Do the benefits of learning to write a compare-contrast text transfer to other types of writing task? Analysing the effects of strategy-focused instruction / ¿Es posible transferir el aprendizaje de un texto de comparación-contraste a otro tipo de tareas? Análisis de los efectos de la instrucción estratégica

El programa de Instrucción de la Autorregulación Cognitiva (CSRI) se basa en la instrucción centrada en la estrategia e incluye tres componentes para la mejora del producto textual (enseñanza directa, modelado y práctica entre iguales). Se plantearon como objetivosanalizar si la instrucción con el programa CSRI en un género textual (texto de comparación) conducía a la transferencia espontánea en el producto textual (mejor coherencia, estructura y calidad) en un género no instruido (texto de opinión); y examinar si el orden de los componentes instruccionales presentaba algún efecto. Participaron 126 estudiantes de cuarto de educación primaria que fueron asignados a una de las dos condiciones experimentales en las que se aplicaba el programa CSRI (con diferente secuencia de los componentes instructivos), o a una condición de control en la que se seguía la enseñanza tradicional. Los resultados reflejaron que las dos secuencias de instrucción del programa CSRI mostraban beneficios en la estructura y coherencia del producto textual de los estudiantes en el posttest pero no 8 meses después. Para que los alumnos sean capaces de transferir adecuadamente lo aprendido a géneros textuales no instruidos, necesitan que los profesores les enseñen cómo hacerlo eficazmente.(AU)

Cognitive Self-Regulation Instruction (CSRI) program is a strategy-focused instruction with three instructional components for im-proving students’ writing product (direct teaching, modelling, and peer-practice). The present study aimed to explore whether the CSRI program leads to spontaneous transfer, improving the writing product (in terms of quality, structure, and text coherence) of an uninstructed genre (opinion text); and to examine whether the order in which the instructional compo-nents were implemented had an effect. A total of 126 students in their 4thyear of primary school participated in the study. They were randomly as-signed to one of two experimental conditions which received the CSRI but differed in the order the instructional components were delivered, or to a control condition which followed the traditional teaching approach. Our findings show that both CSRI sequences produced benefits in terms of greater structure and coherence of the writing product in the opinion text at post-test but not 8months after the intervention. In consequence, for students to be able to adequately transfer strategies to uninstructed text genres, they need teachers to teach them how to do it effectively.(AU)

The effects of dietary intervention combined with comprehensive exercise instruction on somatic function and quality of life in elderly patients with diabetes mellitus.

Objective: To assess the effects of dietary intervention combined with comprehensive exercise instruction on somatic function and quality of life in elderly patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: This was application research. A total of 120 elderly patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) admitted to The No.2 Hospital of Baoding from March 10, 2022 to March 10, 2023 were included and randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group(n=60). Patients in the control group received conventional treatment and nursing regimen, while those in the experimental group were given dietary intervention combined with comprehensive exercise instruction based on the control group. The differences before and after treatment between the two groups were compared and analyzed. Results: After the intervention, the experimental group had remarkably lower levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG), 2h postprandial blood glucose(2hPG) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) than the control group (p=0.00), while significantly improved somatic function, psychological function, social function and material life status compared to the control group (p=0.00). The levels of SAS and SDS in the experimental group were significantly decreased compared with those in the control group (p=0.00). The levels of SOD, MDA and CAT in the experimental group were obviously superior to those in the control group, with statistically significant differences (p=0.00). Conclusion: Dietary intervention combined with comprehensive exercise instruction is an effective treatment for elderly patients with DM, boasting a variety of benefits such as regulating patients' blood glucose levels, improving patient satisfaction, and ameliorating the level of oxidative stress in the body, which is worthy of clinical promotion.

Using Flashcards and Descriptive Feedback to Teach Industrial Kitchen Equipment to a Student with Intellectual Disabilities in a Postsecondary Education Program.

