Structural Equation Modeling: Effects of Master Adaptive Learner and Clinical Learning Environment Attributes on Career Satisfaction and Intention to Stay.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this observational study was to test a proposed conceptual model depicting the influence of personal and environmental attributes of clinical learning environments on rehabilitation professionals' career satisfaction and intention to stay with their current organization. The mediating effects of 2 loci of engagement were also assessed. METHODS: Rehabilitation professionals (physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and registered nurses; n = 436) from 4 health care organizations in the Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest regions in the USA completed a battery of questionnaires related to personal attributes (resilience and orientation toward lifelong learning), environmental attributes (innovation support and basic psychological need satisfaction at work), loci of engagement (professional and organizational), career satisfaction, and intention to stay. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. RESULTS: The measurement and structural model fit was acceptable. The greatest total effects on career satisfaction (r = .459) and intention to stay (r = .462) were observed through the influences of basic psychological need satisfaction, professional engagement, and organizational engagement. Orientation toward lifelong learning was negatively associated with career satisfaction (r = -.208) and intention to stay (r = -.154), but this was mitigated by organizational engagement (r = -.060 and - .134, respectively). Small but significant total effects were also observed between innovation support, professional and organizational engagement, and intention to stay (r = .144) and resilience, professional and organizational engagement, and career satisfaction (r = .110). CONCLUSION: Clinical learning environments that support rehabilitation professionals' basic psychological needs (autonomy, competency, and relatedness) are associated with greater career satisfaction and intention to stay. This association is further enhanced by organizational engagement and innovation support. IMPACT: Rehabilitation organizations interested in developing and retaining master adaptive learners should create clinical learning environments that reinforce rehabilitation professionals' sense of autonomy, competency, and relatedness, and are supportive on innovative behaviors.

Student Physical Therapists' Orientation to Postprofessional Education and Perceptions of Strain: Identification of 4 Subgroups of Students Based on Cluster Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Determining why physical therapists choose certain pathways to expertise is not well understood. Developing an understanding of these different choices is important for the physical therapy profession and the future of postprofessional education. REVIEW OF LITERATURE: Pathways to expertise as a physical therapist have evolved over the history of the profession, including the most recent emergence of residency education. Regardless of the path taken, physical therapists have a societal duty to be lifelong learners. The decision on which path to pursue is influenced by many factors, including financial stress, personal factors, and relational obligations. Developing an understanding of these different pathways and barriers for physical therapists is essential if the physical therapy profession is to advance with the evolving needs of society. SUBJECTS: Participants were from a stratified purposive sample of Doctor of Physical Therapy Students (n = 124) across the eastern, central, and western regions of the United States. METHODS: This study was a secondary analysis using hierarchical cluster analysis based on students' orientation toward lifelong learning and future professional engagement, self-rated likelihood of pursuing various postprofessional education pathways, and perception of personal and interpersonal strains as a barrier to postprofessional education. RESULTS: The cluster analysis resulted in a 4-cluster solution representing different student subtypes: clinically oriented average learners; resilient, clinically oriented lifelong learners; academically oriented lifelong learners; and strain-limited, clinically oriented lifelong learners. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Results from this study describe important differences in how student physical therapists view postprofessional education and the pathways they choose to pursue. Factors such as lack of awareness and the perception of personal or interpersonal strain may influence these decisions. Understanding postprofessional education decision making of student physical therapists is of particular interest to the physical therapy profession given the current debates related to student debt and the necessity of residency education. Further research is needed to understand how to increase awareness and diminish barriers to quality postprofessional education for physical therapists.

