title: A Changing Perspective: leading and learning in new ways

authors: Woodward, Phillipa Jean

subjects: Adult Developmental Theory

abstract: Schools are learning places, tasked with providing rich, meaningful and diverse learning experiences for all of its’ learners.  Educational leaders are facing increasing challenges and demands to become more responsive to the fast changing world in which we live and work.  With the increasing complexity and unpredictability that surrounds us, as educators we need to respond in new ways to address the inequity and increasing disparity that exists for our learners. 

The traditional model of schooling that aimed to equip learners with the skills and knowledge to live in a predictable world are no longer fit for purpose, placing new demands on educators.  As leaders we need to consider how we are leading change and building the capability and capacity of ourselves, and others to cope with the increasing complexity and demands of education today.  This requires us to critically reflect on how we create the conditions and learning experiences for our colleagues with the ultimate aim to improve the quality of teaching and learning in our schools.

We need to consider how we can bring about deep and sustainable change in our practice that creates transformational shifts in our learning and leading.  This will require us to rethink about what we pay close attention to and how we shape our schools as authentic learning communities. 

The aim of this research was to explore what leadership practices could support the professional learning and growth of educators in these complex and unpredictable times, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for student learners. 

The focus for this research was to investigate whether leadership practices could be strengthened when the leader took in to consideration the adult developmental stages of the team members they were working with.  It was hoped that using the constructive developmental theory to inform leadership practices it may strengthened the learning experiences of the team and subsequently all of the teaching community in the school over time.  These leadership practices required the Key Leader to build their own knowledge of constructive developmental theory and consider how this strengthened their own leadership capacity and then how it could be used to inform the leaders practices in order to support the growth of the team the leader was working with. 

The findings indicated that when we begin to explore the theory of adult development it exposes a great deal more about how we learn, lead and can create conditions for transformation.  It highlighted the importance of deepening our understanding of the developmental diversity of those we lead and work with and responding appropriately to this diversity.   This requires us to ensure learning experiences are developmentally orientated, providing enough support but also challenge to create transformational shifts.

As indicated in these findings, as we gain greater insight in to our own developmental capacity and ways to grow we become far more at ease in working in the complex domain of the unknown unknowns.  We are able to view challenges in new ways, taking a more adaptive leadership approach to how we embrace and lead change. 

When we consider new ways to think, act and engage we have the potential to create places where learners can flourish amongst the uncertainty and complexity.

text: A Changing Perspective: leading and learning in new ways Schools are learning places, tasked with providing rich, meaningful and diverse learning experiences for all of its’ learners.  Educational leaders are facing increasing challenges and demands to become more responsive to the fast changing world in which we live and work.  With the increasing complexity and unpredictability that surrounds us, as educators we need to respond in new ways to address the inequity and increasing disparity that exists for our learners. 

The traditional model of schooling that aimed to equip learners with the skills and knowledge to live in a predictable world are no longer fit for purpose, placing new demands on educators.  As leaders we need to consider how we are leading change and building the capability and capacity of ourselves, and others to cope with the increasing complexity and demands of education today.  This requires us to critically reflect on how we create the conditions and learning experiences for our colleagues with the ultimate aim to improve the quality of teaching and learning in our schools.

We need to consider how we can bring about deep and sustainable change in our practice that creates transformational shifts in our learning and leading.  This will require us to rethink about what we pay close attention to and how we shape our schools as authentic learning communities. 

The aim of this research was to explore what leadership practices could support the professional learning and growth of educators in these complex and unpredictable times, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for student learners. 

The focus for this research was to investigate whether leadership practices could be strengthened when the leader took in to consideration the adult developmental stages of the team members they were working with.  It was hoped that using the constructive developmental theory to inform leadership practices it may strengthened the learning experiences of the team and subsequently all of the teaching community in the school over time.  These leadership practices required the Key Leader to build their own knowledge of constructive developmental theory and consider how this strengthened their own leadership capacity and then how it could be used to inform the leaders practices in order to support the growth of the team the leader was working with. 

The findings indicated that when we begin to explore the theory of adult development it exposes a great deal more about how we learn, lead and can create conditions for transformation.  It highlighted the importance of deepening our understanding of the developmental diversity of those we lead and work with and responding appropriately to this diversity.   This requires us to ensure learning experiences are developmentally orientated, providing enough support but also challenge to create transformational shifts.

As indicated in these findings, as we gain greater insight in to our own developmental capacity and ways to grow we become far more at ease in working in the complex domain of the unknown unknowns.  We are able to view challenges in new ways, taking a more adaptive leadership approach to how we embrace and lead change. 

