Is There a Problem or is He Just Bone Lazy? A Study of Children with Low Academic Motivation

Children who are poorly motivated at school are at risk of academic underachievement and a range of other adverse social, economic and health outcomes. Attributions of laziness, reflected in comments about children needing to "try harder" and "make more effort" may mask specific cognitive and learning characteristics that explain low motivation in many children. This paper reports preliminary findings from an ongoing study of "lazy" children in the early years of primary school. In order to investigate possible explanations for low academic motivation such as learning difficulties, anxiety disorders, intellectual impairment, attentional problems and giftedness, children were assessed using appropriate psycho-educational instruments, tasks and questionnaires. The discussion focuses on developing a deeper understanding of academic motivation in the early school years through illustrative profiles of poorly motivated children

Emerging Gender Regimes and Policies for Gender Equality in a Wider Europe

This article addresses some implications for gender equality and gender policy at European and national levels of transformations in family, economy and polity, which challenge gender regimes across Europe. Women’s labour market participation in the west and the collapse of communism in the east have undermined the systems and assumptions of western male breadwinner and dual worker models of central and eastern Europe. Political reworking of the work/welfare relationship into active welfare has individualised responsibility. Individualisation is a key trend west − and in some respects east − and challenges the structures that supported care in state and family. The links that joined men to women, cash to care, incomes to carers have all been fractured. The article will argue that care work and unpaid care workers are both casualties of these developments. Social, political and economic changes have not been matched by the development of new gender models at the national level. And while EU gender policy has been admired as the most innovative aspect of its social policy, gender equality is far from achieved: women’s incomes across Europe are well below men’s; policies for supporting unpaid care work have developed modestly compared with labour market activation policies.Enlargement brings new challenges as it draws together gender regimes with contrasting histories and trajectories. The article will map social policies for gender equality across the key elements of gender regimes – paid work, care work, income, time and voice – and discuss the nature of a model of gender equality that would bring gender equality across these. It analyses ideas about a dual earner–dual carer model, in the Dutch combination scenario and ‘universal caregiver’ models, at household and civil society levels. These offer a starting point for a model in which paid and unpaid work are equally valued and equally shared between men and women, but we argue that a citizenship model, in which paid and unpaid work obligations are underpinned by social rights, is more likely to achieve gender equality

Older academics: Motivation to keep working

This is an interpretive – descriptive analysis of responses to 41 open ended questionnaires returned by cademicsworking beyond normal retirement age. The sample consisted mainly of academics from the United Kingdom,Australia, and New Zealand. The research addressed the question of what motivates some academics to continueworking beyond the ‘usual’ retirement age. The main motivation for continuing was strong interest and commitment,particularly to research and writing. Some also gave social, financial, and other reasons for continuing. Those not infull time employment described barriers, including finance and facilities and the support that they needed to maintaintheir activities. In most countries institutional and government policies made it possible for them to stay involvedacademically even if it meant making a personal effort. Most of them would have liked better support or recognitionfrom their universities. The results suggest that universities should more actively support older academics incontinuing activity

Ageing in Fiji : how older teachers perceive ageing and their lives

Worldwide the population is ageing and data concerning how people want to age actively is limited. The paper is a description of an inductive interpretive-descriptive study of how a sample of older retired teachers in Fiji viewed ageing and their lives as older people. The objectives were to determine and describe perceptions of ageing held by a sample of retired teachers. The methodology consisted of responses to an open ended questionnaire similar to a phenomenographic approach and the analysis was interpretive – descriptive. A purposive sample of 30 retired teachers between the ages of 55 and 60 responded to the questionnaire. The results indicate that most of the respondents were positive about lifelong learning and in particular learning new things; that they were involved in a range of post retirement activities for personal and financial reasons; that there were some barriers and facilitators to their activities; that they generally accepted ageing and being older; and that more should be done by Government and other agencies to provide for a better life for older people in Fiji. These results should be considered in future planning for ageing populations in Fiji, the Pacific region and in other developing countries

Building a flagellum in biological outer space.

Flagella, the rotary propellers on the surface of bacteria, present a paradigm for how cells build and operate complex molecular 'nanomachines'. Flagella grow at a constant rate to extend several times the length of the cell, and this is achieved by thousands of secreted structural subunits transiting through a central channel in the lengthening flagellum to incorporate into the nascent structure at the distant extending tip. A great mystery has been how flagella can assemble far outside the cell where there is no conventional energy supply to fuel their growth. Recent work published by Evans et al. [Nature (2013) 504: 287-290], has gone some way towards solving this puzzle, presenting a simple and elegant transit mechanism in which growth is powered by the subunits them selves as they link head-to-tail in a chain that is pulled through the length of the growing structure to the tip. This new mechanism answers an old question and may have resonance in other assembly processes.This is the published version of the manuscript. It was published in the journal Microbial Cell by Shared Science Publishers OG and can be found here: http://microbialcell.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2014A-Evans-Microbial-Cell.pd

Building a flagellum outside the bacterial cell.

