Effectiveness of Interdisciplinary Teaching on Creativity: A Quasi-Experimental Study.

Little is known about the effectiveness of Interdisciplinary teaching (IDT) in higher education, particularly for healthcare education in Taiwan. It is vital to determine if IDT could enhance divergent creative thinking and team creativity among nursing students. A quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design. Students enrolled in a capstone nursing course for the development of healthcare-related products were divided into two groups. The intervention group (n = 61) was taught creative thinking skills with IDT by faculty. The control group (n = 84) was taught by nursing faculty with traditional teaching. This study found that students who received the IDT intervention scored significantly higher on measures of creative thinking and team creativity compared with students in the control group. These findings suggest integrating IDT from nursing and design faculty into the teaching curriculum to foster students' creative thinking abilities when formulating interdisciplinary student teams to develop innovative, creative healthcare products.

Predictors of individually perceived levels of team creativity for teams of nursing students in Taiwan: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The complexity of healthcare and concurrent advances in technology have promoted Interprofessional Education (IPE) in healthcare schools to prepare students to collaborate on interdisciplinary teams. Since 2016, healthcare curricula in Taiwan have incorporated IPE-based capstone courses to enhance creativity. To better understand the predictors of team creativity could help educators improve IPE and outcomes for nursing students and patients. PURPOSE: To determine whether nursing students' demographic characteristics, individual creativity, and perceived team interaction behaviors, team swift trust, team conflict, and team task interdependence may predict high perceived team creativity in IPE settings. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design included nursing students (N = 99) at a science and technology university in Taiwan. Data from self-report questionnaires included variables for demographic characteristics, individual creativity, and perceived team characteristics. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed predictors of high perceived team creativity. RESULTS: Nursing students who perceived high team creativity also perceived higher interaction behaviors and lower process conflict than those who perceived less creativity. Spontaneous communication and team task conflict predicted high perceived team creativity. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing educators could increase team creativity in IPE by encouraging spontaneous communication and constructive task-oriented conflict management. This may benefit patient outcomes in the future.

Conflict and interactions on interdisciplinary nursing student teams: The moderating effects of spontaneous communication.

BACKGROUND: Recently, empirical researchers have observed direct associations between conflict and interaction behaviors within organizational teams. However, research concerning indirect links between conflict and interaction behaviors on interdisciplinary teams in nursing school is scant, particularly in Taiwan. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore the relationships among various types of conflict and interaction behaviors on interdisciplinary nursing education teams. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This study utilized a cross-sectional, quantitative, descriptive design. The authors collected survey data from 99 nursing students who participated in 18-week capstone courses of small interdisciplinary groups collaborating to design healthcare products in Taiwan during 2018 and 2019. METHODS: Questionnaires assessed the nursing students' perceptions about their teams' conflicts (of task, process, and relationship), and interaction behaviors (constructive controversy, helping behaviors, and spontaneous communication). The authors used descriptive statistics to compare demographics, conflict scores, and interaction behavior scores for collocated and distributed interdisciplinary teams. A Pearson's analysis identified correlations among the variables and their components, and the SPSS PROCESS macro showed moderating effects of spontaneous communication on the relationship between distributed team and conflict subscales. RESULTS: After confirming the distributed team experienced significantly more conflict than the collocated team, we found significant negative correlations between constructive controversy and both process conflict and relationship conflict on the distributed team. Another interaction behavior, spontaneous communication, had a moderating effect on the relationships between the distributed team and both task conflict and relationship conflict. CONCLUSION: In interdisciplinary educational settings for nursing students, spontaneous communication may moderate the types of conflict that distributed teams are more likely than collocated teams to experience. Constructive controversy may be especially effective at mitigating conflict on distributed teams. Nursing educators may refer to these insights to improve outcomes for educational interdisciplinary healthcare teams.

Predictors of self-perceived levels of creative teaching behaviors among nursing school faculty in Taiwan: A preliminary study.

