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PubMed2001

Ability grouping in secondary schools: effects on pupils' self-concepts.

BACKGROUND: Current pressure on secondary schools to increase ability grouping has raised concerns about the impact of setting on pupils' self-concepts. Evidence from previous research is conflicting. A multidimensional measure and multilevel modelling promise to clarify the effects. AIMS: This paper aims to examine the effects of structured ability grouping on year 9 pupils' self-concepts. SAMPLES: The sample comprises over 3000 year 9 pupils (aged 13-14 years) in 45 mixed secondary comprehensive schools in England. The schools represent three levels of ability grouping in the lower school (years 7 to 9). METHODS: Pupils responded to a multidimensional self-concept scale measuring academic and general facets of the self-concept. Measures of attainment were collected in English, mathematics and science. Multilevel modelling was used to examine the effect of the type of school on the general facets of the pupils' self-concept and the effects of setting in each curriculum subject on the academic facets of the self-concept. RESULTS: Pupils' general self-concept was higher in the group of schools with moderate levels of setting. The degree of setting in mathematics and science had no effect on the corresponding academic self-concepts but setting in English tended to lower the self-concepts of the higher attaining pupils and raise the self-concepts of lower attaining pupils. Gender differences were consistent with previous research, with boys having significantly higher self-concept scores than girls, except in English. These findings indicate that the degree of stratification in schools can have an impact on adolescents' self-esteem and views of themselves in school.

Achievement↗
PubMed1994

Concepts included in and critical to nursing curricula: an analysis.

This study was designed as a first step toward concept clarification in nursing education, to stimulate educators' thinking about the clarity of the concepts critical to nursing curricula. The sample included 70 baccalaureate and 67 associate degree programs randomly selected from each of the six regional accrediting areas. Respondents to a mailed questionnaire identified concepts included in their curricula and those they viewed as critical to a nursing curriculum. Results suggest that (a) BSN program faculty agree on concepts included in and critical to nursing curricula, (b) ADN program faculty agree on critical concepts but agree less about concepts included in their curricula, and (c) both groups noted that process-oriented concepts were included in their curricula more frequently than were content-oriented concepts. The variability of responses raises questions about the clarity of concepts used in nursing curricula and the meaning behind those concepts. We recommend further research related to the meaning, nature, and use of concepts in nursing curricula.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed2002

Concept analysis: some limitations and possible solutions.

Concepts are the basic building blocks of scientific knowledge or theoretical frameworks for any discipline. The strength of the theories that guide a discipline is dependent on the quality of the concept analysis. Thus, the utilisation of poorly understood concepts in research and theory development will result in questionable reliability and validity. Concept analysis is associated with the research design of philosophical inquiry. The purpose of philosophical inquiry is to perform research using intellectual analysis to clarify meaning. Traditionally, no empirical (qualitative or quantitative) investigations were used to clarify the meaning of concepts. The lack of empirical investigation to clarify concepts, results in certain limitations in the methodology of concept analysis. It seems that methodological innovations for enhancing concept analysis is urgently required. The purpose of this article is to describe the utilisation of qualitative and quantitative strategies with literature review in concept analysis as a possible solution to limitations. This article will firstly, describe the limitations in the traditional Wilsonian methods of concept analysis and will secondly demonstrate how the introduction of qualitative and quantitative methods with literature review can overcome some of the limitations. An example a research study on quality of life (Ferrans, 1997:110) will be used to demonstrate how qualitative and quantitative empirical methods with literature review can enhance the quality of concept analysis.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed2006

Representation of ophthalmology concepts by electronic systems: intercoder agreement among physicians using controlled terminologies.

