Can New Modes of Digital Learning Help Resolve the Teacher Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Sub-Saharan Africa, more than any other part of the world, is experiencing a crisis in finding sufficiently qualified teachers to meet the needs of expanding school systems. The professional development support provided to serving teachers is also inadequate in most countries. The most recent data on learner outcomes has revealed a worrying picture of significant under-achievement across the region. This paper argues that the teacher education and training structures of the last century will never be able to meet urgent contemporary needs. Given population growth, especially among the young, large-scale expansion of the teaching force and the associated teacher education systems will be the norm through to the middle years of the century and beyond. In this context the paper argues for a significant policy shift to expand quality teacher education and professional support at scale through a more school-based and digitally supported network model of provision. Examples of current digital programmes within the region are considered as well as the new technologies that are emerging with relevance to teacher education. The paper suggests a three-phase process through which national governments might move in making the necessary changes in policy and practice

Social organization of Platythyrea lamellosa (Roger) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): II. Division of labour

Although colonies of Platythyrea lamellosa were found to be consistently queenless, the division of labour amongst workers resembled the pattern generally characteristic of ants. Mated workers were involved only with reproduction and tending larvae. The behaviour of virgin workers was influenced by their age. Athough they showed a degree of individual variation in behaviour, they were clearly organized into three roles: nursing eggs and larvae; tending cocoons and domestic tasks; and foraging. Behaviours sharing a common focus (e.g. larvae or prey) were highly associated. The integration of individual variability into a relatively precise pattern at the level of the colony was not merely a statistical artifact, but probably involved the way that tasks were spatially localized within the nest, as well as the changing physiological state of individual ants. Nest structure is probably important in this regard

Co-occurrence of mated workers and a mated queen in a colony of Platythyrea arnoldi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

A colony of Platythyrea arnoldi was found to contain a functional queen and laying workers, both virgin and mated. This form of social organization has never been reported in ants before

Colony foundation in the ponerine ant, Mesoponera caffraria (F. Smith) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

In the laboratory six queens of Mesoponera caffraria excavated new nests and raised their first brood alone by hunting small arthropods to feed the larvae (semiclaustral haplometrotic colony foundation). The nests consisted of two chambers. The structure of the entrance of the inner chamber, in which the brood was raised, helped to prevent other insects from entering it. Egg production followed a cyclic pattern that was co-ordinated with the periods when larvae did not require care

Quantifying tasks and roles in insect societies

When setting out a framework for the exploration of a subject, it is necessary to define terms to represent specific concepts, and to refine them as knowledge of the subject grows. It is a great advantage if stipulative definitions are also operational definitions, since this makes methods of quantification obvious. The concepts of  tasks and roles are central to studies of organization of labour in insect societies, but their application has sometimes been problematic. Here their definitions are reviewed, and appropriate methods of quantification and analysis are outlined. These involve correspondence analysis and Markov chain analysis of transition probability matrices to study the organization of behaviour into tasks, and correspondence analysis of ethograms made by scan sampling to investigate the roles filled by the workers

Systematic status of Platypleura stridula L. and Platypleura capensis L. (Hornopter, Cicadidae)

Although synonymized for many decades, the Linnaean species Platypleura stridula and P. capensis are biologically distinct, differing in their host plant and habitat preferences, geographical distribution and calling songs. There are also morphological differences between the two taxa which parallel the differences in their biology. P. capensis should therefore be accorded specific rank

Reproductive behaviour of Plectroctena mandibularis F. Smith (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), a ponerine ant with ergatoid queens

[From the text]: The present study reports on new observations on the reproductive biology of P. mandibularis, particularly the phenology of males, mating behaviour and colony founding, that may help in deciding between alternative explanations for the occurrence of ergatoid queens in this species

Skeletal metastasis in primary carcinoma of the liver

Two cases of hepatoma metastasizing to bone are reported. A ttention is drawn to the fact that although skeletal metastasis in hepatoma is uncommon, it may be the initial ;presentafion of the tumour