This forum explores and expands on Ben-Zvi Assaraf, Eshach, Orion, and Alamour's article titled "Cultural Differences and Students' Spontaneous Models of the Water Cycle: A Case Study of Jewish and Bedouin Children in Israel" by examining how indigenous knowledge is appropriated in science classrooms; how students from indigenous students'…

This review explores Ben-Zvi Assaraf, Eshach, Orion, and Alamour's paper titled "Cultural Differences and Students' Spontaneous Models of the Water Cycle: A Case Study of Jewish and Bedouin Children in Israel" by examining how the authors use the concept of spontaneous mental models to explain cultural knowledge source of Bedouin children's mental…

We review "Key Works in Critical Pedagogy: Joe L. Kincheloe" edited by Kecia Hayes, Shirley R. Steinberg and Kenneth Tobin, which gathers the seminal works of Joe. L. Kincheloe and pairs them with contemporary scholars who respond to and push forward Kincheloe's work. The chapters of "Key Works in Critical Pedagogy" are arranged to begin with…

This paper is a response to Maria Andree's paper. Andree tells in the paper how mistakes in practical lessons may be critical events to change students' attitudes in regard science. While traditionally mistakes in practical lessons could obligate students to repeat the experiment in order to get the "right result" in the paper we have a good…

It has become axiomatic that assessment impacts powerfully on student learning. However, surprisingly little research has been published emanating from authentic higher education settings about the nature and mechanism of the pre-assessment learning effects of summative assessment. Less still emanates from health sciences education settings. This…

At our medical college many students have lower ratings in their clinical performance once they start their clinical years (third year). This is contrary to their results in other written exams. Some students demonstrate better clinical performance. We used the six-step Positive Deviance (PD) Conceptual Framework to identify and disseminate the…

Until now, positive effects of assessment at a medical curriculum level have not been demonstrated. This study was performed to determine whether an interim assessment, taken during a small group work session of an ongoing biomedical course, results in students' increased performance at the formal course examination. A randomized controlled trial…

Communication is an important area in health professional education curricula, however it has been dealt with as discrete skills that can be learned and taught separate to the underlying thinking. Communication of clinical reasoning is a phenomenon that has largely been ignored in the literature. This research sought to examine how experienced…

Despite limited data on patient outcomes, simulation training has already been adopted and embraced by a large number of medical schools. Yet widespread acceptance of simulation should not relieve us of the duty to demonstrate if, and under which circumstances, training learners on simulation benefits real patients. Here we review the data on…

In order to improve the understanding of educational needs among residents caring for the critically ill, narrative accounts of 19 senior physician trainees participating in level of care decision-making were analyzed. In this multicentre qualitative study involving 9 university centers in Canada, in-depth interviews were conducted in either…

Self-appraisal has repeatedly been shown to be inadequate as a mechanism for performance improvement. This has placed greater emphasis on understanding the processes through which self-perception and external feedback interact to influence professional development. As feedback is inevitably interpreted through the lens of one's self-perceptions it…

Undergraduate medical education is too long; it does not meet the needs for physicians' workforce; and its content is inconsistent with the job characteristics of some of its graduates. In this paper we attempt to respond to these problems by streamlining medical education along the following three reforms. First, high school graduates would be…

Context specificity, or the variation in a participant's performance from one case, or situation, to the next, is a recognized problem in medical education. However, studies have not explored the potential reasons for context specificity in experts using the lens of situated cognition and cognitive load theories (CLT). Using these theories, we…

While clinical exams using SPs are used extensively across the medical schools for summative purposes and high-stakes decisions, the method of identifying students for remediation varies widely and there is a lack of consensus on the best methodological approach. The purpose of this study is to provide an alternative approach to identification of…

Although other web-based approaches to assessment of professional behaviour have been studied, no publications studying the potential advantages of a web-based instrument versus a classic, paper-based method have been published to date. This study has two research goals: it focuses on the quantity and quality of comments provided by students and…