With postsecondary education opportunities for adult students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) on the rise, it is important to find socially validated research-based methods that are appropriate for the university or other community-based postsecondary instructional settings. The present research examines the effects of using flashcards with descriptive feedback and opportunities to respond, to teach one student with intellectual disabilities, enrolled in a postsecondary education-training program, commonly used industrial kitchen equipment. Results showed that discrete trail instruction, which included an error correction strategy of descriptive feedback plus opportunities to correctly respond was highly effective in mastery and maintenance of kitchen equipment identification, and generalization when asked to locate those items in the university kitchen lab.

The Use of Multiple Exemplar Instruction to Induce Emergent Listener Discriminations and Emergent Intraverbal Vocal Responses in Autistic Children.

This study tested for the emergence of listener discriminations and intraverbal vocal responses following tact training with four autistic children. All participants were trained to tact the name and the favorite food of two contrived cartoon monsters in the presence of a picture of the monster (e.g., "What is the name of this monster?" - "Max" and "What food does the monster eat?" - "Sweets") to evaluate the effects of emergent listener discriminations and emergent intraverbal vocal responses. Once criterion was met on the tact training, participants were tested for emergent listener discriminations (e.g., "Who eats sweets?" And "Who is Max?") and emergent intraverbal vocal responses (e.g., "What food does Max eat?" - "Sweets" and "Who eats sweets?" - "Max" in the absence of the picture). After training, all four participants engaged in emergent listener responding but only one participant engaged in emergent intraverbal responding. Multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) was used to teach those who could not engage in emergent intraverbal responding, and it was demonstrated to be effective. These findings are educationally significant because efficiency of instruction is important to maximize instructional impact, and to reduce the time and resource-intensive nature of behavior-analytic programming.

Students' Experiences with the Science and Engineering Practices in a Workshop-Based Undergraduate Research Experience.

This paper presents a phenomenographic investigation on students' experiences about research and poster presentations in a workshop-based undergraduate research experience with a focus on how the experience connects to the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) of the NRC A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the principles of CUREs. This provides insight into how these structured research experiences reflect particular SEPs and also elements of scientific practice that are not captured in the SEPs as they have been formulated previously. This work showcases the importance of future applications, failure, and creativity as additional science practices necessary for students to engage in authentic science. The SEPs and the additional elements of scientific practice are related to how students experience meaningful learning in the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains. Students highlighted the components of CUREs: importance of contributing relevant discoveries as a motivation for their research, the value of repetition and iteration in ensuring reliable and valid results, and the role of collaboration in seeing new perspectives and solving problems. As a result of presenting their results through a poster, students reported deeper understanding of their research topic, increased ability to articulate scientific concepts, and a better understanding of how to create a visually appealing poster. Students changed the vocabulary they used in their presentations to fit the knowledge level of their audience and highlighted their data in figures and explained other parts of their work in text. Moreover, they saw the poster as an outlet for their creativity.

Modelling individual differences in reading using an optimised MikeNet simulator: the impact of reading instruction.

Reading is vital for acquiring knowledge and studies have demonstrated that phonology-focused interventions generally yield greater improvements than meaning-focused interventions in English among children with reading disabilities. However, the effectiveness of reading instruction can vary among individuals. Among the various factors that impact reading skills like reading exposure and oral language skills, reading instruction is critical in facilitating children's development into skilled readers; it can significantly influence reading strategies, and contribute to individual differences in reading. To investigate this assumption, we developed a computational model of reading with an optimised MikeNet simulator. In keeping with educational practices, the model underwent training with three different instructional methods: phonology-focused training, meaning-focused training, and phonology-meaning balanced training. We used semantic reliance (SR), a measure of the relative reliance on print-to-sound and print-to-meaning mappings under the different training conditions in the model, as an indicator of individual differences in reading. The simulation results demonstrated a direct link between SR levels and the type of reading instruction. Additionally, the SR scores were able to predict model performance in reading-aloud tasks: higher SR scores were correlated with increased phonological errors and reduced phonological activation. These findings are consistent with data from both behavioral and neuroimaging studies and offer insights into the impact of instructional methods on reading behaviors, while revealing individual differences in reading and the importance of integrating OP and OS instruction approaches for beginning readers.

