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Abstract Background Ecosystem engineers facilitate habitat formation and enhance biodiversity, but when they become invasive, they present a critical threat to native communities because they can drastically alter the receiving habitat. Management of such species thus needs to be a priority, but the poorly resolved taxonomy of many ecosystem engineers represents a major obstacle to correctly identifying them as being either native or introduced. We address this dilemma by studying the sea squirt Pyura stolonifera, an important ecosystem engineer that dominates coastal communities particularly in the southern hemisphere. Using DNA sequence data from four independently evolving loci, we aimed to determine levels of cryptic diversity, the invasive or native status of each regional population, and the most appropriate sampling design for identifying the geographic ranges of each evolutionary unit. Results Extensive sampling in Africa, Australasia and South America revealed the existence of "nested" levels of cryptic diversity, in which at least five distinct species can be further subdivided into smaller-scale genetic lineages. The ranges of several evolutionary units are limited by well-documented biogeographic disjunctions. Evidence for both cryptic native diversity and the existence of invasive populations allows us to considerably refine our view of the native versus introduced status of the evolutionary units within Pyura stolonifera in the different coastal communities they dominate. Conclusions This study illustrates the degree of taxonomic complexity that can exist within widespread species for which there is little taxonomic expertise, and it highlights the challenges involved in distinguishing between indigenous and introduced populations. The fact that multiple genetic lineages can be native to a single geographic region indicates that it is imperative to obtain samples from as many different habitat types and biotic zones as possible when attempting to identify the source region of a putative invader. "Nested" cryptic diversity, and the difficulties in correctly identifying invasive species that arise from it, represent a major challenge for managing biodiversity.

Current reforms in the Maltese and Scottish educational contexts can only be fully implemented if teachers radically transform the way they teach. Teacher professional learning is an important mechanism that policy-makers, school leaders and administrators have to achieve this. Teacher professional learning is, above all, situated within the specific social workplace environment of teacher practice. Thus, schools need to be recognised as important sites of professional learning for teachers. In Malta and Scotland teachers were asked about their professional learning to identify how the learning environment within individual schools affects professional learning. In both countries, collaboration and school leadership were key components in determining a school's learning environment. Data analysis led to the production of examples of expansive and restrictive features. Policy-makers, school leaders and administrators can use these features to examine how schools operate in terms of helping or hindering professional learning in the school environment.

This article is about personally driven professional development through the use of reflective self-study. The argument that teachers need to take responsibility for their own learning while also taking decisions on how and in what areas to develop is strongly made throughout the article. Data for this article were gathered over a 10-year period where the author engaged in several studies using self-study as methodology. Between studies, the author kept using reflective self-study as a professional development tool, and it is these data between various studies that were analysed using thematic and reflective analysis. Such analysis resulted in various overarching themes that show how reflective self-study can be of benefit if used by teachers researching their own classrooms. Benefits include teachers taking full ownership of their learning, relevance of learning, learning that is ongoing and not restricted to specific times and places, taking problematic situations as learning opportunities and how other sources take on new relevance through reflective self-study. Some implications for teacher-education programmes and current school structures are also discussed.

Patients with chronic pain have a higher prevalence of mood disorders with depression and anxiety contributing to higher pain intensity, emotional allodynia, and neuro-anatomical changes. We sought to quantify the prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities (PCs) in a tertiary referral clinic for temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). Medical records of all patients attending clinics run by three tertiary temporomandibular joint (TMJ) surgeons for the period January to April 2022 inclusive were audited for the prevalence of concomitant psychiatric conditions. A total of 166 patients were identified with a female to male ratio of 5:1 and mean (SD) age of 45.1 (15.2) years. A total of 124 (89.9%) patients were tertiary referrals and 72 (43.4%) patients had concomitant psychiatric diagnoses, with 58 (34.9%) being on some form of psychotropic medication (PM) (patients on anticonvulsants for neuropathic pain were not included). A majority of 136 (81.9%) patients had some form of intervention (including Dysport® and minimally invasive surgery) which appeared more common in patients with co-existing psychiatric issues (p < 0.05). A higher proportion of mental health issues exist among TMD patients in a tertiary referral clinic than would be expected in the general population. We suggest a holistic approach to patients with multidisciplinary care taking into account this prevalence to ensure decision-making that contextualises the patient and not simply the pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital natives are now of age and comprise the new generation of early career teachers (ECTs). This is an important change in teacher demographics given that new technologies have been introduced into classrooms with expectations that teachers embed them effectively into the teaching of mathematics. This paper draws on the data of three separate studies and reanalyses it to explore how a small group of four early career primary school teachers use information and communication technologies (ICT) in their teaching of mathematics. Two of the ECTs were observed using interactive whiteboards in their mathematics teaching, and two were observed predominantly using tablets. Two important variables developed from the research presented in this paper suggest that ECT's uses of technology to teach mathematics may not be without complications. First, the teachers appeared to experience "device conflict", in that the type of device and its particular affordances and limitations were the primary factors that influenced their mathematics. This was particularly evident in the uses of fixed and mobile devices. The interactive whiteboard (IWB) did not pose pedagogical challenges to the ECTs as their stable location facilitated the opportunity to still use these devices in traditional teaching ways. However, tablets did pose a problem because of their mobility and the need to reconfigure the organisation and to some extent the roles of teacher and student. The second finding was that the teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching appeared to be directly related to the ways they used their technology.

