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One of the wonders of the lockdown was the manner in which nature became suddenly visible and even managed to regenerate itself. Olive ridley sea turtles nesting on Maharashtra’s beaches have benefitted greatly from the lack of human presence during the lockdown. Due to high footfalls of local people and tourists, olive ridley turtles have nested only sporadically in Maharashtra’s beaches, mainly in Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts.
Forest Department data shows that in 2020-21, the number of nests were 475, with 50,799 eggs and 23,706 hatchings. Compare this with 2019-20 when there were 228 nesting sites, with 27,254 eggs and 12,149 hatchings. In 2018-19, there were 233 nesting sites with 23,131 eggs and 12,601 hatchings. The data from the 2020-21 lockdown period proves yet again that the greatest impediment to the environment is human activity.
With fewer humans on the beaches, the turtle nests were safe from other predators such as dogs whose population seemed to have thinned out along with the humans, possibly because the scraps they used to feed off were no longer available.
The Forest Department has an education programme for locals to assist in olive ridley conservation. Once nesting sites are identified, a garden fencing net is erected to protect the eggs from predators and poachers. When the hatchlings appear, the nets are removed and volunteers either assist the tiny turtles to the sea or stand by and ensure that no harm comes to them.
The olive ridley is listed under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (amended 1991). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed it as Vulnerable. It is also protected under the Migratory Species Convention and the Convention of International Trade on Wildlife Flora and Fauna (CITES). Indeed, all five species of sea turtles found in India are protected species.
Interestingly, they are on the protected species list not because of low numbers but because they nest in a very limited number of places. They are known for their unique mass nesting sites, referred to as arribadas (in Spanish this means “arrival by sea”), where thousands of female turtles gather to lay eggs. It is this focussed nesting behaviour that makes the olive ridleys vulnerable. Any disruption of nesting sites can have serious repercussions on their population. They are actually among the most abundant of sea turtles, but a decline in nesting sites the world over has shown the start of a decline in their numbers. The turtle gets its name from the olive colour of its carapace, or shell, though the origin of the second half of its name, ridley, is not yet clearly understood. | https://frontline.thehindu.com/dispatches/olive-ridley-turtle-nests-almost-double-during-lockdown-in-maharashtras-beaches/article34855948.ece |
In order to maintain or increase a population, a species needs to be able to breed in sufficient numbers to produce enough recruits to replace the older birds that die. These days with many parts of the world infested with introduced predators and imbalances in the ecosystem, as well as unsympathetic agricultural practices, this is no longer possible for many wader species and it is this that is causing modern population declines.
Fewer eggs get to hatch and of those that do very few will fledge. This is of course a perfectly natural state of affairs, not every egg laid is expected to survive to fledging but the required percentages are far from being met and so the population becomes increasingly geriatric which, as they die off, are not being replaced.
Headstarting then is a method of circumnavigating the most vulnerable part of a ground nesting bird’s life from egg to fledging. Eggs are taken from wild nests and hatched in captivity; the chicks are provided with suitable feeding opportunity, protected from predators, and then released once they have fledged.
This is possible due to a number of traits of nesting waders:
- Removing the eggs from a breeding pair early means the adults are likely to lay a second clutch. This second clutch will be left with the adults to take their chances in the wild. Relaying after the loss of eggs is a perfectly natural response but the longer it is delayed after laying, the more energy the parents have invested in them and the probability of replacing them decreases. Once the chicks have hatched birds rarely relay if those chicks are lost.
- Almost all wader chicks are precocial, which means they do not have to be fed and they are able to get about by themselves within hours of hatching. At this stage their parents are there to help them find the best places to feed and to keep an eye out for predators, both of these factors are satisfied by the captive status of the birds.
- Another factor that helps enormously is that migrating waders do not travel in family parties on the whole. Laying eggs takes a lot of energy and females once they have hatched the eggs will often leave the breeding grounds to go to the coast to fatten up ready to migrate. The males have not used up the same energy by laying eggs so stay a little longer to protect and guide the young. Once those chicks are fledged, the male’s work is done and he too will leave for the coast. Young birds are then left to fend for themselves. They will often congregate in large flocks and will eventually leave the breeding grounds themselves, unaided by the adults and somehow still find their way to the stop over and wintering sites. It has been found that headstarted birds do not have any trouble migrating and entering the normal pattern of an adult’s life.
The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is Critically Endangered and is teetering on the edge of extinction; it was a prime candidate for headstarting. A team comprising a number of organisations has been headstarting Spoon-billed Sandpipers in Russia. Some of the headstarted birds have returned to breed themselves. One story of a pair demonstrates the value of this method of bolstering recruitment. Upon losing their eggs to the headstarting team the pair re-laid and managed, against fearsome odds, to fledge all four chicks, a tremendous achievement in itself. Meanwhile the headstarting team did the same with the eggs they had removed from the pair’s first attempt, resulting in eight recruits to the population from one pair that year. The headstarting programme in Russia has resulted in over 100 new recruits entering the population, very few of which may have done so if left in the wild, in addition at least some of the replacement clutches will have fledged some young birds.
In the UK the Black-tailed Godwit has had a poor run of things. Previously it would have been common as a breeding bird in the fens. It was hunted for its flesh which is reputed to have been very good, but this subsistence hunting would probably not have affected the population too much. However the wholesale drainage of the fens did, and as the fens disappeared so did the breeding habitat of the Godwits which became rarer and rarer. As they became rarer, unfortunately for them, they did so in an era when collecting was rife. Owning the skin of a British Black-tailed Godwit and/or its eggs became increasingly desirable. The rarer they became the more desirable they were. Eventually the last known breeding pair and their eggs were collected in 1885. In the 1930s they reappeared and started breeding regularly in very small numbers on the Ouse Washes in 1952. Now a joint venture between the RSPB and WWT in the region is working to enhance the population by headstarting breeding Godwits in East Anglia. So far the signs have been good, the captive birds fledged and were released in 2017 and were seen feeding around the release site. Eventually they left to migrate and although the project was not expecting them to return until 2019, as they normally breed in their second year, six birds did return and some of those even showed signs of breeding. How many of the remaining birds return remains to be seen.
It may seem cruel to deprive a nesting bird of its eggs, but in the long run, as we have seen, it has a positive effect on the population as a whole and it is surely better than losing a bird to extinction because we sat back and did nothing. Wildlife faces a very uneven playing field in the modern world, so surely our moral responsibility is to do everything within our power to even the odds a little. | https://www.waderquest.net/conservation/headstarting/ |
The spring and fall migration seasons are the most exciting for most birder. We get a chance to see different bird species during these months that don’t spend the entire year in the US. The Painted Bunting is a sought-after species for birdwatchers in the southeastern United States. To help you understand more about Painted Buntings’ behaviors and habits, we explore some fascinating facts in this article.
FACTS ABOUT PAINTED BUNTINGS
1. MALES AND FEMALES ARE DIFFERENTLY COLORED
Males and females of Painted Buntings have distinct plumage, indicating that they are sexually dimorphic. Females are more plain but still colorful than males, who are multicolored with bright and vivid colors.
The head of a male Painted Buntings is blue, with a crimson eye-ring, crimson from the neck to the belly, and greenish-yellow on the upper back. They have a watercolor appearance. Adolescent birds and females, on the other hand, are a uniform greenish-yellow that ranges from fairly dull to quite bright. The pale circle surrounding the eyes of females and juvenile Painted Buntings may also be seen.
2. THE COLORING OF THE MALES HAS EARNED THEM MANY NICKNAMES
The Painted Bunting is one of North America’s most colorful birds, and it has long been considered so. The Painted Bunting is known as “siete colores” in Mexico, which translates to “seven colors.” In Louisiana, they are referred to as “nonpareil,” which means “without equal.”
3. PAINTED BUNTINGS SPEND THE SUMMER IN THE UNITED STATES
Painted Buntings go to two major breeding locations in the spring and summer. Northern Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and western Mississippi are among the mid-south states with a western population. The second breeding habitat, or eastern population, is located in northern Florida, Georgia, and Carolina’s southern coastal areas.
4. PAINTED BUNTINGS MIGRATE SOUTH FOR THE WINTER
Painted Buntings migrate south when the weather becomes chilly. They spend the winter in Central America, the Caribbean, Cuba, and southern Florida.
5. PAINTED BUNTINGS PREFER RURAL HABITATS
Scrub-marsh environments are preferred by painted buntings. Several people may find these environments to be “unkempt” or “unruly,” which is their own term for it. They’re most frequently seen in wooded areas, with scattered bushes and weed patches. Because of its semi-open environment, the bird may fly with its flock and be protected from predators at the same time.
Painted Buntings, on the other hand, are only able to access this kind of environment when they are on the coast. As a consequence, they’ve learned to exploit scrublands-dominated environments and geography. Wooded dunes, fallow farm fields, and yards with a lot of shrubs are all possible examples.
6. THEY TIME THEIR MOLTING WITH MIGRATION
In the early fall, right before heading south, the western population of Painted Buntings begins to molt. The birds then come to a halt in northern Mexico to rest. Before moving south, they will complete their molt here. Waterfowl have a tendency to follow this pattern, but songbirds don’t.
Surprisingly, before heading south, the eastern population’s molt is complete.
7. PAINTED BUNTINGS HAVE HISTORICALLY BEEN CAPTURED FOR THEIR COLORS
The practice of painting buntings and selling them for their beauty has been going on for a long time. Thousands of painted buntings were captured every spring then delivered from New Orleans to Europe, according to Audubon in 1841. Although it is now prohibited, this technique, particularly in Mexico and Central America, continues to be practiced illegally.
The Gouldian Finch, another very colorful songbird, has a similar destiny.
8. PAINTED BUNTINGS WILL VISIT BIRD FEEDERS
These buntings visit bird feeders and enjoy sunflower and seed blends, while not as common as some other songbird species in the backyard. They prefer to stay hidden in shrubby habitat, so having thick bushes in your lawn will increase their likelihood of coming. As we previously mentioned, they like to remain somewhat disguised.
9. PAINTED BUNTINGS DIET DEPENDS ON THE SEASON
For most of the year, painted buntings are granivores that consume seeds and grains. They, however, alter their diet and begin eating a lot of insects like grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, flies, and weevils during mating season.
10. PAINTED BUNTINGS ARE CONSIDERED A SOCIAL SPECIES DURING THE WINTER
Painted Buntings may be seen in small flocks throughout the winter months. They may be seen foraging alongside painted buntings, as well as other seed-eating bird species. However, during the breeding season, which brings us to fact #11, being a friendly neighbor changes dramatically.
11. MALE PAINTED BUNTINGS ARE HIGHLY TERRITORIAL DURING THE BREEDING SEASON
Males aggressively protect their territory, which is roughly 3 acres in size, when the breeding season begins. Other males may be fiercely attacked by them, resulting in lost feathers, injuries, and even death. Even girls aren’t exempt from their aggressive behavior. That is, until they need to court and find their mate.
12. MALES DISPLAY FOR FEMALES
Men attempt to get on the females’ good side and impress them as soon as courting begins. They’ll spread out and show off their feathers to the females. During the breeding season, which runs from April to August, this species is predominantly monogamous.
13. FEMALES BUILD THE NEST
While both sexes work together to locate a suitable nesting location, the females do the majority of the construction. Mulberry, elm, Spanish moss, myrtle, and pine are all common nesting plants. Twigs, grasses, roots, and weed stems are bound together with cobwebs to make nests.
14. FEMALE PAINTED BUNTINGS TAKE CARE OF THE YOUNG ON THEIR OWN
Before hatching, the female lays 3-4 eggs and spends around 10-12 days incubating them. The offspring will stay in the nest for 12-14 days before departing, and the female takes care of them by herself. She will lay a second brood around 30 days after her first eggs hatch.
15. MALES SING TO ESTABLISH TERRITORY
A brief, high-pitched musical sound is the Painted Bunting’s song. Males will fly between multiple perches and sing 9-10 songs every minute in the spring while establishing territory. Males in the neighborhood frequently “counter-singe,” or sing back and forth. | https://goldenspikecompany.com/facts-about-painted-buntings/ |
The LPC currently occupies 30,900 square miles in the southern Great Plains, which is only 17% of its estimated historical range. Portions of the LPC habitat lie in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The LPC habitat lies in three distinct ecosystems: sand sagebrush (Artemisia filifolia), sand shinnery oak (Quercus havardii) and mixed grass vegetation communities. These are used to describe the four specific ecoregions in which the LPC is found:
The LPC has three necessary habitat components: nesting habitat, brood-rearing and summer habitat, and autumn and winter habitat. Optimal LPC habitat generally consists of 2/3 nesting habitat and 1/3 brood habitat. The fire-grazing interaction historically created a mosaic of cover that the LPC relied on, so disturbance is an integral part of LPC habitat and reproductive success, but must be implemented according to their life cycle.
Leks are characterized by low vegetation and are often located on a knoll or ridge. Disturbed areas, such as old well pads, have been known to be utilized as LPC leks. Since leks are highly visible and frequented during mating season, leks are important for monitoring LPC populations, location, and health.
Watch a video on LPC habitat types and leks.
Nesting Habitat
Nesting habitat is characterized as tall and dense cover of shrubs and perennial grasses. From mid-April to mid-June LPC will seek dense and tall cover for protection from predators and grazing should be reduced. The highest success rates for nesting have more than 60% absolute cover and grasses are higher than 20 inches (51 cm). LPC favor mid- and tall grasses for nesting, such as little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), big bluestem (A. gerardi), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and in some locations western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii). Female LPC typically nest within two miles of a lek, but not necessarily the lek where they were captured.
Brood-rearing and Summer Habitat
Brood habitat is characterized as higher amount of forb cover and less grass cover than nesting sites. Broods have limited mobility, so shorter grasses are required for chicks to move easily on the ground. It is suggested that high quality brood habitat be close to nesting habitat (approximately 1,000 feet). Brood habitat typically also has a high level of insects, which populate the forb cover. Prescribed burning and grazing, herbicide application, and mechanical treatments are good tools for creating brood habitat, but can also reduce nesting habitat.
The LPC uses shrubs and shinnery oak for shade in the summer and times of high heat.
Winter and Autumn Habitat
Winter and autumn habitat is generally the same as nesting and brood-rearing habitat, but during this time the LPC will travel across larger areas. The LPC uses mixed-grass, sand sagebrush, or sand shinnery oak for resting and roosting while migrating throughout their range. LPC tend to prefer grasslands with <15% shrub cover, but it is not considered necessary to implement specific habitat management for autumn and winter habitat, so long as quality nesting and brood habitat is present.
Habitat Conservation
In order to conserve LPC habitat, policymakers have implemented a focus on strongholds. Strongholds are defined as areas that are sufficient size to support a viable population of LPC that are managed or set aside for long-term LPC conservation. It has been recommended that strongholds contain clusters of 6-10 leks that are located at a maximum of 1.2 miles apart. Research suggests a minimum size of 25,000 acres (10,118 ha) per cluster, if all of the area is high quality habitat.
Within strongholds there are focal areas, which are required to meet population goals, and connectivity zones which link focal areas together and are not required to meet population goals. The Southern Great Plains Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT) is a decision support tool designed to identify focal areas and connectivity zones in order to facilitate coordinated efforts to enhance habitat conditions required to expand and sustain the species.
Habitat Specifications
Below are numerical descriptions that research has shown to be optimal for LPC habitat.
Plant communities with a substantial sand shinnery oak component:
Nesting habitat | https://www.habitatcan.org/Lesser-Prairie-Chicken/Habitat-Information/ |
The yellow-shouldered blackbird (Agelaius xanthomus) is a glossy black bird, named for the conspicuous bright yellow patch on its shoulder. In sunlight, the black feathers of the yellow-shouldered blackbird shimmer with a faint blue-green colour (2) (3), while in some individuals there may be a tinge of orange on the feathers under the shoulder of the wing (3). There is no difference between the plumage of the male and female yellow-shouldered blackbird; however, the female is slightly smaller than the male (3).
The vocalisations of the yellow-shouldered blackbird are hugely varied (2), with many growls, rasps, ‘pee-puus’,‘chwips’,‘checks’, screams and ‘cut-zees’. The ‘cut-zee’ sound is mainly used during mobbing of predators, especially at nest sites, and acts as an alarm to other nearby blackbirds which might also be in danger (3).
The yellow-shouldered blackbird forages both in trees and on the ground (6), using separate techniques for the different locations (3). This species congregates at communal feeding sites during the non-breeding season (2) (7), and feeds mainly on arthropods, particularly moths and crickets, as well as seeds and nectar (3) (8). During the nesting season, the yellow-shouldered blackbird stays close to the nest and therefore typically forages in the sub-canopy of trees, in pastures alongside mangroves and in the mangroves themselves (3).
The male yellow-shouldered blackbird returns to the breeding site around six to ten weeks before the beginning of the breeding season. The yellow-shouldered blackbird is monogamous and will usually return to the same site each year in order to pair up with the same mate (3). The male stands on the edge of the previous year’s nest and displays to the female. Once paired, the male will follow the female persistently until the female leaves the nesting grounds (3). The female builds or repairs the cup-shaped nest in preparation for the egg laying (3) (4) (6). An average clutch contains three eggs, and incubation starts after the second egg is laid. The female will incubate the eggs for between 13 and 16 days, during which time the male will bring food back to the nest. The Males roost communally and forage during the day (3). Once the eggs hatch, the male and female yellow-shouldered blackbirds share feeding of the young, both in the nest and after fledging (3).
The yellow-shouldered blackbird will engage in communal mobbing to defend against predators. Most often the male birds do this in order to protect females and their eggs, with many individuals physically attacking intruders or predators (3).
Once found all over Puerto Rico, the yellow-shouldered blackbird is now mainly found in the south-west coastal areas, as well as on the islands of Mona and Monito (2) (3) (4) (5). There is reported to be a small population on the eastern coast, but there have been no breeding records from this area since 1986 (2).
The yellow-shouldered blackbird roosts, forages and nests in different locations. Roosts are further inland in mangrove forests and pastures, while this species increasingly nests on offshore cays (6). The nests are typically placed in cliff crevices or in stumps of dead or hollow mangroves (3) (4) (7).
The biggest threat to the yellow-shouldered blackbird is brood parasitism by the shiny cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis) (2) (4) (5), which impacts on the blackbird’s reproductive success rate. As a result of the shiny cowbird’s presence on the mainland, the yellow-shouldered blackbird is increasingly nesting on offshore cays (6).
Habitat loss, primarily due to the conversion of land for agriculture, is another major threat to the yellow-shouldered blackbird (2) (5). Nest predation by the pearly-eyed thrasher (Margarops fuscatus) and increased mortality due to introduced predators is also causing population declines (2).
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have produced a recovery plan to help prevent further declines in the yellow-shouldered blackbird population. This involves creating artificial nests which are carefully monitored, as well as trying to control the impact of shiny cowbirds and pearly-eyed thrashers on this species’ breeding success (9).
More information on the yellow-shouldered blackbird and other bird species:
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact:
[email protected]
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Alejandro Sanchez
http://www.kingsnake.com/westindian/
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The Galapagos Hawk uses the same nest over and over, adding twigs and other nesting materials each year, resulting in nests that become quite large.
The Galapagos Hawk is the largest resident land bird in the Galapagos Archipelago.
The Peregrine Fund is working with local students and conducting research to learn more about the Galapagos Hawk and to protect it and its habitat.
Since 2008, The Peregrine Fund has collaborated with the University of Missouri Saint Louis, Galapagos National Park Service, and the Charles Darwin Foundation to research the Galapagos Hawk. We also are training Ecuadorian students in raptor research and ecological monitoring methods.
The Galapagos hawk is found only on the Galapagos Islands These volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean are located off the coast of Ecuador, South America. The Galapagos Hawk once occupied all 18 of the main islands but is now believed to be extinct on five of them. This island raptor never migrates.
The Galapagos Hawk is roughly the same size as a Swainson's Hawk. Its adult plumage is black except for some chestnut on its underparts and a grey or brown tail crossed by nine darker bands. Its cere, feet and legs are yellow and its eyes are brown. Young Galapagos Hawks are buff-colored, mottled with dark brown.
Like the Philippine Eagle, the Galapagos Hawk is a top predator. That means that by being on the top of the food chain, it hunts other animals for food and has no predators of its own. That is the difference between a predator and a top predator. Let's look at snakes, for example, which are predators, but not top predators. Although they feed on mice, birds, and other prey, snakes also are hunted by many other animals, including raptors and mammals. For most top predators, humans are their only threat. Top predators, such as the Galapagos Hawk, play an important role in nature by helping to control populations of prey animals and maintain a balance in the ecosystems where they live.
Like many animals on the Galapagos Islands, the Galapagos Hawk is not afraid of humans. The young, in fact, are very curious. Often, one can get very close to them without frightening them off. This can be a fun experience for anyone interested in birds, but it can be dangerous to the young hawks if they encounter someone who wants to harm them.
Scientists have many theories as to why much of the wildlife on these islands don't show fear of humans. One reason may be because the islands were not occupied by people until the last century or two and so the birds didn’t learn to be wary.
Scientists have discovered that populations of wildlife living on islands are more vulnerable than those living on the mainland. This makes sense as island species have nowhere to go and often are unable to cross large bodies of water to reach better habitat. When their habitat or food base is lost, they can no longer survive. Even many birds are not adapted to make long flights to the mainland. This is the case with the Galapagos Hawk.
Its population is declining due to loss of habitat and prey, introduction of exotic species, and persecution by people. One of the biggest problems in the past decades has been human-caused. The Galapagos Hawk was eradicated from the islands of Floreana, Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, Seymour, Daphne and Baltra, and severely reduced on Southern Isabela. Introduced invasive plants and animals are altering the hawk’s habitat and affecting its prey. Without sufficient food, Galapagos Hawks cannot survive. With only about 150 known pairs, these beautiful hawks need everyone's help in order to survive.
The Galapagos Hawk uses its sharp and powerful talons to catch a wide variety of prey. It feeds on seabirds and land birds, lizards, marine and land iguanas, insects like centipedes, baby tortoises, and rats (endemic and introduced). It has been known to take nestlings and even eggs from some nesting seabird colonies. These hawks also scavenge on carrion (animals that are already dead).
Similar to the Harris' Hawk, the Galapagos Hawk often hunts in teams. Usually 2-3 birds will work together to spot prey. They hunt by soaring in the sky and using their keen eyesight to locate quarry or a juicy carcass to feed on.
These hawks have even been observed perching on the backs of the large Galapagos Tortoise, perhaps giving them a good vantage point for seeking insects and small mammals.
Galapagos Hawks have interesting nesting behavior. As with Snail Kites, one of the pair is monogamous and the other is not. During one breeding season, female Galapagos Hawks mate with up to seven males that all help incubate the eggs and feed the young after they hatch!
Their nests are large stick structures lined with soft materials such as grass. The hawks build their nests on the ground, in trees, or on mounds of lava. The female lays 2-3 eggs that are white with brown spots. The female and all the males care for the eggs, which need to be incubated for about 38 days. Imagine how hard it would be to sit almost continuously on the eggs for that long. While many birds do it, Galapagos Hawks have a much easier time with so many individuals to help.
Despite all the effort and all the caretakers, most often only one chick is raised from among the eggs in a nest. The young remains in the nest for another 6-8 weeks before it fledges, or flies for the first time.
When young hawks turn 3 years old, they are ready to find their own mates and raise their own young.
The World Center for Birds of Prey offers fun ways to learn about birds of prey. Interactive activities, tours, interesting videos and a children's room with activities from coloring sheets to quizzes to costumes await you. At our visitor center, you can see many hawks up close and learn about the wonderful and interesting adaptations they have in order to survive in their respective habitats. | https://peregrinefund.org/explore-raptors-species/Galapagos_Hawk |
This course gives students an opportunity to critically read, debate and thoughtfully evaluate some of the most important issues in biological anthropology including evolutionary theory as it applies to humans, paying particular attention to theoretical perspectives, the hypotheses generated from them and the various assumptions and evidence underpinning debates, past and current. The course is taught in a seminar format with everyone having a set role for each week so that we equally participate in discussions and debates.
In this course we will focus upon evolutionary theory as it applies to humans, starting with the texts most frequently cited and never read – Darwin and Wallace – we will then move on to consider debates around the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, including niche construction, plasticity, and developmental systems. Our focus will be on how these ideas apply and change our view of human evolution.
Learning outcomes:
1. Be able to identify and thoughtfully evaluate hypotheses derived from various theories (Capability 1.1 and 2.1)
2. Recognise strengths and weaknesses of, or limitations to, various arguments and be able to suggest what more could usefully be done to resolve disagreements or uncertainties (Capability 1.2 and 3.1)
3. Demonstrate effective library research skills including being able to track arguments and ideas both backwards and forwards (Capability 3.2 and 4.1)
4. Formulate and organise a logical written argument (Capability 2.3, 4.1 and 4.2)
5. Give and respond to constructive comment on both written and oral work through oral participation in the class and responding to draft comments in written work (Capability 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 5.2)
6. Effectively work in a small group, presenting ideas and thoughtfully responding to ideas presented by others in focused discussions (Capability 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3)
This is one of two core theory courses in postgraduate biological anthropology. | https://artsfaculty.auckland.ac.nz/courses/?Subject=ANTHRO&Number=762&Year=2021 |
An evaluation requires the explanation of strengths and limitations. Thus, in order to evaluate anything we need to first understand its purpose or what it’s trying to do. So before you can evaluate a study in psychology you must first know and understand what the study is trying to do!
How do you evaluate a psychology study?
7 exam tips for evaluating studies
- Tip #1: Ignore internal validity, including… …
- Tip #2: Use controls for explaining strengths. …
- Tip #3: Focus on generalizability (external validity) for limitations. …
- Tip #4: Use your existing knowledge. …
- Tip #5: Pick your battles. …
- Tip #6: Focus on application more than evaluation!
How do psychologists evaluate theories?
Explanatory theories in psychology are usually evaluated by employing the hypothetico-deductive method and testing them for their predictive accuracy. The purpose of this short article is to bring an alternative approach, known as ‘inference to the best explanation’ (IBE), to the attention of psychologists.
How do you evaluate a study in 3 simple steps?
Teaching Tip: You could use this as a class activity by having students choose one study and following these steps by themselves.
- Step 1: Identify the Method. …
- Step 2: Identify General Strengths + Limitations. …
- Step 3: Apply to YOUR Study (+ -)
How do I evaluate a theory?
The seven criteria for theory evaluation are scope, logical consistency, parsimony, utility, testability, heurism and test of time. Most of these terms are familiar vocabulary to you and the explanations in your text are understandable.
What does evaluate mean psychology?
EVALUATION ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGY
Evaluation means looking at the strengths and weaknesses of research: what features are done well and what features can be improved. It also means making comparisons: looking at how research is similar to or different from other research into the same area.
Why is evaluation important in psychology?
A psychological evaluation can be an important tool in helping get a better handle on the problems you or your loved one is having. It may be helpful in providing detailed information to determine a proper diagnosis and formulate a comprehensive treatment plan.
What do you look for when evaluating a study?
Below are a few key factors to consider when evaluating a study’s conclusions.
- Has the study been reviewed by other experts? …
- Do other experts agree? …
- Are there reasons to doubt the findings? …
- How do the conclusions fit with other studies? …
- How big was the study? …
- Are there any major flaws in the study’s design?
How can you evaluate something?
To ‘critically evaluate’, you must provide your opinion or verdict on whether an argument, or set of research findings, is accurate. This should be done in as critical a manner as possible. Provide your opinion on the extent to which a statement or research finding is true.
What is grave psychology?
A powerpoint which outlines how to evaluate research studies using the mnemonic GRAVE (generalisability, reliability, application, validity (internal and ecological) ethics.
How do you teach students to evaluate?
To teach critical evaluation, we must define critical thinking in general and in the discipline, model habits of disciplinary thought, engage students in activities that require sophisticated thinking, and design assessments that call on students to demonstrate thinking skills.
How do we evaluate a communication theory?
Six qualities are crucial for evaluating theories—-scope, parsimony, heuristic value, openness, appropriateness, and validity. As you recall, scope refers to the breadth of the theory, parsimony to its level of simplicity, and heuristic value is the theory’s ability to generate other theories.
What are the 5 criteria in analyzing and evaluating a theory?
Fawcett’s criteria are significance, internal consistency, parsimony, testability, empirical adequacy, and pragmatic adequacy. Some of those criteria are differentiated for grand theories and middle-range theories but are not differentiated by type of data-qualitative or quantitative-used to develop the theory. | https://learncognitivetherapy.com/illness/how-do-you-evaluate-psychology.html |
Problem-historical series of pedagogical theories
The main goal of this chapter is to construct problem series of pedagogical theories. As a result, the whole system of modern pedagogy receives a character that has been ordered in a certain way. As a result of studying the chapter, the student must:
know
• The content of the most presentable pedagogical theories, marking the main line of development of pedagogical knowledge from Antiquity to the present day;
• the main conceptual accentuations, characteristic of individual pedagogical theories;
be able to
• highlight the main concepts in theories;
• highlight the strengths and weaknesses of pedagogical theories;
• Combine theories with related conceptual content into problem series of theories;
own
• a methodological apparatus for analyzing the conceptual content of pedagogical theories;
• a critical attitude to the views of various authors;
• the ability to construct problem series of pedagogical theories.
Key terms: pedagogical theory, strengths and weaknesses of pedagogical theories, a problem series of pedagogical theories.
Like all science, pedagogy consists of numerous theories that need to be ranked in a certain way. In this regard, it is advisable to take various actions. One of them is to consider the history of pedagogical theories. But, of course, they should not simply be listed in a certain sequence. Of paramount interest is the formulation and overcoming of problems that are urgent for pedagogy. Such a research path is designed to ensure the growth of scientific knowledge to the maximum extent.
Unfortunately, the historical review of various pedagogical theories shows that quite often in them the speculative part prevails, which does not have the proper didactic reinforcement. A lot of talk about the reorganization of universities and schools. But at the same time there is no clarity on the question of what and how to teach. Let us note with all certainty that the pedagogical theory, which does not have a didactic component, loses its validity and acquires a speculative, metaphysical character. At the same time, the ways of implementing good wishes remain unclear. In the following analysis of the didactic component, which is the true basis of any truly pedagogical theory, close attention will be paid. Our main strategic line is to overcome metaphysics in pedagogy.
The material of this chapter could also be entitled: "In the search for pedagogical directions". Usually in science special directions are distinguished as a set of theories with a conceptual content related to one or another feature. These are, for example, hermeneutics and poststructuralism in philosophy, Neoclassicism and Keynesianism in economics, behaviorism and Freudianism in psychology. In pedagogy, in fact, the directions are not singled out. Below it will be done.
thematic pictures
Also We Can Offer! | https://testmyprep.com/subject/philosophy/problem-historical-series-of-pedagogical-theories |
Is it possible to say anything useful and general about the subject matter and scope of sociology? Could we say, for example, that sociology is the discipline that uses empirical methods to arrive at hypotheses and theories about major social groups, social processes, and social patterns? Or does a definition like this suffer from both too much abstraction and too much specificity?
This isn’t necessarily a question a working sociologist would ask him- or herself. But it is a good question for a philosopher of the social sciences, and possibly for a critical observer of the history and current practice of sociology as well. Essentially, the question is this: what do we want from a science of sociology? What should a good sociological theory accomplish? What standards should be used in assessing the success of a sociological theory?
Why do I say that working sociologists have no special reason to be interested in the question? Because normally a sociologist has already located him- or herself in a specific research field; has already mastered a set of research methods and strategies; has already picked out some key examples of interesting sociological problems for research. This has happened through graduate education, the influence of mentors, the practices and content of key journals, and the researcher’s own intellectual and theoretical development. So the working sociologist doesn’t need to ask the foundational questions; a range of mid-level research questions and methods already fills that need. This is related to the point that Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions), Norwood Hanson (Patterns of Discovery), and Imre Lakatos (The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes) made about physics: the practicing physicist exists with a paradigm or a research tradition that defines the topics and methods that the researcher pursues. And we don’t have to go the whole way with Kuhn in thinking that scientific traditions are inherently incommensurable or that the concepts and methods of a paradigm fundamentally prevent the scientist from perceiving the world differently, in order to recognize the practical truth of his description of scientific training: science is a practical cognitive activity, defined by assumptions and practices that are specific to a research tradition. Demographers, phenomenological sociologists, and comparative researchers would all answer the question, “What is sociology?”, quite differently.
The critical observer of current scientific work can take a different perspective. He/she can attempt to survey the many sub-disciplines and discover some interesting trends about the ambitions of the current generation of sociologists; the critical observer can attempt to identify areas of important innovation, new conceptual breakthroughs, and new ways of formulating research questions. Craig Calhoun (Contemporary Sociological Theory), Andrew Abbott (Chaos of Disciplines), Mayer Zald (Sociology as a discipline: Quasi-science and quasi-humanities), and Julia Adams (Remaking Modernity: Politics, History, and Sociology) are particularly gifted at this, and in each case they shed some new light on the intellectual ambitions and innovations that are possible in defining contemporary sociological inquiry. On this approach, the observer is in a position to take the measure of the social sciences as they are actually developing, capturing the diversity of approaches as well, perhaps, as some common threads of empirical and theoretical reasoning.
Philosophers are interested in considering general questions like these because it reflects a basic intellectual strategy with a long tradition in philosophy: to attempt to formulate a description or definition of a certain kind of intellectual pursuit, and then to consider the means through which this goal might be satisfied. So if we wanted to raise the question, which ethical theory is best?, a philosopher might well begin by asking: what intellectual and practical role does ethical theory play? And what standards of evaluation are appropriate for comparing the strengths and weaknesses of different ethical theories (Kantianism, Aristotelianism, utilitarianism, …)? The arguments would then turn on the merits of one or another specification of the roles and standards of ethical theories that the various participants advance, rather than the specific characteristics of the ethical theories under review.
Analogously, we might consider several different roles that sociology should play:
- to provide an accurate description of important social facts
- to identify general causes that recur across multiple social contexts
- to provide phenomenologically adequate descriptions of how people experience various social arrangements
- to provide a basis for designing policy interventions that protect things we care about
- to discover recurring social mechanisms that can be discovered in a variety of social settings
- to perform rigorously developed comparisons of social arrangements and functionings across separate social cases
- to provide simple, general hypotheses about social dynamics in a full range of settings
- to reveal the underlying relations of power and exploitation that underlie specific social arrangements and social representations
It isn’t difficult to think of great sociologists who have done their work on the basis of each of these assumptions. But they are not interchangeable; so an account that is excellent on the phenomenological assumption may be very weak on the causal generalization definition, and likewise for the other statements of role. And these disagreements are not disagreements about sociological facts; rather, they are disagreements about what different communities of sociologists put forward as the intellectual role of their research — disagreements about the nature of sociology as a scientific area of knowledge.
Once we raise the general question about the subject matter of sociology, it seems clear that sociology is in fact an eclectic domain of knowledge with numerous definitions of scope and content. So trying to reduce the intellectual role of the discipline to a single kind of knowledge and subject matter is stifling. Instead, we probably need to simply recognize that there is a range of legitimate foundational definitions for studies of society, and a range of views about what makes such studies “scientific”. Max Weber (pictured above) formulated a vast range of sociological work, reflecting a fairly coherent underlying set of assumptions about science, explanation, and conceptualization. And this implicit philosophy of social science was significantly different from those embedded in the empirical and conceptual practices of Emile Durkheim or Louis Wirth. So it might be best to simply acknowledge that the “whole” of sociology is a mix of intellectual approaches and modes of reasoning, rather than a single coherent and systematic enterprise. | https://undsoc.org/2009/09/02/sociological-knowledge/ |
Document includes sample assignments.
Abstract
Reacting to the Past is a series of games developed by Mark Carnes at Harvard University that are designed to encourage students to get excited about history and to help them develop important academic skills such as reading and thinking critically, conducting historical research, and public speaking. (More information on this can be found at https://reacting.barnard.edu/) Reacting to the Past games can either be played over the course of an entire semester or condensed into mini games to allow students to explore an important historical moment or figure in great detail. My goal is to implement Reacting to the Past into my American history courses-- mini games for my survey courses and a full semester game for an upper division topics course.
Learning Outcomes
- Students will understand how to use historical evidence to construct an argument that they will present in both written and oral formats.
- Students will develop their writing and critical thinking skills through a series of classroom debates, discussions, and round tables.
- Students will understand how the intersection of various historical phenomena especially, but not limited to, race, class, and gender, influenced the outcome of major historical events.
- Students will develop an understanding of how people in the past, especially those who were often excluded from formal politics, played a critical role in the shaping the outcome of major historical events.
- Students will develop their ability to critically assess an argument and identify its strengths and weaknesses and respond/challenge an argument using their own historical knowledge.
- Students will be able to apply their skills in using evidence to construct arguments to persuade their fellow classmates to support their perspectives and thus win the game.
Disciplines
United States History
Recommended Citation
Hanley, Jennifer, "“Reacting to the Past:” How to Use and Assess Role Playing Games in American History" (2017). Arts and Humanities. Paper 2. | https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/aments_ah/2/ |
Find course by title:
80-100 What Philosophy Is
Units:
9.0
Department:
Philosophy
Related URLs:
http://www.hss.cmu.edu/philosophy
In this introductory course we will explore three major areas of Philosophy: Ethics, Metaphysics, and Epistemology. Accordingly the course is divided into three sections. In each section we will read primary sources and discuss some of the main philosophic problems associated with that area. These will include: moral problems (Ethics), problems rising from the debates about free-will, personal identity or intelligence (Metaphysics), and inquiries about the scope and limits of human knowledge (Epistemology). We will then introduce some theories designed to solve such problems, and try to understand the strengths and weaknesses of these theories. We will apply different techniques and theories to issues that we might encounter in the real world. We will use class discussions, homeworks and papers to learn skills for evaluating arguments. These skills include: how to present a philosophic argument, what are the assumptions that justify it, what are its weaknesses and its strengths, whether such weaknesses can be resolved and, if they cannot be resolved, why.
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Spring 2005 times
Sec
Time
Day
Instructor
Location
1
1:30 - 2:20 pm
M
Harrell
PH A18B
W
Harrell
PH A18B
A
1:30 - 2:20 pm
F
Instructor TBA
PH 225B
B
2:30 - 3:20 pm
F
Instructor TBA
PH 225B
2
11:30 am - 12:20 pm
M
Mumma
DH 1112
W
Mumma
DH 1112
E
11:30 am - 12:20 pm
F
Instructor TBA
PH 226B
F
12:30 - 1:20 pm
F
Instructor TBA
PH 226B
3
12:30 - 1:20 pm
M
Instructor TBA
PH A18B
W
Instructor TBA
PH A18B
C
12:30 - 1:20 pm
F
Zhang
BH 235A
D
1:30 - 2:20 pm
F
Zhang
BH 235A
4
11:30 am - 12:20 pm
M
Wu
DH 1212
W
Wu
DH 1212
G
11:30 am - 12:20 pm
F
Wu
PH A18B
H
12:30 - 1:20 pm
F
Wu
PH A18B
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While this class will not save your life, it will endeavor to take you to a new height of insight into the complexities and challenges of the American Political System. This class is all about the nuts and bolts of government. Students will be challenged to define their own political beliefs while examining the impact of their political decisions and actions in the political sphere.
In addition, since the nature of politics is about deliberating, taking positions on issues, and critically analyzing democratic ideas, this class will be taught in an interactive seminar style. All students are expected to civilly participate in all discussions held in class. Overall, this class aims to deepen your understanding of the theory and practice of American Politics and it will convey basic facts about the structure and functioning of American government. In time of drastic changes, we will examine the achievement of our government, as well as its shortcomings. Thus, students will comprehend multifaceted issues in our democratic political process. The purpose of this class is for students, armed with this information, to be better able to understand and participate in the political process. In summary, we will study politics from both the viewpoint of the active citizen and the methodology of the social sciences.
This higher educational institution is where people from all walks of life come to learn, teach, and create knowledge. I hope that this class will not only expand your intellectual horizons but also hone your beliefs, thoughts, and more importantly give you a political direction. I always tell students not to choose classes that play to their strengths, to get easy A’s, rather classes that might correct their weaknesses or nurture new interests. Students should not sacrifice risk-taking and intellectual curiosity on the altar of demonstrable success. This also applies to this class. If you feel this class is too easy for you, then you should look for another instructor who teaches a more challenging class. The purpose of higher education is to learn and grow intellectually. | http://www.chambasanchez.com/student-portal/ |
Browse our current semester course offerings.
Arranged
Dr. Joyce Sirianni
Pedagogical aspects of instruction, including use of films, laboratories and field experience, bibliographic and archival materials, cross-cultural files and data banks.
Reg. #23243
Tuesday, 9:30am-12:10pm
261 Academic Center (Paley Library)
Dr. Frederick Klaits
We will examine current theoretical and methodological issues in the analysis of kinship, using case studies from Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Europe, and North America.
Reg. #23245
Wednesday, 12 :30-3:10pm
261 Academic Center (Paley Library)
Dr. Edith Gonzalez
This course is designed to be an introduction to the general history, theory, and practice of museums.
Reg. #19959
Monday, 5:00-7:40pm
261 Deborah Reed-Danahay
This seminar introduces students to the field of anthropological linguistics. The relationship between language, culture, and power will be the major focus. We will explore the importance of language and speech in ethnographic research, including topics such as the ethnography of speaking, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, gender, and issues in the study of dominant and minority languages.
Reg. #18242
Tuesday, 4:00-6:40pm
158 Spaulding Quad
Dr. Joyce Sirianni
This seminar covers topics such as embryological development and growth of primate jaws and teeth; basic craniofacial anatomy; theories of dental evolution; basic dental anatomy; nonhuman and human dental variation; forensic odontology, and dental pathologies. Students will be required to make presentations on various dental topics, e.g., dental adaptations to diet, evolutionary trends in hominid tooth size, ethnic differences in tooth morphology and size.
Reg. #23244
Tuesday, 3:30-6:10pm
261 Academic Center (Paley Library)
Dr. Ana Mariella Bacigalupo
This interdisciplinary course engages with debates about the controversial concept of the Anthropocene—the idea that humans have irrevocably (and negatively) altered the earth in the current epoch—and debates about the future of (various) humans, their relationships to other species, and planetary transformation. How does anthropogenic climate change affect other living beings, including humans? How do we think about anthropos, or “the human,” in such times? When did the Anthropocene begin, and which humans brought it into being? How are differently situated humans being changed by the rapid environmental changes under way? How are our notions of the human intertwined with those about other forms of life? What kind of worlds are being made and unmade, and for what beings? In exploring these and other questions, we will analyze works by anthropologists, geographers, philosophers, lawyers, feminists, STS thinkers, economists, sociologists, chemists, geologists, and other scientists.
Reg. #23242
Monday, 9:00-11:40am
354 Academic Center
Dr. Frederick Klaits
This course is an introduction to disability studies, an integrative subfield representing research by medical anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and historians, as well as clinical and social interventions by social workers, occupational and physical therapists, and public health agents. What unifies these disciplines is the search for understanding of societal and cross-cultural attitudes and policies regarding impairment, illness, and difference, especially those whose physical or behavioral differences have been stigmatized through negative social or medical labels.
Among the topics to be considered are the meanings and perceptions of impairment in various cultures and how these perceptions influence the rights and status of people living with disability. We will look at how individuals and their families experience disability, severe injury, stigmatized illnesses, and severe trauma and come to develop new identities through these experiences. And we will consider community support systems and government policies that positively or negatively affect traumatized and disabled individuals and their families.
Reg. #19074
Wednesday, 4:00-6:40pm
158 Spaulding Quad
Dr. Stephen Lycett
There can be few greater challenges to science than studying the behavior of a long‐dead animal. This is especially the case with studying hominin behavior. Yet, this challenge must be met if we are to understand our behavioral origins and heritage. Today, only one species of hominin exists: Homo sapiens. An absence of closely related hominin taxa leaves us with a limited range of potential models that we might look to for inspiration. For instance, do chimpanzees provide clues or should we look to modern hunter‐gatherers? Does psychology provide an answer? Do we need to look to evolutionary theory? Can experiments be of assistance in a fundamentally historical science? With stone tools and the debris of their manufacture comprising much of our basic primary data, what hope is there for a rigorous science of hominin behavior?
History shows that the field is subject to wild speculations. For instance, Neanderthals are sometimes portrayed as close brethren who would not evoke response if encountered on the New York subway (at least if dressed in a business suit, so the story goes). At other times they have been portrayed as fundamentally different in behavior and intelligence from our own species. Which is it?
This class is divided into two sections. The first section will provide an introduction to hominin evolution and the behavioral record, which will be useful for those new to the topic. Along the way some of the major questions will be encountered. The aim of this first section is to show something of what is at stake in terms of the importance of these issues for a full understanding of our own behavioral heritage; and yet, something of the frustration that accompanies this field will also be demonstrated. The second part of the class attempts to challenge students to arrive at conclusions about how a scientific response to these questions and frustrations may be developed. A series of possible responses are introduced, and you will be challenged to probe the strengths and weaknesses of these various approaches. By the end of the course you will be asked to present your views (with justifications) for how a rigorous and scientific approach to our behavioral evolution may be undertaken. The class is taught through lectures and student‐led seminars. The class is graded through continuous assessment (performance in seminars and written weekly summaries), a term paper (3000 words), and an in‐class written essay dealing with the central question of the class: “How should we scientifically approach the questions that concern our behavioral evolutionary heritage?”
Reg. #16040
Monday, 12:00-2:40pm
158 Spaulding Quad
Dr. Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel
This course is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the field of biological anthropology. Here we will review topics such as evolutionary theory, basic genetics, the evolution of the primates, human evolution, modern human diversity, the evolution of cognition and language, human social behavior, and the impacts of health and disease. The course will be taught via a mixture of lectures, class discussions and practical exercises.
Reg. #12902
Thursday, 11:00am-1:40pm
261 Academic Center (Paley Library)
Dr. Timothy Chevral
Archaeology, as practiced in the North American academic framework, lies within the discipline of Anthropology, a social science, which means two things: it is broadly comparative, and its aim is to answer holistic meta-questions about the human condition rather than highlight only narrow interests. We all have these interests – they inform our research and shape the questions we want to answer, but future publications, grant proposals, and teaching all embody the social science philosophy: big idea first, case study second. To facilitate this reality in your own professional career, we begin by building an understanding of many world regions in comparative perspective.
That being said, the study of cultures on a hemispheric and ultimately a global level is fascinating and enlightening, permitting critical evaluation of our narrower interests in light of pan-human organization, livelihood, and social and cultural organization. The purpose of this course is to highlight multiple regions in the “Old World” – Africa, Eurasia, and the Pacific. We will spend some time looking at early ancestors, and then move into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age, as well as other parallel eras that have different names in different regions.
Reg. #16403
Wednesday, 9:30am-12:10pm
261 Academic Center (Paley Library)
Dr. Jaume Franquesa
This course explores the main theoretical frameworks that have informed anthropology from the late nineteenth century until the 1980s rethinking of anthropological practices prompted by postmodernist critiques and the reckoning with colonial legacies. Although the course is primarily oriented to first-year anthropology postgraduate students, it will be of interest to anyone keen on learning about social theory and the history of ideas. | https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/anthropology/graduate-program/Graduate-Courses.html |
Nikolai, Rita and West, Anne ORCID: 0000-0003-2932-7667 (2013) School type and inequality. In: Brooks, Rachel, McCormack, Mark and Bhopal, Kalwant, (eds.) Contemporary Debates in the Sociology of Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK. ISBN 9781137269874Full text not available from this repository.
Abstract
The sociology of education is a vibrant discipline which has been responsible for a number of profound shifts in how we understand society. With innovations in the discipline sitting alongside more traditional lines of enquiry that continue to demand attention, this edited volume brings together some of the most prominent sociologists working in education today to address a wide range of empirical and theoretical issues. Adopting an international perspective, this book foregrounds cutting-edge research that highlights both the diversity and complexity of understanding education in society. Contemporary Debates in the Sociology of Education not only showcases the real strengths of the discipline but, by bringing together original, empirical work by leading scholars, it advances our sociological understanding, acting as a source of stimulation and debate for postgraduate students and academics, as well as a touchstone for undergraduates seeking to engage with the discipline. | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/50824/ |
IN 1929, THE PHILOSOPHER V. N. VOLOSHINOV wrote that every word we speak is an “index of social changes,” for “a word in the mouth of a particular individual person is a product of the living interaction of social forces.” In a way, the history of the many debates about the politics of language that have unfolded in European and American intellectual life in the decades that followed can be understood as a history of different perspectives on how such a claim could be true.
These debates rage still. We see them in activism and in academia alike, in battles over whether speech can be violent and whether silence might be violent as well, in arguments over free expression and its limits, in contested ideas like hate speech and microaggression and implicit bias. Whether in the classroom or in the public square, it is hard to listen to—or participate in—these debates without feeling as though they are full at once of insight and of contradiction, pulling us between competing ethical demands, contrasting political dreams.
I argue that these debates feel so caught between promise and peril today because they play out between two basic, competing frameworks. But this tension between opposing perspectives is not simply a fight between left and right; it is not a contradiction between liberty and equality, nor a contrast between censorship (or “cancel culture”) and expression (or “free speech”). The tension is instead internal to each of the dominant political alignments today, crosscutting them at a deeper level, shaping indeed the very terms in which we ask our questions about language and violence at all.
One framework can be understood in terms of discourse and power; the other, in terms of speech and harm.
The perspective of discourse and power has its intellectual origins in the collapse of the Marxian project of ideology-critique in the 1970s. Marxist theorists—including many in France, West Germany, and the anglophone world who were as critical of the Stalinist state as they were of western capitalism—had in the twentieth century devoted sustained attention to analyzing how cultural and linguistic practices and norms provide the ideological underpinnings of political and economic domination. But for complex reasons, the Marxian approach to ideology entered a period of real crisis in the decades after the Second World War. New theories of discourse rose to fill the gap, providing fresh perspectives on how language could operate as a sphere of power in a structural, systemic sense. Figures like Michel Foucault and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak advanced incisive and influential analyses of such dynamics, introducing new concepts like power-knowledge and epistemic violence in order to understand how large-scale patterns of intelligibility and unintelligibility, of communication and distortion, of representation and misrepresention, shape the conditions of our everyday lives.
Such approaches to discourse and power offered fundamental insights. They illuminated how the very terms in which political problems and social questions are expressed can make certain forms of power more difficult to resist; and they also showed how systematic silence—the way certain things are made more difficult to say at all—could likewise let oppression run free. What was remarkable about this approach was that it helped people analyze their everyday conditions in terms that connected individual experience to wider and deeper processes, dynamics whose origins lay beyond any one person’s deeds or misdeeds. These were systemic theories. They did for language what ideas like structural violence had done for inequality: they showed how real injuries could be produced through the operation of forms of power that transcended the action and intention of individuals, even of elites.
Yet structural theories can render certain kinds of personal reflection more difficult as well—their political strength is sometimes their ethical weakness. If a theory tells us that violence can exist in language without any particular violent person to hold accountable, what should we conclude about how to morally act? A quite different perspective on language arose in the same period to address such questions more directly—the perspective of speech and harm. This framework had its intellectual origins in a mostly separate academic tradition, that of Anglo-American analytical philosophy.
