School playgroups: Which features of provision matter?

This paper identifies the shared features of provision in exemplar school playgroups defined using the social capital concepts of bonding and bridging relationships. Relationships promote capabilities amongst people, with play a known capability for advancing children's developmental and educational outcomes. By attending to the bonding and bridging relationships in each school playgroup, exemplar groups were identified and studied to reveal their shared features of provision. Six main features of provision were identified, including materials, facilitator, space, location, scheduling and health and safety. Awareness of these features may benefit school leaders and/or governance seeking to implement a school playgroup within their own community. Findings from this project suggest high-performing school playgroups can operate in areas of lower and higher socioeconomic status and/or parental education, and in regional and rural areas.     

How do students’ accounts of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees?

In this article we examine how students’ accounts of the discipline of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees. Based on a phenomenographic analysis of 86 interviews with 32 sociology and criminology students over the course of their undergraduate degrees, we constituted five different ways of accounting for sociology. These ranged from describing sociology as a form of personal development focused on developing the students’ opinion to describing sociology as a partial way of studying the relations between people and society. The majority of students expressed more inclusive accounts of sociology over the course of their degrees. However, some students’ accounts suggested they had become disengaged with sociology. We argue that the differences in the ways that students were disengaged were not captured by our phenomenographic categories. In conclusion, we argue that our analysis illustrates the crucial role that students’ relations to knowledge play in understanding the transformative nature of higher education.     

Self and Team Development in Practice (STP) Walk Bally

An evaluation study was conducted to assess strengths and weaknesses of an outdoor‐based experiential training (OBET) program used in Thailand. Self and Team Development in Practice (STP) Walk Rally is used as a case. Most of the principles in adult theory, experiential learning theory, and Holton's HRD [human resource development] Evaluation Research and Measurement Model are met by the STP Walk Rally, but it cannot promise transfer of learning. In the Thai culture, sanuk, or having fun, is the best element of the training design. However, face‐to‐face feedback is not appropriate for Thais. Recommendations for practice and research are made.