Abstract Background People with epilepsy and mild intellectual disability have a limited adaptive capacity resulting in difficulties in communication and social skills. Virtual Reality (VR) has the potential to help this group of people to learn how to manage difficult situations. SEIN (Expertise Center for Epilepsy) provides training to the residents to improve their social and communication skills. The purpose of the exploratory study was to establish whether VR could be a suitable digital means to provide a more efficient blended training. Methods Online interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals from SEIN: two coordinators, three psychologists and two coaches. The participants were asked about their ideas for improving the social skills of the residents and their view on using VR to do so. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis approach. In addition, observations were conducted during a training session to get a realistic sense of its process and contents. Observations were noted in a logbook. Findings The participants are positive to use VR in the training but point out that it is not suitable for all the residents. VR glasses were ruled out because it put the resident alone in a virtual setting. VR with a tablet is preferred to allow the residents and the healthcare professional to simultaneously view 3D simulated situations and allowing opportunities to talk about it. The development of VR contents and simulations using tablet will need to take into account relevant VR guidelines dedicated to people with epilepsy. Appropriate training for the healthcare professionals also needs to be provided. Conclusions The use of Virtual Reality in training programs to improve communication and social skills of adults with intellectual disabilities and epilepsy is promising, We advocate to utilize user-centered design and co-creation approaches with all concerned parties for further development of tablet-based VR solutions
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Universal school-based social-emotional learning (SEL) programs target several social-emotional skills assuming a relationship between the skills and psychosocial health outcomes. However, greater insight into the relationship is required to clarify the skills that are most crucial to address. It will support the development and refinement of SEL programs. This study investigated (1) the relationship among the social-emotional skills, (2) the association between the skills and psychosocial health variables, and (3) the mediating effect of the skills on psychosocial variables. Results: There was a high degree of overlap between the five skills (self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making). The skills were univariately associated with emotional-behavioral difficulties and prosocial behavior. In the multivariate model, self-management most strongly correlated with emotional-behavioral difficulties and mediated the relationship between self-awareness and emotional-behavioral difficulties. Social awareness showed the highest correlation with prosocial behavior and mediated the relationship between prosocial behavior and three other skills: self-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
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The importance of professional skills in future engineering jobs is beyond discussion. Increasing numbers of universities have integrated training for such skills in their engineering curricula to prepare students to become highly qualified employees. HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht also implemented professional skills training in the IT Bachelor program to help our students develop towards successful and highly demanded IT engineers. However, these courses consistently score low in our student satisfaction surveys. To find the cause of this negative evaluation, we previously studied the motivation, attitude and anxiety of IT students towards learning soft, or professional, skills. This former quantitative study indicates that our IT students tend to have a positive motivation and attitude toward learning professional skills, while ’anxiety’ in learning professional skills increases from the first to the third year. In this qualitative study, we try to find causes for the increasing anxiety among IT students. We interviewed six third and fourth year IT students and after analysing these interviews we found that these students have experienced the need for professional skills during their internship. Besides, they emphasize the need of obtaining these skills for future employment. From the analysis of the interviews, it also appears that IT students rather felt difficulty in obtaining communication skills then anxiety. A possible cause for this difficulty mentioned by students was the character of students and the influence of the teacher. To overcome this difficulty obtaining communication skills, students suggested that training skills in an authentic engineering situation is more effective than doing exercises with simulated cases. However, the results of this study did not yield a conclusive insight in the cause of increased anxiety, hence further research is needed.
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afstudeerscriptie van studente Psychologie Yasmin Gharavi gepubliceerd in BMC Psychiatry: Background: Family members who care for patients with severe mental illness experience emotional distress and report a higher incidence of mental illness than those in the general population. They report feeling inadequately prepared to provide the necessary practical and emotional support for these patients. The MAT training, an Interaction- Skills Training program (IST) for caregivers, was developed to meet those needs. This study used a single-arm pretestposttest design to examine the impact of the training on caregivers’ sense of competence (self-efficacy) and burden.
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Mentor teachers need a versatile supervisory skills repertoire. Besides taking the prevalent role of daily advisor and instructor, mentor teachers should also be able to stimulate reflection in student teachers. Video recordings were analyzed of 60 mentoring dialogues, both before and after a mentor teacher training aiming at developing the encourager role. Mentor teachers' repertoires of supervisory skills were found to consist of an average of seven supervisory skills. After training, a shift was observed in the frequencies and duration with which supervisory skills were used. Although considerable inter-individual variability existed between mentor teachers, training positively affected the use of supervisory skills for stimulating reflection in student teachers.
