Peer-mentorship and first-year inclusion: building belonging in higher education.

BACKGROUND: An inclusive academic environment is pivotal to ensure student well-being and a strong sense of belonging and authenticity. Specific attention for an inclusive learning environment is particularly important during a student's transition to higher education. At Utrecht University's Medical School, explorative interviews with students from minority groups indicated they did not always feel included during the orientation programme of their academic education. We, therefore, developed a bias awareness training with theoretical and practical components on diversity and inclusion for peer-mentors who are assigned to each first-year student at the start of university. METHODS: At the end of the orientation programme, we investigated the effectiveness of the training for two consecutive years using two measurements. Firstly, we investigated the behavioural changes in the peer-mentors through a (self-reporting) questionnaire. Additionally, we measured the perceived inclusion of the first-year students, divided into belonging and authenticity, using a validated questionnaire. RESULTS: Our results show that peer-mentors found the training useful and indicated it enabled them to create an inclusive atmosphere. Overall, students experienced a high level of inclusion during the orientation programme. After the first year, the bias training was adjusted based on the evaluations. This had a positive effect, as mentors felt they were significantly more able to provide an inclusive orientation in the second year of this study. In line with this, students experienced an increased level of authenticity specifically due to the peer-mentor in the second year as compared to the first. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that training peer-mentors is an effective way to increase awareness and to ensure an inclusive atmosphere during the start of higher education.

One size does not fit all: an exploratory interview study on how translational researchers navigate the current academic reward system.

Introduction: Translational research is a subfield of the biomedical life sciences that focuses on clinically driven healthcare innovations. The workforce of this subfield, i.e., translational researchers, are diversely specialized and collaborate with a multitude of stakeholders from diverse disciplines in and outside academia in order to navigate the complex path of translating unmet clinical needs into research questions and ultimately into advancements for patient care. Translational researchers have varying responsibilities in the clinical, educational, and research domains requiring them to split their time two- or three-ways. Working between these domains and alongside peers who do not split their time as such, raises questions about the academic reward system used to recognize their performance, which mainly focuses on publication metrics within the research domain. What is unclear is how combining research tasks with tasks in the clinical and/or educational domains effects translational researchers and how they navigate the academic reward system. Methods: In this exploratory interview study, semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the current academic reward system for translational researchers. Stratified purposeful sampling was used to recruit 14 translational researchers from varying countries, subspecialties, and career stages. The interviews were coded after data collection was complete and arranged into three overarching result categories: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic factors, and ideal academic reward system and advice. Results: We found that these 14 translational researchers were intrinsically motivated to achieve their translational goals while working in settings where clinical work was reported to take priority over teaching which in turn took priority over time for research. However, it is the latter that was explained to be essential in the academic reward system which currently measures scientific impact largely based on publications metrics. Conclusion: In this study, translational researchers were asked about their thoughts regarding the current academic reward system. Participants shared possible structural improvements and ideas for specialized support on an individual, institutional, and also international level. Their recommendations focused on acknowledging all aspects of their work and led to the conclusion that traditional quantitative academic reward metrics do not fully align with their translational goals.

Rationale for a Parsimonious Measure of Subjective Knee Function Among Individuals With Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Rasch Analysis.

CONTEXT: The International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Evaluation Form (IKDC) is the most frequently used patient-reported measure of subjective knee function among individuals with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). Yet, due to the limitations of traditional validation approaches, whether the IKDC measures knee function as intended is unclear. Rasch analysis offers a robust validation approach, which may enhance the clinical interpretation of the IKDC. OBJECTIVE: To assess the psychometric properties, ability to classify health status, and relationships between the IKDC and objective measures of strength and functional performance relative to a newly proposed reduced-item instrument. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Laboratory. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A total of 77 individuals with primary unilateral ACLR (age = 21.9 ± 7.8 years, time postsurgery = 6.2 ± 1.0 months) and 76 age-matched control individuals (age = 22.0 ± 4.2 years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Rasch analysis was used to assess the psychometric properties of the IKDC. Receiver operator characteristic curves and logistic regression were calculated to assess the accuracy of classifying participants with ACLR versus control participants. Pearson product moment and Spearman rank order correlation analyses were conducted to evaluate relationships among subjective knee function, quadriceps torque, and single-limb hop performance. RESULTS: Rasch analysis aided the development of a reduced 8-item instrument (IKDC-8), which yielded improved psychometric properties in the rating scale performance (IKDC-8 = 0, IKDC = 3 nonmonotonic "misbehaving" items), percentage of variance accounted for by 1 dimension (IKDC-8 = 71.5%, IKDC = 56.7%), and precision in item separation (IKDC-8 = 9.79, IKDC = 5.02). The IKDC was an outstanding diagnostic tool, and the IKDC-8 was excellent, correctly classifying 87.2% and 82.7% of cases, respectively. Using the Hanley-McNeil formula, we found no difference in the areas under the respective receiver operator characteristic curves. Equivalent associations between subjective and objective knee function were observed regardless of the instrument used. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated evidence of enhanced reliability and validity for a parsimonious measure of subjective knee function. The proposed instrument reduces the number of items, increases the score interpretability as measuring a single construct, and improves the rating scale functioning while not diminishing its ability to classify participants with ACLR versus control participants or changing existing relationships with objective measures of recovery. We suggest the IKDC-8 may enhance clinical use by reducing administration time, improving the interpretation of the subjective knee function score, and clarifying functional ability.

Development and validation of the mental health professionals' attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDS scale (MHP-PLHIV-AS).

