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The complexity and broadening of competencies have led to a number of assessment frameworks that advocate for the use of rater judgment in direct observation of clinical performance. The degree to which these assessment processes produce scores that are valid, are therefore vitally dependent on a rater’s cognitive ability. A number of theories suggest that many of the cognitive structures needed to complete rating tasks are capacity limited and may therefore become a source of difficulty when rating demands exceed resources. This thesis explores the role of rating demands on the performance and behaviour of raters in the assessment of clinical competence and asks: in what way do rating demands associated with rating clinical performance affect rater performance and behaviour? I hypothesized that as rating demands increase, rating performance declines and raters engage in cognitive avoidance strategies in order to complete the task. I tested this hypothesis by manipulating intrinsic and extraneous sources of load for raters in the assessment of clinical performance. Results consistently demonstrated that intrinsic load, specifically broadening raters’ focus by increasing the number of dimensions to be considered simultaneously, negatively affected indicators of rating quality. However, extraneous demands failed to result in the same effect in 2 of 3 experiments. When we explored the cognitive strategies raters engage under high load conditions we learned of a number of strategies to reduce cognitive work, including idiosyncratically minimizing intrinsic demands (leading to poor inter-rater reliability) and active elimination of sources of extraneous load, explaining both findings. When we induced extraneous load in manner that could not be easily minimized by raters, we also found impairments in rater performance, specifically the provision of feedback. I conclude that rating demands, whether induced intrinsically or by extraneous sources, impair rater performance affecting both the utility of scores and the opportunity for learner development. Implications for health professions education and future directions are discussed. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In a time of expanding globalization and worldwide interconnectedness through the Internet, the need for a better understanding of diverse cultures has taken on a new urgency. One way people learn about cultures other than their own is through the news media. Yet journalists have long been criticized for their inability to represent the complexities of cultures. The concept of cultural competence has been used to enhance cultural understanding in a variety of professions, including health care, social work, psychology, business and public relations. This dissertation applied the concept of cultural competence to journalists, using as theoretical frameworks the social construction of reality and concepts related to social cognition. The study explored factors that contribute to or hinder the cultural competence of journalists, including multimedia journalistic practices that influence the cultural competence of reporters and their news coverage. To answer the research questions posed in this dissertation, an extensive case study was conducted in a multimedia journalism laboratory at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, in which student reporters produce news pieces about urban neighborhoods. The research involved 223 surveys, 28 observations of students reporting in the field, and 71 in-depth interviews with student reporters, news sources, neighborhood representatives, and lab professors. A textual analysis also was conducted of selected multimedia news packages produced by the student reporters. Five key factors were found to influence the cultural competence of journalists: awareness of self; awareness of the complexity of "insider" or "outsider" status; use of journalistic ethics, norms and routines; knowledge of the other, and skills and attributes that influence knowledge of the other. New multimedia journalistic practices were found to provide the potential to move journalists and their news texts toward more cultural competence. This study provides new meaning for what it means to be a journalist as one who dwells in the borderlands, occupying liminal spaces and promoting understanding over current norms of objectivity. This new meaning could be supported by journalism education programs that encourage future reporters to strive for a culturally competent approach to reporting and news production that promotes understanding for themselves and their audiences. / Mass Media and Communication

Low income, urban adolescents are at risk for reduced academic competence and achievement. One feature that may increase risk for decreased scholastic competence and achievement is temperamental shyness. Indeed, adolescents higher in shyness may have more limited social-cognitive and communication skills, and experience greater peer rejection and internalizing symptoms than youth who are less shy. Nevertheless, not all adolescents higher in shyness exhibit decreased academic competence, suggesting that contextual features, such as parent and teacher praise for higher achievement and punishment for lower achievement, may influence these relations. Parent and teacher praise for adolescent academic achievement may help youth higher in shyness to seek academic assistance from peers and teachers and modulate distress in the face of stressors (e.g., academic challenges). Among youth that are shyer, exposure to parent and teacher punishment (e.g., criticizing poor achievement) may provide insufficient encouragement to approach individuals for academic help, impede their confidence to master academic challenges, or increase their risk for internalizing symptoms. Higher shyness may increase vulnerability for impaired academic competence in the context of higher levels of punishment for poor achievement and lower levels of praise for excelling academically, consistent with the diathesis-stress model. However, adolescents that are shy may also benefit more from higher levels of praise and lower levels of punishment for achievement in terms of their academic competence than adolescents lower in shyness, consistent with the differential susceptibility hypothesis. Nevertheless, no research to date has explored this possibility. In the present study, I addressed whether (a) shyness and academic competence predict each other using a cross-lagged model, (b) parent or teacher praise and punishment for level of achievement and shyness concurrently and prospectively predict academic competence, (c) youth shyness moderates the relation between parent and teacher praise and punishment for achievement levels and academic competence, and (d) moderation findings are consistent with the diathesis-stress model or differential susceptibility hypothesis. Participants were 612 youth (54% male, 85% African American). In seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, youth reported on parent and teacher praise and punishment and academic competence, and completed achievement tests. Teachers and parents reported on youth shyness. Teacher-reported shyness was negatively associated with academic competence in each grade, respectively; seventh grade teacher-reported shyness positively predicted eighth grade academic competence. Seventh grade academic competence negatively predicted eighth grade parent- and teacher-reported shyness, and eighth grade academic competence only positively predicted ninth grade teacher-reported shyness. Seventh and eighth grade praise was negatively associated with seventh and eighth grade academic competence, respectively, whereas seventh grade praise positively predicted eighth grade academic competence. Seventh, eighth, and ninth grade punishment was positively associated with academic competence in each grade, whereas seventh and eighth grade punishment negatively predicted ninth grade youth academic competence. None of the parent- or teacher-reported shyness and praise and punishment interactions predicted academic competence. Thus, results were not consistent with either the diathesis-stress model or differential susceptibility hypothesis. These findings highlight the importance of considering multiple informants of shyness and considering parent and teacher behaviors that may influence the academic competence among low income, urban youth. / Psychology