OBJECTIVE: To assess intercoder agreement for ophthalmology concepts by 3 physician coders using 5 controlled terminologies (International Classification of Diseases 9, Clinical Modification [ICD9CM]; Current Procedural Terminology, fourth edition; Logical Observation Identifiers, Names, and Codes [LOINC]; Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine, Clinical Terms [SNOMED-CT]; and Medical Entities Dictionary). DESIGN: Noncomparative case series. PARTICIPANTS: Five complete ophthalmology case presentations selected from a publicly available journal. METHODS: Each case was parsed into discrete concepts. Electronic or paper browsers were used independently by 3 physician coders to assign a code for every concept in each terminology. A match score representing adequacy of assignment for each concept was assigned on a 3-point scale (0, no match; 1, partial match; 2, complete match). For every concept, the level of intercoder agreement was determined by 2 methods: (1) based on exact code matching with assignment of complete agreement when all coders assigned the same code, partial agreement when 2 coders assigned the same code, and no agreement when all coders assigned different codes, and (2) based on manual review for semantic equivalence of all assigned codes by an independent ophthalmologist to classify intercoder agreement for each concept as complete agreement, partial agreement, or no agreement. Subsequently, intercoder agreement was calculated in the same manner for the subset of concepts judged to have adequate coverage by each terminology, based on receiving a match score of 2 by at least 2 of the 3 coders. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Intercoder agreement in each controlled terminology: complete, partial, or none. RESULTS: Cases were parsed into 242 unique concepts. When all concepts were analyzed by manual review, the proportion of complete intercoder agreement ranged from 12% (LOINC) to 44% (SNOMED-CT), and the difference in intercoder agreement between LOINC and all other terminologies was statistically significant (P<0.004). When only concepts with adequate terminology were analyzed by manual review, the proportion of complete intercoder agreement ranged from 33% (LOINC) to 64% (ICD9CM), and there were no statistically significant differences in intercoder agreement among any pairs of terminologies. CONCLUSIONS: The level of intercoder agreement for ophthalmic concepts in existing controlled medical terminologies is imperfect. Intercoder reproducibility is essential for accurate and consistent electronic representation of medical data.

Decision Support Systems, Clinical↗
PubMed1997

Changing Primary Care Doctors' Conceptions - A Qualitative Approach to Evaluating an Intervention.

Objective: To describe conceptions of the management of hyperlipidaemia and assess changes in conceptions after an educational intervention.- Setting and subjects: Primary care in Sweden. Twenty doctors at community health centres.- Methods: Within an educational experiment evaluating the effects of 'group detailing' by community pharmacists at 67 health centres, a selected sample of doctors were interviewed on two occasions, one and a half year apart, regarding their views on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and hyperlipidaemia. Half of the doctors had, in between the interviews, participated in four educational group sessions, where information was presented and discussed regarding the national recommendations on the management of hyperlipidaemia. Applying a phenomenographic approach, the variation of conceptions was described regarding six domains: general attitude to cardiovascular disease, risk factors, prevention of ischaemic heart disease, role of blood lipids, treatment of hyperlipidaemia, and screening for hypercholesterolaemia.- Outcome measures: Descriptions of categories of conceptions and changes of conceptions to ones in line with the treatment guidelines for individual doctors and for the two groups of doctors.- Results: There was a variation of conceptions in all six domains in both groups of doctors. The doctors' conceptions in the intervention group changed significantly to ones in line with the treatment recommendations (p < 0.01), which was not the case in the control group. A significant number of doctors in the intervention group changed at least one of the six conceptions to ones in concordance with the recommendations (p = 0.011). Although doctors in the control group also changed conceptions, this change was not statistically significant.- Conclusions: The doctors' conceptions changed significantly after 'group detailing' on management of hyperlipidaemia. Qualitative changes of conceptions may be used as outcome measures when evaluating the impact of an information activity directed at health care professionals.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