BACKGROUND: Many nursing programs include a capstone project as part of the nursing curriculum. In Taiwan, these courses involve development of healthcare products. A student's success can depend on faculty's ability to employ creative teaching behaviors. PURPOSE: To examine the relationship between demographic and teaching characteristics, personality traits, and self-perceived levels of creative teaching behaviors for capstone nursing faculty. METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational study design. Faculty (N = 53) were recruited from healthcare schools in Taiwan. Data from self-report questionnaires included variables for demographic and teaching characteristics, perceived levels of creative personality traits (imagination, curiosity, adventure, challenge) and creative teaching behaviors (autonomous learning, creative thinking, characteristics/motivations, environment/opportunity). Hierarchical multiple regression identified predictors of creative teaching behaviors. RESULTS: Mean total scores for creative teaching behaviors were high for nursing faculty; characteristics/motivations were the lowest subscale score. The creative personality trait of curiosity significantly and positively influenced the perception of high levels creative teaching behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: High scores for curiosity significantly predicted high scores for creative teaching behaviors for nursing faculty. These findings suggest faculty who perceive themselves as having low levels of creative teaching behaviors might benefit from training to increase levels of curiosity.

Effect of creativity training on teaching for creativity for nursing faculty in Taiwan: A quasi-experimental study.

BACKGROUND: Creativity and innovation are considered important core competencies in Taiwan for nursing students. Teachers play a critical role in the development of student creativity. Although studies have investigated creativity training, there is no consensus on how best to evaluate the effectiveness of the training. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether a teaching for creativity module (TCM) can enhance teaching behaviors and self-efficacy of teaching creativity for capstone course nursing faculty. The TCM intervention was taught in two stages by experts in diverse areas of industrial design. A 2-day teaching creativity workshop was followed by reinforcement of creativity skills in the classroom with nursing and design faculties teaching side-by-side for 6 h of the 18-week capstone course. DESIGN: This quasi-experimental study employed a pretest-posttest design to compare an intervention and control group. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Capstone course nursing faculties were recruited from five science and technology universities in Taiwan. RESULTS: Forty-two capstone faculty members participated; 21 completed the TCM intervention and 21 were in the control group. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) demonstrated the TCM intervention group had significantly better post-test mean scores for creative teaching behaviors and self-efficacy of teaching creativity than the control group. Our findings suggest participation in a creativity workshop and reinforcement of teaching skills with classroom interdisciplinary teacher training can augment teaching for creativity of nursing faculty. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study indicate that an intervention program in creativity can increase teaching behaviors as well as perceptions of self-efficacy regarding teaching for creativity, which could foster student creativity. These findings have important implications for educational settings, as they suggest that the workshop and reinforcement of learning with hands-on guidance in creativity with interdisciplinary teaching should be integrated into the curriculum, which could facilitate student creativity by increasing teaching behaviors and improving self-confidence regarding teaching creativity.

Perceived Self-Efficacy of Teaching for Creativity Among Nurse Faculty in Taiwan: A Preliminary Study.

Many health care education programs, particularly those in Taiwan, have begun offering capstone product-based curricula, not only to improve nursing students' problem-solving skills but also to foster creativity and innovation regarding health care issues. This study used a cross-sectional quantitative design to explore the efficacy of teaching for creativity among nurse faculty in Taiwan. Results showed knowledge of intellectual property rights was low, as was ability to creatively evaluate trademark and patent designs. Curiosity was the main predictor associated with self-efficacy of teaching for creativity.

Creative teaching behaviors of health care school teachers in Taiwan: mediating and moderating effects.

