Getting Started with Service Learning: Teachers at all Levels Integrating Service into the Curriculum

Questions about integrating service learning into the curriculu

Service Learning and Curricular Integration

His name was Joe, and my experience with him frustrates me even today when I remember it. He was a bright, articulate, and persuasive student in an Applied Leadership Theory course I was teaching for honors students. He was a typical community college student in many ways-a bit older, married with one child, working full-time, and taking three courses. He was that pseudo-intellectual whom many of the other students admired. He had no problem questioning the need for many of the class assignments as well as the validity of course content. I liked him for his contributions to the class. But I was disappointed in his unwillingness to genuinely enter into the course. Finally, I confronted him in class

Qualitative study of patient views on a 'telephone-first' approach in general practice in England: speaking to the GP by telephone before making face-to-face appointments.

This is the final version. Available from BMJ Publishing Group via the DOI in this record.OBJECTIVE: To understand patients' views on a 'telephone-first' approach, in which all appointment requests in general practice are followed by a telephone call from the general practitioner (GP). DESIGN: Qualitative interviews with patients and carers. SETTING: Twelve general practices in England. PARTICIPANTS: 43 patients, including 30 women, nine aged over 75 years, four parents of young children, five carers, five patients with hearing impairment and two whose first language was not English. RESULTS: Patients expressed varied views, often strongly held, ranging from enthusiasm for to hostility towards the 'telephone-first' approach. The new system suited some patients, avoiding the need to come into the surgery but was problematic for others, for example, when it was difficult for someone working in an open plan office to take a call-back. A substantial proportion of negative comments were about the operation of the scheme itself rather than the principles behind it, for example, difficulty getting through on the phone or being unable to schedule when the GP would phone back. Some practices were able to operate the scheme in a way that met their patients' needs better than others and practices varied significantly in how they had implemented the approach. CONCLUSIONS: The 'telephone-first' approach appears to work well for some patients, but others find it much less acceptable. Some of the reported problems related to how the approach had been implemented rather than the 'telephone-first' approach in principle and suggests there may be potential for some of the challenges experienced by patients to be overcome.National Institute for Health Researc

Measuring effective coverage of facility-based childbirth care: a case study from northeast Nigeria

Poor quality of care limits achieving better outcomes in maternal and newborn health (MNH). To ensure greater accountability for high quality care, effective coverage measures are now recommended. Despite global agreement on the need to apply an effective coverage cascade, operationalising the cascade is problematic and the development of actionable methods have been identified as a research priority. This PhD investigated how effective coverage cascades can be operationalised for childbirth care using data from Gombe state, northeast Nigeria. A systematic review examined how effective coverage measures have previously been defined. The review highlighted a lack of harmonisation and identified only one study which used routine data derived from health management information systems. Subsequently, a cascade was developed for childbirth care by selecting the most frequently cited items from the literature that were also recommended by WHO. The PhD applied this definition to examine the extent to which meaningful effective coverage measures can be constructed from routinely available data sources in Gombe. Linking representative population data to facility data from DHIS2 it was feasible to construct a partial effective coverage measure. Compared to a gold standard measure - constructed using comprehensive health facility data – the analysis resulted in the same conclusion that effective coverage was very low. The analysis identified a vital gap in our ability to accurately measure all steps of the cascade using routinely available data in this setting. This is problematic, given the in-depth analysis of observations of childbirth care undertaken in this PhD revealed few women received the recommended routine processes of care. Extending routine data beyond inputs requires greater advocacy to promote the value of process of care indicators for decision making. Finally, this study identified challenges in assessing inequalities in effective coverage where relying on summarised health facility data, that warrant further consideration by the measurement community as we continue to promote the use of effective coverage measures

Visualising Silicon in Plants: Histochemistry, Silica Sculptures and Elemental Imaging.

Silicon is a non-essential element for plants and is available in biota as silicic acid. Its presence has been associated with a general improvement of plant vigour and response to exogenous stresses. Plants accumulate silicon in their tissues as amorphous silica and cell walls are preferential sites. While several papers have been published on the mitigatory effects that silicon has on plants under stress, there has been less research on imaging silicon in plant tissues. Imaging offers important complementary results to molecular data, since it provides spatial information. Herein, the focus is on histochemistry coupled to optical microscopy, fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy of microwave acid extracted plant silica, techniques based on particle-induced X-ray emission, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and mass spectrometry imaging (NanoSIMS). Sample preparation procedures will not be discussed in detail, as several reviews have already treated this subject extensively. We focus instead on the information that each technique provides by offering, for each imaging approach, examples from both silicifiers (giant horsetail and rice) and non-accumulators (Cannabis sativa L.)

Covalent polyester colouration by in situ chromophore creation

The permanent colouration of a polyester by straightforward azo coupling is disclosed. Uniquely, the chromophore is created only upon successful polymer modification with a non-coloured molecule (in situ colouration), which confirms successful polymer adaptation and ensures that coloured waste is not produced. The method of colouration, which may feasibly be applied for the coloration of a wide-range of step-growth polyesters, yielded a polymer capable of preventing indigo deposition onto a range of fabrics, offering potential use within advanced detergent formulations