‘There’s a lot of learning going on but NOT much teaching!’: student perceptions of Problem‐Based Learning in science

In this paper I report on 625 student responses and analyse student perceptions of Problem‐Based Learning during their first semester at university. The data I present outlines the scope of the implementation at six entry‐level units for the years 2007 to 2009 and is followed by a qualitative analysis of student responses. Eight themes are conceptualised as stretching along a continuum with one end point representing an instrumentalist and superficial response and the opposite end representing a professional and more thoughtful response. Despite some tension, this implementation of Problem‐Based Learning into the Science Faculty was, in the main, challenging, time‐consuming and rewarding for the majority of students. Two implications for science education evident as a result of this study are that the general student response to change is more positive if they are informed and supported when a different teaching and learning strategy is introduced and that many students require training and support to become self‐directed learners.     

Understanding and reducing the fear of COVID-19

Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B -     

Empowering the supporters: enhancing the role of unqualified support workers in a housing scheme for people with mental health problems

The research reported in this study is a practitioner action research study that is primarily concerned with the activities of unqualified support workers in an accommodation scheme for people who have experienced enduring mental health problems. A central focus became the relationship between the support workers and professional staff within the wider mental health service. Parallel with a ‘practice gap’ identified in their relationship with professional staff was a ‘supervision gap’ in terms of their relationship with myself as their manager. One means of exploring this relationship was the use of ‘critical scenarios’. A series of ‘connections’ or practice support linkages were put in place that aimed to bridge this gap and at the same time enhance the role of the support workers.     

Supporting the supporters: the learning and supervision needs of unqualified support staff in a supported housing scheme for people with mental health problems

The investigation reported here started out as an exploratory study of the nature of ‘support’ in a supported housing development for people with mental health problems. It was intended that this would suggest appropriate changes in staff practices. This report describes how ideas around a number of themes identified were gradually developed and refined to provide a focus for investigation. The eventual focus centred on my apparently pivotal role in supporting ‘unqualified’ support staff. An inter-relationship between how residents experience ‘being supported’ and the learning needs of support staff is identified, teased out and described. Action research methods were found to be a useful means of generating areas of learning that appeared to be most relevant in this particular work context. The discoveries and insights that developed helped inform the tentative application of some initial action steps aimed at meeting these learning needs and guiding the activities of support staff.     

Prospective gymnasium teachers' conceptions of chemistry learning and teaching

The aim of the study was to investigate prospective gymnasium teachers' conceptions of chemistry learning and teaching. Data were collected through individual interviews with nine prospective teachers at one German university. Phenomenography served as the methodological framework for the study. The findings revealed that chemistry learning is conceptualized as gaining knowledge, problem-solving and constructing personal understandings; and that chemistry teaching is conceptualized as transferring knowledge, problem-posing and interacting with pupils. The majority of the prospective teachers' conceptions of learning chemistry were considered reproductive rather than constructive and their conceptions of chemistry teaching were viewed as facilitating reproductive learning. Comparisons of the dominant conceptions of learning chemistry and teaching chemistry held by each prospective teacher revealed mixed support for the assumption that if one holds a reproductive (or constructive) conception of teaching, then (s)he will also hold a reproductive (or constructive) conception of learning. Support for the assumption was found in the reproductive-oriented relationship between conceptions of learning chemistry as gaining knowledge and of teaching chemistry as transferring knowledge, but not found in the relationships between learning chemistry as problem-solving and teaching chemistry as problem-posing and between learning chemistry as gaining knowledge and interacting with pupils.     

Type of speech,sex of speaker,and sex of subject as factors influencing persuasion

Speeches that advocated “institutional”; norms were compared with speeches that did not, in conditions where male and female speakers were varied. Female speakers were more successful when they took a noninstitutional position, and male speakers were more successful when they took an institutional position. “Masculinity”; and “Femininity”; were not significant factors in any of the effects.     