UMLS concept indexing for production databases: a feasibility study.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the feasibility of using the National Library of Medicine's Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus as the basis for a computational strategy to identify concepts in medical narrative text preparatory to indexing. To quantitatively evaluate this strategy in terms of true positives, false positives (spuriously identified concepts) and false negatives (concepts missed by the identification process). METHODS: Using the 1999 UMLS Metathesaurus, the authors processed a training set of 100 documents (50 discharge summaries, 50 surgical notes) with a concept-identification program, whose output was manually analyzed. They flagged concepts that were erroneously identified and added new concepts that were not identified by the program, recording the reason for failure in such cases. After several refinements to both their algorithm and the UMLS subset on which it operated, they deployed the program on a test set of 24 documents (12 of each kind). RESULTS: Of 8,745 matches in the training set, 7,227 (82.6 percent ) were true positives, whereas of 1,701 matches in the test set, 1, 298 (76.3 percent) were true positives. Matches other than true positive indicated potential problems in production-mode concept indexing. Examples of causes of problems were redundant concepts in the UMLS, homonyms, acronyms, abbreviations and elisions, concepts that were missing from the UMLS, proper names, and spelling errors. CONCLUSIONS: The error rate was too high for concept indexing to be the only production-mode means of preprocessing medical narrative. Considerable curation needs to be performed to define a UMLS subset that is suitable for concept matching.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed2001

Changes in conceptions of learning for indigenous Australian university students.

BACKGROUND: Conceptions of learning have been investigated for students in higher education in different countries. Some studies found that students' conceptions change and develop over time while others have found no changes. Investigating conceptions of learning for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students is a relatively new area of research. AIMS: This study set out to investigate conceptions of learning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students during the first two years of their undergraduate degree courses in three Australian universities. Conceptions for each year were compared. Knowing more about learning as conceived by this cultural group may facilitate more productive higher educational experiences. SAMPLE: The sample comprised 17 students studying various degrees; 11 were male and 6 were female. Ages ranged from 18 to 48 years; mean age was 26 years. METHOD: This was a phenomenographic, longitudinal study. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted each year to ascertain students' conceptions of learning. Conceptions for second year were derived independently of those from first year. A comparative analysis then took place to determine any changes. RESULTS: These students held conceptions of learning that were similar to those of other university students; however there were some intrinsic differences. On a group level, conceptions changed somewhat over the two years as did core conceptions reported by some individual students. Some students also exhibited a greater awareness of learning during their second year that resulted in three dimensions of changed awareness. CONCLUSIONS: We believe the changed conceptions and awareness resulted from learning at university where there is some need to understand and explain phenomena in relation to theory. This brought about new understandings which allowed students to see their own learning in a relational sense.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Pre-conception energy balance and secondary sex ratio--partial support for the Trivers-Willard hypothesis in dairy cows.

According to the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, maternal condition at or around conception affects the secondary sex ratio in mammals. However, there are little or no data available on indicators of maternal condition in dairy cows on the sex of the resultant offspring. A total of 76,607 body condition score (BCS; scale of 1 to 5) records and 76,611 body weight (BW) records from 3,209 lactations across 1,172 cows were extracted from a research database collated from one research herd between 1986 and 2004, inclusive. Exclusion of multiple births and cows with no information before calving (e.g., nulliparous animals) resulted in 2,029 records with BCS and BW observations from the previous calving, and 2,002 and 1,872 lactations with BCS and BW observations at conception and midgestation, respectively. Change in BCS and BW between calving and conception and between conception and midgestation was calculated per lactation. Generalized estimating equations were used to model the logit of the probability of a male calf, in which cow was included as a repeated effect with a first-order autoregressive correlation structure assumed among records within cow. Of the BCS variables investigated, there was a linear relationship between the logit of the probability of a male calf and BCS change between calving and conception, the rate of BCS change over this period (BCS divided by days in milk), and BCS at the calving event immediately before conception. The birth of a bull calf was 1.85 times more likely in cows that lost no BCS from calving to conception compared with cows that lost one BCS unit from calving to conception. This increase in odds was equivalent to a 14% unit increase in the probability of a male calf (from 54 to 68%). The amount of BW lost between calving and conception and the rate of loss affected the sex of the resultant offspring. Less BW loss or greater BW gain between calving and conception was associated with greater likelihood of a male calf. Results suggested a positive effect of pre-conception BCS and BW change on secondary sex ratio, agreeing with the Trivers-Willard hypothesis that females in good physiological condition are more likely to produce male offspring.

