A pilot study on the use of the nominal group technique to refine core pharmacy roles and to determine what competencies may be missing from pharmacy education.

INTRODUCTION: To describe the use of the nominal group technique (NGT) to refine pharmacy core roles and to compare these roles with current pharmacy outcomes and other literature to highlight potential deficiencies. METHODS: The NGT process was used for this proposal review. The process was conducted in four key stages: silent generation, round-robin, clarification, and voting. A convenience sampling of five pharmacy faculty and administrators that have researched the areas of practice-readiness and pharmacy competencies formed the panel of participants for the NGT process. RESULTS: Study findings offer seven core roles that define pharmacists' scope of practice: knowledge, patient care skills, professional, scholar, system-based practice/manager, collaborator, and advocate/health promoter. Development of these core roles revealed several missing pharmacy competencies or ones only covered in optional learning objectives: conflict management, professional advocacy, scholarship, empathy, personal health, transitions of care, health outcomes, quality improvement, and health insurance. CONCLUSIONS: The development of pharmacy roles is one way to ensure students are adequately prepared for pharmacy practice following graduation. Mapping of competencies to core professional roles would allow schools/colleges of pharmacy to have one cohesive document to guide pedagogical and assessment practice. More research and consensus building will be needed before these core roles could be disseminated more broadly.

Effects of active engagement and spaced retrieval practice on knowledge and application of a self-assessment rubric.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: This study examined effects of active engagement (ENG) and spaced retrieval practice (SRP) on D1 dental students' self-assessment knowledge acquisition. METHODS: D1 dental students (N = 120) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 2 (ENG or no ENG) X 2 (SRP or no SRP) design. Students were tested on their knowledge of a self-assessment grading rubric (on a 30-item multiple-choice exam) and their ability to apply the rubric (on a simulated dentoform assessment). RESULTS: There were significant main effects of both ENG and SRP on both outcome measures. Both ENG and SRP increased students' knowledge of, and ability to apply, the self-assessment rubric. Effects of ENG were larger than those of SRP. There was also a significant ENG X SRP interaction on the knowledge measure. The effect of SRP was larger in the no-ENG conditions than the ENG conditions, which may reflect a ceiling effect in the ENG conditions. CONCLUSIONS: ENG and SRP have the potential to substantially enhance D1 dental students' learning outcomes. These results should motivate dental educators to reject outdated instructional techniques and thereby unleash students' full learning potential. Additional research is needed with a wider range of dental students and learner topics.

A Randomized Study on the Effects of Minds in Motion and Yoga on Motor Proficiency and Academic Skills Among Elementary School Children.

BACKGROUND: Physical activity is critical for the healthy development and well-being of children. Specifically, physical activity is associated with improvements in coordination, balance, attention, and behavior among elementary school-aged children. However, for many children, particularly those belonging to minority groups, opportunities to engage in quality physical activity programs outside school settings are limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the whether a physical activity program called Minds in Motion (MiM) The Maze before school, as compared with yoga, meets the criteria of the Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program framework as a before-school program to improve overall physical activity and academic performance among elementary school-age students. METHODS: A total of 48 children attending an urban public school with large minority representation in the Midwest were randomly assigned to MiM-The Maze or yoga. Participants were assessed on motor proficiency, behavior, balance, and academic skills before and after training. Training consisted of either yoga or MiM-The Maze 30 minutes per day before school, 5 times per week for 12 weeks. RESULTS: MiM-The Maze and yoga group students showed significant improvements in academic skills. CONCLUSIONS: MiM-The Maze is feasible and affordable before-school program to promote students' classroom behavior in elementary school students.

On the psychometric validity of the domains of the PDSQ: an illustration of the bi-factor item response theory model.

