Challenges and strategies in getting evidence-based practice into primary health care—what role the information professional?

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Perspectives on continuing professional development in and through information and communications technology

This paper considers the role and development of meaningful dialogue in digitally mediated learning (DML) in UK higher education for teachers. It argues that more research is vital in the field of meaningful dialogue if we are to avoid the risk that pedagogic values in DML become increasingly driven by market forces toward ‘data vending’ without sufficient contextualisation of learning as social practice. Three data collection sources are interpreted. The first is the narrativised experiences of a DML development team transforming an MA Education award; the second is some key reflections on the experiences of MA participants on a newly transformed DML module and the third is a brief analysis of student results and evaluations. The key focus for the paper is how important and challenging it can be to nurture a dialogic academic community online that clearly supports and nurtures the professional development of teachers across the education sector. Using a methodological approach incorporating Ulrich’s notion of ‘reflective competence’, the paper considers the pitfalls of transforming face-to-face modules into DML, arguing that both staff and participant preparation for DML must be at the forefront of such transformations. The paper concludes with a consideration of the vital role in DML of pedagogies which promote emotional engagement and ‘kindness’.     

A Practical Guide to Informed Consent in Clinical Supervision

Informed consent in clinical supervision should be explicitly addressed. Areas to be covered in a written statement and suggestions for discussing informed consent in an initial supervision session are given.     

Computer modelling and the curriculum -- integrated or loosely attached?

This paper examines from a number of perspectives a small research project that involved the development and evaluation of a crosscurricular course in computer modelling. It sets out briefly the context, design and results of the project in order both to explain the potential of computer modelling activities in learning to represent quantitative variation, and also to highlight the need to develop teachers' pedagogical practices. The role of information technology (IT) in providing support for generic modelling skills is discussed, and theories of teachers' knowledge growth are used to analyse the challenges for professional development in IT, particularly concerning matters that are relevant to more than one discipline. Conclusions are drawn concerning the need to integrate curriculum development, professional development and different areas of expertise in educational computing research if teachers are to be adequately supported in integrating IT into their teaching, rather than merely attaching it to their existing curricula     

The influence of ICT on the interactivity of teaching

There has been much concern with the ideas of interactive and dialogic teaching during recent years in the UK, ideas which have emerged from international comparisons. This paper concerns a research project in Wales which sought to explore how the interactive features of information and communication technology (ICT) support interactivity in teaching. The project found that much use of ICT by good teachers was at a relatively superficial level of interaction, yet when teachers used a deeper, more dialogic, level of interactivity in teaching, they achieved improvements in learning whether they used ICT or not. The potential of ICT to support more dialogic teaching was not being fully exploited. The paper reports the findings of the classroom observation dimension of the project, and examines the implications for pedagogical practices and the development/dissemination of ICT resources which can support more dialogic interactivity.     

The Role of Play in the Pedagogy of ICT

Today’s children meet a wide range of technology in their everyday lives, and they become competent users of devices such as mobile phones and games machines without any formal instruction. It appears that highly complex ICT processes and techniques can be learned through informal methods which are very much learner directed—unfocussed exploration, creative invention, trial-and-error, cooperation with friends and asking people who are more experienced. Indeed, the children themselves tend to see their activity as play rather than learning.This paper describes a project carried out in a number of informal learning situations. The children involved were relatively disadvantaged economically, and the majority were not very confident in using a PC. Most had access to both a games machine and a mobile phone, however, and rated themselves as very confident with these. The project aimed to find out how they developed competence in using unfamiliar hardware and software, and how much they learned from self-directed study in a loosely structured learning environment. In order to investigate these issues, groups of children were introduced to new software tools and left to ‘play’ with the software in order to explore the possibilities and discover new features. The children were observed and their questions answered, and the researcher also discussed their experiences with them afterwards.Despite their lack of previous experience with PCs and the particular software used for the project, the children were generally successful in gaining specified competencies with the software. Several children reflected that they were learning in the same way as they had learned to use mobile phones, although there was no evidence for transfer of specific techniques. This indicates that the role of higher order learning skills is important, and evidence emerged that the influence of self-efficacy may be more important in gaining success than previous experience with PC technology. This factor is suggested as the focus for further investigation.     

Transition in pedagogical orchestration using the interactive whiteboard

This paper revisits the analysis of how the interactive whiteboard (IWB) can contribute to effective pedagogy. It builds on previous work concerning the relationship between the features of IWBs and associated technologies and some key components of pedagogy, including the stage of IWB use, the role of ICT, the type of interactivity, and the overarching aspect of orchestration for learning. Two example lessons are constructed to illustrate the relationships associated with a basic stage of IWB use as a blackboard substitute and the most sophisticated, synergistic stage of IWB use. The analysis of these lessons is used to show that in the synergistic lesson, the IWB functions as a hub for classroom activity. The key difference is that both the teacher and pupils use the affordances of IWB for orchestration of activity rather than merely using a set of unrelated tools predominantly used by the teacher. Implications are drawn concerning the need to develop skills in orchestration for learning alongside technical skills in IWB use through initial teacher education and subsequent professional learning.     

Exercise,plasma catecholamine concentrations and decision-making performance of soccer players on a soccer-specific test

The main aim of this study was to compare the decision-making performance of college soccer players on a soccer-specific, tachistoscopically presented test, at rest and while exercising at their adrenaline threshold and at their maximum power output. These were determined following an incremental test to exhaustion on a cycle ergometer. After the initial maximum power test, participants (n= 9) were allowed 10 habituation trials on the soccer decision-making test. Participants' decision-making performance was tested at rest, while cycling at a power output that had previously been determined to elicit their adrenaline threshold and while cycling at maximum power output. Accuracy and speed of decision were the dependent variables. A one-way repeated measures analysis of variance showed no significant effect of exercise on accuracy, and showed speed of decision to be significantly affected by exercise. Tukey post-hoc tests showed that speed of decision at rest was significantly slower than in the other two conditions, which did not differ significantly from one another. Based on allocatable resources theories of arousal and performance, we conclude that the adrenaline threshold may be indicative of increases in the resources available to the individual. Furthermore, we considered that exercise at maximum power output may only induce a moderate rather than a high level of arousal.     

In Memory of Michael Pressley: A Role Model for 21st-Century Educational Psychologists

This article honors the contributions of Michael Pressley and examines 5 roles that were critical to his work as an educational psychologist: teacher, scholar, critic, builder, and mentor. We draw on Michael's life to illustrate how he carried out each of these roles and propose that educational psychologists in higher education in the new millennium should assume all 5 of these roles throughout the majority of their careers.