The Teaching and Learning Cycle: Integrating Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

The philosophies of educators and government entities guide the teaching and learning cycle of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The educator’s worldview plays an important part in developing these concepts which is demonstrated throughout history. Studying the history of the educational philosophers reveals their beliefs about curriculum, instruction, and assessments and the effects on education today. It shows the importance of integrating all three concepts in the educational process creating the teaching and learning cycle

Hero stories: A coping strategy for a child who has autism

This paper explores Hero Stories, a different narrative approach developed to support a child with autism to gain self-control and allow him to navigate his world as a competent and capable learner. It examines the development and use of 'Hero Stories books' as a strategy for assisting a child with autism to cope with stressful situations within the home and school, and explores how these stories can contribute to enhancing a child's sense of themselves as thinkers and powerful learners, in charge of their lives

Can children withhold consent to treatment

A dilemma exists when a doctor is faced with a child or young person who refuses medically indicated treatment. The Gillick case has been interpreted by many to mean that a child of sufficient age and intelligence could validly consent or refuse consent to treatment. Recent decisions of the Court of Appeal on a child's refusal of medical treatment have clouded the issue and undermined the spirit of the Gillick decision and the Children Act 1989. It is now the case that a child patient whose competence is in doubt will be found rational if he or she accepts the proposal to treat but may be found incompetent if he or she disagrees. Practitioners are alerted to the anomalies now exhibited by the law on the issue of children's consent and refusal. The impact of the decisions from the perspectives of medicine, ethics, and the law are examined. Practitioners should review each case of child care carefully and in cases of doubt seek legal advice

Chairing an Inquiry: An A/R/Tographic Exploration into an Art Teacher’s Experience of Physical and Metaphorical Building

This self-study research exists because of the pioneers in an arts-based research methodology, a/r/tography, those who provided an opening that included built-in affordances to recognize and support becoming as an artist, researcher, and teacher through a lens of three-dimensional space. This study explored the connections of an artist teacher’s experience by examining an existing practice of woodworking through building a chair, and how the combined identities of the artist, researcher, and teacher reflect an evolving practice of becoming that leans towards making as knowing, to explore the connection between chairing an identity, physically building chairs, and connecting through knowing and building in a physical and metaphorical three-dimensional sense. During this study, I constructed 132 pieces of art, while metaphorically relating the process of building to my researcher and teacher identity. I then analyzed the data and the process of building through the renderings of a/r/tography while questioning the epistemology of artmaking and research as a singular experience. The rendering of metaphor provided an interpretive walk-through experience of building chairs as a process for becoming that informed knowing as an artist, researcher, and teacher. This study addressed the need for more arts-based educational research that centers visual art as the question of knowing in a three-dimensional space, and how arts-based research counters the oppressive nature of scholarship in the academy, as a method of outreach that meets the needs of a diverse student population, and offers a loose guide for preservice teachers to follow as active participants in the process of art education

Mysticism and War: Reflections on Bergson and his Reception During World War I

Once we grasp Bergson’s new conception of an intuitive metaphysics premised on a distance from action, it seems unlikely that a connection could be found between this metaphysics and an activist philosophy of war. In this essay I shall revisit Bergson’s metaphysics to see how they could have been understood to provide support for war. I discuss how Bergson’s metaphysics by way of its number theoretical understanding of oneness was thought to mirror or express the limit experience of war that attracted many intellectuals hungry for a shattering of conventional limits on what held up as reality. Finally I suggest that Bergson subtly changed his understanding of the élan vital in the course of the Great War, compromising in the process its initially non-teleological character in order to ensure that his doctrines would only be implicated in international peace, not jingoistic war propaganda

Identifying the Causes of the New Hire Turnover at the Panasonic Customer Call Center

To guide this study, the following research objectives were established: 1. Identify the causes of employee turnover; 2. Determine call center management\u27s attitudes/perceptions towards turnover; 3. Develop an action plan to lower turnover rates