One of the fundamental concerns of developmental psychology is the nature of continuity and change across development. The present study investigated the continuity of social competence across developmental periods, paying special attention to the transition from middle childhood to adolescence. Using a birth cohort of youths (277 males, 315 females), I examined the stability of social competence across developmental periods, assessed the relation between quality of early parenting and later competence, and tested how timing of pubertal maturation and school transition impact the stability of social competence, using both variable-centered and person-centered analyses. It was expected that social competence would be highly stable across development, but less stable across the transition to adolescence, and that higher quality parenting would predict greater competence among males and females. Furthermore, I expected that pubertal maturation and school transition would deflect trajectories of social competence over time, accentuating individual differences (e.g., socially competent youths would become more competent, whereas incompetent youths would become less competent). As expected, the nature of social competence was fairly stable from early childhood to adolescence, although there is evidence that social competence is less stable as youth transition from early childhood to middle childhood and from middle childhood to adolescence. Moreover, individuals with warm parenting evinced greater social competence across time. Consistent with my hypothesis, off-time pubertal maturation and school transition accentuated individual differences in social competence, increasing social competence among more competent youths, and further diminishing social competence among less competent youths. Finally, I find evidence that experiencing both off-time pubertal maturation and a school transition simultaneously incurred more risk for females, particularly among less competent females, than experiencing only off-time maturation or a school transition. / Psychology

Background: There are professional expectations for public health nurses to engage in and develop competencies in evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM). The purpose of this research study was to develop and psychometrically test a measure to assess competence in EIDM among public health nurses. Methods: Guided by the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 2014), a three stage study was employed to develop and psychometrically evaluate the new self-report EIDM Competence Measure: 1) Stage one: a systematic review of existing measures assessing four EIDM competence attributes of knowledge, skills, attitudes/beliefs, and behaviours; 2) Stage two: item development for the EIDM Competence Measure comprised of four subscales (knowledge, skills, attitudes/beliefs, and behaviours); and 3) Stage three: psychometric testing (reliability, validity, acceptability) which included item reduction from an original 40-item to a final 27-item tool. Results: The EIDM Competence Measure consists of 27 items aligning with a four-factor model of EIDM knowledge, skills, attitudes/beliefs, and behaviours establishing internal structure validity. Cronbach’s alpha for these four factors was 0.96, 0.93, 0.80, and 0.94, respectively. Significant associations between EIDM competence subscale scores and education, EIDM training/project involvement, and organizational culture established validity based on relationships to other variables. For the original 40-item tool, missing data was minimal as 93% of participants completed all items and mean completion time was 7 minutes and 20 seconds. Conclusions: The EIDM Competence Measure is a conceptually and psychometrically robust instrument that has potential for use in public health nursing practice. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Nurses who work in public health have professional expectations to participate in evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM). Because of this, it is important to measure how competent they are in EIDM. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a tool that measures EIDM competence among public health nurses using a three-stage study. The first stage involved reviewing literature on existing tools that measure different components of EIDM competence including EIDM knowledge, skills, attitudes/beliefs, and behaviours among nurses. The second stage involved using existing tool items and developing new items for a new tool named the EIDM Competence Measure. In the third stage, the EIDM Competence Measure was tested to assess its validity, reliability, and acceptability among public health nurses in Ontario. The EIDM Competence Measure was found to have strong validity, reliability, and acceptability, showing that there is potential for its use in public health nursing practice.

The purpose of this research survey is to investigate how the extramural English that primary-school pupils, grades 4-6, devote their leisure time to - playing games, listening to music, surfing the web and watching TV – may affect their performance of English in school. The study also investigates research about the teachers’ role in the pupils’ development of English proficiency. The research that I review in this essay shows that extramural English has positive effects on the pupils’ learning in school. The results also show that it is important for teachers to base their teaching on the pupils’ prior knowledge of, and interest in, English. In this way, teachers can help increase the pupils’ motivation to learn more English. How teachers encourage pupils to learn is also examined, to a limited extent, in this study, particularly how they make pupils take responsibility for their own language learning.

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