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Purpose: To evaluate the effects of a combination of wheelchair mobility skills (WMS) training and exercise training on physical activity (PA), WMS, confidence in wheelchair mobility, and physical fitness. Methods: Youth using a manual wheelchair (n = 60) participated in this practice-based intervention, with a waiting list period (16 weeks), exercise training (8 weeks), WMS training (8 weeks), and follow-up (16 weeks). Repeated measures included: PA (Activ8), WMS (Utrecht Pediatric Wheelchair Mobility Skills Test), confidence in wheelchair mobility (Wheelchair Mobility Confidence Scale), and physical fitness (cardiorespiratory fitness, (an)aerobic performance) and were analysed per outcome parameter using a multilevel model analyses. Differences between the waiting list and training period were determined with an unpaired sample t-test. Results: Multilevel model analysis showed significant positive effects for PA (p = 0.01), WMS (p < 0.001), confidence in wheelchair mobility (p < 0.001), aerobic (p < 0.001), and anaerobic performance (p < 0.001). Unpaired sample t-tests underscored these effects for PA (p < 0.01) and WMS (p < 0.001). There were no effects on cardiorespiratory fitness. The order of training (exercise before WMS) had a significant effect on confidence in wheelchair mobility. Conclusions: A combination of exercise and WMS training appears to have significant positive long-term effects on PA, WMS, confidence in wheelchair mobility, and (an)aerobic performance in youth using a manual wheelchair.Implications for rehabilitationExercise training and wheelchair mobility skills (WMS) training can lead to a sustained improvement in physical activity (PA) in youth using a manual wheelchair.These combined trainings can also lead to a sustained increase in WMS, confidence in wheelchair mobility, and (an)aerobic performance.More attention is needed in clinical practice and in research towards improving PA in youth using a manual wheelchair.
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Welke concrete veranderingen hebben plaatsgevonden op het werk en welke 21st century skills zijn of worden essentieel om het werk te kunnen blijven uitvoeren? Deze vraag stelden lectoren Petra Biemans (Hogeschool Inholland) en Ellen Sjoer (De Haagse Hogeschool) zichzelf. Het antwoord op deze vraag is te vinden in het boek ‘Werk verandert. 21st century skills in de praktijk'. Spelen onderwijsinstellingen voldoende en tijdig in op de vaardigheden die toekomstbestendige werknemers en ondernemers nodig hebben? Of krijgen studenten zodra ze de arbeidsmarkt betreden een cultuurshock omdat het onderwijs achterblijft? Hoe en welke van de 21st century skills effectief in het onderwijs geïmplementeerd kunnen worden vereist volgens de lectoren nog vervolgonderzoek.
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Background Differing perspectives of self-harm may result in a struggle between patients and treatment staff. As a consequence, both sides have difficulty communicating effectively about the underlying problems and feelings surrounding self-harm. Between 2009 and 2011, a programme was developed and implemented to train mental health care staff (nurses, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and occupational therapists) in how to communicate effectively with and care for patients who self-harm. An art exhibition focusing on self-harm supported the programme. Lay experts in self-harm, i.e. people who currently harm themselves, or who have harmed themselves in the past and have the skills to disseminate their knowledge and experience, played an important role throughout the programme. Methods Paired sample t-tests were conducted to measure the effects of the training programme using the Attitude Towards Deliberate Self-Harm Questionnaire, the Self-Perceived Efficacy in Dealing with Self-Harm Questionnaire, and the Patient Contact Questionnaire. Effect sizes were calculated using r. Participants evaluated the training programme with the help of a survey. The questionnaires used in the survey were analysed descriptively. Results Of the 281 persons who followed the training programme, 178 completed the questionnaires. The results show a significant increase in the total scores of the three questionnaires, with large to moderate effect sizes. Respondents were positive about the training, especially about the role of the lay expert. Conclusion A specialised training programme in how to care for patients who self-harm can result in a more positive attitude towards self-harm patients, an improved self-efficacy in caring for patients who self-harm, and a greater closeness with the patients. The deployment of lay experts is essential here
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The aim of this study is to clarify how pre-service teachers perceive mentor teachers' use of mentoring skills. Sixty stimulated-recall interviews were conducted, each in connection with a previously recorded mentoring dialogue. A quantitative analysis showed that six types of mentoring skills appeared to be perceived by pre-service teachers as offering emotional support and five others as offering task assistance. After mentor teachers were trained in mentoring skills, shifts in their frequencies of use of distinct skills, as observed by independent raters, corresponded to a considerable extent with shifts in frequencies of pre-service teacher perceptions of mentor teachers' mentoring behaviour.
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This paper reports on the EU-project 'Professionally Networking Education and Teacher Training' (PRONETT). The key objective of the PRONETT project (2001-2004) is to develop a regional and cross national learning community of pre- and in-service teachers and teacher educators supported by webbased resources and tools to collaborate and to construct shared understandings of teaching and learning in a networked classroom. The reasons for the initiative and the design principles of the PRONETT portal offering a virtual infrastructure for the collaboration of participating students and teachers at www.PRONETT.org are presented. The initial pilots carried out by the project partners are described, highlighting the co-ordinating partners activities targeted at contributing to the local realisation of ICT-rich, competence based Teacher Education Provision. Results are reported of the evaluation and implementation efforts aimed at validating the original portal design and collecting information to inspire further project development and implementation strategies. We conclude by summarising the lessons learned and providing recommendations for improved and extended use and further dissemination of the project results and facilities.
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