Can creative podcasting promote deep learning? The use of podcasting for learning content in an undergraduate science unit

This paper examines the effect of a podcasting task on the examination performance of several hundred first‐year chemistry undergraduate students. Educational researchers have established that a deep approach to learning that promotes active understanding of meaning can lead to better student outcomes, higher grades and superior retention of knowledge over time. We attempted to promote such an approach by setting a task that involved student collaboration, contextualisation of content, and communication through new media, specifically creative podcasting. Examination results were used as a source of empirical evidence of changes in understanding and retention that occurred for students who completed this task. In comparing results across 2 years on similar questions related to the podcasting topics, we found a statistically significant improvement after introduction of the podcasting task on the questions related to one of the topics on which students had actively created their own podcasts (“acids & bases”), but not on the other (“oxidisation and reduction”). Improved learning outcomes in the form of better understanding and retention over time in at least one case suggest that under some circumstances creative podcasting may indeed help to promote a deep learning approach.     

Determining optimal trial size using sequential analysis

When characterising typical human movement profiles, the optimal number of trials analysed for each participant should ensure a stable mean. Sequential analysis is one method able to establish the number of trials to stability by assessing a moving point mean against a set bandwidth. As the total trial number determining this bandwidth is selected arbitrarily, the effect of applying different total trial numbers on the results of sequential analysis was investigated. Twenty participants performed 30 trials of overarm throwing, and sequential analyses were applied to three dimensional (3-D) kinematic data over 10, 20 and 30 trial numbers. We found a total of 20 to be the preferred trial number for sequential analyses. Erroneous results were produced consistently by 10 trial number groups, while moving point means were statistically unchanged after the 10th trial. Subsequently, sequential analyses were applied to 20 trials to establish trials to stability in discrete and time series elements of the 3-D kinematic data. The results suggest that a trial size between 13 and 17 provides stable means for overarm throwing kinematics.     

Interactions of perinatal depression versus anxiety and infants' early temperament trajectories

This study examines the interplay between maternal depression/anxiety and infant temperament's developmental trajectory in 1687 Swedish-speaking mother–infant dyads from Uppsala County (2009–2019), Sweden. The sample includes a high proportion of university-educated individuals and a low share of foreign-born participants. Maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale during gestational weeks 17 and 32 and postpartum at week 6. Multinomial regression explored associations between maternal variables and infant temperament trajectories at 6 weeks, 12 months, and 18 months. Prenatal anxiety is associated with the high-rising infant difficult temperament trajectory, while prenatal depression/anhedonia is associated with the stable-medium trajectory, attenuated postpartum. Associations between infant temperament and maternal mood depended on timing (pre/postpartum) and symptom type (depression/anhedonia vs. anxiety).     

Family learning and the socio-spatial practice of ‘supportive’ power

Family learning has been an important mode of education deployed by governments in the United Kingdom over the past 20 years, and is positioned at the nexus of various social policy areas whose focus stretch beyond education. Drawing on qualitative research exploring mothers’ participation in seven different family learning programmes across West London, this paper looks at how this type of education is mobilised; that is, how mothers are ‘encouraged’ to participate and benefit from this type of programme. Framed by a neo-liberal policy climate and Foucauldian writings on governmentality and surveillance, we explore how participating mothers are carefully ‘targeted’ for this type of learning through their children and through school/ nursery spaces, and how programmes themselves then operate as a supportive social space aimed at facilitating social networks, friendship and personal development linked to positions of gender, ethnicity, class and migrant status. It is the socio-spatial workings of ‘supportive’ power and power relations that enable family learning to be mobilised that ensures its popularity as a social policy initiative.     

Maternal mind-mindedness and attachment security as predictors of theory of mind understanding

This study investigated relations between social interaction during infancy and children's subsequent theory of mind (ToM). Infant-mother pairs (N = 57) were observed in a free-play context at 6 months. Interactions were coded for (a) mothers' use of mental state language that commented appropriately on the infants' mental states, and (b) mothers' use of mental state language that did not appropriately reflect their infants' minds. A third variable was (c) security of attachment, which was assessed using the Strange Situation procedure at 12 months. Performance on a battery of ToM tasks at 45 and 48 months was positively correlated with (a), but was not related to (b) or (c). A regression analysis showed that mothers' use of appropriate mental state comments independently predicted overall ToM performance, accounting for 11% of the variance. Children's verbal ability was the only other independent predictor of ToM performance, accounting for 16% of the variance. These findings represent the earliest known social predictor of individual differences in ToM.     

Quantifying participation in,and the effectiveness of,remediating assessment in a university mathematics module

In Maths for Business, a large first-year mathematics module, the continuous assessment component comprises 10 weekly quizzes which combine to contribute 40% of the final module mark. If students did not receive the full five marks on their weekly quiz, they were provided with the opportunity to resubmit their corrected weekly quiz with an explanation of their error(s) for one additional mark. We refer to this process as ‘remediation’. Of the students who had the opportunity to remediate, ～70% did. Through examining learning management system data, we show that the remediation process encouraged students to access module resources. Furthermore, by using a Bayesian hierarchical model to account for students’ level of participation, achievement and prior knowledge, we show that participation in the remediation process positively impacted the final examination marks of moderate to high-achieving students (based on initial continuous assessment marks). However, participation in the remediation process provided limited benefit to low-achieving students. We conjecture this is because these students had not achieved a level of understanding whereby participation in the remediation process could progress their knowledge.     

Assessment in higher education: drivers,barriers and directions for change in the UK

Assessment is fundamental to student learning and achievement. However, whilst research consistently emphasises the role of assessment in supporting the development of the learner, the reality of assessment processes and practices in higher education is frequently indicated to fall someway short. This article aims to contribute to a shared understanding of the discourse surrounding assessment in higher education in the UK, and presents a synopsis of the role of assessment in curriculum change. Key drivers for change, the inhibitory role of the dominant discourse of assessment and suggestions for future development towards an assessment for learning culture, are considered as a means of giving greater prioritisation to assessment than is currently afforded.