In the 1960s, J. L. Austin’s theory of speech-acts had begun to fundamentally reshape anglophone philosophy of language. Austin’s fundamental insight was that not all uses of our words are merely descriptive. Sometimes, in speaking, we perform an action, rather than merely describe it—his now-classic example was the “I Do” of the wedding ceremony, which actually brings the marriage into existence. Austin’s theory of “performative speech” had profound effects across the humanities in the decades that followed, in such disciplines as philosophy, legal studies, critical race theory, and feminist thought. It was just one piece of a broader turn to the situated significance of rhetoric in daily life, understanding language as a tool for changing, not just depicting, concrete situations. Through such developments, it became widely understood that if words can be deeds, then they can also be harms.
The theory of speech-acts became a fundamental influence on debates dealing with such questions as the censorship of pornography and the regulation of racial slurs. By attending to what words do, beyond what they merely say, new questions about the moral and political dimensions of linguistic activity could be asked and answered. In its pure form, however, the speech-and-harm approach exactly inverted the strengths and the weaknesses of the discourse-and-power paradigm. The attention to individual behavior—to personal agency—as the site of language’s force could make the systemic or the structural harder to see.
In principle, of course, we can imagine that the two frameworks might complement each other rather nicely. With discourse, we have a picture of systemic power; with speech, a picture of individual harms. But in practice the relation between the two approaches was always more complex, and often conflictual. There are philosophical and theoretical sources for the tensions between them, conceptual dilemmas that could animate a whole library of monographs; but more significant are the material and psychological processes that destabilize any simple union of the two perspectives. For reasons that have as much to do with the dynamics of real-world politics as with our internal psychological complexities, it has proven extremely difficult to hold together the critique of systemic power and the analysis of individual behavior within a coherent and mobilized ethical-political perspective.
The result is that most of our debates about language and its politics are caught between the two paradigms, never quite aligning fully or exactly with one or the other. Debates about hate speech, for example, often move uneasily between a structural critique of white supremacy and a behavioral analysis of prejudiced interaction. Accounts of silencing shift back and forth between systemic theories of marginalization and situated accounts of interpersonal disrespect.
It is tempting to say that what we need is simply a sharper philosophical analysis of the ideas at stake in such debates: a clearer perspective on why the different claims come together and move apart, a smoother translation of terms between the competing approaches, a more careful effort to combine the individual and structural, the ethical and political. But attempts to resolve such social dilemmas through more rigorous conceptualization are unlikely to succeed. There is a general reason for this and a specific reason. The general reason is that there are simply limits to what any mere reinterpretation of the world can achieve—eventually, the point must be to change it. The specific reason is that language itself is not today any longer what it was when the two frameworks alike emerged, and the competing resources they present are no longer adequate for the comprehension of what language has now become.
Both paradigms—discourse and power, speech and harm—took shape in the immediate postwar decades. This was a moment of political, social, and economic transformation, a global rupture so vast and far-reaching that its shape could not then be clearly seen and still today can barely be understood; it was the beginning of the so-called information revolution.
In his 1979 book The Postmodern Condition, the French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard famously diagnosed a mass crisis of language and of knowledge, describing the collapse of the old grand narratives grounding Western self-understanding and analyzing the new relativism apparently taking their place. It has become fashionable in some quarters today to ascribe the contemporary battles over speech and expression to a “postmodernism” run amok. The diagnosis is true, but not in the way that it is usually meant. For what the postmodernism-trope about our contemporary culture wars forgets is Lyotard’s account of why the new crisis of truth emerges at all. It is not because of some merely cultural nihilism or some pervasive intellectual anarchy. Its roots are political and economic. In the “computerization of society,” Lyotard argued, the status of knowledge has changed because of how information itself has become a commodity.
The commodification of information in the rise of digital society has fundamentally reshaped the quite literal economics of knowledge, and it has reshaped how language itself functions in turn. The internet is a space of language, among much else, but the language of the internet is not quite speech and it is not quite discourse. It is a new linguistic form, connected to a new economic form, and it is one whose shape and significance we are only beginning to understand.
“Speech and harm,” “discourse and power”: such frameworks for comprehending language and its politics are in crisis now because the linguistic phenomena they were developed to describe have been eclipsed and reconfigured in the internet age. As the technological transformation of language accelerates—as digital platforms replace our public squares and our classrooms—as the marketplace of ideas gives way to the commodification of information—we will need new approaches entirely, if we are to understand what these older perspectives have helped us begin to see but cannot themselves resolve within our view. For today, as in 1929, our words themselves index our dramatic forms of social change.
Matt Shafer will appear at "Silence Is Violence, and So Is Speech," April 27, 5:00-6:30 pm. | https://www.free-speech-battles.org/essay-shafer |
Researchers can learn a great deal about a society by analyzing cultural artifacts such as newspapers, magazines, television programs, or music. These cultural artifacts, which can also be considered aspects of material culture, can reveal a great deal about the society that produced them. Sociologists call the study of these cultural artifacts content analysis. Researchers who use content analysis are not studying the people, but rather are studying the communications the people produce as a way of creating a picture of their society.
Key Takeaways: Content Analysis
- In content analysis, researchers examine a society's cultural artifacts in order to understand that society.
- Cultural artifacts are the aspects of material culture produced by a society, such as books, magazines, televisions shows, and movies.
- Content analysis is limited by the fact that it can only tell us what content a culture has produced, not how members of the society actually feel about those artifacts.
Content analysis is frequently used to measure cultural change and to study different aspects of culture. Sociologists also use it as an indirect way to determine how social groups are perceived. For example, they might examine how African Americans are depicted in television shows or how women are depicted in advertisements.
Content analysis can uncover evidence of racism and sexism in society. For example, in one study, researchers looked at the representation of female characters in 700 different films. They found that only about 30% of characters with a speaking role were female, which demonstrates a lack of representation of female characters. The study also found that people of color and LGBT individuals were underrepresented in film. In other words, by collecting data from cultural artifacts, researchers were able to determine the extent of the diversity problem in Hollywood.
In conducting a content analysis, researchers quantify and analyze the presence, meanings, and relationships of words and concepts within the cultural artifacts they are studying. They then make inferences about the messages within the artifacts and about the culture they are studying. At its most basic, content analysis is a statistical exercise that involves categorizing some aspect of behavior and counting the number of times such behavior occurs. For example, a researcher might count the number of minutes that men and women appear on screen in a television show and make comparisons. This allows us to paint a picture of the patterns of behavior that underlie social interactions portrayed in the media.
Strengths of Using Content Analysis
Content analysis has several strengths as a research method. First, it is a great method because it is unobtrusive. That is, it has no effect on the person being studied since the cultural artifact has already been produced. Second, it is relatively easy to gain access to the media source or publication the researcher wishes to study. Rather than trying to recruit research participants to fill out questionnaires, the researcher can use cultural artifacts that have already been created.
Finally, content analysis can present an objective account of events, themes, and issues that might not be immediately apparent to a reader, viewer, or general consumer. By conducting a quantitative analysis of a large number of cultural artifacts, researchers can uncover patterns that might not be noticeable from looking at only one or two examples of cultural artifacts.
Weaknesses of Using Content Analysis
Content analysis also has several weaknesses as a research method. First, it is limited in what it can study. Since it is based only on mass communication - either visual, oral, or written - it cannot tell us what people really think about these images or whether they affect people's behavior.
Second, content analysis may not be as objective as it claims since the researcher must select and record data accurately. In some cases, the researcher must make choices about how to interpret or categorize particular forms of behavior and other researchers may interpret it differently. A final weakness of content analysis is that it can be time consuming, as researchers need to sort through large numbers of cultural artifacts in order to draw conclusions.
References
Andersen, M.L. and Taylor, H.F. (2009). Sociology: The Essentials. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. | https://sz.figgysfoodtruck.com/2139-content-analysis-the-study-of-cultural-artifacts.html |
Homeopathy is generally superior to placebo, particularly in immune-related conditions. But it has been discounted by ideologically biased researchers, who have excluded almost all published studies, referring to virtual data, and using inappropriate statistics, writes physician Robert Hahn in a critical analysis in Forschende Komplementärmedizin.
In a previous article, I C has referred to some of the homeopathy studies. In this article, we probe deeper into the evidence, summarizing an article by Swedish physician and Robert Hahn in the international peer-reviewed journal of complementary medicine research Forschende Komplementärmedizin.
In his analysis, Hahn looks at meta-analyses, including pooled data from placebo-controlled clinical trials of homeopathy as well as ensuing debate articles.
Some Basic Concepts
First, some basic concepts to hopefully assist the reader. Typically, in the life sciences, treatment effects are reported with reference to
Furthermore, in order to gain greater certainty of evidence, rather than relying on a single study, many studies are evaluated together. Their results are ”pooled”. According to the traditional ”hierarchy of evidence”, so called randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are preferred.
An RCT is a specific type of scientific experiment, in which study subjects are randomly allocated to receive one or other of the alternative treatments under study. An RCT may contain control groups, in which groups receiving the experimental treatment are compared with control groups receiving no treatment (a placebo-controlled study) or a previously tested treatment (a positive-control study).
Returning to Hahn´s discussion of the homeopathic literature, different studies of the ”same” disease or remedy may vary greatly in design, the scope, focus, and population size (and hence the validity and reliability of their results). This calls for some sophisticated tools of analysis, but – as Hahn demonstrates – also opens up for a certain measure of arbitrariness.
An odds ratio (OR) is a measure of association between an exposure and an outcome. Simply put, an OR above 1 signifies that the ”exposure” is associated with a higher likelihood of a positive outcome. In the case we are discussing here, the exposure is the homeopathic treatment.
The confidence interval (CI) is used to estimate the precision of the OR. It can also be called the margin of error. It tells you the possible range around the estimate given and also how stable/reliable the estimate is. Typically, a 95 percent CI indicates the likelihood (95 percent) that the observed result falls in a certain interval, known as the confidence interval.
A large confidence interval indicates a low level of precision of the association signified by the OR, whereas a small confidence interval indicates a higher precision of the OR.
Linde Study Positive for Homeopathy
In 1997, Klaus Linde and co-workers identified 89 clinical trials that showed an overall odds ratio of 2.45 in favor of homeopathy over placebo. Hence, an odds ratio of 2.45 indicates a high likelihood of the superiority of homeopathy over placebo.
When all data were pooled, the OR was 2.45 in favor of homeopathy and the 95 percent CI 2.05–2.93. After correction for publication bias, the OR decreased to 1.78 (CI 1.03–3.10). When only the 26 studies of highest quality were included, the benefit was somewhat weaker but still statistically significant, OR 1.66 (CI 1.33–2.08).
There was a trend toward smaller benefit from studies of the highest quality, but the 10 trials with the highest quality (as measure by a so called Jadad score) still showed homeopathy had a statistically significant effect.
In Hahn´s view, these results provoked academics to try and analyse the material in alternative ways, in their efforts to disprove the positive results. They excluded a lot of them, often to the point that they based their conclusions on only 5–10 percent of the material, or on virtual data. In 1998, Edzard Ernst – a former practitioner of homeopathy, well-known for his almost universally negative studies of alternative medicine – selected five studies using highly diluted remedies from the original 89, and concluded that homeopathy had no effect.
Virtual Data Preferred
In 2000, Ernst and Pittler sought to invalidate the statistically significant superiority of homeopathy over placebo in the 10 studies with the highest quality as measured by the so called Jadad score (OR 2.00 (1.37–2.91).
The new argument was that the Jadad score and OR in favor of homeopathy seemed to follow a straight line, and hence should theoretically show zero effect. This reasoning argued that the assumed data are more correct than the real data.
The ultimate argument against homeopathy is the ‘funnel plot’ published by Aijing Shang’s research group in 2005. However, writes Hahn, the funnel plot is flawed when applied to a mixture of diseases. This is because studies with expected strong treatments effects are, for ethical reasons, powered lower than studies with expected weak or unclear treatment effects.
Cucherat et al identified 118 RCTs as potentially evaluable but excluded 85 percent of them, usually because the primary endpoint was deemed unclear. The overall treatment effect in the 17 studies was still highly statistically significant in favor of homeopathy. The authors remained skeptical about homeopathy although their data, even after most of the statistical power was removed by excluding 86 percent of the clinical trials, showed that the therapy is superior to placebo.
The meta-analysis published by Shang et al. in 2005 identified essentially the same set of clinical trials as Linde et al. with the addition of some more recent material. The group identified 165 publications and – in the final process – excluded all except 8 studies, without clearly explaining why, Hahn maintains.
In addition, they relied on the flawed funnel plot reasoning. Despite these shortcomings in the Shang et al study, their calculations have been widely used to claim that homeopathy lacks clinical effect.
Tempting for the Skeptic
Hahn agrees that poor quality studies and those that lack the necessary data should be excluded. However, he says, it is also tempting for the skeptic to ruin any evidence that might be for the effectiveness of homeopathy.
When a lot of studies are excluded, the mix of conditions in the remaining studies becomes very important for the conclusion, perhaps unduly so. We must remember, Hahn explains, that the overall conclusion made in these meta-analyses relates to the overall efficacy of a heterogeneous group of treatments for a heterogeneous group of diseases.
Hence, the results of a single study in a meta-analysis of various studies can make the difference between accepting or rejecting the effectiveness of the treatment under study, in this case homeopathy.
Hahn gives the example of a single study of muscle soreness in 400 long-distance runners, without which the result would have shown the statistically significant superiority of homeopathy over placebo.
Hahn further critiques how Shang and collaborators arrived at the number of 8 studies to include in the final analysis. He finds strong reasons to believe that the authors may have manipulated the study selection until eventually they found the desired result.He bases these allegations on statements made by the group on the usefulness of homeopathy in a previous report and in public.
Evaluation in Two Steps
Hahn makes the point that therapies should be evaluated in two steps, one being an objective summary of the evidence for the efficacy of the therapy, the second making recommendations for use, clinical guidelines and so on.
The second step is more subjective and integrates the evidence as well as scientific, ethical, economic, and practical perspectives. Authorities often ask separate constellations of researchers or stakeholders to performs these steps. It might otherwise be tempting for researchers to distort the evidence when other considerations disagree with the evidence.
However, Hahn believes that it has been common for these roles to overlap in the metaanalyses of pooled clinical data about homeopathy. That is why, he maintains, the conclusions are so different and the debate so emotional.
He explains that his own impetus to write on the subject was evoken 2011 as a reaction to a campaign by skeptics in Sweden against homeopathy in the Summer of 2011. This involved i.a. a highly pubilicized action with among others the famous and very popular Swedish physicist/astronaut Christer Fuglesang.
Staged a ”Suicide Attempt”
Fuglesang and a number of skeptical colleagues staged a dramatic happening in connection with the so called Almedalen week on the island of Gotland in the Summer of 2011. During this week, which is typically visited by the whole of the Swedish political, media and non-.governmental elite, they staged a “suicide attempt”, involving ingesting large amounts of homeopathic remedies.
After surviving the exercise, they announced that they had proven that the remedies taken lacked any effects. In connection with this event, skeptics claimed that homeopathy is poorly studied, and that those studies that do exist fail to show a positive treatment effect, and are of low quality.
None of these claims are true, Hahn observes. Finally, based on his critical analysis of the studies of Ernst and Shang, described avove, Hahn warns that ideological biases color the evaluations of homeopathy by these researchers.
Future meta-analyses should focus on areas where homeopathy tends to be effective instead of diluting the results with data from diseases in which an effect is unlikely. Socio-scientific issues are also relevant to discuss, Hahn feels.
Homeopathy Better Than Placebo
He concludes that homeopathy is not very strong but seems to show better effects than placebo. This is particularly true in conditions that either are known or can be assumed to arise from the immunological system. According to Linde and collaborators this could include allergic rhinitis,rheumatology, dermatology (except warts), and certain neurological disorders, such as seasickness and migraine. However, benefit is more uncertain or absent in studies of asthma, surgery, gastrointestinal disorders, anesthesiology, and gynecology.
Finally, Hahn asserts, the RCT is not the best form for evaluating the efficacy of homeopathic remedies, as well as the efficiency of more complex interventions in complementary medicine. Traditional therapy might be a better comparator than placebo as CAM therapies often show a large nonspecific effect.
Hahn also refers to the collection of 263 high-standard RCTs of homeopathy by Mathie and collaborators for future guidance on which conditions might be suitable for homeopathic treatments and whether placebo or other treatments should serve as controls.
Until then, writes Hahn, homeopaths might do well to focus on the areas and treatments where placebo-controlled studies have shown a better outcome than placebo. In reality, homeopathic treatments are usually individualized while most of the performed clinical trials are non-individualized. Therefore, the practice is not evidence-based, regardless of the results of all the trials.
David Finer
Read more
Hahn R. Homeopathy: meta-analyses of pooled clinical data. Forschende Komplementärmedizin / Research in Complementary Medicine. 01/2013; 20(5):376-81. | http://www.integrativecare.se/en/alleged-ideological-bias-in-homeopathy-reviews-3609 |
Decades of research have demonstrated with overwhelming evidence that Lyme disease is easily cured with generic antibiotics, even in late stage.
However, some individuals with a history of Lyme disease may have persistent symptoms even after treatment. These symptoms have been called Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS) and usually diminish with time.
Some questioned whether PTLDS is caused by a persistent Lyme disease infection and proposed that long term antibiotics may help such patients.
Patients who received long term antibiotics have zealously evangelized for long-term antibiotic treatment because they believed it helped them.
But, as Dr. Harriet Hall describes in her course on Science-Based Medicine, we humans may believe ineffective treatments work for many reasons:
- The disease may have run its natural course.
- Many diseases are cyclical.
- We are all suggestible.
- The wrong treatment may get the credit.
- Diagnosis and prognosis may be wrong.
- Temporary mood improvement confused with cure
- Psychological needs affect behavior and perceptions
- We confuse correlation with causation
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are experiments that help remove human biases that may influence results. In an RCT, subjects are randomly assigned to either a group receiving a control treatment (usually a placebo) or a group receiving the treatment being tested.
Ideally, the subjects should be blinded so they do not know which treatment they are receiving. The outcomes of the groups are then compared.
As shown below, four American RCTs and two European RCTs all found long term antibiotics did not outperform placebo. These trials also showed that antibiotics can cause severe side effects.
Of course, a number of studies found that false Lyme diagnoses are common. Lyme disease was never the cause of the problems in the vast majority of quackery victims who receive a fake “chronic Lyme” diagnosis.
Well-designed RCTs can provide strong evidence regarding drug safety and efficacy. However, because no single study is definitive, it is important to base treatment decisions on multiple studies.
In addition to RCTs, systematic reviews (listed below) all found that long term antibiotics are not warranted for Lyme disease.
A systematic review is a type of study that summarizes the evidence of multiple studies into one document. A meta-analysis uses statistical methods to compile data from multiple studies into summary measures. These types of studies are considered even stronger evidence than RCTs on the hierarchy of scientific evidence shown below, as explained by TheLogicOfScience.com.
Not scientific evidence:
- YouTube and Netflix videos
- Personal anecdotes (“It worked for me!”)
- Gut feelings
- Parental instincts
- some guy you know
- Chronic Lyme support groups
- “Lyme literate” doctors
- Functional and integrative medicine practitioners
- Naturopaths, chiropractors, and homeopaths
- Internet surveys like MyLymeData
- Other red flags of Chronic Lyme quackery
Because they may not apply to humans, studies in animals and in vitro (petri dish or test tube) are among the weaker forms of evidence when determining if a treatment is safe and effective.
Cherry picked evidence may introduce bias. Therefore, case reports and opinion papers are also considered to be weak.
Proponents of fake chronic Lyme diagnoses and treatments frequently use weak evidence (e.g. from animal or petri dish experiments) to justify their beliefs. They also ignore the overwhelming stronger evidence that contradicts their beliefs.
Consensus of experts
In 2010, members of an independent review panel unanimously agreed that the 2006 Lyme disease guidelines produced by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) were medically and scientifically justified. The review panel was certified by an independent ombudsman to be free from conflicts of interest.
Among other things, the review panel concluded:
- In the case of Lyme disease, inherent risks of long-term antibiotic therapy were not justified by clinical benefit.
- To date, there is no convincing biologic evidence for the existence of symptomatic chronic B. burgdorferi infection among patients after receipt of recommended treatment regimens for Lyme disease.
The IDSA recommendations are consistent with recommendations from medical and scientific organizations around the world.
Since 2010, the evidence against long term antibiotics and “chronic Lyme” has become only stronger. Therefore, whether the Lyme diagnosis is real or fake, long term antibiotics can be considered quackery.
More than placebo?
Based on 6 placebo-controlled trials, we know that longterm antibiotics are not needed for treatment of Lyme disease. However, some patients claim that they feel better while on antibiotics. Are these reports from placebo effects or is something else happening?
Some antibiotic drugs commonly prescribed for Lyme disease—including ceftriaxone (Rocephin) and tetracyclines like doxycycline — have natural anti-inflammatory properties.
For example, one study found that patients who received an injection of ceftriaxone prior to surgery could withstand more pain than similar patients who received either placebo or a different antibiotic.
Because of the pain-relief potential of some antibiotics, feeling better on an antibiotic is therefore not necessarily an indication that the antibiotic had killed harmful bacteria. And if pain relief is required, other anti-inflammatory drugs—like ibuprofen (brand names: Advil, Motrin, Brufen, Nurofen)—are much safer.
Independent Systematic Reviews
The following reviews are in addition to those listed on our scientific consensus page.
UK NICE Guidelines, 2018.
German S3 guideline on Lyme neuroborreliosis, 2018. (English | Deutsch)
Cadavid D, et al. Antibiotics for the neurological complications of Lyme disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016;12:CD006978.
Sanchez E, et al. Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention of Lyme Disease, Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis, and Babesiosis: A Review. JAMA. 2016;315(16):1767-77. [pdf mirror]
Dersch R, et al. Efficacy and safety of pharmacological treatments for acute Lyme neuroborreliosis – a systematic review. Eur J Neurol. 2015;22(9):1249-59.
The 6 Negative Randomized Placebo-controlled Trials
The Berende Trial 🇳🇱
Berende A, et al. Randomized Trial of Longer-Term Therapy for Symptoms Attributed to Lyme Disease. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(13):1209-20. [Persistent Lyme Empiric Antibiotic Study Europe (PLEASE)]
Berende A, et al. Effect of prolonged antibiotic treatment on cognition in patients with Lyme borreliosis. Neurology. 2019;
Berende, A. Dissertation: Persistent symptoms attributed to Lyme disease and their antibiotic treatment. Results from the PLEASE study. 2019.
Commentary on the Berende trial
- Neurology Today: Prolonged Antibiotics Do Not Improve Neurocognitive Outcomes in Persistent Lyme Disease
- Science-Based Medicine: Chronic Lyme Disease – Another Negative Study
The Fallon Trial 🇺🇸
Fallon BA, et al. A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of repeated IV antibiotic therapy for Lyme encephalopathy. Neurology. 2008;70(13):992-1003.
Commentary on the Fallon trial:
Neurology Today: New Study Reports Short-term Benefits But Not Sustained Improvement in Cognition With Prolonged Antibiotic Use for Lyme Disease Encephalopathy
The Oksi Trial 🇫🇮
Oksi J, et al. Duration of antibiotic treatment in disseminated Lyme borreliosis: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical study. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2007;26(8):571-81.
The Krupp Trial 🇺🇸
Krupp LB, et al. Study and treatment of post Lyme disease (STOP-LD): a randomized double masked clinical trial. Neurology. 2003;60(12):1923-30.
Kaplan RF, et al. Cognitive function in post-treatment Lyme disease: do additional antibiotics help? Neurology. 2003;60(12):1916-22.
Commentary on the Krupp trial
- Jwatch: Medicating Lyme Disease Before It Starts and After It Ends
- Jwatch: More Studies on Prolonged Antibiotic Therapy for Chronic Lyme Disease, 2003
The Two Klempner Trials 🇺🇸
Klempner MS, et al. Two controlled trials of antibiotic treatment in patients with persistent symptoms and a history of Lyme disease. N Engl J Med. 2001;345(2):85-92. [Two trials published together]
Other studies
Of course, there are also a number of additional studies that support the scientific consensus that long term antibiotics for Lyme disease are not justified.
For example, an RCT by Dattwyler and colleagues randomized patients with late Lyme disease to receive either 14 days of intravenous antibiotics (n=80) or 28 days of intravenous antibiotics (n=63). There were 5 treatment failures in the 14 day group and 0 treatment failures in the 28 day group.
A 1999 study by Carlson and colleagues found no evidence of Borrelia Burgdorferi DNA in knee tissue samples from 26 patients with post-antibiotic Lyme arthritis.
A 2019 study by Dr. Brandon Jutras, Dr. Robert Lochhead, and others found that part of bacteria cell wall called peptidoglycan may trigger an inflammatory reaction that results in persistent Lyme arthritis.
Also in 2019, Grillon and other researchers from France found post-antibiotic Lyme arthritis could be cured using DMARDs.
Below is a video of Dr. Lochhead discussing their group’s findings:
Citations
Dattwyler RJ, et al. A comparison of two treatment regimens of ceftriaxone in late Lyme disease. Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2005; 117(11-12):393–7.
Carlson D, et al. Lack of Borrelia burgdorferi DNA in synovial samples from patients with antibiotic treatment-resistant Lyme arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 1999;42(12):2705-9.
Jutras BL, et al. Borrelia burgdorferi peptidoglycan is a persistent antigen in patients with Lyme arthritis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2019;116(27):13498-13507.
Grillon A, et al. Characteristics and clinical outcomes after treatment of a national cohort of PCR-positive Lyme arthritis. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2019;48(6):1105-1112.
Discussion by scientists
NIH: Lyme Disease Antibiotic Treatment Research
NIH: Chronic Lyme Disease
NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health: Lyme Disease
CDC: Dangers of long-term or alternative treatments for Lyme disease
CDC: Alternative treatments for Lyme disease
CDC: Serious Bacterial Infections Acquired During Treatment of Patients Given a Diagnosis of Chronic Lyme Disease — United States
Klempner MS, et al. Treatment trials for post-Lyme disease symptoms revisited. Am J Med. 2013;126(8):665-9.
Auwaerter PG. Point: Antibiotic therapy is not the answer for patients with persisting symptoms attributable to lyme disease. Clin Infect Dis. 2007;45(2):143-8.
Melia MT, Auwaerter PG. Time for a Different Approach to Lyme Disease and Long-Term Symptoms. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(13):1277-8. [paper mirror]
Oliveira CR, Shapiro ED. Update on persistent symptoms associated with Lyme disease. Curr Opin Pediatr. 2015;27(1):100-4. [video commentary]
See statements from medical societies in our Scientific Consensus section. | https://lymescience.org/chronic-lyme-long-term-antibiotics-trials/ |
Study Highlights:
- Patients who were given two anti-clotting medications for thirty months after heart-stent placement were significantly less likely to develop blood clots within their stents or to have a heart attack than those with briefer treatment.
- This finding extends current clinical practice, since in the United States recommendations advise dual anti-clotting therapy for only 12 months after receiving stents.
CHICAGO — Patients who took two anti-clotting medications beyond the standard 12 months after stent placement were significantly less likely to develop blood clots within their stents or to have a heart attack than those whose treatment followed the standard 12 month protocol, according to late-breaking clinical trial research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2014.
“We know that dual antiplatelet therapy is essential for all patients receiving coronary stents to prevent blood clots within the stents (in-stent thrombosis). This study showed that the preventive benefit continues when the medications can be taken for more than one year,” said the study’s principal investigator and lead author, Laura Mauri, M.D., M.Sc.
Investigators found that study participants who took aspirin plus another type of anti-clotting medication (clopidogrel or prasugrel) – for 30 rather than 12 months after stent placement:
- were .5 times less likely to develop in-stent thrombos is than patients who received dual therapy for 12 months, followed by aspirin plus placebo for 18 months (placebo group) and
- had about half the risk of having new heart attacks compared to the placebo group.
“Overall the benefits of longer therapy were very consistent throughout the types of patients we studied, and outweighed the risks,” she said.
A stent is a thin, wire-mesh tube inserted into a blocked coronary artery to hold it open and restore blood flow. Although infrequent, one of the most serious risks after stent placement is the formation of a blood clot, either within the stent or in another blood vessel.
“The DAPT (Dual Antiplatelet Therapy) Study was the first and only study comparing durations of treatment with antiplatelet therapy that was adequately powered to detect a benefit on stent-related heart attacks,” said Mauri, who is an interventional cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief Scientific Adviser at the Harvard Clinical Research Institute in Boston, Massachusetts.
To prevent blood clots, standard post-stent treatment involves dual treatment with aspirin and another anti-clotting medication. European guidelines call for six to 12 months of this treatment and U.S. guidelines recommend it for 12 months after the procedure. What was unclear until now was whether extending this combined treatment for longer than 12 months could decrease the risk of in-stent thrombosis or whether it would prevent heart attack or stroke. The safety of longer-term treatment was also assessed in this trial.
Although moderate to severe bleeding was more common among the medication group than the placebo group in the study, fatal bleeding was rare among both groups of patients. While overall stroke rates and death rates were not reduced by extending the combined treatment, the investigators noted in a secondary analysis, including data beyond the time point after all patients had stopped the study drug (to 33 months), that death from any cause was 0.8 percent higher (2.3 percent vs, 1.5 percent) among the medication group compared to those on placebo. The study results were tracked during the study by a data safety monitoring committee, but this difference in risk was not evident until the end of the study, Mauri said.
A secondary analysis revealed that the higher death rate was attributable to trauma and cancer.
“However, there was no difference in the occurrence of new cancers,” Mauri said. “In retrospect, it appears that there may have been an imbalance between the groups in the number of patients with known cancer before enrollment in the study. Taken together with results from many other large studies of these medications, enrolling over 60,000 subjects worldwide, that show no difference in mortality, it seems likely that this finding was related to a chance imbalance between the groups studied in the trial.”
Prevention of heart attack and blood clots in stents with longer antiplatelet therapy was consistent in all patient groups, drug and stent types studied, Mauri noted, but “physicians should consider individual patient risks in prescribing dual anti-clotting therapy. In particular, the trial excluded patients with a history of major bleeding either before the stent procedure or within the first year of treatment.”
DAPT was a five-year, international study of 25,682 patients. 22,866 received drug-eluting stents, and of these 9,961 patients (average age 62, about 25 percent female, and mostly from the United States) were randomized in the primary analysis. The investigators randomly assigned patients to one of the two groups, and neither investigators nor patients knew who was receiving medication versus placebo. The study took place from August 2009, to June 2014, at more than 450 sites in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Limitations of the study include the fact that it only included patients who were known to have tolerated anti-clotting medication for a year; and follow-up ended after 33 months, even though the study data suggest that a longer course of treatment may provide additional benefit.
Co- principal investigator Dean Kereiakes, M.D., will present the results comparing subjects treated with drug-eluting and bare metal stents in a Clinical Science Special Report session (abstract 20113) on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014 at the Scientific Sessions.
Other authors and author disclosures are on the manuscript. The Harvard Clinical Research Institute and the following stent and pharmaceutical companies supported the study: Abbott; Boston Scientific Corporation; Cordis Corporation; Medtronic, Inc.; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership; Eli Lilly and Company; and Daiichi Sankyo Company Limited.
Additional Resources:
- For more news from the AHA’s Scientific Sessions follow us on Twitter @HeartNews #AHA14.
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Statements and conclusions of study authors that are presented at American Heart Association scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy or position. The association makes no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at www.heart.org/corporatefunding.
Note: Actual presentation is 4:15 p.m., CT/5:15 p.m. ET, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014.
Life is why we fund scientific breakthroughs that save and improve lives. | https://www.healthcanal.com/blood-heart-circulation/heart-disease/57422-extended-post-stent-treatment-reduces-risk-of-coronary-thrombosis.html |
March 12, 2004 — High-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may have a therapeutic effect in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Hagit Cohen, PhD, and colleagues, from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, studied 24 patients (17 men and 7 women) who fulfilled Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Patients were randomly assigned to receive rTMS at low frequency (n = 8) or high frequency (n = 10) or sham rTMS (n = 6).
None of the patients suffered from a chronic medical disease. However, all but four of the subjects were receiving polypharmacy. Patients did not stop or change drug treatment in the three weeks before or during the study. They also continued to receive supportive psychotherapy.
Investigators administered stimulus over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 20 minutes per day over 10 week days. The placebo group received treatment in the same way as the group receiving high-frequency rTMS, but the coil was held at 90 degrees vertical over the stimulated head area. Patients in the low-frequency rTMS received 1 Hz for 5 seconds per train; the intertrain interval was 55 seconds. Subjects in the high-frequency rTMS group received 10 Hz for 2 seconds per train; the intertrain interval was 58 seconds.
A blinded investigator assessed symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and depression at baseline, day 5, day 10, and day 24 (14 days after intervention). The investigator used the PTSD Checklist, the Treatment Outcome PTSD Scale, the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, the Hamilton Rating Scale for depression, and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale.
During high-frequency rTMS treatment, mean PTSD Checklist scores decreased. Active 10-Hz rTMS was significantly different from the sham ( P < .01) and 1-Hz ( P < .002) treatments in post-hoc Sheffé tests. Mean Treatment Outcome PTSD Scale scores in the high-frequency group decreased by 39.0% from baseline to the end of treatment. Post-hoc Sheffé tests showed a significant effect of rTMS treatment; active 10-Hz rTMS was significantly different from the sham ( P < .05) and 1- Hz ( P < .02) treatments.
The patients who received 10-Hz rTMS showed significant improvement over subjects from the sham ( P < .04) and 1-Hz ( P < .01) groups in the Hamilton anxiety scale scores. Post-hoc tests revealed no significant difference between treatments or times for the Hamilton depression scale, however.
Fourteen patients across all treatment groups reported headache, but treatment was generally well tolerated. Eleven participants across all treatment groups also reported sleep improvement.
"The effect of 10-Hz rTMS was significant and stable for at least 14 days after the last treatment. It is suggested that in further studies the stimulation could be repeated as maintenance therapy, as in [electroconvulsive therapy] procedures," Dr. Cohen and colleagues write. "However, given the small number of patients, our study must be considered preliminary."
Am J Psychiatry. 2004;161:515-524
Reviewed by Gary D. Vogin, MD
Medscape Medical News © 2004
Cite this: Mindy Hung. High-Frequency TMS May Benefit Patients With PTSD - Medscape - Mar 12, 2004. | https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/471641 |
This review concluded that fibre, antispasmodics and peppermint oil are more effective than placebo for treating irritable bowel syndrome. Overall, although the review was generally well conducted, the authors' analyses should be interpreted with caution given their reliance on an often limited number of small and sometimes potentially quite different studies.
To compare the effectiveness of fibre, antispasmodics and peppermint oil with placebo or control for treating irritable bowel syndrome.
MEDLINE (1950 to April 2008), EMBASE (1980 to April 2008) and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (2007) were searched for publications in any language. In addition, references of retrieved articles and conference proceedings (2001 to 2007) were manually searched. Search terms were reported.
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing fibre, antispasmodics and peppermint oil with placebo or no treatment control to treat patients, aged 16 years or over, with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) not related to organic disease and diagnosed according to specific criteria (i.e. Manning, Kruis score, Rome I, II or III), were eligible for inclusion. Eligible studies were required to include treatment duration of at least one week and at least one week follow-up.
Studies were also required to report a global assessment of cure or improvement of symptoms, or cure or improvement of abdominal pain, as reported by the patient or health professional, as the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes reported adverse events and predominant stool patterns. Studies including patients with other functional gastrointestinal disorders had to report data separately.
Included studies assessed patients with and without constipation in secondary and tertiary settings in Denmark, Germany, UK, USA and India. The proportion of women included in the studies ranged from 20% to 90%. Interventions varied in type and dose. Treatment durations ranged between one and three months for fibre and peppermint oil, and between seven days and 12 months for antispasmodics.
Two reviewers independently screened papers for relevance and discrepancies were resolved by consensus.
Two reviewers independently assessed study quality using the Jadad scale, including criteria on randomisation, blinding, allocation concealment and withdrawals. The Jadad scale awards scores between 0 and 5, with 5 representing the highest quality. It was unclear how discrepancies were resolved.
Dichotomous data on persistent or unimproved global symptoms of IBS or abdominal pain were extracted and relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Secondary outcomes were extracted and percentage risk differences and RRs calculated. Data were extracted on an intention to treat basis. Where appropriate, the number needed to treat (NNT) was calculated for secondary outcomes. A two by two table was constructed and, where no patients reported adverse events in one or both treatment groups, 0.5 was added to each cell.
Two reviewers independently extracted data. It was unclear how discrepancies were resolved.
A random effects model was used to pool RRs for primary outcomes and percentage differences and RRs for secondary outcomes. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 and Χ2 tests, with a cut off point of 25% and a p-value of less than 0.10 respectively, indicating significant statistical heterogeneity. Subgroup analyses were undertaken by intervention type and pooled primary outcome data were graphically presented as forest plots. A priori sensitivity analyses were also conducted to assess the robustness of the results by removing studies according to type of subgroup intervention, study quality and predominant stool patterns of patients. Publication bias was investigated using funnel plots and the Egger and Begg tests.
Thirty-five RCTs (n=2,761; 1,402 receiving intervention, 1,359 receiving placebo) were included in the review. Sample sizes ranged between 20 and 80 patients (fibre), between 18 and 360 (antispasmodics), and between 47 and 178 (peppermint oil). The quality of studies was generally moderate to good.
Fibre (nine studies/12 treatment arms, n=591)
Significantly fewer patients in the intervention group reported persistent or unimproved symptoms in comparison with placebo or low-fibre diet (RR 0.87, 95% CI: 0.76, 1.00, p=0.05). The NNT with fibre to prevent one patient experiencing persistent symptoms was 11 (95% CI: 5, 100). There was no evidence of statistical heterogeneity or publication bias. Subgroup analyses showed similar results for Ispaghula husk, but the authors reported significant heterogeneity among studies (I2=34.4%, p=0.18). However, subgroup analyses for bran and fibre (unspecified) showed that the differences between the treatment groups were no longer significant. Similarly, sensitivity analysis showed that the differences were no longer statistically significant.
Antispasmodics (19 RCTs/22 treatment arms, n=1778)
There were significantly fewer incidences of persistent symptoms reported in patients receiving antispasmodics in comparison with placebo (RR 0.68, 95% CI: 0.57, 0.81). However, there was evidence of statistical heterogeneity (I2=62.6%, p<0.001). Subgroup analyses showed varying treatment effects for different types of antispasmodics.
Peppermint Oil (4RCTs, n=392)
Significantly fewer patients receiving intervention reported persistent symptoms compared with placebo; RR 0.43 (95% CI: 0.32, 0.59, p<0.001). However, the authors reported significant heterogeneity (I2=31.1%, p=0.23). The NNT with peppermint oil to avoid persistent symptoms was 2.5 (95% CI: 2.0, 3.0).
Sensitivity analyses for antispasmodics and peppermint oil did not significantly alter the results. It was not possible to conduct sensitivity analysis by predominant stool pattern due to the small number of studies reporting this data.
Publication bias was detected by Egger's test for the antispasmodics studies, but this was not confirmed by the Begg test. Adverse events were also reported in the review.
Ispaghula husks, antispasmodics, and peppermint oil are more effective than placebo for treating irritable bowel syndrome.
This review answered a clear research question supported by appropriate inclusion criteria. Attempts were made to reduce the risk of both language and publication bias. Statistical tests were also performed to detect the presence of publication bias, although the reliability of these tests is questionable given the low number of included studies. Attempts were made to reduce the risk of reviewer error and bias, with relevant criteria used to assess the validity of the included studies. In general, the quality of the studies was rated as moderate to good, but a number failed to provide sufficient information regarding allocation concealment, which has been shown to be an important factor affecting the reliability of study data. Many of the studies also contained only limited numbers of participants. Statistical heterogeneity was assessed using stringent cut-off values. Further analyses were carried out to investigate a limited number of potential factors which might affect the reliability of the results. However, the small numbers of studies and participants included in many of these additional analyses suggest that their findings might not always be reliable. In addition, there were few details about the baseline characteristics of participants and, in a number of cases, differences appear to exist between studies, particularly with regard to the duration of therapy and the dose regimens used. It should be noted that there were slight discrepancies between the figures cited in the text and those in the forest plots for the antispasmodics control group. The figures used in this review are taken from the text. Overall, although the review was generally well conducted, the authors' analyses should be interpreted with caution given their reliance on an often limited number of small and sometimes potentially quite different studies.
Practice: The authors stated that national guidelines for the management of IBS should be updated to incorporate their findings.
Research: The authors stated that large studies are warranted to further assess the use of fibre, antispasmodics and peppermint oil for the treatment of IBS, as defined by the Rome criteria, and should include validated tools to measure outcomes.
American College of Gastroenterology.
This is a critical abstract of a systematic review that meets the criteria for inclusion on DARE. Each critical abstract contains a brief summary of the review methods, results and conclusions followed by a detailed critical assessment on the reliability of the review and the conclusions drawn. | https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/crdweb/ShowRecord.asp?LinkFrom=OAI&ID=12008106879&LinkFrom=OAI&ID=12008106879 |
By Gary Bryant, UK country manager, ITSI.
For teachers, finding educational materials that support them in teaching the curriculum while also enhancing the learning experience can be a difficult and time consuming task. However, with the increasing edtech resources available, how can teachers be supported in delivering a well rounded and comprehensive education for students?
For a number of years now, English schools have seemingly lost their enthusiasm for the traditional classroom textbook. After all, with the range of exciting technologies out there for education, it often feels like schools are under pressure to leave the old behind in favour of the new. Indeed, from a teacher’s perspective, asking students to work from printed textbooks is hard to manage and monitor, as there is no guarantee that they are engaging with the material, other than the notes they create in their personal exercise books.
Traditional and technological
However, when you look at the Programme for International Student Assessment’s (PISA) report, high performing jurisdictions, like Singapore and Finland, use of textbooks in the classroom is distinctly higher (upwards of 70%). So why is this? And how can we properly balance the use of the traditional and the technological to the best effect?
Textbooks are a rich source of information, and more often than not bring all of the necessary elements of a subject together in one place. In many ways, it is a perfect learning resource, but in others, it is also problematic. For instance, with events and theories changing and adapting all the time, new versions of textbooks have to be published frequently to keep up with this, meaning that the expensive copies bought for the classroom could be out-of-date within a year or two.
For students, working in this way is also challenging, as they cannot write notes within the books themselves, as the copies will most likely be used by a number of classes in the same school. This means that the notes they make in exercise books are disconnected from the original material in the textbook, unless they take the additional time to copy down an entire section.
Strike a balance
This is where technology comes in to strike a balance. We’re all using technology more and more in our daily lives, and with many future jobs likely to involve digital skills of some form or another, ensuring that students can use technology well is essential. With more classrooms making use of tablet devices in lessons and the increasing amount of published material available in e-book form, we have the opportunity to make the best of both worlds.
Digital copies of textbooks can make a real difference in several ways. For example, if a teacher is looking to share a useful article or video clip that relates to a passage in the book; rather than simply providing the URL on a worksheet, the link can be embedded in the ebook itself, so that all the necessary resources are stored in one place. The teacher can even create assessments that are directly linked to the content for lesson activities or homework. In terms of monitoring, having all students linked to a master copy of the textbook means that the teacher can see from their own device exactly who is reading their book at any given time, what content they’re engaging with and what notes they’ve made, to ensure that distractions are minimised.
This empowers teachers to deliver high quality lessons and also means that students can take ownership of their materials, rather than relying on the school’s textbooks that need to be kept immaculate for the next class. Students can highlight and annotate sections of the text digitally, meaning that their notes are directly linked to the subject material, and not floating around in exercise books, which also improves the revision process.
Technology is having a revolutionary effect upon education and the learning process, and it’s not surprising that schools are jumping at the chance to innovate with the latest and greatest devices. However, by stepping back and looking at the traditional elements of learning and how they can be incorporated with technology, teachers can create a truly comprehensive and immersive learning environment.
ITSI provides educators and students with a digital solution that enhances and simplifies the teaching experience. | http://www.techandlearning.uk/download/itsi-blowing-the-dust-from-textbooks/ |
This quantitative, qualitative study investigates the usage of mobile phone applications in teaching and learning processes. The study aims to identify the benefits, difficulties, and resolutions of using mobile phone applications. The study was conducted in the English Department at Hebron University at the second semester of the academic years 2015/2016. The study focuses on the Business English course. A questionnaire was used to show the general attitudes of the students towards the effects of using mobile phone applications in the classroom. Interviews were administered to reveal the general attitudes of the students and instructors towards the difficulties and the solutions. The results showed that most students responded positively to using mobile applications in teaching and learning processes. In addition, all students had smart phones, and they used varied brands applications in the learning process. Moreover, the results indicated that students understand and learn better through using the applications.
This paper introduces a set of English grammar symbols that the author has developed to enhance students’ understanding and consequently, application of the English grammar rules. A pretest-posttest control-group design was carried out in which the samples were students in two girls’ senior high schools (N=135, P ≤ 0.05) divided into two groups: the Treatment which received grammar lessons with grammar symbols; and the Control which received grammar lessons without the symbols. The experiment lasted for 30 hours spanned in three months. The statistical test revealed a significant higher gain scores for the Treatment group. Thus, the author strongly recommends using these symbols (or similar ones with the same characteristics) at least for two reasons. Firstly, students do not have to memorize all of them (72 tense symbols and 50 other symbols). That is, with just a few rules to learn, and then applying the existing algorithm, other symbols are easily shaped. Secondly, using these symbols enables teachers and students to have a general idea as to what to expect next because several grammatical rules and formulae can be predicted in advance.
This study investigated teachers’ views toward computer technology in teaching English pronunciation. In order to select teachers for the semi-structured interview, the researcher used a questionnaire and distributed it to 25 teachers from two Islamic Azad Universities of Guilan, Iran. The researcher chose 15 of them based on their answers to the questionnaire. Then a qualitative method design was used. It consisted of semi-structured interview questions with a sample of 15 teachers chosen from two Azad Universities. Data were collected and analyzed. Qualitative data were analyzed according to the process of reducing data, constructing theme, and drawing conclusions from the data. The findings showed teachers’ interest in using computer technology because it provided them with enjoyable and interactive environment, helped them obtain accurate pronunciation, and improved the quality of their pronunciation instruction. The findings also revealed that using computer technology raised teachers’ confidence and motivation toward it because it had a high potential that changed their instruction. Moreover, the findings indicated that teachers had enough knowledge of computer technology that helped them teach pronunciation effectively. In addition, the findings represented that using computer technology was not a threat to the traditional methods but it brought about better results than these methods.
The use of technology has become an important part of the learning process in and out of the class. Every language class usually uses some form of technology. Technology has been used to both help and improve language learning. Technology enables teachers to adapt classroom activities, thus enhancing the language learning process. Technology continues to grow in importance as a tool to help teachers facilitate language learning for their learners. This study focuses on the role of using new technologies in learning English as a second/foreign language. It discussed different attitudes which support English language learners to increase their learning skills through using technologies. In this paper, the researcher defined the term technology and technology integration, explained the use of technology in language classroom, reviewed previous studies on using technologies in improving language learning skills, and stated certain recommendations for the better use of these technologies, which assist learners in improving their learning skills. The literature review indicated that the effective use of new technologies improves learners’ language learning skills. | http://ensani.ir/fa/article/journal-number/42359/research-in-english-education-volume-3-issue-2-june-2018 |
It is rightly said teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions. Undoubtedly, teaching is the art of imparting values and knowledge to the students. This art is, to a great extent, based on various Teaching Methods. We are living in the 21st century where new Teaching Methodologies are changing the traditional teaching techniques.
It is a well-known fact that students like to study only when that subject interests them. So, it becomes crucial that teachers should try to explain concepts in such a way that students understand them easily without getting bored. But, before that, it is significant for teachers to know various innovative teaching methodologies that they should implement in the classroom. In this article, we have discussed a few innovative teaching methods to aid you in teaching your students comfortably.
During this pandemic, the education sector has been affected a lot. It becomes quite important to use innovative Teaching Methodologies so that the teaching and learning process should not be negatively affected. Teachers can use the below mentioned techniques to help their students to learn concepts without any hurdles.
Innovative Teaching Methodologies
A classroom is a place where understudies from various backgrounds with different capacities and characters come to learn. To be a successful educator, you are required to execute the imaginative and inventive Teaching Methodology to meet students' necessities. Some of the highly useful teaching methods are mentioned below:
1.Learning through creative projects
Learning by doing is one of the best methods of teaching something to students. Giving long lectures may be less effective. Instead, assign your students with creative project work. It will be beneficial for them to retain knowledge for a long time. The use of project-based teaching is the best pedantic assurance for a viable improvement of key abilities such as creativity. It permits a student to show their capacities while working freely. It fosters a student's capacity to work with their fellow classmates, building cooperation and teamwork. Try to keep a balance between lectures and creative projects. Frequently, give your students some creative projects to work on.
2.Cooperative learning
It is a technique in which teachers group students and ask them to perform a particular task collectively through cooperation. This teaching methodology has been proved to be very effective in enhancing the concentration, association, and acquisition of knowledge in students. It makes learning interesting for students and teaches them how to work with others easily. When compared to individual learning where students focus on themselves solely.
3.Problem-based learning
It is a dominant teaching methodology where a student's critical thinking ability is improved. Under this teaching method, students are required to solve their problems themselves. This is how they develop problem-solving abilities and ultimately gain confidence. The main purpose of this type of teaching is to make each individual student strong.
4.Teaching through Design
It is one of the popular methods of teaching. It is a solution-based technique where teachers use designs to teach their students various technical concepts. The teacher solves a problem through a design that not only makes a concept easy for the students to understand but at the same time makes it enjoyable.
5.Competency-Based learning
As the name suggests, this method develops competencies among students. This method focuses on the individual student and inculcates real-time skills that are paramount for their future. Apart from teaching them from the regular syllabus, teach your students something new every day that will help them in their professional lives and answer individual queries. Ensure that every student gets equal attention.
6.Thinking-based learning
Many educational stakeholders have emphasized this teaching methodology. Under this method, teachers not only impart critical and innovative skills but also teach them strategically how to use skillful thinking techniques in the context of learning. It is highly recommended that this method should be adopted into the current classroom pedology.
7.Utilize Technology
Involving technology into your teaching is an incredible method to effectively draw your students attention towards studies. Try to use as much technology as possible such as videos and interactive boards. Learning can turn out to be more interactive when technology is utilized in the right quantity. It becomes engaging, interactive, and easy for students to conceptualize better. After all, visual stimulation attracts our attention more.
Most importantly, during these times it will be really useful to use technology in online classes. Late President Dr. Abdul Kalam said “The aim of the teacher should be to build character, human values enhance the learning capacity of children through technology and build the confidence among children to be innovative and creative which in turn will make them competitive to face the future.”
8.Non-Academic Talk
Students sometimes get bored because of their monotonous studying schedule. This affects their learning and diverts their attention. To retain their interest in studies it is important to give them a break. So, try to talk to your students on non-academic issues concerning their career and any other topic of their interest. Education experts have stressed on non academic talks as it motivates students and brings new energy in them. It is very great to have a non academic talk every week.
