Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Mitzi K. Burden
Committee Member
A. Jared Bucker
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
academic librarians, clinical behaviors, clinical environment, clinical research assignments, collaboration, course-integrated instruction, descriptive quantitative analysis, development process, faculty collaboration, far transfer, information literacy, information problem-solving skills, instructional strategies, interpretational analysis, learning activities, mastery learning, multi-level approach, near transfer, Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA), occupational therapy, performance improvement, Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA), physical therapy, problem solving, research assignments, transfer of learning
Abstract
This applied dissertation describes how the researcher identified, developed, and implemented strategies to facilitate the acquisition and mastery of information problem-solving skills among Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) and Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) students, and the investigation of the extent of transfer of these skills to the clinical environment. The deficits that the students demonstrated were affecting their overall performance in the programs. In general, these students did not demonstrate the ability to use resources beyond books and lecture notes or the Internet, extract relevant information from their selected sources, organize and sequence the information that they presented in their research assignments, and cite and list properly the references that they utilized.
The research was guided by the following questions: (a) What strategies can be utilized to enable the PTA and OTA students to acquire and master information problem-solving skills? and (b) To what extent do the PTA and OTA students’ information problem-solving skills transfer to the clinical environment? To answer the research questions, the researcher utilized a development problem-solving process. Descriptive quantitative and interpretational analyses were used in the treatment of research data.
Improvements in the information problem-solving skills of the participants could be attributed to a combination of development and implementation of course-integrated instructions on information problem-solving skills, utilization of a multi-level approach in the facilitation of mastery of information problem-solving skills, restructuring of learning activities and the role of faculty, and collaboration between the faculty and academic librarians. Suggestions made in the literature and gleaned by the researcher enabled the participants to improve their information problem-solving skills.
The extent of transfer of the PTA and OTA students’ information problem-solving skills to the clinical environment were measured and determined. Near transfer of the skills was evident in the scores received by the students, given a clinical research assignment. Far transfer of the information problem-solving skills was observed in five performance categories of clinical behaviors for each group of students. Probable reasons for the observed transfer of the skills are discussed.