Epistemic insight: Teaching about science and RE in secondary schools

This article reports on a teaching intervention for year 9/10 students (age 13-14) in secondary school biology and Religious Education (RE) lessons which was partly intended to deepen students’ reflections, empathy and literacy when considering the similarities, differences and relationships between religion and science. The intervention proved to be generally successful in meeting its aims for the students and also led to a number of the participating teachers changing their views in ways that were more positive about the worth of examining such issues in the classroom

Students’ Perceptions of Religion and Science, and How They Relate: the Effects of a Classroom Intervention

In England, both Religious Education (RE) and science are mandatory parts of the school curriculum throughout the 5-16 age range. Nevertheless, there remain concerns that, as in many countries, students do not have a good understanding about the scope of each subject nor about how the two subjects relate. This article reports on a study that involved an intervention of six lessons in RE and six in science that were intended to help 13-15 year-old students develop a better appreciation for the relationship(s) between science and religion and a less reductionist understanding of biology. Our focus here is on the understandings that students have about the relationship between science and religion. The intervention was successful in improving the understandings of almost half of the students interviewed, but in these interviews we still found many instances where students showed misunderstandings of the nature of both religious and scientific knowledge. We argue that RE needs to attend to questions regarding the nature of knowledge if students are to develop better understandings of the scope of religions and how they arrive at their knowledge claims

"This does my head in". Ethnographic study of self-management by people with diabetes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Self-management is rarely studied 'in the wild'. We sought to produce a richer understanding of how people live with diabetes and why self-management is challenging for some.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Ethnographic study supplemented with background documents on social context. We studied a socio-economically and ethnically diverse UK population. We sampled 30 people with diabetes (15 type 1, 15 type 2) by snowballing from patient groups, community contacts and NHS clinics. Participants (aged 5-88, from a range of ethnic and socio-economic groups) were shadowed at home and in the community for 2-4 periods of several hours (total 88 visits, 230 hours); interviewed (sometimes with a family member or carer) about their self-management efforts and support needs; and taken out for a meal. Detailed field notes were made and annotated. Data analysis was informed by structuration theory, which assumes that individuals' actions and choices depend on their dispositions and capabilities, which in turn are shaped and constrained (though not entirely determined) by wider social structures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Self-management comprised both practical and cognitive tasks (e.g. self-monitoring, menu planning, medication adjustment) and socio-emotional ones (e.g. coping with illness, managing relatives' input, negotiating access to services or resources). Self-management was hard work, and was enabled or constrained by economic, material and socio-cultural conditions within the family, workplace and community. Some people managed their diabetes skilfully and flexibly, drawing on personal capabilities, family and social networks and the healthcare system. For others, capacity to self-manage (including overcoming economic and socio-cultural constraints) was limited by co-morbidity, cognitive ability, psychological factors (e.g. under-confidence, denial) and social capital. The consequences of self-management efforts strongly influenced people's capacity and motivation to continue them.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Self-management of diabetes is physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially demanding. Non-engagement with self-management may make sense in the context of low personal resources (e.g. health literacy, resilience) and overwhelming personal, family and social circumstances. Success of self-management as a policy solution will be affected by interacting influences at three levels: [a] at micro level by individuals' dispositions and capabilities; [b] at meso level by roles, relationships and material conditions within the family and in the workplace, school and healthcare organisation; and [c] at macro level by prevailing economic conditions, cultural norms and expectations, and the underpinning logic of the healthcare system. We propose that the research agenda on living with diabetes be extended and the political economy of self-management systematically studied.</p

Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain: an update

A large number of scientists from a wide range of medical and surgical disciplines have reported on the existence and characteristics of the clinical syndrome of pelvic girdle pain during or after pregnancy. This syndrome refers to a musculoskeletal type of persistent pain localised at the anterior and/or posterior aspect of the pelvic ring. The pain may radiate across the hip joint and the thigh bones. The symptoms may begin either during the first trimester of pregnancy, at labour or even during the postpartum period. The physiological processes characterising this clinical entity remain obscure. In this review, the definition and epidemiology, as well as a proposed diagnostic algorithm and treatment options, are presented. Ongoing research is desirable to establish clear management strategies that are based on the pathophysiologic mechanisms responsible for the escalation of the syndrome's symptoms to a fraction of the population of pregnant women

