2,062 research outputs found
Colleague supervision â âignored and undervaluedâ? The views of students and supervisors in a new university
Colleague supervision is increasingly used in UK modern (post-92) universities to support the progress of academic staff to doctoral qualifications. Denicolo (2004) argues that it is a ârole relationship that has been
largely ignored or undervalued by administrationâ (p. 693) and colleague students and supervisors âfelt more vulnerableâ than other students/supervisors (p. 706). This small-scale research amongst students and staff in a colleague supervision relationship at a single UK modern university tests Denicoloâs (2004) propositions and those of Deuchar (2008) on supervision styles. It found that students did not feel âvulnerableâ but considered there were significant benefits from colleague supervision. They, and some supervisors, were also very supportive of group supervision methods that, alongside conventional individual supervision, gave strong support to the progress of colleague students to timely completion of their doctoral studies. As many UK modern universities are attempting to build research capacity through doctoral research training, the use of group supervision alongside colleague supervisors may offer benefits in a time when supervisory capacity has been stretched
Why is it difficult to implement e-health initiatives? A qualitative study
<b>Background</b> The use of information and communication technologies in healthcare is seen as essential for high quality and cost-effective healthcare. However, implementation of e-health initiatives has often been problematic, with many failing to demonstrate predicted benefits. This study aimed to explore and understand the experiences of implementers - the senior managers and other staff charged with implementing e-health initiatives and their assessment of factors which promote or inhibit the successful implementation, embedding, and integration of e-health initiatives.<p></p>
<b>Methods</b> We used a case study methodology, using semi-structured interviews with implementers for data collection. Case studies were selected to provide a range of healthcare contexts (primary, secondary, community care), e-health initiatives, and degrees of normalization. The initiatives studied were Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) in secondary care, a Community Nurse Information System (CNIS) in community care, and Choose and Book (C&B) across the primary-secondary care interface. Implementers were selected to provide a range of seniority, including chief executive officers, middle managers, and staff with 'on the ground' experience. Interview data were analyzed using a framework derived from Normalization Process Theory (NPT).<p></p>
<b>Results</b> Twenty-three interviews were completed across the three case studies. There were wide differences in experiences of implementation and embedding across these case studies; these differences were well explained by collective action components of NPT. New technology was most likely to 'normalize' where implementers perceived that it had a positive impact on interactions between professionals and patients and between different professional groups, and fit well with the organisational goals and skill sets of existing staff. However, where implementers perceived problems in one or more of these areas, they also perceived a lower level of normalization.<p></p>
<b>Conclusions</b> Implementers had rich understandings of barriers and facilitators to successful implementation of e-health initiatives, and their views should continue to be sought in future research. NPT can be used to explain observed variations in implementation processes, and may be useful in drawing planners' attention to potential problems with a view to addressing them during implementation planning
External school evaluation: teachersâ perspectives: two case studies from Northern Portugal
This paper is part of an ongoing research project, developed by 6 universities and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/CPE-CED/116674/2010)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Putting skills to work - Itâs not so much the what, or even the why, but howâŚ
This paper focuses on how generic skills can be developed to enable young adults to best utilise them in making transitions into the labour market. Drawing on the literature and a Commercial Education Trust study of practices which encourage employer engagement in skills development, it is argued that âputting skills to workâ is not automatic or unproblematic. It is not simply a matter of âskills transferâ, but a âcontinuous, contextually-embedded and transformative processâ during which individuals, supported by partners, learn how to recontextualise skills to suit different activities and environments. It may be tempting to distil employability into a list of so-called âsoft skillsâ, but context matters. It requires more than that which can be taught in Education. Support is needed in the workplace through mentoring, for example, to help recruits acquire knowledge of workplace culture, norms and practices, situational understanding, and apply metacognitive strategies for bringing together this knowledge and a range of different skills and personal attributes in productive application. Further research is needed to explore the inter-relationships between skills supply, demand and utilisation, including ways in which employers can better recognise young recruitsâ skills and provide âexpansiveâ working environments that maximise their capabilities and potential for development
Learning to manage in knowledge based organizations: the role of portfolios
Paper presented at the 8th European Conference on Knowledge Management, Barcelona, 6-7 Sep. 2008 URL: http://www.academic-conferences.org/eckm/eckm2007/eckm07-home.htmAt the forefront of organizational performance are organizations which recognise that information,
knowledge and their intelligent application are the essential factors of success. The know-how to promote these
activities must now become a part of the âskills and abilities armouryâ acquired by graduates in the domain of
âInformation Systemsâ and âInformation Managementâ.
This paper will address the use of âindividual reflective portfoliosâ (IRP), either as âlearningâ or as âlearning and
assessmentâ tools in modules of the âKnowledge Managementâ course taught at two Portuguese Universities -
Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Universidade de Coimbra.
This learning and assessment approach is aimed primarily at developing students; it enables them to reflect and
make a meta-analysis of their learning process. At the same time, it gives students an opportunity to integrate
their learning across subjects that are relevant to knowledge-based management. In one of the case studies
described, it also provides an opportunity to expose them to a wide literature base, where several approaches to
the use of knowledge in organizations are discussed. Results show that, in the initial stages, students do not see
this methodology as useful (only time-wasting) but by the end of the course they recognise that it helps them to
reflect on their learning processes, deepens their learning and helps keep up-to-date with the course content.
This paper introduces best practices for this teaching and learning approach and includes an evaluation of the
methodology by a student sample
Intercultural communication and critical pedagogy: deconstructing stereotypes for the development of critical cultural awareness in language education
This study researches the problem of gender stereotypes that Spanish language undergraduates uphold against Hispanics and develops critical pedagogical approaches through the reading of a literary text for the deconstruction of such stereotypes so that students can think and act in less biased and prejudiced ways. This thesis develops the argument that stereotyping is a form of oppression, and through empirical research in three case studies, this research demonstrates that stereotypical oppression can be addressed by Critical Pedagogyfor the development of âcritical cultural awarenessâ. This thesis provides answers to three operational sub-questions addressed in each of the three case studies, which contribute to answering the main overarching question in this study of how can Critical Pedagogy help in the deconstruction of stereotypes for the development of âcritical cultural awarenessâ.
This study found that a literary text can bring stereotypical thinking out to the fore for analysis and reflection, and that a reader-response approach to literature can trigger past experiences that reveal essentialising discourses of otherness. The research reviews the effectiveness of the use of an âidentity-focusedâ critical pedagogical intervention for the development of a âself-regulation strategyâ as a mental reasoning exercise to control bias and stereotyping. The results indicate that students tend to transpose stereotypical binaries and create new ones, whilst developing further views of cultural realities as being fluid, dynamic and contradictory, constantly being reconstructed and renegotiated. However, the findings indicate that a âself-regulation strategyâ may be insufficient to appreciate the oppressive nature of stereotyping. Therefore, a Critical âPedagogy-of-the-Oppressedâ intervention is implemented, whereby students describe and ânameâ their own experiences of suffering stereotyping during their year-abroad experiences with narratives of stigmatisation, discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation. A tentative pedagogical model, a teaching tool and a âgrammar of intercultureâ emerge from this study for the deconstruction of stereotypes in the development of âcritical cultural awarenessâ for practical teaching practice and classroom use
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