Flagella, the helical propellers that extend from the bacterial surface, are a paradigm for how complex molecular machines can be built outside the living cell. Their assembly requires ordered export of thousands of structural subunits across the cell membrane and this is achieved by a type III export machinery located at the flagellum base, after which subunits transit through a narrow channel at the core of the flagellum to reach the assembly site at the tip of the nascent structure, up to 20μm from the cell surface. Here we review recent findings that provide new insights into flagellar export and assembly, and a new and unanticipated mechanism for constant rate flagellum growth.This is the final published version. It is published by Elsevier and can be found online here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966842X14001188

Experience of Dying: Concerns of Dying Patients and of Carers

Background: Terminally ill patients frequently express concerns about what dying will be like: how their bodies may change as disease progresses, how medication may alter the effect of these changes and whether and how their preferences will be respected as they become more ill.----- Methods: Thirty-six patients admitted to a hospice were interviewed and 18 carers of patients of the Palliative Care service,whohad died participated in focus groups. Thirty-three patients had advanced malignant disease, 13 were women; their mean age was 68 years (range 44–92 years).----- Results: The areas of concern consistently identified by patients were (i) privacy and autonomy, principally in regard to families, (ii) a lack of information about physical changes and medication use as death approached and (iii) the desire to shorten life, which was expressed by all patients. Carers recalled problems accessing services and support and had needed more help with practical issues such as medication timing and dose. They believed that not enough information about the patients’ illnesses had been given to them and they were insistent that carers should have information against the wishes of patients.----- Conclusion: Some of the patients’ and carers’ concerns can be readily addressed. Others, particularly access to confidential information, cannot be addressed without a realignment of professional ethical standards and community expectations. The patients’ discussions of their desire to shorten life may have implications for the debate on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide

A taxonomic study of Senecio speciosus, Senecio macrocephalus and possible hybrid populations using morphological data, toxicty tests and chromatography

The variation between populations of Senecio speciosus Willd., Senecio macrocephalus DC. and intermediate plants was investigated in a comparative study of morphological characters, toxicity of plant extracts to brine shrimps (Artemia salina) and chromatography of plant extracts. Specimens were collected at 18 localities in the Eastern Cape Province. All these specimens were examined morphologically and chemical extracts were tested for toxicity and by comparative chromatography. The collection of Senecio speciosus and Senecio macrocephalus specimens in the Selmar Schonland Herbarium (GRA) was also examined morphologically. Six geographical areas were represented in the combined collections. Analysis of morphological data separated typical Senecio speciosus and Senecio macrocephalus at either end of hybrid index histograms and principal components analysis diagrams. The intermediate populations displayed morphological characters of both Senecio speciosus and Senecio macrocephalus. Some specimens were intermediate between these two species, falling within the range of variation of these species while others fell outside this range. The Brine Shrimp Assay was used to test for toxicity and to investigate the possibility of using toxicity data as a genetic marker in taxonomic studies. As Senecio speciosus extracts were less than 1% toxic and Senecio macrocephalus extracts were at least 95% toxic to the brine shrimps it is suggested that in this case toxicity can be used as a genetic marker. Toxicity can even be described as a good taxonomic character as discontinuity is very sudden and complete. The intermediate plants in the Grahamstown area were at least 92% toxic to the brine shrimps linking them to Senecio macrocephalus. Thin layer and paper chromatography were used as comparative techniques to study the chemical profiles of the specimens. Alkaloids, terpenoids and flavonoids were studied. Thin layer chromatography to separate the alkaloid components of the plant extracts showed Senecio speciosus and Senecio macrocephalus to have distinct chemical profiles suggesting that they are separate species. The intermediate plants- were found to contain chemical compounds matching either or both Senecio speciosus and Senecio macrocephalus suggesting that they may have arisen by hybridisation. In a preliminary investigation Senecio speciosus extracts showed a complete lack of terpenoid compounds whereas extracts from Senecio macrocephalus and the intermediate specimens tested gave a terpenoid colour reaction in the basal spot only. This links the intermediate populations with Senecio macrocephalus. Paper chromatography to separate the flavonoid constituents of the plant extracts also showed typical Senecio speciosus and Senecio macrocephalus to be distinct. The intermediate populations contained flavonoid compounds from one or both of these species. The populations in the Grahamstown area show morphological features close to and in some cases indistinguishable from Senecio speciosus. Chemically these specimens show some similarities with Senecio macrocephalus. In the East London area specimens show a similar mixture of characters but appear morphologically to be closer to Senecio macrocephalus. However, in the Amatole Mountains, despite both species being present in the same locality it appears that no hybridisation has occurred. It is therefore suggested that at some of the localities where the geographical ranges of Senecio speciosus and Senecio macrocephalus overlap in the Eastern Cape Province hybridisation between these two species occurs

Teachers' and children's personal epistemologies for moral education: Case studies in early years elementary education

While there is strong interest in teaching values in Australia and internationally there is little focus on young children’s moral values learning in the classroom. Research shows that personal epistemology influences teaching and learning in a range of education contexts, including moral education. This study examines relationships between personal epistemologies (children’s and teachers’), pedagogies, and school contexts for moral learning in two early years classrooms. Interviews with teachers and children and analysis of school policy revealed clear patterns of personal epistemologies and pedagogies within each school. A whole school approach to understanding personal epistemologies and practice for moral values learning is suggested