BACKGROUND: Considerable attention has been paid to the variables for creative abilities of teachers and the creative climate of the schools in which they teach, as well as the direct relationships between these variables. However, research on the indirect links between these variables concerning creativity in higher education has been limited. Researches on creative teaching behaviors among health care teachers are scant, particularly in Taiwan. METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional descriptive design to investigate potential mediating and moderating effects of Taiwanese health care school teachers' creative teaching self-efficacy and a school's creative climate, the relationship between these variables, and the relationship between creative teaching self-efficacy and creative teaching behaviors. Participants were purposively selected from five vocational and technical health care schools in Northern Taiwan representing the departments of nursing, gerontological care and management, and nutrition and health. Data were collected from five self-report questionnaires regarding teaching, the school environment, and creativity. Data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and simple and hierarchical multiple regression models. RESULTS: A total of 53 teachers completed the questionnaires. Pearson's correlation analysis showed the teamwork component of school creative climate was correlated with the creative teaching behavior of characteristics and motivations. The mediation model indicated creative teaching self-efficacy fully mediated the effect of teamwork on teachers' characteristics and motivations. The moderation model indicated that teamwork negatively moderated the effect of teachers' creative teaching abilities for characteristics and motivations on creative teaching behaviors (ß = - 0.01, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings fill a gap in the literature regarding creative teaching behaviors and school climate in Taiwan. School teachers' creative teaching self-efficacy and creative teaching abilities are crucial mediating and moderating variables on the relationship between school creative climate and creative teaching behaviors, respectively. The empirical data confirm the validity of our proposed mediation and moderation models of creative teaching behaviors. Therefore, our findings may be effective references for health care teachers regarding creative teaching. Improving creative teaching behaviors of teachers responsible for educating students in health care schools could be facilitated by enhancing teachers' creative self-efficacy and creative abilities.

Structures, molecular orbitals and UV-vis spectra investigations on methyl 1-benzyl-1H-1,2,3-triazole-4-carboxylate: a computational study.

The methyl 1-benzyl-1H-1,2,3-triazole-4-carboxylate (C11H11N3O2) has been studied by theoretically methods. The structure of this compound is optimized by density functional theory (DFT), the second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) and G3 theory (G3(MP2)) levels. Our calculation results are in very good agreement with experimental values. Compared to a perfect pentagonal structure, the geometrical structures of C11H11N3O2 show a little distortion of 1,2,3-triazole ring due to the highly electronegativity of substitution groups. In addition, dipole moment and frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs) of the C11H11N3O2 are calculated as well. Because of solvent effect, the HOMO-LUMO energy gap in methanol is predicted to be smaller than in gas phase by 0.367eV. The simulated UV-vis spectra are investigated by time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT), and two obviously absorption features have been predicted. These two absorption features are located between 170nm and 210nm, which is in ultraviolet C range. Moreover, the UV absorption features in methanol are predicted to be more intense than in gas phase; besides, the red shift is predicted in methanol as well.

A DFT study on structures, frontier molecular orbitals and UV-vis spectra of RuX(PPh3)(NHCPh2)L (X=Tp and Cp; L=Cl and N3).

Geometry optimization for RuX(PPh3)(NHCPh2)(L) (X=hydridotris(pyrazolyl)borate (Tp) and cyclopentadiene (Cp); L=Cl and N3) are investigated by using density functional theory (DFT) with DZVP2/DZVP all-electron mixed basis sets and compared with available experimental values, and the calculated structures are in very good agreement with experimental data. The frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs) and electronic transitions have been investigated as well. Our calculations show that the π electron-rich ligand (N3) may increase the energies of occupied orbitals and reduce the energy gap of the HOMO-LUMO (ΔEL-H) in these ruthenium based complexes. The simulated UV-vis spectra of these complexes in methanol have been studied with time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT), and conductor-like polarizable continuum model (CPCM) was employed to account for the solvent effects. Our results show that a number of absorption peaks are found in the visible region (400-800 nm) with non-zero oscillator strengths. The strongest adsorption feature is associated to a transition from HOMO-2 to LUMO, which is assigned to metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) or metal/ligand-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT/LLCT) depending on co-ligands. In addition, the Cp group increases electron-accept ability and results in red shift due to its π electron-rich and π donor characters. According to our results, these ruthenium based complexes are good candidates for dye-sensitized solar cell owing to their absorption intensities and rich absorption bands in the visible region.