Global health is an emerging concern in a rapidly changing world in which health issues transcend international borders. This study developed and validated a new self-report questionnaire to assess self-perceived global health competencies among international medical students and how they are influenced by international clinical experiences. A tool consisted of two scales and four subscales with moderate internal consistency. Comparisons between participants who completed retrospective pretest (after the intervention retrospectively) and those who completed traditional pretest (before the intervention) revealed that those participants who completed the questionnaires retrospectively provided lower pretest scores, suggesting that response-shift bias had occurred. Significant increases in scores after international clinical experience were reported for the majority of global health competency measures in IFMSA group. Linear regression identified participant’s age, gross national income (GNI) of country of medical studies, GNI of the country visited, duration of international clinical experience and years of medical school completed, as significant predictors of global health scores. This study contributes valuable information about the newly developed global health competencies measurement tool.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the current and pre-service conditions that can affect student teachers' preparedness to pass the science portion of the EC-6 Texas Examinations for Educator Standards (TExES), one of the mandatory certification exam to become a teacher in Texas. Two types of prediction models were employed in this study: binomial logistic regression and multiple linear regression. The independent variables used in this study were: final grade in BIOL 1082, classification of students, transfer status, taken college biology, taken college chemistry, taken college physics, taken college environmental science, taken college earth science, attending college part-time, number of credits taken during the semester, first-generation college student, relatives with degree in education, and current GPA. The dependent variable of this study was the posttest score on science portion of the EC-6 TExES practice exam. A total of 170 preservice teachers participated this study. This study used students enrolled in BIOL 1082, who volunteered to take a Biology for Educators QualtricsTM survey and the EC-6 TExES practice exam in a pretest (start of semester) and posttest (end of semester) form. The findings of this study revealed that the single best predictor of preservice teachers' performance on the science portion of EC-6 TExES practice certification examination was the Grade in BIOL 1082.

This thesis deals with the study of skill sets which the students acquired prior to attending the Faculty of Education at Charles University, specifically the Department of Chemistry and Chemistry Education, and how their knowledge of the subject improved after attending the Chemistry Calculations course, specifically in the 2020/2021 winter semester. In the first part of this thesis, where the theoretical standpoints are established, the thesis deals with the research of chemistry calculations wherein, for example, the students' issues regarding these calculations are outlined. Additionally, this part includes the includes the position of chemical calculations inside curriculum documents (RVP ZV, RVP G and RVP SOV) and how they are accepted and used directly in elementary and high schools. The second, practical, part studies the students' ability to solve chemical calculations after attending high school. The study was carried out by entrance exams. Not only was the success rate observed, but also the reasons of success or failure were examined. In the subsequent section of the study, a similar entrance exam was given out to students who have attended the Chemistry Calculations course, which delivered insight into whether the course improved the knowledge of the students on this subject. All...

The currently available distribution-free confidence interval for a difference of medians in a within-subjects design requires an unrealistic assumption of identical distribution shapes. A confidence interval for a general linear function of medians is proposed for within-subjects designs that do not assume identical distribution shapes. The proposed method can be combined with a method for linear functions of independent medians to provide a confidence interval for a linear function of medians in mixed designs. Simulation results show that the proposed methods have good small-sample properties under a wide range of conditions. The proposed methods are illustrated with examples, and R functions that implement the new methods are provided.

abstract: Methods to test hypotheses of mediated effects in the pretest-posttest control group design are understudied in the behavioral sciences (MacKinnon, 2008). Because many studies aim to answer questions about mediating processes in the pretest-posttest control group design, there is a need to determine which model is most appropriate to test hypotheses about mediating processes and what happens to estimates of the mediated effect when model assumptions are violated in this design. The goal of this project was to outline estimator characteristics of four longitudinal mediation models and the cross-sectional mediation model. Models were compared on type 1 error rates, statistical power, accuracy of confidence interval coverage, and bias of parameter estimates. Four traditional longitudinal models and the cross-sectional model were assessed. The four longitudinal models were analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) using pretest scores as a covariate, path analysis, difference scores, and residualized change scores. A Monte Carlo simulation study was conducted to evaluate the different models across a wide range of sample sizes and effect sizes. All models performed well in terms of type 1 error rates and the ANCOVA and path analysis models performed best in terms of bias and empirical power. The difference score, residualized change score, and cross-sectional models all performed well given certain conditions held about the pretest measures. These conditions and future directions are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2015

Thesis TITLE: The Psárský forest in the district of Prague - West as a location of school science excursion AUTHOR: Bc. Michala Prokopcová DEPARTMENT: Department of Biology and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Education, Charles University SUPERVISOR: doc. RNDr. Vasilis Teodoridis, Ph.D. ABSTRACT The aim of the thesis is to examine the Psárský forest locality in the Prague-West region as regards its suitability for a school science excursion. The principal objective of the thesis was to prepare and take a comprehensive science excursion to Psárský forest and verify its educational efficiency for pupils of lower secondary school grades by means of pedagogical research. The research was carried out through didactical tests comparing the initial knowledge before the excursion (pretest) and acquired knowledge after the excursion (posttest). The didactical concept of the science excursion to Psárský forest was elaborated in accordance with the key aspects of the field biology didactics and based on complex evaluation of the fields of interest for the excursion planned to become a basis for the excursion contents and selection of suitable places for excursion activities. In addition to this, subsequent research via the attitude questionnaire to identify the excursions benefits within natural science education from...

