable patients and may reduce the risk that providers would 'cream-skim' by not enrolling patients from vulnerable socio-demographic groups.

Authentic Teaching Opportunities of English for Primary Students as a Community of Practice: "A Case of Pre-Service Teacher Education at a Japanese University"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okumura, Shinji

2017-01-01

This case study explored what pre-service teachers learned through authentic experiences of English teaching for primary students, drawing upon the concept of a Community of Practice. A total of 21 pre-service teachers engaged in the training project--including planning, preparing, and teaching lessons--and wrote reflection papers after thinking…

Case Studies in Elementary and Secondary Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boboc, Marius; Nordgren, R. D.

2010-01-01

Practical and engaging, this book contains 21 case studies that help students apply curriculum theory to classroom reality. Each case is authored by an in-service teacher, reflecting on ways to improve instruction by making changes to various aspects of the curriculum. These real-life examples investigate up-to-date curricular issues ranging from…

Developing, Implementing and Evaluating Case Studies in Materials Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Claire; Wilcock, Elizabeth

2005-01-01

The use of case studies to teach materials science undergraduates is an exciting and interesting educational approach. As well as helping learners to connect theory and practice, the case method is also useful for creating an active learning environment, developing key skills and catering for a range of different learning styles. This paper…

Individual Differences in Written Corrective Feedback: A Multi-Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Su; Li, Pengjing

2012-01-01

Written corrective feedback (WCF) has been a long time practice in L2 writing instruction. However, in many cases, the effects are not satisfactory. There have been controversies about it both theoretically and empirically. This paper reports a multi-case study exploring individual differences that impact learners' responses to WCF. Four students'…

Ideological Dichotomies and Practical Realities in Educational Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bredo, Eric

1989-01-01

Examines the effects of educational reforms and how one-sided reform ideologies, which provide little practical guidance, were reinterpreted and modified by principals and teachers. Uses a multilevel case study to analyze the relations between ideology and practice using functional, conflict, and loose-coupling theories. (FMW)

Introduction to Educational Leadership and Organizational Behavior: Theory into Practice. Second Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chance, Patti L.

2009-01-01

Like the bestselling first edition, this introductory textbook succinctly presents concepts and theories of educational leadership and organizational behavior and immediately applies them to problems of practice. It includes practical case studies, real-world scenarios and analyses, reflection questions, and straightforward explanations of…

A case report for differential diagnosis: Integrative medicine vs child abuse.

PubMed

Ribeiro, Cristina Silveira; Rodrigues, Fernanda; Ribeiro, Catarina; Magalhães, Teresa

2010-11-01

The authors present the case of a ten-year-old Chinese boy who was taken to a hospital due to the presence of suspicious bruises on his body. The child was examined in the National Institute of Legal Medicine by forensic doctors and a forensic psychologist. Clinical characteristics of the case are summarized stressing that a better understanding of some kinds of integrative medicine (IM) may help to differentiate injuries resulting from those practices. This is the only and unique case diagnosed by the medico-legal services in Portugal. In fact a great range of IM practice has the potential to create confusion in the diagnosis of physical child abuse. This study focuses on the differential diagnosis of one specific kind of frequent skin injury usually seen in situations of both child abuse and IM (in this case TuiNa) - bruises. As the number of people who practice Traditional Chinese Medicine and other forms of IM increases in the Western world, the child protection community would benefit from familiarizing itselves with these practices to prevent social and/or legal conflicts that may arise from mistaken diagnoses of abuse. The objective of this case report is to emphasize the relevance of comprehensive and interdisciplinary evaluation of child abuse cases taking into account the specifics of each case, to achieve a proper diagnosis. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

JPL Thermal Design Modeling Philosophy and NASA-STD-7009 Standard for Models and Simulations - A Case Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Avila, Arturo

2011-01-01

The Standard JPL thermal engineering practice prescribes worst-case methodologies for design. In this process, environmental and key uncertain thermal parameters (e.g., thermal blanket performance, interface conductance, optical properties) are stacked in a worst case fashion to yield the most hot- or cold-biased temperature. Thus, these simulations would represent the upper and lower bounds. This, effectively, represents JPL thermal design margin philosophy. Uncertainty in the margins and the absolute temperatures is usually estimated by sensitivity analyses and/or by comparing the worst-case results with "expected" results. Applicability of the analytical model for specific design purposes along with any temperature requirement violations are documented in peer and project design review material. In 2008, NASA released NASA-STD-7009, Standard for Models and Simulations. The scope of this standard covers the development and maintenance of models, the operation of simulations, the analysis of the results, training, recommended practices, the assessment of the Modeling and Simulation (M&S) credibility, and the reporting of the M&S results. The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project thermal control system M&S activity was chosen as a case study determining whether JPL practice is in line with the standard and to identify areas of non-compliance. This paper summarizes the results and makes recommendations regarding the application of this standard to JPL thermal M&S practices.

Policy implementation in practice: the case of national service frameworks in general practice.

PubMed

Checkland, Kath; Harrison, Stephen

2004-10-01

National Service Frameworks are an integral part of the government's drive to 'modernise' the NHS, intended to standardise both clinical care and the design of the services used to deliver that clinical care. This article uses evidence from qualitative case studies in three general practices to illustrate the difficulties associated with the implementation of such top-down guidelines and models of service. In these studies it was found that, while there had been little explicit activity directed at implementation overall, the National Service Framework for coronary heart disease had in general fared better than that for older people. Gunn's notion of 'perfect implementation' is used to make sense of the findings.

Making things explicit using instructional materials: a case study of a Singapore teacher's practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leong, Yew Hoong; Cheng, Lu Pien; Toh, Wei Yeng Karen; Kaur, Berinderjeet; Toh, Tin Lam

2018-04-01

The phrase `make it explicit' is a common advice given to teachers. It is, however, not clear to us what this actually means when translated into classroom practice. Our review found that we are not alone: "explicit" is used in different ways in the education literature. This paper explores, through a case study of a teacher who stated "making things explicit" as an ostensible goal of his instructional practice, how the explicitation is realised in teaching mathematics. In particular, we examine how he used the instructional materials that he crafted to fulfil his goal of explicitation. We were able to uncover three strategies he used: explicit-from, explicit-within, and explicit-to.

Increasing operating room productivity by duration categories and a newsvendor model.

PubMed

Lehtonen, Juha-Matti; Torkki, Paulus; Peltokorpi, Antti; Moilanen, Teemu

2013-01-01

Previous studies approach surgery scheduling mainly from the mathematical modeling perspective which is often hard to apply in a practical environment. The aim of this study is to develop a practical scheduling system that considers the advantages of both surgery categorization and newsvendor model to surgery scheduling. The research was carried out in a Finnish orthopaedic specialist centre that performs only joint replacement surgery. Four surgery categorization scenarios were defined and their productivity analyzed by simulation and newsvendor model. Detailed analyses of surgery durations and the use of more accurate case categories and their combinations in scheduling improved OR productivity 11.3 percent when compared to the base case. Planning to have one OR team to work longer led to remarkable decrease in scheduling inefficiency. In surgical services, productivity and cost-efficiency can be improved by utilizing historical data in case scheduling and by increasing flexibility in personnel management. The study increases the understanding of practical scheduling methods used to improve efficiency in surgical services.

The Role of the Senior Student Affairs Officer in Creating and Sustaining a Culture of Assessment: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ridgeway, Lindsey McKinney

2014-01-01

The purpose of this research study was to examine the role of the senior student affairs officer (SSAO) in promoting assessment practice within the Division of Student Life at Randal University. A qualitative, single-case study research design was employed to conduct this study. The case for this investigation was the Vice President for Student…

Characteristics of Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiatives that Generated Savings for Medicare: a Qualitative Multi-Case Analysis.

PubMed

Burton, Rachel A; Lallemand, Nicole M; Peters, Rebecca A; Zuckerman, Stephen

2018-02-05

Through the Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Practice (MAPCP) Demonstration, Medicare, Medicaid, and private payers offered supplemental payments to 849 primary care practices that became patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) in eight states; practices also received technical assistance and data reports. Average Medicare payments were capped at $10 per beneficiary per month in each state. Since there was variation in the eight participating states' demonstration designs, experiences, and outcomes, we conducted a qualitative multi-case analysis to identify the key factors that differentiated states that were estimated to have generated net savings for Medicare from states that did not. States' MAPCP Demonstration initiatives were comprehensively profiled in case studies based on secondary document review, three rounds of annual interviews with state staff, payers, practices, and other stakeholders, and other data sources. Case study findings were summarized in a case-ordered predictor-outcome matrix, which identified the presence or absence of key demonstration design features and experiences and arrayed states based on the amount of net savings or losses they generated for Medicare. We then used this matrix to identify initiative features that were present in at least three of the four states that generated net savings and absent from at least three of the four states that did not generate savings. A majority of the states that generated net savings: required practices to be recognized PCMHs to enter the demonstration, did not allow late entrants into the demonstration, used a consistent demonstration payment model across participating payers, and offered practices opportunities to earn performance bonuses. Practices in states that generated net savings also tended to report receiving the demonstration payments and bonuses they expected to receive, without any issues. Designers of future PCMH initiatives may increase their likelihood of generating net savings by incorporating the demonstration features we identified.

BestPractices Corporate Energy Management Case Study: Alcoa Teams with DOE to Reduce Energy Consumption

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

2004-05-01

This is the first in a series of DOE Industrial Technologies Program case studies on corporate energy management. The case study highlights Alcoa Aluminum's successful results and activities through its corporate energy management approach and collaboration with DOE. Case studies in this series will be used to encourage other energy-intensive industrial plants to adopt a corporate strategy, and to promote the concept of replicating results with a company or industry.

An exploration of the roles of nurse managers in evidence-based practice implementation.

PubMed

Wilkinson, Joyce E; Nutley, Sandra M; Davies, Huw T O

2011-12-01

Internationally, nurses face ongoing difficulties in making a reality of evidence-based practice. Existing studies suggest that nurse managers (NMs) should play a key role in leading and facilitating evidence-based practice, but the nature of this role has not yet been fully explored or articulated. This is one of the first studies to investigate the roles of NMs in evidence-based practice implementation. METHODOLOGY AND METHODS: Using a case study approach the study explores five propositions in relation to the NMs' potential evidence-based practice role and the extent to which their attitudes, knowledge, and skills support such a role. In doing so, it draws on interviews (n= 51), documentary analysis and observational data. Data analysis reveals that the role of NMs in facilitating evidence-based practice is under-articulated, largely passive and currently limited by competing demands. Progress in implementing evidence-based practice in the case study sites is largely explained by factors other than the role played by NMs. As such, the findings expose significant discrepancies between NMs' actual roles and those espoused in the literature as being necessary. Contextual factors are important and it is clear that the role of the contemporary NM places considerable emphasis on management and administration to the detriment of clinical practice concerns. The study reveals that NMs are only involved in evidence-based practice implementation in a passive role, not the full engagement described in the literature as being necessary. This study adds previously lacking detail of the roles of NMs. It elucidates why exhortations to NMs to become more involved in evidence-based practice implementation are ineffective without action to address the problems identified. Copyright ©2011 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Case Studies of Secondary School Teachers Designing Socioscientific Issues-Based Instruction and Their Students' Socioscientific Reasoning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karahan, Engin

Addressing socioscientific issues (SSI) has been one of the main focuses in science education since the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) movement in the 1970s (Levinson, 2006); however, teaching controversial socioscientific issues has always been challenging for teachers (Dillon, 1994; Osborne, Duschl, & Fairbrother, 2002). Although teachers exhibit positive attitudes for using controversial socioscientific issues in their science classrooms, only a small percentage of them actually incorporate SSI content into their science curricula on a regular basis (Sadler, Amirshokoohi, Kazempour, & Allspaw, 2006; Lee & Witz, 2009). The literature in science education has highlighted the signi?cant relationships among teacher beliefs, teaching practices, and student learning (Bryan & Atwater, 2002; King, Shumow, & Lietz, 2001; Lederman, 1992). Despite the fact that the case studies present a relatively detailed picture of teachers' values and motivations for teaching SSI (e.g. Lee, 2006; Lee & Witz, 2009; Reis & Galvao, 2004), these studies still miss the practices of these teachers and potential outcomes for their students. Therefore, there is a great need for in-depth case studies that would focus on teachers' practices of designing and teaching SSI-based learning environments, their deeper beliefs and motivations for teaching SSI, and their students' response to these practices (Lee, 2006). This dissertation is structured as three separate, but related, studies about secondary school teachers' experiences of designing and teaching SSI-based classes and their students' understanding of science and SSI reasoning. The case studies in this dissertation seek answers for (1) teachers' practices of designing and teaching SSI-based instruction, as well as its relation to their deeper personal beliefs and motivations to teach SSI, and (2) how their students respond to their approaches of teaching SSI in terms of their science understanding and SSI reasoning. The first paper presents case studies of three secondary science teachers within three high schools located along the Minnesota River Basin. The findings of this study documented the experiences of the participant teachers, as well as the contextual influences on those experiences. The second paper presents a case study of a science teacher and a social studies teacher which describes how these two teachers collaboratively designed and taught an environmental ethics class. The results of this study documented teachers' ways of sharing responsibilities, bringing their content and pedagogical expertise, and promoting the agency of their students in the environmental ethics class. The final paper in this dissertation presents case studies of secondary school students who were the participants in the SSI-based science classes described in the first two studies. The results of this study provided evidence for participant students' understanding of science and their socioscientific reasoning, as well as how they were influenced by the instructional decisions their teachers made.

Turning a hazardous waste lagoon into reclaimed land for wildlife management: A case study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Leong, A.K.

Brownfields are turning back to green. This paper presents a case study of a former dump site for hazardous waste that has been remediated and will be developed into an enhanced wildlife management habitat. This successful remediation case combined various investigations, remedial designs, risk assessments, ecological studies, and engineering practices. 3 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.

Problem-Based Learning: Case Studies, Experience and Practice. Case Studies of Teaching in Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Peter, Ed.; Mennin, Stewart, Ed.; Webb, Graham, Ed.

The case studies in this book consider many of the most important issues perceived and experienced by people who are using or developing problem-based learning (PBL). The book focuses on politics, administration, resources, the roles of teachers, and the effects of PBL on students. The chapters are: (1) "Come and See the Real Thing" (David…

Concerns, Use of Time, and the Intersections of Leadership: Case Study of Two Charter School Principals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bickmore, Dana L.; Dowell, Margaret-Mary Sulentic

2011-01-01

As part of a multiple case study of charter school leadership, the researchers in this study examined 2 principals' priorities and practices through their expressed concerns and use of time. Through an embedded case design and analysis, 6 themes surfaced from the principal interviews that occurred over the course of a school year--accountability,…

"I Did It My Way!" A Case Study of Resistance to Coloniality in Music Learning and Socialization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosabal-Coto, Guillermo

2014-01-01

In this article I discuss a case study of how a music teacher in a postcolonial context has addressed and resisted colonialist practices in education/socialization processes. The case study addresses preliminary findings from a broader ethnography on the social organization of music learning from the standpoint of music teachers. The ethnography…

The application of systems thinking concepts, methods, and tools to global health practices: An analysis of case studies.

