Exploring the ethical issues related to visual methodology when including young children’s voice in wider research samples

ABSTRACT

Understanding and working with ethical issues when including young children in educational research is critical to ensuring their involvement is meaningful. Increasingly, different methodological approaches have been used to address some of these issues, and the use of visual methods is showing particular potential for its age appropriateness. This paper will specifically focus on three examples of drawing based visual method used with samples of children across compulsory school age from the Learning to Learn in Schools project: Pupil View Templates (n?=?263, age range 4–12 years), cartoon storyboards (n?=?210, age range 4–16 years) and fortune lines (n?=?69, 4–14 years). The discussion of each method will be framed from a pragmatic perspective and will particularly focus on the ethics of process and output, how the method was used and the data that were analysed. Questions will be asked about the considerations that need to be made when including young children in data sets with other older school-aged children and dilemmas identified: the affordances and constraints of visual approaches for all participants, the role of the visual as mediator, the role and positioning of the adult support and the impact this has on the nature of the data elicited.     

The Construction of Mathematical Meanings: Connecting the Visual with the Symbolic

In this paper, we explore the relationship between learners' actions, visualisations and the means by which these are articulated. We describe a microworld, Mathsticks, designed to help students construct mathematical meanings by forging links between the rhythms of their actions and the visual and corresponding symbolic representations they developed. Through a case study of two students interacting with Mathsticks, we illustrate a view of mathematics learning which places at its core the medium of expression, and the building of connections between different mathematisations rather than ascending to hierarchies of decontextualisation.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Bridging eastern & western philosophies and models

In view of the increasing need formeaningful cross-cultural understanding, thefacilitation of dialogue about diverse modelsof human wellness will help promote greaterunderstanding for educational professionalsacross divergent cultural backgrounds. Such adiscussion will by necessity is comprehensiveand far-reaching. Topics of consideration willinclude the common concerns of counselors andeducators, cross-cultural trainingopportunities, and Eastern and Westernphilosophies of education, development, andemotional wellness. As a beginning step in thisprocess of understanding perspectives fromdifferent parts of the globe, a pilot studyusing a questionnaire was conducted withrespect to Chinese and U.S. Universityeducators. Findings regarding similaritiesand differences are described. Preliminaryfindings suggest that differing philosophiesmay underlay the perspectives of Chineseeducators, who are strongly influenced byConfucius, and American educators who arestrongly influenced by Western thinkers such asDewey. Yet, both Chinese and Americaneducators agreed that the top priority ofeducators was student academic achievement. The results of the study suggested that therole of counselor be construed differently inChina as compared to the U.S. for a complexityof reasons described in this article.     

Failure to review STAT clinical laboratory requests and its economical impact

Background

Failure to follow-up laboratory test results has been described as one of the major processes contributing to unsafe patient care. Currently, most of the laboratories do not know with certainty not only their rate of missed (or unreviewed) requests but the economical cost and impact that this issue implies. The aim of our study was to measure that rate and calculate the resulting costs.

Material and methods

In January 2015, we checked in our Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for every emergency request from 1^st July 2011 to 30^th June 2014, if they had been reviewed by any allowed user or not. 319,064 requests were ordered during that period of time. Results were expressed as “ordered requests”, “missed requests” and its percentage. Additionally, total cost of missed requests was calculated in euros (€). “Non-productive days” were theorised (as the days producing requests that were not reviewed) based on these results.

Results

7924 requests (2.5%) were never reviewed by clinicians. This represented a total cost of 203,039 € and 27 “non-productive” days in three years. Significant differences between inpatients, outpatients and emergency department as well as different emergencies units were found after application of statistical analysis.

Conclusions

In terms of resources, never reviewed or missed requests appear to be a not negligible problem for the clinical laboratory management. Electronic result delivery, with electronic endorsement to indicate follow-up of requests along with better systems of electronic requesting should be investigated as a way of improving patient outcomes and save unnecessary expenses.Key words: quality indicators, health care, extra-analytical phase, total quality management, clinical laboratory information systems     

Can ‘pooling teaching tips’ be more than ‘pooling teaching tips’?

Tertiary Education and Management - There is increasing interest in how academic development of various kinds influences university teaching and student learning. To date the focus has been on...     

Promoting Peace in a Place Called School

The purpose of this study was to investigate subtle aspects of the school environment in a city school, where teachers and students had previously implemented activities to increase awareness of peace as a means of promoting a change in behavior. Responses to the School-Level Environmental Questionnaire (SLEQ) indicated that teachers wanted more student support, more resources, and less work pressure. Teachers chose the area of student support on which to focus in developing action plans. An interview with the assistant principal provided perspective on progress made after implementing the action plans.     

Classroom literacies: young children’s explorations in meaning making in the age of the literacy hour

In this article I explore contrasting approaches to literacy and learning in Key Stage One classrooms. In particular I question whether the approach to writing composition in the NLS Framework for Teaching is consistent with what we know about children’s story telling and writing in the early years. Children are powerful thinkers who constantly strive to make meaningful and playful engagements with their social and cultural worlds, of which texts are an important part. Through composing and writing stories in school the children in this study are often exploring aspects of their identities, having fun in entering into adult and fantasy worlds, and working with their friends to create texts which place them in powerful roles.