Search

Quantum photonic integrated circuits, composed of linear-optical elements, offer an efficient way for encoding and processing quantum information on-chip. At their core, these circuits rely on reconfigurable phase shifters, typically constructed from classical components such as thermo- or electro-optical materials, while quantum solid-state emitters such as quantum dots are limited to acting as single-photon sources. Here, we demonstrate the potential of quantum dots as reconfigurable phase shifters. We use numerical models based on established literature parameters to show that circuits utilizing these emitters enable high-fidelity operation and are scalable. Despite the inherent imperfections associated with quantum dots, such as imperfect coupling, dephasing, or spectral diffusion, we show that circuits based on these emitters may be optimized such that these do not significantly impact the unitary infidelity. Specifically, they do not increase the infidelity by more than 0.001 in circuits with up to 10 modes, compared to those affected only by standard nanophotonic losses and routing errors. For example, we achieve fidelities of 0.9998 in quantum-dot-based circuits enacting controlled-phase and – not gates without any redundancies. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of quantum emitter-driven quantum information processing and pave the way for cryogenically-compatible, fast, and low-loss reconfigurable quantum photonic circuits.

Under 'post-truth' conditions the generation, circulation and status of knowledge are being transformed, with significant implications for institutional trust, social cohesion and public safety. These conditions raise complex challenges and opportunities within education, which plays a potentially pivotal role in supporting communities to respond in an assertive and critical manner. However, little is currently understood about the way key stakeholders within education position themselves epistemically in relation to post-truth conditions. The purpose of this research was to analyse epistemic aspects of educators' responses to post-truth conditions using a 'social lab' methodology, which is a qualitative, action-oriented approach to studying complex social problems. Analysis of data from the social lab, which involved a variety of education stakeholders, identified four epistemic aims (with associated ideals, processes and actions) to orient an educational response to post-truth conditions. However, overall, epistemic aims lacked precision and contextual specificity. Furthermore, aims were associated with divergent underpinning epistemological commitments, mirroring divergences in literature on the educational implications of post-truth conditions. Teachers may require additional training to enhance epistemic reflexivity and drive more productive and inclusive conversations about post-truth in classrooms, staffrooms and ITE programs. The findings are suggestive of the complex epistemological and institutional dynamics that need to be negotiated in educational responses to post-truth conditions.

Mindfulness has all but become a mainstay in modern education. Yet despite the incredible enthusiasm and increased application in schools, there remains significant divergence between advocates and critics. Advocates assert that mindfulness practice promotes individual and societal health and well-being. Meanwhile, critics question the intention and the social and political implications of promoting these ancient practices in schools, arguing that the Buddhist ethics underlying mindfulness remain incompatible with the neoliberal ideology and instrumentalism of contemporary schooling. As mindfulness has been commodified, instrumentalised and used as a therapeutic tool for acute coping, its broader potential for human growth and development may be undermined. Furthermore, scholars caution that the fledging nature of mindfulness research leaves critical questions unanswered, especially the potential for adverse effects. The work herein examines these critiques, presenting "three" critical considerations for mindfulness in education, and articulates practical recommendations for educational leaders, policy makers and stakeholders. We aim to empower educators and others to make judgements about the promotion and integration of mindfulness into educational settings, considering context-specific factors such as developmental needs and capacities, as well as recommendations to support effective and ethical practice of mindfulness in education.

Abstract Background Physician-scientists are uniquely positioned to translate research findings into innovations that improve clinical medicine and health outcomes. However, structural inequities stymie the entry of trainees from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine (URiM) into the physician-scientist pathway. Methods The Preparation for Graduate and Medical Education (PARAdiGM) program was designed to provide students from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds early exposure to physician-scientist training in the context of ample mentorship and programmatic support. By emphasizing research experience, career exposure, presentation skills, mentorship, and application assistance, PARAdiGM is an incipient experience priming this student group to pursue careers in academic medicine. Results Since its establishment in 2014, PARAdiGM is already increasing entry of URiM students into the physician-scientist pathway. Encouragingly, the majority of PARAdiGM alumni who have completed undergraduate studies have matriculated into US medical schools, of which 12% are currently enrolled in MD-PhD programs. Conclusions Early outcomes from PARAdiGM suggest that an immersive framework, longitudinal mentoring, and opportunity for self-growth should be incorporated into URiM pathway programs on a larger scale. In these ways, helping students to envision themselves as members of the physician-scientist community is a step toward breaking down the barriers currently limiting URiM entry into academic medicine.

Blended Synchronous Learning (BSL) refers to when students located in physical classrooms learn together with peers who attend remotely, via networked digital technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with ambitions to increase flexibility in learning delivery mode for students, has led to the increased implementation of BSL in tertiary education. The current evidence-base around BSL provides important principles for its use, but relatively little research has examined the experiences of teaching staff in depth. This article uses a self-study methodology to explore educators' experiences of BSL implementation in a post-graduate Initial Teacher Education course in Australia. Six teaching staff, all co-researchers for the study, contributed reflective data, and engaged in analysis and interpretation of the data via structured critical friendships. Insights related to four key themes were derived from the analysis: institutional and pedagogical factors; educator wellbeing, self-efficacy and professional identity; staffing support; and collegial professional learning. The implementation of BSL, while aligned with existing recommendations, produced significant challenges for educators in relation to institutional support and training, pedagogical practices, operation of BSL technologies, professional identity and self-efficacy. Cognitive overload was a prominent feature of the BSL teaching experience. On the whole, while drawing on existing skills and teaching experience, educators held significant concerns with the overall quality of student learning in BSL--especially for remote students. Training, practice, technical and co-teaching support, as well as collegial relationships, were important mediators of educator experience. The findings suggest that the implementation of BSL requires substantial investment in staffing, training, skill development, and opportunities for authentic, meaningful practice and prototyping. The findings also affirm the value of timely, organisationally supported and collaborative professional learning as part of BSL implementation.

