Summary
Background: The trainee‐held learning portfolio is integral to the foundation programme in the UK. In the Northern Deanery, portfolio assessment is standardised through the Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) process. In this study we aimed to establish how current trainees evaluate portfolio‐based learning and ARCP, and how these attitudes may have changed since the foundation programme was first introduced.
Methods: Deanery‐wide trainee attitudes were surveyed by an electronic questionnaire in 2009 and compared with perceptions recorded during the pilot phase (2004–2005).
Results: Many trainees continue to view the e‐portfolio negatively. Indeed, significantly fewer trainees in 2009 thought that the e‐portfolio was a ‘good idea’ or a ‘worthwhile investment of time’ than in 2005. Trainees remain unconvinced about the educational value of the e‐portfolio: fewer trainees in 2009 regarded it as a tool that might help focus on training or recognise individual strengths and weaknesses. Issues around unnecessary bureaucracy persist. Current trainees tend to understand how to use the e‐portfolio, but many did not know how much, or what evidence to collect. Few supervisors were reported to provide useful guidance on the portfolio. ARCP encouraged portfolio completion but did not give meaningful feedback to drive future learning.
Discussion: Continued support is needed for both trainees and supervisors in portfolio‐building skills and in using the e‐portfolio as an educational tool. Trainee‐tailored feedback is needed to ensure that portfolio‐based assessment promotes lifelong, self‐directed and reflective learners.
Preference responses of zebrafish to lo-'. 10 M alanine (Ala) were concentrationdependent. Behavioural responses to copper (Cu) and Cu + Ala mixtures were also assessed.Zebrafish avoided 100 and 10 pg Cu I-', but not 1 pg I I . Mixtures of lo-' M Alaf 100 pg Cu I I and 10 M Ala+ 1OpgCu I -' were avoided as intensely as was Cu alone. Responses to lo-' M Ala+ 10 or I pg Cu I-' and 10 'M A h + 1 pg Cu 1 ' did not differ statistically from controls (no detectable preference or avoidance). These results demonstrate, firstly, that a concentration of a pollutant avoided by itself (10 pg Cu 1 ') may not be avoided when encountered with an attractant chemical stimulus (Ala) and may suppress the preference for an attractant stimulus, and secondly, that a concentration of a pollutant not avoided by itself and not considered deleterious ( I pg Cu 1 I) suppresses attraction to Ala (an important constituent of prey odours for many fishes).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.