THE CHANGING FACE OF SCHOOL TEACHING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: PRE-, DURING AND POST-COVID

As a STEM education consultant, working with primary and high schools, and a provider of teacher professional development (TPD), I have witnessed a rapid evolution in the mode of instruction, delivery and interaction from pre-COVID times to during and now post-COVID. Pre-COVID, school teachers and students thrived on face-to-face support, combined with the online sharing of resources and occasional Zoom. COVID-19 and lockdown necessitated that all instruction and interaction occurred online via Zoom, learning management systems (LMS) and cloud-native collaboration and productivity apps e.g. Google Suite. Fortunately for high school science students, they were often able to carry out mandatory investigations virtually using versatile online simulations. Primary age students were able to record basic experiments and share pictures and commentary back with their teachers. For teachers, Zoom workshops actually made TPD more accessible to regional and remote educators (and often cheaper), while ‘breakout rooms’ proved surprisingly successful at facilitating collaborative discussions and exercises. Post-COVID, the landscape has changed. Regional and remote schools feel more empowered to engage with online support. Even metropolitan schools recognise the benefits of cheaper support, the ease of online access and the minimal in-school disruption if delivered asynchronously and accessed after hours. REFERENCES Crook, S. (2017, February 22). New physics syllabus raises the bar, but how will schools clear it? The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/new-physics-syllabus-raises-the-bar-but-how-will-schools-clear-it-73370 Crook, S., Fenech, J., & Bourne, M. (2020). Authentic Primary Science During Home Learning in the COVID-19 Lockdown. Australian Educational Leader, 42(Special Edition 2). Crook, S.J., Sharma, M, D., & Wilson, R. (2015). Comparison of technology use between biology and physics teachers in a 1:1 laptop environment, Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 15(2), 126-160. Dhawan, S. (2020). Online learning: A panacea in the time of COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), 5-22

Changing times mean changing professional development: How access to professional development has changed in recent years for NSW high school physics teachers

Since the release of the then new HSC Physics Syllabus in 2017 (NSW Education Standards Authority, 2017) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, high school physics teachers have experienced a rapidly evolving landscape for their professional development (PD), dictated by everchanging government legislation, the COVID-19 pandemic, improvements in technology and teacher shortages. This presentation will describe: the demands on NSW teachers to maintain their teacher accreditation (NSW Education Standards Authority, 2022) originally how they would access physics PD on theory and experiments through face-to-face workshops the impact of COVID on access to PD the subsequent rise of online PD due to COVID and improvements in technology the beneficial increase in access to PD for regional teachers due to online delivery the slow return to face-to-face PD post-lockdowns the impact of the recent and ongoing lack of casual teachers on PD participation the consequent necessity for on-demand asynchronous PD alongside face-to-face and live online options the increasing importance of specialized PD in light of the teacher shortage While certain aspects are idiosyncratic to NSW, many of the points discussed are applicable to jurisdictions the world over. REFERENCES NSW Education Standards Authority. (2017). Physics stage 6 syllabus https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/stage-6-learning-areas/stage-6-science/physics-2017 NSW Education Standards Authority. (2022). Maintaining Proficient Teacherhttps://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/teacher-accreditation/meeting-requirements/maintaining-accreditation/proficient-teache

Evaluating the Impact of 1:1 Laptops on High School Science Students and Teachers

This thesis is the culmination of a 6-year-long longitudinal study into the impact of 1:1 laptops on the experiences and achievements of high school science teachers and students. Set in the context of 16 Sydney high schools during the Australian Digital Education Revolution, this thesis explores the practices of teachers and students with 1:1 laptops in the sciences, the impact of the 1:1 laptops on student attainment in standardised external examinations, and ultimately investigates the reasons behind the findings. As a thesis-by-publication, this thesis consists of two introductory chapters, five journal papers (four of which have been published in peer-reviewed journals, with the fifth under review) making up five chapters, an overall discussion and a self-reflection. Ultimately, this thesis provides a detailed, mixed methods commentary of the experiences of schools, teachers and students over the five years of the much maligned Digital Education Revolution, something that is missing in the national public domain. Within the larger sphere of educational technology research globally, this thesis contributes to filling in some of the gaps existing in the extant literature, particularly in terms of quantitative analysis and statistically significant findings. Future research would benefit from the methodologies, visual representations and overall findings contained within this thesis. In fact, several recent eminent literature reviews and meta-analyses include some of the papers that make up this thesis

