Institute of Advanced Studies in Education

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nursing is one of the most demanding healthcare specialities, with nurses facing significant occupational stress. In India, critical nursing shortages and resource constraints further compound these challenges. Understanding the relationship between sociodemographic factors, perceived stress, and coping strategies is essential for developing targeted interventions. This cross-sectional study examined sociodemographic profile, perceived stress levels, and coping strategies among 184 ICU nurses at a tertiary care hospital in Western India. Data were collected using a sociodemographic questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and COPE Inventory. Results revealed 70.7% of participants experienced moderate to high perceived stress (48.4% moderate, 22.3% high). Significant associations were found between stress levels and younger age (p<0.001), unmarried status (p<0.001), higher educational qualifications (p=0.004), limited ICU experience (p<0.001), nuclear family structure (p<0.001), and absence of children (p<0.001). Gender, service area, and duty shift showed no significant associations. Nurses predominantly employed adaptive coping strategies, including positive reinterpretation (73.4%), acceptance (66.3%), instrumental social support (65.2%), and active coping (62.5%). Maladaptive strategies were less frequent, with behavioral disengagement at 27.7% and substance use at 13.6%. Religious coping was utilized by 15.8%, reflecting cultural influences. Findings highlight a substantial psychological burden among ICU nurses and identify vulnerable subgroups requiring targeted interventions. The predominant use of adaptive coping suggests existing resilience that can be strengthened through comprehensive support programs, mentorship for younger nurses, and culturally appropriate stress management interventions.

Ayurveda, one of the world?s most ancient and comprehensive medical sciences, envisions health as a balanced state of body, mind, and spirit. It not only focuses on individual well-being but also addresses community health through preventive and promotive measures. In the present era, the social and economic burden of diseases is rapidly increasing, affecting not only individuals but also the overall productivity and economy of nations due to escalating healthcare costs. In this context, the Ayurvedic approach provides distinct advantages by addressing both personal and social dimensions of health. Swasthavritta, a fundamental branch of Ayurveda, represents the science of health promotion and disease prevention. It encompasses guidelines for daily and seasonal regimens, ethical conduct, mental well-being and environmental harmony ? all aimed at maintaining health and preventing disease. Ayurveda emphasizes disciplined living, balanced diet, proper hygiene and moral behaviour as essential tools for sustaining physical, mental, and social harmony. The classical texts of Ayurveda also contain profound insights on concepts like immunity (Vyadhikshamatva), nutrition (Ahara Vidhi), and communicable diseases (Aupasargika Rogas), reflecting an early understanding of public health principles. Thus, Swasthavritta stands as the cornerstone of Ayurvedic preventive medicine, integrating personal discipline with societal welfare for holistic health maintenance.

ABSTRACT Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the education system was among the worst hit. The online education system was introduced, and students have to stay home surrounded by uncertainty of their future, leading to various levels of stress and the need to somehow cope with it. Materials and Methods: An online cross-sectional descriptive study involving 417 B.Sc. Nursing students were conducted between March 2, 2022 and March 8, 2022 to assess the perceived stress and coping mechanisms among Mizoram’s B.Sc. nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic and to ascertain the association between stress and coping with specific demographic variables. To assess the level of stress and coping strategies, respectively, Pandemic-Related Perceived Stress Scale of Covid-19 (PSS-10-C) and Modified Brief-Coping orientation to problems experienced Scale were used. Results: The majority of the participants 89% were female, whereas 10.1% were male. Most of the participants 89.2% resided in a hostel. A high level of stress is seen among 2.15% of the participants. The majority 83.7% have moderate stress levels and a low level of stress is seen among 14.15% of the participants. Perceived stress is higher among the females significantly at 0.02 and also among those who reside in the hostel at 0.02 level. Among the participants with high perceived stress levels, avoidance coping is most adopted by a mean value of 25.00 (5.61). Conclusions: The findings suggest that there is a need for appropriate intervention for assisting the B.Sc. nursing students in stress management to adopt healthy coping strategies.

