Investigating Educators’ Perceptions of STEM Integration: A Semi-Structured Interview Approach

The study utilized a semi-structured interview approach to identify phenomena that are related to integrated STEM education by addressing the question, what are the critical components of an integrated STEM definition and what critical factors are necessary for an integrated STEM definition’s implementation? Thirteen expert practitioners were identified and interviewed. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed for content in three different ways, by person, by interview question, and across all interviews using exploratory data analysis methods. Ten identified phenomena were grouped into two classes: structural implementation phenomena and interpersonal implementation phenomena. The structural implementation phenomena were: subject integration/project-based learning/design-based education, non-traditional assessment, STEM content, time, professional development, and outside support (from businesses and industry). The interpersonal implementation phenomena include: leadership, collaboration, willingness, authentic/meaningful/relevant experiences for participants, and outside support (from people in business and industry). The analysis concluded that these phenomena could be considered both critical components and key implementation factors due to their interconnected nature. The data showed that the identified phenomena are necessary as part of an integrated STEM curriculum which makes them critical components, and that the identified phenomena are necessary to create and implement an integrated STEM setting, making them implementation factors as well. Implications for further research include: the possibility of looking at the interconnectedness of the phenomena, examining how each phenomenon contributes to integrated STEM, and measuring current STEM implementations to see if they incorporate the identified phenomena. Additionally, inclusion of an absent phenomenon could be researched to see if integrated STEM education is improved

Wearable Technology and Schools: Where are We and Where Do We Go From Here?

The area of wearable technology is having a rapidly growing impact on society with more consumers purchasing wearable tech. At the same time, wearable technology seems to be poised to have an impact on educational settings. This paper explores the area of wearable technology related to schools. It considers how wearable technology can be used by teachers to improve instruction and by students to change how they interact with the school environment. Wearable technology applications currently being implemented as part of the curriculum in schools are identified and discussed. To conclude, traits and skills that school leaders need to exhibit for a wearable technology initiative to be successfully implemented are proposed. Wearable technology has the potential to impact schools in the same way as the computers and mobile devices of today. This paper does not set out to provide answers but is designed to create discussions about wearable technology and schools

Choosing embryos: Ethical complexity and relational autonomy in staff accounts of PGD

Copyright @ 2008 the authors. This article is available in accordance with the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/deed.en_CA.The technique of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is commonly explained as a way of checking the genes of embryos produced by IVF for serious genetic diseases. However, complex accounts of this technique emerged during ethics discussion groups held for PGD staff. These form part of a study exploring the social processes, meanings and institutions that frame and produce ‘ethical problems’ for practitioners, scientists and others working in the specialty of PGD in the UK. Two ‘grey areas’ raised by staff are discussed in terms of how far staff are, or in the future may be, able to support autonomous choices of women/couples: accepting ‘carrier’ embryos within the goal of creating a ‘healthy’ child; and sex selection of embryos for social reasons. These grey areas challenged the staff’s resolve to offer individual informed choice, in the face of their awareness of possible collective social effects that might ensue from individual choices. We therefore argue that these new forms of choice pose a challenge to conventional models of individual autonomy used in UK genetic and reproductive counselling, and that ‘relational autonomy’ may be a more suitable ethical model to describe the ethical principles being drawn on by staff working in this area.The Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Programme, who funded the project ‘Facilitating choice, framing choice: the experience of staff workingin pre-implantation genetic diagnosis’ (no: 074935)

Educators’ Perceptions of Integrated STEM: A Phenomenological Study

The study utilized a semistructured interview approach to identify phenomena that are related to integrated STEM education by addressing the question: What are the critical components of an integrated STEM definition and what critical factors are necessary for an integrated STEM definition’s implementation? Thirteen expert practitioners were identified and interviewed. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed for content in three different ways: by person, by interview question, and across all interviews using exploratory data analysis methods. Ten identified phenomena were grouped into two classes: structural implementation phenomena and interpersonal implementation phenomena. The structural implementation phenomena were: subject integration, project-based learning, and design-based education; nontraditional assessment; STEM content; time; professional development; and outside support (from businesses and industry). The interpersonal implementation phenomena include: leadership; collaboration; willingness; authentic, relevant, and meaningful experiences for participants; and outside support (from people in business and industry). The analysis concluded that these phenomena could be considered both critical components and key implementation factors due to their interconnected nature. The data showed that the identified phenomena are necessary as part of an integrated STEM curriculum, which makes them critical components, and that the identified phenomena are critical to create and implement an integrated STEM setting, making them implementation factors as well. Implications for further research include: the possibility of looking at the interconnectedness of the phenomena, examining how each phenomenon contributes to integrated STEM, and measuring current STEM implementations to see if they incorporate the identified phenomena. Additionally, inclusion of an absent phenomenon could be researched to see if integrated STEM education is improved

Social welfare, genetic welfare? Boundary-work in the IVF/PGD clinic

Copyright @ 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Through the lens of the ‘welfare of the child’ assessment, this paper explores how staff working in the area of in vitro fertilisation and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (IVF/PGD) balance reflexive relations of legitimacy and accountability between the public and private spheres, and between medicine, the citizen and the state. The wider research of which this analysis is a part uses multiple methods to study two National Health Service Assisted Conception Units in England. Research methods used included observation clinics and interviews with staff from a range of disciplines. We illustrate how the staff reveal tensions between their views that the welfare of the child assessment can be seen as intrusive and discriminatory, and on the other hand that medical intervention in reproduction should be socially and professionally accountable. These tensions can be understood sociologically in terms of a gradual movement from socially based solutions to fertility problems and disabilities, towards a biomedical, and arguably genetically oriented world view of such problems. Rather than being viewed as discrete, these two orientations should be seen as indicating an emergent direction of travel along a continuum, with elements of both being present in the accounts. We argue that consideration of the welfare of the child involves staff in ethical boundary-work across the two orientations and between the accountabilities and responsibilities of healthcare professionals, individuals and the state.The Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Programme, who funded the project ‘Facilitating choice, framing choice: the experience of staff working in preimplantation genetic diagnosis’ (no. 074935)

