Amoral Gower: Language, Sex and Politics

Watt, D. (2003). Amoral Gower: Language, Sex and Politics. Medievil Cultures Series, volume 38. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. RAE2008

Chimpanzees and bonobos exhibit divergent spatial memory development.

Spatial cognition and memory are critical cognitive skills underlying foraging behaviors for all primates. While the emergence of these skills has been the focus of much research on human children, little is known about ontogenetic patterns shaping spatial cognition in other species. Comparative developmental studies of nonhuman apes can illuminate which aspects of human spatial development are shared with other primates, versus which aspects are unique to our lineage. Here we present three studies examining spatial memory development in our closest living relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus). We first compared memory in a naturalistic foraging task where apes had to recall the location of resources hidden in a large outdoor enclosure with a variety of landmarks (Studies 1 and 2). We then compared older apes using a matched memory choice paradigm (Study 3). We found that chimpanzees exhibited more accurate spatial memory than bonobos across contexts, supporting predictions from these species' different feeding ecologies. Furthermore, chimpanzees - but not bonobos - showed developmental improvements in spatial memory, indicating that bonobos exhibit cognitive paedomorphism (delays in developmental timing) in their spatial abilities relative to chimpanzees. Together, these results indicate that the development of spatial memory may differ even between closely related species. Moreover, changes in the spatial domain can emerge during nonhuman ape ontogeny, much like some changes seen in human children.

Evaluation of extended training for general practice in Northern Ireland: qualitative study.

Objective To evaluate participants' perceptions of the impact on them of an additional six months' training beyond the standard 12 month general practice vocational training scheme. Design Qualitative study using focus groups. Setting General practice vocational training in Northern Ireland. Participants 13 general practitioner registrars, six of whom participated in the additional six months' training, and four trainers involved in the additional six months' training. Main outcome measures: Participants' views about their experiences in 18 month and 12 month courses. Results Participants reported that the 12 month course was generally positive but was too pressurised and focused on examinations, and also that it had a negative impact on self care. The nature of the learning and assessment was reported to have left participants feeling averse to further continuing education and lacking in confidence. In contrast, the extended six month component was reported to have restimulated learning by focusing more on patient care and promoting self directed learning. It developed confidence, promoted teamwork, and gave experience of two practice contexts, and was reported as valuable by both ex-registrars and trainers. However, both the 12 and 18 month courses left participants feeling underprepared for practice management and self care. Conclusions 12 months' training in general practice does not provide doctors with the necessary competencies and confidence to enter independent practice. The extended period was reported to promote greater professional development, critical evaluation skills, and orientation to lifelong learning but does not fill all the gaps.

General and Respiratory Health Outcomes in Adult Survivors of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia: A Systematic Review

Background: The purpose of this systematic literature review was to examine current empirical research on general and respiratory health outcomes in adult survivors of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).

Methods: We searched seven databases up to the end of November 2010 (MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Maternity and Infant Care, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Web of Knowledge). We independently screened and included only those studies concerning the assessment of outcome measures in adult survivors of BPD. Data on methodologic design and findings were extracted from each included study; in addition, the methodologic quality of each study was assessed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist.

Results: Fourteen cohort studies met the review criteria. Of those, a total of eight studies were considered to be of high quality (score 9-12), five of moderate quality (score 5-8), and only one was of low quality (score 0-4). In all studies of adult survivors of BPD, differences were found between the index and control groups, suggesting that many adults survivors of BPD who were born preterm or with very low birth weight had more respiratory symptoms and pulmonary function abnormalities compared with their peers. Five studies concerning radiologic findings reported structural changes persisting into adulthood. Findings from three studies suggested impairment in exercise capacity, although firm conclusions were limited by the small sample size in the studies reviewed.

Conclusions: Compared with adults born at term, adult survivors of BPD have more impairment in general and respiratory health, which does not seem to diminish over time.

