What Archetypes of Representation Do Children between the Ages of Four and Seven Employ When Creating Route Maps of Familiar Interior Spaces?

This study investigated the symbols of representation young children choose to incorporate when they draw route maps of familiar interior spaces, based on the premise that development of map-making skills might unfold in much the same stage-like manner as the development of the ability to draw the human figure. In this investigation, children between the ages of 4 and 7 enrolled in a small independent elementary school were each asked to draw a map showing the route a person unfamiliar to the school would take to travel from the child\u27s classroom to the school gymnasium. Strategies during map-making were noted; completed maps were analyzed to identify archetypal representations of pathway, context, landmark, and figure. Statistically significant differences were found in archetypal use between the 4.5-5.0 and the 6.0-7.0 age groups, suggesting that archetypes of representation both appear and wane in a stage-like manner. The results imply further study is required to more closely identify archetypes and patterns of emergence and disappearance in the population at large. The results also suggest that offering more curricular opportunities in the earliest grades for young children to create maps may be warranted

Redesigning landscape architecture in higher education: a multimodal social semiotic approach

This investigation is a case study of landscape architectural design education in South Africa. Current forms of landscape architectural education are influenced by Global North perspectives and often, if not consciously, privilege particular ways of meaningmaking, and exclude or marginalise experiences or ways of knowing that are different. The aim of this research is to develop a landscape architectural pedagogy for diversity that fosters multiple perspectives and valorises resources that students bring to their learning environment, in order that students may both access and challenge the dominant landscape educational discourse. In grappling with these concerns, this research finds resonance with a multimodal social semiotic approach. Instead of labelling students as (in) competent or (under)prepared, a multimodal social semiotic approach emphasises the interest, agency and resourcefulness of the student as meaning-maker. The research thus reframes landscape architectural design processes through a multimodal social semiotic lens, providing new insights and clarity to these processes. The approach foregrounds interpersonal and social meanings of space and, to some extent, challenges traditional landscape architectural design practices that tend to value compositional and conceptual meanings. The methodology centers around a spatial model project in the second half of a first-year landscape architectural design studio subject. The data includes students' texts and their presentations. The research develops a methodological framework that outlines a range of ideational, interpersonal and textual meaningpotentials of landscape spatial and visual texts and applies this framework to the analysis of students' 2D and 3D texts. Through careful analysis of students' design trajectories, this research uncovers the types of resources students draw on, including semiotic, experiential, social, interactive and pedagogical resources. The analysis shows that students' transformation of resources results in innovative spatial designs, and expands on what and how landscape spaces can mean. Through the investigation, tenets for a multimodal pedagogy for diversity are developed: recognition of the rich and diverse resources students bring to their learning environment; acknowledgment that these resources are apt ‘precedent' for landscape architectural design processes; and explicit attention to multimodal moments and activities that may prompt re-(inner) conceptualisation in design trajectories. This pedagogical approach begins to address past educational imbalances and inequalities, and ensures that diverse, Global South perspectives contribute to the production of knowledge

Effects of Dietary Immunomodulation on Parasite Load in Commercial Crossbred Lambs

Multidrug resistant gastrointestinal nematodes have left sheep producers with little options to control the detrimental effects of parasitism on their flocks. Immunomodulation has been used in many autoimmune diseases in an effort to downregulate the immune system and alleviate pathology. However, upregulation of immune responses by use of dietary immunosaccharides may allow parasite susceptible sheep to clear a Haemonchus contortus infection. To test this hypothesis, Dorset-Texel lambs were fed a ration including CelmanaxRTM at 1g/hd/day for one week prior to receiving an experimental infection of 10,000 L3 stage H. contortus larvae; which continued until the completion of the study. Increases in eosinophils and mannose binding lectin-C were observed in lambs receiving CelmanaxRTM indicating upregulation of innate immune responses. CelmanaxRTM alone reduced TNF-&agr; mRNA within fundic mucosa, aiding in the polarization of a TH2 immune response. Supplementation with CelmanaxRTM did not have any effects on worm burden or fecal egg count (FEC) in infected lambs. These results indicate that CelmanaxRTM has immunomodulatory properties, but may not have absolute effects on clearing helminth infections in Texel crossbred lambs