政治知識之於民主社會有其重要性，在政治學界中與政治知識相關的研究產出相當豐富，研究者利用政治知識此一變數進行相關研究前，對於題目如何選定、選項如何提供、題型的差異都是研究者需要去關注的重點，而本文主要的研究目的即是聚焦於討論何種題型更適合用來測量民眾的政治知識。 目前國內測量政治知識的問卷題型較為常見的為開放題與選擇題題型，在這兩類題型的討論上，前者被認為會低估受訪者政治知識程度，後者的測量結果則被質疑提供猜題空間導致高估了受訪者的政治知識程度，然而目前國內外卻缺乏足夠的實證研究來證明這兩個題型的適用性。 本文採用具有實驗設計性質的二手資料，利用前後測的方式讓受測者填答相同題目不同題型的問卷，藉此檢視各種知識程度的受測者在面對不同題型時是否會產生回應模式上的差異。本研究發現，開放題會使得較高政治知識程度的受訪者被低估，選擇題反而能準確測量出此類受訪者的知識程度。為了進一步證實受訪者在偏難的題目上所增加的猜題比例並非是來自於盲猜，本文採用多項機率單元模型來檢視受訪者於於選擇題選擇各個答項的機率。研究發現，儘管選擇題無法避免受訪者猜題，但受訪者並非是盲猜，反而會根據其具有的知識依據來答題，故政治知識程度高的受訪者能採用猜題方式答對題目，政治知識低的受訪者無法利用猜題方式猜中答案。整體而言，選擇題比起開放題更適合用來測量民眾的政治知識。 / Political knowledge plays an important role in the democratic society, and therefore there has been much research on political knowledge in the discipline of political science. To study political knowledge, political scientists have to understand the way of questions and options presented, and also the differences between a variety of question formats. This paper aims to analyze which question format is better for measuring the political knowledge of the public. The open-ended and multiple-choice items are both common formats for measuring political knowledge in Taiwan. The open-ended question is always considered to underestimate the respondents’ level of political knowledge, while the multiple-choice format is thought of overestimating the levels of political knowledge for providing the respondents with opportunity to guess. However, a strong evidence to decide the most suitable format for the measurement of political knowledge is still lacking. This paper uses the secondary data which is collected by a pretest-posttest questionnaire to examine whether guessing behavior will emerge or not when the respondents facing the same question with different formats. This research finds that open-ended questions underestimate the respondents’ knowledge levels who has higher level of political knowledge originally, but the multiple-choice questions can estimate the levels more accurately. To further confirm that the higher guess proportions in the more difficult questions are not resulted from the blind guessing, the study examines the probabilities of options selected by Multinomial Probit Model. The research finds that though the respondents may have guess more in multiple-choice question, however, they tend to answer the questions based on their knowledge instead of blind guessing. Therefore, the respondents who have higher levels of political knowledge can guess correctly, while those who have lower levels of political knowledge cannot. In summary, the multiple-choice questions are more suitable to measure people’s political knowledge.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of THRASS (Teaching Handwriting, Reading and Spelling Skills) on the word level accuracy skills of a group of grade 2 learners. Word level accuracy is one sub skill in learning to read and is an indicator of the word recognition abilities of the child. THRASS is a program that has been designed to systematically teach phonics and, thus, teaches the basic building blocks of word sounds and structure so as to improve the child’s decoding ability and word recognition ability. The research took place within the positivist paradigm and the methodology is quantitative in nature. The data collection method took the form of a one group pretest-posttest design, where a standardised reading test was administered prior to exposing the participants to the THRASS Program and then readministered one year later on the same group of learners. Data analysis took the form of statistical analysis to investigate any statistical significant difference in the word level accuracy skills of those Grade 2 learners. The result showed that over the period of a year the average reading accuracy age for the target population increased by four months. However, after statistical analysis the difference was not statistically significant. The Null Hypothesis that; exposing a group of Grade 2 learners to the THRASS Program for a period of one year will have no statistically significant influence on their word level accuracy skills cannot be rejected . However, the changes both in average reading accuracy as well as error patterns have inspired recommendations for further research. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

The diploma thesis is focused on the didactic use of the educational trail through the Elbe Valley for students of the 2nd grade of elementary school. The main goal of the thesis was to create a topic for the practical use of the existing educational trail through the Elbe Valley and at the same time to prove that excursion as an organizational form of teaching is thanks to its versatility an effective tool in the process of education and despite many difficulties to implement it it is worth the effort. The theoretical part includes the characteristics of the educational trail and its surroundings, the purpose, function and organization of the excursion and the inclusion of the science excursion in the Framework Educational Programmes of Basic Education. The second part of the thesis is a research - it contains a description of the author's worksheet and testing methods, i.e. pretest/posttest and attitude questionnaire. These were used on a pilot group of elementary school students participating in the excursion. The results of the survey show that the excursion can be perceived as an effective and at the same time popular form of teaching, through which it is possible to increase the effectiveness of teaching science at elementary school. Their validity is affected by a small number of...

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