Teachers’ unions and others say much of the push for online courses, like vouchers and charter schools, is intended to channel taxpayers’ money into the private sector.
“What they want is to substitute technology for teachers,” said Alex Molnar, professor of education policy at Arizona State University.
In Idaho, Gov. C. L. Otter and the elected superintendent of public instruction, Tom Luna, both Republicans, promoted giving students laptops and requiring online courses.
The State Legislature, pressed by critics who said the online mandate would cost teachers jobs, rejected it, but Mr. Luna said in an interview that he would propose it this summer through the State Board of Education, which supports him.
“I have no doubt we’ll get a robust rule through them,” he said. Four online courses is “going to be the starting number.”
Kristen Della on 27 Jun 11Patients want to be treated humanely and as individuals by their care-providers. Many curricula, usually written by university faculty, have been developed to teach physicians such skills. Rarely are patients' actual preferences taken into account when designing curricula. This study was undertaken to identify what hospitalized patients most valued about their encounters with attending faculty physicians. In this study, medical residents (post-graduate medical trainees) identified faculty physicians as outstanding teachers of humanistic care. Patients receiving care from these outstanding physicians were interviewed, as were the students and residents on the care team and the study physicians. Using qualitative techniques, patients' comments were analyzed and common themes were identified. These findings were compared with qualities identified by medical residents and students and by the attending physicians themselves. Patients identified the following specific behaviors as those they most valued in their physicians: direct communication, understanding, direct involvement in care, adequate explanation, and overt expressions of respect, as highly valued. Outstanding teachers of humane care exhibited several discrete behaviors that patients described as valuable. Since these behaviors can be discretely identified, they can be taught as part of medical curricula. The content of medical education in communication and doctor-patient relationships should incorporate goals informed by the perspectives of patients.
