Taylorism,Tylerism and Performance Indicators: defending the indefensible?

This paper explores some of the antecedents to the recent growing interest in the United Kingdom in the use of educational performance indicators, and links it in particular to aspects of both Taylorist and Tylerist philosophies. It attempts to distinguish between different constructed meanings of performance indicators evident in both policy statements and practice. Whilst acknowledging the many potential problems inherent in the adoption of this approach to evaluation, the paper argues that both the nature and use of educational performance indicators are crucially shaped by factors such as purpose, authorship, focus and audience. The paper outlines an approach to performance indicators which tacitly addresses a critique of Taylorist and Tylerist influences, adopting an optimistic view that indicators can be made professionally relevant and useful. At the heart of the paper is an account of a collaborative evaluation project which, over the last 5 years, has supported the development of teacher‐generated indicators across some 80 schools and colleges in a consortium of six local education authorities. Despite the difficulties which have been encountered in this approach, the paper concludes that performance indicators can be made professionally relevant and useful.     

Kinetics study on biomass pyrolysis for fuel gas production

Kinetic knowledge is of great importance in achieving good control of the pyrolysis and gasification process and optimising system design. An overall kinetic pyrolysis scheme is therefore addressed here. The kinetic modelling incorporates the following basic steps: the degradation of the virgin biomass materials into primary products (tar, gas and semi-char), the decomposition of primary tar into secondary products and the continuous interaction between primary gas and char. The last step is disregarded completely by models in the literature. Analysis and comparison of predicted results from different kinetic schemes and experimental data on our fixed bed pyrolyser yielded very positive evidence to support our kinetic scheme. Project (No. 2001CB409600) Supported by the National Key Basic Research Program (973) of China     

普通话二字组词语的动态声调

普通话二字组词语不同的声调组合方式 ,使前后位声调产生不同的动态变化形式。前位声调的动态变化明显表现在上声调变为低降调和中升调上 ;后位声调的动态变化则表现在调值的明显改变上。后位声调的动态变化更为普遍 ,应该引起足够的重视     

Theory Competition and the Process of Change

The reasons why many educational change initiatives have little impact are often framed in terms of either a poorly designed process on the part of the change initiator, or in terms of problems with the attitudes, skills and/or knowledge of those responsible for implementation. In this paper, we seek to integrate these two perspectives more closely by focusing on their interface and the competing theories frequently held by the change initiators and implementers. This concept of theory competition is illustrated with a case of a national literacy initiative in New Zealand in which the change initiators wished to raise the achievement of low performing students through the development of “learning-centred” leadership in schools and evidence-based practice. The desired outcomes were not achieved because theories about what it means to be a successful leader in such a situation, the data needed to undertake the type of evidence-based analysis envisioned and school personnel beliefs about the target students were understood differently by those responsible for initiating the change and those responsible for implementing it.     

Curriculum Design of a Flipped Classroom to Enhance Haematology Learning

A common trend in higher education is the “flipped” classroom, which facilitates active learning during class. The flipped approach to teaching was instituted in a haematology ‘major’ class and the students’ attitudes and preferences for the teaching materials were surveyed. The curriculum design was explicit and involved four major components (1) the preparation of the students; (2) the weekly pre-class work; (3) the in-class active learning strategies and (4) closing the learning loop using formative quizzes. Each of these components is discussed in detail and was informed by sound pedagogical strategies. Several different sources of information and several freely available software tools to engage the students are discussed. Two iterations are reported here, with improved pass rate for the final examination from 47 to 48 % in the traditional class to 56–65 % in the flipped classroom approach. The majority of students (93 and 89 %) came to the class prepared, after viewing the screencasts and engaged fully with the activities within the face-to-face time. The students perceived that solving case studies (93 %) was the most beneficial activity for their learning and this was closely followed by the production of essay plans (71 %). The majority of students recommended that this approach be repeated the following year (69 and 75 %).     

Association of Elevated Serum Lipoprotein(a), Inflammation,Oxidative Stress and Chronic Kidney Disease with Hypertension in Non-diabetes Hypertensive Patients

Hypertension is the most common cardiovascular risk factor. Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], inflammation, oxidative stress and chronic kidney disease (CKD) exacerbate the response to tissue injury and acts as markers of the vascular disease, especially in glomerulosclerosis. We compared the clinical characteristics of 138 non-diabetes hypertensive women (ndHT) patients with 417 non-diabetes normotensive subjects and tested the association of hypertension with Lp(a), inflammation, CKD and oxidative stress by using multiple logistic regression. BP, BMI, waist circumference, creatinine, Lp(a), inflammation and malondialdehyde levels were significantly higher and CKD state in the ndHT patients (p < 0.05). Multiple logistic regression showed hypertension associated with increased Lp(a), inflammation, ORs and 95 % CIs were 2.52 (1.33, 4.80), 2.75 (1.44, 5.27) after adjusting for their covariates. Elevated serum Lp(a) and inflammation levels concomitants with increased oxidative stress and CKD were the major risk factors associated with hypertension and implications for the increased risk of HT and vascular disease.     

The effect of extremely high glucose concentrations on 21 routine chemistry and thyroid Abbott assays: interference study

Introduction

Extremely high glucose concentrations have been shown to interfere with creatinine assays especially with Jaffe method in peritoneal dialysate. Because diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease in the world, laboratories study with varying glucose concentrations. We investigated whether different levels of glucose spiked in serum interfere with 21 routine chemistry and thyroid assays at glucose concentrations between 17-51 mmol/L.

Materials and methods

Baseline (group I) serum pool with glucose concentration of 5.55 (5.44-5.61) mmol/L was prepared from patient sera. Spiking with 20% dextrose solution, sample groups were obtained with glucose concentrations: 17.09, 34.52, and 50.95 mmol/L (group II, III, IV, respectively). Total of 21 biochemistry analytes and thyroid tests were studied on Abbott c8000 and i2000sr with commercial reagents. Bias from baseline value was checked statistically and clinically.

Results

Creatinine increased significantly by 8.74%, 31.66%, 55.31% at groups II, III, IV, respectively with P values of < 0.001. At the median glucose concentration of 50.95 mmol/L, calcium, albumin, chloride and FT4 biased significantly clinically (-0.85%, 1.63%, 0.65%, 7.4% with P values 0.138, 0.214, 0.004, < 0.001, respectively). Remaining assays were free of interference.

Conclusion

Among the numerous biochemical parameters studied, only a few parameters are affected by dramatically increased glucose concentration. The creatinine measurements obtained in human sera with the Jaffe alkaline method at high glucose concentrations should be interpreted with caution. Other tests that were affected with extremely high glucose concentrations were calcium, albumin, chloride and FT4, hence results should be taken into consideration in patients with poor diabetic control.Key words: assay interference, glucose interference, preanalytical phase, creatinine, Jaffe kinetic assay, thyroid function tests     

Locus and nature of perceptual phonological deficit in Spanish children with reading disabilities

The aims of this study were (a) to determine whether Spanish children with reading disabilities (RD) show a speech perception deficit and (b) to explore the locus and nature of this perceptive deficit. A group of 29 children with RD, 41 chronological age-matched controls, and 27 reading ability-matched younger controls were tested on tasks of speech perception. The effect of linguistic unit (word vs. syllable) and type of phonetic contrast (voicing, place and manner of articulation) were analyzed in terms of the number of errors and the response time. The results revealed a speech perception deficit in Spanish children with RD that was independent of the type of phonetic contrast and of linguistic unit.