Supporting students’ development through collaborative reflection: interrogating cultural practices and perceptions of good practice in the context of a field trip

This study examines the perspectives of a group of 10 UK undergraduate students and one Master’s student on a residential field trip to four Danish forest kindergartens. Two dimensions are examined: the impact of collaborative reflection and co-construction of knowledge on student learning; and the influence of cultural assumptions on understandings of early childhood education and care in practice. The methodology was interpretive, and inductive approaches were employed to analyse qualitative data-sets. The study is framed by cultural-historical theory, acknowledging that learning and development takes place in social context and is shaped by cultural and societal values and practices. Findings suggest that students’ collaborative reflections enabled them to identify and question their own assumptions about good practice and to develop their understanding of the relationship between culture and pedagogy. The community of learning that developed afforded rich opportunities for drawing out meaningful relationships between practice and theory. Students emerged with greater understanding of the relevance of research and of their identity as researchers

Do reflections on personal autobiography as captured in narrated life-stories illuminate leadership development in the field of early childhood?

Research demonstrating the importance and impact of the earliest years on longterm outcomes is now well established, and the link between effective leadership and quality provision has been clearly made. However, the nature of the best preparation for such leadership remains contested. The qualitative research reported here is related to the early childhood sector in England and is based on a series of in-depth interviews conducted over a four-month period with three early childhood leaders selected through purposeful sampling. The research study focuses on the key area for exploration – whether reflecting on and analysing autobiographical stories, both personal and linked to leadership experiences, has the potential to support leadership development by increasing self-awareness and self-concept. Links are made between ‘lived experience’ and leadership practice and effectiveness. The study highlights the importance of such reflections and indicates that this approach to leadership development has a positive and constructive impact on the participants’ views of themselves as people and leaders, and as such might be an additional approach to developing new leaders and supporting the continuing development of existing leaders

Fitness effects and transmission routes of a microsporidian parasite infecting Drosophila and its parasitoids

A microsporidian infection was discovered in laboratory cultures of Drosophila species. Ultrastructural examination suggested it belonged to the poorly characterized species Tubulinosema kingi, and morphological and sequence data are presented. We explored how T. kingi affected the fitness of Drosophila melanogaster and D. subobscura, as well as the fitness of 2 of their parasitoids, Asobara tabida and Pachycrepoideus vindemiae. In Drosophila, infections caused changes in most of the traits we looked at that were associated with fitness, in particular causing a 34–55% reduction in early-life fecundity. Parasitoid fitness was affected more severely by infection than that of their hosts, with pupal mortality in particular increasing by 75–89%. We investigated the most important routes of transmission for T. kingi in a laboratory setting. Letting Drosophila larvae feed on medium contaminated with spores from infected dead flies resulted in 100% infection. Low levels of transmission (<10%) were found between larvae, and vertically between mothers and their offspring. Parasitoids developing in infected hosts all became infected, but infected adults were neither able to transmit the pathogen to their offspring nor to their offspring’s Drosophila host, either directly, or via contamination of the ovipositor or other body parts. A field survey of Drosophila and their parasitoids in southern England revealed no natural infections. We discuss the potential importance of Microsporidia in parasitoid-host interactions, and for those working with Drosophila in the laboratory

Toward more robust ignition of inertial fusion targets

Following the 3.15 MJ fusion milestone at the National Ignition Facility, the further development of inertial confinement fusion, both as a source for future electricity generation and for high-energy-density physics applications, requires the development of more robust ignition concepts at current laser facility energy scales. This can potentially be achieved by auxiliary heating the hotspot of low convergence wetted foam implosions where hydrodynamic and parametric instabilities are minimized. This paper presents the first multi-dimensional Vlasov–Maxwell and particle-in-cell simulations to model this collisionless interaction, only recently made possible by access to the largest modern supercomputers. The key parameter of interest is the maximum fraction of energy that can be extracted from the electron beams into the hotspot plasma. The simulations indicate that significant coupling efficiencies are achieved over a wide range of beam parameters and spatial configurations. The implications for experimental tests on the National Ignition Facility are discussed