Understanding New Zealand public opinion on climate change : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Politics at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

This project explored how climate change is understood by members of the New Zealand public and how these understandings relate to their climate-related policy preferences and actions. Although climate change is regarded as one of the most serious threats facing humanity, there remains a gap between scientific findings and the political responses in New Zealand and the wider international community. Given that public opinion is a key driver to political action on the matter, it is important to understand its complexities, how it is constructed and shaped, and how it relates to behavioural preferences and practices. The research literature, however, reveals an emphasis on the polling of New Zealanders' opinions on climate change and a neglect of these dynamics. To address this lacuna, the study explored the climate change understandings and actions of six New Zealanders in rural and urban settings. In-depth, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews and the methodological approach of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis were used to gain rich insight into the lived experiences of climate change. The analysis of data revealed four key themes, which depicted climate change as a physical process; as a sociocultural story; as a personal story; and as a call to action. Despite a general understanding of the veracity of climate change and its human causation there is evidence of widespread conflation with other environmental phenomena, distrust of elites, and subtle forms of denial, which together hamper effective action. Shaped by various beliefs, values, and experiences, the heterogeneity of interpretations implies the need for disaggregated research into climate change public opinion, and for tailored strategies in designing climate policy, activating behavioural change, engendering policy support, and mobilising collective action

Using assessment to improve the quality of student learning in art and design.

The purpose of this ongoing project is to evaluate the impact of a self- and peer assessment programme on students' approaches to their learnin

Effective Assessment in Art and Design : writing learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design

This document has been written to help teachers in art and design who are writing project briefs or unit outlines in learning outcomes form for the first time. It is not meant to be prescriptive but rather a general guide that attempts to clarify the purposes of outcome-led learning and identify some of the pitfalls you might encounter. You will find that the most successful examples of outcome-led learning come from competency-based learning where it is relatively straightforward for students to provide evidence of their learning because the outcomes are almost always skills oriented. Increasingly, universities are adopting the learning outcomes approach (student-centred) in preference to the aims and objectives approach (teacher-centred). Many examples now exist of text-based subjects working with learning outcomes. One of the major challenges for them is to take the term 'understanding' and redefine it in terms of more specific measurable cognitive (thinking) outcomes. In art and design our challenge is greater because we work with rather more ambiguous terms such as 'creativity', 'imagination', 'originality' etc as well as 'understanding'. A significant challenge for you then will be to articulate learning outcomes in a way which promotes these important cognitive attributes but at the same time provides some useful methods of measuring their achievement

Overview of the labour market [April 2007]

The latest figures on the labour market1 in Scotland are summarised in Table 1. Labour Force Survey (LFS) data show that in the three months to November 2006 the level of employment rose by 13 thousand, to 2,480 thousand. Over the year to November 2006, employment increased by 14 thousand. The employment rate – as a percentage of the working age population – rose to 75.3 per cent, up 0.2 percentage points on the previous quarter. Over the year to November 2006, the employment rate was down by 0.2 per cent. Figure 1 provides an account of quarterly LFS employment over a five-year period to September to November 2006

Cyril Scott, Segovia and the Sonatina for Guitar

Cyril Scott's guitar Sonatina, composed for Andres Segovia in 1927, was regarded for many decades as a lost work. Following its incomplete premiere in 1928, it disappeared from Segovia’s repertoire, remaining unpublished, unrecorded, and unavailable to other guitarists. The manuscript was thought to have perished, and the work acquired almost legendary status in the guitar world. The recovery of the manuscript in May 2001 confirms the Sonatina’s significance as a major break from the overtly Hispanic and folkloristically inspired pieces that dominate the pre-World War II repertoire of modern guitar music. The author’s researches into Segovia’s reception in Paris and London in the mid-1920s, and into other ‘lost’ works composed for Segovia at this time, provide a context in which the story of Scott's piece is unfolded and its significance assessed