Staff Perceptions of Lesson Observation and Feedback in a UK Secondary School: CPD, Identity, and Organisational Culture

Lesson observation and feedback is one of the main tools used to improve teaching and pupils’ learning and is seen as a key aspect of teachers’ continuing professional development. However, during a time of increasing accountability and performativity, the process is also linked to performance management and can be perceived negatively. Yet there is little research that looks precisely at this issue, especially from the perspectives of both teachers and middle leaders. This study investigates teachers’ and middle leaders’ perceptions of lesson observation and feedback in a UK secondary school. The conceptual framework consists of three main interrelated concepts: (i) continuing professional development (CPD); (ii) professional identity; and (iii) organisational culture. This study, situated in the interpretive paradigm, uses a qualitative case study method. Sixteen participants were interviewed: ten teachers, five middle leaders, and a teaching and learning coordinator. Data were also collected from documentary analysis of relevant policies and paperwork. These data were analysed using established thematic coding techniques. The study reveals that nearly all participants recognised that lesson observation and feedback was very closely linked to their students’ learning, improvement of pedagogy, and the desire to develop their own teaching practice to become skilled professionals. Teachers responded positively towards their teaching when taking part in all types of observation and feedback, and collaboration, communication and trust were important elements of the process. Teachers’ major concerns were associated with certain aspects of the feedback given, for instance lack of time allocated to deliver constructive feedback, the subject specialism of the observer, and consultation in decision-making regarding their CPD needs. The study recommends that leaders should allow time with teachers as part of a genuine consultation, allowing thorough feedback. It appears that promoting and facilitating collegiality within the process of lesson observation helps create employee commitment and loyalty, thus eliminating some of the negativity associated with the process linked to accountability

Interface Development for Digitization of Documents Using OCR

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a semi-automated interface that uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) routines to identify text-based information from a large volume of digitized drawings associated with the oil and gas industry. The identified information is presented in an appropriate interface for any necessary manual modifica- tion, with the target of improving the efficiency of maintaining large amounts of older documents. The thesis outlines the design of the interface and the implementation of Tesseract OCR engine, in combination with tailor-made functions and classes that lever- age OpenCV to enhance the recognition process.The purpose of this thesis is to develop a semi-automated interface that uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) routines to identify text-based information from a large volume of digitized drawings associated with the oil and gas industry. The identified information is presented in an appropriate interface for any necessary manual modifica- tion, with the target of improving the efficiency of maintaining large amounts of older documents. The thesis outlines the design of the interface and the implementation of Tesseract OCR engine, in combination with tailor-made functions and classes that lever- age OpenCV to enhance the recognition process

Interface Development for Digitization of Documents Using OCR

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a semi-automated interface that uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) routines to identify text-based information from a large volume of digitized drawings associated with the oil and gas industry. The identified information is presented in an appropriate interface for any necessary manual modification, with the target of improving the efficiency of maintaining large amounts of older documents. The thesis outlines the design of the interface and the implementation of Tesseract OCR engine, in combination with tailor-made functions and classes that leverage OpenCV to enhance the recognition processThe purpose of this thesis is to develop a semi-automated interface that uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) routines to identify text-based information from a large volume of digitized drawings associated with the oil and gas industry. The identified information is presented in an appropriate interface for any necessary manual modification, with the target of improving the efficiency of maintaining large amounts of older documents. The thesis outlines the design of the interface and the implementation of Tesseract OCR engine, in combination with tailor-made functions and classes that leverage OpenCV to enhance the recognition proces

Oral Hygiene Practice among 18-year-old Norwegian Adolescents Using Health Belief Model: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objectives  The aim was to compare oral hygiene practice (brushing/flossing) among 18 years old from two regions, Hordaland County, Norway, and possible perceptional correlates using the Health Belief Model. Materials and Methods  The participants from six municipalities from the south district with high prevalence of dental caries to six municipalities from the rest of Hordaland county, with low prevalence of dental caries (control), using a web-based questionnaire. Statistical analyses: the Mann–Whitney U test was used and the t-test for independent samples. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses to examine associations. Results  A total of 416 people participated. The south district’s participants had lesser percentage brushing twice a day and flossing at least once a day, they significantly visited lesser the dental service, perceived more susceptibility to dental caries, and lower benefits of brushing/flossing compared with the controls. Girls (odds ratio [OR]: 0.34) who perceived higher severity of dental caries (OR: 1.86), higher self-identity (OR: 2.14), and lesser barriers to brushing (OR: 0.14) had higher odds to brushing twice a day compared with their counterparts. Girls (OR: 0.34) who perceived higher severity of dental caries (OR: 2.34), higher benefits (OR = 2.8), and lesser barriers to flossing (OR = 0.23) had higher odds to flossing at least once a day compared with their counterparts. Conclusion  South district’s participants significantly had some of risk factors to the recommended brushing/flossing practice compared with the control and these might help in explaining the difference in oral hygiene practice.publishedVersio