PubMed

Wilkinson, Jessica; Goff, Morgan; Rusoja, Evan; Hanson, Carl; Swanson, Robert Chad

2018-06-01

This review of systems thinking (ST) case studies seeks to compile and analyse cases from ST literature and provide practitioners with a reference for ST in health practice. Particular attention was given to (1) reviewing the frequency and use of key ST terms, methods, and tools in the context of health, and (2) extracting and analysing longitudinal themes across cases. A systematic search of databases was conducted, and a total of 36 case studies were identified. A combination of integrative and inductive qualitative approaches to analysis was used. Most cases identified took place in high-income countries and applied ST retrospectively. The most commonly used ST terms were agent/stakeholder/actor (n = 29), interdependent/interconnected (n = 28), emergence (n = 26), and adaptability/adaptation (n = 26). Common ST methods and tools were largely underutilized. Social network analysis was the most commonly used method (n = 4), and innovation or change management history was the most frequently used tool (n = 11). Four overarching themes were identified; the importance of the interdependent and interconnected nature of a health system, characteristics of leaders in a complex adaptive system, the benefits of using ST, and barriers to implementing ST. This review revealed that while much has been written about the potential benefits of applying ST to health, it has yet to completely transition from theory to practice. There is however evidence of the practical use of an ST lens as well as specific methods and tools. With clear examples of ST applications, the global health community will be better equipped to understand and address key health challenges. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Delivering team training to medical home staff to impact perceptions of collaboration.

PubMed

Treadwell, Janet; Binder, Brenda; Symes, Lene; Krepper, Rebecca

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore whether an evidence-based educational and experiential intervention to develop team skills in medical homes would positively affect team members' perceptions of interprofessional collaboration. The study population consisted of primary care medical home practices associated with the health plan sponsor of this research. All practices were located within the greater Houston region of Texas and had more than 500 patients. A cluster design experimental study was conducted between August 2013 and June 2014. Fifty medical home practices, 25 intervention and 25 attention control, were recruited as study sites. Results indicate that individual team members in the medical homes receiving the intervention were significantly more likely than the individual team members in the attention control groups to report higher levels of positive perception of team collaboration after the 12-week intervention. This research indicates that educating teams about interprofessional collaboration tools and supporting technique use may be an effective strategy to assist medical homes in developing collaborative environments. Case management experience in collaboration supports the role facilitating team training. Transforming culture from hierarchical to team-based care supports the case management approach of collaborative practice. In addition, role satisfaction attained through the respect and communication of team-based care delivery may influence retention within the case management profession. As case managers in primary care settings assume roles of embedded care coordinators, program leaders, and transition facilitators, an understanding of collaboration techniques is needed to support the entire care team to achieve desired outcomes.

Study design options in evaluating gene-environment interactions: practical considerations for a planned case-control study of pediatric leukemia.

PubMed

Goodman, Michael; Dana Flanders, W

2007-04-01

We compare methodological approaches for evaluating gene-environment interaction using a planned study of pediatric leukemia as a practical example. We considered three design options: a full case-control study (Option I), a case-only study (Option II), and a partial case-control study (Option III), in which information on controls is limited to environmental exposure only. For each design option we determined its ability to measure the main effects of environmental factor E and genetic factor G, and the interaction between E and G. Using the leukemia study example, we calculated sample sizes required to detect and odds ratio (OR) of 2.0 for E alone, an OR of 10 for G alone and an interaction G x E of 3. Option I allows measuring both main effects and interaction, but requires a total sample size of 1,500 cases and 1,500 controls. Option II allows measuring only interaction, but requires just 121 cases. Option III allows calculating the main effect of E, and interaction, but not the main effect of G, and requires a total of 156 cases and 133 controls. In this case, the partial case-control study (Option III) appears to be more efficient with respect to its ability to answer the research questions for the amount of resources required. The design options considered in this example are not limited to observational epidemiology and may be applicable in studies of pharmacogenomics, survivorship, and other areas of pediatric ALL research.

Policy and practice impacts of applied research: a case study analysis of the New South Wales Health Promotion Demonstration Research Grants Scheme 2000–2006

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Intervention research provides important information regarding feasible and effective interventions for health policy makers, but few empirical studies have explored the mechanisms by which these studies influence policy and practice. This study provides an exploratory case series analysis of the policy, practice and other related impacts of the 15 research projects funded through the New South Wales Health Promotion Demonstration Research Grants Scheme during the period 2000 to 2006, and explored the factors mediating impacts. Methods Data collection included semi-structured interviews with the chief investigators (n = 17) and end-users (n = 29) of each of the 15 projects to explore if, how and under what circumstances the findings had been used, as well as bibliometric analysis and verification using documentary evidence. Data analysis involved thematic coding of interview data and triangulation with other data sources to produce case summaries of impacts for each project. Case summaries were then individually assessed against four impact criteria and discussed at a verification panel meeting where final group assessments of the impact of research projects were made and key influences of research impact identified. Results Funded projects had variable impacts on policy and practice. Project findings were used for agenda setting (raising awareness of issues), identifying areas and target groups for interventions, informing new policies, and supporting and justifying existing policies and programs across sectors. Reported factors influencing the use of findings were: i) nature of the intervention; ii) leadership and champions; iii) research quality; iv) effective partnerships; v) dissemination strategies used; and, vi) contextual factors. Conclusions The case series analysis provides new insights into how and under what circumstances intervention research is used to influence real world policy and practice. The findings highlight that intervention research projects can achieve the greatest policy and practice impacts if they address proximal needs of the policy context by engaging end-users from the inception of projects and utilizing existing policy networks and structures, and using a range of strategies to disseminate findings that go beond traditional peer review publications. PMID:23374280

Integrating Education: Parekhian Multiculturalism and Good Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGlynn, Claire

2009-01-01

This paper explores the concept of good practice in integrating education in divided societies. Using Northern Ireland as a case study, the paper draws on data from eight schools (both integrated Catholic and Protestant, and separate) that are identified as exemplifying good practice in response to cultural diversity. Analysis is provided through…

Practices of Compassionate, Critical, Justice-Oriented Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conklin, Hilary G.; Hughes, Hilary E.

2016-01-01

In this cross-institutional, qualitative case study, two teacher educators in urban teacher education programs identify and analyze the components of our teacher education practice in relation to a vision of compassionate, critical, justice-oriented teacher education. Using Grossman et al.'s concepts of preparation for professional practice as an…

The Practice of Integrity Within the University.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calabrese, Raymond L.; Barton, Angela Calabrese

2000-01-01

Examines the practice of integrity within university programs and its relation to faculty and the community, and presents case studies that demonstrate the complexity of organizational integrity. States that aligning values with practical theories requires a commitment to ethical action and integrity in order to fulfill the tenets of the…

Analyzing Principal Professional Development Practices through the Lens of Adult Learning Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zepeda, Sally J.; Parylo, Oksana; Bengtson, Ed

2014-01-01

This qualitative study sought to identify current principal professional development practices in four school systems in Georgia and to examine them by applying the principles of adult learning theory. The cross-case analysis of principal professional development initiatives in four school districts revealed nine common practices: connecting…

Community College Employee Job Satisfaction: The Influence of Leadership and Human Resource Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boies, Christopher Michael

2017-01-01

This case study research examined employee job satisfaction best practices at three community college receiving recognition through the Chronicle of Higher Education Great College to Work For designation. The leadership and human resource practices at these institutions were explored through employee interviews, collection of documents, and…

From Knowledge to Practice: A Gifted Educator's Journey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinhard, Jessica J.

2016-01-01

This qualitative case study of a third-year teacher of intermediate students in a self-contained gifted education classroom uncovers the relationship between knowledge of pedagogical practices from national gifted education standards and their transfer to classroom practice. Ethnographic methods of interviews, field observations, lesson documents,…

A Case Study of How Teaching Practice Process Takes Place

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yalin Ucar, Meltem

2012-01-01

The process of "learning" carries an important role in the teaching practice which provides teacher candidates with professional development. Being responsible for the learning experiences in that level, cooperating teacher, teacher candidate, mentor and practice school are the important variables which determine the quality of the…

Science Teacher Beliefs and Classroom Practice Related to Constructivism in Different School Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Savasci, Funda; Berlin, Donna F.

2012-01-01

Science teacher beliefs and classroom practice related to constructivism and factors that may influence classroom practice were examined in this cross-case study. Data from four science teachers in two schools included interviews, demographic questionnaire, Classroom Learning Environment Survey (preferred/perceived), and classroom observations and…

Enabling and enacting 'practical action' in catchments: responding to the 'wicked problem' of nonpoint source pollution in coastal subtropical Australia.

PubMed

Patterson, James J; Smith, Carl; Bellamy, Jennifer

2015-02-01

Enabling and enacting 'practical action' (i.e., purposeful and concerted collective action) in catchments is a key challenge in responding to a wide range of pressing catchment and natural resource management (NRM) issues. It is particularly a challenge in responding to 'wicked problems,' where generating action is not straightforward and cannot be brought about solely by any single actor, policy or intervention. This paper responds to the critical need to better understand how practical action can be generated in catchments, by conducting an in-depth empirical case study of efforts to manage nonpoint source (NPS) pollution in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. SEQ has seen substantial concerted efforts to manage waterway and catchment issues over two decades, yet NPS pollution remains a major problem for waterway health. A novel framework was applied to empirically analyze practical action in three local catchment cases embedded within the broader SEQ region. The analysis focuses on 'enabling capacities' underpinning practical action in catchments. Findings reveal that capacities manifested in different ways in different cases, yet many commonalities also occurred across cases. Interplay between capacities was critical to the emergence of adaptive and contextual forms of practical action in all cases. These findings imply that in order to enable and enact practical action in catchments, it is vital to recognize and support a diversity of enabling capacities across both local and regional levels of decision making and action. This is likely to have relevance for other 'wicked' catchment and NRM problems requiring local responses within broader multiscalar regional problem situations.

[A case study on duty of care in professional nursing].

PubMed

Huang, Hui-Man; Liao, Chi-Chun

2013-08-01

Nurses are expected to discharge their duty of care effectively and professionally to prevent medical negligence. Only three articles have previously focused on medical negligence. Duty of care and medical negligence in nursing are topics that have been neglected in Taiwan. (1) Classify the duty of care of professional nurses; (2) Investigate the facts and disputes in the current case; (3) Clarify the legal issues involved with regard to duty-of-care violations in the current case; (4) Explore the causal relationships in a legal context between nurses' duty-of-care violations and patient harm / injury. Literature analysis and a case study are used to analyze Supreme Court Verdict No.5550 (2010). Duty of care for nursing professionals may be classified into seven broad categories. Each category has its distinct correlatives. In nursing practice, every nursing behavior has a corresponding duty. In this case, the case study nurse did not discharge her obstetric professional duty and failed to inform the doctor in a timely manner. Negligence resulted in prenatal death and the case study nurse was found guilty. In order to prevent committing a crime, nurses should gain a better understanding of their duty of care and adequately discharge these duties in daily practice.

Challenges in Academic Reading and Overcoming Strategies in Taught Master Programmes: A Case Study of International Graduate Students in Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Manjet Kaur Mehar

2014-01-01

This article focuses on research into academic reading practices of international graduate students in taught Master programmes in a Malaysian university. The purpose of the study was to examine the challenges faced in the academic reading practices as well as the strategies employed to overcome the challenges in the academic reading practices.…

A 9-year comparison of practice profiles of candidates for primary and recertification examinations of the American Board of Plastic Surgery relative to economic indicators.

PubMed

Gosain, Arun K; Haller, Harold S; Lee, Michelle; Cullison, Terry M; Noone, R Barrett

2013-03-01

This study compared the practice profiles of plastic surgeons applying for recertification/maintenance of certification with those applying for primary certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery between 2003 and 2011. American Board of Plastic Surgery case logs from both recertification and primary certification candidates from 2003 to 2011 were examined. Deidentified data included operative year, Current Procedural Terminology codes, and the candidate's designation of the case relative to (1) cosmetic or reconstructive and (2) the Maintenance of Certification in Plastic Surgery module (i.e., comprehensive, cosmetic, craniomaxillofacial, and hand). Department of Commerce unemployment data from 2003 to 2011 served as an economic indicator for the period studied. A negative trend in the median number of cases per candidate was observed for both groups for cosmetic, reconstructive, and total number of cases, corresponding to a rise in unemployment. With every 1 percent increase in the unemployment rate, recertification candidates demonstrated a greater loss of cosmetic cases relative to primary candidates and an accelerated decline in reconstructive cases starting in 2007. Distribution of the four Maintenance of Certification modules demonstrated a negative trend for cosmetic and comprehensive cases in both groups. Hand and craniofacial consistently constituted approximately 20 percent of cases for primary and 14 percent of cases for recertification candidates. There was a shift away from hand cases toward craniofacial cases in both groups. Both primary and recertification candidates reported a decline in overall caseload from 2003 to 2011. Negative economic trends have a greater impact on the practice profile of recertification candidates.

Treating alcoholism through a narrative approach. Case study and rationale.

PubMed Central

Kaminsky, D.; Rabinowitz, S.; Kasan, R.

1996-01-01

A case study illustrates the narrative or story-telling approach to treating alcoholism. We discuss the rationale for this method and describe how it could be useful in family practice for treating people with alcohol problems. PMID:8653035

IVHS Institutional Issues And Case Studies: Help/Cresent Case Study

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1997-04-01

This report presents the results of research on procurement-related legal and non-technical issues which may be viewed as constraints to the deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). It focuses on state and local practices when federal ...

Best Practices in Student Recruitment: A Case Study of Eleven Practitioners at Seven Alternative Graduate Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chow, Sheri S. L.

2012-01-01

This research addresses best practices for recruiting students at small graduate schools. Best practice is a management term defined as the most efficient and effective way of accomplishing a task. While popular techniques can promote student enrollment, the actual practices and how they are carried out can be varied and unique at each school. For…

Public Health Campaigns to Change Industry Practices that Damage Health: An Analysis of 12 Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freudenberg, Nicholas; Picard Bradley, Sarah; Serrano, Monica

2009-01-01

Industry practices such as advertising, production of unsafe products, and efforts to defeat health legislation play a major role in current patterns of U.S. ill health. Changing these practices may be a promising strategy to promote health. The authors analyze 12 campaigns designed to modify the health-related practices of U.S. corporations in…

The Relationships between Teachers' Instructional Practices and Their Learners' Level of Geometrical Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bleeker, Cheryl; Stols, Gerrit; Van Putten, Sonja

2013-01-01

This case study describes and investigates the instructional practices of Grades 1 to 5 teachers and the levels of geometry thinking of the learners, according to the Van Hiele model, with a view to determining whether there is a match between the instructional practice and the learners' level of thinking. The instructional practices of the…

Adolescent testicular microlithiasis: A case-based, multinational survey of clinical management practices.

