A qualitative research study to explore young people's disengagement from learning

"The ‘One Wales’ agreement includes a commitment to establish an “enquiry into disengagement from learning amongst children and young people to look at evidence of what works”. In response, a research project was commissioned to investigate young people’s experience and perspectives on their disengagement from learning. The research fills an evidence gap on personal accounts of disengagement from young people in Wales. As such it therefore represents a useful source of information to support the review of young people who are not in education employment or training (NEET)." - Welsh Assembly Government website

Appreciative Inquiry – a Research Tool for Institutional Change

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) emanated from the PhD work of David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve University in the 1980s. Founded upon social constructionist theories (Berger & Luckmann,1966, Gergen, 2009), it is an approach to organizational change that eschews former Organization Development (OD) deficit models in favour of a positive approach to change that builds a vision for the future based upon what already works well within an existing system. It also provides a framework for researching or evaluating different forms of professional practice, including learning, teaching and the student experience. Its self-empowering philosophy, effected through the ‘4-D’ process (Discover, Dream, Design and Destiny), is realized through the collaborative working of all stakeholders within an institution; through systematic participation in a jointly constructed vision of an organization’s future, they become an integral part of its success. At its core is the unconditional positive question, which seeks out the best of ‘what is’ in order to prompt the collective imagination to envision ‘what might be’. The use of AI within higher education in the UK is not yet well-developed and existing studies of the application of AI to this context have tended to focus principally on the areas of teaching and institutional change. It is suggested that through the publication of recent books such as ‘Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education: A Transformative Force’ (Cockell, McArthur-Blair & Schiller, 2013), it will perhaps become more widely adopted in this context

A behavioural study of infant feeding

The main part of this thesis sets out to study the sequential organisation of sucking during normal breast feeding. Data on breast feeding are scarce when compared with the large body of work on sucking during bottle feeding. One of the initial outcomes is that on the first breast, as compared with the second, sucking is slower overall. The widely-quoted dichotomy between nutritive and non-nutritive modes of sucking is not upheld. Rather, the organisation of sucking exhibits complete gradation between these two rhythms, and pausing is always a feature of sucking on the breast. Sucking patterns were also seen to change progressively through the feed, and attempts are made to account for these changes using several different approaches. Sucking patterns, in particular sucking rate, during breast feeding appear to be determined largely by the rate of milk flow rather than by the baby's hunger, fatigue or behavioural state, although the concurrent changes in milk composition cannot be ruled out since changes in milk flow and composition on the breast cannot be dissociated. However, the probability of the baby sucking at any one time is less strongly correlated with milk flow rate. An attempt is made to place the findings in their evolutionary and social context

A meta-analysis of type 1 diabetes mellitus, all-cause and cause-specific mortality

A meta-analysis of type 1 diabetes mellitus, all-cause and cause-specific mortalit

'Usemyability’ (UMA). An Investigation Into Whether an Online Employability Skills Audit Can Enhance Students Understanding of the Term Employability

This project was completed as part of the students as academic partners (SAPs) initiative. The project aimed to ascertain the current level of understanding surrounding students’ employability skills and how they may be improved. It was expected that through the use of an online self-audit tool ‘usemyability’ (UMA 1) students would be able to establish a benchmark from which to track their development across a range of 16 benchmarked employability skills. A baseline questionnaire was completed by 31 University of Worcester (UW) students to investigate their existing knowledge surrounding the concept of employability. Results suggested that students had a limited understanding of the term employability. Notably, students regarded employability as simply ‘getting a job’ (9 students suggested this) or ‘having skills’ (12 students noted this). Skills listed focussed around personal attributes (including reliability and confidence) illustrating discrepancies in what students think employers look for (attributes) and what employers actually look for (skills, literacy, being ICT efficient for example) (Archer & Davison, 2008). The UMA audit allowed students to document their skills and work experiences to date, as well as further educate students on employability skills. Students stated benefits associated with completing the UMA audit and provided relevant examples in support of this. A number of limitations to the project, including timing and length of the audit were identified by students. Further limitations identified by the researchers included the timing of the study within the academic year, low participation rates and attendance of participants on the day of the presentation of employability skills. A greater response sample is required to generalise the impact of the UMA audit on a wider scale