Psychoeducational groups for close relatives of patients with borderline personality disorder.

Psychoeducational groups for family members of patients with schizophrenia have proven to be effective. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) implies serious impairment in interpersonal relationships. Close relatives of individuals with BPD also show high levels of burden and need support. Psychoeducational groups could help to cope with the interactional problems in a relationship with a person with BPD. A manualised psychoeducational programme of 10 group sessions for close relatives of patients with BPD was tested. Measures administered at pretest and after 10 sessions were: perceived burden (IEQ-EU), knowledge about the disorder (WFBBPS-A) and quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF). For formative evaluation, a "Group Therapy Session Questionnaire" (participant and therapist version; GTS-A, GTS-T) was used. A total of 33 persons in three groups took part. Pre-post evaluations revealed a significantly lower level of burden and a significantly better knowledge about the disorder after participating in the psychoeducational group. Reduction of burden correlated significantly with the assessment of patients' symptom severity and carers' level of burden at study entry. There was no change in the quality of life. The participants and therapists generally rated the psychoeducational sessions very positively. The highest ratings were found in the sessions about communication skills and coping with crises. Findings indicate that the psychoeducational programme is well accepted and supportive for persons with close relationships to patients with BPD.

Are Psychophysiological Wearables Suitable for Comparing Pedagogical Teaching Approaches?

This study describes how wearable devices can be used in elementary schools to compare some aspects of different teaching approaches. Upper arm wearables were used as an objective tool to compare three approaches when teaching science: (i) classical frontal teaching, (ii) embodied (kinesthetic) teaching, and (iii) a distance teaching approach. Using the wearables, the approaches were compared in terms of their impact on students' psychological arousal and perceived well-being. In addition, short-term and long-term knowledge gain and physiological synchronization between teacher and students during the lecture were assessed. A synchronization index was defined to estimate the degree of physiological synchronization. During distance teaching, by means of measurements with wearables, students were significantly less physically active and significantly less psychologically aroused. Embodied teaching allowed significantly higher physical activation than during the other two approaches. The synchronization index for all three teaching approaches was positive with the highest values for distance and frontal teaching. Moreover, knowledge gain immediately after the embodied lessons was higher than after frontal lessons. No significant differences in the long-term knowledge retention between the three different teaching methods were found. This pilot study proved that wearables are a useful tool in research in the field of education and have the potential to contribute to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms involved in learning, even in complex environments such as an elementary school classroom.

Learning to Teach Again: What Professional Development Approach Matters?

Purpose: Informed by the constructivist learning theory, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of three continuing professional development (CPD) approaches on student learning in a healthful living physical education curriculum. Methods: Physical education teachers (n = 19) received one of the following CPD trainings: (a) Full Training, (b) Expedited Training, or (c) Self-Training. The effect of each CPD method was determined by tracking student learning (N = 3,418) with a two-level linear mixed model. Results: The results showed that Full Training CPD was able to generate the largest knowledge gain in both the Healthy Lifestyles Unit (ß = 0.214, p < .001) and Cardio Fitness Club Unit (ß = 0.184, p < .01) in comparison with the other two CPD approaches. Discussion: These findings advance our understanding of the role different CPD approaches play in enhancing student learning in the subjects of cardiorespiratory fitness and health lifestyles. Conclusions: The Full-Training CPD appears to benefit student learning the most followed by the Expedited-Training. The Self-Training would yield the least learning achievement.

The Search as Learning Spaceship: Toward a Comprehensive Model of Psychological and Technological Facets of Search as Learning.

Using a Web search engine is one of today's most frequent activities. Exploratory search activities which are carried out in order to gain knowledge are conceptualized and denoted as Search as Learning (SAL). In this paper, we introduce a novel framework model which incorporates the perspective of both psychology and computer science to describe the search as learning process by reviewing recent literature. The main entities of the model are the learner who is surrounded by a specific learning context, the interface that mediates between the learner and the information environment, the information retrieval (IR) backend which manages the processes between the interface and the set of Web resources, that is, the collective Web knowledge represented in resources of different modalities. At first, we provide an overview of the current state of the art with regard to the five main entities of our model, before we outline areas of future research to improve our understanding of search as learning processes.

The Effects of Using the Sun Safe App on Sun Health Knowledge and Behaviors of Young Teenagers: Results of Pilot Intervention Studies.

BACKGROUND: A balanced approach toward sun exposure and protection is needed by young people. Excessive sun exposure increases their risk for skin cancers such as melanoma, whereas some exposure is necessary for vitamin D and healthy bones. We have developed a new iOS smartphone app-Sun Safe-through a co-design process, which aims to support healthy and balanced decision-making by young teenagers (aged 12-13 years). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to test the capacity of Sun Safe to improve sun health knowledge and behaviors of young teenagers in 3 pilot intervention studies completed in 2020. METHODS: Young teenagers (aged 12-13 years; N=57) were recruited through the web or through a local school via an open-access website and given access to Sun Safe (29/57, 51%) or a placebo (SunDial) app (28/57, 49%). Participants completed sun health questionnaires and knowledge quizzes before and after the 6-week intervention (either on the web or in class) and rated the quality of the app they used via a survey. RESULTS: Of the 57 participants, 51 (89%) participants (26, 51% for placebo arm and 25, 49% for the Sun Safe arm) completed these studies, with most (>50%) reporting that they used a smartphone to access their designated app either "once a fortnight" or "once/twice in total." Improved sun health knowledge-particularly about the UV Index-was observed in participants who were given access to Sun Safe compared with those who used the placebo (-6.2 [percentage correct] difference in predicted means, 95% CI -12.4 to -0.03; P=.049; 2-way ANOVA). Unexpectedly, there were significantly more sunburn events in the Sun Safe group (relative risk 1.7, 95% CI 1.1-1.8; P=.02; Fisher exact test), although no differences in time spent outdoors or sun-protective behaviors were reported. COVID-19 pandemic-related community-wide shutdowns during April 2020 (when schools were closed) reduced the time spent outdoors by >100 minutes per day (-105 minutes per day difference in predicted means, 95% CI -150 to -59 minutes per day; P=.002; paired 2-tailed Student t test). Sun Safe was well-rated by participants, particularly for information (mean 4.2, SD 0.6 out of 5). CONCLUSIONS: Access to the Sun Safe app increased sun health knowledge among young teenagers in these pilot intervention studies. Further investigations with larger sample sizes are required to confirm these observations and further test the effects of Sun Safe on sun-protective behaviors.

