Peer Tutoring for Anatomy Workshops in Cambodia

Historical loss of staff and teaching resources in Cambodia has resulted in significant challenges to anatomy education. Small group anatomy teaching opportunities are limited. A visit to Cambodia by a teaching team from the University of Melbourne in 2010 demonstrated it was possible to implement well-resourced anatomy workshops for this purpose. However, continuation of the workshop program was inhibited by the limited number of local teaching staff. In 2015, another team from the University of Melbourne returned to Cambodia to implement anatomy workshops that incorporated peer tutoring. The objective was to improve teacher-to-student ratios and to demonstrate that interactive anatomy workshops could be delivered successfully despite low staff numbers. The anatomy workshops were attended by 404 students of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, and Midwifery at the University of Puthisastra. Medical students were invited to act as peer tutors for nursing students. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to determine student satisfaction with both the workshops and peer tutoring. The overwhelming majority were positive about the workshops and keen for them to continue. Almost all medical students who acted as peer tutors agreed or strongly agreed that this role increased their anatomical knowledge (98%) and confidence (94%). Most nursing students agreed or strongly agreed with statements that they would like peer tutoring to continue (94%) and that they would like to be peer tutors themselves (88%). This report demonstrates that peer tutoring could be an effective tool in educational settings where poor staff-to-student ratios limit delivery of interactive workshops.     

Building a whole school approach to professional experience: Collaboration and community

This paper explores one implementation of an extended, structured, collaborative professional experience program. Its context is a new partnership between a university and a professional experience school. The program draws on elements of Instructional Rounds and Lesson Study, framed around a learning community model of professional experience for peer collaboration, observations, reflections and discussions across disciplines by pre-service teachers. Results show that pre-service teachers experienced a sense of belonging, developed professional relationships and dialogue with staff and peers, linked theory with practice, and developed dispositions for on-going improvement of teaching quality, all factors likely to improve their readiness for teaching. On the other hand, participants faced challenges in terms of logistics and communication, time pressure and anxiety and power relations between novice and expert.     

Engagement and academic promotion: a review of the literature

Universities in Australia are becoming increasingly concerned with their reputation as ‘engaged’ institutions. Yet there is significant confusion about what this idea of ‘engagement’ means and no clear way of measuring or reporting it. In part, this is because of the nature of engagement itself which is dependent on local context, partnerships and communities. This presents a difficulty for academic staff undertaking engaged work within institutions and stresses the need for institutions to develop internal processes that clearly articulate definitions of engagement, set out performance expectations and provide processes for the reward and recognition of the scholarship of engagement. In a sector increasingly concerned with the outputs of research as measurable by publication bibliometrics and grant income, the sometimes difficult to measure outcomes of engaged work can become relegated and dismissed. As part of a project to articulate performance expectations in the area of the scholarship of engagement for academic promotion at the University of Wollongong, researchers undertook an extensive international literature review to learn what had been done in this area previously and to identify issues of concern. This paper sets out the findings from this review, considers the implications of engaged scholarship for academic promotion and suggests some possible ways forward for institutions and staff working in this area.     

A vocation or a career: the perspectives of BA. ECEC graduates about accessing employment and working in the early years sector in Ireland

Caring for and educating young children is highly skilled and complex, and is dependent upon the educator's education and training, work environment, salary and work benefits. This paper which draws upon two annual BA ECEC Graduate Occupational Profile Surveys undertaken in 2013 and 2014, explores the perceptions of graduates about seeking employment and working in the sector. The findings indicate that the graduates perceived themselves as: professionals who were confident about their practice; held valuable knowledge of the practice frameworks: Síolta and Aistear, and excited about opportunities for professional autonomy. However, while graduates working in the sector were buoyed by their ‘love of children’ and described the work as ‘rewarding’ they were critical of the pay and working conditions. Consistent with [Herzenberg, S., M. Price, and D. Bradley. 2005. Losing Ground in Early Childhood Education: Declining Workforce Qualifications in an Expanding Industry. Economic Policy Institute; Whitebook, M. 2002. Working for Worthy Wages: The Child Care Compensation Movement 1970–2001. Center for the Study of Childcare Employment, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, UC Berkeley. Moloney, M. 2014. Breach of Trust – Getting it Right for Children in Early Childhood Care and Education in Ireland. New Zealand Research in Early Childhood Education Journal. Special Issue: Early Childhood Policy 17: 71–86] the findings support the assertion that early childhood educators are among the lowest paid professionals, and many graduates indicated their intention to exit the sector. The BA ECEC provided a stepping stone towards post-graduate study and alternative career pathways. The findings highlight a pervasive tension between the potential of ECEC to be a rewarding and satisfying career, and the reality of employment conditions within the sector.     

Reflection in a social space: Can blogging support reflective practice for beginning teachers?

This study reports on an investigation on the use of electronic journals to support beginning teachers in developing reflection on teaching within peer support networks. The study takes place within the context of the ongoing Pilot Project on Teacher Induction in post-primary schools in Ireland. A pilot study using web logs (blogs) was initiated with newly qualified teachers (NQTs). Mixed methods were used to investigate participants' use of an electronic personal reflective diary. Results show little evidence of the development of a more reflective approach attributable to the maintenance of a blog. However review of earlier postings led to some reflective personal and group dialogue. The findings of this study are of interest in that they provide indicators that concern the broader area of collaboration within professional development.     

Publishing trends in Chinese medicine and related subjects documented in WorldCat

BACKGROUND: Chinese medicine (CM) has been the subject of increasing interest in the past 30 years, both as a discipline and in the larger context of alternative medicine. It has steadily been accepted by and integrated into the medical and health-care fields in many countries. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to gain an overview of how CM has been interpreted and presented to the world outside China and to identify emerging trends. METHODS: This study is designed to analyse the publishing trends of CM and related subjects in all languages except Chinese, ranging from books and serials to audio-visual and electronic resources found in WorldCat, the world's largest bibliographic database produced by OnLine Computer Library Center (OCLC). RESULTS: The findings showed a flourishing growth of publications in CM and related subjects beginning in the 1970s with greater coverage on acupuncture. The materials in English language constitute the major portion of total output. CONCLUSION: We conclude that Chinese medicine has steadily gained recognition in the world based on the analysis of publication records. The translation of original works and analysis of journal literature and conference proceedings on Chinese medicine merit further study.