Metacognitive changes and sources of confidence judgements in health professions classroom learning.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to examine sources of confidence during learning to better understand metacognition and if a metacognitive intervention improves student metacognition or assessment performance. METHODS: One-hundred fifty-eight doctor of pharmacy students participated in a semester-long intervention that included ratings of confidence as well as sources of their confidence judgments. Throughout the semester, students made metacognitive judgements on selected topics within the course. Students also completed a pre- and post-assessment which was used to examine changes in performance and metacognitive accuracy over time. RESULTS: Most students appeared to anchor their confidence (i.e. judgments of learning) on prior knowledge, particularly at the beginning of the course. Students' performance and judgements of learning (confidence) increased over the semester, but the gains in both were dependent on topic. Making metacognitive judgements on selected topics did not appear to help or hinder assessment performance or improve metacognitive accuracy for most topics. CONCLUSIONS: Students may need assistance recognizing that their prior knowledge may not be adequate to judge their current learning. To improve their judgements of learning, students should utilize more external sources (e.g., the textbook) rather than internal cognitive resources. Instructional strategies should model the task and coach students to competency (i.e. scaffold).

Multiple aspects of high school students' strategic processing on reading outcomes: The role of quantity, quality, and conjunctive strategy use.

BACKGROUND: While the literature on strategy use is relatively mature, measures of strategy use overwhelmingly measure only one aspect of that use, frequency, when relating that strategy use to performance outcomes. While this might be one important attribute of strategy use, there is increasing evidence that quality and conditional use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies may also be important. AIMS: This study examines how multiple aspects of strategy use, namely frequency, quality, and conjunctive use of strategies, influence task performance on both well- and ill-structured task outcomes in addition to other concomitant variables that may interact with strategic processing during reading. SAMPLE: The sample consisted of 21 high school students enrolled in an upper-level biology class in a suburban school in the north-eastern United States. METHODS: These participants completed measures of prior knowledge and interest, then read either an expository or persuasive text while thinking aloud. They then completed a passage recall and open-ended response following passage completion. RESULTS: In general, quantity was not positively related to the study outcomes and was negatively related to one of them. Quality of strategy use, on the other hand, was consistently related to positive reading outcomes. The influence of knowledge and interest in terms of strategies is also discussed as well as six cases which illustrate the relation of aspects of strategy use and the other concomitant variables. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluating strategy use by solely examining the frequency of strategy use did not explain differences in task performance as well as evaluating the quality and conjunctive use of strategies. Further, important relations between prior knowledge, interest, and the task outcomes appeared to be mediated and moderated by the aspects of strategy use investigated.

The relation between cognitive and metacognitive strategic processing during a science simulation.

BACKGROUND: This investigation was designed to uncover the relations between students' cognitive and metacognitive strategies used during a complex climate simulation. While cognitive strategy use during science inquiry has been studied, the factors related to this strategy use, such as concurrent metacognition, prior knowledge, and prior interest, have not been investigated in a multidimensional fashion. AIMS: This study addressed current issues in strategy research by examining not only how metacognitive, surface-level, and deep-level strategies influence performance, but also how these strategies related to each other during a contextually relevant science simulation. SAMPLE: The sample for this study consisted of 70 undergraduates from a mid-sized Southeastern university in the United States. These participants were recruited from both physical and life science (e.g., biology) and education majors to obtain a sample with variance in terms of their prior knowledge, interest, and strategy use. METHODS: Participants completed measures of prior knowledge and interest about global climate change. Then, they were asked to engage in an online climate simulator for up to 30 min while thinking aloud. Finally, participants were asked to answer three outcome questions about global climate change. RESULTS: Results indicated a poor fit for the statistical model of the frequency and level of processing predicting performance. However, a statistical model that independently examined the influence of metacognitive monitoring and control of cognitive strategies showed a very strong relation between the metacognitive and cognitive strategies. Finally, smallest space analysis results provided evidence that strategy use may be better captured in a multidimensional fashion, particularly with attention paid towards the combination of strategies employed. CONCLUSIONS: Conclusions drawn from the evidence point to the need for more dynamic, multidimensional models of strategic processing that account for the patterns of optimal and non-optimal strategy use. Additionally, analyses that can capture these complex patterns need to be further explored.