Animal Feed↗
PubMed1979

Body image, self-concept, and the orthodontic patient.

Four major criterion groups--orthodontic retention patients, prospective orthodontic patients, a population sample, and mothers of prospective patients--were established. Appropriate relationships between groups and subgroups were studied with regard to body-image and self-concept satisfaction, to body-image and self-concept importance, and other factors. The findings include the following: 1. There was no significant difference in body-image and self-concept satisfaction of importance between prospective orthodontic patients and the population sample. 2. There was no significant difference in body-image and self-concept satisfaction or importance between prospective orthodontic patients and orthodontic patients in retention. 3. There was a significant difference between prospective orthodontic patients' self-concept importance and their mother's perception of self-concept importance. There teen-agers placed more emphasis on their self-concept than did their mothers. 4. There was no significant difference between any of the groups in body-image and self-concept satisfaction or importance with change in age (11 to 16 years). 5. Girls scored significantly lower in both body-image and self-concept satisfaction than did the boys at these ages (11 to 16 years). 6. Patients with Class III malocclusion scored significantly lower than the other malocclusion groups in all categories of body-image and self-concept satisfaction and importance.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

The locus of knowledge effects in concept learning.

Three experiments investigated how knowledge influences concept formation and representation in a standard concept acquisition task. The primary comparison was among arbitrary concepts, which had meaningless features; meaningful concepts, which had meaningful features from different domains; and integrated concepts, which had meaningful features interconnected by common knowledge. Experiment 1 found that learning was superior for the integrated concepts but that there was little difference as a function of feature meaningfulness. Experiment 2 suggested that the integrated Ss were learning to form a knowledge-based schema as their concept representation because they did not distinguish the typicality of features that differed in frequency. Experiment 3 introduced a category whose features were from the same domain but were not otherwise related. This concept was as difficult to learn and use as the meaningful concepts were. These comparisons help specify the ways in which knowledge does and does not influence concept formation.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed1988

[Relationships among self concept, perception of aging and physical aging].

Although everyone grows old, perception about the aging process and aging as measured physiologically vary widely. Perceptions of aging have psychologically influence on physical aging. This study was to examine the relationships between, self-concept, perception of aging, and physical aging in the elderly and to contribute to the theory development which may direct nursing intervention to promote well-being of the aged. Subjects were 70 women residents of a nursing home for the elderly in Seoul. Data collection was done from May 15 to June 15, 1988 using interview schedules and mechanical instruments. The instruments were selected items from the Health Self Concept Scale developed by Jacox and Stewart for self concept, and Secord and Jourad's Body Cathexis Scale and Osgood's Semantic Differential Scale for perception of aging. Physical aging was measured by mechanical instruments, inspection, questions, and palpation. The data were analysed for mean, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson Correlation Coefficient using an S.P.S.S computerized program. The results of the analysis were as follows. 1. The mean level of self concept for the subject group was 16.97 (SD = +/- 6.17) in a range from 6-30. The mean level of perception of aging was 39.6. (SD = +/- 6.51) in a range from 13-65. The mean level of physical aging was 14.09 (SD = +/- 2.05) in a range from 8-40. 2. Relationships among self-concept, perception of aging, and physical aging. 1) There was a positive relationship between self-concept and perception of aging (r = 0.4461, p = 0.000). 2) There was a negative relationship between physical aging and perception of aging (r = -0.2975, p = 0.006). 3) There was a tendency toward a negative relationship between physical aging and self-concept, but not a significant relationship (r = -0.1033, p = 0.197). 3. 1) No general characteristic variables were related to self concept. 2) The general characteristic variable related to the level of perception of aging was religion (t = 4.17, p = 0.001). 3) The general characteristic variable related to the level of physical aging was age (F = 12.008, p = 0.000). There was a significant relationship between self-concept and perception of aging, and between physical aging and perception of aging. Therefore nursing intervention should focus on promoting a positive perception of aging and strengthening self-concept during the physical aging process.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

