Aligning everyday life priorities with people's self-management support networks: an exploration of the work and implementation of a needs-led telephone support system

Background: Recent initiatives to target the personal, social and clinical needs of people with long-term health conditions have had limited impact within primary care. Evidence of the importance of social networks to support people with long-term conditions points to the need for self-management approaches which align personal circumstances with valued activities. The Patient-Led Assessment for Network Support (PLANS) intervention is a needs-led assessment for patients to prioritise their health and social needs and provide access to local community services and activities. Exploring the work and practices of patients and telephone workers are important for understanding and evaluating the workability and implementation of new interventions. Methods: Qualitative methods (interviews, focus group, observations) were used to explore the experience of PLANS from the perspectives of participants and the telephone support workers who delivered it (as part of an RCT) and the reasons why the intervention worked or not. Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) was used as a sensitising tool to evaluate: the relevance of PLANS to patients (coherence); the processes of engagement (cognitive participation); the work done for PLANS to happen (collective action); the perceived benefits and costs of PLANS (reflexive monitoring). 20 patients in the intervention arm of a clinical trial were interviewed and their telephone support calls were recorded and a focus group with 3 telephone support workers was conducted. Results: Analysis of the interviews, support calls and focus group identified three themes in relation to the delivery and experience of PLANS. These are: formulation of ‘health’ in the context of everyday life; trajectories and tipping points: disrupting everyday routines; precarious trust in networks. The relevance of these themes are considered using NPT constructs in terms of the work that is entailed in engaging with PLANS, taking action, and who is implicated this process. Conclusions: PLANS gives scope to align long-term condition management to everyday life priorities and valued aspects of life. This approach can improve engagement with health-relevant practices by situating them within everyday contexts. This has potential to increase utilisation of local resources with potential cost-saving benefits for the NH

An uncommon case of relevance through everyday experiences

Physics education research has probed for the relevance of physics in students' everyday lives. Attitudinal and epistemological surveys have asked students if they think of or use physics in their daily lives. We have previously documented how it is uncommon that our life science students describe using or even seeing physics in their daily life (Nair, 2018). This result was unsurprising and aligns with previous scholarship of students majoring in disciplines outside of physics; we have argued that it is optimistic for scholars to expect students with disciplinary homes outside of physics to see their experiences through a lens of physics. Methodologically, we searched for a contrasting case (Sam). Sam is majoring in the life sciences and articulates moments where she uses physics to reason through everyday phenomena. We explore the ways in which courses can support students like Sam to find physics relevant to their everyday experiences.Comment: pre-prin

Literacy practices in the learning careers of childcare students

This paper draws from the Literacies for Learning in Further Education research project, funded through the Teaching and Learning Research Programme. Drawing on the empirical study of literacy practices in eight Childcare courses in Scotland and England, we seek to demonstrate that, integral to the learning careers of students are literacy careers through which their learning is mediated. In the process, by drawing upon the lens of literacy, we also challenge some of the common sense understandings of learning in childcare. In particular we suggest that the literacy practices of lower level courses can be more diverse than those of higher level courses, producing confusing literacy careers for the students involved. We also point to the complexity of the literacy careers in childcare, given that students are required to mediate different aspects of their experience through literacy. In particular there are the mediations made possible by the use of information technology and those entailed in relating work placements to classroom practice. We argue that students on vocational courses have complex literacy careers and that a literacies approach to learning helps to reveal this complexity

Ambulatory assessment in neuropsychology : applications in multiple sclerosis research

Peer reviewedPostprin

Toward a More Loving Assessment Practice

One distinguishing mark of the Christ-follower is meant to be love - for God and for neighbor. What does this mean in the context of our everyday work as teachers or teacher educators? This paper specifically explores the relevance of loving heart attitudes for assessing student work. This paper first provides a conceptual foundation to justify taking up a lens of love while looking at student work and then reports on findings from a self-study of my own assessment practice. This paper highlights the importance of moment by moment disciplined choice to look away from self and self-interest towards the good of others