Evidencing reflective practice in social work education: Theoretical uncertainties and practical challenges

Reflective practice has become an increasingly influential idea in social work education and, in the UK context, it has recently been acknowledged as key to ensuring that social workers are better equipped to engage in complex decision making and effective practice. However, there remains a lack of clarity about how this concept is defined and operationalised in teaching and learning and there has been little systematic empirical examination of its utility in facilitating professional development. Drawing on research with undergraduates at Queen's University Belfast, this paper aims to develop understanding of students' experience of reflective practice. The results suggest that agency systems that have become over-reliant on rules and procedures present formidable obstacles to learning both at an individual and at an organisational level. The paper argues that the relationship between how reflective practice is taught and how it is enacted in practice needs to be better understood if such obstacles are to be overcome. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the findings for developing reflective practice in social work education and practice and highlights the challenges that need to be addressed if reflection and critical thinking are to become more firmly embedded within agency systems and practice cultures.

Design and Practice in Architectural Theory Education

Benefiting from design in theory learning is not common in architecture schools. The general practice is to design in studio and to theorise in lectures. In the undergraduate module History and Theory in Architecture II at Queen’s University Belfast, students attend interactive lectures, participate in reading group discussions, design TextObjects, and write essays. TextObjects contain textual, audio and/or graphic representations that highlight a single concept or a complex set of issues derived from readings. Students experiment with diverse media, such as filmmaking, photography, and graphic design, some of which they experience for the first time. Lectures and readings revolve around theories of architectural representation, media and communication, which are practiced through TextObjects. This is a new way to link theory and practice in architectural education. Through action research, this study analyses this innovative teaching method called TextObject, which brings design and practice into architectural theory education to stimulate students towards critical thinking. The pedagogical research of architectural theoretician Necdet Teymur (1992, 1996, 2002) underlies the study.

Independent Directors and Corporate Governance

The paper examines the reliance placed in the United Kingdom and Australia on the concept of ‘independent directors’ as a mechanism to ensure better (less crisis prone) corporate governance. The article suggests that there is an over emphasis placed on some rather limited psychological evidence that independence in the boardroom produces more critical thinking and informed discussion thus leading to higher quality decision-making. The article offers others evidence, drawn from the material on the psychology of group formation and group discussion, which suggests that this confidence in ‘independence’ is misplaced. The article exposes a misunderstanding between independence as a character trait and independence as a structural concern which goes to the heart of the corporate governance discourse around the benefits of independence.

How young people cope with chronic kidney disease:Literature review

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a complex, long-term condition occurring in all age groups. It has been reported that the incidence of renal replacement therapy in young people is 7-8 per million population. Notwithstanding those individuals who may receive a donor kidney, many individuals may be disenfranchised by perceptions of helplessness and feelings of powerlessness against a backdrop of diminished health outlook, consequently impacting on capacity for effective coping. Aim: The aim of this review is to explore how young people cope with CKD. Methods: Three hundred and thirty-seven abstracts were identified. Sixty-three papers were cross-examined using a Critical Appraisal Skills Checklist Tool. Results: Young people face various demands; these may be episodic or ongoing, depending on health and circumstance. The themes this review uncovers are: 'Lack of a Coping Definition'; 'Coping Strategies in Young People'; and 'Barriers to the Understanding of Coping in Young People'. Conclusion: More qualitative research is vital to retrieve 'real-life' perceptions from young people coping with kidney disease to identify how care should be made more explicit for them. © 2012 European Dialysis and Transplant Nurses Association/European Renal Care Association.

What Are the Effects of Teaching Evidence-Based Health Care (EBHC)? Overview of Systematic Reviews

Background

An evidence-based approach to health care is recognized internationally as a key competency for healthcare practitioners. This overview systematically evaluated and organized evidence from systematic reviews on teaching evidence-based health care (EBHC).

Methods/Findings

We searched for systematic reviews evaluating interventions for teaching EBHC to health professionals compared to no intervention or different strategies. Outcomes covered EBHC knowledge, skills, attitudes, practices and health outcomes. Comprehensive searches were conducted in April 2013. Two reviewers independently selected eligible reviews, extracted data and evaluated methodological quality. We included 16 systematic reviews, published between 1993 and 2013. There was considerable overlap across reviews. We found that 171 source studies included in the reviews related to 81 separate studies, of which 37 are in more than one review. Studies used various methodologies to evaluate educational interventions of varying content, format and duration in undergraduates, interns, residents and practicing health professionals. The evidence in the reviews showed that multifaceted, clinically integrated interventions, with assessment, led to improvements in knowledge, skills and attitudes. Interventions improved critical appraisal skills and integration of results into decisions, and improved knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour amongst practicing health professionals. Considering single interventions, EBHC knowledge and attitude were similar for lecture-based versus online teaching. Journal clubs appeared to increase clinical epidemiology and biostatistics knowledge and reading behavior, but not appraisal skills. EBHC courses improved appraisal skills and knowledge. Amongst practicing health professionals, interactive online courses with guided critical appraisal showed significant increase in knowledge and appraisal skills. A short workshop using problem-based approaches, compared to no intervention, increased knowledge but not appraisal skills.

