Conceptual Dimensions of Pedagogical Differentiation in School Education

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the conceptual content of pedagogical differentiation in school education, as it emerges from the descriptions and discussion of authors, researchers and experts through content analysis of 22 publications in the Greek and international literature in various scientific texts, books, journal articles and conferences. From the analysis that was performed, twelve dimensions or otherwise characteristics of pedagogical differentiation emerged that presented the highest frequency of occurrence and were included in four broad categories that are: a. “processes”, b. “context”, c. “the learning outcomes” and d. “assessment”. The results of the research show that in secondary education the dimension with the highest frequency is the modification of the supportive learning context, followed by meeting the needs of the students and the continuous improvement of the learning for all students. From the publications studied on pedagogical differentiation, which referred to primary and secondary education together, it appears that the most frequent dimensions are the modification of the supportive learning context and meeting the needs of the students. Dimensions with the lowest frequency of occurrence in secondary education include the possibility of learning option / multiple options, the development of procedural knowledge skills and continuous assessment, while in the publications for primary and secondary education together, the dimensions of development of life skills and continuous assessment were not identified.

Guidelines for management of hereditary angioedema: What is new? What is missing?

Background: Hereditary angioedema is an autosomal dominant disease that presents with recurrent episodic swelling of the submucosal and/or subcutaneous tissues of the cutaneous, gastrointestinal, and respiratory systems. Evaluation and treatment guidelines have been published nationally and internationally to aid the treating provider. Methods: A review of the most cited and most recent updated guidelines was undertaken to review key points and to explore real-world feasibility of incorporating them into clinical practice. The International World Allergy Organization/European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (WAO/EAACI) Guideline for the Management of Angioedema - The 2017 Revision and Update, and the consensus reports from the Hereditary Angioedema International Working Group, the Joint Task Force on Practice Parameters focused practice parameter update, and the most recently updated US HAEA Medical Advisory Board 2020 Guidelines for the Management of Hereditary Angioedema were reviewed and summarized. Results: Key points that have been consistent throughout the guidelines include recommendations for evaluation and classification of hereditary angioedema as well as evidence-based guidelines for treatment. Further attention is required on the evaluation and continuous assessment of the burden of illness and quality of life (QoL). Conclusion: The guidelines for management of hereditary angioedema provide a framework for the clinician. However, the physician-patient dialog with regard to the patient disease experience, which includes attack frequency, severity, and Qol, must be continually assessed.

The Effectiveness of Post-Vaccination and Post-Infection Protection in the Hospital Staff of Three Prague Hospitals: A Cohort Study of 8-Month Follow-Up from the Start of the COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign (COVANESS)

Continuous assessment of the effectiveness of approved COVID-19 vaccines is crucial to gain an insight into the longer-term impact on health outcomes, and eventually boosting public confidence. For this reason, we conducted a multicenter, retrospective cohort study using data on infection and vaccination rates among employees of three Prague hospitals in the period between 27 December 2020 and 31 August 2021. The post-vaccination and post-infection protectiveness were assessed in a total of 11,443 hospital workers who were followed up for more than 14 days either after their Comirnaty vaccination or study enrolment, depending on their previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. The effectiveness of full vaccination against any SARS-CoV-2 infection achieved 88.3% (83.2–91.8%) over the eight months of follow-up, a figure not much different from the 92.5% (76.5–97.6%) level of protection built by a previous infection. Despite this, the post-vaccination level of protection declined to about 65% between June and August. No case of breakthrough infection was registered among hospital workers having received one or two vaccine doses more than three months after previous infection. The eight-month effectiveness of the Comirnaty vaccine exhibited a declining trend requiring a new booster dose. The need for vaccination in the previously infected employees was not demonstrated conclusively in this study.