LEAP: LLM instruction-example adaptive prompting framework for biomedical relation extraction.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the demonstration in large language models (LLMs) for biomedical relation extraction. This study introduces a framework comprising three types of adaptive tuning methods to assess their impacts and effectiveness. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our study was conducted in two phases. Initially, we analyzed a range of demonstration components vital for LLMs' biomedical data capabilities, including task descriptions and examples, experimenting with various combinations. Subsequently, we introduced the LLM instruction-example adaptive prompting (LEAP) framework, including instruction adaptive tuning, example adaptive tuning, and instruction-example adaptive tuning methods. This framework aims to systematically investigate both adaptive task descriptions and adaptive examples within the demonstration. We assessed the performance of the LEAP framework on the DDI, ChemProt, and BioRED datasets, employing LLMs such as Llama2-7b, Llama2-13b, and MedLLaMA_13B. RESULTS: Our findings indicated that Instruction + Options + Example and its expanded form substantially improved F1 scores over the standard Instruction + Options mode for zero-shot LLMs. The LEAP framework, particularly through its example adaptive prompting, demonstrated superior performance over conventional instruction tuning across all models. Notably, the MedLLAMA_13B model achieved an exceptional F1 score of 95.13 on the ChemProt dataset using this method. Significant improvements were also observed in the DDI 2013 and BioRED datasets, confirming the method's robustness in sophisticated data extraction scenarios. CONCLUSION: The LEAP framework offers a compelling strategy for enhancing LLM training strategies, steering away from extensive fine-tuning towards more dynamic and contextually enriched prompting methodologies, showcasing in biomedical relation extraction.

Investigation on the Effectiveness of Digital Scanning Combined with Reverse Engineering Technology in Demonstrating Full Crown Tooth Preparation.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of digital scanning combined with reverse engineering technology in the demonstration of full crown tooth preparation. METHODS: Thirty-one students were randomly divided into the two groups. The students in the control group carried out traditional demonstration by the use of eye-measurement methods. The students in the experimental group carried out improved demonstration by the use of digital intraoral scan with 3D measurement data. The students in both groups were provided with two resin teeth to conduct full crown tooth preparation on head model dental simulators. The teeth prepared before and after demonstration were scored by Chinese Stomatological Association Group Standards, with a total score of 100 points. Analysis of covariance was performed to comparatively analyze the scores related to the tooth surfaces, and convergence angle between two groups. RESULTS: Analysis of two prepared teeth (tooth #11 and #16) in two groups showed that there was a statistical significant difference in the mean score between the control group and experimental group (tooth #11, P = 0.0039) (tooth #16, P = 0.0120).The demonstration of the tooth #16 showed that there were statistical significant differences in the scores related to buccolingual surface (P = 0.0205) and proximal surface (P = 0.0023) between the control group and experimental group; There was a statistical significant difference in the score related to the convergence angle of buccolingual surface between the control group and experimental group (P = 0.0265). CONCLUSION: The digital methods can effectively improve the quality of tooth preparations and has a pedagogical advantage for posterior teeth, which present greater operational challenges.

Perceptions and challenges of online teaching and learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in India: a cross-sectional study with dental students and teachers.

BACKGROUND: Online education has emerged as a crucial tool for imparting knowledge and skills to students in the twenty-first century, especially in developing nations like India, which previously relied heavily on traditional teaching methods. METHODS: This study delved into the perceptions and challenges experienced by students and teachers in the context of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from a sample of 491 dental students and 132 teachers utilizing a cross-sectional research design and an online-validated survey questionnaire. RESULTS: The study's findings revealed significant insights. Internet accessibility emerged as a major impediment for students, with online instruction proving more effective for theoretical subjects compared to practical ones. Although most teachers expressed comfort with online teaching, they highlighted the absence of classroom interaction as a significant challenge. CONCLUSION: This study comprehensively examines the perspectives of both students and teachers regarding online education during the pandemic. The results carry substantial implications for the academic community, underscoring the need to address internet access issues and explore ways to enhance engagement and interaction in online learning environments.

