This paper describes and discusses findings gained in a teacher training reform project at the University of Hamburg in Germany. In a newly implemented structure, pre-service teachers partake in an integrated model of courses that prepare them to deal with multilingualism in the subject classroom. For the first four semesters of the new model, a complex evaluation tool was employed in a pre-post design to better understand student competence development, curricular components of the teaching degree and student beliefs about multilingualism. This paper sheds light on the professional beliefs that pre-service teachers have about linguistic diversity and multilingual learners. The overall results show generally positive beliefs about multilingual learners, multilingualism in schools, and language support for multilingual learners. Moreover, the data show that multilingual pre-service teachers have more positive beliefs, female participants have more positive beliefs, and that there is a significant interdependence between beliefs and relevant opportunities to learn. Comparing the pre-test and the post-test data using explorative factor analysis, it can be shown that students’ beliefs are far more structured and follow a clear five-dimensional pattern in the post test, whereas the pre-test data can be described as diffuse and unstructured.
Background: Chronic bacterial rhinosinusitis is a common feature in Cystic fibrosis (CF) as mucociliary clearance in the sinonasal compartment is impaired. Aim of the present prospective study was to compare dynamics of inflammatory markers in the upper and lower airways (UAW/LAW) during systemic antibiotic therapy. Methods: Nasal lavage and sputum of 16 CF-patients receiving an IV-antibiotic treatment against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and/ or Staphylococcus aureus were collected before and during treatment (median after 7.5 days). Cytological changes, DNA concentration, and inflammatory markers interleukin (IL)-4, IL-8, IL-13 and Myeloperoxidase (MPO) were assessed in samples from both airway compartments. Results: Total cell count declined significantly in LAW-samples but not in UAW. Although MPO and IL-8 decreased significantly in both airway compartments, this was considerably more pronounced for LAW (median decrease MPO: LAW=9.8-fold vs UAW=1.75-fold, respectively; IL-8: LAW=3-fold vs UAW=1.9-fold, respectively). Discussion: This is the first publication demonstrating substantially lower effects of IV-antibiotic treatment on sinonasal than on pulmonary inflammatory markers. Consequently, our findings highlight limitations of systemic antibiotic treatment to control infection in the sinonasal compartment. Primarily, we attribute this to the paranasal sinus ́ structure: these hollow organs, which in bacterial sinusitis are frequently filled with pus, mucoeceles and polyps, are not reached effectively by systemic antibiotic treatment.
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