Conclusion
Teaching isn’t just a profession, it is a service to the country. With the changing times, it is paramount to adopt a new teaching methodology that will furnish good results and will help students to learn and grow. There are countless teaching methods and techniques. A reliable teaching method can be discovered when a teacher tries to get to know their students. At this point, when an educator knows his or her students well, they can plan exercises that are more enjoyable, significant, and viable. Especially, during this pandemic when teachers and students have lost their personal touch. Adopting new and innovative methods of teaching will be useful in retaining students’ interest in studies. | https://blog.teachmint.com/teaching-methodology/ |
What are the advantages of assignment?
The benefits of assignment to students are as follows;
- it reinforces concept learnt in class.
- motivates students to explore more.
- helps to complete syllabus on schedule.
- improves students performance.
- provide feedback to the teacher about the depth of students’ assimilation.
- provide basis for remedial work.
Why is assignment important for students?
Most important, assignments create teaching and learning opportunities to think and learn about ideas, topics, events, and questions—about specific content in the curriculum. This is why a quality assignment is the hallmark of effective instruction.
Why should teachers give students assignments?
Teachers often give assignments consisting of reading, problem solving, or writing that the students must do after class—usually at home. Ideally, the purpose of homework is to help reinforce what was taught in class. Sometimes its purpose is to gather extra information beyond what was taught in class.
What are the advantages of assessment?
Advantages of assessment – please discuss
- Immediate feedback. This is linked to learning from mistakes, confidence and motivation.
- Detailed, personalised feedback.
- Individualised assessment.
- Assessing across the whole syllabus.
- Testing application of technique.
- Assessing deep or conceptual learning.
- Easy to write new questions.
- Quick to set assessments.
How does assessment benefit the student?
Assessments can provide evidence of learning A system of well-constructed formative and summative assessments allows students to demonstrate their abilities and knowledge and then reflects how close they are to meeting educational goals and standards. Evidence from assessments can be directly beneficial to students.
How can students benefit from assessment of learning results?
Well-designed assessment can encourage active learning especially when the assessment delivery is innovative and engaging. Peer and self-assessment, for instance, can foster a number of skills, such as reflection, critical thinking and self-awareness – as well as giving students insight into the assessment process.
How can students use assessment as a learning tool?
Students can:
- Learn to value their own work.
- Use rubrics to assess their work.
- Reflect on how their work is like/different from the standard and state what they need to do to improve.
- Collect work over time and discuss it with an adult.
- Learn the relationship between effort and outcomes.
How can student data improve instruction?
Ways Teachers Can Collect Student Data The more traditional methods include the use of formal assessments, such as tests, essays, or final projects, to gather information. Assessments demonstrate individual progress and illustrate trends in the classroom as a whole. Observation is another method for gathering data.
How does assessment motivate learning?
Formative assessment can also provide opportunity for teachers to encourage and motivate learners. Within the first half of the lesson, pupils attempt the test under exam conditions; this helps the teacher to identify what pupils know and understand, and to determine where progress can be made (TS6).
How does assessment affect learning?
The volume of critical thinking and problem solving type of assessment is known to have a positive impact on the quality of learning outcomes. Finally, assessment can be viewed as being a means of helping students to learn, a way of reporting on student progress, and a way of making decisions about teaching.
What are examples of assessments which help students learn?
The assessments best suited to guide improvements in student learning are the quizzes, tests, writing assignments, and other assessments that teachers administer on a regular basis in their classrooms. Teachers trust the results from these assessments because of their direct relation to classroom instructional goals.
What is the importance of assessment in teaching and learning?
Just as assessment helps students, assessment helps teachers. Frequent assessment allows teachers to see if their teaching has been effective. Assessment also allows teachers to ensure students learn what they need to know in order to meet the course’s learning objectives.
What are the five purposes of assessment?
Purpose of assessment
- Assessment drives instruction.
- Assessment drives learning.
- Assessment informs students of their progress.
- Assessment informs teaching practice.
- Role of grading in assessment.
- When student learning outcomes are not met.
- Assessment.
- Classroom Assessment Techniques.
Why is testing important in education?
They are used to determine whether students have learned what they were expected to learn or to level or degree to which students have learned the material. They may be used to measure learning progress and achievement and to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs.
How do you assess students learning?
How to Assess Students’ Learning and Performance
- Creating assignments.
- Creating exams.
- Using classroom assessment techniques.
- Using concept maps.
- Using concept tests.
- Assessing group work.
- Creating and using rubrics.
Are tests the best way to evaluate knowledge of students?
As a comprehensive test of knowledge, exams are a very good method. It demonstrates how the students have learned. The uniformity required by exams, therefore, standardises the interests, capabilities, and knowledge absorbed by students. This ensures a uniform or standard means of assessing multiple individuals.
What is the role of ICT in assessing student learning?
ICT can be used in testing to administer tests, to score the tests, to analyse the result and to facilitate teachers in assessing learning outcomes. ICT provides opportunities for students to create electronic versions of their portfolio. ICT can also support students to complete their project.
What is the main purpose of ICT?
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is a broader term for Information Technology (IT), which refers to all communication technologies, including the internet, wireless networks, cell phones, computers, software, middleware, video-conferencing, social networking, and other media applications and services …
How can you use ICT in teaching and learning?
However, ICTs can be important tools to help meet such increased needs, by helping to provide access to more and better educational content, aid in routine administrative tasks, provide models and simulations of effective teaching practices, and enable learner support networks, both in face to face and distance …
How does ICT support teaching and learning?
ICTs can enhance the quality of education in several ways: by increasing learner motivation and engagement, by facilitating the acquisition of basic skills, and by enhancing teacher training. ICTs are also transformational tools which, when used appropriately, can promote the shift to a learner-centered environment.
How can ICT help students?
Information and communication technologies are currently being used in education to assist students to learn more effectively by providing teachers with access to a wide range of new pedagogy. These technologies are also being used to enable teachers to do administrative tasks more efficiently.
What are the advantages of ICT in education?
10+ Advantages of ICT in Education
- Enhanced the modes of communication.
- Cost-efficient.
- Paperless: Eliminate the usage of paper.
- Better teaching and learning methods.
- Enhanced data and information security.
- Minimize cost and save time.
- Easy student management.
- Automatic solutions to manual paper-based process and procedures.
What are the benefits of integrating ICT in education?
Here are some of the main benefits of using technology in the classroom.
- Improves engagement.
- Improves knowledge retention.
- Encourages individual learning.
- Encourages collaboration.
- Students can learn useful life skills through technology.
- Benefits for teachers.
What is the advantage and disadvantage of ICT?
1. Communication – Speed / time – money can be saved because it’s much quicker to move information around. With the help of ICT it has become quicker and more efficient.
What is the advantage and disadvantage of ICT in education?
ICT can lead to many developments in education as it can make learning more interactive and easier for both students and teachers however there are problems to do with cost and safety and the worry of encoraging children to become dependent on technology whilst they proberly use it a lot at home as well.
How ICT affect our daily life?
ICT has contributed a lot to change our everyday life such as letter to e-mail, market shopping to on-line shopping, classroom learning to e-learning, etc. This paper present’s the effects of ICT as Home and Domestic Activities, Social Networking, Education, Health, Commerce, Banking, and Employment.
How does ICT affects your life as a student?
The use of ICT in education add value in teaching and learning, by enhancing the effectiveness of learning, or by adding a dimension to learning that was not previously available. ICT may also be a significant motivational factor in students’ learning, and can support students’ engagement with collaborative learning.
What are the positive effects of ICT?
Positive And Negative Effects Of ICT
- Quick and Easy access to information:
- Offer new tools, and new opportunities:
- Enhances operation of organizations.
- Loss of Job:
- Reduced personal interaction:
- Reduced physical activity:
- Expensive.
- Need for heightened Security. | https://mv-organizing.com/what-are-the-advantages-of-assignment/ |
What Are The Essential Skills That A Teacher Should Have?
Are you a teacher or researcher looking for the essential skills that a teacher should have?
In this article, you will find out some of the essential skills that a teacher should have.
You will learn what these skills are and how they can help your students to develop in an effective manner.
WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL SKILLS THAT TEACHERS SHOULD HAVE?
There are a number of essential skills that teachers should have in order to be successful in their profession. Here are some of the most important skills that teachers should possess:
1. The Ability To Develop Relationships With Students:
One of the most important skills that teachers should have is the ability to develop positive relationships with their students.
It is through these relationships that teachers are able to effectively teach and motivate their students.
2. The Ability To Manage A Classroom:
An effective teacher is one who is able to manage their classroom effectively.
This means being able to create a positive learning environment, maintaining discipline, and ensuring that all students are engaged in learning.
3. The Ability To Differentiate Instruction:
Differentiated instruction is an important teaching strategies that allows teachers to adapt their teaching methods to meet the individual needs of each student.
This is an essential skill for all teachers, as it ensures that all students have the opportunity to learn and succeed.
4. The Ability To Use Technology:
Technology has become an increasingly important part of education and teachers need to be able to use it effectively in order to engage and support their students.
From using online resources, to incorporating interactive activities, technology can be a powerful tool in the classroom when teaching and learning is involved.
COMMON ISSUES IN TEACHING
There are a number of common issues that teachers face on a daily basis.
While some may be more serious than others, all of these issues can have a negative impact on the teaching profession.
Here are a few of the most common issues faced by teachers:
1) Classroom Management:
One of the most difficult aspects of teaching is maintaining order in the classroom.
With so many students and so much to cover in a day, it can be tough to keep everyone on track.
When classroom management problems arise, it can make the learning environment very stressful for both teachers and students.
2) Lesson Planning:
Another common issue for teachers is lesson planning.
With so much material to cover, it can be difficult to know where to start and how to make sure all the important information is covered.
This can lead to frustration for both teachers and students if lessons are not well planned.
3) Time Management:
Time management is another key issue for teachers. With such a packed schedule, it can be hard to find time to do everything that needs to be done.
This can include things like grading papers, preparing for classes, and meeting with students or parents. If time is not managed well, it can lead to an inconsistent teaching and learning environment.
CONCLUSION:
There are a variety of skills that a teacher should have in order to be successful. While some of these skills may come naturally, others may take some time and practice to develop.
However, the effort is well worth it as these skills can make a big difference in the lives of students.
We hope that this article has given you some insight into what essential skills every teacher should have.
Do you think there are any other skills that should be included on this list? Let us know in the comments below! | https://www.northxclaim.com/what-are-the-essential-skills-that-a-teacher-should-have/ |
Editor’ Note: This paper presents some interesting data on the use of technology in by mathematics teachers. It raises issues for pre-service and in-service training of classroom teachers, for curriculum design, and also for the quality of teaching and learning resources available in schools. Is adoption of media to facilitate learning a human problem or a systemic problem in classroom teaching? And is this problem local or global in magnitude?
The main focus of this paper is to determine math teachers` perceptions on using educational technology in their classes. Research results indicate that most math teachers do not use educational technology to teach mathematics even though educational technology motivates students to learn more. In addition, t-test and ANOVA results revealed few differences on using educational technology in their classes in terms of math teachers` gender, experience and level of education.
Technology is the practical application of science. Technological developments began two hundred years ago when teachers started to use abacus in their classes. After the development of a technology, it impacts the lifestyle of people. For example, computer based systems help people to successfully organize their companies. The Internet helps people to reach information fast.
Beside development in information technologies, new teaching and learning methods are being introduced to advance contemporary education. Technology supports global thinking in an educated society and provides information to adopt new teaching and learning developments. Technology also creates flexible learning environments in which students can easily construct and learn new information and store it in their long term memory. Technological developments enable teachers and students to acquire up-to-date knowledge and support critical thinking. Technology is a combination of hardware and software (Isman, 2002). It is important to determine appropriate technology to increase productivity based on student` and teacher` needs.
Potentially, technology increases productivity in educational activities and affects the quality of education in terms of meaningful learning and effective teaching. It offers the possibility to solve problems and enhance the stability and quality of learning in a coherent manner (Isman, 2003). Technology is not only electronic instruments; it includes new teaching-learning methods that can be used in a beneficial way in education (Isman, 2003).
Rapid technological developments have impacted education. It can be said that the practice of teaching mathematics has been more traditional than any other curriculum area, yet technological developments have affected mathematics education also. Technology can help math teachers to solve issues and problems in math education.
The first problem is about motivation. Teaching math with classical teaching methods discourages some students so that the students do not want to learn math. Classical Math teachers do not know how to motivate students in their classrooms and students need to be motivated by their teachers to learn.
The second problem is to solve math problems in real life situations. Most math teachers do not use real life examples to help students to use math in their lives. Math teachers should use real life problems and emphasize problem solving skills to help students to understand math.
The third problem is a low value given to mathematics. Math teachers must teach their students how to appreciate and understand the value of mathematics in everyday life. Then students will begin to respect math applications in society.
The last problem is about math standards. In today’s technology-based society, math educators need a new math curriculum designed to integrate new developments, set new standards, and incorporate new technological developments such as computer based instruction.
Teachers and students have access to valuable resources via the Internet that include software, simulations, spreadsheet, and graphing calculators (Roblyer & Edwards, 2000). Students can learn mathematics using comprehensive math tutorials. Drill and practice programs offer instant feedback for skill building. Higher learning skills can be acquired through geometric exploration programs where learners create shapes, experiment with mathematical formulas and visualize data in graphic formats.
Computer software offers quick and easy transformation of data to graphics to learn transformational geometry such as tessellations. It can interface with devices like probeware systems to capture data. Students can conduct experiments and concept demonstrations using these devices.
Spreadsheet programs, such as Excel, offer graphics, algebraic functions, equation editors, calculator, and word processor to support complex calculations and writing research papers. Spreadsheet program can be used by the student to allocate a budget and compare alternative options with ‘’what if’’ activities. Variables can be changed easily so students can quickly learn the dynamic aspect of budgeting. Spreadsheets are also used to search for patterns, construct algebraic expressions, simulate probabilistic situations, justify conjectures, generalize concepts and graph chart data.
Search engines on the Internet provide access government and commercial data for statistical analysis, web tools to conduct surveys and polls, and simulations that replicate real life experiences. Computers also support collaborative learning, Web-Based Instruction (WBI), Inquiry (problem) based learning, and the opportunity to solve the ‘problem of the week’ on the Web.
Simulations can be used to mock stock market trading and immerse students in occupations such as doctor, engineer, detective and fire fighter to visualize how math is used in real life cases.
Educational technology is a key to the success in math education. The goal of this research paper is to find out teachers perceptions about using technology for math teaching by analyzing the relationship that exist between teachers’ perception of educational technology in relation to gender, age, experience, and educational level.
Is there any relationship in the teachers’ perceptions of educational technology based on gender?
Is there any relationship in the teachers’ perceptions of educational technology based on age?
Is there any relationship in the teachers’ perceptions of educational technology based on experience?
Is there any relationship in the teachers’ perceptions of educational technology based on educational level?
The results of this study can be used by educators to determine the benefits of the use of educational technology for math teaching.
The data was collected through the administration of a survey instrument.
The study assumed truthful, candid responses by respondents who understood and were not fearful of reprisal for their completion of the survey instrument.
The responses to the survey items by the respondents were subject to unknown personal biases and perceptions.
The study was non-experimental in that the investigators did not have manipulative control of the independent variables; therefore, no explicit cause and effect relationship could be determined.
This study was designed to examine teachers’ perceptions of using educational technology for teaching mathematics and to compare their perceptions based on gender, age, experience, and educational level.
The population under investigation included teachers teaching mathematics courses at middle and high schools in North Cyprus. Groups in this study represented math teachers in North Cyprus.
Sample selected by the method of random sampling as twenty teachers from the public schools of the Ministry of Education and Culture of North Cyprus for administering a questionnaire prepared to assess perceptions of teachers about the use of technology in their mathematics lessons.
For this research study, a questionnaire was used. This questionnaire was designed for analyzing teachers’ perceptions. There were forty items in this instrument. Their responses are on a series four-point Likert-scale (1=never, 2=sometimes, 3=often, 4=always).
The teachers’ perceptions were assessed by the prepared questionnaire. Teacher responses to the questionnaire were statistically analyzed according to gender, age, experience, and educational level.
A quantitative research method was used to investigate the research problem. The survey questionnaire was designed to measure the perceptions of teachers.
The copy of a survey was given to each mathematics teacher.
After filling out questionnaire, the teachers gave them back to the researchers.
Tthe frequency data indicated the level of satisfaction for each item.
ANOVA and t-test were used to analyze each item to compare potential relationships in ratings based on gender, age, experience, and educational level.
The data were analyzed using the SPSS for Windows. In this process, an alpha level of 0.05 was used to test each hypothesis.
The main purpose of the study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions of using educational technology based on gender, age, experience, and educational level. Data for analysis were obtained from the questionnaire survey. Results of quantitative statistical analysis and interpretation of data collected from twenty math teachers are presented below.
According to independent samples t-test results for gender, almost all of values are higher than the standard value that is table α 0.05. On the other hand, there are some differences on search engines (calculated α t value 0.023), Excel (calculated α t value 0.021), digital camera (calculated α t value 0.039), CD-ROM (calculated α value 0.011) and printer (calculated α t value 0.038) based on genders. Male math teachers use search engines, excel, digital camera, CD-ROM and printer more than female math teachers.
According to ANOVA results, there is no significant difference among teacher age groups. All of the values are higher than table α: 0.05.
According to ANOVA test results for experience, almost all of values are higher than the standard value that is table α 0.05. On the other hand, there is only one differences on using digital camera (calculated α value 0.043) based on teacher experience. Math teachers who had experience between 0-10 years of teaching use educational technology more than others.
According to ANOVA test results for education level, almost all of values are higher than the standard value that is table α 0.05. On the other hand, there are only two differences on using figure-table (calculated α value 0.018) and using television (calculated α 0.016) based on education level. Math teachers who had undergraduate and graduate education use educational technology more than others.
According to ANOVA results, there is no significant difference among teacher age. All of the values are higher than table α: 0.05.
According to ANOVA test results that were done for experience, almost all of values are higher than the standard value that is table α 0.05. On the other hand, there is only one differences on using digital camera (calculated α value 0.043) based on teacher experience. Math teachers who had experience between 0-10 years of teaching use educational technology more than others.
According to ANOVA test results that were done for education level, almost all of values are higher than the standard value that is table α 0.05. On the other hand, there are only two differences on using figure-table (calculated α value 0.018) and using television (calculated α 0.016) based on education level. Math teachers who had undergraduate and graduate education use educational technology more than others.
According to frequencies, math teachers do not use much educational technology in their classes. In addition, t-test and ANOVA test results indicate that there were few differences on using educational technology in their classes in terms of gender, experience and education level.
On the other hand, educational technology could motivate students to learn more so math teachers should use more educational technology to enrich their teaching activities in their classes.
Roblyer, M.D. & Edwards, Jack. (2000). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. Second Edition. Merrill an imprint of Prentice Hall.
Hüseyin Yarsatan is Assistant Professor and Chair, Department of Educational Sciences, Eastern Mediterranean University. He received his B.S. and M.S. from Union College, Schenectady NY, USA and his; Ed.D. from University of Michigan, MI, USA. | http://itdl.org/Journal/Jul_05/article03.htm |
Teaching statistics can be a challenge, especially in long, traditional face-to-face classes where students are increasingly distracted. Thus, teachers need to use methods that will capture students’ attention in a technological environment constantly changing in unpredictable ways. Visualization and web-based technologies can provide distinctive insights into the nature of data and data patterns, thus enhancing comprehension of information and informing judgement. This session will present 3 very different ways of capturing a student’s attention. Forms that range from using a web-based tool for teaching statistics with songs, to the creation of graphical visual animations with R, and how students can have a statistical adventure in a game played with virtual reality goggles. In addition, how these tools are being used in teaching, and their impact on learning will be discussed. | http://icots.info/10/?session=9K |
DOI:
An Investigation into the Effect of Using Blogs as E-learning tool in EFL Writing Instruction in Saudi Context from the Perspective of sociocultural theory
Sultan Samah A Alenezi
ABSTRACT:
Writing is a very important skill in language learning and communication with others. However, writing is considered a difficult skill because the way writing was taught in Saudi Arabia focused mostly on grammar and vocabulary and the classes were teacher-dominated; besides, lack of interaction, collaboration, and motivation between the students made the students’ uppermost concern was only how to pass exams. This explains the reality of teaching EFL writing in Saudi Arabia that mainly depends only on transforming information to the students in a passive atmosphere and the traditional method lacks any form of interaction between the learners. Although effective learning should be carried out in a social process that depends on social interactions between students and their colleagues in addition to their teachers according to Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory. This theory argues that learning is a social process that occurs when people interact with each other. Additionally, social interaction institutes a state of interaction and collaboration between the learners enable them to obtain the required support that facilitates the learning process which is referred to as scaffolding. So, this theory can be underlined by the use of blogs in EFL writing classes, where it emphasises that learning occurs within social activities when a learner interacts with people, objects, and events. It is worth mentioning that the concepts of the Sociocultural theory can be activated by integrating online blogging technology in EFL writing classes that can help create an interactive/collaborative learning environment. Additionally, the blog allows the learners to discuss their ideas, negotiate, clarify their knowledge, and obtain feedback for refining their ideas online before posting their final work. Moreover, regular social interaction via the blog enhances collaborative learning skills among learners. This study seeks to know the value of using the blog as an innovative tool in EFL writing classrooms in the Saudi context from the perspective of sociocultural theory. It employed a mixed research methods design. The participants involved were a group of second-year majoring in the English language in one Saudi university. The study took three months of intervention in Saudi Arabia. The results indicated that the Saudi EFL learners showed positive attitudes towards their experience with blogging because of continuous social interaction and peer collaboration. Additionally, their linguistic and cognitive skills improved because of the scaffolding they receive from their teacher and proficient classmates that made them reach the Zone of approximal development of the perspective of sociocultural theory.
Keywords: EFL writing, Saudi learners, scaffolding, Zone of approximal development. | https://www.dpublication.com/abstract-of-3rd-worldcte/w-2025/ |
Journal of Computing in Higher Education 7, 3-47.
Traditional methods for teaching science courses at the post-secondary level employ a lecture format of instruction in which the majority of students are passively listening to the instructor and jotting down notes. Current views of learning and instruction challenge the wisdom of this traditional pedagogic practice by stressing the need for the learner to play an active role in constructing knowledge. The emerging technology of classroom communication systems offers a promising tool for helping instructors create a more interactive, student-centered classroom, especially when teaching large courses. In this paper we describe our experiences teaching physics with a classroom communication system called Classtalk. Classtalk facilitated the presentation of questions for small group work, as well as the collection of student answers and the display of histograms showing how the class answered, all of which fed into a class-wide discussion of students' reasoning. We found Classtalk to be a useful tool not only for engaging students in active learning during the lecture hour, but also for enhancing the overall communication within the classroom. Equally important, students were very positive about Classtalk-facilitated instruction and believed that they learned more during class than they would have during a traditional lecture. | https://srri.umass.edu/publications/dufresne-1996ccs/ |
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DIFFERENCE IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF HUMSS STEM STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT LEARNING ENVIRONMENT20200429 100720 cq42tk
using descriptive method, a non-experimental approach, this research determined the difference between the academic performance of HUMSS and STEM
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Research Paper for HUMSS Students, Study Guides, Projects, Research for English
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Enhancing the Competency of Grade 11 HUMSS Learners through Online Peer Tutoring (OPT) Program
5 Pages Posted: 22 Nov 2022
Danilo Jr Soriano
Danilo G. Soriano Jr; Lyceum-Northwestern University; Department of Education - Calasiao Comprehensive national High School
Date Written: October 9, 2022
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts to provide high-quality basic education have been hampered over the world, and face-to-face learning sessions have been discontinued in schools and learning centers. However, in remote, online, and blended courses, where technology may give both students and instructors with unprecedented amounts of information about tutor ability and approaches, such exercises have the potential to introduce more student–student engagement. The study delved into the competency enhancement of the grade 11 HUMSS learners using Online Peer Tutoring (OPT) Program for the School Year 2021-2022. Pretest and posttest were conducted among 28 learners. Mean and T-test was used as tools for data analysis. Findings showed that the intervention applied is effective in enhancing the competency of grade 11 HUMSS learners in earth and life science. Therefore, the OPT Program enhances effective teaching and an innovative way of learning, as well as an output of the study, recommended for use in other schools for follow-up study.
Keywords: Competency Enhancement, Earth and Life Science, Learning Activity, Online Peer Tutoring, HUMSS Learners
JEL Classification: 123
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Danilo Jr Soriano (Contact Author)
Danilo g. soriano jr ( email ).
Tapuac District Dagupan City, Pangasinan 2400 Philippines
Lyceum-Northwestern University ( email )
Department of education - calasiao comprehensive national high school ( email ).
Malong St., Poblacion West, Calasiao, Pangasinan CALASIAO, Region I - PANGASINAN Christiani Philippines Christiani (Fax)
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Paper statistics, related ejournals, teacher education ejournal. | https://researchpaperhelp.online/business-plan/research-paper-related-to-humss-pdf |
Although creativity has been valued in ancient and contemporary Chinese literature, the degree to which creativity is valued and incorporated into teaching by Chinese language teachers is not known. This information is important given that creativity has been increasingly recognized in the education literature as a component of effective writing. The purpose of this study was to compare the views of Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong about creativity and the acquisition of creative writing skills by primary school children, and their teaching practices. A total of 449 Chinese language teachers, employed at primary schools throughout Hong Kong completed a survey questionnaire. The 14-item questionnaire focused on teachers' views of creativity, their perceptions of how to develop students' creativity, their awareness of creative writing strategies, and teaching practices related to creative writing. With respect to the definition of creativity, teachers identified imagination foremost, followed by inspiration, and original ideas. Teachers identified developing students' confidence, and providing an open atmosphere as essential means of fostering creativity. Despite the apparent value of creativity expressed by the teachers and their familiarity with methods for enhancing creativity, the majority reported using traditional methods of teaching writing. Strategies are recommended for reconciling this discrepancy, and promoting creative writing skills by primary school teachers in Hong Kong and other Chinese speaking societies. | https://research.polyu.edu.hk/en/publications/teaching-creative-writing-skills-to-primary-school-children-in-ho |
“ICT should not simply be some kind of attractive gizmo. It should enable us to do things better than we could do before..” (Lee and Eke, 2009, p.90).
I think this statement is extremely important; many think that ICT is something that is used to ‘jazz up’ a lesson, and often cannot see the learning impacts that using ICT in the classroom can have for children. Rather than looking at a simple picture in a classroom, we can now look at 360 degree pictures, which can incorporate sound. Rather than watching a video on a TV, a video can now be accessed much quicker on a large interactive whiteboard screen. Children are now able to share their work on blogs and websites, rather than only being able to take their work home. Children can now use apps and programs to enhance their learning, and to make learning fun, rather than constantly using work sheets.
National Curriculum:
Before teaching the Computing curriculum to children, many teachers have had to develop their own personal Computing skills, to ensure that they are able to teach children efficiently. On my last school placement, the school held computing sessions for any teachers who were worried about the changes to the subject. Other teacher’s have completed further research into the subject to ensure they are able to teach to the best of their ability. There are plenty of courses online to support teachers through learning and teaching the computing curriculum.
When looking at the National Curriculum, and the Early Years Foundation Stage, it is clear that Computing and Technology are extremely important, and they are embedded throughout both curriculum’s. The Revised National Curriculum (2013) has changed ICT to Computing. The National Curriculum now places are larger emphasis on children understanding different aspects behind computer science. In the EYFS, there are several areas where computing is discussed throughout, for example: Literacy: Reading (Page 29), Understanding the World: Technology (Page 41-42). The Early Learning Goal for technology is: “Children recognise that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and schools. They select and use technology for particular purposes” (Page 42), which involves children knowing and using a range of technology, and the children are able to use the technology for a purpose.
Both the EYFS and the National Curriculum, involve children learning skills which they can use across other curriculum subjects. The Revised National Curriculum expects children to learn new skills that were not present in the ICT section of the previous National Curriculum. For example: children are expected to be able understand fundamental principles of computer science, such as algorithms. The new computing curriculum gives children the skill of problem solving; problem solving is a skill that is needed across the curriculum, for example: in maths and also in science. Debugging and programming are plugged methods of problem solving that children will learn in Ks1 and Ks2; there are also many unplugged approaches to teaching problem solving through computing, for example: Teacher Bot Jam Sandwich.Children using technology in the EYFS, is a skill that can be transferred to other subjects, for example: using iPads for maths games or using cameras to capture images.
Digital Literacy: “Young people need to develop more than just their ICT skills; they need a broad digital awareness of the wider context in which technologies and media operate to wrap around these skills in order that they can participate in this increasingly digital world” (Hague and Williamson, 2009, p.5). Digital Literacy is becoming more and more important in the classroom, and this is something that all teachers need to consider. O’Hara (2004, p.125) states that young children are becoming more enthusiastic and proficient users of ICT; this is because children are surrounded by technology, and are constantly exposed to different media. I believe that in today’s ever expanding technology based society, it is important for children to be able to use technology and have sound digital literacy. Gurney-Read (2013) states that Digital Literacy is just as important as reading and writing – in today’s society I believe that is completely true. Digital literacy should not replace the skill of reading and writing, but it should be at a similar level of importance. Caldwell and Honeyford state the importance of children being able to access technology as easily as they can access pencils and paper; which is another statement that I agree with. In an ideal world, every child would have access to an individual iPad on a regular basis, with a strong internet access. Children would also have access to other pieces of technology too; but it is important to keep the balance between technology and more traditional methods of learning.
Safety:
E-safety is often a huge concern for teachers, and can be a barrier for teachers using technology with children. It was something that I used to be fearful of, due to some of the horror stories on the news about children and the internet. However, the past three years at University have shown me that there are numerous ways to use the internet safely with children. Websites such as ThinkUKnow are fantastic resources to use in the classroom with children when teaching about e-safety. There are so many different procedures in place to ensure that children are kept safe when online, and when using different pieces of technology. Berry (2013) states that ‘Young children have little awareness of who can access online information, so it is best to teach them not to communicate any personal information online’ – this is something that all children need to learn from an early age, as so many children are signing up to social networking sites, such as: Facebook and Twitter, without having parental permission. I think this is an issue that should constantly be at the forefront of teacher’s minds, from Reception up to when students leave the education system!
Finding Information:
Children need to realise that teacher’s are not the only source of information in the classroom (Caldwell, 2014). This is a concept that is brought in at a young age, for example: a statement in the EYFS states that; Children from a young age often know that you can find out information from the computer (Page 29). Children are quickly taught that there are other methods for finding out information other than asking the teaching. Children are able to use the internet and other sources to find out information about anything they like, for example: if children are unable to answer a scientific question, or want to know a historic fact. From previous experience in schools: I have used the internet with children to find the answer to a question that I did not know. Although it is all well and good children recognising that the internet can be used to research information, it is also important that children do not become reliant on the internet for answers. Caldwell and Honeyford state the following: “As teachers, we need to help children to see that there is more to Internet research than ‘cutting and pasting’ from Wikipedia into a Word document”; which I think is another important statement to consider; children need to be aware that although the internet is brilliant for finding and sharing information, there are also many other brilliant things the internet can be used for.
Communication:
Glueck (2013) states that “Technology is an essential part of our lives today and few can imagine living without”, one of the main uses of technology is communication. Most people have mobile phones, and laptops and iPads that they use to communicate with others on a daily basis. Caldwell and Honeyford (2014) state that technology can support those children with communication, speech and language needs; children can express themselves through technology in ways they might not be able to through speech. This module has opened my eyes to the ways in which technology can help children with learning difficulties; there are so many apps and programmes available for children to use to help develop their basic skills; including motor skills and fine motor skills. There are also apps and programmes which are adapted for those with SEN, for example: adapted apps that can be used with switches, and eye vision. And there are also many apps and programmes available for those children who are EAL, these programmes can support children in learning English, but also support children learning in their own language to ensure their development is not hindered by a language barrier.
Communication between home and school can also be improved through using technology. Parents can have access to a class blog, and can see their child’s work and contributions on the blog. Email is a popular method of communication between home and school, particularly for parents who work long hours and are unable to meet teachers before and after school. There are also other ways that parents and school have can a keep in contact, for example: Parent Mail. On a previous placement, the teachers had an internet site where they could text parents at the end of the day about positive things their child had done in class that day. Communication amongst teaching staff, and also the communication between teaching staff and other services is supported by the communication through email and other communication sources. Communication is key across the education system.
My time at University:
My three years in ICT/Computing at University have taught me so much! I came to University with quite a skeptical view of Computing; I believed that too much emphasis was being placed on technology, rather than on children playing and exploring (Morgan and Siraj-Blatchford), I thought that children were being damaged by some of the media that is available, e.g. some of the violent video games that young children are exposed too. I also believed that Computing was an discrete lesson, and did not involve any cross curricular links. However, I now realise how wrong I was about Computing and technology. Over my three years at University, I have realised how important Computing is, and how important technology is to children’s development. I still believe that the video games available for children from a young age are poisoning children’s minds, however, there is so much more to technology than just video games. I have learned so many different ways in which I can use technology to teach across the curriculum, and I have learned that technology is more than just a child sitting in front of a computer; there is such a broad range of resources available, and I hope that I am lucky enough in the future to have a school with a bank full of computing based resources.
My future Career:
To conclude, I believe that computing is an extremely important curriculum subject, and in my opinion, all children should have frequent access to technology. I believe that computing and technology should be used to enhance children’s learning, and not to replace previous methods of teaching that have always been used. I believe that there are significant benefits for children, parents, and teachers who use technology. I also believe that the curriculum can be extended, communication can be improved, and technology can help the curriculum become more inclusive; which is something that all teachers should be striving for.
In the future, I hope that I am able to deliver a curriculum with an even balance between technology based learning and non-technology based learning. I hope I am able to use computing across the curriculum, and incorporate different aspects of the computing curriculum into other subjects to ensure a strong understanding of the subject. I will strive to ensure that children have frequent access to technology, in a hope that children will develop a strong digital literacy. I will ensure to follow school procedures on internet safety, to be sure that the children I teach remain safe while using the internet. I am also hoping to continue blogging in my future career, and I am excited at the prospect of having my own class blog to share.
References:
- Beckly, P. (2013). Early Years Foundation Stage; changes, challenges and reflections. Berkshire: Open University Press.
- Caldwell, H and Honeyford, G in, Smith, P. Dawes, L (2014). Subject Teaching in the Primary Curriculum. London: SAGE Publications Ltd
- Lee, J., Eke, R. (2009) Using talk effectively in the primary classroom. Oxon: Routledge.
- O’Hara, M (2004). Teaching 3-8, 2nd Edition. London: Continuum.
1 Comment so far
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Tina Brayford on November 7, 2014 1:11 pm
I enjoyed reading this, thank you for sharing. Good luck with your career in teaching. | https://mypad.northampton.ac.uk/12416976/2014/11/06/vision-statement/ |
Keyword: Teacher education
The use of cases has been promoted as a promising instructional method for creating authentic learning environments. However, the development and implementation of the best instructional strategies for effective use of cases still require further research. This paper addresses some of these gaps by proposing an emergent instructional model to be grounded in constructivism and current instructional models for case-based pedagogy. The model was implemented in a science methods course for elementary education prospective teachers. The participants engaged in several activities for four cases such as participating in online and classroom discussions and writing reflection papers. In this paper, first, we will present the connection between the pedagogy and teacher education; second, we will introduce the theoretical framework with implications for the instructional model; then, we will present some examples of learning experiences that should be included in a constructivist case-based learning environment with the proposed instructional model. Lastly, we will present findings from a study wherein the proposed model was applied to support prospective teachers’ socioscientific issue-based teaching and learning, and discuss implications for research and practice.
Keywords: case-based pedagogy, teacher education, instructional model
This research was designed and conducted considering the theoretical and practical suggestions of design-based research (DBR) methodology and aimed to identify and address problems in a one-semester technology integration course at a Midwest university in the US. Community of practice (CoP) was used as the theoretical framework in this research to design and implement interventions, and improve the quality of the course. The researcher observed a community of teacher educators and aimed to make suggestions for building successful strategies for communities of practice in similar contexts. The study results showcased the connection between pedagogy, content and technology as an important theme for preparing future teachers in technology integration courses but also in all the teacher education courses. Furthermore, aligned with the previous literature, pre-service teachers’ beliefs and confidence were identified as important conditions for effective technology integration. CoP was found as a challenging but helpful model when all the members share ideas in a supportive and balanced environment. An experienced member of the community acting as a moderator and facilitating the discussions was helpful to address the communication issues in a community of teacher educators.
Keywords: community of practice, design-based research, teacher education, technology integration
The present study aimed to improve the experiences of pre-service science teachers in content development using Web 2.0 tools and to determine the effects of these experiences on their self-efficacy beliefs in content development via Web 2.0 tools. The present study was conducted with a mixed design that included empirical and phenomenological methods. Forty-two pre-service science teachers participated in the study. During the implementation, pre-service teachers developed content using Web 2.0 tools such as Kahoot, Quizizz, Powtoon, Emaze, MindMeister and Toondoo and shared the content with the class using Edmodo. “Self-Efficacy Belief Scale on Fast Content Development via Web 2.0” was used as pre- and post-tests. Findings demonstrated that pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and all sub-dimensions of content development via Web 2.0 tools improved as a result of the implementation. The views of them were grouped under seven themes; prejudice, satisfaction, awareness, fun, infrastructure problems, language problems and tool problems. Additionally, when the mean of item responses were examined, it was seen that the highest one was about preparing worksheet self-efficacy belief. Furthermore, it was determined that pre-service teachers were happy to participate in the implementation, recognized ways to integrate technology in their fields, and had fun while developing content.
Keywords: Educational technologies, Web 2.0 tools, Self-efficacy, Content development, Teacher education
Adaptive learning programs are frequently used in the K-8 mathematics classroom. These programs provide instruction to students at the appropriate level of difficulty by presenting content, providing feedback, and allowing students to master skills before progressing. The purpose of the study was to seek to interpret how preservice teachers’ experiences influence their perceptions and plans to integrate adaptive learning programs in their future K-8 mathematics classroom. This was a qualitative study with 17 participants who were enrolled in an undergraduate teacher education program. Data was collected and analyzed from archived journals the participants completed as a part of their K-8 Math Methods course, a survey, and semi-structured interviews. The findings from this study indicate that the participating preservice teachers perceive adaptive learning programs to be beneficial for students, and they recognize they have many decisions to make regarding what adaptive learning programs are used and how they are integrated into the classroom. The study also found that the instruction the preservice teachers received in their K-8 Math Methods course played a critical role in making them aware of the features available and myriad of options available in adaptive learning programs.
Keywords: Preservice teacher education, Mathematics education, Adaptive learning systems, Perceptions for technology
This study aims to expose the training and experience that pre-service teachers acquire in the course of their study at schools of education in regard to the use of information and communication technology (ICT). The study adopts the survey model and its sampling is comprised of 832 pre-service teachers who attend four different faculty of education in Turkey. The data were collected by means of a scale developed by Tondeur, van Braak, Siddiq and Scherer (2016) on the basis of SQD (Synthesis of Qualitative Evidence) model. It was basically found that pre-service teachers do not receive adequate training and support in regard to the use of ICT in education during the courses of their study at faculty of educations. This situation varies statistically according to gender and the faculty of education variables. In the process of technology integration in teacher education, it is important in terms of effectiveness and efficiency that resources other than human and human power are handled in a more realistic way. So, it is considered that the findings of the present study may help in the processes of planning and implementing the technology integration in teacher education.
Keywords: Technology integration, Teacher education, Preservice teachers
The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between preservice teachers’ Web 2.0 competencies and their critical thinking disposition (CTD). The study employed an associational research design using California Critical Thinking Disposition-Inventory (CCTD –I) and a Web 2.0 competency questionnaire including items related to Web 2.0 awareness, Web 2.0 use, and educational use of Web 2.0 tools. Five different Web 2.0 tools included in the study: (a) blogs, (b) wikis, (c) social networking websites, (d) YouTube, (e) podcasts. A total of 1335 preservice teachers completed the survey. Findings indicated that participants had a medium level internet use, Web 2.0 awareness, Web 2.0 use and Web 2.0 skills while their educational Web 2.0 use level was low. In terms of competencies on certain Web 2.0 tools, their blog, wiki and podcast competencies were at a very low level, whereas their social networking and YouTube competency levels were high. Findings also showed that there were significant relationships between preservice teachers' Web 2.0 competencies and their critical thinking disposition. The results highlighted that the use of different Web 2.0 tools can be complementary to each other during certain instructional activities to improve different dimensions of critical thinking disposition.
Keywords: Critical thinking, Higher order cognitive skills, Teaching-learning strategies, Web 2.0 awareness, Web 2.0 competencies, Preservice teacher education
Blended learning, as a new approach to education, is rapidly being adopted by educational institutions for the purpose of teacher education or teacher training. This study reports the results of a survey exploring the relationships between perceived learning and satisfaction in a blended teacher education program among three different groups of specialization at the Institute of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). This study was mainly exploratory in nature, employing specifically the quantitative research method, utilizing cross-sectional survey as the method of data collection. The respondents consisted of 170 teacher trainees who were randomly selected through quota sampling. The instrument used to collect data was a modified questionnaire that measured the respondents’ perception of learning and satisfaction in the blended teacher education program. The respondents reported high levels of perceived learning and satisfaction toward the blended teacher education program. The results showed positive and moderate correlation between perceived learning and satisfaction, while there was no statistically significant difference among all groups of teacher trainees’ perception of learning and satisfaction.
Keywords: Teacher education program, Blended learning, Perceived learning, Student satisfaction
The incorporation of technology into teaching and research is one of the most important challenges for education today. It is time to move beyond the walls of our classrooms to join forces with other institutions and societies to revitalize education. The present paper focuses on the use of technology in teaching-learning process that will greatly contribute to meet student needs for learning anywhere, anytime. Integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into teaching and learning process is a growing field which has variety of definitions according to different points of view. A very common view asserts that the application of ICT processes should be presented in an integrated way as well as concrete model need to be developed for the teachers in order for the integration process to improve students’ learning. Based on the premise that “The integration process should strengthen learning of students”, there is a need to present an integrated point of view in the application of these processes and to develop some concrete examples for teachers. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to develop a model assessing the ICT integration process and helping to improve students’ learning.
Keywords: Information and Communication Technologies, ICT intregration, Enhancing learning, Educational improvement, Teacher Education
This study was conducted to explore teachers’ skills, perceptions, and practices about ICT in second-cycle institutions in Ghana. Questionnaires were distributed to 273 teachers in different departments, 241 were returned, and 231 were valid for data analysis, representing a response rate of 85%. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by a panel of experts in the field. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was 0.91. Descriptive statistics and correlation were used to analyze data. Of the 231 teachers, 66% were males and 34% were females. Majority of the respondents were between the ages 30-39. The correlation analysis revealed positive correlation between ICT use and teachers’ competences. Further, teachers’ perceptions in terms of using ICT were found to be positive but not statistically significant. Finally, the study revealed inverse correlations among ICT use, age, and teaching experience. The descriptive results indicated that teachers’ knowledge in basic ICT applications as well as integrating ICT into teaching and learning processes was low. These results provide evidence that the introduction of ICT in teaching and learning has not brought any change in the delivery of education in second-cycle schools in Ghana. This also implies that teachers have not shifted from teacher-centered instruction to student-centered learning. From the findings of the study, it is recommended that courses such as computer supported learning, ICTs and designing instructional materials should be introduced in initial teacher training programs to improve teachers’ level of confidence and perceptions towards the use of ICT.
Keywords: Technology integration in schools, Teachers’ perceptions of ICT, Student-centered learning, Information and communication technologies, Teacher education
The main goal of the current study was to analyze early childhood and elementary pre-service teachers’ choices of participant-designed materials and the reasons for their selection. To this end, 57 elementary and 39 early childhood teacher candidates were asked to design one physical material and one electronic material for instruction. Then, they were asked which type of material they would prefer if they were teaching and what their rationale was for this selection. The results revealed several dissimilarities between early childhood and elementary teacher candidates in terms of their choices and the reasons for their choices. In their rationale, elementary pre-service teachers more referred their limited technological knowledge while early childhood pre-service teachers took attention to the need for hands-on activities for their instruction. In general, participants raised critical questions related to teachers’ technological knowledge, and teacher preparation programs as well as professional development programs regarding how to integrate such instructional technologies effectively into course activities to enhance learning.
Keywords: Instructional material, Instructional material design, Pre-service teachers, Early childhood education, Elementary education, Teacher education programs
The importance of ICT in empowering teachers and learners, and enhancing teaching and students’ achievement has been highlighted in several studies. Similarly, the digital divide between the developed and developing nations had been of a serious concern to educators. The paucity of studies on ICT integration in the developing nations needs to be addressed so as to ensure total integration of ICT in the school curriculum. This study examined empirically student-teachers’ competence and attitude towards information and communication technology. Gender influence on their competence and attitude were also examined. Participants were 382 student-teachers (181 males and 201 females) from the Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. The data collected through a questionnaire were analysed using percentages, means, and chi-square statistics. Findings revealed that majority of the student-teachers have positive attitude towards the use of ICT and they are competent in the use of few basic ICT tools. Overall, no significant difference was established between male and female student-teachers’ attitudes and use of ICT. The implication is that the student-teachers lacked the necessary competence in the full integration of ICT in the curriculum. This underscores the need to improve the ICT contents of teacher education programs in universities in developing nations. | https://www.cedtech.net/keyword/Teacher%20education |
administered to each of the two groups at the beginning of the study, the experimental group was exposed to computer packages method of instruction developed by the Nigeria Institute of Education (K.I.E) consisting of drills, tutorials and simulations while the control group was exposed to traditional methods in teaching of carbon (IV) oxide. At the end of the treatment, a post-test instrument which had been developed by the researcher was administered to each of the groups. Data obtained from the instruments were analysed descriptively using frequency and percentages and inferentially using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 17 computer software. The ANOVA results showed that students in the experimental group had higher level of mastery as compared to those in the control group (P=0.01) indicating that it is a better method of instruction. Similarly, the results showed that use of computer package promoted mastery of chemistry for boys as compared to girls (P=0.023) though its impact on students mastery based on age was found to be insignificant (P=0.154). It is therefore recommended that schools be adequately equipped with ICT infrastructure to enable use of computer package, relevant policy guidelines for integration of computer package in the teaching and learning process be formulated and implemented and teachers empowered to integrate computer packages in teaching and learning of chemistry.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Background of the Study.
Educational technology is the effective use of technological tools in learning and incorporates numerous types of media that deliver e.g. text books, audio CDs, photographs and animated information in the teaching and learning process. Similarly, it encompasses technological applications and processes such as audio or video tape, satellite TV, CD-ROM, and web-based learning as well as computer package, (Garrison, (2011)). A computer is a general purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a set of logical operations. Computers as technological tools have been used to teach, manage, show and communicate information which makes them unique compared the other learning devices (Georges, (2001)). Computer package is a method, which uses a computer in the teaching and learning, thereby strengthening students’ motivation and education in the process. In other words, use of computer package creates a learning environment where a computer program, or its application is used to assist in teaching and learning of a particular subject. This is because the use of computer package gives
opportunities to both students and teachers to learn at their speed and combine active learning with computer packages. (Daintith, (2004)).
According to Daintith and Wright (2008), over the last two decades, the use of computer package has become more and more widespread and important especially in difficult subjects, more specifically in the sciences. Several reasons have been advanced by researchers for the use of computer package to support educational programs, chemistry education included. Among these is the capability to provide information in form of text, graph, audio, video, picture, animation and simulation which aids in strengthening student’s mastery level. There is a form of one-to-one instruction and the opportunity for the students to proceed at their own pace, repeating parts of the exercise as they wish, none of which are available in a didactic classroom situation. In addition, there is the added variety and, perhaps, novelty in computer packages, along with the potential to use vivid and animated graphics, enabling three dimensional aspects, and other features to be viewed more realistically (Sanger and Greenbowe, (2000)).
In the United States of America, computer packages has long been considered as a method for addressing school improvement since it offers advantages over traditional instruction. computer packages involves a one-on-one interaction, multimedia capabilities that enrich the lesson presentations, self-pacing and instantaneous feedback. (Zhao and Lei, (2012)). The report illustrates that computer packages has positive effects on students’ achievements and attitudes. In addition, Fraser, Walberg, Welch and Hattie (1987) noted that the use of computers for instruction resulted in increased student interest, cooperation, achievement in science, and coverage of science curriculum. According to Bangert, and Kulik (1987), students receiving computer packages learn better and faster, and students’ scores on delayed tests indicate that
the retention of content learned using computer packages is superior to retention following traditional instruction.
Similar studies in Europe supports the fact that computer packages is an effective tool in enhancing student’s level of mastery in chemistry. In a study on the overall effectiveness of computer package in teaching chemistry, biology and physics in Turkey, the results indicated that computer packages has a positive effect on the academic achievement of students. Pontecorvo et al (1997) in a study to assess the effects of computer package on attitudes, motivation or learning, and the possible advantages of computer-assisted learning programs among secondary school students also reported a higher achievement rate for the experimental group that received computer packages than those in the control group who were exposed to traditional methods of instruction. Likewise, Levine and Donitsa (1997) compared the effects of traditional learning strategies to computer packages in applications and the assessment using chemistry Achievement Test on students and the results of the evaluations showed that students in the experimental group were more successful at answering questions than those in the control group.
Similar results were reported by Yalcinalp, Geban and Ozkan, (1995) among 6th grade chemistry students (Park, Lee and Kim, (2009)) among secondary school level learners. Similarly, in a study where the traditional and the computer package methods were used in teaching acids and bases in secondary chemistry ,a 52% improvement was observed in the post-instruction test results of the students of the experimental group whereas the control group only improved by 31%. The independent two-sample t-test was applied for the evaluation of the results and they were significantly different (Morgil, (2005)). The significant positive influence of computer package on the student’s achievement in chemistry has also been supported by Ranade (2006) and Bollinger (1986) whose conclusion was that computer packages provides greater opportunities to the students to learn and brings a new kind of experiences for the students in secondary schools thus it is better than the traditional method of learning chemistry. | https://newprojecttopics.com.ng/computer-package-senior-secondary-one-chemistry-students/ |
10 Common Mistakes Teachers Make While Teaching
Only the determined and leading work of the teachers will help the intentions of the policies drawn become an effective fact. Educational practices cannot be transformed and thus ensure that children know what they should know, without the consolidation of school institutions and without the active presence of teachers. Why the emphasis on the teacher? We cannot ignore that throughout the history of pedagogy, he (she) has been the subject that has put into practice great pedagogical premises. He has always played an essential role. Historically, it has gained a place where it has been a facilitator of the construction of knowledge and mediator in the consolidation of relationships.
In the current era, when we face the demands of globalization, worrying about generating an attitude towards learning implies, in turn, fostering the structuring of essential competencies to function in the world of practical life. These competencies are referred to the domain of scientific knowledge: knowing how science thinks and how it can be created from it; to the appropriation of labor competencies, to respond technically and technologically to the new production requirements; and to the construction of citizen competencies that allow us to live together in the midst of respect and otherness. But these are not the only actions that a teacher can perform: his presence serves as a reference for the configuration of identities. Teaching if not taken seriously may result in students taking help from assignment writing service.
