Mentoring, not Monitoring: Mediating a Whole-School Model in Supervising Preservice Teachers

This article offers a case study of a whole-school model for supervising preservice teachers that is related to the principles of professional development schools (Holmes Group, 1990) and Zeichner's (1992) notions of rethinking student teachers' practicum experience. The article draws on constructivist notions of learning to teach; in particular, reference is made to Vygotsky's (1978) sense of mediating a stimulus where in a social-cultural context a person's knowledge is created, examined, and transformed rather than simply absorbed and transmitted. The case study highlights the particular details of this whole-school model and connects these to five main empirical descriptors that were generated from data triangulated from preservice teachers' journals, evaluation forms, group meetings, and correspondence from cooperating teachers. The descriptors show how the whole-school model evolved and how the role of university facilitator shifted from monitoring to mentoring in the teacher preparation process. This change in relationship disrupted the isolating clinical model of supervision where the university facilitator and cooperating teacher, in an uneasy relationship, are perceived by preservice teachers as having power over them: "telling" the preservice teacher with little perceived opportunity for negotiation.Cet article présente une étude de cas d'un modèle reposant sur l'intégralité d'une école el servant dans la supervision de stagiaires. Ce modèle s'apparente aux principes des écoles de développement professionnel (Holmes Group, 1990) et aux idées de Zeichner (1992) sur la façon de repenser les stages d'étudiants en pédagogie. Cet article puise dans les notions constructivistes sur l'apprentissage de l'enseignement; plus précisément, on у fait référence à la définition de "médiation d'un stimulus" de Vygotsky (1978) selon laquelle, dans un contexte socioculturel, les connaissances d'une personne sont créées, examinées et transformées plutôt que simplement absorbées et transmises. L'étude de cas souligne les caractéristiques particulières de ce modèle reposant sur l'intégralité d'une école et les lie à cinq descripteurs empiriques principaux qui ont été générés à partir de données provenant de journaux personnels des stagiaires, de formulaires d'évaluation, de réunions de groupe et de correspondance provenant d'enseignants coopérants. Les descripteurs montrent l'évolution du modèle reposant sur l'intégralité de l'école et la transition du rôle de l'évaluateur universitaire pendant les stages, rôle qui est passé de celui du moniteur à celui du mentor. Ce changement de rôle a perturbé le modèle clinique de supervision amenant l'isolement оú l'évaluateur universitaire et l'enseignant coopérant, unis par des liens difficiles, sont perçus par le stagiaire comme étant des personnes qui ont de l'autorité sur lui et qui lui disent quoi faire sans lui accorder beaucoup de marge de négociation

Videogames and Complexity Theory: Learning through Game Play

The rich virtual worlds of videogames create powerful contexts for learning. In game worlds, as discussed by Shaffer, Halverson, Squire, and Gee (2004), “learners can understand complex concepts without losing the connection between abstract ideas and the real problems they can be used to solve” (p.5). Games are most powerful – and most complex – when they are “personally meaningful, experiential, social, and epistemological all at the same time” (Shaffer et al, 2004, p.3). In this paper we will suggest how complexity theory (Davis & Sumara, 2006; Waldrop, 1992) provides a framework that enabling us to understand learning as a complex and emergent process, an ongoing fluid relationship between personal knowing and collective knowledge as a learner/player observes and acts in the observed world. Learning skills in games becomes a process of ‘perception-action coupling’ (Chow et al., 2007; W. E. Davis & Broadhead, 2007; Renshaw, Davids, Shuttleworth, & Chow, 2008), where players’ capacity to understand game play and to act effectively is enabled through interaction in the game, discussion with other players, and prior understandings. As learners adapt to the perceived world in a self-organizing process, they develop a better relational connection to the perceived world, their task goals, and the actions and goals of others

New BC Curriculum and Communicating Student Learning in an Age of Assessment for Learning

