Impact of Service Learning on Physical Therapist Studentsʼ Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Older Adults and on Their Critical Thinking Ability

Factors Associated With Reflection Among Students After an Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) in Sweden

“…50 However, it might be too insensitive for measuring small changes in critical thinking among students, since it is developed for measuring critical thinking in a general population. 51,52 Lately, the California Critical Thinking Skills Assessment (CCTSA) has been more frequently used in studies, especially in the United States. 53 The reason for not choosing the CCTSA in this study was that it is not available in Swedish.…”

Training socially responsive health care graduates: Is service learning an effective educational approach?

“…Sample sizes ranged from (n = 3) medical students in one qualitative study (Dharamsi et al, 2010b) to (n = 3450) students from multiple disciplines in a quasi experimental study (Astin & Sax, 1998). Examples of the methodological weaknesses identified included samples from single institutions (Beling, 2004;Bentley & Ellison, 2005;Champagne, 2006;Horacek et al, 2009;Leung et al, 2011;Liang En et al, 2011b;Loewenson and Hunt, 2011) with a variety of potential biases, for example, self-selection bias for students (Ngai, 2009;Green et al, 2011;Reading & Padgett, 2011) possible positive reporting bias (Kearney, 2004;Reynolds, 2005;Brown, 2009;Liang En et al, 2011b;Loewenson & Hunt, 2011) and social desirability bias (Casey and Murphy, 2008;Loewenson & Hunt, 2011). Of the 26 Quasi-experimental studies the majority (n = 20) used some form of self-report measure as did (n = 6) of the mixed method studies.…”

“…Randomisation of participants did not occur in some studies (e.g. Beling, 2004;Ngai, 2006;McWilliams et al, 2008;Groh et al, 2011;Pakulski, 2011;Zucchero, 2011) with results being confounded by potential nonrandom differences within groups. We do appreciate that true random assignment is difficult and often not feasible.…”

“…To develop critical thinking skills students must engage in a purposeful process that involves self-regulation, analysis, evaluation, interpretation, and assessment. Positive changes in students' critical thinking were reported in (Astin and Sax, 1998;Osborne et al, 1998;Sedlak et al, 2003;Beling, 2004;Reynolds, 2005;Liang En et al, 2011b) studies with improvements in engagement, curiosity and reflective practice in (Beling, 2003;Ngai, 2006;Casey & Murphy, 2008;Faria et al, 2010) others. While many studies (Poulin et al, 2006;McWilliams et al, 2008;Brown, 2009;Horowitz et al, 2010;Krout et al, 2010) reported that students valued SL experiences this outcome may indicate "little more than that the students liked the innovation" (Abassi & Smith, 1999, p. 1265) and we must be wary of what Norman calls "me-too" research (Norman, 2006, p. 1).…”

Educational Perspectives and Teaching Styles of Faculty Who Lead International Service-Learning Experiences

“…30 There is a small body of physical therapy related SL literature. The primary foci of this work has been student outcomes, 31,32 general impact, 33 pedagogy and implementation, [34][35][36] and professionalism factors. 37 Typical physical therapy student SL objectives include improving clinical skills, reinforcing educational goals, encouraging a commitment to community service, improving civic awareness, and enhancing cross-cultural understanding.…”