Tātai Kōrero i Ngaro, Tātai Kōrero e Rangona: Legitimation and the Learning of Curriculum Mathematics in an Indigenous Māori School

<p>In this thesis, the learning of conventional curriculum mathematics in indigenous Māori schools is conceptualised as a site of struggle within the wider context of a national New Zealand education system. For example, the research literature documents the effects of inadequate mathematics education resources, detrimental impacts on the nature of traditional Māori language and cultural practices, and concerns about under-achievement of Māori students in mathematics and access to powerful societal knowledge. The thesis aims to uncover a causal mechanism for the struggle with mathematics education in one Māori school. Empirical data about mathematics learning activities are examined using a theoretical perspective strongly influenced by Dialectical Critical Realism. The methodological frameworks are based on Basil Bernstein’s sociology of education, Systemic Functional Linguistics and Legitimation Code Theory. Using these theoretical and methodological tools, empirical data are related to deeper-level ontological determinations which underpin practices in the Māori school. The major conclusion of the thesis is that struggle derives from two conflicting ontological determinations about the nature of a person. Mathematics education tends to construe people, and create subjectivities, in terms of their knowledge. The ethos of the Māori school considered in this thesis tends to construe people, and create subjectivities, in terms of their genealogically-embedded, unique, material and spiritual natures. Based on this conclusion, the thesis indicates some potential consequences and future developments of mathematics education in Māori schools. These developments may be thought of in general terms as a disengagement from current relations with mathematics education, an establishment of autonomy, and a re-engagement with mathematics on different terms.</p>

Paradigm Shift in School Curriculum: Need of the Hour

The school curriculum has to be analyzed occasionally to create a scope to encompass new disciplines and areas to make the curriculum appropriate to the prevailing situation. The conventional curriculum sometimes becomes obsolete and desires substitute to offer scope for new areas to be included in the curriculum. The effectiveness of a curriculum depends on how lots the curriculum is fulfilling the social needs and the educational objectives. Our generation has the right to explore new disciplines and areas through the updated curriculum in education. This paper offers the inclusion of environmental education rationalization of education, human rights education, and health education as part of a paradigm shift in school curriculum primarily based on the need of the hour.

Effectiveness of simulation-based training for manual small incision cataract surgery among novice surgeons: a randomized controlled trial

This study was designed to determine the effect of a novel simulation-based training curriculum for scleral tunnel construction in manual small incision cataract surgery (MSICS) compared with traditional training. In this multicenter, investigator-masked, randomized clinical trial, resident surgeons within 3 months of matriculation with minimal or no prior experience with MSICS were assigned either to simulation-based training, the Experimental Group (EG), or to conventional training, the Control Group (CG). EG residents were trained to perform scleral tunnel construction using a simulation-based curriculum (HelpMeSee Eye Surgery Simulator), while residents in the CG followed institution-specific curriculum before progressing to live surgery. Surgical videos of the first 20 attempts at tunnel construction were reviewed by masked video raters. The primary outcome was the total number of any of 9 pre-specified errors. On average, the total number of errors was 9.25 (95% CI 0–18.95) in the EG and 17.56 (95% CI 6.63–28.49) in the CG (P = 0.05); the number of major errors was 4.86 (95% CI 0.13–9.59) in the EG and 10.09 (95% CI 4.76–15.41) in the CG (P = 0.02); and the number of minor errors was 4.39 (95% CI 0–9.75) in the EG and 7.47 (95% CI 1.43–13.51) in the CG (P = 0.16). These results support that novice surgeons trained using the novel simulation-based curriculum performed fewer errors in their first 20 attempts at tunnel construction compared to those trained with a conventional curriculum.

Peran Pemimpin Pembelajaran dalam Meningkatkan Hasil Belajar Siswa

The purpose of this study is to describe the role of learning leadership and the obstacles faced by school principals in improving student learning outcomes at SMK Pelita Bangsa Sumberlawang Sragen. This research is a qualitative research that produces descriptive data in the form of words, written or oral from people and observed behavior. Data collection techniques carried out by in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. Data analysis techniques using an interactive model of analysis. The results showed, first, the principal was the most instrumental element in improving the quality of education and learning. Learning leadership at SMK Pelita Bangsa Sumberlawang Sragen is carried out in 3 dimensions, namely through the formulation of school missions, good learning management, and building a conducive school climate. Second, the obstacles in implementing leadership learning in SMK Pelita Bangsa Sumberlawang Sragen include several things, namely the lack of professional teachers, conventional curriculum, incomplete supervision, and incomplete learning infrastructure.