BioInstruct: instruction tuning of large language models for biomedical natural language processing.

OBJECTIVES: To enhance the performance of large language models (LLMs) in biomedical natural language processing (BioNLP) by introducing a domain-specific instruction dataset and examining its impact when combined with multi-task learning principles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We created the BioInstruct, comprising 25 005 instructions to instruction-tune LLMs (LLaMA 1 and 2, 7B and 13B version). The instructions were created by prompting the GPT-4 language model with 3-seed samples randomly drawn from an 80 human curated instructions. We employed Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) for parameter-efficient fine-tuning. We then evaluated these instruction-tuned LLMs on several BioNLP tasks, which can be grouped into 3 major categories: question answering (QA), information extraction (IE), and text generation (GEN). We also examined whether categories (eg, QA, IE, and generation) of instructions impact model performance. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Comparing with LLMs without instruction-tuned, our instruction-tuned LLMs demonstrated marked performance gains: 17.3% in QA on average accuracy metric, 5.7% in IE on average F1 metric, and 96% in Generation tasks on average GPT-4 score metric. Our 7B-parameter instruction-tuned LLaMA 1 model was competitive or even surpassed other LLMs in the biomedical domain that were also fine-tuned from LLaMA 1 with vast domain-specific data or a variety of tasks. Our results also show that the performance gain is significantly higher when instruction fine-tuning is conducted with closely related tasks. Our findings align with the observations of multi-task learning, suggesting the synergies between 2 tasks. CONCLUSION: The BioInstruct dataset serves as a valuable resource and instruction tuned LLMs lead to the best performing BioNLP applications.

The effects of supplemental instruction derived from peer leaders on student outcomes in undergraduate human anatomy.

Supplemental instruction (SI) confers student success, as represented by grades, knowledge retention, and student engagement. However, studies often report professional, not undergraduate, program findings. To measure these effects, students studying human anatomy at a university in Ontario, Canada, attended structured (peer-assisted) or unstructured (nonpeer-assisted) SI sessions and completed a pre-/post-survey. Fifty-eight learners (39 systems (SYS) and 19 musculoskeletal (MSK) anatomy) completed both surveys and had responses analyzed. Both cohorts, maintained initial perceptions across pre-/post-analyses (MSK p = 0.1376 and SYS p = 0.3521). Resource usage was similar across both cohorts with discrepancies in skeletal model and textbook use. No MSK learner ranked any lab resources as "not at all useful." MSK learners felt more prepared to write a graded assessment (p = 0.0269), whereas SYS learners did not (p = 0.0680). Stratification of learners in MSK and SYS revealed learners spending between 30 and 60 min in SI sessions during the study period had the highest grades compared to students who spent less than 30 (p = 0.0286) or more than 60 (p = 0.0286) min attending SI sessions, respectively. Most learners in MSK (89.4%) and SYS (66%) concluded that they preferred structured over unstructured SI. Sentiment/thematic analysis using a generative AI-driven large language model revealed learners held positive perceptions of SI, emphasizing structured learning, resources, personalized learning, and support offered as the most prevalent themes surrounding SI. Ultimately, this study provides evidence that supports SI for improving student outcomes related to perceived preparedness for completing assessments and preferred teaching/learning styles in undergraduate human anatomy.

A review of research on social studies instruction for students with intellectual disabilities.

The content of social studies encompasses various topics such as culture, citizenship, values, geography, and history. However, social studies has historically been an under-researched academic content area for students with intellectual disabilities. The aim of this study was to identify and summarize empirical research on social studies instruction for students with intellectual disabilities. We searched for articles in two electronic databases from 2000 to 2023. We applied seven inclusion criteria to 1709 articles that emerged in databases. A total of 13 empirical studies met the inclusion criteria. We conducted a narrative review across these 13 studies. Results showed that students with intellectual disabilities improved social studies skills through effective instructional strategies including graphic organizers, technology-based instruction, time delay, and task analysis. Also, social studies instruction for students with intellectual disabilities mostly focused on history and geography. We discussed the findings along with their limitations and provided recommendations for future research.