We came here to remember’: Using participatory sensory ethnography to explore memory as emplaced, embodied practice

Memory can be seen as an emplaced phenomenon rather than as an internal, psychological archive. Approaches relating to cognition and memory as practice, seeing cognition as an extended, distributed phenomenon, will be considered in theoretical and empirical contexts in this article. Theoretical approaches to emplaced, embodied memory will be explored in the context of my sensory ethnographic research on place perception. I curated a series of sensory ethnographic engagements to explore how three international students from Tunisia, Indonesia, and Germany used emplaced knowledge and memories of their city and of their previous homes. Using a participatory sensory ethnography, involving walking interviews, my collaborators devised unique memorial responses to evoke their new and previous places of residence. The collaborations presented here illustrate the embodied, emplaced nature of memory. The use of sensory ethnography has enabled me to construct memory as an emplaced, embodied, multisensory phenomenon, rather than an internal archive

'Science is purely about the truth so I don't think you could compare it to non-truth versus the truth.' Students' perceptions of religion and science, and the relationship(s) between them: religious education and the need for epistemic literacy

There already exists a large knowledge base about teaching and learning related to the origins, diversity and history of life on Earth. We know less about teaching and learning related to wider issues pertinent to both religion and science. In our research with 40 students in six secondary schools in England, we looked at wider issues of student perceptions of religion and science. Our study involved an intervention of six lessons in Science and six in Religious Education (RE). Issues of philosophy, including ethics, were raised in Science lessons. The RE lessons dealt with a variety of contexts that highlighted the question of the relationship(s) between religion and science. In both pre- and post-intervention interviews, we found many instances where students used language that conveyed a misconception of the epistemic distinctions between religion and science. Students referred to ‘truth’, ‘theory’ and ‘facts’ interchangeably when discussing religious and scientific knowledge. We argue that RE needs to attend to epistemic literacy if we are to both avoid epistemological misconceptions and enable students to develop insights into the specific knowledge forms manifested in religion(s)

Decreased creatine kinase is linked to diastolic dysfunction in rats with right heart failure induced by pulmonary artery hypertension

Our objective was to investigate the role of creatine kinase in the contractile dysfunction of right ventricular failure caused by pulmonary artery hypertension. Pulmonary artery hypertension and right ventricular failure were induced in rats by monocrotaline and compared to saline-injected control animals. In vivo right ventricular diastolic pressure-volume relationships were measured in anesthetized animals; diastolic force-length relationships in single enzymatically dissociated myocytes and myocardial creatine kinase levels by Western blot. We observed diastolic dysfunction in right ventricular failure indicated by significantly steeper diastolic pressure-volume relationships in vivo and diastolic force-length relationships in single myocytes. There was a significant reduction in creatine kinase protein expression in failing right ventricle. Dysfunction also manifested as a shorter diastolic sarcomere length in failing myocytes. This was associated with a Ca2+-independent mechanism that was sensitive to cross-bridge cycling inhibition. In saponin-skinned failing myocytes, addition of exogenous creatine kinase significantly lengthened sarcomeres, while in intact healthy myocytes, inhibition of creatine kinase significantly shortened sarcomeres. Creatine kinase inhibition also changed the relatively flat contraction amplitude-stimulation frequency relationship of healthy myocytes into a steeply negative, failing phenotype. Decreased creatine kinase expression leads to diastolic dysfunction, we propose this is via local reduction in ATP:ADP ratio and thus to Ca2+-independent force production and diastolic sarcomere shortening. Creatine kinase inhibition also mimics a definitive characteristic of heart failure, the inability to respond to increased demand. Novel therapies for pulmonary artery hypertension are needed. Our data suggest cardiac energetics would be a potential ventricular therapeutic target