What price presentation? The effects of typographic variables on essay grades

The marks awarded to 130 second‐year undergraduate word‐processed essays were assessed in relation to their use of different typographic features. By and large most of these features had little effect on the essay grades. However, essays printed in 12‐point type gained significantly higher marks (mean = 56.8) than essays printed in 10‐point type (mean = 52.7), and essays using a combination of popular features (Times Roman, 12‐point, double‐spaced unjustified text, and a line‐space to denote new paragraphs) gained significantly higher marks (mean = 59.6) than those using other combinations (mean = 55.8).     

Safe but not safe: LGBTTIQA+ students’ experiences of a university campus

ABSTRACT

This article explores an apparent contradiction in LGBTTIQA+ students' narratives around how safe they feel on campus. While declaring they feel ‘safe’ and supported by other students and staff, participants’ narratives contain a myriad of examples indicating they feel ‘unsafe’. These incidents emerge during photo-elicitation interviews where participants discuss photos they have taken of being LGBTTIQA+ on campus. This talk reveals episodes of name-calling, fear of coming out, lack of gender-neutral toilets and inclusive practices for pursuing discrimination. Instead of dismissing the discrepancy between these examples of discrimination and participants’ declaration that they feel ‘safe’ as illusionary, we seek to understand what this might reveal about the nuances of queerphobia’s operation on campus. We argue that participants’ state of feeling simultaneously ‘safe and unsafe’ is reflective of inconsistencies in their institutional treatment. While the university they attend actively supports LGBTTIQA+ students with a ‘Zero tolerance for discrimination’ policy, this campaign is not underpinned by structures and processes that are truly inclusive. The way participants feel represents an embodied materialisation of discrepancies in this institutional approach. The study reveals the complex way queerphobia operates, enabling institutional actions to be responsive, and yet, still discriminatory.     

The student–staff partnership movement: striving for inclusion as we push sectorial change

ABSTRACT

A growing number of practitioners are re-envisioning higher education through student–staff partnership. Such a culture shift toward partnership can only be achieved through collaborative efforts among academic developers, other faculty/staff, and students. Using evidence from literature and my own reflections, I map the ways this partnership movement is unfolding across contexts. In doing so, I hope to provide a sense of camaraderie for practitioners in outlining how individual practices contribute to sectorial change, to question how we could be more inclusive in this movement, and to provide suggestions for expanding the movement in the future.     

The conceptualisation and impact of a post-graduate course in lesson and learning study

ABSTRACT

This paper tells a story about the design, development and impact of a post-graduate Masters-level module aimed at (1) enabling groups of teachers within schools to develop innovative approaches to teaching and learning on the basis of their own Lesson Studies and (2) creating a school network of excellence for Lesson Study in the area as a context for building a cumulative evidence-base, which focuses on identifying and resolving enduring problems of teaching and learning in schools.

The first part of the paper outlines the curriculum for the module and sets the innovative conceptual framework that underpins its design . This framework is innovative because it connects and unifies a number of distinct pedagogical perspectives. It links the methodology of Japanese Lesson Study with Stenhouse’s idea of ‘the teacher as a researcher’ and his ‘process model’ of curriculum development as an alternative to the globally dominant ‘objectives model’. Then in turn, the framework incorporates Marton and Booth’s pedagogical theory of ‘variation’.

The paper argues that linking and fusing Lesson Study methodology with this wider context of pedagogical ideas unambiguously renders teacher research as learning study.     

Employability,managerialism, and performativity in higher education: a relational perspective

This article combines Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus and cultural capital with Lyotard’s account of performativity to construct a three-tiered framework in order to explore how managerialism has affected the academic habitus. Specifically, this article examines the adoption of group assignments as a means of developing teamwork skills in one Australian case study organisation. On a macrolevel, by viewing the employability imperative as one manifestation of managerialism in the higher education field, we argue that managerialism has created a performative culture in the case study organisation evidenced by an increasing emphasis on performance indicators. On a mesolevel, by examining how academics use group assessments to respond to demands made by governments and employers for ‘employable graduates’, we highlight the continuity of academic habitus. Finally, on a microlevel by drawing on alumni reflections regarding their experiences of group assessments at university, we are able to shed some light on their evaluation of this pedagogical tool.     

