Enhancing postgraduate supervision through a process of conversational inquiry

This paper outlines and begins to evaluate a process to build a critical and reflective community of postgraduate supervisors who can develop their supervision practice through reflective conversations, with the sharing of best practice and reference to research-based evidence. In 2009, the initiative of the Postgraduate Supervisors’ Conversations was set up through the collaboration of the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Postgraduate) and the Teaching Development Unit at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. We designed this initiative to complement the compulsory workshops for postgraduate supervisors that are intended to provide foundation skills. We aimed to create a professional development opportunity that could enhance supervisors’ capacity to manage the ongoing interpersonal and academic complexity of the supervision process as well as its dynamic character. This paper outlines the rationale for the Postgraduate Supervisors’ Conversations, describes its implementation and discusses the implications of an initial evaluative focus group discussion with attendees

DeWitt Wallace Library Annual Report 2014-2015

Summary of library and media services activities for 2014-201

Perfecting Their Craft

A look at five faculty whose interests, both within and outside their professions, make them better teachers

Dagstuhl News January - December 2006

"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic

"Test me and treat me" - attitudes to vitamin D deficiency and supplementation: a qualitative study

© 2015 BMJ Open, "Test me and treat me"-attitudes to vitamin D deficiency and supplementation: a qualitative study. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Challenges and Opportunities: What Can We Learn from Patients Living with Chronic Musculoskeletal Conditions, Health Professionals and Carers about the Concept of Health Literacy Using Qualitative Methods of Inquiry?

The field of health literacy continues to evolve and concern public health researchers and yet remains a largely overlooked concept elsewhere in the healthcare system. We conducted focus group discussions in England UK, about the concept of health literacy with older patients with chronic musculoskeletal conditions (mean age = 73.4 years), carers and health professionals. Our research posed methodological, intellectual and practical challenges. Gaps in conceptualisation and expectations were revealed, reiterating deficiencies in predominant models for understanding health literacy and methodological shortcomings of using focus groups in qualitative research for this topic. Building on this unique insight into what the concept of health literacy meant to participants, we present analysis of our findings on factors perceived to foster and inhibit health literacy and on the issue of responsibility in health literacy. Patients saw health literacy as a result of an inconsistent interactive process and the implications as wide ranging; healthcare professionals had more heterogeneous views. All focus group discussants agreed that health literacy most benefited from good inter-personal communication and partnership. By proposing a needs-based approach to health literacy we offer an alternative way of conceptualising health literacy to help improve the health of older people with chronic conditions

Dagstuhl News January - December 2000

"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic

Assessment for learning and for self-regulation

Drawing on a research study of formative assessment practices in Irish schools, this paper traces the design, development and pilot of the Assessment for Learning Audit instrument (AfLAi) - a research tool for measuring teachers’ understanding and deployment of formative teaching, learning and assessment practices. Underpinning the paper is an extensive body of international research connecting assessment for learning pedagogy with student self-regulation, mental health and well-being. Reflecting on the potential of the AfLAi as a research tool, an activity systems framework is advanced as a mechanism to engage researchers and teachers in meaningful site-based continuous professional development that supports teachers’ interrogation of aggregated school data derived from their responses to the AfLAi. It is argued that by de-privatising classroom practice in this way and challenging teachers to examine self-reports of their understanding and use of assessment for learning pedagogy, the extent to which students are afforded opportunities to develop as self-regulating learners is laid bare. In turn, the teaching, learning and assessment conditions that serve to create and sustain selfregulation by students emerge. The paper is premised on a commitment to a biopsychosocial approach to mental health and to an inter-disciplinary, multi-lens, research agenda that will yield comprehensive, dynamic insights and understandings to inform future practice.peer-reviewe