1. Hearing is not the same as listening
To listen to the students is to listen to what they are saying, to listen is to understand what they are saying. Many times, we hear what they tell us, but we never pay enough attention because we are more concerned with our problems or what is happening around us. It is necessary to learn to listen actively, have the ability to empty your mind and give your time to those who are addressing you.
2. Value the result more than the process
Very common mistake among teachers: consider that the exam is everything, the only evidence of the teaching-learning process. The important thing as teachers is to supervise that the student learns not only at the end of a course or an exam but throughout the entire course. The real value is that they assimilate and retain knowledge, not a qualification.
3. Foster perfection and not excellence
When the exam is king, perfection becomes the goal of any learning. However, it is now understood that excellence is much more important than perfection because it affects the process more than the result.
4. Avoid conflicts
The conflicts themselves are not bad, despite the negative connotation that the term implies. What it is about is to transform the conflict into a positive conflict, that is, to make our students understand that a person is not measured by the conflicts or their mistakes but by how they behave and overcome those moments of crisis. It is also a good teaching moment because children can learn the value of dialogue, tolerance and conflict resolution.
Also read: 7 Must-Know Strategies to Conquer College in 4 Years
5. Silence is order and discipline
To teach, silence is essential. There is a phrase commonly used for traditional and unidirectional teaching (the teacher speaks, the student listens) is basic. Today, we cannot continue with this type of teaching, as teachers we must adapt to the new generations, their spirit of freedom and great criticism. Yes, there will be moments where silence is necessary (because it is always a sign of respect to those who are speaking), but there must also be moments for debate and critical spirit.
6. Be nice instead of empathic
An easy way to approach and create bonds of trust with students is through sympathy and humor. Without a doubt, it is a great tool to win student approval, to always have an answer to end any conflict, etc. But we must remember that sympathy is a solution that focuses on dodging conflict, while empathy is centered on the person, it is a solution that does not judge but understands.
7. Explaining is not the same as teaching
It is inevitable that, when you begin to practice as a teacher, the terms explain and teach are confused. A good class is identified when there is a balance between explanations and demonstrations, between transmitting knowledge and causing knowledge to arise from the student himself. It is more important for the child to learn, to learn only knowledge.
8. Ask closed questions
Sometimes to make our job easier, we ask simple questions that only have one correct answer, questions that do not generate options and that did not seek dialogue. If something we must learn is that open questions, those that incite doubt, questioning and reflection are much more effective in the learning process because they affect the emotional and invite feedback.
9. Sanction instead of mediating
In the event of a conflict in the classroom, the fastest and most immediate option is the sanction. However, the sanction lacks dialogue, so mediation is a much more effective method because it has a restorative effect. It is important that our students learn this skill because it will be very useful throughout their personal and professional life.
10. Focus only on intellectual intelligence, never on emotional intelligence
Traditional education is a linear education in which there is only time to work concepts and procedures. If, on the other hand, we give importance to emotions, we can rethink the way in which they are taught in the classroom, transform the academic curriculum and link it to promoting emotional competencies.
Over the years a difference has been made in the development of children. In the 80s and 90s, the little ones played in the company of their friends from the neighborhood to spinning tops, hopscotch or using the imagination to convert boxes into houses or rockets, while with the new millennium other customs and a more accelerated development arrived. Toys are more evolved, with more functions, to perform individual activities rather than in the company.
Today, before two years of age, children have already been in contact with a smartphone or a tablet. Thus, with this change in the environment, it has become necessary to use teaching methods for children to develop their skills, through playful learning, based on their discovery and experience that, as an individual, perceives the favorable and ecological environment that surrounds it. | https://bestessaywritingservice.org/blog/mistakes-teachers-make-while-teaching/ |
Through the school immersion in the Australian International School (AISHK), lots of differences are being observed between an international school and local primary schools, such as school's environment, language policy and teaching methods.
Why are there differences between local primary schools and an international school even though these schools are located in the same territory? Why do the primary in-service teachers in Hong Kong have different teaching methods when compared with that of international school's teachers? How do the teaching methods that used by local teachers influence local students in learning process?
In this essay, the above aspects will be further discussed and elaborated.
Observation- Teaching Methods Used in the AISHK
Interactions between teachers and students are commonly found in the AISHK. Teachers, for example, ask some questions to let students answer. Students are divided into groups to do different tasks. Thus, lessons are dominated by teachers' speeches.
Inside students' portfolio, there are worksheets that are done by students. It is not difficult to find out teachers always praise students' work. Teachers write "Good Work" "Excellent" "Fantastic Listening" "Good Job" to praise their students. Even though students may not do very well, they will write "Good Try" on their worksheets. If a student does not do very well on a specific task, the teacher will not scold students or fold their work. Instead, teacher will write one or two short sentences to remind his or her student to do better next time.
During lessons, textbooks are not used in the AISHK. Drills are not commonly used there. When teachers ask student's questions, teachers do not tell them the answers immediately. Students are not required to recite teachers' model answers. Thus, students can have more chances to explore knowledge by themselves.
Comparison between AISHK and Local Primary Schools Regarding
Teaching Methods
There are several differences when comparing AISHK and local primary schools. They have different school curriculum, student's nationality, assessing methods and different teaching methods. In this session, teaching methods between these two types of schools will be discussed.
Firstly, in AISHK, lessons are not teachers' lectures
while in most of the local primary schools; lessons are dominated by teachers'
speeches.
Secondly, the AISHK and the local primary schools have different foci on students' work. Teachers focus on students' learning processes, not students' results.
Teachers in local primary schools seldom or never praise students and their work. Teachers use grading methods (A, B, C, D) to grade students' work. It affects students' self-esteem while they are learning. However, in AISHK, teachers praise them frequently. Even though students get most of the answer with ticks, teachers of local primary schools stamp "Try more hard" on their work. If a student gets most of the answers wrong, he or she will receive a stamp "You did a mess, parent please signs your name here". Whereas in AISHK, teachers encourage students to make improvement by writing "Good Try" on their worksheets.
Textbooks are the main component in local schools' lessons. Teachers always use them to teach and then students use them to revise their lessons. While in the AISHK, textbooks are rarely found in classrooms. In addition, the Audio-Lingual Method is commonly found in Hong Kong local primary schools. Such as expansion drill, single-slot substitution drill and transformation drill. These drills restrict students' thinking in their learning process as most of the local teachers in general tell their model answers without letting students to find their answers. On the opposite, teachers provide adequate time for students to think of the questions. These drills are not being used in the AISHK.
The rationale behind the usage of traditional teaching
methods of HK primary school teachers
Five reasons that can explain why local primary school teachers (more correctly to say, local teachers) adopt traditional teaching methods in teaching though they know that these methods have many drawbacks.
1. Teachers' Personal History
Personal History is one of the important aspects that influenced how a teacher teaches his/her students. For instances, teachers avoid the bad methods used by his/her teachers. If his teacher bit students because of unwanted behaviour, he will avoid biting his students when he deals with students who have misbehaviour. If his past teacher use Method A to deliver his lessons, when he becomes a teacher, he will use his past teacher's teaching method- Method A. It is because he has got used to the method used by his past teacher though he has adopted some new and effective teaching methods in the Hong Kong Institute of Education.
As teachers cannot adopt to the usage of new and effective teaching methods, they usually retain to use their own traditional drills and practice in schools, even though they know clearly that the traditional one have drawbacks.
In addition, teachers were taught to make less or no mistakes in the past. If they made a lot of mistakes, their teachers will scold them or punish them. Therefore, teachers point out their students' mistakes without seeing that students have paid their effort to do their work.
Moreover, teachers did not receive or seldom receive praising from their teachers when they were young. Their teachers believed that praising would make students become too proud of their work. Students would eventually become lazy. In present times, teachers are either unwilling to give praises to students or they do not how to praise their students.
2. Chinese Culture Learning Method
Most of the local primary school teachers are Chinese, more or less, they are affected by the Chinese cultural of learning. During lessons, teachers are the only speaker in classroom. Students need to be quiet throughout the lessons. The process of learning is that teachers teach and then students listen, write and memorize the knowledge. The most important point to notice is students must obey what the teachers have said. These features can be found until now!
The consequences are that, discussions among teachers and students, discussions among students are not available in schools. Without these discussions, it is uneasy to check the understanding of students. Students do not have a channel to express their ideas. It indirectly hinders the development of students' creativity since skill development is emphasized during the lessons.
Another effect is that students get used to a popular
use of teaching method in Hong Kong- Spoon- feed teaching. Students do not have
the motivation to discover and explore things around themselves. They just rely
on the knowledge from the speech of teachers and then their textbooks. It is
predictable that if Spoon-feed teaching approach is used continuously, it is
impossible to enforce the Life-long learning in Hong Kong society.
Nowadays, most of the teachers in Hong Kong use authority instead of using respect when they teach their students. They think that authority is the only way to consolidate students to obey what they have said, regardless that students in this century are not as obedience as them when they were students in the past.
3. Limited space in classroom/ classroom setting
The classroom setting of most of the primary schools is roughly the same. There is inadequate space inside the classrooms. There are thirty to forty-five chairs and desks in each classroom, with a blackboard, teaching desk and chair and some lockers for the students. This kind of classroom setting has one advantage, it restricts students talking in class. However, the area is so dense that it forbids students to move around inside the classroom. Activities are limited as the classroom's environment does not favour to hold activities in class.
4. Tight schedule in local primary schools
It is very tiresome for teachers to finish the school syllabus on one hand and then on the other hand to hold various sorts of activities, such as games, dramas, competitions, etc. during lessons because of tight schedule in local primary schools. Each lesson only lasts for 30-35 minutes which is too short to teach students' knowledge and give homework to them to finish at home. So, it is hard for local teachers to have activities regularly in schools.
5. Having heavy workload
There are excessive tasks for teachers to do. For example, they need to prepare for their lessons, correct assignments for their students, deal with administration work of the school, hold extra-curricular activities, etc. All these tasks make teachers busy all the time. They hardly prepare the lessons well and use the ideal teaching methods that they have attained.
The Advantage and Disadvantage of Uusing Traditional
Teaching Methods and Effects to Primary Students in HK
Advantage
The advantage of using traditional teaching methods can guarantee teachers can finish the school syllabus on time. Students can revise their lessons eventually afterwards.
Disadvantage
The disadvantage is that, students get bored in lessons because there are not many activities available in class. Tough timetable forces teachers to be the only speakers in the lessons. As a result, insufficient interaction between teachers and students in schools resulted.
In the perspective of students, they may think that it is not interesting to learn things at school. If the lessons are conducted in Chinese, the problem may be less serious as they know what the teachers teach. Whereas, for lessons which are not taught in their mother tongue, such as English and Putonghua, they may find difficulties in learning them. Without interaction, they find it monotonous to study these subjects. The consequence is that they have no intrinsic motivation to learn and acquire knowledge. It virtually affects students' learning attitude. They may adopt laissez-faire while they are learning. Life-long learning cannot be achieved in the society.
How to conduct Effective Teaching in Classroom and to be an Effective Teacher
It is distinguished to use effective teaching methods to boost students in lessons. First of all, teachers should be clear in the classroom. They should use examples, illustrations, and demonstrations to expound and clarify text and workbook context. If teachers find that students do not understanding what they have taught, they have to repeat the specific topic once or even reteach it.
Secondly, Teachers should have instructional variety in the classroom. They should not ignore students' talk as students begin to have confidence to reply you question in their own belief. Teachers should adopt students' idea instead of thinking their answer must be the model answer. By doing so, students can realize that teachers respect them as a whole, not as an inferior.
Thirdly, people need praising throughout their lives. Teachers should give praises to students from time to time. This strengthens their confidence and encourages them to love learning. In the contrast, if teachers do not praise students, or even scold them in their learning procedure, they will think that they are not good at learning things. Eventually, they lose their interest in acquiring further knowledge.
Fourthly, teachers can use group and individual activities as motivating aids in lessons.
These can provide opportunities for students' to give feedback. Discussions among students can create an environment for them to cooperate with peers. They can learn how to do group work. Trust and teamwork among students can be developed.
An effective teacher should always observe and record his or her teaching behaviour regularly. This can let himself or herself know how effective or ineffective teaching approach that he or she has used. (Borich, G.D., 1990) It reflects what aspect(s) a teacher should improve and what behaviour should be preserved. It can definitely help shaping teacher's proficiency.
An effective teacher should be adaptable and they should accept students' point of view. If they are adaptable, they will find it easier to adopt new ideas, especially in adopting new teaching techniques. They will have the capacity to accept students' ideas and also to learn the merits from their colleagues.
Conclusion
Owing to different cultures of the AISHK and the local primary schools, numerous differences are drawn as a result. It is not surprising to see these two types of schools have different school curriculums, different school environment provided to students and different teaching methods.
Comparatively speaking, the teaching methods used by the AISHK's teachers are more successful in enhancing students to learn than local primary school teachers. It is because there are interactions between students and teachers and also among students. Teachers always give praises to students. This can indirectly allow students to keep their well behaviour and also boost them to have a sense of self-learning in long run.
Not only the primary school teachers in Hong Kong use traditional methods in teaching, but also teachers from all over the world. Thereby, it is invalid to put all the blames on Hong Kong local teachers. In the reality, all teachers from different races and nationalities should improve their own teaching practice. In order to achieve this goal, teachers should work closely with their students as teaching and learning are mutually related.
There is no perfect teacher in the world. However, teachers should try to improve their teaching methods on one side and on the other side, they should imitate to adopt new and useful methods as teachers' teaching method play influential role on students' learning process.
Reference List:
Borich, G.D., (1992.) Effective Teaching Methods. NY: Macmillan Publishing Company
Watkins, D. and Biggs, J. (Eds.). (1996) The Chinese Learner: Cultural Psychology and Contextual Influences. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre and the Australian Council for Educational Research
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1996). Techniques and Principles in language teaching. England: Oxford.
Australian International School(2002.) School Aims. Retrieved November 27,2002, from http://www.aishk.edu.hk/aims.html
Chong, Y.C., Sze, W. L., Wan, Y.C., Wong, W.L.(2002.) The value and influence of Personal History on teacher thinking. Hong Kong: Chong, Y.C., Sze, W. L., Wan, Y.C., Wong, W.L. | https://www.oocities.org/hk/alsaceli/aishk.htm |
At Experts Group, our training programs offer you opportunities to acquire valuable knowledge and skills from renowned technical experts and specialists from around the world. Through our wide range of courses, we present new concepts and the knowledge of the day, towards developing systematic, creative and innovative thinking.
With full knowledge and accurate understanding of today’s economy, economic and management researches are offered by Experts Group to improve organizations and eradicate shortcomings.
Experts Group uses its reliable sources of information and vast research potentials and resources to provide feasibility studies in development plans such as technical, financial, economic and environmental to assess the feasibility of execution and cost effectiveness of projects considering international standards recommended by international bodies, e.g. WTO, UN, etc.
Experts Group uses its reliable sources of information and vast research potentials to conduct feasibility studies in development plans such as technical, financial, economic and environmental in order to assess the feasibility of execution and cost effectiveness of projects considering international standards recommended by international bodies, e.g. WTO, UN, and other national and international authorities. | http://experts-group.com/our-services/education-and-training/ |
18th November 2020
The PROMPPT feasibility study has been granted the green light from Keele University’s Clinical Trials Unit. The green light process is the final step of study set up before recruitment can begin.
What is a feasibility study?
A feasibility study is conducted to find out whether a proposed service is appropriate for further research testing. The PROMPPT feasibility study will determine whether the PROMPPT pain management review should proceed to the next phase of the research programme.
Invitations to potential participants for the PROMPPT feasibility study are now being sent out. Participants who agree to take part will help test the acceptability and feasibility of the new PROMPPT pain management review. The review will be delivered by clinical pharmacists in primary care for people living with persistent pain and take regular opioid medicines (>6 months).
The PROMPPT pain management review is underpinned by the current evidence-base and a year-long piece of qualitative research, called Q-PROMPPT, collaborating with patients, public, healthcare professionals and key stakeholders. We are excited to begin the feasibility study and test the review across 4 GP practices in the East and West Midlands to critically assess how acceptable the review is to patients, pharmacists and GPs.
What makes a pain management review acceptable?
Acceptability is an important component of success. Broadly, acceptability of the PROMPPT pain management review will depend on its perceived value, effectiveness, appropriateness, and accessibility to patients, clinical pharmacists, and GPs.
The findings from feasibility testing will help improve the review before the next project phase, a large randomized control trial.
A bespoke training package has been developed for the clinical pharmacists delivering the review. In light of the current pandemic, all of the training has gone online, and pharmacists will be supported throughout by the research team and clinical champions. | https://promppt-tmp.hfac.keele.ac.uk/2021/07/18/promppt-feasibility-study-gets-the-green-light/ |
Evaluative Criteria in Policy Making
Policymaking is a complex process. Various alternatives confront policymakers during the policymaking process. The evaluation criteria ordinarily depend on the combination of various values and facts available for a specific policy. The policymakers may look at the qualities or principles that the community holds as intrinsically valuable while making policy decisions. For instance, policymakers may settle on a particular policy based on its fairness to all individuals. The evaluation criteria outline the specific values that a particular policy should fulfill. Policymakers may rely on single evaluative criteria or opt for more than one depending on the circumstances. This paper examines the applicability of different evaluative criteria including economic costs, efficiency, policy effectiveness, and equity.
As earlier mentioned, policymakers may opt for a particular evaluative criteria depending on the context or circumstances surrounding the policy decision. As such, there is no ‘standard’ evaluation criterion to apply across all situations. Policymakers use a number of evaluative criteria to make justifications for the application of particular policies (Kraft & Furlong, 2012). The first evaluative criterion is efficiency. Efficiency is a measure that looks at the program goals vis-a-vis the costs. The measure aims at establishing whether the program benefits outweigh the costs. Efficiency aims at ensuring that scarce resources are allocated to their best uses. It measures how various inputs such as time, equipment, funds, expertise, and others are utilized.
The second evaluative criterion is policy effectiveness. This criterion examines the extent to which a particular intervention’s objectives are achieved (Kraft & Furlong, 2012). In other words, effectiveness measures the achievement of goals and objectives of the project. Every project or policy aims to achieve specific objectives. Policymakers may opt to scrap a particular policy or project basing on its effectiveness. If the policy is unable to achieve its effectiveness, then there are higher chances it may face elimination. Policymakers may also measure whether there is a possibility of achieving certain goals and objectives through implementation of particular policies in future. If the probability is low, such policies may be dismissed in the earlier stages.
Related: REFLECTION PAPER- THE GROWTH OF US GOVERNMENT
Another important evaluative criterion is equity. Equity refers to fairness or justice of the particular processes or the outcomes of particular decisions (Kraft & Furlong, 2012). Equity ensures that all subgroups share equally the benefits and any costs arising from a particular policy intervention. From Chapter 6, equity has two dimensions in the policymaking process. The first dimension involves ensuring that the decision making process is fair among all participants. The second dimension examines the fairness of the results of the decisions made. Equity is important because it ensures that all policy interventions affect all subgroups or particular populations in a fair way. It ensures that all subgroups experience fair treatment and that none is disadvantaged through enactment of new policy interventions.
Another important criterion is social acceptability. This refers to the extent to which the public supports a particular policy intervention (Kraft & Furlong, 2012). Public support is critical because most of public policy interventions affect the citizens. As such, their opinions or support of the policy is critical. Another important criterion is sustainability. Sustainability refers to the possibility of continuing the policy intervention even after the key development assistance ceases. Financial sustainability is of great significance to any policy intervention. Sustainability is the ability of various stakeholders to maintain the intervention benefits. Other evaluative criteria include impact, relevance, technical feasibility, administrative feasibility, political feasibility, liberty, and among others.
It is true that some criteria are more important for certain kings of policy questions than for others. From Chapter 6, it is clear that policy analysts are interested in identifying whether one alternative is better than another in addressing a particular policy question. Policy analysts prefer using a criterion that is line with a set of given circumstances and that align to a policy area. For instance, policy analysts are more likely to apply efficiency as an evaluation criterion in developing of regulatory policies and evaluation of market-based approaches. Equity as an evaluative criterion would best fit policy questions relating to civil rights, access to education, access to health services, equality in taxation, and disability rights. Social acceptability as an evaluative criterion would best fit enactment of controversial policies that touch on the lives of all citizens, such as crime control measures, right to abort, and among others. It might not make sense to evaluate a controversial policy that touches on the lives of all citizens in a community basing on efficiency. Similarly, it might not make sense to evaluate the decision to apply taxes basing on political feasibility.
To conclude, evaluative criteria in policy making are critical in helping analyze the suitability of a particular policy intervention. There are different evaluative criteria depending on the set of circumstances and the policy area under consideration. Common evaluative criteria include equity, efficiency, policy effectiveness, sustainability, social acceptability, and among others. Policy analysts must weigh the different criteria and settle on the logical criterion.
References
Chapter 6
Kraft, M. E., Furlong, S. R., (2012). 5th Ed. Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Click here to order this assignment @Speedywriters.us. 100% Original.Written from scratch by professional writers. | https://samplepapers.us/evaluative-criteria-in-policy-making/ |
16-item instrument used to assess staff’s perceived ease of use of the e-Volution-TREAT system as a care planning tool for clients with mental health problems and addictions.
Instrument used to rate readiness to implement knowledge and skills related to tobacco cessation, as well as the feasibility and importance of incorporating clinical tools into practice (items not available).
Structured Assessment of Feasibility
The SAFE is a 16-item instrument to assess the extent to an intervention is feasibile for implementation in mental health services.
10-item instrument designed to evaluate the usability and user satisfaction with web-based applications and other technologies.
The LOCI Feasibility, Acceptability, Utility Scale (Feasibility Scale)
10-item instrument to assess feasibility, acceptability, and perceived utility of leadership training for implementation (2-item feasibility scale).
The Measure of Disseminability
Trent, L., Buchanan, E., & Young, J. (Results are unpublished).
32-item instrument measuring likelihood to recommend treatment, effectiveness of treatment, and credibility of treatment.
Training Acceptability Rating Scale (Feasibility Scale)
15-item Instrument used to assess feasibility, acceptability, participant satisfaction, and perceived impact on participants’ confidence and competence following a training program in CBT (Items not available). | https://societyforimplementationresearchcollaboration.org/feasibility-measures/ |
During the feasibility stage, our objective is to determine the technical, operational and financial feasibility of the project.
Aside from cost effectiveness, a project’s feasibility may also depend on the proposed technology and processes used, the site location, and identifying and analysing additional project risks.
During this stage we undertake economic and project feasibility studies, site investigations, economic and market assessments and financial analysis in order to assess project viability. We then create a detailed report to define how the project scope will be implemented during the project lifecycle.
Our feasibility capabilities include: | http://www.smec.com/en_au/what-we-do/services/feasibility |
Märksõna:
alaprogramm [
FOOD
] otsingusõna [
INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, LONDON
]
«
tagasi projektide nimekirja lehele
Cleaning Litter by developing and Applying Innovative Methods in european seas
akronüüm:
CLAIM
algus:
2017-11-01
lõpp:
2021-10-31
programm:
H2020 - Horisont 2020
alaprogramm:
FOOD - Toiduga kindlustatus, säästev põllumajandus, mere- ja merendusuuringud ning biomajandus
instrument:
IA
projektikonkurss:
H2020-BG-2017-1
projekti number:
774586
kestus kuudes:
48
partnerite arv:
20
lühikokkuvõte:
CLAIM focuses on the development of innovative cleaning technologies and approaches, targeting the prevention and in situ management of visible and invisible marine litter in the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea. Two innovative technological methods will be developed, a photocatalytic nanocoating device for cleaning microplastics in wastewater treatment plants and a small-scale thermal treatment device for energy recovery from collected litter on board ships and ports. An innovative floating boom for collecting visible litter and a method to measure microlitter on board ships (Ferrybox) will be developed. The proposed cleaning technologies and approaches prevent litter from entering the sea at two main source points, i.e. wastewater treatment plants and river mouths. Effectiveness of developed devices and methods will be demonstrated under real conditions. Additionally, CLAIM will develop innovative modeling tools to assess the marine visible and invisible plastic pollution at basin and regional scales (Saronikos Gulf, Gulf of Lyon, Ligurian Sea and Belt Sea). An ecosystems approach will be followed to evaluate the potential benefit from proposed litter cleaning methods to ecosystem services. New business models will be developed to enhance the economic feasibility for upscaling the innovative cleaning technologies, taking into account the existing legal and policy frameworks in the CLAIM countries, as well as acceptance of the new technologies by their end-users and relevant stakeholders. The data and information produced will be made available to policymakers, stakeholders and end-users in a user-friendly format,both meaningful and tailored to each stakeholder group. CLAIM aims at the same time to raise public awareness with respect to having healthy oceans and seas, clean of litter and pollutants, and hence the importance of reducing marine (macro, micro and nano) pollution in European seas and beyond towards restoring marine ecosystems based on a circular economy. | https://edukad.etag.ee/project/3903?s=FOOD&t=INSTITUTE%20FOR%20EUROPEAN%20ENVIRONMENTAL%20POLICY,%20LONDON |
Business projects or ventures are very big in terms of size, investment involve, and resources required but there is always uncertainty about the success or failure of a business so to determine the credibility or likelihood of success of the business we do a feasibility study of projects.
So, in this article today we get an overview of what is a feasibility study and the types of feasibility studies, what is a feasibility report, the Components of the feasibility report, and its advantages.
► What is a Feasibility Study?
A feasibility study is the study of a proposed project or plan and it evaluates the practicality or viability of the project in order to determine whether the project will be a success or a failure.
A feasibility study examines all aspects of a proposed plan or project and ensures that the project should be legally and technically feasible as well as project is economically and environmentally sound.
Conducting a feasibility study is always important for a business and its potential stakeholders because shows a clear picture of the proposed project.
◉ Feasibility Study Meaning
- Feasibility study means an assessment of the practicality of a proposed plan, procedure, or method.
- A feasibility Study refers to a detailed analysis that considers all of the critical aspects of a proposed project in order to determine the likelihood of its success.
► What is the Feasibility Report?
A feasibility report is defined as comprehensive documentation of a feasibility study that tells us about the viability of the proposed project. The feasibility report is the outcome of the feasibility report.
In another word, a feasibility report is defined as a summarized, structured, and well-documented report which is the result of the feasibility report.
► Types of Feasibility Study
- Technical Feasibility
- Economic Feasibility
- Legal Feasibility
- Financial Feasibility
- Operational Feasibility
- Scheduling Feasibility
✔ 1. Technical Feasibility
Analysis of technological resources and competency required to complete the project.
Analysis of technicalities hardware and software and managerial and manpower capabilities to handle them is needed to how institutional capabilities meet the need of the proposed system.
✔ 2. Economic Feasibility
An economic feasibility report helps in analyzing the cost-benefit analysis of the project.
The economic feasibility study provides an assessment related to whether the project is possible under the given resource constraints and what are the tangible and non-tangible benefits of the project.
It also analyzes the development and operational cost of a project.
✔ 3. Legal Feasibility
A legal feasibility study helps in determining whether the proposed project is conflicting with the law and is enacted by the government. All the legal issues are examined that directly or indirectly affect the project.
Detailed legal due diligence should be done to protect the project from all foreseeable legal requirements.
While analyzing the legal feasibility of the project business examine the environmental law, taxation law, pollution law, Land acquisition law, and labor welfare law.
✔ 4. Financial Feasibility
Financial feasibility analyzes whether a project is financially viable.
It is mainly focused on the ROI (Return On Investment), Cash inflow or outflow, and expenses and revenue incurred from the proposed project.
It identifies the both cost of the project financial benefits of the project.
✔ 5. Operational Feasibility
Operational feasibility focuses on the degree to which the proposed project matches the business’s existing environment and objectives with regard to the development schedule, delivery date, and business process.
Operational feasibility study measure how well the proposed solution to problems or a specific solution will work in the organization.
✔ 6. Scheduling Feasibility
Scheduling feasibility examines how long time will take to complete the project. It is a measure of how reasonable the project timetable is.
If a project takes a long time to complete the project then there is a higher chance that the project will fail.
Also Read : Rational Decision Making
► Content of Feasibility Report
A feasibility report comprises of following sections
- Executive summary
- Description of product or service or project
- Project evaluation and consideration
- Technical Evaluation
- Legal Evaluation
- Economical Evaluation
- Social and environmental Evaluation
- Financial Evaluation
- Scheduling
- Evaluation of alternatives
- Conclusion
- Finding and Recommendation
► Steps of conducting the Feasibility Study
- Conduct a preliminary analysis
- Prepare the project scope outline
- Conduct your market research
- Calculate your financial cost
- Review and analyze all data
- Make a go or no-go decision
► Importance of Feasibility Study
- To determine the outcome of the proposed business idea or project
- Help in identifying a valid reason as to whether the project is needed or not
- It helps in enhancing the success rate of the project.
- It helps in determining the amount of investment required and future cash flow
- Identify the different alternatives.
- The feasibility study helps in persuade the investor.
- It helps in avoiding future risks.
- Help in assessing Resources, demand, and Market growth. | https://edukedar.com/what-is-feasibility-study/ |
In April of 2010 4.2 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon rig, causing the biggest oil spill and the largest environmental disaster to date.1 Now, five years later, President Obama released a plan to open drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf of the Atlantic Ocean.2 If offshore drilling in the Atlantic is to occur, the effectiveness of operations must be substantially more reliable than in the past to protect the nation’s economic, environmental, and public health. The 95 percent of leftover oil has severely impaired the gulf ecosystem, negatively impacted livelihoods that its citizens rely on, and cost over $100 billion in restoration and losses.1 Lessons learned from the Gulf spill must be strictly applied in order to protect the citizens of Atlantic coastal states, who have not consented to such operations. Below I propose and analyze three implementation options using weighted decision criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of each approach.
Offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. This expansion is considered a component of economic growth, but coastal natural resources must be protected for such growth to be successful.
It is vital to learn from the mistakes of the Deepwater spill that led to its downfall.
- Improper implementation of regulations led to ineffective oversight of drilling operations.3 There must be an industry wide shift from prioritizing profit to prioritizing risk prevention and implementation of best practices to uphold company reputations.3
- Equipment advancements are necessary to prevent the onset of spills. There is a focus on the improvement of blowout preventers, though investment in control and containment technology would improve cleanup preparedness, should there be a spill.4
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has created a mandatory Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) program for the industry to follow.5 The program promotes the structure for maintaining a safe working environment through proper training, the creation of management plans, and third party audits to learn how to improve operations in an effort to create a safety culture focused on constant improvement.5,6 The program includes:
- Process-oriented regulations that promote collaborative accountability and the sharing of information among involved parties, to allow others to learn from success.3
- Risk assessments and procedural audits from third party agencies.3 Such measures ensure accountability of operations and change implementations.7
The use of nongovernmental programs. The Center for Offshore Safety has published user guides for its Safety Performance Indicators (SPI) Program and Learning from Incidents (LFI) Program that contain information for industry members to improve and share data and effective management methods.8
PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
The following options assess the possibility of implementation and anticipated response by involved parties as measures required for Atlantic offshore drilling. The nature of the industry and its potential detrimental outcomes necessitates the complete cooperation of all participants to ensure the greatest outcome for the parties involved. Political feasibility (PF), industrial feasibility (IF), cost effectiveness (CE), and social benefit (SB) factors have been assessed for the following proposed solutions. Social benefits are weighted more heavily (30%) than the others (20%) due to the historic effects an oil spill has on non-consenting citizens; the government must impose whatever regulations necessary to attempt to ensure the safety of such operations, if they are to allow drilling to occur. Cost effectiveness is also weighted more (30%) due to the understanding that funds must be allocated to prevent disastrous outcomes of offshore drilling. Option viability is rated on a scale of 1-3. A rating of “1” indicates low feasibility due to costs outweighing the benefits. A rating of “2” indicates moderate feasibility where the costs equal the benefits. A rating of “3” indicates high feasibility where the benefits outweigh the costs. It is difficult to rate environment benefits due to lack of statistics surrounding the probability of a spill, so such criteria have been omitted.
- No Change
- Congress is divided on the expansion of offshore drilling and what it should entail. Allowing drilling to occur without increased safety measures is unlikely. (PF: 1)
- Industry must change to prevent consumer backlash and opposition from coastal states. (IF: 1)
- The future costs that current inaction and lack of preparation will have are large. (CE: 1)
- Citizens would be angered by their lack of say and the lack of safety provisions. (SB: 1)
- Use SEMS performance based regulation with additional SPI and LFI programs.
- The SEMS program has been implemented by the BSEE. Including information from the SPI and LFI program will enhance the information sharing aspect of the SEMS program, and such adjustments only need to be made through the BSEE. (PF: 3)
- The program is mandatory for future projects; proper use would require industry to qualitatively analyze their success and shortcomings and develop methods of improvement. (IF: 3)
- This solution tackles problems ahead of time through planning and maintenance. (CE: 3)
- This solution works to ensure the safety environment of rig workers, as well as makes the industry take responsibility for improving their actions. (SB: 3)
- Require best control and containment technology available for spill preparedness.
- Although technology does exist for such equipment, the government must invest in finding the best the technology to control and contain a spill.9 (PF: 2)
- Industry tends to resist making such equipment mandatory due to costs, but they must understand the benefits such equipment would have if a spill were to occur. (IF: 2)
- This is an expensive endeavor upfront, but it would save billions of dollars in the future. (CE: 2)
- Coastal citizens and rig workers benefit from this spill prevention and cleanup equipment. (SB: 3)
- Require submission of comprehensive Integrated Operations Plan to all involved agencies that mandates approval.
- Agencies involved in drilling regulations should review operation plans prior to onset of drilling in order to prevent unnecessary incidents. The agencies already have defined roles in offshore drilling regulations, though approval and requirement of subsequent changes would be time intensive. (PF: 2)
- There would be industrial resistance due to the time intensive nature of creating such a document and waiting for and then making required plan alterations. (IF: 1)
- This decreases the likelihood of a spill by making sure proper management steps are followed. (CE: 3; SB: 3)
RECCOMENDATION
While SEMS-based regulation receives the highest effectiveness score, I recommend a combination of solutions 2, 3, and 4 as the most feasible and effective provisions to prevent economic, environmental, and safety hazards associated with offshore drilling. Separately, these solutions tackle sections of potential drilling problems, but together they ensure the consciousness of the industry to plan ahead and prioritize the safety of its procedures as a means of being as cost effective as possible while accessing this resource. Although the economic costs of such implementation would be great, they pale in comparison to the costs that would be experienced should a spill occur. It should be understood that such access should be considered a privilege granted to those who have proved themselves worthy by adhering to guidelines and that can be taken away if proper compliance is not exemplified.
|Policy Options|
|Criteria||No Change||Require SEMS regulation||Require best control and containment equipment||Require comprehensive IOP with approval||Criteria Weight|
|Political Feasibility||1||3||2||2||0.200|
|Industrial Feasibility||1||3||2||1||0.200|
|Cost Effectiveness||1||3||2||3||0.300|
|Social Benefits||1||3||3||3||0.300|
|Option Score||1||3||2.25||2.25||1.000|
|Option Score (Weighted)||1||3||2.3||2.4|
Bibliography
- O’Malley, M. Don’t Drill Along the East Coast. The New York Times (2015). at <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/opinion/dont-drill-along-the-east-coast.html>
- Davenport, C. New Sea Drilling Rule Planned, 5 Years After BP Oil Spill. The New York Times (2015). at <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/us/new-sea-drilling-rule-planned-5-years-after-bp-oil-spill.html>
- Mills, R. W. & Koliba, C. J. The challenge of accountability in complex regulatory networks: The case of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Accountability in regulatory regimes. Regul. Gov. 9, 77–91 (2015).
- Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement & Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Oil and Gas and Sulphur Operations on the Outer Continental Shelf-Requirements for Exploratory Drilling on the Artic Outer Continental Shelf. (2015). at <https://federalregister.gov/a/2015-03609>
- Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) Fact Sheet. at <http://www.bsee.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Safety-and-Environmental-Management-Systems—SEMS/Fact-Sheet/>
- Office of Offshore Regulatory Programs. Safety and Environmental Management System Implementation. (2013). at <http://www.bsee.gov/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=36507222399>
- Morris, D. SEMS Program Summary-First Audit Cycle (2011-2013). (2014). at <http://www.bsee.gov/uploadedFiles/BSEE/Regulations_and_Guidance/Safety_and_Environmental_Management_Systems_-_SEMS/SEMS%20Program%20Summary%208132014.pdf>
- Center for Offshore Safety. Annual Performance Report for 2013 Reporting Year. 57 (2015).
- Deep water: the Gulf oil disaster and the future of offshore drilling: report to the President. (National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O, 2011). | https://environmentalpolitics.theorytoaction.com/policy-memo/increasing-the-safety-of-offshore-drilling-in-the-atlantic/ |
Promotores(as) and Hispanic Workers'Occupational Health in Post-Katrina New Orleans The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOHS) and its National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) have identified Hispanic construction workers, particularly those who are foreign-born and have immigrated recently, as a vulnerable group experiencing disproportionate occupational risks and significant disparities in access to interventions to reduce work-related injuries and illness. Multiple factors, including inadequate training made worse by language and cultural barriers, more dangerous job assignments and other potentially discriminatory hiring practices -- contribute to these disparities. Trained Lay Workers who are knowledgeable about a community - better known as promotores(as) de salud (""""""""health promoters"""""""") in Spanish - have been used nationally and internationally as facilitating agents in """"""""translating"""""""" - both in the cultural and linguistic sense - evidence-based health care and public health interventions. Consistent with NIOSH's Research to Practice Initiative, RAND and Common Ground Health Clinic of New Orleans are partnering to conduct a research project to: 1) Develop and pilot a brief promotor(a) intervention for the Hispanic worker population to improve knowledge and use of preventive behaviors regarding respiratory exposures and other occupational risks, and 2) Explore the role of promotor(a) gender (e.g. male versus female workers for male clients) in the acceptability of the intervention and its effectiveness in transmitting related knowledge and motivating preventive behaviors. A randomized longitudinal controlled trial will be used to evaluate changes in worker's knowledge and use of preventive behaviors as a result of the intervention. The intervention will be developed and piloted by a joint investigator-community end-user team to promote its feasibility and effectiveness. The post-Katrina New Orleans environment - with an almost non-existent language and culturally-competent local public health infrastructure - provides significant opportunities to develop and evaluate innovative interventions targeting the health needs of the large influx of Hispanic workers helping to rebuild the area. The proposed research will not only contribute new knowledge about the effectiveness of promotor(a) interventions, in general, and occupational health promotion and prevention interventions, specifically, but also help address occupational health disparities in this highly vulnerable population. Lessons learned about the effectiveness of the proposed intervention or lack thereof in the challenging New Orleans environment will help inform other occupational health interventions for Hispanic and other vulnerable workers nationwide.
Hispanic construction workers are a vulnerable group experiencing disproportionately greater occupational risks and other disparities than almost any other population in the US workforce. This project will pilot the feasibility and effectiveness of a promotor(a) (lay health worker) intervention to improve knowledge and behaviors of day laborers regarding their occupational risks from construction and clean-up activities post hurricane Katrina. Lessons learned will lend support for expanding and sustaining this approach for occupational health interventions for Hispanic and other vulnerable workers nationwide. | https://grantome.com/grant/NIH/R21-OH009605-02 |
Nursing care matters a great deal to patients and the public. Distress, unhappiness, and even injury or death can be a result of poor nursing care. The ESSENCE Programme will develop and test a new system to improve the quality of care for patients in hospitals.
Aims
We will develop and test nursing methods that focus on the ‘essentials of nursing care’. We will concentrate on:
• helping patients with
• eating and drinking;
• going to the toilet;
• moving around;
• being clean and comfortable
• communicating with patients
In ESSENCE, nurses will deliver care using a process called the ‘amalgamation of marginal gains’ (AMG). This has been used very successfully in sport and following surgery, but not so far in nursing. The AMG system is designed to help nurses achieve small improvements in many different areas. Combining these (‘amalgamating’) may lead to better results. For example, nurses must pay attention to how people communicate their care needs, what they drink, how they move around and when they go to the toilet. Making small improvements in all of these areas may improve patient experience and reduce the chance of adverse events such as dehydration or incontinence.
Design and Methods
We will use our Programme Development and Programme Grants to develop our amalgamated essential nursing care intervention, test its feasibility and acceptability to patients and nurses, and then evaluate the intervention in a large, multi-site randomised controlled trial.
Stage 1: the Programme Development work (February 2016-) will:
1. interview elite sports teams and healthcare innovators to analyse and understand their methods of operationalising the identification, targeting and amalgamation of marginal gains
2. synthesise evidence for the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of candidate intervention components for a nursing intervention addressing essential communication, nutrition/hydration, elimination, mobility and hygiene needs
3. strengthen our team and stakeholder consultation mechanisms
Stage 2: the Programme Grant (2018-) will consist of four workstreams:
Workstream 1: we will develop a prototype intervention via consultation with hospital patients and nurses.
Workstream 2: we will determine the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and proposed trial design in a pilot randomised trial.
Workstream 3: we will undertake a definitive randomised controlled trial evaluating the intervention’s effectiveness including process and economic evaluations.
Workstream 4: we will investigate the feasibility of transferring the ESSENCE intervention to nursing/care homes, to assess the work to be undertaken in order to adapt and implement it in these environments. | https://reflection-network.eu/project/19-essential-care/abstract.php |
Author reference:
Surveillance and Epidemiology Division, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Correspondence: Lil Tonmyr, Surveillance and Epidemiology Division, Public Health Agency of Canada, 785 Carling Avenue, AL 6807B, Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9; Tel: 613-240-6334; Email: [email protected]
Too many Canadian children are exposed to child maltreatment—neglect, emotional maltreatment, exposure to intimate partner violence, and physical and sexual abuse. Retrospective data indicates that 32% of Canadian adults have experienced childhood abuse.Footnote 1 There is evidence that child maltreatment is associated with a wide array of negative health consequences across the lifespan. These consequences expand across physical, mental, developmental and social domains to include suicide, substance abuse, anxiety, depression and physical health problems.Footnote 1-4
Experts have asked for coordinated national leadership in protecting children from maltreatment.Footnote 5,Footnote 6 They also envision broadening the mandate for injury prevention to include not only physical injury but also emotional injury and harm.
What can be done to prevent child maltreatment? This section of the special issue of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada: Research, Policy and Practice (HPCDP) focusses on prevention strategies for child maltreatment in Canada and, specifically, the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP). This public health nurse intervention aims to enhance pregnancy outcomes, child health and development, and economic self-sufficiency for the young mothers and children enrolled in the intervention. The NFP, developed in the United States, has shown positive and lasting results in three randomized control trials (RCTs). These results fall in areas relevant to the mandate of the Public Health Agency of Canada:
- reduction in child maltreatment and injuries to children;
- improvement in early childhood mental health and cognitive and language development;
- advances in school readiness;
- decline in adolescent antisocial behaviour;
- enhancement of women's perinatal health;
- increases in maternal economic self-sufficiency; and
- augmentation of fathers' involvement in family-life.Footnote 7
The founder and developer of the program, Dr. David Olds, and his colleagues at the Prevention Research Center at the University of Colorado Denver require a four-step approach before the NFP is implemented in a new society: (1) adaption to a local context (Jack et al.Footnote 8 describe the Canadian adaption in detail); (2) a pilot study to assess acceptability and feasibility in a small sample (the first two steps were implemented in Hamilton, Ontario); (3) an RCT (underway in the British Columbia Healthy Connections Project) to evaluate effectiveness of the intervention; and (4) dissemination and maintenance of the program, if it has proven effective based on the RCT results.
This issue includes four articles related to the NFP intervention program:
- In "Vulnerability within families headed by teen and young adult mothers investigated by child welfare services in Canada," Hovdestad et al.Footnote 9 show the numerous risk factors experienced by those in this vulnerable population, many of which may be modifiable by programs such as the NFP.
- In "Adapting, piloting and evaluating complex public health interventions: lessons learned from the Nurse-Family Partnership in Canadian public health settings," Jack et al.Footnote 10 describe the process of carefully adapting, assessing and evaluating the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of the NFP in Canada to date and the accompanying process evaluation. They also describe an adjunct study that investigates how and if the NFP can reverse biological negative outcomes related to adverse childhood experiences.
- In "Health care and social service professionals' perceptions of a home-visit program for young, first-time mothers," Li et al.Footnote 11 focus on the perspective of the community care providers responsible for referral to the NFP and for delivering services to the mothers. The data are from the Hamilton pilot study. Previous research focussed on the impact of the program on public health nursesFootnote 12 and the experiences of the mothers involved in the program.Footnote 13 Child protection workers are the source of referral for enrolment in the NFP, while the nurses who administer the program are mandated to report to child protection if they suspect child maltreatment in the families they serve. Collaboration is paramount in this complex relationship.
- In his invited commentary, Dr. Christopher MiktonFootnote 14 of the World Health Organization, writes about Canadian efforts to tackle the "disease" of child maltreatment that affects hundreds of millions worldwide.
We await the outcome of the full evaluation of the NFP program with great interest. If the intervention shows the same effectiveness as it has in the United States, it will provide great hope for Canadian families.
References
Report a problem or mistake on this page
- Date modified: | https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/health-promotion-chronic-disease-prevention-canada-research-policy-practice/vol-35-no-8-9-2015/editorial-nurse-family-partnership-evidence-based-public-health-response-child-maltreatment.html |
The November 2020 update to the Heat Network Regulations introduces three new building classes – ‘viable’, ‘open’, and ‘exempt’. Buildings in the ‘viable’ class must install heat meters, whereas in the ‘open’ class meters are required to be installed only where it is found to be cost effective. Buildings which fall in the ‘exempt’ class do not have to install heat meters.
There is a new feasibility tool to determine the cost effectiveness and viability of introducing metering. Cost effectiveness is assessed in the tool over a ten-year period by comparing projected cost savings due to reduced energy consumption with the estimated costs related to metering and billing.
Following the November 2020 update, heat suppliers must now complete the financial and technical feasibility assessments by 27th November 2021, with any required corrective action then completed by 1st September 2022. The feasibility assessments are to be repeated every 4 years, with future cost effectiveness assessments more likely to demonstrate the viability of heat metering if energy costs increase and metering costs reduce over coming years.
A heat supplier is defined as the party with day-to-day responsibility for operating a network to generate heating, cooling or hot water and distribute this supply to customers, and as such this includes district heat networks as well as buildings with central heating or cooling networks such as LTHW via boilers or CHW via chillers, and shared heat pumps. Buildings with single occupancy or where heating or cooling is supplied to users via individual systems such as electric radiators or individual heat pumps do not qualify as heat networks and so do not have to take any action.
The Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014 were introduced in the UK with an aim of:
- improving the energy efficiency of heat networks; and
- to increase the level of metering in order to provide more accurate billing to final customers.
The installation of final customer meters on new developments has been mandatory since 2014 when the first heat network regulations were introduced. The latest updates, however, are aimed at assessing the potential for installing heat metering to existing buildings where it is appropriate to do so.
Please contact Toby Prudden and colleagues in our Energy and Sustainability department for more information on what action you need to take and how we can support you to ensuring compliance. | https://www.focus-fm.co.uk/news/is-your-property-compliant-what-the-updated-heat-network-regulations-mean-for-you/ |
This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the RANK function in Microsoft Excel.
If you were to sort the list, the rank of the number would be its position.
Ref Required. An array of, or a reference to, a list of numbers. Non-numeric values in Ref are ignored.
If Order is 0 (zero) or omitted, Excel ranks Number as if Ref were a list sorted in descending order.
If Order is any nonzero value, Excel ranks Number as if Ref were a list sorted in ascending order.
RANK.EQ gives duplicate numbers the same rank. However, the presence of duplicate numbers affects the ranks of subsequent numbers. For example, in a list of integers sorted in ascending order, if the number 10 appears twice and has a rank of 5, then 11 would have a rank of 7 (no number would have a rank of 6).
For some purposes one might want to use a definition of rank that takes ties into account. In the previous example, you would want a revised rank of 5.5 for the number 10. This can be done by adding the following correction factor to the value returned by RANK.EQ. This correction factor is appropriate both for the case where rank is computed in descending order (order = 0 or omitted) or ascending order (order = nonzero value).
Correction factor for tied ranks=[COUNT(ref) + 1 – RANK.EQ(number, ref, 0) – RANK.EQ(number, ref, 1)]/2.
In the example in the workbook, RANK.EQ(A3,A2:A6,1) equals 3. The correction factor is (5 + 1 – 2 – 3)/2 = 0.5 and the revised rank that takes ties into account is 3 + 0.5 = 3.5. If number occurs only once in ref, the correction factor will be 0, since RANK.EQ would not have to be adjusted for a tie.
Rank of 7 in the list contained in the range A2:A6. Because the Order argument (1) is a non-zero value, the list is sorted lowest to highest.
Rank of 2 in the same list. Because the Order argument is omitted, the list is sorted, by default, highest to lowest.
Rank of 3.5 in the same list. | https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/rank-eq-function-284858ce-8ef6-450e-b662-26245be04a40 |
We're close to a lighting fixtures revolution with light-emitting diodes--the tiny Leds you've obvious in digital units for years. With this useful advisor, you'll pass behind the curtain to determine how and why brands at the moment are designing Led units to gentle every little thing from houses and places of work to streets and warehouses.
Pragmatic Logic (Synthesis Lectures on Digital Circuits and Systems)
Pragmatic common sense provides the research and layout of electronic good judgment structures. the writer starts with a quick examine of binary and hexadecimal quantity platforms after which appears on the fundamentals of Boolean algebra. The examine of good judgment circuits is split into elements, combinational good judgment, which has no reminiscence, and sequential good judgment, which does.
Medical Biosensors for Point of Care (POC) Applications
Scientific Biosensors for element of Care (POC) purposes discusses advances during this vital and rising box which has the aptitude to remodel sufferer analysis and care. half 1 covers the basics of scientific biosensors for point-of-care functions. Chapters partly 2 cross directly to examine fabrics and fabrication of scientific biosensors whereas the subsequent half appears at diversified applied sciences and operational options.
- Electronic Power Research Trends-Schmidt
- Stretchable Electronics
- The Electrical Resistivity of Metals and Alloys (Cambridge Solid State Science Series)
- Photo-Electronic Image Devices - Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium
- Copper Electrodeposition for Nanofabrication of Electronics Devices
Additional info for Electronics 3 Checkbook. The Checkbooks Series
Sample text
The signal-to-noise ratio in the load is 50. If the temperature doubles, the signal-tonoise ratio will be (a) unaffected, (b) 25, (c) 100, (d) 200. The maximum noise power which can be delivered to a load of resistance R is (a) kTB, (b) kTBR, (c) AkTBR, (d) V(4kTBR). An amplifier has a power gain of 100. The noise power measured at its output is 100 times the noise power at its input. Its noise factor is (a) 0 dB, (b) 20 dB, (c) 40 dB, (d) 100 dB. (c) CONVENTIONAL PROBLEMS 1 28 If the signal level at a tape recorder head output is 1 mW and the signal-to-noise ratio is 30 dB, what is the output noise power?
27 (b) MULTI-CHOICE PROBLEMS (answers on page 152) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 If temperature and bandwidth are both doubled, the noise voltage generated by a wirewound resistor will be (a) doubled, (b) halved, (c) quadrupled, (d) unaffected. Two resistors each having identical noise voltages are joined in series. The total noise voltage will be (a) twice the individual voltages, (b) half the individual voltages, (c) λ/2 times the individual voltages, (d) the same as either individual voltage.
