Joana Stocker

Competência Percebida e Realização Escolar: que relações em alunos do ensino secundário?

Do pupils with high levels of perceived competence (emotional competence, personal conceptions of intelligence, self-efficacy, self-concept and causal dimensions) achieve better academic performance? In order to find out, we conducted a study with 385 secondary school pupils from Porto. There were administered the Composite Questionnaire of Perceived Competence (Faria, Stocker & Pina Neves, 2009), with 162 items, and a Socio-Demographic Questionnaire, with 23 items. Correlation analyses indicated that academic self-concept and academic self-efficacy are the motivational constructs most related to achievement, followed by causal dimensions, emotional competence and personal conceptions of intelligence. Multiple linear regression analyses for Portuguese, Mathematics and global point average revealed academic self-concept, academic self-efficacy, and personal conceptions of intelligence as the main achievement predictors: high perceptions of competence and efficacy, and static conceptions influence positively the achievement, explaining each model 44%, 53%, and 47% of total variance, confirming the importance of perceived competence on academic success.

Non-technical skills assessment scale in nursing: construction, development and validation

ABSTRACT The introduction of non-technical skills during nursing education is crucial to prepare nurses for the clinical context and increase patient safety. We found no instrument developed for this purpose. Objectives: to construct, develop and validate a non-technical skills assessment scale in nursing. Method: methodological research. Based on the literature review and experience of researchers on non-technical skills in healthcare and the knowledge of the principles of crisis resource management, a list of 63 items with a five-point Likert scale was constructed. The scale was applied to 177 nursing undergraduate students. Descriptive statistics, correlations, internal consistency analysis and exploratory factor analysis were performed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the scale. Results: scale items presented similar values for mean and median. The maximum and the minimum values presented a good distribution amongst all response options. Most items presented a significant and positive relationship. Cronbach alpha presented a good value (0.94), and most correlations were significant and positive. Exploratory factor analysis using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test showed a value of 0.849, and the Bartlett’s test showed adequate sphericity values (χ2=6483.998; p=0.000). One-factor model explained 26% of the total variance. Conclusion: non-technical skills training and its measurement could be included in undergraduate or postgraduate courses in healthcare professions, or even be used to ascertain needs and improvements in healthcare contexts.

Analyzing the Behavior of Autistic and Normal Developing Children Using Eye Tracking Data

In this paper, we have utilized the eye tracking technology to analyze and compare the gaze pattern of autistic and normal developing children. We have used and combined different stimuli (banana, tomato, football and a child’s face). Within the child’s face we have defined two areas of interest (AOI) namely: face-eyes and face-mouth. Various metrics are used to analyze the difference in behavior between the two groups. The findings provide results to the non-typical ways in which autistic children look at different objects and in particular, the face.