[Effects of self-concept on test anxiety level among sophomores in a medical college].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of self-concept on the test anxiety among sophomores in a medical college. METHODS: Using the test anxiety questionnaire and English-learning self-concept scale, we examined the relationship between test anxiety and self-concept of the sophomores in a medical college. RESULTS: All the dimensions of self-concept were significantly related to test anxiety, among which the general self-concept, academic self-concept and English-learning self concept were important factors. CONCLUSION: Enhancement of general self-concept, academic self-concept and English-learning self concept are effective means to alleviate test anxiety of the students.

China↗
PubMed1989

Self-concept of Finnish children on the second grade of normal elementary school.

The study deals with the self-concept of healthy and disturbed pupils on the second grade of normal elementary school. The self-concept is defined as the cognitive and emotional concept of an individual about himself. The material consisted of 143 urban children (67 boys, 76 girls) and 241 rural children (116 boys, 125 girls). The instruments used were "I think I am" a childrens' self-estimation questionnaire of self-concept (by P. Ouvinen-Birgerstam) and Parent's Questionnaire A2 and Teacher's Questionnaire B2 (both by M. Rutter). The study was carried out as a point-prevalence study in April 1986. The boys had a highly significantly worse self-concept than the girls. There were no differences in self-concept between urban and rural children. The boys and girls who were estimated as psychically disturbed according to the ratings made by parents had a nearly significantly worse self-concept than the children who were estimated as healthy. There were no differences in the self-concept of boys and girls rated as disturbed or healthy by the teachers. The boys and girls rated as disturbed by parents had a worse self-concept than the boys and girls rated as disturbed by teachers. There were no differences in the self-concepts of disturbed boys and girls rated as hyperactive or non-hyperactive by parents and/or teachers.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Cognitive performance and performance concepts of the elderly. A contribution to basic gerontologic research].

Three self-concepts of competence are investigated with a new instrument measuring different aspects of achievement in a total of 1983 subjects. Empirical data of 430 subjects aged 50 to 95 are presented pertaining to three self-concepts of competence and achievement in total and arranged into 4 chronological age groups. The new instrument employed for measuring self-concepts--FSKN--permits a priori the definition of marginal values for "positive" and "negative" concepts of achievement. Results of the cross-sectional study have failed to falsify the hypothesis (1): Elderly people (including those in retirement) have "positive" or "favourable" self-concepts of achievement--i.e. self-concepts characterized by socially desirable attributes. The three concepts of competence of elderly persons investigated (including individuals aged 80 to 95) show a favourability similar to those of 568 schoolchildren, 504 students and 481 persons aged 18 to 50. Correlation studies investigating the relationship of on the one hand elderly persons' cognitive capacity determined by nine different instruments and on the other hand the subjective self-concepts of competence and achievement failed to falsify the hypothesis (2): The higher the objectively measured degree of elderly persons' cognitive capacity, the more "favourable" or "positive" are also the subjective concepts of achievement. In the light of empirical data we may postulate an influence of the current objectively determined cognitive capacity of elderly persons on their subjective (positive) self-concepts of competence and achievement.

Achievement↗
PubMed1986

Black adolescents: a descriptive study of their self-concepts and academic achievement.

This study was designed to determine the relationships among global self-concept, self-concept of academic ability, and academic achievement of black American adolescents. The subjects were 211 tenth-grade students in five public high schools in the Pacific Northwest school district who volunteered to participate in the study. Global self-concept was measured by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI), self-concept of academic ability by the Brookover Self-Concept of Ability (General) Scale, and academic achievement by the California Achievement Test (CAT). The major statistical tools were the Pearson product-moment correlations and Fisher Z statistic. In all of the tests the decision was made to reject the null hypothesis at the .05 level of significance. No significant relationship was found between global self-concept and academic achievement, although the relationship between self-concept of academic ability and academic achievement reached significance. The relationship between self-concept of academic ability and academic achievement correlated more strongly than the relationship between global self-concept and academic achievement. These results suggest that the enhancement of global self-concept might not be a potent intervention for academic improvement for black adolescents.

