Exploring Teachers' Capacity to Engage with Remote English Language Teaching Environments: The Interface Between Theory and Practice

This chapter takes a snapshot of the current situation in terms of secondary school English teachers' capacity to engage in teaching remotely, as has been necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic, in three distinct locations within Asia – India, Malaysia, and Taiwan. In addition, taking account of the potential effects of COVID-19, it seeks to uncover any mismatch between teachers' theoretical understandings of what remote teaching of English language classes involves and what has been happening in practice. It is based upon a small-scale qualitative study that used questionnaire data from English teachers working in secondary schools in different locations and interview data from academics working in the field of English language teacher education in each location. Through the data, the study revisits how teachers' capacity to teach remotely is modelled as well as making recommendations in terms of supporting and training teachers to deliver classes remotely and the need to pay attention to both teacher and student wellbeing in order to make remote teaching sustainable. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Delaying admission to inpatient rehabilitation worsens outcome for stroke patients: Detrimental impact of COVID-19 on stroke survivors

Introduction: Inpatient rehabilitation (IPR) is crucial to recovery after stroke. COVID-19, however, has led to delays in post-stroke admission to IPR due to transmission concerns. Objective: We evaluated the effect of time from stroke onset to IPR admission on post-stroke recovery Design: A retrospective analysis of 680 patients with acute stroke or intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), admitted to IPR between APR-2017 and AUG-2019. Association between time from stroke onset to IPR and discharge FIM-Motor Total and FIM-Motor Total with transfers scores was studied, after adjusting for sex, age at onset, stroke severity and type. Multiple linear regression models were conducted for outcomes discharge: (FIM-Motor Total) and (FIM-Motor Total with transfers) (Table 1). Square transformations were used to satisfy model assumptions. Ordinal logistic regression models were run for outcomes discharge FIM subset scores categorized as independent (6-7), needs supervision (5), and needs assistance (1-4, reference). The primary variable of interest was days onset to IPR, adjusted for stroke severity (admit FIM subset scores), sex, stroke type and age. (Table 2). The proportional odds assumption was verified using Brant test. Results: An inverse relationship was observed between days from onset to IPR and discharge FIMMotor with and without transfers. Time from stroke onset to IPR admission was associated with decreased discharge FIM-Motor and FIM-Motor with transfers, after adjusting for other covariates. Among FIM subset discharges, an additional day also resulted in a 2-5% decrease in the odds of being more independent. Conclusion: Delays to IPR admission result in decreased motor function gains and lower chance of independence. In addition to current community education practices, acute care hospitals and IPR facilities must review their processes to remove delays. These processes include requirements for COVID disease testing and IPR acceptance policies.