PubMed

Brodie, Katie E; Saltzman, Amanda F; Cost, Nicholas G

2018-04-01

Testicular microlithiasis (TM) is a condition characterized by calcium deposits within the testis, usually detected incidentally during ultrasonography of the scrotum. TM has been associated with the presence of, and possibly the development of, testicular malignancy. Our aim was to document international clinical management practices for TM and to analyze what factors and perception of risk influence conservative versus active management and follow-up. European Society for Paediatric Urology (ESPU) and Society for Pediatric Urology (SPU) members were invited to complete an online case-based survey of clinical management practices of TM. Eight cases had a single variable changed each time (classic versus limited TM, unilateral versus bilateral, prior cryptorchidism versus no cryptorchidism) to ascertain the provider's perception of risk. The respondents completed multiple choice questions on initial management, follow-up plan, length and interval of follow-up. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to determine factors associated with decisions on management and follow-up. There were 265 respondents to the survey from 35 countries (Table). Median time in practice was 13 years. Factors that were significantly associated with more aggressive initial management (more than counseling on self-examination) included: not yet in independent practice, low volume TM cases per year, those practicing pediatric and adult urology, classic appearance of TM and cryptorchidism. Factors that were significantly associated with urologist follow-up and active investigation included: European practitioners, low TM case volume per year, those practicing both pediatric urology and pediatric surgery, classic TM appearance and a case history of cryptorchidism. Interval and length of follow-up was wide-ranging, with most respondents favoring annual follow-up. Management of TM varies and a mix of surgeon and case factors significantly influences management strategies. This baseline understanding of the lack of systematic management suggests the need for the development of consensus guidelines and prospective study. Copyright © 2018 Journal of Pediatric Urology Company. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Case and studies].

PubMed

Schubert, András

2015-11-15

Case studies and case reports form an important and ever growing part of scientific and scholarly literature. The paper deals with the share and citation rate of these publication types on different fields of research. In general, evidence seems to support the opinion that an excessive number of such publications may negatively influence the impact factor of the journal. In the literature of scientometrics, case studies (at least the presence of the term "case study" in the titles of the papers) have a moderate share, but their citation rate is practically equal to that of other publication types.

Bioethics education in clinical settings: theory and practice of the dilemma method of moral case deliberation.

PubMed

Stolper, Margreet; Molewijk, Bert; Widdershoven, Guy

2016-07-22

Moral Case Deliberation is a specific form of bioethics education fostering professionals' moral competence in order to deal with their moral questions. So far, few studies focus in detail on Moral Case Deliberation methodologies and their didactic principles. The dilemma method is a structured and frequently used method in Moral Case Deliberation that stimulates methodological reflection and reasoning through a systematic dialogue on an ethical issue experienced in practice. In this paper we present a case-study of a Moral Case Deliberation with the dilemma method in a health care institution for people with an intellectual disability, describing the theoretical background and the practical application of the dilemma method. The dilemma method focuses on moral experiences of participants concerning a concrete dilemma in practice. By an in-depth description of each of the steps of the deliberation process, we elucidate the educational value and didactics of this specific method. The didactics and methodical steps of the dilemma method both supported and structured the dialogical reflection process of the participants. The process shows that the participants learned to recognize the moral dimension of the issue at stake and were able to distinguish various perspectives and reasons in a systematic manner. The facilitator played an important role in the learning process of the participants, by assisting them in focusing on and exploring moral aspects of the case. The reflection and learning process, experienced by the participants, shows competency-based characteristics. The role of the facilitator is that of a Socratic teacher with specific knowledge and skills, fostering reflection, inquiry and dialogue. The specific didactics of the dilemma method is well suited for teaching bioethics in clinical settings. The dilemma method follows an inductive learning approach through a dialogical moral inquiry in which participants develop not only knowledge but also skills, attitude and character. The role of a trained facilitator and a specific view on teaching and practicing ethics are essential when using the dilemma method in teaching health care professionals how to reflect on their own moral issues in practice.

A qualitative analysis of student-written law and ethics cases: A snapshot of PY2 student experience.

PubMed

Karwaki, Tanya E; Hazlet, Thomas K

2017-05-01

This study was designed to better understand pharmacy students' experiences and recognition of legal and ethical tensions existing in pharmacy practice as demonstrated in student-written law and ethics cases. A qualitative analysis of 132 student-written cases representing the team efforts of 1053 students over a 12-year time period was conducted. Student-written cases were coded and analyzed thematically. Our results demonstrate the types of ethical and legal issues our students have experienced in pharmacy practice during the first five quarters of their professional education. Our data highlight three themes: 1) ethical dilemmas presented when the law is misapplied; 2) ethical dilemmas presented when an institutional policy or law was viewed as insufficient; and 3) ethical dilemmas presented as provider distress. The third theme was further subdivided into five subthemes. The themes that emerged from this study represent some of the ethical dilemmas that second professional year students have encountered and how these dilemmas may intersect with legal boundaries. Educators can use cases demonstrating these themes to reinforce law and ethics education in the curriculum, thus helping prepare students for pharmacy practice. This article recommends how and when to use case examples. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

What Is Excellence in Practice? Empirical Explorations of Vocational Bildung and Practical Wisdom through Case Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tyson, Ruhi

2018-01-01

The approach of vocational Bildung didactics has been developed to investigate practical knowledge in matters of education for Bildung and phronesis (practical wisdom). Case narratives of unusual richness or success are at the core of the approach, each case representing an articulation of someone's practical knowledge. The concept of a practice…

The impact of political transition on psychiatric nursing--a case study of twentieth-century Ireland.

PubMed

Sheridan, Ann J

2006-12-01

Using psychiatric nursing education and practice as a case study, this paper examines how the achievement of independence by a nation impacts significantly on the organisations, structures and service provision within that country. Furthermore, it sheds light on how an emerging nation is required to engage in a series of 'trade-offs' between priorities in an attempt to ensure progress towards the greater visioning goals such as the (re)establishing of a national cultural identity, freedom to practice religious beliefs and enhanced economic and practical benefits for all citizens. In the case of Irish psychiatric nursing, the achievement of independence resulted in a diminishing of earlier initiatives related to training and ultimately in a prolonged period of retrenchment, due primarily to competitive pressures and to imposed cultural influences and belief systems. The lesson from this Irish case study indicates that the initial phase of national autonomy can, of necessity, lead to a number of sacrifices as part of the realisation of self-governance and determination; and that this is a necessary prerequisite to gaining the strength to enable a much more confident progression into the future.

Understanding the drivers of interprofessional collaborative practice among HIV primary care providers and case managers in HIV care programmes.

PubMed

Mavronicolas, Heather A; Laraque, Fabienne; Shankar, Arti; Campbell, Claudia

2017-05-01

Care coordination programmes are an important aspect of HIV management whose success depends largely on HIV primary care provider (PCP) and case manager collaboration. Factors influencing collaboration among HIV PCPs and case managers remain to be studied. The study objective was to test an existing theoretical model of interprofessional collaborative practice and determine which factors play the most important role in facilitating collaboration. A self-administered, anonymous mail survey was sent to HIV PCPs and case managers in New York City. An adapted survey instrument elicited information on demographic, contextual, and perceived social exchange (trustworthiness, role specification, and relationship initiation) characteristics. The dependent variable, perceived interprofessional practice, was constructed from a validated scale. A sequential block wise regression model specifying variable entry order examined the relative importance of each group of factors and of individual variables. The analysis showed that social exchange factors were the dominant drivers of collaboration. Relationship initiation was the most important predictor of interprofessional collaboration. Additional influential factors included organisational leadership support of collaboration, practice settings, and frequency of interprofessional meetings. Addressing factors influencing collaboration among providers will help public health programmes optimally design their structural, hiring, and training strategies to foster effective social exchanges and promote collaborative working relationships.

End-of-life practices at a Lebanese hospital: courage or knowledge?

PubMed

Gebara, Jouhayna; Tashjian, Hera

2006-10-01

End-of-life care requires knowledgeable and culturally sensitive clinicians to assist patients and families dealing with the difficult journey of death. The authors present important end-of-life considerations for health care providers dealing with culturally diversified patients. A case study approach is used illustrating two case vignettes derived from the practice of an intensive care setting of a tertiary teaching facility in a large urban area in Lebanon. In a multidisciplinary fashion, practices of end of life were explored and a protocol developed to guide health care providers. Special cultural values were identified such as importance of family involvement and religious beliefs. Implications for practice are described.

Approaches to dog health education programs in Australian rural and remote Indigenous communities: four case studies.

PubMed

Constable, S E; Dixon, R M; Dixon, R J; Toribio, J-A

2013-09-01

Dog health in rural and remote Australian Indigenous communities is below urban averages in numerous respects. Many Indigenous communities have called for knowledge sharing in this area. However, dog health education programs are in their infancy, and lack data on effective practices. Without this core knowledge, health promotion efforts cannot progress effectively. This paper discusses a strategy that draws from successful approaches in human health and indigenous education, such as dadirri, and culturally respectful community engagement and development. Negotiating an appropriate education program is explored in its practical application through four case studies. Though each case was unique, the comparison of the four illustrated the importance of listening (community consultation), developing and maintaining relationships, community involvement and employment. The most successful case studies were those that could fully implement all four areas. Outcomes included improved local dog health capacity, local employment and engagement with the program and significantly improved dog health.

Tuberculosis awareness in Gezira, Sudan: knowledge, attitude and practice case-control survey.

PubMed

Suleiman, M M A; Sahal, N; Sodemann, M; Elsony, A; Aro, A R

2014-03-13

This case-control study aimed to assess tuberculosis (TB) awareness and its associated sociodemographic characteristics in Gezira, Sudan. New smear-positive TB patients registered in Gezira in 2010 (n = 425) and age-matched controls who attended the same health facilities for other reasons (n = 850) formed the study sample. Awareness was measured using a modified standard World Health Organization TB knowledge, attitude and practice instrument. There was no significant difference between TB cases and the controls in overall levels of TB awareness. About two-thirds of TB cases and controls had good TB awareness. Respondents' sex was associated with awareness among the controls. Age, level of education, type of residence and type of occupation were significantly associated with TB awareness, whereas marital status had no effect. The good level of TB awareness found among TB cases and controls is a baseline for further TB awareness-raising among the Gezira population.

Research, Practice, and Policy Connections: The Artplay Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Robert; Jeanneret, Neryl

2017-01-01

This article explores the nexus between arts-based research, theory, practice, and policy. It does so through reference to a longitudinal study of ArtPlay, a unique Australian community arts center that offers artist-led workshops involving young people aged 3-13 years. The ethnographic and action research study investigated how children responded…

Do Apprentices' Communities of Practice Block Unwelcome Knowledge?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sligo, Frank; Tilley, Elspeth; Murray, Niki

2011-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to examine how well print-literacy support being provided to New Zealand Modern Apprentices (MAs) is supporting their study and practical work. Design/methodology/approach: The authors undertook a qualitative analysis of a database of 191 MAs in the literacy programme, then in 14 case studies completed 46 interviews with…

Investigating Coherence among Turkish Elementary Science Teachers' Teaching Belief Systems, Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bahcivan, Eralp; Cobern, William W.

2016-01-01

This study investigated comprehensive science teaching belief systems and their relation to science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and teaching practices. Rokeach's (1968) belief system was used as a framework for representing the hierarchy among in-service teachers' teaching beliefs. This study employed a multiple case study design with…

Consistency between Constructivist Profiles and Instructional Practices of Prospective Physics Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ates, Ozlem; Unal Coban, Gul; Kaya Sengoren, Serap

2018-01-01

This study aims to explain the extent to which prospective physics teachers' views and practices are consistent with the constructivist framework. A case study design was employed as the research approach. The study was conducted with 11 prospective physics teachers attending a state university in Turkey. Data was collected through semi-structured…

Rigour in qualitative case-study research.

PubMed

Houghton, Catherine; Casey, Dympna; Shaw, David; Murphy, Kathy

2013-03-01

To provide examples of a qualitative multiple case study to illustrate the specific strategies that can be used to ensure the credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability of a study. There is increasing recognition of the valuable contribution qualitative research can make to nursing knowledge. However, it is important that the research is conducted in a rigorous manner and that this is demonstrated in the final research report. A multiple case study that explored the role of the clinical skills laboratory in preparing students for the real world of practice. Multiple sources of evidence were collected: semi-structured interviews (n=58), non-participant observations at five sites and documentary sources. Strategies to ensure the rigour of this research were prolonged engagement and persistent observation, triangulation, peer debriefing, member checking, audit trail, reflexivity, and thick descriptions. Practical examples of how these strategies can be implemented are provided to guide researchers interested in conducting rigorous case study research. While the flexible nature of qualitative research should be embraced, strategies to ensure rigour must be in place.

Literacy in Motion: A Case Study of a Shape-Shifting Kindergartener

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siegel, Marjorie; Kontovourki, Stavroula; Schmier, Stephanie; Enriquez, Grace

2008-01-01

This article presents a case study of a kindergarten girl from a Bangladeshi immigrant family who demonstrates her multiliteracies as she negotiates the multiple demands of the mandated literacy curriculum. The case is drawn from a year-long ethnographic inquiry of the literacy practices and cultural models in a balanced literacy curriculum where…

Perceptions of Pedagogical Formation Students about Web 2.0 Tools and Educational Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Avci Yücel, Ümmühan

2017-01-01

This study aims to examine pedagogical formation students' perceptions about Web 2.0 tools and educational practices. A case study approach forms the methodological framework of this study. This study was conducted with 42 pedagogical formation students of an Instructional Technology and Material Design course during the 2014-2015 spring semester.…

Morbidity and Mortality Conference in Obstetrics and Gynecology: A Tool for Addressing the 6 Core Competencies

PubMed Central

Bevis, Kerri S; Straughn, J. Michael; Kendrick, James E; Walsh-Covarrubias, Julie; Kilgore, Larry C

2011-01-01

Background Residency program directors are challenged to effectively teach and assess the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's (ACGME) 6 competencies. The purpose of this study was to characterize the morbidity and mortality (M&M) conference as a cost-effective and efficient approach for addressing the ACGME competencies through evaluation of resident participation and case diversity. Methods In our modified M&M conference, senior residents submit a weekly list of cases to the conference proctors. The resident presents the case, including a critique of management, using the medical literature. The resident submits a case summary evaluating patient care practices, integrating scientific evidence, and evaluating systemic barriers to care. Completed case summaries are distributed and archived for reference. Results During a 3-year period, 30 residents presented 196 cases. Of these, 37 (19%) directly related to systems-based practice, 20 (10%) involved problems with inadequate communication, and 11 (6%) included issues of professionalism or ethics. All cases involved practice-based learning and medical knowledge. Conclusions The M&M conference addresses the core competencies through resident participation as well as directed analysis of diverse cases. PMID:22379530

Volumetric change of silts following cyclic loading.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-06-01

Estimating the settlement of adjacent structures during pile installation in silts is a challenging problem for : practicing engineers. The current state-of-practice relies primarily on local case studies and monitoring efforts, such as : inclinomete...