Enrichment of Early Fetal-Liver Hemopoietic Stem Cells of the Rat Using Monoclonal Antibodies Against the Transferrin Receptor, Thy-1, and MRC-Oχ82

Fetal livers from inbred rat fetuses at 14 days' gestation were dispersed into a single-cell suspension by physical disruption and collagenase digestion. Pluripotent stem cells were characterized and partially purified by a combination of monoclonal antibodies. These included CD71 (anti-transferrin receptor, MRC-Oχ26, used for rosetting), Cdw90 (anti- Thy-1, MRC-Oχ7), and the newly described MRC-Oχ82 (reacting with myeloid cells in peritoneal exudate), employed in FACS sorting. Enrichment was monitored by long-term reconstitution of lethally irradiated congenic rats genetically distinguishable from the donor by an allelomorphic variant of the CD45 cell-surface antigen. At intervals from 3 months to 1 year, lymph-node cells and peritoneal exudate cells were biopsied for analysis by two-color flow cytometry-one color to determine donor origin, the other to identify Th cell (CD4+), Tc cell (CD8+), B cell (sIg+ or CD45RC+ ), neutrophil (Oχ82 + or Oχ43- ), and macrophage (Oχ43+) compartments. The degree of chimaerism was taken as the read out of stem-cell activity. No significant differentials between lymph-node and peritoneal exudate chimaerisms were detected in any of the recipients; therefore, the enrichment procedure revealed only pluripotent cells, not stem cells of restricted potency. All recovered stem-cell activity was in the Oχ26(CD71)-negative, Oχ7(CDw90)-positive, Oχ82-positive fraction. In the optimum case, an enrichment of very roughly 200-fold in cell-for-cell activity was obtained

Independent prescribing by advanced physiotherapists for patients with low back pain in primary care:a feasibility trial with an embedded qualitative component

BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) is the most prevalent musculoskeletal condition. Guidelines advocate a multimodal approach, including prescription of medications. Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioners (APPs) are well placed to manage LBP. To date no trial has evaluated the efficacy of physiotherapist-prescribing for LBP. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the feasibility, suitability and acceptability of assessing the effectiveness of physiotherapist-prescribing for LBP in primary care; informing the design of a future definitive stepped-wedged cluster trial (SWcRCT). METHODS: Mixed-methods, single-arm feasibility design with two components. 1) Trial component: participants with medium-risk LBP +/-leg pain were recruited across 3 sites. Outcome measures (primary outcome measures-Pain/RMDQ) were completed at baseline, 6 and 12 weeks Physical activity/sedentary behaviour were assessed over 7 days using accelerometery. A CONSORT diagram analysed recruitment/follow-up rates. Descriptive analysis evaluated procedure/floor-effects. 2) Embedded qualitative component: focus groups (n = 6) and semi-structured interviews (n = 3) evaluated the views/experiences of patients and APPs about feasibility/suitability/acceptability of the proposed trial. Thematic analysis synthesised the qualitative data. Findings were evaluated against a priori success criteria. RESULTS: n = 29 participants were recruited. 90% of success criteria were met. Loss to follow-up at 12 weeks (65.5%) did not satisfy success criteria. Primary and secondary outcome measures were suitable and acceptable with no floor effects. The addition of a sleep assessment tool was advised. Accelerometer use was acceptable with 100% adherence. APPs felt all patients presenting with non-specific LBP +/- leg pain and capture data representative of the full scope of physiotherapist independent prescribing should be included. Data collection methods were acceptable to APPs and patients. APPs advocated necessity for using research assistants owing to time limitations. CONCLUSIONS: Methods evaluated are feasible, suitable and acceptable for a definitive SWcRCT, with modification of eligibility criteria, and use of research assistants to overcome limited clinician capacity. A definitive SWcRCT is feasible with minor modifications

Early multiple regression analysis of high school sciences examination data: Assessing the impact of laptop use on student performance