Instruction on the Scientific Method Provides (Some) Protection Against Illusions of Causality.

People tend to overestimate the efficacy of an ineffective treatment when they experience the treatment and its supposed outcome co-occurring frequently. This is referred to as the outcome density effect. Here, we attempted to improve the accuracy of participants' assessments of an ineffective treatment by instructing them about the scientific practice of comparing treatment effects against a relevant base-rate, i.e., when no treatment is delivered. The effect of these instructions was assessed in both a trial-by-trial contingency learning task, where cue administration was either decided by the participant (Experiments 1 & 2) or pre-determined by the experimenter (Experiment 3), as well as in summary format where all information was presented on a single screen (Experiment 4). Overall, we found two means by which base-rate instructions influence efficacy ratings for the ineffective treatment: 1) When information was presented sequentially, the benefit of base-rate instructions on illusory belief was mediated by reduced sampling of cue-present trials, and 2) When information was presented in summary format, we found a direct effect of base-rate instruction on reducing causal illusion. Together, these findings suggest that simple instructions on the scientific method were able to decrease participants' (over-)weighting of cue-outcome coincidences when making causal judgements, as well as decrease their tendency to over-sample cue-present events. However, the effect of base-rate instructions on correcting illusory beliefs was incomplete, and participants still showed illusory causal judgements when the probability of the outcome occurring was high. Thus, simple textual information about assessing causal relationships is partially effective in influencing people's judgements of treatment efficacy, suggesting an important role of scientific instruction in debiasing cognitive errors.

Construction and validation of an audio-visual tool to instruct caregivers of patients with pemphigus in photographing skin and oral cavity lesions during tele-consultation: A cross-sectional study.

Background Owing to the lack of standardised audio-visual (A-V) instructions to take photographs, patients with pemphigus faced difficulties during tele-consultation in COVID-19 pandemic. Objective To construct and validate an A-V instruction tool to take photographs of skin and oral cavity lesions of pemphigus. Methods In this observational study, we included patients with pemphigus of either gender seeking tele-consultation, aged 18 years or older. A-V instructions demonstrating skin and oral cavity photography were designed and shared with the patients. They were requested to send pictures of lesions that complied with the instructions. They were then required to complete a 10-item questionnaire for face validation in the two following rounds. The videos were content validated by 14 experts in the field of clinical dermatology. Results Forty-eight patients took part in face validation. A majority of patients, 47 (97.9%) and 45 (93.8%); rated the audio and video quality as being above average, respectively. Forty-seven patients (97.9%) said the instructional videos were useful, and 42 patients (87.5%) said they did not need to take any further images to show how severe their disease was. The average scale content validity index for the instructions on skin imaging and the oral cavity imaging during round 1 of content validation was 0.863 and 0.836, respectively. Limitation Validated instruction videos are in Hindi language and need to be further translated and validated in other local languages for use in non-Hindi speaking regions. Conclusion A-V instructions were useful to take photographs during tele-consultation.

The impact of genre-based instruction on Saudi university students' English writing performance and motivation: a mixed-method study.

Despite the important role motivation plays in students' writing learning and development, not much attention has been given to experimenting particular instructional techniques for developing students' writing motivation. One of the least researched teaching techniques in writing motivation studies is genre-based instruction. In this study, we examined the impact of genre-based instruction on 21 Saudi university students' English argumentative and classification essay writing performance and their writing motivation dimensions (writing apprehension, anxiety, self-efficacy and self-concept). Drawing upon the quasi-experimental research design and non-random sampling technique, we used genre-based instruction with a representative intact class of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writing students at a Saudi university. To examine the potential impact of the treatment, we collected pre- and post-instruction data, along with data gathered through an open-ended questionnaire. The results showed that genre-based instruction has contributed significantly to improving the students' writing performance and also their writing motivation dimensions. These positive gains varied from one writing quality aspect and motivational variable to another. The students' answers to the open-ended questionnaire also showed the positive writing learning and motivation improvements they experienced. It is generally concluded that developing students' language and rhetorical awareness and text composition performance seems to be a prerequisite for improving their writing motivation levels. The paper ends with discussing the implications of the results.

