Development of alternative teaching materials for Life and Earth Sciences: Immunology as an example

The school textbook is an essential element in the teaching-learning process. It represents a pedagogical support for the teacher as well as for the student. However, a survey conducted by our team among a sample of students in the third year of secondary school showed that the majority do not use the textbook as a pedagogical support for the acquisition of knowledge in Life and Earth Sciences (LES). An analytical study of the LES textbooks of the third year of Moroccan secondary school showed that these materials suffer from several shortcomings: cognitive errors, ambiguous vocabulary, and a mosaic of content that makes them difficult to use. In order to enhance the value of the textbook and facilitate its use by students, this article proposes an alternative document that will present a life and health sciences course designed according to a rethought pedagogical scenario, with a dominant participative style, guides for the exploitation of documents, functional diagrams, summary conclusions, etc. In order to evaluate the relevance of this project, the present work proposes, as a pilot sequence, the one relating to the mechanisms of specific immunity in the chapter "Immune responses". This article attempts to evaluate the acquisition of knowledge related to this theme, in an autonomous work session, by two groups of baccalaureate laureates of the Physical Sciences option who have the textbooks, "Al jadid fi SVT" or "Fi rihab SVT", as pedagogical supports. In a second phase, each group was divided into two sub-groups. The first was asked to use a different textbook. The second subgroup was asked to use the new personal production, relating to the same chapter, consisting of a document presenting the restructured course, illustrated by synthetic diagrams, cognitive assessments and summaries. The results of the evaluation carried out at the end of this experiment showed that the grades of the students in the second subgroups improved significantly, compared to the control subgroups. These promising results, demonstrated here, represent a motivation to continue the work on this project of revaluing school textbooks so that they can regain their privileged place in the Moroccan educational system

The Impact Of The Simulation Using Role-Playing In Developing Resuscitation Care And Leadership Skills For Health Sciences Students : Case Of Future "Midwives"

We would like to sincerely thank the health science studentsfuture "midwives" of the Higher Institute of Nursing and Health Techniques for their participation and availability.Simulation using role-playing is a recurrent didactic strategy among the training activities applied in the field of education. In health sciences training, communication and interaction between students and the various health professionalsinvolved in emergenciesand resuscitation care is one of the strategic pillars of health science education in general and midwifery training in particular. This article reports on the implementation and discusses leadership training in emergency and resuscitation care with simulationusingrole-playing.This approach aimed at increasing awareness of one's own responsibility and that of team member, as it contribute to endurance and development of team management skills in emergency care situations related to resuscitation of pregnant patients in obstetrics units. 19 health science students « future midwives »were involved in the study which was conducted from 20 February to 20 March 2023 at the Higher Institute of Nursing Professions and Health Techniques in Morocco. The results showed that the students were very satisfied with the effectiveness of the role-playing simulation training in improving their professional skills, and feel that they could take on their future function with more ease. Moreover, such a process seems to motivate students to learn and provide them with an individualized approach

Diagnosis of learning difficulties of plate tectonics concepts among secondary school students using: Focus group, nominal group, and questionnaire

The teaching of geology or earth sciences occupies an important place in the life and earth sciences programs of the secondary cycle in Morocco. The theory of plate tectonics is the conceptual model that allows an understanding of most of the dynamic processes of the Earth. Our work aims to diagnose the difficulties related to the learning of the concepts related to plate tectonics by following a hybrid methodology of three techniques, namely: focus group, nominal group, and questionnaire. The results obtained allowed us to identify difficulties in the educational act in its different facets, whether epistemological, pedagogical, didactic, curricular, and logistical. These difficulties should be taken into consideration by the different actors in the educational process, in order to guarantee the successful learning of this discipline

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

Science of evolution: between the historical science and functionalist science. Which approach adopted in the secondary education in Morocco for improving the environment of science study?

Science of evolution is the basic of life and earth science (LES). It searches for mobilize the process and reasoning of tow scientific poles: functionalist and historical. Because it try together to reconstruct the history of living beings from their origins and to explain the working biological mechanisms in this process. Therefore, studies of evolution must respect this double polarization. In this article, we analyzed the programs of studied subjects in life and earth sciences for secondary school in Morocco to know how this polarization is taken into accent. We show that the programs of life and earth sciences are heaving biased toward the scientific pole functionalist. So, the historical sciences remains poor and implicit. This tendency, patent in the programs of life and earth science, might reveal probably more the difficult of evolution studies in Morocco

Diagnosis of learning difficulties of plate tectonics concepts among secondary school students using: Focus group, nominal group, and questionnaire

The teaching of geology or earth sciences occupies an important place in the life and earth sciences programs of the secondary cycle in Morocco. The theory of plate tectonics is the conceptual model that allows an understanding of most of the dynamic processes of the Earth. Our work aims to diagnose the difficulties related to the learning of the concepts related to plate tectonics by following a hybrid methodology of three techniques, namely: focus group, nominal group, and questionnaire. The results obtained allowed us to identify difficulties in the educational act in its different facets, whether epistemological, pedagogical, didactic, curricular, and logistical. These difficulties should be taken into consideration by the different actors in the educational process, in order to guarantee the successful learning of this discipline

Natural history of the Processionary Moths (Thaumetopoea spp.): New insights in relation to climate change

La partie est intégrée dans le Chapter 2: Natural history of the Processionary Moths (Thaumetopoea spp.): New insights in relation to climate changeInternational audienceIt is difficult to find a genus of Lepidoptera showing the high variability of life history traits observed in Thaumetopoea. There are typical summer feeding close to winter feeding species, and in one special case a recent switch has been detected even within one species, the pine processionary moth, indicating that the natural history traits are constantly evolving at a fast rate. There are species adapted to cold conditions of high mountains and high latitude close to truly Mediterranean and sub-desert region species. All species have gregarious behaviour as larva and are protected against vertebrate predators by urticating setae

Climate Warming and Past and Present Distribution of the Processionary Moths (Thaumetopoea spp.) in Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa

International audiencePine processionary moth, Thaumetopea pityocampa, is a model insect indicator of global warming, the northwards and upwards range expansion of this Mediterranean species being directly associated with the recent warming up. The knowledge about the drivers of moth expansion is synthesized. A first standardized mapping of the northern expansion edge, from Western Europe to Turkey, is presented, then detailed for 20 countries of Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa, including future trends. Additional data about the responses of the other Thaumetopoea species are given. Finally, the chapter points out the importance of the man-mediated introductions in the expansion process