Improving subject knowledge and subject pedagogic knowledge in employment based secondary initial teacher training in England

Each year in England about 6,000 trainee teachers qualify by undertaking an employment-based initial teacher training route (EBITT), where training is mainly school based. Government inspectors have found that trainees on this route are weaker in subject knowledge and subject pedagogic knowledge compared to trainees following the more traditional one year training course (PGCE) of which about a third of course time is University based. EBITT providers are currently seeking to improve the subject knowledge aspect of training. To support this work the TDA have published a model for developing trainees' subject knowledge for teaching and suggest that providers review their provision against the model. In addition EBITT providers must also meet a new requirement that the total training time should be a minimum of 60 days. This new requirement presents a challenge to EBITT providers as most of the subject knowledge enhancement will have to be school-based. This paper seeks to find out: - how trainee teachers acquire subject and subject pedagogic knowledge while based in a school and - whether teaching staff in schools have the required subject and subject pedagogic knowledge and skills for this enhanced role. Data have been collected from trainees, school-based mentors, school-based Initial Teacher Training Coordinators and University assessors over a one year period. Data about the way trainees acquire subject knowledge was interpreted against the TDA model. The study finds that: - trainees acquire subject and subject pedagogic knowledge in a variety of highly individualistic ways that suggests that the TDA model only partially explains what is happening in practice and - there is a significant training need to ensure schools are well equipped to deliver high quality subject focussed training.</p

Promoting a Lay Led Self-Care Approach to Managing Persistent Pain.

This research project explored the impact of introducing a lay led self-management approach known as the Expert Patient Programme (EPP) at patients' initial referral stage to a pain management clinic in a secondary care setting. It involved a randomised controlled trial and employed a mixed method approach permitting triangulation of data with a longitudinal design. Sixty-three patients (Control group n=33, Intervention group n=30) with persistent non-malignant musculo-skeletal pain conditions referred to a District General Hospital (DGH) Pain Clinic , agreed to take part and provided data for the research. The intervention was usual care and an invitation to attend a lay led self-management programme known as the Expert Patients Programme (EPP). This consisted of six 2 hour per week programmes led by lay tutors. The Control group received only usual care, data being collected at baseline, 3-6 months and 10-14 months. The primary hypothesis was to determine if the early introduction of a selfmanagement approach alongside medical treatments could influence and encourage participants to adopt self-management approaches to managing their persistent pain. The primary outcome, readiness to take action to self-manage persistent pain symptoms was measured by the Pain Stages of Change Questionnaire (PSOCQ). Secondary outcomes of Acceptance, Pain and Interference were measured by applying the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (CPAQ), and Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). The Qualitative data was gathered using focus groups. The results identified significant promotion through the Stages of Change process accompanied by improvements in Pain and Interference levels for the Intervention groups' data at 10-14 months; no significant changes were found in the Control group. Improvements in the Intervention group were related to a synergistic effect of offering a self-management approach in parallel with a medical model approach and participants taking actions to relinquish their Sick Role. This study is the first to suggest an association between the Stages of Change process and the Sick Role. Results provide evidence that improvements seen in the Intervention group were associated with progress through the Stages of Change and linked with participants adopting self-management approaches and relinquishing their Sick Role; this allowed them to take on a more appropriate role described as the Persistent Condition Role (PCR)

The role of the Initial Teacher Training Coordinator in the school based element of partnership: to what extent does the Co-ordinator undertake supervision of aspects of quality assurance?

Over the last 14 years, Universities and colleges have organised school placements and award qualifications whilst teachers, acting as mentors take the lead in guiding, supervising and assessing students on lengthy teaching placements. Partnership developed quickly in response to legislation and Sheffield Hallam University was among the first of the Universities to 'sign up' to the new partnership model in 1992. The Partnership Survey 2006 reported on in this paper has focussed on the Senior Liaison Tutor with a view to finding out their views on their role, and perceived contributions to the quality assurance of the partnership. The survey focussed on some of the key issues identified in previous studies and meetings of the Partnership Management Board.</p

Chronic exposure to environmental temperature attenuates the thermal sensitivity of salmonids

Metabolism, the biological processing of energy and materials, scales predictably with temperature and body size. Temperature effects on metabolism are normally studied via acute exposures, which overlooks the capacity for organisms to moderate their metabolism following chronic exposure to warming. Here, we conduct respirometry assays in situ and after transplanting salmonid fish among different streams to disentangle the effects of chronic and acute thermal exposure. We find a clear temperature dependence of metabolism for the transplants, but not the in-situ assays, indicating that chronic exposure to warming can attenuate salmonid thermal sensitivity. A bioenergetic model accurately captures the presence of fish in warmer streams when accounting for chronic exposure, whereas it incorrectly predicts their local extinction with warming when incorporating the acute temperature dependence of metabolism. This highlights the need to incorporate the potential for thermal acclimation or adaptation when forecasting the consequences of global warming on ecosystems