When we consider new ways to think, act and engage we have the potential to create places where learners can flourish amongst the uncertainty and complexity.

year: 2016

title: Studies Towards a pH-Sensitive Anticancer Prodrug Model

authors: Teng, Xiao Shi

subjects: tumour-activated prodrug (TAP)

abstract: Tumour-activated prodrug (TAP) is designed to aim at increasing the prodrug selectivity to kill cancer cells. One strategy to is to design a TAP containing an amine cytotoxin, present as an amide function, which could be released more rapidly in the low pH environment of tumour tissues when amide undergoes hydrolysis.
The prodrug model (1) was the subject of the current study. At lower pH its un-ionised carboxylic acid group provides neighbouring catalysis of hydrolysis of the adjacent amide. It was synthesised via ring-opening of the imide (2) which itself was directly synthesised from endo-bicyclo[2.2.2]octa-5-ene-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride and p-methoxyaniline.
The pH-rate profile of (1) was established over the pH range of 3-10, covering rapid hydrolysis of un-ionised acid-amide at lower pH but slower imide formation above pH 8 from the ionised acid-amide. From the kinetic data were calculated the dissociation constant for (1) (pKa: 5.1 at 30 C) and limiting lower pH rate constant for hydrolysis of (1) in its fully neutral form (klim: 0.44 min-1 at 30 C). The data in the pH range of 8-10 provided klow (0.067 min-1) representing formation of (2) from fully ionised (1).
The following equilibrium reaction was also investigated at high pH, at which (1) was in its fully ionised amide carboxylate form, by kinetic studies on (2) in hydroxide solutions.
Imide + OH- Amide carboxylate
The second order rate constant for the forward reaction, kf, was 74 L mol-1 min-1 which with klow for the reverse reaction gave K as 1100 L mol-1.

text: Studies Towards a pH-Sensitive Anticancer Prodrug Model Tumour-activated prodrug (TAP) is designed to aim at increasing the prodrug selectivity to kill cancer cells. One strategy to is to design a TAP containing an amine cytotoxin, present as an amide function, which could be released more rapidly in the low pH environment of tumour tissues when amide undergoes hydrolysis.
The prodrug model (1) was the subject of the current study. At lower pH its un-ionised carboxylic acid group provides neighbouring catalysis of hydrolysis of the adjacent amide. It was synthesised via ring-opening of the imide (2) which itself was directly synthesised from endo-bicyclo[2.2.2]octa-5-ene-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride and p-methoxyaniline.
The pH-rate profile of (1) was established over the pH range of 3-10, covering rapid hydrolysis of un-ionised acid-amide at lower pH but slower imide formation above pH 8 from the ionised acid-amide. From the kinetic data were calculated the dissociation constant for (1) (pKa: 5.1 at 30 C) and limiting lower pH rate constant for hydrolysis of (1) in its fully neutral form (klim: 0.44 min-1 at 30 C). The data in the pH range of 8-10 provided klow (0.067 min-1) representing formation of (2) from fully ionised (1).
The following equilibrium reaction was also investigated at high pH, at which (1) was in its fully ionised amide carboxylate form, by kinetic studies on (2) in hydroxide solutions.
Imide + OH- Amide carboxylate
The second order rate constant for the forward reaction, kf, was 74 L mol-1 min-1 which with klow for the reverse reaction gave K as 1100 L mol-1.

year: 2010

title: Five imperial adventures in the Waikato

authors: Moffat, Kirstine

abstract: Some late nineteenth-century exponents of the 'Novel of Adventure', or imperial adventure-romance, regarded colonial New Zealand as an attractive canvas for their tales of masculine daring in an exotic, rugged environment.3 Five such authors set their narratives, in part or in full, in the Waikato of the 1860s, drawn to the backdrop of inter-racial conflict provided by the New Zealand Wars. While references to specific events and people associated with colonial Waikato do ground many of these texts in historical reality, it has to be said that, regardless of whether the authors write from experience, careful research, or flights of imaginative fantasy, the Waikato that is described in their narratives has been selected for its frontier possibilities rather than its distinctive geography.

text: Five imperial adventures in the Waikato Some late nineteenth-century exponents of the 'Novel of Adventure', or imperial adventure-romance, regarded colonial New Zealand as an attractive canvas for their tales of masculine daring in an exotic, rugged environment.3 Five such authors set their narratives, in part or in full, in the Waikato of the 1860s, drawn to the backdrop of inter-racial conflict provided by the New Zealand Wars. While references to specific events and people associated with colonial Waikato do ground many of these texts in historical reality, it has to be said that, regardless of whether the authors write from experience, careful research, or flights of imaginative fantasy, the Waikato that is described in their narratives has been selected for its frontier possibilities rather than its distinctive geography.

year: 2013