HIV and AIDS related knowledge, source of information, and reported need for further education among dental students in Sudan- a cross sectional study

Background: Information on the HIV and AIDS-related knowledge among dental students provides a crucial foundation for efforts aimed at developing an appropriate dental curriculum on HIV and AIDS, and for attracting the attention of dental school educators towards the subject. Purposes: Focusing on a census of dental students attending their 3rd, 4th and 5th study year at publicly – and privately funded dental faculties in Khartoum, this study aimed to assess the prevalence and socioeconomic correlates of dental students' knowledge, sources of information and reported need for further education related to HIV and AIDS. Methods: At the time of the survey (March–May 2007), the total number of dental students registered was 782 of which 642 (response rate 82%, mean age 21.7 year, 72% girls) completed anonymous selfadministered questionnaires in supervised class room settings. Results: A total of 49% and 86% had correct sum scores with respect to knowledge of transmission through contamination and through shaking hands and eating, respectively. About half the dental students recognized a need for further education across HIV related issues, varying from 75% (basic HIV/AIDS related issues) to 84% (patient management). Only 38% of the students had correct sum scores regarding various occupational groups at risk for contacting HIV and AIDS. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that compared to privately funded dental school students, publicly funded dental school students were less likely to have correct knowledge about modes of HIV transmission (OR = 0.6) and occupational risk groups (OR = 0.6) and to have received information from lectures/health care workers (OR = 0.5). Conclusion: Students attending privately funded schools were more knowledgeable about various HIV related issues than students from publicly funded schools. About half of the students investigated had received HIV/AIDS information from various sources and reported need for further education. This suggests that students are not adequately prepared for treating patients with HIV infection and AIDS and that the dental school curriculum needs improvements. Differences between public and private dental schools should be considered when planning such improvements

Finite element analysis of prestressed pretension concrete T-Beam

Prestressed concrete constructions become a one of the famous constructions method. The stresses occurred in concrete and reinforcement became kind of complex due to prestressing and applying loads. And in reasons of costs and time for lab tests, Three-dimensional nonlinear finite element model of prestressed reinforced concrete T-beam had been developed in this study. This lead to the requirement by codes of practice to obtain design parameters for each new system by extensive fullscale testing. According to the high costs and time consuming for laboratory tests. Many researchers tried to propose alternative methods of small-scale testing and finite element models. These methods are still being refined to make them more accurate and practical for use in design offices. In this study we are going to develop a model to simulate a model had been tested at lab of structure in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and to obtain the best method of modeling the specimen. At the end of this study it should be aim to develop a 3D finite element model of prestressed concrete T-beams and analyzed them using finite element software, ANSYS package. Interface elements will be used for modeling bond interaction between concrete, reinforcement and prestressed force in tendons. And by applying loads up to ultimate loads and plot the graph of loads verses displacement in linearity region, and by increasing loads up to non-linearity region will be illustrated in the criteria of flexure behavior. The results was be verified against published experimental data for test on T-beam done in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. It is expected that, by using the mentioned combination, a more accurate model was be achieved as compared to result out from tests

HIV and AIDS related knowledge, source of information, and reported need for further education among dental students in Sudan- a cross sectional study

Background: Information on the HIV and AIDS-related knowledge among dental students provides a crucial foundation for efforts aimed at developing an appropriate dental curriculum on HIV and AIDS, and for attracting the attention of dental school educators towards the subject. Purposes: Focusing on a census of dental students attending their 3rd, 4th and 5th study year at publicly – and privately funded dental faculties in Khartoum, this study aimed to assess the prevalence and socioeconomic correlates of dental students' knowledge, sources of information and reported need for further education related to HIV and AIDS. Methods: At the time of the survey (March–May 2007), the total number of dental students registered was 782 of which 642 (response rate 82%, mean age 21.7 year, 72% girls) completed anonymous selfadministered questionnaires in supervised class room settings. Results: A total of 49% and 86% had correct sum scores with respect to knowledge of transmission through contamination and through shaking hands and eating, respectively. About half the dental students recognized a need for further education across HIV related issues, varying from 75% (basic HIV/AIDS related issues) to 84% (patient management). Only 38% of the students had correct sum scores regarding various occupational groups at risk for contacting HIV and AIDS. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that compared to privately funded dental school students, publicly funded dental school students were less likely to have correct knowledge about modes of HIV transmission (OR = 0.6) and occupational risk groups (OR = 0.6) and to have received information from lectures/health care workers (OR = 0.5). Conclusion: Students attending privately funded schools were more knowledgeable about various HIV related issues than students from publicly funded schools. About half of the students investigated had received HIV/AIDS information from various sources and reported need for further education. This suggests that students are not adequately prepared for treating patients with HIV infection and AIDS and that the dental school curriculum needs improvements. Differences between public and private dental schools should be considered when planning such improvements.publishedVersio

Utilization of dental health care services in context of the HIV epidemic- a cross-sectional study of dental patients in the Sudan

