Demystifying and Decluttering Participation in Software Engineering Education Programmes

Academics and employers can partner to deliver professional software engineering education via work-based learning (WBL) programmes. These programmes have the potential to engage and motivate under-represented groups, including those that would not normally engage in higher education. However, challenges still exist in supporting such individuals in participating in WBL programmes. Consequently, we discuss a project on broadening participation in WBL software engineering to support individuals from under-represented groups to participate in software engineering education

The difficulties of conceptualising and operationalising critical thinking through assessment practices: a case study of academics in a UK business school

Critical thinking defines a university education. If universities are nurturing critical thinkers then this should be apparent from and demonstrated through assessment. This is challenging, however, because critical thinking is subject to wide interpretation, with little or no academic consensus as to its specification. Additionally, assessment in higher education has long been a challenging issue, particularly so for complex higher-order thinking. Research continues to demonstrate considerable variability across assessors and the literature affords many reasons for this, but hitherto unexplored is the potential role played by differing conceptualisations of critical thinking as applied to the task of assessing students’ work. In response, this thesis examines how participants - academics in a UK university business school - conceive of critical thinking in application to assessing undergraduate dissertations. A case study methodology is employed, with a qualitative approach to data collection (via semi-structured interviews involving document elicitation) and thematic analysis, underpinned by social constructionism. The findings illustrate the perceived facets of an undergraduate student as critical thinker, and identify how individualised approaches to assessment differ, questioning the effectiveness of mitigating institutional mechanisms. This thesis adds to our theoretical understanding of critical thinking in higher education, in demonstrating that participants conceptualise critical thinking as a set of skills, dispositions and originality, and in proposing a link between models of epistemological development and academics’ assessment related expectations of students’ critical thinking. Further practical contributions are offered through demonstrating what participants look for as evidence of students’ critical thinking and how this can influence assessment, together with the challenges to achieving consistency and averting grade variation. These could be of use to institutions, academics and students, subject to considerations of transferability

Contexts of cultural capital in collaborative practice in further education.

This study explores ownership and manifestations of cultural capital (Bourdieu 1984) demonstrated by a sample of lecturers in the UK Further Education ('FE') sector and the influence this has on cross-college collaborative practice. The research was conducted at three colleges in the English Midlands in 2010-11 employing a researcher-as-bricoleur approach (Kincheloe 2002). Knowledge explaining inhibitor or activator mechanisms involved in collaborative working is essential if the sector is to gain from the opportunities of innovative problem solving afforded by communities of practice (Wenger et al. 2002). The significance of this knowledge is amplified when considered against the background of efficiency pressures resulting from funding cuts to FE proposed in the Government's 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review. The study found the types and magnitude of lecturers' cultural capital and the patterns of its deployment should act, in the main, as enablers for collaborative practice. Despite their middle-class professional status lecturers tend to exhibit popularist to middlebrow cultural affinities. The minority of practitioners who possessed 'highbrow' cultural capital tend to classify as cultural omnivores rather than exhibiting traits solely associated with univores (Peterson 1992, Peterson and Kern 1996). Few lines of cultural cleavage were found, with one notable exception. There was evidence of antipathy resulting from dislocations of capital owned by lecturers delivering Higher Education programmes in the FE environment and their predominantly FE line managers and FE lecturer colleagues. The asset value of cultural capital is depressed in comparison to more valuable 'organisational knowledge' capitals, for example an understanding of college bureaucratic practice and procedure. Deployment of high cultural capital where it might be exchanged for status tends to be suppressed. There was evidence of strong enthusiasm for collaboration, possibly due to the tolerance of the cultural omnivore (Erickson 1996), but Homo Actificivm is encountering significant obstacles to cross-college working: physical isolationism, the precarite of job insecurity (Bourdieu 1998a), andrestrictions imposed by inter-departmental competition within college. The thesis argues that to promote innovative collaborative practice Further Education colleges should rebalance the emphasis in their accommodation strategies to give more of an equal weighting to staff provision as they do for students. In the light of the findings, wherever possible, colleges should consider enlarging staffrooms and providing additional cost-efficient informal social network spaces for their staff organised around the optimum 'Dunbar number' (Dunbar 1992) in order to catalyse 'community'. The lecturer 'species' Homo Artificium is contrived from the study's results. Its name, etymologically from the Latin 'artificium', encompasses the notion of skill, ability and opportunity. It attempts to encapsulate FE's raison d'etre that of the UK's "Lifelong Learning and Skills Sector". The characteristics of the species are dissimilar to a distant relative, Homo Academicus, postulated by Bourdieu (1984b) following his research into the cultural capital possessed by Parisian university academics [pun intended]. My interpretation of Homo Artificium is depicted on the bookmark

