Writing on the board as students' preferred teaching modality in a physiology course

Animal sciences undergraduate education since the ASAS centennial: a national survey and scoping review

The rapid pace of advancement in animal sciences is drastically changing conditions for undergraduate teaching and learning in the discipline. Shortly after the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) centennial, we conducted a national survey of 90 faculty instructors from 49 academic institutions to assess their perceptions of emerging teaching topics. Participants rated 18 learning outcomes (LO) and 16 types of courses and experiences (CE) with respect to their importance and the adequacy of available offerings. This study presents the results of the survey along with a scoping review of animal sciences teaching and learning publications since 2008 (n = 71). Results indicated that discipline-specific competencies and core experiential learning remain central to animal sciences teaching and identified several distinct needs for research. Namely, we suggest that future research in animal sciences teaching and learning 1) develop animal-science-specific expertise on a greater variety of pedagogies, 2) validate improved methods for assessing transferable skills, 3) expand pedagogical knowledge of emerging topics (e.g., sustainability, data science, welfare science, social science), and 4) deepen and broaden animal sciences’ teaching and learning identity through theory-building work and collaborations across instructors, disciplines, and institutions.

What Is Meant by "Multimodal Therapy" for Aphasia?

Purpose Multimodal therapy is a frequent term in aphasia literature, but it has no agreed upon definition. Phrases such as "multimodal therapy" and "multimodal treatment" are applied to a range of aphasia interventions as if mutually understood, and yet, the interventions reported in the literature differ significantly in methodology, approach, and aims. This inconsistency can be problematic for researchers, policy makers, and clinicians accessing the literature and potentially compromises data synthesis and meta-analysis. A literature review was conducted to examine what types of aphasia treatment are labeled multimodal and determine whether any patterns are present. Method A systematic search was conducted to identify literature pertaining to aphasia that included the term multimodal therapy (and variants). Sources included literature databases, dissertation databases, textbooks, professional association websites, and Google Scholar. Results Thirty-three original articles were identified, as well as another 31 sources referring to multimodal research, all of which used a variant of the term multimodal therapy. Treatments had heterogeneous aims, underlying theories, and methods. The rationale for using more than 1 modality was not always clear, nor was the reason each therapy was considered to be multimodal when similar treatments had not used the title. Treatments were noted to differ across 2 key features. The 1st was whether the ultimate aim of intervention was to improve total communication, as in augmentative and alternative communication approaches, or to improve 1 specific modality, as when gesture is used to improve word retrieval. The 2nd was the point in the treatment that the nonspeech modalities were employed. Discussion Our review demonstrated that references to "multimodal" treatments represent very different therapies with little consistency. We propose a framework to define and categorize multimodal treatments, which is based both on our results and on current terminology in speech-language pathology. Video Abstract and Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7646717.

Social media interruption affects the acquisition of visually, not aurally, acquired information during a pathophysiology lecture

Poor academic performance from extensive social media usage appears to be due to students' inability to multitask between distractions and academic work. However, the degree to which visually distracted students can acquire lecture information presented aurally is unknown. This study examined the ability of students visually distracted by social media to acquire information presented during a voice-over PowerPoint lecture, and to compare performance on examination questions derived from information presented aurally vs. that presented visually. Students ( n = 20) listened to a 42-min cardiovascular pathophysiology lecture containing embedded cartoons while taking notes. The experimental group ( n = 10) was visually, but not aurally, distracted by social media during times when cartoon information was presented, ~40% of total lecture time. Overall performance among distracted students on a follow-up, open-note quiz was 30% poorer than that for controls ( P < 0.001). When the modality of presentation (visual vs. aural) was compared, performance decreased on examination questions from information presented visually. However, performance on questions from information presented aurally was similar to that of controls. Our findings suggest the ability to acquire information during lecture may vary, depending on the degree of competition between the modalities of the distraction and the lecture presentation. Within the context of current literature, our findings also suggest that timing of the distraction relative to delivery of material examined affects performance more than total distraction time. Therefore, when delivering lectures, instructors should incorporate organizational cues and active learning strategies that assist students in maintaining focus and acquiring relevant information.

Implementation of a “Flipped Classroom” for Neurosurgery Resident Education

Introduction: Engaging residents across a multiyear training spectrum is challenging given the heterogeneity of experience and limited time available for educational activities. A “flipped classroom” model, in which residents prepare ahead of time for mentored topic discussions, has potential advantages. Methods: We implemented a curriculum consisting of topics distributed across the specialty. Weekly, each resident was randomly assigned to research a specific aspect of an assigned topic appropriate to his or her level of experience: junior residents about what characterizes each clinical entity, midlevel residents about when to intervene, and chief residents about how to administer treatment. Residents completed an anonymous survey 6 months after implementation. Board examination performance was assessed before and after implementation. Results: A total of 12 residents participated in the program. Weekly, 1.75±0.40 hours were spent in preparation, with senior residents reporting less time than junior residents. All residents indicated that the accumulation of experience across 7 years of residency was a major advantage of this program, and all preferred it to lectures. Performance on the board examination significantly increased after implementation (from 316±36 to 468±45, p<0.05). Conclusions: The flipped classroom is a viable approach to resident education and is associated with increased engagement and improved performance using validated knowledge-assessment tools.