Teaching cross-cultural design thinking for healthcare.

OBJECTIVES: Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to transform breast cancer care. However, most scientists, engineers, and clinicians are not prepared to contribute to the AI revolution in healthcare. In this paper, we describe our experiences teaching a new undergraduate course for American students that aims to prepare the next generation for cross-cultural designthinking, which we believe is crucial for AI to achieve its full potential in breast cancer care. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The key course activities are planning, conducting, and interpreting interviews of healthcare professionals from both Portugal and the United States. Since the course is offered as a short-term faculty-led study abroad program in Portugal, students are able to explore the impact of culture on healthcare delivery and the design of healthcare technologies. RESULTS: The learning assessments demonstrated student growth in several areas pertinent for future development of AI for breast cancer care. With respect to understanding breast cancer care, prior to taking this course, most students had underestimated the impact of cancer and its treatment on women's quality of life and most were unaware of the importance of multidisciplinary care teams. Regarding AI in medicine, students became more mindful of data privacy issues and the need to consider the effect of AI on healthcare professionals. CONCLUSION: This course illustrates the potential benefits for AI in medicine of introducing future scientists, engineers, and clinicians to cross cultural design-thinking early in their educational experiences.

The Effects of Doctoral Teaching Development on Early-Career STEM Scholars' College Teaching Self-efficacy.

To help prepare future faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to teach undergraduates, more research universities are offering teaching development (TD) programs to doctoral students who aspire to academic careers. Using social cognitive career theory, we examine the effects of TD programs on early-career STEM scholars' sense of self-efficacy as postsecondary teachers. In 2011, a survey questionnaire was administered to 2156 people who in 2009 were doctoral students in STEM departments at three U.S. research universities; 1445 responded (67%). Regression analysis revealed positive relationships between TD participation and participants' college teaching self-efficacy and positive interaction effects for women. These findings may be used to improve the quality and quantity of TD offerings and help them gain wider acceptance.

Unique effects and moderators of effects of sources on self-efficacy: A model-based meta-analysis.

Self-efficacy beliefs are strong predictors of academic pursuits, performance, and persistence, and in theory are developed and maintained by 4 classes of experiences Bandura (1986) referred to as sources: performance accomplishments (PA), vicarious learning (VL), social persuasion (SP), and affective arousal (AA). The effects of sources on self-efficacy vary by performance domain and individual difference factors. In this meta-analysis (k = 61 studies of academic self-efficacy; N = 8,965), we employed B. J. Becker's (2009) model-based approach to examine cumulative effects of the sources as a set and unique effects of each source, controlling for the others. Following Becker's recommendations, we used available data to create a correlation matrix for the 4 sources and self-efficacy, then used these meta-analytically derived correlations to test our path model. We further examined moderation of these associations by subject area (STEM vs. non-STEM), grade, sex, and ethnicity. PA showed by far the strongest unique association with self-efficacy beliefs. Subject area was a significant moderator, with sources collectively predicting self-efficacy more strongly in non-STEM (k = 14) compared with STEM (k = 47) subjects (R2 = .37 and .22, respectively). Within studies of STEM subjects, grade level was a significant moderator of the coefficients in our path model, as were 2 continuous study characteristics (percent non-White and percent female). Practical implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Write More Articles, Get More Grants: The Impact of Department Climate on Faculty Research Productivity.

BACKGROUND: Many studies find that female faculty in academic medicine, science, and engineering experience adverse workplace climates. This study longitudinally investigates whether department climate is associated with future research productivity and whether the associations are stronger for female than male faculty. METHOD: Two waves of a faculty climate survey, institutional grant records, and publication records were collected for 789 faculties in academic medicine, science, and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison between 2000 and 2010. Research productivity was measured as Number of Publications and Number of Grants awarded, and department climate was measured with scales for professional interactions, department decision-making practices, climate for underrepresented groups, and work/life balance. Ordinary least squares and negative binomial regression methods were used to assess gender differences in productivity, influences of department climate on productivity, and gender differences in effects of climate on productivity. RESULTS: Female faculty published fewer articles and were awarded fewer grants in the baseline period, but their productivity did not differ from male faculty on these measures in subsequent years. Number of Publications was positively affected by professional interactions, but negatively affected by positive work/life balance. Number of Grants awarded was positively affected by climate for underrepresented groups. These main effects did not differ by gender; however, some three-way interactions illuminated how different aspects of department climate affected productivity differently for men and women in specific situations. CONCLUSIONS: In perhaps the first study to assess the longitudinal impact of department climate on faculty research productivity, positive department climate is associated with significantly greater productivity for all faculty-women and men. However, some positive aspects of climate (specifically, work/life balance) may be associated with lower productivity for some female faculty at specific career periods. These findings suggest that departments that wish to increase grants and publications would be wise to foster a positive workplace climate.

Commitment to practice change: an evaluator's perspective.

A commitment to practice change (CTC) approach may be used in educational program evaluation to document practice changes, examine the educational impact relative to the instructional focus, and improve understanding of the learning-to-change continuum. The authors reviewed various components and procedures of this approach and discussed some practical aspects of its application using an example of a study evaluating a presentation on menopausal care for primary care physicians. The CTC approach is a valuable evaluation tool, but it requires supplementation with other data to have a complete picture of the impact of education on practice. From the evaluation perspective, the self-reported nature of the CTC data is a major limitation of this method.