Achievement↗
PubMed1999

Hierarchical and Multidimensional Academic Self-Concept of Commercial Students.

Adapting the Marsh (1990) Academic Self-Description Questionnaire (ASDQ), this study examined the academic self-concept of students in a school of commerce in Hong Kong (N = 212). Confirmatory factor analysis found that students clearly distinguished among self-concept constructs in English, Chinese, Math and Statistics, Economics, and Principles of Accounting, and each of these constructs was highly associated with a global Academic self-concept construct, reflecting the validity of each construct in measuring an academic component of self-concept. Domain-specific self-concepts were more highly related with students' intention of course selection in corresponding areas than in nonmatching areas, further supporting the multidimensionality of the students' academic self-concept. Students' self-concepts in the five curriculum domains can be represented by the global Academic self-concept, supporting the hierarchical structure of students' academic self-concept in an educational institution with a specific focus, such as commercial studies. The academic self-concepts of the commercial students are both multidimensional and hierarchical. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Conception and pregnancy during the Persian Gulf War: the risk to women veterans.

PURPOSE: To enumerate Gulf-War (GW) exposed conceptions and to compare reproductive outcomes of GW-exposed pregnancies with postwar conceptions of women Gulf War veterans (GWV) and women nondeployed veterans (NDV). METHODS: Deployment data and inpatient records from 153 military hospitals identified servicewomen who were pregnant between August 1990 and May 1992 and belonged to military units that were deployed to the Gulf War. Postal surveys were used in 1997 and 1998 to elicit reproductive history; responses were validated against military hospitalization records. Reproductive outcomes of GW-exposed pregnancies were compared with postwar conceptions of women GWVs and NDVs. RESULTS: 3285 women had a pregnancy-related admission; of these, 1558 completed the questionnaire. Self-reported reproductive outcomes and dates, gestational data, and individual deployment dates identified 415 Gulf War-exposed pregnancies, 298 GWV postwar conceptions, and 427 NDV conceptions. Compared with NDV conceptions, adverse reproductive outcomes were similar among GW-exposed pregnancies. However, spontaneous abortions [NDV: 9.1%, GWV postwar: 22.8%, adjusted odds ratio (OR)=2.92, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.9, 4.6] and ectopic pregnancies (NDV: 1.4%, GWV postwar: 10.7%, adjusted OR=7.70, 95% CI, 3.0, 20) were elevated for GWV postwar conceptions. CONCLUSION: GW-exposed conceptions and nondeployed conceptions had similar outcomes. However, GWV postwar conceptions were at increased risk for ectopic pregnancies and spontaneous abortions.

Abortion, Spontaneous↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Concept of death in a sample of Israeli kibbutz children.

The study of children's concept of death and factors that affect its acquisition continue to evolve. In this study, the concept of death of 22 Israeli children (aged 5-12 years), were assessed using vignettes. Participants' understanding of finality, universality, inevitability, and total concept of death were explored using the Concept of Death Assessment (CODA). The child's developmental level was assessed using an interactive developmental tool based on a Piagetian/constructivist framework (R. B. Sund, 1976). Development was scored as a continuous, rather than as a dichotomous variable. In this sample, age was the only significant predictor of concept of death (p less than .01). Children had an accurate concept of death as young as 6 years, however, it was not possible to determine an upper age limit by which children had an accurate concept of death. The mean developmental score was 64.8% +/-18.7. Still, 45% of this sample had an accurate concept of death, and 95.5% had an accurate understanding of finality. Environmental factors unique to an Israeli sample that might affect concept acquisition are explored. Questions remain about the interrelationship of development and concept acquisition.

Child↗