Conclusions

EBHC teaching and learning strategies should focus on implementing multifaceted, clinically integrated approaches with assessment. Future rigorous research should evaluate minimum components for multifaceted interventions, assessment of medium to long-term outcomes, and implementation of these interventions.

Analogies to semantic and syntactic mental labour in the Feist decision

The Supreme Court of the United States in Feist v. Rural (Feist, 1991) specified that compilations or databases, and other works, must have a minimal degree of creativity to be copyrightable. The significance and global diffusion of the decision is only matched by the difficulties it has posed for interpretation. The judgment does not specify what is to be understood by creativity, although it does give a full account of the negative of creativity, as ‘so mechanical or routine as to require no creativity whatsoever’ (Feist, 1991, p.362). The negative of creativity as highly mechanical has particularly diffused globally.

A recent interpretation has correlated ‘so mechanical’ (Feist, 1991) with an automatic mechanical procedure or computational process, using a rigorous exegesis fully to correlate the two uses of mechanical. The negative of creativity is then understood as an automatic computation and as a highly routine process. Creativity is itself is conversely understood as non-computational activity, above a certain level of routinicity (Warner, 2013).

The distinction between the negative of creativity and creativity is strongly analogous to an independently developed distinction between forms of mental labour, between semantic and syntactic labour. Semantic labour is understood as human labour motivated by considerations of meaning and syntactic labour as concerned solely with patterns. Semantic labour is distinctively human while syntactic labour can be directly humanly conducted or delegated to machine, as an automatic computational process (Warner, 2005; 2010, pp.33-41).

The value of the analogy is to greatly increase the intersubjective scope of the distinction between semantic and syntactic mental labour. The global diffusion of the standard for extreme absence of copyrightability embodied in the judgment also indicates the possibility that the distinction fully captures the current transformation in the distribution of mental labour, where syntactic tasks which were previously humanly performed are now increasingly conducted by machine.

The paper has substantive and methodological relevance to the conference themes. Substantively, it is concerned with human creativity, with rationality as not reducible to computation, and has relevance to the language myth, through its indirect endorsement of a non-computable or not mechanical semantics. These themes are supported by the underlying idea of technology as a human construction. Methodologically, it is rooted in the humanities and conducts critical thinking through exegesis and empirically tested theoretical development

References

Feist. (1991). Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Service Co., Inc. 499 U.S. 340.

Warner, J. (2005). Labor in information systems. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology. 39, 2005, pp.551-573.

Warner, J. (2010). Human Information Retrieval (History and Foundations of Information Science Series). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Warner, J. (2013). Creativity for Feist. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 64, 6, 2013, pp.1173-1192.

Uniformity and diversity in religious education in Northern Ireland

This paper considers the tension that can exist in the aims of religious education between the desire to encourage open-minded, critical thinking through exposure to diverse traditions, ideas and cultures and the encouragement, overt or otherwise, into uniformity whereby learners take on the values of a particular tradition, culture or ideology (say of a religion, family or school). The particular situation of teaching religious education to post-primary school pupils in Northern Ireland is considered, and evidence cited to suggest that the Northern Ireland Core Syllabus in Religious Education has tried to impose a particular non-denominational Christian uniformity on pupils and teachers through its use of religious language. This has contributed to a culture of 'avoidance' in relation to the teaching of broad Christian diversity. The article concludes that there is a need for an ongoing and meaningful dialogue to discover what kind of balance between uniformity and diversity is best in teaching religious education in Northern Ireland, and notes that this also requires the reassessment of fundamental issues such as the aims of education and the relationship between secular and religious values in publicly funded schools. © 2004 Christian Education.

