Adapt or die : the views of Unisa student teachers on teaching practice at schools

This study focuses on the views of Unisa distance education (DE) students enrolled for the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) who had completed their teaching practice. The research questions were: What are student teachers’ experiences of the way in which Unisa prepared them for teaching practice, the school context in which they practised teaching, the mentoring they received or did not receive and the way they were assessed? Socio-constructivist learning and situated learning theory were used as the theoretical framework. A maximum variation sampling technique was used to select 16 participants who had completed 10 weeks of teaching practice to participate in the study. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that, in preparing students for teaching practice, all role players need greater clarity on what is expected of students with regard to learning outcomes, assessment criteria and lesson plans. Students need to be placed at schools that will provide constructive learning environments, mentoring teachers should receive training and there should be greater clarity on the who, what and how of the assessment of students during teaching practice.Curriculum and Instructional Studie

El Conocimiento Didáctico del Contenido en ciencias: estado de la cuestión

This paper gives a descriptive overview of the literature related to Pedagogical Content Knowledge - PCK - in the sciences. It is expected that this review can contribute to a better understanding of PCK, pointing out what has been investigated about this concept. Specifically, we analyze: a) how PCK is defined, what are its main features and how it has been appropriated by teachers; b) the relationship between PCK, knowledge of the contents to be taught and students learning; c) how PCK was actually used in teachers' training and teachers' evaluation; and, d) the scientific areas in which PCK has been studied. It concludes that PCK is an essential tool for improving the quality of teacher training

Development of treatment-decision algorithms for children evaluated for pulmonary tuberculosis: an individual participant data meta-analysis.

Background: Many children with pulmonary tuberculosis remain undiagnosed and untreated with related high morbidity and mortality. Recent advances in childhood tuberculosis algorithm development have incorporated prediction modelling, but studies so far have been small and localised, with limited generalisability. We aimed to evaluate the performance of currently used diagnostic algorithms and to use prediction modelling to develop evidence-based algorithms to assist in tuberculosis treatment decision making for children presenting to primary health-care centres. Methods: For this meta-analysis, we identified individual participant data from a WHO public call for data on the management of tuberculosis in children and adolescents and referral from childhood tuberculosis experts. We included studies that prospectively recruited consecutive participants younger than 10 years attending health-care centres in countries with a high tuberculosis incidence for clinical evaluation of pulmonary tuberculosis. We collated individual participant data including clinical, bacteriological, and radiological information and a standardised reference classification of pulmonary tuberculosis. Using this dataset, we first retrospectively evaluated the performance of several existing treatment-decision algorithms. We then used the data to develop two multivariable prediction models that included features used in clinical evaluation of pulmonary tuberculosis-one with chest x-ray features and one without-and we investigated each model's generalisability using internal-external cross-validation. The parameter coefficient estimates of the two models were scaled into two scoring systems to classify tuberculosis with a prespecified sensitivity target. The two scoring systems were used to develop two pragmatic, treatment-decision algorithms for use in primary health-care settings. Findings: Of 4718 children from 13 studies from 12 countries, 1811 (38·4%) were classified as having pulmonary tuberculosis: 541 (29·9%) bacteriologically confirmed and 1270 (70·1%) unconfirmed. Existing treatment-decision algorithms had highly variable diagnostic performance. The scoring system derived from the prediction model that included clinical features and features from chest x-ray had a combined sensitivity of 0·86 [95% CI 0·68-0·94] and specificity of 0·37 [0·15-0·66] against a composite reference standard. The scoring system derived from the model that included only clinical features had a combined sensitivity of 0·84 [95% CI 0·66-0·93] and specificity of 0·30 [0·13-0·56] against a composite reference standard. The scoring system from each model was placed after triage steps, including assessment of illness acuity and risk of poor tuberculosis-related outcomes, to develop treatment-decision algorithms. Interpretation: We adopted an evidence-based approach to develop pragmatic algorithms to guide tuberculosis treatment decisions in children, irrespective of the resources locally available. This approach will empower health workers in primary health-care settings with high tuberculosis incidence and limited resources to initiate tuberculosis treatment in children to improve access to care and reduce tuberculosis-related mortality. These algorithms have been included in the operational handbook accompanying the latest WHO guidelines on the management of tuberculosis in children and adolescents. Future prospective evaluation of algorithms, including those developed in this work, is necessary to investigate clinical performance. Funding: WHO, US National Institutes of Health

Africa’s move from raw material exports toward mineral value addition: Historical background and implications

Abstract For the last 500 years, the West has mapped Africa as a source of raw materials, disrupted vibrant African value addition, and arrogated itself as the place where industrial revolutions (value addition) happen. This strategy is clearly traceable from the transatlantic slave trade, continuing through European colonialism, to the current critical raw materials (CRMs) framing necessary for its digital and climate tech dominance. African countries have realized that continuing to export materials raw is an unsustainable path of dependency. Emphasis is now on value addition, which is the norm in everyday life, rendered informal, marginal, even illegal under colonialism and never revisited, recentered, and formalized after independence. This article takes minerals as an example of indigenous value addition and how the transatlantic slave trade and colonial rule destroyed it and inserted in its place extractive infrastructures of CRMs export that have remained intact since independence. The last half of the essay switches to Africa’s pivot to value addition, zeroing in on Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as case studies, focusing on chrome, cobalt, and lithium. These minerals constitute the basis for the electric vehicle, smartphone, lithium-ion battery, semiconductor, and other electronic manufacturing to supply the newly created African Continental Free Trade Area, an internal market of 1.3 billion people. The article ends with a discussion of four major challenges to value addition—energy, finance, markets, and skills—and how Africa is meeting and could meet them. The reader is invited to consider the implications of a world order in which Africa is no longer exporting its materials raw, but becomes the center of global manufacturing, adding value to its own materials. Graphical abstrac

Transfrontier talk, cordon politics: The early history of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in Southern Africa, 1925-1940

This article explores the early history of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP). In 1927, a year after the Kruger National Park was created, authorities from the Union of South Africa approached their Portuguese counterparts to request that a similar reservation be created on the Mozambican side of the border contiguous to Kruger. Similar requests were made to and by Southern Rhodesian authorities. This article describes the tensions and conflicts surrounding these early proposals for transboundary conservation, highlighting differences in perceptions of the benefits and risks associated with transfrontier projects, and continuities with the conflicts characterising the GLTP today. In Southern Rhodesia, the plans were embraced by businessmen as a wildlife-based tourism initiative and conservation was justified through its revenue-generating potential. Yet influential players in Rhodesia and Mozambique undermined the proposals as they felt the plan was a risky gamble that could jeopardise cattle ranching. Fears of cattle disease spreading through the transboundary wilderness area put a stop to the initiative, until its revival in the late 1990s. The demise of the early plans was also influenced by Portuguese colonial authorities' interpretation of transboundary conservation as a guise for South African territorial expansion. © 2009 The Editorial Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies