The Numeracies of Boatbuilding: New Numeracies Shaped by Workplace Technologies

Within increasing pressure on young people to perform successfully in work, there is a growing concern regarding their levels of numeracy (and literacy). Whether such concerns are founded is the basis of this paper. This paper reports on the numeracy practices undertaken by three young boatbuilders who were nearing the completion of their 4-year apprenticeship. Using a method of stimulated recall and supplemented with interview data, the numeracy practices enacted by the boatbuilders was documented. It was found that the employees were highly competent in a number of areas—estimation, problem solving, holistic thinking and measuring (formal and informal). These skills are at variance with the basic skills being called for by public and government. It is proposed that the numeracy skills used by the employees may represent significant changes in workplaces being brought about through new technologies, and thus creating new and different numeracy demands from those of previous generations.     

Expertise and the PhD: Between depth and a flat place

Expertise is under sustained interrogation. We see it in so‐called edu‐scepticism and pessimism about graduates’ apparently diminishing employment prospects, challenges to the role of Higher Education institutions as arbiters of knowledge and post‐truth rhetoric more broadly. This paper examines how the PhD is being discursively positioned in this context. We ask what these changing conceptions of expertise, education and work mean for how PhD‐level expertise is understood. Drawing on a range of sources, from the scholarly to the wider media, we draw together five exemplar models of expertise to expose the transforming ratio between generalist, transferable skills and specialist knowledge. The evident diminution of specialisation raises numerous issues for the PhD as it is increasingly called upon to serve multiple and potentially contradictory needs: an innovation society on the one hand and the discipline on the other. Reconciling the tension between depth and breadth is an important issue for a degree whose hallmark is—or at least has been—depth.     

Exploring the Impact of Assessment on Medical Students’ Learning

Abstract

What and how students learn depend largely on how they think they will be assessed. This study aimed to explore medical students’ perception of the value of assessment and feedback on their learning, and how this relates to their examination performance. A mixed methods research design was adopted in which a questionnaire was developed and administered to the students to gain their perceptions of assessments. Perceptions were further explored in focus group discussions. Survey findings were correlated with students’ performance data and academic coordinators’ perceptions. Students’ perceptions of the level of difficulty of different assessments mirrored their performance in examinations, with an improvement observed in clinical assessments as students progressed through their degree. Students recognised that feedback is important to allow improvements and seek more timely, better quality and personalised feedback. Academic coordinators identified that some of the students’ suggestions are more realistic than others. Students had a positive attitude towards assessment, but emphasised the need for educators to highlight the relevance of assessment to clinical practice.     

Promoting a Research Agenda in Education within and beyond Policy and Practice*

Educational research should both inform policy and practice and be forward looking, anticipating the future questions of policymakers, teachers and the community. This paper uses one research organisation, the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER), as a case study to illustrate possible strategies for promoting research through utilising and building upon research-policymaking and research-practice linkages. It highlights some of the issues, opportunities, and risks for research resulting from the demand for evidence-based policy and from the trend for practitioners to be integral to the research team as research partners and as researchers. It also raises some challenges for research organisations if they are to work effectively both within and beyond the policy and practice parameters of the day. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Multicriteria analysis: Managing complexity in selecting a student-information system

Seattle University recently decided to replace three separate, computerized student-information systems with a single, integrated system. The complexity of this decision was managed with a multicriteria method which was used to evaluate alternative systems. The method took into account the many and sometimes conflicting concerns of the people who would use whatever system was finally selected. Multicriteria analysis not only provided a way of managing a large amount of information, but apparently reduced people's resistance to change. The method is simple in structure and can be adapted to different kinds of decisions and decision-making processes encountered by institutional researchers.Presented at the Twenty Eighth Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Phoenix, Ariz., May 1988.     

Genomics Literacy: Implications for Teaching Students with a Range of Special Needs

Recent developments in genomic-based knowledge is challenging educators to learn more about the early precursors of various difficulties children experience in learning and how they can use this information to identify preventative strategies or strategies that minimise their effect. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief outline of what is already known about some genetic disorders and some other disorders currently identified in the genome, the role of the teacher in understanding individual student needs, and how teachers can address some of the challenges posed. This article is fundamentally a review of the literature concerning genomics and genomic literacy and the implications for teachers in regular classes.     

Reporting on a survey of peer-reviewed publishing in cultural materials conservation: perceptions,preferences, and decision-making

Specialist publications are an important part of professional and disciplinary development. They serve to communicate research; enable the development of a shared, contestable, and expanding knowledge base; support the educational programmes that advance the profession; grow practice; and inform the evolution of the discipline. In conservation, professional and peer-reviewed journals and other forms of publications support cultural, organisational, and scientific development; facilitate new and improved forms of conservation professional practice; enable the growth of a distinctive research-led discipline; and help conservation to more effectively compete with other disciplines for influence and funding. This paper reports on the findings of a study that investigated conservators’ opinions and experiences of peer-reviewed publishing. This study examined the value conservators place on the dissemination of their research; the obstacles to, and incentives in publishing; the views held by conservators of the benefits of publication to themselves and the field; and the impact of the field's inherent interdisciplinarity on the pattern of conservation publishing. Eighty-six conservators (conservators and conservation scientists) and ten journal editors completed an online questionnaire focusing on the communication of knowledge within the field of cultural materials conservation. Findings suggest that while the peer review process is valued, a significant number who responded indicated a preference for forms of communication other than in peer review journals or publishing in general.     

Reducing misinformation effects in children with cognitive interviews: dissociating recollection and familiarity

Two experiments examined the effect of a cognitive interview on 4- and 8-year-old children's correct recall and subsequent reporting of misinformation. Children viewed an event followed by misinformation that was read or self-generated either before or after a cognitive interview. Children were then given a recognition test under inclusion and exclusion instructions. A cognitive interview elicited more correct details than a control interview. Age-related changes were found such that the 8-year-old children's reports were more complete and they recalled more correct person, action, object, and location details than the 4-year-old children. A cognitive interview given after postevent misinformation reduced children's reporting of misinformation at interview and reduced reporting of self-generated misinformation at test. Process dissociation analyses revealed that recollection increased but familiarity decreased with age.