A typology of adolescents' technology use before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A latent profile analysis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made adolescents´ technology use unavoidable for sustaining teaching and learning processes. In the present paper we conducted two studies using a person-centered latent profile analysis to examine adolescents' technology use before (Study 1, N = 643) and during (Study 2, N = 644) the COVID-19 pandemic in the region of Bavaria, Germany. While adolescents' technology use before the COVID-19 pandemic was divergent in terms of study-related and social technology use, the results show that during the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents' technology use increased in terms of both, study-related and social purposes. Although our results suggest that adolescents' use of technology for study-related purposes increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents from educationally disadvantaged families still appear to be at risk of being left behind by the even more rapid digitization of the COVID-19 pandemic, for which we discuss future research and targeted interventions.

Promoting medical competencies through international exchange programs: benefits on communication and effective doctor-patient relationships.

BACKGROUND: Universities are increasingly organizing international exchange programs to meet the requirements of growing globalisation in the field of health care. Analyses based on the programs' fundamental theoretical background are needed to confirm the learning value for participants. This study investigated the extent of sociocultural learning in an exchange program and how sociocultural learning affects the acquisition of domain-specific competencies. METHODS: Sociocultural learning theories were applied to study the learning effect for German medical students from the LMU Munich, Munich, Germany, of participation in the medical exchange program with Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia. First, we performed a qualitative study consisting of interviews with five of the first program participants. The results were used to develop a questionnaire for the subsequent, quantitative study, in which 29 program participants and 23 matched controls performed self-assessments of competencies as defined in the Tuning Project for Health Professionals. The two interrelated studies were combined to answer three different research questions. RESULTS: The participants rated their competence significantly higher than the control group in the fields of doctor-patient relationships and communication in a medical context. Participant responses in the two interrelated studies supported the link between the findings and the suggested theoretical background. CONCLUSION: Overall, we found that the exchange program affected the areas of doctor-patient relationships and effective communication in a medical context. Vygotsky's sociocultural learning theory contributed to explaining the learning mechanisms of the exchange program.

Vicarious learning during simulations: is it more effective than hands-on training?

CONTEXT: Doctor-patient communication skills are often fostered by using simulations with standardised patients (SPs). The efficiency of such experiences is greater if student observers learn at least as much from the simulation as do students who actually interact with the patient. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate whether the type of simulation-based learning (learning by doing versus vicarious learning) and the order in which these activities are carried out (learning by doing → vicarious learning versus vicarious learning → learning by doing) have any effect on the acquisition of knowledge on effective doctor-patient communication strategies. In addition, we wished to examine the extent to which an observation script and a feedback formulation script affect knowledge acquisition in this domain. METHODS: The sample consisted of 200 undergraduate medical students (126 female, 74 male). They participated in two separate simulation sessions, each of which was 30 minutes long and was followed by a collaborative peer feedback phase. Half of the students first performed (learning by doing) and then observed (vicarious learning) the simulation, and the other half participated in the reverse order. Knowledge of doctor-patient communication was measured before, between and after the simulations. RESULTS: Vicarious learning led to greater knowledge of doctor-patient communication scores than learning by doing. The order in which vicarious learning was experienced had no influence. The inclusion of an observation script also enabled significantly greater learning in students to whom this script was given compared with students who were not supported in this way, but the presence of a feedback script had no effect. CONCLUSIONS: Students appear to learn at least as much, if not more, about doctor-patient communication by observing their peers interact with SPs as they do from interacting with SPs themselves. Instructional support for observing simulations in the form of observation scripts facilitates both vicarious learning and learning by doing. An observation script may focus learners' attention on the important aspects of doctor-patient communication and increase the content-related accuracy of peer feedback.

Teaching the rectal examination with simulations: effects on knowledge acquisition and inhibition.

CONTEXT: Undergraduate medical curricula are often deficient in teaching physical examinations in intimate zones, such as the rectal examination. Student inhibition is assumed to substantially hamper both the acquisition of knowledge and the performance of these examinations in practice. OBJECTIVES: The two present studies examined the effects of low-fidelity (LFS) and high-fidelity (HFS) simulation on the acquisition of the necessary knowledge and inhibition about carrying out the rectal examination. In addition, we investigated the effects of the different sequencing of the two simulations (HFS-LFS versus LFS-HFS). METHODS: A manikin for the rectal examination was used to implement the LFS. Standardised patients (SPs) were used to implement the HFS. Study samples consisted of 41 (Study 1) and 188 (Study 2) female and male undergraduate medical students. Each student participated in two individual sessions of 30 minutes each. Half the students participated first in the HFS and then in the LFS and the other half participated in the simulations in the opposite order. Outcome measures were self-rated inhibition and knowledge tests. RESULTS: In both studies, HFS was found to reduce inhibition significantly more than LFS. Furthermore, in Study 2, a marginal effect of the sequence of simulation was found. In both studies, both types of simulation were found to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge. There was no sequence effect for the acquisition of knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Teaching the rectal examination with the help of SPs, who represent an HFS, can help medical undergraduate students to overcome inhibition about this examination. Standardised patient simulation is far more effective than that achieved using a manikin, which represents an LFS. Both types of simulation support the acquisition of knowledge.

Toward a Script Theory of Guidance in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning.

This article presents an outline of a script theory of guidance for computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). With its 4 types of components of internal and external scripts (play, scene, role, and scriptlet) and 7 principles, this theory addresses the question of how CSCL practices are shaped by dynamically reconfigured internal collaboration scripts of the participating learners. Furthermore, it explains how internal collaboration scripts develop through participation in CSCL practices. It emphasizes the importance of active application of subject matter knowledge in CSCL practices, and it prioritizes transactive over nontransactive forms of knowledge application in order to facilitate learning. Further, the theory explains how external collaboration scripts modify CSCL practices and how they influence the development of internal collaboration scripts. The principles specify an optimal scaffolding level for external collaboration scripts and allow for the formulation of hypotheses about the fading of external collaboration scripts. Finally, the article points toward conceptual challenges and future research questions.