ANALYSIS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MEDICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM

Охрана здоровья граждан – одна из ключевых тем развития государства. О необходимости выстроить систему здравоохранения на новой технологической базе заявил в Послании Федеральному Собранию 21.04.2021 Президент РФ Владимир Путин. Здравоохранение представляет собой достаточно сложную и динамическую систему, которая требует постоянной оценки ситуации и быстрого принятия решений. Непрерывная оценка эпидемиологической ситуации и мониторинг здоровья конкретного гражданина невозможен без качественно организованного обмена информацией и единой системы данных, внедренных в повседневную работу медицинских учреждений. На данный момент существует большое количество медицинских информационных систем (МИС), однако, многие из них содержат избыточный функционал и специфичный формат хранения данных. Адаптировать существующие МИС под нужды конкретных регионов довольно проблематично как в трудо- и времязатратах, так и финансовом плане. Была поставлена задача разработать медицинскую информационную систему Астрал.Мед, направленную на решение актуальных задач в сфере оказания первичной медико-санитарной помощи. Одной из задач разработки является возможность передачи и приема различной медицинской информации в уже существующие МИС с целью, в конечном итоге, отправки этих данных в Единую государственную информационную систему в сфере здравоохранения. В данном случае должно реализовываться единое хранилище всех данных пациентов внезависимости от медицинского учреждения, в котором они обслуживаются, и от информационной системы в данном учреждении. Реализация системы Астрал.Мед состоит из: разработки модуля интерфейсной части; разработки базы данных и способа взаимодействия с ней; модуля обработки запросов от специалистов медицинского учреждения и модуля интеграции со сторонними МИС (что является одной из самых основных и сложных задач из-за возможной несовместимости форматов хранения данных в различных информационных системах). Protection of the health of citizens is one of the key topics in the development of the state. The need to build a health care system on a new technological base was announced by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in his Address to the Federal Assembly on April 21, 2021. Health care is a rather complex and dynamic system that requires constant assessment of the situation and quick decision-making. A continuous assessment of the epidemiological situation and monitoring of the health of a particular citizen is impossible without a well-organized exchange of information and a unified data system introduced into the daily work of medical institutions. At the moment, there are a large number of medical information systems (MIS), however, many of them contain redundant functionality and a specific data storage format. It is quite problematic to adapt existing IIAs to the needs of specific regions, both in terms of labor and time costs, and financially. The task was to develop a medical information system Astral.Med, aimed at solving urgent problems in the field of primary health care. One of the development tasks is the possibility of transferring and receiving various medical information to the already existing MIS with the aim, ultimately, of sending this data to the Unified State Information System in the field of health care. In this case, a single repository of all patient data should be implemented, regardless of the medical institution in which they are served and the information system in this institution. Implementation of the Ast-Ral.Med system consists of: development of the interface module; developing a database and a way to interact with it; a module for processing requests from specialists of a medical institution and a module for integration with third-party MIS (which is one of the most basic and complex tasks due to the possible incompatibility of data storage formats in various information systems).

Defining Pedagogical Differentiation in Higher Education

The purpose of this paper is, through content analysis of 19 publications in the Greek and international literature in scientific texts, books, journal articles, and conferences, to investigate the conceptual content of pedagogical differentiation in higher education, as it emerges from the descriptions and discussion of authors, researchers, and experts. From the analysis, twelve dimensions or characteristics of pedagogical differentiation emerged that presented the highest frequency of occurrence in four broad categories. These are a. modification of the supportive learning context, meeting the needs of learners, and continuous improvement of the learning for all the learners who joined the category entitled "processes", b. student-centered teaching and learning, flexible learning context / flexible grouping and the possibility of learning option / multiple options as dimensions of a more general category called "context", c. the success and active participation of the learner in his learning, the development of life skills as well as the development of procedural knowledge skills that were included in the category called "learning outcomes" and d. the modification of "learning" products, the alternative / modern forms of assessment and the continuous assessment that were dimensions of the category "assessment". The results of the research show that the dimension with the highest frequency is a modification of the supportive learning context and follows in order of frequency of occurrence, the modification of learning "products" and meeting the needs of learners. Finally, the dimensions with the lowest frequency of occurrence include the continuous assessment and the development of procedural knowledge skills.

