Young Writers' Construction of Agency

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleThis paper considers young learners construction of agency in the context of classroom writing lessons. It draws on data from the Esmée Fairbairn funded project: From Talk to Text, using talk to support writing which investigated the relationship between talk and writing in early years classrooms. The paper reports on results from in-depth interviews with pairs of children in six classrooms in the south of England. It is argued that, although human beings have the ability to shape and influence their lives, this capacity is circumscribed by the context within which their activity is located. In order to examine human agency it is necessary to explore the social contexts and cultural tools that shape the development of human ways of acting. Data presented here indicate a sense of agency in young writers’ classroom choices but raise questions about the efficacy of these choices

Pedagogy or Ideological Struggle? An Examination of Pupils’ and Teachers’ Expectations for Talk in the Classroom

This paper draws on research into teachers' and pupils' perceptions of talk in school. Drawing on sociocultural perspectives, it shows that expectations of talk are grounded in particular sociocultural values that represent hegemonic interpretations of the quality of talk and classroom discourse. Although much has been written about classroom talk, the pupils' voice is often absent from discussion. The children in this study revealed very different views of the expectations of talk from that of their teachers'. In particular, they appeared uncertain about whether their teachers liked them to talk but they seemed very clear that the teacher was in control of the talk. Despite pupils' enthusiasm for talk, their teachers held negative views of certain pupils' performance. It is argued that both pupils' and teachers' expectations are guided more by their own perceptions of an ideal state than by pedagogic or heuristic motives

Shared thinking: metacognitive modelling in the literacy hour

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article 'Shared thinking: metacognitive modelling in the literacy hour' Reading 36(2) pp.63-67, which has been published in final form at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120096480/issue.This paper considers evidence from an ESRC funded study of twenty teachers, teaching the literacy hour. In 170 hours of observation only one instance of a teacher modelling her thinking about reading or writing was recorded: and this was unplanned. It is suggested here that, although there should be opportunities for metacognitive modelling within the literacy hour, teachers find it difficult to use these opportunities. Some ideas about the importance of metacognition are reviewed and an example of metacognitive modelling in shared writing is analysed. It is argued that concern for improved performance may cause more attention to be focused on what is to be achieved rather than how

Patient decision making about organ quality in liver transplantation

It is challenging to discuss the use of high‐risk organs with patients, in part because of the lack of information about how patients view this topic. This study was designed to determine how patients think about organ quality and to test formats for risk communication. Semistructured interviews of 10 patients on the waiting list revealed limited understanding about the spectrum of organ quality and a reluctance to consider anything but the best organs. A computerized quantitative survey was then conducted with an interactive graph to elicit the risk of graft failure that patients would accept. Fifty‐eight percent of the 95 wait‐listed patients who completed the survey would accept only organs with a risk of graft failure of 25% or less at 3 years, whereas 18% would accept only organs with the lowest risk possible (19% at 3 years). Risk tolerance was increased when the organ quality was presented relative to average organs rather than the best organs and when feedback was provided about the implications for organ availability. More than three‐quarters of the patients reported that they wanted an equal or dominant role in organ acceptance decisions. Men tended to prefer lower risk organs (mean acceptable risk = 29%) in comparison with women (mean acceptable risk = 35%, P = 0.04), but risk tolerance was not associated with other demographic or clinical characteristics (eg, the severity of liver disease). In summary, patients want to be involved in decisions about organ quality. Patients' risk tolerance varies widely, and their acceptance of high‐risk organs can be facilitated if we present the risks of graft failure with respect to average organs and provide feedback about the implications for organ availability. Liver Transpl, 2011. © 2011 AASLD.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88081/1/22437_ftp.pd

Nocardia kroppenstedtii sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from a lung transplant patient with a pulmonary infection

An actinomycete, strain N1286T, isolated from a lung transplant patient with a pulmonary infection, was provisionally assigned to the genus Nocardia. The strain had chemotaxonomic and morphological properties typical of members of the genus Nocardia and formed a distinct phyletic line in the Nocardia 16S rRNA gene tree. It was most closely related to Nocardia farcinica DSM 43665T (99.8% gene similarity) but was distinguished from the latter by a low level of DNA:DNA relatedness. These strains were also distinguished by a broad range of phenotypic properties. On the basis of these data, it is proposed that isolate N1286T (=DSM 45810T = NCTC 13617T) should be classified as the type strain of a new Nocardia species for which the name Nocardia kroppenstedtii is proposed

Teaching Writing: a situated dynamic

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleThe paper is theoretically grounded in Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) which holds that human development is founded within participation in social and cultural practices. In particular, the teaching of literacy is shaped not only by the curriculum as designated by policy makers and the institution in which it is located but also by the individuals’ understanding of what literacy and learning involves and how they act to achieve their goals. The paper explores data from a project that investigated the relationship between classroom talk and the teaching of writing in six early years classrooms. Participants’ own understandings of teaching and learning need to be taken into account by researchers and policy makers. CHAT has been used to explore the dynamic relationship between activity at societal, institutional and individual levels. It is argued that researchers and policy makers need to take account of the wider socio-cultural context in planning and evaluating curriculum development initiatives

Hunting territories and land use overlap in sedentarised Baka Pygmy communities in southeastern Cameroon

A significant number of Baka Pygmies in Cameroon have been sedentarised in roadside villages, in contrast to their nomadic hunter-gatherer existence of the past. Although this change in lifestyle has had important consequences on health, most Baka villages still supplement their diets from forest products, especially wild meat. We used a combination of participatory methods and monitoring of individual hunters to map hunting territories in 10 Baka villages in southeastern Cameroon. From these, we determined whether wild meat extraction levels per village were related to the size of hunting territories, measured habitat use by hunters and finally defined the overlap between hunting territories and extractive industries in the region. Mapped village hunting areas averaged 205.2 ± 108.7 km2 (range 76.8–352.0 km2); all villages used a total of 2052 km2. From 295 tracks of 51 hunters, we showed that hunters travelled an average of 16.5 ± 13.5 km (range 0.9–89.8 km) from each village. Home ranges, derived from kernel utilization distributions, were correlated with village offtake levels, but hunter offtake and distance travelled were not significantly related, suggesting that enough prey was available even close to the villages. Hunters in all village areas exhibited a clear bias towards certain habitats, as indicated by positive Ivlev’s index of selectivity values. We also showed that all village hunting territories and hunter home ranges fall within mining and logging concessions. Our results are important for local understanding of forest land uses and to reconcile these with the other land uses in the region to better inform decisions concerning land use policy and planning