Academic boredom,approaches to learning and the final-year degree outcomes of undergraduate students

Academic boredom is a largely negative and disabling achievement-related emotion. In this mixed-methods exploration of 224 students attending a single university in England, academic boredom was found to arise at the point of course delivery, while studying at other times and during the completion of assignments for assessment. Quantitative data from the recently adapted Boredom Proneness Scale for use across the UK higher education sector (the BPS-UKHE) and the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST), enriched with qualitative data from 10 semi-structured research interviews, indicate that those with a higher propensity towards academic boredom than others displayed the deep, strategic and surface profiles of ‘less effective learners’. This was reflected in their interest in ideas, their ability to organise resources and manage time, what they had to memorise or do to ‘get by’, their achievement motivation and their sense of purpose. As part of a greater evolving network of other contributing factors, this translated into lower final degree marks and fewer ‘good’ degree awards. Recommendations surrounding boredom mitigation and approaches to learning are suggested which warrant serious consideration. The work presented here makes an important contribution to a surprisingly neglected field of UK higher education research and the student engagement agenda.     

Habituation as a function of similarity and temporal location of target and distractor stimuli

Three experiments examined the habituation of rats’ neophobia to novel flavors, and the disruption of that habituation by presentation of a distractor flavor either immediately before or immediately after the target flavor. Habituation of neophobia to lemon solution was more seriously disrupted by presentation of saline as a distractor than by presentation of coffee as a distractor, and this was true whether the distractor was presented before or after the target on each habituation trial. Two further experiments established that the relative ineffectiveness of coffee as a distractor could not be attributed to its lack of salience, and was probably related to its greater similarity to the target lemon flavor. These results do not fully accord with those reported by Robertson and Garrud (1983), but are readily explained in terms of generalization of habituation between distractor and target flavors.     

Create-A-Scape: Mediascapes and curriculum integration

The paper is a theoretical reflection on a research study of ‘Create-A-Scape’, a software resource for making mediascapes to support learning in the primary and secondary school curriculum. Mediascapes are collections of location-sensitive texts, sounds and images that are geo-tagged or ‘attached to’ the local landscape, and learners use mobile technologies, such as PDAs, to roam in a space or landscape to detect and respond to these multimedia tags. The study, commissioned by Futurelab, was conducted in the summer of 2007 in England. Its aims were to investigate the Create-A-Scape resource and present insights into its use, perceptions of use, and the implications and potential of mediascape tools for learning, teaching and pedagogy. A survey of all who had downloaded the software outlined early perceptions and use of the resource. Five selected case studies were developed through visits, observations and interviews with teachers and pupils using the resources to create mediascape activities. A cross-case analysis articulated three distinctive theoretical perspectives, namely creativity, teacher knowledge and a sense of place. The paper presents the conduct and findings of the study, develops the discussion of the theoretical framework, and considers the potential of such resources for mobile technologies in curriculum integration, and supporting learning in meaningful physical places.     

A case study of the mis-management of educational change: an interpretation from an affective standpoint

The paper describes a case study of the development and implementation of a policy to monitor teachers’ classroom practice in a secondary comprehensive school in Wales, UK. The change process is interpreted from an affective standpoint to explain how the experience of feelings and emotions shapes organisational practice. In particular, the interpretation illustrates how affective experience may influence the distinction between espoused and in use theories, which may in turn have an effect on individual and organisational resistance to change and the success of the implementation. Differences between espoused and in use theories may increase both organisational anxiety and resistance in a self-sustaining cycle. We argue that when the anxieties and emotions of organising in schools are allowed to surface in the change process and are reflected upon, the espoused and in use theories are more likely to correspond and organisational anxiety and resistance to change to decrease.     

Dangerous Darwinism

We are concerned with a particular rhetorical narrative that appeared in the early stages of the Darwin debate but that has been fiercely resurgent in the past two decades. Freud wrote of Darwin's theory as one of three major blows to which human vanity had been submitted at the hands of science. Assertions that "Darwin's dangerous idea" came as a horrible shock to the Victorians and that it is still a profound psychological threat, and therefore widely resisted, remain current. When such assertions are offered as the premise on which Darwin is to be approached by the general reader they call for some detailed scrutiny, with regard both to the bases on which they are made, and the effect they have on the terms of public debate. This paper offers a critique of the culture-shock myth based on a re-examination of Victorian reactions to Darwin's work, and on an analysis of the ways in which the myth functions as a rhetorical strategy in our own time.     