Curricular orientations to real-world contexts in mathematics

A common claim about mathematics education is that it should equip students to use mathematics in the ‘real world’. In this paper, we examine how relationships between mathematics education and the real world are materialised in the curriculum across a sample of eleven jurisdictions. In particular, we address the orientation of the curriculum towards application of mathematics, the ways that real-world contexts are positioned within the curriculum content, the ways in which different groups of students are expected to engage with real-world contexts, and the extent to which high-stakes assessments include real-world problem solving. The analysis reveals variation across jurisdictions and some lack of coherence between official orientations towards use of mathematics in the real world and the ways that this is materialised in the organisation of the content for students

Trans-national approaches to locally situated concerns: exploring the meanings of post-socialist space

The need to examine critially existing understandings of processes of societal change in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has formed a key area of debate in recent years. Suggested means for furthering this debate include an examination of the meaning and usefulness of the post-socialist category, a critique of the conceptual and practical divides between East and West, attention to the various impacts of change at the local level, and an active engagement with a wide range of actors (academics, policymakers and practitioners) working both in the UK and in the regions in question

Numeracy, literacy and ESOL: evaluation of entry and level 1 awards (National report from the Inspectorate 1998-99)

During the past 20 years a range of awards has been developed to meet the demand for external validation of students’ achievements. Since the introduction of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (the Act) there has been a particularly sharp increase in the use of external awards to accredit the achievements of students wanting to improve their literacy and numeracy, and those wishing to improve their spoken and written English. It is often mistakenly thought that external awards are necessary to meet the requirements of schedule 2 of the Act, to secure funding from the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC), and to meet the requirements of colleges’ own information systems. Most students now study for an award. This inspectorate national exercise was devised to evaluate those awards which are frequently used at entry level and level 1 in numeracy, literacy and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) and to judge the impact of these qualifications on the curriculum, teaching and learning, and on students’ achievements

College Students' Credibility Judgments in the Information-Seeking Process

Part of the Volume on Digital Media, Youth, and CredibilityThis chapter presents an in-depth exploration of how college students identify credible information in everyday information-seeking tasks. The authors find that credibility assessment is an over-time process rather than a discrete evaluative event. Moreover, the context in which credibility assessment occurs is crucial to understand because it affects both the level of effort as well as the strategies that people use to evaluate credibility. College students indicate that although credibility was an important consideration during information seeking, they often compromised information credibility for speed and convenience, especially when the information sought was less consequential

Embedding reflective thinking on approaches to learning - moving from pilot study to developing institutional good practice

Aim Asking undergraduates to reflect on their approaches to learning involves the individuals in effort and activity they may well consider to be an unwanted addition to their normal studies: unless the activity has clear links in their minds with their chosen subject. The same reaction is sometimes found in teaching academics, as supporting a reflective strand requires additional effort which they may be happy to give as long as it relates to their research, or is a one off pilot. There are therefore issues that very quickly arise when attempting, as this study does, to embed metacognitive thinking about approaches to learning and style into the everyday good practice of teaching staff in universities and in the routine thinking of students. Methodology This paper describes the progress of a study facilitating the embedding of one framework for developing an individual's approaches to learning into the everyday good practice of university teaching staff and the everyday learning experience of undergraduates. It is an interim report that sets out the five strands of this activity: introduction to the model for staff; first steps at putting into practice; collection of examples of activity; building a community of practice; assessing the effectives of interventions. It also describes some of the issues and challenges that arise when moving from pilot study to developing good practice within a large organisation. The basis of the initial stages is a consultative and collaborative approach to develop effective materials for informing colleagues and developing their understanding of the model whilst laying the foundations for a community of practice and empowering individuals to develop activities for embedding these ideas into their teaching and to share these along with commentary on the success of these interventions – not just within the group but also for their contemporaries to access. Finding It has previously been demonstrated that the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory, ELLI, can be an effective tool for teachers and learners, providing a framework to think and talk with students about learning and about how to grow as learners within both their formal education and informal learning. However, this is a reasonably complex model with seven dimensions of learning, and it has been developed primarily for the school context. Whilst the model has been shown to be of value within universities, the higher education context offers several challenges to the approach and these are explored. The issues relating to colleagues being persuaded to embed these ideas into their everyday practice will be discussed along with the measures required for institutional support, including the demonstration of positive outcomes to interventions. Relevance This paper is relevant to anyone considering ways in which their understandings and experience of metacognitive thinking about approaches to learning and style may benefit the student body, the teaching of their colleagues and their institutio