This research study investigated the perceptions of health care professionals regarding a newly defined set of health literacy competencies. A key step in the development of professional competency statements is to solicit the opinions and feedback of individuals currently practicing or working within the appropriate setting. Health literacy and…

Areas in the United States are experiencing limited access to dental care. A solution to this issue includes utilizing the dental hygiene workforce; however, changes to the existing dental hygiene curriculum will be needed. The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of dental hygiene program directors employed at two-year colleges…

The student teaching experience is cited as one of the most critical facets of teachers' professional development. However, teachers' beliefs about pedagogical practices and disciplinary procedures, as well as their perceptions of students, also influence the approaches they use in the classroom. This study uses a humanistic and custodial…

Praising is a crucial part of teaching performance that greatly impacts student performance and self-esteem. South Korean teachers are traditionally known to possess authoritarian attributes, whereas U.S. teachers have contradictory beliefs in terms of why and how to use praise. We used Q methodology among 16 American and 22 Korean teachers to…

The purpose of this study was to explore women's perceptions of the sources of information that led to the development of their body image. The problem this study addressed was women receive messages that contribute to negative body image throughout their lifetimes. When these messages are processed passively, especially when cultivated over time,…

Creating scientifically literate students is a common goal among educational stakeholders. An understanding of nature of science is an important component of scientific literacy in K-12 science education. Q methodology was used to investigate the opinions of preservice and in-service teachers on how they intend to teach or currently teach science.…

Caring for children of divorce may prevent emotional and behavioural problems. This study investigates daycare staff's beliefs about caring for young children who have experienced parental divorce. Q methodology was applied for this purpose, and 33 participants sorted 40 subjective statements. The Q factor analyses resulted in four factors or…

Since the 1980s, scholars have suggested that environmental education (EE) has a "definitional problem" represented by a multiplicity of perspectives that have critically impacted its discourse, practices, and outcomes. This study sought to investigate how North American EE practitioners from backgrounds ranging from formal and…

Medical education reform is underway, but the optimal course for change has yet to be seen. While planning for the redesign of a renal physiology course at the Duke School of Medicine, the authors used a Q-sort survey to assess students' attitudes and learning preferences to inform curricular change. The authors invited first-year medical students…

Young people living with HIV are challenged when it comes to exploring their sexuality. Their sex education is hampered by the fact that their preferences and attitudes towards sexual behaviour are little known about. In this study from the Netherlands, Q-methodology was used to identify sizeable and meaningful sub-groups sharing common attitudes…

Grand Lake O' the Cherokees in Oklahoma is one of two lakes in the State of Oklahoma that allows private ownership and development of the shoreline. This has created water quality issues attributed to phosphorus levels in effluent waste water from septic systems and municipal water treatment facilities, as well as nutrient and sediment…

One of the objectives of the U.S. government has been the development of a nationwide health information infrastructure, including adoption and use of an electronic health records (EHR) system. However, a 2008 survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics indicated a 41.5% usage of the EHR system by physicians in office-based…

Scope and method of study: The purpose of this study was to describe perceptions of school counselors toward their professional roles in schools according to the ASCA National Model (ASCA, 2005). An additional analysis was completed to determine whether school counselor who held different perceptions of their role would also have different levels…

This study used Q methodology to better understand battered women's views about the criminal justice system (CJS). Fifty-eight abused and formerly abused women, representing a broad range of experiences, were involved in the study. Participants sorted 72 statements about domestic violence and the CJS according to how strongly they agreed with each…

New validational data is presented on the author's 8-item individual modernity scale. The scale appears to have acceptable convergent and discriminant validity. Interviewer's Q sort and adjectival descriptions stressed independence and breadth of interests for high-scorers versus conventionality and narrowness of interests for low-scorers. (MV)