One of the major tasks of educational psychologists is the writing of reports. Often, all involvement, assessment and intervention culminate in the production of a report. This paper explores critically the tensions involved in writing reports which are closed down in their conformity to requirements of different bodies, while looking for possibilities of openings in this closure. We acknowledge that report-writing is caught in the economies of exchange and the impossibility of gift-giving, based on the writing of Jacques Derrida. This paper will draw upon a small qualitative study of seven experienced school psychologists, and using a Derridian framework, it makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar [Biesta, G., J. Allan, and R. Edwards. 2011. "The Theory Question in Research Capacity Building in Education: Towards an Agenda for Research and Practice." "British Journal of Educational Studies," 59 (3): 225-239.] on the process of report-writing.

Research in school psychologist report writing has argued for reports that connect to the client's context; have clear links between the referral questions and the answers to these questions; have integrated interpretations; address client strengths and problem areas; have specific, concrete and feasible recommendations; and are adapted to the language and literacy level of the reader. The training of school psychologists involves attention to these factors. However, this paper argues that the experience of "aporia," as described by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, is often removed from the process of report writing, as the aim seems to be to find a formula that works. We call for ethics which is concerned about the good life--this is a broader view than resorting to ethics only when faced with an ethical question. This paper, based on a small qualitative study of seven experienced school psychologists, highlights that psychologists in the process of report writing are caught in the aporia. This paper argues for the acknowledgement of aporia both in report writing and in the training of school psychologists.

This research aims to study the ways in which a teacher learns through and about professional practice. Data presented here is drawn from one year of teaching and focuses on pedagogical practices, critical reflection upon those practices and the impact of the implementation of a new physical education syllabus in Maltese secondary schools. The study employs autoethnography to reveal thoughts, feelings and learning experienced by a new teacher implementing a new curriculum; in other words, I (Attard) am studying myself. "I start with my personal life. I pay attention to my physical feelings, thought, and emotions. I use what I call systematic sociological introspection and emotional recall to try and understand an experience I've lived through." (Ellis & Bochner, 2000, p.737) Data indicates ways in which structured, continuous and critical reflection upon teaching experiences can help to improve job satisfaction. Furthermore, the data illustrates vividly that collaborative reflection with colleagues is important both as a learning opportunity and as a support mechanism and that becoming a reflective practitioner is complex, challenging and hard work! The study will provide unique insight into ways in which a teacher learns and develops, both as a person and a professional.

This article is a report on a longitudinal case study that investigated the problem of lowered engagement with mathematics and students' perspectives of the factors that influenced their engagement during the middle years of schooling. The article provides a synthesis of the entire study and a summary of its findings. In order to address the research question a group of 20 students from within the same school cohort participated in the study spanning three school years from their final year of primary school, to their second year of secondary school. Data was collected through interviews, focus group discussions, and classroom observations. A major finding of this study was that positive pedagogical relationships between teachers and their students must be developed as a foundation for sustained engagement.

In this article, the author reports on an awareness of controversial incidents on campuses around North America surrounding "politically correct" speech codes and thought control measures instituted at the behest of faculty and students of this ideological persuasion. It seems that critical theory is going beyond "critical thinking" to a harsh and accusatory language of criticalism that aggravates cultural divisions. On the other hand, the author contests that, through a liberal education, the individual is initiated into the shared values and common understanding of a true culture, not the "cultures" identified by critical theorists. The capacity of western culture to be self-critical and to absorb ideas and accommodate thoughts from all over the world is part of what Robert M. Hutchins called "The Great Conversation" of Western civilization. This author states that criticalists should take their share of responsibility for the impoverished education today's students receive. As Henry Giroux wrote in "Teachers as Intellectuals," the goal should be to get students to learn how to affirm their own experiences and to understand the need to struggle individually and collectively for a more just society.