Protocol for a randomised trial evaluating the effect of applying gamification to simulation-based endoscopy training

BackgroundSimulation-based training (SBT) provides a safe environment and effective means to enhance skills development. Simulation-based curricula have been developed for a number of procedures, including gastrointestinal endoscopy. Gamification, which is the application of game-design principles to non-game contexts, is an instructional strategy with potential to enhance learning. No studies have investigated the effects of a comprehensive gamification curriculum on the acquisition of endoscopic skills among novice endoscopists.Methods and analysisThirty-six novice endoscopists will be randomised to one of two endoscopy SBT curricula: (1) the Conventional Curriculum Group, in which participants will receive 6 hours of one-on-one simulation training augmented with expert feedback and interlaced with 4 hours of small group teaching on the theory of colonoscopy or (2) the Gamified Curriculum Group, in which participants will receive the same curriculum with integration of the following game-design elements: a leaderboard summarising participants’ performance, game narrative, achievement badges and rewards for top performance. In line with a progressive learning approach, simulation training for participants will progress from low to high complexity simulators, starting with a bench-top model and then moving to the EndoVR virtual reality simulator. Performance will be assessed at three points: pretraining, immediately post-training and 4–6 weeks after training. Assessments will take place on the simulator at all three time points and transfer of skills will be assessed during two clinical colonoscopies 4–6 weeks post-training. Mixed factorial ANOVAs will be used to determine if there is a performance difference between the two groups during simulated and clinical assessments.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval was obtained at St. Michael’s Hospital. Results of this trial will be submitted for presentation at academic meetings and for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.Trial registration numberNCT03176251.

An introductory concept of evidence for medicine

An evidence-as-property approach is proposed as an improvement to the conventional curriculum in evidence-based medicine.

Master-Slave Curriculum Design for Reinforcement Learning

Curriculum learning is often introduced as a leverage to improve the agent training for complex tasks, where the goal is to generate a sequence of easier subasks for an agent to train on, such that final performance or learning speed is improved. However, conventional curriculum is mainly designed for one agent with fixed action space and sequential simple-to-hard training manner. Instead, we present a novel curriculum learning strategy by introducing the concept of master-slave agents and enabling flexible action setting for agent training. Multiple agents, referred as master agent for the target task and slave agents for the subtasks, are trained concurrently within different action spaces by sharing a perception network with an asynchronous strategy. Extensive evaluation on the VizDoom platform demonstrates the joint learning of master agent and slave agents mutually benefit each other. Significant improvement is obtained over A3C in terms of learning speed and performance.

The Effect of Learning-oriented Assessment on Learning Pronunciation among Iranian EFL Learners

Oral communication is one of the main reasons language learners attend language classes. As pronunciation is among the most significant aspects of oral communication, this study attempted to see how learning-oriented assessment (LOA) could affect pronunciation learning of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 64 language learners in a private language institute in the city of Amol, Iran, were given NELSON language proficiency test as homogeny test. A total of 40 learners were selected and assigned to two groups. Both groups were given a researcher-made pronunciation test at the beginning and two pronunciation tests (immediate and delayed tests) at the end of the treatment. The control group participants followed the conventional curriculum of the language center and the experimental group learners went through LOA treatment. The findings of the study revealed that LOA can positively affect pronunciation learning of Iranian EFL learners. In addition, it was observed that LOA has a significant effect on the participants’ retention of pronunciation knowledge. This study can have pedagogical implications for language teachers and teacher trainers.

Why the ‘Politics’ against African Philosophy should be Discontinued

We argue that philosophy education across the globe is still bedevilled with the ‘politics’ of marginalization of less favoured traditions like African philosophy. Extant works show that the conventional curriculum of philosophy used in educational institutions across the globe is predominantly Western and, as such, very much colonial. We contend that this amounts to a sort of ‘epistemic injustice’ that is detrimental to knowledge production. We argue specifically that this ‘politics’ should be discontinued. We propose the conversational tradition, out of which a philosophy curriculum that is comprehensive and antithetical to the politics of exclusion may be developed.