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis and review of effective and meaningful practices in reporting and communicating student learning in K-12 within the framework of assessment for learning. The timeliness of this topic is derived from the launch of the new curriculum in British Columbia (B.C.), which promotes innovations in both assessment and reporting. To accomplish this goal, research in assessment, grading and reporting student learning from the last two decades is explored to provide information on ways to report and communicate student learning within the changing demands of the new curriculum. Our review of research suggests the need for policy change with respect to developing new systems that are anchored in competency, mastery-oriented and evidence-based learning. There is great potential to change and expand assessment, reporting and communication processes at all levels which are supported by the increased availability of digital technologies, ongoing and personalized assessment, and emerging innovative practices we have noted in B.C. To conclude we recommend digital portfolio practices as they offer a promising direction for creating new processes that complement existing systems in communicating student learning and support competency-based curriculum.Keywords: Assessment for Learning; Communicating Student Learning; Grading; Reporting; Digital PortfoliosL’objectif de cet article est d’offrir une analyse et une critique approfondies des pratiques efficaces et significatives portant sur l’établissement de rapports et la communication de l’apprentissage par les élèves de la maternelle à la douzième dans le cadre de l’évaluation au service de l’apprentissage. Le caractère opportun de cette question découle du lancement du nouveau programme d’études de la Colombie-Britannique (C.-B.) qui favorise l’innovation tant dans le domaine de l’évaluation que celui du reportage. Ainsi, nous nous sommes penchés sur la recherche portant sur l’évaluation, l’attribution de notes et le reportage de l’apprentissage des élèves au cours des vingt dernières années afin d’être en mesure de rendre compte des résultats d’apprentissage et de les communiquer dans le contexte de l’évolution des exigences du nouveau programmes d’études. Notre examen de la recherche fait ressortir le besoin d’un changement de politiques quant aux nouveaux systèmes en cours de développement et reposant sur la compétence, la maitrise, et l’apprentissage fondé sur des données probantes. Le potentiel pour changer et étendre les processus d’évaluation, de reportage et de communication est grand à tous les niveaux qui sont appuyés par la disponibilité croissante de technologies numériques, de l’évaluation continue et personnalisée et de pratiques novatrices émergeantes que nous avons notées en C.-B. En guise de conclusion, nous recommandons des pratiques numériques de portefeuille car elles offrent une orientation prometteuse pour la création de nouveaux processus qui complètent les systèmes existants visant la communication de l’apprentissage des élèves et qui appuient un programme d’études basé sur les compétences.Mots clés: évaluation au service de l’apprentissage; communication des résultats d’apprentissage; attribution de notes; portefeuilles numérique

Psychosis and Human Rights: Conflicts in Mental Health Policy and Practice

This paper examines conflicts in polices in England and Wales pertaining to the demand for alternative, non-medical crisis support for those experiencing ‘psychosis’. We examine the limitations of current treatment, policy and legislative frameworks in supporting these demands. In particular, we focus on the limitations of prevailing conceptualisations of ‘human rights’, ‘social inclusion’ and ‘recovery’. These concepts, we argue, are embedded within a broader treatment framework which renders medication as mandatory and all other treatment modalities as inherently subsidiary, and a broader policy framework which is complicit with bio-medical orthodoxies of ‘mental illness’ and prioritises treatment compliance and compulsion. Therefore, in order to advance a ‘human rights’ approach to mental health policy, we argue that reigning orthodoxies inherent within policy and practice must be explicitly challenged to open up spaces for the availability of alternatives

Data consistency in the English Hospital Episodes Statistics database

BACKGROUND: To gain maximum insight from large administrative healthcare datasets it is important to understand their data quality. Although a gold standard against which to assess criterion validity rarely exists for such datasets, internal consistency can be evaluated. We aimed to identify inconsistencies in the recording of mandatory International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, tenth revision (ICD-10) codes within the Hospital Episodes Statistics dataset in England. METHODS: Three exemplar medical conditions where recording is mandatory once diagnosed were chosen: autism, type II diabetes mellitus and Parkinson's disease dementia. We identified the first occurrence of the condition ICD-10 code for a patient during the period April 2013 to March 2021 and in subsequent hospital spells. We designed and trained random forest classifiers to identify variables strongly associated with recording inconsistencies. RESULTS: For autism, diabetes and Parkinson's disease dementia respectively, 43.7%, 8.6% and 31.2% of subsequent spells had inconsistencies. Coding inconsistencies were highly correlated with non-coding of an underlying condition, a change in hospital trust and greater time between the spell with the first coded diagnosis and the subsequent spell. For patients with diabetes or Parkinson's disease dementia, the code recording for spells without an overnight stay were found to have a higher rate of inconsistencies. CONCLUSIONS: Data inconsistencies are relatively common for the three conditions considered. Where these mandatory diagnoses are not recorded in administrative datasets, and where clinical decisions are made based on such data, there is potential for this to impact patient care

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on neuroendocrine tumour services in England

