Perspectives of lifelong education in Portuguese higher education: a critical analysis of learning outcomes

ABSTRACT

Nurturing students’ continuous learning is a current trend in the higher education agenda. Curricula and academic contents should enable students to take part in stimulating learning experiences, as well as promoting both developing and training opportunities in the course of their lives and careers. Despite the relevance given to lifelong learning in the educational system, there are still some open questions: how this concept is understood and put into practice by higher education institutions? The paper aims to analyse the conceptions of lifelong learning as reflected on the learning outcomes proposed in a sample of study programs. A qualitative methodology and a data-driven approach are adopted to explore the content of the learning outcomes proposed in 10% of total study programs submitted to quality accreditation, since 2009. Generally, results reveal that higher education institutions are committed to the lifelong learning paradigm, particularly in master and PhD degrees. Students are expected to ‘invest in personal and professional development through life’, to ‘develop learning competences through life’, as well as to ‘foster lifelong learning’. This study provides a better understanding of the range of perspectives and the relevance given to lifelong learning as a valuable learning outcome.     

A comparative study of the child bereavement and loss responses and needs of schools in Hull,Yorkshire and Derry/Londonderry,Northern Ireland

This paper reports the findings from a study of schools' responses to child bereavement in Hull, Yorkshire and Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. In order to gain an insight and compare how schools in both geographical areas respond to and manage bereavement, the questionnaire ‘Loss in schools’ was selected as an appropriate tool. It has been utilised on previous occasions in Hull and shown to be an effective method of highlighting the issues, needs and concerns of schools. Some significant and important issues emerge in the results of the present survey. While schools rate child bereavement and parental separation highly in terms of their priorities, there is a shortfall in the number of schools in both study sites that have a formal procedure or policy in place around the management and response to death and loss. Although there is evidence that a number of staff have attended training in loss and bereavement, schools in Derry/Londonderry and Hull report that they have sought help from other agencies in times of need. For example, the Western Education and Library Board Bereavement Team and Cruse Bereavement Care (Derry/Londonderry) and the Educational Psychology Service (Hull) are identified. Schools are asking for help and support to develop policies and to gain the knowledge and skills they require to respond with confidence to a child who experiences a loss.     

Redesigning library orientation for first-year medical students during the pandemic

Background:Prior to 2020, library orientation for first-year medical students at Weill Cornell Medicine took the form of an on-site treasure hunt competition. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the orientation for the MD class of 2024 was shifted to an all-virtual format. This shift mandated a full redesign of the library orientation.Case Presentation:The Samuel J. Wood Library sought to preserve the excitement and fun of the treasure hunt in the new virtual format. The competition was redesigned as a Zoom meeting using breakout rooms, with library faculty and staff serving as team facilitators. Tasks were rewritten, shifting the focus from the library''s physical spaces to its virtual services and online resources. The redesigned orientation was evaluated using two data sources: a postsession survey of student participants and a debriefing of the library employees who participated. Student evaluations were positive, while the faculty and staff provided numerous suggestions for improving future virtual orientations.Conclusions:A successful virtual library orientation requires careful preparation, including testing the competition tasks, full rehearsal with library facilitators, and a thoughtful approach to technology and logistics. We have chosen to share the materials we developed for other academic health sciences libraries that may wish to take a similar approach to their own virtual orientations.     

Transforming Doctoral Studies: Competencies and Artistry

This article examines the effects of recent attempts, particularly in the humanities and the social sciences, to make doctoral studies in the United Kingdom more efficient and effective and to produce the sorts of skilled researchers the economy is thought to need. It draws on the literature about the transformational effects of current state managerialism on the public services and on the nature of education for the professions to look specifically at the situation of the greatly increased numbers of research students. It also uses insights from feminist scholarship on the ''projects of masculinity'' embedded in late-modernist thinking to suggest that a general repositioning of the academic profession is occurring, and of women academics specifically, and that there are deleterious consequences for intellectual creativity from over-stressing certain ''masculine values''.     

Aerobic fitness and academic achievement: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

This study aims to quantify the association between aerobic fitness and academic achievement, and determine how different aerobic fitness tests and individual demographic characteristics may modify this association. It includes 41 cross-sectional and 7 longitudinal studies focusing on children and adolescents, from MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database and Web of Science. Pooled effect sizes (ES) were estimated for the association between aerobic fitness and specific domains of academic achievement. Subgroup analyses and meta-regressions were based on aerobic fitness tests and demographic characteristics. The ES for the association between aerobic fitness with language/reading-skills, mathematics-related skills and composite scores, were 0.23 (95% CI: 0.12; 0.34); 0.27 (95% CI: 0.19; 0.36) and 0.28 (95% CI: 0.12; 0.45), respectively. Subgroup analyses by aerobic fitness test modified these associations; additionally, analyses by sex or age showed differences between boys and girls as well as between children and adolescents. Finally, meta-regressions revealed a slight effect of body mass index on these associations. Cardiorespiratory fitness is positively associated with academic achievement. Associations were dependent on demographic and aerobic fitness test characteristics, being stronger in boys than in girls, and in children than in adolescents.

Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42017069677     

A Simple Laboratory Exercise for Ethanol Production by Immobilized Bakery Yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)

ABSTRACT: This laboratory experiment was designed for Chemistry, Food Technology, Biology, and Chemical Engineering undergraduate students. This laboratory experience shows the advantages of immobilized bakery yeasts in ethanol production by alcoholic fermentation. The students were able to compare the ethanol production yields by free or calcium alginate entrapped cells and appreciated the easy separation of the final product and the biocatalyst reutilization.     

Wallowing in Media Past: Media-Induced Nostalgia’s Connection to Parasocial Relationships

This article elaborates on media-induced nostalgia as a mixed emotion elicited by remembering past media content and characters. It argues that social components of media consumption such as parasocial relationships (PSRs) play an important part in the elicitation of nostalgia. In an online study, participants (N = 96) remembered their individual media use and preferred media characters as children. Results show that media-induced nostalgia is significantly associated with PSRs to characters in the past. These findings are evaluated concerning their implications for future research on nostalgia and PSRs.     

Partnering with the Public Library for Health Care Education: An Evaluation of Affordable Care Act Messages

Despite implementation of most of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by 2014, the public still has questions about the health care law. To assess the potential of using the library as a hub for ACA education, we tested existing and new culturally relevant messages about the health care law with twenty-seven community members. Participants discussed the message prototypes, including the visual components and promotional content, and provided advice to modify content and design to best reach target audiences. Future research can follow this example to engage libraries and community members in developing and evaluating culturally relevant health messages.     

Reading Aloud with Infants: The Controversy, the Myth, and a Case Study

Reading aloud to infants continues to be the focus of controversy between educators, researchers, and health care professionals. This article will provide insight into what research says about reading aloud to infants as well as the results of a case study of a six-month-old infant who has been read aloud to in utero to the present time. The results of this case study confirm that parents and caregivers reading aloud to infants is necessary in developing literacy skills that are paramount to book awareness, print awareness, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension, all of which are stepping stones to learning to read and write.