Continuous Workplace-based Assessment as an Indication of Clinical Competence in Paediatric Dentistry

An authentic workplace setting provides the ideal opportunity for assessmentof students’ clinical competence at the ‘does’ level of performance.Final-year dental students in the Department of Paediatric Dentistry at theUniversity of the Western Cape are evaluated in the clinical environmenton a daily basis through multiple clinical evaluations which assess clinicaland diagnostic skills over a year. An additional end-of-module clinicalassessment in the form of a single-blinded patient case (BPC) determines ifstudents have reached the expected level of clinical competence in terms ofpatient evaluation and diagnosis. However, the reliability and feasibility ofthis single end-of-module clinical case have been questioned in this setting.This study aimed to determine if the current continuous workplace-basedassessment (WPBA) results could be used as an indication of final-yearstudents’ clinical competence at the end of the module. A retrospective,quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted of all complete assessmentrecords. The correlation between the continuous WPBA components wasanalysed together with an evaluation of the reliability and validity of theassessment results. The continuous formative WPBA practices were foundto be both valid and reliable when using Kane’s (2013) and Royal’s (2017)frameworks for analysis. However, the BPC should be reconsidered due tofeasibility and reliability concerns. Key words: Dental education, Paediatric Dentistry, clinical skills, workplace,summative, formative, continuous assessment

Behind teaching-learning strategies in physiology: perceptions of students and teachers of Brazilian medical courses

The teaching-learning process must constantly overcome the barriers imposed by rapid scientific and technological advances, as well as changes in the profile of students and access to information. This study intended to analyze the perceptions of students and professors of medical courses about the teaching-learning strategies used in physiology at different Brazilian universities, as well as the factors that influence or hinder the learning of this discipline. There were analyzed questionnaires from 174 students and 16 professors of physiology from medical courses of 20 higher education institutions (public and private) in a southern Brazilian state. The teaching strategies most used by physiology teachers coincided with the classroom activities that students consider to have the greatest contribution to their learning (expository classes/lectures, tests and questionnaires, problem-based learning/clinical case studies and demonstrative/practical classes). It was also evidenced that teachers' didactic is considered as a very influencing factor for the students during their learning process, while the teachers pointed out daily pedagogical practice as the most relevant factor in the development of their skills within the classroom. Besides, some factors hindering the teaching-learning process of physiology were identified by the respondents, such as: large amount of information, little time for study outside the classroom, previous knowledge and intrinsic difficult of the discipline. Finally, students tend to study alone and generally used teachers' slides and their own notes as study materials. The continuous assessment of the perceptions, needs and difficulties of students and teachers plays an essential role improving the teaching-learning process.

Occurrence and distribution of microplastics in the beach sediment of Anday Beach, West Papua (Indonesia)

In the last two decades, scientists have extensively studied microplastics (MPs), small plastic pieces less than five millimeters long, which can be harmful to our ocean and aquatic life. The MPs in the environment came from the tiny particles designed for commercial use, such as cosmetics. The other sources come from the breakdown of larger plastic items. In this study, the occurrence and distribution of MPs were investigated in the Anday Beach of West Papua (Indonesia). The sampling was conducted from March to May 2019 on Anday Beach. The abundance of MPs found were 0.28 to 1 n/kg for MPs (1-5 mm) and 1140.6 to 1997.6 n/kg for MPs (< 1 mm). The highest abundance of MPs found on Anday Beach was plastic film. We suggest doing a regular beach clean-up to ensure the continuous assessment of marine litter in the coastal areas and extend the sampling area in Papua to record the plastic pollution status in the Papua.

Determining English Language Lecturers’ Quality of Marking in Continuous Assessment through Rasch Analysis

English language lecturers at matriculation colleges are generally equipped with assessment criteria for marking students’ written assessment. However, these criteria are normally susceptible to lecturers’ interpretation and understanding, which threatens quality marking. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the severity and consistency of English language lecturers’ marking of English academic writing (EAW) in continuous assessment. The participants were five English language lecturers and 50 matriculation students. Each lecturer selected ten EAWs randomly from 318 matriculation students. The five-part EAW was marked first by the class’s lecturer and later, it was marked by pre-assigned peer moderators who did not teach the students. The total data set collected was 250 (5 lecturers x 10 EAWs x 5 parts of EAW). The data were analyzed with Many-Facets Rasch Measurement (MFRM) application. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both lecturers and students for triangulation purposes. Findings revealed that four out of five lecturers were lenient in marking but the marking was found to be internally consistent with infit and outfit mean squares for each lecturer ranged between 0.5 and 1.5. From interview responses analyzed, students perceived their lecturers as fair but strict in awarding marks. These responses were consistent with most lecturers’ responses on their strict adherence to assessment criteria. Discussion of findings is centered on the issue of severity and consistency of the assessors. This study could offer a practical solution in providing evidence for quality marking of written assessment and, consequently, aid in developing remedial measures for misfit assessors in educational institutions.