Postoperative Instruction Retention, Written Versus Audiovisual Adjuncts: A Prospective Randomized Study.

Purpose: Adherence to postoperative protocols is an integral perioperative intervention that impacts surgical outcomes. The focus of this study was to identify the baseline postoperative instruction retention of our traditional written format and compare that with the retention when using an audiovisual adjunct. We hypothesize that the addition of audiovisual adjuncts would result in greater patient retention of their postoperative instructions. Methods: Sixty consecutive adult patients undergoing soft tissue procedures of the hand and wrist were enrolled prospectively at a single institution. Patients were randomized to receive postoperative instructions with either a written or an audiovisual adjunct format. Two days after surgery, a blinded investigator contacted the participants to administer a standardized phone questionnaire. Responses were recorded, and the data were analyzed by another blinded team member. Analysis was performed using χ 2 and Student t tests as appropriate. Results: Fifty patients were included in the final analysis. The written group scored an average retention of 80%, whereas the audiovisual group showed a retention score of 85%. Demographic analysis of men versus women, and patients <60 versus >60 years of age did not demonstrate significant score differences. The subgroup analysis of patients receiving local anesthesia alone demonstrated significantly higher rates of percent correct and perfect recall in the audiovisual compared with the written-only group (87.5 vs 80.5 and 44% vs 7%, respectively). Conclusions: For patients undergoing common soft tissue procedures of the hand, the addition of audiovisual supplementation to written instructions, especially in those undergoing wide awake, local anesthesia, no tourniquet procedures, is associated with higher rates of retention of a patient's postoperative instructions. The specific improvement in the local anesthesia cohort is especially relevant today due to an increased prevalence of wide awake, local anesthesia, no tourniquet style procedures, and the increasing reliance on patient engagement in postoperative care. Type of study/level of evidence: Randomized control trial; Diagnostic Level 2b.

Clinical Physician Assistant Students' Perceptions of Evidence-Based Medicine Resources: A Cross-Sectional Examination.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) instruction is required for physician assistant (PA) students. As a follow-up to an initial didactic year survey, this study seeks to understand which attributes of EBM resources clinical PA students find most and least useful, their self-efficacy utilizing medical literature, and their usage of EBM tools in the clinic. Results indicate that students preferred UpToDate and PubMed. PA students valued ease of use, which can inform instructors and librarians. Respondents utilized EBM tools daily or a few days a week, underscoring the importance of EBM tools in real-world scenarios. After their clinical year, students felt moderately confident utilizing the medical literature, emphasizing EBM training.

Exploring challenges in academic language-related skills of EFL learners in Chinese EMI settings.

