The importance of students’ motivation and identity when supervising professional doctorate students; a reflection on traditional and professional routes

The literature on doctoral supervision frequently identifies the importance of aligning supervisory style to the particular needs of students. Much of this literature is based on research carried out with students on traditional PhD routes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which the needs of students on professional doctorates differ from those on traditional PhD routes. Exploring this topic is of particular importance if we accept that supervisors’ own experiences of supervision as research students are likely to affect their approach to supervising. The paper concludes that it is not helpful to regard the needs of professional doctoral students and more traditional PhD students as falling into two separate groups. The diverse and evolving nature of all doctoral provision means that these needs are shifting and likely to be converging over time. However, it is helpful for a supervisor to develop sensitivity to issues that are likely to be more common among professional doctorate students. The important differences are most likely to be found in the motivation, identity and identity formation of students and it is these that we need to be sensitive to so that we can adjust our supervisory approach accordingly

Medical Models for Teachers’ Learning; asking for a second opinion

Recently there has been renewed interest in basing teachers’ professional learning on medically derived models. This interest has included clinical practice models and evidence-based teaching as well as the use of various forms of ‘Rounds’ which claim to derive from medical rounds. However, many arguing for these approaches may not have a detailed knowledge of the actuality of professional learning in medicine but may be basing their ideas on idealised models drawn from popular conceptions. In addition, the model used by some calling for medically derived teacher learning is biomedicine, an area in which parallels with Education are difficult. This paper argues that mental health and public health provide a better analogue for Education than biomedicine. It considers some of the lessons that can be drawn from research on evidence-based practice in these areas. The paper concludes that a way forward is neither uncritically to assume the superiority of medical models of professional learning nor to rely only on empirical evidence from Education but to enter into dialogue with colleagues in mental and public health about shared concerns and experiences in professional learning

What does it mean to decolonise the school music curriculum?

In many ways the school music curriculum has become increasingly diverse since the 1970s. For example, ‘pop’ and ‘world’ musics have been listed in UK curricula and syllabuses with an aim of becoming more inclusive. However, this article argues that such approaches to curriculum as content have confounded social justice in school music, and in particular when perpetuating a prejudicial discourse. To understand this discourse, three ‘distortions’ of the material nature of musical knowledge are explored as potential sources of ongoing student alienation from school music: reification, hegemonic appropriation and the loss of meaning. These distortions are also exemplified through a case study critique of social realism and the UK government’s Model Music Curriculum. By way of conclusion, and as a possible resolution to the distortions, some characteristics of a curriculum as process are proposed that have implications for decolonisation and wider issues of social justice, such as class and gender

Intranasal sodium citrate solution improves olfaction in post-viral hyposmia

Background: Calcium plays an integral role in olfactory signal transduction, including feedback inhibition. Sodium citrate acts as a calcium sequestrant and when applied intranasally, reduces free calcium available for feedback inhibition, which should theoretically improve olfaction. We aimed to investigate the utility of intranasal sodium citrate in improving the olfactory function of hyposmic patients, by performing this prospective placebo controlled, single-blinded trial. Methodology: Monorhinal olfactory testing for odour identification and threshold was performed in hyposmic patients using “Sniffin’ Sticks”, before and after treatment. Treatment consisted of sodium citrate solution application to the olfactory cleft. Sodium chloride solution was applied to the contralateral olfactory cleft, which therefore acted as placebo control. Patients were blinded to the side of sodium citrate application, and side of treatment was randomized between patients. Results: 57 patients participated in the trial, aged 22-79. Causes of hyposmia included: post-viral (7); posttraumatic (10); sinonasal (30) and idiopathic (10). Compared with placebo, there was significant improvement in the identification scores of participants with post-viral hyposmia, following sodium citrate treatment. No significant change in olfactory function occurred for either identification or threshold in any other aetiological subgroup. Conclusions: Intranasal sodium citrate may be of benefit to patients with post-viral hyposmia

Promoting Leadership in the Ongoing Professional Development of Teachers: Responding to Globalization and Inclusion

This paper explores the need for innovative leadership in teacher education in the Canadian context, with a particular call for renewed professional development of current teachers. Within a country defined as multicultural, recent demographic shifts, interregional migration, growing ethnic diversity, and the emergence of a paradigm of inclusion, contemporary classrooms are evolving at a pace faster than projected. While inclusive education emerged from the growth of services for children with disabilities, it is now a concept much broader than initially con-ceived. Expanded concepts of learner differences are necessitating an urgent need for leadership in redeveloping effective training for current teachers. This paper argues that ongoing professional development must be characterized by six focus areas in order to empower teachers with pragmatic skills to balance the needs of their diverse classes. The authors conclude that a first step in this process is training for administrators who lead professional development in schools

Price formation in the raw wool market

Econometric analysis of the demand for raw wool at auction published by other authors has been mainly confined to an analysis of the determinants of the consumption of raw wool. However the purchaser of raw wool at auction must hold his purchases either in transit or in store for some months before either reselling or consuming wool in his own mills. Thus the conventional analysis of the determinants of the demand for wool for consumption is not directly relevant when considering the short run demand for wool at auction. As a result, models based on the conventional analysis do not adequately explain fluctuations in prices paid at auction in primary markets. An earlier attempt by Philpott to explain such fluctuations used annual data. Based on this earlier work we develop in this paper two models of quarterly demand for raw wool at auction and we test these models against quarterly data for the period 1952 to the first quarter of 1967

Applications of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation for sport performance

Omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation has recently been proposed as an ergogenic aid for athletes. This claim is primarily based on mechanistic evidence that n-3PUFA’s exert anti-inflammatory properties and act to change the functional capacity of the muscle cell by modifying the membrane fluidity of proteins and lipids within the cell membrane. In this review, we critically evaluate the scientific literature that examines the efficacy of n-3PUFA supplementation to improve athlete performance within the context of promoting muscle adaptation, energy metabolism, muscle recovery and injury prevention (e.g. muscle loss during immobilisation, or concussion). These findings have applications to athletes competing in strength/power-, endurance- and team-, based sports. Based on available information, there is some scientific evidence that n-3PUFA supplementation may improve endurance capacity by reducing the oxygen cost of exercise. Moreover, several studies report a benefit of n-3PUFA supplementation in promoting recovery from eccentric-based muscle damaging exercise. In contrast, there is insufficient evidence from studies in athletic populations to support the claim that n-3PUFA supplementation facilitates muscle growth during resistance training or preserves muscle mass during catabolic scenarios such as energy restriction or immobilisation. Moving forward, there remains ample scope to investigate context-specific applications of n-3PUFA supplementation for sport performance

Experiment K-6-16. Morphological examination of rat testes. The effect of Cosmos 1887 flight on spermatogonial population and testosterone level in rat testes

Testes from rats flown on Cosmos 1887 for twelve and a half days were compared to basal control, synchronous control and vivarium maintained rats. When the mean weights of flight testes, normalized for weight/100 gms, were compared to the vivarium controls they were 6.7 percent lighter. Although the flight testes were lighter than the synchronous, the difference is not significant. Counts of spermatogonial cells from 5 animals in each group revealed a 4 percent decrease in flight compared to vivarium controls. In both cases the t-Test significance was less than 0.02. The serum testosterone levels of all animals (flight, synchronous and vivarium) were significantly below the basal controls