Promoting science literacy via science journalism: Issues and challenges

Science journalism is the source of much of the science an individual will encounter beyond formal education. Science-based media reports, which might have been associated with informal education, are increasingly becoming incorporated into formal school contexts. Unlike science textbooks, the science reported in the news is often tentative and sometimes contested. It can involve difficult socio-scientific issues. Descriptors of ‘science literacy’ generally include reading and responding critically to media reports of science. The challenge of using science-based news effectively encourages teachers to reassess their knowledge and pedagogical practices.
In addition to creating interest in science and making links beyond the classroom, news media can be used to introduce pupils to elements of science enquiry and teachers can promote basic literacy and critical reading skills through systematic and imaginative use of media reports with a science component.
This chapter explores the knowledge, skills and attitudes that underpin the use of science journalism in the classroom. The unique characteristics and constraints of science journalism that influence the way science is presented and perceived are considered, and the importance of media awareness as a foundation for critical reading of science news is argued. Finally the characteristics of teaching programmes to support critical engagement with science-based media reports are outlined and the opportunities for cross-curricular initiatives highlighted.

Evaluation of Video Presentation to Deliver Surgical Anatomy Teaching

Title Evaluation of Video Presentation to Deliver Surgical Anatomy Teaching

Authors Walsh I.K., Boohan M., Dorman A.

Objectives To evaluate the efficacy of newly introduced video presentation to deliver Surgical Anatomy teaching to undergraduate medical students.

Design and Setting Qualitative and quantitative study using questionnaires and focus groups, employing students undertaking the perioperative medicine module of the phase 4 undergraduate medical curriculum at Queen’s University Belfast.

Outcome Measures To determine:
(1) if video presentation is effective in delivering surgical anatomy teaching,
(2) student’s learning preferences regarding this teaching method.
Results The questionnaire response rate was 89% (216 of 244 students; female: male ratio 1.25) and 42 students participated in 6 focus groups. Mean questionnaire responses indicated a favourable opinion on quality assurance items, with a mixed response to video presentation as a learning method. 71% of students preferred to receive a lecture in person, rather than via video presentation. There were no statistically significant differences between genders regarding learning preferences in general and regarding video versus live presentation in particular. Exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that favourable responses to video presentation were strongly associated with perceived audiovisual quality and learning preferences (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient 0.77), with 72% of students considering video presentation worthwhile. Positive perception of overall quality was strongly associated with learning preferences as well as more generic quality assurance issues (80% students; alpha coefficient 0.83).
The results were supported by triangulation of the above quantitative data with qualitative data generated by the focus groups. Students further articulated the view that video presentation may be more appropriate and effective in a mixed method setting.

Reference Basu Roy R, McMahon GT. Video-based cases disrupt deep critical thinking in problem-based learning. Med Educ 2012 Apr;46(4):426-435.

Criminal Justice in Transition: The Northern Ireland Context

This book represents a critical examination of key aspects of crime and criminal justice in Northern Ireland which will have resonance elsewhere. It considers the core aspects of criminal justice policymaking in Northern Ireland which are central to the process of post-conflict transition, including reform of policing, judicial decision-making and correctional services such as probation and prisons. It examines contemporary trends in criminal justice in Northern Ireland as related to various dimensions of crime relating to female offenders, young offenders, sexual and violent offenders, race and criminal justice, community safety and restorative justice. The book also considers the extent to which crime and criminal justice issues in Northern Ireland are being affected by the broader processes of ‘policy transfer’, globalisation and transnationalism and the extent to which criminal justice in Northern Ireland is divergent from the other jurisdictions in the United Kingdom. Written by leading international authorities in the field, the book offers a snapshot of the cutting edge of critical thinking in criminal justice practice and transitional justice contexts.

(Re)construir a prática pedagógica e criar oportunidades para pensar

Apresenta-se nesta tese um estudo de natureza qualitativa que inclui seis estudos de caso, a partir dos quais se desocultam as práticas pedagógicas de três salas de jardim de infância e de três salas do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. O quadro narrativo, interpretativo e de reflexão que elegemos, permitiu-nos identificar e discutir os processos de construção e gestão curricular e os estilos dos educadores e dos professores na promoção de oportunidades para a construção do pensamento crítico das crianças que frequentam a Educação Pré-escolar e o 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico.