Perceptions of the learning environment in higher specialist training of doctors: implications for recruitment and retention.

INTRODUCTION: Career choice, sense of professional identity and career behaviour are influenced, subject to change and capable of development through interaction with the learning environment. In this paper workplace learning discourses are used to frame ongoing concerns associated with higher specialist training. Data from the first stage of a multimethods investigation into recruitment into and retention in specialties in the West Midlands is used to consider some possible effects of the specialist learning environment on recruitment and retention. METHODS: The aim of the study was to identify issues, through interviews with 6 consultants and questionnaires completed by specialist registrars from specialties representing a range of recruitment levels. These would inform subsequent study of attributes and dispositions relevant to specialist practice and recruitment. The data were analysed using NVivo software for qualitative data management. RESULTS: Participants' perceptions are presented as bipolar dimensions, associated with: curriculum structure, learning relationships, assessment of learning, and learning climate. They demonstrate ongoing struggle between different models of workplace learning. CONCLUSION: Changes in the postgraduate education of doctors seem set to continue well into the future. How these are reflected in the balance between workplace learning models, and how they influence doctors' sense of identity as specialists suggests a useful basis for examination of career satisfaction and recruitment to specialties

Post-Conciliar Models of Sin and Reconciliation: Towards a Contemporary Paradigm

The central proposal of this dissertation is that now, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962-5), official Roman Catholic teaching on sin and sacramental reconciliation is not, but ought to be, based upon a contemporary paradigm of sin and reconciliation--i.e. a paradigm which is concordant with, and adequate in light of, the teachings and goals of this Council. According to the author, an existing liturgical-narrational model of sin and reconciliation ought to be elevated to the status of such a paradigm or supermodel. The author arrives at this conclusion after examining two critical post-Conciliar documents--the revised Rite of Penance (1973) and Pope John Paul II\u27s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliation and Penance (1984)--in light of three points made by Patrick McCormick in his book Sin As Addiction (1989). This examination yields three corresponding insights: first, the two documents contain elements of different models of sin and reconciliation; second, a juridical model--the dominance of which is demonstrated--is inadequate (as a paradigm); third, a model which respects the narrative character of sin and reconciliation is also present in the documents. Ultimately, four original proposals are submitted. The first of these is that there are four distinct models of sin and reconciliation employed in both the Rite of Penance and Reconciliation and Penance. These models are here called the juridical, the personalistic, the medical, and the liturgical-narrational. Second, a liturgical-narrational model is identified and developed. This model is developed by including and improving upon McCormick\u27s addiction-recovery model. Third, the author sees the confession of sins as being narrative proclamation. This proposal is a synthesis of the liturgical character of the ancient public exomologesis and of the detail-oriented character of private confession. Fourth, a previously unrecognized type of social sin is recognized: the sin of a community against itself. Such a sin, as well as other sins, will be both treated and resisted with the help of a properly implemented liturgical-narrational paradigm. This implementation requires an adaptation of the third of the 1973 rites (i.e. Rite C )

Neither Fish Nor Fowl : The Thurmond Collection as Both Repository and Records Center and its Effect on the Appraisal Process

An exhibition entitled The Age of the Marvelous, 1 sought to explain the fascination of sixteenth and seventeenth century European culture with the unusual, rare, and exotic-whether natural or man-made. Among the paintings, natural specimens, rare books, maps, and manuscripts were displayed illustrations of wondrous animals. One common characteristic of these illustrations, whether of mythical or freshly discovered animals from the New World, was that the creature illustrated was often depicted as made up of parts from several different animals

Engaging Diversity At An Australian University: Chinese International Students\u27 Perceptions Of Their Social Experience While Studying In Australia

Increasing diversity of student populations at Australian universities has raised research attention on how international students are coping with their academic and social life. A research project conducted with Chinese students studying at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Western Australia in 2005 revealed various cultural and equity issues which impact on the Chinese international students\u27 academic and social experiences in Australia. This paper focuses on the social aspects of the findings from this study. It was found that most Chinese students reported poor social life and interaction with local and other international students on and off campus. Developing friendship with local students seems difficult. Home-stay experience has also been found problematic. The study shows that language and cultural differences are major barriers which impact on their social experience in Australia. The role of universities and local communities to develop strategies to improve Chinese international students\u27 social outcomes while studying in Australia is addressed

Assessing Satellite Image Data Fusion with Information Theory Metrics

A common problem in remote sensing is estimating an image with high spatial and high spectral resolution given separate sources of measurements from satellite instruments, one having each of these desirable properties. This thesis presents a survey of seven families of algorithms which have been developed to provide this common pattern of satellite image data fusion. They are all tested on artificially degraded sets of satellite data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (“MODIS”) with known ideal results, and evaluated using the commonly accepted data fusion assessment metrics spectral angle mapper (“SAM”) and Erreur Relative Globale Adimensionelle de Synth`ese (“ERGAS”). It is also established that the information theory metric mutual information can predict the performance of certain data fusion algorithms (pan-sharpening, principal component analysis (“PCA”) based, and high-pass filter (“HPF”) based) but not others

Transparency in the Council of the European Union has increased over the last decade, but only for the least controversial negotiations

The Council of the European Union has often been criticised from the perspective that it lacks transparency in its decision-making. James P. Cross assesses the censorship of Council records in the period since transparency legislation was introduced in 2001. He notes that while transparency has increased during this period, censorship of Council records is much more common in areas with high levels of controversy and disagreement between national governments. The fact that compromises may be easier to achieve in ‘closed doors’ negotiations means that there is a trade-off between establishing maximum transparency and increasing the efficiency of the decision-making process

The Science of Deduction: Dating and Identifying Photographs in Twentieth Century Political Collections

One of the more common analogies in archival literature is that comparing archivists to detectives. But even Sherlock Holmes, the most perfect reasoning machine the world has ever seen (in the words of his biographer, Dr. Watson), might quail at the task facing an archivist who must identify and date photographs in twentieth century political collections. Bereft, in most cases, of the technological clues that enable those working with nineteenth century photographs to date by photographic process, the archivist faces a situation that, in the words of Canadian archivist Richard J. Huydra: presents numerous fundamental difficulties. Existing captions are of ten incomplete, inaccurate, deliberately distorted or irrelevant. For photographs with no captions, the task of identification is even more difficult. Recognition by memory or through comparison with other visual evidence is often inadequate and unreliable