Because of the imperfections already mentioned, the output in common-mode operation is small but not zero. When signals are applied differentially to the amplifier, a high gain results, but unwanted signals such as noise voltages are present at both inputs and present a common-mode input; these signals therefore receive only a very small gain which is something to be desired. However, the amplifier can only separate signal and noise in this way if its common-mode output is negligible, and a measure of the opamp's ability to do this is expressed by a factor known as the Common Mode Rejection Ratio or CMRR. | http://www.alphabrooks.gr/download/electronics-3-checkbook-the-checkbooks-series |
Has any country ever had 2 former presidents in jail simultaneously?
I suspect that today, this achievement has been granted for the first time to Brazil, with the arresting of Michel Temer, and considering that Lula da Silva is still under arrest.
It is normally big news if a former president is incarcerated, so I'd be surprised to know this occurred twice somewhere else.
Andalusia (technically an autonomous community in Spain) appears to have two former presidents sitting in jail since 2016.
Argentina has a whopping 8 presidents that sat in jail, including 2 from 2007 onward.
Bangladesh had 5 presidents who went to jail, of which two were behind bars in 1975.
Bosnia and Herzegovina had 2 presidents sitting in jail from 2006 to 2012.
Bulgaria had as many as 3 former prime ministers behind bars at the same time in 1944.
Comoros has 3 presidents and prime ministers behind bars at the time of writing this.
Costa Rica had 2 presidents behind bars from 2004 to 2012.
Egypt appears to have had 5 former presidents in jail in 2013.
The point is Brazil is not an exception.
One caveat: read the list with a fistful of salt, because it lists former French President Sarkozy as sitting behind bars since 2018, whereas he was only put in police custody for a day that year as he was charged with bribery and illegal campaign contributions. (He might sit in jail some day in the future, but the point here is that you may want to double check the data.) Also, Gaston Flosse of French Polynesia is listed twice.
Peru has an interesting case of former presidents being incarcerated or in the eye of justice.
Alberto Fujimori in right now in prison, for human right violations, 25 years of conviction.
Ollanta Humala is in preventive reclusion, investigated for corruption.
Alejandro Toledo, currently fugitive of justice for corruption as well. Case Oderbrecht (link in Spanish), that started in Brasil.
Alan García, twice president, twice investigated for corruption. He killed himself when he was going to be sent to preventive reclusion.
Summary, if you have been a Peruvian president, you are probably under investigation by the justice.
South Korea right now has their last two presidents, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye in jail.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged contemporary-history president or ask your own question.
Any precedents of U.S. presidents having served in other government roles after the ends of their terms?
Has any US President served in a government position with a foreign nation before or after their presidency?
At what point were there the most current and former US Presidents alive?
Did any European ever witness a major Inca religious festival?
Are there any images within the time period of contemporary history (1945 to the present) that had different interpretations by historians?
Given the direct involvement of tech companies has there been any strikes over tech companies’ participation in surveillance culture? | https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/51723/has-any-country-ever-had-2-former-presidents-in-jail-simultaneously |
# Home prime
In number theory, the home prime HP(n) of an integer n greater than 1 is the prime number obtained by repeatedly factoring the increasing concatenation of prime factors including repetitions. The mth intermediate stage in the process of determining HP(n) is designated HPn(m). For instance, HP(10) = 773, as 10 factors as 2×5 yielding HP10(1) = 25, 25 factors as 5×5 yielding HP10(2) = HP25(1) = 55, 55 = 5×11 implies HP10(3) = HP25(2) = HP55(1) = 511, and 511 = 7×73 gives HP10(4) = HP25(3) = HP55(2) = HP511(1) = 773, a prime number. Some sources use the alternative notation HPn for the homeprime, leaving out parentheses. Investigations into home primes make up a minor side issue in number theory. Its questions have served as test fields for the implementation of efficient algorithms for factoring composite numbers, but the subject is really one in recreational mathematics.
The outstanding computational problem as of 2016 is whether HP(49) = HP(77) can be calculated in practice. As each iteration is greater than the previous up until a prime is reached, factorizations generally grow more difficult so long as an end is not reached. As of August 2016 the pursuit of HP(49) concerns the factorization of a 251-digit composite factor of HP49(119) after a break was achieved on 3 December 2014 with the calculation of HP49(117). This followed the factorization of HP49(110) on 8 September 2012 and of HP49(104) on 11 January 2011, and prior calculations extending for the larger part of a decade that made extensive use of computational resources. Details of the history of this search, as well as the sequences leading to home primes for all other numbers through 100, are maintained at Patrick De Geest's worldofnumbers website. A wiki primarily associated with the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search maintains the complete known data through 1000 in base 10 and also has lists for the bases 2 through 9.
The primes in HP(n) are
Aside from the computational problems that have had so much time devoted to them, it appears absolute proof of existence of a home prime for any specific number might entail its effective computation. In purely heuristic terms, the existence has probability 1 for all numbers, but such heuristics make assumptions about numbers drawn from a wide variety of processes that, though they are likely correct, fall short of the standard of proof usually required of mathematical claims.
## Properties
HP(n) = n for n prime.
## Early history and additional terminology
While it is unlikely that the idea was not conceived of numerous times in the past, the first reference in print appears to be an article written in 1990 in a small and now-defunct publication called Recreational and Educational Computation. The same person who authored that article, Jeffrey Heleen, revisited the subject in the 1996–7 volume of the Journal of Recreational Mathematics in an article entitled Family Numbers: Constructing Primes By Prime Factor Splicing, which included all of the results HP(n) for n through 100 other than the ones still unresolved. It also included a now-obsolete list of 3-digit unresolved numbers (The 58 listed have been cut precisely in half as of August 2012). It appears that this article is largely responsible for provoking attempts by others to resolve the case involving 49 and 77. The article uses the terms daughter and parent to describe composites and the primes that they lead to, with numbers leading to the same home prime called siblings (even if one is an iterate of another), and calls the number of iterations required to reach a parent, the persistence of a number under the map to obtain a home prime, the number of lives. The brief article does little other than state the origins of the subject, define terms, give a couple of examples, mention machinery and methods used at the time, and then provide tables. It appears that Mr. De Geest is responsible for the notation now in use. The OEIS also uses homeliness as the term for the number of numbers, including the prime itself, that have a certain prime as its home prime. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_prime |
Editor’s Note: After a reassuring amount of consistency in the leaderboard data over the past couple weeks, it appears that once again the integrity of the data is suspect. Apparently Sunil is currently the #1 ranked player and has helpfully written another guest article with what appears to be an oversimplified memory system but perhaps its trivial ease of use will be an advantage for some.
I find myself atop the leaderboards once again, and will use this opportunity to share some more pearls of wisdom with the wodka-strategy.uk.to readership.
Previously, Jack talked about his memory system (https://wodka-strategy.uk.to/index.php/2020/06/27/memory-a-simple-system/). However, this requires maintaining multiple lists between which numbers frequently move. This is an unwieldy, and dare I say, inefficient system.
My approach requires you to only remember a single number. Firstly, we assign a different prime number to the highest three values:
- A = 2
- K = 3
- Q = 5
For each of these cards in the deck, we multiply the corresponding value into a ‘memory-value’ (which starts at 1, the multiplicative identity). Since we start with four of each A, K, Q, our ‘memory-value’ starts at 2^4 * 3^4 * 5^4 = 810,000.
Whenever an A, K or Q is played, we simply divide our memory-value by 2, 3 or 5 respectively.
Similarly, if we want to know how many A, K or Qs are yet to be played, we just see how many 2, 3 or 5s are factors of the memory-value. For example, if the memory-value is 45,000 and we want a simple way to know how many Aces are in the deck we keep dividing by 2 until we hit an odd number (45,000 -> 22,500 -> 11,250 -> 5,625). We divided 3 times, and so there are three Aces still to be played.
Clearly, this is much simpler and less confusing than rembering how many Aces are still in the deck directly. In this case, rembering 3 (the number of Aces still to play) is problematic as it could get confused with other things – such as the number of Kings, or the number of points you will win with a successful Wodka. 45,000 has no chance of getting confused with other important Wodka numbers.
Furthermore, it’s easily extensible. For each additional piece of information you wish to remember, you only need to assign a unique prime.
For example, if we wish to include the 0 and the 3s, we could use:
- A = 2
- K = 3
- Q = 5
- 3 = 7
- 0 = 11
Exercise for the reader (assuming this extended system):
The memory value is 1,980,825.
Q: Will my K win a trick? | https://wodka-strategy.uk.to/index.php/2020/07/19/guest-post-alternative-memory-system/ |
There are two prime numbers between 60 and 70.
All numbers have factors. Some factors are prime numbers. A prime factor is a factor that is a prime number. A common prime factor is a prime factor that appears on the list of factors of two or more given numbers.
3 and 41
The greatest common factor of two or more prime numbers is 1.
There is no such pair.
The greatest common factor of two different prime numbers is 1. The two prime numbers have as their factors, 1 and themselves. That means that 1 is the only factor they have in common.The GCF is 1.
When multiplied together, 3 and 41 equal 123.
If the greatest common factor is 1, then the numbers are said to be co-prime or relatively prime.
The numbers are relatively prime, or co-prime.
The numbers are CO-prime, but not necessarily prime numbers: think of 3 and 4....
No. Two numbers are relatively prime if they have no prime factors in common. Two even numbers will have 2 as a prime factor in common.
Any two different prime numbers are relatively prime because relatively prime numbers are sets of two or more numbers having 1 as their greatest common factor.
3 X 41
Yes, the greatest common factor of two different prime numbers is always 1
All prime numbers only have two factors, one and themselves.
The two successive prime numbers are 2 and 3. 1 is not a prime number because it has only one factor, while prime numbers have two positive integer factors.
Each prime number only has two factors: one and itself. The only factor any set of prime numbers has in common is 1.
No prime number greater than 2 has 2 as a factor. A prime number has only two factors, 1 and the number itself. All prime numbers have 1 as a common factor. Numbers with any number besides 1 as common factors are composite numbers.
Two numbers are co-prime if they do not have any common factors. The numbers themselves need not be prime.
41 x 3 = 123, Quite basic actually.
The GCF of two prime numbers is 1. 4, 9 and 25 are relatively prime.
If the HCF (Highest Common Factor) of two numbers is 1, then the two numbers are relatively prime and their LCM is the product of the two numbers.
Two
One
The GCF of any two prime numbers s 1. | https://math.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_two_factor_prime_numbers_of_123 |
It appears that a(n)>0 for all n. With the exception of n=2, a(n)=1 when n is p-1, where p is a Mersenne prime (A000043). Flammenkamp has an attractive graph of this sequence, including n for which there is incomplete data.
Table of n, a(n) for n=0..81.
Achim Flammenkamp, The Multiply Perfect Numbers Page
a(2)=2 because only 28 and 2178540 have 2^2 as their highest power of 2.
Cf. A134665 (highest power of 2 for each MPN). | http://oeis.org/A134666 |
Pick a random financial transaction from the ledger of a typical business and there is about a 30% chance that the first non-zero digit of the amount of money involved is a 1. This counter-intuitive fact is a result of Benford's Law, discovered by astronomer Simon Newcomb in the late 1800's and rediscovered by physicist Frank Benford in the early 1900's. They found that real world data are not evenly distributed. Instead, given a random number related to some natural or social phenomenon satisfying certain conditions, the probability that the first non-zero digit of the number is D is log10(1 + 1/D).
Increasingly, financial auditors are using Benford's Law to detect possible fraud. Given a record of the financial transactions of a company, if some leading digit appears with a frequency that significantly differs from that predicted by Benford's Law, it is a signal that those transactions deserve a closer look.
Create a class BenfordsLaw with a method questionableDigit that takes a int transactions and an int threshold and returns the smallest digit that appears as the first non-zero digit of numbers in transactions with a frequency that is at least threshold times more or less than its expected frequency (e.g., more than three times the expected frequency or less than one-third the expected frequency when threshold=3). If no such digit exists, return -1.
For example, consider the data
5236 7290 200 1907 3336 9182 17 4209 8746 7932 6375 909 2189 3977 2389 2500 1239 3448 6380 4812The following chart gives the actual frequency of each leading digit, and its expected frequency according to Benford's law.
digit | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ---------|--------------------------------------------- actual | 3 4 3 2 1 2 2 1 2 expected | 6.02 3.52 2.50 1.94 1.58 1.34 1.16 1.02 0.92Assuming a threshold of 2, there are two digits that are questionable: the leading digit 1 appears less than half as often as expected and the leading digit 9 appears more than twice as often as expected. Since 1 is smaller than 9, the answer is 1.
Note that, although the expected frequencies have been rounded to two decimal places in the above table for the purposes of presentation, you should perform all such calculations without rounding. Errors of up to 0.000001 in the expected frequencies will not affect the final answer. | http://topcoder.bgcoder.com/print.php?id=223 |
You are given n words. Some words may repeat. For each word, output its number of occurrences. The output order should correspond with the input order of appearance of the word. See the sample input/output for clarification.
Note: Each input line ends with a “\n” character.
Constraints:
1<=n<=10^5
The sum of the lengths of all the words do not exceed 10^6
All the words are composed of lowercase English letters only.
Input Format
The first line contains the integer, n.
The next n lines each contain a word.
Output Format
Output 2 lines.
On the first line, output the number of distinct words from the input.
On the second line, output the number of occurrences for each distinct word according to their appearance in the input.
Sample Input
4 bcdef abcdefg bcde bcdef
Sample Output
3 2 1 1
Explanation
There are 3 distinct words. Here, “bcdef” appears twice in the input at the first and last positions. The other words appear once each. The order of the first appearances are “bcdef”, “abcdefg” and “bcde” which corresponds to the output.
Code:
# from collections import Counter n=int(input()) l= for i in range(n): s=input() l.append(s) ul=Counter(l) print(len(ul)) for x in ul: print(ul[x],end=" ")
Disclaimer: This problem is originally created and published by HackerRank, we only provide solutions to this problem. Hence, doesn’t guarantee the truthfulness of the problem. This is only for information purposes. | https://codesagar.in/word-order-hackerrank-solution-python/ |
UPDATE (3 December):
We are only interested in subgraphs that are connected. I have updated bullet
number 3 to clarify this point.
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This month's question comes from Srinibas Swain. (Thanks, Srinibas!) It has two parts. Answer both for credit.
Part 1:Find (with proof) a graph that has C3 as its most common induced subgraph or prove that none such exists.
Part 2:Repeat, with C4 instead of C3.
Some explanations regarding the terminology:
In the graph of image (c), as an example, C3 appears twice as an induced subgraph, but C4 does not appear at all. (It appears as a subgraph, but not as an induced subgraph, because an induced subgraph includes all edges connecting the subset of vertices chosen.) The most common induced subgraph of the graph of image (c) is the single edge. It appears 5 times.
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List of solvers:Lorenz Reichel (4 December 08:04)
Radu-Alexandru Todor (23 December 12:43)
Elegant and original solutions can be submitted to the puzzlemaster at riddlesbrand.scso.com. Names of solvers will be posted on this page. Notify if you don't want your name to be mentioned.
The solution will be published at the end of the month.
Enjoy! | https://brand.site.co.il/riddles/201512q.html |
WONCA is an unusual, yet convenient acronym comprising the first five initials of the World Organization of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practitioners/Family Physicians.
WONCA's short name is World Organization of Family Doctors.
Abuja, Nigeria
Bali, Indonesia
Brussels, Belgium
Sydney, Australia
Professor Barbara Starfield championed the value and need of strong primary health care systems worldwide. This collection emphasizes the case for primary care and includes a number of Barbara Starfield's own articles as well as other key related material.
September, 2013
Addressing Health Equity was a workshop held at the recent world conference held in Prague, in June 2013.
This workshop sought to explore how a better understanding of the health inequities present in a population can enable the general practitioners to adopt strategies that could improve health outcomes in the delivery of primary health care; it explored the development of a health equity curriculum and opened the discussion of the future and potential impact of health equity training among general practitioners.
As part of the workshop, it was proposed to seek interest in establishing a WONCA special interest group on health equity. There is an indissoluble link between health equity and social justice and our success to make a difference for our patients relies on all frontline doctors and health professionals to advocate for greater socioeconomic equity and the health rewards that would follow.
The workshop was divided into four sections:
1. Welcoming note by Prof Michael Kidd
2. Scope of health equity; and challenges and problems pushing the agenda forward by Prof Iona Heath
3. Brief overview of current initiatives and best practices dealing with health equity in family medicine/ primary care setting by Dr Efrat Shadmi
4. Discussion: regional priorities and challenges in achieving health equity
5. Drafting a proposed curriculum/other business
Here follows a summary of the discussion.
Uneven distribution of social determinants of health could systematically affect the distribution of poor health outcomes, such as different life expectancies, and risk behaviours, such as alcohol, domestic violence, smoking, among population of low social economic status (SES). Some common social determinants of health which affect general low SES population include income differences; poor housing; poverty; unemployment; education; access to healthcare services, social support and isolation.
There is a wide income gap between the rich and the poor- it affects people’s affordability to healthcare services. In Pakistan, only 30-35% of health care is covered by the public sector. The rest of the patients would go to private practitioners, faith healers, alternate medicine specialists and even quacks. In Brazil, 45% cover is available through public sector; while in Holland, co-payment for secondary care becomes financial barrier to some patients. National cuts in allocation of funding have affected people in socially deprived areas more. Misallocation of resources by central funding body is observed since there is no needs assessments matched with funding.
Income gap could also affect education hence literacy of people. Literacy is only 59% in Pakistan; while in Brazil, literacy is good but not properly exercised.
For countries with urban or rural division, urban areas usually enjoy better healthcare access, whereas healthcare services are extremely limited in rural areas. Pakistan immunization is not possible in remote Pakhtoon areas whereas in Romania, there is a lack of General practitioners in remote areas or rural areas.
For indigenous group or aborigines, cultural differences and expectations could affect their access to healthcare services. Health related policy might be recognised by these groups as cultural Imperialism that serves the purpose of maintaining the cultural hegemony.
Migration is recognised as social determinant of health which might affect migrants’ access to healthcare services due to language barriers or unfamiliarity of healthcare systems, which makes their navigation through the healthcare system difficult. One of the examples given was the UK homeless migrant groups.
Barriers on the supply side
Health workforce shortage is observed in rural area or primary care which makes health services unavailable to people living in rural area or of low SES. Furthermore, some government doctors might engage in private practice and reduce the already limited manpower. Efficiency and effectiveness of services will be affected by the lack of coordination and communications between primary and secondary care.
For developing countries, there will be lop-sided priorities; for example, AIDS programs are supported by foreign funding but no attention is paid on safe water supply, immunization and sanitation in Pakistan.
Poorer people/ minorities/ communities with low political equity have little effect on politically driven health policy. Furthermore, there might be a lack of political will, money, and/or knowledge in tackling the problem. Other barriers include the prevalence of corruption feeling that the problem is too big/ difficult even to get started.
Barriers on Demand side
The SES status of patients could affect their utilisation of health services. For those who have no jobs or on low wage, they could not afford health care; for those who have low education, they would have low health literacy. Poverty could have impact on psychology which resulted in low worthiness and expectations. Cultural Norms could also affect people value, perceptions and trust on health services utilisation.
Facilitators
Income gap narrowing and strong democracy over a consistent period can facilitate the health equity agenda. Also policymakers should talk “truth to power”, which they should use medical data by UK lobby groups to support provisions of housing, education, social services and employment, and engage the community. Resources should be focused at departmental level. QUIDS measurements assessed on GP practice IT systems monthly.
General Practitioners could provide patient advocacy locally through media. Health professionals could also empower patients through patient participation groups. Culture of responsibility for health inequities should be borne by the community but not rested on individuals.
Telemedicine for remote areas could be provided to rural area where there is a lack of doctors. Free and comprehensive primary health care could be provided to people in need.
Training on health equity must be provided to the health professionals.
Health access
Primary health care should be accessible through family doctors (one doctor for sizable population) like the NHS model.
Practice meetings should be conducted to identify local issues/ problems and it should involve policymakers, general practitioners and nurses. Being aware of what is available locally and getting ideas from other countries may be useful.
Education for patients and public
Signposting for how to navigate healthcare system should be provided to the public and the patients. Community awareness should be promoted in settings that reach out to different groups, such as mosque. Training should be provided to the leaders of vulnerable groups.
Vulnerable groups
Women, minorities, children and people with low social standing should be attended to more comprehensive training of health professionals.
For migrants, ethnic minorities or indigenous groups, signs in different languages should be installed and education about cultural awareness should be provided to staff including general practitioners, or nurses.
Education and training of health professionals
Training in inequity should be provided to medical students as well as general practitioners to improve health equity through primary care. Medical students and doctors should be trained to conduct face-to-face discussions with patients in services to increase understanding. There should be increased exposure with general practitioners for medical students.
More general practitioners should be trained to ensure there are service providers in rural areas. | https://www.globalfamilydoctor.com/News/AddressingHealthEquity.aspx |
In Canada, northern and Indigenous communities face well documented challenges to accessing healthcare services prompting the urgent need to adopt alternative and innovative solutions to overcome barriers of limited access due to geographic distance, physician shortages, limited resources, and high cost of service delivery. Telehealth – the means of delivering health care services and information across distance – promises to augment services to address some of these barriers and has been increasingly relied upon to bridge healthcare service gaps. Despite the promise of telehealth, notable utilization barriers and structural constraints remain that challenge long-term sustainability. Little is known about how well these technologies work from community telehealth users’ perspectives. Current work in the area has tended to focus on the increased efficiency and cost effectiveness of telehealth in facilitating healthcare services, with less focus on users’ perspectives obscuring the important roles played by users and technologies. In sum, more work needs to be done to present a complete picture of users’ experiences and community needs – a gap this dissertation aims to tackle. In doing so, this research captures a snapshot of community perspectives from four Northern Saskatchewan communities, drawing attention to users’ experiences in relation to the social and technical factors shaping telehealth use. Working in partnership with the communities of Hatchet Lake Denesuline First Nation, the Northern Villages of Île-à-la-Crosse and Pinehouse Lake, and the Town of La Ronge, and external stakeholders/knowledge users working directly with these communities, this work resulted in valuable insights into the user-technology interface. Emerging from community concerns with accessing healthcare services and education/training, the goal of this project was to better understand strengths and barriers for telehealth use. Methodologically, the personal accounts and lived experiences of telehealth users were explored using qualitative methods grounded in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and decolonizing methodologies utilizing Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) that is drawn from interpretive-constructivist epistemological frameworks. In-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews/focus groups with 24 telehealth users, field notes and general observations provided the basis for data collection, and NVivo 12 was used to organize, iteratively code and analyze community insights. Thematic analysis and socio-technical mapping explored themes across community contexts and provided understanding of the interrelationship of shared and unique insights whereby community telehealth users’ voices guided interpretations. This dissertation highlights the importance of community collaborations and identifies the strengths and barriers for utilizing telehealth within northern and Indigenous contexts. Using theoretical frameworks drawn from Science and Technology Studies (STS), this dissertation makes the argument that users and technologies play significant roles in shaping tele-healthcare practice – a mutually co-constitutive relationship embedded within larger socio-structural systems that pose varying constraints. Analysis revealed that users and technologies mutually shape tele-healthcare practices and care experiences – i.e. technologies shape patients’ and local/remote providers’ use of the system in enabling/constraining ways and users shape technologies through reconfiguration or “tinkering”. A mutual shaping approach following the relational/performative view of socio-technical agency serves as a pathway for examining socio-cultural factors shaping how technologies are designed, implemented, and used, and alternatively how technologies shape practice and meanings of socio-technical spaces. Further, it is argued that understanding the context in which telehealth technologies are situated and experienced will be increasingly critical as technological systems play greater roles in service delivery.
DegreeDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
DepartmentInterdisciplinary Studies
ProgramInterdisciplinary Studies
SupervisorPoudrier, Jennifer
CommitteeButler, Lorna; Coates, Ken; Mandryk, Regan; Swanson, Lee
Copyright DateNovember 2020
Subject
telehealth
community-based research
technology and society
user-centered design
mutual shaping
Indigenous health
rural health
Northern Saskatchewan
Indigenous communities
sociology of technology
Science and Technology Studies
remote health technologies
remote presence
Indigenous Technology Studies
human-computer interaction
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Why is immigration important to the US?
Immigrants also make an important contribution to the U.S. economy. Most directly, immigration increases potential economic output by increasing the size of the labor force. Immigrants also contribute to increasing productivity.
Why is immigration a social problem in the US?
By using welfare programs immigrants may strain public resources, harming taxpayers and making it more difficult to assist the low- income population already in the country. The current debate on illegal immigration is rapidly growing as a social problem in the United States today.
Why is immigration an important topic?
Why we need immigration Immigration fuels the economy. When immigrants enter the labor force, they increase the productive capacity of the economy and raise GDP. Their incomes rise, but so do those of natives.
What impact did immigrants have on the United States?
The available evidence suggests that immigration leads to more innovation, a better educated workforce, greater occupational specialization, better matching of skills with jobs, and higher overall economic productivity. Immigration also has a net positive effect on combined federal, state, and local budgets.
How does immigration affect the population?
Immigrants contribute to population growth because of both their own numbers and their above-average fertility. Most of those who immigrate are working-age adults, so immigrants are more likely than U.S.-born residents to be in their child-bearing years.
How does immigration impact society?
Migration allows for workers to benefit from higher wages in growing areas and stimulates the economy to operate more efficiently by creating larger and more porous labor and consumer markets. Indeed the logic for lessening barriers to migration is similar to that of international free trade.
What are some negative impacts of immigration?
- Pressure on public services such as schools, housing and healthcare;
- Overcrowding;
- Language and cultural barriers can exist;
- Increased level of pollution;
- Increased pressure on natural resources;
- Racial tensions and discrimination;
- Gender imbalance – usually more men migrate.
What are pros and cons of immigration?
Immigration can give substantial economic benefits – a more flexible labour market, greater skills base, increased demand and a greater diversity of innovation. However, immigration is also controversial. It is argued immigration can cause issues of overcrowding, congestion, and extra pressure on public services.
Who does immigration affect in the world?
Roughly half of the world’s migrants have moved from developing to developed countries, where immigration is a key driver of population growth. From 2000 to 2014, immigrants contributed 40 to 80 percent of labor force growth in major destination countries.
What are the impacts of migration?
Migrants eventually induce social, economic, and political problems in receiving countries, including 1) increases in the population, with adverse effects on existing social institutions; 2) increases in demand for goods and services; 3) displacement of nationals from occupations in the countryside and in the cities; 4 …
How does immigration affect the global economy?
Migration raises world GDP, in particular by raising productivity. Average per capita incomes of natives increase as their skills are complemented by those of migrants. Remittances from abroad lift income per capita in the origin countries, helping to offset the potentially negative effects of emigration.
How does immigration impact the economy quizlet?
Immigration increases labor resources, which increase the productive capacity of the economy.
What are the challenges of increased immigration?
- Language Barriers. The language barrier is the main challenge as it affects the ability to communicate with others.
- Lack of Employment Opportunities.
- Housing.
- Access to Medical Services.
- Transportation Issues.
- Cultural Differences.
- Raising Children.
- Prejudice.
What impact does immigration have on the environment?
According to a CIS study, U.S. immigrants produce an estimated 637 million tons of CO2 annually, which is 482 million tons more than these immigrants would have produced had they remained in their home countries.
How does immigration affect the home country?
International migrants can induce negative effects in the home country if they emigrate to less democratic countries. Self-selection of migrants, in terms of education or ethnicity, can induce negative effects on institutions, as such individuals tend to be more politically engaged in their home country. | https://www.alheejra.com/frequent-question-why-is-immigration-an-important-issue-in-the-united-states/ |
- Published:
Barriers to cutaneous leishmaniasis care faced by indigenous communities of rural areas in Colombia: a qualitative study
BMC Infectious Diseases volume 22, Article number: 302 (2022)
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453 Accesses
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2 Altmetric
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Abstract
Background
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) such as cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) are often associated with rural territories and vulnerable communities with limited access to health care services. The objective of this study is to identify the potential determinants of CL care management in the indigenous communities in the rural area of the municipality of Pueblo Rico, through a people-centered approach.
Methods
To achieve this goal, qualitative ethnographic methods were used, and a coding framework was developed using procedures in accordance with grounded theory.
Results
Three dimensions that affect access to health care for CL in this population were identified: (1) contextual barriers related to geographic, economic and socio-cultural aspects; (2) health service barriers, with factors related to administration, insufficient health infrastructure and coverage, and (3) CL treatment, which covers perceptions of the treatment and issues related to the implementation of national CL treatment guidelines. This study identified barriers resulting from structural problems at the national level. Moreover, some requirements of the national guidelines for CL management in Colombia impose barriers to diagnosis and treatment. We furthermore identified cultural barriers that influence the perceptions and behavior of the community and health workers.
Conclusions
While the determinants to CL management are multidimensional, the most important barrier is the inaccessibility to CL treatment to the most vulnerable populations and its inadequacy for the socio-territorial setting, as it is not designed around the people, their needs and their context.
Background
Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is the most common clinical presentation of leishmaniases, a group of parasitic diseases transmitted by sandflies, and is a Neglected Tropical Disease of the skin (skin NTD). The skin NTDs are a varied group of diseases, which are often associated with long-term disability and stigmatization and frequently affect rural and vulnerable communities with limited access to health care services. CL is reported in 92 countries, with 600,000 to one million new cases reported annually . Colombia is one of the countries reporting most cases of the disease in the world and has the second highest number of cases in the Americas, after Brazil .
Despite the high burden of CL cases, providing adequate care (diagnostics, treatment, and follow-up) remains a challenge in Colombia and the Americas. In Colombia, CL treatment is provided to patients free of charge. Most systemic antileishmanial drugs require daily administration for long periods of time and have multiple side effects . However, systemic antileishmanials remain the first line of treatment, particularly pentavalent antimonials. The socio-economical setting of the population presents an additional challenge, as many indigenous communities in Colombia experience high levels of poverty, inequality, social exclusion and violence .
Our study was carried out in Pueblo Rico (Risaralda), a municipality with a large indigenous population located in the western Andean Region of Colombia. This area is characterized by a low population density and a high dispersion of the 83 indigenous settlements. The study area is endemic for CL and reported the fifth highest CL case rate in the country in 2019 . Because of its proximity to the Pacific Choco Bio-Region, a predominantly humid and hyperhumid tropical forest prevails. In Colombia, Phlebotomine vectors are distributed in almost all ecological niche environments from 3500 m to sea level . In Pueblo Rico, Psychodophygus panamensis has been recently described as an important vector, whose presence overlaps with areas of higher CL case reporting .
The main population affected by CL are those who live in the dispersed rural area of Pueblo Rico, where 66% of people have Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) and limited access to health services. Many belong to the Embera Chami indigenous community who live in the rainforest where access to health services for CL treatment is difficult. There is a great need to explore the different barriers to access to CL diagnosis and treatment. Since data on CL in this specific population is limited, a qualitative approach can provide insight to the overall state of CL care in Pueblo Rico.
Aiming to ensure access to high-quality health care for all people, the Universal Health Coverage Forum 2017 launched the people-centered health services approach. This proposes a shift in the understanding of health, with particular emphasis on the crucial role of communities in shaping health policy and health services. Instead of health systems designed around diseases and health institutions, this approach proposes health systems designed for people, organized around their comprehensive needs and including their social preferences. It is expected to contribute to achieving the sustainable development goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
This research aims to identify the barriers to CL care in Pueblo Rico. Using qualitative ethnographic methods, the study applies a people-centered approach through the analysis of the following dimensions:
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i.
The actors: Health systems are defined by interests, values and the distribution of power among people and social groups. It is thus necessary to understand the perception of health workers and CL-affected patients .
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ii.
Health System: It is crucial to analyze a health system as complex, multifaceted and dynamic, interconnected with different sectors, actors and macro-process determinants to the access to CL treatment .
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iii.
The context: Improvements in access require an understanding of the current degree of adaptation of the CL health services delivery to their socio-political and economic context.
Methods
Setting
This study was carried out by investigators of the Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas (CIDEIM) in the CL-endemic area of Pueblo Rico. Located in the Department of Risaralda (Colombia), Pueblo Rico has an area of 619.72 km2, most of which is a rainforest ecosystem and 99.96% which is rural. It has 13,458 inhabitants, 48.4% are mestizos (of mixed European, Indigenous and African ancestry), 39.5% are indigenous and 12.1% are Afro-Colombian. The indigenous population is particularly affected by high levels of poverty, social inequality, social exclusion, and violence .
Study design, data collection, and participants
This qualitative study based on ethnographic methods was carried out from April to December 2019. Reporting was done according to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) guidelines . We conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with CL patients, health workers, and community leaders in Pueblo Rico. In addition, 11 field diaries were collected through participant observation during the fieldwork.
Participants were selected through convenience sampling, using a “snowball process” according with the limitations of the area due to its remoteness and high levels of violence. The sampling ended when the information saturation point was considered to have been reached. During field visits, patients, public health workers, community leaders and health professionals who lived or worked in the rural area were directly approached. One person did not allow recording of the interview and two persons refused to participate. There was no prior relationship between the researchers and the participants. The interviews were conducted in participants’ workplaces and in public spaces. For data collection techniques, we used an interview and observation guide with the following structure: Part 1. Context, Categories: cosmovision, social fabric, territorial dynamics and social problems. Part 2. Knowledge and management of CL, Categories: previous knowledge about CL, experiences, barriers and solutions.
Interviews were conducted face-to-face by one of the authors (MMBG) and a member of the study staff (coordinator of field activities in Pueblo Rico, a registered nurse resident of the municipality with more than 10 years of experience in leishmaniasis). All interviews were conducted in Spanish, and each interview lasted between 30 and 60 min. At the beginning of the interview, the interviewer explained the general topic of the interview, shared their interest in the topic of research, and encouraged the interviewee to express ideas freely. Field notes were taken during and after the interviews. No repeat interviews were carried out. Interviews were conducted until it was determined by MMBG that the themes present in the interviews started to reoccur, which meant that data saturation was reached.
The participant observation method was developed by MMBG during the field visits to the communities, townships, informal conversations, and during meetings with social and health institutions and communities. This process was registered in field diaries and photographic records.
Data entry and analysis
Audio files and field notes were transcribed and analyzed in Spanish. English translation of the relevant quotes was made at the time of writing the current manuscript. MMBG checked the transcripts and requested edits or clarifications if needed to the two research assistants that carried out the transcription. A coding framework was developed to code the material and further group it into emerging themes in an iterative manner using procedures according with grounded theory following the analytical stages from open coding to axial and selective coding (see Fig. 1). N-Vivo 11 software was used for data analysis. The analysis was conducted by MMBG and MCN. The results of this study were shared with selected participants.
Credibility, dependability, and transferability
To ensure the confirmability of the data, the coding process was carried out by two research assistants and reviewed by the researcher who led the fieldwork. To ensure the credibility of the results of the article, they were shared with a group of leaders and health workers who participated in the study. Considering the nature of qualitative research, the findings and main points of the discussion may be transferable to the analysis of health and infectious diseases in other places with comparable socio-cultural contexts facing similar challenges and issues.
Results
We present the results of the factors that affect access to health care for CL in Pueblo Rico, Colombia. The three dimensions that define access to health in this population include (1) contextual barriers, including specific geographic, economic and socio-cultural aspects; (2) health services barriers, with factors related to administration, insufficient health infrastructure and coverage, and (3) CL treatment characteristics, which covers perceptions of the treatment and issues related to the implementation of national CL treatment guidelines (Table 1).
The environmental and geographic characteristics of Pueblo Rico favor the transmission of CL and challenge access to health services
Leishmaniasis is endemic in the research area and vector control programs recognize the presence of the vector not only in the more sylvatic areas, such as the tropical forest covering large parts of the territory, but also in the peridomicile. Traditional activities of the indigenous communities including agriculture and small-scale farming are also risk factors for Leishmania infection. A member of the secretary of health describes this as follows:
“Another challenge is that the vector has adapted to the peridomicile, before it [CL] used to be more sylvatic and affected men who went inside [the forest] and now it is in the center, in some communities, as we could identify with CIDEIM in 2014 or 2015. We found many people with lesions or scars.” (Interview 15. Member of the secretary of health. October 10, 2019).
The communities with the highest prevalence of CL live partially or totally isolated. Their villages are located in a mountainous territory with limited road communication and can only be reached by foot. Because patients must walk long distances to find informal transportation to the nearest health center, many choose not to travel. As a result, patients seek help in health centers only for very serious medical situations, as described in the following two testimonies:
“For the case of Santa Cecilia [settlement in the Pueblo Rico municipality] it is very sui generis, because although they have a health center there, there are communities that have to walk 7 h to get to the main road and there they take transportation to be able to reach the health center, and even if they intend to take the child or not—because it can also happen—they do not have the resources to take a tuk tuk [motorcycle vehicle used for public transport] to take them there.” (Interview 14. Health worker. October 01, 2019).
“For example, we have a very large community, I live, for example, in Diamante, the person who is going to give me the injection lives in Minitas. I have to walk 2 h every day, one way, let’s say, 1 h going and 1 h coming, one also gets tired. I think that if there was another method, it would be easier.” (Interview 3. Community leader. May 05, 2019).
Indirect costs of health care: reaching the health posts and the economic loss by receiving antileishmanial treatment
Transportation and indirect costs were described as a barrier to receiving treatment and as a cause for treatment interruption. The need to travel to the health post every day for 20 consecutive days to receive antileishmanial treatment is perceived as a high burden for families with very low purchasing power. In the following quotes, a community leader and a teacher share how they experience the economic burden in conversations with affected community members:
“I feel sorry [for the patients](…) I know a lot because I know each house, they come to me with leishmaniasis and I tell them ‘go’, [the patient says:] ‘There is no money’ (…) I give them 5000 pesos to go to Santa [Cecilia] and then they say ‘why don’t you apply it?’, [the health promoter says:] ‘No, the boss does not authorize me, I only watch and refer and bring medicine.’” (Interview 02. Community leader. May 10, 2019).
“(…) and the child has leishmaniasis, he has 3 strong ones, here on the hand, here in the front and on the foot (…) The father took him to the Santa Cecilia hospital, and they sent him to Pueblo Rico for an examination and the father did not take him to Pueblo Rico because of lack of resources, so at the moment he is at home. This week a lady from Santa Cecilia who works for Fundasalud [a local healthcare provider] talked to his father so that they would take him to the hospital again because he tested positive [for leishmaniasis].” (Interview 28. College teacher. May 10, 2019).
One of the main economic activities for the indigenous population is working as day laborers, such as harvesting coffee from plantations located in neighboring towns. Working-age individuals migrate during the coffee harvest season. This often causes patients to postpone or interrupt CL treatment until the harvest is finished. (Field Diary 13. Workshop with field technicians. September 23, 2019).
A different worldview: traditional medicine and frictions between health programs and the community
The effectiveness of health interventions is compromised by cultural frictions between health institutions and the indigenous population. Health institutions are predominantly managed by people of mestizo ethnicity and Afro-Colombians. Health institutions propose interventions aimed to improve health outcomes based on national guidelines that, from an indigenous perspective, often lack sense. As an example, mosquito nets provided by institutions are often used for fishing, or the use of insect repellent is promoted, but this is an expensive product that is not traditionally used by indigenous communities. Public health workers by contrast often perceive that the efforts are driven by the institutions only and lack input from the indigenous community. One community leader describes the concurrency of traditional and Western Medicine as follows:
“(…) the council or the local governors are aware that if a disease [CL] is mild, then the traditional doctor treats it, and if it is serious it is necessary to send them to the health center and the other thing is, because we are in the community, it is distant, sometimes it takes 8 h, people do not come to the hospital to be treated for leishmaniasis or something else, there are communities that know traditional medicine, completely plant-based cures for leishmaniasis (…) those who know how to cure it, and if it is does not work, then we have to bring them to the hospital.” (Interview 11. Community leader. September 26, 2019).
Partly due to the contextual, cultural and economic barriers mentioned above, isolated indigenous communities tend to solve health problems like CL through traditional medicine based on their ancestral knowledge. This includes ancestral doctors and healers who cure patients with medicinal plants or drinks and perform ancestral rituals. Many patients turn to traditional medicine first, and if it does not work or if complications arise, they seek help from Western Medicine. As an example, CL patients frequently attempt to heal their lesions by applying lemon, acid or hot objects. Despite the pain or potential risk of bacterial infection after chemical or physical burns of the lesions, these options are more accessible in terms of cost and time, and are more consistent with the indigenous culture. A member of the Unidad Móvil de Salud, a team of healthcare workers who deliver health services to distant communities, describes his perception of the cultural barriers in the following quote:
“(…) but there is a very marked issue among the communities, the issue of traditional medicine, and it is the jaibaná [traditional healer] (…) we had a case of a girl, [the parent said:] ‘I still don’t take my girl to the doctor because I have to wait for the jaibaná at night’, I have to wait, yes, it is something they have to do, so it gets a little complicated, one would like to do things much faster, but one has to adapt with them and look for the best way, that is the work we have been doing, as I said. I know that if we go to other places, it becomes more complicated, the access, the roads, it gets a little complicated…” (Interview 14. Health worker. October 1, 2019).
Lack of coordination of government programs, administrative barriers of the health system and the inertia of health institutions
Administrative barriers within health institutions impede access to CL treatment. Despite numerous health and aid programs operating in the study area, we observed limited exchange of information, resources and communication among the different actors. Coordination between institutions at a national, departmental and municipal levels is often difficult.
The limited effectiveness of health programs to improve health outcomes may be attributed to guidelines which are not appropriate for the context and the territory. This is compounded by a lack of trust in the communities and a lack of commitment by some health workers to take action for change or to improve the health conditions. Health programs are often limited to compliance with national regulations and have provided the same forms of leishmaniasis control with limited effectiveness for many years. Programs do not seem to be designed with the goal of radically improving the health situation of the communities, but rather to follow administrative indicators, as expressed in the following quote:
“(…) The chief of the reservation responds that the institutions have to know how to intervene in the communities, and if the programs do not work, it is because they do it wrong (…). Referring to the comments of the institutions on the lack of co-responsibility of the population towards the services and programs health, he says: ‘Have you come to replan the actions you do? The easiest thing is to blame others, but is that true?’ (…) He also mentions that the indigenous people have lost trust in the face of the institutionality, he says: ‘if there is trust they abide’” (Field Diary 10. Meeting with health institutions. July 05, 2019).
Moreover, ongoing health interventions are often discontinued due to changes in political administration and thus lack long-term impact, as commented on by a community leader:
“(…) I love [health] projects, but those projects are not for the moment, I have always been against a one-month project and that’s it, ‘we have completed the project and we are leaving’, but then there are projects that do not have an impact, they have no logic (…)” Interview 3. Community leader. May 09, 2019).
Insufficient health infrastructure to provide treatment to the rural population
Many of the isolated settlements are only accessible by foot, which makes it impossible for the health system to build and staff health posts. One hospital and two health posts serve an area of 19.72 km2 (99.96% rural and 0.04% urban ), while five nursing assistants are assigned to provide basic care and vaccinations for the 83 settlements .
Given the characteristics of anti-leishmanial treatment and the need to travel between settlements, it is not feasible for health workers to administer antileishmanial drugs to every single patient during twenty consecutive days in the vast rural area.
“Let’s just say that there is also a lack of political will to install certain health posts that are geographically suitable for each of the communities, because only one indigenous reservation like the Resguardo Unificado [name of a reservation] has 40 settlements, so look at the magnitude of the problem, it is a matter of an administration that can generate certain resources to have much greater healthcare coverage, which is the case with the Cauca [a department in the south of Colombia with a large indigenous population] communities, which are geographically isolated, yes, but within each community there is an affordable health post people can be taken to (…)” (Interview 14. Health worker. October 01, 2019).
Another health worker describes the difficulties arising from a scarcity of health staff to deliver antileishmanial drugs to the patients in the following quote:
“So, I always defend my [health] assistants, for example, I say to [name of nursing auxiliary] ‘you do me a favor and apply the medicine to a man who lives in Tumacas’, but he cannot go every day from his house in Palmitas to Tumacas for 2 h to apply the medicine (…) and he has other activities. And the patient is not going to come here for 2 h if this is the closest one he has. There are nursing assistants in the community, so why don’t they apply [the antileishmanial drugs]? The auxiliary has other activities [to do] and if he also must administer the Glucantime [CL medication] to the indigenous person, it is very difficult.” (Interview 8. Health worker. July 4, 2019).
Negative perceptions of the indigenous population about CL treatment negatively affect treatment adherence
Health workers report that many indigenous people in Pueblo Rico are not aware of the importance of health care in general and the risk of leishmaniasis in particular. The perception of CL as a non-fatal disease leads many patients to choose to avoid or postpone medical attention. Many CL patients from the indigenous communities are also afraid of the injections, as expressed in the following two quotes by health workers:
“The limitation with leishmaniasis is undoubtedly the treatment, with the indigenous communities we have a great barrier and that is that the indigenous people do not like injections, so they do not have continuity of treatment, they do not have any risk perception ‘if I do not have the complete treatment I will get a mucosa [mucosal leishmaniasis]’ No, for them this is not the conception, so it is very complicated.” (Interview 15. Health worker. October 1, 2019).
“(…) people are very afraid of that shot, again I insist and there are so many (…) people do not finish the treatment, because there are so many shots, people start very conscientiously until halfway through, from there they start to decrease, they leave and they leave (…) people are very afraid (…)” (Interview 08. Health worker. July 04, 2019).
Some indigenous patients are skeptical about the effectiveness of the CL treatment due to their experiences with treatment failure. In addition, many are afraid of adverse effects of the CL treatment, such as vomiting, diarrhea, muscle cramps or headaches. In an informal conversation, a patient mentioned that he could live normally with the CL lesion, but he could not work because of the side effects of the CL treatment. The treatment has to be administered by trained personnel to avoid further side effects, as stated by this health worker:
“(…) the volume [of Glucantime] is very large, it is necessary to administer 15 ml daily in the gluteus of the patient. Then on the third day (…) the gluteus is already edematous, and if the person has a bad technique in the application, it can cause complications (…)” (Interview 8. Health worker. July 4, 2019).
Treatment characteristics, requirements and unavailability pose additional challenges to patients and healthcare providers
Another barrier to leishmaniasis care is the requirement for diagnostic and pre-treatment laboratory tests. According with the national guidelines for leishmaniasis management in Colombia , these tests are mandatory to assess eligibility for systemic treatment. This is due to the potential toxicity of antileishmanials such as meglumine antimoniate or pentamidine. Likewise, the diagnostic process is also a barrier. In the case of Pueblo Rico, blood samples are taken twice a week at the health posts. They are then processed at a secondary health care level in neighboring town. The turnover time of the results is approximately 15 days.
In the department of Risaralda, CL treatment was previously administered in the indigenous communities through health promoters. Today however, this is not possible due to the lack of availability of rural staff. Moreover, considering the risks of adverse events, the National guidelines limit CL treatment to In-Hospital Use only. In Pueblo Rico, CL treatment is currently provided at the hospital and the two health posts of the municipality. During a workshop with health workers, they raised the following possible solutions to the problem of treatment distribution:
-
Establishment of health posts closer to the communities to mitigate territorial access barriers
-
Training of community members to administer the drug in communities
-
Ensuring sufficient health staff to administer the treatment in the communities
-
Increase the use of pentamidine or miltefosine, which unlike Glucantime are administered for only 5 days, providing accessibility to the community
(Field Diary 13. Workshop with field technicians. September 24, 2019).
Feedback to the results from members of the community
Findings were presented and discussed with members of the community and leaders in a meeting conducted by MMBG. Overall, participants agreed with the findings (in a Spanish version) as presented in the current study, a summary of their feedback and some of their comments to the results are presented in the Table 2.
Discussion
Structural barriers: the problems of rural territories and public policies significantly affect the operation and access to LC treatment
According to the framework of social determinants of health, structural factors have a broad impact on access to health . Most of the barriers to accessing CL treatment at a local level result from structural problems. These include the long distances the population travels to health centers in urban areas, the limited availability of staff and facilities as well as the poor infrastructure of health services. These structural problems negatively affect access to health, particularly for populations living in rural areas, which are largely affected by CL. In Colombia, 80.8% of the 5025 reported cases in 2020 were from dispersed rural areas. Poverty, social inequalities, armed conflict, violence, political centralism and poor infrastructure pose additional barriers to accessing health services.
In rural areas in Colombia, 45.7% of the population live in poverty . Although treatment costs for CL are covered by the Colombian health plan, rural populations still face challenges in accessing treatment. Their low purchasing power often leads to an inability to afford out-of-pocket expenses, such as transportation and per diems. Additionally, there are opportunity costs like the loss of income due to absence from work. This situation is not limited to Colombia [20, 21]. In a recent study on CL among indigenous groups in Bolivia, participants described expenditures that corresponded to 600 USD, which is more than twice the monthly minimum wage in the country .
Limited availability of human resources to serve these communities was evidenced by this study. This phenomenon is not limited to our research area. Despite the high burden of infectious diseases, there is a deficit of human resources to provide care in rural areas in Colombia. There are only 28.8 health professionals/10.000 inhabitants of dispersed rural areas, compared to 102 professionals/10.000 inhabitants in urban centers .
With respect to public policies, Colombia faces structural problems related to political clientelism, corruption and an inefficient bureaucratic system especially in the most marginalized areas of the country . Most of these factors explain the administrative health services barriers identified at a local level such as: the disarticulation between health institutions, the discontinuity of health programs and projects, the challenges related to available budget, and the delays in hiring staff (approximately the first 3 months of the year there is no permanent health staff), among others.
Colombian health system barriers: the regulation and availability of CL treatment makes it inaccessible to the most vulnerable population and inadequate for the socio-territorial context
Although the requirements of national guidelines for leishmaniasis management in Colombia are based on the potential drug toxicity, most of their measures are not feasible in dispersed rural areas such as Pueblo Rico. This includes availability of diagnostic tests and laboratory testing (e.g., creatinine, amylase, etc.) pre- and during treatment which are recommended to monitor safety, as well as the administration of the antileishmanial drugs in a health facility. Although their primary aim is to improve the safety of antileishmanial treatment, these regulations often impose barriers to treatment of CL due to insufficient health centers and lack of staff and laboratory capacities for test analysis.
The lack of adequate health infrastructure in Pueblo Rico highlights the need to explore new strategies to administer CL drugs inside the communities. It is necessary to explore new mechanisms that promote equitable access and inclusiveness of health, developed in similar contexts for other diseases that could be replicated to improve access to treatment. These new approaches include home visits by the health team to remote rural communities [25, 26] or capacity building programs, like the training of community representatives in indigenous communities in the Peruvian amazon . It is also important to observe the different forms of implementation of treatment guidelines. In our prior unpublished work, we observed that in another Colombian municipality, health institutions have tried to adapt the national regulations to their context, with pre-treatment exams only being applied to those over 40 years of age (a practice likely based on a previous version of the Colombian treatment guidelines, which indicated pre-treatment laboratory testing in patients ≥ 45 years of age). They furthermore had nursing auxiliaries from the hospital administer the treatment in the rural villages during weekdays. Additionally, it is important to consider the social and institutional capital of the area. There are a total of 27 health assistants for the rural areas, including vaccinators, health promoters and nursing assistants from the four health institutions. In addition, most rural communities, even the most remote, have members with training in health (nursing auxiliaries).