Do Women in Nepal Like Playing a Mobile Game? MANTRA: A Mobile Gamified App for Improving Healthcare Seeking Behavior in Rural Nepal.

In Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC), one of the causes of maternal and child mortality is a lack of medical knowledge and consequently the inability to seek timely healthcare. Mobile health (mHealth) technology is gradually becoming a universal intervention platform across the globe due to ubiquity of mobile phones and network coverage. MANTRA is a novel mHealth intervention developed to tackle maternal and child health issues through a serious mobile game app in rural Nepal, which demonstrated a statistically significant knowledge improvement in rural women. This paper explores the perceptions and usability of the MANTRA app amongst rural women and Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) in Nepal. Despite the challenges of a target user group with limited educational levels and low smartphone experience, all participants viewed the MANTRA app with approval and enthusiasm. They were willing to engage further with the mHealth intervention and to share their experience and knowledge with fellow community members. Participants also showed an increase in awareness of danger signs enabling them to make better informed health decisions in the future. FCHVs viewed the app as a validation tool providing and support for greater impact of their efforts in rural Nepal. Growing mobile ownership, network coverage and availability of smartphones along with acceptance of the prototype MANTRA app in rural communities suggest encouraging prospects for mHealth interventions to be incorporated in the national health infrastructure in Nepal and other LMICs.

Evaluation of toolbox safety training in construction: The impact of narratives.

BACKGROUND: Construction is a dangerous industry with a large number of small businesses. Because they require minimal resources to deliver, toolbox talks may be an ideal training format for small construction contractors. METHODS: Eight toolbox talks were developed, each with two versions. One version of each toolbox talk was standard and one version included a narrative and discussion questions. Participants were randomly assigned to receive the standard or the narrative version. Pre- and post-intervention surveys measured demographics, workplace safety climate, and knowledge. The post-intervention survey also measured training impact. RESULTS: Including narratives with discussion questions significantly increased knowledge gain and led to increased training impact. Less experienced workers were more likely to gain knowledge and training impact compared to more experienced workers. There were no significant changes in workplace safety climate. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that including a narrative and discussion questions increases toolbox talk effectiveness.

Promoting men's knowledge of cancer risk reduction: A systematic review of interventions.

OBJECTIVE: To critically appraise and discuss evidence from interventions designed to increase men's knowledge about cancer risk reduction. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted. Six electronic databases were searched for interventions published between January 1st 2006 and May 30th 2016 in English. Studies were included if they used an experimental design, included adult males (≥18 years), and had a primary focus on the acquisition and utilisation of information on cancer risk reduction. The methodological quality of the included studies was appraised. RESULTS: A total of 25 studies met the inclusion criteria, 23 of which involved prostate cancer risk reduction. Twenty-one studies reported knowledge gain among the men. Three studies found that knowledge gain was associated with health literacy. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions aiming to improve men's knowledge about cancer risk reduction require a multimodal approach. Findings highlight the need to design and measure the impact of interventions for men on wider cancer risk reduction topics, while accounting for different socio-demographic and ethnic groups, literacy and health literacy levels. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: More research is warranted into the development and evaluation of theoretically-driven multimodal community-based approaches to information dissemination for men taking into account their daily information spheres such as workplaces and community environs.

Pattern of online communication in teaching a blended oral surgery course.

AIM: To explore the factors that might affect the patterns of interaction amongst dental students that can be found in asynchronous online discussion fora. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: It is a qualitative study that involved the participation of 71 dental students (42 male and 29 female) who belong to one academic year. Students were participated in asynchronous online discussion fora as a part of a blended oral surgery course that involved both face-to-face lecture and an online learning environment using the Blackboard learning management system. Qualitative analysis of students' pattern of discussion was performed using Transcript Analysis Tool. RESULTS: The total number of postings was 410. Sixty-seven of 71 students participated in the discussion by writing posts, whereas all of the students had accessed all of the postings. A positive correlation between imposing vertical questions and the number of non-referential and referential statements was observed. Regarding horizontal questions, a positive correlation was observed with the number of referential statements, whilst there was a negative correlation with the number of non-referential statements. CONCLUSION: Asynchronous online discussion fora that are integrated as a part of a whole pedagogical practice may provide an opportunity for promoting learning, especially when consideration is given to the structure of problems, timely feedback by tutors and supportive strategies within the discussion threads.