Background: HIV infected patients should be expected in the Sudanese dental health care services with an increasing frequency. Dental care utilization in the context of the HIV epidemic is generally poorly understood. Focusing on Sudanese dental patients with reported unknown HIV status, this study assessed the extent to which Andersen's model in terms of predisposing (sociodemographics), enabling (knowledge, attitudes and perceived risk related to HIV) and need related factors (oral health status) predict dental care utilization. It was hypothesized that enabling factors would add to the explanation of dental care utilization beyond that of predisposing and need related factors. Methods: Dental patients were recruited from Khartoum Dental Teaching Hospital (KDTH) and University of Science and Technology (UST) during March-July 2008. A total of 1262 patients (mean age 30.7, 56.5% females and 61% from KDTH) were examined clinically (DMFT) and participated in an interview. Results: A total of 53.9% confirmed having attended a dental clinic for treatment at least once in the past 2 years. Logistic regression analysis revealed that predisposing factors; travelling inside Sudan (OR = 0.5) were associated with lower odds and females were associated with higher odds (OR = 2.0) for dental service utilization. Enabling factors; higher knowledge of HIV transmission (OR = 0.6) and higher HIV related experience (OR = 0.7) were associated with lower odds, whereas positive attitudes towards infected people and high perceived risk of contagion (OR = 1.3) were associated with higher odds for dental care utilization. Among need related factors dental caries experience was strongly associated with dental care utilization (OR = 4.8). Conclusion: Disparity in the history of dental care utilization goes beyond socio-demographic position and need for dental care. Public awareness of HIV infection control and confidence on the competence of dentists should be improved to minimize avoidance behaviour and help establish dental health care patterns in Sudan.publishedVersio

HIV and AIDS related knowledge, sources of information, and reported need for further education among dental students in Sudan- a cross sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Information on the HIV and AIDS-related knowledge among dental students provides a crucial foundation for efforts aimed at developing an appropriate dental curriculum on HIV and AIDS, and for attracting the attention of dental school educators towards the subject.</p> <p>Purposes</p> <p>Focusing on a census of dental students attending their 3^rd, 4^thand 5^thstudy year at publicly – and privately funded dental faculties in Khartoum, this study aimed to assess the prevalence and socio-economic correlates of dental students' knowledge, sources of information and reported need for further education related to HIV and AIDS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>At the time of the survey (March–May 2007), the total number of dental students registered was 782 of which 642 (response rate 82%, mean age 21.7 year, 72% girls) completed anonymous self-administered questionnaires in supervised class room settings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 49% and 86% had correct sum scores with respect to knowledge of transmission through contamination and through shaking hands and eating, respectively. About half the dental students recognized a need for further education across HIV related issues, varying from 75% (basic HIV/AIDS related issues) to 84% (patient management). Only 38% of the students had correct sum scores regarding various occupational groups at risk for contacting HIV and AIDS. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that compared to privately funded dental school students, publicly funded dental school students were less likely to have correct knowledge about modes of HIV transmission (OR = 0.6) and occupational risk groups (OR = 0.6) and to have received information from lectures/health care workers (OR = 0.5).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Students attending privately funded schools were more knowledgeable about various HIV related issues than students from publicly funded schools. About half of the students investigated had received HIV/AIDS information from various sources and reported need for further education. This suggests that students are not adequately prepared for treating patients with HIV infection and AIDS and that the dental school curriculum needs improvements. Differences between public and private dental schools should be considered when planning such improvements.</p

Norwegian Orthodontists’ Experience and Challenges With Treatment of Patients With Cleft Lip and Palate

Background: Patients born with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) have orthodontic treatment challenges due to maxilla deficiency, malocclusions, and dental abnormalities. In Norway, orthodontic treatment is done by centralized CL/P teams. Due to traveling restrictions, this treatment might be done locally in the future. The experience of Norwegian community orthodontists in managing such patients has not been investigated previously. Objective: To assess Norwegian orthodontists’ management of patients with CL/P and need for further education. Material and Methods: All orthodontists in Norway were sent a questionnaire about their experience, challenges, and knowledge and asked about their need of further theoretical education and clinical training in the management of patients with CL/P. Results: Norwegian orthodontists’ standard of knowledge of CL/P treatment is adequate. However, few respondents have treated a high number of cleft patients. Eighty-six percent of the participants believed that treating CL/P patients involves challenges, such as time-consuming treatment and technical difficulties. Increased perceived need for more education was revealed among participants stated unpreparedness during education (4 folds), encountered challenges, and lack of knowledge (almost 3 folds). Conclusions: The study revealed that community orthodontists in Norway lack experience and acknowledged the challenges in treating patients with CL/P. Most of the respondents perceived a need for additional education and clinical training to treat CL/P patients competently. The findings suggested more focus on patients with CL/P management in the curricula and more collaboration between centralized CL/P teams and community orthodontists.publishedVersio