Challenging the domestication of critical reflection and practitioner reflectivity

No abstract

Teachers’ critical reflective practice in the context of twenty-first century learning

In the twenty-first century, learning and teaching at school must prepare young people for engaging in a complex and dynamic world deeply influenced by globalisation and the revolution in digital technology. In addition to the use of digital technologies, is the development of flexible learning spaces. It is claimed that these developments demand, and lead to, enhanced reflective practice by teaching practitioners. This article is based on a project that has used multiple New Zealand case studies to engage teachers and leaders in interviews to explore their experiences at the futures– digital–reflective intersection. Critical theoretic and critical hermeneutic approaches inform the exploration of the relationships between reflective practice and twenty-first century learning by analysis and comparison of educational theoretical discourses with voices from a group of principals and ex-leaders on the one hand, and teachers, on the other hand

The Physicist's Guide to the Orchestra

An experimental study of strings, woodwinds (organ pipe, flute, clarinet, saxophone and recorder), and the voice was undertaken to illustrate the basic principles of sound production in music instruments. The setup used is simple and consists of common laboratory equipment. Although the canonical examples (standing wave on a string, in an open and closed pipe) are easily reproduced, they fail to explain the majority of the measurements. The reasons for these deviations are outlined and discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures (jpg files). Submitted to European Journal of Physic

Teaching and critically reflective practice in Freire

Few of the many books written by Freire drew particular, and extended, attention to the teacher in the way Pedagogy of Freedom (1998) was able to do. While this entry draws on many other important works by Freire, it specifically probes elements of this book to place before readers some of the salient qualities and attributes Freire believed teachers, educators and thinkers of education ought to aspire to

Shaping the responsible, successful and contributing citizen of the future: 'values' in the New Zealand Curriculum and its challenge to the development of ethical teacher professionality

The revised New Zealand Curriculum became mandatory for use in New Zealand schools in February 2010. The ongoing reform agenda in education in New Zealand since 1989 and elsewhere internationally has had corrosive effects on teacher professionality. State-driven neo-liberal policy and education reforms are deeply damaging to the mental and moral conceptions teachers have of their work. This article contemplates one aspect of The New Zealand Curriculum – its focus on values – and the way it challenges the development of ethical teacher professionality. It also considers the prospect of reclaiming some of that lost moral ground through critical implementation of the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum, a claim that rests on an argument that this policy breaks with neo-liberal reform by its identification with third way political ideology

Assessment of International Consensus Group for Haematology smear review rules among patients with Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Johannesburg, South Africa

A peripheral blood smear review is a useful but labour intensive adjunct to the full blood count and differential count. In this study, we retrospectively evaluated the performance of the International Consensus Group for Haematology smear review rules for detection of malaria in 153 samples with Plasmodium falciparumparasitaemia. Review rules were triggered in 132 (86.3%) samples, including all patients with severe malaria. Of the 21 false negative samples, 14 (66.7%) had haemoglobin values ≥ 10g/dl and platelets > 120x109/l

Endemic goitre in a rural community of KwaZulu-Natal

CITATION: Benade, J. G. et al. 1997. Endemic goitre in a rural community of KwaZulu-Natal. South African Medical Journal, 87:310-313.The original publication is available at http://www.samj.org.zaObjective. To quantify the prevalence of goitre and iodine deficiency. Setting. Ndunakazi, a rural community of approximately 8 000 people in KwaZulu-Natal. Design. A cross-sectional community-based survey and a school-based survey. Participants. The 127 mothers and 114 children aged 6 -11 years, selected during the cross-sectional survey, and 304 children aged 6 -14 years, from the school-based survey. Methods. Urinary iodine levels and thyroid size were determined and categorised according to guidelines proposed jointly by the WHO, UNICEF and the ICCIDD. Z-score anthropometric indicators were calculated, and mid-year exam marks of goitrous and non-goitrous pupils for Zulu and mathematics were compared. Results. In school-aged children, both surveys demonstrated a goitre prevalence in the 20 - 29.9% range and a median urinary iodine level in the 2 - 4.9 ug/dl range, indicating iodine deficiency of moderate severity. Goitrous subjects scored consistently worse in their Zulu exam papers than those without goitre. Stunting was not more prevalent than in the rest of KwaZulu-Natal. Iodised salt was not available in any of the three community shops. Conclusion. This level of iodine deficiency in children can adversely affect their neuropsycho-intellectual development. Factors contributing to deficient iodine intake in Ndunakazi are present in many rural areas, and South Africa cannot afford to be overly confident about the apparent absence of iodine deficiency as a public health problem.Publisher’s versio

Study of blood flow behavior in microchannels

Microfluidic (also known as lab-on-a-chip) devices offer the capability ofmanipulating very low volumes of fluids (of the order of micro litres) for severalapplications including medical diagnostics. This property makes microfluidicdevices very attractive when the fluid, such as blood, has a limited supply becausethe patients cannot easily and frequently provide a large sample. This is typically thecase for aged, diseased patients that do require frequent sampling during acute careor of older people that have the option of being treated and cared for at home [1].Prototype lab-on-a-chip devices for medical diagnostics comprise a number ofelements which separately perform different functions within the system. Activitywithin the research community is focusing on the better integration of devicefunctionalities with the long term goal of creating fully integrated, portable,affordable clinical devices. However, engineering these solutions for the largevolume production of lab-on-a-chip devices requires design rules which are not yetentirely available.This paper describes the results obtained from a set of experiments run to drawgeneric design rules for the manufacture of a cells/plasma micro separator [2]. Thecells/plasma micro separator was selected for investigation because it is a strategicelement required in the preparation of blood samples for many different analyticaldevices. The experiments focused on the study of the behaviour of whole bloodpassing through micro constrictions which are required for enhancing the separationeffect [3].The test microfluidic device was an aluminium specimen designed andmanufactured to incorporate micro constrictions of different width and length. The metallic aluminium test device was designed for manufacturing by micromilling anddiamond cutting processes in view of applying these techniques to the manufactureof micro-moulds for the high-volume production of plastic microfluidic devices viamicro-injection moulding.The widths of the constrictions were 23, 53 and 93µm and the lengths were 300 and700µm. The blood flow pattern and the level of haemolysis generated in the wholeblood were determined for flow rates between 0.2 and 1 ml/min. Initial resultssuggested that the above conditions generate a stable flow and do not cause bloodhaemolysis following passage through the narrow constrictions. This result impliesthat constrictions as narrow as 23 µm and as long as 700µm can be safely used inblood microfluidic devices under appropriate flow conditions without the risk ofdamaging the blood compon