29 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Pandemic, a catalyst for change: Strategic planning for digital education in English secondary schools, before during and post Covid
Following lockdowns in 2020 owing to Covidâ19, schools needed to find a way to ensure the education of their pupils. In order to do this, they engaged in digital learning, to varying extents. Innovations emanated from all school staff including, for example, teachers, leaders and teaching assistants. Some were already innovating in this area and brought forward and implemented digital strategies, while others engaged with digital learning for the first time. While research is emerging about the effects of the pandemic restrictions on pupils and staff in relation to key issues such as mental health and educational attainment, very little is known about the impact on school leaders' strategic planning processes. To address this gap, this paper draws on a UK Research and Innovation funded study adopting a strategy as learning approach to report on 50 qualitative interviews with school leaders to examine digital strategy in English secondary schools, before, during and after July 2021, when restrictions were lifted in England. It draws on strategy as learning literature to evaluate if schools have changed their strategic planning for digital learning, as a direct response to having learned and innovated during the pandemic. The paper concludes that there is evidence that digital innovations during the pandemic have changed the ways in which leaders think about their digital strategy, thus supporting a strategy as learning approach. However it also concludes that although there is ample evidence that the pandemic has changed the way many schools view digital learning, for some schools, there remain persistent barriers to digital integration and planning. These emanate both from material and cultural considerations, as well as leader vision and belief in digital learning
Recommended from our members
Leading School Online Learning beyond Covid-19
The Open University Business School is leading research on online learning and strategic planning through, and post, lockdown in English secondary schools. The project is looking at how school leaders strategically manage and plan for online provision of learning, through the pandemic and beyond. It will address how they have coped with, and continue to manage, particular challenges such as a lack of equipment, absence of learners from school, and provision for Special Educational Needs (SEN) students. This session summarises some of the key findings from the initial pilot project sharing key takeaways on how schools are effectively utilising online learning beyond Covid.
âą Explore how schools can engage more effectively with the digital technology at their disposal â at both strategic and operational levels
âą Discover and reflect on how the use of digital technology is changing the way your school operates â creating new leadership challenges and strategic opportunities
âą Become more digitally-informed and empowered to embrace the innovation, collaboration and efficiency gains that the use of technology has brought during the pandemic
International home economics
The conference was planned to serve the interests of those who wish to work in home economics programs abroad and those who are concerned with the education of international students in the universities and colleges of the United States. Approximately 165 home economists from other states and from foreign countries I including the African and Latin American countries I participated in the conference.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/card_reports/1026/thumbnail.jp
International genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new primary biliary cirrhosis risk loci and targetable pathogenic pathways.
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a classical autoimmune liver disease for which effective immunomodulatory therapy is lacking. Here we perform meta-analyses of discovery data sets from genome-wide association studies of European subjects (n=2,764 cases and 10,475 controls) followed by validation genotyping in an independent cohort (n=3,716 cases and 4,261 controls). We discover and validate six previously unknown risk loci for PBC (Pcombined<5 Ă 10(-8)) and used pathway analysis to identify JAK-STAT/IL12/IL27 signalling and cytokine-cytokine pathways, for which relevant therapies exist
Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world
Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality.
Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States.
Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis.
Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection
Recommended from our members
Strategic management of online education in English secondary schools during Covid 19 and beyond
Covid 19 has presented unprecedented challenge to school leaders in England: challenge that intensifies as pupils return to full time schooling (Adnan et al, 2020; Dhawan, 2020). During lockdown schools developed online learning strategies, but to date there is little or no knowledge of how online learning has been led and managed or how they have /or will address the needs of disadvantaged pupils (Jewitt et al., 2020).This project takes a mixed methods approach to investigate how school leaders; head teachers/ CEOs & heads of department, in state secondary schools in England, are strategically planning for the management of online learning over the next 2 years, and how this builds on current practices. Using a case study approach based in 20 schools, the project uses an adaptation of Punteduraâs model of differing degrees of technology integration to establish what level of online provision is being offered at present and what plans schools have for the next 2 years (2006 2012) These are : L1 â Substitution- technologies are used passively to support teaching; L2 - augmentation â traditional pedagogies are adapted for online use; L3 â Modification-strategic thought is given to the design of online learning and enhancements that add value to online teaching are implemented in order to improve learner performance; L4 â strategic planning for design of online offerings linking to whole school/ department approaches in online learning. (van der Spoel et al., 2020). As such, the project offers unique insights into the short- and medium-term planning for online learning and important contributions to policy and practice.
Theoretical approach:
The project takes a strategy as practice approach to strategy, as this has been found to be most useful in our previous projects on strategic management in schools (Baxter and Floyd, 2019; Baxter and Cornforth, 2019), and incorporates a strategy as learning approach, that is pertinent given the uncertainties prevalent at this time.
The research questions are:
âą At what level are schools currently operating in terms of the 4 operational levels of online practice, and when and why were online strategies implemented?
âą What changes/ amendments to strategies have leaders implemented due to Covid19?
âą How are schools operationalising strategies with their staff?
âą What strategies are in place for pupils with SEN and limited tech/study space?
âą What opportunities and challenges are inherent in the leadership and management of online learning in secondary schools in England?
âą How are school leaders responding to these challenges?
âą What key practices contribute to the success of online strategies?
âą What strategies are leaders putting in place for online learning in the future, both in response to ongoing pandemic and as part of âbusiness as usualâ.
The study has found that the strategic management of online learning has been very different in schools with high numbers of socioeconomically deprived learners, to that provided other schoools.It revealed key areas of challenge as well as opportunities to mainstream some processes and practices adobpted during covid. These practices that will be shared in a MOOC and which is freely available to headteachers and CEOs of multi-academy trusts
Recommended from our members
Leading and managing online learning in schools during Covid-19 and beyond
For educators, Covid-19 has been termed, âa quintessential adaptive and transformative challengeâ, (OECD, 2020), the impact of which will be felt for a long time to come. It is clear that during lockdown, teachers have been creatively carrying out blended and online learning, but in an ad hoc manner, with little strategic or whole school strategic approach (OECD, 2020). In addition, disadvantaged students have engaged less readily, and, as a result, many have been out of education for over 6 months. What is clear from the limited research on innovations so far, is that some of these âstopgapâ responses have the potential to change schoolsâ delivery of teaching and learning, but only if what schools have learned is integrated into their strategic planning for the future; ensuring that this planning particularly focuses on provision for disadvantaged students. However, this is unlikely to occur unless, as highlighted by a number of organisations (for example the National Education Union, England), it is strategically led and coordinated by leaders at all levels within schools