This study focused on the creation and validation of an instrument to measure mental health professionals' attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS. Rasch analyses (Rash, 1960, 1980) provided evidence to support a twodimensional (societal and personal dimensions) measurement of this attitude construct.

Successful treatment of severe baclofen toxicosis initially refractory to conventional treatment.

After ingesting a dose of baclofen thought to be lethal, a patient with severe neurologic signs was successfully managed despite initially being refractory to treatment. Patients with persistent neurologic abnormalities may still have an excellent prognosis despite lack of initial response. Additionally, we present a potential case of benzodiazepine withdrawal.

An experimental study using Rasch analysis to compare absolute magnitude estimation and categorical rating scaling as applied in survey research.

Limited research has applied a measurement model to compare the rating scale functioning of categorical rating scaling (CRS) and absolute magnitude estimation scaling (MES) when rating subjective stimuli. We used an experimental design and applied the Rasch model to the survey data, with each respondent rating items using MES and one of four commonly used agreement-disagreement rating scales. The results indicated that the CRS and MES data were comparable in person and item separation and reliability when the respondents' scales were known. MES had lower standard error for people and items; however MES had disordered step calibrations. Finally, the respondents reported preference of CRS to MES.

Past tense marking in the spontaneous speech of preschool children who do and do not stutter.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to identify whether different patterns of errors exist in irregular past-tense verbs in children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS). METHOD: Spontaneous language samples of thirty-one age- and gender-matched pairs of children (total N=62) between the ages of 24 months and 59 months were analyzed. RESULTS: Results indicated that children who do and do not stutter over-regularize irregular past-tense verbs (i.e., saying runned for ran) with comparable frequency. However, two nonsignificant trends which suggest possible intra-group differences were noted. First, irregular past tense verbs represented a greater portion of total verbs for CWS than for CWNS. Second, CWS appeared to double-mark (i.e., say ranned for ran) more often than CWNS. Results are discussed in light of theories about the acquisition of the irregular past-tense and about differences in language skills between CWS and CWNS. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (a) summarize previous findings about connections between stuttering and language in CWS and CWNS; (b) describe similarities and differences between irregular past-tense verb use and errors in CWS and CWNS; (c) discuss possible connections between the declarative-procedural model and stuttering.

Magnitude estimation and categorical rating scaling in social sciences: a theoretical and psychometric controversy.

This paper revisits a half-century long theoretical controversy associated with the use of magnitude estimation scaling (MES) and category rating scaling (CRS) procedures in measurement. The MES procedure in this study involved instructing participants to write a number that matched their impression of difficulty of a test item. Participants were not restricted in the range of numbers they could choose for their scale. They also had the choice of disclosing their individual scale. After the MES task was completed, participants were given a blank copy of the test to rate the perceived difficulty of each item using a researcher-imposed categorical rating scale from 1 (very easy) to 6 (very difficult). The MES and CRS data were both analyzed using Rasch Rating scale model. Additionally, the MES data were examined with Rasch Partial Credit model. Results indicate that knowing each person's scale is associated with smaller errors of measurement.

Deconstructing therapy outcome measurement with Rasch analysis of a measure of general clinical distress: the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised.

Rasch analysis was used to illustrate the usefulness of item-level analyses for evaluating a common therapy outcome measure of general clinical distress, the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1994). Using complementary therapy research samples, the instrument's 5-point rating scale was found to exceed clients' ability to make reliable discriminations and could be improved by collapsing it into a 3-point version (combining scale points 1 with 2 and 3 with 4). This revision, in addition to removing 3 misfitting items, increased person separation from 4.90 to 5.07 and item separation from 7.76 to 8.52 (resulting in alphas of .96 and .99, respectively). Some SCL-90-R subscales had low internal consistency reliabilities; SCL-90-R items can be used to define one factor of general clinical distress that is generally stable across both samples, with two small residual factors.

Equating student satisfaction measures.

Colleges and universities conduct student satisfaction studies for many important policy making reasons. However the differences in instrumentation and the use of students' self-reported ratings of satisfaction makes such decisions sample-, instrument-, and institution-dependent. A common metric of student satisfaction would assist decision makers by providing a richness of information not typically obtained. The present study investigated the extent to which two nationally known instruments of student satisfaction could be scaled on the same quantitative metric. Pseudo-common item equating (Fisher, 1997) based on five link items of low and high endorsability enabled comparisons of "similar, but not identical items, from different instruments, calibrated on different samples" (p. 87). Results suggest that both instruments measured similar constructs and could be reasonably used to create a single, common metric. While samples used in the experiment were less than ideal, results clearly demonstrated the usefulness and reasonability of the pseudo-common item equating process.

Atypical syntactic processing in individuals who stutter: evidence from event-related brain potentials and behavioral measures.

Syntactic processing was explored in individuals who stutter (IWS). Grammaticality judgments and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were obtained while participants read sentences, half containing verb-agreement violations. Grammaticality judgments for an offline verb-agreement task did not differ between IWS and normal speakers (NS). However, judgment accuracy of IWS for the online task was lower than that of NS, particularly for verb-agreement violations that occurred in longer and more syntactically complex sentences. Further, while NS exhibited a classic P600 ERP response to verb-agreement violations, the P600s of IWS were reduced in amplitude and distribution. The behavioral and ERP results are consistent with the hypothesis that underlying mechanisms mediating language processing, including those related to postlexical syntactic reanalysis, may operate atypically in IWS even in the absence of speech production demands.