Risk as productive in landscape architecture pedagogy

This paper explores the notion of “productive risk” as a way of understanding how diverse students can become re-makers of landscape architectural design practices and education. We trace the design trajectories of two first-year students at a South African tertiary institution and examine how the students negotiate the risk of drawing on their own experiences and resources in order to access conventionalised disciplinary practices. It is important to recognise students’ brought-along resources, but we also need to recognise the risk involved for the students and teachers in drawing on these resources. This risk needs to be seen in the light of a history of colonised education where diverse resources and experiences were often disregarded or devalued. We show how these students contextualise landscape architecture in terms of their own experiences and draw on their resources as prompts to space-making for the imagined users of their designs. We surface the risk in terms of students’ experiential resources as well as the use of unusual model-building materials and techniques. The high levels of engagement that these two students demonstrate in their design trajectories reveal the importance of making a connection between diverse contexts and the landscape architectural classroom. We argue that a pedagogy that embraces risk as productive can recognise and validate the rich knowledge, resources and experiences that students bring with them

Switching patients from other inhaled corticosteroid devices to the Easyhaler(®) : historical, matched-cohort study of real-life asthma patients

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Using a prompt sheet to improve the reference interview in a health telephone helpline service

Objective‐ The study examined whether a prompt sheet improved the reference interview process for health information advisers working at NHS Direct, a 24‐hour telephone helpline that provides confidential health care advice for the public in England.Methods ‐ A randomised control trial was conducted at eight NHS Direct sites across England in 2003‐04. Newly recruited health information advisers (n=30), full and part‐time,were randomly allocated to a control group (n=15) or intervention group (n=15), and 26 completed the study. Existing health information advisers were involved in the planning and design of the intervention. The prompt sheet included prompts for demographic information, reason for call, condition/treatment plan, existing knowledge of caller, special needs of the caller, handling a call empathetically, and conclusion. Testing of reference interview expertise was done at the end of basic training, and two months later, using the same questions. The ten test questions were based on common questions received by NHS Direct. A relevance framework for possible responses was drawn up for each question for scoring test responses, with more relevant responses scoring higher than less relevant responses.Results‐ The average score of prompt (experimental) and non‐prompt (control) participants increased on the second test, for each of the 10 questions. The prompt group improved significantly more overall than the control group. There was variation within the groups. Sixteen health information advisers showed a net increase in their score over all ten questions (10 experimental group, six control group). The post‐test score for an individualon a particular question did sometimes decrease from the pre‐test score, but all 26 improved on at least one question. Previous call handler experience did not appear to influence the extent of improvement, but length and type of experience in the post may have an influence.Conclusion ‐ The trial demonstrated the benefit of a simple and inexpensive prompt sheet for some, though not all, newly recruited health information advisers to improve their reference interview technique

The influence of dogma on the evolution of the Russian education system : a study in time perspective

Education systems are influenced by belief systems. Russia has throughout its history been guided by two rigid dogmatic belief systems: • the Russian Orthodox Church • the Communist ideology While other influences also prevailed, notably autocracy, humanism and nationalism, these were secondary to the dogma of the Church in the centuries preceding the Revolution in 1917. Autocracy could be regarded as an outflow of the dogma of the Church, which had established its links with the ruling elite early in its history, whereas the others originated from other sources and for other reasons. This study in the history and development of the Russian education system traces its origins back into the inchoate beginnings of the Russian nation and attempts to show how: • the Zeitgeist of a particular era led to the development of a particular dogmatic belief system • the Zeitgeist and the dogmatic beliefs influenced the figures who determined educational policies and reformsOnderwysstelsels word be"invloed deur 'n bepaalde denksisteem. So byvoorbeeld is Rusland deur die geskiedenis deur rigiede dogmatiese denksisteme gelei. Gelyklopend daarmee was daar ook ander denksisteme wat 'n invloed op die Russiese denke uitgeoefen het. lnvloede soos outokrasie, humanisme en nasionalisme was egter sekonder tot die dogmatiese invloede van die Kerk in die eeue voor die Rewolusie van 1917. Outokrasie kan weliswaar as 'n uitvloeisel van die dogma van die Kerk , wat vroeg in die Russiese geskiedenis 'n verbintenis met die regerende elite gesmee het, beskou word. Die onderhawige studie oor die ontwikkeling en verloop van die Russiese opvoedstelsel vind sy oorsprong in die beginjare van die Russiese volk en poog om aan te toon hoe: • die Zeitgeist van 'n bepaalde era tot bepaalde dogmatiese denksisteme gelei het • die Zeitgeist en dogmatiese denksisteme 'n invloed op die opvoedingsdenke en onderwyshervormings van bepaalde historiese figure in die Russiese verlede uitgeoefen het.Educational StudiesM. Ed. (History of Education