Noisy zones of proximal development: Conversation in noisy classrooms

Despite the importance of context in studies of language use, sociolinguists have ignored the impact of noise on conversational interaction. This inattention is of particular concern in classrooms where language is a learning tool. Our research on interaction in noisy settings took place in English language elementary school classrooms with students in grades 3, 5, and 7, whose first language was English. Students were observed during regular classroom activities. Employing a novel method, in which students wore ear-level microphones, we obtained stereophonic recordings of the noise and conversation that reached each listener's ears. A dosimeter measured the noise levels in each classroom. Analyses of students� patterns of conversation suggest that noise levels impeded the intended development of complex conversational interaction and collaborative learning. This study also questions the place of acoustics in understanding context, and the significance of the hearer's perspective in sociolinguistic studies of conversational interactions

Engaging Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) clinical staff to lead practice improvement: the PICU Participatory Action Research Project (PICU-PAR)

Background: Despite considerable efforts, engaging staff to lead quality improvement activities in practice settings is a persistent challenge. At British Columbia Children’s Hospital (BCCH), the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) undertook a new phase of quality improvement actions based on the Community of Practice (CoP) model with Participatory Action Research (PAR). This approach aims to mobilize the PICU ‘community’ as a whole with a focus on practice; namely, to create a ‘community of practice’ to support reflection, learning, and innovation in everyday work. Methodology: An iterative two-stage PAR process using mixed methods has been developed among the PICU CoP to describe the environment (stage 1) and implement specific interventions (stage 2). Stage 1 is ethnographic description of the unit’s care practice. Surveys, interviews, focus groups, and direct observations describe the clinical staff’s experiences and perspectives around bedside care and quality endeavors in the PICU. Contrasts and comparisons across participants, time and activities help understanding the PICU culture and experience. Stage 2 is a succession of PAR spirals, using results from phase 1 to set up specific interventions aimed at building the staff’s capability to conduct QI projects while acquiring appropriate technical skills and leadership capacity (primary outcome). Team communication, information, and interaction will be enhanced through a knowledge exchange (KE) and a wireless network of iPADs. Relevance: Lack of leadership at the staff level in order to improve daily practice is a recognized challenge that faces many hospitals. We believe that the PAR approach within a highly motivated CoP is a sound method to create the social dynamic and cultural context within which clinical teams can grow, reflect, innovate and feel proud to better serve patients.Anthropology, Department ofArts, Faculty ofEmergency Medicine, Department ofMedicine, Faculty ofPediatrics, Department ofOther UBCNon UBCReviewedFacult

Globalisation and International Students: Remodelling Micro-international Aspects for the Entrepreneurial University

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Empowering the deaf. Let the deaf be deaf

Deafness is often regarded as just a one and only phenomenon. Accordingly, deaf people are pictured as a unified body of people who share a single problem. From a medical point of view, we find it usual to work with a classification of deafness in which pathologies attributable to an inner ear disorder are segregated from pathologies attributable to an outer/middle ear disorder. Medical intervention is thus concerned more with the origin, degree, type of loss, onset, and structural pathology of deafness than with communicative disability and the implications there may be for the patient (mainly dependency, denial of abnormal hearing behaviour, low self esteem, rejection of the prosthetic help, and the breakdown of social relationships). In this paper, we argue that hearing loss is a very complex phenomenon, which has many and serious consequences for people and involves many factors and issues that should be carefully examined. The immediate consequence of deafness is a breakdown in communication whereby the communicative function needs to be either initiated or restored. In that sense, empowering strategies—aimed at promoting not only a more traditional psychological empowerment but also a community one—should primarily focus on the removal of communication barriers.


Keywords: deafnes