DEVELOPING AND EVALUATING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CLINICAL TEAM TRAINING PROGRAM: LESSONS TAUGHT AND LESSONS LEARNED

The training of clinicians in working together as an interdisciplinary team has received growing support in geriatrics. Most teamwork training programs have focused on group process and development as the core competencies of team practice necessary to improve levels of team functioning. The experience of the Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center (RIGEC) in developing and implementing an ongoing teamwork training program, including the training of several geriatric teams from a variety of health care settings, suggests that additional objectives should include the empowerment of teams for advocacy in rapidly changing health care settings increasingly shaped by economic forces. The lessons learned by RIGEC for the development and implementation of teamwork training include the importance of defining team membership, dealing with the shifting shoals of the health care system, understanding individuals and systems under stress, and redefining the objectives of teamwork training.     

Capacity building of a district education system: insights from Kenya

Both (a) in-school factors such as over-focus on academic performance, absence of uniform, and corporal punishment, and (b) out-of school factors such as caring for ailing parents, child labour, etc., hinder participation of orphan and vulnerable children (OVC) in Free Primary Education (FPE) system in Nyanza Province, Kenya. In this context Concern Worldwide Kenya undertook an appreciative capacity building approach and appropriately positioned District Education Office (DEO) of the Ministry of Education and local civil society organisations (CSOs) to address in-school and out-of-school factors, respectively, to ensure quality education for OVC. The outcome of the programme is promising and has demonstrated the need for greater cooperation between CSOs and the government to develop creative strategies in overcoming the causes of marginalisation within the contexts of the growing AIDS pandemic and poverty in Kenya.     

Re-reading the reading lesson: episodes in the history of reading pedagogy

Reading pedagogy is constantly an object of discussion and debate in contemporary policy and practice but is rarely a matter for historical inquiry. This paper reports from a recent study of the history of reading pedagogy in Australia and beyond. It focuses on a recurring figure in the historical record—the ‘reading lesson’. Presented as a distinctive trope, the reading lesson is traced in its regularity in and through the discourse of reading pedagogy, starting in 1930s Australia and moving back into 19th-century Europe, and with specific reference to the UK and the USA. Teaching reading is expressly identified as a moral project—something that, it can be argued, clearly continues into the present.     

Endorsed and Applied Rules of Relationships Reported by Teachers

Recent academic debates on the geography curriculum for schools have highlighted the need for more focus on how knowledge is socially produced. While this may help to bridge the gap between the school curriculum and epistemological developments in academia, it is unclear how such theoretical frameworks can improve pupils' learning about the world. In this paper theoretical approaches to knowledge are challenged by considering, from an alternative viewpoint, how pupils themselves act as knowledge producers. Drawing on the holistic educational philosophy informing the Steiner-Waldorf approach to curriculum knowledge and pedagogy, it is argued that subject knowledge needs to suit the way pupils' thinking naturally evolves, giving particular attention to the role that imagination and sense of wonder play in both the cognitive process and pupil engagement. The epistemological status of the pupil in geography education can therefore be enhanced by considering approaches to education that operate outside normal scientific and rational paradigms. This has relevance for the wider debate on more flexible, post-industrial forms of learning.     

A national systems view of university entrepreneurialism: Inferences from comparison of the German and US experience

Examining parallels in the long-term evolution of the German and US university systems, this paper formulates hypotheses about the rise and decline of university entrepreneurialism at the national level. Three macro-level antecedents of university entrepreneurialism are identified: (1) decentralized competition; (2) latitude in mission and revenue mix; (3) a nationwide, diversified bidding system for the funding of large-scale university-based research. Of these, the third is real lynchpin of university entrepreneurialism. Arguing for a multidimensional understanding of such entrepreneurialism (i.e. beyond just the commercialization of scientific discoveries), the paper identifies three developments within universities emanating from a favorable national environment: (1) organizational innovations for achieving economies of scope; (2) an institutionalized capacity for strategic selection of research foci; and (3) a capacity to contribute to the development of new industries. The analysis suggests that as national university systems grow and run into cost containment problems, political pressures for reform increase, leading to system homogenization; system homogenization weakens the contextual sources of entrepreneurialism and triggers a process of decline.     

The influence of content knowledge on teaching and learning in Traditional and Sport Education contexts: an exploratory study

Background: Our understanding of the role in which content knowledge (CK) can strengthen instructional models and how that knowledge matters for professional development is limited. It is contended that mere use of an instructional model is insufficient to impact psychomotor learning in meaningful ways.

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate how a teacher's enacted pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) differed as a function of CK and Sport Education (SE), and to investigate the relative contribution of CK and Sport Education on student learning in terms of swimming performance.

Methods: Four intact classes comprising 88 secondary school students (age: 16–17 years) were randomly assigned to a Traditional, an Sport Education, a Traditional-CK, and a SE-CK group. All classes were taught by the same teacher during a 10-day unit of instruction in the front crawl.

Results: Results showed that the teacher's PCK differed as a function of improved CK. For verbal representations, the amount of cues in the Traditional-CK and SE-CK groups increased about sixfold compared to the Traditional and the SE group. For visual representations, more partially incorrect demonstrations were observed than correct demonstrations in the Traditional and the SE group. More mature and developmentally appropriate tasks were observed in the Traditional-CK and the SE-CK group compared to the Traditional and the SE group. Students in the Traditional-CK and SE-CK groups demonstrated a significant reduction of their amount of strokes on 50?m compared to the Traditional group. A significant interaction effect revealed a larger increase in swimming performance in the CK groups compared to the Traditional and the SE group. Finally, students in the SE group swam significantly more laps than their counterparts in the other groups.

Discussion and conclusion: These results show the impact on student learning when CK was added to both Traditional and Sport Education conditions and contribute to the literature for pre- and in-service teachers. The Sport Education model did not contribute to students’ swimming performance. Students in the Traditional and the SE group did not get the same quality of instruction as students in the Traditional-CK and SE-CK conditions. The latter groups received content that was presented differently both as a presentation and in terms of the actual task. In short, students in the Traditional and Sport Education conditions experienced the content differently than those in the Traditional-CK and SE-CK conditions. These instructional differences resulted in students in the Traditional-CK and SE-CK conditions improving their swimming performances in terms of technical efficiency and in terms of 50?m times.     

How first-year students perceive and experience assessment of academic literacies

Abstract

First-year university students’ underdeveloped academic literacies can lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance. University teachers find it difficult to take action without an understanding of students’ perceptions and needs. This study investigates first-year Chinese students’ perceptions and experiences related to assessment of academic literacies in an English-as-a-foreign-language university context. The datasets include student focus groups at two different time points over their first university year, self-reflective essays written by students at the end of the year, and audio records of nine units of teaching in three teachers’ classes. Findings highlight that fostering students’ academic literacies incorporates both linguistic development and epistemological adaptation. Students held mixed feelings towards alternative assessment other than examinations. Their personal learning goals of using English in everyday scenarios dampened their commitment to teachers’ goals of developing learners’ academic literacies. Findings suggest assessment can be an effective ‘card’ played by teachers to nurture students’ appreciation of new learning goals, communicate areas for improvement in learning strategies, and demonstrate their visible progress.