A new model of school discipline : engaging students and preventing behavior problems.

Las políticas restrictivas, de tolerancia cero y suspensión en los colegios de Estados Unidos no han conseguido mejorar su seguridad ni el comportamiento de los estudiantes, y está creciendo el riesgo de abandono. El autor presenta un nuevo modelo de disciplina transformador que es preventivo, proactivo y basado en la construcción de relaciones y en la consolidación de las habilidades sociales de los estudiantes que les permitirán mejorar su conexión con el colegio. El autor guía a los profesores y administradores para identificar sus necesidades particulares y para seleccionar las estrategias más apropiadas a aplicar en cada nivel de conflicto.

Qu’est-ce qui caractérise une pratique innovante pour l'apprentissage de l'histoire? Quelques réflexions à partir d’expériences de formation initiale en didactique de la discipline

Le rapport entre la recherche en didactique des disciplines scolaires et la notion d’innovation mérite d’être interrogé. Quelles sont en effet les finalités de ladite recherche? Visent-elles en priorité une mise en perspective analytique des programmes et des ressources scolaires? Une meilleure connaissance des pratiques effectives au sein de la classe? Ou bien une meilleure perception des processus qui aboutissent aux apprentissages des élèves? Cherchent-elles à produire des états des lieux substantiels ou à encourager l’innovation et l’évolution des pratiques? Et si c’était le cas, dans quelles perspectives et selon quels critères? En effet, comment définir et identifier une pratique innovante dans la classe? Répondre à ces différentes questions conduit le chercheur, et le praticienchercheur qui intervient dans la formation des enseignants, à orienter ses travaux dans une direction donnée, mais aussi à les situer par rapport à des questions vives qui touchent sa discipline et qui impliquent l’exercice d’une responsabilité sociale au coeur de son expertise, loin de toute velléité de s’enfermer dans une tour d’ivoire

O Cuidador de Enfermagem e o Cuidar em Uma Unidade de Terapia Intensiva; The Nursing Caregiver and the Caring in Intensive Care Units

There are several aggressive factors in Intensive Care Units (ICU), which reach not only patients, but the nursing caregivers, since they participate in complex procedures and death of patients. Nursing caregivers may have difficulties on their daily work routine that can influence the way of care. The goal of this study was to identify the aspects of nursing caregivers working in adult ICU. It is a describe-exploratory study with qualitative approach, developed among 21 ICU adult nursing caregivers of a school hospital in Paraná. The data were collected in May and July, 2009 by recorded and transcribed semi-structured interviews. Four categories for analysis were identified: the aspects of ICU assistance, the meaning of healthcare for the nursing caregivers, the understanding of healthcare positive aspects and disclosing the difficulties of caring. The results revealed that caring is related to some factors such as mixed feelings, the mental and physical damage caused by stress; the understanding of total caring, scientific-technique procedures, family engagement in the assistance and humanization. The positive aspects are related to the welfare due to satisfaction in the work done and recognition of work. The difficulties involved death situations, psychological and biological damages, establishing links with patients and the uncaring toward the nursing caregivers.

Qualidade de vida do cuidador de enfermagem e sua relação com o cuidar; Quality of life of the nursing caregiver and its relationship with care

Objective:To identify aspects that affect the quality of life of nursing caregivers and their relationship with care in an Intensive Care Unit for Adults (A-ICU). Methods:This was a descriptive study with qualitative approach, taking as subjects 21 professionals who constitute the nursing staff of the A-ICU of a school hospital in Maringá-PR. Unstructured interview was used as a strategy to collect data, conducted between May and June 2009. Data analysis was based on the method of content analysis. The categories identified were: overlooking improvement in quality of life related to the resources in an A-ICU; the quality of life influencing the form of care; interpersonal relationships into the health team reflecting on the quality of life and care. Results:The analysis of caregivers’ speech and the results of the observation showed that there is correlation between the aspects they consider influential in their quality of life and the way of caring for patients in an A-ICU.Conclusion: The findings indicate that, among the influential aspects, the stressful factors overlap the enhancing ones. From this perspective, dealing with caregiver’s suffering might be the starting point for the improvement in quality of care in an A-ICU.

Dilettantes, discipline and discourse: requirements management for construction

Requirements management (RM), as practised in the aerospace and defence sectors, attracts interest from construction researchers in response to longstanding problems of project definition. Doubts are expressed whether RM offers a new discipline for construction practitioners or whether it repeats previous exhortations to adopt a more disciplined way of working. Whilst systems engineering has an established track record of addressing complex technical problems, its extension to socially complex problems has been challenged. The dominant storyline of RM is one of procedural rationality and RM is commonly presented as a means of controlling dilettante behaviour. Interviews with RM practitioners suggest a considerable gulf between the dominant storyline in the literature and how practitioners operate in practice. The paper challenges construction researchers interested in RM to reflect more upon the theoretical debates that underpin current equivalent practices in construction and the disparity between espoused and enacted practice.

Effect of micronutrient supplementation on mood in nursing home residents

One third of older people in nursing and/or residential homes have significant symptoms of depression. In younger people, deficiencies in selenium, vitamin C and folate are associated with depression. This study examines the association between micronutrient status and mood before and after supplementation. The objective was to determine whether the administration of selenium, vitamin C and folate improved mood in frail elderly nursing home residents. Mood was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression rating scale (HAD), and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Micronutrient supplementation was provided for 8 weeks in a double-blinded randomised controlled trial. Significant symptoms of depression (29%) and anxiety (24%) were found at baseline. 67% of patients had low serum concentrations of vitamin C, but no-one was below the reference range for selenium. Depression was significantly associated with selenium levels, but not with folate or vitamin C levels. No individual with a HAD depression score of >= 8, had selenium levels >1.2 mu M. In those patients with higher HAD depression scores, there was a significant reduction in the score and a significant increase in serum selenium levels after 8 weeks of micronutrient supplementation. Placebo group scores were unchanged. This small study concluded that depression was associated with low levels of selenium in frail older individuals. Following 8 weeks of micronutrient supplementation, there was a significant increase in selenium levels and improved symptoms of depression occurred in a subgroup. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

The maturing discipline of robotics

The nature of the robotics discipline is changing. In turn the traditional engineering-based degree programmes that have promoted robotics as an application of engineering principles need to be supplemented with robot-centred degree programmes that reflect the diverse character of robotics, the diverse interests of students, and the diverse multi-disciplinary contributions to the robotics discipline. In this paper the nature of the change that robotics has undergone in recent years is described. An outline of the subject material of robotics, comprising robotics science and robotics engineering, is discussed The teaching of robotics degree programmes in the past has been hampered by the expense required to install and maintain a robotics teaching laboratory. Availability of online robot systems and numerous robot kits has changed this situation to some extent. However, the paper concludes that there is still a need for good educational toolkits for teaching robotics at a first degree level.