Crop Updates - 2003 Oilseeds

This session covers fifteen papers from different authors ACKNOWLEDGMENTS VARIETIES Large scale canola varietal evaluation in WA, Peter Nelson, Oilseeds WA Performance of IT and TT canola varieties in the medium and high rainfall agzones of WA 2001-02, Graham Walton, Hasan Zaheer and Paul Carmody, Department of Agriculture QUALITY Reproductive biology, cotyledon development and oil accumulation in canola, J.A. Fortescue and D.W. Turner, School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia Plant and environmental factors affecting oil concentration in canola – a mini-review, D.W. Turner, School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia Potential benefits from interspecific crosses between canola and ‘near canola’ quality Indian mustard, Janet Wroth, School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia (UWA), Wallace Cowling, School of Plant Biology, UWA and CBWA Pty Ltd, Anh-Van Pham, School of Mathematics and Statistics, UWA NUTRITION, AGRONOMY AND MACHINERY Timing of nitrogen application for producing canola grain and oil, R. F. Brennan, Department of Agriculture Managing canola for soil type and moisture stress, Paul Carmody and Hasan Zaheer Department of Agriculture Machinery lessons from 2002 – canola establishment, Glen Riethmuller, Greg Hamilton and Jo Hawksley, Department of Agriculture Machinery lessons from 2002 – harvesting short crops, Glen Riethmuller, Department of Agriculture Does increasing canola seeding rate reduce the competitiveness of grass weeds? Zaicou-Kunesch, C.M., Zaheer, S.H. and Eksteen, D, Department of Agriculture PESTS AND DISEASES Aphid damage to canola – not all cultivars are equal, Françoise A. Berlandier and Christiaan Valentine, Department of Agriculture Should we be worried about developing insecticide resistance in aphids? Owain Edwards, CSIRO Entomology Benefits provided by treating canola seed with imidacloprid seed dressing, Roger Jones, Brenda Coutts, Lisa Smith and Jenny Hawkes, Department of Agriculture, and Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture Blackleg levels in canola in 2002, Ravjit Khangura1, Moin Salam1, Art J Diggle1 and Martin J Barbetti1,2 1Department of Agriculture, 2University of Western Australia DBM in canola, Kevin Walden, Department of Agricultur

Promoting a Lay Led Self-Care Approach to Managing Persistent Pain

The results identified significant promotion through the Stages of Change process accompanied by improvements in Pain and Interference levels for the Intervention groups' data at 10-14 months; no significant changes were found in the Control group. Improvements in the Intervention group were related to a synergistic effect of offering a self-management approach in parallel with a medical model approach and participants taking actions to relinquish their Sick Role. This study is the first to suggest an association between the Stages of Change process and the Sick Role. Results provide evidence that improvements seen in the Intervention group were associated with progress through the Stages of Change and linked with participants adopting self-management approaches and relinquishing their Sick Role; this allowed them to take on a more appropriate role described as the Persistent Condition Role (PCR). / Page 3 This research project explored the impact of introducing a lay led self-management approach known as the Expert Patient Programme (EPP) at patients' initial referral stage to a pain management clinic in a secondary care setting. It involved a randomised controlled trial and employed a mixed method approach permitting triangulation of data with a longitudinal design. Sixty-three patients (Control group n=33, Intervention group n=30) with persistent non-malignant musculo-skeletal pain conditions referred to a District General Hosp~tal (DGH) Pain Clinic, agreed to take part and provided data for the research. The intervention was usual care and an invitation to attend a lay led self-management programme known as the Expert Patients Programme (EPP). This consisted of six 2 hour per week programmes led by lay tutors. The Control group received only usual care, data being collected at baseline, 3-6 months and 10-14 months. The primary hypothesis was to determine if the early introduction of a selfmanagement approach alongside medical treatments could influence and encourage participants to adopt self-management approaches to managing their persistent pain. The primary outcome, readiness to take action to self-manage persistent pain symptoms was measured by the Pain Stages of Change Questionnaire (PSOCQ). Secondary outcomes of Acceptance, Pain and Interference were measured by applying the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (CPAQ), and Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). The Qualitative data was gathered using focus groups. The results identified significant promotion through the Stages of Change process accompanied by improvements in Pain and Interference levels for the Intervention groups' data at 10-14 months; no significant changes were found in the Control group. Improvements in the Intervention group were related to a synergistic effect of offering a self-management approach in parallel with a medical model approach and participants taking actions to relinquish their Sick Role. This study is the first to suggest an association between the Stages of Change process and the Sick Role. Results provide evidence that improvements seen in the Intervention group were associated with progress through the Stages of Change and linked with participants adopting self-management approaches and relinquishing their Sick Role; this allowed them to take on a more appropriate role described as the Persistent Condition Role (PCR).EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Migration research and migration policy making : a study of Australia, the Philippines and Thailand

This article reports on a study to investigate the links between policy makers and social scientific researchers with respect to migration in the Asia Pacific region. It addresses the ways in which research networks inform the policy process and especially the extent to which, and how, migration research has an impact on migration policy. The major findings that emerge from the study include the following: knowledge of the political and economic context of each country varies and needs to be understood as it provides the context for policy making; the relationship between research and policy processes varies considerably across countries – in some countries the policy process is "tightly" managed by a single department (such as in Australia) while in others there is a more diverse administrative approach to migration policy (such as in Thailand); the impact of research is more direct and conclusive when research has been commissioned directly by government or involves close collaboration with government; migration policy processes in all case study countries appear increasingly responsive to public opinion, rather than the findings of academic research, and thus indicate the important (but more amorphous) indirect policy impact from academic research; given this situation, the need to disseminate results widely is evident; migration researchers are inevitably "biased" towards certain methodologies and theoretical perspectives and therefore a wide range of opinions is valuable