This mixed methods exploratory case study illuminates work of educational governance in a rural school district that has experienced dramatic improvement over a five-year period between 2017 and 2021. As such, we offer practical insights about how these leaders support continuous improvement, and theoretical insights about rurality, leadership, and governance from an organizational system thinking perspective.

ELLs need to engage with topics and situations in the classroom that equip them with the social, professional and civic cultural skills to address real-life interactions for their present realities, as well as their future realities (American, 2009, Garett, 2005; Perez & Morrison, 2016). Teachers face the challenge of balancing conventional textbooks and curriculum, which are fixed and often limited to customary topics, not fully addressing the dynamic and changing realities of ELLs. This article describes how a post-methods teaching approach (Kumaravadivelu, 1994; Masouleh, 2012), which represents a self-designed flexible and pragmatic alternative to strict adherence to a singular method, can be tailored to ELLs' needs and commonly-encountered relevant contexts to connect learning to real-life experiences. The discussion highlights the value of a multi-method approach, falling under the umbrella of Situated Learning, to provide real-life scenarios within which students can complete tasks, engage in projects, and/or study and learn from relevant content-based material. In doing so, ELLs' language proficiency, as well as their world-readiness, are effectively developed.

At the level of classroom practice, forms of teacher thinking are central to local processes of educational change. In the last decade, "reflexivity" has been promoted as a mode of teacher thinking which has the capacity to transform several aspects of teaching practice. The developing interest in reflexivity both emerges from, and seeks to extend, the prior (and continuing) emphasis on reflective practice as an essential avenue to teacher change and improvement. In this article, I aim to both clarify and extend thinking about teacher reflexivity, developing a conceptual mapping which organizes forms of teacher thinking along temporal and ontological dimensions. This mapping clarifies important distinctions between related practices of reflection-on-action, reflection-in-action, critical reflection and radical reflexivity. "Radical reflexivity" is characterized by both temporal synchronicity and the bending back of the reflective arc to form a subject-object-subject structure. This structure, I argue, extends teacher thinking beyond the deliberative, reflective mode. Subsequently, I propose that "contemplative practices" (mindfulness, meditation, etc.) provide avenues by which teachers can access radical reflexivity, through the cultivation of present-moment, non-judgemental, embodied awareness. Selected findings from a qualitative study of seven beginning teachers are presented as illustration, focusing on participants' experiences of "putting the ego aside" and "responding to strong, embodied emotions" in classroom contexts. The findings presented demonstrate the distinctive implications of radical, contemplative reflexivity as an avenue for the professional transformation of teachers.

This paper examines the complex interweaving of the 'personal' and 'professional' in the affective labour of teachers. In line with theorisations of affective labour, contemporary school-teaching involves practices of self-work and self-making, as much as practices of curriculum and pedagogy. One emergent form of self-work, reflective of post-secular socio-cultural movements in education, is the use of contemplative practices (mindfulness, meditation, etc.) by teachers. Although mainly positioned within educational scholarship as techniques of stress-reduction, here we analyse contemplative practices as forms of affective labour. Drawing from a qualitative, empirical study, we explore how contemplative practices are embraced by teachers as ways to improve and transform the self -- both in relation to the professional responsibilities of teaching, and in relation to broader projects of living. The case studies presented demonstrate the deep political ambivalences of contemplative practices, as they are expressed in teachers' work. Contemplative practices do become incorporated into obligations towards self-improvement and increased productivity (what McGee labels 'the belaboured self'). However, they may also instantiate relational forms of ethical responsibility that move against the grain of instrumentalising, competitive, and individualistic education policy discourses and institutional life-worlds.

In the K-12 setting, integrated co-teaching has developed as a popular service for students with disabilities. This paper examines how administrators define the most effective model of integrated co-teaching. Additionally, this paper explores the extent to which administrators' supervisory expectations/practices are consistent with the model delineated in the foundational research of Cook and Friend (1995).

Universities in China and the United States have been engaged in cross-border education through partnerships establishing international branch campuses (IBCs). This qualitative study used Moustakas's (1994) strategy of inquiry as a framework and explored Western faculty members' cross-border lived experiences at IBCs in China. IBCs in this study were coestablished by American universities and their Chinese partners. The central research question that guided this study asked about the lived experiences of Western faculty members at IBCs in China. This study purposefully selected 14 participants and data were collected through semistructured, one-on-one, face-to-face interviews. Moustakas's (1994) seven-level method of analysis involving a process of meaning reduction was followed. The essence of the participants' lived experiences described two components: value and adjustment. Findings from this study are valuable for leaders to rethink how to better support Western faculty in this joint higher education venture.