Excess of non-verbal cases of autism spectrum disorders presenting to orthodox clinical practice in Africa – a trend possibly resulting from late diagnosis and intervention

PubMed Central

Bakare, Muideen O; Munir, Kerim M

2012-01-01

Objectives Characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in Africa are not known because of unavailability of large-scale epidemiological studies in this region. This review explored the age at first presentation to orthodox clinical practice of African children with ASDs and their expressive language ability at presentation. Methods A literature search of case series and case reports of ASDs from Africa was done through PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar, African Journals Online (AJOL), and archives of the Nigerian Journal of Psychiatry. Six articles included content relating to age of the child at first presentation to orthodox clinical practice and symptoms at presentation related to expressive language ability and therefore fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Suggestions are made to explain the observations emanating from the review. Results An excess of non-verbal over verbal cases of ASDs have been presenting to orthodox clinical practice and there is a common denominator of late presentation/diagnosis and in turn late intervention, with most cases presenting for the first time well above 8 years of age. Attempts to explain these observations included low levels of knowledge and awareness about ASDs in Africa; problems with help-seeking behaviour; and lack of mental healthcare facilities and trained personnel. Conclusions Enhancement of processes directed at ensuring early diagnosis and interventions, especially interventions aimed at improving speech and language development well and sufficiently early, may bring about a shift in the trend of excess non-verbal cases of ASDs over verbal cases presenting to orthodox clinical practice. PMID:22229024

Mixed emotional and physical symptoms in general practice: what diagnoses do GPs use to describe them?

PubMed

Stone, Louise

2015-04-01

To determine what diagnostic terms are utilized by general practitioners (GPs) when seeing patients with mixed emotional and physical symptoms. Prototype cases of depression, anxiety, hypochondriasis, somatization and undifferentiated somatoform disorders were sourced from the psychiatric literature and the author's clinical practice. These were presented, in paper form, to a sample of GPs and GP registrars who were asked to provide a written diagnosis. Fifty-two questionnaires were returned (30% response rate). The depression and anxiety cases were identified correctly by most participants. There was moderate identification of the hypochondriasis and somatization disorder cases, and poor identification of the undifferentiated somatoform case. Somatization and undifferentiated somatoform disorders were infrequently recognized as diagnostic categories by the GPs in this study. Future research into the language and diagnostic reasoning utilized by GPs may help develop better diagnostic classification systems for use in primary care in this important area of practice.

Genetic mutations of young patients admitted to an emergency department for syncope during sport practice.

PubMed

Gómez Alcaraz, Jorge; Bustamante, José; Corral, Ervigio; Casado Florez, Maria Isabel; Vivas, David; Cañadas-Godoy, Victoria; González Del Castillo, Juan; González Armengol, Juan Jorge; López-Farré, Antonio; Martín Sánchez, Francisco Javier

2018-04-25

To study the frequency of genetic mutations related to genetic heart disease among young patients admitted for syncope during sport practice. A case series study that included patients≤45 years admitted for syncope during sport practice during 2010-2011. We collected demographic and clinical variables, genetic tests mutations and final clinical diagnosis. A genetic test was performed in 46 (76.7%) of 60 patients evaluated. The genetic test was positive in 12 (26%; 95% CI 15.6-40.3) patients; 10 (21.7%) had PKP2 mutation related to arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia mutation, one (2.2%) KCNQ1 mutation and one (2.2%) SCN5A mutation related to channelopathies. The genetic test was positive in 11 (35.5%) cases of undetermined syncope and one (50%) case of cardiac syncope, being negative in all cases with neuromediated syncopes (P=.037). Gene mutations are common in young patients suffering from syncope during sports, especially in those with cardiac or undetermined aetiology. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Campus Stories: Three Case Studies. Part C: Putting Experiential Education into Practice--Using Kolb as a Learning Model for Implementing Organizational Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, James R.; Kovach, Ronald J.; Roberson, Patricia N.

2010-01-01

This article is the third of three case studies of successful implementation of experiential education at very different types of institutions. This case study discusses the use of David A. Kolb's Experiential Learning Model in the implementation of innovative graduation requirements in experiential education that began in 2008. Purdue University…

[Analysis of the knowledge and practices of health care workers in Emergency Departments regarding the protection and preservation of evidence in forensic cases].

PubMed

Ilçe, Arzu; Yıldız, Dilek; Baysal, Gonca; Ozdoğan, Fatma; Taş, Fatma

2010-11-01

The frequency of violent incidents is increasing. This increase has made the role of Emergency Department (ED) staff more important in the collection, recording, protection, and storage of the evidence until the arrival of the responsible people concerned with the issue. Therefore, this study was designed to analyze the knowledge and practices of the nursing staff working in the EDs with respect to the protection and preservation of the evidence in forensic cases. This research, which was designed to be descriptive, was conducted with 44 health care workers in the hospitals with Emergency Departments in the center of Bolu province between October 2008 and January 2009. It was observed that 90.9% of the health care workers encountered forensic cases, 65.9% of them had not attended any training on forensic cases, and 22.7% of them did not use care when removing and storing the clothes of the patient. It was considered that 90.9% of the health care workers duly carry out their duties and responsibilities in forensic cases; however, 18.2% of them do not have sufficient knowledge or practical experience in the preservation and protection of evidence in forensic cases. It was observed that most health care workers do not have sufficient knowledge or practical experience in the preservation and protection of evidence in forensic cases.

Scientific literacy and the ontology of science education: A case study of learning in the outdoors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gleason, Tristan

This dissertation seeks to articulate a framework for critiquing and reconstructing science education by fleshing out the relationships between science education, its ontological commitments to nature, and educational practices that promote justice and democracy. Drawing on theoretical and methodological resources from American Pragmatism and science studies, I offer a case study that evokes the practices of a residential outdoor science program in the Pacific Northwest. I suggest that these practices provide an opportunity to imagine how science education emerges differently when it abandons its commitments to a singular and authoritative Nature, and explore how this program provides empirical resources for building a theory of science education that is multinatural. Grasping the plurality of nature diminishes the tension between experiences and the world, recognizing the importance of the sciences to democratic action without positioning them as a singular source of authority. Multinaturalism then becomes an orienting concept for imagining and reconstructing more democratic and just practices of science education, practices that move away from the transmission of a cannon of white, Eurocentric knowledge, and towards the navigation of problems in dynamic worlds.

Case study: reconciling the quality and safety gap through strategic planning.

PubMed

Jeffs, Lianne; Merkley, Jane; Jeffrey, Jana; Ferris, Ella; Dusek, Janice; Hunter, Catherine

2006-05-01

An essential outcome of professional practice environments is the provision of high-quality, safe nursing care. To mitigate the quality and safety chasm, nursing leadership at St. Michael's Hospital undertook a strategic plan to enhance the nursing professional practice environment. This case study outlines the development of the strategic planning process: the driving forces (platform); key stakeholders (process and players); vision, guiding principles, strategic directions, framework for action and accountability (plan); lessons learned (pearls); and next steps to moving forward the vision, strategic directions and accountability mechanisms (passion and perseverance).

Six sigma in action. Case studies in quality put theory into practice.

PubMed

Scalise, Dagmara

2003-05-01

Case studies of four hospitals show how Six Sigma can be used for everything from reducing ED hold time to cutting down on medical errors. Our examples pinpoint the costs of implementation and the savings and other benefits derived.

Firefighter Workplace Learning: An Exploratory Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tracey, Edward A.

2014-01-01

Despite there being a significant amount of research investigating workplace learning, research exploring firefighter workplace learning is almost nonexistent. The purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to explore how firefighters conceptualize, report, and practice workplace learning. The researcher also investigated how firefighters…

The Influence of a Wound Care Teleassistance Service on Nursing Practice: A Case Study in Quebec

PubMed Central

Breton, Erik; Courcy, François; Quirion, Sonia; Côté, José; Paré, Guy

2014-01-01

Abstract Background: Although telehealth is a promising solution for healthcare professionals who work in remote and rural regions, the influence of specific telehealth applications on the nursing workforce remains unknown. This case study aimed to explore the potential influence of a teleassistance service in wound care (the acronym in French is TASP) on nursing practices and on nurse retention in peripheral areas. Materials and Methods: We carried out an exploratory single case study based on 16 semistructured interviews with two promoters of TASP, five nursing managers, and nine nurses from three levels of expertise associated with this service. Results: According to participants, the main positive influences of TASP were observed in quality of care, professional autonomy, professional development, and decrease of professional isolation. Participants mentioned increased workload associated with global patient data collection at first consultation as a negative effect of TASP. Finally, three possible effects of TASP on nurse retention were identified: none or minimal, imprecise, or mostly positive. Conclusions: This case study highlights the positive influence of TASP on several dimensions of nursing practice, in addition to its essential role in improving the quality of care. However, it is important to consider that the service cannot be considered as a solution to or replacement for the shortage of nurses. PMID:24694008

Assessment of Clinical Practices for Crushing Medication in Geriatric Units.

PubMed

Fodil, M; Nghiem, D; Colas, M; Bourry, S; Poisson-Salomon, A-S; Rezigue, H; Trivalle, C

2017-01-01

To assess the modification of the form of medication and evaluate staff observance of good clinical practices. One-day assessment of clinical practices. 17 geriatrics units in the 3 Teaching Hospitals of Paris-Sud (APHP), France. Elderly in-patients with difficulties swallowing capsules and tablets. Assessment of target-patient prescriptions and direct observation of nurses' medical rounds. 155/526 in-patients (29.5%) were unable to swallow tablets or capsules: 98 (40.3%) in long-term care, 46 patients (23.8%) in the rehabilitation unit and 11 (12.2%) in the acute care unit (p = .005). In thirty-nine (27.3%) of the 143 prescriptions studied all tablets were safe to crush and all capsules were safe to open. In 104 cases, at least one medication could not be safely modified, including 26 cases (18.2%) in which none of the prescribed drugs were safe to crush or open. In 48.2% of the 110 medications that were crushed, crushing was forbidden, and presented a potential threat in 12.7% of cases or a reduced efficacy in 8.2% of cases. Crushing methods were rarely appropriate: no specific protective equipment was used (81.8%), crushing equipment was shared between patients without cleaning (95.1%), medications were spilled or lost (69.9%). The method of administration was appropriate (water, jellified water) in 25% of the cases, questionable (soup, coffee, compote, juice, cream) in 55% of the cases and unacceptable (laxative) in 21% of the cases. Management of drug prescriptions in patients with swallowing difficulties is not optimal, and may even have iatrogenic effects. In this study, 12.7% of the modifications of the drug form could have been harmful. Doctors, pharmacists and nurses need to reevaluate their practices.

Practices implemented by a Texas charter school system to overcome science teacher shortage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yasar, Bilgehan M.

The purpose of this study was to examine practices used by a charter school system to hire and retain science teachers. The research design for this study was a qualitative case study. This single instrumental case study explored the issue within a bounded system. Purposeful sampling strategy was used to identify the participants who were interviewed individually. Findings of the case study supported that using online resources, advertising in the newspaper, attending job fairs, using alternative certification programs, attracting alumni, contacting the college of educations and hiring internationally helped the charter school system with hiring science teachers. Improving teacher salary scale, implementing teacher mentorship programs, reimbursing teachers for certification and master's programs, providing professional development and supporting teachers helped to retain science teachers. Therefore, this study contributes to determining strategies and techniques, selecting methods and programs, training administrators, and monitoring for successful hiring and retaining science teacher implementation.

Transversing the Vertical Case Study: A Methodological Approach to Studies of Educational Policy as Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartlett, Lesley; Vavrus, Frances

2014-01-01

How can scholars trace the global production and circulation of educational policies? The vertical case study incorporates three elements: "vertical" attention across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels, or scales; a "horizontal" comparison of how policies unfold in distinct locations; and a "transversal," processual…

Working Together with Children and Families: Case Studies in Early Intervention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McWilliam, P. J., Ed.; Bailey, Donald B., Jr., Ed.

This book presents 21 case studies of young children with disabilities in a variety of family situations and settings, for early interventionists to study in planning and applying recommended practices. Section I, "Defining and Delivering Quality Services in Early Intervention," provides two introductory chapters: "The Search for Quality…

Successful Student Goal Completion: A Community College Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cady, Sara C.

2013-01-01

Research studies have shown that one half of all students who begin college fail to realize their goals. This case study of one community college provided a comprehensive examination of best practices developed over several years through strategic enrollment planning. Additionally, this dissertation examined the decision-making processes that…

Children and Professionals Rights to Participation: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mesquita-Pires, Cristina

2012-01-01

This study investigates the process of praxiological transformation developed in an early childhood education institution, in Portugal, within four activity rooms. It is a single case study using action research, context-based staff development and participatory childhood pedagogy as means to change educational practices. It undertakes thorough…

From theory to practice: what drives the core business of public health?

PubMed

Smith, Tina Anderson; Minyard, Karen J; Parker, Christopher A; Van Valkenburg, Rachel Ferencik; Shoemaker, John A

2007-01-01

In 1994, the Public Health Functions Steering Committee proffered a description of the Essential Public Health Services (Essential Services). Questions remain, however, about the relationship between the roles defined therein and current public health practice at state and local levels. This case study describes the core business of public health in Georgia relative to the theoretical ideal and elucidates the primary drivers of the core business, thus providing data to inform future efforts to strengthen practice in the state. The principal finding was that public health in Georgia is not aligned with the Essential Services. Further analysis revealed that the primary drivers or determinants of public health practice are finance-related rather than based in need or strategy, precluding an integrated and intentional focus on health improvement. This case study provides a systems context for public health financing discussions, suggests leverage points for public health system change, and furthers the examination of applications for systems thinking relative to public health finance, practice, and policy.

Outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Infections After Petting Zoo Visits, North Carolina State Fair, October-November 2004

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Objectives: To identify cases, describe the outbreak, implement control measures, and identify factors associated with infection or protection from infection, including contact with animals and hand hygiene practices. Design: Case finding, a case-control study of 45 cases and 188 controls, enviro...

The impact of science teachers' epistemological beliefs on authentic inquiry: A multiple-case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jackson, Dionne Bennett

The purpose of this study was to examine how science teachers' epistemological beliefs impacted their use of authentic inquiry in science instruction. Participants in this multiple-case study included a total of four teachers who represented the middle, secondary and post-secondary levels. Based on the results of the pilot study conducted with a secondary science teacher, adjustments were made to the interview questions and observation protocol. Data collection for the study included semi-structured interviews, direct observations of instructional techniques, and the collection of artifacts. The cross case analysis revealed that the cases epistemological beliefs were mostly Transitional and the method of instruction used most was Discussion. Two of the cases exhibited consistent beliefs and instructional practices, whereas the other two exhibited beliefs beyond their instruction. The findings of this study support the literature on the influence of contextual factors and professional development on teacher beliefs and practice. The findings support and contradict literature relevant to the consistency of teacher beliefs with instruction. This study's findings revealed that the use of reform-based instruction, or Authentic Inquiry, does not occur when science teachers do not have the beliefs and experiences necessary to implement this form of instruction.

Industry Training: The Factors that Affect Demand. Discussion Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, A.; Roberts, P.; Noble, C.; Hayton, G.; Thorne, E.