Competing item response theory (IRT) models were used to test the factor structure of the psychiatric diagnostic screening questionnaire (PDSQ; Zimmerman M, Mattia JI. A self-report scale to help make psychiatric diagnoses: the psychiatric diagnostic screening questionnaire. Archives of General Psychiatry 2001;58:787-94), a self-report psychiatric measure comprised of 139 items sampled from 15 symptom domains (e.g., Psychosis, Mania). Tested IRT models included: (a) a unidimensional model, (b) a simple structure model, (c) a bi-factor model, and (d) models that included 6, 10, and 15 sub-domain alternative conceptualizations of the scale. Based on the responses of 3791 individuals with major depressive disorder, the bi-factor model was found to provide a theoretically and statistically plausible description of the PDSQ factor structure. Primary dimension loadings were low to moderate; group factor loadings were moderate to high. Results support the validity of the PDSQ in identifying distinct categories of illness as defined by the diagnostic and statistical manual diagnostic groups, since preserving the 15 symptom categories (domains) provided a more accurate characterization of the observed data by the IRT models. The bi-factor model is useful in evaluating the multidimensional structure of mental health data. The specification of alternative IRT models is demonstrated as a noteworthy benefit over classical test theory for psychiatric measurement.

Using computerized adaptive testing to reduce the burden of mental health assessment.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the combination of item response theory and computerized adaptive testing (CAT) for psychiatric measurement as a means of reducing the burden of research and clinical assessments. METHODS: Data were from 800 participants in outpatient treatment for a mood or anxiety disorder; they completed 616 items of the 626-item Mood and Anxiety Spectrum Scales (MASS) at two times. The first administration was used to design and evaluate a CAT version of the MASS by using post hoc simulation. The second confirmed the functioning of CAT in live testing. RESULTS: Tests of competing models based on item response theory supported the scale's bifactor structure, consisting of a primary dimension and four group factors (mood, panic-agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive, and social phobia). Both simulated and live CAT showed a 95% average reduction (585 items) in items administered (24 and 30 items, respectively) compared with administration of the full MASS. The correlation between scores on the full MASS and the CAT version was .93. For the mood disorder subscale, differences in scores between two groups of depressed patients--one with bipolar disorder and one without--on the full scale and on the CAT showed effect sizes of .63 (p<.003) and 1.19 (p<.001) standard deviation units, respectively, indicating better discriminant validity for CAT. CONCLUSIONS: Instead of using small fixed-length tests, clinicians can create item banks with a large item pool, and a small set of the items most relevant for a given individual can be administered with no loss of information, yielding a dramatic reduction in administration time and patient and clinician burden.

An investigation of African American and European American students' perception of teaching behavior.

Teaching behaviors are associated with a range of student academic and mental health outcomes. Substantial academic, school disciplinary, and mental health disparities across African American and European American students suggest that diverse students may view and interpret teaching behaviors differently. The Teaching Behavior Questionnaire measures students' perceptions of teaching behaviors. The purpose of the current study was to examine the scale's factor structure among European American high school students using exploratory factor analysis and, subsequently, cross-validate using confirmatory factor analysis based on African American student data. Results supported reconceptualizing the scale according to a three-factor model in both groups. Implications related to the interpretation and use of scores are discussed.

The Measurement Invariance of the Student Opinion Scale across English and Non-English Language Learner Students within the Context of Low- and High-Stakes Assessments.

Student effort on large-scale assessments has important implications on the interpretation and use of scores to guide decisions. Within the United States, English Language Learners (ELLs) generally are outperformed on large-scale assessments by non-ELLs, prompting research to examine factors associated with test performance. There is a gap in the literature regarding the test-taking motivation of ELLs compared to non-ELLs and whether existing measures have similar psychometric properties across groups. The Student Opinion Scale (SOS; Sundre, 2007) was designed to be administered after completion of a large-scale assessment to operationalize students' test-taking motivation. Based on data obtained on 5,257 (41.8% ELL) 10th grade students, study purpose was to test the measurement invariance of the SOS across ELLs and non-ELLs based on completion of low- and high-stakes assessments. Preliminary item analyses supported the removal of two SOS items (Items 3 and 7) that resulted in improved internal consistency for each of the two SOS subscales: Importance, Effort. A subsequent multi-sample confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) supported the measurement invariance of the scale's two-factor model across language groups, indicating it met strict factorial invariance (Meredith, 1993). A follow-up latent means analysis found that ELLs had higher effort on both the low- and high-stakes assessment with a small effect size. Effect size estimates indicated negligible differences on the importance factor. Although the instrument can be expected to function similarly across diverse language groups, which may have direct utility of test users and research into factors associated with large-scale test performance, continued research is recommended. Implications for SOS use in applied and research settings are discussed.