Teacher Knowledge Part 1: Unstopping the Dam

Research on teachers and their teaching aims at understanding what it means to teach. Such research is conducted in a variety of ways. Major users of its findings are teacher educators. It is hoped that the research findings will provide a knowledge base for teacher education programmes often characterised as being more whimsical than rational. There are two basic views of the process of becoming a teacher: master the model or model the master (Stones, 1972). Both views stress institutional conformity, draw upon institutionalised knowledge and aim at developing technical skill rather than professional competency. The intention of this paper is to suggest a theory, and accompanying methodology, which could be used to explore and develop a model of teacher development more in keeping with institutional and personal freedom: to explore the process of becoming a.teacher as proposed by Fielding (1983)

Teacher Knowledge Part 2: Personal Construct Theory as the Basis of a Methodology to Study Teaching

In the previous paper, Teacher Knowledge Part 1; Unstopping the Dam, the suggestion was made that a methodology based on Personal Construct Theory (PCT) could be used to explore and develop a new model of teacher professional development prepared by Fielding (1983). Two questions were asked. What is this methodology? How can it be used to explore and develop Fielding\u27s model? The second question was dealt with in the earlier paper. The first is the subject of this paper. The intention here is threefold; firstly, to describe the theory of personal constructs, originated by Kelly (1955) and elaborated by Fransella and Bannister (1971) second to discuss the preparation and analysis of repertory grids, a procedure stemming from the theory conceived by Kelly (1955, 1961) and again elaborated by Fransella and Bannister (1977); finally to consider some of the measures used in and interpretations made of repertory grid analyses

The Personal Construction of Teaching and Mathematics Teacher Education

With the expansion of schooling in the 1950s and 1960s there was a consequent flurry of curriculum activity. More pupils stayed longer at school and schools had to cater for a wider range of abilities and interests. New curricula were developed, old curricula revised to provide educational programmes for the changing clientele, and many curriculum projects initiated, covering all aspects of schooling. By the 1970s these curriculum projects had been evaluated and the evaluations provided new insights into the whole curriculum process. One insight of particular interest concerned the role of the teacher. What the teacher did in the classroom was central to the whole curriculum process; no curriculum was teacher-proof. In particular, what were the teacher\u27s views on, and beliefs about, teaching in general and teaching specific subjects in particular? (Howson, 1976; Fey, 1979)

Innate cellular sources of interleukin-17A regulate macrophage accumulation in cigarette smoke-induced lung inflammation in mice

Cigarette smoke (CS) is the major cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Interleukin-17A (IL-17A) is a pivotal cytokine that regulates lung immunity and inflammation. The aim of this study was to investigate how IL-17A regulates CS-induced lung inflammation in vivo . IL-17A KO mice and neutralisation of IL-17A in WT mice reduced macrophage and neutrophil recruitment and CCL2, CCL3 and MMP-12 mRNA expression in response to acute CS exposure. IL-17A expression was increased in NOD SCID mice with non-functional B and T cells over a 4 week CS exposure period, where macrophages accumulated to the same extent as WT mice. Gene expression analysis by QPCR of isolated immune cell subsets detected increased levels of IL-17A transcript in macrophages, neutrophils and NK/NKT cells in the lungs of CS-exposed mice. In order to further explore the relative contribution of innate immune cellular sources, intracellular IL-17A staining was performed. Here, we demonstrate that CS exposure primes NK, NKT and γδ T cells to produce more IL-17A protein and CS alone increased the frequency of IL17+ γδ T cells in the lung, whereas IL-17A protein was not detected in macrophages and neutrophils. Our data suggest that activation of innate cellular sources of IL-17A is an essential mediator of macrophage accumulation in CS-exposed lungs. Targeting non-conventional T cell sources of IL-17A may offer an alternative strategy to reduce pathogenic macrophages in COPD

Neonatal pneumococcal colonisation caused by Influenza A infection alters lung function in adult mice

There is emerging epidemiological data to suggest that upper respiratory tract bacterial colonisation in infancy may increase the risk of developing respiratory dysfunction later in life, and respiratory viruses are known to precipitate persistent colonisation. This study utilized a neonatal mouse model of Streptococcus pneumonia (SP) and influenza A virus (IAV) co-infection, where bronchoalveolar leukocyte infiltration had resolved by adulthood. Only co-infection resulted in persistent nasopharyngeal colonisation over 40 days and a significant increase in airway resistance in response to in vivo methacholine challenge. A significant increase in hysteresivity was also observed in IAV and co-infected mice, consistent with ventilatory heterogeneity and structural changes in the adult lung. Airway hyper-responsiveness was not associated with a detectable increase in goblet cell transdifferentiation, peribronchial smooth muscle bulk or collagen deposition in regions surrounding the airways. Increased reactivity was not observed in precision cut lung slices challenged with methacholine in vitro. Histologically, the airway epithelium appeared normal and expression of epithelial integrity markers (ZO-1, occludin-1 and E-cadherin) were not altered. In summary, neonatal co-infection led to persistent nasopharyngeal colonisation and increased airway responsiveness that was not associated with detectable smooth muscle or mucosal epithelial abnormalities, however increased hysteresivity may reflect ventilation heterogeneity