Chinese universities have placed increasing emphasis, on incorporating English as a medium of instruction (EMI) courses to enhance their competitiveness both nationally and internationally. However, the successful implementation of these courses requires learners to acquire content knowledge. To promote EMI courses, specific initiatives and policies have been put in place by universities reflecting a trend in the globalization of higher education and the growing demand for English proficiency in academic settings. Despite the attention given to education in Chinese society, many learners are not adequately prepared to overcome challenges associated with EMI classes. This leads to inefficiencies and drawbacks within the educational system. For instance, some learners struggle with understanding subject matter due to language barriers or encounter difficulties fully engaging with course materials because of language related challenges. This study aims to fill a significant research gap by providing a comprehensive exploration of the main challenges faced by learners in the Chinese EMI context and by highlighting the crucial contribution of EMI courses to China's higher education competitiveness internationally. By identifying factors and variables that can predict success in EMI contexts, particularly by studying learners' academic language-related skills as potential predictors of EMI success, this study offers novel insights into the impact of EMI courses on China's position in the global academic arena. A total of 361 male and female EFL learners participated in the study and completed the EMI Challenges Scale. The data analysis, including descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression, revealed that writing, reading, and listening skills significantly predicted success in EMI. Writing emerged as the best predictor, explaining 28.19 % of the variance in EMI success, followed by reading (19.54 %). The results of this study contribute to current debates on international affairs of higher education by not only illustrating the problems students face in EMI courses, but also providing important suggestions for improving the learning environment on EMI language in China. This leads to ongoing debates about the globalization of higher education and the need for English proficiency in academic settings. In addition, the results of this study are useful for teachers and policy makers; it emphasizes the importance of improving EMI learners' writing, reading, and listening skills in EMI learners to enhance their success in academic settings. In particular, they may consider implementing language development programs and provide EMI learners with additional support to improve their writing, reading and listening skills. This study also highlights the need for appropriate support and resources to address the specific language challenges faced by EMI students, paving the way for better instructional strategies and guidelines in Chinese EMI terms.

Concept-Focused and Procedure-Focused Instruction on the Algebra Performance of Grade 9 Students With and Without Mathematics Difficulty.

Developing both conceptual and procedural knowledge is important for students' mathematics competence. This study examined whether Grade 9 general education mathematics teachers' self-reported use of concept-focused instruction (CFI) and procedure-focused instruction (PFI) were associated differently with ninth graders' algebra achievement after 2.5 years, depending on students' mathematics difficulty (MD) status. Data for this study were drawn from the High School Longitudinal Study for the years 2009-2010 and 2011-2012 (N = 19,104). Multiple regression analyses indicated that students with MD who participated in Grade 9 mathematics classrooms where teachers self-reported the use of less CFI and more PFI were more positively associated with having higher algebra achievement after 2.5 years. Conversely, students without MD in classrooms where mathematics teachers self-reported the use of more CFI and less PFI were positively associated with having higher algebra achievement after 2.5 years. However, this study's findings do not suggest that teachers should disregard CFI and provide only PFI when teaching students with MD. Because the data set did not include any variable to discover whether teachers provided sufficient support (i.e., evidence-based practices) for students with MD, who have more constraints in their cognitive skills compared to students without MD, to benefit from CFI, the findings of this study should be interpreted cautiously. Directions for future research and practical implications are discussed.

Client's understanding of instructions for small animals in a veterinary neurological referral center.

BACKGROUND: It is not known how much information clients retrieve from discharge instructions. OBJECTIVE: To investigate client's understanding of discharge instructions and influencing factors. ANIMALS: Dogs and cats being hospitalized for neurological diseases. METHODS: Clients were presented questionnaires regarding their pet's disease, diagnostics, treatments, prognosis and discharge instructions at time of discharge and 2 weeks later. The same questions were answered by discharging veterinarians at time of discharge. Clients answered additional questions regarding the subjective feelings during discharge conversation. Data collected included: data describing discharging veterinarian (age, gender, years of clinical experience, specialist status), data describing the client (age, gender, educational status). Raw percentage of agreement (RPA) between answers of clinicians and clients as well as factors potentially influencing the RPA were evaluated. RESULTS: Of 230 clients being approached 151 (65.7%) and 70 (30.4%) clients responded to the first and second questionnaire, respectively (130 dog and 30 cat owners). The general RPA between clinician's and client's responses over all questions together was 68.9% and 66.8% at the 2 time points. Questions regarding adverse effects of medication (29.0%), residual clinical signs (35.8%), and confinement instructions (36.8%) had the lowest RPAs at the first time point. The age of clients (P = .008) negatively influenced RPAs, with clients older than 50 years having lower RPA. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Clients can only partially reproduce information provided at discharge. Only clients' increasing age influenced recall of information. Instructions deemed to be important should be specifically stressed during discharge.