The Australian Digital Education Revolution in secondary schools ran from 2008 to 2012. Year 9 students in ‘Round 1’ schools, within the Catholic Education Office Sydney, each received a laptop from 2008. This was repeated for Year 9 students in ‘Round 2’ schools from 2009. Consequently, for the Higher School Certificate (HSC) examinations in 2011, students from Round 1 schools had been schooled for over three years with 1:1 laptops whereas the students from Round 2 schools had received traditional schooling. This unique dichotomous scenario is the context of this study, which builds upon prior research into the impact of 1:1 laptops and the Digital Education Revolution on teaching and learning in science (Crook, Sharma Wilson & Muller 2013; Crook & Sharma in press). This study reports on the preliminary multiple regression analysis of 521 students within subject using HSC examination result as the dependent variable and School Certificate result, gender, socio-economic status, science subject, teachers variables, student variables and schooling by laptop as independent variables. The early findings are interesting and perhaps controversial

Bloom-ing Heck! The Activities of Australian Science Teachers and Students Two Years into a 1:1 Laptop Program Across 14 High Schools

This study examines the responses of 1245 science students and 47 science teachers from 14 Catholic high schools in Sydney, Australia, 2010. Two years into a 1:1 laptop program, the types of activities engaged in with laptops as self-reported by teachers and students are analysed. The activities are differentiated from lower- to higher-order using Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. Though the shift has been to use pen and paper less and laptops more, it is found that the modal practice for students is the lower-order paradigm of note-taking and working from textbooks through electronic means by word processing and electronic textbooks, plus simple online searching. Students would like to engage in more higher-order activities such as blogging and video editing but these are not favoured by teachers. Datalogging and databases, despite being encouraged or even mandated by the Board of Studies NSW, are rare experiences. Most science teachers appear to use simulations but students do not report the same experience. Investment must be made in the professional development of teachers to empower and encourage them to integrate higher-order tasks and to capitalise on the opportunities offered by 1:1 laptops

Teachers’ Transition into a 1:1 Laptop Environment: A Longitudinal Case Study of Four Science Teachers over 5 Years

This paper is the final in a multi-phase study exploring the impact of 1:1 laptops in Australian high schools since the Digital Education Revolution of 2008. The overall study tracked the deployment and use of the laptops in the sciences in 16 high schools, collecting various data over five years. The research data is drawn together to report on additional in-depth qualitative follow-up interviews with four teachers, specialising in chemistry, physics, biology and senior school science, who participated in every element of the overall study. Thus, a rich description is provided in the form of longitudinal case studies for these four teachers. Transformational shifts in teachers’ confidence are evident; and there are substantial differences and changes over time in the ways laptops are used (e.g. spreadsheets, word processing, internet research and simulations). Many of the reported activities involve lower-order skills and thinking and thus present as lost opportunities for higher-order learning. However, the teachers’ use is consistent with syllabus requirements which provide few, or in some cases no direction, toward higher-order activities. A recurrent theme from teachers is that students are more confident than their teachers, often making suggestions for activity resources and trouble-shooting. Thus, implementation of the laptops involved renegotiation of the power dynamics of the classroom, and re-invention of the teacher as a facilitator of thinking and independent learning. Further research is needed to examine these shifts, which are not acknowledged in technology education theory; but which undoubtedly have far reaching ramifications for the future of education

Short-term genome stability of serial Clostridium difficile ribotype 027 isolates in an experimental gut model and recurrent human disease

Copyright: © 2013 Eyre et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedClostridium difficile whole genome sequencing has the potential to identify related isolates, even among otherwise indistinguishable strains, but interpretation depends on understanding genomic variation within isolates and individuals.Serial isolates from two scenarios were whole genome sequenced. Firstly, 62 isolates from 29 timepoints from three in vitro gut models, inoculated with a NAP1/027 strain. Secondly, 122 isolates from 44 patients (2–8 samples/patient) with mostly recurrent/on-going symptomatic NAP-1/027 C. difficile infection. Reference-based mapping was used to identify single nucleotide variants (SNVs).Across three gut model inductions, two with antibiotic treatment, total 137 days, only two new SNVs became established. Pre-existing minority SNVs became dominant in two models. Several SNVs were detected, only present in the minority of colonies at one/two timepoints. The median (inter-quartile range) [range] time between patients’ first and last samples was 60 (29.5–118.5) [0–561] days. Within-patient C. difficile evolution was 0.45 SNVs/called genome/year (95%CI 0.00–1.28) and within-host diversity was 0.28 SNVs/called genome (0.05–0.53). 26/28 gut model and patient SNVs were non-synonymous, affecting a range of gene targets.The consistency of whole genome sequencing data from gut model C. difficile isolates, and the high stability of genomic sequences in isolates from patients, supports the use of whole genome sequencing in detailed transmission investigations.Peer reviewe