A study was conducted in Australia, to determine the factors that affect demand for job training. The study consisted of 30 detailed industry case studies, an industry analysis, and a literature review. Each case study examined current training practices, training decision making in the business, and the determinants of training for the…

Socio-Cultural Factors in Second Language Learning: A Case Study of Adventurous Adult Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozfidan, Burhan; Machtmes, Krisanna L.; Demir, Husamettin

2014-01-01

Sociocultural theories consider language learning as a social practice examines students as active participants in the construction of learning processes. This study investigates sociocultural theories' central concepts, which includes peer interaction and feedback, private speech, and self-efficacy. The present study is a case study of twenty…

Virtual Team Leadership: A Case Study in Christian Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirschy, Mary Jo

2011-01-01

This study focused on virtual team leadership in Christian higher education by exploring the viability and acceptability of leadership practices defined by Malhotra, Majchrzak, and Rosen (2007). They identified six leadership practices effective leaders use to overcome the unique challenges associated with virtual teams, including: (a)…

An Examination of Principals' Leadership and Its Impact on Early Elementary Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallissey, Megan

2017-01-01

This exploratory, qualitative multiple-site case study examined principals' expectations of teaching practices and children's learning for early elementary grade levels (K, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd). Specifically, this study investigated principals' understanding of developmentally appropriate practices regarding instructional methods, curriculum…

Epistemic Agency in an Environmental Sciences Watershed Investigation Fostered by Digital Photography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zimmerman, Heather Toomey; Weible, Jennifer L.

2018-01-01

This collective case study investigates the role of digital photography to support high school students' engagement in science inquiry practices during a three-week environmental sciences unit. The study's theoretical framework brings together research from digital photography, participation in environmental science practices, and epistemic…

National Policy and the Development of Inclusive School Practices: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dyson, Alan; Gallannaugh, Frances

2007-01-01

National education policy in England under New Labour Governments has encompassed both a "standards agenda" and an "inclusion agenda", with schools required to respond to both simultaneously. Some previous studies have seen these agendas as contradictory and have seen schools' efforts to develop inclusive practices as being…

Conceptions and Practices of Assessment: A Case of Teachers Representing Improvement Conception

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azis, Astuti

2015-01-01

Despite numerous quantitative studies on teachers' conceptions and practices of assessment, little research exists regarding the unique assessment environment of Indonesia. This study uses both quantitative and qualitative data to examine how Indonesian junior high school teachers understand assessment and how their conceptions of assessment…

Drama, Media Advertising, and Inner-City Youth.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conrad, Diane

2002-01-01

Describes a reflective practice case study which involved creating and delivering a unit integrating drama, media literacy, and media production with a focus on advertising for a group of students at an alternative inner-city high school. Proposes this strategy may assist others in studies and teaching practice. (PM)

Applying Queer Theory in Practice with College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abes, Elisa S.

2008-01-01

Grounded in a narrative inquiry study of traditional-aged lesbian college students' perceptions of the relationships among their multiple social identities, this article explores implications of queer theory in practice with college students. This case study examines the emancipatory impact of queer notions and a queer theoretical framework on one…

Exploring Early Childhood Teachers' Beliefs and Practices about Preschool Outdoor Play: A Qualitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McClintic, Sandra; Petty, Karen

2015-01-01

This qualitative case study explored how early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices influence the function of preschool outdoor play. Teachers believed that supervision was paramount. They perceived that the physical design of the outdoor environment posed limitations for planning, preparation, and implementation. Teachers' recollections of…

Tangled Threads: Mentoring within a Community of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarr, Patricia

2010-01-01

Tangled Threads, a case study of a group of women art educators, examines the nature of mentoring relationships within the context of a professional association. Grounded in literature on "community of practice," relational and peer mentoring, and an ethic of care, the study uncovers the complex interconnections between women's professional and…

From Teacher to Teacher Educator: Reframing Knowledge in Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dinkelman, Todd; Margolis, Jason; Sikkenga, Karl

2006-01-01

This paper concludes our report of an investigation of two beginning teacher educators making the transition from classroom teacher to university-based teacher educator. The authors combined case study and self-study of teacher education practices to investigate features of the institutional context they encountered, the knowledge they employed in…

A Circle of Empowerment: Women, Education, and Leadership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irwin, Rita L.

This book describes two studies, the first of which is a single case study that interprets the practical knowledge of an exemplary fine arts supervisor. An analysis of ethnographic data portrays the supervisor's practical knowledge as constructed around a dialectical orientation between two constructs or landscapes of imagery: the empowerment and…

Reflection: a critical proficiency essential to the effective development of a high competence in communication.

PubMed

Adams, Cindy L; Nestel, Debra; Wolf, Peter

2006-01-01

Reflection, or the ability to step back from an experience and consider it critically, in an analytical, non-subjective manner, is an essential aspect of problem solving and decision making, and also of effective communication with clients and colleagues. Reflective practice has been described as the essence of professionalism and is therefore a core professional skill; rarely, however, has it been explicitly taught in veterinary curricula, and it has only a recent history in undergraduate human medical curricula. We describe here two preliminary case studies, one in a veterinary medical education context and the other within a human medical education framework, as examples of approaches to assessing a student's ability for ''reflection.'' The case studies also illustrate some of the key principles. Both of the case studies described had as their end goal the enhancement of communication skills through critical reflection. At Monash University, Australia, the majority of students were assessed as being at a level of ''reflection in development.'' The students in the Ontario Veterinary College case study showed moderately good use of self-awareness and critical reflection as a basis for modifying and integrating communication skills into practice. While both preliminary case studies point to the fact that students recognize the importance of communication and value the opportunity to practice it, few students in either case study identified the importance of reflection for lifelong learning and professional competence. Opportunities to complete critical reflection exercises in other parts of curricula and outside of communication would likely reinforce its importance as a generic skill. Ongoing scholarly approaches to teaching, learning, and evaluating reflection and self-awareness are needed.

Academic and Educational Development: Research, Evaluation and Changing Practice in Higher Education. Staff and Educational Development Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macdonald, Ranald; Wisdom, James

This practice-oriented book brings together research and evaluation approaches and supporting case studies from educational researchers and teachers. The emphasis is on changing practice in higher education and the research that underpins desirable development. Following an introduction, chapter 1 presents Educational Development Changing Practice…

Using Open Educational Practices to Support Institutional Strategic Excellence in Teaching, Learning & Scholarship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carey, Thomas; Davis, Alan; Ferreras, Salvador; Porter, David

2015-01-01

This paper explores the integration of Open Educational Practices (OEP) into an institutional strategy to develop distinctive excellence in teaching, learning and scholarship. The institution in the case study is a public polytechnic university serving a metropolitan area in Canada. If emerging Open Educational Practices are to flourish at our…

Alignment of World Language Standards and Assessments: A Multiple Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaplan, Carolyn Shemwell

2016-01-01

Previous research has examined world language classroom-based assessment practices as well as the impact of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project, 1999) on practice. However, the extent to which K-12 teachers' assessment practices reflect national and state…

Creating Case Studies of Practice through Appreciative Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarke, Helen; Egan, Bridget; Fletcher, Lynda; Ryan, Charly

2006-01-01

Taking a positive view is a fruitful way to prompt educators to reflect on and to develop their practice. Teachers, teacher educators and children bring a wide range of ideas that provide a powerful basis for developing understanding of the complexities of classroom practice. Using appreciate inquiry the authors show how they developed their…

Action and Thought in Cello Playing: An Investigation of Children's Practice and Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lisboa, Tania

2008-01-01

This article presents a longitudinal case study investigation of three young cellists' self-directed preparation of a new piece of music for an informal performance. The investigation considers how musical understanding starts to emerge in children's practice and performance. It explores practice at early stages of learning and examines the…

Eliciting and Assessing Reflective Practice: A Case Study in Web 2.0 Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parkes, Kelly A.; Kajder, Sara

2010-01-01

This paper focuses on the role of multimodal technologies in facilitating reflective processes and the subsequent assessment of reflectivity for students in pre-professional programs. Reflective practice has been established as a critical tool for developing identity in and on practice. This paper will focus firstly on reviewing salient literature…

Greening Social Work Education: Teaching Environmental Rights and Sustainability in Community Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Androff, David; Fike, Chris; Rorke, John

2017-01-01

Green issues such as protecting environmental rights and promoting sustainability are growing in importance to social work practice but are largely ignored in social work curricula. This article uses comparative case studies of three student-led community practice projects to demonstrate how environmental rights can be incorporated into social…

A Protean Practice? Perspectives on the Practice of Action Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brook, Cheryl; Pedler, Mike; Burgoyne, John G

2013-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to assess the extent to which these practitioners ' perspectives and practices match Willis's conception of a Revans "gold standard" of action learning. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts a qualitative design and methodology based on interviews and the collection of cases or accounts of…

An Examination of the Leadership Practices of Effective Rural Superintendents: A Multiple Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forner, Mark

2010-01-01

This research examined the leadership practices of rural superintendents who have led their districts to significant improvement in student academic achievement. The overall research goal was to examine how Waters' and Marzano's six correlates of effective superintendent leadership practice have been applied by school leaders who have successfully…

Learner Resistance to English-Medium Instruction Practices: A Qualitative Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Yi-Ping

2018-01-01

The internationalization of higher education has resulted in the growth of English-medium instruction (EMI) practices and research. The existing EMI research has documented learners' favorable attitudes toward EMI but not necessarily its practices. Learners' dissatisfaction has not been viewed as a form of resistance. Through the notion of learner…

Pre-Service Teachers' Evaluation of Their Mentor Teachers, School Experiences, and Theory-Practice Relationship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alemdag, Ecenaz; Simsek, Pinar Özdemir

2017-01-01

This case study investigated practicum experiences of pre-service teachers by focusing on their evaluation of mentor teachers, school experiences, and theory-practice relationships. Interviews were conducted with six teacher candidates, and observations in the participants' practice schools were made. The results revealed that mentor teachers had…

Undergraduate Learning Outcomes for the 21st Century and Associated Practices: The Case of the College of Education at King Faisal University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-arfaj, Maher M.

2011-01-01

The study focuses on higher education practices associated with learning outcomes for the 21st century, and the degree of their applications in the College of Education at King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. The findings show that most of these practices are not implemented or are being administered at a low level. Accordingly, the study calls…

Multicultural Teacher Education as a Community of Practice: M.Ed./PDS Graduates' Perceptions of Their Preparation to Work with Diverse Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Young Ah; Chen, Shwu-Meei; Chang, Chen-Ni; Yoneda, Fusako

2017-01-01

This study used qualitative case study methods to investigate how a particular community of practice located in a Midwest university influenced the M.Ed./PDS graduates' perceptions of working with diverse students. We use the term multicultural education to refer to the orientations and practices of the M.Ed. program and how the graduates thought…

Assessing the Impact of a Program Designed to Develop Sustainability Leadership amongst Staff Members in Higher Education Institutes: A Case Study from a Community of Practice Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alkaher, Iris; Avissar, Ilana

2018-01-01

This study focuses on the impact of a sustainability leadership development program (SLDP) designed to develop staff members as leaders who encourage sustainability practices within institutions of higher education (IHE). Using the framework of community of practice (CoP), we explored the program's contribution by interviewing 16 staff members who…

Benchmarking, benchmarks, or best practices? Applying quality improvement principles to decrease surgical turnaround time.

PubMed

Mitchell, L

1996-01-01

The processes of benchmarking, benchmark data comparative analysis, and study of best practices are distinctly different. The study of best practices is explained with an example based on the Arthur Andersen & Co. 1992 "Study of Best Practices in Ambulatory Surgery". The results of a national best practices study in ambulatory surgery were used to provide our quality improvement team with the goal of improving the turnaround time between surgical cases. The team used a seven-step quality improvement problem-solving process to improve the surgical turnaround time. The national benchmark for turnaround times between surgical cases in 1992 was 13.5 minutes. The initial turnaround time at St. Joseph's Medical Center was 19.9 minutes. After the team implemented solutions, the time was reduced to an average of 16.3 minutes, an 18% improvement. Cost-benefit analysis showed a potential enhanced revenue of approximately $300,000, or a potential savings of $10,119. Applying quality improvement principles to benchmarking, benchmarks, or best practices can improve process performance. Understanding which form of benchmarking the institution wishes to embark on will help focus a team and use appropriate resources. Communicating with professional organizations that have experience in benchmarking will save time and money and help achieve the desired results.

Healthcare improvement as planned system change or complex responsive processes? a longitudinal case study in general practice

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Interest in how to implement evidence-based practices into routine health care has never been greater. Primary care faces challenges in managing the increasing burden of chronic disease in an ageing population. Reliable prescriptions for translating knowledge into practice, however, remain elusive, despite intense research and publication activity. This study seeks to explore this dilemma in general practice by challenging the current way of thinking about healthcare improvement and asking what can be learned by looking at change through a complexity lens. Methods This paper reports the local level of an embedded case study of organisational change for better chronic illness care over more than a decade. We used interviews, document review and direct observation to explore how improved chronic illness care developed in one practice. This formed a critical case to compare, using pattern matching logic, to the common prescription for local implementation of best evidence and a rival explanation drawn from complexity sciences interpreted through modern sociology and psychology. Results The practice changed continuously over more than a decade to deliver better chronic illness care in line with research findings and policy initiatives – re-designing care processes, developing community linkages, supporting patient self-management, using guidelines and clinical information systems, and integrating nurses into the practice team. None of these improvements was designed and implemented according to an explicit plan in response to a documented gap in chronic disease care. The process that led to high quality chronic illness care exhibited clear complexity elements of co-evolution, non-linearity, self-organisation, emergence and edge of chaos dynamics in a network of agents and relationships where a stable yet evolving way of organizing emerged from local level communicative interaction, power relating and values based choices. Conclusions The current discourse of implementation science as planned system change did not match organisational reality in this critical case of improvement in general practice. Complexity concepts translated in human terms as complex responsive processes of relating fit the pattern of change more accurately. They do not provide just another fashionable blueprint for change but inform how researchers, policymakers and providers participate in improving healthcare. PMID:23617833

Thinking about changing mobility practices: how a social practice approach can help.

PubMed

Nettleton, Sarah; Green, Judith

2014-02-01

Policy efforts directed at encouraging physical activity have had minimal success to date. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of practice, we suggest that a social practice framing might provide useful ways of thinking about why and how some practices do and could change. This article takes three case studies of transformations in mobility practices to explore conditions of possibility for change, using a secondary analysis of qualitative data from studies on cycling in London and fell running in the English Lake District. Three modes of transformation: unthinkable, thwarted and resisted, are rooted in differential interrelationships of field, habitus and doxa in these contrasting cases. We suggest that the notion of tacit, practical knowledge is more useful to understanding why change is thinkable or unthinkable than participants' reasoned accounts of their practice; that where new social fields are available that are congruent with habitus, change is possible and that where field and habitus are tightly aligned, the conditions of possibility for change are reduced. Efforts directed at changing practice might usefully focus not on behaviour or environments but on identifying the social fields in which mobility practices are likely to be malleable. The sociology of public health needs to focus less on health behaviour and more on social practice. © 2013 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness © 2013 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The "wins" of change: evaluating the impact of predicted changes on case management practice.