Mentoring: Towards a Professional Friendship

Mentoring is a rapidly growing area covering the fields of education, business and community. At a fundamental level, mentoring provides individuals with a relationship which builds from a foundation of friendship. This paper looks at the possible role of ‘friendship’ in formal mentoring systems. It analyses the elements and components of friendship and offers a model of ‘professional friendship’ within the formal mentoring context. The model represents what a. mentoring relationship might be at a generic level and the paper argues for a model of ‘professional friendship’ to be integral to quality mentoring.     

Developing Sustainable Farmer-led Extension Groups: Lessons from a Bangladeshi Case Study

Abstract

The limited effectiveness and fiscal unsustainability of professional-led public sector extension systems in developing countries have aroused considerable interest in Farmer-led Extension (FLE) approaches in the recent decades. A key challenge facing these initiatives is a lack of sustainability of the farmer groups developed through project or programme assistance. This not only makes FLE initiatives costly, but also creates dependency among farmers. Despite this, the knowledge of what can make externally-initiated FLE groups sustainable is scant and largely anecdotal. In this paper we provide an empirically-drawn and theoretically-informed framework to fill this knowledge gap.

The framework is based on a comparative case study of six non-sustained and four sustained FLE groups initiated through an innovative extension reform project in Bangladesh and a comparison of the results with the theories of collective action.

We have identified four sets of inter-related factors called ‘capitals’ affecting group sustainability: ‘financial capital’ accumulated through group-based microcredit activities, an effective governance mechanism called ‘institutional capital’ devised by the members themselves, good quality group leaders and facilitators called ‘human capital’, and past relations of exchange, reciprocity, trust and respect called ‘social capital’ among members and between members and professional facilitators. While microcredit can benefit sustainability, it suits women rather than men farmers. Good quality leaders and facilitators are not only technically competent, but also fair, innovative, tenacious, self-sacrificing, trustworthy, honest, and sincere. All forms of social capital are not useful for group sustainability and social capital can make a positive impact only when the other types of capital—human and institutional—are present within a group.

To improve group sustainability, FLE programmes should take a holistic approach and address the four kinds of capitals proposed in this paper. Key strategies may include: combining extension (information or advisory functions) with economic activities but avoiding a one-size-fits-all solution, recruiting group leaders and facilitators by going beyond technical considerations (e.g. taking into account the personality traits identified in this study), adopting a bottom-up approach in devising group rules and regulations, and taking into account both the positive and negative aspects of social capital.

The originality of our research lies in the explanatory framework that we provide in this paper. Our study also contributes to the intellectual debates on social capital by exhibiting the dual roles that social capital plays and its complex interrelationships with other forms of capital.     

Directors and Writers

Eric Sherman's Directing the Film: Film Directors on Their Art (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976---$15.00)

Donald Spoto's The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures (New York: Hopkinson and Blake, 1976---$13.00/8.95)

Kemp R. Niver's D.W. Griffith: His Biograph Films in Perspective (Historical Films, P.O. Box 46505, Los Angeles, Calif. 90046---$12.00)

Stephen Pendo's Raymond Chandler on Screen: His Novels into Film (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976---$10.00)

Ronald Lloyd's American Film Directors: The World as They See It (New York: New Viewpoints/Franklin Watts, 1976---price not given, paper)

Maureen Lambray's The American Film Directors (New York: Whirlwind/Pathe Press, 1976---$22.50)

Bob Thomas' Walt Disney: An American Original (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976---$9.95)

Richard Koszarski's Hollywood Directors, 1914-1940 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976---$13.95/3.95)

Philip Cecchettini and Don Whittemore's Passport to Hollywood: Film Immigramts (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976---413.50)

Beatriz Reyes Nevares' The Mexican Cinema: Interviews with Thirteen Directors (Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press, 1976---$9.95/4.50)

Francisco Aranda's Luis Bunuel: A Critical Biography (New York: Da Capo Press, 1976---44.95, paper)

Glenn B. Infield's Leni Riefenstahl: The Fallen Film Goddess (New York: Crowell, 1976---$9.95)

Stuart Rosenthal's The Cinema of Federico Fellini (Cranbury, N.J.: A.S. Barnes, 1976---$9.95)

Edward Murray's Fellini the Artist (New York: Ungar, 1976---$10.00)