Revictimization Through Education: Does Learning About Victimization Lead to Anxiety and Identification as a Victim Among College Students?

Researchers generally accept that victims may experience revictimization in the criminal justice system when they relive victimization experiences while recounting the victimization to criminal justice officials. In addition, scholars have drawn attention to the need to be sensitive in victimology courses and other courses focusing on victimization. In this study, the authors examine whether victims experience forms of revictimization when learning about victimization in college courses. Attention is also given to whether learning about victimization promotes self-identification as a victim. Our findings suggest that minor forms of revictimization may occur. A sizeable portion of the students reported learning that they were victimized in the past as a result of the course material. Implications for teaching victimology are provided.     

Beyond games and sports: a socio-ecological approach to physical education

Acknowledging the performative sporting discourses which continue to dominate physical education, and the emerging focus on disease prevention within this context, this paper presents a socio-ecological framework for physical education that aims to shift the focus towards more multidimensional understandings of what it means to be ‘physically educated’. In doing so, we hope to prompt physical educators in schools and undergraduate programmes to more confidently employ intra-personal, inter-personal and environmental lenses through which to view and understand physical education, and therefore extend the gaze beyond activity-driven practice and ‘downstream’ exercise for health. The proposed framework draws upon established socio-ecological models and encompasses functional, recreational, health-related and performance-related physical activities. The multi-layered complexity associated with the field of physical education is reflected within the proposed socio-ecological framework. Through embracing complexity, particularly the interactions between layers of influence, the framework encourages exploration of the ‘physical’ beyond its subordinate components like fitness, body mass index, tactical awareness or motor skills. The framework is inclusive of games and sports but questions how these activities can be connected in the everyday lives of the learners. Importantly, the framework provided is not an approach to teaching and learning and, on its own, will do little to address the ongoing critique about the privileging of performative and health discourses within physical education. As they have in other fields, socio-ecological frames can provide a useful reference for the teaching and learning of physical education. To produce physically educated citizens in the broadest sense, teachers need to be supported, across multiple levels, to reposition their field to that of a connected specialism contributing to the whole curriculum and the communities within which they are located. It is our contention that socio-ecological frames can serve as useful tools to facilitate such a repositioning.     

Exploring the development of competence in Lean management through action learning groups: a study of the introduction of Lean to a facilities management function

The introduction of a Lean approach to management requires the development of understanding and capability. This in turn requires a structured training intervention and other supporting activities. This paper explores, through a case study, the way in which action learning groups (ALGs) supported the development of Lean capabilities in the facilities management (FM) function of a large organisation. This case study indicates that Lean can be applied in a FM context and that ALGs are effective in supporting such a development in capability. Some environmental factors are identified as having an impact on the likelihood of success in using ALGs: leadership engagement, perceived level of empowerment, organisational readiness, level of resource committed and individual readiness to be involved.     

The NSEAD Survey Report 2015–16: Political Reflections from Two Art and Design Educators

In 2015 the (UK) National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD) conducted their biggest and most comprehensive survey to date with art and design educators. Some 1,191 teachers and lecturers employed in early years to further education settings across England and Wales responded to the survey, which aimed to capture how government policy since 2010 has affected art and design education. Four key areas were examined: curriculum provision; value given to the subject within the school community; professional development opportunities; and well‐being and workload. The results are troubling, indicating a systemic marginalisation of art and design across all sectors, evident in a reduction in choice, provision and curriculum time, and evidence of falling standards in student attainment at primary to secondary transfer. We supported the NSEAD with constructing the survey and writing the report and in this article we utilise the Survey Report to fuel a broader discussion about our concerns regarding the demise of art and design education. Value is identified as an essential theme and we posit that our subject, largely due to neoliberalist policy, is currently perceived as a ‘bimbo’: attractive, but unintelligent and frivolous. In this article we pay particular attention to the value of art and design education from a political perspective, challenging narrow government agendas.     

Attitudes about Group Work among Criminal Justice Students: The Influence of Participation in Group Projects

Past research has considered factors that contribute to students’ attitudes about group projects. Much of this research has focused on the influence of demographic characteristics such as gender, race, and age. This study extends that past research and considers whether participating in group projects potentially changes students’ attitudes about group projects. Surveys were conducted with 85 students, 48 of whom had just completed a group project. Results showed that students who just completed a group project had slightly different attitudes about group projects than those who did not. Attention was also given to the total number of group projects to which students were exposed. Analyses showed that those who were exposed to more group projects held different attitudes about group projects than those who had fewer group projects. Implications are provided.     

Communication and practice with examination criteria. Does this influence performance in examinations?

Previous research has demonstrated that the development and communication of explicit marking criteria have resulted in improved grades for students. This improvement in performance has only been reported for coursework assignments. Therefore, it was the purpose of this study to investigate the impact of providing explicit marking criteria, alongside practice with the criteria, on student examination grades. Two cohorts attending their second year on a sport science degree were used. The first cohort served as a control group and the second cohort as an experimental group. The control group sat the examination without any prior knowledge of the marking criteria, and the experimental group was given a marksheet before the examination that contained the marking criteria. There was a significant difference (p < 0.001) between the examination grades of the experimental and control group. The mean examination grades achieved were 55.4% and 36.9% for the experimental and control group, respectively. Subsequent focus groups revealed that the experimental group considered that they were much better prepared and equipped to revise for the examination, and the marksheet encouraged self‐reflection on their progress. The experimental group reported that they felt they had more control over preparation for the examination and higher levels of confidence in taking the examination.     

The Significance of Experience in SLE Research

’Experience’ is at the root of individual, socio‐environmental existence. Inquiries into its more ‘significant’ moments and episodes have arrived at a potentially important body of knowledge in environmental education. However, in the absence of parallel research efforts that demonstrate how the findings of those inquiries translate into contextually sensitive and socially useful educational practices, this discussion returns conceptually to questions posed by Louise Chawla about ‘inner nature’ and how significance of experience is socially constructed. To that future research agenda, I add the further question of how those constructions of ‘significance’ must be seen in relation to dominant social constructions of the ‘environment/nature’, sensitivity and activism. This begs the further question, exacerbated somewhat by the above lack of a connection with existing educational practices, of how teachers’ and learners’ thoughts and actions might also need to be examined in relation to dominant conceptions of the environment/ nature and constructions of environmental education. Consequently, by focusing on the ‘continuity of experience’, this response to issues raised primarily by Chawla about inner nature and other assertions by Tanner about the ‘right subjects’ also addresses broader tensions in environmental education. Significant life experiences (SLE) researchers should continue to refine their understandings of the ontological significance of the central category of human ‘experience’.