Agricultural education in public schools has a rich heritage of developing student personal skills as well as providing abilities needed in agricultural employment through classroom and laboratory instruction, supervised experience, and FFA activities. Over the years, agriculture programs have evolved to better serve the needs of students. Recent changes in the agricultural industry, student population, society, education system, and the work place necessitate expanding the scope of public school agricultural education to meet the needs of today's students.
BackgroundNon-invasive electrotherapy is commonly used for treatment of chronic low back pain. Evidence for efficacy of most electrotherapy modalities is weak or lacking. This study aims to execute a high-quality, double-blinded randomized controlled clinical trial comparing 1) H-Wave® Device stimulation plus usual care with 2) transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) plus usual care, and 3) Sham electrotherapy plus usual care to determine comparative efficacy for treatment of chronic non-specific low back pain patients.Methods/DesignPatients- Chronic non-specific low back pain patients between ages of 18–65 years, with pain of at least 3 months duration and minimal current 5/10 VAS pain. Patients will have no significant signs or symptoms of lumbosacral nerve impingement, malignancy, spinal stenosis, or mood disorders.Study design- Double blind RCT with 3 arms and 38 subjects per arm. Randomization by permuted blocks of random length, stratified by Workers Compensation claim (yes vs. no), and use of opioids. The null hypothesis of this study is that there are no statistically significant differences in functional improvement between treatment types during and at the end of a 12-week week treatment period.Data collection- Subjective data will be collected using Filemaker Pro™ database management collection tools. Objective data will be obtained through functional assessments. Data will be collected at enrollment and at 1, 4, 8, and 12 weeks for each participant by a blinded assessor.Interventions- H-Wave® device stimulation (Intervention A) plus usual care, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) (Intervention B) plus usual care, and sham electrotherapy plus usual care (control). Each treatment arm will have identical numbers of visits (4) and researcher contact time (approximately 15 hours).Outcomes- Primary outcome measure: Oswestry Disability Index. Secondary measures include: Rowland Morris Instrument, VAS pain score, functional evaluation including strength when pushing and pulling, pain free range of motion in flexion and extension. Outcome measures assessed at baseline, 1, 4, 8, and 12 weeks. Treatment failure will be defined if patient terminates assigned treatment arm for non-efficacy or undergoes invasive procedure or other excluded cointerventions. Data will be analyzed using intention-to-treat analysis and adjusted for covariates related to LBP (e.g. age) as needed.DiscussionStudy strengths include complex randomization, treatment group allocation concealment, double blinding, controlling for co-interventions, rigorous inclusion criteria, assessment of compliance, plans for limiting dropout, identical assessment methods and timing for each treatment arm, and planned intention-to-treat analyses.
According to Goodlad (1983), the teacher is the single most important variable in school effectiveness. Maintaining an effective teaching force requires that qualified teachers regularly enter the ranks and that practicing teachers are kept abreast of changes in the profession. Teachers develop and improve their skills, pedagogically and technically, through high quality professional development programs. Because of increased public demand for teacher accountability and technical advancements in the occupational areas of vocational programs, vocational teacher professional development has never been more important. Teacher professional development activities include preservice programs which are generally taken prior to entry into teaching or issuance of a teacher certificate and inservice programs which are generally taken after entry into teaching (Anderson, 1988). A National Center for Research in Vocational Education study identified eight components of comprehensive professional development programs for vocational teachers (Hamilton, 1985). These eight components were: preservice programs for individuals entering teaching without an undergraduate education degree; supervision of first and second year vocational teachers; pedagogy update; technology update; professional information update; teacher technical skills testing; curriculum updating programs; and research practices update. Anderson (1988) identified a ninth component, preservice (degreegranting) programs, as part of a comprehensive program.
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.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.