Research at Arts Council England

Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts in England, distributing public money from government and the National Lottery. The rationale for research at Arts Council England is explained, including the drivers behind a commitment to an increased research capacity. It is summarized how research takes place in the organization, the context in which work is undertaken and the key reporting requirements. Arts Council England works across a broad spectrum of artforms—from literature and the publishing sector, through dance and opera, to visual and multimedia arts. The research addresses all of these artforms as well as cross-cutting agendas such as employment, education and economic impact. Five broad areas are considered: evaluating the impact of Arts Council England's spending; audiences and participation in the arts; cultural employment and the arts economy; tools for the sector; and disseminating findings and informing policy. Details are given of some of the main research projects under each of these areas, and what is known now and where there are gaps in knowledge and challenges for the future are highlighted.     

Methods of Teaching and Class Participation in Relation to Perceived Social Support and Stress: Modifiable factors for improving health and wellbeing among students

Social support and stress have previously been found to be predictors of health among students. In this study, we investigated whether methods of teaching and class participation were related to social support and stress via questionnaire responses from 947 Norwegian adolescents aged 13-15. Linear associations between the variables were assessed in univariate and multivariate analyses of covariance. Highly significant overall effects were found with the amounts of group work, class discussions, and verbal activity. Borderline significant effect was also seen in relation to the amount of independent work. An increasing amount of group work increased the perception of social support from teachers and peers, but showed no significant association with stress. Increasing amounts of class discussions were significantly related to increasing perception of social support, in particular among boys. Class discussions also seemed to reduce the experience of stress, although somewhat inconsistently. Increasing amounts of independent work increased stress, but also increased the perception of social support from peers among boys. No significant associations with traditional teacher instruction were found. Verbal activity was strongly related both to increasing perception of social support and decreasing experiences of stress. In view of the present results, participatory learning activities may promote health by preventing stress experience and promoting social relationships.     

Establishing Peer Mediation in a Special School Context

This article reports an evaluation of a peer mediation scheme in a special school for students with moderate learning difficulties. The evaluation of the project focused on two aspects: the effectiveness of the training of the mediators and the effect of the project on the school community. The author concluded that pupils with moderate learning difficulties have the ability to mediate successfully; that the process can develop their social skills and emotional literacy; and can play a notable part in increasing cooperation between pupils within the school environment.     

Impacts of directed tutorial activities in computer conferencing: a case study

This paper describes a qualitative study of asynchronous electronic conferencing by three tutorial groups on the same postgraduate course (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Worldwide), forming part of an MA in Applied Linguistics (via Distance Education) at the Open University, UK. The groups varied in the degree to which the tutor participated in the discussion and in whether the tutor's input took the form of responding to student posts or the setting of tasks to scaffold the learners' development of academic skills. It is argued that the least interventionist strategy in terms of tutor response and task-setting resulted in the least productive conference discussion in terms of both communicative interaction and academic development, while a more interventionist role by the tutor depended for its success on characteristics of the tutor input and the task set.     

Eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage dissociates the lactate and gas exchange thresholds

We tested the hypothesis that exercise-induced muscle damage would increase the ventilatory (V(E)) response to incremental/ramp cycle exercise (lower the gas exchange threshold) without altering the blood lactate profile, thereby dissociating the gas exchange and lactate thresholds. Ten physically active men completed maximal incremental cycle tests before (pre) and 48 h after (post) performing eccentric exercise comprising 100 squats. Pulmonary gas exchange was measured breath-by-breath and fingertip blood sampled at 1-min intervals for determination of blood lactate concentration. The gas exchange threshold occurred at a lower work rate (pre: 136 ± 27 W; post: 105 ± 19 W; P < 0.05) and oxygen uptake (VO(2)) (pre: 1.58 ± 0.26 litres · min(-1); post: 1.41 ± 0.14 litres · min(-1); P < 0.05) after eccentric exercise. However, the lactate threshold occurred at a similar work rate (pre: 161 ± 19 W; post: 158 ± 22 W; P > 0.05) and VO(2) (pre: 1.90 ± 0.20 litres · min(-1); post: 1.88 ± 0.15 litres · min(-1); P > 0.05) after eccentric exercise. These findings demonstrate that exercise-induced muscle damage dissociates the V(E) response to incremental/ramp exercise from the blood lactate response, indicating that V(E) may be controlled by additional or altered neurogenic stimuli following eccentric exercise. Thus, due consideration of prior eccentric exercise should be made when using the gas exchange threshold to provide a non-invasive estimation of the lactate threshold.     

Oral Language and Reading in Bilingual Children

This article examines the question: Do lexical, syntactic, fluency, and discourse measures of oral language collected under narrative conditions predict reading achievement both within and across languages for bilingual children? More than 1,500 Spanish–English bilingual children attending kindergarten–third grade participated. Oral narratives were collected in each language along with measures of Passage Comprehension and Word Reading Efficiency. Results indicate that measures of oral language in Spanish predict reading scores in Spanish and that measures of oral language skill in English predict reading scores in English. Cross‐language comparisons revealed that English oral language measures predicted Spanish reading scores and Spanish oral language measures predicted English reading scores beyond the variance accounted for by grade. Results indicate that Spanish and English oral language skills contribute to reading within and across languages.