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Background: Despite the growing use, studies have demonstrated some limitations related to the feedback provided in the context of the increasing use of the Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) in undergraduate medical education. This study examined the written feedback provided on the Mini-CEX form to determine its usefulness as a learning tool for students.Methods: 1427 Mini-CEX assessment forms of final year medical students were collected. Written feedback, both on students’ strength and weakness, was categorized and correlated with the variables of clinical case complexity, assessors’ clinical position and students’ clinical performance rating. Results: The number of general feedback comments for students’ strengths and development were 953 (65.3%) and 604 (38.64%) respectively. Less than 30% of the feedback for each domain was categorized as specific feedback. Significant associations were found between feedback on strength and clinical case complexity (Χ=17.48,

Digital media are beneficial for research of complex refugee issues, as they allow refugees to express their personal experiences of complex issues in ways that are not restricted by language barriers or limited in authenticity, while also offering researchers a way to systematically compare refugees' varied experiences. We used a computerised concept mapping task to ask 74 young refugees (teenagers and young adults), from three separately recruited samples, to think about their experiences with various challenges they might face during settlement, distinguishing between their challenges in terms of size. Our analyses focused on one major challenge in Australia, learning the English language, and how it related to ten other challenges of resettlement. The three samples differed in educational setting, cultural background, age, and time in Australia. These refugees faced multiple challenges in their lives. Regardless of differences between the groups, the 74 shared a single pattern of experiences in which English language was substantially bigger, and more frequently endorsed, than other challenges. The three samples differed in how they described their experiences with their English language challenges. Our findings suggest a need for more support learning the English language, even for those who might be assumed to have good levels of conversational or academic English. This support needs to extend beyond the 510 hours of support received upon arrival in the country. Findings also suggest that such support could help young refugees overcome other challenges as they settle in Australia, especially in their academic, social, and employment experiences.

Surgeons require advanced psychomotor skills, critical decision-making and teamwork skills. Much of surgical skills training involve progressive trainee participation in supervised operations where case variability, operating team interaction and environment affect learning, while surgical teachers face the key challenge of ensuring patient safety. Using a theoretical framework of "situated learning" including "cognitive apprenticeship," we explored teachers' and trainees' beliefs and values about intra-operative training and reasons for any differences. A qualitative case study method was used where five teacher-trainee pairs participating in an observed teaching operation were separately interviewed about the same operation. Thematic analysis of transcribed interviews and observations was performed with iterative refinement and a reflexive approach was adopted throughout the study. We found that in all cases, teachers and trainees had shared recognition of learning about technical skills whereas they differed in three cases regarding non-technical skills such as surgical reasoning and team management. Factors contributing to teacher and trainee satisfaction with the process were successful trainee completion of operation without need for surgeon take-over, a positive learning environment and learning new things. Teaching--learning behaviours observed and discussed were modeling, coaching and scaffolding, while exploration, reflection and articulation were less common. Our study reveals differing teacher and trainee perspectives of some aspects of intra-operative training and surfaces new reasons other than amount of feedback and autonomy given. Factors contributing to different perspectives include teacher and trainee abilities, values and situational influences. Targeted teaching--learning strategies could enhance intra-operative learning.

We examined self-descriptions of children of Somali refugee families in Australian primary schools, focusing on how children's school-related skills and needs relate to the interpretive frames of mainstream and ethnic cultures. Three groups of Grade 5 and 6 children (Somali, Disadvantaged, Advantaged) made choices among school-related skills, and rated feelings and needs for the transition to high school. Findings indicate a general goodness of fit between emphases of the mainstream culture and Somali children's choices (sport, maths), while reflecting some values of their ethnic interpretive frames (rejecting art, music). Gender stereotypic differences did not interact with culture. Children's computer-based choices provide a basis for bringing together studies of development and acculturation, and for differentiating between refugee status and socio-economic disadvantage. (Contains 2 tables, 1 figure and 1 note.)

Refugee children's experiences are situated in specific places where they interact with significant people. They are not usually asked about their perspectives although they are social agents with distinctive perspectives and feelings about relationships and events. We investigated the perspectives of refugee children on their experiences of places and relations as they resettled in Australia after their families fled from violence in Syria and Iraq and transitioned through Middle Eastern countries. One hundred-and-nine children chose to work with a computer program in either English or Arabic. They sorted feelings associated with home, school, and where they lived before and rated being nurtured at home. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed five subgroups of children with distinctive patterns in their sorting of eight feelings for three places. Three subgroups had patterns of positive feelings about home and school. Two smaller subgroups had mixed, ambivalent feelings about either school or home. One subgroup was strongly positive, and two others were negative about before settlement. Subgroups identified on their sortings of feelings differed in their experiences of being nurtured, with positive feelings of places related to higher ratings of being nurtured at home. The study points to the importance of children's perspectives and feelings in how they interpret experiences with people and places and argues against assuming that refugee children are homogeneous in their experiences or perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes a study of on-campus and external university students' perceptions of factors influencing external studies. Students identified family, job, and life circumstances as major influences; self-reliance and finances as advantages; limited library access as a disadvantage; and a preference for on-campus study or a combination of both. (Author/MBR)

Resistance is all around us in contemporary life. It is an everyday phenomenon of personal and cultural life, as the Chaudhary et al. (2017) volume establishes with theoretical analyses and empirical examples from diverse cultural contexts. Resistance functions in the dynamics of person-by-culture encounters when one party takes an opposing position. With the purpose of working towards a unified approach to resistance, the authors in this volume lay down the foundations for a psychology of resistance as an everyday phenomenon. As a basis for analyzing the role of resistance in the dialectical processes of change, the volume presents resistance as: personal and social, oppositional, intentional and future-oriented, transformational and developmental. We see different positions opening up a debate about whether resistance is a particular, intentional and oppositional phenomenon, or is the basic process of all dialectical transformational change. Further resistance to either position is consistent with moving forward in the development of a psychology of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]