Democratising the curriculum or training the children of the poor: school‐based vocational training in Australia

This article examines the views of staff employed in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) about how those institutions are dealing with the impact of recent UK equality legislation and related European employment directives. Assumptions underlying current approaches to equality in UK HEIs are examined, particularly the notion of meritocracy, which advocates job selection and promotion based on normatively and culturally neutral measures of merit. The article is based on a project funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, using qualitative case studies of six English, Welsh and Scottish HEIs. The project data suggest that equality policies for staff and students are in tension with each other, that staff policies may clash with other institutional policies, for example on research excellence or enhancing the student experience, and that the rhetoric of equality policies is not always matched by the day‐to‐day experience of staff. The article suggests that the case study UK HEIs, with their continued focus on meritocracy and excellence, have not yet adapted to the new climate of employee equality legislation and perhaps need to consider a different approach than the meritocratic one.     

Reducing School Exclusions: An evaluation of a multi-site development project

The article reports the findings of an evaluation of a 1996-1999 British Home Office funded project which placed social work trained home-school support workers in comprehensive schools with the aim of reducing school exclusions. Set in the context of a review of the research evidence for the reasons for rapidly rising school exclusions in England during the 1990s, quantitative and qualitative data are analysed in relation to the impact of the project on rates of fixed-term and permanent exclusions. Exclusions were considerably reduced by a variety of strategies adopted by the support workers and over the three-year project duration permanent exclusions were cut by 25%. It is argued that teacher social workers are helpful in alleviating the conflict between the New Labour government's Standards agenda and its Inclusion agenda.     

Student Perception and the Effectiveness of Kahoot!: A Scoping Review in Histology,Anatomy, and Medical Education

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has presented challenges in medical education particularly, with development of online learning in a short time period. Notably there has been a significant increase in the use of digital technology applications to meet this challenge. For instance, in the first quarter of 2020 the game-based software Kahoot! reported a threefold increase in players and a fivefold increase in asynchronous learning globally. However, there is limited research into the use of game-based digital technology applications such as Kahoot! and the associated learning theories, particularly in histology, anatomy, and medical education. This scoping review explored the utilization, outcome scores, and student perceptions of learning with the application of Kahoot! in histology, anatomy, and medical education. Online databases were used to identify articles published between 2013 and 2021 from which 12 articles were included in the review. The majority of articles supported positive student outcomes including improved collaborative learning, improved knowledge of content, attendance, and participation. Minor negative aspects included increased time on task, overwhelming learning content, and distractions due to gadgets. None of the articles included a control group. The main educational theories identified were active learning followed by social and constructivism learning theory. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic a rapid and fundamental shift in how digital applications are being used in educational institutions has evolved. Further research on learning frameworks and studies with control groups is required to evaluate Kahoot! as a potentially valuable online application in histology, anatomy, and medical education.     

Anatomical Sciences in Chiropractic Education: A Survey of Chiropractic Programs in Australia

Human anatomy knowledge is a core requirement for all health care clinicians. There is a paucity of information relating to anatomy content and delivery in Australian chiropractic programs. The aim of this study was to describe anatomy teaching in Australian chiropractic programs, utilizing a survey which was distributed to all four programs, requesting information on: anatomy program structure, delivery methods, assessment, teaching resources, and academic staff profile at their institution. The survey was undertaken in 2016 and documented practices in that academic year. All four institutions responded. There was a reported difference in the teaching hours, content, delivery and assessment of anatomy utilized in Australian chiropractic programs. Anatomy was compulsory at all four institutions with the mean total of 214 (SD ± 100.2) teaching hours. Teaching was undertaken by permanent ongoing (30%) and sessional academic staff, and student to teacher ratio varied from 15:1 to 12:1. A variety of teaching resources were utilized, including human tissue access, either as prosected cadavers or plastinated body parts. The results of this survey confirm that anatomy has an established place in chiropractic education programs in Australia and while curricular variations exist, all programs had similar course design, delivery, and assessment methods. This study confirmed the provision of a strong foundation in topographical anatomy and neuroanatomy, while other anatomical sciences, such as histology and embryology were not consistently delivered. Formalization of a core anatomy curriculum together with competency standards is needed to assist program evaluation and development, and for accreditation purposes.     

The Journal of Ayub Medical College: a 10-year bibliometric study

OBJECTIVE: To conduct a bibliometric evaluation of the Journal of Ayub Medical College (JAMC), Abbottabad, Pakistan. Methods: The data of articles, citations and authors of JAMC from 1997 to 2006 were collected and analysed in terms of bibliometric parameters. RESULTS: The number of articles published per year ranges between 27 and 97; most of the articles (47.2%) have 11-20 citations. Three-author contributions ranked the highest (134; 23.43%); the most prolific authors contributed seven articles; 295 (51.57%) of the authors are geographically affiliated to the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan; the most popular subject is Internal Medicine; journal self-cited references are 43; 7769 (77.94%) of the citations were from foreign journals; the most productive institution is Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad, Pakistan. CONCLUSION: The number of papers published in JAMC per issue has been increasing over the last 10 years, and the core region is NWFP, Pakistan. Original articles are the main type of papers for this journal. The publication is open for all fields of medical sciences.