Relational transitions,emotional decisions: new directions for theorising graduate employment

University-to-work transitions tend to be discussed in terms of skills, outcomes and the readiness of graduates for an increasingly insecure and flexible labour market. Such a focus on individual attributes and orientations depicts graduates as lonely and ostensibly rational figures; disembedded from their intimate networks and devoid of emotional context as they navigate their post-university pathways. This article aims to steer the debate in a new, fundamentally relational direction by exploring the role and significance of intimate kin and non-kin relationships for the ways graduates experience and make choices about employment and careers. Drawing on qualitative longitudinal research with women who graduated from universities in the UK between 2009 and 2011, the discussion highlights the value of an explicitly relational perspective for revealing the personal and emotional dimensions of the transition out of higher education. The article concludes that the process of securing work and committing to a career is embedded within the broader experiences of personal life, emotion and (im)mobility and, thus, raises important questions about the role and responsibility of universities at a time when employability metrics are read as a marker of teaching quality.     

The impact of color and role on retention of knowledge: a body-painting study within undergraduate medicine

Body painting as a tool for teaching anatomy is becoming increasingly popular as it is fun and diffuses the formal academic context. Students claim bright color plays a significant role in retention of knowledge from painting sessions. Medical students (n = 117) were divided into two conditions: block color (CLR) and black outlines (BLK). Students completed a pre-test before a body painting teaching session on abdominal referred pain. CLR students used bright block colors, and BLK students mapped outlines in black. Immediately afterward, students sat a mid-test to compare the conditions. Students completed a post-test to compare long-term retention of knowledge four weeks later. There was no difference in knowledge between the two conditions immediately after the teaching (P = 0.653). There was no significant difference in long-term retention of knowledge between those using black outlines and those using color (P = 0.278). The use of color had no impact on short-term or long-term retention of knowledge, despite previously collected qualitative data that color helped memorization. Despite there being no immediate difference in the amount of information retained, the students' enthusiasm for body painting and the use of bold colors warrant body painting's inclusion within the anatomy curriculum. Acceptability plays a significant role in the success of any teaching modality. Additionally, students who undertook the roles of painter or canvas retained similar amounts of information after six weeks (P = 0.505). Students' classification as verbalizer or visualizer did not impact on their test performance.     

Challenges of cultural industry knowledge exchange in live performance audience research

ABSTRACT

With live performance audience research frequently relying on cultural organisations to facilitate access to their audiences, this article addresses the issues involved in evidencing spectators’ responses via discursive methodologies. Recalling a series of empirical projects conducted over the past ten years with a range of theatre practitioners, it examines the conflicts involved in carrying out scholarly studies of audience reception against cultural organisations’ pressures to produce their own ongoing audience evaluations. Examining key concerns about audience research raised by creative practitioners in varying theatrical contexts, from site-specific to building-based work, it addresses the difficulties of understanding live performance reception and aesthetic experience via impact frameworks. It begins by situating these three operations in the context of Knowledge Exchange (KE) between academics within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and those in the creative industry sector.     

Anatomy education for medical students in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland in 2019: A 20-year follow-up

Anatomical education in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland has long been under scrutiny, especially since the reforms triggered in 1993 by the General Medical Council's “Tomorrow's Doctors.” The aim of the current study was to investigate the state of medical student anatomy education in the UK and Ireland in 2019. In all, 39 medical schools completed the survey (100% response rate) and trained 10,093 medical students per year cohort. The teachers comprised 760 individuals, of these 143 were employed on full-time teaching contracts and 103 were employed on education and research contracts. Since a previous survey in 1999, the number of part-time staff has increased by 300%, including a significant increase in the number of anatomy demonstrators. In 2019, anatomy was predominantly taught to medical students in either a system-based or hybrid curriculum. In all, 34 medical schools (87%) used human cadavers to teach anatomy, with a total of 1,363 donors being used per annum. Gross anatomy teaching was integrated with medical imaging in 95% of medical schools, embryology in 81%, living anatomy in 78%, neuroanatomy in 73%, and histology in 68.3%. Throughout their five years of study, medical students are allocated on average 85 h of taught time for gross anatomy, 24 h for neuroanatomy, 24 h for histology, 11 h for living anatomy, and 10 for embryology. In the past 20 years, there has been an average loss of 39 h dedicated to gross anatomy teaching and a reduction in time dedicated to all other anatomy sub-disciplines.     

A New Variant of the Generalized JSM-Method for Automatic Support of Scientific Research

This article reviews a new variant of the generalized JSM-method for automatic support of scientific research (ASRS). This version of the JSM-method applied for ASRS contains ternary predicates of similarity (cause, brake, effect) which contain binary “cause–effect” predicates and explicit brake definitions. The article considers a possibility for the basis of fact partition for the cases of the truth of the generalized method and an inductive method of similarity with a ban on counter-example predicates.     

The Lake Wobegon Effect: A Skeleton in the Testing Closet?

In this article, officials of the U.S. Department of Education explain what they think of the "Lake Wobegon" phenomenon brought to widespread attention by Dr. Cannell– and what the Department is doing about it.     

Anatomical Sciences Education Vol. 5, Issue 1, 2012 Cover Image

Medical students at Durham University, United Kingdom receive instructions using ultrasound echocardiography . In this issue of ASE Dr. Finn and her colleagues compare the efficacy of ultrasound and cadaveric prosections for teaching gross anatomy of the heart.     

Trainee teachers with dyslexia: personal narratives of resilience

This paper tells the stories of two trainee teachers and their personal experiences of dyslexia. Both informants were English and training to be primary school teachers in England. Through drawing on their own experiences of education, the stories illustrate how dyslexia has shaped the self‐concept, self‐esteem and resilience of each informant. The narratives presented in this paper illustrate powerfully the ways in which teachers can have a positive or negative impact on the self‐concepts of students with dyslexia. Both had been inspired by teachers they had met, and these positive role models had given them the confidence to pursue their own ambitions. However, both had encountered teachers who lacked empathy and patience, and these teachers had a detrimental impact on their self‐concepts. For both of these trainee teachers, personal experiences of dyslexia also shaped their professional identities as teachers. Both trainees described themselves as caring and empathic teachers, suggesting that personal experiences of dyslexia had a positive impact on teacher professional identity.