Browsing is a collaborative process

Interfaces to databases have traditionally been designed as single-user systems that hide other users and their activity. This paper aims to show that collaboration is an important aspect of searching online information retrieval (IR) systems that requires explicit computerised support. A number of systems offering varied approaches to supporting collaboration are surveyed and a structure for analysing the various aspects of collaboration is applied. The dominant form of collaboration in digital libraries is likely to be remote and asynchronous. Collaborative work in the digital library requires that both the search product and the search process can be captured and communicated. The ARIADNE system is introduced as an example of computerised support for collaboration between browsers.     

Two balls is too many: stadium performance and queerness among Portland’s Rose City Riveters supporters club

Abstract

Portland, Oregon’s Rose City Riveters is the largest independent organized supporters group for a women’s soccer team in the world. They support Portland Thorns with an organized, expressive and organic performance of songs, musical instruments and displays that envelopes the entire stadium. Utilizing ethnographic subject-centred methods, this empirical study argues that the group’s performance reflects two different performance lineages, organically organized transnational soccer fandom on one hand and disidentifying queer public performance on the other. This paper explores how different elements of these lineages overlap in the Riveters’ performance to disrupt, negotiate and resist the dominant ideologies of hyper-masculinity and heteronormative femininity that shape professional soccer in the United States.     

Selective immigration policies as screening devices and the immigrant–native educational achievement gap

The literature on the immigrant–native educational achievement gap is suggestive of a better performance of immigrant students in countries practising selective immigration policies. However, the origin of such differences has not been investigated. I considered both important observed characteristics as well as the role of unobservables in the formation of immigrant–native achievement differences in 4 selective immigration countries. I found that, if the comparison is between selective immigration countries as a group and other European/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, immigrant students in selective immigration countries perform better. However, the results are heterogeneous and different conclusions apply to each of the 4 countries. The findings are discussed in the context of successful immigration policies as screening devices, which induce a self-selection of immigrants with transferable and adaptive skills. Potentially important are also institutional differences with respect to how inclusionary and conducive to the integration of immigrants into the host country policies are.     

The Reliability of Free School Meal Eligibility as a Measure of Socio-Economic Disadvantage: Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study in Wales

Over the last 20 years, the use of administrative data has become central to understanding pupil attainment and school performance. Of most importance has been its use to robustly demonstrate the impact of socio-economic status (SES) on pupil attainment. Much of this analysis in England and Wales has relied on whether pupils are eligible for free school meals (eFSM). However, very little is known about the validity of this measure as a proxy for SES. Using a recent major birth cohort study, this paper examines the relationship between pupils’ eFSM and their more detailed socio-economic circumstances.     

Premier League academy soccer players’ experiences of competing in a tournament bio-banded for biological maturation

Individual differences in the growth and maturation have been shown to impact player performance and development in youth soccer. This study investigated Premier League academy players’ experiences of participating in a tournament bio-banded for biological maturation. Players (N = 66) from four professional soccer clubs aged 11 and 14 years and between 85–90% of adult stature participated in a tournament. Players competed in three 11 vs 11 games on a full size pitch with 25-min halves. Sixteen players participated in four 15-min focus groups and were asked to describe their experiences of participating in the bio-banded tournament in comparison to age group competition. All players described their experience as positive and recommended the Premier League integrate bio-banding into the existing games programme. In comparison to age-group competitions, early maturing players described the bio-banded games more physically challenging, and found that they had to adapt their style of play placing a greater emphasis on technique and tactics. Late maturing players considered the games to be less physically challenging, yet appreciated the having more opportunity to use, develop and demonstrate their technical, physical, and psychological competencies. Bio-banding strategies appear to contribute positively towards the holistic development of young soccer players.