Moreover, new alternatives for diagnosis and treatment are urgently needed for CL. Current treatments are costly, long, and often involve drugs with a high level of toxicity that can potentially have severe side effects. There is a need for rapid diagnostic tests for an early detection of CL cases as well as an easy-to-administer oral or topical treatment, as mentioned in the new NTD roadmap elaborated by WHO One of the critical actions of the 2021–2030 roadmap is to “Develop and scale up easy-to-administer oral or topical treatments that could be used in health centers”. This aspect is relevant for the development of Target Product Profiles (TPP) that guide research and development of new drugs. For instance, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi)’s TPP for CL treatments include local therapies, with no contraindications or that can be assessed at a primary health care level, among other desired characteristics . Due to their good risk–benefit ratio, local therapies have been recommended by WHO since 2010 for patients who meet specific clinical criteria. In the Americas, local therapies were also included in PAHO 2013’s treatment recommendations, but their adoption is limited. These alternatives need to be more widely implemented, made affordable and available to CL patients.
Cultural barriers: cross-cultural conflicts lead to negative perceptions and behaviors that are critical to the decision to access health services for CL treatment
Cross-cultural conflicts often arise from the lack of recognition of different forms of health knowledge and practices and the ways in which these, including scientific medical knowledge, are influenced by different cultural backgrounds. When this is the case, bottlenecks often occur that do not allow for solutions to the central problems . The cultural misunderstandings in Pueblo Rico are evident in the frictions between Western and traditional medicine and the low level of agreement between the community and the health actions of the institutions.
As has been documented in other studies, cultural factors frequently condition the system of perceptions and behaviors of each cultural group in relation to the use of health services. A Colombian study for example reported a scarce use of medical services due to low trust in the quality of the primary care services . In Pueblo Rico, the community was perceived to have little concern for improving their own health. This behavior can be related to the low-risk perception of leishmaniasis and the distrust in institutions. The community however see the institutional behavior as limited to compliance with health regulations, which in turn may be related to their perception that their work is constrained by the community and the political structures.
Cultural discrepancies constitute an important barrier to access health care. Given that health programs are designed, implemented and incorporated by people (health workers and patients), the interest and willingness of all actors are fundamental to imply change to improve the current CL care management. There is an urgent need for institutions to promote creative ways to guarantee access to leishmaniasis treatment appropriate to the context. Likewise, it is important to stress that communities are co-responsible for their health and are willing to learn and lead change processes. In the case of Pueblo Rico, both set of actors bear responsibility.
Considerations and limitations
Data collection for the current study was limited to urban areas and nearby villages located approximately 2 h from nearest urban area. This was due to the difficulties to reach more remote villages, which are up to 8 h away from the nearest urban area and are affected by the presence of non-state armed actors. Sample size was limited by the distrust and unwillingness of indigenous people to participate in the interviews due to the violence in the area and closed traditional communities. Furthermore, communication barriers limited the depth of the interviews. Even though most of the population’s members speak Spanish, some showed poor comprehension of the questions and little concordance and fluency in their answers.
In contrast, participant observation constituted a very important source of data. The regular frequency of visits to some communities, the contact with people in their natural living spaces and the informal conversations and participation in community activities provided an understanding of the context that was crucial for the data analysis.
Conclusion
The determinants to CL management are multidimensional, involving structural, cultural and health system barriers. It is thus necessary to pursue a comprehensive approach to improve the accessibility of CL care. Our results suggest that the most relevant barrier for CL care is related to the administration of the treatment and type of antileishmanial drug. Since the treatment is designed around the disease and health institutions rather than the affected people, it is inaccessible to the most vulnerable population and inadequate for the socio-territorial context.
Similar to the findings of other studies on CL and indigenous populations [22, 31], we found that the structural inaccessibility to CL treatment in Pueblo Rico due to cultural, geographic, economic and health system barriers causes patients to turn to traditional medicine before seeking help in Western medicine. However, this can also lead patients to wait until the disease reaches an advanced stage before seeking treatment, which in turn can affect the effectiveness of the treatment.
Availability of data and materials
The data presented in this study are available on request, subject to authorization by the CIDEIM ethics committee. Requests can be sent to the corresponding author and to the institutional Ethics Committee of CIDEIM at: [email protected].
Abbreviations
- NTD:
-
Neglected tropical diseases
- CL:
-
Cutaneous leishmaniasis
- COREQ:
-
Consolidated criteria for Reporting Qualitative research
- UHC:
-
Universal Health Coverage
- IRB:
-
Institutional Ethical Review Board
- CIDEIM:
-
Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas
- DNDI:
-
Drugs for neglected diseases initiative
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
- SIHI:
-
Social innovation in health initiative
- TDR:
-
Special programme for research and training in tropical diseases
- UNICEF:
-
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
- UNDP:
-
United Nations Development Program
- UBN:
-
Unsatisfied basic needs
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Acknowledgements
We thank Neal Alexander for his critical review and input on this text, Laura Sofía Zuluaga for her support in some content sections, Jennifer Estrella for her support in style and graphic design. We are also grateful to personnel of Hospital San Rafael in Pueblo Rico (Risaralda Department) and the Secretary of health in Risaralda, for their support of project activities, and Carlos Guevara and Patricia Castaño field coordinator from CIDEIM in Pueblo Rico.
Funding
This study was funded by NIH award number U19AI129910 and MMBG was also supported by SIHI, the social innovation in health initiative. WHO Registration 2020/1015583-0—PO: 202541748. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Ethics approval and consent to participate
This study was approved and monitored by the Institutional Ethical Review Board (IRB) of Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas -CIDEIM- (Approval number: 1272). Written informed consent was obtained from all individuals prior to participation.
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Not Applicable, because no individual data are included.
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Authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Bautista-Gomez, M.M., Doerfler, J. & del Mar Castro, M. Barriers to cutaneous leishmaniasis care faced by indigenous communities of rural areas in Colombia: a qualitative study. BMC Infect Dis 22, 302 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07204-w
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Following a government report into racial and ethnic disparities in the UK published in March 2021, the NHS Race and Health Observatory has published a follow-up review on ethnic inequalities in healthcare. The original report was met with criticism as it failed in the most part to acknowledge the longstanding injustices faced by minority ethnic people in the UK.
The new review, published on 14 February this year, collates evidence on ethnic inequalities in the following five broad categories:
- Mental health services
- Maternal and neonatal healthcare
- Digital inclusion and access to health services
- Genetic testing and genomic medicine studies
- NHS workforce
Inequality in access to, and delivery of healthcare, was found across the board, either in the form of evidence or, equally troubling, in the absence of evidence, where data on the experiences and outcomes of minority ethnic patients had never been gathered.
Mental health services
The experiences of minority ethnic people accessing mental healthcare are characterised by distrust and a well-founded fear of discrimination and its devastating consequences. Findings were as follows:
- Barriers were experienced to accessing mental health services in the form of distrust, fear of discrimination and a lack of appropriate interpreting services.
- The review found “large and persisting” inequalities in compulsory admissions to psychiatric facilities, particularly amongst Black, mixed Black and white, and South Asian people.
- Black patients were more likely to face harsher treatment whilst in these facilities, such as being restrained and put into seclusion.
- Many of these troubling findings were reflected in the mental healthcare experienced by younger populations, highlighting that the problem is not improving.
The review noted that it had less evidence from some minority ethnic groups, which may serve to highlight the distrust and lack of engagement due to barriers in access to services that these groups experience.
Maternal and neonatal healthcare
The situation was no better for new mothers and their babies:
- A lack of appropriate interpreting services was also an issue in providing good maternal and postnatal care, as well as a lack of trusting and positive relationships between women and their healthcare providers.
- Minority ethnic patients experienced stereotyping, disrespect, discrimination, and cultural insensitivity. Of course, these shortcomings only further reinforce the distrust and fear many women may face when trying to access healthcare for themselves and their babies.
- The review again noted the lack of data regarding ethnic inequalities in the access to, and receipt of, some services such as caesarean deliveries, breastfeeding support, and antenatal appointments.
This section of the report also points out the lack of specifically community-based support for new parents from minority ethnic backgrounds.
It also highlights the importance of intersectionality. This is the concept that everyone has a unique experience of discrimination or oppression, and multiple factors such as a person’s ethnic origin, as well as their social status, employment status, and sexual orientation (amongst many others) will all play a part in what this experience is.
This is an important reminder that ‘ethnic minority’ people are not a homogenous group, but individuals with multiple confounders outside of their ethnic origin affecting their lived experiences. Within this data, it means acknowledging all the factors that might impact on a woman’s equality of care, in addition to her minoritized ethnic background, such as also being an asylum seeker or a young mother.
Digital inclusion and access to health services
The review again cites a lack of research in this area and is therefore unable to draw many conclusions. However, the recurring themes of a lack of availability of resources in languages other than English, and a mistrust of the intended use of data are present here.
Genetic testing and genomic medicine studies
Minority ethnic people were not well represented in large genomic wide association studies. Many only used ‘European ancestry’ participants, despite the fact that cohorts with a greater range of ethnicities may give a greater predictive power across ethnic groups and would therefore be very valuable.
NHS workforce
We already know that minority ethnic individuals face worse health outcomes in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic. The review states that this is also the case for NHS staff from these backgrounds:
- Adequate access to PPE was lower in minority ethnic staff members, and the pandemic had a greater negative effect on their mental health.
- Minority ethnic staff as a whole faced racist abuse from patients as well as other staff members. However, there was no research into most individual ethnic groups.
Action points: better data collection and communication
While the review found clear evidence of institutional, individual-level, and persistent ethnic inequalities in all facets of our healthcare system, a major limiting factor was the lack of data across many areas. This reflects a healthcare system and wider society which has thus far disregarded the experiences and needs of people from minority ethnic backgrounds.
The review goes on to propose action points for each of the five areas, many of which involve more comprehensive data collection services and open channels of communication between affected populations and the healthcare providing bodies.
Should these recommendations be taken into account by the healthcare system, it will undoubtedly be a step in the right direction to addressing the inequities the report has highlighted. But, whilst pertinent to understanding the context, research is only the first step in effecting positive outcomes.
Tackling the deeper causes of NHS inequalities
The UK population demographic is rapidly changing, with people identifying as being of ‘mixed’ background being the fastest growing ethnic group. This is against the backdrop of a complex society where other factors such as social class and gender can further magnify existing inequalities faced by those from a minority ethnic background. As the landscape of our country’s population changes, so too must our approach to delivering effective and sustainable healthcare which meets the needs of our population.
But this means recognising that the issue has roots much deeper than just within the NHS and cannot be dealt with by altering out healthcare alone. It reflects a need for identifying and addressing disparities in access to education, representation in the government and beyond, and other entrenched disparities such as the ethnicity pay gap.
Only once we begin to tackle the deeper causes of the findings in the review, can we make real progress towards solving them. | https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/health/nhs-review-ethnic-inequalities-in-healthcare/ |
Act Now Foundation is seeking a Community Health Worker or Social Worker Intern to provide mental health and social services to members in the community who have limited access to resources available to them. In this role, you communicate with underserved people, particularly Older Adults and caregivers caring for someone living with Dementia, to determine the care they need, and connect them to the right services. Our ideal candidate has a bachelor’s degree in health education or a related field and is bilingual or multilingual in languages that our community members speak.
About Us
Since 2012, Act Now Foundation, a grass roots 501© (3) non-profit, has worked tirelessly to raise awareness, advocate, and educate New Jersey about Alzheimer’s disease, prevention, and early detection. Our Vision is to create a dementia-friendly New Jersey; to reduce the impact of Alzheimer’s disease in New Jersey and to engage communities to build supportive, capable, and Alzheimer’s educated environments; to help Caregivers become prepared, supported, and capable of coping with the challenges they face living and caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias.
The role and activities of community health workers and social workers are tailored to meet the unique needs of the communities they serve. A community health/ social worker’s role depends on factors such as their education, training, lived experience, and experience working with specific populations. They will work closely with medical providers, primary care teams, and other agencies to improve patient care and outcomes.
Primary Responsibilities
- Determine eligibility and enroll individuals in programs and benefits
- Advocate for underserved individuals or communities to receive services and resources to address health needs
- Collect data and relay information to stakeholders to inform programs and policies
- Provide informal counseling and referral
- Work collaboratively and effectively within a team
- Assist clients in accessing health related services, including but not limited to, obtaining a care manager, providing instructions to where to receive Covid-19 testing and/or Vaccine finding medical assistance for clients with specific needs, and make referrals to Meals on Wheels, Senior Centers, care agencies, and other agencies as needed
- Help clients in utilizing resources within the community and assisting completion of applications for programs for which they may be eligible
- Facilitate communication and coordinate services between providers
- Effectively work with people (staff, clients, doctors, agencies, etc.) from diverse backgrounds in reducing cultural and socio-economic barriers between clients and institutions
- Build and maintain positive working relationships with the clients, providers, case managers, agency representatives, supervisor, and office staff
- Continuously expand knowledge and understanding of community resources, services and programs provided; human relations and the procedures used in dealing with the public as part of a service or program; volunteer resources and the practices associated with using volunteers, operations, functions, policies, and procedures associated with the department or program area, procedures, and resources available to handle new, unusual, or different situations. | https://careers.newark.rutgers.edu/jobs/act-now-foundation-community-health-worker-social-worker-internship/ |
Community health workers are members of America’s health and social services workforce who are uniquely poised to improve individual and community health and wellbeing. They typically come from the groups they serve, and thus may have strong ties to communities they work within and possess special understandings of the health challenges they face.
Community health workers can be employed by government health or social service agencies or by nonprofit organizations. They build individual and community capacity and self-sufficiency by engaging in community outreach and educational projects and by providing the people they serve with informal counseling, social support, and advocacy for their needs. Such workers usually share similar educational and economic backgrounds with the community members they serve, so their connections and backgrounds often set them apart from other professionals in the health and social services workforce.
Many social factors affect people’s health and access to appropriate services, including economic conditions, educational levels, transportation, and public safety in areas where they live. Such factors are especially important for marginalized groups of people such as immigrants, refugees, and those in living in poverty. Community health workers cannot correct all of these environmental conditions, but they can reach out effectively to hard to reach groups and connect them to health and social service organizations. Community health workers use their intimate knowledge of their own communities to build deep, trusting relationships that allow them to improve not only individual health outcomes for their clients but also the overall wellbeing of communities.
What Community Health Workers Do
Community health workers have been deployed utilized in the United States since the 1960s, but their roles have waxed and waned. Many states have integrated such workers into their healthcare workforces – and have given them a variety of roles:
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Addressing the social factors that affect health – Personalized and community specific outreach strategies are vital for improving access to health and social services. Community health workers are well-equipped to provide such outreach because they know their communities and the specific barriers that keep their clients from accessing health and social services. As they connect people to resources, these workers empower their clients to overcome barriers and take control of their own health and wellbeing.
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Establishing a community presence – Community health workers are unique among other health and social service positions in that they spend they spend the majority of their days not in offices but out in their communities. They may go door-to-door, attend health fairs, or seek out local gathering places to create new relationships with people in need.
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Improving health education – Community health workers improve key health outcomes by spreading basic information. As nonclinical workers, their work is primarily focused on educating people and can foster improvements in nutrition, chronic disease prevention, and chronic disease management.
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Advocacy – Community health workers engage in advocacy on behalf of individuals and community needs. They can ensure forms are in languages other than English, work with town councils to make facilities more accessible to all people or increase resources for popular programs. They can work with local, state, and federal representatives on legislative solutions or public awareness campaigns. Although such advocacy efforts may not seem as closely tied to community health and wellbeing as the other functions these workers perform, these workers are often the first to encounter, identify, and push authorities to address the special problems and challenges they learn about in the course of working with their clients.
Proven Effectiveness
Research has documented the effectiveness of community health workers who improve nutrition, prenatal and maternal health, and a myriad of other health outcomes. Additionally, they help connect community members to social resources including housing, legal services, poverty supports, and food resources.
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These workers are particularly effective at preventing costly chronic health problems and at helping clients manage existing chronic conditions to prevent further complications or the advancement of diseases. This matters because, according to a report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “86 percent of the nation’s $2.7 trillion annual health care expenditures are for people with chronic and mental health conditions.”
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Community health workers can not only save and improve people’s lives, but also reduce costs for state and health systems by improving health education and helping clients managing chronic conditions. Some states have even been able to reimburse the community health workers services through Medicaid and other funding streams.
Integrating Community Workers into Health and Social Services
Overall, community health workers address key gaps in the provision of health care and social services in the United States. They are uniquely effective members of the health and social services workforce and it is vital that policymakers, public health advocates, and others concerned about community health deploy them to improve public health through grassroots contacts with clients outside of clinics and hospitals.
Community health workers should be formally integrated into the healthcare workforce, and people hired into these valuable jobs should include both full-time and part-time workers with stable employment and adequate benefits. As community outreach jobs are designed, steps should be taken to ensure that responsibilities are not defined in narrowly medical ways. These jobs must include space for those who hold them to engage with people in the community and do advocacy on their behalf as appropriate. Community health workers, ideally, should serve as distinct members of interdisciplinary teams – to fill gaps, build bridges, and increase access for everyone in the communities they represent and serve. | https://scholars.org/brief/valuable-contributions-community-health-workers-american-health-and-social-service-programs |
The Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) / Conseil des Bibliothèques Urbaines du Canada (CBUC) defines social inclusion as the participatory, authentic, and accountable manner in which institutions uphold and reinforce the principles of access, equity and, as a result, social inclusion for all.
Social inclusion is the manner in which institutions understand and engage their communities, as well as how they explore, view, and challenge barriers, values, and behaviours. Social inclusion is also defined by how institutions develop, implement, and evaluate policies and procedures, how they provide equitable access to services, and finally, how they demonstrate the level of inclusion through tangible outcomes.
According to Fourie (2007), social inclusion refers to all efforts and policies to promote equality of opportunity to people from all circumstances and from all socially-excluded categories. The circumstances and the categories of people mostly linked to social exclusion are therefore the circumstances and categories to be addressed by efforts to enhance inclusion.
Finally, in Canada, social inclusion is understood as a multi-dimensional concept that facilitates inclusion from a variety of fronts that include:
- increase of employment;
- elimination of poverty;
- enablement of civic engagement;
- elimination of discrimination and racism;
- promotion of access to a variety of public resources and institutions.
Based on the concept of social inclusion, projects that engage in social inclusion work should therefore be informed by the perspectives and worldviews of those to be included.
Why is social inclusion important to Canadians?
Today’s immigrants face multiple barriers in Canadian society. Many are characterized as socially excluded because they face economic exclusion upon arrival to Canada. Adults struggle because of different language and culture; youth face particular challenges “belonging” to their new communities and incorporating new and old ways.
According to a 2006 study that examines Statistics Canada’s Canadian Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS), Canadian immigrants face many additional difficulties. They experience challenges having foreign credentials recognized, they lack Canadian job experience, and they are often subject to discrimination in labour markets. Other studies identify learning a new language, making friends, finding affordable housing – even coping with the Canadian weather – as common difficulties.
Without mechanisms in place to ensure newcomers are adequately included in their newly adopted society, these groups may be at greater risk of being at the margin of the democratic process, feeling isolated, or being socially excluded.
What is the library’s role in removing barriers to social inclusion?
Libraries have a role to play in breaking down barriers for new immigrants. In addition to offering a safe play and safe learning environment, libraries can provide free information and services.
Access to government, health, and community resources, for example, count among the services libraries can provide immigrants. Libraries can also offer free access to computers, information on local communities, plus updates on job opportunities. Libraries are also well positioned to provide exposure to ways to overcome settlement and language difficulties, including the ability to provide exposure to conversational English and English-language instruction.
In short, public libraries can help resolve social exclusion and promote social inclusion.
Social Inclusion and Access to Meaningful Information
As pointed out by Caidi and Allard (2005), access to necessary information is a fundamental component to achieving social inclusion for immigrants. Without it, immigrants cannot make informed choices and decisions.
This has become known as “information poverty” (Chatman’s 1996), a theory that identifies groups that have difficulty obtaining information to solve everyday life problems. The theory suggests a class of “information poor” exists whose members lack access to information and who are characterized by their inability to obtain useful information from people they know, from outsiders, or even from mainstream sources of information such as the media (Chatman, 1985, 1987, 1996; Dervin, 1983; Savolainen, 1995; Sligo and Jameson, 2000).
Immigrants are at risk of being information poor because they are unfamiliar with the Canadian information environment. Plus, they have small social networks from which to acquire information.
Social Inclusion, ICTs, and Information Literacy
Tip
Communications and information are the lifeblood of sustainable communities, and public services such as libraries are often important conduits for information and knowledge.
New iterations of the digital divide stress that access must be combined with an understanding of how to effectively make use of ICTs – in other words, information and ICT literacy.
The social inclusion framework fits well in this new understanding of digital divide perspective because it highlights the complexity of the marginalization process; i.e., the digital divide is connected to other systems of marginalization and exclusion.
Addressing social inclusion through technological initiatives has become a strategy of policy making within various organizations including libraries (Council of Administrators of Large Urban Public Libraries of Canada – Canadian Urban Libraries Council, 2004). But it is not limited to that. If we conceive of the digital divide simply in terms of haves and have-nots, social inclusion policies would only require us to increase access to ICTs among marginalized communities. In fact, it is not only that individuals do not have access to ICTs, it is that they do not possess the literacy (technological and otherwise) to use these technologies effectively. Warschauer (2002) refers to these skills as “meaningful social practices” (Models of Access section, para. 4).
Similarly, Schuler (2001) talks about “civic intelligence” which includes access to relevant and usable content, skills in utilizing libraries and ICTs, a supportive environment, and attitudes as to the appropriateness, usefulness, and relevance of libraries and ICTs to one’s purposes.
Tip
Features of a Flourishing Community Information Environment
- A culture of participation, collaboration, information sharing and diversity.
- Available skills – communications, information handling, and processing skills.
- Responsible gatekeepers – key local activists or professionals who are links between information.
- “Occasions” – informal social opportunities where information is exchanged and refined in a social setting.
- An appropriate administrative and physical infrastructure which encourages community development.
- Relevant, accessible content.
- Awareness of the resources available and acquisition of library skills.
- Discovery of the library and experience of its safe and accommodating environment.
- Telling family and friends about how libraries can help them.
- Learning to trust library staff (p. 760).
Key Learnings: Libraries and Social Inclusion
- Public libraries have a fundamental role to promote social inclusion by bridging the gap between the information poor and the information rich.
- Access to information is imperative for social inclusion, but simply putting multilingual books in libraries will not foster social inclusion for new immigrants.
- Librarians have an opportunity to make libraries a place where immigrants feel included by making them relevant and meaningful. They must also provide the information literacy skills that will make library programs and collections accessible.
- Librarians and information managers should view themselves as mentors and gatekeepers for those deprived of access to ICTs and meaningful information.
- Libraries, through the provision of resources, public space, and ICT access and training, have a key role to play in the promotion of social inclusion.
- A myriad of barriers, including institutional factors such as library membership policies, must be examined and assessed in partnership with the communities libraries serve.
From the UK Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, (1999)
- Social inclusion should be mainstreamed as a policy priority for library and information services.
- Library authorities should consider what specific services need to be tailored to meet the needs of minority groups.
- Library authorities should consult and involve socially excluded groups in order to ascertain their needs and aspirations.
- Library authorities should consider the possibilities of co-locating their facilities with other services provided by the local authority.
- Libraries should be a major vehicle for providing affordable or preferably free access to ICT at local level.
- A culturally competent library is able to provide services to people with diverse values, beliefs, and behaviours, including tailoring delivery to meet new immigrants’ social, cultural, and linguistic needs.
- Cultural competent libraries are equipped to devise strategies that identify and address cultural barriers to accessing urban library services.
- Cultural competence is achieved by incorporating one’s understanding of individuals and groups of people into practices and policies used in appropriate cultural settings.
New Immigrant Youth
Little research exists on immigrant youth. It is critical to understand what socially excluded communities, in particular new immigrant youth, want and need from public libraries. This would be a significant step toward building relevant and inclusive libraries that respond to the needs of all community members.
According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), more than 60% of immigrants and 70% of recent immigrants live in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Both first and second generation immigrant youth – those born outside Canada and those born in Canada to foreign-born parents, respectively – live primarily in urban centres (Anisef et al, 2005). More than one-third of immigrant youth aged 15 to 29 are first generation Canadians residing in Toronto and Vancouver (Anisef et al, 2005).
More specifically, the CIC reports nearly three-quarters of a million newcomer children and youth have settled in Canada over the past decade. Approximately 50% came from Asia and the Pacific, 20% from Africa and the Middle East, 15% from Europe and the UK, 10% from South and Central America, and less than 5% from the United States (CIC, 2007). Ontario receives the greatest share of these immigrant youth, with more than half of all newcomers settling in the province. Ontario is followed by British Columbia, which receives just under 20% (Anisef et al, 2005).
Urban public libraries serve a large percentage of immigrants and immigrant youth, and are committed to providing them with relevant services.
Community Based Research (CBR)
The following case study explores the information practices of Sudanese youth in London, Ontario. It was devised through community based research (CBR), a practice that can be used to enhance social inclusion. Defined as collaborative research undertaken within communities to instigate community level change, CBR initiatives are generally action-oriented and intent on effecting real change through policies and practices at local and regional levels (Wellesley Institute, 2007).
Case Study
Silvio (2006)
Silvio (2006) explores the information practices of Sudanese youth in London, Ontario and concludes that their most commonly cited needs include information on education, health, employment, politics, and how to deal with racism (2006, p. 263).
According to Silvio, most Sudanese youth prefer easily accessible informal sources such as trusted friends, relatives, and co-workers. In general, “they are very sceptical of information they receive from the radio, television, Internet, and other mass media.” (2006, p. 263). They are also suspicious of government agencies, although this mistrust tends to diminish over time. Although Silvio does not explain why, one can speculate that the political climate of civil war may have led Sudanese youth to be suspicious of people and organizations with whom they are not familiar.
This finding illustrates that social and cultural context play an important role in how an individual finds and evaluates information. It also illustrates the role that the library can play, and points to the fact that youth have specific information and social inclusion needs.
Barriers Faced by Newcomer Youth in Canada
Here are some of the barriers faced by youth immigrants to Canada:
Immigration, Settlement, and Adolescence
- Youth do not adapt as easily as assumed. Problems they encounter include, “disappointment with life, low self-esteem, dysfunction, tension and a sense that they are not accepted by and are isolated from mainstream Canadian society,” (Seat, 2003, p.163).
- They must cope with many new demands: to meet new academic challenges, deal with new expectations from teachers and parents, gain acceptance into new peer groups, and develop new kinds of social competence.
- Throughout this process, they are obliged to negotiate the differences between the cultures of their countries of origin and their new home (Seat, 2003, p. 164).
- Desai and Subramanian (2003), in a study of South Asian immigrant youth in the Greater Toronto Area noted, “Youth are confronted not only with the developmental challenges of adolescence, but also with adjustment problems because of intercultural conflicts between the values of the host culture and their culture of origin,” (p. 130).
- Immigration requires youth to reassess and renegotiate their identities and sense of belonging. This can be a delicate balance, as they may struggle to reconcile the values of their traditional background with those of their new peers.
- Janzen and Ochocka (2003) found, “immigrant youth wanted to feel accepted by others and conform to mainstream expectations and practices. On the other hand, youth wants to maintain and affirm their own personal identity; an identity stemming from their cultural background,” (p. 49).
- For newcomer youth, learning English can be “a major personal challenge” that should be overcome in order to secure acceptance by those around them (Janzen and Ochocka, 2003, p. 47).
- For newcomer youth, the many challenges of settlement, including learning English, finding employment and coping with the stress of adaptation, are combined with the unique pressures of adolescence. Youth must navigate the sometimes conflicting values of family and peers, grapple with issues of identity formation, and adjust to different roles shaped by shifting family dynamics.
- Seat (2003) refers to the “process of settlement, adaptation, and integration” among immigrant and refugee youth as “a complex and multifaceted experience,” a process “that in many cases can be extraordinarily intense and stressful” (p. 162).
- Experiences of poverty faced by new immigrant youth complicate the already challenging process of settlement. Peera (2003) notes that issues related to poverty and social housing include a “lack of aspirations for the youth and lower performance in school, as well as violence, criminal activity, and substance abuse,” (p. 72).
Role Change
- The exchange of roles between parents and youth is necessary for new immigrant families, and this leads to a shift in the families’ power dynamics as youth are called on to act as “interpreters of language and culture for their parents,” (Janzen and Ochocka, 2003, p. 52-53).
- In a study of youth in Waterloo, newcomer youth described how their parents worried about money and employment and the limited family time. “Observing their parents’ struggle in these new ways was hard for them,” (Janzen and Ochocka, 2003, p. 53). This experience can add to the stress of the youth’s own adjustment.
Refugees
- The settlement challenges faced by newcomer youth are acutely felt by refugees. Refugees represent a significant proportion of the newcomers arriving in some Canadian cities, “…approximately one-third of the newcomers arriving in Waterloo and Ottawa are refugees,” (Janzen and Ochocka, 2003; Peera, 2003).
- Peera (2003) notes that refugees need to deal with other issues, in addition to acquiring English, as they have likely experienced emotional trauma. Other barriers include literacy problems and racism.
Lack of Community Supports and Information
- Examining formal settlement services in Waterloo, Janzen and Ochocka (2003) came to the same conclusion as Desai and Subramanian (2003), whose focus was on services in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), “…mainstream agencies are not offering adequate, appropriate, or accessible services for newcomer youth.”
- The few services offered to newcomer youth in Waterloo region “…that did exist were sometimes inaccessible because of language, financial, or various cultural barriers,” (Janzen and Ochocka, 2003, p. 63).
- Desai and Subramanian (2003) noted barriers to the provision of services to South Asians in the GTA, “…mainstream agencies are unable to provide culturally appropriate and sensitive services because of systemic racism and language barriers” (p. 126).
- According to Seat’s (2000) results of a study of 300 immigrant youth, participants did not have access to necessary information regarding settlement services. As a result, many youth were unaware of supports and services that were available to them.
Difficulties in Asking
- It can be difficult for youth to state their needs by asking for help or accessing services, “The general disorientation that came with being an immigrant also made it hard for newcomer youth to know how and where to reach out for help, let alone articulate their concerns to service providers,” (Janzen and Ochocka, 2003, p. 62).
- Researchers found some reluctance among youth to admit that they need help, “Some youth said it was hard to ask for help because they felt ashamed of their circumstances. Or if they did ask for help, they were not understood,” (Janzen and Ochocka, 2003, p. 63).
Obstacles and challenges to creating an inclusive workplace
Following are five impediments a public library may encounter while striving to create an inclusive workplace.
- It isn’t a priority
The emphasis and priority the CEO or Chief Librarian places on social inclusion is critical to its success.
Research suggests that the degree in which an organization is inclusive is often directly related to the priority that the leadership team places on this work. The authors of Inside Inclusiveness: Race, Ethnicity, and Non-profit Organizations (2003) state that the “CEO of the organization almost always establishes the level of commitment, the attitude, the pace, and the behaviours related to an organization’s overall inclusiveness practices.”
The CEO must be an internal champion
- The community isn’t consulted
Highly inclusive and accessible organizations are committed to the proactive engagement and integration of the community in the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs, services, collections, and strategies.
The information received from the community provides necessary information and feedback so that the library can adapt its strategies and practices to remove barriers to inclusion that have been experienced by the local community group.
The community needs to be a partner
- Inclusion is “owned” by a select few
When the focus of the work to remove barriers to inclusion is “owned” by a select few, these efforts are more subject to fail than when both management and non-management staff members and board trustees feel a sense of ownership over the success of creating a more inclusive organization.
Social inclusion requires the participation and ownership of all staff – management and non-management as well as the board of trustees
- Insufficient financial or human resources
Becoming an inclusive organization requires dedicated resources. Initiatives such as training, professional development, targeted community outreach and marketing initiatives, require that sufficient financial and human resources are allocated to the effective implementation of the initiatives to remove barriers to inclusion.
If social inclusion is a priority, the resources to support this work will be properly allocated
- The audit tool is seen as the “heart” and not the “pulse.”
Upon completion of a social inclusion audit library and other non-profit organizations should use the results to enhance the capacity of the library to remove barriers to inclusion. Often times an organization views the audit tool as the heart of social inclusion work instead of viewing the audit tool as the pulse.
Social inclusion is both a process and an outcome. The audit tool captures the status and progress, it does not do the rest of the work for you! | http://www.siatoolkit.com/section-i/ |
We believe that no one should birth alone.
Many pregnant women and gender diverse birthing people face complex barriers to seeking the support they need throughout pregnancy and early parenthood. Experiences of discrimination, limited accessibility to appropriate information, difficulty accessing interpreters, inability to access continuity of care and lower familial or emotional supports are just some of the factors that can affect maternal health outcomes in the Australia.
Since 2014, Birth for Humankind have been pioneering the delivery of community-based doula support for people experiencing disadvantage in Victoria. We provide marginalised women and birthing people with tailored social-emotional support throughout pregnancy and early parenting, which complements and enhances clinical care. This support facilitates informed decision-making, positive birth outcomes and experiences, as well as increased confidence and resources in the postnatal period.
Through our programmatic impact and evaluation, advocacy, and partnerships, we drive systemic change and improve maternal health equity.
Our programs and services include:
Doula support – our team of highly-skilled birth and postnatal support professionals (volunteer doulas) provide free and continuous personal, physical and emotional support – delivering more than 200 services per year.
Education resources – targeted pregnancy and childbirth education in community languages to increase preparedness and confidence for birth and early parenting and support women to navigate the Victorian maternal health system.
Research and advocacy – influencing the maternal health system to better support communities experiencing disadvantage through research, programmatic evidence and advocacy. We also provide professional development training to our doulas and maternal health workers, to provide improved support for women experiencing systemic disadvantage.
Foundational doula training – equips participants with skills and knowledge to support women through pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period, with a focus on health equity and a trauma-informed, culturally sensitive perspective. Scholarships to our doula training program are provided to women from diverse cultural backgrounds and with lived experience of disadvantage.
We receive referrals from major hospitals in Melbourne as well as self-referrals.
Who we support
Our clients are experiencing financial hardships but also face other intersectional disadvantages and a range of barriers to accessing equitable care.
We support people who are:
- experiencing family violence, trauma or abuse
- experiencing or at risk of perinatal depression or anxiety
- experiencing homelessness
- socially isolated with no other support person
- experiencing or have a history of alcohol or drug misuse
- new migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
- under 25
Many of the people we support have diverse cultural backgrounds and speak various languages. We have a number of bicultural doulas and can help facilitate interpreter support at appointments, where possible.
Our approach to gender inclusivity
At Birth for Humankind, we provide safe, compassionate and personalised support to all people who are pregnant and birthing. And we recognise that transgender, non-binary and gender diverse people face unique barriers and experiences of disadvantage when pregnant and birthing.
Our language and organisational practices aim to include all gender diverse birthing people. We are committed to actively listening to the wider transgender, non-binary & gender diverse community as well as those using our services, and will continually re-evaluate our practices whenever necessary.
When working with clients or telling their stories, we always use their preferred pronouns and appropriate gendered language. When referring to external aspects of our work that uses gendered language, we use current terminology (for example, the maternal healthcare system) but apply our gender-inclusive principles. While we prioritise using gender affirming language, we also acknowledge the importance of sexed language and sex-specific clinical care. | https://birthforhumankind.org/about-us/our-work |
Download a PDF of this paper here.
Pharmacy teams in all settings play crucial roles in supporting people to get the most from their medicines and keep well. By providing accessible health care, pharmacy teams help tackle health inequalities. This position statement focuses on how pharmacy can go even further to reach currently underserved populations and deliver accessible pharmaceutical care for everyone.
The stark reality of health inequalities in Britain today were laid out by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Director of the Institute for Health Equity, at the RPS annual conference in November 2022. Palpable shock waves rippled through the room as he shared chart after chart demonstrating the worsening picture of health inequalities since 2010 (see figures 1-4).
Pharmacy teams across all settings – community, hospital, primary care and specialist settings – already provide many services that can help reduce health inequalities. These services support people to get the best from their medicines, to improve their health and to live well. They cover a wide range of health improvements including in long-term conditions, substance misuse, sexual health and infections.
Community pharmacies provide accessible health services, including being located in areas of higher deprivation, which can put them at the front line of improving inequalities. This makes community pharmacies one of the few health services that has the potential to buck the inverse care law (which states that people who need health care the most are the least likely to receive it).
However, the bottom line is that pharmacy services, whether in primary care, community, hospital or specialist settings, do not reach everyone. Sadly, it is often the people suffering the greatest inequalities who do not access the full range of services that are available. This not only fails to address health inequalities, but worse, it can exacerbate them.
Jenny, a patient in Glasgow, told RPS of the barriers she had experienced: “The pharmacist saw me as nothing more than my script,” she said. Making assumptions about people drives them away, she explained. It is highly unlikely that this was the intention of the pharmacist, but what Jenny felt should make us all stop and think.
This position paper is born from conversations like this. We consulted with pharmacists, public health specialists, patients, other professions and pharmacy organisations. We scoped opinions through focus groups and surveys, and we attended meetings with experts in the field.
We recommend that to enhance our role in tackling health inequalities, pharmacy needs to think not just about what services it provides but also about how it provides them. This paper focuses on exactly that: how pharmacy can provide services in ways that reach currently underserved populations and deliver accessibility for everyone.
Fig 1: Impact of deprivation on mortality (from RPS conference)
Fig 2: Impact of deprivation on life expectancy (from RPS conference)
Health inequalities are defined as avoidable and unjust differences in health and wellbeing between different groups of people. Health inequalities are determined by circumstances beyond an individual’s control which result in differences in:
Factors that can lead to people suffering from health inequalities include:
Many people facing health inequalities may experience more than one of these factors which can make them even more vulnerable to their effect.
Data indicate that health inequalities were reducing prior to 2010 but that this pattern has been reversed. The gaps are particularly striking in relation to deprivation and poverty. This was the finding of two key reports:
“Since 2010 life expectancy in England has stalled: this has not happened since at least 1900… The health of the population is not just a matter of how well the health service is funded and functions, important as that is. Health is closely linked to the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, and inequities in power, money and resources – the social determinants of health.”
– Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 years on (February 2020) www.health.org.uk/publications/reports/the-marmot-review-10-years-on
“Between 2000 and 2012 [in Scotland], life expectancy was increasing, and avoidable mortality was decreasing. Progress was being made in deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease, alcohol deaths and suicides. In line with these improvements, absolute inequalities in mortality outcomes were generally reducing. However, in the decade since we have seen a stagnation in these previous improvements and in some cases a worsening of outcomes and inequalities.”
– Health Inequalities in Scotland (University of Glasgow and the Health Foundation, October 2022) www.health.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-11/health-inequalities-scotland-reportandappendices.pdf
Some key themes that have been proposed to help tackle health inequalities, which come both from our scoping work for this paper and from published resources, include:
*A human-rights approach means being person-centred, treating people as individuals with respect and dignity, ending discrimination, empowering people, enabling shared decision making, and respecting and protecting human rights.
Fig 3: Impact of deprivation on obesity in children (from RPS conference)
Fig 4: Impact of deprivation on life expectancy (from Marmot Review)
Every pharmacy team in every sector of pharmacy already supports people to live healthy lives and to get the best from their medicines. The actions set out in the sections below can be taken by all pharmacy teams in all settings to enable pharmacy services to reach more people, particularly underserved populations who are at most risk of health inequalities.
The first step for pharmacy teams is to understand the health inequalities that people using the pharmacy service may face (whether that’s a community, hospital, primary care or specialist service). These fall into two categories: external factors relating to individuals’ life circumstances and internal factors relating to the pharmacy service itself.
Demographic data for the population a pharmacy service serves can provide vital insights into meeting the population’s needs. Population health profiles could include age, life expectancy, socio-economic deprivation, employment, ethnicity, disability, avoidable mortality, disease prevalence for leading causes and faith. Public health teams in NHS organisations may have useful reports available or be able to advise on where to access local information. It may also be possible to access data via freedom of information requests to public bodies.
However, statistics only tell part of the story. Understanding your population also involves engaging with people directly. This might be through approaching local community or faith groups, seeking views from patients or gaining insight from pharmacy staff members. The richness of understanding you gain from hearing from someone living in poverty every day is significantly greater than reading about socio-economic data; similarly, speaking with someone of a different faith can transform your understanding of cultural differences.
Once you have gathered the information, consider who uses your pharmacy service:
These questions may need to be answered across a number of pharmacy teams in community, hospital, primary care and specialist services, with some teams providing services for specific populations. However, this only works if there are effective referral mechanisms in place and services are still accessible for patients. Pharmacy teams should also consider working with others, such as community and third sector organisations, to identify the underserved and “missing” populations and then work to close these gaps.
Remember Jenny, our patient in Glasgow mentioned above? She told us she was more than her script, yet that’s not how the pharmacist made her feel. The vast majority of health professionals start each day wanting to help patients, aiming to do their best for everyone, perhaps even believing that they achieve it, so it’s very unlikely Jenny’s pharmacist intended to make her feel unwelcome.
The reality is that every one of us has some degree of unconscious bias. Without knowing it, our bias may be expressed in the services we provide, potentially making patients hesitant to use services or even driving them away. Part of every pharmacist’s and every pharmacy team’s development should be to better understand their biases, and then act to challenge them.
Linked with this is stigmatisation of some groups of vulnerable individuals using pharmacy services, for example, people who use drugs or who are homeless. Understanding our own bias is an important step to addressing stigmatisation and it also needs to be addressed within the culture of the whole pharmacy team (see section 2b).
Unconscious bias: how to address and acknowledge it (e-Learning resource, 15 minutes, NHS Education for Scotland) https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/58715
Understanding beliefs and bias in decision-making (journal article, NHS Education for Scotland) https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/6336
Avoiding unconscious bias at work (article, 11 minutes, Mind Tools) https://www.mindtools.com/a09zkd6/avoiding-unconscious-bias-at-work
Seek lived experience: invite local organisations (such as
third sector organisations, charities or groups) to speak with the pharmacy
team about the barriers they face when accessing services
The way in which pharmacy services are provided can sometimes make them harder or less comfortable for some people to access. However, these barriers may not be universally the same and therefore a greater sensitivity and awareness of the needs of individual groups is essential. This can be explained with the following two examples:
These examples demonstrate how pharmacy teams should be more aware of the potential barriers that users of their services may experience, and that the solution must be to provide person-centred choice.
Walk into the entrance to your pharmacy or location where you provide pharmacy services (e.g., GP practice, hospital). Put yourself in a patient’s shoes and consider the following:
Accessibility
Resources
Equality impact assessment
Core20PLUS5 is a national NHS England approach to inform action to reduce healthcare inequalities at both national and system level.
The approach defines a target population of the most deprived 20% of the national population – the ‘Core20PLUS’ – and identifies ‘5’ focus clinical areas requiring accelerated improvement. It can be applied to adults and children and includes a focus on mental illness, early cancer detection and hypertension.
Pharmacy teams make significant contributions to these areas through national campaigns focusing on smoking cessation, cancer awareness and prevention and management of cardiovascular disease.
There’s a well-worn phrase that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” which basically means that the culture within an organisation will overpower even the best strategic plan. When it comes to creating inclusive, open, welcoming pharmacy services, there can be no doubt that this is true. The way a pharmacy team behaves – the normal everyday traits and behaviours of all team members – are what makes the pharmacy culture.
The first step to ensuring a positive pharmacy culture is to assess its current state. Every pharmacy team, no matter the sector or location, should consider how their culture makes patients feel when they use their services:
Assessing the pharmacy team’s culture could involve an open team discussion, seeking patient feedback (e.g., asking questions, providing anonymous response forms or electronic tools), and pharmacy team members observing each other’s interactions with patients. Pharmacy teams might also want to consider how the culture within their team impacts on the culture that patients see.
Discussing negative findings of culture assessments can be challenging, so pharmacy teams may find facilitated support useful to discuss how to address challenges.
Culture takes time to improve, so it is essential to break change down into manageable steps and set realistic goals. Effective leadership, particularly setting a clear vision and demonstrating positive behaviours, is important but culture change is about more than managers: it’s about the involvement of every team member. That means culture change can be more difficult to achieve for pharmacy teams with continually changing members: continuity and a shared purpose supports change.
A good starting point for pharmacy teams intent on improving their culture is to improve communication skills. All members of the team should demonstrate actively listening to patients, using clear language pitched at an appropriate level for individuals’ understanding.
They should see the patient beyond their words, accent or history; consider the person’s facial expression and body language; engage patients in decisions about their care; and avoid confrontations. Also essential for pharmacy team members is to consider their own communication: what does our facial expression and body language communicate to a patient? A lack of empathy can be damaging. Patients who do not feel listened to can feel frustrated: acknowledging this and more actively listening can improve engagement and accessibility for patients, and reduce potential escalation to aggressive situations.
Addressing stigma is another vital element of improving culture. Certain groups of people and those with specific health conditions, such as people who are homeless or from traveller communities, and people who use drugs, are sometimes made to feel stigmatised when trying to access health services. The result of this is that they do not access services at all which can result in poor health outcomes.
There are many training resources available which help develop people’s skills to be able to interact with and support patients in a more culturally competent way. A good place to start is to undertake training in trauma-informed care. Trauma-informed care means recognising the impact that trauma has on an individual and adapting the provision of care to enable trust, reduce barriers and minimise distress. Trauma means an event or series of events that is physically or emotionally harmful; examples include adverse childhood experiences, abuse, chronic life-threatening illness and road traffic accidents. Many people are affected by trauma at some point in their lives and this can impact how they engage with health services. Therefore, adopting a trauma-informed approach is recommended widely across the multi-disciplinary team and would be useful for all pharmacy teams in community, hospital and primary care.
Inclusion and diversity resources including an inclusive culture pledge (RPS): https://www.rpharms.com/recognition/inclusion-diversity
Microaggressions: what they are and how to challenge them (variety of resources, RPS) https://www.rpharms.com/recognition/inclusion-diversity/microaggressions
Introduction to trauma informed practice to support people with problematic substance use (webinar recording, RPS) https://www.rpharms.com/resources/webinars/an-introduction-to-trauma-informed-practice-to-support-people-with-problematic-substance-use
Motivational interviewing – introduction and foundations of person-centred counselling (NHS Education for Scotland, 2 hours): https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/15236
Communication and active listening (Guidance document, NHS Education for Scotland): https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/32613
Active listening (Mind Tools, web article https://www.mindtools.com/az4wxv7/active-listening)
Trauma-informed care, with the aim of creating: A trauma informed and responsive nation and workforce, that is capable of recognising where people are affected by trauma and adversity, that is able to respond in ways that prevent further harm and support recovery, and can address inequalities and improve life chances.” (variety of resources available from NHS Scotland’s National Trauma Training Programme) https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/37896
Civility and respect in NHS systems (variety of resources produced by NHS England)
https://www.england.nhs.uk/supporting-our-nhs-people/health-and-wellbeing-programmes/civility-and-respect/
Introduction to diversity, inclusion and multiculturalism (e-learning module, NHS Education for Scotland) https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/47217
Inclusive pharmacy practice in England (variety of resources, NHS England, RPS and APTUK) https://www.england.nhs.uk/primary-care/pharmacy/inclusive-pharmacy-practice/
HEIW Pharmacy Cultural Awareness Campaign https://heiw.nhs.wales/education-and-training/pharmacy/heiw-pharmacy-cultural-awareness-campaign/
Welsh Government Future Generations Act - An act in that helps us all work together to improve our environment, our economy, our society and our culture https://www.gov.wales/well-being-of-future-generations-wales
The Welsh NHS confederation Making the difference: Tackling health inequalities in Wales https://www.nhsconfed.org/system/files/2021-05/Making%20the%20difference%20-%20April%202021.pdf
Study being undertaken with non-Welsh speaking pharmacy healthcare professionals to equip them with key phrases and words to help people with Welsh as a first language access services:
https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2022-07/more-than-just-words-action-plan-2022-2027.pdf
Pulse Pharmacy in Kirkintilloch promotes a truly inclusive culture within the community pharmacy.
The pharmacy staff get to know patients by name, greet them when they come in, and ensure anyone who accesses the pharmacy’s services is treated in the same way. The COVID-19 pandemic has enabled them to meet patients within the community they would not normally have met due to many more people working from home.
The pharmacy team are all aware of the mental health struggles of the local population and make a point of taking an interest in their patients to get a better insight into their lives. They also make a point of speaking to patients they know to be vulnerable, being conscious they may be the only people they interact with that day.
Tackling health inequalities includes empowering people to take control of their health, not the paternalistic approach of “doing to” patients. Instead, it is about providing the support and tools that people need to make their own decisions and to “own” the changes to their health.
For example, few people give up smoking simply because they have been told to. Instead, they need to make their own decision that quitting is the right thing to do because they understand the health benefits and have the support in place to help their quit attempt.
Empowering people to take an active role in their care is based on person-centred care and shared decision making, which means ensuring people have sufficient information in an understandable form to enable them to take part in decisions. It also means supporting them to self-manage their health – this means the information and the skills, as well as tools. For example, good self-management is about teaching someone to measure their asthma control, provide a peak flow monitor, and understand what is normal and what should trigger a healthcare appointment.
Some of this support to empower people can be provided within community pharmacy and by hospital or general practice pharmacy teams. Whether that’s verbal advice, providing written information or QR codes for resources, lifestyle calculators, devices to support self-monitoring or health check terminals; all can be provided, and better still is providing choice to enable people to access information in a way that works for them. Community pharmacy teams also have specific opportunities for regular brief interventions and conversations with people when they collect medicines.
Pharmacy as a whole offers fantastic services but “offering” services alone is not enough: pharmacy teams should consider how they can reach the people who don’t currently use their services. This could mean going to community centres, libraries, faith groups, charities and social care to provide information and tools about pharmacy services, medicines and health. Making people aware of the pharmacy services available to them, showing them that they would be welcomed, is a first step to reaching these missing populations.
Importantly, it does not just need to be the pharmacist who makes these outreach visits, which is particularly important for community pharmacists who need to remain in the pharmacy premises. Instead, they could be provided by another member of the pharmacy team. These staff providing outreach could become health inequality champions, focused on understanding and meeting their local population’s needs.
Breaking down barriers to using pharmacy services can sometimes be easier if people are able to engage with a pharmacy staff member who lives in or comes from their community: they may be seen as more relatable. Building relationships with local communities in this way supports the recognition of diversity in the pharmacy workforce and may encourage people to feel enabled to join the pharmacy workforce.
Finally, pharmacy teams should consider if the services they offer are obvious to patients. For people who are unfamiliar with health services, it is unlikely they will know what services can be accessed where: this further widens inequalities. Providing information about the services your pharmacy team offers is essential – right down to core functions like supplying medicines, providing advice on common clinical conditions, what a medication review involves and how pharmacists may prescribe medicines.