Purpose During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been particular concerns regarding the related impact on specialist tumour services. Neuroendocrine tumour (NET) services are delivered in a highly specialised setting, typically delivered in a small number of centres that fulfil specific criteria as defined by the European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (ENETS). We aimed to address the COVID-19-related impact on specialist NET tumour services in England and other countries. Methods Electronic survey addressing patient access and delivery of care distributed to all ENETS Centres of Excellence (CoE) in England and matching number of ENETS CoE elsewhere. Semi-quantitative and qualitative analyses of survey responses were performed. Results Survey response of ENETS CoE in England was 55% (6/11). Responses from six non-UK ENETS CoE elsewhere were received and analysed in a similar manner. Relevant disruption of various NET services was noted across all responding Centres, which included delayed patient appointments and investigations, reduced availability of treatment modalities including delayed surgical treatment and a major negative impact on research activities. The comparison between English and non-UK ENETS CoE suggested that the former had significantly greater concerns related to future research funding (p = 0.014), whilst having less disruption to multidisciplinary meetings (p = 0.01). A trend was also noted towards virtual patient appointments in ENETS CoE in England vs. elsewhere (p = 0.092). Conclusions Restoration of highly specialised NET services following COVID-19 and planning for future service delivery and research funding must take account of the severe challenges encountered during the pandemic

Variability in COVID-19 in-hospital mortality rates between national health service trusts and regions in England: A national observational study for the Getting It Right First Time Programme

Background A key first step in optimising COVID-19 patient outcomes during future case-surges is to learn from the experience within individual hospitals during the early stages of the pandemic. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent of variation in COVID-19 outcomes between National Health Service (NHS) hospital trusts and regions in England using data from March–July 2020. Methods This was a retrospective observational study using the Hospital Episode Statistics administrative dataset. Patients aged ≥ 18 years who had a diagnosis of COVID-19 during a hospital stay in England that was completed between March 1st and July 31st, 2020 were included. In-hospital mortality was the primary outcome of interest. In secondary analysis, critical care admission, length of stay and mortality within 30 days of discharge were also investigated. Multilevel logistic regression was used to adjust for covariates. Findings There were 86,356 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 included in the study, of whom 22,944 (26.6%) died in hospital with COVID-19 as the primary cause of death. After adjusting for covariates, the extent of the variation in-hospital mortality rates between hospital trusts and regions was relatively modest. Trusts with the largest baseline number of beds and a greater proportion of patients admitted to critical care had the lowest in-hospital mortality rates. Interpretation There is little evidence of clustering of deaths within hospital trusts. There may be opportunities to learn from the experience of individual trusts to help prepare hospitals for future case-surges

Magnetic resonance in porous media: Recent progress

Recent years have seen significant progress in the NMR study of porous media from natural and industrial sources and of cultural significance such as paintings. This paper provides a brief outline of the recent technical development of NMR in this area. These advances are relevant for broad NMR applications in material characterization.open283

Epidemiology and Genetic Epidemiology of the Liver Function Test Proteins

The liver function test (LFT) is among the most commonly used clinical investigations to assess hepatic function, severity of liver diseases and the effect of therapies, as well as to detect drug-induced liver injury (DILI)

Educational attainment, health outcomes and mortality: a within-sibship Mendelian randomization study

BACKGROUND: Previous Mendelian randomization (MR) studies using population samples (population MR) have provided evidence for beneficial effects of educational attainment on health outcomes in adulthood. However, estimates from these studies may have been susceptible to bias from population stratification, assortative mating and indirect genetic effects due to unadjusted parental genotypes. MR using genetic association estimates derived from within-sibship models (within-sibship MR) can avoid these potential biases because genetic differences between siblings are due to random segregation at meiosis. METHODS: Applying both population and within-sibship MR, we estimated the effects of genetic liability to educational attainment on body mass index (BMI), cigarette smoking, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and all-cause mortality. MR analyses used individual-level data on 72 932 siblings from UK Biobank and the Norwegian HUNT study, and summary-level data from a within-sibship Genome-wide Association Study including >140 000 individuals. RESULTS: Both population and within-sibship MR estimates provided evidence that educational attainment decreased BMI, cigarette smoking and SBP. Genetic variant-outcome associations attenuated in the within-sibship model, but genetic variant-educational attainment associations also attenuated to a similar extent. Thus, within-sibship and population MR estimates were largely consistent. The within-sibship MR estimate of education on mortality was imprecise but consistent with a putative effect. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide evidence of beneficial individual-level effects of education (or liability to education) on adulthood health, independently of potential demographic and family-level confounders