Women as moral pioneers? Experiences of first trimester antenatal screening

Copyright @ 2005 Elsevier Ltd.The implementation of innovative medical technologies can raise unprecedented ethical, legal and social dilemmas. This is particularly so in the area of antenatal screening, which is dominated by the language of risk and probabilities. Second trimester serum screening for Down's syndrome and neural tube defects has a well-established place in antenatal care. Increasingly, first trimester screening with biochemical and ultrasound markers is being proposed as advance on this, yielding higher detection rates of Down's syndrome at an earlier gestational age. This article explores the experiences of 14 women offered innovative first trimester screening, which takes place within the context of a detailed ultrasound scan. The study is set within the UK, where recent policy changes mean that the offer of screening for fetal anomalies, particularly Down's syndrome, will become a routine part of antenatal care and offered to all pregnant women. This paper focuses on the significance of the scan in first trimester screening, and some of the potential dilemmas for women that can result from this. It then discusses the ways in which women made their decisions about screening, in particular, their work as ‘moral pioneers’. We found that the part played by the ultrasound scan in first trimester screening, particularly in relation to the higher-quality images now being obtained, has the potential to introduce new and novel ethical dilemmas for pregnant women. Although concerns have been raised about pregnant women viewing ultrasound scans as benign, many of the women reported having thought carefully through their own moral beliefs and values prior to screening. It seems that whatever other implications they may have, first trimester screening technologies will continue the tradition of pregnant women acting as ‘moral pioneers’ in increasingly complex settings.ESRC/MRC Innovative Health Technologies Programme for funding the project (grant no: L218252042). CW acknowledges the support of The Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Programme in funding her postdoctoral fellowship, which enabled her to work on this project

Bibliography of Texas State and Local Agricultural Literature From 1820-1945.

150 pg.This bibliography was compiled for the Texas state and local literature component of the United States Agriculture Information Network (USAIN) Preservation Project Plan. The USAIN Preservation Project Plan is a national coordinated effort to preserve United States agricultural literature. This bibliography is an attempt to identify all Texas agricultural literature published by state and local entities, both governmental and commercial, prior to 1946. There are 1970 monographic and 685 serial titles listed in this bibliography.This project, United States Agricultural Information Network Preservation Project: Bibliography of Texas Agriculture and Rural Life 1820-1945, was supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Reflections on an educational intervention to encourage midwives to work in a continuity of care model - exploration and potential solutions.

OBJECTIVE:To explore barriers and facilitators for midwives working in a midwifery continuity of carer model, and to assess if an educational intervention could help address some of these barriers, designed to help achieve NHS England's target of majority of women receiving midwifery continuity of carer by March 2021. DESIGN:Two-day workshops were co-designed by experienced continuity midwives, service managers and midwifery educators using implementation theory delivered to maternity staff, with barriers assessed prior to training and re-assessed at the end. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS:1407 maternity healthcare professionals from 62 different National Health Service trusts across England attended 56 different workshops. FINDINGS:Perceived barriers to working in this model were reported more frequently than facilitators. Reported facilitators prior to training included perceived benefits to the midwife and to women. Reported barriers included personal and professional concerns, fear, issues with the national agenda and institutional and/or organisational issues. The educational intervention was able to address the majority of barriers raised. The training was well evaluated, with an average rating of 4.2 on a five-point Likert scale. KEY CONCLUSIONS:While this specific educational intervention appears to have been useful in addressing concerns with working in a continuity model, further work is needed to identify barriers to change. This will aid more local designed interventions. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:If policy targets related to continuity of carer are to be achieved then working in this way needs to be sustainable and appeal to the current midwifery workforce

Women's safety alerts in maternity care: is speaking up enough?

Patients’ contributions to safety include speaking up about their perceptions of being at risk. Previous studies have found that dismissive responses from staff discouraged patients from speaking up. A Care Quality Commission investigation of a maternity service where serious incidents occurred found evidence that women had routinely been ignored and left alone in labour. Women using antenatal services hesitated to raise concerns that they felt staff might consider irrelevant. The Birthplace in England programme, which investigated the quality and safety of different places of birth for ‘low-risk’ women, included a qualitative organisational case study in four NHS Trusts. The authors collected documentary, observational and interview data from March to December 2010 including interviews with 58 postnatal women. A framework approach was combined with inductive analysis using NVivo8 software. Speaking up, defined as insistent and vehement communication when faced with failure by staff to listen and respond, was an unexpected finding mentioned in half the women's interviews. Fourteen women reported raising alerts about safety issues they felt to be urgent. The presence of a partner or relative was a facilitating factor for speaking up. Several women described distress and harm that ensued from staff failing to listen. Women are speaking up, but this is not enough: organisation-focused efforts are required to improve staff response. Further research is needed in maternity services and in acute and general healthcare on the effectiveness of safety-promoting interventions, including real-time patient feedback, patient toolkits and patient-activated rapid response calls