PubMed

Stanton, Marietta P; Barnett Lammon, Carol Ann

2008-01-01

A variety of strategies were employed to identify current and future trends that would impact the practice of case management. Historical review, consultation with case management experts, literature review, and environmental scanning by practicing case managers were strategies employed to determine the impact of current and future trends on case management. The trends identified in this article have implications for case managers in a variety of settings. Case managers participating in the environmental scanning process to evaluate the impact of the identified trends on their organization included representation from acute care, home care, behavioral health, workers' compensation, and private insurance settings. The top 7 trends identified by experts in the field of case management included pay for performance, recovery audit contractors, Medicare demonstration projects, transitions of care, informatics in healthcare and case management, metrics for case management, and the impact of an aging population in case management. Practicing case managers were asked to react to these trends in terms of likelihood of occurrence in their organization and impact of these trends on their case management practice. Case management will ultimately have a higher degree of accountability for its practice if metrics to evaluate and reimbursement for case management become a reality. A multitude of performance measures exist that will be monitored and be tied to reimbursement. To ensure that agencies are accomplishing these performance measures, case management will potentially have a growing importance. Case managers perceive that these trends have a predominantly positive impact on case management.

Flexible Literacies, Cultural Crossings and Global Identities: Three Singaporean Adolescent Boys' Reading and Identity Practices' in a Globalized World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loh, Chin Ee

2010-01-01

This case examines the reading and identity practices of three highly literate adolescent boys from an elite all-boys school in Singapore, focusing on how they constructed their identities as global and local citizens through their reading practices. There have not been any studies examining the reading and identity practices of adolescent boys…

Incentives and control in primary health care: findings from English pay-for-performance case studies.

PubMed

McDonald, Ruth; Harrison, Stephen; Checkland, Kath

2008-01-01

The authors' aim was to investigate mechanisms and perceptions of control following the implementation of a new "pay-for-performance" contract (the new General Medical Services, or GMS, contract) in general practice. This article was based on an in-depth qualitative case study approach in two general practices in England. A distinction is emerging amongst ostensibly equal partners between those general practitioners conducting and those subject to surveillance. Attitudes towards the contract were largely positive, although discontent was higher in the practice which employed a more intensive surveillance regime and greater amongst nurses than doctors. The sample was small and opportunistic. Further research is required to examine the longer-term effects as new contractual arrangements evolve. Increased surveillance and feedback mechanisms associated with new pay-for-performance schemes have the potential to constrain and shape clinical practice. The paper highlights the emergence of new tensions within and between existing professional groupings.

Doing Better: Illuminating a Framework of Equitable Science Pedagogy through a Cross- Case Analysis of Urban High School Science Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheth, Manali J.

Students of color are routinely asked to participate in science education that is less intellectually rich and self-affirming. Additionally, teachers have trouble embarking on professional growth related to issues of equity and diversity in science. The purpose of this dissertation research is to develop a multi-dimensional framework for equitable science pedagogy (ESP) through analyzing the efforts and struggles of high school science teachers. This study is grounded in a conceptual framework derived from scholarship in science education, multicultural education, critical science studies, and teacher learning. The following questions guide this research: 1) What visions and enactments emerge in teachers' practices towards equitable science pedagogy? 2) How are teachers' practice decisions towards ESP influenced by their personal theories of race/culture, science, and learning and sociocultural contexts? 3) Why are there consistencies and variances across teachers' practices? This study employs a qualitative multiple case study design with ethnographic data collection to explore the practices of three urban high school science teachers who were identified as being committed to nurturing the science learning of students of color. Data include over 120 hours of classroom observation, 60 hours of teacher interviews, and 500 teacher- and student-generated artifacts. Data analysis included coding teachers' practices using theory- and participant generated codes, construction of themes based on emergent patterns, and cross-case analysis. The affordances and limitations of the participants' pedagogical approaches inform the following framework for equitable science pedagogy: 1) Seeing race and culture and sharing responsibility for learning form foundational dimensions. Practices from the other three dimensions--- nurturing students' identities, re-centering students' epistemologies, and critiquing structural inequities---emerge from the foundation. As emergent practices, they are constituted by but not reduced to practices in the initial dimensions. 2) Ideas from the foundational dimensions are filtered through teachers' stances on science. Thus, teachers' practices in the emergent dimensions and the foundational dimensions are mediated by teachers' pedagogical ideas about science and school science. 3) Teachers' articulations of practice influence the possibility of on-going work towards equitable science pedagogy.

"I Gained a Skill and a Change in Attitude": A Case Study Describing How an Online Continuing Professional Education Course for Pharmacists Supported Achievement of Its Transfer-to-Practice Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marks, Pia Zeni; Jennings, Brad; Farrell, Barbara; Kennie-Kaulbach, Natalie; Jorgenson, Derek; Sharpe, Jane Pearson; Waite, Nancy

2014-01-01

The convenience and flexibility of online learning clearly make it an attractive option for learners in professional development contexts. There is less clarity, however, about how it fares as a vehicle for enabling the applied, practice-oriented outcomes typically associated with professional development learning. This paper presents a case study…

How Three Prospective Teachers Construed Three Cases of Teaching. Research Report 94-3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Linda M.; Bird, Tom

This paper describes a case study of the use of cases in teacher education, comparing the responses of three prospective teachers to three cases of teaching. In an introduction to teaching course, the teacher educator used the three cases to provide alternative images of practice, hoping to influence the students' beliefs about teaching and about…

Evaluation of Visual Pedagogy in Dental Check-ups and Preventive Practices Among 6-12-Year-Old Children with Autism.

PubMed

Nilchian, Firoozeh; Shakibaei, Fereshteh; Jarah, Zeinab Taghi

2017-03-01

This study was aimed to evaluate the impact of visual pedagogy in dental check-ups and preventive practices among children with autism aged 6-12. In this randomized double-blind clinical trial, the cooperation of 40 children with autism age 6-12. The selected children were equally divided into two groups of case and control (n = 20). The obtained data were analyzed by statistical tests, including Chi square and independent t test. The results of Cochran showed a significant increase in children's cooperation with regard to fluoride therapy in the case group by repeating the visit and training sessions (p ≤ 0.001). The findings of this study demonstrated, visual pedagogy was merely effective in the case of fluoride therapy in the case group.

Protein Engineering: Case Studies of Commercialized Engineered Products

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Gary

2007-01-01

Programs in biochemistry invariably encompass the principles of protein engineering. Students often display increased understanding and enthusiasm when theoretical concepts are underpinned by practical example. Herein are presented five case studies, each focusing upon a commercial protein product engineered to enhance its application-relevant…

Best Practices Case Study: Urbane Homes - Crestwood, KY, Various Locations, Greater Louisville, KY

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

Case study of Urbane Homes, who worked with Building America to build market rate homes with HERS scores of 57 to 62. Despite a down market they’ve sold every home within 3 weeks of listing, without any advertising.

Human Health Risk Assessment: A case study application of principles in dose response assessment

EPA Science Inventory

This case study application workshop will build on fundamental concepts and techniques in risk assessment presented and archived at previous TRAC meeting workshops. Practical examples from publicly available, peer reviewed risk assessments will be used as teaching aids. Course ...

Issues of Noncompliance. NCABR 2017

EPA Science Inventory

This presentation is a case study to be presented at an animal welfare conference. The purpose of the case study is to allow other animal welfare professionals a chance to work through and discuss an potential noncompliance situation. It is for practice, and to encourage people t...

Perspectives on enhancing international practical training of students in health and social care study programs - A qualitative descriptive case study.

PubMed

Hvalič-Touzery, Simona; Hopia, Hanna; Sihvonen, Sanna; Diwan, Sadhna; Sen, Soma; Skela-Savič, Brigita

2017-01-01

Internationalization of practical training in health and social care study programs is an important aspect of higher education. However, field mentors' and classroom teachers' competence in guiding culturally diverse students varies widely in European countries, and the majority does not have enough training in guiding foreign students. This study aimed to examine which factors enhance the efficacy of international practical placement experiences in health and social care study programs. A qualitative descriptive case study design was used. The study was conducted at six higher education institutions-two in Finland and one in Croatia, Estonia, the Netherlands and Slovenia. A convenience sample of 14 mentors, 15 teachers and 14 students with international experiences from six higher education institutions which are part of the Bologna Process was recruited. The data were collected from six focus groups using a semi-structured questionnaire based on a literature review. Each higher education institution conducted one group interview that was tape-recorded, transcribed and analysed for themes. Participants made several recommendations for enhancing the practical placement experience of students, teachers, and mentors. Most recommendations dealt with practical supervision of students. Three major themes noted were: 'Attitudes towards internationalization of practical placements', 'Factors impacting the international placement experience', and 'Pedagogical methods used and structural support available for internationalization.' The study highlights the need for strengthening the multicultural knowledge and skills of mentors and teachers. The findings provide practical guidelines for improving the international placement experience across health and social care fields. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Navigating Access and Maintaining Established Practice: Social Studies Teachers' Technology Integration at Three Florida Middle Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheffield, Caroline

2011-01-01

This mixed methods multiple case study explored middle school social studies teachers' instructional use of digital technology at three suburban middle schools This mixed methods, multiple-case study explored middle school social studies teachers' instructional use of digital technology at three suburban middle schools in a large Florida school…

The role of professional knowledge in case-based reasoning in practical ethics.

PubMed

Pinkus, Rosa Lynn; Gloeckner, Claire; Fortunato, Angela

2015-06-01

The use of case-based reasoning in teaching professional ethics has come of age. The fields of medicine, engineering, and business all have incorporated ethics case studies into leading textbooks and journal articles, as well as undergraduate and graduate professional ethics courses. The most recent guidelines from the National Institutes of Health recognize case studies and face-to-face discussion as best practices to be included in training programs for the Responsible Conduct of Research. While there is a general consensus that case studies play a central role in the teaching of professional ethics, there is still much to be learned regarding how professionals learn ethics using case-based reasoning. Cases take many forms, and there are a variety of ways to write them and use them in teaching. This paper reports the results of a study designed to investigate one of the issues in teaching case-based ethics: the role of one's professional knowledge in learning methods of moral reasoning. Using a novel assessment instrument, we compared case studies written and analyzed by three groups of students whom we classified as: (1) Experts in a research domain in bioengineering. (2) Novices in a research domain in bioengineering. (3) The non-research group--students using an engineering domain in which they were interested but had no in-depth knowledge. This study demonstrates that a student's level of understanding of a professional knowledge domain plays a significant role in learning moral reasoning skills.

Code for ethical international recruitment practices: the CGFNS alliance case study.

PubMed

Shaffer, Franklin A; Bakhshi, Mukul; Dutka, Julia To; Phillips, Janice

2016-06-30

Projections indicate a global workforce shortage of approximately 4.3 million across the health professions. The need to ensure an adequate supply of health workers worldwide has created a context for the increased global migration of these professionals. The global trend in the migration of health professionals has given rise to the international recruitment industry to facilitate the passage of health workers from source to destination countries. This is particularly the case in the United States, where the majority of immigrant health professionals have come by way of the recruiting industry. This industry is largely unregulated in the United States as well as in many other countries, for which voluntary codes have been used as a means to increase transparency of the recruitment process, shape professional conduct, and mitigate harm to foreign-educated health workers. The CGFNS Alliance case study presented herein describes a multi-stakeholder effort in the United States to promote ethical recruitment practices. Such codes not only complement the WHO Global Code of Practice but are necessary to maximize the impact of these global standards on local settings. This case study offers both a historical perspective and a conceptual framework for examining the multiplicity of factors affecting the migration of human resources for health. The lessons learned provide critical insights into the factors pertaining to the relevancy and effectiveness of the WHO Code from the perspectives of both source and destination countries. This study provides a conceptual model for examining the usefulness of the WHO Code as well as how best to ensure its viability, sustainability, relevancy, and effectiveness in the global environment. This case study concludes with recommendations for evolving business models that need to be in place to strengthen the effectiveness of the WHO Code in the marketplace and to ensure its impact on the international recruitment industry in advancing ethical practices. These recommendations include using effective screening mechanisms to determine health professionals' readiness for migration as well as implementing certification processes to raise the practice standards for those directly involved in recruiting skilled workers and managing the migration flow.

Work, Productivity, and Human Performance: Practical Case Studies in Ergonomics, Human Factors and Human Engineering.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fraser, T. M.; Pityn, P. J.

This book contains 12 case histories, each based on a real-life problem, that show how a manager can use common sense, knowledge, and interpersonal skills to solve problems in human performance at work. Each case study describes a worker's problem and provides background information and an assignment; solutions are suggested. The following cases…

Pedagogical Practices in Teaching Reading Comprehension: A Case Study of Three EFL Teachers in a Secondary School in Ethiopia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nurie, Yenus

2017-01-01

Various studies investigating psychological variables associated with reading comprehension are currently available. However, there has been little linguistic research conducted to examine the pedagogical practices of teachers in teaching reading comprehension of EFL Secondary Schools, Ethiopia. The present study was conducted to fill the research…

Crossing Borders: The Linguistic Practices of Aspiring Bilinguals in the Malay Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rajadurai, Joanne

2011-01-01

This paper reports on a study of Malay learners of English in Malaysia as they attempt to extend their use of English outside the classroom and thus participate in new linguistic practices. Using a multiple case study approach, the study examines the narrative accounts of learners generated through student journals and focus group discussions.…

Writing Attitudes and Practices of Content Area Teachers after Participating in the Central Utah Writing Project Summer Institute

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anson, Joseph P.

2017-01-01

This study of four case studies looks at how secondary math, music, science, and social studies teachers' attitudes and classroom practices were affected by their participation in the Central Utah Writing Project (CUWP) summer institute. Participant interviews, observations, and artifacts were analyzed by looking at themes for effective…

Demystifying Virtual Communities of Practice: A Case Study of IBM

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kok, Ayse

2010-01-01

The purpose of this proposed research study is to empirically explore the nature of virtual communities of practice (CoP) in a global organisation within the context of its International Corporate Volunteer (ICV) Program. This study investigates whether and how the use of virtual CoP evolves and becomes embedded within this organization. Following…

Pre-service elementary science teaching self-efficacy and teaching practices: A mixed-methods, dual-phase, embedded case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sangueza, Cheryl Ramirez

This mixed-method, dual-phase, embedded-case study employed the Social Cognitive Theory and the construct of self-efficacy to examine the contributors to science teaching self-efficacy and science teaching practices across different levels of efficacy in six pre-service elementary teachers during their science methods course and student teaching experiences. Data sources included the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI-B) for pre-service teachers, questionnaires, journals, reflections, student teaching lesson observations, and lesson debriefing notes. Results from the STEBI-B show that all participants measured an increase in efficacy throughout the study. The ANOVA analysis of the STEBI-B revealed a statistically significant increase in level of efficacy during methods course, student teaching, and from the beginning of the study to the end. Of interest in this study was the examination of the participants' science teaching practices across different levels of efficacy. Results of this analysis revealed how the pre-service elementary teachers in this study contextualized their experiences in learning to teach science and its influences on their science teaching practices. Key implications involves the value in exploring how pre-service teachers interpret their learning to teach experiences and how their interpretations influence the development of their science teaching practices.

