The Impact of Theatre Pedagogy on Student Teachers’ Development of Beliefs about Good Teaching and their Pedagogical Ethos: An Exploratory Case Study

The development of student teachers’ beliefs about good teaching needs to be integral to their education programmes. This study attempts to scrutinise the contribution of a theatre education course to the conceptualisation of a group of eight student primary teachers’ notion of good teaching and a teacher’s ethos. The findings reveal that, within the coursework, student teachers’ learning experiences are interwoven with the ethics of the beautiful, the ethics of the dialogue and the ethics of the will. This nexus of learning experiences enabled them to identify three internal goods of good teaching: the awakening of learners’ positive emotions; the activation of their learning energy through play; and the strengthening of their embodied understanding by using theatre semiotics. Concerning a teacher’s pedagogical dispositions in good teaching, they consider trust, respect, empathy, open-mindedness, vigilance and playfulness as pivotal for the ethos of a teacher connected to both teaching and their pupils

Investigating the affinity between drama/theatre education and aretaic pedagogy : a phenomenographic case study of a teacher education programme

In synchronous educational discourse, teaching is predominantly perceived in terms of competences and scientific knowledge. In this thesis, I suggest an alternative understanding of teaching as an ethical, virtue-driven practice. This premise, while it is based on the idea of educating learners as persons, instead of simply teaching them knowledge and skills, postulates the practice of aretaic pedagogy. In drawing upon an Aristotelian view of virtue ethics and MacIntyre’s theory of practice, this study investigates the potential contribution of two courses, Drama Education and Theatre Education and Theatrical Play, to the promotion of the student primary teachers’ conception of teaching as aretaic pedagogy. Both courses are those I teach within the context of a teacher education programme at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. Two qualitative methodological traditions contributed to the design of this study: case study and phenomenography. The research participants were six student primary teachers who attended the courses. Data emanated from both narrative/text-based and audio-visual-based methods, over the course of one academic year. In attempting to satisfy the research paradigm of both methodologies, the schema of analysis that I adopted was constructed on open-coding strategies and categorical aggregation consistent with constant comparative analysis. Findings indicate that the courses’ ensemble-based artistic work is the poetic space, which enables participants to practice both personal and professional virtues. Their personal aretaic development can be defined by virtues originated by dialogue, the beautiful, the will and consciousness. A nexus of these virtues, such as joy, trust and friendship/love are embedded in their pedagogy of drama/theatre education, which fortify their communication, playfulness, vigilance and artistr

Assessment of the 3D spatial distribution of the Calcium/Phosphorus ratio in bone

The purpose of this study was the development of a technique for the non-invasive assessment of the 3D spatial distribution of the Ca/P ratio in bone, which can be applied in a conventional computed-tomography (CT) system, to investigate the variation of Ca/P ratio in healthy and osteoporotic bone, and to potentially enhance osteoporosis understanding and diagnosis. Three-material mass-fraction decomposition CT dual energy analysis (CT-DEA) was developed and optimised for the assessment of Ca/P ratio. As part of this process, density values are provided as a bi-product. The technique was optimised and experimentally applied through a microCT system. The target of the optimisation was to achieve a precision of better than 0.09 in the Ca/P ratio, in order to be able to distinguish between all healthy and osteoporotic regions. Electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was used to evaluate the performance of CT-DEA on bone apatite. Ca/P ratio measurements were made on the same healthy and inflammation mediated osteoporotic (IMO) rabbit cortical bone surfaces, using CT-DEA and EDX. The mean di fference in the Ca/P ratio between the two techniques was 0.11± 0.08 (8 6%) and the correlation was R²=0.69, suggesting su cient con dence in the experimental capabilities of the CT-DEA technique. Healthy and IMO rabbit, both collagen-free and intact, cortical bone samples were assessed by CT-DEA. Qualitative analysis of the results involved the production of Ca/P ratio and density distribution maps. Quantitative analysis involved the quanti cation of the Ca/P ratio and density across the whole sample and in volumes of interest, as well as the low Ca/P ratio proportion in each sample. Furthermore, a 3D region growing technique was used to study the uniformity of Ca/P ratio in the samples. Results showed di erences in both density and Ca/P ratio between healthy and IMO bone samples, supporting their use as possible osteoporosis indicators and the use of the developed technique for further studies

Evaluation of CT-DEA performance on Ca/P ratio assessment in bone apatite using EDX

The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of a new computed tomography-dual energy analysis (CT-DEA) technique developed for the non-invasive assessment of the 3D spatial distribution of calcium/phosphorus (Ca/P) ratio in bone. For this, the Ca/P ratio in 58 regions from four healthy and four inflammation-mediated osteoporotic (IMO) rabbit bone collagen-free samples were assessed using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and CT-DEA. Image registration, performed using NifTK software (Centre for Medical Imaging Computing, University College London), allowed the comparison with the results from the two imaging systems.A value of R=0.69 in the fit of CT-DEA Ca/P ratio versus EDX Ca/P ratio and a mean absolute/percentage difference of 0.11 ± 0.08/8 ± 6% in the CT-DEA Ca/P ratio from the EDX results suggest sufficient confidence in the current experimental capabilities of the developed technique. The main difficulties in the comparison of the results using the two techniques and possible sources of error are discussed.Even though there are still possible improvements that can be made in the developed technique, through this study, it has been shown that CT-DEA can provide valuable 3D, non-invasive information on the comparison between healthy and osteoporotic bone. © 2014 The Authors

Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis: The Potential Role of MRI Beyond Current Clinical Applications

Breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBM) represents a major clinical challenge. Can MRI help in advancements in the management of BCBM? This review discusses MRI developments and the corresponding potential advancements in BCBM management