Multipotent Capacity of Immortalized Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells

While the adult murine lung utilizes multiple compartmentally restricted progenitor cells during homeostasis and repair, much less is known about the progenitor cells from the human lung. Translating the murine stem cell model to humans is hindered by anatomical differences between species. Here we show that human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs) display characteristics of multipotent stem cells of the lung. These HBECs express markers indicative of several epithelial types of the adult lung when experimentally tested in cell culture. When cultured in three different three-dimensional (3D) systems, subtle changes in the microenvironment result in unique responses including the ability of HBECs to differentiate into multiple central and peripheral lung cell types. These new findings indicate that the adult human lung contains a multipotent progenitor cell whose differentiation potential is primarily dictated by the microenvironment. The HBEC system is not only important in understanding mechanisms for specific cell lineage differentiation, but also for examining changes that correlate with human lung diseases including lung cancer

MicroRNome Analysis Unravels the Molecular Basis of SARS Infection in Bronchoalveolar Stem Cells

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV, is an acute infectious disease with significant mortality. A typical clinical feature associated with SARS is pulmonary fibrosis and associated lung failure. In the aftermath of the SARS epidemic, although significant progress towards understanding the underlying molecular mechanism of the infection has been made, a large gap still remains in our knowledge regarding how SARS-CoV interacts with the host cell at the onset of infection. The rapidly changing viral genome adds another variable to this equation. We have focused on a novel concept of microRNA (miRNA)–mediated host–virus interactions in bronchoalveolar stem cells (BASCs) at the onset of infection by correlating the “BASC–microRNome” with their targets within BASCs and viral genome. This work encompasses miRNA array data analysis, target prediction, and miRNA–mRNA enrichment analysis and develops a complex interaction map among disease-related factors, miRNAs, and BASCs in SARS pathway, which will provide some clues for diagnostic markers to view an overall interplay leading to disease progression. Our observation reveals the BASCs (Sca-1+ CD34+ CD45- Pecam-), a subset of Oct-4+ ACE2+ epithelial colony cells at the broncho-alveolar duct junction, to be the prime target cells of SARS-CoV infection. Upregulated BASC miRNAs-17*, -574-5p, and -214 are co-opted by SARS-CoV to suppress its own replication and evade immune elimination until successful transmission takes place. Viral Nucleocapsid and Spike protein targets seem to co-opt downregulated miR-223 and miR-98 respectively within BASCs to control the various stages of BASC differentiation, activation of inflammatory chemokines, and downregulation of ACE2. All these effectively accounts for a successful viral transmission and replication within BASCs causing continued deterioration of lung tissues and apparent loss of capacity for lung repair. Overall, this investigation reveals another mode of exploitation of cellular miRNA machinery by virus to their own advantage

Comparative Study on the Therapeutic Potential of Neurally Differentiated Stem Cells in a Mouse Model of Multiple Sclerosis

Background: Transplantation of neural stem cells (NSCs) is a promising novel approach to the treatment of neuroinflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). NSCs can be derived from primary central nervous system (CNS) tissue or obtained by neural differentiation of embryonic stem (ES) cells, the latter having the advantage of readily providing an unlimited number of cells for therapeutic purposes. Using a mouse model of MS, we evaluated the therapeutic potential of NSCs derived from ES cells by two different neural differentiation protocols that utilized adherent culture conditions and compared their effect to primary NSCs derived from the subventricular zone (SVZ). Methodology/Principal Findings: The proliferation and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines by antigen-stimulated splenocytes was reduced in the presence of SVZ-NSCs, while ES cell-derived NSCs exerted differential immunosuppressive effects. Surprisingly, intravenously injected NSCs displayed no significant therapeutic impact on clinical and pathological disease outcomes in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) induced by recombinant myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein, independent of the cell source. Studies tracking the biodistribution of transplanted ES cellderived NSCs revealed that these cells were unable to traffic to the CNS or peripheral lymphoid tissues, consistent with the lack of cell surface homing molecules. Attenuation of peripheral immune responses could only be achieved through multiple high doses of NSCs administered intraperitoneally, which led to some neuroprotective effects within the CNS