The Complex Relationship between Home and School Literacy: A Blurred Boundary between Formal and Informal English Literacy Practices of Greek Teenagers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rothoni, Anastasia

2018-01-01

This article reports on findings of an ethnographically oriented multiple case study research study on teenagers' everyday literacy practices in English as a foreign language in contemporary Greece. Drawing on new literacy studies, discourse analysis, and ethnography, the study extended over a period of 18 months and employed multiple data…

Adult ESL Literacy Programs and Practices. A Report on a National Research Study. Technical Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guth, Gloria J. A.; Wrigley, Heide Spruck

The background and major activities of a 2-year study on adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs and practices are reported. Descriptions are provided of the nomination process for programs that teach literacy to adults not fully proficient in English, and the study site selection and case studies of nine programs are described. The…

Air Pollution Awareness in the Scope of the Community Service Practices Course: An Interdisciplinary Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydin-Güç, Funda; Aygün, Müge; Ceylan, Derya; Çavus-Güngören, Seda; Durukan, Ümmü Gülsüm; Hacioglu, Yasemin; Yekeler, Ayse Dilek

2018-01-01

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the interdisciplinary (the disciplines of Turkish, Social Science, Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Public Administration) activities performed in the scope of the Community Service Practices Course on the air pollution awareness (APW). This study has been performed as a multiple case study.…

Investigating Approaches to Achieve Modularity Benefits in the Acquisition Ecosystem

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-09

actions and that of others, and how the assessments are affected by their actions. • Case study approach based on best practices, tacit knowledge... case study -derived exemplars, and items requiring further research on identifying additional enablers and useful knowledge constructs. All of these... case studies that document the effective use of modularity in system design for some or all of innovation, competition, cost, technology and

Narrative pedagogy with evolving case study--A transformative approach to gerontic nursing practice for undergraduate nursing students.

PubMed

Laver, Shaorn; Croxon, Lyn

2015-09-01

Engaging nursing students in the complexities of care across community, acute, rehabilitation and residential aged care settings is challenging. Equally challenging is conceptualising and promoting diverse and comprehensive health assessments across care settings that reflect clinical reality, inform clinical decision making, traverse theory and practice, and transform clinical practice knowledge. This article describes the use of narrative and evolving case study as a teaching-learning tool utilised by the authors in a third year undergraduate gerontic nursing subject in a pre-service nursing degree at a rural university. Principles of transformative learning and strengths based nursing were drawn upon in the development of the case study. The aim of the approach was to draw on embedded knowledge and the experiences of students and academics from assorted practice settings to facilitate understanding of the lived experiences of an older community dwelling couple. Using social learning strategies students were encouraged to analyse and think critically and creatively about the situations they were presented with. They identified possible solutions that would be acceptable to the couple. Building on the older couple's strengths, achievements and personal social capital, the aim was to develop a positive paradigm for health and the way older people are viewed by nursing students. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Case-control vaccine effectiveness studies: Preparation, design, and enrollment of cases and controls.

PubMed

Verani, Jennifer R; Baqui, Abdullah H; Broome, Claire V; Cherian, Thomas; Cohen, Cheryl; Farrar, Jennifer L; Feikin, Daniel R; Groome, Michelle J; Hajjeh, Rana A; Johnson, Hope L; Madhi, Shabir A; Mulholland, Kim; O'Brien, Katherine L; Parashar, Umesh D; Patel, Manish M; Rodrigues, Laura C; Santosham, Mathuram; Scott, J Anthony; Smith, Peter G; Sommerfelt, Halvor; Tate, Jacqueline E; Victor, J Chris; Whitney, Cynthia G; Zaidi, Anita K; Zell, Elizabeth R

2017-06-05

Case-control studies are commonly used to evaluate effectiveness of licensed vaccines after deployment in public health programs. Such studies can provide policy-relevant data on vaccine performance under 'real world' conditions, contributing to the evidence base to support and sustain introduction of new vaccines. However, case-control studies do not measure the impact of vaccine introduction on disease at a population level, and are subject to bias and confounding, which may lead to inaccurate results that can misinform policy decisions. In 2012, a group of experts met to review recent experience with case-control studies evaluating the effectiveness of several vaccines; here we summarize the recommendations of that group regarding best practices for planning, design and enrollment of cases and controls. Rigorous planning and preparation should focus on understanding the study context including healthcare-seeking and vaccination practices. Case-control vaccine effectiveness studies are best carried out soon after vaccine introduction because high coverage creates strong potential for confounding. Endpoints specific to the vaccine target are preferable to non-specific clinical syndromes since the proportion of non-specific outcomes preventable through vaccination may vary over time and place, leading to potentially confusing results. Controls should be representative of the source population from which cases arise, and are generally recruited from the community or health facilities where cases are enrolled. Matching of controls to cases for potential confounding factors is commonly used, although should be reserved for a limited number of key variables believed to be linked to both vaccination and disease. Case-control vaccine effectiveness studies can provide information useful to guide policy decisions and vaccine development, however rigorous preparation and design is essential. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Executive Coaching Practices in the Adult Workplace

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campone, Francine

2015-01-01

This chapter provides an overview of key principles and practices in executive coaching. Coaching is discussed as a reflective learning opportunity and offers the theoretical grounding, strategies, and case studies for each of four key elements of a coaching engagement.

Beliefs and Issues in Social Studies Instructional Practices: A Case Study of Alternatively Certified Elementary Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bisland, Beverly Milner; O'Connor, Evelyn A.; Malow-Iroff, Micheline S.

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the social studies teaching beliefs and the application of these beliefs into classroom practice of a group of elementary teachers who are part of a New York City alternative certification program. The teachers in this study are working in low performing New York City schools, are typically pursuing…

The experiences of newly graduated nurses during their first year of practice in the Sultanate of Oman - A case study.

PubMed

Al Awaisi, Huda; Cooke, Hannah; Pryjmachuk, Steven

2015-11-01

Studies have demonstrated that the transition experience of new graduate nurses is complex and frequently negative, leading to dissatisfaction with nursing and increased attrition. Existing studies of new graduate nurses' transition experiences tend to be concerned with the experiences of new graduate nurses in the West. To date, no study has been conducted examining the transition experience in any Middle Eastern country where the cultural context surrounding nursing education and practice is different. To explore the experiences of new graduate nurses during their transition period in the Sultanate of Oman. A qualitative case study utilising an embedded single case design was conducted to investigate the transition experience of new nursing graduates from one university in the Sultanate of Oman. Data were collected from the perspective of new graduate nurses and also from the perspective of other key informants who are key organisational actors such as clinical instructors, managers and preceptors. As is characteristic of case study design, this study employed triangulated methods including individual and focus group interviews, observation and documentary analysis. Data collected were thematically analysed using Microsoft Access. This study showed that nursing is not an attractive choice for Omani students to study and pursue as a future career. During the transition period, new graduate nurses experienced reality shock resulting mainly from a theory-practice gap. They found themselves with limited practical experience but a high level of theoretical knowledge that was difficult to utilise in practice. They experienced many competing priorities in their working environment which resulted in task-orientation and compromised patient care. Many new graduate nurses resented their involvement in basic nursing care, which they believed should not be part of their role as degree nurses. Omani new graduate nurses' transition experiences are complex and highly affected by the working conditions and the status of nursing in Oman. Basic nursing care was believed by new graduate nurses to negatively affect the status of nursing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Re-imagining occupational therapy clients as communities: Presenting the community-centred practice framework.

PubMed

Hyett, Nerida; Kenny, Amanda; Dickson-Swift, Virginia

2018-01-09

Occupational therapists' are increasingly working with communities and providing services at the community level. There is, however, a lack of conceptual frameworks to guide this work. The aim of this article is to present a new conceptual framework for community-centered practice in occupational therapy. The conceptual framework was developed from qualitative multi-case research on exemplars of community participation. The first was, a network of Canadian food security programs, and the second, a rural Australian community banking initiative. Key themes were identified from across the case studies, and cross-case findings interpreted using occupational therapy and occupational science knowledge, and relevant social theory. The outcome is a four-stage, occupation-focused, community-centered practice framework. The Community-Centred Practice Framework can be used by occupational therapists to understand and apply a community-centered practice approach. The four stages are: (1) Community Identity, (2) Community Occupations, (3) Community Resources and Barriers, and (4) Participation Enablement. Further research is needed to trial and critically evaluate the framework, to assess its usefulness as a robust, occupation-focused, frame of reference to guide community-centered practice in occupational therapy. The proposed framework should assist occupational therapists to conceptualize community-centered practice, and to utilize and apply theory.

Identifiability of large-scale non-linear dynamic network models applied to the ADM1-case study.

PubMed

Nimmegeers, Philippe; Lauwers, Joost; Telen, Dries; Logist, Filip; Impe, Jan Van

2017-06-01

In this work, both the structural and practical identifiability of the Anaerobic Digestion Model no. 1 (ADM1) is investigated, which serves as a relevant case study of large non-linear dynamic network models. The structural identifiability is investigated using the probabilistic algorithm, adapted to deal with the specifics of the case study (i.e., a large-scale non-linear dynamic system of differential and algebraic equations). The practical identifiability is analyzed using a Monte Carlo parameter estimation procedure for a 'non-informative' and 'informative' experiment, which are heuristically designed. The model structure of ADM1 has been modified by replacing parameters by parameter combinations, to provide a generally locally structurally identifiable version of ADM1. This means that in an idealized theoretical situation, the parameters can be estimated accurately. Furthermore, the generally positive structural identifiability results can be explained from the large number of interconnections between the states in the network structure. This interconnectivity, however, is also observed in the parameter estimates, making uncorrelated parameter estimations in practice difficult. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Euthanasia in patients dying at home in Belgium: interview study on adherence to legal safeguards

PubMed Central

Smets, Tinne; Bilsen, Johan; Van den Block, Lieve; Cohen, Joachim; Van Casteren, Viviane; Deliens, Luc

2010-01-01

Background Euthanasia became legal in Belgium in 2002. Physicians must adhere to legal due care requirements when performing euthanasia; for example, consulting a second physician and reporting each euthanasia case to the Federal Review Committee. Aim To study the adherence and non-adherence of GPs to legal due care requirements for euthanasia among patients dying at home in Belgium and to explore possible reasons for non-adherence. Design of study Large scale, retrospective study. Setting General practice in Belgium. Method A retrospective mortality study was performed in 2005–2006 using the nationwide Belgian Sentinel Network of General Practitioners. Each week GPs reported medical end-of-life decisions taken in all non-sudden deaths of patients in their practice. GP interviews were conducted for each euthanasia case occurring at home. Results Interviews were conducted for nine of the 11 identified euthanasia cases. Requirements concerning the patient's medical condition were met in all cases. Procedural requirements such as consultation of a second physician were sometimes ignored. Euthanasia cases were least often reported (n = 4) when the physician did not regard the decision as euthanasia, when only opioids were used to perform euthanasia, or when no second physician was consulted. Factors that may contribute to explaining non-adherence to the euthanasia law included: being unaware of which practices are considered to be euthanasia; insufficient knowledge of the euthanasia law; and the fact that certain procedures are deemed burdensome. Conclusion Substantive legal due care requirements for euthanasia concerning the patient's request for euthanasia and medical situation were almost always met by GPs in euthanasia cases. Procedural consultation and reporting requirements were not always met. PMID:20353662

Case Managers' Attitudes toward the Use of Homework for People Diagnosed with a Severe Psychiatric Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Peter J.; Deane, Frank P.; Kazantzis, Nikolaos; Crowe, Trevor P.

2007-01-01

The study examined mental health case managers' attitudes toward the use of homework and explored the relationship between clinician attitudes and systematic homework administration practices. A survey examining attitudes toward the use of homework was completed by 122 Australian mental health case managers. Case managers who held more positive…

Exploring Quality Teaching of Information and Communication Technology in New South Wales and Yenbai High Schools: A Comparative Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tran, Manh Thang

This study compares ICT policy and curriculum and assessment practices between Australian and Vietnamese secondary schools, and investigates differences between these two school systems. Document analyses and case studies were used to examine the key differences in ICT curriculum and policy and assessment practices between Australian and Vietnamese secondary schools. The document analyses focused on the intended ICT policy and curriculum and assessment, as presented in official documents in both countries. Using a case study approach for in-depth examination, two secondary schools were selected (one from Yenbai province, Vietnam and one from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia). Two principals and three teachers were interviewed. Classroom teaching and assessment practices were observed, and principals and teachers' views were obtained through semi-structured interviews and extensive discussions. Findings from the two case studies were compared with the findings from the document analysis. This study explored and analysed differences in ICT teaching, learning, assessment, and achievement between Vietnamese and Australian secondary students. It was found that that Australian ICT school curricula and assessment differed markedly from the Vietnamese system. Student ICT achievement in these Australian and Vietnamese schools could not only be attributed to higher standards of intended ICT curricula and assessment, or teacher knowledge or classroom practices. These differences are better explained by economic and cultural factors, ICT policies and their degrees of implementation, and extra ICT curricula. In order to bridge the gap and implement adequate ICT curricula and policies, rigorous professional training in teaching and assessment is essential for both Australian and Vietnamese teachers. In order to improve Australian students' ICT achievement, achievement motivation must be addressed. Many challenging aspects were found in ICT policies and classrooms in the Vietnamese educational system that calls for immediate change and improvement. In order to implement reforms in Vietnamese education, the impact of cultural influence must be considered more seriously. In particular, this study highlights the need to integrate case study with large-scale study in international comparative studies.

Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Context of Mathematics: A Grounded Theory Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonner, Emily P.; Adams, Thomasenia L.

2012-01-01

In this grounded theory case study, four interconnected, foundational cornerstones of culturally responsive mathematics teaching (CRMT), communication, knowledge, trust/relationships, and constant reflection/revision, were systematically unearthed to develop an initial working theory of CRMT that directly informs classroom practice. These…

Best Practices Case Study: Imagine Homes - Stillwater Ranch, San Antonio, TX

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

none,

2011-04-01

This case study describes Imagine Homes, who met Builders Challenge criteria on more than 200 homes in San Antonio with rigid foam exterior sheathing, ducts and air handler in conditioned space in a spray-foam insulated attic, and high-efficiency HVAC, windows, and appliances.

A Case Study of Knowledge Management in the "Back Office" of Two English Football Clubs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doloriert, Clair; Whitworth, Kieran

2011-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to explore knowledge management (KM) practice in the "back office" of two English football clubs. Design/methodology/approach: The paper takes the form of a comparative case study of two medium-sized businesses using multi-method data including unstructured interviews, structured questionnaires and document…

Case Studies in Educational Change: An International Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carter, David S. G., Ed.; O'Neill, Marnie H., Ed.

