Student Union

At work again this week because I'm scheduled for introduction to equine rotations track next week. The feedback from the others seems fairly positive. I'm not complaining one little bit; interval training my way back into using my brain suits me just fine.

Last night we had the first Hawkshead SU council meeting. There are many things discussed at these meetings, some are trivial, some are fascinating, some are dull and some controversial. Funnily enough, the latter usually centers around money. The main thing I take away from these meetings (aside from a list of action points) is a real sense of community and a love for the RVC as an institution. I often hear muttered grumbles about the SU and the decisions they make on behalf of the student body; much like national political parties, I really feel you can't complain unless you are involved and giving feedback. We can only represent you if you tell us what you think, so please do tell us what you think!

Whirlwind tour of clinical presentations

The last two days have been pretty packed with lectures and case work. We have skipped through vomiting, diarrhoea, weight loss, epistaxis, pale mucous membranes, jaundice, haematuria, coughing and dyspnoea, weakness-syncope-seizures and last, but not least, PU/PD. This whirlwind tour has been designed to get us thinking again after the Christmas break and aims to get us to consider possible clinical presentations and how we can use the clues from a history, presentation and clinical exam to work logically through cases to achieve a diagnosis. The concept is simple and the feedback from clinicians teaching current final years is that these students are measurably better at clinical problem solving. There is only one problem: I am absolutely terrible at it! Incidentally, the logical approach to clinical problem solving also runs as a CPD course (http://cpd.rvc.ac.uk) and I would recommend it very highly.

Learning about Endnote

I am sat in a computer aided learning (CAL) session which is designed to teach RVC 4th year students how to use Endnote software. The session so far has been informative and a good refresher on just how fabulous Endnote is when you are writing academic reports or essays. However, the delivery was a little muddled and on more than one occasion I found my mind wandering to other things. To be perfectly honest, I think this is more of a failing on my part than it is on part of the instructor who has tried very hard to get the key points across.

Lots of the yeargroup haven't bothered to come to any of these self-help research sessions. When they reach their research rotations block there will be much wailing, moaning and ganshing of teeth about how little help has been provided to them with their project. Once again this will be a case of the help being there and the students failing to take advantage of it, but perhaps that is just the view of a jaded graduate student who doesn't turn down free help with anything anymore. That was a valuable lesson learned on the last degree.

Whether the failing is on the part of the student for not attending, or on the part of the college for not pitching these sessions quite right (too slow and boring or too quick and impossible to follow... it needs to be just right like baby bear's porridge) there is a tangible improvement from the first sessions of these sort I attended. Improvement is not to be sniffed at and I hope that the RVC continues to listen to student feedback and make more positive changes. I feel like this is leading me onto a fairly serious rant about increasing student numbers, class sizes and the detrimental effects this has on small group learning, but I will save that for another time.

The great Moodle migration.

The college is making the move from the Blackboard learning environment to Moodle this year. The whole process is pretty arduous because resistance to change is always rife amongst the staff and students; it is easier for most people to follow the path of least resistance and a migration to Moodle doesn't fall under that category. 

The RVC is right at the forefront when it comes to developing online learning materials. Most of our lectures are recorded with Echo 360 software which allows students to review both the accompanying power point and audio lecture at home. In addition to this there are online multiple choice questions to test yourself and numerous computer aided learning (CAL) programs to accompany specific material. These are designed to encourage students to go hunting around a subject and increase their breadth of knowledge. These have evolved over my six years at the RVC and get better and better as more students feed back to the staff; the CAL materials aren't universally loved though and many students would prefer all the material to be lectured in a more spoon-fed format. Whatever course you are interested in, I can't emphasise enough the importance of considering the programme structure and methods of teaching when you are choosing your university. If the teaching methods don't suit your individual needs you're fighting an uphill battle from the start.

Anyhow, I digress. The task of migrating the material has already begun and I am joining the effort. I need to start wrangling with Respondus to get the job done; I'd rather wrangle with Dreamweaver any day and that's really saying something. 

This just about sums today up.

Say hello!

I haven't really been able to get myself into any rotations notes yet because we are still not started back. I'm trying to distract myself with work in the meantime before any hint of boredom sets in. If you happen to drop by the blog please introduce yourself and say hello; I don't bite, honest!

I currently have a student from France staying with me and she is taking a rotation in the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals over the Christmas holidays with the oncology unit. Today she had a few consults with a lymphoma patient and she has seen several dogs receiving chemotherapy for mast cell tumours. She really enjoys the research side of veterinary work and is considering pursuing a masters in her last year of the course. I think that's really nifty. In England there isn't much love amongst the students for those choosing to pursue a career in research; it seems to me that this is largely due to the fierce competition for places and that research is seen as 'taking a place from someone who really wanted to be a vet'. It's sad, but true, that most of the people who make this argument are only doing so to convince themselves that they still really want to be a vet. A large proportion of my colleagues definitely did not arrive here to be a vet; it is more that this is where they ended up and now they have to make the best of a bad situation.

I would very much like to work for some time in France and having Emilie with me has meant my out of practice French took a bit of a bashing last night. However, it is only by practice you can improve so once more into the breach I stroll... 

Does anyone ever look forward to stats?

Christmas day stroll along the front with my family.

Happy New year! I am sorry that I left things hanging a little two weeks ago. Now I have returned from deepest, darkest France and bonny Hastings I can happily report that I am not dead, I did pass and for the time being a state of normality has resumed. It has been a lovely two weeks without the constant pressure of having to revise, but it did take a few days for my brain to catch on and relax. I'm back on campus now doing some work before term starts again next week. Despite my best efforts I have spent more money than I should have and I need to try and undo the damage!

We start rotations proper on the 13th of February, but we have a few weeks of clinical problem solving and some lectures on how to go about our research projects with something resembling professionalism. I think it may be a little dull, but at least it's a nice gentle introduction. I am not looking forwards to stats. Does anyone ever look forward to stats?

Until next time.

"Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted."

For starters, Finland has no standardized tests. The only exception is what's called the National Matriculation Exam, which everyone takes at the end of a voluntary upper-secondary school, roughly the equivalent of American high school. 

Instead, the public school system's teachers are trained to assess children in classrooms using independent tests they create themselves. All children receive a report card at the end of each semester, but these reports are based on individualized grading by each teacher. Periodically, the Ministry of Education tracks national progress by testing a few sample groups across a range of different schools. 

As for accountability of teachers and administrators, Sahlberg shrugs. "There's no word for accountability in Finnish," he later told an audience at the Teachers College of Columbia University. "Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted." 

For Sahlberg what matters is that in Finland all teachers and administrators are given prestige, decent pay, and a lot of responsibility. A master's degree is required to enter the profession, and teacher training programs are among the most selective professional schools in the country. If a teacher is bad, it is the principal's responsibility to notice and deal with it.

(http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/#.Tv4NA-e7HkY.mailto)

This is what I want for education in this country. The rest of the article talks about state and private schools and the author believes that this is the root of the problem. I believe that the root of the problem is the way we are taught and examined; if state schools raised their game then private schools wouldn't have a USP unless they specialised in one particular area. There are five things I would love to see changed about the way children are taught in the UK:

1. Teaching should be well paid, sought-after job with rigorous standards. 
2. No illiterate 'well-I-didn't-know-what-else-to-dos' should be in the crucial role of a teacher. Teachers should be an inspiration.
3. Constant examination stress should be removed.
4. Teaching and assessment should be individualised.
5. Not all students should be encouraged to go to university. Students should be encouraged to do what they want to do or what they are good at. University does not have to come into the equation.