The Dearing Inquiry as Process – Delegated Thinking and the Limits of Expert Advice

The Dearing Inquiry into Higher Education is assessed in terms of its contribution to a style of policy-making which has lain dormant for two decades. The paper questions the effectiveness of national inquiries in general, and asks whether there is a case for anticipating further inquiries as proposed by the Dearing report. The Inquiry itself is examined as part of a critique of state-sponsored delegated thinking, in which the state delegates but does not abdicate its policy-making function. Tensions between academic experts and the elite policy-making community are also analysed. The paper concludes that inquiries have less to do with inquiry, and more to do with the legitimation of state policy options. A way is cleared for a further paper which explores the alternatives for higher education.     

Team modes and power: supervision of doctoral students

Currently, team supervision in doctoral studies is widely practised across Australian universities. The interpretation of ‘team’ is broad and there is evidence of experimentation with supervisory models. This paper elaborates upon a taxonomy of team modes and power forms based on a recent qualitative study across universities in a number of states and territories in Australia. Team modes, described as de facto dyad, segmented and collaborative are defined, explained and presented in diagrammatic forms. Team modes are understood as being fluid, oscillating along a continuum according to particular contextual factors such as thesis stage and personal/professional circumstances of team members. Operating parallel to team modes are forms of power, defined as ‘power to’, ‘power over’ and ‘power with’. The article concludes that to maximise collaborative knowledge making within team supervision it is necessary to background social status. As the performance of social status is diminished the focus of the team endeavour is the creative exchange of ideas, creating ‘power with’. The intention of this article is to provide more information to supervisors and doctoral students on team structure so that the needs of all parties might be met more reliably and productively during the intense and sustained period of thesis production.     

The new spatial politics of (re)bordering and (re)ordering the state-education-citizen relation

One outcome of more than three decades of social and political transformation around the world, the result of processes broadly referred to as globalisation, has been the emergence of a complex (and at first glance, contradictory) conceptual language in the social sciences that has sought to grasp hold of these developments. Throughout the 1990s, theorists began to emphasise a world in motion, deploying concepts like ??liquid modernity?? (Zygmunt Bauman) to signal rapid and profound changes at work in the social structures, relations, and spatialities of societies (Neil Brenner) that were reconfiguring state-citizen relations (Saskia Sassen). Recently, however, researchers have concentrated on the study of borders and containers as a corrective to the preoccupation with mobility, arguing it is not possible to imagine a world which is only borderless and de-territorialised, because the basic ordering of social groups and societies requires categories and compartments. This paper focuses attention on processes of bordering and ordering in contemporary education systems, suggesting that comparative educators ?C whose main intellectual project is to understand how (different) education processes are re/produced within and across time, space and societies ?C would get much greater purchase on transformations currently under way.     

支持开放教育资源项目的方法

本文考察了英国教育技术互用性标准中心（CETIS）通过支持国家项目（即英国联合信息系统委员会（JISC）和高等教育委员会的英国开放教育资源试点项目,详见http：／／www．jisc．ae．uk／oer）,以促进发布开放教育资源方面的经验,并探索了如何让我们的支持模式对其他相关项目有所启发,并能改编用于鼓励开放课件运动的可持续性技术支持网络。作为一个涵盖英国众多大学的国家层面的创新举措,众多开放教育资源提供者参与了英国开放教育资源（UKOER）,这包括个别教育者、学科联合体和机构。考虑到这种多样性,从一开始我们就意识到没有任何一种技术解决方案能适合所有的项目。因此,也没有委托专门的工具、描述性标准、交流或分发机制（除要求所有制作的资源应该放在国家学习资源库中外,详见http：／／jorum．ae．uk）。为了支持这一项目,我们引导采取不同的方法和形成不同的社群,也许在支持发布开放教育资源方面,任何类似的跨机构创新都将会面临相似的问题。我们的项目支持方法已从具体的细节问题发展到提供基本的支持原则,从而预测其他问题,并推动最佳实践。我们的做法是：通过会议上的技术汇报和讨论机会,以及在博客上发帖,激发讨论;通过技术评论讨论,并记录针对这些公布在网上的讨论的总结性内容,从而调查个别项目的技术选择;针对通过以上方式所发现的问题,以及项目博客上凸显的问题,做出相应的反馈。考虑到如何使这一方法在更广泛的范围内应用,我们也反思了这种公开的工作模式所面临的挑战、这一方法的开支、适应性,以及我们所认为的其在支持开放教育资源管理和传播方面所扮演的角色。     