Transitioning to a circular economy

We are living on a finite planet. Mankind is overstepping planetary boundaries, however. In 2021, worldwide consumption has exceeded the yearly bio-capacity of the Earth (what we call the overshoot day) on the 29th of July. For industrialised countries, the situation is far worse: In 2022, Belgium reached that overshoot day on the 26th of March. In the face of these urgent challenges of sustainable resource use, there is wide agreement on the need for a transition, a fundamental societal shift, towards, amongst others, a circular economy (CE), the focus of this book. The book speaks deliberately of transitioning. This marks our focus on transition processes and activities. Discussions of ‘the transition’ easily get stuck in abstract visions, remote future goals and ideological statements about the desired world of tomorrow. By contrast, much more attention needs to be paid to concrete transformation processes that could lead towards these projected futures. Transition how? Where to? By whom? We highlight that companies are key actors in CE transitioning. This edited volume presents key outcomes from the “Transitioning Belgian companies into circularity” research chair, established by Belgian Employers’ Federation FEB/VBO. Whilst focusing on the role of companies, we show how the private sector cannot bring about such societal transformations single-handedly. We consider companies as embedded transition agents, i.e. as actors that operate as parts of broader business ecosystems

Assuming Data Integrity and Empirical Evidence to The Contrary

Background: Not all respondents to surveys apply their minds or understand the posed questions, and as such provide answers which lack coherence, and this threatens the integrity of the research. Casual inspection and limited research of the 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10), included in the dataset of the World Values Survey (WVS), suggested that random responses may be common. Objective: To specify the percentage of cases in the BRI-10 which include incoherent or contradictory responses and to test the extent to which the removal of these cases will improve the quality of the dataset. Method: The WVS data on the BFI-10, measuring the Big Five Personality (B5P), in South Africa (N=3 531), was used. Incoherent or contradictory responses were removed. Then the cases from the cleaned-up dataset were analysed for their theoretical validity. Results: Only 1 612 (45.7%) cases were identified as not including incoherent or contradictory responses. The cleaned-up data did not mirror the B5P- structure, as was envisaged. The test for common method bias was negative. Conclusion: In most cases the responses were incoherent. Cleaning up the data did not improve the psychometric properties of the BFI-10. This raises concerns about the quality of the WVS data, the BFI-10, and the universality of B5P-theory. Given these results, it would be unwise to use the BFI-10 in South Africa. Researchers are alerted to do a proper assessment of the psychometric properties of instruments before they use it, particularly in a cross-cultural setting

Leading Towards Voice and Innovation: The Role of Psychological Contract

Background: Empirical evidence generally suggests that psychological contract breach (PCB) leads to negative outcomes. However, some literature argues that, occasionally, PCB leads to positive outcomes. Aim: To empirically determine when these positive outcomes occur, focusing on the role of psychological contract (PC) and leadership style (LS), and outcomes such as employ voice (EV) and innovative work behaviour (IWB). Method: A cross-sectional survey design was adopted, using reputable questionnaires on PC, PCB, EV, IWB, and leadership styles. Correlation analyses were used to test direct links within the model, while regression analyses were used to test for the moderation effects. Results: Data with acceptable psychometric properties were collected from 11 organisations (N=620). The results revealed that PCB does not lead to substantial changes in IWB. PCB correlated positively with prohibitive EV, but did not influence promotive EV, which was a significant driver of IWB. Leadership styles were weak predictors of EV and IWB, and LS only partially moderated the PCB-EV relationship. Conclusion: PCB did not lead to positive outcomes. Neither did LS influencing the relationships between PCB and EV or IWB. Further, LS only partially influenced the relationships between variables, and not in a manner which positively influence IWB

Transitioning to a circular economy

We are living on a finite planet. Mankind is overstepping planetary boundaries, however. In 2021, worldwide consumption has exceeded the yearly bio-capacity of the Earth (what we call the overshoot day) on the 29th of July. For industrialised countries, the situation is far worse: In 2022, Belgium reached that overshoot day on the 26th of March. In the face of these urgent challenges of sustainable resource use, there is wide agreement on the need for a transition, a fundamental societal shift, towards, amongst others, a circular economy (CE), the focus of this book. The book speaks deliberately of transitioning. This marks our focus on transition processes and activities. Discussions of ‘the transition’ easily get stuck in abstract visions, remote future goals and ideological statements about the desired world of tomorrow. By contrast, much more attention needs to be paid to concrete transformation processes that could lead towards these projected futures. Transition how? Where to? By whom? We highlight that companies are key actors in CE transitioning. This edited volume presents key outcomes from the “Transitioning Belgian companies into circularity” research chair, established by Belgian Employers’ Federation FEB/VBO. Whilst focusing on the role of companies, we show how the private sector cannot bring about such societal transformations single-handedly. We consider companies as embedded transition agents, i.e. as actors that operate as parts of broader business ecosystems