Congenital Heart Disease: Causes and Risk Factors Congenital Heart Disease: Causes and Risk Factors

Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) is a multifactorial disorder based on both genetic and environmental factors involved in development. The basic problem lies in the structure of heart leading to CHD that occurs in walls, valves, arteries and veins of heart. During cell cycle, the gene that controls this process may mutate, causing disturbance in any portion of heart leading to disturbed blood flow, blood flow in wrong direction or complete blockage. Defect may range from simple with no manifestations to complex with severe symptoms. Simple defects need no treatment while some babies with complex birth defects during birth require special care, vaccination, medication or otherwise treated with surgery. The incidence of CHD has declined from 80 to 20% due to progress in heart surgery techniques, medical treatment and interventional cardiology. Various genetic and non-genetic increase the susceptibility for CHD. The diagnosis and treatment of CHD has greatly improved in recent years. Almost all the children with CHD survive to adulthood and spend healthy and active lives after being treated.

Exploring Changes in Teachers Thinking During a Mathematics Vt Program

A multiple case study design was used to investigate the nature of changes in teachers' thinking about teaching and learning of mathematics during a mathematics VT (Visiting Teacher) program. The VT program is a two-month professional development program for teachers offered by the Institute for Educational Development. The fieldwork of the study was carried out during the entire period that the VT program was going on. The researcher was a participant observer in the program and used the observations, interviews, informal conversations and documents to gather data from four participants who served as the study sample. The study found that the VTs began with limited notions of the nature of mathematics, how mathematics should be taught and how children learn. During the program, there was evidence of significant changes in their thinking. For example, two of the VTs began to make links between areas of mathematics and began to develop a deeper understanding of the concepts. One VT's thinking changed markedly in relation to students' cognition and began to question how students learn. One of the VTs moved from a formalized perception of mathematics to an awareness of how mathematics is generated. Several themes emerged from a cross-case analysis. First, there was evidence of tacit learning, that is, changes in the teachers' thinking that the teachers did not recognize or acknowledge. Next, although teachers' thinking had changed, their epistemological constructs remained intractable, which may have led to a lack of awareness of changes in their thinking. Then, a factor that colored the perceptions of the VTs thinking was the challenges in their context. Lastly, all the four participants developed confidence, which may have an emancipatory nature. While the confidence developed in various forms, all acknowledged it to be a result of the environment in the program. The implications of the study are discussed in the end, together with recommendations and suggestions for further research.