‘Why should I be like bloody Rain Man?!’ Navigating the autistic identity

This article explores the views of six higher education students with autism/Asperger syndrome. The research draws upon social identity theory to explore how participants made meaning of their label. There was consensus that information given at the point of diagnosis generally did not reflect their individual experiences. First‐hand accounts tended to be perceived as more personally relevant. The ‘Asperger’ identity was generally framed as fragile and inconsistent, leading some individuals to distance themselves from it. This may be problematic for a group that is already disadvantaged and isolated. However, participants conveyed strong self‐images regardless of how and whether they identified with their diagnosis, which was attributed to their relative privilege in achieving higher education and therefore experiencing success and achievement related to their personal strengths. In this article, Andrea MacLeod, Ann Lewis and Christopher Robertson, from the University of Birmingham, call for researchers and relevant services to involve autistic individuals directly in fostering a constructive ‘autism identity’.     

The medical matters wiki: building a library Web site 2.0

New and innovative information technologies drive the ever-evolving library profession. From clay tablet to parchment scroll to manufactured paper to computer screen pixel, information storage, retrieval, and delivery methods continue to evolve, and each advance irrevocably affects the way libraries, and librarians, work. The Internet has forever altered information and library science, both in theory and practice, but even within this context the progression continues. Though ambiguously defined, Web 2.0 offers a new outlook and new software, presenting librarians with potentially invaluable new tools and methods. This paper discusses the creation, implementation, and maintenance of a Web 2.0 technology, the wiki, as a resource tool for an academic biomedical library.     

Machine and deep learning for sport-specific movement recognition: a systematic review of model development and performance

Objective assessment of an athlete’s performance is of importance in elite sports to facilitate detailed analysis. The implementation of automated detection and recognition of sport-specific movements overcomes the limitations associated with manual performance analysis methods. The object of this study was to systematically review the literature on machine and deep learning for sport-specific movement recognition using inertial measurement unit (IMU) and, or computer vision data inputs. A search of multiple databases was undertaken. Included studies must have investigated a sport-specific movement and analysed via machine or deep learning methods for model development. A total of 52 studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data pre-processing, processing, model development and evaluation methods varied across the studies. Model development for movement recognition were predominantly undertaken using supervised classification approaches. A kernel form of the Support Vector Machine algorithm was used in 53% of IMU and 50% of vision-based studies. Twelve studies used a deep learning method as a form of Convolutional Neural Network algorithm and one study also adopted a Long Short Term Memory architecture in their model. The adaptation of experimental set-up, data pre-processing, and model development methods are best considered in relation to the characteristics of the targeted sports movement(s).     

Match running performance and skill execution improves with age but not the number of disposals in young Australian footballers

This study investigated age-related differences in maturity, physical and functional characteristics and playing performance in youth Australian Football (AF). Young male players (n = 156) were recruited from 12 teams across 6 age groups (U10–U15) of a recreational AF club. All players were tested for body size, maturity and fitness. Player performance was assessed during a match in which disposals (kicks and handballs) and their effectiveness were coded from a video recording and match running performance measured using Global Positioning System. Significant main effects (P < 0.01) for age group were observed for age, years to peak height velocity, body mass, height, 20 m sprint, maximal speed over 20 m, vertical jump, 20 m multistage shuttle run, match distance, high-speed running distance, peak speed, number of effective disposals and percentage of effective disposals. Age-related differences in fitness characteristics (speed, lower body power and endurance) appeared to transfer to match running performance. The frequency in which players disposed of the football did not differ between age groups, however the effectiveness of each disposal (i.e., % effective disposals) improved with age. Match statistics, particularly those that evaluate skill execution outcome (i.e., effectiveness), are useful to assess performance and to track player development over time. Differences between age groups, and probably variability within age groups, are strongly associated with chronological age and maturity.     

Professors' Perspectives on Their Teaching: A New Construct and Developmental Model

Building carefully on the college teaching and adult development literatures, this paper presents a model that describes the perspective of professors at various developmental positions with regard to their work as teachers. The model comprises five, interrelated positions: (a) three stable periods—Egocentrism (teacher-centeredness), Aliocentrism (learner-centeredness), and Systemocentrism (teacher/learner-centeredness); and (b) two transitional periods—one between each of the two potential movements from one stable period to the next. The model integrates the constructs of previous typologies, adds a significant new construct, and arranges the total array of perspectival constructs in a typical developmental sequence.