Exploring evolution of STEM teacher identity during immersive STEM experiences

Pakistan has recently made STEM part of its mainstream education, as evident by the National Curriculum of Pakistan for Science (2022-23). Hence, the inclusion of STEM in the science curriculum places sole responsibility on the science teachers for implementing STEM reform at the classroom level. This makes it inevitable to explore the transformation of a science teacher to a STEM teacher. Seeing the novelty of the idea of STEM teacher identity in the context, the study was purposefully delimited to a single participant teacher using a single-case holistic design to explore the participant teacher’s unique STEM experiences that shaped her STEM teacher identity. Data collected from interviews, self-portrait as a teacher in the science classroom, critical incidents, artifacts and document analysis helped in gaining deep insights into the complex process of identity development. Participant teacher’s journey depicted continuous learning leading to identity transformation due to the interplay of personal, professional and social experiences in the teaching and learning context of the participant. Participant teacher’s beliefs and experiences as a learner of science, her career-changing experiences of becoming a science teacher, her reform-minded beliefs and actions considering contextual negligence of science teaching in the classroom, especially her participation in STEM teacher preparation programme and workshops visibly contributed to the evolution of her STEM teacher identity. Particularly, the process of evolution of identity was reflected through her diverse STEM specific experiences as a STEM learner during professional development, as a curriculum developer, as a teacher coach, and as a researcher. Yet, it does not conclude that the participant’s identity transformed completely, fulfilling entirely the expectations of STEM education. The study also provides recommendations that have implications for all educational stakeholders to make appropriate arrangements for integration of STEM and especially calls for ongoing STEM-focused professional development of teachers

Overall and gender-based negative predictive value of a normal gated myocardial perfusion SPECT study: a single center experience

A normal gated myocardial perfusion imaging (GMPI) has been found to have high diagnostic and negative predictive value (NPV) in western population. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the overall and gender-based NPV of a normal GMPI in local population.This is a prospective study conducted at Nuclear Cardiology Department of Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD), Karachi from December 2008 till May 2009. All Patients (with intermediate risk) with a normal GMPI with adequate dynamic or dipyridamole stress were included and followed up for 18 months (mean 15 +/- A 3 months) for fatal or non-fatal infarctions.The mean ejection fraction (EF) of studied population was 69 +/- A 8% while mean end diastolic (EDV) and end systolic volume (ESV) were 71 +/- A 19 and 22 +/- A 11 ml, respectively. In studied female cohort, the mean EF (%), EDV (ml) and ESV (ml) were 71 +/- A 08, 64 +/- A 15 and 19 +/- A 09, respectively. In studied male cohort, the mean EF (%), EDV (ml) and ESV (ml) were 66 +/- A 06, 82 +/- A 18 and 27 +/- A 11, respectively. At 18 months follow-up, one fatal (male Patient) and one non-fatal MI (male Patient) were reported. The overall NPV was 99.4% over 18 months follow-up with an event rate of 0.6% (95% CI 0.03-1.16%) and annualized event rate of 0.3%. The NPV and annualized event in subgroup analyses, was similar for female and male (P = 0.213).We conclude that a normal GMPI with adequate stress in our population has high NPVs for major cardiac events as in western population. In addition, the prognostic utility of GMPI is similar for both men and women