Delivering person-centred care in pharmacy (webinar recording, RPS) https://www.rpharms.com/resources/webinars/achieving-pharmacy-2030-delivering-person-centred-care
Realistic Medicine – empowering people to discuss their treatment and make a shared decision (NHS Scotland, various resources including introductory video): https://www.realisticmedicine.scot/
Personalised Care Institute – a range of resources for health and care professionals https://www.personalisedcareinstitute.org.uk/
This document started by saying pharmacy needs to think not just about what services it provides but also how it provides them. The final aspect of “how” services are provided is to consider the wider structural barriers and enablers, and then to work out how these can be improved to ensure services are provided in ways that improve accessibility. Structural barriers include things like the service specifications, pathways that underpin services, and the tools used within services. Therefore this section is aimed more at pharmacy service managers, commissioners and policy makers than individual pharmacy team members.
A basic structural barrier that exists to how services are provided is the education of the pharmacy workforce. Education about health inequalities should be included at both undergraduate and postgraduate stages, with opportunities to develop understanding throughout a professional’s career, and should be made available to the whole pharmacy team. Making protected learning time available to all pharmacists in all sectors would help achieve this.
Education should include causes of inequalities, how inequalities can be tackled, unconscious bias, trauma-informed practice, inclusive practice, communication skills, kindness and empathy training, shared decision making and health literacy.
Many well-intentioned patient information resources are handed out every day, yet some are so inaccessible that they are not even opened. Good information, whether it is written or verbal, should be tailored to take account of factors like a person’s comprehension level, reading age and disabilities (such as visual impairment and learning difficulties). In pharmacy, this should be considered for the accessibility of patient information leaflets, medicine labels and health resources.
The average adult reading age in the UK is 9 years old, with around 16% of the adult population in England defined as having very poor literacy skills only able to understand short texts on familiar topics (with similar statistics in the other nations). Health information resources can frequently be too complex, with 43% of adults not able to understand written health information. Therefore, a greater understanding of health literacy is vital for pharmacy teams.
Other barriers to good written information include the size of text, the colour of text and paper, how “busy” the layout is, and the images used. A clean, simple approach, with large black text on a white background is the most accessible. A choice of formats should also be offered, such as spoken word resources, Braille, picture-based infographics and online patient information.
The language used in written and verbal information may also be a barrier where resources are provided in English. Providing a choice of languages and enabling access to interpreters is essential, with digital tools offering fast access to translation when no interpreter is available. Language can also have less well-known barriers, such as neurodiverse populations finding metaphors hard to interpret.
Finally, as we move into an increasingly digital age, pharmacy services must guard against digital exclusion by ensuring that everything provided digitally – from Apps and QR codes for information to prescription ordering systems and remote consulting – also has a non-digital option for the people who cannot access digital tools.
Health literacy e-learning resource (Health Education England and NHS Scotland) https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/knowledge-library-services/improving-health-literacy
NHS advice on translation is available at: https://www.nhs.uk/about-us/health-information-in-other-languages/ NHS organisations can provide information about the translation services they use, for example Language Line https://www.languageline.com/uk/industries/medical-translation/ is used by 111/NHS24 https://www.nhs24.scot/get-in-touch/language-line/
The way in which services are specified and funded can impact their accessibility.
When a service is first established, whether that is commissioned by the NHS or set up independently by a pharmacy team, undertaking an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) will help understanding of whether the service offers accessibility to all and enables adjustments to be made from the beginning to address any inequalities. Templates exist to support the completion of EQIAs and many organisations have expertise who can provide support.
When considering health inequalities, it is worth broadening the core protected characteristics of an EQIA to include socioeconomic status and other factors identified through a greater understanding of the local population. For example, this may include rurality and transport links, or focusing on specific needs such as refugees or people who use drugs. Another underserved group to consider is the homeless population who face barriers such as an expectation to provide a postcode which can be overcome by using the pharmacy team’s location postcode.
Ensuring the patient’s voice is heard within the service design stage is vital to developing inclusive and accessible services. Services should be co-designed with patients and the public, including actively seeking involvement from underserved communities. For engagement to be successful, service providers must act on what they hear from patients and the public, and design services to deliver patients’ needs.
Sometimes it may be necessary to tailor services to the needs of a specific population, but in doing so it is important to recognise that this approach may miss people with the same needs who live in a different location where that need is far less prevalent. Furthermore, by targeting services at particular groups, e.g., those in the lowest socio-economic group, then people who are just outside the specification may suffer particularly badly. Being aware of these challenges and mitigating for them is key in the service design stage.A final important part of service specification is ensuring the service can complete a patient journey, through appropriate referral pathways which enable a pharmacist or member of the pharmacy team to refer the patient to another service in health, social care or the third sector. Social prescribing is becoming an increasingly important part of health care and underpins people’s ability to be empowered to take control of their health. There may also be opportunities to refer people to other support services, such as those who can provide advice on financial support and benefits (for example, link workers in GP practices).
RPS has produced guidance on the process for completing an Equality Impact Assessment and a reporting template to use. Download the template
Guidance on protected characteristics (Equality and Human Rights Commission) https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/equality-act/protected-characteristics
The aims of this position statement are to open pharmacy teams’ approaches to improving health inequalities and to support their understanding of how they could deliver services differently to improve care.
Pharmacy teams in every sector of pharmacy provide excellent care, and very many patients find pharmacy services accessible. But until this is a universal experience, and no-one feels excluded or unable to access care, we must remember the words of our patient, Jenny, who says: “You don’t know someone’s pain and suffering, why they are where they are. Stop judging, stop making assumptions and start treating every person with respect. That’s what will help people to feel able to use pharmacy services.”
Pharmacy must think differently, proactively seek out people who are less engaged, make pharmacy services are welcoming to all, and ultimately ensure the whole population can benefit from accessible pharmaceutical care.
With thanks to everyone who has participated in the scoping of this document. Special thanks to Jenny Fulton from Chance 2 Change who provided lived experience input. | https://www.rpharms.com/recognition/all-our-campaigns/policy-a-z/health-inequalities-policy |
This year has been one of the most challenging years thus far, especially for people of color. We are only halfway through 2020. It has the potential to be especially traumatic for those in minority communities, with racial inequities at the forefront in our nation, coupled with a pandemic that disproportionally affects people of color. Although we as humans may discriminate against others based on the color of their skin, mental health disorders do not discriminate against race. Anyone can experience the challenges associated with mental health disorders, regardless of their background or identity; however, background and identity are important factors when it comes time to accessing mental health treatment and care. Minorities are faced with less access to care, cultural stigma, and lower quality of care when it comes to addiction and mental health.
If resources are not sufficient for the general population, how do underserved groups address their psychiatric needs?
More than half of uninsured U.S. residents are people of color, and unfortunately, individuals with limited resources also experience logistical barriers to mental healthcare. These individuals may struggle to take time off work, find reliable transportation to appointments, and secure affordable childcare. Linguistic and cultural communications can result in a breakdown in communication and make many minority groups less likely to seek mental health treatment. Minority groups who do choose to seek treatment and who have the means to access mental health and addiction resources often receive inferior care because of the lack of diversity among mental health providers and decreased understanding of the different needs across minority groups. When a Caucasian individual meets with a Caucasian provider, it is easier to relate since ethnic backgrounds and language barriers are not at the forefront of the visit. But when a person of color meets with a Caucasian provider, the client can often feel inadequate and unable to relate. One of the core key components to successful mental health and addiction treatment is the relationship between the provider and the client.
Numbers don’t lie
A new study published in the International Journal of Health Services only further corroborates this fact. Researchers found that black and Hispanic young people were less able to get mental health services than white children and young adults. This happens even though rates of mental illness are generally consistent across all ethnicities, Kaiser Health News reported.
- African American adults are 20% more likely to experience mental health issues than the rest of the population
- Native Americans have the highest rate of young adult suicide of any ethnicity.
- 60% percent of non-Hispanic black individuals with depression had a major depressive episode in 2012.
- 25% of African Americans seek treatment for a mental health issue, compared to 40 percent of white individuals. The reasons for this drop off include misdiagnosis by doctors, socioeconomic factors, and a lack of African American mental health professionals.
Understanding the reasons behind limited access to mental health
There are many reasons why minorities aren’t getting proper care. Here are some of them:
- A lack of availability
- Transportation issues, difficulty finding childcare/taking time off work
- The belief that mental health treatment “doesn’t work”
- The high level of mental health stigma in minority populations
- A mental health system weighted heavily towards non-minority values and cultural norms
- Racism, bias, and discrimination in treatment settings
- Language barriers and an insufficient number of providers who speak languages other than English
- A lack of adequate health insurance coverage (and even for people with insurance, high deductibles, and co-pays make it difficult to afford)
Making an impact for change
The mental healthcare system is flawed. We all know that, and many of us have experienced it personally. But all mental health advocates should band together in improving the status quo for those who are most vulnerable to the systemic disparities of getting help. Together, we need to raise the bar for better mental health care for everyone, especially minorities. You can get started by doing the following:
Encourage mental health organizations to include minorities on staff or boards of directors.
- Write, call, or talk to legislators—both local and federal—to support efforts to improve access to and the quality of mental health services in your area.
- Be a spokesperson when there is an opportunity to speak out on behalf of minority mental health.
- Share the information you’ve learned about accessing quality care to others.
- Try to be more open and understanding of what minority communities might be experiencing that you might not.
Whether you have personally experienced the challenges associated with minority mental health or advocating for a better mental health system, anyone can help make a difference. Opening the doors to quality mental health care for minorities is challenging, but we can all do our part in making the right keys for easier access and quality care.
Seeking help
“Our philosophy at Quest 2 Recovery is simple: heal the mind, body, and spirit in a family-like environment. We believe in a holistic approach to treatment, one that caters to each individual’s distinct needs. As a trauma-based treatment program, we believe in resolving the underlying issues that brought the onset of substance use. Our team of clinicians helps each client identify the faulty belief systems stemming from childhood, then psych-educate clients on the symptoms of PTSD to understand and alleviate the power of certain triggers”. | https://quest2recovery.com/blog/being-an-advocate-for-the-minority-community/ |
Does NAPCA only serve Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders?
No. Although these ethnicities are our primary focus, NAPCA is dedicated to serving people of all ethnicities as they age. We are a member of multiple coalitions and organizations that advocate for all diverse elders. Additionally, our Senior Community Service Employment Program award contains allocations for both the general aging population as well as a dedicated set-aside for AAPI.
Who is included in the AAPI community?
AAPI, as defined by the Census, is a person with origins in any of the peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, Indian Subcontinent or Pacific Islands. AAPIs represent over 50 subpopulations that speak over 100 different languages, unique cultural traditions, diverse immigration histories, and vast differences in health status and disparities. AAPIs are the fastest growing minority group in America. Between 2010 and 2030, the AAPI older adult population is projected to increase by 145%, according to the U.S. Census.
As there is such diversity within the AAPI ethnic categorization, how do I prioritize the needs of the specific AAPI populations in my community?
With such diversity contained within one ethnic category, it can be challenging for organizations to determine how to account for the range of AAPI ethnicities within their community. In addition to including AAPI older adults and their caregivers within needs assessments, organizations should also develop disaggregated data collection and reporting policies to inform planning, evaluation and resource allocations.
As a best practice, NAPCA recommends organizations collect, at minimum, the race data elements collected within the 2010 Census detailed groups:
- Asian Americans: Asian Indian, Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipino, Hmong, Indonesian, Iwo Jiman, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Malaysian, Maldivian, Mongolian, Nepalese, Okinawan, Pakistani, Singaporean, Sri Lankan, Thai, Vietnamese, Other Asian, not specified.
- Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders: Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, Tokelauan, Other Polynesian, Guamanian or Chamorro, Mariana Islander, Saipanese, Palauan, Carolinian, Kosraean, Pohnpeian, Chuukese, Yapese, Marshallese, I-Kiribati, Other Micronesian, Fijian, Papua New Guinean, Solomon Islander, Ni-Vanuatu, Other Melanesian, Other Pacific Islander.
What are the barriers AAPI older adults face in my community?
In 2016, NAPCA spoke with older adults in cities with some of the largest populations of AAPIs around the nation (Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Honolulu, Hawaii; Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; Seattle, Washington). Our intention was to collect data that could be used to strengthen long-term service and support systems within these communities, while also learning how to strengthen these systems nationwide. To identify the barriers that AAPI older adults face in your community, organizations must always include AAPI older adults within needs assessments.
We recommend adopting a culturally and linguistically appropriate approach to assessing the needs of AAPI older adults so that your organization can take action, set priorities, allocate resources, and ensure equitable access. For more information, visit: Seven Best Practices When Conducting A Community Needs Assessment with Asian American and Pacific Islander Older Adults.
Throughout these listening sessions, NAPCA consistently heard AAPI older adults speak about major issues they are facing related to economic security and access to services (largely, language-access concerns). Overwhelmingly, AAPI older adults in each of the cities reported challenges in accessing affordable housing, confusion with public benefits, costly healthcare, poor transportation options, and limited culturally and linguistically appropriate education opportunities. For a list of key issues specific to these regions, please see Appendix A in The Emerging Needs of AAPI Older Adults.
What barriers do AAPI elders face that are unique to their aging community?
AAPI elders face all of the same problems that we all face as we age, however there are cultural and language factors that can exacerbate the sense of isolation and inhibit access to services, employment, and care.
What are best practices for outreach and engagement to AAPI older adults and their families?
With such high rates of limited English proficiency among AAPI older adults, effective engagement must include in-language outreach. As a best practice, NAPCA recommends that organizations develop a language access plan. NAPCA has two resources that may be valuable: (1) Identifying AAPI Languages, and (2) Four Strategies to Identify an Interpreter for an AAPI Older Adult.
Another best practice is to partner with AAPI-serving community-based organizations for outreach and engagement to AAPI older adults. These partnerships help to cultivate an awareness of assets within the AAPI community and to gain trust.
These community-based organizations tend to:
- Be staffed by people who reflect the AAPI populations, including languages spoken, of your community;
- Respond to shared needs of the community they originate from;
- Mobilize members of their community as volunteers;
- Be visible and trusted within community neighborhoods; and
- Build relationships with the community in addition to delivering needed services.
My organization serves AAPIs in our community; how can we help improve systems that support the older adults we serve?
If your organization serves AAPI older adults, you have a pivotal role in strengthening long-term service and support systems. NAPCA is building a national affiliate network of AAPI-serving community based organizations. We invite you to partner with NAPCA by joining our affiliate network; together, we can become active agents of change through advocacy, improved data collection, and technical assistance that increases visibility of the AAPI older adults we represent.
What is data disaggregation and why is it important?
Data disaggregation is the breaking down of data into smaller subpopulations. Disaggregated AAPI data shows that some Asian subpopulations face greater challenges in certain areas than others do. Through disaggregation, we can better identify which specific communities will benefit from health, employment, and other elder support interventions.
I would like to share a post on NAPCA’s social media Facebook and Twitter accounts. Who can I contact as the administrator?
Please contact NAPCA’s social media administrator at [email protected] and someone will respond within 24 hours.
How does my donation help AAPI older adults?
Your donation raises the visibility of AAPI older adults who are disenfranchised due to cultural and linguistic barriers, and ensures justice and equality for all older Americans.
How do I find an AAPI-serving community-based organization in my community?
Please contact our National Resource Center on AAPI Aging at [email protected]. They will work with you to identify and facilitate connections, when appropriate, to AAPI-serving organizations in your community.
Programs & Participants
How do I learn more about receiving employment training?
Call our SCSEP office at 206-624-1221.
Where can I find employment tips and resources for mature workers?
Please visit our resource page for tips on job search and preparation. You can also visit the Career One Stop website for more resources.
I am interested in participating in SCSEP but I do not live in a county that NAPCA SCSEP is currently operating. Who can I contact to enroll into the program?
How do I learn more about enrolling in Medicare Part D and other federal benefits?
Please call our National Multilingual Helpline.
- For English, call 1-800-336-2722.
- For Korean – 한국어 수신자 부담 전화 상담 전화 – call 1-800-582-4259
- For Vietnamese – Đường dây trợ giúp miễn phí Việt Nam – call 1-800-582-4336
- For Chinese – 中文免费电话热线 – call 1-800-582-4218
National Resource Center for AAPI Aging
The National Resource Center for AAPI Aging is the nation’s first and only technical assistance resource center dedicated to building the capacity of long-term service and support systems to equitably serve AAPI older adults and their caregivers.
Still Need Help?
Didn’t see an answer to your question?
Currently a participant in NAPCA’s SCSEP, SEE, or ACES program and need assistance?
Please call us at 206-624-1221 and we’ll respond within two business days. | https://napca.org/faq/ |
The murder of George Floyd on May 25th has led to worldwide protest against racism and police violence. Arthritis Consumer Experts (ACE) stands with those fighting for justice and believes that it is deeply important to highlight the ways in which racism and inequity also exists within the arthritis community and more generally in Canadian healthcare.
Over the next several weeks, ACE will be regularly sharing information about health inequalities in arthritis to raise awareness about these issues and start conversations about them in our community. While our focus will be on issues linked to race, we will also highlight the overlapping factors of wealth and where people live. ACE is continuing to learn about these issues and our role within them. We hope that you – as a person living with arthritis, or as a caregiver, healthcare provider, researcher, educator, elected official or industry member – will also join us in this work, thinking deeply about how you can support change.
Our first Health Inequities in Arthritis and Beyond post provides a brief summary of how factors such as race impact the health of Canadians. We hope that this information will be helpful background for future posts in this series, which will look more deeply into inequities in arthritis.
Understanding Health Inequities in Canada: What shapes a person’s health?
What makes one person healthier than another? Many people think first about things like smoking and exercise, however, economic and social conditions have a greater influence on the health of individuals and communities. Some examples include race/racism, gender, housing, income, employment, and disability. These are known as the social determinants of health and are typically the root cause of health inequalities because they impact where and how a person lives, their work, their access to resources (e.g. groceries, healthcare, day care) and the level of stress in their daily life. Health inequalities are called health inequities when they are unjust.
Why do social determinants have a more powerful effect on a person’s health than diet or physical activity? Essentially, because lifestyle and personal health behaviours are often determined by social and economic conditions. For example, when a lot of energy is needed to ensure things like food, shelter and income, it makes it nearly impossible to find the extra energy or time for things like exercising, eating healthy foods, learning about one’s disease or seeing a team of healthcare professionals – all of which are considered key aspects of managing chronic diseases like arthritis.
ACE commitment: ACE acknowledges that making lifestyle changes requires time and resources that not all Canadians have easy access to – thus making it difficult to partake in our patient education and resources to build self-management skills. We recognize we must consider the different social and economic positions of people living with arthritis, so that our resources can be meaningful to all those in the arthritis patient community.
How does race impact health in Canada?
Race is an important social determinant of health because it is closely tied to other factors such as income, employment, education, housing, and experiences accessing healthcare resources. In other words, systemic racism can impact many areas of a person’s life and thus their health. In addition, life-long experiences of racism and discrimination can affect a person’s health by causing them high levels of stress in their daily life. Research suggests that daily experiences of racism can explain why Black Canadians have higher rates of diabetes and hypertension than white Canadians, regardless of education, income, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI)1.
What is systemic racism? Systemic racism occurs when policies and practices exclude or discriminate against particular groups. Racial discrimination can be deeply rooted within systems such as education, government, employment, criminal justice and healthcare. Discrimination and exclusion can happen without the intent of people working within these systems. The ‘hidden’ aspect of systemic racism makes it especially harmful.
The largest racial health inequalities in Canada are faced by indigenous peoples who have higher rates of heart disease, hypertension, asthma, arthritis and cancer2. In fact, these inequities are even greater than those of Indigenous populations in the US2, despite Canada’s tendency to view itself as ‘more equal’ than our southern neighbours. There is strong evidence that these health gaps are not the outcome of genetic differences but are instead the result of social and economic conditions shaped by a long history of colonialism, racism, destruction of land and food resources, and the trauma that comes with these experiences2,3.
Moving forward
Our next post will highlight the growing body of research that looks specifically at rates of arthritis, severity of disease and access to care in Indigenous communities. We hope that the information above will allow for a deeper understanding of this research, and the factors responsible for inequities in arthritis.
Share your experience
ACE is committed to learning from and listening to members of its community – If you have witnessed or personally faced discrimination during your experiences as an arthritis patient, researcher or healthcare professional, please consider sharing your experiences by emailing [email protected]. Your input will help inform advocacy work in this area.
Go deeper: ACE’s Arthritis At Home program features an interview with Dr. Cheryl Barnabe, Senior Research Scientist of Arthritis Research Canada. Dr. Barnabe is one of Canada’s leading researchers in the area of identifying and resolving health care gaps for Indigenous patients. Dr. Barnabe shares her insights on healthcare delivery to Indigenous and underserved communities, many of whom are at a higher risk of COVID-19 because of underlying medical conditions. She explains the challenges of physical distancing and mental health as well as how virtual care is being used in these communities. | https://arthritisbroadcastnetwork.org/2020/06/special-series-on-health-inequities-in-arthritis-and-beyond/ |
Did you know that the stigma of mental illness in communities of color, language differences between patients and providers, and cultural presentation of symptoms can contribute to misdiagnosis?
Health care providers’ lack of cultural understanding may contribute to underdiagnosing and misdiagnosing of mental illness in people of color. Yet there are considerable gaps in the diversity of clinicians practicing in the mental health field. According to the American Psychological Association, about 86 percent of psychologists in the U.S. workforce were white in 2018, and about 15 percent were from other racial and ethnic groups.
View the links below to read more about cultural stigma, language barriers, and the prevalence of mental health illness among minorities.
- Despite the needs, only one in three African American adults who need mental health care receive it. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Mental Health Facts for African Americans guide, African Americans are also more likely to use emergency rooms or primary care for mental health support instead of mental health specialists. View guide from APA.
- Alcohol-induced death rates in 2020 were highest among American Indians and Alaska Native peoples (42.4 per 100,000), according to the latest Pain in the Nation Report from Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust. According to the 2018 Behavioral Health Services American Indians and Alaska Natives report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “availability, accessibility, and acceptability of behavioral health services are major barriers to recovery for American Indians and Alaska Natives.” View report from SAMHSA.
Asian American / Pacific Islander communities face several cultural barriers that may prevent them from accessing mental health services including lack of cultural competency among providers as well as limited multilingual services within health care organizations, according to the APA’s Mental Health Factsheet for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders. View Factsheet from the APA.
In Latinx/Hispanic communities, few individuals discuss mental health issues or seek treatment as it could be related to shame within their family unit. According to a 2019 study published in Hispanic Health Care International, Hispanic and Latin populations access mental healthcare 50 percent less than non-Hispanic white people in the United States. View fact sheet from NAMI
The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health provides additional information about cultural stigma and why racial and ethnic minorities often suffer from poor mental health outcomes due to the lack of access to services.
View the resources below to learn more about addressing mental health stigma and disparities in care:
The Nation’s Health: A Publication of the American Public Health Association – Addressing stigma, disparities in minority mental health: Access to care among barriers
HHS Office of Minority Health: National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Resources
American Psychiatric Association: Mental Health Disparities- Diverse Populations
University of Southern California Nursing@USC Blog: Understanding Barriers to Minority Mental Health Care
Mental health resources
If you or someone you know is struggling with a mental health or addiction issue, below is a list of resources and services that may help. Contact one of the resources below to speak with a trained counselor or get a referral for help in your area.
- Call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline if you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts.
- Text HOME to the Crisis Text Line number 741-741 to connect with a crisis counselor.
- The NAMI HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET.
1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or [email protected]
- Call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for referrals to treatment centers, support groups, and community mental health agencies. | https://wellbeingtrust.org/blogs/cultural-stigma-language-barrier-minority-mh-month/ |
According to Evolutionists, Stone Age Homo Sapiens existed for 190,000 years before beginning to make written records, between the timeframe of 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
Prehistoric man was able to built megalithic monuments, made beautiful cave paintings, and kept records of lunar phases. It would seem improbable that mankind would have waited thousdands of centuries before using the same skills to record history.
This map shows an the estimated migratory progress of human homo sapiens and their origination across the earth. Even though the timescale is based off an evolutionary time scale (see Fig.1), this data reflects the evidence; which would suggest that the origin of humanity began in the Middle East, then spread out to the rest of thew world just as recorded in the Bible.
Knowing that humanity originated from this central location, the evidence also contradicts evolutionists own opinion of the data; as their long years still only give them an upper age of 100k years before they ‘run out of time.’ If homo sapiens evolved 200k years ago, why did it take an additional 100k years to spread out from this central location. The population rates during that 100k years would have been astronomical in this area and there is no archaeological evidence to support such a dense population. This evolutionary chart (Fig.1) would best fit the historic timeline when reduced by a factor of x10, with humanities start at roughly 5-10k years ago, right after Noah’s flood.
Historians date the historical account of Abraham to have occurred around 2000 b.c. based on clues found throughout Genesis chapters 11 – 25. All of Abraham’s life and events encompass a journey that start in a place call Ur, one of the great cities in Sumer and a fertile crescent located from Tigris river to Euphrates.
Historians call this era the ‘Dawn of Civilization’ because it marks the earliest documented dates when people settled in communities and began to document their progress in writings, agriculture, and commerce.
The Biblical time scale is much more likely the accurate time scale as it takes into account all known historic time scales and matches up with all of recorded human history within a reasonable tolerance.
It is also note worth to mention the fact that the Bible is the only article in our civilization that has everything recorded history from the beggining of human existence (including the universes beginning), through present times, and continues on to recored the events that will happen at end of time.
Dritt, J. O., Man’s earliest beginnings: discrepancies in evolutionary timetables, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Creationism, vol. II, Creation Science Fellowship (1991), Pittsburgh, PA, pp. 73-78, order from http://www.icc03.org/proceedings.htm. | http://www.streetwitnessing.org/creation-evolution/earth-age/history-civilization/ |
In order to evaluate the potential to conduct population-based disease studies using medical data captured by the MedARKS® system, a library disk containing records from 338 Bali mynahs (Leucopsar rothschildi) from 55 institutions was evaluated with regards to atoxoplasmosis. Data were exported from the library file to Excel® worksheets, which were subjectively analyzed for usefulness, and pertinent data were imported to a relational database (Access 97®) to further evaluate the data. Data were summarized, including total number of birds tested; types of deaths; and type, results, dates and purpose of parasitology tests. To assess the correctness of the data, records were queried for non-standard entries, unclear results, inaccuracies, ambiguities, and nonspecific tests. To assess the consistency of the data, comparisons were made between the problem list and positive tests in the parasitology module, and between the listings of buffy coat smears in the clinical pathology module and the parasitology module.
A total of 2428 parasitology records were evaluated. The number of uninterpretable results from inaccuracies (from misspellings or conflicting test results) and/or unclear results (due to nonspecific results, such as “low numbers of oocysts”) was 81 (3.3%). Nine records were missing from the parasitology module, and 85 (3.5%) records did not include tests/results. Thirty-four different terms were used to denote “positive for Atoxoplasma sp.”. Some discrepancies were found where atoxoplasmosis was listed as a problem but not related to a parasitology result (11; 0.5%), and where a bird was positive for Atoxoplasma sp. but not included in the problem list (56; 2.3%). Buffy coat data were inconsistent between the clinical pathology and the parasitology modules.
Overall, while the Bali mynah data appeared clinically useful and sufficient functionality exists within MedARKS® to capture epidemiological data, the current usage of the system at most institutions makes it challenging to efficiently undertake population-based analysis due to variation in usage and data entry. These limitations are not unique to MedARKS® but are common to many clinical medical record programs. Specific challenges raised with these data include: 1) reliance by many solely on free text-based data entry, 2) incomplete use of a common library database or codes not accurately defined and used, and 3) difficult correlation of individual animal data back to source institution, and 4) inconsistent transfer of records from paper into the database. By evaluating the quality of data concerning atoxoplasmosis in Bali mynahs in MedARKS®, we hope these issues may assist in the further development of recommendations for use of the existing system and for future system designs. | https://www.vin.com/apputil/project/defaultadv1.aspx?pid=26434&catid=&id=10109812&meta=&authorid= |
To predict and prepare for future climate change, scientists are striving to understand how global-scale climatic change manifests itself on regional scales and also how societies adapt—or don’t—to sometimes subtle and complex climatic changes. In this regard, the strongest volcanic eruptions of the past are powerful test cases, showcasing how the broad climate system responds to sudden changes in radiative forcing and how societies have responded to the resulting climatic shocks.
The strongest volcanic eruptions of the past are powerful test cases, showcasing societies have responded to the resulting climatic shocks.
These issues were at the heart of the inaugural workshop of the Volcanic Impacts on Climate and Society (VICS) Working Group, convened in June 2016 at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, N.Y. The 3-day meeting gathered approximately 50 researchers, who presented work intertwining the history of volcanic eruptions and the physical processes that connect eruptions with human and natural systems on a global scale.
The importance of well-dated and accurate reconstructions of past volcanic activity was a prevalent theme of the workshop. Attendees agreed that sulfate preserved in polar ice cores was the best current record of stratospheric aerosols produced by eruptions over the past 2500 years. Some of the presenters showcased emerging geochemical techniques that enable researchers to identify eruptions with the strongest climatic impact potential: those with high stratospheric sulfate injections.
Other presenters demonstrated how chemical analyses of tephra can connect ice core records to the vast geological record of volcanic eruptions. These developments promise to spur advances in reconstructing the ways that past volcanism drove climatic changes by combining the interpretation of ice core and geologic records with knowledge of physical processes gleaned from observation and modeling of recent eruptions.
Speakers presented evidence of volcanic activity in climate proxies, including tree rings, corals, and glaciers, which provide information on past temperatures and hydroclimate. Presenters discussed how multiproxy analyses combined with historical records can provide holistic multiseasonal understanding of not only the direct radiative effects of eruptions on climate but also changes in ocean and atmosphere circulation following eruptions.
Significant discrepancies, however, remain between the postvolcanic climate anomalies reconstructed from proxies and those simulated by climate models. These discrepancies likely relate to uncertainties in volcanic forcing reconstructions, proxy biases, and model representations of physical processes. Speakers reported on ongoing projects aiming to improve how volcanic eruptions are included in climate models and advance understanding of climatic responses to volcanic forcing through standardized model experiments.
Speakers linked major eruptions to historical famines, mortality, conflict, and state decline.
Improved histories of the timing and magnitude of past volcanic events and better appreciation of the climatic responses to volcanic forcing have also advanced understanding of the connection between volcanism and society. Speakers linked major eruptions to historical famines, mortality, conflict, and state decline. Long volcanic forcing reconstructions combined with written historical records, augmented by archaeological and paleoecological records, allow researchers to examine the varying impact of these volcanic shocks in diverse cultural, technological, and environmental settings.
In sum, the workshop illustrated that closer dialogue among climate scientists, historians, and other scholars of the human past can unlock further synergies. The VICS Working Group plans to foster further multidisciplinary progress through dedicated workshops and collaborative projects.
The VICS workshop was supported by Past Global Changes (PAGES), the Climate Center of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and the Yale Climate and History Initiative. The authors thank Kevin Anchukaitis and Michael Sigl for their contributions to this text.
—Matthew Toohey (email: [email protected]), GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany; Francis Ludlow, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; and Allegra N. LeGrande, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, N.Y.
Citation: Toohey, M., F. Ludlow, and A. N. LeGrande (2016), How did climate and humans respond to past volcanic eruptions?, Eos, 97, https://doi.org/10.1029/2016EO062599. Published on 10 November 2016. | https://eos.org/meeting-reports/how-did-climate-and-humans-respond-to-past-volcanic-eruptions |
- State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology.
- State Museum of Prehistory.
- Publications.
- Nebra Sky Disc.
- Sky Paths.
Mediaeval Archaeology / Urban Archaeology
Archaeological sources are not only of interest for periods with few or no written sources. Documents, records, chronicles and historic images from the Middle Ages and the modern period are often highly tendentious or give information only on certain aspects of human life. Large areas of everyday life, for example, can only be rediscovered through material remains. Even in cases where there is good written evidence, archaeological sources are an important supplement to our understanding of historical circumstances: they are an 'archive in the ground'. While it is generally uncontroversial that old documents and written materials should be preserved, the records of the past that are hidden in the ground are in acute danger of destruction.
The Conservation Officers for Mediaeval Archaeology are responsible for certain individual sites and above all for the cities of Magdeburg and Halle. A characteristic of cities is that they are under special pressure to change, though the settlement remains in the same place. As a result, past building activity had already significantly damaged the archaeological material, but there are still remains present under courtyards and in deep layers of material beneath cellars. Of great concern is the total loss of archaeological remains caused by the deep foundations of buildings put up in the post-war and post-reunification periods, which leave behind nothing but wide areas of 'archaeological desert'. So that future generations are not robbed of an important part of their cultural inheritance, it is necessary that, as well as scientific excavation, greater weight is also given to construction-free areas and construction methods that are more compatible with archaeological conservation. | https://www.lda-lsa.de/en/state_office_for_heritage_management_and_archaeology/archaeological_conservation/specialised_sections/mediaeval_archaeology/ |
In most ‘traditional religions’ the supreme or only deity is male. But what we are now learning is that our most ancient traditions are traditions in which both men and women worshiped a Great Mother, a Great Goddess who was the mother of both divine daughters and divine sons.
Riane Eisler, “Reclaiming Our Goddess Heritage”
Long ago, some 20,000 years ago and more, the image of a goddess appeared across a vast expanse of land stretching from the Pyrenees to Lake Baikal in Siberia. Statues in stone, bone and ivory, tiny figures with long bodies and falling breasts, rounded motherly figures pregnant with birth, figures with signs scratched upon them — lines, triangles, zigzags, circles, nets, leaves, spirals, holes — graceful figures rising out of rock and painted with red ocher — all these have survived through the unrecorded generations of human beings who compose the history of the race.
Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess
Evidence of the omnipresence of Goddess worship in ancient times is both sketchy and overwhelming. Recent archaeological discoveries and improved dating techniques have led some scholars to theorize about an era when the Goddess was worshiped as the primary deity, the Source of all life, the Creator. Before the appearance of the warlike, male-dominated, hierarchical societies whose rise apparently coincided with the development of written language, these largely feminist scholars insist, our early forebears worshiped the cosmic Source of the universe and all life as female. Ancient figurines of broad-hipped women with prominent breasts and small heads or no faces, like the so-called “Willendorf Venus,” have been turning up by the thousands in archaeological digs. They are no longer viewed as mere fertility symbols or the fevered expression of primitive male imagination — “an ancient analogue for today’s Playboy magazine,” as one scholar put it — but as loving depictions of the Mother Goddess as the great life-giver.
At the same time, there is virtually no written record of the beliefs and practices of Goddess culture these archaologists and scholars propose, and so many conventional scholars of religion tend to write off the idea of an idyllic Goddess culture in which men and women shared power and warfare was virtually unknown as mere speculation. And yet, all those figurines, and the virulence with which the proponents of male warrior gods attacked the worship of the Goddess point to a once prevalent culture that was largely driven underground. From sometime in the Paleolithic, or Old Stone, Age, which ended around 10,000 years ago, the Goddess seems to have been universally worshiped from Southern Europe to Siberia, around the Mediterranean rim and down to the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia. She took on manifestations as the crane, duck, goose, dove, and owl, as well as the bull, bear, doe, butterfly, and bee. She was identified with life-giving waters in the form of rain or rivers, with vegetation, and with the moon, whose cycles determined the lunar calendar essential to agriculture.
Because the rise of the patriarchal religions coincided with the discovery and spread of written language and the technology with which to preserve written records, we have long had the impression that religion began with Yahweh, Ra, Mithra, Shiva, and other omnipotent male figures. Indeed, we have no idea what the Goddess may have been called in the earliest cultures, which left no decipherable written records. With the advent of writing in about the 4th millennium BCE, she was called Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, or Asherah in the Fertile Crescent; Isis in Egypt; Gaia, Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter, and Hera in Greece; Cybele in Anatolia and Rome.
As the Great Mother, the Goddess originally embodied both male and female characteristics. Those little figurines with the swelling hips often have long, phallic necks. But around 10,000 years ago separate phallic figures began to appear, often in the form of a serpent or bull. Human male figures also appear, occasionally in tandem with the Goddess, in what is referred to as the sacred marriage. Male gods first appear in Egyptian and Mesopotamian culture as the son and/or lover of the Goddess, but not yet as the dominant creator god of later times.
The cultures that produced these artifacts would have been characterized by matrilineal descent, with a high degree of importance and esteem accorded to women as the obvious life-givers, without whom humanity could not exist. The roles of the sexes most likely would have been balanced in a way that they have not been since. The art that survives from that era does not depict war between humans; weapons are shown being used solely in the hunt, and there are no archaeological signs of military fortifications, nor any indication of great discrepancies in wealth, rank, and status. The sacred and the secular would have been intimately interconnected and their social structure, egalitarian and communal rather than authoritarian and hierarchical. The arts flourished then; by all indications, they were largely developed during this long, peaceful summer following the last Ice Age — in all likelihood, by women. | https://www.myss.com/free-resources/world-religions/goddess-spirituality/introduction-to-goddess-spirituality/ |
Critical Evaluation of Exodus
The book of Exodus has been described as of “central importance” “one of the most gripping narratives in the Hebrew Bible”. Exodus 1 sets the stage for this great drama which is central to the Old Testament. In the passage under review in this essay is a vivid description of the oppression and chaos into which the Hebrew people are plunged at the behest of an unnamed Pharaoh. Whilst there is little evidence to suggest that the events of the Exodus occurred as described, it is an important cultural and religious narrative which deserves attention. The Exodus story has been described as a logical account considering it was written much later than it occurred and owes its existence to the cultural memory of a nomadic people. It is a written version of stories that have been handed down through generation. Initial written down in the 7th century BCE and then extensively edited by the Priestly writers in the 6th century it reflects and retells the oppression of a people and their escape to freedom. Scholars appear to follow two separate trains of thought about the temporal location of this story. The first and oldest setting is based on the numbers that are reflected in Exodus 12:40; Judges 11:26; and 1 Kings 6:1 which provide a possible date of 1440BCE. The second era is that of Rameses II who scholars identify as the unnamed Pharaoh because amongst other indicators, there are records which show that during his reign the towns of Pithom & Rameses were constructed in around 1270BCE. At these sites the pharaoh “set taskmasters over them (the Hebrews) to oppress them with forced labour” (Exod1:11.) There is a wide level of consensus amongst the majority of scholars that sometime between 1290 BCE and 1224BE the Exodus occurred. Egyptian records indicate that it was the work of the lower classes which resulted in the cities construction and this also ties into the narration contained in Exodus 1:11. This was a generally troubled time during which there appears to have been a great divide between the rich and poor. There was however no record of the lower classes being enslaved. Archaeological evidence suggests the existence of two separate areas in the town of Rameses – one which show signs of a great wealth with more ornate structures and one which shows a more subsistence style of living. The ‘Apiru were a class of people referred to in Egyptian documents as those who worked on the construction of these cities. They were considered to be a nomadic people who were a threat to the local power brokers and acted as paid mercenaries. It is likely that the biblical Hebrew were just one of the tribes of the Apiru class. Whilst there is evidence of oppression of this class of people (not necessarily Hebrew) there is no archaeological evidence of a mass migration. Some researchers believe that this is a major stumbling block into roving the great migration theory expressed in Exodus but as Na’arum writes this is of no concern as nomadic people, even today, leave very little evidence of the routes they have taken. Written to explain the importance of remembering and listening to one God, it reminds the believers that if they forget God then they may well face hardship and oppression, but it also reminds them of Gods promises by echoing the promises made to Abraham. Scholars believe that the text indicates the success and growth of the nation since the time of the book of Genesis and then follows their journey from success to despair and back to success . Exodus is presented as a narrative and like most narratives in the bible it tells almost nothing about the narrator the authors have created. It set the scene with the use of the “problem – attempted solution – result formula . This formula is repeated as many as three times in the passage 8-22. Exod 1-7 serves as a calm introduction before the climax is built and the... | http://www.studymode.com/essays/Critical-Evaluation-Of-Exodus-1720220.html |
In northwestern China, many historical nomadic kingdoms and Chinese dynasties sought to control the Heihe River basin, an important location on the eastern part of the ancient Silk Road. Archaeologists have argued that changes in material culture are tied to the frequent turnover in polities in the area, but no published evidence supports these claims. In this paper, we evaluate the relative importance of environmental and political factors in determining the spatiotemporal pattern of archaeological sites in the middle and lower reaches of the Heihe River basin by using previously published high-resolution paleoclimate records and a variety of historical documents. Our results indicate that humans intensively exploited the Heihe River basin during Han dynasty (202BC-AD 220). Following the Han dynasty, during the Wei-Jin (AD 222-589) and Sui-Tang (AD 581-907) periods the number of archaeological sites. In the Western Xia-Yuan period (AD 1038-1368), people mainly settled in the lower reaches of the Heihe River basin and only returned to the middle reaches of the Heihe River basin during the Ming and Qing dynasties (AD 1368-1912). Although climate change and the local environment affected human activities in Heihe River basin, geopolitical events, such as forced mass migrations, are more responsible for influencing the distribution of archaeological sites over the past 2000 years. | https://earthobservatory.sg/resources/publications/environmental-and-social-factors-influencing-spatiotemporal-variation |
Recherche – Detailansicht
Ausgabe:
April/2008
Spalte:
379–381
Kategorie:
Neues Testament
Autor/Hrsg.:
Jensen, Morten Hørning
Titel/Untertitel:
Herod Antipas in Galilee. The Literary and Archaeological Sources on the Reign of Herod Antipas and its Socio-Economic Impact on Galilee.
Verlag:
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2006. XV, 316 S. m. Abb. gr.8° = Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. 2. Reihe, 215. Kart. EUR 59,00. ISBN 978-3-16-148967-9.
Rezensent:
Helen Bond
In modern historical Jesus study, Jesus’ Galilean context – and the rule of Herod Antipas – has taken on an increasingly prominent role. Was Antipas the ruler of a stable and prosperous land, a buffer against direct Roman rule and exploitation? Or was he a tyrant, demanding heavy taxes for his extravagant cities, and plunging his territory into economic upheaval, debt and social banditry? And if the latter, can Jesus’ movement be seen as a reaction to the tetrarch’s misrule?
In this excellent, thoroughly-researched and thoughtful study, J. aims to steer a path between these divergent views, and to provide a way out of what has become a scholarly impasse. Thus, the work is not a biography of Antipas (as for example H. Hoehner’s well known study from 1972, which J. rightly notes is rather dated nowadays); there is no attempt to settle matters of chronology, nor to discuss historical events in detail. Rather the work attempts (successfully in this reviewer’s opinion) to answer one clearly defined question relating to the tetrarch’s rule: what was the socio-economic impact of Antipas’ reign on Galilee?
The work is particularly strong on methodology. J. notes that those scholars with a positive view of Antipas tend to rely heavily on the archaeological record, while those who see a state of conflict rely rather on sociological models. J. is suspicious of models and prefers what he calls a ›contextual source-orientated approach‹ (34). He insists that all sources (both literary and archaeological) need to be examined and understood on their own terms before we can attempt to put our own questions to them. Basically, the approach is historical-critical, but a sophisticated appropriation of the method which rightly stresses that all material must be understood first in its context. This is worked out in the second part of the book which turns to sources, first written, then archaeological.
The most important and extensive of the written sources is Josephus. In line with modern assessments of the Jewish aristocrat, J. sees Josephus as an intelligent and creative writer. He is aware of the difficulties of using Josephus’ narratives to extract historical information, and advocates an approach which concentrates not so much on contradictions and discrepancies within the works, but on the broader narrative framework. Looking at the presentation of the Herodian house in its entirety, J. notes that Josephus presents us with two extremes: those who are insensitive towards Jewish religion, law and tradition (Herod I, Archelaus, Pilate), and those who are too hostile to Rome (Judas, the fourth philosophy). Like other Herodians, Antipas has his faults, but his presentation is much less negative than several other members of the family. He is insensitive towards his subjects on several occasions, though Josephus cannot provide any real examples of cruelty or tyranny. Overall, the tetrarch is presented as a ›fairly unremarkable ruler‹ (100).
Other written sources are grouped together, first Greek and Latin writings, then the New Testament. J. finds suggestions in Greek and Latin writings that imply that the relationship between Antipas and the Jewish nation was rather better than Josephus might have us believe. In the New Testament, he detects different perspectives on Antipas, though the consistent element, he argues, is ›his ambivalence and indecisiveness toward John and Jesus‹ (124). (The fact that all three synoptics are linked by some kind of literary dependence, however, makes this consistency less significant than J. maintains.) Overall, the literary sources suggest that Antipas was ›mild and modest‹ in his approach, that he managed to avoid violent confrontations with his subjects, and that he had a constructive relationship with the Jerusalem leaders.
Chapter 5 turns to the second major source for Antipas’ reign: the archaeology of Galilee. After a number of useful preliminary comments on the complexities of archaeological theory and method, J. offers a detailed discussion of the archaeological remains in Antipas’s two cities: Tiberias and Sepphoris. Most of what can be seen in the archaeological record, he argues, dates to a later period. Under Antipas, both were in their ›urban infanc[ies]‹, exhibiting what J. Reed has called a ›second tier‹ of urban style and quality. Intensive urbanisation and building activity occurred between and after the wars against Rome, not under Antipas. Next J. turns to rural Galilee, studying four villages in depth. Once again, the findings are suggestive: all show evidence of thriving rural communities, evidence of industry and regional trade, and no sign of economic decline in the first century. In order to put these findings into perspective, J. compares Antipas’ cities with those nearby – Scythopolis, Hippo and Gadara (all in the Decapolis) and Caesarea Maritima. Antipas’ cities turn out to be minor urban centres with few public amenities, built from only local materials. Antipas’ urbanisation programme, therefore, was not an isolated innovative phenomenon, but an attempt to bring Galilee up to date with surrounding territories. He engaged in only a ›modest urbanisation‹ (185), with no dramatic impact on local towns and villages.
The final chapter in this section considers Antipas’ coins. After an initial introduction to numismatics, J. once again endeavours to consider these fairly rare and poorly struck coins in their wider Second Temple context. The fact that they avoided the emperor’s name and image, and used only floral decoration (including the reed, which J. argues connoted positive images of water, durability and wisdom) suggests Antipas was sensitive to the Jewish ban on graven images. They were not a statement of the tetrarch’s political ambitions or messianic dreams (as some have argued), but ›modest, carefully adapted, and slightly insignificant‹ (216).
Part III contains J.’s assessment, synthesis and conclusions. ›From a Roman point of view‹, he writes, ›Antipas was a minor client ruler, unremarkable in both greatness and cruelty (in contrast to his father)‹ (227). He ruled for 43 years without any serious upheavals, seems to have been reasonably sensitive towards his people, but was never promoted, despite opportunities when his brother’s kingdoms were reorganised. He showed himself a mediocre politician in Rome’s eyes, a poor general (he lost his army in his one campaign!) and did not do a great deal to ingratiate himself with the emperors. J. notes that for a situation of conflict to occur, sociological models require a period of rapid change, increasing pressure on the lower classes in terms of monetisation, urbanisation and so on. None of these have been found, so the picture of conflict advocated by some cannot be substantiated. In the end, Antipas was an unremarkable ruler whose reign, though long, had little impact on the socio-economic conditions of first century Galilee. The book ends with 29 drawings and photographs, mainly from excavations (and also has an accompanying website with extra pictures).
J.’s study is a model of sober scholarship. Although it can be a little repetitive in places, it is clearly and cautiously argued. Of course, not everyone will be entirely convinced by all of his suggestions. He notes, for example, that following Archelaus’ deposition Rome did not think highly enough of Antipas to transfer the right to appoint high priests or custody of the sacred vestments to him. But these privileges were not given to Philip either (despite Josephus’ praise of his reign). More importantly, these duties were not disentangled from the political ruler until after the death of Agrippa I in 44, and may be better seen as examples of Rome gradually relinquishing control of religious elements later in the first century rather than a snub of Antipas in 6 CE. And it seems doubtful to this reviewer that Pontius Pilate’s coins were part of an attempt to compete for the emperor’s attention, as J. (following F. Strickert) suggests; although innovative in their use of cultic vessels, these coins are of poor quality, and it is highly unlikely that the emperor would take an interest in copper coins struck by an insignificant prefect. The chapter on the New Testament, too, may be a little disappointing to some. The discussion here is thinner than elsewhere (as J. himself admits, 110) with very little analysis of Antipas’ trial of Jesus. Of course, the New Testament evidence does not contribute much to our understanding of the socio-economic aspect of Antipas’ rule, and so J. is right not to dwell on it too much, but readers should be warned that many of the interesting questions raised by Antipas in the gospels will not be addressed. Overall, though, this is a fine study that will undoubtedly become the standard discussion of Antipas for some time to come. | http://www.thlz.com/artikel/8819/ |
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
Aldous Huxley
witnesses
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Locate, interview and evaluate credibility
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Research background of victims, percipient witnesses
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Locate and interview case specific experts
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Canvas crime, arrest scene for additional witnesses
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Take written or recorded statements
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Prepare and serve subpoenas
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Act as liaison between attorney and family members
discovery
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Research public records including civil filings, criminal index, real property, fictitious business names, corporate filings
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Obtain medical, employment, school, probation, military, prison records pursuant to subpoena, court order or signed release
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Review and organize discovery & other documents
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Research case specific topics
evidence
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Photograph, diagram & evaluate crime scene
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Review evidence with experts
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Collect evidence
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Transport evidence to court
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Witness to physical line-up
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Review/photograph physical evidence
trial preparation
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Develop case chronology or timeline
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Review previous testimony for impeachment
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Assist with case management
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Prepare reports and exhibits
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Assist with opening/closing presentations
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Prepare witnesses for trial
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Prepare personal testimony
You may be doing your client a disservice by not retaining the services of a licensed investigator. While it may be more cost effective to utilize in-house capacity, we strongly advise against cutting corners when it comes to gathering information and case intelligence. | https://www.factquestpi.com/attorneys |
Candidates will receive an email confirmation when submitting their application online. However, only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted. Please allow one (1) working day from the time you send in your application to receive an email confirmation.
GINA CODY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE (GCS)
BUDGET ASSISTANT (P2809C)
Deadline: February 21, 2020
Grade: 10
Note
This posting represents a leave replacement effective until June 5, 2020.
Scope
Reporting to the Senior Faculty Financial Officer, the incumbent assists with the budget planning and control; explaining and applying policies and procedures with respect to the Human Resources and Financial Information System. He or she acts as liaison between academic departments and service units.
Primary responsibilities
- Maintain detailed records of all expenditures and commitments for the Office of the Dean (including operating, capital and trust accounts) as well as other departments monitored at the School level.
- Evaluate and verify salary and non-salary expenditures for all departments in the School.
- Update and maintain an online Budget Office database including: recording commitments for full-time faculty, recording database with ledgers and investigating discrepancies, and updating CFI (Canadian Foundation Innovation) files.
- Verify and process moving and sabbatical expenses for full-time faculty; prepare appropriate documentation for Payroll, Human Resources and Financial Services.
- Assist the Senior Faculty Financial Officer with special reports, salary projections and financial forecasts; prepare financial forecasts for professional development allowance accounts.
- Reconcile monthly ledgers and investigate discrepancies including cell phone charges.
- Advise and provide information to departments regarding management of budgets; act as liaison between GCS departments and University service departments.