Feminist Life Stories: Twelve Journeys Come Together at a Women\u27s Center

This study explores the personal narratives of twelve self-proclaimed feminists who started a women\u27s center in a small conservative mid-west town. Our common herstories are not identical but reveal learning experiences imbedded in our social and cultural contexts. These social and cultural contexts, however varied, held common threads of the pedagogies we experienced in formal and informal settings. These pedagogies held traditions that are often passed on without question because we are not always aware of their presence. The stories allowed us to reflect on the traditions in our lives in order to come to terms with our past and present realities. As we each learned to be girls, women and feminists, we accepted the rewards of connection and acknowledged the struggle for self-definition. This research chronicles the learning journeys we each took as we came of age in the 50s, 60s, and 70s

Knowledge of young African American adults about heart disease: a cross-sectional survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>African Americans have higher rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality than other ethnic groups. Young adults are prime targets for intervention strategies to prevent and reduce disease risk. The study purpose was to determine the level of knowledge of lifestyle risk factors for CVD among young African American adults in Phoenix. The results will be used to guide the development of CVD outreach programs targeted to this population. The Health Belief Model was used as a conceptual framework.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A convenience sample of 172 African American men and women aged 18-26 years completed a questionnaire adapted from the American Heart Association national surveys. Descriptive statistics were compared by age, gender, education level, and health status variables including BMI, smoking status, and physical activity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Some aspects of heart-disease were well known among young adult African Americans. Knowledge of certain other important risk factors (menopause) and preventive behaviors (eating fewer animal products), however, was more variable and inconsistent among the respondents. Differences in knowledge of individual variables was greater by education level than by gender overall. Predictors of a summary CVD knowledge score included higher education, female gender, and high self-efficacy (adjusted R²= 0.158, <it>p </it>< .001). Predictors of self-efficacy in changing CVD risk were higher education and perceived low risk of CVD (adjusted R²= 0.064, <it>p </it>< .001), but these characteristics explained only 6% of the variance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Evaluation of baseline knowledge of CVD is essential before designing and implementing health promotion programs. Existing strengths and weaknesses in knowledge can guide tailoring of programs to be more effective. Further research would help to identify the range of other characteristics that determine knowledge and risk perception.</p

Effect of the medical emergency team on long-term mortality following major surgery

INTRODUCTION: Introducing an intensive care unit (ICU)-based medical emergency team (MET) into our hospital was associated with decreased postoperative in-hospital mortality after major surgery. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effect of the MET and other variables on long-term mortality in this patient population. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, controlled, before-and-after trial in a University-affiliated hospital. Participants included consecutive patients admitted for major surgery (surgery requiring hospital stay > 48 hours) during a four month control phase and a four month MET phase. The intervention involved the introduction of a hospital-wide ICU-based MET service to evaluate and treat ward patients with acutely deranged vital signs. Information on long-term mortality was obtained from the Australian death registry. The main outcome measure was patient mortality at 1500 days. Data on patient demographics, surgery undertaken and whether the surgery was scheduled or unscheduled was obtained from the hospital electronic database. Multivariable analysis was conducted to determine independent predictors of 1500-day mortality. RESULTS: There were 1,369 major operations in 1,116 patients during the control period and 1,313 operations in 1,067 patients during the MET (intervention) period. Overall survival at 1500 days was 65.8% in the control period and 71.6% during the MET period (P = 0.001). Patients in the control phase were statistically less likely to be admitted under orthopaedic surgery, urology and faciomaxillary surgery units, but more likely to be admitted under cardiac surgery or neurosurgery units. Patients in the MET period were less likely to undergo unscheduled surgery. Multivariable analysis revealed that age, unscheduled surgery and admission under thoracic surgery, neurosurgery, oncology and general medicine were independent predictors of increased 1500-day mortality. Admission during the MET period was also an independent predictor of decreased 1500-day mortality (odds ratio 0.74; P = 0.005). CONCLUSION: Introduction of a MET service in a teaching hospital was associated with increased long-term survival even after adjusting for other factors that contribute to long-term surgical mortality