ObjectivesMany medical schools in Taiwan have adopted a dignified “silent mentor” initiation ceremony to strengthen student’s medical humanity and increase their learning attitudes. This ceremony consists of introductions of the body donor’s conduct and deeds, wreath-laying, and a tea party. However, few empirical studies have examined the influences of the ceremony and dissection on medical humanity. This study explored if the initiation ceremony and the course can help students care more about others, develop more positive attitudes toward death, improve learning effectiveness in the course, and decrease negative emotions the first time they see a cadaver.MethodsThe Attitudes Towards Death and Love and Care subscales of the life attitude inventory, Learning Effectiveness of Gross Anatomy Laboratory Scale (LEGALS), and Emotional Reactions Towards Cadavers Scale were adopted to examine differences before (T1) and after (T2) medical students attended an initiation ceremony at a university in northern Taiwan. Whether these effects lasted to the end of the semester (T3) was also tested.ResultsAfter the ceremony, students’ attitudes towards death increased, negative emotions towards cadavers decreased, but love and care and the LEGALS did not significantly change. Data from T3 showed a similar pattern, but high-level emotions (e.g., being respected, cherished, and grateful) and the LEGALS were significantly higher than those at T1.DiscussionThe initiation ceremony, which showed a body donor’s deeds and attitudes toward life and death when they were alive, could help medical students gain more mature attitudes towards death and decreased negative emotions. Learning between T2 and T3 might have caused significant changes in high-level emotions and the LEGALS at T3. Arranging reflective writing with guided discussion by a teacher before and after the ceremony is highly recommended.

PurposeThis paper aims to describe the findings of a study investigating the relationships between teacher attitudes to teaching mathematics, teacher self-efficacy, student achievement and teacher job satisfaction in Taiwan.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 110 fifth grade primary school teachers and their students (n = 2,334) between 10 and 10 years old. A teacher questionnaire and a criterion-reference test in mathematics were distributed during the academic year 2016–2017. The data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and stepwise linear regression.FindingsThe results revealed that teacher attitudes to teaching mathematics, efficacy in classroom environment and student achievement in mathematics could, to some extent, explain variations in teacher job satisfaction. Of all the variables, teacher attitudes to teaching mathematics explained the largest portion of the variance in teacher job satisfaction.Originality/valueThese findings support the proposition that teacher attitudes to teaching mathematics affect teacher job satisfaction, which is in turn, translatable into enhanced teacher effectiveness. It is important to note that this study explores the impact of student achievement on teacher job satisfaction (and not the other way round), which is a relationship that remains under-researched and needs further investigation. Implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions for further studies are provided.

Background/purpose In Taiwan, the average income of a dentist increases after the implementation of national health insurance in 1995. Thus, the domestic departments of dentistry become a popular choice of university departments for high school graduates. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the distribution of students admitted to dental schools of general universities in each city or county in 2020 and to further compare the differences in regional distributions of dental freshmen accepted by three admission ways in 2020. Materials and methods This study collected the number of dental freshmen of general universities in each city or county in 2020 for further evaluating the differences in regional distributions of dental freshmen accepted by three admission ways in 2020. Results The distribution of dental freshmen in 2020 did have a big urban-rural gap. These dental freshmen were more concentrated in municipalities than in non-municipalities in Taiwan. The execution of three admission ways did play a role in balancing the urban-rural gap in the distribution of dental freshmen. Conclusion The urban-rural gap of the distribution of dental freshmen was not larger than that of dentists. The increased guaranteed enrollment quota of dental freshmen for the high school graduates in the offshore islands do cause unequal opportunities of admission to dental schools. If these extra-enrolled dentists do not return to their hometowns to practice, this may worsen the surplus of dentists and may fail to improve the uneven distribution of dentists in Taiwan.

Background Gross anatomy laboratory course at medical school is usually an important learning subject for medical students; however, seeing a cadaver often makes them feel uncomfortable. According to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions broaden our inventory of thoughts and actions, and build physical, mental, and social resources. Research on positive psychology found that through direct thanks and positive reframing, people who feel gratitude show fewer depressive symptoms. The present study tried to reduce students’ negative emotions towards cadavers by sequential activities, such as family interviews and an initiation ceremony, which induced gratitude and other positive emotions. Methods The Emotional Reactions Towards Cadavers Scale (ERTCS) was used to evaluate medical students’ emotional reactions after they see a cadaver. Third year medical students (n = 105) at Taipei Medical University in northern Taiwan completed ERTCS on three occasions within a single semester during academic year 2016. Repeated-measures ANOVA and hierarchical regression analyses were then conducted to identify any changes in the emotional reactions of these students. Results The ERTCS showed satisfactory internal consistency and a three-factor structure, i.e., negative emotions, high-level emotions, and excited emotions. High-level emotions were the highest, and negative emotions were the lowest among the three in our sample. Three-wave data showed that participants’ high-level emotions increased, negative emotions decreased, and the former simultaneously predicted the latter after controlling for the influence of gender, religious beliefs, experience of the death of a family member or friend, and burnout level. Conclusions While past research usually focused on coping strategies to reduce medical students’ negative emotions, our study supported the broaden-and-build theory, which emphasizes positive emotions, and demonstrated that elevating medical students’ gratitude to ‘silent mentors’ is an effective way. It is suggested that combining dissection courses with medical humanities can help students successfully handle negative emotions during a gross anatomy laboratory course.

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