PurposeThe study aims to investigate the effect of the dialogue embedded synectics model of teaching on the creative thinking of students.Design/methodology/approachThe research design of the study was a nonequivalent control group design of quasi experimental research. This study collected data from 80 students in the seventh grade from two different government schools in Bathinda, Punjab, India, which were selected using a random method. The subjects of experimental group were taught by the investigator using the dialogue embedded synectics model of teaching and the subjects of control group were taught by their teacher using the traditional teaching method, i.e. the Herbartian method. The data collections were done using the creative thinking test developed by Baqer Mehdi (1995). The data analysis techniques used t-test.FindingsKey finding indicates that the dialogue embedded synectics model of teaching is effective in enhancing the creative thinking of students as compared to the traditional method.Originality/valueThe present work is unique in terms of development of an innovative pedagogy, i.e. the dialogue embedded synectics model of teaching, which has the potential to encourage students' creative thinking, a key concern for society in the 21st century. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct similar type of studies on this innovative pedagogy and this model of teaching may be used by teachers for enhancing creative thinking of seventh class students.

"Autism spectrum disorder is a neurological developmental condition significantly inappropriate development in social interaction, social communication, and repetitive patterns of behaviors, which may often persist in the person’s entire life. The present study aims to ascertain the effect of cognitive training program to improve the cognitive functioning of children with autism spectrum disorder. A total of 20 children with autism spectrum disorder were placed in this study. A quasi-experimental single subject pre-post design was used to investigate the effectiveness of the cognitive training program to improve the child’s cognitive functioning. The Color progressive matrices test of intelligence was used to measure the child’s IQ, and the Indian Assessment of Autism Scale was used to assess the autism level of the child. The Cognitive Skills Assessment Scale was administered to measure the pre-post assessment of the child’s cognitive functioning. The cognitive training module was administered to the children. It comprised executive functioning, cognitive mental states and central coherence tasks. Total 12 sessions of the cognitive training program were provided to the children. The results showed significant improvement in executive functioning, understanding cognitive mental states, and central coherence. The cognitive skills training program positively influenced the children’s cognitive functioning."

The present study was undertaken to measure the Teaching Competency of Prospective Teachers in Chennai District, Tamilnadu with regard to their gender and locality. For this purpose, 600 Prospective Teachers (200 male and 400 female) from Chennai District were selected from 18 colleges. A Self-constructed and standardized Teaching Competency (TCS) scale was used for data collection and an independent't' test was used for data analysis. Results revealed that there was a significant difference in the Teaching Competency of prospective teachers in relation to their gender and locality.

In this transforming universe, the whole ball of wax, materialistic and non-materialistic, is changing their original forms. The attitude of the human beings is also changed. Attitude is one of the aspects of identifying people by observing the behavior, action, and the way of looking the things in a different way. Every human being has their own point of view towards any person, thing, and event. Like that teachers also have the different viewpoints regarding any noun. There are standard changes seen in teaching-learning process, the ideal change from the traditional classroom teaching to modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based teaching. For joyful learning, effective teaching, and to achieve the set objectives there are vivid innovative ideas are adopted. The teacher educators use those practices to teach students in teacher education institutions to produce competent, skilled, efficient, and proficient teachers. Role play, team teaching, individualized learning, mobile learning, flipped learning, blended learning etc. are some of the examples of innovative practices. But there are various factors that constitute problems in implementing these new ideas. It is very much needed to overcome from all these problems and issues and keep going with the emerging trends in the field of education.\n\n\n 

A plethora of innovative pedagogical tools got invented of late enriching the episteme of English language teaching, while making the acquisition easy and comfortable for the English language learners. In the present research paper, it is studied how discourse analysis of English fictional texts can be used as a useful pedagogical tool to improve the communicative competence of English language learners. Regular practice of doing the analysis of different discourses from the texts helps the readers/learners to develop the speaking skills in English, through the acquisition of grammatical and semantic knowledge with enhanced vocabulary and specifically with socio-cultural contexts. The analyst has to move from the semantic study of the constituents of narratives, talk exchanges, structures of speech to the linguistic, cognitive, historical, social, rhetorical, psychological reasons for the distinctive forms and functions of discourse in context. Some of the textual extracts are taken here from the selected texts such as pieces of narrative and conversational discourses; and the major objective here is to prove how the different bases and modes of discourse analysis applied help the English language learner to achieve the communicative goal easily.

The present study aimed at unraveling the relationship between the trait emotional competence of teachers in normal schools and in special schools and their psychological characteristics mental health, sociability, and emotional wellbeing. The researcher adopted descriptive survey method which enabled her to design her own data collecting instrument for studying emotional competence of teachers and also to make use of suitable sampling technique for identifying the relationship between the dependent and independent variables in a scientific manner. The study has shown that mental health and sociability are the significant correlates of emotional competence of both the categories of teachers. The further analysis revealed that both the psychological correlates have emerged as the significant predictors of the trait emotional competence. The researcher has discussed the implications of the findings at length.