This book is the second in a two-volume series of studies of educational change organized around three themes--systemic change, the transformation of policy into practice, and curriculum contexts. The book presents case studies from Australia, Great Britain, Israel, the United States, and New Zealand to illustrate the cross-cultural complexity of…

Case Study: Lee's Summit West High School--Empowering Students to Succeed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), 2014

2014-01-01

The Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB's) case study series highlights best practices High Schools That Work (HSTW) network schools and districts are implementing to better prepare students for further studies and careers. Lee's Summit West (LSW) High School near Kansas City, Missouri, boasts of a 99 percent graduation rate; 93 percent of…

Confucian Work and Homeschooling: A Case Study of Homeschooling in Shanghai

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheng, Xiaoming

2015-01-01

This study conducted a case study of homeschooling in order to provide in-depth information regarding the demographic characteristics of homeschooling parents, the motivations and the process of practicing it and its outcomes in Shanghai. The public and the policy-makers, and education officials have had little substantive information in relation…

Exploring Novice Teachers' Cognitive Processes Using Digital Video Technology: A Qualitative Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun-Ongerth, Yuelu

2012-01-01

This dissertation describes a qualitative case study that investigated novice teachers' video-aided reflection on their own teaching. To date, most studies that have investigated novice teachers' video-aided reflective practice have focused on examining novice teachers' levels of reflective writing rather than the cognitive…

Studies of Excellence in Teacher Education: Preparation at the Graduate Level.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darling-Hammond, Linda; Macdonald, Maritza B.; Snyder, Jon; Whitford, Betty Lou; Ruscoe, Gordon; Fickel, Letitia

This book presents case studies of three highly successful teacher education programs. It is part of a three-volume series that includes seven case studies. It documents the goals, strategies, content, and processes of teacher education programs that are exemplars for preparing prospective teachers to engage in skillful, learner-centered practice.…

Adaptations of School Effectiveness Research to Practice: A Case Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guzzetti, Barbara J.

This case study of a Colorado school district sought to assess the process and outcomes of administrative leadership in implementing school effectiveness research on time-on-task classroom strategies. The study examines the interrelationship of conditions bearing upon the change effort and focuses on those changes affecting the district's…

Where Adults Go: A Multiple Case Study of Adult Serving Undergraduate Colleges and Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dixon-Williams, Shelley B.

2010-01-01

This research is an exploratory multiple case study of adult serving undergraduate colleges and universities. Using the Council of Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) Principles of Effective Practice for Serving Adult Learners, this study examines the differences of adult serving undergraduate colleges across the three sectors of higher…

Exploring Community College Peer Mentoring Practices within Central California: A Multiple Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Lenis Colton

2017-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to illuminate the prevalence and configurations of peer mentoring programs at Central California Community Colleges with emphasis on how the programs impacted student retention. The study's sample was drawn from ten campuses and five centers that operate within five California Community…

Rethinking Workplace Learning in the Digital World: A Case Study of Open Badges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eaglen Bertrando, Sharen Linn

2017-01-01

The purpose of this collective case study was to explore digital badging in educational institutions as support for K-12 practitioners struggling to integrate technology into pedagogical practices. The researcher conducted a mixed-method study that captured perceptions about digital badges and follow-up interviews with selected badge users to…

Participant Perceptions of the Check and Connect Truancy Intervention: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sherman, Kathleen M.

2012-01-01

This case study examined the perceptions of students, parent/guardians, and teacher mentors who participated in the 2009-2010 Check and Connect Intervention. The literature reviewed for this study identified that three specific practices had particularly strong effects on lowering rates of chronic absenteeism. They were: (a) providing awards and…

Evaluation Policy in a Nonprofit Foundation: A Case Study Exploration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dillman, Lisa M.; Christie, Christina A.

2017-01-01

This study explores the relationship between evaluation policies and evaluation practice. Through document analysis, interviews, and a multiple case study, the research examined the explicit and implicit policies overarching the evaluation work commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and explored how these policies are…

Successful Leadership in Three High-Poverty Urban Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobson, Stephen L.; Brooks, Sharon; Giles, Corrie; Johnson, Lauri; Ylimaki, Rose

2007-01-01

This study examined the beliefs and practices of three principals during whose tenure their high-poverty urban elementary schools experienced improved student achievement. A two-stage, multiple case-study methodology was employed. First, New York State Education Department (NYSED) school report card data were analyzed to identify case-study sites.…

An Instrumental Case Study Analysis of Anticipatory Leadership Practices in Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Abe; Jones, Stephanie J.

2018-01-01

This qualitative instrumental case study explored the experiences and perceptions of seven community college leaders of their use of anticipatory leadership. Two research questions guided this study: (a) How do community colleges use anticipatory leadership to respond to internal and external changes? (b) How do community college leaders use…

Successful Minority Pedagogy in Mathematics: US and Japanese Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahn, Ruth; Catbagan, Paula; Tamayo, Kristin; I, Ji Yeong; Lopez, Mario; Walker, Pamela

2015-01-01

This study examines best practices in teaching mathematics to minority students through two case studies conducted at high-minority junior high schools in the USA and Japan. Observations, interviews, and conversations with the teachers in both countries focused on the research question: how do teachers successfully teach mathematics to minority…

Laboratory-supported influenza surveillance in Victorian sentinel general practices.

PubMed

Kelly, H; Murphy, A; Leong, W; Leydon, J; Tresise, P; Gerrard, M; Chibo, D; Birch, C; Andrews, R; Catton, M

2000-12-01

Laboratory-supported influenza surveillance is important as part of pandemic preparedness, for identifying and isolating candidate vaccine strains, for supporting trials of anti-influenza drugs and for refining the influenza surveillance case definition in practice. This study describes the implementation of laboratory-supported influenza surveillance in Victorian sentinel general practices and provides an estimate of the proportion of patients with an influenza-like illness proven to have influenza. During 1998 and 1999, 25 sentinel general practices contributed clinical surveillance data and 16 metropolitan practices participated in laboratory surveillance. Serological, virus-antigen detection, virus culture and multiplex polymerase chain reaction procedures were used to establish the diagnosis of influenza. Two laboratories at major teaching hospitals in Melbourne provided additional data on influenza virus identification. General practice sentinel surveillance and laboratory identification of influenza provided similar data on the pattern of influenza in the community between May and September. The clinical suspicion of influenza was confirmed in 49 to 54 per cent of cases seen in general practice.

COLLABORATE©, Part IV: Ramping Up Competency-Based Performance Management.

PubMed

Treiger, Teresa M; Fink-Samnick, Ellen

The purpose of this fourth part of the COLLABORATE© article series provides an expansion and application of previously presented concepts pertaining to the COLLABORATE paradigm of professional case management practice. The model is built upon a value-driven foundation that: PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTING(S):: Applicable to all health care sectors where case management is practiced. As an industry, health care continues to evolve. Terrain shifts and new influences continually surface to challenge professional case management practice. The need for top-performing and nimble professionals who are knowledgeable and proficient in the workplace continues to challenge human resource departments. In addition to care setting knowledge, professional case managers must continually invest in their practice competence toolbox to grow skills and abilities that transcend policies and processes. These individuals demonstrate agility in framing (and reframing) their professional practice to facilitate the best possible outcomes for their clients. Therefore, the continued emphasis on practice competence conveyed through the performance management cycle is an essential ingredient to performance management focused on customer service excellence and organizational improvement. Professional case management transcends professional disciplines, educational levels, and practice settings. Business objectives continue to drive work process and priorities in many practice settings. However, competencies that align with regulatory and accreditation requirements should be the critical driver for consistent, high-quality case management practice. Although there is inherent value in what various disciplines bring to the table, this advanced model unifies behind case management's unique, strengths-based identity instead of continuing to align within traditional divisions (e.g., discipline, work setting, population served). This model fosters case management's expanding career advancement opportunities.

Organizational climate and hospital nurses' caring practices: a mixed-methods study.

PubMed

Roch, Geneviève; Dubois, Carl-Ardy; Clarke, Sean P

2014-06-01

Organizational climate in healthcare settings influences patient outcomes, but its effect on nursing care delivery remains poorly understood. In this mixed-methods study, nurse surveys (N = 292) were combined with a qualitative case study of 15 direct-care registered nurses (RNs), nursing personnel, and managers. Organizational climate explained 11% of the variation in RNs' reported frequency of caring practices. Qualitative data suggested that caring practices were affected by the interplay of organizational climate dimensions with patients and nurses characteristics. Workload intensity and role ambiguity led RNs to leave many caring practices to practical nurses and assistive personnel. Systemic interventions are needed to improve organizational climate and to support RNs' involvement in a full range of caring practices. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Civic Engagement about Climate Change: A Case Study of Three Educators and Their Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chandler, Thomas; Marri, Anand R.

2012-01-01

This collective case study examined how three educators (a high school social studies teacher, a university social studies teacher educator, and minister teaching an adult population) used a multimedia based curriculum guide, "Teaching the Levees", to teach about climate change to examine public priorities in relation to the environment.…

Rethinking Critical Patriotism: A Case of Constructive Patriotism in Social Studies Teachers in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chua, Shuyi; Sim, Jasmine B.-Y.

2017-01-01

Critical patriotism is an ideal in many liberal Western nations. Few studies, however, explore how teachers understand and teach critical patriotism and the possible tensions arising from its adoption, especially in non-Western contexts. This qualitative case study explores the understandings and practices of two Social Studies teachers from an…

A Voyage in Emergent Writing: Case Study of Writing Instructional Practices of Two Kindergarten Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mack, Frances L.

2012-01-01

This study examined how teachers design and implement instructional strategies to enhance students' emergent writing. A case study methodology was used to examine the elements of an emergent writing program of two kindergarten teachers. The study hoped to define a classroom environment that is conducive to literacy and writing using best…

Locating Common Ground: An Exploration of Adult Educator Practices that Support Parent Involvement for School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shiffman, Catherine Dunn

2013-01-01

This article explores linkages between adult educator practices and the parent involvement needs of adult students with school-age children. A comparative case study examined the knowledge, experiential, self-efficacy, and social capital dimensions of adult educator practices that inform parent involvement efforts. One English as a Second Language…

High School Physics Students' Personal Epistemologies and School Science Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alpaslan, Muhammet Mustafa; Yalvac, Bugrahan; Loving, Cathleen

2017-01-01

This case study explores students' physics-related personal epistemologies in school science practices. The school science practices of nine eleventh grade students in a physics class were audio-taped over 6 weeks. The students were also interviewed to find out their ideas on the nature of scientific knowledge after each activity. Analysis of…

Examining Electronic Learning Communities through the Communities of Practice Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linton, Jayme N.

2015-01-01

This qualitative interpretive case study used Wenger's (1998) communities of practice (CoP) framework to analyze how the electronic learning community (eLC) process at an established state virtual high school operated like a community of practice. Components of the eLC process were analyzed according to elements of the CoP framework, which…

Exploring Online Community among Rural Medical Education Students: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, Ryan Tyler

2013-01-01

There is a severe shortage of rural physicians in America. One reason physicians choose not to practice, or persist in practice, in rural areas is due to a lack of professional community, i.e., community of practice (CoP). Online, "virtual" CoPs, enabled by now common Internet communication technology can help give rural physicians the…

Using a Class to Conduct a Carbon Inventory: A Case Study with Practical Results at Macalester College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wells, Christopher W.; Savanick, Suzanne; Manning, Christie

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the practical realities of using a college seminar to fulfill the carbon audit requirement for signatories to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and presents evidence of this approach's advantages as an educational and practical tool.…

Does Lean Production Sacrifice Learning in a Manufacturing Environment? An Action Learning Case Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Fiona M.; Butler, Jim; Edwards, John

2001-01-01

An action learning program was implemented by a manufacturer using lean production practices. Action learning practices were accommodated during times of stability, but abandoned in times of crisis. The meaning of work in this organizational culture excluded all practices, such as reflection, that were not visible and targeted at immediate…

How Do Dentists Understand Evidence and Adopt It in Practice?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sbaraini, Alexandra; Carter, Stacy M.; Evans, R. Wendell

2012-01-01

Although there is now a large evidence-based dentistry literature, previous investigators have shown that dentists often consider research evidence irrelevant to their practice. To understand why this is the case, we conducted a qualitative study. Objective: Our aim was to identify how dentists define evidence and how they adopt it in practice.…

Self-Archiving Journal Articles: A Case Study of Faculty Practice and Missed Opportunity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Covey, Denise Troll

2009-01-01

Carnegie Mellon faculty Web pages and publisher policies were examined to understand self-archiving practice. The breadth of adoption and depth of commitment are not directly correlated within the disciplines. Determining when self-archiving has become a habit is difficult. The opportunity to self-archive far exceeds the practice, and much of what…

A Case Study of Unfounded Concepts Underpinning Controversial Practices: Lost in "Space Dyslexia"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephenson, Jennifer

2009-01-01

Although many are critical of the uptake of unproven practices by teachers and families in their search for treatment for children with reading difficulties, there has been little examination of the specific conditions that persuade teachers and families to adopt such practices. This article traces the emergence and evolution of a particular meme,…

Contextualizing, Orchestrating and Learning for Leading: The Praxis and Particularity of Educational Leadership Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grootenboer, Peter; Hardy, Ian

2017-01-01

The importance of leadership for improving educational outcomes in schools has been widely promoted. However, the nature of leadership practices, in context, has received less attention in the educational leadership literature. In this article, we present a case study of the specific leadership practices that developed in one school site serving…

Using Mobile Technologies for Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings: Outcomes of Five Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dearnley, Christine; Taylor, Jill; Hennessy, Scott; Parks, Maria; Coates, Catherine; Haigh, Jackie; Fairhall, John; Riley, Kevin; Dransfield, Mark

2009-01-01

This article presents the outcomes of the Mobile Technologies Pilot Project for the Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). ALPS is a partnership of five Higher Education Institutions (HEI) that aims to develop and improve assessment, and thereby learning, in practice settings for…

Jamaica Higher Education: Utilizing the Benchmarks of Joint Board Teaching Practice at Church Teachers' College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Hyacinth P.

2010-01-01

This article reports a descriptive case study portraying a teaching-practice program designed to highlight the preparation of student-teachers for teaching practice, using the Joint Board of Teacher Education (JBTE) benchmarks, in a teachers' college in Jamaica. At Church Teachers' College (CTC) 22 informants of mixed gender were selected for the…

Perturbing Practices: A Case Study of the Effects of Virtual Manipulatives as Novel Didactic Objects on Rational Function Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pampel, Krysten

2017-01-01

The advancement of technology has substantively changed the practices of numerous professions, including teaching. When an instructor first adopts a new technology, established classroom practices are perturbed. These perturbations can have positive and negative, large or small, and long- or short-term effects on instructors' abilities to teach…

Professional Learning Communities' Impact on Science Teacher Classroom Practice in a Midwestern Urban School District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carpenter, Dan

2012-01-01

The purpose of this reputation-based, multiple-site case study was to explore professional learning communities' impact on teacher classroom practice. The goal of this research was to describe the administrator and teachers' perceptions with respect to professional learning communities as it related to teacher practice in their school. Educators…

Mid-Level District Leadership Influences in Promoting Formative Assessment Practices in Secondary Schools: A Qualitative Multiple-Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Jeff Roland

2017-01-01

A growing body of research evidence has suggested Assessment for Learning (AfL) practices represent a powerful intervention strategy that enhances learning for all students. Yet, grades 7-12 teachers in particular, generally continue to rely almost entirely on traditional summative assessment practices. However, some school principals in the…