Course evaluation matters: improving students’ learning experiences with a peer-assisted teaching programme

In the rapidly changing global higher education sector, greater attention is being paid to the quality of university teaching. However, academics have traditionally not received formal teacher training. The peer-assisted teaching programme reported on in this paper provides a structured yet flexible approach for peers to assist each other in reinvigorating and refining their teaching practice. Academics participated in this national, multi-institutional trial for varied reasons: the majority voluntarily, others to increase low student evaluation of course scores and some as part of a graduate certificate teaching qualification. Here we report on how academics used the scheme, and the teaching areas they focused on. Student evaluation of course scores increased in the majority of courses, suggesting the changes made had a positive effect on students’ learning experiences. The experiences of the multi-institutional trial reported here may benefit others considering such a scheme to reinvigorate and refine teaching practice and improve course evaluation scores.     

Young people's involvement in service evaluation and decision making

This study examined young people's decision making on issues that affect their lives: bullying in different contexts (e.g., family, peer groups, school) and their involvement in evaluating the availability and effectiveness of support services (e.g., disability, care). Key aims of this study were to offer young people a platform to evaluate existing services and make recommendations towards their improvement, and to discuss ways of tackling bullying at school. Focus groups were formed with 54 young people who had experienced challenges due to bullying, learning difficulties/disabilities, and caring responsibilities for family members with disabling conditions, and discussions about services and decision making on issues that affect their lives were facilitated. The findings point to a sense of agency in young people's lives with regard to evaluating and negotiating services and offering suggestions for their improvement within their family and peers. However, in their view, their decisions regarding bullying exerted limited influence within the school context. These results raised interesting issues about young people's capacity to evaluate services and the contextual influences on their involvement in decision making.     

In practice: “Green on the screen”: Promoting sustainability through a campus film series

The authors describe the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Sustainability Film Series and the impact it has had on both the university and local communities.     

The effects of carbohydrate ingestion on the badminton serve after fatiguing exercise

The badminton serve requires great skill and may be affected by fatigue. The aim of the present study was to determine whether carbohydrate ingestion affects badminton performance. Nine male badminton players (age 25 ± 7 years, mass 80.6 ± 8.0 kg) attended the laboratory on three occasions. The first visit involved an incremental exercise test to exhaustion to determine peak heart rate. Participants were given 1 L of a carbohydrate-electrolyte drink or a matched placebo during the experimental trials. The accuracy of 10 long and 10 short serves was determined before and after exercise. The fatiguing exercise was 33 min in duration (83 ± 10% and 84 ± 8% peak heart rate for the placebo and carbohydrate trial respectively). Capillary blood samples (20 μL) were taken before and after exercise for determination of blood glucose and lactate. There was deterioration in long serve accuracy with fatigue (P = 0.002), which carbohydrate ingestion had a tendency to prevent (P = 0.077). There was no effect of fatigue (P = 0.402) or carbohydrate ingestion (P = 0.109) on short serve accuracy. There was no difference in blood glucose concentration between trials (P = 0.851). Blood lactate concentration was higher during the placebo trial (P = 0.016). These results suggest that only the long serve is influenced by fatigue and carbohydrate had a tendency to prevent the deterioration in performance.     

The Socratic method,defeasibility, and doxastic responsibility

There is an extensive body of philosophical, educational, and popular literature explaining Socratic pedagogy’s epistemological and educational ambitions. However, there is virtually no literature clarifying the relationship between Socratic method and doxastic responsibility. This article fills that gap in the literature by arguing that the Socratic method models many of the features of an ideally doxastically responsible agent. It ties a robust notion of doxastic responsibility to the Socratic method by showing how using defeaters to undermine participants’ knowledge claims can facilitate responsible belief. It then argues that more robust notions of doxastic responsibility can be augmented by constructs found in the American Philosophical Association’s Delphi Report. Finally, it shows how considering challenges (that is, entertaining defeaters) and modifying beliefs accordingly are objectives of the Socratic method and crucial elements of what it means to be a responsible believer.     

Can athletes’ reports of self-regulated learning distinguish deliberate practice from physical preparation activity?

Sustained persistence in deliberate practice (DP) could be aided by engagement in adaptive motivational and metacognitive types of self-regulated learning (SRL) processes. We examined relationships between SRL and each of DP and physical preparation (PP; e.g., cross-training) in supervised, unsupervised, social and non-social practice contexts. 272 individual-sport athletes (from city to international level; M sport activity = 13.54 hrs/wk; 200 males, ages 18–35) completed the Self-Regulation of Learning Self-Report Scale and reported weekly DP and PP amounts. We found contrasting results depending on specific SRL processes. Self-monitoring was related to DP (total, supervised, social conditions) but inversely related to PP. Effort was inversely related to supervised DP but positively associated with PP. Planning was associated with DP, and reflection and self-efficacy related to PP. We discuss the contrast between DP and PP, highlighting differences in the nature of these practice activities, and self-monitoring as a key SRL process for DP.