- Maintain up-to-date and accurate policies and procedures making them available to all departments via the website.
- Assist with faculty-wide management of timesheets; maintain control on key deposit refunds.
Requirements
- Diploma of Collegial Studies, (3 year technical DEC) in accounting, finance or a related field or equivalent, and two to four years related budget/accounting work experience.
- Good knowledge (Level 4) of spoken and written English to write and prepare correspondence, documents, and reports, and to communicate effectively with faculty and staff; basic knowledge (Level 3) of spoken and written French to answer routine questions and to prepare basic correspondence.
- Good knowledge (Intermediate Level) of Excel and database applications (to input information and to generate reports), and Word (to prepare documents and reports).
- Superior organizational skills and the ability to establish priorities.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
Salary
$31.18 to $37.54 per hour
Union/Association
CUSSU
Interested applicants must submit a curriculum vitae with a covering letter by February 21, 2020. Please click on the How to Apply button below for further instructions.
IMPORTANT: The language and computer skills of short-listed candidates will be tested.
Concordia University is committed to Employment Equity and encourages applications from women, Aboriginal Peoples, visible minorities, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities. | https://www.concordia.ca/hr/jobs/openings/staff-positions/job-description.html?lang=E&job_no=2409 |
Святилища: археология ритуала и вопросы семантики [Текст] : материалы тематической научной конференции, Санкт-Петербург, 14-17 ноября 2000 г. / [редкол.: Д. Г. Савинов (отв. ред.) и др.- Санкт-Петербург : Изд-во С.-Петерб. ун-та, 2000. - 235 с. : ил., табл.
Information in the SGEM 2017 Conference Proceedings is subject to change without notice. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of the International Scientific Council of SGEM.
Extended review of Ludomir R. Lozny, Prestate Societies of the North Central European Plains, 600 – 900 CE. New York: Springer 2013. Validity of the author's concepts and conclusions based on archaeological evidence is tested from the position of social anthropology.
The book is the collection of papers on history, archaeology and art critics of North-West Russia and Baltic area.
The book describes field research (archaeological anthropological, etc.) conducted in different years with financial support of the Russian Humanitairan Foundation.
The book describes bricks stamped with Aramaic and/or figural impressions from Babylon of the sixth century B.C. The book under review is not only a catalogue of bricks with Aramaic impressions and figurative stamps. The authors analyze catalogued items from several viewpoints, among which the most important are the following: 1) paleography and the significance of these documents for the history of Aramaic writing; 2) interpretation of the images found on Neo-Babylonian bricks; 3) onomastics and its bearing on the ethno-linguistic situation in Babylon during several decades of the sixth century B.C. The book of B. Sass and J. Marzahn provides sufficient comparative material for the sixth century Aramaic writing to help solving problems of dating some Aramaic texts.
The sixth report on the new excavations at Chagar Bazar contains the complete publication of the objects discovered in the graves that were described in the fourth volume. Particular attention was devoted to the archaeological study of 5105 beads, and this study was completed by the examination of the beads in the cuneiform documents (by Ilya Arkhipov).
This slim book is rich in content and ideas. Thanks to good forethought and logical consistency of presentation and argumentation the author managed to represent on less than a hundred pages a wide conceptually grounded panorama of the socio-political transformations on the spaces of present-day North-East Germany and North-West Poland. Abundant archaeological evidence is mainly compressed in comprehensive tables and expressed in graphic figures accompanied by brief but pithy summarizing comments in Chapters 2 and 3. The conceptual framework for the data analysis is defined explicitly in the introductory Chapter 1 and serves as a tool for clear generalizations in the closing Chapter 4 and guidelines for future research in Conclusions.
Several epigraphic corpora and some isolated inscriptions from Southern Levant may be considered as documents reflecting accounting procedures. This paper is a survey of such documents from the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in the period between ca. 931 and ca. 587 BCE. The emerging picture is fragmentary and uneven, which is related to two main reasons: apparently most of the documentation was kept on papyrus which usually does not survive in this region; the kingdom of Israel ceased to exist after ca. 720 BCE, the period when writing started to proliferate in Southern Levant. In the course of the research some of the corpora have been analyzed according to several, sometimes conflicting theories. On the other hand, there is a strong tendency to consider such corpora as lmlk jar handles, Samaria ostraca and “fiscal” bullae as documents reflecting taxation systems in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. | https://publications.hse.ru/en/books/452687474 |
Experiments Were conducted to further, evaluate previously observed discrepancies between postembolic perfusion scans and angiograms, and the relationship of these discrepancies to pulmonary vasospasm. Nonresorbable emboli were formed from Ivalon,. muscle, or heated autologous clot. Scans and angiograms were compared at 24-hour intervals for two to eight days. During the first two days after embolism, angiographic-scan discrepancies occurred in most dogs, characterized by decreased size of scinti-graphically demonstrated perfusion defects at the same times that the angiogram showed stable or even progressive obstruction. This discordant behavior of scan and angiogram is thought to reflect subsidence of postembolic vasospasm. In the 17 experimental dogs, 13 showed evidence of vasospasm, and four did not. In those that developed spasm, direct angiographic evidence of such spasm was present in all but one, manifest as diffuse constriction of small arteries and diminished parenchymal stain in vascular beds that were not directly obstructed mechanically. Although spasm diminished rapidly during the first 6 hours, there was continued and appreciable further resolution for over 48 hours in some dogs. This study reconfirms the frequent existence of vasospasm in three different embolic models, and indicates subsidence of spasm over a much longer time frame than was formerly supposed. Regression of spasm over an interval of several days suggests that perfusion scans should be performed clinically as soon as possible after a suspected embolic episode, prior to subsidence of spasm, in order to exploit the added sensitivity provided by spasm. | https://jhu.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/the-effect-of-vasospasm-on-perfusion-radionuclide-imaging-in-expe-2 |
STORY – How I got my uni friend saved….
POINT - The case for Christ is compelling and convincing – but unless the Holy Spirit draws you – you cannot be saved.
BUT – The only way we know what the Case for Christ is – is by reading the Bible - the word of God.
THE RELIABILITY AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE BIBLE.
IF SOMEONE ASKED YOU HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE SAVED? – GOING TO HEAVEN. – WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?
· I have had an experience of God’s love or power?
· I have an assurance from the Holy Spirit that lives within, that I belong to Him.
But all our experiences are subjective – only real to one person. So unless they are based on an absolute truth – something you can verify – something you can prove is completely reliable, how can we know for sure that we are saved?
SO IS THE BIBLE – RELIABLE? IS IT VERIFIABLE? CAN IT BE PROVED CORRECT?
Apart from internal evidence – what the bible says about itself, there are many ways in which the bible can be verified to be divinely inspired and without error.
IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO SAY THAT SOME PARTS OF THE BIBLE ARE DIVINELY INSPIRED – IT IS EITHER COMPLETELY INSPIRED OR NOT AT ALL, BECAUSE OTHERWISE WE CAN NEVER KNOW WHICH VERSES ARE ONES TO STAKE YOUR LIFE ON, AND WHICH ONES WERE THE PRODUCT OF MEN.
1. Scientific Evidence for Creation and genetics – verifying Genesis.
2. Literary Evidence to verify the authenticity of original writings.
3. Prophetic Evidence to verify Divine Inspiration.
4. Archaeological Evidence to verify dates, times and places mentioned in the bible.
5. Historical Evidence – Non Bible historians who wrote about people and places corroborating bible facts.
6. Dead Sea scrolls – Evidence for accuracy of copying down through the centuries.
7. Legal Evidence – World renowned legal minds have determined the validity of the New Testament accounts of Jesus and the resurrection through the modern rules of evidence.
8. Biological Evidence – References to trees and plants in the bible are evidence of the accuracy of the text.
WHO FIGURED OUT WHAT BOOKS SHOULD BE IN THE BIBLE AND WHICH ONES THROWN OUT?
First, the books must have apostolic authority-- that is, they must have been written either by the apostles themselves, who were eyewitnesses to what they wrote about, or by associates of the apostles.
Second, there was the criterion of conformity to what was called the "rule of faith." In other words, was the document congruent with the basic Christian tradition that the church recognized as normative.
Third, there was the criterion of whether a document had enjoyed continuous acceptance and usage by the church at large. Church Fathers.
How do we know the Bible has been kept intact for over 2,000 years of copying? Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, our earliest Hebrew copy of the Old Testament was the Masoretic text, dating around 800 A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls date to the time of Jesus and were copied by the Qumran community, a Jewish sect living around the Dead Sea. We also have the Septuagint which is a Greek translation of the Old Testament dating in the second century B.C. When we compare these texts which have an 800-1000 years gap between them we are amazed that 95% of the texts are identical with only minor variations and a few discrepancies.
There are two criteria to determine if a piece of literature is accurate – reliable.
2. The time gap between the original autograph and the oldest copy available.
This graphic shows that for ancient literature that we have confidence in like the works of Homer or Plato, the New Testament has by far the greatest literary proof and accuracy.
With all of the massive manuscript evidence you would think there would be massive discrepancies - just the opposite is true. New Testament manuscripts agree in 99.5% (5) of the text (compared to only 95% for the Iliad). Most of the discrepancies are in spelling and word order. A few words have been changed or added. There are two passages that are disputed but no discrepancy is of any doctrinal significance (i.e., none would alter basic Christian doctrine). Most Bibles include the options as footnotes when there are discrepancies. How could there be such accuracy over a period of 1,400 years of copying? Two reasons: The scribes that did the copying had meticulous methods for checking their copies for errors. 2) The Holy Spirit made sure we would have an accurate copy of God's word.
What is fasting all about? | http://www.infinitychurch.org/blog/2019/2/8/take-it-to-the-bank |
Swift River Environmental Services, LLC, has an immediate need for ONE Archaeologist to support the U.S. Army’s Environmental Program at Fort Huachuca, in southeastern Arizona. This full-time term position will fulfill Swift River’s contract through January 2026. We are seeking a candidate that can commit to this location throughout the period of the contract.
Per Swift River’s contract with U. S. Army, Fort Huachuca, the person filling this position shall hold, at a minimum, a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with a focus on Archaeology, plus two years of technical report writing experience. The candidate shall have professional experience at Crew Chief or Field Director level, at minimum, and apply knowledge, expertise, and skills in relevant historic preservation laws, regulations, and the Section 106 and 110 compliance process as they apply to undertakings and management of historic properties; archaeological field methods, including GPS use; oral and written communication (including demonstrated experience in professional compliance report writing); and computer data, word processing, and geospatial software, specifically the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook), and ArcGIS.
Primary Responsibilities and Requirements: Providing support to the Government CRM as directed : Conducting archival research and fieldwork to inventory, evaluate, and document archaeological sites and isolated occurrences within the confines of the Army Garrison. Fieldwork will generally consist of small-scale pedestrian surveys; site and isolated documentation or assessment; archaeological monitoring, conducting site condition assessments, and occasional subsurface shovel testing or excavations, and monitoring and assessing archaeological sites during construction. Office work includes conducting archival research by locating and examining historical records, maps, and documents as required to assess previous research in the project area. Preparing post-fieldwork documentation, including professional quality survey and assessment reports with project results and site evaluations; site forms; prehistoric and historic artifact analysis; photographic documentation; field records; and Arizona State Museum (ASM) project and site number registration forms. Updating existing site databases and archive files to facilitate access to documentation on archaeological sites, traditional cultural properties, and sacred sites. This includes updating and maintaining archaeological site data, areas surveyed, and disturbed and “cleared” areas in the Fort Huachuca (FH) GIS system. Also will assist in the review of Army undertakings that may affect archaeological sites and making recommendations to avoid or minimize adverse effects to historic properties (this includes Dig Permits; Work Orders; NEPA RECs,
Salary compensation and benefits will be commensurate with level of experience and education (range $40,000 to $50,000).
Please send resumes to [email protected] and paula.pflepsen@swiftriveres. | https://acra-crm.org/swift-river-environmental-services-llc-archaeologist/ |
Edited by Sushmita Sengupta (with inputs from IANS) | Updated: January 17, 2020 15:02 IST
Love munching on walnuts? Here's good news for you. According to a latest study, walnuts may do wonders for the good bacteria in your body, and boost both gut and heart health. The study was published in the Journal of Nutrition. The positive changes in the gut microbiome were associated with improvements in some risk factors for heart disease, the study revealed. "Substantial evidence shows that small improvements in diet greatly benefit health. Eating two to three ounces of walnuts a day as part of a healthy diet could be a good way to improve gut health and reduce the risk of heart disease," said study researcher Kristina Petersen from Penn State University in the US.
About 42 participants with overweight or obesity, between the ages of 30 and 65, were recruited for the study. Before the study began, participants were placed on an average American diet for two weeks. Followed by the "run-in" diet, participants were randomly assigned to one of three study diets, all of which consisted of less saturated fat than the run-in diet.
The diets included one that incorporated whole walnuts, one that included the same amount of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids without walnuts, and one that partially substituted oleic acid (another fatty acid) for the same amount of ALA found in walnuts, without any walnuts. It must be noted that in all the three diets, walnuts or vegetable oils replaced saturated fat, and all participants were made to follow each diet for six weeks with a break between diet periods.
Researchers collected fecal samples 72 hours before the participants finished the run-in diet and each of the three study diet periods. Through the sample, they analysed the bacteria in gastro-intestinal tract.
"The walnut diet enriched a number of gut bacteria that have been associated with health benefits in the past," Petersen said. "One of those is Roseburia, which has been associated with protection of the gut lining. We also saw enrichment in Eubacteria eligens and Butyricicoccus," Petersen added.
After the walnut diet, significant associations between changes in gut bacteria and risk factors for heart disease were also observed.
The researchers said that Eubacterium eligens was inversely associated with changes in several different measures of blood pressure. Greater numbers of Eubacterium eligens was linked with greater reductions in those risk factors. | https://food.ndtv.com/news/eating-walnuts-may-do-wonders-for-gut-and-heart-health-2165526 |
Social psychology is devoted to the study of groups, so of course it makes sense that someone would study how groups are formed. The interesting thing is, it doesn't take much for people to begin assigning people to groups, including themselves. This is called the minimal group paradigm - how much information about others do we need before we start assigning them to our own group or different groups, and to show favoritism to our own group? And the answer is: not much.
This effect was demonstrated by a researcher named Henri Tajfel. His first work on the subject, in 1971, involved two studies - one in which people were randomly assigned to a group (which they were told was based on performance on task, though they were actually assigned at random) and another where participants selected which of two paintings they preferred.
In both studies, participants were then grouped with others and could assign cash awards to the other group members. Unsurprisingly, people in the same performance group or who liked the same painting received higher cash awards than different groups or people who liked the other painting.
Even when people know that group assignment was random, they still favor their own group. In fact, there's a great XKCD cartoon on the subject that I know I've blogged before. But here it is again: | http://www.deeplytrivial.com/2016/04/m-is-for-minimal-group-paradigm.html |
The Western-style diet (higher in sweets and heavy on the meat) is often associated with higher risks of developing a variety of health problems, with obesity and diabetes two of the more highlighted diseases related to consumption of this type of diet.
A new study aimed to compare a variety of plant-based diet to the Western/meat-heavy diet, to determine if there were advantages to any one or more particular diet on weight loss.
Overweight adults between the ages of 18 and 65 from South Carolina were recruited for this study. Adults were randomized into one of 4 plant-based diets: 1) vegan; 2) vegetarian; 3) pesco-vegetarian (probably closest to a Mediterranean-style diet); and 4) semi-vegetarian. A 5th omnivorous group served as the control. 50 adults completed the study.
Participants were given instructions and consumed their respective assigned diets for 6 months. Instructions did not include any caloric restrictions, but instead guided the participants to what types of foods they could eat.
Participants in the plant-based diet groups attended weekly group meetings, while participants in the omnivorous control group attended monthly group meetings and participated in weekly email sessions.
Weight and BMI were measured for each participant at baseline, 2 months, and 6 months after beginning the study.
Important Findings:
- After 6 months, participants in the vegan and vegetarian diets lost significantly more weight than the participants in other two plant-based diets and the control omnivorous diet.
- Weight loss after 6 months was similar between participants in the semi-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian, and omnivorous (control) groups.
- Participants in the vegan diet group had significantly reduced fat and saturated fat compared to their pesco-vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, and omnivorous counterparts at 2 and 6 months after beginning the diet.
The overall results of this study are not at all surprising, in that overweight adults consuming an all-vegan diet lost significantly more weight than participants eating other diets.
The study also found that after 6 months, there wasn’t much of a
difference in weight loss between the semi-veg, pesco-veg, and omnivorous diet groups.
Some things to keep in mind about this study, however:
Issue 1: There were no caloric restrictions in place during this study. The participants were free to eat as much as they wanted until they felt full. It is possible that some groups could have consumed significantly more calories during the study period, which by nature would make it much more difficult to lose weight, regardless of what they are eating.
Solution 1: The study should have controlled for caloric intake to keep everyone on somewhat equal footing from the start.
Issue 2: Exercise habits were not monitored closely during this study. It’s possible that one or more groups exercised a lot more than other groups, thus burning calories a lot faster and ultimately losing more weight.
Solution 2: Just like the previous issue with the caloric intake, the study should have controlled for exercise habits, so one group did not have an advantage over another in terms of calories burned.
Issue 3: Self-monitoring was not required in this study. Basically, the researchers told the participants what they could eat, but there was no monitoring to determine if they were actually following those diets or not. It’s possible that maybe some groups “fell off the wagon” and ate what they weren’t supposed to at times, but there really is no way to know based on the experimental design of this study.
Solution 3: The researchers should have included some sort of diet-monitoring system, be it during the weekly meetings, or email check-in reminders.
For overweight adults trying to lose weight, a vegan diet will likely result in marked reductions in weight over a 6 month period of time. However, due to the lack of control for some of the other important confounding factors related to weight loss, a more controlled follow up study is recommended.
**One should should consult their doctor or nutritionist prior to starting a new diet regime.
Source:
Turner-McGrievy, G.M., Davidson, C.R., Wingard, E.E., Wilcox, S., and Frongillo, E.A. 2015. Comparative effectiveness of plant-based diets for weight loss: A randomized controlled trial of five different diets. Nutrition 31: 350-358. | http://french-paradox.net/2015/01/16/vegan-diet-greater-weight-loss/ |
Sona is a paid service used by the Psychology department to manage the human subject pool contributing to the department's research. Access to the subject pool is limited to Psychology faculty and Principal Investigators with an established partnership who have a teaching title and assignment in the quarter in which access is requested. All experiments must be registered with UC San Diego Human Subject Research Program in order to obtain an IRB number.
Refer to the Sona User Manual for all support and technical-related issues.
Refer to the Sona Highlights for researchers most frequently asked questions.
Watch the Researcher Video Tutorial to learn how to use the system and take full advantage of its resources.
Students enrolled in lower-division psychology courses are asked to serve as experimental subjects for three hours per course. Upper-division psychology courses, as well as courses in Cognitive Science and Linguistics, may also offer Sona credits to their students. The requirement is intended to be a positive educational supplement to the coursework. Students always have the right to discontinue participation at any point in any study. Students who are unable to participate or who choose not to participate must contact their instructor for alternative assignments that are designed to serve similar educational goals.
General Information for Researchers and PIs
Contact Sona administrator, [email protected], to request approval for an account.
Instructors must offer alternative assignments for students who are unable or who choose not to participate in experiments.
Activation/Deactivation Dates
Activation/Deactivation Dates are emailed to Researchers and PIs at the beginning of the academic year from the UCSD Psychology Sona email account.
Please be aware that deactivation dates are different for participants and researchers. Deactivation for participants will occur at 4:00 PM on Wednesday of Week 10 (Week 5 for summer) and for researchers will occur at 11:00 AM on Thursday of Week 10 (Week 5 for summer). This means that NO studies may use timeslots ending later than 3:00 PM of the last Wednesday in the quarter or summer session. This should give you time to immediately award the credit so the participant has time to reassign credit to courses prior to the student deactivation deadline.
Once an account is deactivated, users will have no access to Sona; though the user is prevented from logging in, data is retained. Please refer to the email message you received for the next activation date for researchers. Once re-activated, you will be able to add additional timeslots to your studies, however, participants will not be able to enroll in studies again until the activation date for participants at the start of the next academic quarter or summer session.
Submitting Studies
Once a study is ready to be submitted the researcher should click the "send request" button in the "Study Status." This will bring up a text box, in which the researcher should include specific details for the Sona administrator to better understand the nature of the study. Do not include this information in the Study Information section. The only wording that should be listed here are any eligibility requirements to participate and any information essential for the participant to know regarding participation (e.g., subjects must be male, must have normal or corrected to normal vision, must not have metal in body, etc.) and should not further identify the tasks the participants will perform.
Please note: When submitting your study for approval, assign a general title to reference. Do not assign what you believe to be the next available study number. This can be problematic for labs with multiple researchers.
Managing Unexcused No-Shows
A participant who signed up for a study but who did not show up and never contacted you to cancel is known as an “Unexcused No-Show.”
In order to code them:
- Click on “My Studies” and select “Time slots” next to the appropriate study name. You will then be able to view the time slots for this study. When viewing a time slot that has already passed, you will see a list of the participants who signed up and have “Awaiting Action” next to their names (whether they showed up or not).
- The participant in this example must be coded as an “Unexcused No-show” in Sona.
- Click “Modify” to bring up information on the time slot, click the bubble underneath “Unexcused No-Show,” then “Update Sign-Ups.”
By doing this you are indicating that this participant failed to show up for their time slot without contacting you.
It is extremely important to code “Unexcused No-Shows” correctly. Once a participant has 2 Unexcused No-Shows on their Sona account it is deactivated for the quarter. Coding a participant as an “Unexcused No-Show” should only represent a situation where the participant did not show up to his/her time slots and did not inform the researcher they would not be attending. If they have contacted you in advance or have a documented justification of their missed attendance, they should receive an "Excused No-show". In addition, if you have a 2-part study, the participant can only receive a max of 1 "Unexcused No-Show." | https://psychology.ucsd.edu/about/resources/instruction/sona.html |
Spina, U. (2006). Worlds together… words apart: An assessment of the effectiveness of arts-based curriculum for second language learners. Journal of Latinos & Education, 5(2), 24.
The researcher used a quasi-experimental design to assess whether an arts-based curricula facilitates English language acquisition for English language learners (ELL) and whether the gain in English language skills sacrificed proficiency in Spanish, the study subjects’ first language. The researcher compared two classes of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) 5th grade students. The treatment group attended arts-based classes twice per week, for five to six hours total, whereas the control group was taught using traditional ESL methods. The researcher used scores for language arts achievement tests in English and Spanish as pre-and post-test data, and collected other data through on-site observations, audio-recordings, and teacher questionnaires and interviews. Although the study is preliminary, the results suggest that an arts-based curriculum provides significant cognitive advantages to ESL students.
Students in the arts-based program demonstrated significant gains over the comparison group in all areas tested. They made large gains in English skills and reading skills. When comparing the pre- and post-test scores on standardized proficiency and achievement tests in reading and English, the control group showed an overall gain of less than half as many points in the reading assessments and one quarter as many points in the English assessments than their arts treatment group counterparts. Though increases in Spanish ability were not as impressive for the arts based group, they nevertheless made small gains, whereas the comparison group lost proficiency in their native language skills.
The analysis supports an authentic arts-based approach to language instruction that facilitates learning of a second language without sacrificing proficiency in the first language.
The researcher compared two intact fifth-grade ESL classrooms from an urban, Title I school, for a cumulative total of 63 ESL children participating in the study. The treatment class participated in an arts-based program designed to improve reading and writing skills twice per week, for five to six hours total, whereas the control group was taught using traditional ESL methods. The researcher collected pre- and post-data from scores of tests administered to the students to measure academic and language proficiency, such as the LAB Spanish, LAB English, DRP Reading, and ELE Spanish Reading standardized tests. The researcher supplemented the quantitative pre- and post-test data with descriptive data collected from on-site observations and recordings and teacher questionnaires and interviews.
The researcher acknowledges a couple of limitations in the study, for example the reported gains might be attributed to the nature of the pedagogical model rather than the presence of arts learning. That is, the social and cooperative interactions may account for the gains rather than the communicative and psychological qualities inherent in the arts. Because the researcher used a quasi-experimental design and did not randomly assign treatment and control groups but used intact classrooms instead, causation between arts participation and gains in English language arts and reading cannot be wholly attributed to the arts intervention.
A second limitation is that not all variables could be controlled for, such as teacher characteristics and curriculum, and may be confounding the effects.
Are programs that are pedagogically similar to the arts-based model, but not themselves arts-based, equally effective in increasing achievement in English language arts (ELA) and reading for ESL students? Might teacher characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity, age, or personality, affect the outcomes of this study? Does the arts-based model have similar outcomes for second language students of other cultural backgrounds? Can the study be scaled up to include various types of learners, ESL and native English speakers with the same results? Would the statistical significance between control and treatment groups increase with a larger group of participants? The study should be replicated using random assignment for treatment and control groups to establish causation between arts learning and ELA and reading achievement for ESL students.
ArtsEdSearch is the nation’s hub for research on the impact of the arts in education.
©2018 Arts Education Partnership. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.artsedsearch.org/study/worlds-together-words-apart-an-assessment-of-the-effectiveness-of-arts-based-curriculum-for-second-language-learners/ |
The methodological approach is clearly defined and includes constructs, phenomena, variables, and population.
Methodological Approach
To explore the most effective leadership styles that can be used to reduce fan apathy and improve revenue collection, this research will adopt the qualitative methodology. Kim et al. (2017) state that qualitative methodology is a kind of research method that is utilized when assessing knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions of individuals based on the topic under investigation. In this current research, the researcher intends to explore the knowledge, opinions, and experiences of professional sports consultants regarding the best leadership behaviors of leaders that positively influence fans in sports. Hence, the qualitative research method will allow the collection of qualitative data from professional sports consultants who have knowledge and experience of what leadership practices work well and those that are not reliable to change the behaviors of fans.
The findings from this research will be based on both ontological and epistemological assumptions. Ontologically speaking, understanding this particular subject matter of effective leadership practices will be entirely objective and independent of the researcher’s beliefs, thoughts, and ideas (Bryman & Bell, 2017). The relativism position of ontology assumes that there are numerous truths based on social reality. According to Leavy (2017), the reality is based on social construction and is continuously changing. This study also assumes that effective leadership styles in influencing fan apathy and revenue collection may vary depending on multiple truths based on the participants’ individual construction of reality. What are the perceptions, experiences, and actions of professional sports consultants. Based on epistemological assumptions, the researcher will focus on finding out the truth about the phenomenon, though not the absolute truth (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). More specifically, the social reality will be based on interpretivism assumption given that data individuals have different opinions and experiences regarding certain subject matters. Thus, the interpretivism philosophy will allow the researcher to analyse the perspectives of professional sports consultants who will have made their interpretations of the subject matter according to their experiences. In line with the use of interpretivism philosophy, an inductive approach will allow the researcher to explore rich and reliable data that will identify relationships and patterns for the leaders and fans. The inductive approach will also allow the researcher to extensively explore the subject matter leaving out no room for new issues to emerge (Denscombe, 2018).
This research will adopt a qualitative case study research design since it will involve accessing first-hand knowledge from professional sports consultants on their opinions about effective leadership styles that reduce fan apathy and increase revenue collection. Leavy (2017) noted that case study design gives freedom to the researcher to deliberately select suitable participants for the research. Since fan apathy is a trending issue in the sports context, findings from the qualitative case study design will be based on the interpretation and understanding of the perceptions and experiences of consultants in the sports profession. Bryman and Bell (2017) stated that case study design offers the researcher an opportunity for adaptability and flexibility to different situations.
Population and Sample
The targeted populations for this study are professional sports consultants because they are aware of the sports market trends. According to Woolway and Harwood (2020), sports consultants are involved in analyzing the trending issues in sports and then providing feedback to help in improving the performance of their clients. Hence, the ability of sports consultants to explore sports market trends clearly suggest that they have adequate first-hand knowledge of how leadership, team culture, and performance influence relationships with professional sports teams. The research will engage approximately 20 professional sports consultants from 10 sports marketing companies across the United States. The ten marketing companies in the sports industry will be selected based on the number of years that they have offered sports consultancy to their clients. The eligibility requirements will include at least three years of functional existence with physical offices established in the country. For the 20 professional sports consultants, the study will include only those individuals with over a year of experience in the company offering sports consultancy services. This eligibility criterion for the sample population will ensure that they possess adequate knowledge and experience in the sports industry to offer data that would generate reliable conclusions. Saunders et al. (2018) recommended small sample size for obtaining meaningful data in qualitative research. With limited participants, a researcher is able to obtain sufficient data and attain data saturation because recruiting additional respondents may not add new information to the already gathered facts.
Constructs, Phenomena, Variables
This research focuses on gathering perceptions on effective leadership practices that sports consultants have analyzed and are aware of. Hence, qualitative case study research will be most suitable for the collection of non-numerical data based on social reality regarding leadership, fan apathy, and revenue collection. Reduced fan apathy and increased revenue collection will be the key variables that will be measured to assess the effectiveness of the leadership practices suggested. The leadership styles that will be suggested by the respondents will represent the predictor variables. On the other hand, reduced fan apathy and increased revenue collection will be the dependent variables that will represent the effect emerging from the significant leadership styles used.
References
Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2017). Business research methods. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Creswell, J. W. & Creswell, J.D. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Denscombe, M. (2018). The Good Research Guide. 5th ed. Maidenhead, England: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press.
Kim, H., Sefcik, J. & Bradway, C. (2017). Characteristics of Qualitative Descriptive Studies: A Systematic Review. Res Nurs Health, 40(1), pp. 23–42. doi:10.1002/nur.21768.
Leavy, P. (2017). Research Design: Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed Methods, Arts-Based, and Community-Based Participatory Research Approaches. London, New York: The Guilford Press. | https://www.essaymill.net/2022/effective-leadership-styles-for-reducing-fan-apathy-and-improved-revenue-collection-32013/ |
Families in Church
Church is a place for everyone; it is a place to learn how to live in a community—a task that is useful for all of us to learn. It is a place of forgiveness, love, care and support—as God loves us so we love one another. Children are a welcomed and an integral part of the Payneham Road Uniting Church Community.
Sunday School
School age children are encouraged to take part in the Church service just as they would in any other social event. As parents, you know your child best and we would seek to support you in sharing this special time.
Our Minister prepares a Children’s Order of Service for the children so that they know what is going on; this also gives them some puzzles and questions .
On the 2nd and 4th Sundays each month, excluding School holidays, children may attend Sunday School during the 10 am Worship service. Children stay in Church until after the Bible reading; they then retreat to the Vestry (back of the Church) for about 15-20 minutes before returning for the end of the service.
More pictures of Sunday School (July 23rd 2017)
Pre-school Music Program: In recess at the moment
Jelly Beans is a Pre-School Music Program aimed at providing a place for Nursery Rhymes and Children’s songs to be sung, music appreciation to be built, a social space for children as well as a social and supportive environment for parents and care givers .
Jelly Beans is a Program of the Church because we believe that it is important to support young families, provide opportunities for networks and share together in appreciation of music and song.
Volunteer caregivers are available to care for babies so that you can spend quality time with your toddler.
Jelly Beans is held every Monday morning in the Church hall between 9.30 and 11 am (during school terms).
Fruit morning tea is provided.
Parents are encouraged to bring a bottle of water for their children .
Cost is $5 per family per week or $40 per term
Bookings are essential: 0400 220 035 (Rhonda)
Infants and Toddlers in Church
When you enter the Church, make your way to under the stairs (just in-front of the door – there you will find comfortable seating for yourselves as well as a safe place for your children to move around, play and feed.
There are two tubs of play equipment; one for babies and one for toddlers. Encourage your children to play with these toys rather than bringing toys from home. Also, encourage the sharing of toys between yours and other children using the space.
Please do:
Bring a small snack and bottle of water
Encourage your children to take part in singing, children’s time and praying
Use the door near your seats to exit the church to use toilets, change table, etc. These are situated on the far side of hall in the disabled toilet.
Stay for morning tea so we all get to know one another.
Let someone know if there is anything you need to make the space or your visit more comfortable
Youth Program:
Our young people are supported through a network of care: where people make every effort to respect the situation of each individual youth and encourage them in their pursuits. That being said, there it is also important to balance work with worship and so programs are offered to youth that are often busy with work and/or study.
Study:
There is always some sort of study being offered at our Church; Lenten Study, Confirmation preparation, Bible Study and Get to know the Church programs are regularly operated. Just talk to our Minister about your needs. | http://paynehamroaduc.org.au/?page_id=13&mcat=1 |
Music Together's mission stems from a fundamental principle that all children are musical.
Our belief is music is a basic skill of life like walking and talking, and that all children can learn to sing in tune, keep a beat, and participate with confidence and pleasure. Classes emphasize actual musical experiences instead of concepts about music, and introduce children to the pleasures of making music rather than passively listening to it from tapes, CDs, or television.
Just as children learn to talk by having adults that love them talk to them, they also learn to sing and make music from their parents and caregivers sharing with them. This is why adult participation is integral to Music Together. Setting an example as an enthusiastic participator in music activities is the best thing any parent or caregiver can do to help set a child on the road to a lifelong love of music.
Early childhood educators recommend mixed-age groupings for social development as well, and the mixture of adults and children creates a family-style gathering where music making is shared through participation rather than performance. The older children enjoy and benefit from being leaders and interacting with the younger children. And, in the case of siblings, music becomes an activity they can share together at home even when there is a big age difference. This environment facilitates children learning through play and immersion, and parents learn to recognize different stages of musical development and to foster their children's growth. There are nine different song collections, which means a family could take classes for three years without repeating a collection.
Music Together was founded in 1987 by Kenneth K. Guilmartin in Princeton, New Jersey. In the 1980s, Ken was a working theatre composer and music educator who was drawn to the field of early childhood music education while working as an associate editor for his uncle's music publishing business, Birch Tree Group.
During this time, Ken observed that children's music experiences were usually limited to passive music listening; these children were growing up with little or no opportunity for live and playful music making. This leads to delays in the development of their basic music skills, arriving at elementary school unable to sing in tune or move in a rhythmically accurate way.
Searching for a way to counteract this trend, Ken had the insight to apply what he learned from early childhood education experts to music education for the very young. In 1985, he founded the Center for Music and Young Children (CMYC) to conduct the early childhood music development research which later spawned the Music Together program.While attending a 1986 Edwin Gordon seminar on music learning in children, Ken met Lili Levinowitz, Ph.D., then-director of the Children's Music Development Program at Temple University and an experienced researcher. Lili was a like-minded advocate for non-formal music experiences for young children and soon the two began to develop the unique, musically-rich curriculum that would become known as Music Together.
Music Together teachers now serve communities in the United States and 40 other countries around the world. Visit www.musictogether.com for more information. | https://marshasmusic.com/(677a7e8922403u1fi502pse3s)/history.html |
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Building Home / School Partnerships Presented by Lynne R. Farlough
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What are we learning today? How parents and families can connect with the teacher before the school year starts Maintaining the connection during the school year Recognizing the teacher is a person first Why it’s important for teachers to communicate with parents and families Ways a teacher should communicate with parents and families Ways for teachers to encourage parents and families
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Connect Before the School Year Starts Let your child’s teacher know you look forward to working with them Exchange email addresses Share information about your child Share how your child learns Share positive stories and anecdotes about your child
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Maintaining the Connection During the School Year Stay involved Share important information that your child has shared with you, with your teacher Be positive and prepared for school activities and meetings Volunteer Consider donating classroom supplies Use a home/school communication book; a good example can be found at the following links: www.iidc.indiana.edu/styles/iidc/defiles/IRCA/Handouts2_6-2009.pdf and www.iidc.indiana.edu/styles/iidc/defiles/IRCA/Handouts6-2009.pdf
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Remember the Teacher is a Person First Send cards for special events in the teacher’s life Don’t forget to say “thank you” for the big and little things Saying “thank you” can be more than just words Respect the teacher’s schedule Don’t forget to acknowledge the teacher’s co-workers
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Sharing Your Appreciation with Others Let the administration know how much you appreciate your child’s teacher Nominate your favorite teacher for Teacher of the Year
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End the School Year on a Positive Note Send handwritten notes of thanks to all of your child’s teachers Keep in touch
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Tips for communicating about instructional practices used with your child Listen carefully when a teacher describes problems with aspects of your child’s learning Track how well your child is doing with the instructional practices Ask about research on the effectiveness of the of the instructional practices or behavioral programs being used Discuss whether there are cultural factors that might make a difference Try to understand the way your child learns, so you can better communicate with your child’s teacher Find out if supplementary educational services are available at your child’s school Find out if your school provides online access to your child’s school assignments and grades
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Communication From the Teacher
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Why is it important to communicate with parents? Parents and families will have a better understanding of how you are helping prepare their children for success in school They will learn how well their children are progressing in developing the building blocks of learning They will learn ways in which they can help their children at home The teacher will have a better understanding of the background and experience of the children The children will see that the adults in their life care about them
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Ways to Communicate with Parents and Caregivers Talk with parents and families as they deliver and pick up their children Send home newsletters, notes, or emails Use the home/school communication book Schedule regular meetings
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Ways to Encourage Parents and Caregivers Encourage parents and families to talk with children during daily routines Encourage them to help children to name objects in their environment Encourage parents and families to read and reread stories Encourage parents and families to have children recount experiences Encourage parents and families to visit libraries and museums with their children Share with parents and families ideas about activities that can be done at home Invite parents and families to visit your classroom
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Resources Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC) www.eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc Indiana Resource Center for Autism www.iidc.indiana.edu/ National Center for Learning Disabilities www.ncld.org/
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Pyramid Contact Information 504-899-1505 www.pyramidparentcenter.org Pyramid is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs
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Please use your chat pod at this time if you have any questions
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We will launch a brief survey for you to complete If the survey does not appear (due to your pop up blockers), you can visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/pyramid3_11_13 After you have completed the survey, you may exit the webinar Thank you for your participation! We want your feedback……
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Bluewater District School Board (BWDSB) released a "Welcome Back" guide to returning to school September 4. The video was posted to BWDSB's YouTube channel and shared to social media and talks students and caregivers through the return to school process such as scheduling, staggered entry, PPE availability and requirements and physical distancing.
In her introduction, Lori Wilder, Director of Education, said that staff has been working with the Grey Bruce Health Unit and the Ministry of Education and that current evidence and experience supports the concept that children can return to school "in a carefully structured manner that protects children's health and minimizes risk."
"We want to make sure everyone stays healthy and safe so some things will look quite a bit different in our schools this fall," said Wilder. "This video is intended to provide an overview of measures and processes that have been put in place to keep students and staff safe."
Elementary students will attend school daily and will be taught all curriculum subjects in the same classroom where they will remain all day. Subjects such as French and music will be taught in the same classroom with those teachers rotating between classrooms.
Secondary students will also attend for full days using a quadmester system. Each quadmester is 10 weeks in length and consists of two classes with students alternating between classes on a weekly basis.
Students whose parents and caregivers have elected remote learning will learn through online and teacher assigned learning and will be done through scheduled live and learning activities.
Mental health and special education supports will be in place for students attending school and students doing remote learning.
The video goes on to cover COVID-19 symptom screenings, designated entrances, lockers (or lack thereof) and pick up and drop off locations. Masks requirements and availability as well as hand washing requirements were also discussed.
It walks students through mask wearing and safe removal and parents and caregivers of children who are unable to wear a mask are asked to contact their school's principal.
The video also discusses playtime, washroom breaks, outdoor and interactive activities, games and playground equipment. Masks are not required outside as long as students adhere to physical distancing requirements.
Elementary aged children will be eating lunch in their classrooms while secondary students will be able to eat lunch in the cafeteria or other designated areas while adhering to physical distancing requirements.
Short of specific classes being assigned, common areas such as libraries and gymnasiums will be closed. Physical education will be taught outdoors as often as possible. Any shared equipment will be cleaned and disinfected before and after use.
Breakfast Club programs will be conducted on a "grab and go" format and lunch programs are cancelled until further notice. Water fountains will be closed but water bottle filling stations or water bottles will be provided.
Information will be sent home as needed and updates will be provided through the BWDSB website[https://www.bwdsb.on.ca/] and social media. | https://saugeenshoreshub.ca/news/5696-bwdsb-releases-welcome-back-video.html |
From the moment pupils arrive at Redhills they experience a rich and stimulating education offering both breadth and depth where the aim is to inspire, intrigue and challenge pupils’ thinking. Every child is immersed in knowledge-rich experiences with opportunities to work with experts to enquire and create knowledge. The golden thread throughout our school experience is to equip pupils with the skills to become life-long independent learners. Your child will develop a deep understanding of the wider world, their own community and how they will be able to make a positive difference.
At the heart of our curriculum lie three core values: pursuit of academic excellence; the explicit development of metacognition; and crucially, character education.
Academic excellence is fundamental within our curriculum model. The children’s acquisition of a deep body of knowledge within subject disciplines, will enable them to express their learning to the highest standard. When children achieve excellence, this gives them the confidence to challenge themselves further. Through this process of experiencing success, they will develop character, for example grit, determination, self-efficacy and courage.
Character Education
Whilst academic success remains a core priority, developing character is also an essential element of our curriculum model. Our curriculum gives children opportunities to make a positive impact on society. We want them to grasp the possibilities and opportunities of life beyond the classroom, to enable them to thrive at each and every challenge they face in life and make a difference to themselves and those around them.
Metacognition
Our curriculum not only focuses on achieving character whilst pursuing academic excellence, but also emphasises deep learning through developing the skills of metacognition. We use an enquiry approach to drive our learning experiences, making the reflective learning process explicit. In addition to this, tools for thinking will be taught to support children’s higher-order thinking, synthesis of knowledge and creating of new thinking. However, metacognition can only be developed within a knowledge-rich curriculum.
Please follow these links for detailed information on English & Maths
Science
Science stimulates and excites children’s natural curiosity about living things, materials and the physical world around them. Through scientific activities, we develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding to help them to make sense of familiar events, everyday things and their personal health. Our children are encouraged to investigate questions using a variety of approaches, such as research, exploration, observation, prediction, critical thinking, decision making and discussion. They also learn how to evaluate evidence, explain things and communicate their ideas and findings in a variety of ways.
Religious Education
As a Devon school we follow the Devon Agreed Syllabus.
Children are taught about a range of faiths and denominations through a range of experiences. Children are provided with opportunities to share their own beliefs in school.
Under the provisions of the Education Reform Act 1988 all parents have a right to withdraw their child from the School’s daily ‘Collective Act of Worship’ or from religious education.
Computing (ICT)
Computing assumes an important role as a key curriculum subject and as an essential tool to retrieve and present information across all curriculum areas. All children have access to a variety of technology as an integral part of their studies. Interactive whiteboards support learning across the full curriculum and are used in every classroom. Children are always supervised when using ICT. The school has rigorous safeguarding procedures in place for use of the internet. Details of internet safety are incorporated into our e-safety policy and available to view in the school office or on our website.
Music
All children study music as part of the National Curriculum. They have opportunities for participation in and appreciation of a wide range of music and have the opportunity to sing and play a wide range of instruments. They create music from an early age and learn elements of reading music. At KS2 Children have the opportunity to learn a range of other instruments. Peripatetic music teachers give lessons in a variety of instruments including piano, clarinet, trumpet, violin, drums and guitar as required. These are additional and optional activities for which parents have to meet the costs of tutoring and, possibly, purchase and hire of instruments. Details are sent out each year or may be obtained from the office.
Physical Education, Outdoor Pursuits and Extra Curricular Sport
Children are taught a range of sporting activities by their class teacher or a sports coach both during and beyond the school day. In addition to the statutory PE curriculum, (striking and fielding, gymnastics, dance, athletics, net and ball games and swimming) pupils are offered additional opportunities through clubs and after-school activities such as football, netball, and cricket and through local leagues and festivals. Children will have the opportunity to swim with us during the summer term in KS2. In addition to PE lessons that develop teamwork, children experience activities such as orienteering and problem-solving in an outdoor setting.
Children in Years 4/5/6 have further opportunities during residential programmes.
Personal, Social and Health Education
The school also uses SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) materials.
Health education is a cross-curricular aspect and overlaps with social education. Our children’s health is given a high priority in school. As well as considering diet and exercise, our health education programme includes a programme of sex education, which has been drawn up in accordance with the Local Authority’s guidelines and has been approved by the school governors. The school uses a range of personalised programmes to support individual children with social and emotional development and has a dedicated Nurture room and a qualified counsellor.
Forest Schools
The school grounds include a Forest Schools area where Forest School activities are taught by specifically trained staff. This provides an opportunity to learn outside in a range of curriculum areas and alongside others.
Visitors and Visits
We welcome a range of visitors into School to support children in their learning. These include writers, artists, scientists and musicians etc. We also encourage the involvement of parents. We invest in as many visits as we can so that children learn from real and exciting experiences.
Assessment
We carefully monitor and assess our children, keeping records on our planning after each lesson, so that we can plan for future lessons based on what pupils need to know next. We use a special online tracker to record end of term assessments, meeting regularly to discuss progress and ensuring that early intervention is put in place where further support is needed.
Children are assessed on entry using the Development Matters Age Banding and a Foundation Profile is completed at the end of your child’s first year in School. There are Statutory Assessment Tasks/Tests (SATs) at the end of each Key Stage (Year 2 and Year 6) and a Year 1 Phonics assessment, and year 2 phonic retest. These assessments are shared with parents on the end of year school report. Children in other school years take nationally recognised end of term test, the results of which are shared with parents on end of year school reports and parents’ evenings. | https://www.redhillsprimary.org/our-curriculum |
Childcare primarily occurs in three locations: care in the child's home by relatives or nonrelatives; care in a home outside the child's home by relatives or nonrelatives; and center-based care. There are significant variations within and between these categories, including the time that care is available, the cost and quality of care, the professional status of the caregiver, and the relationship between the caregiver and the family. The age of the child, marital status, race and national origin, and family income are also major influences on the care arrangements used by parents.
Some employed mothers do not use supplemental childcare because they work at home, they are able to alternate childcare with their spouses, older siblings care for younger children, or the children care for themselves. Relatives (often grandparents) may provide a great deal of care for children, ranging from occasional to full-time, regular care while the parents are employed. Care may occur in the parental home, especially if relatives live with the family or in the relative's home. Relatives are especially important caregivers for infants and toddlers, and as a supplement to school attendance for school-aged children, both times when other caregivers are difficult to find. The relationship between relatives and children may be especially strong as relatives have a past and anticipated future relationship and commitment to the family. However, the use of relatives as caregivers may occur because of limited options for childcare due to low income and poverty. Interest in care by relatives has increased in the United States and Canada since the passage of national welfare reforms requiring mothers of young children to enter the workplace. This has led to concerns about the quality of care provided by relatives and the use of public subsidies for caregivers who may work from a sense of duty rather than choice.
Individuals unrelated to the family also provide care in the child's home. Caregivers (nannies) may live in the family home and perform other household duties, whereas baby-sitters (often teenagers) provide occasional care for only a few hours. Sitters have been a common form of child-care in Canada and the United States when other alternatives were limited. Some families jointly hire and share the services of an in-home caregiver or trade childcare on a regular basis.
Children also receive significant amounts of care in other homes. In the United States, 21 percent of the care of children age five years and under was provided in another home by a nonrelative (U.S. Bureau of Census 2000). Family day care (also called home childcare, day mothers, or child minding) involves the care of a small number of children, usually six or fewer, in a private home. Care is provided for a fee unless the caregiver is a relative. In the United States and Canada, family day care is primarily regulated by states or provinces through licensing or registration, although many homes are unregulated.
The small number of children in day-care homes produces a desirable adult-child ratio, although the quality and the stability of the care depend on the characteristics of the caregiver. Although most providers have experience with young children, few may have formal training in child development. Providers may find home day care a positive way to combine care of their own children with the ability to earn income, but the presence of young nonfamily children in the home is stressful and the turnover rate of providers is high (Atkinson 1992; Nelson 1991).
The use of center-based childcare (also described as a nursery school, kindergarten, crèche, community-based care, or child development center) has generally increased over time. These programs are often staffed with professionally trained directors and teachers, and enrollment may range from fifteen to more than a hundred children, often organized by age of children. Some programs, initially designed for middle- and upper-class homes, provide a part-day program of cognitive enrichment and socialization. Other programs provide full-day care and have evolved from child welfare programs created to care for children from poor families whose mothers were employed outside the home. Today the differences between these two types of programs have lessened as many centers provide full-day care as well as educational programs. Although childcare centers have typically provided services for children from two and five years of age, there is a growing demand for center-based programs for infants and toddlers.
Some centers operate as for-profit businesses, whereas other centers are not-for-profit and may be sponsored by community organizations and social agencies. Cooperative programs have paid professional head teachers but use parent volunteers for the rest of the teaching staff. A small but growing number of employers support childcare by providing on-site care, information and referral services, flexible financial benefits, and/or flexible work schedules for parents.
Older children also need care when school hours do not mesh with parental hours of employment. The term latchkey child reflects concern for children who spend significant amounts of time without adult supervision. The descriptions of self-care or out of school care are now used as more positive terms. Parents may supervise children from work by checking periodically in person or by telephone. Other parents use programs that have been developed to provide care before and after school, usually at the school itself, offering breakfast and snacks as well as supervision until parents can pick up their children. Programs vary in whether the emphasis is placed on academic activities such as homework or on free time and recreational programs. Children may spend a significant amount of time outside of school in activities such as lessons and clubs regardless of whether their parents are employed.
Many programs have been developed to provide services for children with special needs. Atrisk programs provide comprehensive services for children considered to have high risk of failure in school. The goal of these programs is to give young children a boost that will help them succeed in school and life. Activities are designed for cognitive stimulation, socialization, and emotional support and also provide comprehensive services for parents and health and nutrition programs for children. These programs may be in cooperation with public schools, with programs available to provide parents with support services. Head Start is the best-known program in the United States, beginning in 1965 as part of the War on Poverty and the Great Society. A more recent component called Early Head Start serves children from birth to age three and has shown promising results (Gilliam and Ziglar 2000). Children with atypical development may receive care in separate facilities or, more commonly, are included in programs for typically developing children.
Although many educational philosophies exist, programs are often child-centered and based on hands-on learning experiences that encourage children to learn about the world through play and experimentation with materials and ideas. Another common goal is to help children learn how to function within a group and to successfully work with peers and adults. European educators have had an important influence on developing curriculum for young children. Johann Pestalozzi, a Swiss educator, and Friedrich Froebel, a German founder of the kindergarten movement, developed the basic ideas of a child-centered curriculum. Other important innovators included Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, and John Dewey, an American philosopher. Important theorists of the late twentieth century include Jean Piaget, a Swiss epistemologist, Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, and the community-based approach found in Reggio Emilia, an area in northern Italy (Prochner and Howes 2000). Many of these original ideas changed over time as they were adapted in different countries.
The curriculum generally includes periods of free-choice play, planned activities, rest periods, and meals and snacks. Governmental agencies often set basic standards for the centers' programs, buildings and equipment, and staff certification. Some centers and caregivers meet even higher standards through accreditation by professional organizations such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children (Breddecamp and Copple 1997; Swiniarski, Breitborde, and Murphy 1999). | https://family.jrank.org/pages/221/Childcare-Available-Childcare.html |
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