Writing is a demanding, personal task. Any piece of writing, scientific or not, assumes the personality and philosophy of the writer. All writing styles are more or less arbitrary, and preferences vary widely. One cannot argue that a single style or approach is best, for the variations (even with ‘‘good’’ writing) are infinite. However, all agree that clear, concise writing most effectively com...

In this report a theoretical framework that potentially facilitate to identify and to structure existing research results focusing on statistics teachers’ will be discussed. This framework involving a curriculum model and a specific understanding of beliefs will be outlined. Afterwards, existing research focusing on statistics teachers’ will be briefly discussed and possible shortcomings in thi...

As physics instructors, we enjoy access to a variety of powerful instructional materials. Among them are classroom-tested inquirybased laboratory curricula such as Physics by Inquiry1 and Workshop Physics.2 Unfortunately, such materials are often tested in conditions unattainable in introductory physics courses. In particular, the recommended instructor-student ratio tends to be larger than we ...

In the November/December 1998 issue of Arts Education Policy Review, I introduced readers to the concept of design-based education and a study that I coauthored for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) on the ways design is being used by American teachers in a variety of subjects. The article recounted the success that teachers have in using the methods of architects, industrial designers,...

We introduced a debate-style tutorial exercise into the third-year tutorial classes with the purpose of developing the students’ logic, broadening their vision and encouraging them to express their opinions in public, before an audience. The issues for debate included medical (dental) and non-medical topics. Two separate debate exercises were performed and each session concluded with an open de...

In this paper we critically analyze extant approaches to technology integration in teaching, arguing that many current methods are technocentric, often omitting sufficient consideration of the dynamic and complex relationships among content, technology, pedagogy, and context. We recommend using the technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework as a way to think about effective t...

Psychobiography holds an important position in the history of psychology, yet little is known about the status of psychobiographical training and dissertation research in psychology departments. This brief report identified psychobiography courses throughout North America and content analyzed a sample of 65 psychobiography dissertations to discern the theories and methods that have most commonl...

PURPOSE To compare PubMed Clinical Queries and UpToDate regarding the amount and speed of information retrieval and users' satisfaction. METHOD A cross-over randomized trial was conducted in February 2009 in Tehran University of Medical Sciences that included 44 year-one or two residents who participated in an information mastery workshop. A one-hour lecture on the principles of information m...

OBJECTIVE Traditional medical school curricula have not addressed fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs) of family planning. The objective of this study was to assess (1) 3-year medical students' knowledge of FABMs of family planning, (2) their confidence in utilizing that knowledge in patient care, and (3) to implement focused education on FABMs to improve knowledge and confidence. METHOD...

Throughout the world educators are starting to realise that integrated curricula reflect the "real world". Students learn how to integrate theory appropriately with practice and it stimulates higher order thinking skills. Problem-based learning (PBL) was used as a learning strategy in an integrated undergraduate programme. A quantitative non-experimental design, a survey, was used to determine ...