Using the Phono‐Graphix reading programme as a literacy support intervention strategy

The study outlined here was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of using the Phono‐Graphix reading programme with a group of four struggling readers/non‐readers. The children selected were in Primary 2 and had already had one‐and‐a‐half years of mixed reading instruction strategies – primarily Jolly Phonics with a ‘look and say’ approach. The children were taught in twice weekly ‘pull out’ sessions in addition to learning with their peers in their normal, daily classroom lessons. Results showed that they had improved in all literacy sub‐skills being assessed. Two of them also improved on standardised assessments. All children were observed to be reading (and spelling) more accurately than at the beginning of the project.     

Research,Information and Education in Building: Where Are the Links?

RESUMÉ

A recent systematic study showed that the transfer of information from research to practice in construction is not efficient: results are disseminated badly, are difficult to trace and are little used by practitioners, whose information-gathering routines are defective. The way in which the building process is organized, characterized by discontinuity and variety, creates a context where the well-proven recipe is preferred to scientific knowledge, too difficult to apply with haste. How can one educate future practitioners and teach them to reconcile the need for better building—based on science—within the chaotic environment of the building industry? One answer to this question lies in improved exploitation of information, its systematic transformation and its valorization. A second answer lies in a search for operational continuity, thus paving the way for informed innovation.

Une étude systématique ricente a démontré I'inefficacité du passage de I'information de la recherche à la pratique en construction: les résuhats sont mal disséminés, difficiles a repérer et peu utilisés par les praticiens, eux-mêmes rarement avertis de I'importance de I'information. L'organisation de l'acte de bâtir, avec la discontinuite et la variété qui le caractérisent, crée un environnement o[ugrave] la recette éprouvée passe avant les connaissances scientifiques, trop difficiles à appliquer ‘àla va-vite’. Comment peut-on éduquer les futurs praticiens, et leur faire comprendre la nécessite de mieux construire—grâce a I'apport de la science—dans I'environnement chaotique du secteur du bâtiment? Une meilleure exploitation de I'information, de sa transformation systematique et de sa valorisation est sans doute une premiére réponse à cette question primordiale; une deuxième réponse préconise en outre la continuité operationnelle, ouvrant ainsi la parte à L'innovation guidée par I'information.     

Prescription for learning? Meeting the development needs of the pharmacy profession

This article explores the use of open learning to meet pharmacists' continuing development needs in the UK—a topic that the researchers first explored in 1996. First, it sets those needs in the context of the changing role of the pharmacist within the health care team. Second, the authors report the findings from a one-year study conducted in 1999–2000 by the Scottish Council for Research in Education of continuing professional development (CPD) provided by the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education at the University of Manchester. Data were collected from a 10% sample of registered pharmacists, telephone interviews with some employers and focus group meetings with a sample of pharmacists and tutors. Changes in pharmacists' attitudes to, and uptake of, CPD over the period are highlighted, the most significant of which is the growth in informal learning, an approach that now requires to be incorporated into an integrated model of CPD.