Teachers as writers: learning together with others

In the context of renewed interest in teachers' identities as writers and the writers as artist‐educators, this paper reports upon the findings of “Teachers as Writers” (2015–2017). A collaborative partnership between two universities and a creative writing foundation, the study sought to determine the impact of writers' engagement with teachers on changing teachers' classroom practices in the teaching of writing and, as a consequence, in improving outcomes for students. The project afforded opportunities for writers and teachers to work together as learners in order to improve student outcomes. The study involved two complementary datasets: a qualitative dataset of observations, interviews, audio‐capture (of workshops, tutorials and co‐mentoring reflections) and audio‐diaries from 16 teachers; and a randomised controlled trial (RCT) involving 32 primary and secondary classes. The findings reveal that the teachers' identities and assurance as writers shifted significantly. The Arvon experience also led to pedagogic shifts which the students reported impacted positively upon their motivation, confidence and sense of ownership and skills as writers. However, these salient dispositional shifts did not impact upon the young people's attainment. The professional writers gained new understandings which substantially altered their conceptions of writers' potential contribution in schools.     

In the spirit of William Georgetti: scrutiny of a prestigious national scholarship selection process

Postgraduate scholarship programmes are increasingly important for supporting gifted students from diverse backgrounds. Systems and processes in the application, determination and delivery of scholarships must be robust, transparent, accountable and equitable. However, they are rarely evaluated. One of the most prestigious scholarships in New Zealand – the William Georgetti Scholarship – is investigated here for the impact of student’s grade point averages (GPAs) and sex on applicant’s progression, the level of agreement between Scholarship Board member rankings, and whether applicants or members’ sex is material to any outcomes. Data from 2007 to 2015 were extracted, and contained 301 applicants considered for shortlisting, 78 who were shortlisted and 60 successful recipients evaluated by 17 Scholarship Board members (5 female, 12 male). Mean GPAs significantly increased over time amongst applicants, those shortlisted, and those successful. While 60% of applicants were female, only 49% of those shortlisted were female; however, this was explained by GPA differences. Some 52% of successful applicants were female. Ranking discordance amongst members was relatively high, but no differential sex biases were noted. The empirical results suggest that current systems and processes are consistent with the scholarship’s deed, although the difference in GPA scores between female and male applicants is of concern.     

Stretching the blanket: Legal reforms affecting child witnesses

The author presents an overview of the changes in the rules of evidence that now govern criminal prosecutions of child sexual abuse and civil proceedings. The United States Supreme Court has issued six decisions that profoundly affect the receipt of children's testimony and expert testimony assaying the reliability of children's reported experiences. These cases as well as the Michaels prosecution in New Jersey have been catalysts for reform, exposing the pretrial investigative processes as the critical determinant of the reliability of trial evidence from children. She concludes that the next frontier is the application of social science research to the shaping of legislative standards and administrative guidelines aimed at minimizing the contamination of children's testimony during the pretrial staging of litigation.     

Methods of teaching on-line bibliographic searching: Experience at the College of Librarianship Wales

We have been teaching students about on-line bibliographic searching since 1972. With the help of British Library Research and Development Department funding we have recently extended our teaching in this area and now use services such as Lockheed, System Development Corporation and the British Library's BLAISE. This paper discusses aspects of the design of courses on on-line bibliographic searching, describes various methods we have used to demonstrate searches to students in order to prepare them for undertaking a live search themselves, and compares the relative costs, in terms of system costs and staff time, of these methods. The methods of demonstration involve the playing back of recorded searches on videotape, audio cassettes and digital cassettes as well as live demonstration and may be of interest to other teachers of library and information science students or to those involved in the training of people to carry out on-line bibliographic searching.     

Thinking about your running movement makes you less efficient: attentional focus effects on running economy and kinematics

A number of studies have shown that attentional focus instructions can effect running economy. This study assessed spiroergometry, as well as running kinematics as a possible mechanism to explain these effects. Twelve runners had to focus their attention on either their running movement, their breathing or on a video while running on a treadmill at a set, submaximum speed. Spiroergometry and running kinematics were measured. Results revealed worse running economy in both internal focus conditions (breathing and movement) compared to the external focus condition (video), replicating previous findings. In addition, vertical oscillation during the running movement was elevated in the movement compared to the video condition, indicating a less efficient running style. No changes in kinematics were found for the breathing compared to the video condition. Therefore, consciously focusing on the running movement moves runners away from their optimised running pattern and leads to detriments in economy. The decreases in running economy in the breathing condition can be better explained by changes in breathing patterns.