Learning journeys - student learning development in the first years of a medical degree: an analysis of student conversations.

Introduction: Students starting medical school generally come from a learning background that expects them to learn content, which is reproduced to pass an exam. As a part of their learning development, they must adapt and become self-motivated learners who can determine the underlying principles or concepts and use these to problem solve in the uncertainty of real-life clinical practice. Whilst much has been written about designing curricula to promote learning development, there is no one-size fits all approach to facilitating this type of learning, thus an analysis of what helps and hinders learning development is indicated. Methods: Student pairs in Y2 and Y3 of an undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (BMBS) programme of a South-West UK medical school, were asked to audio record a conversation about their learning through a facilitated problem-based learning approach during the BMBS course so far. They were provided with a brief to aid them in their discussion in the style of the outside broadcast method of BBC Radio 4s listening project. Using this method, the conversation was unfacilitated and allowed to take its natural course. Conversations were transcribed and coded to determine emerging themes with respect to the developing understanding of the students about what and how they were learning. Results: Four student pairs volunteered for the project one from Y2 and three from Y3. Five key themes were identified including: from 'learning it all, to structured learning'; 'developing understanding and the spiral curriculum'; 'working alone versus working with others'; 'integrated learning and understanding context' and 'assessment and resources.' Narrative analysis within these themes suggested that over the course of the first two to three years of study, participants developed a better understanding of how best to learn, although there were differences in both time and order that participants reached a point where learning felt more natural to them. Discussion: Analysis of the data suggested that students develop independently towards being self-motivated lifelong learners. There were several key aspects of curriculum design that could be used to facilitate this development, which could easily be incorporated into developing or creating problem- / enquiry-based curricula.

Quantitative analysis of indigo and indigo precursors in leaves of Isatis spp. and Polygonum tinctorium.

Analysis of extracts from two woad species (Isatis tinctoria and Isatis indigotica) and Polygonum tinctorium revealed that only one indigo precursor (indican) was present in Polygonum, but two precursors were found in Isatis spp. This was done using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), coupled to an evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD). In Isatis spp., the indigo precursors indican and a fraction representing isatan B were identified. The proportion of indican and isatan B was different between the two Isatis spp. tested. For the first time, it was possible to quantify the precursors in woad plant species, and the results were found to be in good agreement with those made from total indigo quantification using two different spectrophotometric methods or a derivatization technique.

A new HPLC-ELSD method to quantify indican in Polygonum tinctorium L. and to evaluate beta-glucosidase hydrolysis of indican for indigo production.

A method to quantify the indigo precursor indican (indoxyl-beta-D-glucoside) in Polygonum tinctorium L. has been developed. Plant material was extracted in deionized water, and indican was identified and quantified using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to an evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD). Results confirmed that with this method it is possible to measure indican content in a short time, obtaining reliable and reproducible data. Using this method, leaf indican content was quantified every 15 days during the growing season (from May to October) in P. tinctorium crops grown in a field experiment in Central Italy. Results showed that indican increased along the growing season until flowering and was positively affected by photosynthetic active radiation (PAR). Indican is naturally hydrolyzed by native beta-glucosidase to indoxyl and glucose, the indoxyl yielding indigo. The activity of two enzymes, sweet almond beta-glucosidase and Novarom G preparation, were compared with P. tinctorium native beta-glucosidase to evaluate indigo production. Results showed that the ability to promote indigo formation increased as follows: almond beta-glucosidase